No.5, Feb. 1994

 

ABSENT FROM THIS PLANET

 

            I find those words “absent from this planet” compelling, for they infer that though one leaves this world she no less exists. I borrow the phrase from Alexander Campbell who, like his Lord, believed that even though one “dies” he still lives, he is no less conscious (In 11:26). There is reassurance that in “being absent” one is only somewhere else. It is a glorious hope that when we leave this world we are not leaving home but going home. Absence from this planet means to the believer that she is no longer away from home.

 

            I was impressed through the years that Mother Pitts (Ouida’ s mother), who was a widow for nearly 50 years, would always refer to her husband’s passing in such a manner as, “Before Dillard left. . .” She never spoke of his dying. He had only left, absent from home. I urge Ouida to think in those terms in case I report absent before she does. She has taken me to the airport through the years. I urge her to think of my death in similar terms. I leave, like at the airport, only this time I will not return. Continued absence! On assignment (permanent) elsewhere. Not dead, absent!

 

            I recall someone comforting one who had lost a child by urging him to think of his child as now living in faraway Australia in the best of care and the happiest of circumstances. She’s there having a glorious time, he went on, but you’ll not see her for awhile, not until you too can go to Australia. Absence at one place implies presence at another.

 

            Campbell likely picked up the phrase from Paul who said it in a different way in 2 Cor. 5: ‘’While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord” (v. 6); “We are well pleased to be absent from the body and present with the Lord” (v. 8).

 

            Clearly we can’t be two places at the same time. If we are in the body (on this planet) we are absent from the Lord (who is elsewhere); if we are present with the Lord we are absent from the body and this world. There is a simple beauty to the metaphor.

 

            Paul believed that in one sense Christ was always with him, as in Gal. 2:20: “Christ lives in me,” and yet he was absent from Christ while “in the body.” That is why he could also say, “to die is gain” (Philip. 1 :21). In death, which is really life, he would be with Christ in a more glorious way than “in the body.” The thought of it ought to excite us as it did Paul.

           

            That pregnant phrase “absent from this planet” also puts our situation on this earth in proper perspective. Our planet is but a speck in the universe, lost among the multitudes of galaxies. In terms of astronomical immensity we are nothing. Yet he who made the stars and named them and put the planets in orbit chose to visit planet earth. Here he has worked in history; here he loved us, called us, saved us, and made us his own. Here on planet earth he has been our Father and we his children.

 

            It is his will that one day we report in absent. Absent from planet earth. That means we report in somewhere else, ready to keep on serving him who called us. Considering the magnanim­ity of his creation and the splendor of his handiwork we cannot even begin to contemplate the glorious environment he has prepared for us. This by no means implies that he is through with planet earth.

           

            But one day, if Christ tarries, God will call us from planet earth. What a journey that will be! --- Leroy

 

 

DO WE TAKE THE BIBLE ALONE?

 

            Throughout our history we have been a “Bible alone” people. We have insisted that the Bible alone is our authority, our only creed. While I have no quarrel with this claim per se, I do think we need to ask ourselves what we mean by it. And is it really true that we go by the “Bible alone” in all we do?

 

            When we say “We just take the Bible for what it says” or “the Bible is our only authority” do we mean that we seclude ourselves from all other influences and decide for ourselves (as if it were all done in a closet) what the Bible says? Even the Bible we use, regardless of the version, has much more than the “Bible alone.” First of all, it is a translation from the original languages and that requires some interpretation on the part of the translators. We are likely to use dictionaries, word studies, commentaries, and various helps, many of which are within the covers of our Bible.

 

            And do we not all take certain social, cultural, economic, and even psychological influences with us as we open the Bible? Is a black woman in Biloxi or an Hispanic man in Juarez likely to read the Bible from a different perspective from a Yankee in Boston or a Highlander in Scotland? Is the “Cotton Patch Version” (There is such a Bible!) the same Bible as the Jerusalem Bible prepared by Roman Catholic scholars?

 

            The last named version is my favorite, one reason being the rich, extensive notes at the bottom of most every page. These make up about one- fifth of the total contents. I find them helpful in illuminating the text and pointing up translation problems. But in studying such a Bible am I studying the “Bible only”?

