No. 16, Feb. 1996

 

THE DEEPER MEANING OF BAPTISM

 

            If then you were raised with Christ. .  (Col. 3:1)

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            For whatever reasons the church through the centuries has never been able to see baptism alike, not even in our own Restoration Movement. It has become “The Water That Di­vides,” as the title of one study puts it.

 

            But this conflict has centered almost entirely on the mode (immersion only?) and design (a mere symbol or sacramental?) of baptism. However important these questions are, they may not be as important as what we do agree on or can agree on, once we consider it. This might be referred to as the implications of baptism, which get to its deeper meaning.

 

            The fact that the church everywhere, almost without excep­tion, is a baptized community speaks volumes as to the place of the ordinance. The implication here is that we have a common bond in the Body of Christ. This implies love, acceptance, fellowship (sharing the common life). I was impressed by the title of a new book that calls for “Claiming God’s Grace for Lesbians and Gays,” titled We Were Baptized Too (Westmin­ster, 1996).

 

            Whatever your attitude may be toward these controversial people, one stubborn fact remains: they too were baptized; they too are our sisters and brothers. The implication becomes an imperative. How are we going to treat fellow members of the Family?

 

            The book’s title reminds me of Martin Luther’s complaint over the censures from the pope in Rome, which included the likes of “That drunken monk in Germany.” Luther bellowed out, “The pope can’t talk about me like that, for I’ve been baptized just as he has.”

 

            We do well to remember Luther’s words in our treatment of each other. Before we pass cruel judgments we should say to ourselves, “She’s been baptized just as I was. She too is Family.”

 

            Ervin Waters, veteran preacher among our non-Sunday school/one cup Churches of Christ, has something of Martin Luther in him. I was blessed in being present when he crossed his Rubicon with his own people some years back, explaining to them why he would no longer be their “hatchet man” in debates and would henceforth be an envoy for unity. One brother, who had learned to debate “the issues” from Ervin, brought him to judgment with the question of the hour. Pointing to me, sitting on the back pew and minding my own business, he asked Ervin, “Do you fellowship Leroy Garrett?”

 

            Dear old Ervin didn’t bat an eye, forthrightly insisting, “Of course, Leroy Garrett has been baptized just as we have!” As with Luther, the response had an unanswerable quality about it.

 

            It makes for a suitable response to many a strident sisters and brothers: “He too has been baptized, so … .” That a person has been baptized should have enormous implications to all others who have been baptized.

 

            This is what Paul is saying in Col. 3: 1, “If you were raised with Christ … .” As if to say “Since you were baptized certain implications follow.” If we have been raised with Christ in baptism, then we are born from above, and should thus “seek those things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.”

 

            Baptism means that we have “above” minds, not “earthy” minds (v. 2). It means that we “died” and our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (v. 3). Baptism means that we will appear with Christ in glory (v. 4).

 

            Baptism implies that we have put to death the sins of the flesh. In verse 7 the apostle recognizes that his readers “once walked” in the sins he lists, but they do so no longer. The list is impressive, including fornication, covetousness, anger, mal­ice, blasphemy, filthy language. Those raised with Christ in baptism have “put off the old man” and do not commit such sins anymore. They have “put on” kindness, humility, longsuffer­ing (v. 12). And we forgive even as Christ forgives us (v. 13).

 

            This deeper meaning of baptism might be put this way: There is no spiritual gift or power that the New Testament does not ascribe to baptism. Mark some of them: forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38); union with Christ (Gal. 3:27); cleansing from sin (Acts 22: 16); sonship (Gal 3:26); gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:38); union with Christ’s death and resurrection (Ro. 6:3); new life in the Spirit or regeneration (Tit. 3:5).

 

            All these have to do with life and relationship and reach beyond the lesser issues about baptism. These are its deeper meaning, its true essence.

 

            However right we may be on the mode and design of baptism, it means little if it does not lead to Christlikeness. It is this dimension of baptism that we can all see alike that we give so little attention. Does anyone ever question whether we are raised with Christ in baptism so as to bear his likeness? Do we pursue baptism’s lesser meaning to the neglect of its deeper meaning?

 

            May we all come to see that being baptized does not mean that we are right but that we are Christlike! – Leroy

 

THE POWER OF A SINGLE VERSE

 

            Romans 15:7 has deeply affected this church. I have encouraged our people to memorize this passage along with the Lord’s Prayer. It has had a miraculous effect. Many of the problems in this world could be solved by keeping Romans 15:7 before us. -Larry Toney, Trinity United Christian Church, New Kensington, Pa.

