Christians in Babylon

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     Are there any Christians in the religious sects about us? This question occurs with increasing frequency in the letters we receive. It is our intention to face up to such questions regardless of personal consequences. Only by doing so can we live with ourselves and be true to the trust He has imposed upon us. Only by this method can we serve our generation before we fall asleep. Truth must be our chief consideration so I unhesitatingly state that I believe the sheep of God are a scattered flock and that God has a people in Babylon. I am convinced that there are many Christians among the sectarian parties of our day.

     Mind you, I do not believe that there are any Christians outside the body of Christ. Every Christian on earth has been added to the church of God. A Christian is one who is in Christ and it is impossible to be in Christ and not be a member of his body. All who have been immersed upon the basis of their faith in Christ Jesus are in Christ. "For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."

     The children of God are divided. Christians are separated from one another. This is the real tragedy. We should not think it strange that the children of the devil are divided. It would be peculiar if they were united. But it is indeed sad that Christians are not together, seeing that "God is not the author of confusion but of peace." Our constant aim should be to help bring all of the sons of God into a state of togetherness. We cannot accomplish this by denying that they are sons of God. Neither can we do it by creating another sect more exclusive and intolerant than those in which they are already involved.

     It is only when we recognize our brethren and love them as brethren that we can move toward a closer association with each other and a closer walk with God. We cannot unite the family by denying the paternity of those who compose it. This was clearly understood at the outset of the restoration movement of which most of our readers are the heirs. Alexander Campbell described it as "a project to unite the Christians in all of the sects." We have lived to see the day when the parties resulting from this project, or from abuses of it, regard as "heresy" the mere intimation that there are any Christians in the sects. This is a complete reversal of thought. What has happened?

     There is really no easy answer to be given for a number of complex factors have combined to provide the present attitude. We represent about the fifth

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generation of those who launched the noble experiment. All of us were born into an age when the party spirit had crystallized. We found a well-entrenched organization already on the scene operating under the official title "Church of Christ" or "Christian Church." That organization grew up almost in self-defense when the early restorationists were driven forth from the sectarian groups which spewed out the leaven of their testimony. At the outset there was no separate group existing under the label ''Church of Christ'' and had not been for centuries. It was a good many decades before there was such an organization.

     Those who are presently members of one of the twenty-five factions denominating themselves "The Church of Christ" are generally good people. They are not inclined by nature to be vindictive or hateful. But they have been conditioned to believe that the particular "Church of Christ" with which they are affiliated is identical with the church of God mentioned in the new covenant scriptures. Since each faction has its own test of fellowship in an unwritten legalistic code or creed it is obvious that one who does not subscribe to it is not a child of God.

     The members of "The Church of Christ" have been led to believe that they alone constitute the kingdom of heaven. They are the Israel of God, and all other believers in Christ are deceived and are not believers at all, but unbelievers. These are regarded as being ''without hope and without God in the world" and are to be treated as heathen and pagans. It is only fair to say that among the more scholarly party leaders there is probably a revulsion of spirit against such a narrow and illiberal attitude but they dare not express themselves openly. They have contributed to the party spirit, and are now supported by it. It would be suicidal for them to try and breast the current which they have helped to create.

     As an indication of how far adrift the restoration movement has gone we need only mention that the suggestion that there are Christians in the sects is now bitterly assailed as "new doctrine." This expression is the kiss of death to any idea to which it is applied for it is unthinkable to admit that those who have long held the key of knowledge could learn anything else. An infallible interpretation dare admit no error! Yet it is the view that there are no Christians among the sects that is new is doctrine! This is modernism gone to seed! Not one of the early restorationists of note held such an idea. If they had there would have been no restoration movement. The very purpose of the project was to unite Christians and there was no party called "Church of Christ."

     The men who began the restoration movement were in the sects-- Methodist and Baptist parties. It is a fair question to ask at what date every Christian on earth deserted every sect and left none remaining where so many had been before? When did every disciple abandon all organizational error so that all who remained were not disciples but impostors? When did the restoration movement become the church of Christ? If we cannot answer these questions it might he challenging to contrast our modernistic viewpoint with that of some of the pioneers. We shall quote these men not to prove that there are Christians in the sects but to show that they thought there were. Thus our position is not new doctrine, but the opposing view is the novel one.

     We quote first from the witnesses who signed "The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery" on June 28, 1804. These men were Robert Marshall, John Dunlavy, Richard McNemar, Barton W. Stone, John Thompson and David Purviance.

     "Let all Christian" join with us, in crying to God day and night, to remove the obstacles which stand in the way of his work, and give him no rest till he make Jerusalem a praise in all the earth. We heartily unite with our Christian brethren of every name, in thanksgiving to God for the display of his goodness in the glorious work he is

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carrying on in our western country, which we hope will terminate in the universal spread of the gospel."

     We quote next from the "Declaration and Address" which was presented to the members of the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania, in September, 1809, by its author, Thomas Campbell.

     "Moreover, being aware from sad experience of the heinous nature and pernicious tendency of religious controversy among Christians; tired and sick of the bitter warrings and janglings of a party spirit, we would desire to be at rest; and were it possible, would also desire to adopt and recommend such measures as would give rest to our brethren throughout all the churches--as would restore unity, peace and purity to the whole church of God."

     A good many years later, Thomas Campbell identified his "Christian brethren" and proved that he recognized them as existing under various partisan titles.

     "We speak to all our Christian brethren, however diversified by professional epithets, those accidental distinctions which have unhappily and unscripturally diversified the professing world. By our Christian brethren, then, we mean the very same description of character addressed in our Declaration published at Washington, Pa., in the year 1809--namely, 'All that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, throughout the churches.' If there were none such at that time throughout the churches, then Christianity was dead and gone. And if there be none such at present within the same limits, it still continues extinct."

