Essay 36 (7-3-04)

 

"WE WILL THAT THIS BODY DIE": 200 YEARS LATER

 

I greatly admire that little document of but five pages called The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery. Back in 1979 in  my journal Restoration Review I celebrated its 175th anniversary with an editorial titled : "175 Years Later: 'Let This Body Die.'" In that editorial I noted that we should not let 1979 pass without giving tribute to what our pioneers did back in 1804 -- an acceptable date for the beginning of Churches of Christ/Christian Churches in this country. I added: "We are their heirs, and we are less than faithful to our heritage if we fail to emulate their faith and courage."

 

  A few years later -- in the 1987 Restoration Review -- I wrote about that little document again under the title "Pray More And Dispute Less." That is a quotation from the document, one more thing that its authors "willed" to those that would receive it -- "We will that preachers and people cultivate a spirit of mutual forbearance; pray more and dispute less." I noted that our problem in recent generations has been that we reversed the order -- we've disputed more and prayed less! I also observed that their call for forbearance was in keeping with the apostolic plea -- "Preserve the Spirit's unity with forbearing love" (Eph. 4:2-3). I pointed out that those pioneers -- like the apostle Paul -- in calling for forbearance recognized that there would be differences and diversities to deal with -- otherwise there would be nothing to forbear. They were calling for unity in diversity. We can differ -- at least on marginal issues -- and still be one together in the body of Christ.

 

  Earlier this year at the ACU Lectures I helped celebrate the document's 200th anniversary -- 1804-2004.  I  presented a paper on "Freedom in The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery."  I ventured to list seven freedoms I found there. Quoting extensively from the document in listing the freedoms, I reproduced a large part of it.

 

  You might be interested in seeing them here. They should give you a feel for what the document is about.

 

  1. Freedom from Separatism

 

      "We will that 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, even as we are called in one hope of our calling."

 

  2. Freedom to Study the Bible

 

      "We will that the people may have free course to the Bible."

 

  3. Freedom from Arbitrary External Authority

 

      "We will that the church of Christ resume her native right of internal government . . . and choose her own preacher, and support him by a free will offering . . . and never  henceforth delegate her right of government to any man or set of men whatever."

 

  4. Freedom from the Creeds of Men

 

      "We will that the people henceforth take the Bible as the only sure guide to heaven . . . and cast the other books into the fire."

 

  5. Freedom from Divisive Disputation

 

      "We will that preachers and people cultivate a spirit of mutual forbearance; pray more and dispute less."

 

  6. Free the Oppressed!

 

      "We will that the Synod of Kentucky examine every member who may be suspected of having departed from the Confession of Faith, and suspend every such suspected heretic immediately -- in order that the oppressed may go free, and taste the sweets of gospel liberty."

 

  7. Freedom from Partyism

 

     "We will that Ja---, the author of two letters lately published in Lexington, be encouraged in his zeal to destroy partyism."

 

  The document's bicentennial was especially celebrated at the place of its inception -- Cane Ridge in Kentucky -- this summer.  Leaders from all three churches of the Movement were there. There were stirring messages on the imperative of unity in the body of Christ, which properly reflects the message of the document. I could be there only in spirit. At the same time I was helping the First Christian Church in Garland, Tx. celebrate their Heritage Sunday -- a church that dates back to the 1870s. I told them that when their church began we were still a united people pleading for "the unity of all the Christians in the sects" -- and not divided into three churches as we are today.

 

  In sharing with them about their heritage, I told them we would have never divided -- as Alexander Campbell said we wouldn't -- had we been true to the principles of unity set forth by our pioneers. I told them that those principles were set forth in a brief document called The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery -- drawn up 200 years ago this very week! It was written and signed by five former Presbyterian ministers -- Barton W. Stone being one of them --who were so influenced by a great revival at Cane Ridge three years earlier that they resolved to reject all forms of sectarianism and be Christians only.

 

    Struggling to find their way as reformers, they early on created -- as good Presbyterians would -- a presbytery for their several congregations that they called The Springfield Presbytery. But it was not and they were not really Presbyterian any longer -- just Christians, the name their congregations took. As they studied the Scriptures together with an eye for reformation, changes kept coming. When they resolved to be baptized by immersion -- and finding no one at hand who would oblige them -- they proceeded to immerse each other.

 

   Now having hearts for the unity of all God's people -- and a disdain for divisions among Christians -- they feared the presbytery they had created might be an obstacle to their plea. They resolved to lay it to rest. Their method of doing so was a stroke of genius -- perhaps inspired by the Holy Spirit. They drew up a "Last Will and Testament" for their dying ecclesiastical body! One might see a touch of humor in it all, and it is a bit quizzical. They were serious, but they were having fun -- such as, after willing that the people take the Bible as the only sure guide to heaven, they urged that all other books (creeds) be "cast into the fire if they choose; for it is better to enter into life having one book, than having many to be cast into hell."

 

  The document gives us one line that captures the genius of the Movement, "We will that 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, even as we are called in one hope of our calling."  They not only saw that the church by its very nature is one, but that any form of sectarianism is inimical to that one church. Sects therefore should not exist; they should make out a will and die -- including our own!

 

  All this was going on -- which was the beginning of the Barton W. Stone movement -- while Alexander Campbell  was still a teenager back in Ireland. While it shows that Stone had precedence over Campbell in time, it also shows that the Stone movement already had in place the things that Campbell would later champion -- and do so very well indeed.

 

  In fact, Campbell was so obviously the one to lead the Movement that Stone himself recognized this early on. "I am constrained, and willingly constrained," he said, "to acknowledge him the greatest promoter of this reformation than any man living."

 

  By now at First Christian in Garland I had donned my raccoon cap and cane and was portraying Raccoon John Smith before the combined classes. They had read in my autobiography that I fooled around in this manner and wanted to see it for themselves. 

 

  Raccoon went on to tell how the older Stone showed such grace to the younger Campbell as to say, "I will not say there are no faults in brother Campbell; but that there are fewer perhaps in him than any man I know on earth."

 

  Then Raccoon said, "While it's a big word for a country preacher like me, that's what I call magnanimity."

 

  I'll borrow a word from Raccoon and say that is what I make of one of our founding documents, The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, bequeathed to us two centuries ago this summer by frontier pathfinders for Christian unity. It is magnanimous.

 

  It tells us who we are or who we are supposed to be.