The Moment of Truth

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     I must begin this presentation by asking you to excuse my language. Some of you will deem it inappropriate to mention bullfighting in connection with a serious spiritual dissertation, but you must bear with me this once for introducing a term related to the sport. I am not an afficionado, as an ardent enthusiast for bullfighting is designated. The truth is I have never seen a bullfight, and like the poem about the purple cow (since we are talking about bovines anyhow), "I never hope to see one!" But there is an expression characteristic of the contest between man and beast that I want to borrow.

     When the specially bred bull trots into the arena, he encounters the matador who uses a large cape to execute a series of veronicas, provocative actions to induce the animal to charge. When a number of preliminary passes have been made, the picadores enter on horseback and prod the shoulders of the bull as he charges against their lances. When the president signals for them to retire, the banderilleros enter to thrust their gaily colored darts into the neck and shoulders of the infuriated animal. Again the matador returns and bracing himself with sword in hand summons the animal to him.

     As the bull makes his final charge the matador waits until he is almost upon him, then leaps to the left, lunging over the right horn and driving his sword deep into the heart and lungs of the animal, seeking to produce instantaneous death. This climactic moment is called "the moment of truth." It is the instant of peril when the bull by the slightest upward toss of his head can impale the body of the man and bring about his agonizing death. The "moment of truth" is that time when one man pits his all--his life, his fortune and his sacred honor--on the outcome of a single thrust.

     I labor under the conviction that "the moment of truth" has come in the struggle to pry certain segments of the restoration movement out of the bog of partisan thinking to resume the trek toward the original goal of this great project. I know the personal risk involved in such a decision. I am aware of the price that will be exacted. I know what censorship and boycott, false accusation and misrepresentation, can do to one who dares to suggest reformation of the religious movement of which he is a part. Every reformer is eventually dubbed a "heretic" and hounded out. But the heroes whom we laud today are the heretics of yesterday. In the full confidence of vindication by future historians we press toward our objective in the present. We are strangely unafraid of what men may do unto us. With holy truth as our aim and the Holy Spirit as our guide we refuse to be frightened off our course or deterred from our purpose.

     I have grown up in that segment of the

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restoration movement launched by Barton Warren Stone and Alexander Campbell, which rejects the use of instrumental music in the corporate worship. In spite of the denials of the better informed among us, the great majority of these brethren have adopted the title "Church of Christ," and they use it in a purely sectarian sense. They employ it in exactly the same sense as do those who speak of "The Baptist Church" or "The Methodist Church." It is of these brethren with whom I am allied that I specifically write in this article, but what I say will be appropriate to other segments and fragments of the restoration movement, for none of these are wholly purged from the spirit of factionalism.

     Members of many congregations will be warned not to read what I write. They will be given veiled threats from the platform and will be suspect if they are seen with a copy of the paper upon their person. Already, at home and abroad, there are those who have sought by every devious means to kill the influence of Mission Messenger. We are honored to notice that in church bulletins and periodicals our plea for fellowship has been labeled "the most dangerous threat to the church in a hundred years." I say we are honored because I know that those who thus write, confuse the faction in which they live with the church for which Jesus died. This paper is intended to wage war against factionalism and the party spirit and we are humbled before God that notice must be given to that war by those who sought so long to ignore it and act as if nothing was happening. I intend in this issue to offer to face the opposition openly and unafraid. I believe the Holy Spirit is at work in the hearts of men in our age. I face the future fearlessly, content to believe that my Father will work with his children who work for the unity of all of their brethren. Here are the indictments.

     1. The "Church of Christ" has abandoned the very purpose of the restoration movement which was "a project to unite the Christians in all of the sects." A great majority of its members do not believe there are any Christians in the sects. They think that all Christians are in the "Church of Christ" and that the sincere believers in Christ in other organizations are "unbelievers." Many of them are so sectarian in attitude that they insist that those in other segments of the restoration movement be re-baptized to be recognized as "true Christians." Since exclusivism is the very essence of sectarianism it is obvious that "The Church of Christ" is more sectarian in attitude than those whom its preachers condemn.

     2. "The Church of Christ" is wholly out of tune with the spiritually intellectual climate of this generation. In the midst of a world seeking and searching for the solution to schism, it has little to offer except worn-out cliches which have been proven by their purveyors to be impractical and unworkable. The non-instrument Churches of Christ are split into some two dozen separate warring factions of various sizes and intensity, each of which feels that the only approach to unity is for the whole world of mankind to come and abjectly conform to its partisan interpretations. There is absolutely no concept of an association of free men in Christ Jesus drawn together by their mutual love and regard for him and held together by their love for each other, and nothing else. The surrender to Jesus must be accompanied by a greater surrender and commitment to the party program. Men are not simply called into Christ but are also forced to be "like us" if they stay within the framework of the partisan "brotherhood."

