Liberty of Opinion

By Harold Key

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     "How can two walk together unless they are agreed?" Indeed! But agreed upon what? The road, of course. But to agree upon the way does not mean the same opinion as to the chemical analysis of the material with which it is paved, or the type and depth of its foundation, or how many people have travelled it or may be travelling it now. They do not have to be of the same opinion even as to how far it is to the end. Their agreement essentially consists in regarding the same route as the way.

     Jesus says, "I AM THE WAY...no one comes to the Father but by ME." But when will men believe and trust Him for their salvation? This is the most difficult of human actions. Man's attraction to philosophy and legalism often leads him to relegate Jesus Christ to the role of Teacher and to regard His teachings as the Way. A system of morals and ethics, or a system of laws--either way, Jesus Himself is displaced and the system becomes the Way.

     Because of this misunderstanding as to the Way, countless clamorings arise as to the correct interpretations of the teachings. This is nothing new among followers of the Way. In the Epistle of Romans (so often regarded as confusing) the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul endeavored to show that the Way is Christ Jesus, so that in Him man might come to God. To check Jewish bent toward law and Gentile bent toward philosophy from becoming a cause of fratricidal strife, the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters were included. And this principle of liberty in opinions is time-lasting.

     In the Nineteenth Century Restoration Movement, to overcome the sectarian-mindedness of numerous factions within the realm of profession of faith in Jesus Christ, the relation of faith and opinion was restated. Alexander Campbell wrote in The Christian System, "Faith in Christ, which is essential to salvation is not the belief of any doctrine, testimony, or truth, abstractly, but belief in Christ; trust or confidence in him as a person, not a thing" (page 55). Again, "To establish a system of orthodox opinions as the bond of union (is) in fact...increasing ad infinitum, opinions, sects, and divisions" (page 126). And, "Unity of opinion is made the bond of union; and a difference in the tenth or ten-thousandth shade of opinion frequently becomes the actual cause of dismemberment or expulsion" (page 128).

     If we could all agree that Jesus Christ is the Way, we could have unity and peace while we sought to reconcile our varied opinions as to the implications of our one faith. To distinguish faith from opinion, faith is an acceptance of divine statement per se; opinion is a matter of human inference of what the divine statement means. Faith is that which divine testimony establishes in precise and unequivocal statement; opinion is that which may be possible, even probable, but which is not precisely and unequivocally so stated. Thus, Christian faith, as a body of facts to be believed and commands to be obeyed, is considerably less extensive than each sectarian party would make it to be. In fact, the sectarian cannot distinguish between the actual testimony of

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God and his own reasonings upon it. He regards his inferences not as opinions but as "faith," and demands the impossibility of unity upon his opinions which he identifies exactly as "the word of the Lord."

     It is one thing to develop individual convictions from scripture as to what God would have you to do; but it is an entirely different thing to bind those convictions upon everyone else. In the absence of a clearly stated universal and time-lasting commandment, this is the "faith" to "keep between yourself and God" (Romans 14:22). Otherwise we make mockery of the claim to "speak only where scripture speaks and remain silent where scripture is silent." As J. S. Lamar stated, "Freedom proclaimed for diversity of opinion is meaningless and delusive, unless it extends to the practices dictated by those opinions" (New Testament Christianity, Volume I, page 28).

     In the theses of the famous Declaration and Address, Thomas Campbell wrote as follows:

     6. Inferences and deductions from the scriptures, however valuable, cannot be made binding upon the consciences of Christians...
     7. Differences of opinion with regard to such inferences shall not be made tests of fellowship or communion...

     (Harold Key lives at 6228 Fauquier Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63105.