Essay 91 (9-25-05)

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL'S BIBLICAL DISTINCTIONS (1)

The Jesuits suggest three rules for the discipline of the mind: Never deny, seldom affirm, always distinguish. The first urges caution and forbearance toward affirmations with which we differ. Rather than to contradict what a person says, allow it room to breathe into life. If it is false, it will die its own death. The second rule would save us from being dogmatists. It is better to humbly suggest than to brazenly affirm.

The third rule has particular virtue in that in making distinctions we will be wiser in the conclusions we draw. For example, language is not always spoken to inform; it may be to express feeling. An irate person may be telling me "how it is" and telling me off along with it. I am to distinguish between things said to inform and things said to express feeling, and so I am to realize that he is offended and hurting. I am not, therefore, to try to answer what he says, but to assure him that I understand how he feels.

And certainly we draw distinctions in terms of opportunity and responsibility. Opportunity measures responsibility. As Paul puts it in reference to giving: "It is accepted according to what one has, not according to what he has not (2 Cor 8:12). In some golf matches players are given a "handicap" when playing more gifted golfers. In church we are not always that generous. We tend to judge all alike, even when Jude 22 urges us to "On some have compassion, making a distinction." For some of us life goes rather easily, while others struggle under great hardship. And the difference is not always evident.

Always distinguish! This applies to biblical studies as well as to life in general. I have noticed this particularly in the writings of Alexander Campbell. To recognize some of the distinctions he drew will help us to better understand the nature of the reformation he led.

1. Personal faith, doctrinal faith

Campbell’s personal physician and co-laborer, Dr. Robert Richardson, who was also the Movement’s first historian, named this distinction as the most significant. He in fact named it as the distinguishing mark of reformers like Campbell and Stone over against the sects around them. While the sects saw faith in terms of fidelity to particular doctrines of this or that creed – and judged people accordingly -- Campbell and his people taught that faith is both personal and in a Person.

"So long as they hold to the Head who is Christ" was the only test Campbell was willing to make. "I declare non-fellowship with no man who owns the Lord in word and deed," he insisted. "Such is a Christian." One might be "faithful" to Christ, he held, and yet deemed "unfaithful" by some sect.

This may well be the most liberating truth of our heritage -- that faith is a matter of personal trust in Jesus as Lord, and not in the tenets of some sect. To be a "good Mormon" or a "good Jehovah’s Witness" or even a "good Baptist" usually has reference to a set of doctrines. But to be simply a Christian means only fidelity to a Person sent by God to be the Savior of the world.

2. Errors of the mind, errors of the heart

Some errors are far more serious than others. Campbell noted that God never condemns mere imbecility of mind, while he scorns errors of the heart – pride, arrogance, insincerity, hypocrisy, hatred, envy. Even an angel might be mistaken, Campbell allowed. One might be mistaken in a myriad of doctrines, and yet be right about Christ and right in heart.

This explains why Campbell held that sincerity of heart is the basis of one’s acceptance before God. As Is. 66:2 has it: "This is the person to whom I will look, the one who is of a humble and contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word." Sincerity means to have a heart for God, and to humbly seek to do his will. Insincerity, on the other hand, is consumed by self-will, and it destroys the soul and separates one from God.

3. Willful ignorance, unwillful ignorance

A distinction must be drawn between one who is ignorant through no fault of his own, and the one who chooses to be ignorant. One who doesn’t know because he has never heard is to be distinguished from one who has heard but rejects. Campbell would, I think, be comfortable with the proposition that God rejects only those who reject him

Our Lord clearly made this distinction: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin" (Jn.15:22). He also made it clear that God does not expect a blind man to see – so long as it is unwillful blindness: "If you were blind you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains" (Jn. 9:41).

4. Facts, truths

While all facts are truths, all truths are not facts. A fact is something said or done – action – while a truth is what is. Webster defines a fact as a deed, something done. God is love is a truth but not a fact, and if God had only loved and not acted, we would yet be lost. That God gave his own Son is a fact. God is a truth; God created is a fact.

The gospel is made up of facts – what God has done through Christ – the death (for our sins), burial, and resurrection of Jesus. There are many truths in the Bible, but it is only facts – what God has said and done – that save the soul.

And it is only that which saves us that unites us. So, we unite only upon facts, which need no theorizing, no interpretation. We either believe the facts or we reject them. Truths on the other hand – such as "the Father and I are one" – allow for different interpretations. Facts need no interpretation, for they are deeds done for us by God that we either accept or reject, believe or disbelieve.

Campbell was fond of referring to "the seven superlative facts of Ephesians 4," which he sometimes summarized as "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," as the basis of Christian unity. There may be opinions (theology) about these facts, and here we allow for differences, he allowed, but it is the facts themselves that unite us – and that save us.

Opinions never saved -- or damned -- anyone, It is only faith (trust in facts of what God has said or done) that saves, and only that which saves us can unite us. That is the essence of our heritage in Stone-Campbell.

(To be continued)

Notes

All previous essays are available at leroygarrett.org

Names will be added on request. Send requests to Leroy Garrett.

You are invited to Restoration Forum XXIII, Oct. 16-18, Lexington, Ky. The theme is "Toward One Hope." I am to give the keynote address at the historic Broadway Christian Church on the first evening. A pilgrimage will be made to nearby Cane Ridge Meeting House, the cradle of the Restoration Movement. This is a unity effort between Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. Registration is $30 single, $45 couple. For further info: Pam Ortman at 859-272-7022.

We can supply two books I have written: The Stone-Campbell Movement: The Story of the American Restoration Movement ($35 postpaid), and A Lover’s Quarrel: My Pilgrimage of Freedom in Churches of Christ ($15 postpaid). Make check to Leroy Garrett and send to 1300 Woodlake Dr., Denton, TX 76210.