A Lecture At Pepperdine College
In this issue we carry the full text of a lecture delivered at Pepperdine College just one year ago by Brother Glenn L. Wallace, who preaches for a congregation of disciples in Visalia, California. It is the kind of material that habitually graces the pages of this journal, but which probably sounded like a voice from the middle ages in the halls of Pepperdine. Although the article is considerably longer than we habitually publish, we did not want to break it up lest the cumulative force of its message be weakened. Read it; ponder it; and let it stir you to ACTION!
You will find several references in the article to "Campus Evangelism." This organization has "officially" terminated its operations since Brother Wallace spoke; but let no one be deceived by this into thinking that the attitude of mind behind Campus Evangelism, and the long-range goals of its sponsors, supporters, and sympathizers has changed in the least. Their objectives remain the same; a change in strategy only has taken place. The "new face" of the church is something on which these determined brethren have set their heart; temporary set-backs and brief periods of inaction on the public stage are but slight deterrents to their plans. They change them not at all.
Much has happened since Brother Wallace spoke. We have chronicled some of it on these pages. But for every item you have seen here, just be assured that there are a dozen, or a score, or a hundred others like it equally as indicative of a loosening of Bible standards, and a "drifting" toward denominational concepts and values. There was a certain Texas preacher of a past generation who for many years before his death closed nearly every article he wrote to the gospel journals with the warning, "Brethren, we are drifting!"
This editor can look back to an interesting exchange of letters he had more than forty years ago with the late G. C. Brewer. Brother Brewer had learned that the son of J. D. Tant was doing graduate work in the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. To say that he was surprised at the information is putting it mildly; he was astounded, and (because he truly loved the Tant family) deeply disturbed. He wrote that he considered it a dangerous and precarious thing for "young and immature gospel preachers" to expose themselves to a three-year indoctrination at the feet of denominational and liberalistic theologians! He had written an article (or perhaps a series) in the Gospel Advocate warning against such, and he said he knew of no one who was "hit" harder by the article than this future editor.
We agreed then, and are even more fully convinced now, that Brewer's warning was much in order. For every "young and immature gospel preacher" who can survive such teaching with his faith intact, there are a score of others who will come out of these institutions speaking the language of Ashdod, determined to give a "new face" to the church of Christ, and ridiculing and belittling all those precious truths which our fathers fought so hard to establish. And had it not been for the faith and example of his father, the daily association with the beloved M. C. Kurfees, and the enormous influence on his life of such men as H. Leo Boles and A. G. Freed, it is entirely possible that the son of J. D. Tant would have been numbered among those whose faith was weakened (or destroyed) in "the halls of learning." He would probably have ended up (like so many others) on the faculty of one of "our" colleges, telling the young men how mistaken his father had been in opposing instrumental music and the societies!
We are grateful to Brother Wallace for having sent us this article. It is something that desperately needed to be said; and needs to be repeated in every forum in the land. We opine that it is far too late to stem the tide of digression; we have no illusions at all that the movement away from "the old paths" will be stopped, or even slowed down for very-long. But we do believe, most sincerely, that warnings such as this, coming from men such as Glenn Wallace, will cause many sincere brethren to take a second look before they "go along" with so many of the promotions. Glenn Wallace is old enough, and far enough down the valley, that he is not concerned about his "image" or his "future" among the churches. He is quite willing to suffer whatever consequence may come from his delivering such a speech — and even from having it printed in the Gospel Guardian! (Else he would not have sent it.) If only one person can be saved from the yawning chasm by his lecture, then he will not have spoken, nor shall we have printed, in vain.
F. Y. T.