A Spiritual Adventure

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     We invite you to a new series of studies. In months to come, God willing, we shall walk with you through the aisles of divine revelation, stopping only to pluck the fruit of grace and knowledge. We shall act as guide on these strolls, not because of any extraordinary ability, but because of intense eagerness which will not allow us to postpone the journey any longer. It is our fervent hope that those who accompany us will point out salient features which we overlook as a result of personal shortcomings. As we share our observations we can strengthen and sustain each other. No one will be debarred from accompanying us on these adventures of faith. You are urged to solicit your friends and dear ones to go along, regardless of religious affiliation. Our prime objective will be a search for truth. This is the noblest pursuit to which rational beings may consecrate their lives. It pre-supposes an admission that there are still truths which we have not discovered, that there are vital areas unexplored. There are two classes who will not benefit by further reading: those who think they know all there is to know; and those who do not, but are unwilling to learn more. The first are blinded by conceit and egotism, the others are doomed by a spirit of unconcern and indifference.

     As is true with all explorers equipping themselves for an adventure, there are certain things of which we must divest ourselves, and others which we must take along, to assure ourselves of a reasonable hope of success. We cannot afford to be impeded in our progress by dragging along excess baggage. We must 'lay aside every weight." As the leader in this current expedition which we are arranging, we suggest a few items which we will need to discard. Since this expedition is in the mental or intellectual realm, the hindering factors will be primarily in the category of attitudes.

     We should leave behind our partisan spirit as it will warp our vision and cause us to view things in a false light. Truth is not a party possession. It is not a sectarian monopoly. It is the breath of the spirit as the atmosphere is of the physical body, given to all as the source of life by a beneficent creator. As the air becomes polluted by noxious gases so truth can be corrupted when mixed with sectarian bias. All prejudice and traditional allegiance should be deposited before we start, since these are encumbrances which will soon discourage our further progress, so burdensome do they become.

     We will need to include a great degree of humility so that we not over-estimate either our ability or importance. An extraordinary amount of faith will be required to keep us from faltering when the going becomes hard. We must recognize ourselves as men and women of destiny, and must be content to allow our motives and findings to be questioned, mis-

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understood and attacked, while we await the judgment and verdict of history to vindicate us. The stones hurled at original thinkers and pioneers while they live are often made into a monument for them after they die. There will be required a good measure of fortitude and bravery for it is not easy to accept new ideas which run counter to our previous views.

     I have long been affiliated with one segment of the Restoration Movement, a noble enterprise inaugurated one hundred fifty years ago with a view to uniting the Christians in all sects by restoration of the ancient order of things in the Christian domain. The disintegration of that effort into a multiplicity of antagonistic parties is a matter of grave concern, for while these expend their resources and energies in prosecuting war against each other, the Christians in other sects continue separated and segregated from each other with no one seeming to care. What happened to the idea of the Restoration Movement? Was its ideal false and impractical from its inception? If not, should we seek to reactivate it in our own generation?

     It is the conviction of the writer that no more worthy crusade can engage the energies of the sons of God than to attempt to restore peace where chaos now reigns. Indeed it is the peacemakers who are blessed by being called the children of God. It may be urged that the pursuit of unity is a futile quest and impossible of realization. To all who decry our efforts we simply affirm that it is the will of God, and it is better to die fighting for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven than to live useless lives in which there is no real endeavor to answer the prayer of Jesus.

     We propose to examine for ourselves the reason for the distortion and dismemberment of the Restoration movement. Our analysis will be for the purpose of avoiding the pitfalls in the future. We should seek to elude the traps set by Satan for the unwary. The enemy of souls does not want believers in Jesus to unite. He will employ every stratagem to keep them alienated from each other. So long as he can enlist those who will thwart the divine purpose under the guise of loyalty or faithfulness, he can rest at ease. It must be a festal occasion in the nether regions when one of the demons can invade the precincts of the sanctuary and get someone to urge dividing over a plea for unity.

     Believers in Jesus are divided and separated. They are a displaced and dispersed people. We must face up to this fact. We should not try to conceal it under finespun theories. We should not rationalize ourselves into believing that we have herded all the sheep into one earthly corral. Why does this sad and sorry state of things prevail? We could hardly be more divided if God had commanded it. It is evident that we are where our thinking has brought us. To continue in that type of thinking will lead us farther astray. If we are to be better off tomorrow, we must begin to think differently today.