     It was Alexander Campbell who definitely stated the goal of the restoration movement. The following appeared in the book "Christianity Restored" which was published at Bethany, Virginia, in 1835.

     "A deep and an abiding impression that the power, the consolations and joys--the holiness and happiness of Christ's religion were lost in the forms and ceremonies, in the speculations and conjectures, in the feuds and bickerings of sects and schisms, originated a project many years ago for uniting the sects, or rather the christians in all the sects, upon a clear and scriptural bond of union; upon having a 'thus saith the Lord,' either in express terms, or in approved precedent 'for every article of faith, and item of religious practice.' This was offered in the year 1809 in the 'Declaration and Address' of the Washington Association, Pennsylvania."

     In 1862, Benjamin Franklin, who was editor of the American Christian Review stated his position very clearly:

     "There are individuals among the sects who are not sectarians, or who are more than sectarians--they are Christians; or persons who have believed the gospel, submitted to it, and in spite of the leaders, been constituted Christians according to the Scriptures."

     In the very same year, Brother Franklin made the following statement in his paper:

     "That there are Christians among the sects, a people of God in Babylon, we have believed and admitted, and committed to print many years ago, and we believe the same now. That these have a right to commune, and, enjoy in common with all Christians, all the blessings of the house of the Lord, we presume is not doubted by any brother."

     Two years later, in his quarterly for March, 1864, Moses E. Lard while writing on the topic "Have We Become a Sect?" had this to say:

     "Against the individual members of these parties we cannot have even one unkind feeling. Many of them we regard as true Christians, and love them sincerely. But as they occupy a place in bodies holding traditional and other unsanctioned tenets; holding practices unknown to the Bible, and supporting humanly imposed names, we must tell them plainly that they stand on apostate ground."

     Frank G. Allen was editor and proprietor of The Old Path Guide, a monthly journal "devoted to the restoration and defense of primitive Christianity." In his issue of October, 1880, Brother Allen wrote thus:

     "We are not of those who believe that gruffness and discourtesy to those who differ from us religiously are synonyms for soundness. Inflexible fidelity to truth does not demand this. Nor do we think that anything is gained by magnifying the differences between us and others. The best interests of the cause we love demand that only the real differences shall be presented, not imaginary ones, and these in kindness and love.

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Our standard of right and wrong is not what the sects do, but what the Bible teaches. Nor have we any sympathy with the reimmersion of Baptist, or any other people, unless their faith was defective when first immersed. With these exceptions those who go forth to 'baptize Baptists' are working under a modern commission. The idea that all God's children are found among those vulgarly called Campbellites is a false conception of our reformatory work, and the teaching of the word of God. It is natural for those holding this position to conclude that our plea for Christian union is not only useless, but senseless.

     David Lipscomb, who was editor of the Gospel Advocate, writing in his book Questions Answered, says on page 582:

     "There are some in sectarian churches who will obey God and follow him in spite of the churches in which they find themselves. As examples, there are persons in the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches who are baptized to obey God rather than to please the sects. In this they rise above the party spirit, despite the parties in which they find themselves. They ought to get out of the sectarian churches, but they see so much sectarianism in the nonsectarian churches that they think they are all alike."

     Daniel Sommer was editor of the Octographic Review and produced a booklet under the heading Religious Sectism Defined, Analyzed and Exposed. He expressed his sentiments in this language:

     "What shall we say of those preachers who denounce all persons who happen to hold membership in a sectarian denomination with a sentence of sweeping impeachment, as though they were all under the influence of sectism? We should say that they are probably more sectarian than some whom they denounce. Their manner shows that they are unscripturally exclusive, and this is one of the elements of sectarianism."

     It can be seen by the foregoing that I occupy the same position as those other "liberals" and "modernists" of yesteryear--Campbell, Stone, Lard, Franklin, Allen, Lipscomb and Sommer. The charge that this position is a "new doctrine" is absurd and ridiculous. The fact is that "The Church of Christ" has become sectarian by adoption of its present position. It can only contribute to strife and division as long as that position is maintained. Let me make myself clear. I hold that every sincere immersed believer in the Sonship of Jesus is God's child and my brother. That is true regardless of how much such believers are "diversified by professional epithets."

     To demand that one of God's children be forced to submit to re-baptism at the hands of one of "our preachers" in order to be in "our fellowship" is sectarianism pure and simple. This is the very essence of the sectarian spirit. Such Church of Christ-ism like all other "isms" is an insult to the person and dignity of the Holy Spirit by whom we "are all baptized into one body." No one demonstrates loyalty to the Father by refusing to recognize his other children; no one manifests faithfulness to Christ Jesus by denying those whom the Son is not ashamed to call his brethren.

     Make no mistake about it! Sectism is sinful. It is a work of the flesh, a symptom of carnality and a sign of spiritual immaturity. It is not hallowed because we practice it, nor purged from evil because we are guilty of it. Sin is no different when those who engage in it sit in a house labeled "Church of Christ" than it is when practiced under any other name. Not every person in a sect is sectarian. Sectarianism is the party spirit. It is an attitude toward truth. It is not so much what a man thinks as how he thinks; it is not so much where he is as why he is there! A man can be wrong on a doctrinal matter and not be sectarian; he can be right on it and be sectarian. He can be in the Methodist Church and not be sectarian; he can be in the "Church of Christ" and be sectarian.

     We call upon all men to leave their sectarian spirit as they would flee from any other work of the flesh. We need to hate this garment spotted by the flesh! It is only those who are free from the bondage of sectism who can furnish the leadership to a better and brighter day! It is not "new doctrine" to love and cherish all of God's children; it is dangerous not to do so.