 

            It is impressive how many heroes of the faith had their lives turned around by the influence of a single passage of Scripture. One of the most dramatic instances was that of St. Augustine. Since Ouida told that story to her ladies’ class, I asked her to pass it along to you. You’ll find it in this issue.

 

            The story of Martin Luther’s confrontation with Rom 1:17, “The just shall live by faith,” is often told. It was this passage that sparked the Protestant Reformation. When Mal­colm Muggeridge, the British satirist-skeptic who became a polemical Christian, was asked what truth it was that turned his life around, he named Jn. 16:33, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” For the lowly monk who became St. Frances it was Ps. 142, especially v. 7, “Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise Your name.”

 

            In my reading of Restoration history I sought out the passages that impacted the thinking of our pioneers. For Barton W. Stone it was Jesus’ prayer for unity in Jn. 17, which inspired his great motto, “Let Christian unity be our polar star.” Walter Scott found “the Golden Oracle” in Mt. 16:18, Peter’s confes­sion that Jesus is the Christ, and it became his constant theme as our greatest evangelist.

 

            Alexander Campbell often referred to Mal. 4:2, “The Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings.” Therein he found “the principle of available light,” dividing as he did salvation history into the starlight (Patriarchal), moonlight (Mosaic), twilight (John the Baptist), and the sunlight (Chris­tian) ages.

 

            Thomas Campbell, like Larry Toney in the above quote, found his unity principle in Rom. 15:7. It is the one passage he referred to again and again in his Declaration and Address. It is at least one verse that pinpoints the principle of acceptance and fellowship: We accept others on the same basis that Christ accepts us.

 

            I agree with Larry Toney that the impact of this one verse has miraculous transforming power. It leaves nothing more to be said. Once we realize how Christ accepted us in love and mercy, with all our foibles and hangups, we know how we are to accept others. And notice it says that it is to “the glory of God” when we accept others as Christ accepted us. When we accept folk only on sectarian terms, it is to the glory of our party.

 

            If we are interested in glorifying God, one question will do it, On what grounds did Christ receive us ? Were we not wrong about some things when Christ received us? Were we not sometimes a problem? Were we not sometimes unlovely? It is Christ-like to love and accept the errant and the unlovely - that they may lovely be!

 

            The power of a single verse can be impelling. Sometimes I invite a study group to share what I call “personal history” passages. Most of us can point to a particular verse that has impacted our hearts and minds during some crisis or dramatic moment. I think of my mother when I hear Philip. 4:13, “1 can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I urged it upon her as she underwent surgery. I can see her yet mumbling it to herself as they wheeled her away. It sustained her for another 15 years!

 

            We all have verses like that, and it makes for exciting Body ministry to share them. But one will be hard put to come up with a more exciting and relevant passage than the one Larry Toney impresses upon his church in New Kensington, Pa. We do well to mine the Scriptures for such transforming truths. – Leroy

 

A PASSAGE THAT CHANGED HISTORY

 

            Augustine, who became one of the great “fathers” of the church, was my assignment for our ladies class. I was fasci­nated to learn that as profligate as he was in his youth he became the first great Christian philosopher, and was a theolo­gian that helped redefine sin and become one of the three most influential Christian theologians of his time. He was largely responsible for the direction the church took during the next few centuries. Even though he lived in the fourth century he is still widely read and still influences Christian thought.

 

            While still in his teens Augustine took a mistress that he had for the next ten years much to his mother’s distress. She did much praying and grieving over his sensual life. When it was deemed appropriate for him to take a wife, his mistress was considered a liability and had to go. She was the mother of his son and he grieved to give her up. The girl that he became engaged to was so young it was decided that he should wait two years to marry. He then took another mistress. But his con­science bothered him. He wanted to live a good life, but seemed unable to rein in his fleshly desires. He agonized in his Confessions: “How long shall 1 go on saying, ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow’? Why not now? Why not make an end of my ugly sins at this moment?” While in this bitter reverie he heard the voice of a child repeat the refrain, “Take it and read, take it and read.” He saw this as a divine command to take up the Scripture and read the first passage on which his eyes should fall. This was Rom. 13: 13,14. “Let us not walk in revelry or drunkenness, in immorality and in shamelessness, in contention and in strife. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man puts on a garment, and stop living a life in which your first thought is to gratify the desires of Christless human nature.” (C. H. Dodd’s translation.) He wrote, “I neither wished nor needed to read further. With the end of that sentence, as though the light of assurance had poured into my heart, all the shades of doubt were scattered. I put my finger in the page and closed the book.”

