DOCTOR BALES AND THE QUEST
FOR TRUTH
DAVID R. DARNELL
Out of a long experience of life and scholarship among
Churches of Christ, Dr. James D. Bales has arrived at the conviction
that the educational policies, the attitudes toward learning, and the
relationship with religious neighbors among Churches of Christ are
basically wholesome and what the truth of the Christian faith
demands. Dr. Bales sees openness toward all truth, rejection of all
error, firm hold to the “faith once delivered,” but still
love for and open dialogue with those who differ, as the manifest
characteristics of at least the majority of responsible leaders of
the Churches of Christ.
Though I am unable to share Dr. Bales’
conviction, I sincerely hope that he is correct, and that I am
wrong—and that my experience as a minister and student among
Churches of Christ was only an unfortunate exception to the rule. For
the sake of beloved relatives and friends, and the thousands of young
people whose lives are being moulded under the influence of Churches
of Christ; but especially for the sake of a world torn apart by deep
religious prejudices and narrow sectarian claims, how I hope that Dr.
Bales’ conviction is well-founded, and that the overwhelming
majority of leaders among Churches of Christ will manifest just such
an attitude. For then, and only then, I believe, will the Churches of
Christ be able to fulfill the ministry of which they are capable, and
which our world so desperately needs.
Breathing throughout Dr. Bales’ response to my
essay is his deep concern for truth, and an unwillingness to
countenance what he believes to be error and wrong. And while there
are some statements of his to which I must take exception, still in
this basic and all-pervasive quest for truth I find myself in hearty
agreement. Let me mention three of the characteristics of the quest
for truth which Dr. Bales has well pointed up:
(1) Dr. Bales calls for an open mind in a good sense—an
honest, studious mind which wants the good, and which is honest
enough to accept truth wherever it may be found, even when it costs.
How desperately our world cries Out for leadership possessed with
just such an attitude!
The biblical message begins by telling us that this is
God’s world, and that it is good—every
bit of it. God has made man in his image, and set him in the world to
be God’s representative, to subdue and conquer the created
world in God’s name. There is no truth but God’s truth;
there is no area of knowledge where man cannot walk, with God’s
help, unafraid. The Bible cries out to its hearers to seek for truth
as blind men long for light! As the miser’s hand stretches out
greedily for gold, so the biblical message urges us to let our hearts
and minds grasp for God’s truth. Jesus Christ will be the
leader of no sectarian party. He calls for no man to bury his head in
the sand, or shake in servile fear before any truth. He is the Lord
of truth, who leads his followers out into the clear light of day,
into the open espousal of truth for truth’s sake, in every
field of human endeavor—but nowhere more emphatically than in
the study and understanding of the Bible.
In a world where respect for truth has crumbled away,
and where truth has been made the tool of the party, or the slave of
traditional orthodoxy, there can be no more pressing need than for
the Church to raise up in every generation young men and women whose
lives and hearts owe allegiance to nothing less than truth. In the
service of truth we can stand and die with Jesus Christ, and we can
issue a call to our entire world to stand with us on a common ground
of respect for truth.
(2) Dr. Bales also calls for a “closed mind,”
but once again he means this in a good sense, not in the bad sense
which I [was?] castigated in my essay. By the “closed mind”
Dr. Bales means the willingness to bravely reject all that is false
and wrong; the determination to call half-truths what they are, and
the courage to oppose error and wrong with the fervency of
conviction.
Here again, I agree whole-heartedly with Dr. Bales—and
I would not want my essay to be understood in any other sense. No
man, I think, can seriously attempt to follow Jesus Christ as Lord,
or, for that matter, attempt to seriously seek for truth, without
just such a “closed mind.” Neither God, nor humanity, nor
the unity of Christ’s Church will be well served by pretending
that error is truth, or that black is somehow white!
This is a lesson which resounds decisively throughout
the pages of the Bible. Dr. Bales does well, I think, to point to
Jesus’ strong and trenchant denunciations of the Pharisees for
their hypocritical religion. In such denunciations, Jesus only united
his voice with that of the classical prophets of Israel before him.
This is also a lesson we are learning again today in
the ecumenical encounters between the protestant denominations, and
in the conversations with Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.
True and lasting unity of God’s people will not come by
skirting issues, or minimizing the stringent demands of truth. I know
of no ecumenical leader who denies this fact. The ecumenical meetings
in which I have participated, and the ecumenical leaders with whom I
have spoken, would all, I believe, agree in this fact: that the unity
of God’s Church will only come when God gives it, and it must
only be based upon truth. Compromise and half-truth are no possible
standing-ground for the followers of Jesus Christ.
And let me add that as a minister among the Christian
Churches (Disciples of Christ) I can make this statement with all the
courage and determination of heart that I possess. It is not an
understanding that is peculiar to one group of Christians. Neither is
it a possibility for only one group of Christians. All of us have our
traditions, and our prejudices, that hold us back and make our
avowals of loyalty to truth seem shabby.
(3) Dr. Bales also calls for a willingness to fairly present and examine the positions which those who differ from us hold, looking not only for weaknesses but also for strengths in their positions. Dr. Bales agrees that:
. . . some have dismissed the positions of others too lightly, and
have failed to grapple with the problems with which these people were
grappling. We cannot fairly evaluate the position of another unless
we understand it . . . We must seek to understand others not only in
order to know best how to approach them, but also to accept any truth
which they have.
