Open Reply To An Open Letter
Dear Brother Reese:
In the sincere hope that I may be of help to you and to others who share your extreme views on "congregational cooperation," I respond to your "Open Letter."
Bible Authority
It appears obvious to me that you have fallen into the same subtle error that ensnared our brethren of three-score years ago when they attempted to defend the organ in Christian worship. They demanded of faithful Christians that they be shown a passage which SPECIFICALLY authorized a church building, SPECIFICALLY authorized a Sunday School, SPECIFICALLY authorized a song book, a black-board, etc. When the reply was given that there was no SPECIFIC authority for these things, the Digressive brethren responded, "You see, we are all in the same boat; you have no specific authority for your meeting-house, song-books, Sunday School, etc., and we have no specific authority for our organ. We have as much right to the organ as you have to the song-books."
Is not this what you have done, Brother Reese, in demanding a SPECIFIC authorization for Sunday School classes?
Our fathers responded to the Digressives by saying, "We have no SPECIFIC authority for these things, neither do we need such as long as we have GENERAL authority for them." They were right. God authorizes things by two kinds of divine warrant — specific, or general. Specific authority is exclusive; general authority is inclusive; the first excludes everything save that which is specified, the latter includes everything of the kind, class, or category under consideration.
Now under which kind of authority do you justify Herald of Truth? Certainly God has not specified that churches must cooperate by the type of centralized control you practice in your "Herald of Truth" set-up. Then is it authorized by a "general" command for churches to cooperate? Has God merely enjoined "cooperation" among congregations, placing no limits or bounds as to the arrangement for such? If so, then we have justification for the Missionary Society (it is a type of cooperation), the Convention (another type), the Association (another type), and the Episcopacy (still another type).
To illustrate the above, God authorized Bible Classes in the general word "teach." (Matt. 28:19, 20.) There is no wrong way to teach. That word "teach" includes every way, method, system, or kind of teaching. Now, can you find any such general word authorizing "cooperation"? Is there any WRONG way for churches to cooperate?
"Boxes In The Vestibule"
You labor under a misapprehension as to the "boxes in the vestibule" idea. I merely put into words, or a phrase, a custom that you, Brother Reese, along with Brother Harper, Brother G. K. Wallace, and many others have practiced for many years in support of Christian Colleges. You have supported them on an individual basis, and have not tried to force the churches to support them. You knew that to force their support would violate the conscience of thousands of faithful Christians. I put your practice into a phrase "boxes in the vestibule," and pleaded with you brethren to be as reasonable about your promotion as the colleges have been about promoting their interests. Are you willing to do it? Or do you prefer to drive a wedge into the congregations of the Lord and split them from center to circumference? How ruthless can men get in pushing their pet projects? All over the nation churches are being split over Herald of Truth. Are you not aware of this? I can name a dozen without even trying. Not a one of these congregations was having trouble until your program divided them!
North Park Church, Abilene
You ask how I can hold membership at North Park Church in Abilene in view of the fact that this congregation supports Herald of Truth, and has supported it since its inception. Well, by the time this appears in print you will have been informed that the North Park congregation has ceased all support to your project. She has done what scores of other congregations have done, and are doing — decided that she would spend her own money, in fields of her own choosing, rather than turn it over to Highland's elders to spend. The fact that Highland's elders have gone "all out" to build a half-million dollar meeting house, with thousands and thousands of dollars obviously spent for "show," may not have been without some influence in causing them to think they perhaps might spend their own money more to the Lord's glory than you brethren could spend it for them. I do not know that that factor weighed with them, but it has with other congregations who have dropped their contributions to you.
The Otis Gatewood Fraud
I should think, Brother Reese, you would hang your head in shame over Brother Harper's part, and now your part, in the trickery, deceit, dishonesty, and down-right lying on the part of Brother Gatewood in his efforts to "ensnare" the Guardian. His little ruse back-fired on him, and he has kept profoundly silent ever since he was exposed. So far as I know he has never made any effort to correct his behavior or offer apology for it. You ask how I could have forwarded a personal check to Dick Smith when "I was telling everybody for years NOT to do the very thing" I did. Brother Reese, I believe you must have been unconscious at your typewriter when you wrote that! If you will go back and read the old issues of the Guardian, you will see that I was pleading with people to send money to Smith. Brother Gatewood did right in sending the money; I did right in forwarding it. His evil was in trying to play a deceitful, dishonest trick to ensnare the Guardian. He sent the money under false pretenses. Right thinking brethren view his conduct with contempt; your defense of it, and your attempt to use the matter to bolster Herald of Truth is quite in keeping with the kind of justification we have come to expect for such projects. When it is obvious they cannot be defended by Scripture, the effort is made to find some way to "blackmail" the opposition!! (And this is the quality of "eldership" to which hundreds of churches are turning over their funds. If elders are going to defend dishonesty in another man, how can that inspire confidence in their own integrity in handling the millions of dollars which trusting brethren have blindly placed into their hands? Brother Reese, you may be revealing more than you intend when you defend dishonesty in Otis Gatewood!)
I will respond to the rest of your letter when we publish it next week.