 

            From that moment on Augustine was a changed man. He gave up his mistress, gave up marriage, and lived celibate for the rest of his life. That passage so impacted his heart that there was no longer room for the lusts of the flesh.

 

            Augustine changed the course of church history, and a single passage changed Augustine – Ouida

 

OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

            You may notice that we have changed the name of this newsletter. Several readers have urged that we should not think it terms of any of our publications being the “Last Time Around.” Our dear friend and longtime reader, Kathy Wyler of Kerrville, Texas, has especially insisted that we repent. So we allowed her to rename the newsletter. Being the poetess that she is, she suggested that each letter we send out is really “Once More With Love.” So shall its name be. From hence­forth it is once more and not the last time around, and always with love, of course! It is no big deal, for we are still Restoration Review with the Internal Revenue and the Post Office.

 

            Ouida and I will be at the Pepperdine Lectures, April 23-26. Each day of the Lectures I will be on a panel with Doug Foster of ACU and Tom Olbricht of Pepperdine that will review Richard Hughes’ new book on the history of Churches of Christ. With such a substantial book as Richard’s history and with such resourceful minds as Doug’s and Tom’s, and with input from those attending, we should be in for a great time. We hope to see some of you on campus, where we will be staying. The Lord’s Day after the Lectures, April 28, I will be guest preacher at the Northside Church of Christ in Santa Ana, where Steve Phillips is minister. We will then rent a car and explore parts of southern California for a few days. If you have suggestions on what we should see and do, we’ll listen. Ouida says she’s had enough of traveling abroad and wants to see some of her own country, so I’m taking her up on it. She bears watching, for she might come to see you - if you don’t live in China!

 

            The most recent figures indicate that there are 1.8 billion pro­fessed Christians in the world, which is only one-third of the world’s population. Over a billion of that number are Roman Catholics; 300 million are Eastern Orthodox; 100 million belong to traditional Refor­mation churches (Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, etc.); the rest belong to the radically diverse “Evangelical Protestantism,” which would include Churches of Christ/Christian Churches. But the most assertive religious force today is Islam, with almost a billion adherents called Moslems. They are growing rapidly even in the western world. There are now more Moslems in the U.S. than Presbyterians.

 

            Pope John Paul II has recently said things that no pope has said in a thousand years, if ever. Noting that the second millennium has been one of Christian division, the pope says the third millennium must be one of Christian unity. He also said that unity is more important than jurisdiction, and he invites all Christians to help him rethink and redesign the ministry of Peter (the papacy), so that it might be what Christ intended, “the first servant of unity.” In his recent encyclical, “That They May Be One,” he notes that his task to restore unity to a fragmented church is so immense that he cannot do it alone and must have help. In recent years the pope has taken dramatic steps to heal the breach between the Roman and Orthodox churches, a division that goes back to 1054. In his encyclical he says he is committed to “full communion” between East and West. He also seeks to develop a non­confrontational relationship with Islam. Ours is indeed a changing (religious) world!

 

READER’S EXCHANGE

 

            A severe persecution of the Body of Christ may soon be upon us. We will then not have to wonder who the real Christians are, whether they meet in a building that says Church of Christ or whatever. The persecutors will know who the Christians are! – Phylene Pressley, Maricopa, Ca.

 

            (That reminds me of what Bob Fife of Johnson City, Tn. told me of the atrocities he saw against Christians as a chaplain with the army that liberated some of the Nazi death camps: The Nazis knew who the Christians were!)

 

            If it were not for you, I’d still be judging people like that brother who told you that you were going to hell. As I grew up mama wouldn’t let me read anything unless it was Church of Christ, but as I grew older I began to think for myself. I noticed that we had liars, thieves, babies born out of wedlock, and divorces just like other churches, those we said were lost. I at last decided it was not for me to say who is going to hell. God is the judge. – Tena Carmack, Ripley, Tn.

