Review Of Brother Thomas
We carry this week the third in a series of articles by Brother Cogdill reviewing the book "We Be Brethren", by Brother J. D. Thomas of the Abilene Christian College faculty. At least two more articles, and perhaps three, by Brother Cogdill will follow in succeeding issues.
Brother Thomas' book, and Cogdill's review, mark a significant milestone in the present controversy. For more than any other current writer or preacher Brother Thomas is willing to accept the consequences of his position, and frankly realizes that if his arguments be accepted, they will justify church contributions to Christian colleges, church building and maintenance of hospitals, benevolent organizations and agencies, clinics, medical schools, fellowship centers, and an unlimited number of business enterprises and ventures. He re-states in modern terms the arguments waged so powerfully and effectively by our digressive brethren of the last century to justify their practices on "the silence of the scriptures". But Brother Thomas uses these arguments to justify benevolent enterprises and centralized evangelistic arrangements rather than instrumental music.
The book, "We Be Brethren", has been widely hailed by many of our more liberal preachers and congregations, and is being used as a text-book in some of the classes in these churches. Writers for both the Gospel Advocate and the Firm Foundation have given laudatory commendations of the book. It undoubtedly is being accepted by the liberal element among us as a scholarly and objective apology for the things they desire to practice by way of benevolent organizations, evangelistic centralization, and "social gospel" objectives.
This book (as Brother Cogdill's review of it so clearly demonstrates) will not only justify benevolent societies and recreation centers for the churches, church contributions to colleges, churches' engaging in secular businesses, an unending chain of "social gospel" objectives and ventures — but with compelling and irresistible logic (if its premises be accepted) the missionary society and instrumental music as well! There is no logical stopping place short of a full-fledged and complete acceptance of the "Christian Church" position of the last century . . . that anything which is not "specifically excluded" becomes a "permissible expedient".
The full force of Brother Thomas' position and the full influence of his teaching will not be apparent until his students begin to go out from Abilene Christian College and mature into places of leadership in congregations throughout the land. But every church into which these young men come to occupy places of leadership will feel, the withering, blighting effect of this species of modernism — if they accept Brother Thomas' contention. And Abilene Christian College, conceived in such high hopes and with such noble dedication by her early pioneers, will become the fountainhead of ruin, rebellion, and spiritual rottenness. Pious words and honeyed phrases cannot hide the hideous harvest that is inevitable from such seeds of modernism.
The Administration of Abilene Christian College, and the Board of Directors have a tremendous obligation toward God, toward the supporters of the school, toward parents who send their children there, and toward congregations all over the world to see that this evil teaching is nipped in the bud. Abilene Christian College in her past history has more than once been called upon by an aroused brotherhood to cleanse herself of false teaching. Who has forgotten David Lipscomb Cooper and his fantastic ideas of prophecy? or the fight against modernism within the school waged so hotly by Brother Showalter through the Firm Foundation in the early 1920's? or the fight even with the last decade over the "college in the budget of every church" campaign?
Let no one dismiss the Thomas book lightly as being of small consequence. Brother Foy E. Wallace recently said of it that it is considered "the model for at least one wing of the liberal party." He also wrote, "Liberalism with all the paraphernalia of modernism will recurrently enter our midst to challenge the truth and trouble the church. But it will go on out because liberalism never turns back, and it cannot stay in because confinement is not its nature, and having nowhere else to go the liberals will go on out."
But the tragedy of it is they will take thousands and multiplied thousands with them — unless their false teaching is caught in time and shown for what it is!
The Gospel Guardian Company plans to put Brother Cogdill's review into tract form for a nation-wide distribution and for the use of students in the Christian colleges for as long as the Thomas book is accepted. In this way we hope, in some measure at least, to off-set the destructive influence of such false teaching. We hope many hundreds of congregations will buy the tracts for general distribution; and certainly every person who has read the Thomas book, or who may read it in the future, should have this review of it. We are hopeful that interested friends will buy enough of these tracts to distribute them to every preacher student in every Christian college in the land — probably well over a thousand such young men. The booklet will be perhaps forty pages in size, and we hope to be able to produce it in such quantity that we can make it available at 25 cents per copy; $2.50 per dozen; $17.50 per one hundred; and $75.00 per five hundred. It will help us if we can have some idea as to how many will be needed. The booklet will be intelligible and useful even to those who have not seen the Thomas book. Numerous quotations from "We Be Brethren" give the gist of the argument, and Cogdill's plain and simple application of Bible texts to this false teaching is in his usual masterful style. His refutation of Thomas' false teaching amounts to a demonstration for all those who accept the Bible as final authority, and prefer "the simplicity that is in Christ" over the involved and confused (and confusing) "wisdom of this world." We sincerely pray that this clear and simple analysis of Brother Thomas' false teaching may be the means of saving many thousands of souls from such error. And, perhaps, in God's good providence even Brother Thomas himself may be brought to understand the simple truth of this matter.