Highlights in Restoration History . . .

THIRTY FIVE YEARS LATER

The most quoted statement from our pioneers is probably that one from Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address that reads:

That the Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures, and that manifest the same by their tempers and conduct, and of none else; as none else can be truly and properly called Christians.

It is unfortunate that this weighty insight is not as well known among non-instrument churches as it is in other wings of our Movement. One way for us to quicken our concern for the unity of all believers in Christ is to move inside this statement and let it become a part of our thinking. We need to see what Campbell saw, that the church by its very nature is one and cannot be otherwise. Not only did God intend it to be one, but He constituted it one, and so it is essentially one. It is therefore, strictly speaking, a contradiction to speak of the Church of Christ being divided. It cannot be divided, for a divided Church of Christ is not the true Church of Christ.

But there is the true Church of Christ upon earth, made up of all those who are in Christ, wherever they may be, including those who are unwillingly or unconsciously caught in a sectarian situation. This church is not to be identified with those folk that we may generally associate with Abilene or Nashville, or with Cincinnati or Indianapolis, who wear the name “Church of Christ” or its linguistic equivalent “Christian Church,” though we would presume that many of these people would be a part of the one, holy, apostolic, catholic Church of Christ.

This is what Campbell came to see, that in spite of all “the jarrings and janglings of sectarian strife,” as he put it, there is nonetheless God’s real church upon the earth, and that church is one. As he looked at all the sects, none of which he recognized as the Church of Christ, it was apparent that while the true church is really one, its unity was not fully realized by those who professed to be Christians. The church’s unity is real but not fully realized. That is a good way to put it. So all partyism should end and the Church of Christ upon earth should be manifest to the world as a loving, united community. That is how the world will know that we are truly Jesus’ disciples.

Thomas Campbell did not believe that the true church did not exist on earth when he arrived on the American frontier and saw that sectarianism was as rife in the New World as it was in his native Ireland. His task was not to restore the church that had gone out of existence. The Anabaptists and other sects of the Radical Reformation believed that, but our pioneers did not. They were reformers, not “restorationists” like the Anabaptists. The true church has always prevailed against the gates of hades, as Jesus promised, and has always existed upon the earth, in the midst of and in spite of sectarianism. So Campbell’s task was to restore to the church (that already existed) its real but hidden unity. And so he launched a movement to unite the Christians in all the sects.

But the main point of this article ‘is to pass along a footnote on Campbell’s famous quotation, one that is dated thirty five years later. It reveals that in 1844, when he was the Movement’s aged patriarch, Campbell had a better idea of how the church’s hidden unity is to be recovered than he had back in 1809 when he first penned those lines.

In writing to a friend from the home of his renowned son, where he spent his last years, he recalled the old quote from the Declaration and Address. This is how he put it the last time around: “The church of Christ upon earth is constitutionally and essentially one; therefore, the first relative duty of every member of it is to preserve this unity by loving each other as Christ has loved them.” (Mill. Harb., 1844. p. 104)

We are slow of heart to see what Campbell came to realize, that unity is restored and preserved through the love with which Christ has loved us. We have bought the myth that unity comes through doctrinal agreement, which, if true, dooms the church to endless fission. People are not one in Christ simply because they see everything alike, if indeed there are such people. If they come to see the millennium alike, or the music question alike, or agree on tongue-speaking, it does not follow that they are any closer together in Christ. It is love, not doctrinal accuracy, that binds everything together in perfect harmony, according to Col. 3:14.

Considering all the fuss we have made over the organ, including myriads of debates, it will sound far out to suggest that those who differ on this question would be no more united in Christ if they should come to see eye-to-eye on the question. If the organ issue were resolved by one side giving it up or the other side accepting it, we would be no closer together than we are now. We would then agree on that matter, but that would be all. That has nothing to do with being one in Christ and sharing in the fellowship of the Spirit. We preserve the unity of the Spirit only by accepting one another in the love with which Christ has loved us. This we are commanded to do, organ or no organ.

“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn. 3:16). I am to lay down my life for my sister because Jesus laid down his life for me. Whether she has a piano in her church is beside the point. Whether she is right or wrong on this or that doctrine is beside the point. I am to love her, even die for her, because she is my sister.

It is that love—and nothing else—that preserves the unity and fellowship that the Spirit has given us. It is within that loving fellowship that any differences can be resolved that need to be resolved. If love does not resolve the problem, it will transcend it, “hiding a multitude of faults.” Never has Satan sold us such a bill of goods as this notion that we must work out the differences before we can be one in Christ. It is Satan’s way of keeping us separated from each other.

Some have called Thomas Campbell “the man of the Book,” for few men have loved the Bible like he did. But he realized that no book, not even the Bible, can make men and women one, not even if they have it all memorized and agree on every point. It is God’s love story, revealed in the Bible, that unites us, even if we may not understand a lot of things in the Bible and disagree on some of the things we suppose we understand. Heaven gave us a Person to make us one, not a Book. It is when I reach out and accept you in Christ’s love, and you me, that we become one. Unity cannot be achieved or preserved any other way. God help us to see this beautiful truth!—the Editor

I feel that the Lord continues to open the eyes of many in Montgomery. I hope and pray that the message of love and fellowship that you teach may spread among our own people until we are filled with the Spirit and are truly united and at peace with all men.—James Hilyer, Montgomery, AL

I hope that someday I will see unity among God’s people.—Mrs. J. R. Cobb, El Paso, TX

Your little paper is read quite widely in our congregation. It gives the mind fodder for the long winter nights.—Gordon Ellis, Thunder Bay, Ontario