The
Hope of the Believer . . . Restoration Review, Vol. 31, No. 4, April 1989
I
am more encouraged each day as the "fellowship-gap" continues to
narrow. How we thank God for men of goodwill! These are challenging times.
—Don DeWelt, Joplin, Mo. I
want to add my name to those giving tribute to you and Carl Ketcherside. I
do not have words to express how much I have been blessed by the wonderful
truths you have led me to in the Scriptures. It is so precious to be set
free from legalism into the sunshine of freedom, - Rachel
Howard, Anderson, In. I
read your paper, as I have always done, from cover to cover! You help me to
think more clearly on various subjects and I learn. We may not always agree,
which is no surprise to us, but you are my brother and my friend, and I love
you. — Charles
Holt, Box 21584, Chattanooga, Tn. 37421 (This
brother publishes a paper entitled The
Examiner six times a year, which you will find stimulating. In reading
it you might think the editor is angry with the status quo, but you are to
remember that anger is often characteristic of a prophet.
There is no subscription charge. Write to him at address given. — Ed.) Your
paper brings productive thoughts, joy, peace, encouragement, and a
diminished
inclination to judge others. I am brought to tears of joy and thanksgiving
that at last "one of our own" can visit other seekers and servers
and report in a loving discourse. Thanks for being the channel that let us
share the thoughts of Cecil Hook, Randie Massie, and others. — Harold
Bost, Ft. Worth, Tx. The
notion that the scriptures of the New Testament were meant to be normative
for the Church cannot possibly stand up under careful study. Since these
scriptures were collected during the second and third centuries, and were
not finally chosen and adopted until the fourth century, it is impossible to
assume that they could have been normative for the first century church.
Furthermore, the assumption that they should be normative for the
contemporary church because they were normative for the first century church
(or at least should have been) is without merit, and carries no conviction
of
authenticity among the leaders of any of the branches of the Church today
except those who hang on to fundamentalism. This view does not make the Holy
Scriptures any less important for the Church, but it does show the folly of
basing an entire theological approach upon a false premise, particularly
when this approach leads those who hold it to create divisions within
Christ's Church. —Comer Shacklett, Westfield, N.J. I
especially enjoy your visiting-other-churches series. It is unfortunate that
most of us do not expose ourselves to or interact with those in other
churches. When one does this it breaks down the gulf created by an
"us" and "them" mentality. — Stephen
Allison, Knoxville, Tn. |