Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 10
July 17, 1958
NUMBER 11, PAGE 4-5b

Fort Worth Hobby-Rider

(Editor's note: For some time now many Christians over the nation without their wish or request, have found themselves on the free mailing list of a new paper, being published in Fort Worth, Texas. This sheet is filled with such ridiculous misrepresentations, and is written in such an unbrotherly and unChristian spirit, that whatever truth or merit it might have is undoubtedly largely nullified. The paper was avowedly started for the purpose of fighting "anti-ism" — and not a single issue has come forth yet that is not dedicated wholly to the editors hobby of "anti-anti-ism". There will obviously be no popular support for such a vicious sheet, and its life will depend on contributions and donations from the rabid extremists among us. While preaching in Nacogdoches, Texas, on a recent Sunday we happened to pick up the local church bulletin, and found the following article anent the Fort Worth paper. It says some things that need saying.)

"The Spiritual Sword"

Attention has been called in a previous BULLETIN to a paper bearing the near blasphemous name of "The Spiritual Sword" — a title applied by Inspiration to God's own Word. This paper is published from Fort Worth, Texas by Brother Thomas B. Warren a rabid would-be polemic who fancies himself a brilliant logician and unconquerable controversialist. He imagines himself to have been providentially raised up to save the church from a "bogey man" he calls "Anti-ism" Actually the brother is a materialistic-minded liberal and opportunist. He has been first on one side and then on the other of the issues with which his paper has to do. From the beginning of his preaching career, he has advertised the fact that he was preparing himself to be a DEBATER. It appears that he has fastened on to present issues as his great opportunity thus to distinguish himself before the "brotherhood." Brother Warren's statements and actions leave us no alternative but this conclusion. We regret the necessity of saying these things, but he leaves us no choice. He is mailing to numbers of people in this congregation his inflammatory, rabble-rousing paper filled to the very brim with distortions and misrepresentations in an effort to stir up strife. We, of course, cannot ignore such and be true to our duty.

We hold that debating is both scriptural and honorable, but that a professional debater is repugnant to good spiritual taste and a travesty on the high calling and character of a preacher of the ancient gospel. Brother Warren's ambition to be such betrays his complete misconception of the nature of the work of a gospel preacher. Brother Warren's paper abundantly testifies to the fact that his ambition has been realized. Innuendo misrepresentation, begging the issue, stigmata — all tools of the professional debater — bristle from the so-called "Spiritual Sword" as quills from a porcupine.

Those who read the paper carefully will note an utter lack of appeal to the Word of God. Warren's stock in trade is an appeal to human reason. When he does appeal to the Scripture, he perverts it. Having no Scripture for the human institutions and the unscriptural, "centralized control-and-oversight" combinations such as the "Herald of Truth" which he defends, he must resort to the tricks and subterfuges of the professional polemic to uphold his cause. He was the moderator for Brother Guy N. Woods in the debate at Birmingham (Cogdill-Woods) and is literally seething under the humiliation of the annihilation of his position there. We sympathize with his pain, but suggest that he should come back to the truth of God for which he once professed to stand rather than to stoop to the level to which he descends in his little "Sword."

Every argument (?) Warren makes can easily be answered. I do not intend to fill our BULLETIN with material of this kind, however. If you receive the paper and wish further light on any point, I shall be happy to discuss it with you privately. We have complete confidence in the sound, scriptural thinking of the members of this church. We have no fear that the ravings of a rabble-rousing sheet such as the paper in question will upset the equilibrium of any.

The position of your preacher and the sound leadership of this church is THAT GOD'S WORK BE DONE IN GOD'S WAY THROUGH GOD'S INSTITUTION. We insist that there be "a thus saith the Lord for every act, work or worship," that we "speak where the Bible speaks and remain silent where the Bible is silent," that we "call Bible things by Bible names and do Bible things in Bible ways." We do not propose that the rantings of a rabble-rousing liberal shall divert us from this.

The Mound and Starr street church in Nacogdoches is dedicated to the task of preaching the gospel to the whole creation (Mk. 16:15, 16.) and to the fulfilling of every benevolent responsibility which is hers. (Acts 2, 6, 11:29, 30; 1 Cor. 16:1; 2 Cor. 8; 9 Rom. 15.) We do not propose, however, to turn this work over to human institutions or to the elderships of other congregations to do for us. The elderships to which we refer or those such as characterize our modern "sponsoring church" where one church assumes the oversight of a general work and becomes the centralized agency through which many churches work to fulfill their mission and responsibilities. May I say again: This we do not propose to do Brother Thomas B. Warren et. al to the contrary notwithstanding.

James W. Adams