 

            I am not saying there is no virtue in the claim “We take the Bible alone,” but I will say that no one really does it. It is in fact impossible to do so. If for no other reason we are all the product of our environment, heritage, culture, education. To realize this should make us more forbearing of differences. Those who differ with us are not necessarily dishonest or ignorant.

 

            How does the Bible become authoritative to us? Do we decide what the Bible means in and of ourselves? Or do we decide in view of what our parents and our church taught us and by the commentaries we study? Do we not all draw from the stream of knowledge and experience, supplied by the brightest and most dedicated minds through the centuries, in deciding what the Bible teaches?

 

            I once consulted over 40 different “authorities” (commen­taries, word studies, etc.) on the meaning of one verse (1 Cor. 13:10). I found nearly all of them agreeing on what “that which is perfect” meant. I concluded that that was probably the correct meaning, but not necessarily. Rarely can we be absolutely positive on the meaning of a text. Our judgments usually run from “not likely” to “possible” to “probable” to “highly probable” to “almost certain.”

 

            In the end, of course, I have to decide for myself what the Bible means by what it says, which makes my own conscience the final court of appeal. But I do not make that decision in a vacuum, as if I were the only one ever to look at the passage in question. I make it in the light of the church’s long experience in grappling with the meaning of the Bible.

 

            When I determine biblical authority in such a manner I am being a good catholic in that I am seeking “the consensus fidelium” of the church through the ages - the faithful consen­sus of the best minds, the most devoted students, the most diligent and scholarly efforts.

 

            Such a consensus comes not only from study but from living. Those exemplary saints and scholars who have both studied it and tested it through centuries of experience are likely to be right - especially when they reach a consensus regarding a given meaning. Isn’t that really our authority - the Bible plus Tradition (what the church has agreed upon)?

 

            This is why our pioneers, particularly Alexander Campbell (who believed in the consensus fidelium) , were willing to subject their conclusions to the verdict of history. And this is why you can be next to certain that if a system runs counter to the consensus of “the church” through the ages that it is a false system. Such as Mormonism.

 

            Alexander Campbell saw the Scriptures themselves as an ordinance of God and as a means of grace. He believed that when the church gathers around an open Bible and applies sincere minds to a text, and reaches a consensus as to its meaning, that meaning is probably correct. Sometimes the consensus may be that we can’t be sure, that different interpre­tations are possible.

 

            This does not mean, of course, that the traditional interpre­tation is necessarily right, only that it is probably right, and that one should be very cautious in rejecting it. It also means that if we hold a peculiar view, one that goes counter to the faithful consensus of the universal church, we should do so with extreme care, for we are probably wrong.

 

            By the authority of Tradition as well as the Bible I do not mean the tradition (small t) of some sect or denomination, such as what the Baptists teach or Church of Christ doctrine. There is a big difference, for instance, between what the Baptists teach and what the great Baptist scholar A. T. Robertson taught, or between Roman Catholic dogma and what the devoted scholars of the Jerusalem Bible say. Or between what the Church of Christ teaches and what Alexander Campbell taught.

 

            The reason these scholars are usually right is that they transcend the sectarianism of their own denomination and draw from the Tradition of the universal church. Mind you, no one scholar or even several may be all that trustworthy, but when there is a consensus throughout the whole church through all the ages you have highly reliable Tradition.

 

            Now you can see why Alexander Campbell would say to one of his antagonists, “You can’t make a sect of us, for we are catholics.” He was right that others cannot make a sect of us, but, unfortunately, we can make a sect of ourselves.

 

            That is what I have been trying to do with my beloved Church of Christ sisters and brothers all these years. Make good catholics of them! I would also be pleased to make good catholics out of Roman or Greek or Coptic Catholics! Or, to put it another way, to get Church of Christ people and Catholics to examine their own traditions in the light of the catholic Tradi­tion.

 

            This is to say that none of us goes by the “Bible alone.” We are to decide whether it will be the Bible plus our tradition or the Bible plus the Tradition of the universal community of faith. ­---Leroy

 

            Hope is listening to the melody of the future; faith is dancing to it today. --- a Quaker proverb

 

OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

            Recently I was well along the way in preparing an article on my computer for this newsletter when the electric current blinked and I lost what I had done. Ouida cautions me to “save” often so this will not happen, or when it does I will not lose as much. Since it happens so rarely I neglect heeding her advice. When I lose what I’ve done and have to start over it affects my zeal for the task at hand. In fact I find it difficult to start over. When it happened this time, I turned off the computer with some disgust and did something else. I sense there is a parable of life in all this, but I am not sure how to interpret it Beside teaching that a man should give heed to the wisdom of his wife, it may say that while we have to take risks in our kind of world we should not take unnecessary ones, as we sometimes do in driving or going into debt And it may say that in life we often have to pick up the broken pieces and start over, however difficult. What a blessing it is that we can start over!

