Hail and Farewell
W. Carl Ketcherside
[Page 177] |
We will make converts day by day; we will grow strong by the violence and injustice of our adversaries. And, unless truth be a mockery and justice a hollow lie, we will be in the majority after a while, and then the revolution which we will accomplish will be none the less radical from being the result of pacific measures. The battle of freedom is to be fought out an principle.--Abraham Lincoln (May 19, 1856).
This is the last issue of the little journal you now hold in your hand. It is not dying suddenly or as the result of a whim. Its decease was carefully and prayerfully planned for several years. The time of its termination was announced almost three years ago. When it became apparent that the routine of editing was interfering with things I felt impelled to do before the Great Adventure, I began to petition the Father of all grace to guide me in making a decision which would be proper and profitable to the Cause which I love much more than life itself.
The answer came while I was praying in Grand Rapids, Michigan, one morning at two o'clock. The paper had served the purpose to which I had dedicated it. It had more than achieved the goals I had set for it. I would appoint a time for its discontinuance well in advance and give regular notice of it each passing month so that I would not cease publication owing anyone a refund on his subscription. As soon as daylight arrived on that morning I reached the conclusion, I wrote the first notice that I would allow the paper to expire with the December issue of this year. The time has arrived for the farewell number.
It was my hope that the paper would be laid to rest at the height of its readership. That dream has been realized. More than 8500 copies of this one will go all over the world. The paper is read upon every continent. It goes to all fifty states of the union and to every province in Canada, our sister nation to the north. This wholly undeserved popularity is a cause for rejoicing and praise for the marvelous providence of God. Because the door is about to close on thirty-seven years of life it might not seem inappropriate to recount for you a little history of the paper.
The original name of the journal was MISSOURI MISSION MESSENGER. The cost of publication and distribution was underwritten by five brethren in the Saint Louis area, each of whom contributed the few dollars marking his share of the cost each month. It was sent to some three hundred readers without obligation and the addressing was done by hand. It was designed to be a tabloid-size newspaper conveying information of doings and happenings of congregations and individuals in our state, affiliated with the
[Page 178] |
At the time I thought that our particular brand of Church of Christism was the only kind which would pass divine inspection and be stamped "Genuine" by the holy angels. It never occurred to us that the angels might not share our prejudices and opinionated hang-ups. So the paper was employed to report favorably everything we did, and unfavorably all that was done by rival parties. In our ignorance we thought of their adherents as heretics and apostates, not knowing the meaning of such terms when employed by the Holy Spirit.
When division occurred in the faction, as it must inevitably come to every legalistic group, I dropped the name of the state from the paper since it was becoming recognized as a medium around which the "loyal" members could rally on a wider scale. Of course, I am now ashamed of the sectarian outlook I then held and promoted, but I sincerely thought our spiritual clan or tribe was the one holy, apostolic and catholic church of God upon earth to the utter exclusion of all others. Other groups were either extremists or sectarian. If they opposed something we had they were extremists, if they had something we opposed they were sectarians. We measured them by ourselves rather than by Christ Jesus and felt sorry for them in their ignorance.
Since I "progressed above many my equals" as Saul of Tarsus put it, I was thrust into the forefront of our segment and was widely regarded as one of the leading brethren. This was not so much because I had any outstanding leadership ability but simply that others had less. "In the kingdom of the blind a one-eyed man is ruler." All who are imbued with the party spirit are ambitious for recognition as a consequence of that spirit, so I was involved in promoting most of the activities which related to our splinter group. As a defender of our particularities and peculiarities I became a debater at an early age, and engaged in formal public discussions with brethren of reputation from other groups who made a test of fellowship out of their opinions as we did our own.
I was scheduled for special meetings far in advance. My services were in demand all over the country and I was booked up for several years at a time. As a sectarian proponent the future looked bright and I was sailing high. During this time the paper reflected the narrowness of my spiritual immaturity and served to perpetuate the walls and widen the chasms between ourselves and others of God's children. But God had other things in mind for my unprofitable life. By lifting me out of the environment in which I was reared, and sending me to foreign countries where the trivia which had caused our divisions and occupied the greatest amount of my time and study meant nothing, I was made to examine the faith from a wholly new perspective.
I suspect it helped to be in a world where decisions had to be made without recourse to advice of factional leaders and without fear of attack from bitter partisans. It is difficult to keep a straight course when one must run the race set before him while looking back over his shoulder to see if he is being pursued by his own brethren. The baying hounds of orthodoxy barking at your heels tend to interfere with clear thinking. In other parts of the globe one must view his life and thought in the framework of his relationship to Christ Jesus and not to a group created to preserve certain traditional ideas or positions.