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     3. The "Church of Christ" is a victim of its own parochial and provincial philosophy and even its most prominent advocates dare not engage as equals in the ecumenical discussions of the day. They cannot accept invitations to share in dialogue with others for fear of being labeled "Liberals" and falling under the stigma of "guilt by association." They are frightened at the thought of inviting anyone who does not parrot the party position to speak in their own lectureships. All of these are loaded with "sound men" who will project the party image.

     This attitude breeds an unhealthful state of fear in which the feeling of inferiority must be compensated by blatant trumpeting of successes purchased by huge expenditures of money or by favorable comparison of attainments in promotional activities with other recognized sects. As a result, many are beginning to defect from an indefensible philosophy with its closed-door policy and its one-way streets which make talking with ourselves a virtue and talking with others a crime. It is a safe prediction that there will be an exodus of hundreds possessed of more scholarly bent within the next few years. The current status of orthodoxy is intolerable for men who have been taught to reason and think objectively. They will be forced to abandon their position to get out where they can breathe freely and recapture their own integrity.

     4. Our brethren profess openly to deplore creeds but are among the most creed-ridden of religious movements in this age. The fact that their creeds are unwritten makes them all the more dangerous. Every test of fellowship is a creed. Whatever one must believe to be recognized and regarded as "loyal" is the creed of the faction that requires it. That we have at least twenty-four creeds is proven by our two dozen parties with their "loyalty tests." We have forsaken the divinely ordained justification by faith in Christ Jesus and postulated a humanly devised system of justification by an attitude toward music, societies, cups, classes, colleges, charitable institutions, unfulfilled prophecy and a whole host of other things which are elevated to a place of greater importance than the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. To this very day men are driven out of "The Church of Christ" for no other "sin" than association with brethren who do not pass the party test!

     5. Every one of our more than a score of factions claims to "speak where the Bible speaks." Every one of them denies that any of the others do so. The truth is that we have accumulated and compiled a mass of traditional explanations and interpretations which we have crystallized into a form of "unsystematic theology" and it is according to this, and not the word of God, that we speak! If the ideas distilled from the Bible and molded by the thinking of John Calvin constitute Presbyterianism; and those distilled and molded by the thinking of John Wesley constitute Methodism; by the same token those we have adopted and adapted constitute Church-of-Christ-ism. And just as all theological forms seek to make Christianity over after their own image and according to their own likeness, so we also do!

     I am firmly convinced that "The Church of Christ" must reform if it is to return to basic Biblical principles and those of the restoration ideal and regain a sense of relevance for this age. I propose to devote my efforts and these columns to promoting such reform while I maintain contact with all segments of the restoration movement, and with men

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of good Will in every other movement, throughout the whole earth. I shall be a Christian and a Christian only, free to go where I feel called of the Spirit to go, but also free to remain where I am without going anywhere else.

     Our task will not be easy. Most members of "The Church of Christ" suffer from the illusion that this outgrowth of nineteenth century restoration attempts is the church for which Jesus shed his blood and that no one has been cleansed by that blood, or shares in its protection, except those who are within the membership of a non-instrument party. The problem is heightened by the childish notion that the work of restoration has been completed and that the "Church of Christ" has arrived while all others have departed. It is not made easier by the fact that the membership equates the mass of traditions and partisan interpretations to which they cling, with the will of God and the word of God. We challenge at the very outset all of these assumptions and the partisan structure which has grown out of them. Please consider the following.

     1. Jesus came to break down walls of partition and weld into one body divergent elements which found their peace in him. He is our peace. The purpose of God was for living stones of various colors, conditions, cultures and circumstances, to grow together into a holy temple. Any interpretation of the scriptures which creates and erects barriers between believers and separates and divides them is contrary to the purpose of Jesus.

     2. Jesus prayed for all those to be one who believe in him through the testimony of the apostles. Any use or application of apostolic doctrine which makes impossible the oneness to be achieved by the apostolic gospel is contrary to the prayer of Jesus.

     3. Jesus came as the central figure in God's "plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Eph. 1:10). Any use of the new covenant scripture to create, cause, condone or continue schisms among the saints is in plain defiance of the plan of Jesus.

