Gospel and Doctrine
W. Carl Ketcherside
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This has become one of the "twisted scriptures." As a result, that which was ordained to save the world is used to divide the church. That which was designed to be glad tidings to hungry sinners has become sad news to harassed saints. All of the confusion stems from the fact that our brethren generally have lost the scriptural distinction between the gospel, the Message to lead men to believe in Jesus as the Son of God; and the doctrine, which is a course of instruction for the training, development and growth of the children of God.
There is as much difference between the gospel of Christ and the apostolic doctrine as there is between the sperm from which a child is begotten and the food which he eats after he is born. The purpose of the gospel is to enlist men in the army of Christ; the doctrine constitutes a manual of arms and book of discipline to develop the soldiers into a fighting force. The first is an announcement that the school of Christ has been opened and eligible scholars will be accepted for enrollment; the latter is the curriculum for daily study by the students, or disciples.
Before we deal with the scriptural connotation involved let us understand why the traditional interpretation is conducive to division and destructive of unity. The common fallacy assumes that all of the apostolic epistles are part of the gospel of Christ and any exposition of the doctrine contained in these letters is preaching the gospel. Since Jesus makes salvation contingent upon believing the gospel, and superficial students generally confuse belief with knowledge, it is further assumed that those who do not subscribe to the orthodox interpretation placed upon every passage "reject the gospel." Each sect, party or faction, thus makes its traditional explanations and deductions "the gospel" and we end up with as many "gospels" as we have parties.
It is easily understandable that the ones who so reason will conclude that only those are saved who are allied with the party, and all others are outside the pale since they have not "obeyed the gospel" (that is, subscribed to the unwritten partisan creed). But we learn from observation, experience and the sacred scriptures, that we do not all have the same degree of knowledge. God has made us all to differ in the intellectual realm as we do in the physical. We can no more all think alike than we can all look alike. No two of us upon earth attain to the same identical degree of knowledge about everything at the same moment. As Will Rogers remarked, "We are all ignorant, but just about different things."
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The attempt to make conformity to the party norm the basis of unity is further complicated by the fact that the rational processes cannot be stopped at a given level. Men who are capable of doing so will continue to investigate and will reach conclusions differing with their own orthodox views of the past. When they refuse to succumb to threat or coercion they will be driven Out and division will result. Since it is only the more eager students and researchists who labor to improve their intellectual grasp it is evident that the thinkers will be excluded, while the guardians of the status quo will be retained to man the party machinery. Every faction seeks to freeze knowledge at an arbitrary partisan level, and every such faction does it by skimming off the brains.
It is an outstanding achievement of divine wisdom that salvation is made contingent upon belief of facts incorporated in news, rather than upon knowledge of abstract reasoning or deductions drawn from doctrinal truths. The gospel is a unitive force because it consists of facts proclaimed by credible witnesses. These facts must be accepted or rejected. If accepted at all, they must be accepted as facts. All who so accept them are brought together in the one to whom they relate, regardless of ignorance about matters, immaturity, or lack of understanding of what will be further entailed. No subject should challenge a divided church more than the nature and content of the gospel. We propose to examine the word from the standpoints of etymology, scripture and scholarship. We make no apology for the length of our treatise because of the importance of our theme.
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The difference between the gospel and the apostolic doctrine is readily seen by application of simple logic. Jesus said, "Go into the world and preach the gospel unto every creature." The gospel is to be taken to the world. It is to be proclaimed unto every unsaved person. But the apostolic doctrine was addressed to churches composed of the saved, or to individual believers. Not a single epistle was addressed to the unsaved in the community, although the obligation to take the gospel to them was referred to in one instance (Romans). The apostolic doctrine was to "the church of God" (1 Cor. 1:2), "to all the saints in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:1), and "to the faithful in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:1). It was not to lead men to believe and be baptized but to tell them "how to behave themselves in the house of God" (2 Tim. 3:15).
One of the clearest passages showing the difference between the gospel which begets as a precedent to birth into the family, and subsequent instruction given to the sons is found in 1 Corinthians 4:14, 15. "I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." The gospel is the spiritual sperm. The one who deposits it in the heart is the father, on the basis of principal and agent. Those who are born are sons. Others may teach or instruct them, but they receive life through the evangel, or gospel.