For the first time I came face to face with the Son of God. It was a kind of "Damascus Road" encounter such as most sincere persons have at some time or other in their earthly existence. When I looked at my own accomplishments in the light of the ideals of Jesus and His sacrifice I was frightened by what I saw. With the trappings of pride and ambition stripped
[Page 179] |
I clearly saw that what I had evaluated as my greatest accomplishments in life were nothing. When I thought I was serving the divine purpose I was actually opposing it. I was destroying what Jesus had come to build and building what He had come to destroy. I had been hoodwinked by Satan into reducing the kingdom of heaven, majestically founded upon love, into a party manifesting coldness and hostility toward other members of the divine family. I was sick of my own littleness. I was nauseated by my own factionalism.
Do not be misled into thinking it is easy to overcome the party spirit. It is a work of the flesh and all such works have a subtle attraction to those who are in the flesh. One realizes that he must face the scorn and contempt of those with whom he has been more closely identified and associated. He will be branded a turncoat, a heretic and a Benedict Arnold. The factional spirit is bitter, recriminatory and hateful. It will stoop to any depth to ruin one who no longer condones it. It provides no real trauma to be reproached by an avowed enemy but to endure the acrimony and bitterness of friends and loved ones is a trial in which few of us delight. Moreover, there is ever the danger of forming another party while trying to combat the party spirit. An anti-party party is as dangerous and reprehensible as any other.
I am not by nature or temperament qualified to be a reformer but any person who tries to lead adherents of an entrenched tradition into a new and better way of life is cast in such a role whether he acknowledges it or not. My fascination with history has convinced me that every revolution in the political, economical, moral or spiritual realm, was effective only when it was translated into a grassroots movement. Top level clergymen may talk to themselves about the need for reform until they die without achieving it, but if the masses grow tired of a condition they will effect a change, But this requires an educative process, and this is a slow and methodical approach.
The heirs of our particular restoration movement, launched principally by outstanding men of the Presbyterian persuasion, had developed a legalistic approach to God's revelation, and the fruit of such a stance is always division and fragmentation. Factionalism is inevitable under such conditions. To thwart legalism and recover the scriptural concept of covenantal relationship, conditioned not upon law, but upon grace, is a long and tedious, as well as a thankless task. The road of an exodus is not always a short one. Man craves to be under law, for then the responsibility for making decisions is lifted from his heart. In the divine-human relationship he will cling to and defend legalism to the last ditch. It is his clothing and man does not want to appear naked and open to the eyes of God.
In my own case I suffered real inner turmoil as I sought to free myself from the shackles I had helped to forge. I had been accustomed to debating my brethren. That was easy and I confess that I enjoyed it. Now for the first time I was locked in a life and death struggle within myself. I was not contending with others but wrestling with my own conscience. It involved long days of arduous research. It meant sleepless nights with the clock relentlessly striking each passing hour while calm repose avoided me. I learned to pray as I had never prayed before. I walked miles in the open each day, sometimes along rural roads, meditating and contemplating. The process of education is a difficult one but it is not nearly so hard as the process of re-education which requires the surrender of cherished ideas.
It was almost six years from the time when God pierced the armor of my sectarian shell before I wrote the first article "Thoughts on Fellowship." During those agonizing years my study led me to completely revised concepts. I became convinced that the party which I had defended and which had crystallized around certain opinions, deductions and interpre-
[Page 180] |
This meant that I had to reform my vocabulary to express my new thought patterns as I walked out of the gloom into ever-increasing and brighter light. The language of a faction is factional. The language of a party is partisan. It does not reveal truth but conceals it. I came to see that my brethren were not just those in a certain faction but were scattered through all of the parties which had been engendered by our attitudes and created by our human strivings. I had to recognize that the one flock embraced all of the sheep and these sheep were still scattered over the sectarian hills. Such expressions as "loyal brethren" and "faithful brethren" had to be thrown into the garbage dump where they belonged. They did not signify faithfulness or loyalty to Jesus but to our party. I had to rid myself of the arrogant term "brethren in error" which had been used to bolster our own partisan ego. The only kind of brethren on earth were brethren in error. There can be no other kind of brethren in the flesh. All of us are ignorant but just about different things.