     Our brethren are guilty of substituting orthodoxy for God's revelation and of making their own views, versions and variances, tests of fellowship. Honest brethren in Christ, whose present knowledge will not allow their consciences to conform to current party norms, are driven forth or treated as stepbrothers and second-rate Citizens of the kingdom of heaven. The course we have followed is divisive and not unitive. It fragments instead of cements. It splinters instead of splinting our breaches and breaks.

     I do not charge that our brethren do not love the Bible. I unhesitatingly say they warp and wrest its sacred teaching to justify a partisan course. When any man employs the written word to defeat the plan, purpose and prayer of the Living Word, and to shatter what he came to unite, that person is acting in opposition to God in spite of all his claims of fidelity and protests of loyalty. When men cannot distinguish between their brethren in Christ and the enemies of Christ and seek to drive out and destroy the former it is time for a restudy of our whole profession.

     Men are being branded as apostates who dearly love Jesus. They are being labeled as unbelievers even while pledging undying fealty unto him. They are being harassed as heretics for even expressing a dissident view. Any interpretation of scripture which results in such a distorted perspective and such an uncharitable position is contrary to the whole purpose and design of God.

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     Let me be specific. When men are assailed as preaching "another gospel" simply because they cannot concur in our conviction as to the use of instrumental music in corporate worship, their accusers reveal that they do not even know of what the original gospel consists. And regardless of the division caused over the controversy about instrumental music such a mistaken view of the gospel is a thousand fold more dangerous and divisive. When men are accused of departing from "the faith" simply because they disagree with us about cups, classes or colleges, their accusers reveal that they do not know what constitutes "the faith." Such ignorance is fraught with much more danger to the cause of our King than any opinion about cups, classes or colleges, could ever be.

     It is ridiculous for those who hold such twisted views to talk about uniting upon matters of faith while being tolerant on matters of opinion and charitable in all things. Matters of faith are simply the things the party emphasizes as necessary to be recognized as a party member. Matters of opinion are those things which they have decided are inconsequential in preserving the party image. Hand one of these partisans a list of a hundred issues which have troubled the heirs of the restoration movement and ask him to catalog them in two columns labeled "Faith" and "Opinion" and he will not dare do it. He cannot risk an opinion as to what constitutes matters of faith in every instance. How can men plead for unity upon matters of faith when they cannot submit a list of such matters?

     Because we believe that "the moment of truth" for the forces of orthodoxy has arrived, we are completely revising our plans for the coming year. Many of the issues of the paper for 1965 had already been long prepared and would have constituted a revolutionary volume to be entitled "The Living Pattern." These will now be held in reserve and we shall deal directly with those scriptures which are quoted and applied for the purpose of separating and segregating brethren from each other. We shall be writing from an expository standpoint. It will be our intent to prove conclusively that every scriptural passage used to sanctify our divisions is abused and misused. The MISSION MESSENGER for 1965 will be one great volume of exegetical material on disputed passages and controversial interpretations. All will be gathered in one valuable volume at the close of 1965 under the title "The Twisted Scriptures."

     It will be our intention to write in love and with compassion, but to bring the truth to bear with such force and power that these articles cannot be ignored. We intend for them to become the theme of discussion in lectureships and forums, in seminaries and symposiums. We shall prepare an arsenal of ammunition for peace-makers and place the stigma of trouble-making where it belongs, upon those who wrest the revelation of God to justify partisan prejudice. We shall write carefully and considerately, knowing that what we say will be read after our voice is stilled and our pen is stopped by death, and realizing that we must face every word in the Great Confrontation with him "whom having not seen we love."

     We invite those who disagree with what we say to discuss it openly in their own journals and to attack it in their meetings either in our presence or ab-

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sence. To those who are of a disposition to place the quest for truth above partisan polities we make this proposal. We will appear at our own expense on the platform of the annual lectureship at George Pepperdine College, Abilene Christian College, Lubbock Christian College, Harding College, David Lipscomb College, and Florida College, and submit to open public questioning by members of the faculty, or if permitted, by the entire audience. We pledge that we will conduct ourselves with proper Christian decorum and love those who disagree as much as we do those who agree with our views.

     This article constitutes our personal permission for any freedom-loving alumnus or group connected with any of the colleges mentioned, to petition the administrative heads of their alma mater for a fair hearing on our position. We have been the subject of discussion in absentia in every one of these schools in classes or on the public platform. We await with interest the outcome of this offer to see if a single one of them will dare to face up to the greatest challenge of the twentieth century--that of offering a real basis for Christian unity which transcends all partisan, sectarian and factional considerations.