This is borne out by another apostle, Peter, who writes, "You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable by the word of God which is living and indestructible." The writer identifies the seed thus, "This word is the gospel which was proclaimed unto you" (1 Peter 1:25). The King James Version leaves the wrong impression by translating, "This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." The Revised Version is more accurate. The gospel had been preached unto them before the new birth and in order to produce it. The gospel was for the world, the apostolic doctrine for the church.
With that keen sense of discrimination which characterized many of the pioneers of the restoration movement, Alexander Campbell wrote: There was teaching, there was singing, there was praying, there was exhortation in the Christian church, but preaching in the church, or to the church is not once mentioned in the Christian scriptures!
Paul once, in his first letter to the church in Corinth, said he would declare to the Corinthians that gospel which he had preached to them, which also they had received and wherein they stood. We preach, or report, or proclaim news. But who teaches news? Who exhorts news? We preach the gospel to unbelievers, to aliens, but never to Christians, or those who have received it (Millennial Harbinger, April, 1862).
William Hurte, in A Catechetical Commentary, remarks about Acts 5:42 as follows:
The apostles rejoiced and went on with their work; but why does Luke use the two words "teach and preach Jesus Christ"? The words simply indicate the two classes to whom they were daily ministering. To the unconverted they preached, and to this class this word is strictly applicable, while believers were taught all things needful for life and godliness. To the former it is, and always must be, proclamation--I. e., preaching--while to the latter it must always be instruction concerning the Lord's will.
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The word of God informs us that there are such distinct messages and there are specific terms used by the Spirit to designate them. Since the messages are distinctive the bearers of the message are also distinguished by terms growing out of the nature of the messages. The announcement of news in the Greek world was made by a herald. The word for such a proclaimer was keryx and his message to the populace, that is, the thing proclaimed, was the kerygma. A herald might announce either victory or defeat, that is, either good news or bad. Thus, there is nothing in the word kerygma which indicates the nature of the tidings.
But the kerygma of the followers of the Messiah was universally and uniformly good news. So an additional term was used to describe it. That term is euangelion, which means "glad tidings." The bearer of this message was called euangelistes, that is, a bringer of good news. This good news proclaimed (or preached) by the herald, was announcement of victory in Jesus. It must be remembered that news has to do with facts and facts must be preceded by acts to which the proclaimer bears witness or of which he has knowledge. In view of this, the kerygma took on a definite form. It was "the thing proclaimed" and that thing was called the gospel, or good news.
In 1950, the eminent C. H. Dodd, Professor Emeritus in the University of Cambridge, England, was invited to deliver the Bampton Lectures in America, at Columbia University. He chose as his general theme "Gospel and Law." Dr. Dodd is best known to most of us as Director of the Committee on Translation, which produced the New English Bible New Testament, and which is currently translating the Old Testament and Apocrypha. We offer no apology for a rather lengthy quote from the Bampton Lectures.
According to the evidences of the New Testament, the earliest exponents of the Christian religion worked out a distinctive way of presenting the fundamental convictions of their faith, in a formula which they called "the proclamation." The Greek word here is kerygma. Our translators of the Bible commonly render it "preaching"; but in its current implications at the present day it is misleading. Kerygma properly means a public announcement or declaration, whether by a town crier, or by an auctioneer commending his goods to the public, or by the herald of a sovereign state dispatched on a solemn mission, to present an ultimatum, it may be, or to announce terms of peace.
The Christian preacher thought of himself as an announcer of very important news. He called it quite simply "the good news," or in our traditional translation "the gospel." It was this good news that was imbedded in the "proclamation," the kerygma. It was essentially a public announcement of events of public importance.The form and content of the proclamation, the kerygma, can be recovered from the New Testament with reasonable accuracy. It recounted in brief the life and works of Jesus Christ, His conflicts, sufferings and death, and His resurrection from the dead, and it went on to declare that in these events the
divinely guided history of Israel through long centuries reached its climax. God himself had acted decisively in this way to inaugurate His kingdom upon the earth. This was the core of all early Christian preaching, however it might be elaborated, illustrated and explained.
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The preacher's aim was to convince his hearers that they were indeed confronted by the eternal God in His kingdom, power and glory; that they, like all men, stood under His judgment upon what they had done and upon what they were, and that this judgment was now immediate and inescapable, further, that those who would put themselves under God's judgment would, through His mercy, find an opportunity open to them to enter upon a new life; that actually, as a result of these facts which they proclaimed, a new era in the relations between God and man had begun.
