Words of Lipscomb
W. Carl Ketcherside
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It is interesting to read the writings of those brethren who lived in a previous generation and sought to face up to the problems of their day. One such brother was David Lipscomb, for many years editor of the Gospel Advocate. Upon one occasion a preacher wrote that during his meeting at Cedar Grove, Tennessee, a little fourteen year old girl who was one-eighth negro, was baptized. The question was "Now, as there is no negro congregation in that community, where should she worship? Should the white members fellowship her, or should she be deprived of worshiping God?" Here is the reply as given by Lipscomb:
"I have never found any sanction or authority in the Scriptures for different churches in the same community for different races of people. In the days of Jesus and the apostles the antipathy and antagonism existing between the Jews and Gentiles were as great as that now existing between the white race and the negro race. I find no intimation or suggestion of separate congregations for the two antagonistic races. On the other hand, it is distinctly stated that his mission was to make of the two races one body in Jesus. I believe that is the only correct course to follow in any and all other ages...Whatever we do to the least disciple of Christ, we do to him. If we refuse to recognize as a brother or sister the most despised of his disciples, we refuse to own him. I doubt if one who refuses to fellowship and encourage and help one who is his disciple because he or she is of another race can be saved."
Another reader of the paper which he edited wrote in to ask, "Is it right or wrong to ask a sectarian to get up and
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"I would say it is wrong to encourage sectarianism in any way, if we can tell which are sectarians; but my observation is, it takes a sectarian to ferret out a sectarian, just as 'it takes a rogue to catch a rogue.' Unfortunately, all the sectarians are not in sectarian churches; and I hope some in sectarian churches are not sectarians. Things get badly mixed in this world. Sometimes people who wish to obey God are born and raised in sectarian influences. A man who loves party more than he loves God is a sectarian. A man who divides the church of God for a theory or teaching not required by God is a sectarian. A person who pushes an idea or practice not required by God to the disturbance of the peace of the church, or that exalts a human opinion or practice to an equality with the commands of God, is a sectarian and a heretic.
"There are some in nonsectarian churches who are sectarians, who violate the laws of God in order to oppose sectarians. They are sectarians in their opposition to sectarians. There are some in sectarian churches who will obey God and follow him in spite of the sectarianism of the churches in which they find themselves. As examples, there are persons in the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches who were baptized to obey God rather than to please the sects. In this they rise above the sectarian spirit, despite the parties in which they find themselves. They ought to get out of the sectarian churches, but they see so much sectarianism in the nonsectarian churches they think all are alike.
"Peter and John, Paul and Barnabas, all met with the sectarian Jews at their times and places of worship and participated with them, that they might find an opportunity to speak a word for the truth. I do not think it hurts any man, sectarian or sinner, to read the Bible anywhere or at any time. I do not think it hurts any one to hear the Bible read by sectarian or sinner at any time or place. The great end is to be true and faithful to the truth and at the same time kind and sympathetic with those in error. The nearer we can do these two things, the more like Jesus we will be and the more sinners and sectarians we will save."
Upon another occasion, Lipscomb said, "Every man has those predilections and preconceptions that warp his judgment and blind his vision to a greater or less extent. Some have them stronger than others. Some desire to know and do the will of God with more earnestness and singleness of purpose than others; hence some learn the truth much more slowly than others, even where natural ability is equal. No human being in the beginning of his religious life can, with a true and perfect heart, desire to know and do the will of God. To have such a heart, unblinded by prejudice, unwarped by other desires, would be more than human. If God did not accept service from imperfect and prejudiced hearts, he would never accept service from human hearts."
It is quite evident that if David Lipscomb and other brethren of his day could come back to life, they would be rejected and repudiated by the very congregations they helped to plant. Lipscomb would be branded as a liberal and would be shut out of the pages of the very paper he once edited, as well as being debarred from speaking on the lectureship of the school which he founded. This only serves to show what happens when movements harden into sectarian attitudes, and little men continue to build monuments to the very prophets whom they would stone if they were still present.