JOHN WADDEY, EDITOR Published by the Church of Christ 12213 West Bell Road, Suite 211, Surprise, AZ 85374 Volume 3,  Number 1 CURRENT ISSUE:   September, 2003

Table of Contents:

• EXAGGERATED CRITICISMS
• JUST HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT TO SEE CHRIST'S CHURCH SURVIVE?
• FAVORITE HYMNS
• DISCOVERING OUR ROOTS, A Review

EXAGGERATED CRITICISMS

Liberals among us love to heap criticism on the Lord's church.  A steady stream of alleged failings are publicized against our brotherhood.  Among the most egregious is the charge that we as a people are hopelessly divided and it is the fault of the church that this is so.  They way they tell the story is that the problem is of our own making.  Some say our plea to restore original Christianity is faulty.   Others claim it is our insistence on Bible authority for what we believe and practice.  Still others blame us for our attitude towards false teaching that disagrees with God's Word.  Still others shame  us for thinking we can be Christ's church in this modern day.  Not able to gainsay the gospel we preach, or to discredit the Scripture upon which we base our faith, they exaggerate the fact of the various schisms we have experienced.  The critics toss about the number of 26 or even more factions they have identified, therefore something is woefully wrong with the church of Christ.

Every disciple, who loves Christ and his church, accepts the fact with embarrassment that there have been divisions among us and that even one schism in the body of Christ is too many.  It is the will of heaven that "there be no divisions among" us (I Cor. 1:10). Such was the prayer of our Savior (John 17:20).  The fact is, some bad things that happen are beyond our control.

We need to be reminded that there were factions among the churches in apostolic times.  Paul wrote, "there must also be factions among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you"  (I Cor. 11:19).  All religious bodies have faced the same problem with schisms as have we. Many years ago I read there were over 120 varieties of Churches of God and 29 kinds of Baptist Churches.  There are ten varieties of Lutherans. Even the Catholic church has its schisms.

Although there are too many identifiable factions among us, it is deceptive to exaggerate their numbers.  Because some one knows a handful of preachers who hold some peculiar view and have influenced a few members to agree with them, such hardly qualifies for or amounts to a major division for which we are to be blamed.    There are six significant groups of disciples with whom we share a common name; who commune weekly and worship with a'cappella music and who accept members upon faith and baptism for remission of their sins.

Is it the fault of the Churches of Christ that one or even a group of preachers choose to agitate a point of doctrine or a practice contrary to what the majority of their brethren believe Scripture to teach?  Must the church stand by helpless while such folks drive a wedge into the heart of the church, or must they meekly  submit to the imposition of some new and strange doctrine or practice some might thrust upon them?  Can we be held responsible that someone doesn't wish to have fellowship with us?

In the schisms that grew out of ultra-conservative approaches to Scripture, the division occurred, not because we would not fellowship them, but because they would not fellowship us.  In a situation where conflict and unhappiness was prevalent it was the wiser thing to worship separately.  Today if any of these brethren feel they can worship God with us, we welcome them in our midst as fellow servants of our Lord.

It never seems to dawn upon our critics that Satan is alive and well in the earth and that he labors tirelessly to hurt the cause of Christ by fomenting strife and division among believers (I Pet. 5:8).

It is most interesting that those who delight in pointing out our failure to avoid those divisions, have no better plan to offer us.  In fact, the very proposals they make and the pressures they are creating are already resulting in yet another fissure in the Lord's body.  So their prescription not only does not solve past problems, it creates a new one.

Let us love the church for which Jesus died.  Let us diligently work to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace (Eph. 4:3).  May we never be put to shame or discouraged by those whose love and loyalty to the church is questionable and whose motives are suspect.  If we are faithful unto death we will receive the crown of life (Rev. 2:10) and the Lord himself will deal with those who have troubled his spiritual family.

"Courage never to submit or yield" (John Milton)

JUST HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT TO SEE CHRIST'S CHURCH SURVIVE?

The church of our Lord Jesus is under a massive attack through out the nation.  This is no ordinary, run of the mill problem such as we have faced in times past.  Not since the great apostasy of the late 1800s have we encountered a problem of this magnitude.    After years of quietly infiltrating our schools and congregations, what has come to be known as the "change movement," has now burst forth in full blossom. At least two of our most prominent schools and dozens of congregations, including many of the largest among us, have already been swept into this new heresy. Under attack is the very nature of the church (Are we truly the Lord's church or are we just another human organization?); the nature and essence of our worship (Shall we worship with instruments of music and shall our communion be part of a common meal?); the leadership of the church (Shall women be allowed to preach and teach over men?); what constitutes one a Christian (Is baptism an essential aspect of one's salvation or are we saved by grace through faith alone?); the nature and extent of our fellowship (Should we stand apart from churches founded by men or should we embrace them as Christian brethren?).

