A Realistic Attitude

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     One sign of maturity is the ability to recognize problems, to ascertain the real causes producing them, and to deal with them realistically. If these problems lie within the religious realm it is obvious that the realistic approach will be the one sanctioned by our Lord. Only the unwise or unstable do not recognize threats and dangers to what they hold dear, or ignore them to their own peril. A false sense of security frequently betrays men into a dangerous and unenviable condition.

     The greatest detriment to the effect of our witness in the Christian world today is the factionalism and division which exists among the heirs of the restoration movement. It is a sad commentary on our spiritual state that adherents of some factions are almost wholly oblivious of the sad and sordid spectacle we exhibit to the thinking world. Living within the "caves" they have hewn out of the rocks of orthodoxy for their respective companies, and equating those who have found refuge in each partisan hideout as the "loyal brethren" they live in the half-light and semidarkness of perpetual intellectual twilight, even as they assume that they have all the light there is.

     Of course, not all are like "hermit souls who live withdrawn, in the peace of their self-content." Many are genuinely aware of the cancerous danger of division. They know that we are sick. They realize that we are poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. They can see the inconsistency of preaching unity to others while practicing disunity among ourselves. They recognize the futility of trying to alleviate schism by schismatic prescriptions. Yet a goodly number of these are like a physician who attributes all disease to simple malfunction of the gall bladder, and who can diagnose for every patient without seeing any.

     Our divisions are complex and they

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have an unseen root mass which reaches its tangled web out in all directions. They are entwined with the temperaments, desires, ambitions and strivings of men. Frequently those things which are credited with causing division did not cause it at all. Division, like every other sin, first exists in a human heart. No organ, or Bible class, or communion cup, ever divided a congregation of saints. No human institution ever did so. An organ has no power to divide God's people. Only men can do that. People are divided by people, not by things!

     To assail things with a fury which drives one to intemperate accusation, while ignoring the basic motivations, accomplishes but one thing. It reveals the inability of the one who engages in such action to deal rationally with the problem at hand. This should cause good men to shy away from him. Unfortunately, many otherwise good men are bitter partisans and they elevate just this type of person to party leadership. From then on, instead of meeting the problem with warm hearts and cool heads they do so with cold hearts and hot heads!

     It is frequently said by those of the disciple brotherhood who do not use instrumental music, that if the instrument had never been introduced, we would not be divided today. This is mere childish over-simplification and is not true at all. The fact is that those of us who do not use the instrument have had many divisions in which the instrument played no part (no pun intended). The brotherhood did not divide when the instrument was first installed. The difference in attitude toward the scripturality of its use created some problems and much discussion. But division did not come until brethren separated, and they did not separate when the instrument was advocated. They separated when it was made a test of fellowship, and those who favored it were told that they could no longer be regarded as brethren.

     The fact is that human nature being what it is, and with our current concept of fellowship, if we had not divided over the instrument we would have divided over something else. We have proved this by repeatedly dividing over other things since we divided over the instrument. The introduction of instrumental music provided for us the first real opportunity to exercise the will to divide, based on the false philosophy that the way to preserve doctrinal purity is to separate from brethren. When men are motivated by such an attitude they are doomed to division, and we will continue to divide, using first one thing and then another as an excuse, until we are divided out of existence as we already are out of effective influence in a number of communities.

     Because things really did not divide us, we start at the wrong end of our problem of division when we assume that we must first determine and agree upon the status of all these before we are in the fellowship with one another. To pursue such a course will only create more division as it always has in the past. The thing we must do is to first restore, or recapture, a real sense of brotherhood. This does not mean the mere reluctant calling of each other, "brothers in error," but correcting the real error of not treating each other as brothers. This is what caused the division. Schisms among God's people are caused by their attitude toward each other. Things produce strains upon our relationship, but we produce the schisms within it. We separate when we quit loving each other.

     Most of the brothers within the non-instrument segment of the restoration movement, would welcome any move which would heal their many schisms. But they do not want to go back to the original cleavage where the false concept of brotherhood was first applied. They are content to have two sects among the heirs if they can solve the problems in their own side of the family. Such a proposal is superficial and worthless. Unless we deny the unscriptural philosophy of brotherhood based upon conformity instead of upon unity in Christ, we will only heal our sores in one part of the body today, to have them erupt in another part tomorrow.

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     We need to face up to the fact that we have a very grave and genuine problem of factionalism, sectarianism, exclusivism and intestine strife. The answer to it is not for the inhabitants of each cave to stand in the gloomy doors of their own caverns and try to persuade the occupants of the others to come over and join them. This will never be accomplished. Few there are who will leave their own factional strongholds to enter into a strange one inhabited by those who have bitterly fought them in the past.

     The answer to our problem is for all of us to abandon our partisan caves and move out into greater light together. Not only can we see what our other brethren are like, when we have more light; but what is more important, we can get a better look at ourselves. What we see when we do may make us a little more charitable toward others who are not in such good shape either. We need to be honest with each other. The members of every faction quote, "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another," but their practical application of this shows that they mean, "If you walk in the light as we are in the light, we can have fellowship one with another." The "light" in which you must walk is the factional interpretation, the unwritten creed.

     Our divisions are not caused by the inadequacy or failure of the first century gospel to meet the needs of modern man, but by our application of a nineteenth century mentality to twentieth century problems. We are perpetuating partisan feuds which began a century ago, with the result that a movement which started out to "unite the Christians in all the sects" is now actually doing less than most of the sects to promote unity. We do not need to change the word of God but we do need to alter our approach to the problems about us. Undoubtedly we have learned something in the last hundred years. If so, it is high time that we awake out of sleep and begin to show what it is. Thus far, we are contributing more to the problem of disunity, than we are to the answer of unity!