When the scales of Church of Christ traditionalism fell from my blinded eyes, great truths began to become evident. They were there all of the time but I was oblivious to them because they did not fit into our sermon outlines. From Dr. George Campbell, of Edinburgh, whose writings so greatly influenced the youthful Alexander Campbell, I learned the distinction between gospel and doctrine as made by the Holy Spirit. As I delved into a deep investigation of this interesting and significant matter I found that Dr. Campbell's treatise was reinforced from every side. From the more than fifty scholars who helped me on this matter, I want to pay special tribute to two. One was Dr. C. H. Dodd, Vice-Chairman and Director of the Joint Committee on Translation of The New English Bible. The other was his protegé, Dr. Alan Richardson, at the time Professor of Christian Theology, in the University of Nottingham. If the gospel brings us into relationship with God through the obedience of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, fellowship is created by the gospel and all who have obeyed the gospel are in the fellowship. And they are in the fellowship in spite of their many areas of ignorance and mistaken concepts.
The very moment this truth penetrated my consciousness, a necessary corollary impressed itself upon my mind. Since there were two different messages from heaven involving kingdom relationship upon the earth, one of which was addressed to aliens to enroll them as citizens, and the other addressed to citizens to train them as soldiers in the army of the Great King, there must be two different actions by which these must be conveyed. One does not naturalize citizens as he trains soldiers. It was then I found that the method of addressing aliens was by proclamation of the good news, while the method of training disciples was by a lifetime educative process.
Once more I was led into an intensive study of the word of revelation. It soon became apparent that the gospel was an evangel, and that it consisted of historical
[Page 181] |
It was Alexander Campbell who probably helped me most in this matter, although I found that every one of our pioneer proclaimers had a fairly clear view of the matter. I shall never forget the first time I read the following statement from the facile and versatile pen of Alexander Campbell:
"There was teaching, there was praying, there was exhortation in the Christian church, but preaching in the church, or to the church, is not once named in the Christian scriptures...We preach, or report, or proclaim news! But who teaches news? Who exhorts news? We preach the gospel to unbelievers, to aliens, but never to Christians, or to those who have received it."
An interesting thing happened once when I was in Ohio. Some four or five preachers representing a certain faction came to attend an open forum in which I was fielding questions from the audience and to throw it into confusion if possible. In reply to a certain question about gospel and doctrine I read the quotation I have just given from Campbell, without identifying the source. One of the preachers asked if he could speak for just three minutes. When I gave him permission to do so he arose and pointed a finger at me and warned the audience that I was the most dangerous heretic alive today. He said that there was no difference between gospel and doctrine, or between preaching and teaching, and that this was a new idea I had pulled out of a hat. He went on to say that no one ever dreamed up this distinction before I came up with it, and that they would do well to put their trust in the truth the brethren had held through the years rather than in these newly-invented ideas. It was obvious that he was wholly ignorant of the very basis upon which the restoration movement began. When I arose and said the statement was a verbatim quotation from the pen of Alexander Campbell, and that I wanted to second the suggestion of our brother that the brethren cling by the truths discovered by the pioneers, he took his hat and stamped out of the house. I have not seen him since that day, although I understand he is no longer engaged in the work of the Lord.
No less startling than the above quotation from Campbell was the poignant statement from him which I here record:
"Preaching the gospel and teaching the converts are as distinct and distinguishable employments as enlisting an army and training it, or as creating a school and teaching it. Unhappily, for the church and the world, this distinction, if at all conceded as legitimate, is obliterated or annulled in almost all protestant Christendom. The public heralds of Christianity, acting as missionaries, or evangelists, and the elders or pastors of Christian churches are indiscriminately denominated preachers or ministers; and whether addressing the church or the world, they are alike preaching or ministering some things they call the Gospel...They seem to have never learned the difference between preaching and teaching."
I became convinced that anyone who sought to be a peacemaker in our world with its crazy-quilt pattern of division would need to cross over lines and ignore barriers. The barriers are not real. They exist only in men's hearts. They are fantasies. All restoration of broken relationships must begin with association. I resolved to go wherever God opened up a door. I found that peacemaking is a matter of positive action. You can talk about it for a lifetime and never accomplish it. I also learned that peacemakers do not wait for others to take the initiative. You must go to them. At first there was a great deal of suspicion. All factionalism is based upon fear and fear breeds suspicion. But I simply kept going
[Page 182] |
As I began to move among adherents of the various parties they all began to speculate that I was becoming a convert to their peculiarities and would eventually join them. Nothing pleases a sectarian group more than to capture someone from another party. This is a feather in the factional cap. Most of them consider it a greater victory than to lead one to Jesus who never heard of His mercy. But those who reported in their journals that I was "leaning" in their direction were soon forced to abandon their illusion. I received persons and not their opinions. I did not receive them because of their opinions but in spite of them. Jesus did not die for deductions but gave His life for people. I still hold most of the views I have always held. I think they are valid. Certainly they are for me. I did not change my position on things but merely altered my views as to who constituted my brethren.
