The Scattered Flock

W. Carl Ketcherside

[Page 69]

     For several months in the immediate past my name has appeared frequently in the pages of Firm Foundation as various brethren have taken issue with my views on fellowship and the unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. In one article, appearing in the issue of November 27, 1962, it was charged among other things too numerous to mention, that I am fathering a new sect; that I profess to travel the way of love for all and fellowship for any error; that I use, almost exclusively, the Authentic Version of the New Testament, by Schonfield; that I think I am another "Campbell," etc. At the suggestion of many interested brethren I have made application to the editor and my esteemed brother in the Lord, Reuel Lemmons, for permission to submit four articles in which I shall briefly state some of my own views. To this he has graciously consented within certain limitations and restraints which I will earnestly attempt to observe and respect.

     The statements I make will not be dogmatic or arbitrary. I will love and revere those who cannot concur with my expressions as much as I do those who agree. The readers of this journal have a right to know what one advocates who is publicly charged within its pages after the manner referred to above. I shall come directly to the point. It is my conviction that all sectarianism is sin. It is the party spirit as translated in Galatians 5:20 (RSV) and is a work of the flesh. It will debar from inheritance in the kingdom of God. Instead of fathering a new sect I am dedicated to the destruction of all sects by grubbing out the root from which they grow--the party spirit.

     The church of God is no sect, and no sect is the church of God. But we have become sectarian in our attitude. Our very usage of the term "Church of Christ" as employed to designate, in an exclusive sense, merely that segment of God's people who do not employ instrumental music in the corporate worship, is sectarian. Every child of God on earth is in the church of Christ, but not every such child is in the "Church of Christ." "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" but not all of these have been gathered into one corral. God's sheep are a scattered flock, and not yet a gathered one. Some of them are caught in strange sectarian thickets. I shall gain nothing by denying that they belong to Him, or by assailing them because of the unfortunate chain of circumstances in life which led them into their present association.

     I suffer from no illusions about being "another Campbell." I know how very meager is my approach to our problems and how feeble is my ability. I freely

[Page 70]

confess my own factional attitude in the past and I am ashamed of it. I am thankful to be one of the humbler heirs of the restoration which Alexander Campbell said was "a project to unite the Christians in all the sects." I do not consider that project as completed. Instead, we have fragmented the restoration movement until in many cities there are a dozen or more different kinds of "The Church of Christ." Each of these proclaims itself to be "the loyal church" and refuses to call upon those from another splinter group to address the Father in their public meetings. In our present divided state, no segment or faction is "the faithful church" to the exclusion of all others. There are some in every segment who are as faithful as they know how to be; there are some in each who are a disgrace to their profession.

     Our present state is the result of a mistaken concept of fellowship. Fellowship is not endorsement. Paul did not endorse the attitudes or conditions at Corinth but he was in fellowship with those who constituted the church of God. Bad as they were, they were recruits from the pagan realm who had pledged allegiance to Jesus Christ. They were His representatives in spite of their human defects. The apostle called them saints, brethren, babes in Christ, God's building, God's temple, and beloved children--all in the first four chapters in which he deals with their divisive tendencies. He does this for the simple reason that they had been "called into the fellowship" (1 Cor. 1:9). Fellowship is that state or condition into which we are called by the gospel (2 Thess. 2:13, 14). As regards our relationship unto God, it is sonship; as regards our relationship to one another, it is brotherhood.

     Every sincere believer in the Messiahship and Sonship of Jesus, who has been immersed in validation of that faith, is God's child and my brother. He is a member of the one body by an act of God. He may, through ignorance, environment, previous training, or other cause, affiliate himself with something else, believing that in so doing he can best demonstrate his allegiance to the Lord. This does not mean he is no longer a Christian, but it may mean he is a Christian in an organization God does not sanction. A Christian is one "in Christ" and such a person in the United States, like some of those in Christ at Corinth, may be in a party of his own choosing. He is my brother in spite of this and I need to regard him as such, even as I deplore the partisan walls behind which he seeks refuge.

     I am not, of course, pleading for "fellowship of any error." Fellowship is a relationship between persons. Our spiritual fellowship is the result of the indwelling Spirit. It is called "the fellowship of the Spirit" (Phil. 2:12; 2 Cor. 13:14). There is but one Spirit and if that Spirit dwells in me, I am united through Christ, with everyone else in whom that Spirit abides. The Holy Spirit does not recognize our artificial lines or barriers. He is neither factional nor sectional. He dwells in none of us because we are free from all error; he sanctions no error at all of those in whom he dwells. It is unthinkable that I should avow love for one of my brothers in the Lord and then refuse to call upon him to pray to our Father, simply because he does not agree with me about the millennium, instrumental music, cups, classes, colleges, fermented wine, breaking the bread, uninspired literature, charitable institutions, national television programs, or all that motley host of things which have shivered us to bits.

     Every child of God is my brother. I may not approve of where he is or of all that he thinks. I am not obligated to love the things he does or the opinions he holds, but I am obligated to love him because he is my brother and is, therefore, in the fellowship of which I am a part, through the grace of God. That love must not be "in word or speech but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18). To deny fraternity is an insult to our mutual paternity. It is a reflection against Him who is "the God and Father of us all."

     I must be tolerant toward my brethren who honestly differ with my views and interpretations. Tolerance is not endorsing things that are wrong but enduring those who think they are right!