HERALD OF GOSPEL LIBERTY
Elias Smith
Springfield Presbytery,
June 28th, 1804.
Revival of Religion--and Reformation in Kentucky.
Within seven years past, there has been the greatest out-pouring of the Spirit of God, in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the adjacent parts, even known since the settlement of North-America. It has been extended not only to the conversion of Atheists, Deists, and men of wretched characters, of every rank, from the highest to the lowest: but it has produced a reformation in those who had formerly professed religion under the fashionable party names [denominational names] now contended for in the world.
It is our design in future numbers, to give the readers an account of the beginning and progress of the revival, and, the view those reformed ministers and churches have of the church of Christ, as described in the New Testament.
Those men have agreed to give up all the party names and rules made by men, and to name the name of Christ, and walk by his rule, which is the New Testament. The Presbyterians of Springfield have dissolved the Presbyterian body, and have given an account of it to the public in the following singular curious will; called, "The last will and testament of the SPRINGFIELD PRESBYTERY.
The PRESBYTERY OF SPRINGFIELD, sitting at Caneridge, in the county of Bourbon, being through a gracious Providence, in more than ordinary bodily health, growing in strength and size daily, and in perfect soundness and composure of mind; but knowing that it is appointed for all delegated bodies once to die and considering that the life of every such body is very uncertain, do make and ordain this our Last Will and Testament, in manner and form following, viz:
Imprimis. 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.
Item. We will, that our name of distinction, with its Reverend title, be forgotten, that there be but one Lord over God's heritage, and his name one.
Item. We will, that our power of making laws for the government of the church, and executing them by delegated authority, forever cease; that, the people may have free course to the Bible, and adopt the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Item. We will, that candidates for the Gospel ministry henceforth study the holy scriptures with fervent prayer, and obtain license from God to preach the simple Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, without any mixture of philosophy, vain deceit, traditions of men, the rudiments of the world. And let none henceforth take this honor to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
Item. We will, that the church of Christ assume her native right of internal government--try her candidates for the ministry, as to their soundness in the faith, acquaintance with experimental religion, gravity and aptness to teach; and admit no other proof of their authority, but Christ speaking in them. We will that the church of Christ look up to the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into his harvest; and that she resume her primitive right of trying those who say they are Apostles, and are not.
Item. We will, that each particular church, as a body, actuated by the same spirit, choose her own preacher, and support him by a free will offering without written call or subscription--admit members--remove offences; and never henceforth delegate her right of government to any man or set of men whatever.
Item. We will, that the people henceforth take the Bible as the only sure guide to heaven; and as many as are offended with other books, which stand in competition with it, may cast them 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.
Item. We will, that preachers and people, cultivate a spirit of mutual forbearance, pray more and dispute less; and while they behold the signs of the times, look up and confidently expect that redemption draweth nigh.
Item. We will, that our weak brethren, who may have been wishing to make the Presbytery of Springfield their king, and wot not what is now become of it, betake themselves to the rock of ages, and follow Jesus for the future.
Item. 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.
Item. We will, that Ja---------, the author of two letters lately published in Lexington, be encouraged in his zeal to destroy partyism. We will, moreover, that our past conduct be examined into by all who may have correct information; but let foreigners beware of speaking evil of things which they know not.
Item. Finally we will, that all our sister bodies, read their Bibles carefully, that they may see their fate there determined, and prepare for death before it is too late.
COMMENT
While their motives were pure, some thought they were too sudden in their action, and were "throwing the baby out with the bathwater." Some degree of cooperation is needed for the congregations to function. And it will not do for congregations in an area to fight each other rather than Satan.
When the Stone Christians and the Campbell Disciples recognized (merged?) each other in Lexington KY 1832, not all were happy. Some Stone Christians maintained their separate existence to eventually become part of the United Church of Christ.
But the church is what God says she is. "Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity." 2 Tim 2:19 (NKJV)
"For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one Spirit." 1 Cor 12:13 (NKJV)
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
THE HOLY SPIRIT
CAMPBELL ON THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD
What does the Bible say? First we read all the references in the Bible and we learn from them. When we think of God, He is unknowable, yet He has revealed Himself to us as Father/Son/Holy Spirit. In our English language, God is "He" even though HE is not a human. But He - The Eternal Word - came as Jesus in flesh & blood, skin & bones. He also comes in The Holy Spirit Who will be with us forever. I have revised a few of Campell's words to make them more understandable today. R.D.Ice
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL
CHAPTER V.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
I. As there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the Spirit of God. They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God." There is in this case an image of God in man--not, indeed, an exact image, but an image; for as Paul says of the law, so say we of man; "For the law had a shadow, (a resemblance) of good things to come, and not the very (or exact) image of the things." So man was made an image of God, though not the exact image--the active power of man is in his spirit: so John the Baptist came in the power of Elijah, because he came in his spirit. The Spirit of God is therefore often used for his power; though it is not an impersonal power, but a living, energizing, active, personal existence. Hence, in all the works of God, the Spirit of God is the active, operating agent. Thus in the old creation, while ancient chaos yet remained--when "the earth was without form, and void, and darkness brooded on the bosom of the vast abyss," "the Spirit of God moved"--(incubated and energized)--"upon the face of the waters." "The hand of the Lord has made me, and the Spirit of the Almighty has given me life." "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee;" and thus was chaos subdued, man vitalized, "the heavens garnished," and the body of Jesus made by the Spirit of God.
II. The Spirit is said to do, and to have done all that God does and all that God has done. He has ascribed to Him all divine perfections and works; and in the New Testament He is designated as the immediate author and agent of the new creation, and of the holiness of Christians. He is therefore called THE HOLY SPIRIT. In the sublime and ineffable relation of the Deity, or Godhead, He stands next to the Incarnate Word. Anciently, or before time, He was GOD, the WORD of God, and the SPIRIT of God. But now, in the development of the Christian scheme, it is "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"--one God, one Lord, one Spirit. To us Christians there is, then, but one God, even the Father; and one Lord Jesus Christ, even the Saviour; and one Spirit, even the Advocate, the Sanctifier, and the Comforter [Helper] of Christ's body, the church. Jesus is the HEAD, and the Spirit is the LIFE and animating principle of that body.
III. The whole systems of creation, providence, and redemption, are founded upon these relations within the Deity. Destroy these, blend and confound these, and nature, providence, and grace, are blended, confounded, and destroyed. The peerless and supreme excellency of the Christian system is, that it fully opens to the vision of mortals the Divinity--the whole Godhead employed in the work of man's regeneration and ultimate glorification. God is manifest in human flesh, and is justified and glorified by the Spirit, in accomplishing man's deliverance from ruin. Each name of the sacred three has His own distinctive work and glory in the three great works of Creation, Government, and Redemption. Hence, we are by divine authority, "immersed (baptized) into The Name of the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY SPIRIT," in coming into the kingdom of grace; and while in that kingdom the supreme benediction is--"The GRACE of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the LOVE of GOD, and the COMMUNION of the HOLY SPIRIT be with you!" Indeed in the old Jewish church that was in the wilderness, while matters were comparatively in the shadows of a moonlight age, the high priest of Israel was commanded to put "the NAME of God" upon the children of Israel--in the same relation of the sacred three. "The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be GRACIOUS unto thee. The Lord lift up his COUNTENANCE upon thee, and give thee peace." Jehovah bless thee--is equal to "the love of God." Jehovah be GRACIOUS unto thee, answers to "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ"--and Jehovah lift up his COUNTENANCE upon thee and give thee peace, corresponds to "the communion of the Spirit."
IV. God is a mystery, yet revealed to us in The Son, the Eternal Word of John 1:1. The GODHEAD is so inwrought and incorporated with all the parts of the sacred Books--so identified with all the dispensations of religion, and so essential to the mediatorship of Christ, that it is impossible to make any real and divine proficiency in the true knowledge of God--of man--of reconciliation--or remission of sins--of eternal life--or in the piety and divine life of Christ's religion--without a clear and distinct perception of Who God Is, as well as a firm and unshaken faith and confidence in Him, as we trust still to make more evident in the sequel.
What does the Bible say? First we read all the references in the Bible and we learn from them. When we think of God, He is unknowable, yet He has revealed Himself to us as Father/Son/Holy Spirit. In our English language, God is "He" even though HE is not a human. But He - The Eternal Word - came as Jesus in flesh & blood, skin & bones. He also comes in The Holy Spirit Who will be with us forever. I have revised a few of Campell's words to make them more understandable today. R.D.Ice
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL
CHAPTER V.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
I. As there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the Spirit of God. They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. "What man knoweth the things of a man," says Paul, "but the spirit of man that is in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God." There is in this case an image of God in man--not, indeed, an exact image, but an image; for as Paul says of the law, so say we of man; "For the law had a shadow, (a resemblance) of good things to come, and not the very (or exact) image of the things." So man was made an image of God, though not the exact image--the active power of man is in his spirit: so John the Baptist came in the power of Elijah, because he came in his spirit. The Spirit of God is therefore often used for his power; though it is not an impersonal power, but a living, energizing, active, personal existence. Hence, in all the works of God, the Spirit of God is the active, operating agent. Thus in the old creation, while ancient chaos yet remained--when "the earth was without form, and void, and darkness brooded on the bosom of the vast abyss," "the Spirit of God moved"--(incubated and energized)--"upon the face of the waters." "The hand of the Lord has made me, and the Spirit of the Almighty has given me life." "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee;" and thus was chaos subdued, man vitalized, "the heavens garnished," and the body of Jesus made by the Spirit of God.
II. The Spirit is said to do, and to have done all that God does and all that God has done. He has ascribed to Him all divine perfections and works; and in the New Testament He is designated as the immediate author and agent of the new creation, and of the holiness of Christians. He is therefore called THE HOLY SPIRIT. In the sublime and ineffable relation of the Deity, or Godhead, He stands next to the Incarnate Word. Anciently, or before time, He was GOD, the WORD of God, and the SPIRIT of God. But now, in the development of the Christian scheme, it is "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit"--one God, one Lord, one Spirit. To us Christians there is, then, but one God, even the Father; and one Lord Jesus Christ, even the Saviour; and one Spirit, even the Advocate, the Sanctifier, and the Comforter [Helper] of Christ's body, the church. Jesus is the HEAD, and the Spirit is the LIFE and animating principle of that body.
III. The whole systems of creation, providence, and redemption, are founded upon these relations within the Deity. Destroy these, blend and confound these, and nature, providence, and grace, are blended, confounded, and destroyed. The peerless and supreme excellency of the Christian system is, that it fully opens to the vision of mortals the Divinity--the whole Godhead employed in the work of man's regeneration and ultimate glorification. God is manifest in human flesh, and is justified and glorified by the Spirit, in accomplishing man's deliverance from ruin. Each name of the sacred three has His own distinctive work and glory in the three great works of Creation, Government, and Redemption. Hence, we are by divine authority, "immersed (baptized) into The Name of the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY SPIRIT," in coming into the kingdom of grace; and while in that kingdom the supreme benediction is--"The GRACE of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the LOVE of GOD, and the COMMUNION of the HOLY SPIRIT be with you!" Indeed in the old Jewish church that was in the wilderness, while matters were comparatively in the shadows of a moonlight age, the high priest of Israel was commanded to put "the NAME of God" upon the children of Israel--in the same relation of the sacred three. "The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be GRACIOUS unto thee. The Lord lift up his COUNTENANCE upon thee, and give thee peace." Jehovah bless thee--is equal to "the love of God." Jehovah be GRACIOUS unto thee, answers to "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ"--and Jehovah lift up his COUNTENANCE upon thee and give thee peace, corresponds to "the communion of the Spirit."
IV. God is a mystery, yet revealed to us in The Son, the Eternal Word of John 1:1. The GODHEAD is so inwrought and incorporated with all the parts of the sacred Books--so identified with all the dispensations of religion, and so essential to the mediatorship of Christ, that it is impossible to make any real and divine proficiency in the true knowledge of God--of man--of reconciliation--or remission of sins--of eternal life--or in the piety and divine life of Christ's religion--without a clear and distinct perception of Who God Is, as well as a firm and unshaken faith and confidence in Him, as we trust still to make more evident in the sequel.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
THE GREAT COMMUNION AT PITTSBURGH
The Pittsburgh Centennial Oct. 11, 1909
I wrote about this in 1978 for the Firm Foundation church paper, Reuel Lemmons, Editor. History is about things which actually happened, and how we understand these things. Jack Hayford said: "Ministry is doing what you do with what you have been given - God's idea for you. Ministry is the way things work on God's terms. Grace & forgiveness toward others. Process life, not by reason, but by revelation. Reasonable, and reasoning, but guided by revelation. Satan wants to derail God's purpose for your life." We sometimes build with "gold, silver, precious stones," but at other times with "wood, hay, straw," and "the fire will test each one's work" 1 Cor. 3:10-17. We trust in the "righteousness which is by faith" Phil. 3:9-11. R.D.Ice
In 1809 Thomas Campbell (the father) published a paper on Unity called The Declaration And Address. 100 years later a celebration was planned to take place at Pittsburgh. 200 years later, October 4th 2009, some churches plan a Great Communion Celebration based on Christ's Prayer in John ch 17.
In June of 1907, Lipscomb wrote in reply to the Census Bureau and made it plain that the churches of Christ no longer had any connection with the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. History shows both sides paid a high price for this division!
This is important to set the stage for the Centennial celebration of the Restoration Movement, which was planned for October 11, 1909. Even though this was entirely planned and carried out by the Disciples, some from the churches of Christ participated in this also: notably J. W. McGarvey (who was in his eightieth year), F. L Rowe of the Christian Leader paper, and my grandfather, Dr. Kromer C. Ice, MD. Some, like J. W. McGarvey, attempted to continue their connection with both the Disciples and the churches of Christ.
In preparation for the big day, some 208,000 letters were mailed, a million copies of 23 leaflets and tracts were distributed, and the secular press joined in the publicity for the event. Long before October 11, great crowds of people began arriving in Pittsburgh. Every hotel room and tourist home was used to house this mass meeting. The Kansas City delegation chartered a train for the trip and leased the entire Schenley Hotel as their headquarters. The auditorium of Carnegie Hall proved to be too small, and simultaneous programs were provided in nearby church-buildings and with outdoor meetings in Duquesne Garden, Luna Park, and Forbes Field.
Two hundred and fifty churches of all denominations opened their pulpits to leading Restoration preachers on the Lord's Day. An estimated thirty thousand met in Forbes Field to eat the Lord's Supper. Twenty thousand persons were in a three-tiered grandstand. Thousands more filled the bleachers and stood on the ball field to remember the death and suffering of their Savior. The total number who attended some part of the Centennial was thought to be around fifty thousand.
The Centennial at Pittsburgh proved to be the crest of the wave. It seemed at the moment that God was guaranteeing a major new awakening. The celebration had a dramatic effect on the religious community across the nation. Almost immediately all the major Protestant denominations seemed to catch the vision of unity in Christ. Committees were set up to study cooperation and union, by the Episcopalians, the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians, etc.
Yet this was not to be. When the conservatives left in the churches of Christ, they in effect gave the control of the Disciples to the extreme liberal element (and to some degree gave control of the churches of Christ to the extreme conservative element). Men like Peter Ainslee by their radical-liberalism wrecked the opportunities (this is not what they intended to do, though). Religious history might have been different if the conservatives had kept their influence in an undivided movement, and if a David Lipscomb or a J. W. McGarvey could have remained on the scene.
