The Truth Between Extremes
In the Gospel Advocate of October 1, 1953, Brother G. C. Brewer writes on the editorial page in reply to a sister in Rutherford County, Tennessee. The good sister had been listening to Leroy Garrett and Carl Ketcherside and perhaps others in her county, and was about convinced that they were preaching the truth on some points. She was urging Brother Brewer to use his "talents and ability to teach elders and deacons to accept their duties and responsibilities." This exhortation gave Brother Brewer the cue to launch into a dissertation on "Sommerism" and to relate the history of this tragic disturbance among the Lord's people.
This article is not particularly to review Brother Brewer's lengthy piece. Instead I would like to point out that the truth, as usual, lies between two extremes. Carl Ketcherside represents one extreme and G. C. Brewer and the Gospel Advocate represent the other extreme. The truth is to be found between these two extreme positions that are disturbing the church today and leading many brethren into factionalism and sectarianism.
The School Question
The extreme positions held by Carl Ketcherside and G. C. Brewer can easily be seen on the "School Question." Brother Brewer believes in and champions the cause of putting the colleges operated by brethren into the budget of the churches everywhere. He teaches that the churches can and should contribute to the support and maintenance of these institutions in which the Bible is taught along with secular subjects. He will not admit that these institutions come within the mission of the church, or that they are in any sense a part of the work of the church; but he contends that if the elders see fit, they can scripturally contribute out of the treasury of the Lord's church to the support of such institutions. Thus he puts himself in the position of affirming that it is scriptural and right for the church to support a work that does not belong to it and that does not come within the purpose that God meant the church to serve. He argues that the church can support such institutions because Christian individuals can do so, and, according to his contention, "whatever the individual can do, the church can do."
Now look at the other extreme represented by Carl Ketcherside and "his company." They teach that the Christian individual cannot scripturally maintain and support a school in which the Bible is taught along with secular subjects. Their argument is that because the church cannot do it, therefore the Christian individual cannot do it. It is simply the reverse side of the coin from Brewer's position.
The truth lies between these two extremes, as it usually does. We have been contending for years that these schools are not church institutions. They are no part of its work, and cannot scripturally be supported out of its funds. But we have also contended just as earnestly that Christian individuals can support and maintain them, and that much good is accomplished in their doing so. We have been in the middle between these two cross-firing groups all the while. We have opposed G. C. Brewer and the Gospel Advocate position and that maintained by several of our brethren in these schools in their efforts to put the schools in the church budgets. We have just as earnestly opposed Carl Ketcherside and others of the opposite group in their efforts to deny that Christian individuals can carry on such work. We have insisted in connection with this that Christian individuals have the same right to maintain a school and teach the word of God in it that we have to maintain a paper and teach the word of God through it.
Brother Brewer and his associates have called us about every ugly thing they can think of because we disagree with them and oppose what they want to do. They have cried "Sommerite" over and over, and have tried to smear us with that label. This, of course, has been a gross misrepresentation as anyone who thinks straight and honestly can see. We are as far from Sommer's position as we are from Brewer's. They have cried "factionist" in our direction, and again this has been a misrepresentation. The extreme unscriptural position on the on hand that Brother Brewer and others have taken has occasioned much of the extremely unscriptural opposition to schools made by Brother Sommer, Carl Ketcherside, and others. We have as much in common with one of these unscriptural positions as we have with the other; and intend to continue our opposition to both of them with all the strength we have.
We are regarded as a part of the "school faction" by Carl Ketcherside and his crowd because we will not deny to Christian individuals the right to operate such schools. But what a man calls us does not matter as long as we stand for the truth and follow only the Lord. We believe that the great tragedy of this age is that both of these groups cannot see their extreme positions, close in the ranks of the Lord's people, and help take the world for Christ.
The Eldership Question
What is true on the "college question" is also true on the differences between Brother Brewer and Brother Ketcherside on the eldership question. Brother Brewer assigns almost unlimited power and authority to the elders of the Lord's church. He believes that they can decide what is righteous and unrighteous and bind their decision on heaven. They can scripturally contribute to "whatever they deem to be righteous." Furthermore, they are not limited in their jurisdiction to the work of the "flock" over which they are elders, but can promote projects involving hundreds of churches and can centralize the control of the work of all these congregations under one eldership. We have stood with all our strength against such an extreme and unscriptural position on the eldership question.
On the other extreme stands Carl Ketcherside and those who go along with his position on "evangelistic authority." We are just as opposed to that as Brother Brewer or anyone else. The New Testament scriptures do not teach that an evangelist has any authority at all. Neither does it teach that the power to determine the righteousness of any issue or work or the right to control the work of more than one congregation has ever been given into the hands of any elder on earth. Again the truth lies between two extremes.
If Brother Brewer and the Gospel Advocate would quit their unscriptural position on these and other questions and cease their misrepresentation of all of us who oppose them by calling us "Sommerites" and other ugly names, and if Carl Ketcherside and others who stand with him would give up their extreme positions and stand for the truth as opposed to all error both within and without the church, think what could be done in our own generation! We hope and pray that they will do so. We have no personal issue with or against either of them. We have never had a personal difference with either of them that we know anything about. I am sure that God is just as interested in the salvation of the one as he is the other and therefore I should be. I love both of them and wish that I could persuade them to accept and stand only for the truth so that there would not be any factionalism and we could all stand together. Brethren, why not?