Those who responded to this appeal and placed themselves under the judgment and mercy of God as declared in Jesus Christ, became members of the Community, or church, within which the new life could be lived. These members were then instructed in the ethical principles and obligations of the Christian life. This course of instruction in morals, as distinct from the proclamation of the gospel, is covered by the term "teaching," which is in the Greek didache.
Now we have no desire to become boresome to our readers but it is time for us to grow up in our thinking and throw off the garments of mediocrity and superficiality. We must be vitally concerned about and involved in the struggle to learn what the Spirit meant in the words he chose to convey the thoughts of God. It will gain us nothing to talk about "speaking where the Bible speaks," if we do not speak as the Bible speaks. We are not interested in pampering spiritual infants but in providing food for growth. Bear with us then as we quote from Alan Richardson, M. A., D. D., Canon of Durham, on page 172 of "Theological Word Book of the Bible."
In the N. T. we find three words used: Euangelizesthai, to preach good tidings; katangellein, to declare, announce; and kerussein, to proclaim as a herald. The fundamental idea of these words is telling of news to people who have not heard it before--"evangelization." In the N. T. preaching has nothing to do with delivering sermons to the converted, which is what it usually means today, but always concerns the proclamation of the "good tidings of God" to the non-Christian world. As such it is to be distinguished from teaching (Gr. didache) which in the N. T. normally means ethical instruction, or occasionally apologetics or instruction in the faith. when the preachers (originally the apostles, later the accredited evangelists) had attracted hearers by their proclamation in the marketplace of the gospel of the cross and resurrection they handed them over to the accredited teachers for further instruction in the faith and preparation for baptism. Evangelists and teachers seem to have been distinct ministries in the early church.
We plead your kind indulgence as we select one more statement from the scores of confirmatory quotations within the files which have grown out of our research. This one is from Martin R. Vincent, Baldwin Professor of Social Literature, Union Theological Seminary, New York, in his "Word Studies in the New Testament," Vol.1, page 30:
Matthew 4:17. To preach (kerussein). Originally, to discharge the office of a herald (kerux), hence to cry out, proclaim. The standing expression in the New Testament for the proclamation of the gospel; but confined to primary announcement of the message and facts of salvation, and not including continuous instruction in the contents and connections of the message which is expressed by didaskein. Both words are used in Matt4:23; 9:35; 11:1.
From investigation we learn that the chosen envoys of Christ had a special message for the alien world. This was a proclamation of victory in Jesus. It consisted of the news of what God had done for those who were his enemies. Since it was contingent upon authority vested in Jesus, it could not be proclaimed until the heralds had proof that he had been "Christed" (I. e., anointed) and elevated to a position of lordship. The proof came visibly, audibly and experientially on the Penetecost following his ascension. Immediately the message was proclaimed! The gospel was fully announced on that occasion and fully obeyed by all who accepted it. This was not a partial seed and those who were begotten by it were not born deformed. They were fully formed as God's children, although immature.
Nothing else was ever added to the gospel after that date, although doctrinal truths were revealed as required or when circumstances demanded. These doctrinal
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Careful study of the historical accounts of the proclamation indicates that it was a specific message as to content. It did not depend upon rationalization, deduction or inference. It was not a compilation of laws, a code of ethics, or a collection of abstract propositions. It was a simple recounting of facts which, taken together, formed the kerygrna. At this juncture we may correct a mistaken view of a familiar passage. We refer to 1 Corinthians 1:21, where the false concept is created by the rendering in the King James Version, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
That this is important is evident from the fact that our hope of salvation depends upon it. Many interpret the word "preaching" to be the act of proclaiming. But God has not offered to save those who believe in the act of announcing something. The word for "preaching" at this place is kerygma. It has to do with the message and not with the action of the messenger. God has chosen by the thing preached, which appears as foolishness to the worldly-wise to save those who believe. The later translations are more accurate in conveying the thought.
"It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (Revised Standard Version).
"He in his wisdom chose to save all who would believe by the 'simplemindedness of the gospel message'" (J. B. Phillips).
"He chose to save those who have faith by the folly of the Gospel" (New English Version).