You can read about the Great Communion planned for 10/4/09.
http://www.greatcommunion.org/study/study.htm
I wrote about this in 1978 for the Firm Foundation church paper, Reuel Lemmons, Editor. History is about things which actually happened, and how we understand these things. Jack Hayford said: "Ministry is doing what you do with what you have been given - God's idea for you. Ministry is the way things work on God's terms. Grace & forgiveness toward others. Process life, not by reason, but by revelation. Reasonable, and reasoning, but guided by revelation. Satan wants to derail God's purpose for your life." We sometimes build with "gold, silver, precious stones," but at other times with "wood, hay, straw," and "the fire will test each one's work" 1 Cor. 3:10-17. We trust in the "righteousness which is by faith" Phil. 3:9-11. R.D.Ice
In 1809 Thomas Campbell (the father) published a paper on Unity called The Declaration And Address. 100 years later a celebration was planned to take place at Pittsburgh. 200 years later, October 4th 2009, some churches plan a Great Communion Celebration based on Christ's Prayer in John ch 17.
In June of 1907, Lipscomb wrote in reply to the Census Bureau and made it plain that the churches of Christ no longer had any connection with the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. History shows both sides paid a high price for this division!
This is important to set the stage for the Centennial celebration of the Restoration Movement, which was planned for October 11, 1909. Even though this was entirely planned and carried out by the Disciples, some from the churches of Christ participated in this also: notably J. W. McGarvey (who was in his eightieth year), F. L Rowe of the Christian Leader paper, and my grandfather, Dr. Kromer C. Ice, MD. Some, like J. W. McGarvey, attempted to continue their connection with both the Disciples and the churches of Christ.
In preparation for the big day, some 208,000 letters were mailed, a million copies of 23 leaflets and tracts were distributed, and the secular press joined in the publicity for the event. Long before October 11, great crowds of people began arriving in Pittsburgh. Every hotel room and tourist home was used to house this mass meeting. The Kansas City delegation chartered a train for the trip and leased the entire Schenley Hotel as their headquarters. The auditorium of Carnegie Hall proved to be too small, and simultaneous programs were provided in nearby church-buildings and with outdoor meetings in Duquesne Garden, Luna Park, and Forbes Field.
Two hundred and fifty churches of all denominations opened their pulpits to leading Restoration preachers on the Lord's Day. An estimated thirty thousand met in Forbes Field to eat the Lord's Supper. Twenty thousand persons were in a three-tiered grandstand. Thousands more filled the bleachers and stood on the ball field to remember the death and suffering of their Savior. The total number who attended some part of the Centennial was thought to be around fifty thousand.
The Centennial at Pittsburgh proved to be the crest of the wave. It seemed at the moment that God was guaranteeing a major new awakening. The celebration had a dramatic effect on the religious community across the nation. Almost immediately all the major Protestant denominations seemed to catch the vision of unity in Christ. Committees were set up to study cooperation and union, by the Episcopalians, the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians, etc.
Yet this was not to be. When the conservatives left in the churches of Christ, they in effect gave the control of the Disciples to the extreme liberal element (and to some degree gave control of the churches of Christ to the extreme conservative element). Men like Peter Ainslee by their radical-liberalism wrecked the opportunities (this is not what they intended to do, though). Religious history might have been different if the conservatives had kept their influence in an undivided movement, and if a David Lipscomb or a J. W. McGarvey could have remained on the scene.
You can read about the Great Communion planned for 10/4/09.
http://www.greatcommunion.org/study/study.htm
Saturday, August 1, 2009
INTERVIEW WITH A. CAMPBELL 2
AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN ALEXANDER CAMPBELL AND THE CHRISTIAN LEDGER. R.D.Ice
[This is from my church bulletin. It is an addendum to the longer article.]
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, you speak of religion as a binding back of man to God. That is, that man has become estranged from God by sin, and that God Himself did something about this.
CAMPBELL: I wrote in the "Christian System" of man as he was, man as he is, and man as he ought to be. The Bible certainly develops this theme. Before Creation, God, who knows all things, had prepared a religion (re-ligio) to bind back broken man to his God. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:" Ephesians 1:4
But the Accuser has tried to defeat this purpose. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 2 Tim. 3:5 A religion without a Saviour whose pre-existence is beyond doubt, without a high priest, an altar, a victim, a sacrifice, an expiation, an atonement, is no religion for fallen, ruined, guilty man. A religion without a Holy Spirit, different [separate, distinct] from his gifts and graces; without an advocate, a counselor, and a comforter, is not suited to the genius [inspiration, motivation] of human nature, nor to the conditions of our present existence.
But a religion which demonstrates alike the justice, the mercy, and the grace of God in the gift of his only begotten and well beloved Son, and of his Holy Spirit, which reveals to us a glorious immortality, founded upon the resurrection of the Messiah, and his death as a sin offering, gives glory to God in the highest, establishes peace on earth, and prompts good will to every human being. May the Lord guide us into all truth!
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, you are noted for slogans.
CAMPBELL: Slogans can be useful as a logo to signify complex truths. Some we used are the following.
Let THE BIBLE be substituted for all human creeds;
FACTS, for definitions,
THINGS, for words;
FAITH, for speculation;
UNITY OF FAITH, for unity of opinion;
THE POSITIVE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, for human legislation and tradition;
PIETY [Christian living), for ceremony;
MORALITY, for partisan zeal;
THE PRACTICE OF RELIGION, for the mere profession of it;
--and the work [of reformation] is done.
LEDGER: Thank you for your response. We will consider these things and try to underestand your mind. May God bless you.
[This is from my church bulletin. It is an addendum to the longer article.]
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, you speak of religion as a binding back of man to God. That is, that man has become estranged from God by sin, and that God Himself did something about this.
CAMPBELL: I wrote in the "Christian System" of man as he was, man as he is, and man as he ought to be. The Bible certainly develops this theme. Before Creation, God, who knows all things, had prepared a religion (re-ligio) to bind back broken man to his God. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:" Ephesians 1:4
But the Accuser has tried to defeat this purpose. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 2 Tim. 3:5 A religion without a Saviour whose pre-existence is beyond doubt, without a high priest, an altar, a victim, a sacrifice, an expiation, an atonement, is no religion for fallen, ruined, guilty man. A religion without a Holy Spirit, different [separate, distinct] from his gifts and graces; without an advocate, a counselor, and a comforter, is not suited to the genius [inspiration, motivation] of human nature, nor to the conditions of our present existence.
But a religion which demonstrates alike the justice, the mercy, and the grace of God in the gift of his only begotten and well beloved Son, and of his Holy Spirit, which reveals to us a glorious immortality, founded upon the resurrection of the Messiah, and his death as a sin offering, gives glory to God in the highest, establishes peace on earth, and prompts good will to every human being. May the Lord guide us into all truth!
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, you are noted for slogans.
CAMPBELL: Slogans can be useful as a logo to signify complex truths. Some we used are the following.
Let THE BIBLE be substituted for all human creeds;
FACTS, for definitions,
THINGS, for words;
FAITH, for speculation;
UNITY OF FAITH, for unity of opinion;
THE POSITIVE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, for human legislation and tradition;
PIETY [Christian living), for ceremony;
MORALITY, for partisan zeal;
THE PRACTICE OF RELIGION, for the mere profession of it;
--and the work [of reformation] is done.
LEDGER: Thank you for your response. We will consider these things and try to underestand your mind. May God bless you.
Friday, July 17, 2009
INTERVIEW WITH CAMPBELL
AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
Some of this is based on an article by Bobby Valentine in "Stoned-Campbell" blog.
"In the Twilight Years of Alexander Campbell he lectured and preached extensively to the Bethany College community. By this time Alexander Campbell was a saintly old gentleman and a seasoned reflective student of Scripture. For those who know only Campbell's "Sermon on the Law" might be surprised a large chunk of his hermeneutical enterprise was focused on the Pentateuch. In 1859 and 1860 his lectures were recorded and later published after the Civil War by W. T. Moore as Familiar Lectures on the Pentateuch. Also recorded in this same period were extensive extracts from his sermons. What follows is an imaginary interview with the old Reformer ... I will refer to quotations by Extract numbers as printed in Familiar Lectures." BV
“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.” Mark 4:23-24
We carefully follow the Bible. Yet we read through the magnifying glass of Campbell’s thoughts in many instances. He was a revered teacher. We are in no way Campbellites - we are Christians only, following Jesus.
“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” James 3:1 Teachers are needed and many set up as teachers. But as ambassadors of God they will be held to a strict standard. God gives to some great ability, as He did to Timothy, Titus, and many others in the first century and in every century since then. A. Campbell was such a gifted one.
If time travel were an option, an interview with Campbell might sound something like the following imaginary interview.
AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN A. CAMPBELL AND THE CHRISTIAN LEDGER.
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, we have come back to this year of 1860 to learn firsthand of your thoughts of the reformation you have led. Others of course played important roles, including your father, Thomas Campbell, Barton W. Stone, Walter Scott, Raccoon John Smith. But you seem to have emerged as the spokesman early on. Your printing press turned out many volumes which survive to our day.
CAMPBELL: A man can only do what God gives him. God Himself works through people. I suppose zeal has burned within me as a fire. From my younger days I have tried to promote unity among those who consider themselves to be God's People. Surely God blessed me in this endeavor and provided means beyond my expectation. A 3,000 acre farm, a good wife, actually two good wives, since my first died. And I have had very good people working with me. God granted me great prosperity. I have used this prosperity to strive to promote the great cause of God. It has enabled me to do things which would otherwise have been impossible.
LEDGER: You speak of reformation, but some in our day say restoration.
CAMPBELL: In answering the lady from Lunenburg County, I noted that the promise that the gates of hades could not prevail against Christ’s church was immutable. And so I often spoke of the continuing reformation. It would be impossible to restore that which is in continuous existence.
LEDGER: Perhaps refurbish would be a good word. A line from the Last Will And Testament Of The Springfield Presbytery. Imprimis. 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.
CAMPBELL As Elder Stone said: Let unity be our polar star. This was my intention also.
LEDGER: Elder Campbell the reformation you promoted has exalted the Bible. Can you share your mature thoughts on that old religious tome?
CAMPBELL "The Bible is a perfect chart for the entire voyage of life. Beyond that it has no value. It is not adapted to [a] man in Heaven or Hell." (# 21). But the "vast deal of Bible reading, in these latter days [is] for the purpose of enabling men to stand erect upon a particular point of faith, peculiar to themselves ... than with obtaining a clear and unbiased understanding and truthful appreciation of the intent and meaning of Holy Writ" (# 9).
LEDGER: You are saying that some use the Bible only for proving a point of their opinion. I remember you saying that you tried to read the Bible each morning as if you had never seen it before.
CAMPBELL I meant by that an unbiased mind. As you would read a newspaper, for example. You read to learn the news and you use the laws of language to understand what you read.
LEDGER: Elder Campbell what kind of book is the Bible?
CAMPBELL: "[T]he Holy Scriptures have every form of expression. We have not only poetry and prose, precepts, promises and threats; but all various forms and usages of human speech ... It is very proper that this should be so. For this book is addressed to man, by Him who alone comprehends him in his relations to his fellow man and to his Creator ... It is worthy of observation, that in the Bible as addressed to man, God does not deal in abstractions." (#11)
LEDGER: Abstractions as defined by Crabb’s English Synonyms. You said the Bible was a book of facts, and that facts are stubborn things. By abstractions you mean those who strive about words to no profit? Jesus said to beware the leaven of the Pharisees.
CAMPBELL: Yes. But the Bible is not a book of abstract ideas, but in a sense living and breathing, such as a letter from a dear friend. The Living Oracles Version words it this way. “...not to fight about words for nothing useful, but to the subverting of the hearers.” Nothing ought to be bound upon Christians as articles of faith, nor required as terms of communion and fellowship, except what is clearly taught and required in the Word of God. Human reasoning and opinion may be valid, but has no authority! But often what is only human reasoning is held to be the authentic word of faith.
LEDGER: Speaking of the Living Oracles, that was a new version which you published?
CAMPBELL: Yes. I wrote in 1826, The Sacred Writings. "But this constant mutation in a living language will probably render new translations, or corrections of old translations, necessary every two or three hundred years. For although the English tongue may have changed less during the last two hundred years than it ever did in the same lapse of time; yet the changes which have taken place since the reign of James I do now render a new translation necessary. For if the King's translators had given a translation every way faithful and correct, in the language then spoken in Britain, the changes in the English language which have since been introduced, would render that translation in many instances incorrect."
LEDGER: What was the basis for your new version?
CAMPBELL: I used a work done in England by George Campbell, James McKnight, Philip Doddridge. I made a few emendations. Immerse for baptism; reform for repent, congregation for church, etc. For example, Matt xvi:18. “I tell you, likewise, you are named Stone; and on this rock I will build my congregation, over which the gates of Hades shall not prevail.” I wrote in the preface to The Living Oracles: In the second Epistle to Corinth, (viii. 1. common version,) Paul says, "WE DO YOU TO WIT of the grace of God bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia". This was, no doubt, a correct and intelligible rendering of the Greek words, GNORIZOMEN DE UMIN, to the people of that day; but to us it is unintelligible as the Greek original. How few are there who can translate "WE DO YOU TO WIT," by WE CAUSE YOU TO KNOW? which is the modern English of the above sentence. The same may be observed of the term "WOT," in all places where it occurs.
LEDGER: The work of James McKnight has still been kept in print in our day. And some of your word choices sound like the Geneva Bible of 1560, which has also been reprinted in our day. Elder Campbell, you reportedly objected to the word Trinity.
CAMPBELL: The word trinity is not a Bible word and I try to speak of Bible things using Bible words. However the idea represented is true. I spoke in The Christian System, Chapter V. of: Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son and Jehovah the Holy Spirit. Certainly God is a trinity, even as we affirm in baptizing into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
LEDGER: But some things you said sounded like Unitarianism. And today there remains a strain of Unitarianism among the churches.
CAMPBELL: Due in part to Dr. John Thomas MD, one of my severest critics. He eventually left to found the Christadelphians. But though I had rejected the word Trinity, I certainly believe its truth. I wrote: “A religion without a Saviour whose pre-existence is beyond doubt, without a high priest, an altar, a victim, a sacrifice, an expiation, an atonement, is no religion for fallen, ruined, guilty man. A religion without a Holy Spirit, different from his gifts and graces; without an advocate, a counselor, and a comforter, is not suited to the genius of human nature, nor to the conditions of our present existence. But a religion which demonstrates alike the justice, the mercy, and the grace of God in gift of his only begotten and well beloved Son, and of his Holy Spirit, which reveals to us a glorious immortality, founded upon the resurrection of the Messiah, and his death as a sin offering, gives glory to God in the highest, establishes peace on earth, and prompts good will to every human being. May the Lord guide us into all truth!
CAMPBELL: Further I wrote in The Christian System: The Bible is a book of facts, not of opinions, theories, abstract generalities, nor of verbal definitions. It is a book of awful [awesome] facts, grand and sublime beyond description. These facts reveal God and man, and contain within them the reasons of all piety and righteousness; or what is commonly called religion and morality.
LEDGER: In our world on October 4th, 2009, we will celebrate the 200th anniversary of your father’s Declaration And Address. There will be a Great Communion among the spiritual heirs of the continuing reformation. This will be to show forth the death of Christ until He Comes, and to demonstrate our union in Him.
