Trouble Not Israel

By Ralph M. Sinclair

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     A people who hold to the concept of God-in-a-book are not likely to appreciate any prophets who happen to arise among them. Somehow the story about one evicted prophet in the Church of Christ needs to be told. The name of the man and the community are not important to the lesson to be drawn from it. In fact, it is not a unique situation. The same thing is happening from Tennessee to Texas. Prophets have always reaped abuse. This one has been no exception.

     He has reached a position of experience and maturity upon which the church so desperately needs to draw as a resource. To name him in this article would only embarrass him because of his Christ-like humility. He will receive no honorary degrees from any of our colleges. There will be no testimonial dinners. When he is taken there will be no

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notice in the brotherhood papers. The church will not mourn his passing. His testimonial will be from God.

     It will be borne by devout children and grandchildren and all whose life he has enriched. Many who will feel his compassion and concern will not even be aware of this devout saint. His concern reaches even to another shore upon which he never stepped and where he is unknown by name. Children in this distant land received milk through "cow programs" made possible by his interests shared with others of like mind and heart.

     He is an elder and a prophet in every Biblical sense. In his chosen career of medicine he helped in God's mending of human bodies. He saw all work as sacred, even the manual labor performed on his farm. In his career he diligently promoted his profession. In recognition he received national offices and honors. Yet his own congregation does not covet his advice. The church heaps honors upon her hireling priests and heaps abuse upon her prophets!

     The kind and genial doctor while pursuing medicine did not neglect the Book held in honor by his people. He was a diligent student and an inspiring teacher. I never saw his equal during years of classes in a church college. As a fearless expositor of Holy Writ he had no peer. He was especially interested in and knowledgeable of the prophetic books and yet did not neglect the others. In a long and successful career as a teacher in Bible classes he chose to remain open to the Spirit. He was ever mindful that new truth would spring from the Word.

     One amazing trait of his was that no matter how many times he taught a book he always used newly-prepared notes. This was typical of his approach to any book in the Bible. His classes were always open and free, but without debate. He had the rare ability to always be forceful and positive in his convictions without being dogmatic. Due to this approach his remarks were often misinterpreted and ignorantly, if not maliciously spread.

     Because of his interest in prophecy it was rumored that he was "a premillennialist." In our church this was a heresy so dark that it was always mentioned in hushed tones. The mere suspicion of it would raise the ire of even distant congregations. It was an unjust label, which underscores the fact that the church labels and maligns those it cannot understand or accept.

     Our brother's personal life was above reproach. He took the Word seriously, so much so, in fact, that he confessed his sins freely before Bible classes. It was not a self-effacing act of mortification but the mark of a true disciple. He sought no positions of notoriety. This was one reason for not putting into print the distillations of his hours of study and teaching. With notes like his, lesser teachers would have rushed into print.

     He wanted to be free to change his mind when led of the Spirit. The questions he posed to his class were not easily answered. The position one occupied was not important to him. What was important was the direction one faced. He saw his own children castigated for similar reasons as those I have mentioned. They marched to the beat of a different drum, and since he saw they were in the same procession he learned from them.

     The recent book Voices of Concern which exposes some ills of the Church of Christ has been studiously ignored by people in the church. Only one orthodox reviewer has paid it the attention that it deserves. In his serious review of the book, Dr. M. Norval Young asks the question of his readers, and of the readers of the hook, "Do we really look like this?" The answer to this question is, "Yes, Dr. Young, unfortunately this is the way we look when we drive such people away from us as the noble doctor, his Spirit-filled children, and those spiritual children whom he has begotten in the Lord."

Editor's Note

     This article by Brother Sinclair refers to a brother in the Lord who was driven

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out because he believed that the Spirit of God was active in the lives of the truly committed ones in our day. The author says, "The above is a true story, current, and illustrative of the illness which afflicts us as a people. The persecuted people do not ask for pity or mercy, nor do they expect it. Those to be pitied are the ones who are left. The brother was stripped of his eldership along with two others, and he and his entire family were asked to leave the congregation." Those who desire to write Ralph Sinclair may address him at 1197 Holz Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45230.