CORRESPONDENCE WITH A DISCIPLE OF THE CHANGE AGENTS

Dear Mr. Waddey:
Your comments regarding Mr. Graham are frankly... LAME. Have you EVER been to a Billy Graham or Franklin Graham crusade? I think NOT! You have NO idea what goes on there except what you FOCUS on which is the "sinner's prayer". I have been to one and have actually worked one in a prominent position. And, yes I am a member of a Church of Christ.

You might want to look at your "whitewashed tomb" before criticizing others. Your "dead bones" are not crying out to the Lord, so I guess the rocks will cry out for you Mr. Waddey.

Your "brand" of the CofC is DYING OFF. In about 10-15 years there will be NONE left. It is sad that you fail to see the tens of thousands that are accepting Christ thanks to the efforts of the Grahams. The angels REJOICE every time a Crusade is held.

What are you thinking??? Oh, I guess that is it. You are thinking with your head, holding on to those traditions of yours and your heart has vacated your chest....  Jeff

Dear Bro. Jeff:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me about the Graham Crusades.  No, I have never attended a Billy Graham Crusade. I do however have several of his books and have read many pieces by him. I have seen him in action by means of television. I have never been in a Muslim Mosque, a Jewish synagogue, nor a Hindu temple service, yet by reading and researching I have a fair understanding of what they teach and do and feel perfectly confident in urging people to choose Christ and his church over those systems.

I marvel at how you who have been caught up the change movement can be so judgmental and caustic of those of us who choose to stay with the old time gospel of the Scripture.  Yet one of the chief objections your principal spokesmen hurl at us is that we are too harsh and judgmental on those who are teaching error. Does that mean that it is all right to call a brother a "whitewashed tomb" if you are into change, but it is wrong if you are not?

If you read my earlier response you will note that I did concede that Mr. Graham does point many to Christ; hundreds of thousands of them; but he does not and he will not tell them the whole counsel of God regarding salvation. Even you must agree with that, unless you now believe that a sinner can be saved by faith alone. If you think that, you need to read James chapter two and Hebrews eleven and learn what God means by the word faith. By the way, Pope John Paul, Oral Roberts, Benny Henn, Pat Robertson and a thousand other teachers of a thousand different kinds of churches also point men to Christ.  But pointing men in the direction of the Savior is not the same as leading into a safe relationship with him.  That comes when in faith one is baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:26-27).

Yes, some of our congregations will die off. But that is not really anything new.  If you look carefully you will see that every congregation mentioned in the New Testament died off.  Some congregations die because the community moves away from them.  Some because of internal problems.  Some because of migration or persecution. Some from lack of zeal and evangelism.  But some churches die because they take their eyes off of Jesus and the instructions he left to guide us. In Nashville what was once the Belmont Church of Christ is now the Belmont Church, a Pentecostal body.  They abandoned the teaching of Christ for that of Pentecostalism. Look around and note the Disciples of Christ/Christian Churches in your community. They were once a part of our brotherhood.  But they chose a different path and followed it.  Chances are that even you would find a Disciples of Christ church beyond the pale. Some grow weary of the restrictions of Bible authority and yearn for something new and exciting.  We call them seekers of change. They cast off the biblical restraints and grope in the darkness for a spiritual thrill and in many cases they stumble and fall. Such has been the sad fate of the Madison congregation.  Such is the fate of a congregation here in our state. They were once a large flourishing congregation. Now their building has a For Sale sign on it.

If Satan and the agents of change have their way, it is true that Churches of Christ as they have existed here in America for the last 200 years will cease to exist.  But Christ is greater than Satan or the change agents (I John 4:4). You and they will likely leave our brotherhood in the next 10-20 years.  The number that will go with you is yet to be decided.  But if all but a handful depart, that is not proof that God has blessed your change movement. From the beginning of time it has always been "the remnant that shall be saved" (Rom. 9:27).

You are my brother in Christ.  I care for you soul.  I urge you to turn back to the "things that are written" (I Cor. 4:6) for if you transgress and go beyond the doctrine of Christ you will have the blessing of neither the Father nor the Son (II John 9). Remember that Christ is the savior of the church which is his body (Eph. 1:21-22), if you walk away from his body, you will miss the most important thing of all.