Opening Our Windows

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     "The ultimate test of what a truth means is the conduct it dictates or inspires."--William James.

     Our ridiculous and inane divisions constitute a galling yoke bearing down upon the shoulders of the restoration movement. They effectively nullify any appeal for unity which we might make in the halls of religious discussion in our day. They give the lie to any vaunted claim that ours is a superior knowledge of the will of God. Unless we face up realistically to the problem of our own schismatic state we forfeit the right to be heard by honest men and women seeking the road to oneness.

     We started out as "a project to unite the Christians in all of the sects." How did we come to be one of the most divided movements on the current American scene? The answer is not a simple one. It involves human temperament, cultural development, changing environment, and factional animosity. But primarily it stems from adoption of a false philosophy with its attendant train of fallacious premises, and this produced the will to divide. It has left us fragmented, splintered and torn to bits.

     What is the approach of orthodox "Church of Christ" editors to our predicament? They have only one. It is to assert over and over in a monotonous fashion that it is a simple question of respect for the authority of the word of God. They saw away at it like a fiddler with a single string and a tight bow. And they only contribute to the division. The fact is that anyone who reads the "official journals" of the party soon realizes that they have no solution to the problem of division. Instead, they actually promote and perpetuate it.

     Thinking men and women are becoming a little tired of the arrogant assumption that only one minority group has any real respect for the authority of Jesus while all others are deceived or deceivers. And they are increasingly concerned about which Church of Christ has such respect, seeing that there are a couple of dozen of them, and all of them regard the others as outside the pale. In the intellectual climate of our age it is doubtful that we can fool a great many calm reasoners in the future. We may even have a difficult time keeping a lot of our own members fooled. Thinking is catching, and if it becomes epidemic in proportion, brethren will scale our walls as if they were not there.

     It is a little silly, when you sit down quietly and ponder about it, to blame everyone else for the mess in which we find ourselves. Each one of our factions gives itself a clean bill of health while stigmatizing all of the others. All are "loyal" in their own sight. But so long as we are divided none of us are faithful, because our divisions themselves are condemned in no uncertain terms. We are exactly where our thinking has brought us, and we will be tomorrow exactly where our thinking takes us. We are divided because we have thought in terms of division. If we are ever to be united we must think in terms of unity.

     I deny emphatically that our problem is lack of respect for the authority of God's word upon the part of everyone else. That is an escape hatch which we have constructed and into which we can retreat to keep from facing up in meaningful encounter to those who differ with our interpretations and insights. If we can project the idea that all who use instrumental music, or hold pre-millennial views, despise the authority of God's Son and do despite to the Spirit of grace, we can scamper into our bunkers and slam the iron door shut over our heads, and sit inside breathing the perfumed air of our own self-righteousness and let the world go to hell.

     The same thing can be done by others who regard support of orphan homes, contributions to Herald of Truth, Sunday schools, individual cups, fermented wine in the Lord's Supper, and a host of other issues, as indicative of a wholesale denial

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of the authority of the Son of God, and a deliberate attempt by "liberal rebels" to storm the gates of glory and unseat him from his position at the right hand of the Father on high. The result is that instead of having one holy temple composed of living stones, we have pock-marked the earth with little factional hummocks which look more like a prairie dog village than a kingdom of saints. It is a tribute to the longsuffering and patience of God that He has not long ago swatted us into oblivion for our pride and arrogance.

     It is sinful enough to have created the kind of sectarian complex which we mistakenly equate with God's purpose, but it is even worse to be satisfied with it and to defend it as the last best hope of a universe wallowing in iniquity. It is time for a reformation, a sweeping reformation, and it should begin with Church-of-Christism. It must begin with an honest renunciation of those false propositions upon which we have constructed our architectural monstrosity with its isolated rooms filled with "brethren in error" gunning for each other through shattered windows. It is time for all of us to regain our integrity regardless of cost. It will no doubt be easier for those who have nothing to lose but their souls.

     Let me suggest some things which we must surrender, as I view it, if we are again to become effective as leaven in our age. I do this sincerely, and ask only your sincere consideration of what I say. In reality, there will be little new in what I say, but it must be said in this fashion.

     1. We must reject the concept that the restoration of the ancient order means the reproduction in our age of any congregation established by, or existing in the days of the apostles. We cannot go "back to Jerusalem" and we should not want to do so. The congregation at Jerusalem was made up of human beings and was subjected to all of the passions and prejudices which men bring to an institution.

     There were problems created by murmuring over food distribution and by dishonesty caused by greed. There were cultural and environmental involvements, and sectarianism within the number. Racial prejudice was a constant source of trouble. It is questionable whether any uncircumcised person was ever invited to eat with the Jerusalem saints.

