The Majestic Experience

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free --John Wolfgang von Goeth.

     There are many experiences in this world which are downright difficult. Some of them make you feel as if you were already in eternity. For example, paying off a thirty-year mortgage in monthly installments, and wondering if you can settle up before the house settles down--in the basement. Others make you want to climb the walls and walk across the ceiling upside down like a human fly. Like taking the family on a three day vacation in a wilderness area, only to have it rain relentlessly every minute for the whole time so that you are cooped up in a two-room cabin with six kids who brought along all the gear to play outside.

     But, as traumatic as such an experience turns out to be, it cannot be compared with that of trying to be non-sectarian in a sectarian world. It is not even easy to be a Christian of some standard and shelf-worn brand, but to be a Christian only is almost as big a feat as swimming the Atlantic Ocean while your friends are sailing along beside you and trying to drown you by throwing rocks at you. As proof of how hard it is, look at most of those who think that is what they are--when what they are is certainly not that!

     I have been trying to make an honest stab at it for several years, but it is like cancer surgery. You are never real sure they got all of the roots and you are always consciously aware that it could break out again in a different spot. I started out to please God in a sect, a dyed-in-the-wool one which admitted it. I did not really choose it. I inherited it from my maternal grandparents who were emigrants from the old country and who brought it with them to be sure they did not leave God in Scandinavia. It was their firm opinion that God belonged to the sect also, just like a lot of other folk think that if God was on earth, he would live in the United States and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Most of us think the angels in heaven are overjoyed with what we do and the way we do it, although we have had no direct word from them to that effect.

     When I got old enough to begin to question my family traditions, our little brood came under the spell of certain honest and intense folk who rightly condemned sectarianism as of the devil, and wrongly felt called of God to beat the devil out of it, or die trying! The thought of being a Christian and nothing else had a tremendous appeal to my simple mind. To be free of all human domination of pope or synod, and to belong only to Christ Jesus, struck a responsive chord that vibrated as only a heart-string can twang when plucked by the fingers of such a noble concept.

     Nothing else has greater fascination

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for the soul of a man than the liberty for which Christ set us free. That is why it eventually came as a crushing surprise to find that I was actually part of a non-sectarian sect, and if exclusivism is the hallmark of all sectarianism (and it is the very essence of it), the non-sectarian sects are actually the worst offenders of the lot. Their adherents are always forced to put bitter for sweet and darkness for light, and end up confusing loyalty to the sect as the real test of being non-sectarian.

     I have to plead guilty of propagating the partisan spirit. I am ashamed of that now, of course, but I not only preached it, I also practiced it all over the land, and a lot of good folk thought I was adept at it. They rejoiced in it! I suppose that I did make progress in it "above many my equals." But I made two mistakes. I continued to study and think, and I got too close to Jesus. I wasn't "zapped by the Spirit" as a lot of folk testify to being in our day. It was a little more agonizing than that. I had to go through the painful experience of extricating myself scripture by scripture, and sometimes while pulling one boot out the other was again sinking in the party ooze.

     Actually, though, you do not have to jump up and throw the door of your heart wide open in one glad burst of enthusiasm and happy babbling, for the Spirit to get to you. His light is like that of the natural sun. If a little piece of the sectarian chinking or daubing falls out between the stones of your ecclesiastical rock-pile, he will beam a ray of light through, and you'll see things in the corners you did not know were there, and which you wish you had never seen at all. Sometimes you can live more comfortably in a house when you do not know what inhabits the woodwork.

     One reason I have a great deal of compassion for sectarian folk is because I know exactly how they feel. I liked being a sectarian. It is an easy and comfortable existence. You do not need to really think. That has all been done for you, and gathered up in a neat bundle and delivered to you like laundry. In fact, the most dangerous exercise in which a sectarian can indulge is thinking. If he keeps on in it he will be out because of it. And a lot of us are happier when we are sectarian. You can be certain that you will never hear any preacher who is not faithful. The Holy Spirit is in the box with us, and best of all, is concerned only with us. We are in the "ark of safety" although it perturbs us that those who are bobbing up and down outside are not trying to knock the door down and get in with us. A lot of them act as if they would rather die without us than to have to live with us. And it makes us miserable because they are so happy!