It is interesting to watch the machinery of sectarianism function. It is much like the machinery of politics. Perhaps it is the same machinery but merely installed in other institutions. Those who are entangled in its gears do not scruple to misrepresent another. They frequently falsify his position. All sorts of reports of what I am alleged to teach have come to me. Most of the stuff I have never believed and certainly never said. A good deal of the misrepresentation results from ignorance rather than from maliciousness. The dyed-in-the-wool partisan is so attuned to the parroting of provincial phrases and the communication of clichés that he does not understand what one is saying who is not caught up in his semantical sub-culture. The result is that the accuser often repeats what he thinks he heard and projects it as your position. A lot of brethren never listen to what another says. They already know what he is going to say and regardless of what he says that is the way it comes through to them over the wires of the party propaganda projector.
I suspect the tendency to do this is more apparent in the patrons of a strongly-entrenched legalistic approach to the divine-human relationship. Such a philosophy seldom breeds a high degree of morality and integrity in interpersonal relationships. Those who are familiar with the non-instrumental Churches of Christ realize how unethical is the behavior of some of the more prominent lights. There is a reason for this. Faithfulness is measured by the consecration to the party standard and those who rally around the totem pole are counted as worthy even though guilty of gossip, vain talk and false accusation of others. When men judge loyalty to Jesus by attendance at a special location to which they come three times per week for the body count, what they do outside does not really count. They have already demonstrated that they are loyal by gathering in the structure.
My paper was altered in content to reflect my growing knowledge of such subjects as brotherhood, grace and fellowship. Only a very few of our readers dropped out because they could not stand to read such statements as, "I will make nothing a test of fellowship which God has not made a condition of salvation." Incidentally, I borrowed that statement from J. N. Armstrong who was president of Harding College when he made it. Hundreds of subscribers took the place of each one who abdicated and the list grew until it became a real burden to keep abreast of it. A few wrote that they did not agree with me but they were going to hang on awhile and see how far I would go. Some of them have been hanging on for twenty years and are disappointed that I did not go where they wanted to consign me.
The fact is that I am in the calmest water in which I have ever sailed in my life. There are still a number of brethren who let loose a blast in our general direction but in most cases their opposition is a blessing. If they spoke favorably of what I was saying I would re-examine it in a hurry because I would know there was something wrong with it. I think that it was a "fulness of the times" for the
[Page 183] |
It has been interesting to watch the sectional or regional change in readership. At first, of course, Missouri led all of the other states in the number of subscribers. Gradually California began to creep up until it finally displaced Missouri, and held the pole position for years. During this time we were mailing a mere handful of papers to Texas, but soon the number began to increase. When the editor of Firm Foundation made a personal attack upon my position with an article titled "Blind in One Eye," and then followed it with an analysis of my writing, he sparked a real prairie fire of interest. Brethren wrote for sample copies from places in Texas of which I had never heard. Some sent in a hundred subscriptions at a time with a check enclosed to pay for them. The result is that Texas has led the states in readership for more than five years. California follows, then Indiana, Ohio and Missouri.
From the very beginning the journal has been a family enterprise. It was started when Jerry and Sharon Sue were in elementary school, and each month Nell and myself with the two children would gather around the dining table in the evening and divide the names among us for addressing. At that time the list was in a looseleaf notebook. We were finished within an hour. When Nell and I went to Scotland and England the first time, the children were in high school. Sharon Sue edited the paper during the months in which we were absent from home. When the children married the burden fell upon Nell and she has faithfully borne it through the years. There are now nine mail sacks filled with the papers every thirty days. In addition she has wrapped and mailed out thousands of books over the past few years. There have been 24,000 bound copies of the paper sent out, and these books are scattered all over the earth.