The gospel is epitomized in the three saving facts--the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. There was no saving virtue for the world in the life of Jesus upon earth, sinless as it was. The ascension, coronation and glorification were essential to his acquisition of authority. It was the ransom and redemption purchased by his blood which made salvation possible, and the resurrection which brought life and immortality to light. Accordingly, the apostle, in reasoning with the Corinthians about the resurrection, reminds them of the gospel which they had heard and which gave them life. The resurrection was a vital part of it.
"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he arose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:1-4)
An analysis of this passage will show that the gospel had been preached, received, believed, and that it constituted a foundation upon which the brethren stood. It was now a matter of memory, something to be recalled. It is observable that the Corinthians were saved by the gospel. The saving facts which Paul enunciated were three in number. Obviously the first epistle to the Corinthians was not part of the kerygma--the gospel.
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Not all who had believed the gospel were equals in knowledge. Some still thought there might be something to idols (1 Cor. 8:7); some thought there was no resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:12). Some were men of knowledge 8:10); others were weak brethren (8:11). There were those who were feeble, less honorable and uncomely. There were parts that lacked (12:23, 24). Paul hesitated to visit the saints because he wanted to spare them from personal censure (2 Cor. 1:23). He was afraid he would find "debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults" (2 Cor. 12:20). Yet all of these persons had been begotten by the gospel, and Paul introduced the catalog of things just mentioned with the expression, "We do all things, dearly beloved, for your edification." Those who confuse chastisement of a child with begettal and cannot distinguish between correction and conception are in a sad predicament.
To this reasoning and the abundant findings of scholarship, orthodoxy has but one pat objection of any consequence. An appeal is made to Romans 1:15, which reads, "So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also." Assuming that the apostle intended to proclaim the good news about Jesus to those who had already heard and long since accepted it, this is taken as proof positive that the gospel is designed for saint and sinner alike, and that it includes everything which should be taught to the church. It is hardly that simple and those who reach such a conclusion demonstrate that they are much more interested in justifying their pre-conceived notions than they are in unbiased exegesis. We propose to face up to this passage so glibly parroted by many who have never thought below the surface and who have fallen into the grievous error of searching only for a proof text.
Did Paul intend to preach the gospel to (that is, evangelize) the saved in Rome? Careful analysis does not indicate any such intention. In the first place, this letter was not addressed to the congregation, or church in Rome, but to the saints as individuals. In this respect it differs from the letters to Corinth, Galatia, Thessalonica, et. al. In his Commentary on Romans, Moses E. Lard, says:
"In other words, and briefly, it was written to all Christians living in Rome at the time. But it was written to them as individuals, and not as a body or church. This is a remarkable difference between the present Letter and some others written by Paul. They are addressed to churches as such; this is addressed to individuals as such. Indeed, church unity or organization is not once alluded to or recognized in the Letter, unless it be implied in chapter 16:17."
These individuals were addressed from two aspects: as saints in Christ and as citizens in Rome, as the called of God and as Gentiles. Paul expressed a desire to visit Rome for two different reasons.
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One purpose of the Roman letter was to inform the saints at Rome that Paul was specifically called to bear the glad tidings to the Gentiles. He wrote boldly about it so they would not forget his special mission. "I have written to refresh your memory, and written somewhat boldly at times in virtue of the gift I have from God. His grace has made me a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles; my priestly service is the preaching of the gospel of God, and it falls to me to offer the Gentiles to him as an acceptable sacrifice, consecrated by the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:15, 16).
Then why had Paul not come to Rome to win Gentiles? This would certainly be an important question to the struggling saints in the capital of the Empire. The answer is given. "It is my ambition to bring the gospel to places where the very name of Christ has not been heard, for I do not want to build on another man's foundation, but as Scripture says, 'They who had no news of him shall see, And they who never heard of him shall understand.' That is why I have been prevented all this time from coming to you. But now I have no further scope in these parts, and I have been longing to visit you many years on my way to Spain; for I hope to see you as I travel through, and be sent there with your support after having enjoyed your company for awhile" (15:20-24).
Paul wanted to bring the evangel to the Gentiles in Rome. He was not so ignorant as to try and evangelize the saved. He wanted to have fruit among the inhabitants of Rome, as among other Gentiles. He said, "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also."