     The greatest consolation to me in my sectarian heyday was the thought of God's marvelous provision in compiling the Bible so that it justified everything we did. Only divine prescience could anticipate that nineteen hundred years after the Word became flesh that our flesh could be made Word. When I contemplated all of the lost centuries and lost millions, and realized that then we came along and contrived such a wonderful pattern, only to learn that God had exactly reproduced it and validated it in his word long before, it removed all doubt about the wonders of the divine mind. It is still a matter of astonishment that the Bible spoke as our party spoke and remained silent where the party was silent.

     No one ever tears into the Bible with greater glee than a sectarian. And no one tears it apart with greater ability. To the true sectarian the Bible is the exclusive possession of the sect. It may be translated, and generally is, by other and more erudite sectarians and outsiders, but these are ignorant of the fact that God is using them to forge and sharpen brighter weapons with which to have their heads cut off by the faithful. In our particular sect we owed a dual debt of gratitude to the Holy Spirit who gave us the word, and to King James who ordered it put into shape so that we could read it. But we adored the Spirit and ignored the king. The Holy Spirit be-

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longed to our party but the king of England did not, and the first and greatest commandment of the sectarian realm is, "Thou shalt not commend one of another party, nor shalt thou honor him in anywise!"

     All that was needed to defend everything we practiced was the Bible and a Cruden's Concordance so we could find the place. We always knew it would be there but we did not always know where to look for it. It is no wonder the church went into the Dark Ages before poor Alexander Cruden lost his mind and literally became "balmy" while compiling his concordance. The truth was always in the Book but it is difficult to debate if you cannot find the exact passage required to offset and counteract the one quoted by your opponent. And, although we did not realize it at the time, we were also in great debt to Cardinal Hugo de Sancto-Caro of France, who divided the Latin Vulgate into chapters and verses about 1226. Before that time no one could give "book, chapter and verse." They just gave "book" and folks accepted it because they couldn't read or write their own names most of the time.

     Probably one of the greatest things that has happened since I turned my life over to Jesus and no longer allow brethren to "call the shots" is the way the Bible has come alive to me. It is beautiful! I am delivered from the tyranny of having to wade through it with a fine tooth comb trying to uncover something with which to clobber those who differ. And I am also free from that subtle hypocrisy of pretending to love men openly while secretly chuckling to yourself because of having found a remote scripture which can be applied in such a manner as to make them look like simpletons. It is a big relief not to have to gloat over flattening out someone whom God raised up.

     There's a great deal of difference between a loaf of bread and a sack of sawdust when you are hungry. And there is the same difference between the bread of life and a bag of debater's texts. I am hungry all of the time now. And I am no longer occupied with preparing to meet anyone except Jesus. I do not have enough time to learn all I want to about him before death turns the key and opens the door so I can meet him. I am perfectly content to let my opponents meet him as I do. If they can explain their positions to him over there, they need not get uptight about clearing them with me over here. I intend to hang loose and let Jesus put it all together!

     There are a lot of reasons why I have adjusted my course and set my compass to steer by that eternal planet of the universe--the Bright and Morning Star! I've covered a lot of them in my writings before and you are probably bored to tears every time you have to read them again. But, if you'll pardon me, I want to discuss with you the one factor about the non-sectarian attitude which gives me the greatest personal satisfaction. Perhaps it is not the most profound reason one could cite, but it is the one which thrills me most.

     The non-sectarian child of the Father

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has only one creed. That creed is Christ. He never allows himself to become upset and never loses his cool when those in Jesus Christ differ with him about the childish issues which men elevate from molehill to mountain status around which they encamp in partisan exclusiveness. He refuses to allow Satan to betray him into hostility against the Father's other children. The family relationship created by the blood of Jesus is esteemed of greater value than personal opinions and hangups. To be non-sectarian does not mean one does not have strong convictions. It does mean that he does not try to impose his personal faith upon others, and force them to knuckle down as the price for being received. He respects the freedom of all to think for themselves, to be loyal to their own convictions, and to stand and fall to their own master. He makes nothing a test of fellowship which God has not made a condition of salvation!

     And now for my most refreshing personal reason for endeavoring to be a Christian only, free from all factional fealty and partisan allegiance. I can embrace every truth and share in every blessing that accrues within any sect, and yet be free from endorsement of any error which is a part of the sectarian economy. Truth is not the gift of a sect but the gift of God. Any truth at which members of a sect have arrived (and all sects hold some truths), is the result of correctly apprehending that portion of God's revelation. But the acceptance of that truth does not thereby make it the possession of that sect.

