Highlights in Restoration History. . .

“UNION IN TRUTH”

Our pioneers had a way with slogans. Most of our readers could recall two or three of them, such as Let Christian unity be our polar star or Christ our only creed or In matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion, liberty; in all things love. One can get a fairly good grasp of the nature of their “Plea,” as they called it, by examining their many slogans.

This one is especially pregnant with meaning. Union in truth! While we sometime distinguish between union and unity, they used the terms synonymously, and I think rightly so. Some versions of the Bible use them interchangeably. Unity is union and union is unity. Unity must be in truth. This they believed, and I suppose we would all agree. I have not met the first person who advocates unity in error.

While all persuasions among us believe that unity (or union) must be in truth, we differ on the meaning of both terms. Some see unity as agreement on some set of doctrines, which equates unity with conformity. Others of us see it as based upon relationship, marriage being a good example. Husband and wife may not agree on some things, but they are one or united in their marriage. Peter and Paul may have had their differences, but they were nonetheless united in Christ. If unity must mean agreement on all points, then we may presume that unity is very rarely attained. The fact that Eph. 4:2 makes “forbearing one another in love” a means of preserving unity would imply that there can be oneness amidst disagreement and differences. If unity is a matter of seeing everything alike, what is there to forbear? There is no need for love to hide a multitude of sins (I Pet. 4:8) if we all have to see everything alike.

We have just as much of a problem with the meaning of truth. Yes, we all agree that unity must be in truth, but we make truth include all our petty party claptrap. Some make not eating in the church building a matter of truth. And I have just read an account by Adron Doran in The World Evangelist of one of our old churches in Kentucky. It was first a Christian Church, he explains, but a half century or so ago an instrument was introduced and was used for some years. I noted with interest that it was called a Christian Church both before and after they used the instrument. But someone convinced them that the instrument was a sin, so it was moved out. He also told them that they should change their name to Church of Christ. While this has all the marks of a church moving from one party to another, we are assured that this was a matter of truth --- including the name Church of Christ! Does this mean that the congregation was not a Church of Christ and not “walking according to truth,” when it was called a Christian Church and yet non-instrumental?

It illustrates how we get ourselves into trouble when we presume to determine the parameters of truth. Union in truth has no meaning if “truth” is made to include everybody’s opinion.

Dr. Robert Richardson was one of the pioneers who was careful to distinguish between truth and the truth. Strictly speaking, he would say, unity is in the truth. He noted that Pilate asked the wrong question when he asked What is truth? What is the truth? is the vital question, and he finds this in the basic facts of the gospel. He observed that it has always been a “restless zeal for purity of doctrine” that has given us all the creeds. And so the church usually “saves” and “condemns” on the basis of some theory of religion. Speaking of trying to base unity upon “true doctrine” he noted: “To expect entire uniformity of sentiment in the whole minutiae of Christian doctrine is utterly visionary and futile. He claimed that the Campbell reformation is the only instance in all Protestantism where a distinction was drawn between truth and the truth.

The basis of union, Richardson urged, is in the confession of the great fundamental truth of Christianity, that Jesus Christ is the son of God, which is the common faith and the truth. All truths are indeed true, he grants, but not all truths are equally important. The truth, the doctor insisted, is the gospel, and it is this that is the basis of union. This does not mean that doctrinal truths are not important, for indeed they are, but that they cannot be made the basis of union. Doctrine is for the edification of the church, while the truth is the basis of union.

This paragraph from Richardson’s pen should help us to see the relationship between truth and unity.

Thus in the very beginning of this effort to reform religious society, the subject matter of a saving or essential faith was distinguished both from the uninspired deductions of human reason, and from those divine teachings which, however necessary to enable the believer to make proper advances in Christian knowledge, are by no means necessary to the Christian faith.

Such distinctions should help us to better understand such Scriptures as the following:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (Jn. 14:6)

“When the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.” (Jn. 16:13)

“Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” (Jn. 18:37)

“That the truth of the gospel might continue with you.” (Gal. 2:5)

“You heard the word of truth.” (Eph. 1:13)

“Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God.” (Rom. 15:8)

“God . . . has chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” (2 Thess. 2: 13)

“that we might be fellow helpers to the truth” (3 Jn. 8)

“to them which believe and know the truth” (1 Tim. 4:3)

It can hardly be concluded from such passages that the truth refers to all truth ever revealed to man, or to all the facts or truths in the Bible. It is much closer to say that the truth is centered in the Person of Christ. Even “the truth of God” refers to the great revelation of His Son. Jesus was asking about this truth when he asked his disciples about himself, “Who do men say that I am?,” he asked them. He was teaching them that he was the truth of God.

So, when one is right about Jesus --- right in that he loves him and is loyal to him, enthroning him as the Lord of his life --- he is “walking in the truth,” even though he may be either ignorant of or wrong about other truths that are subordinate to the great truth that God’s son has come into this world.

This means that Union in truth is unity in Jesus Christ. If you are in him and I am in him, then we are in union with each other as well as united with him. That unity will be strengthened and deepened by the great doctrinal truths. You may be several grades ahead of me in the “school of Christ” and thus know things I do not yet know. You may be right about some things that I am wrong about. But we are equal in Christ in that the truth has made us the children of God, once it is believed and obeyed.

Can there be any other basis of union than union in Jesus Christ? --- the Editor