Our Special Mission
W. Carl Ketcherside
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1. That sects and schisms are contrary to the divine purpose, that factions are works of the flesh, and the party spirit is a sin of such magnitude as to debar one who is guilty of it from entrance into the everlasting kingdom.
2. Those who separate themselves from other believers unjustifiably and create parties, are sensual, and stand condemned for thwarting the intent of God.
It is my conviction that the only basis upon which any group in the realm of modern Christendom can justify a separate existence is by doing a necessary work which is not being done by any other. By "necessary work" in this area, I refer to work approved of God, work in fulfillment of his purpose, not mere sectarian activity which is intended to exalt the party or gain prestige for it.
If this utilitarian criterion were the measuring reed to determine the right of religious denominations to continue, the number would soon be greatly diminished. Specific titles, names, rituals and forms can never constitute a sufficient reason for separate existence. This is conceded by those who employ human names or titles, for they affirm "there is nothing in a name." This being true, then to maintain a separate party to preserve a particular name is to divide believers over nothing. The primitive church had no specific name as a title. It is possible that the very basis of the desire for such is an exhibition of exclusiveness which is a symptom of sectism.
If it be admitted that rituals and forms are but means of expressing or demonstrating worship, and are not worship in and of themselves, it is folly to sever the body of our blessed Lord over these. Yet
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Divided as the Christian realm is in our day, it is nonetheless a fact that the truth is not the exclusive monopoly or private possession of any sect, denomination, or party. Any doctrine that is such is unworthy of our consideration. Only that is the truth today which was the truth in the beginning. There is a difference between the truth as revealed by God, and speculations, interpretations, ideas and inferences drawn from it by men. Revelation is divine, interpretation is human. Revelation is what God said, interpretation is what men think he meant. It is incongruous for those who contend that we enter relationship with God on the basis of faith (and this embraces the great majority of Christendom) to then sever relationship with each other on a wholly different basis of opinion, speculation, or doctrinal interpretation.
The only justification, then, for the existence of a distinct group, in the face of the warning against the sin of division and separation, is that such a group of believers is carrying on a work which is not being done by any others. Such a work must not be merely a sectarian program, worthy as it might be and good as its result may prove. A careful study of the various segments of our contemporary religious scene will reveal that they do not have a great deal that is distinctive which is part of the truth. If you were to divest them all of that which was distinctive to each it would only be removing the chaff from the grain.
Suppose that we could remove from the Roman Catholic Church all that was peculiar to it; and do the same with the Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Reformed and Baptist churches. What would be lost? It would not be as much as you might think, and would consist only of that which is sectarian and divisive in nature. What would you have left? What remained would be the truth, the revelation of God, that which has been held in common by believers in our Lord Jesus Christ in all generations since the apostle went forth to sow the seed of the kingdom. Nothing that is vital to the Christian faith is the exclusive possession of any sect. Destroy that which is essential to sectism and you do not harm Christianity one bit. Admittedly, you abolish that which is essential to sectarianism, but sectarianism is a sin, and you thus only remove that which feeds and nurtures sin. If you destroy what is peculiar to Roman Catholicism you do not harm Christianity, for what remains is all that is vital to Christianity. If you remove the foundation from under Roman Catholicism, Christianity will not topple. Neither will it fall if you cut the foundation from under Calvinism, Lutheranism, Unitarianism, or any other partisan philosophy that has taken shape in the realm of Christendom. Christianity is older than any of these, existed independent of all of them, and can still exist when all are removed.
The Methodist Church holds much that is the truth and not Methodistic; the Roman Catholic Church holds much that is the truth and not Roman; the Episcopal Church holds much that is the truth and not "Episcopal." But it is not the truth each holds that distinguishes it. If each adhered just to the truth there would be no partisan differentiations. All sects are distinguished by party principles. Their peculiarities are not found in the truth, for to this all claim to accede. Not
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Thus, the work that is being done is actually opposed to the very genius of Christianity. Candor forces us to say that it is in actual defiance of the expressed will of God, and in direct contravention to the prayer of Jesus. We do not question the motive nor challenge the sincerity of those who engage in it. Many of them are noble characters. They are without doubt fully convinced that they are doing God service. But the extension of religious sectism is not the same as the advancing of the Christian way, and in its ultimate is opposed to it. We do not overlook the works of charity that are done, the care of the sick and distressed, the feeding of the hungry and clothing of the naked. We rejoice in all such. We thank God for every sacrifice made to share with the distressed and unfortunate, whether such sacrifice be made by Roman Catholic or Protestant. But these are not distinctive. It is not the giving of alms that makes one a Roman Catholic, a Methodist, or an Episcopalian. These things done for the helpless are not opposed to God's will. They are part of the truth. They are not the exclusive deeds of any party. But the things that create the parties themselves are not God's will. The party spirit is condemned of God. It is a work of the flesh. It is carnality in action.
This is not to suggest that none of those allied with human parties are children of God. We do not question but what many are, and this is the tragedy of division. If only the children of the wicked one were rent and splintered, we should not be surprised. Satan is the author of confusion. But when God's spiritual offspring are torn asunder and constitute bickering sects, pitting brother against brother in unholy civil war, it is enough to make angels weep and strong men bow themselves in grief. It is not division among aliens from God, but sectarian rivalry among the sons of God, which is one of the great problems of this age.
I am asked if I am allied with a body of believers in the Christian realm. I freely confess that it is so. On what ground can we defend a separate existence? In the midst of all the denominations now so prevalent, are we doing a distinctive work? Are we prosecuting an endeavor not being carried on by any of the various denominations? If so, is it a work of God? If not, we have no right to exist as a separate body. If we are merely trying to accomplish that which is the goal of a denomination, or which all denominations in the aggregate are seeking to do, we should fade out and merge with them, for we will be but another sect among sects, and exist simply to duplicate the aims and functions of others. It is no excuse to urge that we are seeking to do in better fashion what they are doing, for if we united our efforts with theirs more could be accomplished.
