Right On!
W. Carl Ketcherside
[Page 149] |
God's children are divided. They are fractured and fragmented, splintered and separated. This is an unholy state, contrived in hell, fostered by Satan, and maintained in open defiance of the divine will. It is contrary to the eternal purpose, inconsistent with the prayer of Jesus, and in direct conflict with the sacred scriptures. It makes brotherly love a farce, perpetuates factional interpretations which are absurd, and holds up to ridicule a movement which began to "unite the Christians in all of the sects."
How can we regain our proper course and proceed with the momentous task of "making all men see what is the mystery of the fellowship"? First, let me tell you how it will not be done. It will not be accomplished by craven men who pay lip-service to the unity of all believers and beat a hurried retreat into the bunkers of financial security the minute they are challenged. It will not be accomplished by those who hold out the olive branch socially and privately, and then publicly cater to the sectarian bitterness which pampers the pride of the congregations which control their prestige and purse strings.
Nor will unity ever come from the meeting of two groups of select partisans gathering to spar suspiciously in the hope of capturing one another by some tired doctrinal elaboration or quirk of fate. Men who talk unity out of one corner of their mouths to others, then secretly rejoice in their adroitness and expertise at fending off their brethren are dishonest in their ingenuousness and unworthy of trust. Factional partisans will not produce unity. They are the very ones who have perpetuated division. The loyalty in which they glory is party loyalty.
Although I am no longer young, I doubt that much will be accomplished by those who are older and dependent for financial and emotional support upon our partisan establishment. They must maintain the party while they live. It is in building the exclusive factional structure they have achieved the little measure of glory which sustains their ego. They are not "heroes of the faith" to those in other factions who do not recognize their names and are wholly unaware of their partisan prowess or exploits, and their claim to fame!
I may be wrong, but I think our silly "Berlin walls" will be beaten down by courageous younger men and women, the dare-devils of the faith who refuse to be satisfied with the sop thrown to them by any party clique. They will early grasp the difference between being faithful to Christ Jesus and being a satellite to a sect. They will cross lines, ignore barriers, scale mountains, bridge chasms, and share their loving insights with the brethren whereever they find them.
They will not be tempted to become mere mercenaries, paid to trample over and over the same musty and mildewed grapes in the congregational winepress. They will not waste their time flailing straw from which the last possible grain of doctrinal wheat was long ago winnowed. Of course they will be "delivered up to councils and verbally flogged in the synagogues." When persecuted in one town they will have to flee to the next. There is nothing too cruel for the aroused sectarian spirit to perpetrate. It has burnt more martyrs, racked more saints, and crucified more innocents, than anything else in the history of mankind.
Those who would be in the vanguard of the struggle for peace must be willing to pay the price. Peace comes high! Brother will deliver up brother to partisan death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and hound them out into the world. They will be hated of all factional legalists for his name's sake. Withdrawal, boycott, hatred
[Page 150] |
Knowing as I do that peace is destined to triumph over strife, as truth will over error, my chief concern is what I may do in the few years of my earthly sojourn to further the cause which I revere more than life. Fortunately, my course appears clear. I have no inner misgivings or forebodings, no qualms or doubts. The star by which I steer is clear before me. The compass needle of my life knows no vacillation in these days.
I conceive as my purpose the recognition, receiving and welcoming of all of God's children and my brothers, regardless of the enclosures in which they are sheltered. I do not ask them to come to me. If they allow, I will go to them, sharing and serving as I can. I will identify with all of them in Christ Jesus, but with none of their peculiar structures. That which makes us all one in him means everything to me. That which herds us into partisan corrals has no validity to my faith in Christ Jesus as my Savior and Lord. What I can hold in common with all who are in Christ -- the common faith -- is that for which I will contend. That which is a personal conviction about controversial matters, I shall "keep between myself and God" and not cause my brothers to stumble or be made weak.
Let me be specific, since our divisions have been specific. If a congregation of saints employs instrumental music in their public praise, I will love them and respect them as my brethren. I will go among them, share with them and encourage them both to live and to walk in the Spirit.
If a congregation expresses its adoration solely in vocal music, they are my brothers and I will labor with them and assist them to "put on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh." But I will not go anywhere as the representative of an "instrument party" or an "anti-instrument party." If it is a stipulation in either case that I come as a front man for one segment as opposed to the other, I will not go at all. I have rejected sectarianism, all of it, including our own. It is displeasing unto our Father. Brethren who want a sectarian to defend the party spirit must look elsewhere.