            At our church here in Denton we were challenged to read the Bible through in 1994. A schedule of readings was issued for this purpose. Ouida and I decided to go for it, something we have never done: read through all the Bible on a set schedule, all in one year. We chose a version that we seldom read, the New English Bible. It requires about five chapters a day, which we divide between bedtime and breakfast Already we are seeing things we had missed in our more random reading. By the way, we have a number of new but slightly shelf-worn copies of the New English Bible that we will sell at about half price, only $10 postpaid, on a first-come basis.

 

            Our “50th” went beautifully even though the weather was inclem­ent and the time was not ideal. Ouida’s kin, who hosted the affair, were pleased it went so well and were impressed that we have so many super friends. We explained that there are many more out there who would have been with us if they could have, and that we have a multitude of friends that we have never yet even met. Someday! Every card and letter was deeply appreciated.

 

            Two recent trips were of moment to us. While Ouida stayed home, I flew to Pittsburgh where John Ellis, minister of West Cumberland (WV) Christian Church met me and took me to his church for a series. We had a great fellowship in that steel mill town, and it was a delight eating and visiting in numerous homes. One day John and I drove to Bethany, only 25 miles away, for a few hours, where we met president Duane Cummins and I saw several old friends. The village doesn’t change all that much, but Alexander Camp­bell wasn’t around. We got to see the old Bethany Church that has recently been restored as of old, sort of. Cut in stone above the doors is “Church of Christ 1827.” It was the successor of the Old Brush Run Church (1812), the first in the Campbell movement When visiting Bethany you should visit the old church first, where the great funerals were held, before visiting “God’s Acre,” the Campbell cemetery.

 

            Ouida was my “Buddy Flies Free” on our flight to Lubbock on Southwest Airlines where we were guests in the home of A. C. and Ruth Oliver, trusted friends of many years, and where I spoke three times on a Sunday at the Vandelia Church of Christ To the joint adult classes I spoke on what the Church of Christ must do to be saved, which attracted considerable attention, mostly positive. It is a speech that I will give to any Church of Christ in the world free of charge, and I promise to be both sweet and reasonable. Doug Hale, minister to the church, reports that they sold 50 tapes of that presentation.

 

            Ouida and I did an unusual thing Christmas Day. Since we did ours the night before with our daughter and her family, including dinner, we were free to do something different on the big day . We drove to Dallas to visit some of my late sister’s family at the old family home. It did not seem quite right without the buoyant presence of my dear sister. We were close. Ouida and I then drove to downtown Dallas and walked about the heart of the city in spring-like weather. We had it almost to ourselves. I walked out into the middle of Main St. and looked all the way west, “the route that Kennedy took,” and there was hardly a car to be seen. Some sight! A city usually bustling was now deserted! I recalled how about 15,000 of us “marched for Jesus” down that street Ouida and I of course had to walk around Nieman’s elegant windows (the most famous department store in the world, they say; it now has an historical marker) and see all the things we can do without But as we drove by on our way home we noticed a crowd at the assassination site. Always there are tourists there. Christmas at the assassination site! Does that say anything?

 

READER’S EXCHANGE

 

Our 50th

 

            We do not know each other except through Restoration Review and the mail, but you are dear to me. Someday I intend to visit Denton and, with luck, you’ll be there and we can say hello. Please know how many of us wish for you a glorious Golden Anniversary! God bless you both! -June Hauptli, Glenwood Springs, Co.

 

            (This gives us another opportunity not only to invite June to come to see us, but all our dear friends that we love but have never met Since we have been in our new home we have had 87 visitors. Each one a rich experience! June’s letter also illustrates how people can love each other having never met personally. Isn’t that what 1 Pet 1:8 says about Christ and us: “Whom having not seen you love.” - Leroy and Ouida)

 

            Ouida, I remember the time you stayed out with Leroy beyond the proper time at TSCW (now Texas Woman’s D.), and you crawled in the window. It wasn’t funny then but it is now. - June Roever, Kerrville, Tx.

