Reviving Hope
W. Carl Ketcherside
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Even among the heirs of the restoration movement there are signs of awakening consciousness of unity. The winter of the deep freeze is slowly giving way to approaching spring. The first tiny rivulets of hope are trickling down the face of the formidable glacier of exclusivism and some of these will join to become a stream flowing with increasing velocity toward a better land and a brighter day. There are still grave impediments in the way, huge boulders of doubt and suspicion, but progress in the Spirit is inexorable. Our brethren are weary of strife and contention. They are sick of gladiatorial contests in which partisan champions hack each other to pieces in full view of a skeptical world. The bromides and cliches with which skilful debaters once drew applause now fall flat. There is a deadly seriousness apparent which can no longer be satisfied with slogans and sly innuendoes. The factional leaders who think in terms of their vested interests are frightened. They are trembling inwardly. They have learned how to capitalize upon disunity but they do not know how to cope with unity.
Some of them still reach up to the shelf and take down the old ware of conformity and offer it in lieu of unity. But it is shopworn and soiled from too much handling, and the dust rag is dirty and cannot restore the former luster. Our present generation will not be as easily fooled by a shoddy substitute. We have reared a new generation under the perpetual threat of world catastrophe. They can see through the glib answer and the superficial rejoinder. They will not be content with the misuse and abuse of scriptural quotations to sustain factional aims.
Our younger brethren are more capable intellectually, but they have not trained their heads at the expense of their hearts. They can respect their fathers for the contributions they made in their day without shackling themselves by their judgments which long since have proven to be faulty and divisive. Their minds are sharp enough to discern between revelation and interpretation. They know the difference between the will of God and party traditions. They will no longer equate the faction in which they were reared as the kingdom of heaven to the exclusion of all others. They no longer think that we have arrived while every one else has departed. For that reason they will not consider that those who get up and go on must of necessity get down and go off!
It would astonish our readers to know how many faculty members in the various religious schools sympathize with our aims and share in our general convictions as to the fellowship of the believers. And it might surprise the members of the faculty to learn how many students, especially on the graduate school level, rejoice that at last a meager attempt is
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Ours is actually a fight for freedom--the freedom to think, act and speak, without fear of reprisal from the self-elected "powers that be." It is a battle for the freedom of being Christians only without being compelled and coerced into a factional alignment in order to be recognized and regarded as Christians at all. It is a campaign for the freedom to love all of God's children and our brethren, to move among them freely and manifest our love in action, as opposed to the narrow provincial and parochial view that the more of God's children you love, the less you love God.
Many of our brothers are not free as yet to speak their honest convictions openly. To do so would bring down Upon their heads the maledictions of party leaders. They would be harassed by baying "hounds of heresy." They would be excommunicated and driven forth, avoided by previous associates, shunned by former friends, condemned as traitors and rebels. This is the price demanded of those among the courageous who cannot concede that the "one fold' is identical with the "party corral" and who believe that the flock of God is not yet a gathered one, but is scattered over the sectarian hills. I am willing to pay whatever toll is exacted for believing that. It is my sincere conviction that the one body is greater than any of our factions, and greater than all of them put together. If this be treason, make the most of it!
It is an encouraging omen that so many are becoming tired of irresponsible journalism, a plague which has blighted the restoration movement for a good many decades. Letters from every section of the country protest the unfairness of those who hold one hand over your mouth while they slap you with the other, or tie your hands before they stab you in the back. The one-way, dead-end street type of editing which allows acrimonious and personal charges to be hurled at one in print and then slams the gate on him when he attempts to enter and speak for himself, no longer appeals to those who have studied morals and ethics. More and more brethren are coming to believe that both sides of a story should be printed. They are nauseated by censorship and boycott. A good many of them feel they are quite as capable of making up their own minds as an editor is of making their minds up for them.
The increasing number of meetings in which brethren of all segments and splinters gather to explore their thinking as to the basis of fellowship augurs well for the future. Obviously, some who attend still regard the church for which Jesus died as the "Church of Christ" in which they have always lived, and they cling to the forlorn hope that they will be powerful enough in "logic" to convince all others that the way to glory is by switching from one faction to another. I venture to suggest that, after a few such meetings, many of the most rabid partisans will find their faith in God's revelation increased to the same extent they find the faith in their own interpretations has decreased. It will be good when the faith of all of us rests in the power of God instead of in the wisdom of men.
It is much easier to hate brethren whom you have never met. You can conjure up an image, concocted of equal parts of your own suspicion and the suggestions of your fellow- partisans, and a quite genial person may be transformed into a mental ogre. Association tends to give us a better perspective from which to view men and it batters down a lot of imaginary barriers which have always seemed quite real to us. I think it is essential that we recapture the freedom to go wherever we want to go without having to secure permission from some self-imposed authority. The kingdom of heaven is not a police state and should not be under an army of occupation. I
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I am optimistic. I think the restoration movement heirs stand at the threshold of their greatest Opportunity in almost a century. I suspect that we will see a genuine breakthrough of the Spirit. The hard crust of exclusivism will be penetrated. The false notions about fellowship will be dispelled. Men who have never met will meet together and "sit together in heavenly places." This will be the Lord's doing and it will be marvelous in our eyes. This does not mean that all of this will he easily achieved. Some will be maligned and misrepresented, they will be pilloried and crucified, but this is ever the case. The battle for freedom is never won easily but the victory is worth the cost in sweat and tears and sleepless nights. No land was ever occupied that was not first explored by pioneers!
Peace must be waged even as others wage war. There must be a "strategy of peace" and it must take into account the forces of opposition and their strength in the field. While these are formidable, we must never become discouraged, because one who pleads for peace among the children of God will find that God is at his right hand. It is He who blesses the peacemakers! We must profit by previous efforts without perpetuating their mistakes; we must fight a battle in full recognition of our own frailty, willing to freely acknowledge error as we become aware of it. All of us have much to learn, all of us can learn from each other. None of us know it all.
The factional approach to the Christian way is outmoded and outdated. Increasing enlightenment has shown that we can never accomplish the purpose of heaven by dividing the family of God upon earth. No faction is "the faithful church." Factionalism and faithfulness to God are incompatible. He only can be faithful who refuses to be factional, who loves all of God's children and who refuses to make tests of fellowship which God has not proposed as conditions of salvation. In this day of rapid communication in a shrinking world, no parochial concept will even begin to meet the universal needs of teeming humanity. It is useless to "talk big" while we "think little." The kingdom of heaven is greater than we think. It cannot be confined by sectarian walls or factional barriers, not even when we build them. It is because so many are coming to realize this that there is real hope that tomorrow will be better than today!