I accept all of my brothers. They did not become children of my Father by a position on music and I will not cast them out of the family on that basis. They were not begotten by a view of the instrument nor born again by a correct understanding of vocal praise. If they were good enough for the Father to grant the Spirit of adoption in spite of their ignorance and mistakes, they are not too bad for me to welcome in spite of my ignorance and mistakes. If, when my Lord comes, he wants to weed out all who sang with a piano, and all who sang four-part harmony instead of chanting as they did in the days of the apostles, that will be the divine prerogative. Meanwhile, I shall go right on loving them all, "not in word and in speech, but in deed and in truth."
The same thing holds true for those who are separated into warring camps over what they are pleased to dub "institutionalism." They are all my brothers. I love all of the brethren who attend Florida College, and all who teach them. I also love all of those who attend Abilene Christian College, and all who teach them. I welcome as my brothers Roy Cogdill, Cecil Willis, Yater Tant and William Wallace, "but not for disputes over opinions." I also welcome Reuel Lemmons, B. C. Goodpasture, Guy N. Woods, and J. D. Thomas, "without attempting to settle doubtful points."
To me none of them are "antis" and none are "liberals." They are just persons like myself, caught up in the human predicament, and doing what they honestly think God wants them to do. I do not want to pass judgment on them. I do not want to despise them. I am not anxious to argue with any of them about their "meats" and "days." I prefer to allow them to stand or fall to their own
[Page 151] |
How they regard one another, and even how they treat me, no longer has any real significance in my life. That is between them and God, not between them and me. Since the love of God was shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit, I can truthfully affirm that "with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by brethren or by any human court... I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." If, in the final Great Encounter, God banishes from the glory world all who sent a dollar to the Herald of Truth or cared for fatherless children in homes with a board of trustees, I will submit to his sovereign and infinite will.
Meanwhile, I shall go on saying, "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice." And I will praise his name for every little distressed human waif who is fed and clothed and housed by my brethren, individually or collectively. I have my preference, of course, but I could be wrong. It would not be the first time for that, either!
It appears downright silly to me to maintain rival camps as respects the millennium. From the very outset of the restoration movement many good brethren have thought the coming of Jesus would precede the millennium. Others, who were just as sincere, thought it would be the other way around. We have always had some who interpreted certain passages literally while others regarded them metaphorically. The great majority knew very little about the matter one way or another. I do not think we really divided over the millennial issue at all. We divided when ambitious leaders, motivated by hunger for power, sought for an issue to use as a scarecrow and bugaboo.
My brethren are now, as they have always been, on both sides. I shall not allow either side to manipulate me into disregard for the other. I am not sure that I know all that Jesus will do when he comes again, but whatever it is, I want to share in it. I am not pre-millennial but pro-millennial. Whatever it is, I am for it. It is not understanding the second coming that makes one a child of God, but believing it was the Son of God who came the first time. And all of my brethren believe that, praise God!
If brethren have time to argue and fuss about what has not yet transpired, they are welcome to it. But I have no time to foster hate and animosity over such things. We are taught to comfort one another with the thought of the resurrection, not clobber one another with it. It is a pretty big task for me to fight the devil and all of his angels, and to keep them from moving in on me. I haven't the time or desire to fight my brethren over something which God will take care of at the proper time, even if I am mistaken about it. I expect to meet my Lord in the air, but I don't intend to "get up in the air" ahead of time. I am willing to wait until I'm caught up with the saints, and not get hung with them now!
Of course, the big hangup right now is the work of the Holy Spirit. It has created a real furor because we thought we had the Spirit bagged up and bogged down a long time ago. Not even the most optimistic prophet fifty years ago, would have been rash enough to predict that the Spirit would ever bother "the Lord's church." And now we are in a real dither. I am sorry that we are having trouble over the Holy Spirit but, viewed from one angle, it is a real sign of growth. It beats debating over such things as how to break the loaf, whether to use fermented wine in the Lord's Supper, and if women ought to be allowed to attend the business meetings.