 

            I never dreamed that I would sleep through the judgment! Some­how I got the crazy notion that we would all hear about it at the same time. But there I found it in your newsletter, someone consigning you to hell. Strange, too, a different judge! I thought it was Christ who would judge the living and the dead. Your “friend” needs to realize that with the judgment he judges he will be judged. Tell him there is someone in Oregon praying for him. – Elizabeth Mansur, Bend, Or.

 

            So, you were consigned to hell at the Denton Lectures. Welcome aboard. As a premillennialist I have been the recipient of those same words on several occasions. - Don McGee, Amite, La.

 

            (If God’s grace does not reach beyond such doctrinal differences as one’s view of prophecy, then we’re all lost. Are we saved by being right on “the issues” or by being right with God?)

 

            You were once a puzzle to me. I thought you were always astride the fence, not sure what you believed, and too broad a view of fellowship. Now I know I was wrong. But your desire for unity will not be realized until Christ returns, just as the Arabs will never love the Jews. It is in the genes. But I appreciate you for pressing on. “Last Time Around,” you say. Never! - Lona Spurlock, Garland, Tx.

 

            (We have blessings to count. Even among us there is less sectarianism and more unity than years ago. And some Arabs love Jews who once did not. We must work toward the ideal, the perfect realization of which may always elude us. Even if the Lord at last says, “Well tried” instead of “Well done,” it will be worth the while. But I agree that we will be united in heaven. Thomas Campbell thought that was a good reason for being united here! )

 

BOOK NOTES

 

            Our own Edward Fudge has become an author of international reputation. His study of eternal (endless) punishment has enjoyed extensive acceptance as a substantial contribution to a neglected subject. While the original hardback is now out of print, it has been reissued in a condensed paperback by publishers outside the Churches of Christ. We have obtained copies of The Fire That Consumes and can send you one at $13.95 postpaid. If you ask why God would “punish” endlessly, you need to read this book.

 

         Especially for those within our Churches of Christ heritage is another book by Edward Fudge that we highly recommend. Beyond the Sacred Page is a personal testimony to the guidance of God in the life of one man, the one man being Fudge himself. Explaining that he was brought up to believe that “God does not operate ‘separate and apart from the Word’” and that God’s guidance meant little more than “following true doctrine,” he goes on to tell how he changed his mind. Leonard Allen of ACU said after reading it that “those wondering ifthe Fire of Presence still burns, this book offers and inviting affirmation.” We’ll send you a copy for $9.95 postpaid.

 

         Also for us, and the church at large, and by one of our own, is Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America by Richard T. Hughes, professor religion at Pepperdine. Grant Wacker of Duke Divinity School says that this book shows that the Stone-Campbell legacy is more complex than outsiders have supposed and more modern than insiders have imagined. It may be fair to say that this history of our people was written more for the church at large than for us, which should make it all the more interesting to us. $30.00 postpaid.

 

         Still available is The Fool of God, a historical novel on the life of Alexander Campbell and Racoon John Smith, the story of the inimitable pioneer preacher of Kentucky, both by Louis Cochran, are offered at $12.50 each. To catch the spirit of what the Restoration Movement was all about, I would list these at the top.

 

         The Stone-Campbell Movement by Leroy Garrett, revised and expanded (1994), is being well received. We are pleased that numerous colleges are using it. You may order it from us at $25 or two copies for $45, postpaid. Another book that has a lot of history in it, but as stories, is Our Heritage in Unity and Fellowship, edited by Cecil Hook, which is a compilation of 51 articles by Carl Ketcherside and Leroy Garrett. $9.95 postpaid.

 

         We still have five bound volumes of Restoration Review, 1983 - 1992, the last ten years of its publication. $15 each or all five for $65, postpaid. These are attractive, hardbound, matching volumes, with introductions and tables of content. If you want a lesser dose of what we said all those years, we will send you 25 random copies, selected from several years, for only $5 postpaid.

 

         We do not know how much longer we will be able to send out this newsletter. God will lead. But however long we invite you to make use of it and of us. If you want to add the names of others you think would appreciate receiving it, instruct us accordingly. No charge. And feel free to write to us if we can be of help. An editor might say to his readers what Paul said to the Corinthians, “You are our epistle,” in that an editor’s readers know more about who he is and what he seeks to do than a critic who never reads him. One’s readers is the only recommendation he needs. But editor and reader may sometime need to talk, so don’t hesitate to write and tell me what you think. – Leroy