We are deeply indebted to brothers and sisters throughout the world who have held up our hands financially. We had no money with which to start or continue the publication. It was contrary to our conscience to send out letters soliciting help. We have always felt that if we were doing what God wanted us to do and doing it fervently He would supply the wherewithal to continue. To send out letters begging for assistance seemed to us a demonstration of lack of trust. I have never made a contract with a congregation, never made a demand, never set a fee, and never knew in advance what I would receive before going somewhere to share with the saints. If it appeared that I could help the cause I love I went without any arrangement about finances.
Eventually, the total cost of mailing out the paper approached ten thousand dollars annually. This meant we were losing on every subscription. Yet we always ended each year with every bill paid and we will close out this final issue with sufficient on hand to take care of every obligation. We never raised the subscription price. We began charging a dollar per year and as inflation began to take its toll and great publications were forced to cease or go into bankruptcy, we resolved to hold the line. This was done against the advice of friends who thought it was a little silly to be that stubborn. But we were meeting our bills and we were not editing the paper to make money. It may be that with the death of MISSION MESSENGER the day of the dollar per year subscription will be over.
In the last six years, Nell has mailed out 3200 books absolutely free to college and university students throughout the world. Many have gone to colleges in Africa, some to colleges in the South Pacific, others to schools on the European continent. In addition to the cost of the books which was great the wrapping and postage alone has amounted to over a thousand dollars, but all of this has been covered by unsolicited contributions from those whose hearts were touched by the Lord to help. We thank both Him and His servants.
[Page 184] |
We have no words for adequately expressing our gratitude to those who have shared their substance with us. My vocabulary is too limited for that. We can only commend them to the God of all grace and thank them for their helpful concern and generosity. They have been a source of strength and encouragement and we are sure that He who notes the fall of every sparrow will not forget them.
I do not know what the future holds, but I shall continue to serve actively so long as I am able. I am scheduled more fully for next year than for any year of my life. I shall probably fly more than a hundred thousand miles into every kind of situation. A good deal of my work now is outside of our own movement and consists of bringing the ideal of restoration to those of other backgrounds. I do not generally use the term "restoration" because it has lost its significance for this generation. Instead I plead for renewal through recovery of the apostolic proclamation, purpose and power. The religious world is not looking for restoration but it is looking for renewal. My theme is, therefore, renewal through recovery!
I am engaged, by request of our brother, Leroy Garrett, in writing the story of my life. It will appear in monthly segments in Restoration Review which is published at 1201 Windsor Drive, Denton, Texas 76201. The first installment will be in the January issue. Through the graciousness of Leroy I will be given space each month to inform you of speaking dates and other matters of general interest. I am thrilled at the possibility of sharing with Leroy and Ouida in the distribution of the message through the printed page. Restoration Review is one of the most exciting papers being printed in our day. You can send $3.00 for a two-year subscription to the address above and thus be assured that you will not miss out on anything. You should hurry!
I shall, if the Lord wills, finish some of the books which I have started. As most of you know, my next one is titled The Death of the Custodian. It is scheduled to be released next month and the price will be $2.95. We hope that a great many more of you will write in and ask to be placed on the permanent list to receive all of my books as they come from the press. Nell will mail them to you and enclose an invoice. She will include a copy of our latest book lists and any other free material that is available.
The bound copy of MISSION MESSENGER, containing all of the issues for this year will be ready soon under the title One in Christ. We are not yet aware of the price we must ask for it, but I promise it will be as low as we can make it in these times of inflation. There will be but 2000 copies and these will not last long. We urge you to send in your advance order at once. Every year, in spite of our urging, a number of people have delayed too long, and are without the books they wanted. There were more than 800 advance copies on the reservation list on October 1.
I should now like to share with you some of my views as to what we may expect in the future. I am not a prophet and have no gift of prediction. What I here say is based upon impressions received by rather extensive travel experience, and upon interpretation of trends which are evident upon all sides. I could prove to be utterly mistaken and future readers of this issue may laugh at what could turn out to be an ill-chosen piece of guesswork. However, there are certain portents which seem to point to the
[Page 185] |
I am optimistic because I can see signs everywhere of the disintegration of the case-hardened factional attitude. This does not mean that verbal violence has ceased or that unprincipled attacks have been terminated. So long as the Spirit of God is working to bring about a peaceful solution to problems of relationship, Satan will be busily engaged in trying to thwart all such efforts. The prince of this world is desperately eager to keep the children of God apart. He will cultivate the seeds of bitterness and hostility he has sown in their hearts, knowing that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."
