Soldier On! w/Leroy Garrett   — Occasional Essays

Ouida and I were away from home a week in October on a trip to Kentucky and West Virginia. In company with Ron and Sharlott Hasty, also of Denton, Texas, we flew to Lexington, rented a car, and drove three hours through some of the nation’s most beautiful landscapes to Dunbar, West Virginia. There we visited with Jack and Ruby Gibson, who have lived in the same home for 48 years.

Jack has a passion for Christian unity comparable to that of Thomas Campbell, and he works at it with like diligence. He and Ruby showed us some of that state’s most impressive sights, including the New River Bridge, which is an engineering wonder, and Hawk’s Nest State Park with its breathtaking mountain scenes.

We returned to Lexington to attend Restoration Forum XXIII, where I gave the keynote address on "There Is Something About A City," which was part of the Forum’s theme of Toward One Hope. I pointed out that "the city" has been a central theme in God’s eternal plan for his people, beginning with Abraham and continuing to the last page of the Bible. What Abraham and the patriarchs saw from afar – a heavenly city whose architect and builder is God – John saw at close range as the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. I suggested that Hebrews 13:14 can be a "purple" passage for us all in that it puts in capsule form the "one hope" that unites us in Christ: "Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come."

One reaction to my discourse I found disturbing – several said they had never heard the subject discussed before. God has prepared for us "the holy city" – a real, heavenly city composed of "pure gold, like clear glass" – but we don’t talk about it! When John was allowed to see the city, he was so overcome by it all that he fell down to worship the angel who had shown it to him. And we pay it no mind?

This Forum, held annually, allows us to see friends that we have long loved and admired. It was great to see Henry Webb, retired historian from Milligan College. That college has created an annual lecture in his honor, and I have been asked to be the first lecturer. I will be pleased to do one for Henry! Then there was Dennis Randall, who helped to create the Restoration Forum, and is the only person who has attended all 23 forums. He, along with Doug Foster of ACU and Victor Knowles of Peace on Earth Ministries, both of whom were present, are the ongoing executive committee.

I also got to visit with Sam Stone, former editor of the Christian Standard, who has done so much through the years to heal the divisions among us. Then there was David Faust, president of both Cincinnati Bible Seminary and the North American Christian Convention, who has plans – along with Rick Atchley of Churches of Christ – to do something substantial at the next Convention in 2006 to repudiate and reverse the division between Churches of Christ and Christian Churches that dates back to 1906. Great things are happening.

Beside such notable leaders there were many from the rank and file in the churches – where it all has to happen – that are always a delight to be with. One person deserves special mention. Back in 1955 when I was jailed by Freed-Hardeman College, the president of the college published a defense for his action in the Gospel Advocate. This was accompanied by an affidavit signed by 26 preachers, supporting the president for what he had done.

One of these was Don Flatt, who at that time was president of the student body. and who has since been a distinguished professor in a Kentucky state university. He was at the Forum for one special reason – to apologize to me personally for signing that affidavit. He had always regretted it, he told me, and now he would get on his knees to apologize if need be. I assured him that I had forgiven him a half century ago, along with all the others involved in that unseemly affair.

Don wanted me to meet his lovely wife Carolyn, who was also a student at Freed-Hardeman at the time. She is nobly fighting an ongoing battle with cancer. She was encouraged by what I had to say about our hope of a heavenly city where all tears will be wiped away, and where there will be no more death, no more pain, no more sorrow.

Don and I are keeping in touch. We are not only praying for Carolyn together, but we are rejoicing over the strange set of circumstances that have made us friends in our old age. Going to jail has its rewards – even 50 years later!

A special feature of this year’s Forum was a pilgrimage to nearby Cane Ridge, the birthplace of the Stone-Campbell Movement – at least the Stone side. And it was there in the old Cane Ridge Church (built in the 1790s) that one of our founding documents was signed, The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery (1804). This was all set in motion by the great revival that took place there in 1801. Barton W. Stone is buried near the old log meetinghouse, now encased and protected by a larger stone structure.