CAMPBELL: I wrote of that Declaration And Address in the Preface to The Christian System. “The first piece that was written on the subject of the great position, appeared from the pen of THOMAS CAMPBELL, Senior, in the year 1809. An association was formed that year for the dissemination of the principles of reformation; and the piece alluded to was styled "The Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania."
LEDGER: Knofel Staton has written a paraphrase of that document in our language of today. It was, as you said, a very radical document and one which challenged many opinions.
CAMPBELL: It was first tendered to the parties that confessed the Westminster creed; but equally submitted to the Protestants of every name, making faith in Christ and obedience to him the only test of Christian character, and the only bond of church union, communion, and co-operation. It was indeed approved by all; but adopted and practised by none, except the few, or part of the few, who made the overture. None of us who either got up or sustained that project, was then aware of what havoc that said principle, if faithfully applied, would have made of our views and practices on various favorite points.
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, you evidently try to speak to be understood by the common man. How do you phrase your sermons to do this?
CAMPBELL: I wrote in part: Are we to preach this law of nature, then, some will inquire; or Are we to show men that they possess this natural conscience, previous to a proclamation of the glad tidings? I would answer this question by proposing another. Am I to tell a man he has an ear, and explain to him the use of it, before I condescend to speak to him? One answer suits both inquiries. We should consider the circumstances of any people before we address them. Do we address Jews? Let us address them as the Apostles did. Persuade them out of their own law that Jesus is the Messiah. Do we address professed Christians? Let us imitate the apostolic addresses in the epistles. Do we preach to Barbarians? Let us address them as Paul preached to the Lycaonians. Speak to their consciences. Do we preach to polished infidels or idolaters? Let us speak to them as Paul spake to the Athenians. Speak to their consciences. [Lycaonians Acts 14:6-18]
LEDGER: Do you have a favorite part of Scripture or is there any "more important" than other parts?
CAMPBELL: "No man has ever suggested an improvement to the parables of the Saviour ... they are the wisest exhibitions of literature in the world." (# LXXX). However "among the most important ecclesiastical documents are the two oracles, which we sometimes denominate the kernel of Christianity - the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and to the Hebrews. They contain the most comprehensive and complete exposition of all that enters into Christian faith and worship, ever spoken or written." (# LXXXV)
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, in our day Christians have retreated from the physicality of the world. Do you have any mature thoughts on Creation and its destiny?
CAMPBELL: Absolutely! "The principles of creation are: First, goodness, the actuating: Second, wisdom, the directing: third, power, the executive principle" (# 8). The order here is important. "The universe itself is the offspring of God's love. It was not created simply because he had the wisdom and power to do it. The element of love entered into the intention, characterized the execution, and approved the completion of his labors." (# 18). It is all about God who is love!
LEDGER: I understand you have been looking forward to some sort of Golden Age here on earth? You named your paper: The Millennial Harbinger.
CAMPBELL: But perhaps the recent war between the states has dimmed that hope. For a time it seemed we would sweep sectarianism from the world.
LEDGER: Do you see the earth being destroyed at the end of the world?
CAMPBELL: Some have been influenced by the materialism of the Enlightenment and have abandoned biblical teaching. You see “the impression prevails in many minds that the earth is to be annihilated. Such is not our belief. There is a vast difference between annihilation and change ... This earth will unquestionably be burned, yet through the process of variation and reconstruction of its elements, God will fashion the earth and heavens anew, and fill them with tenants to glorify His name forever" (# 13; cf #LXVI).
LEDGER: The victory of the Messiah goes as far as the curse is found. Peter could speak of new heavens and a new earth. One final question Elder Campbell, what kind of God do you worship?
CAMPBELL: "I worship a great God and a little God...He is so large that he fills the universe with his presence, and so small that he dwells in my heart. [A]nd if the love of God fills the heart [of a] man, he must be happy." (# XCVII)
LEDGER: Thank you for the courtesy of the interview Elder Campbell. Your thoughts certainly exhibit years of study and worship. Thank you for sharing them with us ... we will have to reflect on them ourselves.
LEDGER: Campbell in his early years was radical, ready to burn the house down to get rid of the mice. It was Destroy And Be Free! This was reflected in his publication of The Christian Baptist paper. But you cannot build a house with a wrecking bar. Some things were done in haste that were later regretted. A maturing Campbell published the Millennial Harbinger for some years. Perhaps we do need controversy to cause us to rexamine the ground upon which we stand. Campbell spread his influence far and wide. Note Campbell died March 6, 1866. Again, we are not Campbellites, but rather Christians only, followers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have been in the habit of reading Scripture through the magnifying glass of Campbell's thought. Campbell was an inspiration to us, but in some ways he was short sighted. He was rational to a fault in his thinking. Campbell could speak of the Continuing Reformation - in a sense of Reformed And Always Reforming. Each individual who has charisma influences a circle of followers. In the Stone-Campbell movement there was a lot of cross-fertilization, opposition, perhaps extremism and fanaticism in the sense of being overcome by excessive zeal. Yet certainly all the way back to Pentecost this has been the history of the Lord's people. We should look kindly on those of the past and carefully examine ourselves. Jesus said to love God and to love our neighbor.
Some of this is based on an article by Bobby Valentine in "Stoned-Campbell" blog.
"In the Twilight Years of Alexander Campbell he lectured and preached extensively to the Bethany College community. By this time Alexander Campbell was a saintly old gentleman and a seasoned reflective student of Scripture. For those who know only Campbell's "Sermon on the Law" might be surprised a large chunk of his hermeneutical enterprise was focused on the Pentateuch. In 1859 and 1860 his lectures were recorded and later published after the Civil War by W. T. Moore as Familiar Lectures on the Pentateuch. Also recorded in this same period were extensive extracts from his sermons. What follows is an imaginary interview with the old Reformer ... I will refer to quotations by Extract numbers as printed in Familiar Lectures." BV
“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.” Mark 4:23-24
We carefully follow the Bible. Yet we read through the magnifying glass of Campbell’s thoughts in many instances. He was a revered teacher. We are in no way Campbellites - we are Christians only, following Jesus.
“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” James 3:1 Teachers are needed and many set up as teachers. But as ambassadors of God they will be held to a strict standard. God gives to some great ability, as He did to Timothy, Titus, and many others in the first century and in every century since then. A. Campbell was such a gifted one.
If time travel were an option, an interview with Campbell might sound something like the following imaginary interview.
AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN A. CAMPBELL AND THE CHRISTIAN LEDGER.
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, we have come back to this year of 1860 to learn firsthand of your thoughts of the reformation you have led. Others of course played important roles, including your father, Thomas Campbell, Barton W. Stone, Walter Scott, Raccoon John Smith. But you seem to have emerged as the spokesman early on. Your printing press turned out many volumes which survive to our day.
CAMPBELL: A man can only do what God gives him. God Himself works through people. I suppose zeal has burned within me as a fire. From my younger days I have tried to promote unity among those who consider themselves to be God's People. Surely God blessed me in this endeavor and provided means beyond my expectation. A 3,000 acre farm, a good wife, actually two good wives, since my first died. And I have had very good people working with me. God granted me great prosperity. I have used this prosperity to strive to promote the great cause of God. It has enabled me to do things which would otherwise have been impossible.
LEDGER: You speak of reformation, but some in our day say restoration.
CAMPBELL: In answering the lady from Lunenburg County, I noted that the promise that the gates of hades could not prevail against Christ’s church was immutable. And so I often spoke of the continuing reformation. It would be impossible to restore that which is in continuous existence.
LEDGER: Perhaps refurbish would be a good word. A line from the Last Will And Testament Of The Springfield Presbytery. Imprimis. 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.
CAMPBELL As Elder Stone said: Let unity be our polar star. This was my intention also.
LEDGER: Elder Campbell the reformation you promoted has exalted the Bible. Can you share your mature thoughts on that old religious tome?
CAMPBELL "The Bible is a perfect chart for the entire voyage of life. Beyond that it has no value. It is not adapted to [a] man in Heaven or Hell." (# 21). But the "vast deal of Bible reading, in these latter days [is] for the purpose of enabling men to stand erect upon a particular point of faith, peculiar to themselves ... than with obtaining a clear and unbiased understanding and truthful appreciation of the intent and meaning of Holy Writ" (# 9).
LEDGER: You are saying that some use the Bible only for proving a point of their opinion. I remember you saying that you tried to read the Bible each morning as if you had never seen it before.
CAMPBELL I meant by that an unbiased mind. As you would read a newspaper, for example. You read to learn the news and you use the laws of language to understand what you read.
LEDGER: Elder Campbell what kind of book is the Bible?
CAMPBELL: "[T]he Holy Scriptures have every form of expression. We have not only poetry and prose, precepts, promises and threats; but all various forms and usages of human speech ... It is very proper that this should be so. For this book is addressed to man, by Him who alone comprehends him in his relations to his fellow man and to his Creator ... It is worthy of observation, that in the Bible as addressed to man, God does not deal in abstractions." (#11)
LEDGER: Abstractions as defined by Crabb’s English Synonyms. You said the Bible was a book of facts, and that facts are stubborn things. By abstractions you mean those who strive about words to no profit? Jesus said to beware the leaven of the Pharisees.
CAMPBELL: Yes. But the Bible is not a book of abstract ideas, but in a sense living and breathing, such as a letter from a dear friend. The Living Oracles Version words it this way. “...not to fight about words for nothing useful, but to the subverting of the hearers.” Nothing ought to be bound upon Christians as articles of faith, nor required as terms of communion and fellowship, except what is clearly taught and required in the Word of God. Human reasoning and opinion may be valid, but has no authority! But often what is only human reasoning is held to be the authentic word of faith.
LEDGER: Speaking of the Living Oracles, that was a new version which you published?
CAMPBELL: Yes. I wrote in 1826, The Sacred Writings. "But this constant mutation in a living language will probably render new translations, or corrections of old translations, necessary every two or three hundred years. For although the English tongue may have changed less during the last two hundred years than it ever did in the same lapse of time; yet the changes which have taken place since the reign of James I do now render a new translation necessary. For if the King's translators had given a translation every way faithful and correct, in the language then spoken in Britain, the changes in the English language which have since been introduced, would render that translation in many instances incorrect."
LEDGER: What was the basis for your new version?
CAMPBELL: I used a work done in England by George Campbell, James McKnight, Philip Doddridge. I made a few emendations. Immerse for baptism; reform for repent, congregation for church, etc. For example, Matt xvi:18. “I tell you, likewise, you are named Stone; and on this rock I will build my congregation, over which the gates of Hades shall not prevail.” I wrote in the preface to The Living Oracles: In the second Epistle to Corinth, (viii. 1. common version,) Paul says, "WE DO YOU TO WIT of the grace of God bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia". This was, no doubt, a correct and intelligible rendering of the Greek words, GNORIZOMEN DE UMIN, to the people of that day; but to us it is unintelligible as the Greek original. How few are there who can translate "WE DO YOU TO WIT," by WE CAUSE YOU TO KNOW? which is the modern English of the above sentence. The same may be observed of the term "WOT," in all places where it occurs.
LEDGER: The work of James McKnight has still been kept in print in our day. And some of your word choices sound like the Geneva Bible of 1560, which has also been reprinted in our day. Elder Campbell, you reportedly objected to the word Trinity.
CAMPBELL: The word trinity is not a Bible word and I try to speak of Bible things using Bible words. However the idea represented is true. I spoke in The Christian System, Chapter V. of: Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son and Jehovah the Holy Spirit. Certainly God is a trinity, even as we affirm in baptizing into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
LEDGER: But some things you said sounded like Unitarianism. And today there remains a strain of Unitarianism among the churches.
CAMPBELL: Due in part to Dr. John Thomas MD, one of my severest critics. He eventually left to found the Christadelphians. But though I had rejected the word Trinity, I certainly believe its truth. I wrote: “A religion without a Saviour whose pre-existence is beyond doubt, without a high priest, an altar, a victim, a sacrifice, an expiation, an atonement, is no religion for fallen, ruined, guilty man. A religion without a Holy Spirit, different from his gifts and graces; without an advocate, a counselor, and a comforter, is not suited to the genius of human nature, nor to the conditions of our present existence. But a religion which demonstrates alike the justice, the mercy, and the grace of God in gift of his only begotten and well beloved Son, and of his Holy Spirit, which reveals to us a glorious immortality, founded upon the resurrection of the Messiah, and his death as a sin offering, gives glory to God in the highest, establishes peace on earth, and prompts good will to every human being. May the Lord guide us into all truth!
CAMPBELL: Further I wrote in The Christian System: The Bible is a book of facts, not of opinions, theories, abstract generalities, nor of verbal definitions. It is a book of awful [awesome] facts, grand and sublime beyond description. These facts reveal God and man, and contain within them the reasons of all piety and righteousness; or what is commonly called religion and morality.
LEDGER: In our world on October 4th, 2009, we will celebrate the 200th anniversary of your father’s Declaration And Address. There will be a Great Communion among the spiritual heirs of the continuing reformation. This will be to show forth the death of Christ until He Comes, and to demonstrate our union in Him.
CAMPBELL: I wrote of that Declaration And Address in the Preface to The Christian System. “The first piece that was written on the subject of the great position, appeared from the pen of THOMAS CAMPBELL, Senior, in the year 1809. An association was formed that year for the dissemination of the principles of reformation; and the piece alluded to was styled "The Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania."
LEDGER: Knofel Staton has written a paraphrase of that document in our language of today. It was, as you said, a very radical document and one which challenged many opinions.
CAMPBELL: It was first tendered to the parties that confessed the Westminster creed; but equally submitted to the Protestants of every name, making faith in Christ and obedience to him the only test of Christian character, and the only bond of church union, communion, and co-operation. It was indeed approved by all; but adopted and practised by none, except the few, or part of the few, who made the overture. None of us who either got up or sustained that project, was then aware of what havoc that said principle, if faithfully applied, would have made of our views and practices on various favorite points.
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, you evidently try to speak to be understood by the common man. How do you phrase your sermons to do this?
CAMPBELL: I wrote in part: Are we to preach this law of nature, then, some will inquire; or Are we to show men that they possess this natural conscience, previous to a proclamation of the glad tidings? I would answer this question by proposing another. Am I to tell a man he has an ear, and explain to him the use of it, before I condescend to speak to him? One answer suits both inquiries. We should consider the circumstances of any people before we address them. Do we address Jews? Let us address them as the Apostles did. Persuade them out of their own law that Jesus is the Messiah. Do we address professed Christians? Let us imitate the apostolic addresses in the epistles. Do we preach to Barbarians? Let us address them as Paul preached to the Lycaonians. Speak to their consciences. Do we preach to polished infidels or idolaters? Let us speak to them as Paul spake to the Athenians. Speak to their consciences. [Lycaonians Acts 14:6-18]
LEDGER: Do you have a favorite part of Scripture or is there any "more important" than other parts?
CAMPBELL: "No man has ever suggested an improvement to the parables of the Saviour ... they are the wisest exhibitions of literature in the world." (# LXXX). However "among the most important ecclesiastical documents are the two oracles, which we sometimes denominate the kernel of Christianity - the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and to the Hebrews. They contain the most comprehensive and complete exposition of all that enters into Christian faith and worship, ever spoken or written." (# LXXXV)
LEDGER: Elder Campbell, in our day Christians have retreated from the physicality of the world. Do you have any mature thoughts on Creation and its destiny?