More and more congregations will throw off the yoke of slavish fear and will assert their autonomy and freedom under God. Men with a Messianic-complex who seek to dominate thought and tyrannize saints at large will have less and less influence. They may flourish for a little while like a green bay tree but they will be cut down. We are no longer a frontier movement composed of backwoods settlers. The crude and boorish tactics which created swaggering heroes out of debaters in the rough-and-tumble days of yesteryear will no longer attract thinking people in our day. A number of smaller parties will go out of existence as this generation passes away, because the issues around which they formed will be seen to be secondary and not important enough to divide the blood-bought heirs of the magnificent family of God.
There are some factions now which have a tenuous existence. Those who compose them no longer desire to make tests of fellowship out of the things which once loomed so big. Brethren are tired of "majoring in minors" and are holding on rather than to offend those who are older and caught up in the fear of proving untrue to the traditions that have been handed down. The idea that these little factions contain all of the children of God on earth has long ago been given up intellectually by those who cannot bring themselves to say it out loud. It is still dangerous to do that in some cases where men are frightened at the thought of being branded and marked.
It could well be that our particular restoration movement, which was only one of many sparked by events in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries has had its last major and widespread division. There is a great deal of doubt in the hearts of a lot of men who were caught up in the ferment within the non-instrument segment and which resulted in the open rupture related to the method of support of Herald of Truth and kindred matters, as to the validity of the cleavage. In the relative calm following the storm, brethren can see how they were manipulated and maneuvered into extremes which seem not to have been called for when viewed in retrospect.
In this particular schism I think the faction which was formed around the opposition has passed its zenith and will suffer from additional defections while being unable to increase its number perceptibly, because of attitudes. This does not mean the detectors will have changed their position on the issues but simply that they are sick of the carnality and immaturity which is basic to the formation and perpetuity of the party system. They are tired of elevating opinions and deductions into items of "faith." They no longer want to be carnal and walk as men. Their revulsion is the ground of real hope. The mortar of negativism cannot hold stones together interminably and a structure dependent upon it will eventually crumble. Wide cracks of dissidence are already appearing.
There are also real signs of lessening tension between those who use mechanical instruments in conjunction with their expression of corporate praise and those whose consciences lead them to oppose such. The problem is aggravated and prolonged because of emotional overtones engendered by public debates which always tend to harden hearts and stiffen resistance by pitting rivals against each other. The instrument has now become
[Page 186] |
In spite of this the brotherhood of the indwelling Spirit is becoming ever more widely recognized and brethren are able to join in cooperative efforts which do not call for a violation of conscience. There is every indication this growing sense of relationship will increase and the mistakes of our fathers in a time of bitterness will be somewhat mitigated by their children who live in a more fortunate era. It is not necessary that we keep alive the feuds which were kindled and set aflame in bygone times. We should not heap fuel upon the fires of hostility which should have been reduced to dying embers in our hearts years ago.
It is my very humble, but no less fervent prayer that, in the future when historians record the events of these times, they will find I have contributed a little to the appreciation of brotherhood across all of our unfortunate and humanly-designed barriers. I was a militant partisan for so long I would like to believe I did something to undo the division I once defended. So thoroughly am I convinced that love is the only dynamic which can draw us together and hold us together that I want my life to be judged upon the degree to which I have advocated love for the Father and my brethren and exemplified it, in spite of my great weakness and many imperfections.
We will never debate one another into a state of oneness. Debates with brethren are tools of division, not of unity. Regardless of fine-spun reasoning to the contrary, the history of debating in the twentieth century is the history of division. Partisan debates engender the wrong kind of feelings. It is useless to argue that they need not do so. They simply do not produce the fruits of the Spirit, such as love, joy and peace. They cultivate works of the flesh. I have seen men become so enraged in debates that they wanted to fight. I came to recognize such discussions for what they were, instruments of the evil one thrust into our hands and hearts to drive the saints apart by encouraging strife.
Debates begin by rejecting one another. Partisan champions both start out on the theory that neither is of the other. They camp on separate hillsides as indications to the world that they are opponents. We must discover and adopt a dynamic which makes it possible for us to receive one another, in spite of our differences. We must receive one another as God received us. Our point of contact must be our mutual faith in Christ Jesus. We come together by coming to Christ. We come closer together by drawing nearer unto Him. A man may debate and prove nothing except that he possesses greater forensic skill than his opposite. Quoting scripture in a debate generally proves little because the representatives of both factions quote scripture. Often they quote the same passages from which they deduce different conclusions. This does not mean that one or the other is dishonest, but simply that they approach the revelation from different backgrounds and traditions. Both use the word of God as a means of justifying a partisan standard of measurement. But the new covenant scriptures were not given to win battles for human opinions but to transform human lives by a renewal of the mind.
