MYTHS
OF THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT (5)
W. Carl Ketcherside
There is
a kind of just retribution which providence assesses against those
who make the tragic error of thinking that they alone are the objects
of God’s real love while all other believers are rejected. They
can never know real peace or serenity. They must always be nervous
and distraught for fear there is some point at which they are remiss.
This causes them to be upset and irritable with others to whom they
project their own insecurities and doubts. Too, they are troubled, if
they are really committed to their sectarian stance, by the fact that
they can never wholly free themselves from dependence upon those whom
they have already condemned to eternal destruction.
Let me
illustrate. The very Bible which has become hallowed to some segments
of the “Church of Christ” was produced by forty-seven
scholars commissioned by a King of England. It is a revised version
as it plainly says on the flyleaf “Translated out of the
original tongues and with the former translations diligently compared
and revised.” It was called the authorized version because it
was authorized to be read in the Anglican Churches. It would do a
great many people good to read the superscription addressed “To
the most high and mighty Prince, James, by the grace of God the King
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the faith, etc.”
It was written by Miles Smith, and appeared in the front of the
version until a few years ago.
If John
Overall or Andrew Downes came to one of our meetings they would be
ignored. Certainly they would not be called upon to read the
scripture lesson. But had it not have been for them and their
forty-five colleagues among the translators no one else might read it
either. We owe more than we can ever pay to these scholarly men from
Westminster and Oxford whose work was first published in long ago
1611. Yet, if Michael Greene or John R. W. Stott, from the Church of
England today came among us we could not call upon them to lead in
prayer. As a matter-of-fact, Reuel Lemmons got called upon the carpet
for asking a Christian Church brother to pray at a meeting in Texas.
This shows how ridiculous we have become.
We face
the same problem with the hymns we sing. Those who composed them in
honor of God and Christ were good enough that we can borrow their
compositions, but they were not good enough to lead them if they
visited us. We can bear down on “There Is A Fountain Filled
With Blood,” and can thrill to its pulsations but if William
Cowper were here and came among us we would be uncomfortable and as
cold toward him as the top shelf of our refrigerator. “Amazing
Grace,” written by John Newton, a good friend of Cowper, is
sung in every congregation I know, and song leaders and preacher
alike have commended it, but if Newton showed up we could not ask him
to lead us in it. He is not of us. It is a little like stealing
tomatoes from a neighbor’s garden and refusing to invite him to
eat with us when he comes to visit us.
Even more
absurd is our practice when we are holding a “gospel meeting”
which may consist of lecturing on everything except the Good News. We
print broadsides and brochures which we deliver from door to door,
and in which we exhort our neighbors to “Come worship with us.”
On practically everyone of them occurs the statement “Everyone
welcome.” Anyone who believes that is gullible indeed. You are
welcome only if you come prepared to swallow without question what
has been prepared and is poked down your throat. If you start
questioning some of the suppositions the folk will gather around to
bait and heckle you, with three or four speaking at once, I know,
because I have been to a number of meetings when it turned out that
“Everyone welcome” meant everyone but me.
Some of
our sectarian antics are a little laughable. If a Christian Church
preacher attends one of our meetings the ushers run halfway across
the auditorium to escort him to a seat, hand him a songbook open to
the proper place, and point to the verse the congregation is singing,
as if he could not find it for himself. But to call upon him to lead
in prayer would be a no-no. That’s one place that “Come
worship with us” is canceled out hurriedly. He can sing a
prayer but he cannot say one. If it is set to music it is alright. If
not, just forget it!
What
makes otherwise good neighbors and excellent people engage in such
childish shenanigans? The answer is quite simple. They are operating
on false premises. They have been led to believe that the way to
please God is to mistreat His other children. Their way to
demonstrate loyalty to God is by acting despicably toward others who
also profess to love Him. Actually, the very opposite is the case.
Fortunately those who have begun to think for themselves and are
divesting themselves of the “herd mentality” are fast
outgrowing such behavior. They no longer confuse the “law of
the pack” with the “love of the flock.” Such
development is on an ever-ascending scale. The more who get their
eyes opened the fewer there will be who prefer to walk in the
shadows. Let me detail briefly some of the wrong concepts which have
governed us.
1.
Fellowship is conditioned upon agreement. It is not requisite for
agreement but the very opposite. We are not in the fellowship because
we agree but because we are in the fellowship we strive to come into
agreement. Every commandment to be one, to speak the same things, and
to see things alike was given to those who were already in the
fellowship. Not one was given to bring men into it. Faith in Jesus is
essential to fellowship.
2.
Conformity in knowledge is essential to working together in Jesus and
uniformity of opinion is necessary to our walking together in the
Spirit. The apostolic teaching is that knowledge puffs up while love
builds up (1 Cor. 8:1). The entire fourteenth chapter of Romans was
written to tell us how to get along with brethren with whom we
differ.
3.
Recognition of the relationship with one in Christ means approval of
every idea he espouses. We need to remember that tolerance is not the
endorsement of any thing that is wrong, but the endurance of one who
thinks it is right. Jesus did not receive us because we were right on
everything and will not reject us because we are mistaken about some
things. If one is right about Jesus he can be wrong about a lot of
other things and still be saved; if he is wrong about Jesus, he can
be right about everything else and still be lost.
4. A
false teacher is a mistaken brother who expresses his notions. The
term “false teacher” is found but once in the sacred
scriptures (2 Peter 2:1). He is scripturally identified as one who
“through covetousness shall with feigned words make merchandise
of others.” The idea conveyed by “pseudo” is that
of falsity, misleading or lying, and doing so knowingly. But one can
be honestly mistaken and most people who are branded as “false
teachers” are. They are not deliberately lying and one is not
condoning a lie when he recognizes as a brother one who states his
opinion or deduction.
5.
Because disciples are to judge the world we are entitled to act as a
judiciary to condemn every other believer who disagrees with us about
any doctrinal matter. No so. The fact is that Jesus teaches that we
shall be judged with the judgment with which we judge others. If we
demand that another understand everything just as we do then we shall
have to understand everything just as Jesus does. We will be laid
beside Him to be measured by the same yardstick we have used upon
others. There will thus be no chance for any of us.
So it is
no wonder that we are a jittery people and that we bluster about our
righteousness to cover up our fears. Let us try to cultivate the one
virtue which fulfills the whole law. Every commandment is taken care
of by the one precept to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Unfortunately, we have not become known as a particularly
compassionate, understanding and forgiving people toward each other,
but it is not too late to undo our mistakes.
Resolve
to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single
sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself
felt at the end of the year.—Horace Mann