CAMPBELL: Absolutely! "The principles of creation are: First, goodness, the actuating: Second, wisdom, the directing: third, power, the executive principle" (# 8). The order here is important. "The universe itself is the offspring of God's love. It was not created simply because he had the wisdom and power to do it. The element of love entered into the intention, characterized the execution, and approved the completion of his labors." (# 18). It is all about God who is love!
LEDGER: I understand you have been looking forward to some sort of Golden Age here on earth? You named your paper: The Millennial Harbinger.
CAMPBELL: But perhaps the recent war between the states has dimmed that hope. For a time it seemed we would sweep sectarianism from the world.
LEDGER: Do you see the earth being destroyed at the end of the world?
CAMPBELL: Some have been influenced by the materialism of the Enlightenment and have abandoned biblical teaching. You see “the impression prevails in many minds that the earth is to be annihilated. Such is not our belief. There is a vast difference between annihilation and change ... This earth will unquestionably be burned, yet through the process of variation and reconstruction of its elements, God will fashion the earth and heavens anew, and fill them with tenants to glorify His name forever" (# 13; cf #LXVI).
LEDGER: The victory of the Messiah goes as far as the curse is found. Peter could speak of new heavens and a new earth. One final question Elder Campbell, what kind of God do you worship?
CAMPBELL: "I worship a great God and a little God...He is so large that he fills the universe with his presence, and so small that he dwells in my heart. [A]nd if the love of God fills the heart [of a] man, he must be happy." (# XCVII)
LEDGER: Thank you for the courtesy of the interview Elder Campbell. Your thoughts certainly exhibit years of study and worship. Thank you for sharing them with us ... we will have to reflect on them ourselves.
LEDGER: Campbell in his early years was radical, ready to burn the house down to get rid of the mice. It was Destroy And Be Free! This was reflected in his publication of The Christian Baptist paper. But you cannot build a house with a wrecking bar. Some things were done in haste that were later regretted. A maturing Campbell published the Millennial Harbinger for some years. Perhaps we do need controversy to cause us to rexamine the ground upon which we stand. Campbell spread his influence far and wide. Note Campbell died March 6, 1866. Again, we are not Campbellites, but rather Christians only, followers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have been in the habit of reading Scripture through the magnifying glass of Campbell's thought. Campbell was an inspiration to us, but in some ways he was short sighted. He was rational to a fault in his thinking. Campbell could speak of the Continuing Reformation - in a sense of Reformed And Always Reforming. Each individual who has charisma influences a circle of followers. In the Stone-Campbell movement there was a lot of cross-fertilization, opposition, perhaps extremism and fanaticism in the sense of being overcome by excessive zeal. Yet certainly all the way back to Pentecost this has been the history of the Lord's people. We should look kindly on those of the past and carefully examine ourselves. Jesus said to love God and to love our neighbor.
Monday, April 20, 2009
PUTTING WORSHIP
PUT WORSHIP IN THE WORSHIP SERVICE
Rhoderick D. Ice 1991
"Would you buy hair-restorer from a baldheaded barber?" Dr. Flavil Yeakley is an expert on Church Growth. A few years ago he surveyed a typical Church of Christ in my area. He found: only 53% believed they were saved; 2% actually believed they were lost; the rest really did not know whether they were saved or lost. This was among active members. How can someone who has no assurance of his/her own salvation reach out with Christ to the unsaved???
When both the tabernacle and the temple were built, the glory of the Lord filled them (Exodus 40:34-35; 1 Kings 8:10-11). Ditto the Jerusalem church at Pentecost (Acts 2). Should not we expect such to be true today when we are in harmony with the Lord??? How would this "glory" express itself?
The story is told of a minister who visited one of the more exuberant churches. He went home and arranged the Sunday service to attempt to capture this ebullience. They failed. He returned to videotape the exuberant service. This time they sang the same songs, prayed the exact words, and he preached the exact sermon. But they could not "fake" the "verve." It is impossible to share what is not "real" to the one trying to share it.
Some seem to be rediscovering the Holy Spirit.
Paul wrote: "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" (cf. 1Thessalonians 5:19).
"He [The Spirit] will be with you forever" (cf. John 14:16-17).
Joel spoke of both men and women, both young and old, being touched by The Spirit (cf. Acts 2). Christians are to be "filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18).
We are to "pray[ing] in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20)
We have accepted His blood - but have we accepted His Spirit?
Paul warns about "form" without "power" (2 Timothy 3:5).
The Pharisees studied the Scriptures intently as they searched for eternal life. Yet they missed the most important point - JESUS (John 5:38-40).
It would be tragic to read "letter" but miss "Spirit" (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:6-18). It is by the power of The Spirit that we worship God.
The "worship service is the correct place to begin evangelism. The "warmth" of worship helps to create the desire to share this great gift from God. In personal life, praise generates worship. Praise is thanking God, expressing our love, gratitude, appreciation. Worship involves personal communication with God, centering on His person. In worship we enter God's presence.
"Revitalize the worship by practicing the presence of God."
Jesus said HE was right there when "two or three are gathered together in My name" (Matthew 18:20). Do we think Jesus as we worship? If we could see Him with our eyes, would it make a difference in HOW we worship?
God wishes to meet with us and move among us, interacting with and transforming His People. He does not give us a Bible quiz on Sunday, so that He can bless us the following week. We focus so much on evangelism, that worship seems an optional activity. Compare Revelation ch 4. "You art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created."
Worship in living color!
Jesus thrilled with joy through the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21).
Paul commanded: "Rejoice always!"
We may worship acceptably, yet be denying ourselves a blessing we should receive.
It is the difference between black-and-white and color.
The black-and-white is accurate and satisfactory.
But color adds a valuable dimension.
Preaching the word is essential.
But we need the joyful participation of the congregation!
We need Holy Joy!
First century worship certainly compared to the "pre-game rally." Their Lord - and ours - has risen from the dead. The Lord's Supper proclaims His death until He comes [again]. This is the Gospel message. Historical, factual, real. How can we not praise Him who made all this possible?
If I were the devil: I would try to steal away all the praise, honor and joy from the worship of God. I would emphasize duty and encourage form without power (2Timothy 3:5). If I were the devil I would try to see that worship was lifeless and spiritless [Spiritless], and that any who questioned this procedure were immediately "suspect" of abandoning the faith.
This from Logan Fox, former missionary to Japan and Family Counselor. Apply this to the meaning of worship. "I am now convinced that the church is failing in its mission of 'healing' because we have failed to heed Jesus' words: 'Judge not.' We have relied on the power of social disapproval in trying to change people's behavior, rather than relying on the power of acceptance and love. In this, we have shown that we trust the power of the world more than the spiritual power of love and holiness."
STRUCTURING WORSHIP.
Four types of structure may be seen in worship among the Churches in our religious world. Each of these has some truth. Each may relate in part to the worship we see in the New Testament Church. Notice that the New Testament carefully avoids giving a detailed description of a typical worship service. Rather we deduce elements and patterns of what they must have done from things which are said. The synagogue must have served as a model. Yet certainly there were some differences in "worship style" between Jews and Gentiles. Even today among us, the basic elements are the same, but are worked out in individual ways as the result of many cultural factors and other such things. We speak to God from the fullness of our heart, in the language of our own idiom.
1. The Lecture Approach.
This has become our traditional form. Bible study is the emphasis. Worship is expressed in "classroom terms." The sermon is the center and focus. Worshipers are passive except for the few who serve.
2. The Evangelism Approach.
This grows out of the "Workshop Movement." Worship is viewed in the context of "soul winning." It is, to some degree, the re-creation of the "Gospel Tent." The invitation becomes the center of focus. The entire "sermon" may be a prolonged invitation to sinners to come forward to give themselves to Christ ["obey the Gospel"]. Other matters equally weighty are sometimes overlooked. One such Evangelistic Church was said to keep only eight of every hundred baptized.
3. The Self-Help Approach.
We may see this extreme in certain TV preachers. Worship is seen as individual-centered. Each is encouraged to seek personal worth and success. Some would say that this is the "ME generation in church clothes." Yet notice how Jesus emphasized wholeness and self-help. Healing of lives is as needed as salvation from sins. Note Hebrews 6:1-3.
4. The Entertainment and Numbers Approach.
The extreme of this is seen in some TV Evangelists. Worship is structured as a TV Extravaganza. There is a stage, with performers presenting a package to the audience. This grows out of contemporary American culture, and we all understand this approach.
How To Reach The Masses!
Paul "met people where they were" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). He could be a "Jew," a "Gentile," a "vegetarian," and any other of the myriad forms which human culture takes. Paul could "relate" to Onesimus, the runaway slave; "relate" to the very strict Pharisees; and preach to Greek Philosophers on Mars Hill. But in every case Paul's motive was to elevate Christ and His Gospel!
WHAT KIND OF GOD?
What kind of God would demand worship from His creation? As well ask: "What kind of father/mother would expect love and honor from his/her children?" It is the normal order of things. God loves us! He gave us the gift of life & being. We in turn were created to love Him and praise Him. This basic idea of praise and honor is brought out in many ways throughout the Scriptures. Psalms and Revelation stand out in giving form and language to our worship.
SHAKE THE WORLD!
When the saints of old prayed, the house was shaken (Acts 4:31). Faith is the victory - but faith certainly must find expression. Let's put worship back into the worship service. Let's praise and honor God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and The Holy Spirit. [Some may argue that everything is to be directed toward God the Father. But we worship one God, not three: Father-Son-Holy Spirit.] Let praise and joy fulfill the role which God intended for them!
Then a voice came from the throne, saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!" (Revelation 19:5 NKJV).
"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever,
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
And gathered out of the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south."
(Psalm 107:1-3 NKJV)
"Thus says the Lord to His anointed,
To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held--
To subdue nations before him
And loose the armor of kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:
'I will go before you
And make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the Lord,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.
Isaiah 45:1-3 (NKJV)
Rhoderick D. Ice 1991
"Would you buy hair-restorer from a baldheaded barber?" Dr. Flavil Yeakley is an expert on Church Growth. A few years ago he surveyed a typical Church of Christ in my area. He found: only 53% believed they were saved; 2% actually believed they were lost; the rest really did not know whether they were saved or lost. This was among active members. How can someone who has no assurance of his/her own salvation reach out with Christ to the unsaved???
When both the tabernacle and the temple were built, the glory of the Lord filled them (Exodus 40:34-35; 1 Kings 8:10-11). Ditto the Jerusalem church at Pentecost (Acts 2). Should not we expect such to be true today when we are in harmony with the Lord??? How would this "glory" express itself?
The story is told of a minister who visited one of the more exuberant churches. He went home and arranged the Sunday service to attempt to capture this ebullience. They failed. He returned to videotape the exuberant service. This time they sang the same songs, prayed the exact words, and he preached the exact sermon. But they could not "fake" the "verve." It is impossible to share what is not "real" to the one trying to share it.
Some seem to be rediscovering the Holy Spirit.
Paul wrote: "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" (cf. 1Thessalonians 5:19).
"He [The Spirit] will be with you forever" (cf. John 14:16-17).
Joel spoke of both men and women, both young and old, being touched by The Spirit (cf. Acts 2). Christians are to be "filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18).
We are to "pray[ing] in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20)
We have accepted His blood - but have we accepted His Spirit?
Paul warns about "form" without "power" (2 Timothy 3:5).
The Pharisees studied the Scriptures intently as they searched for eternal life. Yet they missed the most important point - JESUS (John 5:38-40).
It would be tragic to read "letter" but miss "Spirit" (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:6-18). It is by the power of The Spirit that we worship God.
The "worship service is the correct place to begin evangelism. The "warmth" of worship helps to create the desire to share this great gift from God. In personal life, praise generates worship. Praise is thanking God, expressing our love, gratitude, appreciation. Worship involves personal communication with God, centering on His person. In worship we enter God's presence.
"Revitalize the worship by practicing the presence of God."
Jesus said HE was right there when "two or three are gathered together in My name" (Matthew 18:20). Do we think Jesus as we worship? If we could see Him with our eyes, would it make a difference in HOW we worship?
God wishes to meet with us and move among us, interacting with and transforming His People. He does not give us a Bible quiz on Sunday, so that He can bless us the following week. We focus so much on evangelism, that worship seems an optional activity. Compare Revelation ch 4. "You art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created."
Worship in living color!
Jesus thrilled with joy through the Holy Spirit (Luke 10:21).
Paul commanded: "Rejoice always!"
We may worship acceptably, yet be denying ourselves a blessing we should receive.
It is the difference between black-and-white and color.
The black-and-white is accurate and satisfactory.
But color adds a valuable dimension.
Preaching the word is essential.
But we need the joyful participation of the congregation!
We need Holy Joy!
First century worship certainly compared to the "pre-game rally." Their Lord - and ours - has risen from the dead. The Lord's Supper proclaims His death until He comes [again]. This is the Gospel message. Historical, factual, real. How can we not praise Him who made all this possible?
If I were the devil: I would try to steal away all the praise, honor and joy from the worship of God. I would emphasize duty and encourage form without power (2Timothy 3:5). If I were the devil I would try to see that worship was lifeless and spiritless [Spiritless], and that any who questioned this procedure were immediately "suspect" of abandoning the faith.
This from Logan Fox, former missionary to Japan and Family Counselor. Apply this to the meaning of worship. "I am now convinced that the church is failing in its mission of 'healing' because we have failed to heed Jesus' words: 'Judge not.' We have relied on the power of social disapproval in trying to change people's behavior, rather than relying on the power of acceptance and love. In this, we have shown that we trust the power of the world more than the spiritual power of love and holiness."
STRUCTURING WORSHIP.
Four types of structure may be seen in worship among the Churches in our religious world. Each of these has some truth. Each may relate in part to the worship we see in the New Testament Church. Notice that the New Testament carefully avoids giving a detailed description of a typical worship service. Rather we deduce elements and patterns of what they must have done from things which are said. The synagogue must have served as a model. Yet certainly there were some differences in "worship style" between Jews and Gentiles. Even today among us, the basic elements are the same, but are worked out in individual ways as the result of many cultural factors and other such things. We speak to God from the fullness of our heart, in the language of our own idiom.
1. The Lecture Approach.
This has become our traditional form. Bible study is the emphasis. Worship is expressed in "classroom terms." The sermon is the center and focus. Worshipers are passive except for the few who serve.
2. The Evangelism Approach.
This grows out of the "Workshop Movement." Worship is viewed in the context of "soul winning." It is, to some degree, the re-creation of the "Gospel Tent." The invitation becomes the center of focus. The entire "sermon" may be a prolonged invitation to sinners to come forward to give themselves to Christ ["obey the Gospel"]. Other matters equally weighty are sometimes overlooked. One such Evangelistic Church was said to keep only eight of every hundred baptized.
3. The Self-Help Approach.
We may see this extreme in certain TV preachers. Worship is seen as individual-centered. Each is encouraged to seek personal worth and success. Some would say that this is the "ME generation in church clothes." Yet notice how Jesus emphasized wholeness and self-help. Healing of lives is as needed as salvation from sins. Note Hebrews 6:1-3.
4. The Entertainment and Numbers Approach.
The extreme of this is seen in some TV Evangelists. Worship is structured as a TV Extravaganza. There is a stage, with performers presenting a package to the audience. This grows out of contemporary American culture, and we all understand this approach.
How To Reach The Masses!