The greatest testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit lies not in crushing a human opponent, nor in making his honest convictions look absurd through witty rejoinders and wisecracks, but in two persons working together for a common faith in spite of differing views. The pagan world around us expects those who see everything alike to be able to function in unison. "Birds of a feather flock together." Even those of the same political stripe can exhibit harmonious effort. Persons who do not even believe in Jesus can
[Page 187] |
There is no honor to the Spirit bestowed by the world when a group of conformists carry on without fighting. But when those who make no pretense of agreeing upon every concept, and openly admit they do not, are able to stay together it has to be admitted that they are cemented by a mutual regard for some one or some thing, which transcends their varied views.
This in no sense means that our opinions are not important. It is here that shallow thinkers reveal the superficiality of their reasoning. I am constantly being treated to diatribes in sectarian journals accusing me of advocating that doctrine is not important, or that we should ignore all differences. That is silly! I never once said anything which borders on that. Certainly one's opinions are important--to him! My opinions and interpretations are important to me. That is why Paul urged, "let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." Nothing is unimportant about which I am fully persuaded. But to one who is not fully persuaded of it, it may not be so important. I hold a lot of convictions which are very important to me. I am fully persuaded of them. I could not relinquish them if I wanted to do so. I am not told to surrender my opinions or convictions but to have them to myself alone. I cannot fully persuade one in his own mind against his own thinking. That is what the mind is for.
No one can ignore a difference. We must recognize our differences, and not try to sweep them under the rug or hide them behind the sofa. We must continue to discuss them as long as we live, or as long as we differ. But we must discuss them while united in Christ. Differing with brethren is not a sin, but dividing brethren is. It is a work of the flesh. It is a symptom of carnality. It is a mark of immaturity. Body life is more important than a disfiguration on a member. And it seems a little absurd to cut off a hand to get rid of a wart! Our divisions are not a tribute to our fidelity to Christ but a scandal we have perpetrated in His name. We are divided because we willed to divide against His will to unite. The will to separate the children of God is the result of separating the children of God from His will!
Differences will exist so long as men continue to think and to be persuaded in their own minds. But division can end now. It need not see the setting of another sun. We do not propose to encourage men to compromise their convictions but to see that brethren are worth more than human opinions. Jesus died for people and not for deductions. Little children, let us love one another!
This is easy to say, but how are we to accomplish it? How can one who has a decided opinion as to the validity of his understanding of a certain matter relate to one in Christ who simply does not see it as he does? The answer is found in the phrase "relate to one in Christ." To the extent that we emphasize the opinion we will be driven apart. To the extent that we exalt Christ we shall be drawn together. The answer, then, is to hold our opinions to ourselves and to glorify God together. Shall we allow our difference upon one thing to be greater than our concurrence upon many things? Are the only things that are important those upon which we disagree?
Our problem is that we are trying to love in Christ as we loved out of Christ. But there is a great difference. When we were out of Christ our love was an activity of the fleshly mind. It might have been born of a high sense of human idealism but it was a projection of our carnal nature, which was all the nature we possessed with which to project anything. Such love is always mixed up with ambition, suspicion and egotism. We love those who love us. We like those who like us, and we may avoid or downright despise those who are not. We love in word and in speech, but not really in deed and in truth.
It was this way with the world of mankind until God used the cross as a hypodermic needle and injected a new and transforming presence into the realm of
[Page 188] |
I do trust them! I mean I stake my all upon them. And it is because of this trust I recognize that the kind of love which enables us to be cemented together is a special kind of love. This is apparent in the statement, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God" (1 John 3:1). The subject here is not so much love as it is the kind of love which creates the relationship in which fleshly men and women can be designated children of God. It is obviously this love which makes us brothers and sisters because it made us children of the same Father. It lifts our relationship out of the world in which our animal bodies exist and places it upon a plateau which can only be attained through the Spirit.
This love is not a difference in degree, but a difference in nature. It is not from the best interests or designs of our hearts, but from God. "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God" (I John 4:7). It is the divine essence. When God loves He is personally entering into our situation. Love is not a mere quality that He possesses like power or wisdom. "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8).