We've finally moved out of the theological bushes and are playing in a major league park. A pretty good sprinkling of brethren testify that they became bored, bothered and bone-weary with our static and sterility and went on a spiritual safari to seek bigger game. Some of them
[Page 152] |
Such testimonies as these have caused the "Church of Christ Protective League" to go into action to "save the church." Preachers have been fired, brethren have been threatened, congregations have been split, and saints driven out of the buildings which they helped to erect. There are some disadvantages in the current outbreak. Formerly we thought of those who indulged in such things as ignorant, illiterate, over-emotional folks from across the tracks, people who lived down by the meatpacking plant. We could dismiss them with a wave of the hand when they got "hooked" and left us. They were not too bright to start with and the church would be better off without them.
But the present glossolalia crop has jerked the rug out from under us. A lot of them are graduates of 'our schools" maintained to preserve the faith and to produce sound men. Some of them have taught in the colleges. They live in beautiful homes and drive big air-conditioned cars. They fly all over the country and "give their testimony" and even fraternize with sectarians and "lesser breeds without the law." If it is the Holy Spirit at work, he played a dirty trick on us by getting to folks with money and prestige whom we would hate to lose.
I keep getting letters from Oklahoma, Texas, California and Tennessee asking what I am going to do about it. Well, I am not going to do anything about it! If the Holy Spirit should be at work in a special way with others, I'm not going to step in and say, "Here, you can't do that? What do you mean ruining my sermon outlines, and gumming up my past talks?" If it isn't the Spirit at work, and the brethren are just caught up in excitement and ecstasy until they are beside themselves, they wouldn't pay any attention to me anyhow. They'd listen and smile sweetly at my ignorance and simplicity and go right on doing their thing!
I certainly am not going to start a "Church of Christ (Tongues)" and a "Church of Christ (No Tongues)." We've already got a "Church of Christ (Christian)" and a "Church of Christ (Vocal Music)." That's enough for me. It doesn't take a whole lot of the sectarian spirit until "my cup runneth over." I am fairly calm and pragmatic and nothing much ever happens to me, but if a brother looks me in the eye and tells me of a fantastic experience that grabbed him, I am not going to say, "Now, you know that's a lie. Nothing like that happened to you!" I was not there and I don't know what happened. Some pretty funny things have happened to some of my brethren, I guess.
My own purpose is to pursue "the more excellent way." This is what Paul recommended to a congregation that was really upset by tongues. And I have quite a way to go before I fully mature in the one thing that validates all gifts and services. When one exercises the more excellent way it is no problem to receive brethren who differ with him, even about spiritual gifts. I would not think of driving out into the cold a brother who said he had an experience I have not had, and don't expect to have. My real problem is not with those who claim to speak in tongues and do not know what they are saying. My problem is with those who claim to speak English and I don't understand what they are saying.
If that which is perfect has already come (and I think it has), I will love my brethren. If it has not, I will love them until it gets here. As it is, there is a lot of difference even about what it is, but there is no difference about the need for love and tolerance. Please remember that tolerance is not endorsing anything that is wrong, but simply enduring one who thinks it is right!
The only way to cure our divisions is to resolve never to create or promote another one, and to work to eliminate those which we have inherited. "If you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another." Someone has to cross over all of the lines and ignore all of the factional walls. I
[Page 153] |
The way to unite is to unite! The time to do it is now! Everyone says that unity is the thing. It is the will of God. We have talked about it, discussed it and dialogued about it. Now let's do it. If we are brothers, let's show it, and let's start now. Why hold more meetings to talk about how to have unity? Why not hold one to demonstrate the unity we already have, the unity of the Spirit?
Unity is not based upon conformity but upon community in Him. Brotherhood results from a common fatherhood, fellowship from a common sonship. The only unity available to finite beings is a unity in diversity. We can no more all think alike than we can all look alike. There is as much variation in mental capacity and powers of rationalization as there is in facial lineaments.
It is not knowing all of the same things, but all of us knowing the same One that makes us one. It is absurd to allow our trivial arguments in the flesh to destroy the spiritual family ties. It is sinful to "set at nought a brother for whom Christ died." I do not care what opinion that brother holds about any or all of the "issues" which we have inflated until they mean more to some of us than the cross and the blood which makes us united in Him.
I summon you to an answer to the prayer of our precious Lord as uttered on the night before His cruel death. Let us rise up now from all of the little parties and factions, and refuse any longer to be driven like dumb cattle. Let us be men, and show the world that the bond of peace is not an imaginary and visionary something but a real tie that binds. Let us preach peace to them that are afar off and to them that are nigh. Let us lose our fear of men and refuse to be manipulated as cogs in the party machines. The time has come for action. The world is waiting for our united plea! Right on!