     What we seek to recover is the ideal of God as manifested in Jesus. That ideal was never fully reproduced in any congregation of people in the past. It will not be in our own. But each congregation in every age becomes its own "Jerusalem." The word of the Christ comes to each group of saints, "So must the change of heart which leads to the forgiveness of sins be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

     We make a mistake when we locate Jerusalem on a map of the earth's surface. Jerusalem is now defined in terms of spirit and reality. "Believe me," returned Jesus, "the time is coming when worshipping the Father will not be a matter of 'on this hillside' or 'in Jerusalem.' Nowadays you are worshipping with your eyes shut...Yet the time is coming, yes, and has already come, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and reality."

     God declared that Jerusalem was the center of the earth. But the center of the earth for you is where you are. And beyond you lie your Judea, your Samaria, and the uttermost parts of your earth. Renewal does not come by going back to a certain time or place. That which is temporal and spatial belongs to what is visible. "For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory: it is the invisible things which are really permanent." Renewal comes through recovery of proclamation, purpose and power!

     2. We must divest ourselves of the notion that every method of Jesus in the implementation of his divinely ordained purpose is equally important with that purpose. This is essential for two reasons. It will deliver us from the hypocrisy we manifest in arbitrarily sorting his actions into two bins labeled "Contemporary Customs" and "Continuing Concerns." And it will enable us to distinguish between that which was incidental to the doing of the act and its design.

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     It is a mistake to reason that Jesus intended to provide for us a detailed and meticulous pattern filled with its own jots and tittles. I am old enough to recall when congregations almost split over introduction of a baptistery and even after this convenient accommodation for immersion was installed there were still those who had to be taken to the river and baptized in running water as Jesus was. One purpose of baptism is to introduce all of us into one body, yet there were those who would have fractured the body into bits over the matter of where the act was performed.

     In exactly the same vein is the idea that the Lord's Supper cannot be observed with anything but unleavened bread. Jesus did not choose unleavened bread. He had no choice. He simply took the kind of bread which was the regular diet of the Jews at the time of the Passover and used it. It is an interesting fact that not once is the word azumos, unleavened bread, ever used in connection with the Lord's Supper. The word is always artos, a loaf, whether leavened or unleavened.

     There are those today who are so legalistic they would make even the way the loaf is broken a test of fellowship. I know some brethren who would turn away from the Lord's Supper and refuse to eat and drink in memory of his death if the fruit of the vine was fermented. I know of others Who would do the same if it were not. All of these mistake the very genius of the Way and are Judaistic in their approach. They are under law and not grace.

     In spite of the fact that they claim to be ardent sticklers for the truth and defenders of the faith, their problem is that they do not know what constitutes either the truth or the faith. In their blind adherence to the letter they crucify the spirit and drive a factional dagger into the very body they claim to revere. The Lord's Supper is a visual depletion that we are all one bread and one body, and any insistence upon a purely incidental feature which will make it impossible for us to eat and drink together is inimical to the very ordinance. The kingdom of heaven is too majestic for its citizenry to spend their lives in nit-picking and finical namby-pamby.

     Jesus said, "Surely life is more important than food, and the body more important than the clothes you wear." If this is true of the physical body of man composed of dust, surely the life in Christ is worth more than arguments about individual cups or fermented grape juice. And surely the body of Christ is worth more than any man's opinion about orphan homes or television programs. How long will we continue to frustrate the work of God by our own littleness? How long will we continue in the perverted sense of values we have projected?

     3. We must forever free ourselves from the grave error that fellowship is equivalent to endorsement. The very act of equating the two is factional and divisive. It would make all fellowship of men with God impossible, for if God is forced to wait until we are free from every mistaken view before he can be in fellowship with us, there can be no fellowship. It is God's grace which makes it possible for him to accept us. It is sharing in that grace which makes it possible for us to accept others as brethren, even though we cannot sanction all that they do.

     If Paul could call the Corinthians a "congregation of God's people at Corinth, dedicated to him in Christ Jesus, claimed by him as his own" (1 Corinthians 1:2), we should have no problem with any of the brethren whom we know. If he could repeatedly call them "my brothers" and designate them as "God's garden," "God's building," and "God's temple," we should be ashamed of our unlovely attitudes toward our brethren.

     The fact is that brethren who refuse to recognize and call upon God's children to pray, simply because they hold a different view about instrumental music or the millennium are not mature saints. They are infantile and childish. It is difficult to imagine those who claim to be children of the Father "setting at nought a brother" because of a divergent view of orphan homes, colleges, cups and classes.

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That we could ever become so irrational and undiscerning as a people seems almost unthinkable. Those who defend such a fatuous course should be ashamed to live and afraid to die.