     I am a baptist in the truest sense of the term. The word literally means one who baptizes and this is the scriptural connotation as applied to the harbinger of the Messiah, the wilderness voice. John was not called a baptist because he belonged to a religious party which practiced immersion as opposed to sprinkling, but because he immersed those of the Jews who reformed their lives in preparation for the approaching rule of the heavens. I have demonstrated that I am a baptist upon thousands of occasions, but I am not a Baptist and have no intention of ever becoming such.

     I am a methodist and with no apology for it. By proper discipline and rationalization I seek to be methodical in my whole approach to life and its demands. It is my hope that I may continue to employ methods which will be pleasing to God, and I ask your prayers in my behalf to that end. But I am not a Methodist. I am a great admirer of John and Charles Wesley and the more I read about their ardent toil and patience amidst fiery trials, the greater grows my appreciation for them. But any truth essential to my life in Christ Jesus was revealed antecedent to their day, and I accept it as vital because of its original source.

     As all of my regular readers are aware I am presbyterian as relates to what we have generally, and sometimes loosely, designated "church polity." It is my conviction that the primitive saints in each city selected presbyters to guide their communal affairs as shepherds. Such presbyters were appointed by Paul, and were to be ordained in Crete by Titus. They set Timothy apart by the laying on of hands, that he might function as an evangelist. So while I am presbyterian I am in no sense a Presbyterian.

     I am episcopalian also. The word is simply a translation of episkopos, a perfectly Biblical Greek usage which refers to overseers or superintendents. Those who in our day use it as a title sadly abuse it. In the congregations of the saints there was a plurality of bishops

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over one congregation. Today there is a plurality of congregations under one bishop. Our friends in the Anglican communion have the cart before the horse, so I could never be an Episcopalian.

     I am quite thrilled that I am in a society of friends. Perhaps nothing more clearly indicates the intimacy our Lord desires with his disciples than his decision to call them friends instead of servants. Long before he came, Aristotle declared "Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies." The reconciled ones constitute a society in the truest sense, bound together by social ties of the greatest significance. I am always moved as I read the account of what George Fox endured for conscience' sake and I have no doubt that he was a great benefactor of the lowly and oppressed, but I am not affiliated with The Society of Friends.

     To shorten the process and to avoid calling the roll let me assure you that I am identified with all that is good (as I understand what is good) in every party composed of earnest and sincere men and women. One can espouse all truth without joining anything to do so, and if he joins a party to promote a truth, he will always end up promoting the party under the guise or delusion of promoting the truth. He will be maneuvered into taking sides, not with truth against error, but with certain truths against certain errors, against other truths and other errors. This I can no longer countenance and meet my precious Lord with a pure conscience.

     Actually, there has never been but one "church" and there will never be another. It is a divine organism and not a human organization. Man can no more make another church than he can make another Holy Spirit. He can create sects and parties but these are not the church. All of them have appeared upon the scene too late to be the ekklesia of God. None of them is joined to the head, even Christ. The ekklesia purchased by blood includes every saved person on this whole wide earth. It is catholic, as I am catholic, but it is not Roman Catholic, and neither am I.

     I am conservative, by both nature and conviction. A conservative is one who seeks to preserve the values and inherent good of the past, and no one is more interested in doing that than am I. I am also liberal, not with the scriptures which (so far as I am concerned, are fixed and complete), but with my fellowmen who, like myself are caught up in the human predicament. I intend to be faithful to the word and merciful to men, because when that word is applied to me I will require mercy in order to be justified. But I am neither a Conservative nor a Liberal. Such parties may have their place in the realm of politics, but they have no place in the domain of the Spirit.

     It is obvious that if I were a Baptist I could not be a Methodist, and if I were a Presbyterian I could not be an Episcopalian. If I wanted to share the truth emphasized in one party I could not share that emphasized in another. Indeed, if I sought to share distinctive truths in all of them, by joining them all, I would not be commended as a lover of truth at all, but would be branded as wishy-washy and labeled a compromiser. For that reason, my only hope of embracing all truth is to be free of all sectarian allegiance and be joined only to Jesus. In him I can love as he loves. And he is the truth--perfect truth!

     Now all of this is well and good as

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many of my more tolerant and generous readers will agree. But it does not wholly settle the problem, and I am now back where I started. There remains the difficulty of practicing what I know and living up to it realistically. One thing that makes it hard is that those whom I know best are all dedicated to making me a sectarian after their own image. The one thing a sectarian cannot stand is for someone in the vicinity to be non-partisan. And the non-sectarian sectarians are worse than the plain "garden variety" of sects. They cannot eat or sleep well until they take you into camp with the party handcuffs securing you. Unless they can put the brand upon you, you are "lost." And anyone who is "lost" to them is lost to God. They are God's Royal Mounties, and they must get their man!