Paul "met people where they were" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). He could be a "Jew," a "Gentile," a "vegetarian," and any other of the myriad forms which human culture takes. Paul could "relate" to Onesimus, the runaway slave; "relate" to the very strict Pharisees; and preach to Greek Philosophers on Mars Hill. But in every case Paul's motive was to elevate Christ and His Gospel!
WHAT KIND OF GOD?
What kind of God would demand worship from His creation? As well ask: "What kind of father/mother would expect love and honor from his/her children?" It is the normal order of things. God loves us! He gave us the gift of life & being. We in turn were created to love Him and praise Him. This basic idea of praise and honor is brought out in many ways throughout the Scriptures. Psalms and Revelation stand out in giving form and language to our worship.
SHAKE THE WORLD!
When the saints of old prayed, the house was shaken (Acts 4:31). Faith is the victory - but faith certainly must find expression. Let's put worship back into the worship service. Let's praise and honor God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and The Holy Spirit. [Some may argue that everything is to be directed toward God the Father. But we worship one God, not three: Father-Son-Holy Spirit.] Let praise and joy fulfill the role which God intended for them!
Then a voice came from the throne, saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!" (Revelation 19:5 NKJV).
"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever,
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
And gathered out of the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south."
(Psalm 107:1-3 NKJV)
"Thus says the Lord to His anointed,
To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held--
To subdue nations before him
And loose the armor of kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:
'I will go before you
And make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the Lord,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.
Isaiah 45:1-3 (NKJV)
COUNTERFEITING RELIGION
COUNTERFEITING RELIGION
R.D.Ice 4-20-09
Jesus warned about the leaven of the Pharisees. "Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadduccees." Matt. 16:12 Compare Matt. 15:1-9.
What if Simon the Pharisee had been the one to meet the Eunuch on the road??? Would he have said something like this?
The Ethiopian said: "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Acts 8:36 "And Simon said, 'First, our scribes have searched the Law and found 613 laws. You must be taught these and be able to speak to each of these laws. Further, our scribes have found a hundred or more new laws from the silence of God - from what He did not say. You must learn these also. And then we have another problem. You need to be circumcised, and that is impossible since you are a eunuch. So I see no hope at all for you.'"
NOT!!! The truth is: upon the Ethiopian's confession of faith in Christ -"I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" - Philip immediately baptized him into Christ! Which included the Holy Spirit as a gift (Titus 3:5-6). And the Ethiopian went on his way rejoicing! When he got back home he joyfully spread the Good News Gospel that God had acted in Christ to put the world right with Himself! Old barriers and walls have been torn down. It no longer mattered that he was a Gentile, or that he had been surgically neutered. Whosoever will may come and be saved eternally!
Damnable heresies come in different forms. Jesus said of the Pharisees: "And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." John 5:40 They were intense Bible students. They carefully read & studied each word, researched the fine print, and read between the lines. But their minds were already made up against Jesus! They were "agents of change" while they convinced themselves they were preserving The Old Ways. Thus they rejected Jesus, and crucified Him.
Jesus speaks to the Pharisees
You have your heads in the Bible always.
You studied for degrees in the Sacred Books.
And PhDs in books about the Sacred Books.
And you're convinced this will get you into Heaven.
But you miss The Point: IT'S ALL ABOUT ME!
The Holy Scriptures are jam-packed with
huge stomping clues about ME!
But you can't find it in your heart to admit it.
Because then you would have to ask ME
for the eternal life you want so much.
Believe ME and live eternally!
[adapted from Rob Lacey]
[compare 1 John 5:9-13]
Counterfeits. "God has told us in His precious Word that we should know a tree by its fruit. Wherever we find the real, we find the counterfeit also. But praise God for the real. We find in the time of Peter, when men and women were receiving the power of the Holy Ghost, the counterfeit appeared in Ananias and Sapphira. But God’s power was mightier than all the forces of hell, so their sin found them out. Be careful, dear loved ones for your sin will surely find you out. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin." William J. Seymour, 1906
Marvin is a guy in the house church and John is one of the main two characters.
After a few moments Marvin let out a frustrated sigh. "I don’t know, John. I always thought the institution I left wasn’t working because it had the wrong principles. I thought we were getting the right ones in place so we could finally experience real church life." Murmurs of agreement buzzed around the table.
"But you don’t see it that way?"
"No, I don’t. If it helps, I think you’re finding better principles–onesthat reflect more accurately the life of the early believers. But keep in mind that following priciples didn’t produce their life together. We can observe what happened as they followed Jesus, but copying that won’t produce the same reality."
"Jesus didn’t leave us with a system; he left us with his Spirit–a guide instead of a map. Principles alone will not satisfy your hunger. That’s why systems always promise a future revival that never comes. They cannot produce community because they are designed to keep people apart."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because they keep the focus on services or rituals, principles turn most people into spectators. By holding up standards and motivating people to conform to them they only encourage people to pretend to be what they are not, or to act like they know more than they really do. Questions and doubts are discouraged and people can’t deal with the things they are hiding. Thus they only let people see the shadow they want them to see, not who they really are. Feeling isolated, they only become more focused on their own needs and what others aren’t doing to meet them. They fight over control of the institution, however large or small, so that they can make others do what they think is best. It is a story that has been repeated for a couple of thousand years."
Following a pattern or copying whether it is 2000 years ago that you copy or if it is the group whose conference you went to just doesn’t produce the same reality. I love that line about He gave His Spirit instead of a map. And I know the part about people pretending is so true. So whether you are in a big church, little church, house church, fluid church, coffeehouse church or whatever, Here’s to everyone, following the Spirit’s leading and to seeking God’s guidance on every decision.
R.D.Ice 4-20-09
Jesus warned about the leaven of the Pharisees. "Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadduccees." Matt. 16:12 Compare Matt. 15:1-9.
What if Simon the Pharisee had been the one to meet the Eunuch on the road??? Would he have said something like this?
The Ethiopian said: "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" Acts 8:36 "And Simon said, 'First, our scribes have searched the Law and found 613 laws. You must be taught these and be able to speak to each of these laws. Further, our scribes have found a hundred or more new laws from the silence of God - from what He did not say. You must learn these also. And then we have another problem. You need to be circumcised, and that is impossible since you are a eunuch. So I see no hope at all for you.'"
NOT!!! The truth is: upon the Ethiopian's confession of faith in Christ -"I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" - Philip immediately baptized him into Christ! Which included the Holy Spirit as a gift (Titus 3:5-6). And the Ethiopian went on his way rejoicing! When he got back home he joyfully spread the Good News Gospel that God had acted in Christ to put the world right with Himself! Old barriers and walls have been torn down. It no longer mattered that he was a Gentile, or that he had been surgically neutered. Whosoever will may come and be saved eternally!
Damnable heresies come in different forms. Jesus said of the Pharisees: "And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." John 5:40 They were intense Bible students. They carefully read & studied each word, researched the fine print, and read between the lines. But their minds were already made up against Jesus! They were "agents of change" while they convinced themselves they were preserving The Old Ways. Thus they rejected Jesus, and crucified Him.
Jesus speaks to the Pharisees
You have your heads in the Bible always.
You studied for degrees in the Sacred Books.
And PhDs in books about the Sacred Books.
And you're convinced this will get you into Heaven.
But you miss The Point: IT'S ALL ABOUT ME!
The Holy Scriptures are jam-packed with
huge stomping clues about ME!
But you can't find it in your heart to admit it.
Because then you would have to ask ME
for the eternal life you want so much.
Believe ME and live eternally!
[adapted from Rob Lacey]
[compare 1 John 5:9-13]
Counterfeits. "God has told us in His precious Word that we should know a tree by its fruit. Wherever we find the real, we find the counterfeit also. But praise God for the real. We find in the time of Peter, when men and women were receiving the power of the Holy Ghost, the counterfeit appeared in Ananias and Sapphira. But God’s power was mightier than all the forces of hell, so their sin found them out. Be careful, dear loved ones for your sin will surely find you out. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin." William J. Seymour, 1906
Marvin is a guy in the house church and John is one of the main two characters.
After a few moments Marvin let out a frustrated sigh. "I don’t know, John. I always thought the institution I left wasn’t working because it had the wrong principles. I thought we were getting the right ones in place so we could finally experience real church life." Murmurs of agreement buzzed around the table.
"But you don’t see it that way?"
"No, I don’t. If it helps, I think you’re finding better principles–onesthat reflect more accurately the life of the early believers. But keep in mind that following priciples didn’t produce their life together. We can observe what happened as they followed Jesus, but copying that won’t produce the same reality."
"Jesus didn’t leave us with a system; he left us with his Spirit–a guide instead of a map. Principles alone will not satisfy your hunger. That’s why systems always promise a future revival that never comes. They cannot produce community because they are designed to keep people apart."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because they keep the focus on services or rituals, principles turn most people into spectators. By holding up standards and motivating people to conform to them they only encourage people to pretend to be what they are not, or to act like they know more than they really do. Questions and doubts are discouraged and people can’t deal with the things they are hiding. Thus they only let people see the shadow they want them to see, not who they really are. Feeling isolated, they only become more focused on their own needs and what others aren’t doing to meet them. They fight over control of the institution, however large or small, so that they can make others do what they think is best. It is a story that has been repeated for a couple of thousand years."
Following a pattern or copying whether it is 2000 years ago that you copy or if it is the group whose conference you went to just doesn’t produce the same reality. I love that line about He gave His Spirit instead of a map. And I know the part about people pretending is so true. So whether you are in a big church, little church, house church, fluid church, coffeehouse church or whatever, Here’s to everyone, following the Spirit’s leading and to seeking God’s guidance on every decision.
LAW OF CONTRARIETIES
LAW OF CONTRARIETIES [and Unintended Consequences]
R.D.Ice 11-25-07
Law of contrarieties: reactionary - such a person; unthinkingly opposed to change; urging a return to a previous state; very conservative. One who does not think through the consequences of reacting.
Alexander Campbell said Facts Are Stubborn Things. "Fred! I was told you were dead!" "As you can see, I am not." "But you have to be dead. The one who told me was much more trustworthy than you."
It was "Pogo Possum" who said: "We has met the enemy and they is us." The Apostle Paul said: "But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!"
Gal 5:15 (NKJV) Sometimes the most severe enemy of the church turns out to be the church itself.
One of Murphy's Laws says that whatever you do will be wrong for something and cause untended consequences. An example of this was "Old Uncle John." It was said that "he was so strict that he was only in fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that he sometimes had doubts about the Holy Ghost."
"Uncle John" (an imaginary character) is a composite of people and places I have known over 58 years of preaching among the Churches of Christ. Old Uncle John really did love the Lord. But he followed a guiding principle which distorted the way he viewed things. "If the denominations go in and out the door, we will go in and out the window." And so he reacted, bouncing from one extreme to another. He did not preview OR THINK THROUGH the consequences of the choices he was making.
"We’ve got to be DIFFERENT," he said, "or we don’t have anything to preach." "What about preaching Christ?" someone asked. "Oh," John said, "the denominations do that. We’ve got to tell people just how different we are, that we are the true church BECAUSE we are Different and Peculiar."
But Paul said: "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. The ancient church spoke of the Fish (ichthus). <")))>< - Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. This was their faith. This is our faith!
A Brother came to hold a Gospel Meeting. The first night he preached that NO ONE AT ALL COULD BE SAVED, (except just maybe a tiny remnant). He quoted what Jesus said about "entering in at the strait gate." One of the young people asked, "what about Matt. 8:11 where Jesus said 'MANY will come from the east and the west and sit down in the kingdom of heaven?' And what about the ‘great number that no man can number’ of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, in Revelation 7?"
The next night the brother preached on "how sinful it was to have a kitchen in the church." Uncle John said, "There has been enough gospel preached here tonight to save the world!"
[But isn’t the gospel about Christ Jesus?]
Uncle John was against "premillenialism." "If premillenialism is true, why, you might as well just throw the Bible out the window!" But of course God doesn’t need our advice on what He does or does not do. But Uncle John did not stop there. He began following the AD 70 argument (Preterism). He bought a book on Revelation that taught that everything had been fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. For a while he taught that Christ would never come again. This world would just go on forever. But finally he had to give that up when he saw where all this was leading. He knew that Jesus really is coming at the End of the World. And that Every Eye Shall See HIM!
Anything Uncle John didn’t want to have done now, he would say that it was "just for the first century" and write it off. But when someone tried to tell him that "baptism was just for the first century, and only for the Jews," he got really angry.
Someone tried to say that the Lord’s Supper was only for the first century. They quoted 1 Corinthians 11:20. "When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s Supper." "See," they said, "you cannot eat the Lord’s Supper today." But Uncle John would have none of that.
Someone said that the bread should never be broken before passing it. "You are breaking the body of Christ. It is only right when each person breaks off a piece." And for a while Uncle John argued that the bread should not be broken before it is passed. Then another argued that since the ‘elements’ had been blessed in the morning worship, they should not be blessed again when offered at the evening service. And for a time Uncle John offered the Lord’s Supper at the evening service without ‘blessing’ it. But a visiting brother attacked that, and Uncle John once again 'blessed' the Lord’s Supper at the evening service.
Uncle John was sure that the Holy Spirit was just for the first century, and that only the apostles had ever received the Holy Spirit. For a while he began teaching that the New Testament did not really begin until Acts 2:22, that all that Peter quoted from Joel applied only to the Old Testament times. He began teaching that since Jesus lived under the Law, you should ignore everything that Jesus said and taught. But Jesus Himself said HIS WORD would judge us at the last day, John 12:48. And Uncle John did use a red-letter Bible with all the words of Christ in red.
A visiting brother said, "You can buy all the Holy Spirit that is in the world for 10 cents. The holy spirit (sic) exists only in the written word." He was speaking of a paperback New Testament. But Uncle John said, "You’re wrong. The Holy Spirit is God. Simon the Sorcerer tried to buy the power of the Holy Spirit and got into trouble. The Holy Spirit is the Author of the Bible. And if the Holy Spirit is the written word, how did Mary become pregnant with Jesus by the Holy Spirit?"
But when some of the young people began singing: "There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit In This Place," (page 882 in Praise For The Lord), Uncle John called the elders together and said those young people should be put out of the church to protect it. "Why, there never was a Spirit in this place, sweet or otherwise." But Paul said: "Quench not the Spirit." And: "In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Ephes. 2:22
For a while Uncle did become convinced that the Holy Spirit was the Written Word, and that anyone could only have the Spirit as he read the Bible. But someone asked, "What about those who cannot read, or who do not have a Bible? Is the Holy Spirit out of reach of such a person? And if you say we no longer have the Holy Spirit because we now have the Bible, would you also say we no longer need Christ because we now have the church?"
When one of the young people reminded Uncle John of Cornelius being baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:15-17), and that Philip’s four daughters had prophesied (Acts 21:9), he began teaching like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. "The holy spirit (sic) is just a power like electricity. ‘It’ is not a person at all." One preacher said "It (the Spirit) is just a messenger like Moses." Another preacher wrote a book in which he tried to prove that all the restoration pioneers were UNITARIANS like the Jehovah Witnesses. And someone put up a web site to make fun of "The Holy Spirit."
But the JWs have strange ideas about Who Jesus Is. They teach Jesus was only a man, or perhaps an angel. Uncle John read in the JW Bible Version that John was preparing the way of Jehovah (Luke 3:4 LORD = Jehovah) and compared this with Isaiah 42:8 ("I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another...") and he had to change again. Surely Jesus was Jehovah and the teaching about the Trinity was true. Father-Son-Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14). [Campbell could speak of Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son, Jehovah the Holy Spirit.]
