FROM CALF TRAILS TO
HIGHWAY
The confusion that stems
from the divisions in the modern church has likenesses to the winding
calf trails that threatened to become the direction for a modern
highway. The meandering paths beat out by the calves and their
herdsmen became the orthodox guidelines for all future activity
across their hallowed ground. The ox carts went the way of the calf
trails because that was the way people had always gone. Then came the
covered wagons, and they too took the same winding course. Even the
stage coaches bowed to orthodoxy.
When gravel and asphalt
roads became necessary for the era of trucks and automobiles, there
was no question but what the new roads would follow the way of the
calves. For generations tradition dictated this labyrinthine course.
It was not until plans developed for a modern highway that the
winding ways of tradition began to be questioned. Thinking people
realized that change was necessary, that the whim of the calf must
yield to the theodolite of the surveyor.
Change is difficult to
come by, for people find comfort and security in doing and thinking
the way they always have. Change is often risky, and most people do
not like to take chances. Reformers soon learn that change can be
realized only as people have the maturity to admit the wrongs of the
past. The prophets of Israel saw this clearly, emphasizing the fact
that “We and our fathers have sinned” (Neh. 1:6). Isaiah
was able to see the holiness of God once he realized the measure of
his own guilt and that of his people: “Woe is me! for I am
undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5).
Once change is in
prospect it is important to have guidelines that direct one to higher
levels of attainment. Those who trod the cow paths need the
instruments of the engineer if they are to have the highway. Those of
us who wish to escape the maze of brotherhood strife and division
must look for principles
to lead
the way. In this special sense we are to be
men
of principle. Educators
concede the difficulty of teaching people to think in terms of
principles. Like the familiar calf trails, most people choose to live
by rules-of-thumb, which calls for no thinking.
Our pioneers were
attracted to the principle-laden motto “In faith, unity; in
opinions, liberty; in all things, love” as a valid guideline
for their reformation. What did they mean by “In faith, unity”?
What can this mean to us in our struggle to get away from the
meandering paths of factions and fractions onto the highway of the
fellowship of the saints and the communion of the Holy Spirit?
“In faith, unity”
can mean to us that in
matters of faith we will be of one mind,
while
in matters of opinion there will be freedom for wide diversity. But
this cannot mean that we will think the same way about everything
that is in the Bible, for “In faith” cannot be made to
refer to all revelation. People do not see the Bible alike, whether
in the church or not, and they never will. If that is the unity we
are looking for, it will never come. The pioneers could not have
understood “In faith, unity” to mean that Christians are
to understand all the subjects of the Bible the same way.
Yet it is this kind of
thinking that keeps us in the calf trails. Many suppose they can draw
a circle for faith
and list
within it all those doctrines that are essential for unity; the other
things that are not “clearly taught in the Bible” may go
within the circle of opinion. The trouble here is that you have a lot
of disagreement as to what should go in the two circles. What one
brother calls a matter of faith another calls a matter of opinion.
Instrumental music, premillennialism, classes for Bible study, church
buildings, colleges, fermented grape juice, and a score of other
things are moved from one circle to another like clowns at a
sideshow, depending on what faction among us is drawing the circles.
We will never reach the
highway that leads to unity with this kind of thinking. “In
faith, unity” must point to the
faith of
the gospel, the grand proposition that “Jesus is Lord”,
which is the only basis upon which all Christians can unite. If I get
into the business of drawing circles, I cannot place anything within
the circle of faith that God has not made a condition for salvation.
I shall write into the circle: belief
in and obedience to the gospel. (1
Cor. 15:1-2)
This brings us to the
question of what is meant by the gospel, a question that must be
answered if we move toward the highway. The notion that “everything
in the New Testament is the gospel” is a cow path we must
forsake. The gospel was a reality, both preached and obeyed, long
before there was a book called the New Testament, or even before the
first word was written. Peter preached the gospel on Pentecost almost
a generation before the first book of the New Testament was composed,
and something like 60 or 70 years before John laid down his pen on
Patmos. Thousands of saints lived and died without ever having seen
what we call “the New Testament”.
Surely we cannot argue
that one must obey “all the New Testament” in order to
obey the gospel, for thousands of people believed and obeyed it who
never so much as saw one single part of the New Testament scriptures.
The gospel is “the thing preached” (1 Cor. 1:21 in
Greek), a particular set of facts regarding a person, Jesus Christ,
that constitute the
good news that
man can be saved. It is irresponsible to speak of the books of
Jude
or
Revelation
as part
of the gospel. If “all the New Testament” is the gospel,
then John, an exile on a lonely island, is the only apostle that
preached a full gospel! And only those who lived
after
John
wrote Revelation
could
fully obey the gospel. But before the New Testament scriptures were
composed the apostle Paul “fully preached the gospel of Christ”
(Rom. 15 :19). He details the gospel in 1 Cor. 15:1-4.
One believes the gospel
when he accepts the testimony that Jesus is the Christ, and he obeys
the gospel when he is immersed in water for the remission of his sins
(John 20:21, Acts 2:38). It is this that saves his soul and makes him
a Christian. The New Testament scriptures are for his Christian
growth; they are “the apostles’ doctrine” by which
he is perfected as a saint, and of course the Word of God even though
distinct from the gospel (Acts 2:42).
What I am saying is this:
“In faith, unity” is to mean to us that oneness is
achieved in
Christ, which
is ours by God’s mercy when we believe and obey the gospel. One
is begotten when he believes the gospel (1 Cor. 4:15) and is born
into God’s family when he obeys the gospel (John 3:3 5).
When we believe the one fact that Jesus is Lord and obey the one act
of immersion into Christ, we are saints together — “In faith,
unity.” I know of nothing else to place within the circle of
faith, for God has made nothing else a condition to being saved.
Quite obviously doctrine
is important to us, but it is in this area that there must be
latitude for differences of opinion. We will never be united if we
insist on singleness of mind on all doctrinal matters. We must accept
a man as our brother if he has obeyed the gospel irrespective of how
right or wrong he may be in doctrine. This is not to say that his
doctrinal errors do not matter, but only that they do not matter in
regard to his being accepted as a brother (Rom. 14:1) . Once I
receive him as my brother, I can as I have opportunity help him out
of his errors as he in turn can help me out of mine. But it is not in
the area of doctrine that we find unity, for unity is in a Person. As
we study the Bible together we must make room for differences of
interpretation — “In opinions, liberty”, but the unity
that we seek is based upon the
gospel, which
is testimony about what Jesus Christ has done for us. In believing
and obeying that testimony we become one together in Christ, which
leaves no room for opinion.
“A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not pass over it, and fools shall not err therein.” (Isa. 35:8) — The Editor
The feeling of the law, the satisfaction of being right, the joy of self-esteem are powerful incentives for keeping us upright or keeping us moving forward. On the other hand, if you deprive men of them, You transform them into dogs frothing with rage. How many crimes are committed merely because their authors could not endure being wrong! — ALBERT CAMUS