     It is not God's thinking that has produced our present predicament. "God is not the author of confusion but of peace." It is our own reasoning that is responsible. If we change our status we must think as God thinks. This demands a re-study of His revelation. Such an investigation must be made with unveiled face. We must not bend God's word to suit our theories, but abandon our ideas to accept His word. In the research which we now commence we will cut across the thinking of many of our readers. Some of what we say will be diametrically opposed to what you have previously thought.

     Shallow reasoners will condemn us, preferring to remain in mental stagnation than to have the waters troubled. Only little minds and shrivelled souls cry out like the demons in the days when Jesus was upon earth, "Let us alone." We need the constant challenge of investigation. Truth does not fear the light of research. It welcomes the full glare of publicity. It has nothing to hide and knows no dread. It does not quail before the examiner nor shrink from the inquisitor. That we not prolong our introduction unduly, let us briefly state some of the principles which

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we propose to establish in our forthcoming issues. By enunciating them now you will have opportunity to examine and scrutinize them in advance and to formulate personal convictions relative to them before we proceed to establish them by inspired testimony.

1. The thirty-nine books from Genesis to Malachi do not constitute the old testament, or covenant of God. They contain in brief compass a statement of the covenant, but the greater part of these books were written to or about a covenant people. The covenant which established relationship was one thing, the scriptures or writings which grew out of it a totally different thing.
2. The twenty-seven books or letters from Matthew to Revelation, do not constitute the new testament. The new covenant which God declared he would make was not written with pen and ink at all, was never addressed to a church, or to the church, and thousands entered into covenant relationship with God years before one word of the new covenant scriptures was penned. The new covenant is one thing, the scriptures or writings which grew out of it a totally different thing.
3. The message of heaven calculated to enroll aliens under the sovereignty of Jesus was referred to as "the Good News (gospel) of Jesus Christ." It was never addressed to citizens of the kingdom of God. It was good news, not a course of instruction. Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, etc., are not a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are not a part of the new covenant, but are letters written to a covenant people when circumstances warranted it.
4. A proper response to the Good News demanded belief of but one fact, that Jesus is the Messiah and God's Son. The man who reformed his life because of the implications of this proclamation, and was immersed to fulfill the righteousness of God was thereby inducted into the Reign of heaven.
5. The church of God on earth is composed of all who sustain a covenant relationship with God, having had their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus, and enjoying the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The church of God, as the family of God, is a fellowship of the elect, or called saints. Every one who has been born again is a member of that family, and is a brother to every other person who is in it. The church of God is a covenantal community of saints.

     We believe there are breath-taking potentials and possibilities in these premises. A lack of understanding of these is responsible for many of the sectarian cleavages in our world today. It is ignorance of these truths which has caused the Restoration movement to flounder and fall upon the rocks to be lashed and battered by the waves of doubt and suspicion. A dogmatic demand for conformity in areas where God has never required it, combined with a disregard for the fundamental and essential truths of the first magnitude, has made of the sacred scriptures a partisan battering ram to buffet and browbeat honest hearts and wreak havoc upon the unity of the Spirit as well as severing the bond of peace.

     We are certain that the casual reader will not recognize any tremendous significance in these statements, for such a reader sees little significance in anything he peruses, even the word of God. Some will bitterly resent the implications and will doubt the sanity of one who is so rash as to question that the thirty-nine books are the old testament of God. There may be those who labor under the delusion that the sacred oracles declare that the new covenant of God consists of twenty-seven books or letters. All such are in for a great surprise and a shock treatment if they do not cancel their subscriptions prematurely.

     But what difference does it make? The greatest difference is truth as opposed to error. But on a practical basis the entire structure of "fellowship" will be altered if the suggestions we make can be proven. If the new covenant with God is a personal and individual relationship into which one enters as a result of his conviction of sinfulness and of utter dependence upon Jesus for salvation, and if this brings him into a state of fellowship with

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God and Christ prior to, and independent of his knowledge of citizenship requirements of the new testament scriptures, then it is not knowledge of or obedience to a certain proportion of these scriptures at any given time, but his attitude toward them, that determines acceptability with God.