     All of us have grown up in a particular party, or else came into one somewhere along the line. There just did not appear to be anywhere else to go, or anything else to do. So we worked and gave and reared our children in it, and if we did not breathe into them the arrogant spirit of self-righteousness and exclusiveness, they picked it up in classes or camps, or from the imported evangelists who were brought in to convert us more firmly to the scripturalness of the status quo. All of the sermons to which we invited our neighbors, on the subject, "The Way That is Right and Cannot Be Wrong," were devoted to proving that we had it. And we kept it while losing our neighbors!

     What shall we do now? Of course, the temptation always is to seek the easy way out. A lot of times this means looking around for a party that is friendlier, or that has a lot of hoopla and excitement. Most shallow thinkers conclude that we are going to have to be in some kind of a sect anyway, and we might as well choose one where they have a lot of picnics and ballgames, and where the preacher can make a third-grade reading seem profound and you don't have to think. But that is merely swapping sects.

     The hardest thing, I think, is to come to terms with God where you are! Most everyone experiences a time in his life when he would like to shuck off present responsibilities, chuck his Sunday School quarterlies into the garbage can, take his Bible and "go over the hill" to settle down on a remote island, or in some teeming city where he can lose himself and get "a fresh start." But the truly courageous souls are generally those who stay put and, like General Grant, "fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."

     I have a feeling that if I cannot be non-sectarian where I am I will not be so anywhere else. Being non-sectarian is like the kingdom of heaven. It is not "Lo here!" But neither is it "Lo there!" It is within you. It is not what you are in but what is in you. It is not where you are but what you are! Really, I suppose it is like much else in this world, a question of priorities. If I love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength, then whatever else, or whoever else I love, it will always be in the proper framework and perspective. It will be in the "all" with which I love God.

     I intend to smilingly and cheerfully, but firmly, resist being lined up with any faction, fraction, sect or fragment. I belong to Jesus and I belong with all who belong to him. I love them all, even while they are caught up in their childish sectarian war-games. But my allegiance is to Him, and not to movements, methods or manipulations. He is my all, and I am all his! I will never knowingly deny anyone whom he acknowledges, nor drive out anyone whom he receives.

     A great many of my friends, possessed of the fear and timidity which the party spirit always breeds as an antidote to the freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, are perturbed by an article like this. They hesitate to have me go into situations which are utterly different than those in which we have waded and paddled around inside the safety of our own enclosures. Frequently letters come urging me not to allow my generosity to lead me into places where God is not.

     I do not know of such a place in the universe. We are still hooked on places

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and palaces, synagogues and structures, temples and tabernacles. The only sanctuary God has on this earth is a consecrated person. The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. I do not go to some place to meet God. In Christ he came to meet me. He lives in me and wherever I am there he is also. If he was not there before I arrived I am resolved that he will be after I get there. However, I am persuaded that God is in a lot of places manifesting his presence and power, and while I depend upon him dwelling in me to keep me going, he does not depend upon me dwelling in him to keep him going. He did a fair job before I arrived on the scene and will continue to do so after I am gone. A goodly number of my critics feel that my going will improve the situation.

     In any event, I shall go where I am persuaded that eager men seek the truth revealed from heaven. I am not hung up inside on signboards hung up outside of buildings. I shall not limit my witness to Pharisees and Sadducees, but will share the good news with customs officers and prostitutes. In fact, I doubt that I can take Jesus into any kind of situation which will seem strange to him even if it is a new experience for me. So I hope that my friends will stifle their inward trepidation, for somehow I have the feeling that so long as he is with me I am safe evermore. He is my everything! He is my all!

     I do not intend to be a "Church of Christ sectarian," and I do not intend to be a "Church of Christ non-sectarian," for, in the end, there is not one whit of difference. These are only different ways of saying the same thing, although one may please your enemies and the other your friends. What I do intend, with the help of the Holy Spirit, is to "hold the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." I am dead with Christ I am also alive in Christ. I shall appear with him in glory. My affection is on things above, not on things on the earth. Whatever comes, I have cast my lot with Jesus. He is my hope and my stay. He is my redeemer and reconciler. In him, I shall not fear what men may do or say. He is the Lord of life!