At a service together in the old log church I was asked to say a few words and to lead the visitors in prayer. I opined that it was likely on these grounds that Barton W. Stone first had his vision of one, holy, apostolic, and catholic church, and it may have been here that he first came up with that great line that so well defines who we are as a people, "Let Christian unity be our polar star."

As we held hands across the room where it all happened, I thanked the Lord for our rich heritage, for what had happened on those grounds for the cause of evangelism. unity, and freedom. I asked that the torch of truth and liberty passed on to us by our forebears might burn even more brightly in our generation, and then passed on to those who follow us -- the more the torch is shaken the brighter it burns.

Beside all this, there was, for me at least, special memories of Lexington, a city that might be called "ground zero" of the Stone-Campbell heritage. When we met at the historic Broadway Christian Church for our first meeting, I recalled J. W. McGarvey, longtime minister of that church and the renowned scholar at the then nearby College of the Bible. I noted that we in Churches of Christ in particular need to revive the spirit of McGarvey, who, though he was adamantly opposed to instrumental music, he never made it a test of fellowship, and he never allowed it to be divisive in his own ministry.

We were but a short distance from where once stood the High Street Christian Church where the Stone and Campbell movements were united into one church pleading for the restoration of primitive Christianity. It was 1832. Barton Stone helped to make it happen, along with John T. Johnson and Raccoon John Smith. Stone in his autobiography deemed the occasion as "the noblest act of my life."

Raccoon John Smith was the keynote speaker. He drew a crucial distinction between faith and opinion. There may be a thousand opinions, he noted, but there is but one faith – and it is faith, not opinions, that unites us. Then came his memorable lines that led to the union of the two groups, "Let us no longer be Stoneites or Campbellites, or New lights or Old Lights, but let us come to the Bible and the Bible alone, which is the only light we need."

After that moving call for unity, Barton Stone joined Raccoon at the podium and shook his hand as a symbol of their new oneness – Raccoon represented the Campbell side, Alexander Campbell himself not being present. It has been referred to as "the handshake that shook the frontier," for our people went on not only to be the first ones in American history to effect a union of two churches, but to become one of the fastest growing movements – one with the purpose of uniting the Christians in all the sects.

It all started in Lexington.

Nine years later in 1841 there was what I call Lexington II -- a unity meeting in which all churches were invited to participate. It was John T. Johnson who drafted the invitation, which read: "As the union of Christians is most desirable being of eternal importance, the great object being to ascertain the scriptural bond of union, in order to its accomplishment."

He went on to say that "The olive branch of peace is held out to all parties" and that they were "pressingly and affectionately invited to participate." James Fishback, a prominent Baptist minister who joined the Stone-Campbell reformation, but who never accepted the doctrine of baptism for remission, and Alexander Campbell, who had not been present for Lexington I, were the speakers.

Both men addressed the proposition, "Resolved, That Christian unity is practicable." Fishback, a learned man, appealed to Scripture as the only bond for unity. On the question of baptism, which was as controversial then as it is now, if not more so, Fishback, proposed that differences be allowed on that subject in a spirit of unity. Campbell apparently agreed with this.

As for the question the meeting was called to answer -- on what basis do Christians unite? – Campbell set forth a groundbreaking resolution, one that we have failed to appreciate to this very day.

"Resolved, that the union of Christians can be scripturally effected by requiring a practical acknowledgment of such articles of belief and such rules of piety and morality as are admitted by all Christian denominations." Campbell requested a standing vote for all who approved the resolution. An immense audience stood in unison, without a single negative vote.

Campbell was far ahead of his time in this plea for union, and far beyond where most of us are today. We can unite on the beliefs that we all hold in common. Implied is the proposition that we allow for liberty of opinion in areas where we disagree. What a liberating proposition, and how beautifully simple! And it is almost certainly the only way that unity can be realized. In time Campbell was to call this "the catholic rule for unity" -- that is, we unite on what the church everywhere believes. Not the peculiarities of each party – these are opinions, preferences – but upon the universals believed in common, particularly as they relate to Jesus Christ.

It all happened in Lexington. Lexington I was our witness to unity among ourselves. Lexington II was our witness to the unity of the church universal.

We do well to remember Lexington.

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