     That you may clearly understand what we mean let us use an illustration of current interest. A cleavage exists today over a pre-millennial interpretation of the sacred writings. There are those who conclude from a study of the Apocalypse, chapter 20, in conjunction with other scriptures, that Jesus will return to this earth and reign here a thousand years. These brethren are sincere and honest. So are many of those who differ with their exposition. But a millennial view of any kind is not essential to covenant relationship with God, and should never be made a test or basis of fellowship. The thousands on Pentecost entered into covenant relationship with God and had no position on the millennium unless they brought it with them from Judaism. There is every reason to believe that many of them held mistaken ideas about the imminence of the appearing of Jesus, and there are indications that some in the primitive church of God expected Jesus to return to earth. But these opinions did not create a division, and they continued in unity in spite of their differences. To them the redemption in Christ Jesus was greater than their personal views regarding his future arrangements. The test was not how he would come in the future, but that he had come in the flesh. "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God; Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God" (1 John 4:2, 3).

     Those who are in covenant relationship with God do not all hold the same opinions. They do not believe alike about all things. But this does not necessarily affect their covenant relationship for it is not based upon their perfect knowledge of the apostles' doctrine but upon their firm conviction that Jesus is the Messiah and God's Son. We are told, "As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions." None of us has yet "arrived." We are all at different stages of knowledge. "If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if one loves God, one is known by him" (1 Cor. 8:2, 3). Our acceptability to God does not depend upon our knowledge of all the fine points of doctrine, but upon our love for him.

     We are to welcome each other in spite of shortcomings, mistaken opinions and varied views. And we are not to welcome one who differs with us simply to maneuver him into a place where we can debate his opinions. We can differ in belief on many things and still be together if our love for each other is greater than our differences. "One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables" (Rom. 14:2). To divide the church of God into pre-millennial and post-millennial parties is as sinful as to divide it into carnivorous and herbivorous parties. All such divisions are a symptom of carnality. All result from rationalization that is earthly, sensual and devilish.

     But is not one of these opinions wrong? Let us grant that it is! Can we remain in fellowship with such wrong opinion? We are not in fellowship with opinions at all, whether they are right or wrong. We are in fellowship with persons, with fellows. Can we remain in fellowship with a person who holds a wrong opinion? If

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not, we cannot be in fellowship with anyone, not even ourselves. Could the man whose conscience compelled him to eat only vegetables remain in fellowship with the one who believed he could eat anything, and vice versa? Certainly so! Why? "Because the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." By the same token the kingdom does not mean pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, or a-millennialism. Neither is it a theory as to the nature of Deity. Nor is it leavened bread, unleavened bread; fermented wine, unfermented wine; one container or multiple containers for distribution of the fruit of the vine. Let brethren believe whichever of these they honestly esteem as proper, but let them emphasize, all of them, "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." "He who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men." He who pushes, drives and forces his brethren into a partisan position, who divides and rends the body of our Lord, is not acceptable to God. Such a course is not even approved by men who are thinking persons!

     Is it humanly possible for a congregation of saints to continue as one when part of them hold a pre-millennial view and the rest do not so interpret the Scriptures? Not humanly possible, for it is the human tendency to be selfish, to bite and devour one another. But true children of God are not ordinary men. They are extraordinary men. They have something that ordinary men do not have the indwelling Spirit of God. Thus they are not merely men. It is the unity of the Spirit which must be guarded in the bond of peace. Those who divide must first quench the Spirit, for division is an act of the flesh. It stems from men who are fleshly and immature. "For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving like ordinary men? For when one says, 'I belong to Paul,' and another, 'I belong to Apollos, are you not merely men?" (1 Cor. 3:3, 4).

     We have sought to base a superstructure of religion upon attainment to knowledge and wisdom. We have predicated the idea that unity is based upon conformity. But conformity in the absolute demands equal ability of perception, simultaneous arrival at perfection in knowledge, and universality of wisdom. If we begin retrenchment from plenary conformity we surrender the whole system and acknowledge that it is fallacious. For if conformity must not be absolute, then who is to determine in how many things we must conform, in how many leniency may be shown, and which things fall in each category? The one who attempted such legislation would usurp the room of God. Indeed that is exactly what has happened for the system has bred fallible beings possessed of a theocratic complex. For this reason the envoy of Jesus writes, "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld for the Master is able to make him stand." A lot of us need to be brought up short by the pointed query, "Who are you?"

