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Is Doctrinal Unity Possible? |
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The Lord's Church Is:
The Lord's Church Has Distinctive:
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine" "Will turn away their ears from truth, and turn aside to fables" (2 Timothy 4:3,4)
"...Tossed about with every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14)
They "...Set at naught dominion and rail at dignities," "...Rail at whatsoever things they know not" (Jude 8, 10)
Frederick D. Power, 1885:
"How then may spiritual, organic, and practical oneness be secured? One word is they key to it. Restoration! Not legislation, not confederation but restoration of the original apostolic New Testament church with its doctrine, its ordinances and its fruits. We must step up the stream of eighteen centuries and stand at the fountain head. We must go back to the spirit, the unity, the faith, the practice, the foundation of the early church. By returning to Jerusalem it is possible to take up the gospel just as the apostles left it, to receive the ordinances just as our Lord delivered them, to discover the church just as it existed in its primitive purity and simplicity, to establish ourselves upon the eternal rock just as did Saul of Tarsus and the thousands of that early time and to revive once more in the glory of its original beauty and splendor the Christian institution."
Nathan J. Mitchell, 1877:
"If, as is stated in terms in nearly all the creed books of the Protestant sects, the sacred Scriptures furnish an infallible rule of faith and practice, we may discard all rules made by man, and be guided in our action by the very same commandments which were heard and obeyed when the Christian religion was first introduced into the world. Turning away from all that is modern, and being guided solely by the New Testament, we secure, not only a reformation of any sect, or sects, but a restoration of primitive, Apostolic Chrisitaniity."
"If the Christians in all sects could be drawn together, then would the only real, desirable, and permanent union, of Christians be achieved. How to effect this has long been a question with us and many others. To us, it appears, the only practicable way to accomplish this desirable object is to propound the ancient gospel and the ancient order of things in the words and sentences found in the apostolic writings - to abandon all traditions and usages not found in the Record, and to make no human terms of communion. But on this theme much must yet be said before all the honest will understand it. One thing, however, is already sufficiently plain to all, that a union amongst Christians can be obtained only upon scriptural grounds, and not upon any sectarian platform in existence."
Moses E. Lard, 1864:
"...The reformation proposed was to be marked, positively, by accepting, as a matter of faith, what and only what, the holy Scriptures teach; practically, by doing every thing and only what they enjoin, and negatively, by rejecting everything which they do not sanction. Such was the reformation proposed by Mr. Campbell and his brethren."
"The New Testament contains the constitution, laws, ordinances, and discipline of the Christian church, if such belongs to it at all. Hence, the propriety of proposing this volume as the bond of union among the churches. But what avails a promise to be governed by this book, unless this promise be faithfully fulfilled? Why promise to submit to the constitution, laws, institutions and rules of discipline found in this volume and afterwards require submission to institutions and usages wholly human...?"
John F. Rowe (1884)
"What we have now mapped out as the ground we occupy, we are thoroughly convinced is truly the apostolic ground, and a ground of unity about which there can be no intelligent controversy. The ground we occupy excludes sectarianism. All the people of God may occupy this ground. We invite all men to receive the same Bible we receive; to accept the same creed we accept; to honor the same Lord we honor; to obey the same gospel we obey; to bear the same scriptural titles we bear; to 'walk by the same rules,' to 'mind the same things,' to 'speak the same things,' to be 'joined together in the same judgment,' to contend earnestly for the same faith."
"But there is no perfect church to study as a model for imitation. Jerusalem was racially narrow and biased. Colossae was tainted with doctrinal heresy. Corinth was beset with doctrinal heresy. What we must realize is that there is no finality for the church in any of its corporate manifestations."
It Is:
Definition: "Science of Interpretation"
Nehemiah 8:8 "And they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading."
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God has spoken! "Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth."
How Does God Speak?
"For years, it has been understood among the churches of Christ that the scriptures are the inspired word of God. It has also been commonly believed that individual interpretations of the scriptures are not inspired -- only the scriptures themselves. Both of these premises are true and can be verified in any number of ways. In spite of these things, some behave as if a particular method of interpretation is inspired. This statement gets us into the area of hermeneutics ... To be sure, some are more valid than others, but none of them is inspired by God."
What Does the Bible Say?
The supposed mistake in today's church is the view of the Bible that suggests "a view of Scripture as the seamless depository of Revelation which functions as the basic blueprint for the entire Christian enterprise."
"Whatever else one can say about pianos and organs in worship, he cannot find their explicit condemnation in the Bible. Acceptance of their use certainly does not repudiate any one of the seven essential items of Christian faith identified in Ephesians 4:4-6"
A New Hermeneutic Demanded
"Possibly the most widely accepted view among certain front-runners in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Abilene, Nashville, San Antonio, and Searcy is that the scripture is not a constitution or code book, as envisioned by the old hermeneutic, but is a love letter from God. There is much merit in both the rejection of the former model, and the parameters of the new."