Uncle John decided that the Holy Spirit "is just the Spirit of God." Someone said that was like saying "Jesus is just the Son of God." Campbell insisted that this is THE NAME [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19-20).
Uncle John met some Pentecostals who spoke about the Indwelling Holy Spirit and quoted Bible to prove this (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 6:19-20). "Impossible!" he said. "Why, the Spirit would just burn them up! The Holy Spirit could never actually indwell anyone. It’s just a figure of speech." Then he got to thinking. If the Spirit would just burn them up, how could Jesus be the Son of God in the flesh? So for a period of time, he began teaching that Jesus "just wore a disguise" and was not really God in human form. But the Bible does teach with emphasis that Jesus is the Son of God who came in flesh and blood (2 John 7; 1John 5:6), and he finally had to give this idea up. Note 1 John 4:1-4. One who denies that Jesus is the Christ who came in flesh & blood has committed a serious sin. And the Cross & Resurrection is a vital doctrine. Gal. 3:1-3; Romans 10:9-10.
A contentious young man from another congregation came to harangue Uncle John. "You've go to trouble people." he said. "Hell fire and brimstone!" Then he said, "Your baptism is no good. You didn't repent right. I know you didn't. You’ve got to be totally troubled first to repent." He kept on at this and finally convinced Uncle John to be rebaptized. "Now" he said, "you are a novice. You can't continue to be an elder anymore." So Uncle John stepped down. About three months later Uncle John began to think things over. "The Eunuch was baptized on his statement of faith in Christ. He wanted to be right with God. I was baptized on my faith in Christ. There was nothing at all wrong with my baptism." And so he went back to being an elder again.
A much older man visited from another congregation. He went to one of the other elders and tried to convince him that the qualifications were so strict that no one could possibly be an elder (except this man of course). The elder finally became so convinced of how unworthy he was that he resigned. And then he left the church altogether. When Uncle John tried to reason with him, he would not talk about it at all.
Another contentious young man said: "The King James translators were all crooks and scoundrels." "NO!" said Uncle John. "That can't be! They were surely Christians since they handled aright the word of God." One of the young people then said: "So the borders of the kingdom extend farther out than we thought. Wasn't that what Campbell said?"
Some time later an evangelist from another State came to hold a Gospel Meeting for the church. He preached on Wednesday night that "The church must grow from the inside out." He said that love was even more important than faith and hope, and he quoted Paul to prove it (1Cor. 13:13). That was just too much for Uncle John. "Why the church has gone all these years without love. That’s just these change-agents trying to get their two cents in." [The church really hadn't gone without love, of course.]
Someone reminded him of what Jesus said about the greatest commandment is to LOVE GOD, and the second greatest is to LOVE NEIGHBOR. "Jesus taught about God’s love for us in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He taught about loving neighbor in the Good Samaritan. And Jesus taught that love is the IDENTIFIER of a true disciple (John 13:34-35)."
But Uncle John remembered a friend who said almost everything in the Bible is negative! This friend could read the divorce issue into every verse of the Bible. He would ask this friend what to do about the "love" issue. "Forget this love thing," he said. "They are making it too easy. Just concentrate on DUTY. The righteous are SCARCELY saved." But of course Jesus Himself said that CHRISTIAN LOVE was the IDENTIFIER BY WHICH ALL WOULD KNOW HIS DISCIPLES (John 13:34-35). John spoke of the eternal hope we have in Jesus (1 John 3:1-3; 4:2-4,13,17-18). Peter spoke of "joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:7-9).
In contrast, Campbell said he tried to approach the Bible every morning as if he had never seen it before. He meant that he tried to read the Bible without any preconceived ideas and biases. When we read a newspaper, we unconsciously use the laws of language and communication to understand what we read. Perhaps it would help to read the Bible as if it were a newspaper, or a letter from God. Paul warned of some who "strive about words to no profit" (2 Timothy 2:14; 1Timothy 6:4). David Lipscomb wrote: "They had such a morbid fondness for questionings and disputings over untaught questions and words that it amounted to a disease. These men deal with subtle, useless and unpractical questions, which have no bearing on ordinary life, and only tend to stir up strife and useless discussions, and make men discontented and rebellious."
Let us never forget what Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 5:18-19. "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation." NKJV
F.L.Rowe wrote in his book: "The History of Reformatory Movements:" "Forgiveness takes place in the mind of God, and not in the heart of the sinner." Compare Hebrews 8:7-13. "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (NKJV)
Brinsmead wrote: "It makes a lot of difference whether we think the body is a prison (of the soul) or a temple of the Holy Ghost. 1 Cor. 6:19."
The New Testament church had every problem we have today. "The Church (at Corinth), torn with divisions, plagued by sex scandals, involved with lawsuits, weakened by corruption of the worship and the neglect of the poor, was one of Paul’s greatest evangelistic successes. The corrupt urban society of Corinth was a fertile ground for Paul’s preaching. His success in the pagan and hedonistic culture had a profound impact on the development of Christianity throughout the ages. Paul was clearly inspired by the Holy Spirit when faced with the daunting task of changing the Corinthians into the very body of Christ. The two letters of Paul to the Corinthians deal with issues that have been relevant throughout history and will continue to inspire the Church till the end of time. In these letters, Paul deals with tawdry sex scandals taking place within the Christian community and also gives one of the loftiest descriptions of true Christian love ever given."
And this about the Book of Revelation. "Allow God to charge the horses across the canvas of your mind and grant you the sweep of these things. John sees horses and storms and seas and armies; blood and fire and earthquakes; demons and angels and THE GLORY OF GOD! He was swept along by another vision, another revelation. BUT THE END IS NOT YET!"
"To love people, you must really see them, see the horror - but see them as God sees them. John is saying: "I saw humanity in all of its ragged horror. I saw the ocean of wounded, rebellious sons and daughters of Adam. I saw them enslaved by drugs and alcohol, riddled with Aids, aborting babies out of fear and sin, their marriages in turmoil. Nation rises against nation."
"God allows upheaval and ferment and change in this sea of humanity. Yet there is a KINGDOM that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:25-29). Keep this in mind. God is gathering a PEOPLE out of this sea of peoples, multitudes, nations, tongues. John sees THE LAMB standing on Mount Zion. Out of this same sea rises His church! The Bride of Jesus - His church - safe and secure under His Wings, outfitted with the armor of God, swords, helmets. We see them bloody but unbowed, wounded yet not defeated. In submission to God by His Holy Spirit this sea of humanity becomes the church - the Community of Jesus! VICTORY ALREADY BELONGS TO CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH!!!"
Jesus said: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matt 5:16 As Paul told Timothy, "Preach the word."
R.D.Ice 11-25-07
Law of contrarieties: reactionary - such a person; unthinkingly opposed to change; urging a return to a previous state; very conservative. One who does not think through the consequences of reacting.
Alexander Campbell said Facts Are Stubborn Things. "Fred! I was told you were dead!" "As you can see, I am not." "But you have to be dead. The one who told me was much more trustworthy than you."
It was "Pogo Possum" who said: "We has met the enemy and they is us." The Apostle Paul said: "But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!"
Gal 5:15 (NKJV) Sometimes the most severe enemy of the church turns out to be the church itself.
One of Murphy's Laws says that whatever you do will be wrong for something and cause untended consequences. An example of this was "Old Uncle John." It was said that "he was so strict that he was only in fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that he sometimes had doubts about the Holy Ghost."
"Uncle John" (an imaginary character) is a composite of people and places I have known over 58 years of preaching among the Churches of Christ. Old Uncle John really did love the Lord. But he followed a guiding principle which distorted the way he viewed things. "If the denominations go in and out the door, we will go in and out the window." And so he reacted, bouncing from one extreme to another. He did not preview OR THINK THROUGH the consequences of the choices he was making.
"We’ve got to be DIFFERENT," he said, "or we don’t have anything to preach." "What about preaching Christ?" someone asked. "Oh," John said, "the denominations do that. We’ve got to tell people just how different we are, that we are the true church BECAUSE we are Different and Peculiar."
But Paul said: "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. The ancient church spoke of the Fish (ichthus). <")))>< - Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. This was their faith. This is our faith!
A Brother came to hold a Gospel Meeting. The first night he preached that NO ONE AT ALL COULD BE SAVED, (except just maybe a tiny remnant). He quoted what Jesus said about "entering in at the strait gate." One of the young people asked, "what about Matt. 8:11 where Jesus said 'MANY will come from the east and the west and sit down in the kingdom of heaven?' And what about the ‘great number that no man can number’ of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, in Revelation 7?"
The next night the brother preached on "how sinful it was to have a kitchen in the church." Uncle John said, "There has been enough gospel preached here tonight to save the world!"
[But isn’t the gospel about Christ Jesus?]
Uncle John was against "premillenialism." "If premillenialism is true, why, you might as well just throw the Bible out the window!" But of course God doesn’t need our advice on what He does or does not do. But Uncle John did not stop there. He began following the AD 70 argument (Preterism). He bought a book on Revelation that taught that everything had been fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. For a while he taught that Christ would never come again. This world would just go on forever. But finally he had to give that up when he saw where all this was leading. He knew that Jesus really is coming at the End of the World. And that Every Eye Shall See HIM!
Anything Uncle John didn’t want to have done now, he would say that it was "just for the first century" and write it off. But when someone tried to tell him that "baptism was just for the first century, and only for the Jews," he got really angry.
Someone tried to say that the Lord’s Supper was only for the first century. They quoted 1 Corinthians 11:20. "When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s Supper." "See," they said, "you cannot eat the Lord’s Supper today." But Uncle John would have none of that.
Someone said that the bread should never be broken before passing it. "You are breaking the body of Christ. It is only right when each person breaks off a piece." And for a while Uncle John argued that the bread should not be broken before it is passed. Then another argued that since the ‘elements’ had been blessed in the morning worship, they should not be blessed again when offered at the evening service. And for a time Uncle John offered the Lord’s Supper at the evening service without ‘blessing’ it. But a visiting brother attacked that, and Uncle John once again 'blessed' the Lord’s Supper at the evening service.
Uncle John was sure that the Holy Spirit was just for the first century, and that only the apostles had ever received the Holy Spirit. For a while he began teaching that the New Testament did not really begin until Acts 2:22, that all that Peter quoted from Joel applied only to the Old Testament times. He began teaching that since Jesus lived under the Law, you should ignore everything that Jesus said and taught. But Jesus Himself said HIS WORD would judge us at the last day, John 12:48. And Uncle John did use a red-letter Bible with all the words of Christ in red.
A visiting brother said, "You can buy all the Holy Spirit that is in the world for 10 cents. The holy spirit (sic) exists only in the written word." He was speaking of a paperback New Testament. But Uncle John said, "You’re wrong. The Holy Spirit is God. Simon the Sorcerer tried to buy the power of the Holy Spirit and got into trouble. The Holy Spirit is the Author of the Bible. And if the Holy Spirit is the written word, how did Mary become pregnant with Jesus by the Holy Spirit?"
But when some of the young people began singing: "There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit In This Place," (page 882 in Praise For The Lord), Uncle John called the elders together and said those young people should be put out of the church to protect it. "Why, there never was a Spirit in this place, sweet or otherwise." But Paul said: "Quench not the Spirit." And: "In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Ephes. 2:22
For a while Uncle did become convinced that the Holy Spirit was the Written Word, and that anyone could only have the Spirit as he read the Bible. But someone asked, "What about those who cannot read, or who do not have a Bible? Is the Holy Spirit out of reach of such a person? And if you say we no longer have the Holy Spirit because we now have the Bible, would you also say we no longer need Christ because we now have the church?"
When one of the young people reminded Uncle John of Cornelius being baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:15-17), and that Philip’s four daughters had prophesied (Acts 21:9), he began teaching like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. "The holy spirit (sic) is just a power like electricity. ‘It’ is not a person at all." One preacher said "It (the Spirit) is just a messenger like Moses." Another preacher wrote a book in which he tried to prove that all the restoration pioneers were UNITARIANS like the Jehovah Witnesses. And someone put up a web site to make fun of "The Holy Spirit."
But the JWs have strange ideas about Who Jesus Is. They teach Jesus was only a man, or perhaps an angel. Uncle John read in the JW Bible Version that John was preparing the way of Jehovah (Luke 3:4 LORD = Jehovah) and compared this with Isaiah 42:8 ("I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another...") and he had to change again. Surely Jesus was Jehovah and the teaching about the Trinity was true. Father-Son-Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14). [Campbell could speak of Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son, Jehovah the Holy Spirit.]
Uncle John decided that the Holy Spirit "is just the Spirit of God." Someone said that was like saying "Jesus is just the Son of God." Campbell insisted that this is THE NAME [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19-20).
Uncle John met some Pentecostals who spoke about the Indwelling Holy Spirit and quoted Bible to prove this (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 6:19-20). "Impossible!" he said. "Why, the Spirit would just burn them up! The Holy Spirit could never actually indwell anyone. It’s just a figure of speech." Then he got to thinking. If the Spirit would just burn them up, how could Jesus be the Son of God in the flesh? So for a period of time, he began teaching that Jesus "just wore a disguise" and was not really God in human form. But the Bible does teach with emphasis that Jesus is the Son of God who came in flesh and blood (2 John 7; 1John 5:6), and he finally had to give this idea up. Note 1 John 4:1-4. One who denies that Jesus is the Christ who came in flesh & blood has committed a serious sin. And the Cross & Resurrection is a vital doctrine. Gal. 3:1-3; Romans 10:9-10.
A contentious young man from another congregation came to harangue Uncle John. "You've go to trouble people." he said. "Hell fire and brimstone!" Then he said, "Your baptism is no good. You didn't repent right. I know you didn't. You’ve got to be totally troubled first to repent." He kept on at this and finally convinced Uncle John to be rebaptized. "Now" he said, "you are a novice. You can't continue to be an elder anymore." So Uncle John stepped down. About three months later Uncle John began to think things over. "The Eunuch was baptized on his statement of faith in Christ. He wanted to be right with God. I was baptized on my faith in Christ. There was nothing at all wrong with my baptism." And so he went back to being an elder again.
A much older man visited from another congregation. He went to one of the other elders and tried to convince him that the qualifications were so strict that no one could possibly be an elder (except this man of course). The elder finally became so convinced of how unworthy he was that he resigned. And then he left the church altogether. When Uncle John tried to reason with him, he would not talk about it at all.
Another contentious young man said: "The King James translators were all crooks and scoundrels." "NO!" said Uncle John. "That can't be! They were surely Christians since they handled aright the word of God." One of the young people then said: "So the borders of the kingdom extend farther out than we thought. Wasn't that what Campbell said?"
Some time later an evangelist from another State came to hold a Gospel Meeting for the church. He preached on Wednesday night that "The church must grow from the inside out." He said that love was even more important than faith and hope, and he quoted Paul to prove it (1Cor. 13:13). That was just too much for Uncle John. "Why the church has gone all these years without love. That’s just these change-agents trying to get their two cents in." [The church really hadn't gone without love, of course.]
Someone reminded him of what Jesus said about the greatest commandment is to LOVE GOD, and the second greatest is to LOVE NEIGHBOR. "Jesus taught about God’s love for us in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. He taught about loving neighbor in the Good Samaritan. And Jesus taught that love is the IDENTIFIER of a true disciple (John 13:34-35)."