     It will be our thesis in the months ahead that since Jesus was "put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification," we now personally and individually enter into covenant relationship with God in response to the Good News, and that such relationship is not created by conformity to a legalistic system, either human or divine, but that we ourselves become "letters about Christ, written not with pen and ink but with the Spirit of the living God." We will expect to show that the new covenant is not written upon paper nor engraved in stone, but is inscribed on human hearts, and that the apostles were "qualified to be ministers of a new covenant not in a written code, but in the Spirit."

     Do we then overthrow the apostolic writings by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the apostolic writings. We put them in the place which God has assigned them. They were written to a covenant people, to strengthen, encourage, warn and correct them. The new covenant is entered by birth, not by a legalistic arrangement, not by performance of good deeds or acts of

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righteousness. "When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7).

     "But even though we were dead in sins God was so rich in mercy that He gave us the very life of Christ (for it is, remember, by grace and not by achievement that you are saved), and has lifted us right out of the old life to take our place with Him in Christ in the heavens. Thus he shows for all time the tremendous generosity of the grace and kindness He has expressed toward us in Christ Jesus. It was nothing you could or did achieve--it was God's gift to you. No one can pride himself that he earned the love of God. The fact is that what we are we owe to the Hand of God upon us. We are born afresh in Christ, and born to do those good deeds which God planned for us to do" (Eph. 2: 4-l0 -- Phillips).

     "For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus."

     We do not enter into covenant relationship with the God of all grace by agreeing with our fellowmen upon the meaning of a code of laws, or by conforming to a set of opinions, nor yet upon the knowledge of the import and implications of a series of letters, but by faith in a fact--in one supreme fact. A much more able and talented writer than the author has phrased it thus:

     "When the Messiah appeared as the founder of a new religion, systems of religion consisting of opinions and speculations upon matter and mind, upon God and nature, upon virtue and vice, had been adopted, improved, reformed, and exploded time after time. That there was always something superfluous, something defective, something wrong, something that could be improved, in every system of religion and morality, was generally felt, and at last was universally acknowledged. But the grandeur, sublimity, and beauty of the foundation of hope, and of ecclesiastical or social union, established by the author and founder of Christianity, consisted in this--that the belief of one fact, and that upon the best evidence in the world, is all that is requisite, so far as faith goes, to salvation. The belief of this one fact and submission to one institution expressive of it is all that is required of Heaven to admission into the church" (Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, page 130).

     In elucidating further, Mr. Campbell says:

"A Christian, as defined, not by Dr. Johnson, nor any creed-maker, but by one taught from Heaven, is one that believes in this one fact, and has submitted to one institution, and whose deportment accords with the morality and virtue of the great Prophet. The one fact is expressed in a single proposition that Jesus the Nazarene is the Messiah...The one institution is baptism into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Every such person is a disciple in the fullest sense of the word, the moment he has believed this one fact...and has submitted to the above-mentioned institution; and whether he believes the five points condemned, or the five points approved by the Synod of Dort, is not so much as to be asked of him; whether he holds any of the views of the Calvinists or Arminians, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, or Quakers, is never once to be asked of such persons, in order to admission into the Christian community, called the church."

     Our entrance into the fellowship of the saints is not contingent upon a knowledge of, or a position on, the material com-

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posing the apostolic injunctions to the churches of God. The new covenant is a personal agreement with God based upon faith that Jesus is His Son come in the flesh, and ratified by our submission to the ordinance of immersion. Certainly when we thus enlist as disciples, we obligate ourselves to become familiar with our increasing responsibility and informed as to our duties, but this is to be done as a covenant person, as one who is in Christ Jesus. The responsibility of no two persons is identical at any given moment for no two have identical ability or opportunity. To set up a system by which fellowship is conditioned upon equality of knowledge and opportunity is to create a state in which strife, division, confusion and every evil work will inevitably result, and in which no one dares to express an original thought, until everyone else has automatically discovered it for himself, in which case it is no longer original, and does not need stating at all.

     Experience should teach us that unity can never be achieved by coercion or forced conformity. The multiplicity of schisms, factions, sects, and parties, witness to the futility of that course pursued in the past. But if unity is not to be secured upon the basis of common opinion and understanding of all revelation, how can it be brought about? My reply is that it can only result from a mutual love for each other based upon a common relationship to Jesus. Unity is a command which we obey in love because of what has been done for us. We are not one in opinion, we are one in Christ! It is not that we are reconciled to all the views of each other, but that all of us have been reconciled to God that makes us one body. "And might reconcile us both to God in one body by the cross, thereby bringing hostility to an end" (Eph. 2:16). Our peace is not the result of mutual understanding of every scriptural passage. Our peace is personal. He is our peace! It is our agreement with God, our covenant, that brings us into relationship!