Notice
In the Old Testament
In the New Testament
Examples are illustrations taken from the lives of disciples, under the light of inspiration, given for instruction, as they obeyed God.
Examples may encourage or restrict, but their force is binding, unless there is a principle that limits their application.
Examples Bind Negatively - We Must Not Act
Examples Bind Positively - We Must Act
Unless a Principle Limits Their Application
Truth may be stated explicitly (leaving nothing unstated or implied) - Matthew 26:26
Truth may be stated implicitly (requiring the hearer to draw necessary inferences in order to obey) - Matthew 26:29; Acts 20:27 - the kingdom and the church are the same.
We are to employ our God-given ability to reason to infer what God implied (Ephesians 3:4; 5:17). This is true with commands and examples, as well.
"If the thesis of this paper is correct, namely, that the New Testament is not an exclusive pattern, or does not contain an exhaustive number of ways one may worship and serve God, then items which are not mentioned in this regard (expressions about which the Scripture is 'silent') are not necessarily excluded ... In short, the silence of Scripture has no different function from silence in normal human discourse and should not be assigned prohibitive force..."
Human silence is not the same as God's silence. I may omit by mistake. God makes no mistakes; omits nothing!
When God says "nothing," it prohibits
Magazine
from Nashville, TN
Editors:
Mike Cope, Rubel Shelly
"Weave! ... Teach new ideas for a while, stretching your church out beyond comfort zones and into fresh thinking ... But when you feel your church approaching the limits of tolerance, back off! Talk about familiar and safe things for a while. Then, move back out to the cutting edge again. Weave in and out: first with new ideas, then as you actually implement new practices."
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Thus saith the Lord:
"Stand in the ways and seek, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls."
Some Demand Changes
"The thesis of this chapter is quite simply that the nature of the church is that of a pilgrim. The pilgrim church is never a static accomplishment, but always a moving process. In this life the church never arrives but is forever on the journey. The church is never a perfect reflection of God's ideal but always strives to move forward toward that goal expressed by the words 'kingdom of God'."
"There should be room in the Christian fellowship for those who believe that Christ is the Son of God, but who differ on eschatological theories such as premillennialism, ecclesiological matters such as congregational organization, on soteriological matters such as whether baptism is 'for' or 'because of' the remission of sins."
"If you keep doing the same things you've been doing, |
Thus Saith the Lord:
"Stand in the ways and seek, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls."
"When someone asks me, 'Where is this leading us?' I have to say, 'I'm not sure.' Then when they ask, 'Is it safe?' I have to respond, 'Probably not! But it's the direction God is leading us as we continue learning to trust him.'"
"First, there is the simple and observable fact that, throughout Churches of Christ, many people are questioning and sometimes rejecting the traditional doctrinal system that for several generations gave Churches of Christ their distinctive identity. Acts and the Epistles as architectural "blueprint," as a rigid "pattern," as a collection of case law - these images and the interpretive method they support are steadily declining."
"I
agree with the brother who wrote that disagreements over instruments should not prevent us from enjoying a common Lord's table."
"Whenever
I see a man call God 'Father' I see a brother."
Max Lucado
Tabernacle Sermons, II:185-187
"I would to God tonight that all professed followers in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, and elsewhere, would be content to have but the Bible as their creed, their discipline, their church manual, their church directory, their rule of faith and practice throughout life. There would be oneness on the part of all the splendid people of this great country...I pledge my word and promise myself tonight, if the man will thus show me that God's book does not plainly demand it, I will gladly surrender and give that up that the cause of division may cease...When I announce that platform, it is not narrow, it is not limited, it is not human; but it is big enough, broad enough, wide enough, and comprehensive enough for every son and daughter of God on earth to occupy and none feel that in so doing they have had to sacrifice a single principle of faith...Take your stand on God's book and eliminate all things that are not plainly taught therein; and when you so do, I will gladly come to you and take my stand with you, if there be any preference as to which way the coming is done"
"It may, of course, be argued that the genuine primitive Christianity which is a pattern for the church of all times is not what actually existed in the church at Jerusalem or the one at Corinth but in the teaching of the apostles as recorded in the New Testament; this may be pure and perfect, even if the other is not. To say this, one must presuppose: (a) that there was in the mind of God a perfect and permanent pattern for the church; (b) that the apostles had a complete and authoritative revelation of this pattern; and (c) that the New Testament contains an exact record of this pattern as it existed in the minds of the apostles."
e-mail this author at tmr1@flash.net