Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 12
January 5, 1961
NUMBER 34, PAGE 3

"Are You An 'Anti'?"

Mardell Lynch, Hobbs, New Mexico

Through some anonymous friend's misplaced generosity I last week received, along with some other members of the congregation, a little tract entitled "ARE YOU AN ANTI?" I was hardly prepared for the switch in attitude manifested by the leaflet. It was like being jerked from a Turkish bath and plunged into a tub of ice water!

Most of these mistaken brethren rave about their courage, their fearlessness, their having the TRUTH and castigate their unsound brethren until you wonder what kind of special equipment they have for pen and ink to stand the temperature! But this was different. This good brother was whining worse than the "Boo-Hoo" brigade that came out of Egypt! He was complaining no end about how he and his "Sound" brethren were being treated and closed in these words with a pathos that was moving: "If you can't answer his arguments call him an "Anti" and if you covet his members, call him an "Anti."

"If you can't answer his arguments" indeed! What arguments? Every activity these mistaken brethren have called in question had been practiced by the church for decades, encouraged by brethren whose reputation for sound Biblical interpretation was not questioned until a certain paper among us about 1950 declared war "without restraint."

Where were these "Johnny-come-Lately's, these defenders of the Faith, "these sound brethren" when the Norhill church in Houston in 1945 "sponsored" a cooperative meeting in the Music Hall? Why did they not sound the alarm when Norhill's preacher wrote: "Twenty churches worked together as one throughout the effort and the church of Christ in Houston demonstrated the practical side of Christian Unity and above all sufficiency of the Lord's church in the accomplishment of his work without the interference of Human organizations. All the funds were handled through the treasury of the Norhill church and all bills incurred paid out of that treasury with a complete report furnished each congregation assisting. That the arrangement worked to the satisfaction of all is attested by the fact that in a city-wide gathering of brethren after the meeting was over, the unanimous request of the churches cooperating in the first meeting was that the Norhill congregation take the lead in the second meeting to be held the ensuing year."

Why did these brethren not give the alarm when the Chapel Avenue church in Nashville sponsored the fifth Tabernacle Meeting with the cooperation of the other congregations of Nashville?

Where were they when brother H. Leo Boles, one of the greatest Bible teachers we have ever produced plead in the 1944 Advocate for brethren to send funds to the Central Church in Miami to build a $10,000.00 building in Cuba because the Central Church was not able to build it alone? On and on we might go if space permitted. Why were these things right in 1937, 1944, and 1945, but wrong today! "If you can't answer his argument just call him an Anti" indeed.

And then that old illogical, worn out, hackneyed refrain: "The Orphan Home is parallel to the Missionary Society." Let's test this a wee mite.

Will these "Keepers of Orthodoxy" that will put the "barrel" in the vestibule for the Orphans Home do the same for the Missionary Society? NO? Why not, they are parallel you know!

Will these "loyal" brethren who would buy the services of the Home buy the services of the Missionary Society? NO? Why not!

Will these who want us to stay in their fellowship in spite of the Home, fellowship us if we adopt the Missionary Society? NO The inescapable conclusion is THEY AIN'T PARALLEL AND WE DO MEAN AIN'T. And some folks whine about our not being able to answer arguments!

But the clincher was this line. "IF YOU COVET HIS MEMBERS CALL HIM AN ANTI!" This line has more sound than sense. It was directed to the galleries and to the rabble! What kind of a Christian would I be if I did not covet the soul of every man that is in error? We earnestly pray this day that all who have been overwhelmed by these latter day hobbies be awakened. But if the brother means to imply that in order to carry a point we are willing to stoop to such a charge just to lure away a lot of cantankerous folk in the objective case and kickative mood, who have been known to display more can't than Christ and more bile than benevolence WE HAVE GOT A WORD FOR HIM! We are perfectly happy for all these mistaken brethren to flock together until such time as they have had a change of heart. We can cite more instances than one where there has been a lot more peace and accomplishment since some folk went away than when they were present. "IF YOU COVET HIS MEMBERS CALL HIM AN ANTI" indeed!!