     It is not our study, acquisition of knowledge, learning of the law, or ability as teachers or expounders, which makes us children of God. We become children by procreation, not education. We are God's offspring because of what He has done for us, not because of what we have done for Him. Nothing creates itself. We could no more become a new creation spontaneously than we could have become men by that method. The very term "creation" indicates an action by a Creator who preceded that which was called into being. Creation implies transformation. Malice, envy, and hate belong to the carnal man. "We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, bated by men and hating one another" (Titus 3:3). If we are no longer in this state or condition to what do we attribute the change?

     The writer specifically says it did not result from "deeds done by us in righteousness." He credits it to "the goodness and loving kindness of God," to "the virtue of his own mercy," and to "the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." He affirms that as a result we are justified by His grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. We cease to hate and be hated because we are heirs in common. We share in the same hope. We no longer pass our days in malice and envy, but in love and service. We avoid those things which are divisive and dangerous, for we know how stupid and unprofitable it is to engage in contention and useless controversy.

     "I desire you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply themselves to good deeds; these are excellent and profitable to men. But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful; he is self-condemned" (Titus 3:8-11).

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     A factious man is one who is contentious, seditious, and party-spirited. He will sacrifice the peace and harmony of the body to have his way. He builds a clique about himself. He is the spearhead of a splinter party, the sachem of a segment, the chief of a confederation. He does not love the brotherhood, for to him no one is a brother who disagrees with him. No one is right with God who is not in good with him. No one is in the favor of God who falls under his disfavor. It is this spirit which has shivered, severed, and segregated God's people into warring tribes.

     If we can catch the true spirit of Christianity we will see that all of us who have come into Christ Jesus are members one of another by virtue of our covenant with God. This will not guarantee that we will see every point of sacred scripture alike, but it will at least put our disagreements in proper perspective. It will emphasize the centrality of Jesus as the hope of our salvation. The emphasis will be upon Him. He will be the source of our strength and will become our peace. Heretofore, every viewpoint and opinion has been greater than Jesus in our thinking. In our pride and stubbornness we have not hesitated to fracture His body when we disagreed with others. This amounts to a virtual dethronement of Jesus and an exaltation of ourselves which is opposed to the very genius of the Christian way. It is not our varied concepts which have divided us but our attitude toward Jesus and each other. There will always be divergencies of viewpoint. We must choose whether we shall emphasize these, or Jesus. Every generation must make this choice. The tragic history of the choice in the past is all too obvious.

     There are good brethren who are bitterly critical of our thesis. We urge them to think soberly, sanely, and seriously. Has our position in the Christian realm answered the prayer of Jesus for peace and unity? Will not God bless those efforts which are truly an exemplification of His purpose? Is it not true that our past theory and its implementation have only resulted in heartache, division and despair? Is there any reason to believe it will not continue to breed dissension and strife in the future? We do not hesitate to sit in judgment upon great Protestant bodies and affirm that they are in error in their concepts. If we were to sit in impartial judgment upon ourselves, is it possible that we would find that, being human, we who are heirs of the Restoration movement, have sought to make fellowship contingent upon that which was never intended to be its spiritual foundation? Can it be that the resultant confusion is the product of our own false concept?

     It will not do to retreat behind partisan walls and blast all others as fickle, insincere and apostate. There are humble, God-fearing men in every party. They love God and they seek Him daily. They are not motivated by callous disregard for truth. They reverence the name of Jesus and bow their knees to Him as their king. It is among such men division seems to be most pronounced. Camp followers and casual hangers-on seem to maintain a fellowship of the unconcerned. But mere love for truth and knowledge of the sacred writings will not provide a buttress against disintegration. Have we misunderstood the whole basic philosophy of the Christian way?

     We propose very humbly to investigate the nature of God as manifested unto man by revelation, and to attempt to fathom the reason for the decadent state of Christianity. If He sees fit to spare us, and to grant us the power of intellect in the months ahead, we shall address ourselves to the task which seems to us to be the most important to our generation. We solicit your prayers, your comments and your criticisms. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.