Things to Come

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     Our readers are entitled to know what is proposed in coming issues. For that reason we disclose herewith our plans and "show you things to come." The fulfillment of these plans is subject to the will of God, and wholly dependent upon divine mercy and providence. If our life is spared, it is our intention to make MISSION MESSENGER during 1961 the most challenging and thought-provoking paper we have ever produced. It is not now, nor has it ever been our aim to become an iconoclast (image smasher), but a reformer must attack existing conditions, and one who does will incur the enmity of the guardians of orthodoxy. Reform indicates changes, and one cannot preserve the status quo and be a reformer. As the old colored preacher defined it, "Status quo is Latin for the mess we're in."

     We have been doing extensive research for several years upon various subjects, and during this year you will share in our honest findings. Much of this investigation has been the result of critical personal soul-searching and self-examination. We have proven ourselves to have been in error upon many past concepts. We propose to disclose those mistakes, correct them, and give you the full basis upon which we have arrived at our present conclusions and convictions. Students of the Bible will find the issues to come the most stirring and fruitful of any we have ever offered.

     There will be dissertations on the nature of the church, the meaning of membership, analysis of heresy, and the rise of factionalism. We intend to demonstrate that there never has been and never can be more than one church, if this term is to be retained as the rendering of the Greek ekklesia. If our thesis is correct there will be a need to completely revamp our speech. We shall show that not once does the sacred scripture use the expression "member of the church" and that the modern connotation of this term is in contravention of the meaning of the word "member" as used by the Holy Spirit.

     In the treatise on heresy, we will reveal how we have been led down a blind alley by Romanism, and how Satan has deceived us into using a divine statement (Titus 3: 10) to denounce and drive out from us every honest non-conformist. We shall prove that, under such circumstances, it is never the heretic who is driven forth, but the real heretics are those who expel the humble thinkers from their number. This one theme will be worth more than the cost of a ten year subscription.

     In dealing with the origin and rise of factionalism in the restoration brotherhood, we propose to trace the growth of the seed which finally has resulted in making ours the most divided religious movement in the contemporary American religious scene. I shall deal with my own personal relationship to a segment of the disciple brotherhood, and show how it came into existence, and why I once thought that this party was the kingdom of heaven to the exclusion of all the sincere affiliates of other parties. I shall reveal why I once doubted that there were any Christians south of the Mason-Dixon line, and why I considered all others besides ourselves as being either sectarians or hobbyists. The part played by editors of "faithful journals" will be examined and exposed in its true light.

     Some of what will be written during 1961 will come as a distinct shock to those who cannot read "the handwriting on the wall" and who think it is still possible to please God by a provincial or parochial isolationist attitude, and who love their own party more than they do "the one body." A very few, having read what we have written in the past, and not having either the courage or concern to read more, have cancelled their subscriptions. Others have allowed theirs to quietly expire and die. We suggest that the squeamish and fainthearted, and all who prefer to continue in error rather than embrace truth, refrain from reading the paper for the ensuing year. If you cannot take truth, do not take the paper. We intend to write truth, as God gives us to see the truth. Every sincere lover

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of truth will want to read the things to come, and to share them with those whom he loves! Let the truth be known!