The word know is not used here for intellectual awareness or mental conception, but for experience or identification with another.
"God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16). God has power, and God has wisdom, but God is love. Power and wisdom are qualities or attributes of God, but love is the divine nature. Only when we become partakers of the divine nature can we exhibit this love. Even then it is the divine nature which exhibits it and not ourselves, or our personalities in the flesh.
We partake of the divine nature through the Holy Spirit of promise who dwells in us. Justification, the declaration of guiltlessness, through and by faith, results in three magnificent and tremendous blessings: peace with God, access to the grace in which we stand, and the tremendous mind-boggling hope of sharing the glory of God. "And hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Romans 5:5).
God loves through us! We do not have to work and fret in an attempt to develop love for our brethren. It is not a human achievement but a divine gift. If you are pouring water into a vessel, that vessel does not need to strain and toil. All it needs to do is to be open. And that is all I need to do. If I am open to the Spirit, the love is poured out into my heart. God does not give grudgingly. He is not a miser or a penny-pincher. He gives us richly all things to enjoy. The Spirit has been given to us to live in us, comfort us and strengthen us with might in the inner man, and love is a fruit of the Spirit.
A lot of folk are interested in how they should manifest or witness to their love in a community of saints which is becoming upset and coming unglued. I think that, most of the time, the best way is just to refuse to take sides and treat all of the dissidents with the same kind of loving concern. A perfume bottle does not have to dance around or make a noise. All it has to do is just to be pres-
[Page 189] |
The solution of our problem of division and strife is not going to be solved by human minds filled with knowledge in varying degrees, hammering away at each other until one is utterly vanquished and gives in or surrenders to the position of another. Really, the time will never come when one of our factions triumphs over all the others and emerges as the knight in shining armor. What we need is a cultivation of the relationship with the indwelling Spirit until all of us surrender unto Him. Then peace will come as fruit rather than a feat.
There is something about human pride which makes us want to defend ourselves. We must enter into the fray and frequently we disgrace the cause we profess to love by our actions. No good is served by brethren cat-calling back and forth across an auditorium or taking sly digs at one another. This is the route of childishness and immaturity. Sometimes the Christian way is to suffer yourself to be defrauded. Our task is not to appear good in the eyes of men but to be good in the eyes of God. Occasionally keeping silent and refusing to engage in a controversial issue where a lot of heat is being thrown off is the route of real courage and manliness.
It is through the Spirit we are able to put to death the deeds of the body, or the flesh. Two of these works of the flesh are dissension and the party spirit. They should not be simply tucked away or put on the shelf to be used at a later date, but they should be killed. They are dangerous to anyone who tolerates them in his heart. All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. Our task is not to win arguments but to win souls.
It is the unity of the Spirit we are to endeavor to keep. The word "endeavor" shows where our human effort should center. The word keep means to guard or maintain. We guard what we already have. God bestows unity through the Spirit, and our task is to guard it in the bond of peace. It is not too much to say that our whole problem results from not knowing the Spirit. We have sought to exist on the human level, upon the plane of law and legal conformity. Disintegration is the inevitable terminus of that route. Divisions are set up by those who are sensual, having not the Spirit (Jude 19).
Our most widespread and dangerous sophistry in the whole religious complex is what I call the "either-or" fallacy. The devil has tricked us into accepting this divisive weapon in place of the dynamic of love. The apostles, writing under direction of the Spirit, recognized that if the community of saints becomes impaled on the point of this fallacy, hatred and animosity will be the certain result. The entire fourteenth chapter of Romans was written to show that two points of view could be entertained by brethren and two practices growing out of these divergent concepts could be indulged without breaking the relationship. It was not either condone eating of meats or get out, but either eat meats or not eat them and still stay in!
It was not either cease observing one day above another or leave, but either observe days or not observe them and remain. The same thing held true with circumcision, for "Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation." So long as men do not make their opinions and deductions terms of justification, that is the establishing of a right relationship with God, we need not create an either-or dilemma. We must substitute the wisdom of "either-and" for the fallacy of "either-or" that we may exhibit, longsuffering, forbearance and tolerance. These great virtues are never seen in a legalistic arrangement of conformity. Indeed, in such an arrangement they are ridiculed as weakness.
[Page 190] |
"Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about obedience to the faith--to the only wise God be glory for evermore through Jesus Christ! Amen."
Nell joins me in this benediction and in prayer for every one of you, without exception. We love you all very dearly in Him who died for the sins of us all!