Unless we recognize a mission that is not being accomplished by any denomination, or by all denominations in toto, we should not clutter up the religious landscape with another party. That many of those who are affiliated with the movement in which I labor are sectarian, can be easily proven. They are motivated by a spirit of rivalry, they profess an exclusivism in areas where such is sinful, they make boastful and arrogant claims that are products only of their own wishful thinking. Such members who proclaim the loudest that they are the only chosen ones of God would perhaps be as well off in any sect, for they are motivated by the sectarian spirit. Converted especially to some ordinance, form, or religious title, and resting their hope of glory in it, they have no real distinctive mission. They are content to build up another sect, believing that if they call it "The Church of Christ" it will not be a sect. Theirs is the same naivete which causes one to think that if he labels a malignancy by the word "tumor" instead of calling it "cancer" it will not consume the flesh.
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All sectism is a manifestation of the party spirit. That spirit prompts men to labor diligently to build up the sect. Regardless of what doctrinal, formal, or creedal basis may be offered as an excuse for the existence of any sect, the root of it is the party spirit, and this spirit invariably strives to perpetuate the sect which stems from it. No sect, as such, would legislate itself out of existence. Any such legislation would come as a result of triumph over the party spirit. But the movement to which I refer has as its goal, not the uniting of sects, but the uniting of all God's children in the bond of peace.
Is this the work of God? Nothing is more clearly affirmed in the new covenant scriptures than the evil and carnality of factionism and sectism. It is the eternal purpose of God to gather together all things in one in Christ. It is his will that his people he united in the same mind and judgment. Was any denomination accomplishing this work? The history of the nineteenth century will show that instead of such being the case, the various parties were bitterly opposed to the attempt to unite all Christians in the several sects, and sought to consolidate them more firmly in their respective organizations. Calling the attempts of those who pleaded for restoration of the primitive order unorthodox, labelling what they propounded as new doctrine," branding those who advocated it as Campbellites, the only unity manifested by the sects was their concerted attempts to defend and maintain their disunity. So the task of pleading for unity of all Christians in the numerous sects upon a return to the primitive order, while it was the work of God, was not being done by any existing party.
What have been the results? Many of the currently existing sects have come to see the folly of allowing Satan to wage a war of attrition by the familiar tactic of "divide and conquer." There are now genuine attempts to re-evaluate sectism in the light of God's purpose. Many of those principles which were enunciated by leaders of the restoration movement are now being accepted and adopted. In the meantime, those who are the more direct heirs of the restoration movement, have crystallized into numerous factions and parties, and have adopted unwritten creeds. Forgetting their original purpose they have forfeited their right to exist, for they are now but adding others to the already heavy burden of sects. It is necessary that there be a restoration of restoration ideals.
It is my conviction that any separate and distinct group existing in the Christian world to plead for a unity of all believers in Christ, that is in one body, must, in the very nature of things, have but a temporary existence in that state. If it accomplishes its own purpose it must eventually blend into the growing unity of the body of Christ which it promotes, and lose its own identity in the recaptured homogeneity of the one body which has been so seriously fractured and fragmentized. Unfortunately, history attests to the fact that this seldom happens. Instead the partisan spirit captivates the hearts of those who claim to oppose all sectism, and they build up a super-organization to perpetuate and prolong their exclusive existence. The church of our Lord is not an organization at all. It is a divine organism. It is possible that "organized religion" is the greatest foe to the real purpose of God for this age. Certainly, it is
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The ideal for which we strive will only be kept alive by hardy souls who dare to think for themselves. For this they will be misrepresented, maligned, and harrassed, but the history of the struggle for the freedom of the Message, will chronicle their feeble efforts when the machinations of the party spirit will have been relegated to oblivion. It is in the strength of conviction that he who works with God, and for God, motivated by universal love, by love for all mankind, and mortifying the party spirit in a crucified heart, will be blessed of God, that we work inside our present frame of reference while we look for a more glorious day. God's children will not always be divided. There will not always be civil war inside the walls of the kingdom of heaven! So with malice toward none, with charity toward all, and with faith in the right as God gives us to see the right," we press forward with Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Note: On a snowy afternoon in March 1951, while working with the consecrated saints in Belfast, North Ireland, I went to the humble meetinghouse on Berlin Street, to read, meditate, and pray alone. In a dingy back room I discovered a small volume, bound copies of "The Old Paths," edited in the previous century by that British stalwart in the faith, David King. A brief article "Our Distinctive Mission" set me to thinking of how very sectarian in attitude I had become, and how far afield I had gone from the original purpose of the Restoration Movement. I jotted down brief notes, intending to write on the topic, and to confess my own shortcomings, inadequacies, and previous partisan tendencies. But years kept passing, and now on another snowy day in March 1960, thousands of miles from the little meeting place off Shankill Road in Belfast, and almost a decade later, my thoughts have sufficiently crystallized as to be presented to our serious readers in this article. Streams from many places converge to form the surging river of human thought, which must sometime burst into expression.
You will not need to agree with the above for me to love you sincerely in Christ Jesus. You are dear unto me because you are dear unto Him, and not because you concur in my own reasoning. So whether you agree with what has been written or not, may the grace of God sustain you, may you love Him, serve Him to the best of your ability, and may all of us meet some day where the question of unity will have been finally resolved in the light of his countenance, and the coldness of heart that has kept us apart be melted through the impact of the Sun of righteousness who has arisen with healing His wings).