Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 22
November 26, 1970
NUMBER 29, PAGE 4-5a

They Have Their Problems Too

Editorial

On the front page this week we publish the sad story of what is happening among our Baptist friends. It is an old, old story; it happens again and again. We among the churches of Christ are facing the same problem as our Baptist friends — the struggle between the forces of conservatism and liberalism, between those who seek to cling to the "old paths" and those who are bent on finding some new and "modern" religious philosophy. We publish the story in the hope that it may give us all a bit more understanding of what is taking place. This is no unique or rare thing that is happening among the Lord's churches, this battle between those who would uphold the absolute and total authority of the Scriptures in mortal combat with those who hold to a different concept of Christianity.

It all reminds us of a little bit of verse we learned in college so many years ago:

"The world has but one song to sing, And it is ever new;

The first and last of all the songs, For it is ever true;

A little song, a tender song, The only song it hath:

`There was a youth of Ascalon, Who loved a girl of Gath.' "

The youth in love cannot imagine that anybody in all the whole wide world has ever known such a beautiful dream. Of course, other people have been in love, but nobody has ever loved like this!! It is all so new, so thrilling, so exciting that he cannot conceive of its ever having happened to another. But it has happened. Not once or twice, but millions of times. And each time it happened it was "an old, old story to the world", but absolutely new and once-in-a-lifetime to the lovers. Perhaps God so designed things for the happiness (and growth) of us all.

No matter how many religious bodies have known trouble and sorrow, it comes to each one with all the poignancy and inner turmoil of an unique and unprecedented tragedy. Our Baptist friends are in the throes of a monumental division. So also are our Presbyterian friends. The Disciples' Church has already accomplished the cleavage. Here in Birmingham (where these lines are being written) each Saturday's paper carries the listing of something like a dozen "independent" Methodist Churches who have refused to go along with the established denominational course. Even the monolithic Catholic Church has had her irreversible divisions.

Why should anybody think it could not happen to us? For even though we do hold to a unique (and often misunderstood) attitude toward the Scriptures, we could hardly expect that strong conviction to be shared by those who have had no personal involvement in developing the spirit. Many have "inherited" their religion from their fathers, and have had no depth either of understanding or of commitment. They are the traditional "Church of Christers" about whom one may read in the writing of Carl Ketcherside, Robert Meyers, and others. The faith of their fathers has never become the faith of their hearts. It has not really taken hold of their lives at all.

These are the people who need help, and encouragement, and understanding — but whose zeal must NOT be permitted to control the destiny of the congregation. God has revealed a "pattern" for the lives of his people (both as congregations and as individuals). That pattern is revealed in the New Testament. In fact, the New Testament IS the pattern. It must be respected as such, and no departure from it should ever be tolerated.

We can sympathize with the struggle our Baptist friends are facing. They have their problems, as we have ours. They settle theirs by majority vote (within the congregation), and by open rupture with the denominational organization when a whole local church wants to withdraw from the ecclesiasticism. But among the Churches of Christ we have no such procedure. Each Christian, in the light of his own life's commitment to Jesus Christ, seeks to conform his life to "thus saith the Lord." Such a course marks a man as different from others. It is absolutely inevitable that there be divisions and separations between such persons and those who do not share their sense of dedication.

F. Y. T.