     Regardless of what is said about the mistaken ideas relative to such things, it is the man who makes such matters a test of fellowship who is guilty before God of creating division in the body of Christ. No man can be held accountable for endorsing what he personally disavows. I am in the fellowship with many brethren with whom I disagree, and with thousands who engage in practices I cannot personally endorse. But I cherish our family relationship and our unity in Christ Jesus as of more worth than any view or opinion of those in my Lord, and I shall not separate the saints, nor drive them away because of our lack of mutual understanding of some things.

     We have charted a course which makes us appear as a group of inconsistent eccentrics in the very religious realm which we started out to penetrate with the glad tidings that unity is possible in Christ Jesus. Our present philosophy forces us to be modern Ishmaels, with "our hand against every man and every man's hand against us." It is time for us to renounce what God calls "a wild ass" existence of extremism and exclusivism. Let brethren hold their views about supporting orphan homes, the Herald of Truth, cups, colleges, classes, etc., but let us search for situations where we can labor together. Why keep up a continual clamor and a din of agitation about those things which have not one thing to do with our relationship in Christ Jesus?

     4. We must rebel against the factional leadership of preachers and editors whose purpose is to maintain our sectarian status quo and who are dedicated to the inglorious task of thwarting every meaningful move toward a greater sense of oneness among the believers. In spite of all the exalted tributes paid to congregational autonomy by partisan journalists, our congregations are not free from fear. It is a farce to claim that they are. Every faction has an earthly headquarters to furnish an "infallible interpretation" as a guideline for the adherents of the party and almost everyone of these is built around a paper. By carefully filtering out opposing views and by lop-sided editing the people can be kept in ignorance of what goes on in the religious realm. Government by "editorcracy" enables the central power structure to reach into far-off places and ruin the courageous souls who will not conform.

     The news that is printed is slanted to favor the factional position, playing up every gain from other sources but never hinting at defections from the party. To read only one paper regularly one might be led to believe it was the only one being published. A conspiracy of silence forbids favorable mention of any other journal. There is abundant evidence that many of the more perceptive students in our day are beginning to resent self-appointed censors and a rough time ahead can be predicted for those who have confused brotherhood with "smotherhood."

     We must recapture the right of brethren to read the word of God for themselves, to form their own conclusions, to question and to be questioned. The day of the dictatorial "Curia" is gone. It belonged to the Dark Ages of superstition and ignorance when men could not read and the printed word was a "sealed book" until someone literate happened along. It is time to throw open the window and let in fresh air. It is time to turn the full glare of the spotlight of truth upon our positions and practices. Let's rip apart the paper curtains which separate us and let the sun shine into all of our darkened factional cubicles. We are not rats that we should cherish the gloom of isolation. We are brethren. Let the truth be known.

     5. We must develop the courage to speak out boldly against the intolerance and bigotry which characterize the sectarian attitude of which our brethren are victims. We must restore a prophetic ministry with its power and penetration. The word of God must be to us as a fire, and as a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. We dare not to sell our souls for

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money or barter away our integrity for a position. "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!"

     Let lesser men cringe and cower before the forces of tradition and custom, but let those who love the Lord rise up and batter down the walls of hate and spite which keeps God's children apart. Let us ignore these human barriers and share with our brethren wherever they are. Shall we continue to be like barnyard fowl, tamed, domesticated and with wings clipped by the scissors of conformity? Shall we cluck in contentment inside of our pens while a world goes up in flames around us?

     The time has come for the saints to unfurl the flag of brotherhood, to transcend the human limitations imposed by those who have usurped the prerogatives which belong to all the citizens of the kingdom. It is just not true that all of the brethren who differ with us reject the authority of Jesus Christ. Many of them simply reject our claim to be the supreme court to interpret for all mankind the revealed will of the Father. To reject our authority is not to deny the authority of heaven. Those who really deny the authority of Jesus are those who assume for themselves the role of official interpreters to whose dicta every knee must bow and every tongue must confess.

     I want the whole wide world to know that, as a free man in Christ Jesus, I shall serve all of my brothers in Him. I refuse to forfeit my liberty to pope, prelate, preacher or priest. I shall not bow the knee to canon, curate or cleric. To my own Master I shall stand or fall and to him I shall allow all others to give answer. We can overcome the ecclesiastical serfdom into which we have fallen if we love God enough to make the sacrifice. But we must convert our dreams into decisions. It is not enough to gaze at the Star; we must start following it if we are to find Him.

     As John Tyndall put it back in 1871, "The brightest flashes in the world of thought are incomplete until they have been proven to have their counterparts in the world of fact." Come on, brethren, let's go!