     1. Fellowship in Christ Jesus is a state or condition into which we are called by the gospel. Every person on this earth who properly responds to the gospel by belief in Jesus and immersion in his name is in the fellowship.

     2. Fellowship of those in Christ is not contingent upon agreement or conformity. We are not in the fellowship because we are in harmony, but we strive for harmony because we are in the fellowship. It is a sin to make anything a test of fellowship which God has not made a condition of salvation.

     3. The flock of God is still a scattered flock rather than a gathered flock. There are children of God dispersed among the various sects. To deny that they are his children is to reflect against their paternity and insult the Father.

     4. In our present divided state no sect, faction, or party among us, is the "loyal church" to the exclusion of all others. We must establish association and communication across all of these lines in order that our lives be leavened and leaven others. And we must associate as brothers in the same family.

     5. Men and women in all of our parties must be granted and guaranteed their freedom in Christ Jesus. This means freedom to read what they wish without censure, freedom to attend any meeting or forum without attack, and freedom to participate in any conference or conclave without fear of partisan pressure or factional exclusion.

     6. We must not expect to arrive at recognition of brotherhood by settling all of our problems and differences first, for brotherhood is not based upon seeing everything alike, but upon having the same father and mother. We must begin with brotherhood, which means love for all of our brethren, wherever they are. And we must demonstrate that love openly and unashamedly, recognizing their equal right to communicate with us and with our common Father.

     7. To achieve unity we cannot wait until all of us reach maturity and usher in an ideal state. We must begin where we are and work together where we can. Unity is a command of God, not a matter of choice with us. Certainly we can work together up to the point where we disagree, and by ardently laboring together to that extent when and where we can, our area of disagreement may shrink and the time of our distinction be postponed.

     8. We must reject partisan debate by professional "disputers of this world" as offering any hope for producing unity in our day. Such debate widens the chasm instead of reducing it. We must substitute dialogue for debate and meet as equals in our failure to keep the peace. In debate one is thinking what to say to the other

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man, in dialogue he is thinking of what the other man says to him. We must approach our problems looking for a solution and not seeking for vindication. Bridges must always be built from both ends!

     9. We must purge our thinking of the basic fallacies adopted by our fathers when confronted with innovations. These fallacies have fragmented us into fighting factions. They are two in number. The first is that purity of doctrine can only be maintained by separating from brethren; the second is that division is the God-ordained way of dealing with differences in the family. These two vicious horns have been used by religious opportunists and politicians to gore the body into a shameful and bloody mess.

     10. We must re-examine and scrutinize carefully and critically every passage of the written word which we have used to divide brethren from one another. Those who trust in Jesus were meant to be one. He died to make that unity possible. We need always to be reluctant to apply the scriptures in such a manner as to defeat the very purpose of their author.

     There will be some repetition from past issues but we feel this will be justified because it will make it possible for all of the exegetical and explanatory material to be contained in one volume which will be issued at the end of the year. It will be thoroughly indexed. It is our intention to strike at the very roots of the party spirit--the twisting of the word of God. Let the battle be fought upon the basis of what God said and what he obviously meant. The "moment of truth" has arrived in the encounter with orthodoxy. Let the truth be known!

     In the meantime, our last two issues of this year will be the most challenging and interesting of any we have yet produced. They will be devoted wholly to answering questions we have received. Some of these questions deal with how we propose to work a reform without creating another division or sect; how we propose to implement our thinking practically in communities where division exists; how we hope to achieve a working unity as long as some use instrumental music; and what results, if any, are being seen as a result of our crusade. Other questions deal with our view of the nature of the church; with the problem of whether one who is in the one body can be a member of a denomination at the same time; whether baptism is to be made a test of fellowship; how those shall be regarded who have been sprinkled in all sincerity while thinking it constitutes baptism; how I regard the pious unimmersed; whether the validity of baptism depends upon one's understanding at the time of immersion that it is for the remission of sins.

     You need not concur with all I say about these things to be loved and revered as my brother. I can assure you that after reading the November and December issues there will be no question in your mind as to what I think about these matters. I intend to face up to them without evasion or equivocation. It is our honest opinion that if you miss the next two issues your loss will be tremendous, and if you miss the issues for 1965 it will be irreparable. Again we urge you to see that these issues are placed in the hands of every member of "the fellowship of the

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concerned ones." Will you do your part to help share these vital messages in a world--and a religious movement--that so sadly needs them?