Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 12
April 6, 1961
NUMBER 47, PAGE 1,12-13a

T. Fanning To A. Campbell

James A. Allen, Nashville, Tennessee

"Suffer me, my beloved brother, to very respectfully suggest, that we should not be for the hills of Virginia, the plains of Tennessee, for Bethany or Franklin College, but for the cause of our Master. It is not positively certain that colleges are destined to be of service in the cause of Christ. Protestant Germany has endowed and settled upon herself a class of infidel schools infinitely worse than Roman usurpation; and I give it as my settled opinion, that it would be better for all our colleges to be blotted from existence than to permit them to cause serious differences amongst our great and good men. If Paul could say, "All are yours, whether Paul, Apollos, Cephas or Christ," we may say, all the schools are ours, whether in Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee or elsewhere, and we all belong to Christ.

"Finally, it is possibly a misfortune that so many of our able brethren have given themselves to the work of building up schools for youth, instead of laboring in the school of Christ, and you, my venerable brother must give me liberty to say, that perhaps if you and I should not live to see the day, the time may not be far distant when myriads may have cause of regret that we have given so much of our time, talent and energy to institutions, certainly inferior to the church of God, and in some respects of doubtful religious tendencies." — Tolbert Fanning, in Gospel Advocate, Vol. 4, Page 70, March 18, 1858.

In The Same Article, Mr. Fanning Adds:

"Permit me also to state, that some of the best men in this nation, to counteract the blighting influence of the "growing conviction" which you are encouraging above all other men, have advised a severance of my connection with schools."

The above from Tolbert Fanning in the Gospel Advocate is worthy of reading and re-reading and pondering over. Mr. Fanning was much experienced in college work. He and his wife were both school teachers. He was the founder and the mainspring of the leading college of the South at that time.

The above shows that he came to see that it is better and more important to build up a congregation than a college. The one is "the school of Christ," that teaches the way of life, "all things that pertain unto life and godliness." The other is a human institution designed to give young people an academic, secular education.

Mr. Fanning said to Mr. Campbell: "We should not be for the hills of Virginia, the plains of Tennessee, for Bethany or Franklin College, but for the cause of our Master." He thought too much stress was being put on the colleges and that they should not put more time, energy and money on a college than on "the cause of our Master." If as much effort was exerted in preaching and teaching the gospel, and in the work of the church as is exerted to build up a college, inestimably more good would be accomplished and inestimably more done that would redound to the honor and glory of God. It certainly is something to think about. Though Fanning was the President of Franklin College, he did not want the college to take precedence over the church and did not want so much said about the college that the church would be neglected and forgotten, or become secondary.

This objection to going all out for colleges, instead of "for the cause of our Master," as voiced by Tolbert Fanning to Alexander Campbell one hundred and three years ago, is most timely and appropriate today. Many of the ablest and best preachers today say a thousand words for and about a college to one word they say for and about the church. Clearly with them, it is most obvious that the college, not the church, is the main thing.

But Mr. Fanning says, "It is not positively certain that colleges are destined to be of service in the cause of Christ." This, certainly, is very amazing and startling, in view of the fact that the colleges monopolize the labors of many of the best preachers and in view of the millions of dollars that are spent on colleges to one spent in preaching and teaching the gospel. Good men and women have given fortunes to colleges under the impression that they were giving to the work of the church, when, as a simple matter of fact, the colleges cannot rightfully have anything whatsoever to do with the work of the church. All agree that for a college to usurp any prerogative or function of the church is sinful and injurious. It is reprehensible for a college to presumptuously try to do the work of the church in order to appeal to the church for money.

All agree that the church is the only divine institution or organization on earth. All equally agree that for a college to become a religious institution or organization makes it wrong and sinful. The church is the only religious institution that can rightfully exist. The church is the one and only organization that God, in his wisdom, designed and completely furnished to accomplish every good work. It is the one and only organization that the Spirit guided the apostles to work through. It is most significant that the apostles established and set in order churches or congregations in each community, and nothing else. They did not plead that the congregation was dependent on any other institution for teachers, preachers or workers. They taught that the church is fully equipped for every good work. Under the teaching of the apostles, no human institution could claim that the congregation was indebted to it for anything. No institution could start a campaign for money on the claim that the welfare of the race depended on it.

The apostles were, and now are, the official spokesmen for Christ. They are the authorized teachers of the Christian religion. They taught and practiced all things that "are destined to be of service in the cause of Christ." The congregation is the only thing that the apostles established. It was "complete, furnished completely, unto every good work." No apostle ever started a college. This settles the question. Starting or building up a college is not helping in the work of the church and is not "destined to be of service in the cause of Christ."