But Uncle John remembered a friend who said almost everything in the Bible is negative! This friend could read the divorce issue into every verse of the Bible. He would ask this friend what to do about the "love" issue. "Forget this love thing," he said. "They are making it too easy. Just concentrate on DUTY. The righteous are SCARCELY saved." But of course Jesus Himself said that CHRISTIAN LOVE was the IDENTIFIER BY WHICH ALL WOULD KNOW HIS DISCIPLES (John 13:34-35). John spoke of the eternal hope we have in Jesus (1 John 3:1-3; 4:2-4,13,17-18). Peter spoke of "joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:7-9).
In contrast, Campbell said he tried to approach the Bible every morning as if he had never seen it before. He meant that he tried to read the Bible without any preconceived ideas and biases. When we read a newspaper, we unconsciously use the laws of language and communication to understand what we read. Perhaps it would help to read the Bible as if it were a newspaper, or a letter from God. Paul warned of some who "strive about words to no profit" (2 Timothy 2:14; 1Timothy 6:4). David Lipscomb wrote: "They had such a morbid fondness for questionings and disputings over untaught questions and words that it amounted to a disease. These men deal with subtle, useless and unpractical questions, which have no bearing on ordinary life, and only tend to stir up strife and useless discussions, and make men discontented and rebellious."
Let us never forget what Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 5:18-19. "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation." NKJV
F.L.Rowe wrote in his book: "The History of Reformatory Movements:" "Forgiveness takes place in the mind of God, and not in the heart of the sinner." Compare Hebrews 8:7-13. "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (NKJV)
Brinsmead wrote: "It makes a lot of difference whether we think the body is a prison (of the soul) or a temple of the Holy Ghost. 1 Cor. 6:19."
The New Testament church had every problem we have today. "The Church (at Corinth), torn with divisions, plagued by sex scandals, involved with lawsuits, weakened by corruption of the worship and the neglect of the poor, was one of Paul’s greatest evangelistic successes. The corrupt urban society of Corinth was a fertile ground for Paul’s preaching. His success in the pagan and hedonistic culture had a profound impact on the development of Christianity throughout the ages. Paul was clearly inspired by the Holy Spirit when faced with the daunting task of changing the Corinthians into the very body of Christ. The two letters of Paul to the Corinthians deal with issues that have been relevant throughout history and will continue to inspire the Church till the end of time. In these letters, Paul deals with tawdry sex scandals taking place within the Christian community and also gives one of the loftiest descriptions of true Christian love ever given."
And this about the Book of Revelation. "Allow God to charge the horses across the canvas of your mind and grant you the sweep of these things. John sees horses and storms and seas and armies; blood and fire and earthquakes; demons and angels and THE GLORY OF GOD! He was swept along by another vision, another revelation. BUT THE END IS NOT YET!"
"To love people, you must really see them, see the horror - but see them as God sees them. John is saying: "I saw humanity in all of its ragged horror. I saw the ocean of wounded, rebellious sons and daughters of Adam. I saw them enslaved by drugs and alcohol, riddled with Aids, aborting babies out of fear and sin, their marriages in turmoil. Nation rises against nation."
"God allows upheaval and ferment and change in this sea of humanity. Yet there is a KINGDOM that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:25-29). Keep this in mind. God is gathering a PEOPLE out of this sea of peoples, multitudes, nations, tongues. John sees THE LAMB standing on Mount Zion. Out of this same sea rises His church! The Bride of Jesus - His church - safe and secure under His Wings, outfitted with the armor of God, swords, helmets. We see them bloody but unbowed, wounded yet not defeated. In submission to God by His Holy Spirit this sea of humanity becomes the church - the Community of Jesus! VICTORY ALREADY BELONGS TO CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH!!!"
Jesus said: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matt 5:16 As Paul told Timothy, "Preach the word."
Saturday, January 10, 2009
THOUGHTS ON CANE RIDGE
LOOKING BACK TO THE CANE RIDGE REVIVAL
"It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." John 6:45; Isaiah 54:13.
"Look here! In the paper! A Great Camp Meeting! They're going to have Holy Communion at Cane Ridge in August! We could go to that! It would only take three or four days to get there. And I think the Lord would be especially pleased if we would go to this."
A preacher wrote about the spiritual condition of the people in 1800 as they moved westward from the coastal area. "How many thousands … never saw, much less read, or ever heard a Chapter of the Bible! How many ten thousands who never were baptized or heard a Sermon! And thrice ten thousand, who never heard of the Name of Christ, save in Curses … ! Lamentable! Lamentable is the situation of these people."
At the Cane Ridge Revival, people came to a three day Gospel Meeting climaxing on Sunday with the celebration of the Lord's Supper. When they arrived there, the preaching was: REPENT! AVOID HELL! JESUS DIED FOR YOU! THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB! GOD WILL FORGIVE YOUR SINS! TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION! COME TO JESUS NOW!
Barton W. Stone believed the Cane Ridge Revival was a work of God. Christ was preached, lives were changed, God's purposes were accomplished. Certainly Satan was there also to do his worst. But as Jesus said to the Pharisees: "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." Matt 12:26-28 (NKJV)
Christ was preached at Cane Ridge, and just who was doing this preaching? Apostle Paul wrote: "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." Phil 1:18 (NKJV)
Robert Rainey wrote in 19th Century England this comment. "It is not true that the preaching of Christ serves no purpose and yields no fruits, in cases where it is not carried on in the right or the best spirit. . . Now the Apostle, looking at this, is glad of it. He is not glad that any men, professing Christ, give way to evil and unchristian tempers. But he is glad that Christ is preached. There were cases in which he vehemently contended with such persons - when they strove to poison and pervert Christians who had learned the better way. But now he is thinking of the outside world; and it was good that the making known of Christ should gather strength, and volume, and extension. And the Apostle knew that the Lord could bless His own message, imperfectly delivered perhaps, to bring thirsty souls to Himself, and would not fail in His unsearchable wisdom to care for those who came, and to lead them in the ways He thought best. Let Christ be preached. The converts do not belong to the denominations, but first of all to Christ. Neither is it appointed that the denominations shall permanently hold those whom they bring in; but Christ can hold them, and can order their future in ways we cannot foretell. . . . But GOD is not tied up to give no success to men acting under wrong motives: at least, if we are not to say He gives the success to them, yet in connection with them He is well able to take success to Himself. Through strange channels He can send blessings to souls, whatever He gives or denies to the unworthy workmen. Souls truly gathered in will soon get beyond their teaching."
Salvation is too important to be left entirely in human hands. God does want everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). Some picture God as an Old Man with pad & pencil writing down everything He can find to keep us out of heaven. Some work hard to "prove" that no one can be saved! They are "defenders of the truth." Some Jewish leaders condemned the miracles Jesus did as being from the devil. But Jesus was RIGHT - and the Pharisees were wrong. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:14-17 (NKJV)
Although Satan APPEARS to be turning everyone away from God, this cannot be true. God is always working in ways we may not know. HIS DIVINE PURPOSE CANNOT BE DEFEATED! The battle between the Church and the Devil has already been settled in heaven. The Ascension of Christ meant the downfall of Satan, and every act of Christian sacrifice confirms it! Read Revelation ch 12.
Leapfrog ahead from the First Century to Cane Ridge in 1801. Stone believed that the evidence he saw of obedience to God and changed lives and then they continued in faithful obedience was proof that God was present in what had happened there. We see things like these in the New Testament. Compare Acts 19:11-20 and note the results. Live were truly changed!
Many factors went into the Great Revival at Cane Ridge. We note The Great Awakening in America in the 1730s and 1740s which had tremendous results. The number of people in church multiplied, and the lives of those converted showed a true Christian morality.
Quite by surprise there was a tremendous outpouring of response to the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. This movement of the Spirit surprised people because it produced something unexpected: people professing conversion to Christ. What Edwards said was: "You can't control salvation." But Puritans heard him saying, "if you try, God will aid your salvation." Phrases like "It is in your power to use means of grace" and "One can strive against corruption." Edwards wanted to make the point that salvation ultimately is in the hands of God, and that He empowers the Christian to resist evil. And people responded to what they viewed as an invitation to seek after salvation.
Alexander Campbell spoke of a "Christianity at large" which viewed the Ancient Order seen in the New Testament as superseding sectarianism to gather all to be One In Christ. Whitefield said: "Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven? Any Episcopalians? No! Any Presbyterians? No! Any Independents or Methodists? No, No No! Whom have you there? We don't know those names here. All who are here are Christians...Oh, is this the case? The God help us to forget your party names and to become Christians in deed and truth." In essence, Whitefield reduced Christianity to it's lowest common denominator--those sinners who love Jesus will go to heaven. Denominational distinctives were down played. This theme was picked up by Samuel Davies, one of the principle leaders of the Awakening in Virginia.
Denominational barriers broke down as Christians of all persuasions worked together in the cause of the gospel. There was a renewed concern with missions, and work among the Indians increased. Methodist "circuit riders" who rode from place to place worked to spread Christ and the Awakening.
America was much smaller back then and this Revival was mostly in the New England States. It is difficult to believe that in 1782 not one permanent settlement existed in the whole of Ohio (except perhaps Indian villages) and that by 1800 Ohio population was around 70,000 for the whole State.
Before 1800, western Kentucky was sparsely populated. The French & Indian war against the settlers had been a disaster. Midnight raids by terrorists - for that was what they were - created hopelessness and spiritual ignorance. Some of these early settlers were outlaws fleeing punishment by hiding in the wilderness. There were also decent God fearing citizens that came looking for a future. But it was a time of violence and fear. Men like Big & Little Harp (America's first serial killers) committed great crimes against the settlers.
Today we have Church every Sunday (Lord's Day). And every Sunday is Holy Communion. But it was not so in those days of the Frontier. There was not a church on every corner. Organized worship was mostly nonexistent. They did not know they could gather in a house-church assembly to praise God and eat the Supper of the Lord. Yet times of Holy Communion would be held in Revivals - three or four day meetings with all-day preaching and climaxing in the Supper on Sunday.
It is difficult to for us today to understand what happened at Cane Ridge. Our America is anti-supernatural (yet we believe everything we see on TV). Bultmann wrote: "we cannot use electric lights and radios and, in the event of illness, avail ourselves of modern medical and clinical means and at the same time believe in the spirit and wonder world of the New Testament." And some in the church do think that way. In the world of politics it would be the worst possible sin to be an intensely committed Christian. Yet read the Book of Acts. God The Holy Spirit jumps out at every page. Peter healed people (Acts 5:12-16). Amazing things were done in Samaria (Acts 8:5-8). The Holy Spirit sent Philip to the Ethiopian Nobleman and sent Paul to Macedonia. God is awesome, powerful, shaking things up, but above all - Loving, Cleansing, and Saving.
The effect of Cane Ridge on people was powerful. Someone wrote: "...everyone was crying out for mercy. The anguished screams caused trees to sway ... mother, she fell and was breathing hard, like a sheep on a hot day...The eyes of the crowd were blazed with the glory of heaven, seeing only the divine and the celestial." Stone said: "I saw sinners every where, of every age and sex, rich and poor, bond and free, old and young, weeping, praying, and converting to God--I saw enemies become friends, and sweetly united in the bonds of love--I saw brotherly kindness, meekness, gentleness, obedience, all the divine graces, growing and abounding among the saints of God. The Bible was read with intense desire to find the truth. This, this I call a revival. This I call the work of God."
Jesus said in a parable "Go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come in." (Matt. 22:9-10). Note they gathered both bad and good. The sorting would be done later. (Some want to presort people before preaching to them. But the identity of wheat and tares will be shown by what they produce.)
God is interested in results. God was being true to Himself when He worked miracles, and also when He gave orders to do things in an unusual way. Compel them to come in! And this was the order of things in the Kentucky Revival at Cane Ridge in 1801. Stone believed that the Hand of the Lord was at work in these things. Repentance and changed lives were proof to him. "Bring forth fruits of repentance." And this was surely happening!
The Kingdom of God is a spiritual nation of people who are called by the gospel of Christ. Their relationship and loyalty is to God-in-Christ. In the Lord's Supper we are to "show forth His death until He Comes." Christians, then, are to be a living demonstration of Who Christ Is. We let our light shine by the love and good works we do to the "least of these."
Elder David Purviance wrote in his Biography. [note: I have revised some of the language for clarity. RDI] "In due time a great camp-meeting to be held at Caneridge, in the coming month of August, was advertised widely. Such was now the general interest of the public mind, that when the meeting came, it was attended by about 25,000 souls. Persons were said to be in attendance from most of the States in the Union [as it was in 1801]. Particularly were gathered together, on that memorable occasion, the thousands of Israel [the church], from all the religious orders of the land. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, &c., &c., were there, as one mighty spiritual host, assembled together, to fight the battles of the Lord. They had come up to the help of Zion. They preached and prayed and praised together; they mutually labored together for the salvation of sinners. Their objects and aims were the same; there was no schism (sectarian division). Nay, more than this. Together, in sweetest, holiest, symbolic communion, they sat down at the One Table of the One Lord, and together commemorated His sufferings and death, affording to a gazing and admiring world, a monumental exhibition of an answer to the memorable prayer of the incarnate Jesus (John 17), to His and their Heavenly Father for the union of His people. Such were the glories of the times that many good people thought assuredly the Millennium (Golden Age) had begun to dawn upon the world."
"THE GREAT MEETING AT CANE RIDGE commenced on Friday before the third Lord's day of August, 1801. From the commencement the roads were literally crowded with wagons, carriages, horsemen, and people on foot, all pressing to the appointed place, till by the Sabbath day (Sunday) the grove that was then open near Cane Ridge meeting-house, was filled with wagons, tents, and people. It was supposed that there were between twenty and thirty thousand people there. Elder Stone in his Journal remarks, "A particular description of this meeting would fill a large volume, and then the half would not be told." Stone's Biography, pg. 38.
"For the sake of the present and future generations, I will attempt a faint description.- From the very commencement, an uncommon solemnity appeared to rest on the countenance of the people. Not infrequently several preachers would be speaking within the bounds of the encampment without any interruption to each other. Wagons, stumps, and logs were used for stands. The preaching and exhortations were interesting and impressive. Salvation free to all mankind was proclaimed, and the willingness of Jesus to save all that would come (John 6:37) was urged universally by the speakers. "The word of God was quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword;" many sinners were cut to the heart, and fell prostrate under an awful guilt and condemnation for sin. This was not confined to any one class. The moral, genteel and well raised, the giddy and profane, the wicked, the drunkard, and the infidel, the poor and also the rich, as well as the proud and vain, with all their gaudy attire, were brought down by the SPIRIT of the ALMIGHTY, and they appeared to have forgotten every thing in this world in view of their souls' eternal salvation." [Compare Acts 2:36. "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"]
LET UNITY BE OUR POLAR STAR! Stone and the Campbells intended to join hands with true believers in a united effort to LIFT UP THE CAUSE OF CHRIST. Stone was first, and from Cane Ridge the gospel "spread like fire in dry stubble." The Campbells - father and son - joined in, along with a host of others.
Stone spoke of four thoughts on the unity of believers.
1. BOOK UNION. He spoke not of the Bible, but of creeds [patterns] which may be written in a book, or be unwritten, but still followed. Creeds written/unwritten when used as tests of fellowship tend to divide rather than unite.