Why did the apostle use the expression, "To you that are in Rome"? There is every indication that he intended for the recipients of the letter to share its contents with their unsaved neighbors--both Jew and Gentile. This would be a natural reaction to an apostolic letter in an area where no apostle's voice had yet been heard. This will also serve to explain the content of such portions as the entire second chapter, which is addressed to the Jews who make their boast of God and rest in the law, and yet dishonor God by breaking the law. It will also explain the inclusion of material in the last half of the first chapter. This portion of the letter was written to convince the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles of the need for justification by grace rather than by philosophy or law, both of which always end in a blind alley. Surely no one is so foolish as to think these portions are addressed to the saints in our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is not a mere personal opinion of the editor. It is shared by many who are eminent theological scholars. Space will not allow us to cite all of those we have in our files, but we must limit ourselves to one. We have selected Dr. James Macknight, whose Apostolical Epistles is universally known and highly regarded. In his preface, on page 51, he says:
From the pains which the apostle took in this letter, to prove that no Gentile can be justifled by the law of nature, nor Jew by the law of Moses, from his explaining in it all the divine dispensations respecting religion, as well as from what he says, chap. 1:7, 13, 14, 15, it is reasonable to think that it was designed for the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles at Rome, as well as for the brethren; who therefore would show the copies which they took of it to their unbelieving acquaintance. And inasmuch as the apostle professed to derive his views of the matters contained in this letter from revelations, and from inspiration, it certainly merited the attention of every unbeliever to whom it was shown", whether he were a Jewish scribe, or a heathen philo-pher, or a Roman magistrate, or one of the people; some of whom, I make no doubt, read it.
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In his comments on Romans 1:15, Dr. Macknight supplements the above statement in these words:
In regard that Paul, after acknowledging he was bound to preach the gospel both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, adds, I am 'ready to preach the gospel even to you who are in Rome,' the idolatrous inhabitants of Rome were certainly included in the expression 'you who are in Rome.'" This verse, therefore, as well as the following, is a proof that the epistle to the Romans was intended, not for the Roman brethren alone, but for unbelievers also, to whom copies of it might be shown.
The Revised Version reads: "My tongue will sing of thy word, for all thy commandments are right." It is a fairly safe rule that any argument which must depend for its whole strength upon the rendering of only one version should not be given much prominence, to say the least.
What does Paul mean by "the righteousness of God" which is revealed in the evangel? The Greek word here is dikaiosyne, and it is a favorite of Paul. He was versed and grounded in the old testament scriptures, having been at the head of his class in the rabbinical school of Hillel, in Jerusalem. He knew that the old covenant scriptures constituted a primary and elementary school to provide a vocabulary for the school of Christ. The Hebrew terms which corresponded to dikaiosyne were all derived from a verb--tsadhaq. The idea most frequently contained in these terms was that of vindication or justification. The meaning of the words does not imply that a righteous person is one who is right about things, but that he is "in the right," that is, in a state of righteousness, or justification. He is not infallibly right because of his actions, but wholly in the right by an act of God. That is why it is called "the righteousness of God."
Remembering that this is the word for "justification," we can readily see that no sinner can ever justify himself. He can never undo a single act nor recall a single word in order to become guiltless. He can never be justified by law because this would entail perfect conformity in every minute and meticulous detail, and the least infraction would mean death without mercy. Justification is an act of divine clemency, accorded not because of worthiness, nor because of anything that the guilty person may do to earn or serve it. It is a manifestation of grace, a divine act of undeserved kindness.
We can now begin to appreciate what Paul meant in the memorable passage before us. In the gospel, that is the Good News about Jesus, is revealed the ground of God's righteousness, or justification. It is shown to be by faith in the Person of the Message. And the reason for revealing in the Message that God's righteousness is by faith, is simply to produce faith in us, for even the prophet had declared that the source of life is faith--not law! Those who are justified are those who are in contact with the source of life. Righteousness is a state of right relationship with God, and God is the fount of all life.
We are not justified, or in God's righteousness, because of superior knowledge, or because we have figured out all the
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Brethren, I should like to have you know that I frequently planned to visit you at Rome so that I could gather in converts to Jesus as I have done among other Gentiles. Because of my indebtedness to all tongues and classes, I am eager to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the Good News about Jesus, seeing that it is God's dynamic to produce salvation in all who believe the News, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in this Message God has revealed that justification is by faith, and this revelation is made to produce faith as our only hope of life, for even the prophets declared that faith was the key to life for all those who are justified.