It takes no genius to understand that if these ideas finally prevail among our people we will have completely lost our identity and will cease to be in any sense the church of Christ.  Clearly the threat is enormous.  We know that there are many who want to see the above agenda successfully imposed on all our congregations.  Without doubt there are thousands who are appalled at the temerity of those who would hold and teach views so diametrically opposed to the revealed will of God.  The question is just how badly do we want to save the church from apostasy? Are we willing to pay the price necessary to accomplish this? Consider the following:

• Do you care enough to pray fervently every day that God will protect his church, that he will discomfit those who would harm her, that he will raise up a faithful band of soldiers to defend her walls and lead the way in restoring her to prosperity (II Cor. 11:28)?

• Do you care enough to invest your time energy and money in opposing this change movement and in promoting faithfulness to God's Word?  Are you willing to put your hands to the task and work to help salvage those around you (II Cor. 12:15)?

• Do you care enough to spend time educating and informing yourself and the brethren where worship?  This is especially pertinent for those who preach.

• Do you care enough to write, preach, teach and talk to every person exhorting them to hold fast the faithful word (II Tim. 4:2)?

• Do you care enough to speak up and speak out against the false teaching and error when someone promotes it in your presence?  Too many sit tongue-tied and mute while others articulate these concepts in Bible classes,  sermons or conversations.

• Do you care enough to work with others in combating the error?  One soldier here and one there can easily be overrun, surrounded or driven from his post.  But standing together, we become an unmovable force that can block the incursions of the enemies of the faith (Eccle 4:9-12).

• Do you care enough to tolerate the imperfections  and different approaches of good men who uphold the sound doctrine of Christ; to be patient with  varied opinions on lesser matters in order to win the greater victory over the true enemies of the church (Phil. 1:16-18)?

• Do you care enough to help reclaim, restore and rebuild those disciples and congregations who have been led astray (Gal. 6:1)?
  Do you care enough to reject those who are determined to abandon the Bible way (Rom. 16:17-18)?  We cannot keep them in our midst and expect to keep the church loyal to the Master's will.

The way you respond to these questions will reveal just how much you really love the church for which Jesus died.  I urge you to let your love and loyalty be manifested by your diligent service on behalf of Christ's church in this hour of crisis.

FAVORITE HYMNS

Religious columnist, George Plagenz, surveyed his readers as to their favorite hymns.  From all kinds of churches and all across the nation, folks chose the following as their favorites: "How Great Thou Art," "Amazing Grace," "In the Garden," "The Old Rugged Cross," "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," "What a Friend We Have In Jesus," "Holy, Holy, Holy," "Just as I Am," "The Church's One Foundation" and "O Master, Let Me Walk With Thee."  Plagenz observed that worshipers "prefer hymns of piety...their favorites tend to be hymns that speak to the emotions about a personal relationship with God or Christ."  They prefer "familiar, singable melodies."  "It is the old-fashioned hymns they want to sing."  Some  younger people disparage old hymns and clamor for songs new and different.  Some mistake that which is fun for that which is worship. While there is a place for new hymns, we must not neglect the old songs that link us to those who went before us and well as to the God we praise.

DISCOVERING OUR ROOTS, A Review

In 1988 Leonard Allen and Richard Hughes gave us Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of Churches of Christ,   published by ACU Press.  While other books have been written to undermine the foundations of the Church of Christ this was one of the first written by men claiming to be faithful  brethren.

The stated intention of the authors is to explore the roots or ancestry of the Churches of Christ. These they find in the Renaissance, the Reformation, among the Puritans and the Baptists and the "American Experience."  No discerning student of church history would deny that we have connections with these various influences.   While the authors do briefly mention that we have roots in the biblical documents, they proceed to develop their thesis that we are primarily the product of the non-biblical forces mentioned above.  The possibility that the ultimate roots of those who desire to be simply Bible Christians, are in the teaching of Christ, his apostles and the church they planted in Palestine some 2,000 years ago is evidently foreign to their thinking. They fail to take into consideration that the Word if God is the seed of the kingdom (Lk. 8:11). Wherever it is planted in good and honest hearts, no matter the generation, it will produce the same kind of disciples and church that it produced in the beginning.

The greatest value of this book is that it clearly reveals the denominational origins of the "new hermeneutic," a key ingredient of the change agenda; their new found doctrines on grace and salvation and their rejection of the New Testament as a pattern that God expects us to follow. Their inspiration, the reader will see, is found in the theology of Dr. Martin Luther.  They tell us, "Lutheran and Reformed (churches) had different approaches to the Scripture...Does the Bible provide a complete blueprint for all time, laying out the details of church government, forms of worship, and rules for behavior?  Or does it rather provide a central core of saving truth, leaving many of the details to human discretion and changing circumstances of time and place?" (emp. mine, JHW).  Luther took the latter approach and so have the change agents!  (p. 23-24). "Luther believed that Zwingle's insistence on making scripture the exclusive norm for the entire life of the church, including its forms of worship, turned gospel into a new legalism (p. 28).  This has become the  theme of the change agents ever since they discovered it!