The Christian religion exerts the influence that builds colleges, just like it exerts the influence that builds good roads, better homes, good shops, good businesses, and that builds for the betterment of the human race in every department of life. All improvements in the conditions under which we live are the result of preaching and teaching the gospel. But preaching and teaching the gospel is the work of the church, not of any human, secular organization. No human, secular organization can preach and teach the gospel as it should be done. To undertake to do a thing they are not fitted to do corrupts it and hinders it.

Mr. Fanning says: "Finally, it is possibly a misfortune that so many of our able brethren have given themselves to the work of building up schools for youth, instead of laboring in the school of Christ, and you, my venerable brother, must give me liberty to say, that perhaps if you and I should not live to see the day, the time may not be far distant when myriads may have cause of regret that we have given so much of our time, talent and energy to institutions, certainly inferior to the church of God, and in some respects of doubtful religious tendencies." Mr. Fanning, who founded the Gospel Advocate, says this in its fourth volume, page 70. He shows that even he, the founder and head of a great college, was clear-headed enough to grasp the fact that it was "possibly a misfortune" that so many able preachers were "giving themselves to the work of building up schools for youth, instead of laboring in the school of Christ." He recognized that Franklin College, of which he was the head, was not "the school of Christ," but that the way for "able brethren" to give themselves to teaching and preaching the gospel. He suggested to Mr. Campbell that, while they might not live to see the day, the time might come when myriads of men and women who love the cause of Christ would look back at them and "have cause of regret" that they spent so much of their time, talent and energy building up colleges, "certainly inferior to the church of God," instead of spending their time, talent and energy in preaching the gospel.

All acquainted with the facts know that the time did come when "myriads" of the best men and women in the church did, and now do, bitterly regret it. Nothing that ever happened to the church has ever kept so many preachers from giving themselves to preaching as the ambition to build up huge institutional "schools for youth, instead of laboring in the school of Christ." It is "cause of regret" that great preachers, each of whom could lead thousands to Christ, and establish hundreds of congregations or schools of Christ, refuse to so do because they prefer to be on a college faculty.

Even though Mr. Fanning was a great friend of Mr. Campbell, he spoke very plainly, saying, "Permit me also to state, that some of the best men in this nation, to counteract the blighting influence of the 'growing conviction' which you are encouraging above all other men, have advised a severance of my connection with schools." It is a fact that Mr. Fanning did sever his connection with Franklin College, even though he founded it, controlled it, and owned the property on which it was operated. When Mr. Fanning quit, W. D. Carnes, who later became President of Burritt College, became President. Later, in 1866, just after the close of the war, when the college accidently caught fire and burned, Mr. Fanning, though he lived some years longer and was the foremost gospel preacher in the South, did not rebuild it. He did not think that the congregations or the schools of Christ were dependent on it for anything.

The time has come, and is now here, as Tolbert Fanning predicted, though Mr. Campbell did not live to see it, when "myriads" of the great Christian brotherhood "have cause of regret" that he did not close down Bethany College, as Mr. Fanning did Franklin College. "Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the vultures be gathered together." (Matt. 24:28) The vultures will gather around where the "filthy lucre" is. They will be ensconced in endowed "chairs." They will deny God and Christ and the Bible, and will seek to destroy the faith of youth. The defenseless public will have no recourse short of violence. All of the great universities today, with their many millions, many, if not most, of which were founded by good men who thought they were doing God service, are stunning proofs of the folly of building up such self-perpetuating institutionalism. Bethany College, to which Mr. Campbell diverted so much of his time and energy, instead of employing them in the exercise of his marvelous talent to preach the gospel, is today one of, if not the greatest, enemy New Testament Christianity has.

These lessons from Tolbert Fanning are worthy of serious consideration. He had the independence and the courage to stand by his convictions of what the Bible teaches. Neither great names nor personal interest had bearing on where he stood. It is refreshing to read after a man who had the manhood to study the Bible for himself, and do his own thinking, and who was not a sycophant, blindly led by others.

The great objective, the grand desideratum, is that the congregation, the church of God, be magnified, and that it be taught and trained to function, as the apostles teach it and command it to do, both by precept and by the precedents set by the congregations that they established and set in order. The congregation is the pillar and support of the truth. Nothing else is. All other religious institutions and organizations encroach upon the congregation and in so doing, undermine the truth and retard its advancement. The congregation, and only the congregation, can carry the truth forward to final triumph and fill the earth with the knowledge and glory of the Lord, as waters fill the sea.