Certainly this is a "free translation" but, after years of study in the implication of these words of the Spirit, I am convinced that it best conveys the mind of God as I understand it to be revealed. It will also be observed that it preserves the basic core of the gospel which is justification by faith. This is what Paul calls "the truth of the gospel," that is, the essence of the Message (Galatians 2:5, 14). For a more thorough discussion of this feature we urge you to read the preceding issue of this paper (January, 1965). The glad tidings about Jesus constitute a revelation that justification is by faith, in the full meaning of "faith" as Paul uses the word. It is only the apostolic usage with which we are concerned, everything else is useless.
It is a tragedy to interpret the apostolic epistles in such a manner as to negate the apostolic gospel. It is a travesty on the spiritual walk to interpret the apostolic doctrine in such a way as to divide those who are united by the gospel of Christ, and thus make "the cross of Christ of none effect." Orthodoxy has exacted a fearful toll on the body of our Lord and will face a frightening responsibility for hacking that body to pieces with the axe of partisan animosity.
It is belief of the facts about Jesus by which all of us are saved, if saved at all. This belief acknowledges his lordship over our lives, and thus commits us to acceptance of all the truths by which we grow as we become aware of them. No man will be saved who deliberately rebels against any doctrinal truth which he understands and apprehends. No one will be lost because of merely mistaken views or human inability to grasp all of these doctrinal truths. The basis of our hope lies in sustaining a right relationship with God through Christ Jesus. If one is right about Jesus he may be wrong about a lot of things and still be saved; if he is wrong about Jesus he can be right about everything else and still be lost.
Our brethren are not actually proclaiming the gospel of Christ as the hope of salvation. They are projecting a system composed of traditional interpretations, opinions and ideas, often conflicting with each other, and demanding conformity to this system as gospel. Such
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Not one of the apostolic epistles was written to bring men into the fellowship. They were all addressed to those who were in it. Never an admonition to live in harmony or to be of one mind was written to bring men into the fellowship. Indeed, it was because they were in the fellowship that these exhortations were invariably given. Harmony is not essential to entrance into fellowship, but fellowship is essential to any satisfactory striving toward harmony. It is because we have a common relationship that we labor toward a better understanding.
To condition fellowship upon conformity in all of these phases is not to encourage unity, but division. To attempt to enforce conditions of growth as conditions of family relationship is to defeat the purpose of the Son of God and to disturb the peace of the One Body. This is the indictment of that orthodoxy which blinds men and makes them think they are loyal to Jesus when they are chipping, chopping and carving his body to bits.
Our brethren need that grace which enables them to "distinguish between things that differ." The cause of pure Christianity suffers among the masses because men who pose as teachers, and even would-be theologians, stand before audiences and make disparaging remarks about any distinction in such words as "gospel" and "doctrine." If the only harm done was to prove the immaturity and mediocrity of their own scholarship one might keep still and allow them to bask in the feeble glow reflected and diffused through the veil which they wear in their reading of the Word, but they hinder the progress of reformation and remove the contest from the arena of universal thought to confine it to their own little restricted corrals where none dare question and all must conform. It is for this reason that an examination of the scriptures in objective fashion is long overdue. There is a difference between the authority of the sacred scriptures and the authority of human interpretations placed upon them to maintain a traditional pattern and to perpetuate a partisan program.
Those of us who expect to be worthy heirs of the restoration movement should rejoice that the religious world is again becoming aware of the principles long since enunciated by the pioneers of this noble effort. If the eminent C. H. Dodd now receives laurels for ideas long since discovered by Alexander Campbell--ignored by his contemporaries in the sectarian world and forgotten by his successors in the movement he helped to spark--we can be grateful to Him who raised Jesus from the dead that He has revived these truths in our day. We will gain little by joining those modern chief priests and scribes who deny the revival and seek to bribe the guards into silence. Let the truth be known!
(Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of monthly articles designed to examine anew those scriptural passages used to cause or condone division in the family of God. At the close of this year, two thousand copies of the entire series will be issued in book form, bound in cloth, and issued under the title, "The Twisted Scriptures." Because of the importance of these studies reservations are being accepted a year in advance until the two thousand are reserved. The books will be delivered on March 1, 1966, and there will be no additional reprint. You may file your order for as many as you wish by writing at once, and you will be billed upon delivery of the books).