Chapter 10 of this book is worth the price of the book.  The authors devote ten pages to "Restoring the Gospel of Grace: Martin Luther." They here reveal the roots and foundations of their change theology.  Read this chapter carefully and you will understand what the new gospel of the change movement is all about.  It will put twenty other of their books in clear perspective.

1. The authors are enamored with the theology of Martin Luther.  Especially his emphasis on salvation by faith alone and the rejection of scripture as the law of God (p. 114-115). 

2. They identify with his rejection of the New Testament as a pattern for our emulation.  Note these quotes which they offer without contradiction:
   * "For Luther, the divine Word was spoken supremely in the person of Jesus Christ, not in a mere book" (p. 116).

   1. "For Luther the Bible functioned much like a window in a house...It is possible...to so focus on the window that one fails to see beyond it..." (p. 116).

   2. "When Luther proclaimed ‘scripture alone' he always was proclaiming ‘Christ alone'" (p. 116).  How do they know this contradictory assertion to be true?

   3. "Luther could point to, "an inner canon of Scripture..a ‘canon within a canon' consisting of those writings that most clearly reveal Christ" This idea shows up repeatedly in the writings of later change agents.

   4. "For Luther insisted...that there is great danger in looking to external forms and patterns, for one is tempted to think that in restoring outward forms alone one has restored the essence.  For Luther, the outward forms constitute only an empty shell" (117).  This is the basis for change theology.

   5. They tell us that for Luther, "All the external marks and structures were expendable in restoring and preserving this gospel, the living Word" (p. 117).  The theme of change agents is here revealed.

   6. "Luther therefore did not look for the  restoration of a church that had been entirely lost, but rather for the reformation of a church that had been seriously corrupted " (p. 117).  This evidently, is the change agents' idea of what we should be about today.

3. In a section under "Reform of the Church" they write:

   • "Luther's view of the hiddenness of the true church led him to reject and warn against the mere imitation of biblical examples and patterns" (p. 118).  This is a plank in their new hermeneutic.

   • "The first task of church renewal, Luther believed, was not restoration of biblical patterns,...rather restoration of the gospel message of divine grace, the recovery of the living Word ( Jesus) through which faith was stirred up and through which believers received forgiveness. Fixation on biblical forms and patterns he believed, too easily obscured the centrality of grace and faith" (p. 118).  This is the program  the change agents have in mind for us.  "Luther saw serious dangers in the imitation of biblical models" (p. 119).  So do change agents!

   • "For Luther the early age of the church was not an ideal age to which those in the present must return" (p. 121).  Here is the basis for change thinking.

   • "Luther viewed the effort to restore the patterns and traditions of primitive Christianity as fundamentally at odds with the gospel" (p. 119), and so do our change agents.

   • "Such Restorationism, Luther believed, placed human effort above God's grace and was therefore the worst sort of idolatry" (p. 120).

   • They quote Luther as saying "we do not want to follow any example ....we want the Word for the sake of which all works, examples, and miracles occur" (p. 120). This is the theme song of all change agents.

It seems to me these men have found their heart's home in the theology of the Lutheran church and they should follow their hearts.  Perhaps they could help unite the ten branches of the Lutheran denomination.

They tell us, "As the years passed, (A.) Campbell and his followers...increasingly accepted unity in pluralistic diversity and subtly downplayed a strict adherence to the restoration ideal" (p. 109).  They do not proceed to explain that those who "accepted unity in pluralistic diversity and....downplayed a strict adherence to the restoration ideal,"  parted company with us at the opening of the 20th century and evolved into the ultra-liberal Disciples of Christ denomination. They seek to paint Campbell as an earlier change agent.  It is true that Campbell's militancy tempered as he grew older.  It is true  he hoped to lead the various Protestant bodies back to the Bible.  It is true that in his latter years he embraced such error as the American Christian Missionary Society which he had rejected in his younger years.  That just proves that Campbell was a fallible leader.  That is precisely why our brethren have never considered him more than a brilliant preacher,  writer and educator. We never viewed or revered him as our founder, as the creator of our belief system, or as our authority for what we believe or do.  The scholars of the  change movement seem determined to paint Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone as our founders and their writings as the standard by which our faith and practice must be measured.

They describe how the major Protestant churches were seduced by the modern world.  "The churches rushed to construct ornate and costly sanctuaries where choirs and organs replaced unadorned congregational singing and where dramatic presentation and church festivals competed with secular organizations for the time and money of the cultured middle class" (p. 139-140).  This is a striking contemporary picture of those Churches of Christ caught up in the change movement sweeping through our large, affluent city and university churches.

This book demonstrates that deviation by only a few degrees can over years, lead to a total abandonment of the restoration concept. For a clear and balanced view of the early years of our restoration movement, read Dr. Earl West's Search for the Ancient Order, available from the Gospel Advocate, or Firm Foundation Book Stores.  For a more extensive review of this book see www.christianity-then-and-now.com . 

BOUND COPIES OF CTN ARE AVAILABLE

This issue completes our second year of publication. Bound copies of volumes I & II are available for $6.50 each, post-paid.