On the left side of the cenotaph is the engraving of Walter Scott (died 1861), the fourth of our founding heroes. He was our great evangelist, and from him we learn that apart from evangelism there can never be a worldwide, ecumenical, united church. The quotations from him inform us what that evangelism should be. Rather than a proclamation of dogma, theology, or some church or ism, the gospel to be preached is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior of the world.

One responds to the gospel through faith, repentance, and baptism, and God in turn grants remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. 1. Faith, 2. Repentance, 3. Baptism, 4. Remission of sins, 5. Gift of the Holy Spirit. It came to be called Walter Scott’s "Five finger exercise."

The way I learned it at Freed-Hardeman College, a Churches of Christ school in this same state, was hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized. Five fingers well enough, but only what man does, and nothing about what God does. And the gift of the Holy Spirit is left out.

Once in an essay to our folk in Churches of Christ I asked, "Whatever happened to Walter Scott’s fifth finger?" Have we not amputated it, having retired the Holy Spirit on Social Security?

Walter Scott, who baptized thousands, making our people a viable force on the frontier, teaches us that Christian unity can never be a reality except through the Holy Spirit’s presence in the life of the church.

And he gives us what may be the greatest unity principle of all – that we are to preach a simple message – that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord and the savior of the world – and that the response to the gospel is equally simple and understandable: believe in Jesus Christ as Lord, repent of your sins, and be baptized into his name. God in his grace then grants remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The last principle of unity that I draw from our Restoration heritage is the dissolution of sects and denominations in lieu of simply the body of Christ.

We learn this from Barton Stone and his fellow Presbyterian ministers, who, when they decided to be "Christians only," resolved to dissolve the church or ecclesiasticism they had created, called the Springfield Presbytery – lest it compromise their plea for unity.

In what they called "The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery" (1804), they wrote these bold words, "Let this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the body of Christ at large, for there is but one body and one Spirit."

These words may be revolutionary, even revolting, but these pioneers caught the vision of what must happen before our Lord’s prayer can be realized – sects and denominations must die, be dissolved, and sink – or better – rise into union with the body of Christ at large.

Let the churches die! There should be no Baptist church, Methodist church, Roman Catholic church, Churches of Christ, Independent Christian churches. There is but one church – and it is by its very nature one -- the one body of Christ.

This means that in a united church we will still gather in different assemblies or congregations, and we will still have our traditions – small "t" traditions that will give way to the capital "T"  tradition of being only the body of Christ that assembles at this or that location, and that is united in Christ with all those in other locations.

No more churches, no more denominations, no more sects. We will be simply Christians, disciples, friends, people of "the Way" – all in the one community of faith on earth, awaiting a savior from heaven.

And that one body of Christ will be made up of members who are truly followers of Jesus who have learned the cost of discipleship – and not just admirers of Jesus.

This will bring peace to a troubled and terrorized world.

Note

During these lectures there was a luncheon for area preachers, mostly from Independent Christian Churches, guests of Milligan College. I spoke to them about some of the recent unity efforts within the Stone-Campbell heritage

I described in some detail the recent publication – by an international publisher – of The Stone-Campbell Encyclopedia, the work of all three churches – Disciples of Christ, Churches of Christ, Christian Churches. I told them it was a monumental production of which we could be proud, and we did it as if we were a united people, with scores from all three churches serving as editors and authors.

I also told them of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue, a discussion group that began a few years ago with nine participants, three from each church. It has since grown to three or four times that number, with equal representation from each group, women as well as men. It began with prayer, confession, and repentance over the way we have treated each other in the past. I told them that I thought it was the most promising unity efforts among us.

Henry Webb, for whom the lectures were named, was one of the original members of the Dialogue. He gave a moving testimonial of how the group confessed the sin of division to each other, resolving to work for unity among our divided people. He testified that he never even dreamed that such a thing could occur, that he was old enough to remember all the bad blood, but now a spirit of brotherly love and a passion for unity prevailed.

I also told them of what had just happened at the ACU Lectures. Two of our preachers – one from the largest Church of Christ and the other from the largest Christian church – have assumed the leadership of a significant effort in 2006 to reverse the division that took place among us back in 1906. Both of them, Rick Atchley and Bob Russell, spoke at ACU, vowing to dedicate their lives to such an effort. They have jointly edited a book -- Together Again – and the North American Christian Convention (Christian Churches) is planning a kind of "summit" for this effort in assembly in July, with large numbers from both churches on the program and in attendance.

It was an exciting luncheon, and it went well with our emphasis on unity. We all agreed that God is surely doing a work in our time that we would not have believed if someone had told us, as Habakukk put it. Don Jeanes, president of Milligan College, told me he would like to bring the Atchley-Russell team to Milligan next year for the 2007 Webb Lectures.