2. HEAD UNION. He spoke of a common understanding of the Bible. Stone’s words, "Each one believed his opinion of certain texts to be the very spirit and meaning of the texts - and that this opinion was absolutely necessary to salvation." Daniel Somer once wrote in frustration: "The New Testament is the Book we divide over." Paul warned: "for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2 Cor. 3:6 (NKJV) And: "But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." Romans 7:6 (NKJV)
3. WATER UNION. All who have been baptized into Christ are one in Christ. Stone says, "Water union was defined to be a union founded on immersion into water. But fact proves that this union is easily dissolved, and that immersion will not keep those who are immersed, united." In Stone's words: "How vain are all human attempts to unite a bundle of twigs together, so as to make them grow together and bear fruit! They must first be united with the living stock, and receive its sap and spirit, before they can ever be united with each other. So must we be first united with Christ, and receive his spirit [Spirit], before we can ever be in spirit united with one another. The members of the body cannot live unless by union with the head—nor can the members of the church be united, unless first united with Christ, the Living Head. His spirit [Spirit] is the bond of union. Men have devised many plans to unite Christians - all are vain. There is but one effectual plan, which is, that all be united with Christ and walk in Him."
4. FIRE UNION. By this Stone meant what we read in 1 Cor. 12:13. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." And: "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Eph. 4:3 The Greek can be translated: "Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together."
This is the only way to be faithful to Scripture. In the words of Stone: "We have been too long engaged with defending ourselves, rather than the truth as it is in Jesus. Let us trust our little selves with the Lord; and rest not, till by faith in the promised Spirit and by incessant prayer we receive and be filled with it, like they were of old in the ancient order of things."
The question we face then is not "How can we work toward unity?" but rather "How will we be faithful to the call to maintain the unity of the Spirit?"
The Psalmist wrote: "A song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain." Psalms 127:1 (NKJV)
The apostles and disciples could not begin their "witness" until God-The-Holy-Spirit came in power. They were to tarry in Jerusalem until that time. Jesus said of The Spirit: "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--" John 14:16 (NKJV)
"It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." John 6:45; Isaiah 54:13.
"Look here! In the paper! A Great Camp Meeting! They're going to have Holy Communion at Cane Ridge in August! We could go to that! It would only take three or four days to get there. And I think the Lord would be especially pleased if we would go to this."
A preacher wrote about the spiritual condition of the people in 1800 as they moved westward from the coastal area. "How many thousands … never saw, much less read, or ever heard a Chapter of the Bible! How many ten thousands who never were baptized or heard a Sermon! And thrice ten thousand, who never heard of the Name of Christ, save in Curses … ! Lamentable! Lamentable is the situation of these people."
At the Cane Ridge Revival, people came to a three day Gospel Meeting climaxing on Sunday with the celebration of the Lord's Supper. When they arrived there, the preaching was: REPENT! AVOID HELL! JESUS DIED FOR YOU! THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB! GOD WILL FORGIVE YOUR SINS! TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION! COME TO JESUS NOW!
Barton W. Stone believed the Cane Ridge Revival was a work of God. Christ was preached, lives were changed, God's purposes were accomplished. Certainly Satan was there also to do his worst. But as Jesus said to the Pharisees: "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you." Matt 12:26-28 (NKJV)
Christ was preached at Cane Ridge, and just who was doing this preaching? Apostle Paul wrote: "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." Phil 1:18 (NKJV)
Robert Rainey wrote in 19th Century England this comment. "It is not true that the preaching of Christ serves no purpose and yields no fruits, in cases where it is not carried on in the right or the best spirit. . . Now the Apostle, looking at this, is glad of it. He is not glad that any men, professing Christ, give way to evil and unchristian tempers. But he is glad that Christ is preached. There were cases in which he vehemently contended with such persons - when they strove to poison and pervert Christians who had learned the better way. But now he is thinking of the outside world; and it was good that the making known of Christ should gather strength, and volume, and extension. And the Apostle knew that the Lord could bless His own message, imperfectly delivered perhaps, to bring thirsty souls to Himself, and would not fail in His unsearchable wisdom to care for those who came, and to lead them in the ways He thought best. Let Christ be preached. The converts do not belong to the denominations, but first of all to Christ. Neither is it appointed that the denominations shall permanently hold those whom they bring in; but Christ can hold them, and can order their future in ways we cannot foretell. . . . But GOD is not tied up to give no success to men acting under wrong motives: at least, if we are not to say He gives the success to them, yet in connection with them He is well able to take success to Himself. Through strange channels He can send blessings to souls, whatever He gives or denies to the unworthy workmen. Souls truly gathered in will soon get beyond their teaching."
Salvation is too important to be left entirely in human hands. God does want everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). Some picture God as an Old Man with pad & pencil writing down everything He can find to keep us out of heaven. Some work hard to "prove" that no one can be saved! They are "defenders of the truth." Some Jewish leaders condemned the miracles Jesus did as being from the devil. But Jesus was RIGHT - and the Pharisees were wrong. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:14-17 (NKJV)
Although Satan APPEARS to be turning everyone away from God, this cannot be true. God is always working in ways we may not know. HIS DIVINE PURPOSE CANNOT BE DEFEATED! The battle between the Church and the Devil has already been settled in heaven. The Ascension of Christ meant the downfall of Satan, and every act of Christian sacrifice confirms it! Read Revelation ch 12.
Leapfrog ahead from the First Century to Cane Ridge in 1801. Stone believed that the evidence he saw of obedience to God and changed lives and then they continued in faithful obedience was proof that God was present in what had happened there. We see things like these in the New Testament. Compare Acts 19:11-20 and note the results. Live were truly changed!
Many factors went into the Great Revival at Cane Ridge. We note The Great Awakening in America in the 1730s and 1740s which had tremendous results. The number of people in church multiplied, and the lives of those converted showed a true Christian morality.
Quite by surprise there was a tremendous outpouring of response to the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. This movement of the Spirit surprised people because it produced something unexpected: people professing conversion to Christ. What Edwards said was: "You can't control salvation." But Puritans heard him saying, "if you try, God will aid your salvation." Phrases like "It is in your power to use means of grace" and "One can strive against corruption." Edwards wanted to make the point that salvation ultimately is in the hands of God, and that He empowers the Christian to resist evil. And people responded to what they viewed as an invitation to seek after salvation.
Alexander Campbell spoke of a "Christianity at large" which viewed the Ancient Order seen in the New Testament as superseding sectarianism to gather all to be One In Christ. Whitefield said: "Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven? Any Episcopalians? No! Any Presbyterians? No! Any Independents or Methodists? No, No No! Whom have you there? We don't know those names here. All who are here are Christians...Oh, is this the case? The God help us to forget your party names and to become Christians in deed and truth." In essence, Whitefield reduced Christianity to it's lowest common denominator--those sinners who love Jesus will go to heaven. Denominational distinctives were down played. This theme was picked up by Samuel Davies, one of the principle leaders of the Awakening in Virginia.
Denominational barriers broke down as Christians of all persuasions worked together in the cause of the gospel. There was a renewed concern with missions, and work among the Indians increased. Methodist "circuit riders" who rode from place to place worked to spread Christ and the Awakening.
America was much smaller back then and this Revival was mostly in the New England States. It is difficult to believe that in 1782 not one permanent settlement existed in the whole of Ohio (except perhaps Indian villages) and that by 1800 Ohio population was around 70,000 for the whole State.
Before 1800, western Kentucky was sparsely populated. The French & Indian war against the settlers had been a disaster. Midnight raids by terrorists - for that was what they were - created hopelessness and spiritual ignorance. Some of these early settlers were outlaws fleeing punishment by hiding in the wilderness. There were also decent God fearing citizens that came looking for a future. But it was a time of violence and fear. Men like Big & Little Harp (America's first serial killers) committed great crimes against the settlers.
Today we have Church every Sunday (Lord's Day). And every Sunday is Holy Communion. But it was not so in those days of the Frontier. There was not a church on every corner. Organized worship was mostly nonexistent. They did not know they could gather in a house-church assembly to praise God and eat the Supper of the Lord. Yet times of Holy Communion would be held in Revivals - three or four day meetings with all-day preaching and climaxing in the Supper on Sunday.
It is difficult to for us today to understand what happened at Cane Ridge. Our America is anti-supernatural (yet we believe everything we see on TV). Bultmann wrote: "we cannot use electric lights and radios and, in the event of illness, avail ourselves of modern medical and clinical means and at the same time believe in the spirit and wonder world of the New Testament." And some in the church do think that way. In the world of politics it would be the worst possible sin to be an intensely committed Christian. Yet read the Book of Acts. God The Holy Spirit jumps out at every page. Peter healed people (Acts 5:12-16). Amazing things were done in Samaria (Acts 8:5-8). The Holy Spirit sent Philip to the Ethiopian Nobleman and sent Paul to Macedonia. God is awesome, powerful, shaking things up, but above all - Loving, Cleansing, and Saving.
The effect of Cane Ridge on people was powerful. Someone wrote: "...everyone was crying out for mercy. The anguished screams caused trees to sway ... mother, she fell and was breathing hard, like a sheep on a hot day...The eyes of the crowd were blazed with the glory of heaven, seeing only the divine and the celestial." Stone said: "I saw sinners every where, of every age and sex, rich and poor, bond and free, old and young, weeping, praying, and converting to God--I saw enemies become friends, and sweetly united in the bonds of love--I saw brotherly kindness, meekness, gentleness, obedience, all the divine graces, growing and abounding among the saints of God. The Bible was read with intense desire to find the truth. This, this I call a revival. This I call the work of God."
Jesus said in a parable "Go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come in." (Matt. 22:9-10). Note they gathered both bad and good. The sorting would be done later. (Some want to presort people before preaching to them. But the identity of wheat and tares will be shown by what they produce.)
God is interested in results. God was being true to Himself when He worked miracles, and also when He gave orders to do things in an unusual way. Compel them to come in! And this was the order of things in the Kentucky Revival at Cane Ridge in 1801. Stone believed that the Hand of the Lord was at work in these things. Repentance and changed lives were proof to him. "Bring forth fruits of repentance." And this was surely happening!
The Kingdom of God is a spiritual nation of people who are called by the gospel of Christ. Their relationship and loyalty is to God-in-Christ. In the Lord's Supper we are to "show forth His death until He Comes." Christians, then, are to be a living demonstration of Who Christ Is. We let our light shine by the love and good works we do to the "least of these."
Elder David Purviance wrote in his Biography. [note: I have revised some of the language for clarity. RDI] "In due time a great camp-meeting to be held at Caneridge, in the coming month of August, was advertised widely. Such was now the general interest of the public mind, that when the meeting came, it was attended by about 25,000 souls. Persons were said to be in attendance from most of the States in the Union [as it was in 1801]. Particularly were gathered together, on that memorable occasion, the thousands of Israel [the church], from all the religious orders of the land. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, &c., &c., were there, as one mighty spiritual host, assembled together, to fight the battles of the Lord. They had come up to the help of Zion. They preached and prayed and praised together; they mutually labored together for the salvation of sinners. Their objects and aims were the same; there was no schism (sectarian division). Nay, more than this. Together, in sweetest, holiest, symbolic communion, they sat down at the One Table of the One Lord, and together commemorated His sufferings and death, affording to a gazing and admiring world, a monumental exhibition of an answer to the memorable prayer of the incarnate Jesus (John 17), to His and their Heavenly Father for the union of His people. Such were the glories of the times that many good people thought assuredly the Millennium (Golden Age) had begun to dawn upon the world."
"THE GREAT MEETING AT CANE RIDGE commenced on Friday before the third Lord's day of August, 1801. From the commencement the roads were literally crowded with wagons, carriages, horsemen, and people on foot, all pressing to the appointed place, till by the Sabbath day (Sunday) the grove that was then open near Cane Ridge meeting-house, was filled with wagons, tents, and people. It was supposed that there were between twenty and thirty thousand people there. Elder Stone in his Journal remarks, "A particular description of this meeting would fill a large volume, and then the half would not be told." Stone's Biography, pg. 38.
"For the sake of the present and future generations, I will attempt a faint description.- From the very commencement, an uncommon solemnity appeared to rest on the countenance of the people. Not infrequently several preachers would be speaking within the bounds of the encampment without any interruption to each other. Wagons, stumps, and logs were used for stands. The preaching and exhortations were interesting and impressive. Salvation free to all mankind was proclaimed, and the willingness of Jesus to save all that would come (John 6:37) was urged universally by the speakers. "The word of God was quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword;" many sinners were cut to the heart, and fell prostrate under an awful guilt and condemnation for sin. This was not confined to any one class. The moral, genteel and well raised, the giddy and profane, the wicked, the drunkard, and the infidel, the poor and also the rich, as well as the proud and vain, with all their gaudy attire, were brought down by the SPIRIT of the ALMIGHTY, and they appeared to have forgotten every thing in this world in view of their souls' eternal salvation." [Compare Acts 2:36. "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"]
LET UNITY BE OUR POLAR STAR! Stone and the Campbells intended to join hands with true believers in a united effort to LIFT UP THE CAUSE OF CHRIST. Stone was first, and from Cane Ridge the gospel "spread like fire in dry stubble." The Campbells - father and son - joined in, along with a host of others.
Stone spoke of four thoughts on the unity of believers.
1. BOOK UNION. He spoke not of the Bible, but of creeds [patterns] which may be written in a book, or be unwritten, but still followed. Creeds written/unwritten when used as tests of fellowship tend to divide rather than unite.
2. HEAD UNION. He spoke of a common understanding of the Bible. Stone’s words, "Each one believed his opinion of certain texts to be the very spirit and meaning of the texts - and that this opinion was absolutely necessary to salvation." Daniel Somer once wrote in frustration: "The New Testament is the Book we divide over." Paul warned: "for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2 Cor. 3:6 (NKJV) And: "But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." Romans 7:6 (NKJV)
3. WATER UNION. All who have been baptized into Christ are one in Christ. Stone says, "Water union was defined to be a union founded on immersion into water. But fact proves that this union is easily dissolved, and that immersion will not keep those who are immersed, united." In Stone's words: "How vain are all human attempts to unite a bundle of twigs together, so as to make them grow together and bear fruit! They must first be united with the living stock, and receive its sap and spirit, before they can ever be united with each other. So must we be first united with Christ, and receive his spirit [Spirit], before we can ever be in spirit united with one another. The members of the body cannot live unless by union with the head—nor can the members of the church be united, unless first united with Christ, the Living Head. His spirit [Spirit] is the bond of union. Men have devised many plans to unite Christians - all are vain. There is but one effectual plan, which is, that all be united with Christ and walk in Him."
4. FIRE UNION. By this Stone meant what we read in 1 Cor. 12:13. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." And: "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Eph. 4:3 The Greek can be translated: "Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together."
This is the only way to be faithful to Scripture. In the words of Stone: "We have been too long engaged with defending ourselves, rather than the truth as it is in Jesus. Let us trust our little selves with the Lord; and rest not, till by faith in the promised Spirit and by incessant prayer we receive and be filled with it, like they were of old in the ancient order of things."
The question we face then is not "How can we work toward unity?" but rather "How will we be faithful to the call to maintain the unity of the Spirit?"
The Psalmist wrote: "A song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain." Psalms 127:1 (NKJV)
The apostles and disciples could not begin their "witness" until God-The-Holy-Spirit came in power. They were to tarry in Jerusalem until that time. Jesus said of The Spirit: "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--" John 14:16 (NKJV)
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