 FULL CIRCLE
In 1849 progressive members of the Restoration movement meeting in Cincinnati, organized the American Christian Missionary Society. In 1859, Dr. L. L. Pinkerton and the church at Midway, Kentucky introduced the first instrument of music into our worship. By 1857, Tolbert Fanning, Jacob Creath, Jr. and others had seen the errors in the Missionary Society and launched their opposition. In the 1880s some of the progressives had moved women into leadership. By 1906 the apostasy was full grown, our circle of fellowship was broken. Those who preferred human organizations to do the Lord's work and humanly devised methods and styles of worship went on to evolve into the modern denominations known as the Disciples of Christ and
Independent Christian Churches. By 2000 an element of preachers and educators among our brethren had evolved away from their historic Biblical roots and embraced human organizations to do the work of Christ's church, instrumental music in worship, women in church leadership and the same approach to Bible
authority as the digressives of yesteryear. These modern expression of apostasy are openly expressed in such books as The Crux of the Matter and The Transforming of a Tradition.
This leads us to the following necessary conclusions:
A. Either our fathers were wrong in objecting to missionary societies, instrumental music, choirs, soloists, and female church leaders or our liberals are wrong today. If the fathers were wrong, then they were guilty of the grave sin of dividing the body of Christ and forming a schism that has no right to exist.
B. If the fathers were wrong, the Disciples of Christ are the legitimate extension of the church and we all should repent of our erroneous and divisive practices, ask their forgiveness and seek a place in their fellowship.
C. If our acappella worship is only our tradition, then in shame, we should renounce that human tradition that we have allowed to divide the body of Christ. We should no longer object to the piano, organ or rock band. D. On the other hand if our fathers were correct in their objections and the digressives were acting contrary to the doctrine of Christ (II John 9), then our contemporary preachers and professors who have embraced the errors of the Disciples are as guilty of false teaching and causing division in the Body of Christ as were those a century ago. They should repent and turn away from their destructive program or be rejected and marked as enemies of the Cause of Christ (Rom. 16:17-18).
In a century we have come full-circle. Because the lessons of our past history were not learned, some among us have repeated the mistakes of the past. Our fathers were right in their stand against digression last century because they stood on solid Biblical grounds. May God raise up a band of loyal and courageous leaders in the mold of David Lipscomb who will lead us in this hour of trial.
JHW |