 

            (This old roommate of Ouida’s is recalling the time I lifted a ladder that painters had left alongside the dorm to her second floor window. The housemother checked the room seconds later! We got by with it. Having later served as a prof at the same college, it was a story I told to each entering class, always with hilarious response. I thought it was funny then! Ouida accused me of embellishing the story through the years, but it tells well unembellished. - Leroy)

 

            We feel like we know you well because you shared your strug­gles and victories with us. You exhorted and encouraged and were long suffering with us. Through the years our eyes and ears have been opened to the love of God that blesses all mankind. Praise God for sending His Son to redeem and save us, and for sending you two to make the message real. - Ray and Marcheta Felts, Tulsa, Ok.

 

            I always looked forward to receiving the RR, for it kept alive my hope in the Restoration Movement, especially since it came from one in the segment traditionally considered to be least interested in helping to bring about the unity of Christ’s church for which he prayed so long ago. With years of gratitude. - Delno Brown, Johnson City, Tn.

 

            In the RR Leroy has made us love Ouida as his partner in his ministry. In his conversations he also spoke of her often, always with loving pride and appreciation. He made it clear that she shared in the labor of mailing and other chores incidental to getting the journal mailed. They model marriage as it should be in their deep love and true devotion to each other and to our Heavenly Father and His Son. ­Harold and Roxie Thomas, Conway, Ar.

 

            You encouraged a lot of dissatisfied Church of Christ people in RR. We were both about ready to throw in the towel, but you told us to hang in and bloom where we were planted. We now are so thankful that we did, for our prayers for a free and open fellowship is now a reality. Had we left we would have missed many spiritual blessings, ­Dot and Earl Edwards, Tulsa, Ok.

 

            History will record it! I especially appreciated the sense of humor, to laugh at yourself, not others. - Orville McDonald, Dallas, Tx.

 

            (This is a random selection of a thick folder of love letters and cards. We cherish each one and thank you for being so gracious and for reminiscing. I even heard from a dear sister in the Lord that I dated at Freed-Hardeman College 55 years ago! That was a lift in that it reminded me that I had done a few things right! - Leroy

 

BOOK NOTES

 

Bound Volume

 

            We have one less bound volume than when we last announced, but we still have six, all double volumes, covering 12 consecutive years, 1981-92. They are $15 each or $75 for all six, postpaid. These are beautifully hard bound, with index and introduction.

           

For those unacquainted with our bound volumes or those who would like to read Restoration Review back in those years, we are offering a special price for any two of the following volumes for only $25, postpaid. With these in hand you can decide if you want the others. Choose any two. The titles reflect the theme for the two years. Because of the limited number the volume for 1981-82 is not included in this special offer.

 

            The Doe of the Dawn (1983-84)

            Adventures of the Early Church (1985-86)

            The Sense of Scripture: Studies in Interpretation (1987-88)

            The Hope of the Believer (1989-90)

            What the Old Testament Means to Us (1991-92)

 

         Loose copies of Restoration Review are available at 15 copies for $5.00 or 35 copies for $l0. Selected at random back through the years. Specific copies are 40 cents each. Prices postpaid.

 

         Those who have read Waymon Miller’s New Testament Elders find it a liberating book. It would in fact change for the better any church that followed its conclusions that are rooted in both Scripture and common sense. We will send you a copy for $8.50 postpaid.

 

         You should not miss out on the exciting titles that have come from the ACU Press in recent years, We can send you the following at prices stated, which includes postage. We highly recommend each one and rejoice in each one.

 

         Discovering Our Roots (Allen and Hughes) $12

         The Worldly Church (Allen, Hughes, Weed) $10

         The Cruciform Church (Allen) $13

         Distant Voices (Allen) $12.95

         The Core Gospel (Love) $16

 

         Other titles that might be of interest to you: Pilgrimage of Joy: An Autobiography of Carl Ketcherside, $15; Our Heritage of Unity and Fellowship (Ketcherside and Garrett) $9 ; The Twisted Scriptures (Ketcherside) $8; Endangered Heritage: An Examination of Church of Christ Doctrine (Walt Yancey) $11. Prices include postage. Please send check with order.