Now this statement may seem quite simple and obvious,
so much so that we pass over it lightly and miss its dynamic force.
How quickly and effectively such an approach as this would break down
many of the barriers that stand in the way of Christian unity and
world peace today! Think what such an attitude could mean in the
Israeli-Arab controversy that rages as I write these words! Or at the
council tables between East and West! I am convinced that it is not
so much “false doctrine” and hard-hearted error that
separate the religious world today as it is lack of communication,
and the failure to understand what one another is saying. How easy it
is to disagree with and condemn another for his beliefs and ways of
life—until we stand in his shoes, to look on things from his
perspective, and begin to share in the background out of which his
convictions have arisen!
But now let me add to this some three additional
considerations concerning the quest for truth:
(1) First, a question: What are we to do when our young
people, after the most diligent effort of which they are capable,
following just such an attitude toward truth as that outlined above,
arrive at conclusions which are in some respects contrary to those
conclusions at which we ourselves have arrived?
Are we to subtly cast doubt on their motivations, or
suggest that they are “going off”? That somehow we, or
the “Restoration Fathers” were the only generation
capable of arriving at new discoveries and new formulations of the
Christian truth? Shall we imply that we, or those before us, had the
right to launch out into new paths of “Restoration,” but
that succeeding generations no longer have this right?
And if we do, will we not thereby be reacting to our
young thinkers just as an older generation reacted to an Alexander
Campbell, or a “Raccoon” John Smith? Will we succeed in
encouraging honest search for truth by drawing up dogmatic lines of
orthodoxy, and cutting off from our active fellowship and support
those who dare to cross those lines?
Is the promise of God’s guidance limited to the
first century, or is it a living and abiding reality that we can
still claim today?
To ask such questions is, for me, to answer them. The
only possible course for us to take is to respect our young people’s
honesty, and continue to love and actively support them, even though
they question and sometimes deny what we hold to be true. It is my
conviction that instead of discouraging and undermining such
pursuits, we will be wise to fully underwrite and encourage our young
leaders in such a quest for truth, praying for them and believing
that the great shepherd of the sheep will still guide his flock and
even in our day lead us into fresher and greater visions of his
abiding truth. What a terrible tragedy if our most brilliant young
minds must be silenced, and withdrawn from, and turned away from
potential leadership in our congregations and schools, simply because
they enter whole-heartedly into such a quest for truth!
(2) Now another question: When we say with Dr. Bales
that we must be willing to fairly present and examine the positions
of those with whom we differ, how shall we best do this?
I went to an Abilene Christian College lectureship to
hear an “open forum” on instrumental music. The pro and
con speakers were J. W. Roberts and Frank Pack! Is that an example of
how to hear and understand the view that Christian worship has not
been limited to a cappella singing? I spoke with a young missionary
to Africa who was constantly facing Communists in his work. I asked
him what basic writings of Communism he had studied, and he replied none—he was
using only Dr. Bales’ book in opposition to Communism, and
didn’t have the time to do any further reading! What would we
think of a Communist who sought to convert Christians to Communism
without having read the Bible? Or, who had only read the Bible from
the standpoint of atheism, and had never sought to listen to its
wondrous truths with a sympathetic, understanding ear?
What I am saying is this: the position which others
hold, and are willing to die for, can never be
properly presented or honestly evaluated unless the best
representatives of that position are given the full opportunity to
state and defend their view. When we are afraid of such an exchange,
we join with the sectarians of all party-loyal: ties throughout the
centuries—and we betray our fear of God’s willingness or
ability to lead us into the truth of Christ. If a position is worth
attacking and denying, it is worth the time and effort to understand
thoroughly from the viewpoint of those who hold it!
(3) Even more basically, the quest for truth demands
that we be willing to uncover and critically examine the
presuppositions that underlie our own position. This is extremely
difficult, perhaps impossible, in a thorough-going sense, to do. But,
given the divided and competing nature of the world of thought today,
and the fact that honesty and scholarship will allow us to do nothing
less, there is no other avenue for us to take than to seriously and
relentlessly make this attempt at radical self-criticism and
self-understanding.
Such an attempt demands that we be willing to change,
and be willing to endure the suffering and agony associated with
change. But the heart that cries out for truth will allow us nothing
less; nor will Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is my conviction that out
of such a process, a new grasp and appreciation for the biblical
message will emerge that can bring the healing and new life of Christ
to our troubled world.
Lord God, thou hast been the enlightener of
men’s minds throughout the centuries of man’s long quest
for truth. It is thy truth that we have sought, and begun to grasp,
and which has marvelously blessed and enriched our lives. In Jesus
Christ thou hast shown us thy truth in all its depth and beauty and
grandeur that surpasses knowledge and understanding.
Father, enlighten our blind eyes! Help us to see anew thy truth! Turn us from all half-truths and errors, to walk in the light of Christ all our days! Bless the Churches of Christ, and all their leaders, that they may with deep sincerity and conviction genuinely lead our world into thy truth. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.
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