We’re working our way through Leroy Garrett’s book: What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?
Now, by “saved” Garrett doesn’t mean that he questions the salvation of the individual members of the Churches of Christ. Rather, he is concerned to save the Churches of Christ as a “viable witness to the Christian faith. What must it do to escape extinction in the decades ahead …?”
Chapter 17 is entitled “Heed the principles set forth by Barton W. Stone.”
As an illustration of what I mean I refer to but one document, a single letter in fact, by Barton W. Stone, entitled most appropriately for our purposes, “An Address To the Churches of Christ.” It was written in 1832 and grows out of the drama and trauma of the union between the Stone and Campbell churches that had taken place in Lexington, Kentucky, that same year. In this address Stone was seeking to effect the union further by addressing problems that troubled the Movement both then and now.
Early on in the Address he warned against unwritten creeds, which he considered more dangerous than written ones. The purpose of both, he noted, “is to exclude from fellowship the man who dissents from them.” He observes that there are those who clamor against (written) creeds and yet have creeds (unwritten) of their own, and they are as intolerant toward those who dissent from their creeds as those who make written creeds are toward their dissenters. (p. 198).
In this Address he refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit as “more necessary” than faith, reformation, and immersion. The Holy Spirit more important than baptism? In an open letter to Churches of Christ? Most of us would not have supposed that we have that kind of emphasis in our early history. Stone names the gift of the Holy Spirit as “the crowning blessing of all blessings.” He quotes Gal. 3:14 and Acts 5:32 to show that the Spirit is received through faith and that it is given to those that obey Christ. In this connection Stone laid out the plan of salvation in a way that somehow got lost before today’s Church of Christ came along: “God’s plan appears to be this, that whoever believes, repents and is baptized, or obeys the gospel, shall be saved, shall receive remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (p. 200).
While in this Address Stone makes a strong case for immersion, he stops short of saying that only the immersed are Christians. He put it this way: “We have no doubt that multitudes have been changed, are pious, and will ultimately be saved with an everlasting salvation who have not been immersed.” He went on to concede that immersion is God’s plan, but that we cannot hold God to his plan and not allow him to pardon a humble penitent without immersion. He added, “Far from us be this sentiment.” (pp. 201-202).
The Campbell people placed greater emphasis upon immersion for remission of sins than the Stone churches, and the Campbell churches broke bread every first day while the Stone people didn’t.
This diversity of doctrine and practice led Stone to emphasize what had characterized the Movement from the outset: “We who profess to stand upon the Bible alone, and contend that opinions of truth should not be made terms of fellowship — shall we be intolerant towards each other because we may differ in our opinions? Forbid it, Heaven!”
Here Stone is telling us what we must do to be saved. We must cease and desist from making our own interpretation of what we believe to be the truth (an opinion, Stone calls it) a test of fellowship. And he says this includes such matters as the design of baptism and the frequency of the Lord’s supper. Hear him: “All believe that immersion is baptism,” referring to the Stone and Campbell people, “why should they who submit to the one baptism contend and separate because they do not exactly view every design of it alike?” Stone went on to say what should be proclaimed in every Church of Christ in the land today: “If you think your brother in error, labor in the spirit of love and meekness to convince him; but imposing zeal against him will only harden him against any good impression you would make. It will probably stir up strife and ultimately destroy love, the bond of union.” (pp. 202-204).
Oh … wow … !
I’d never heard of this letter until I read this in Garrett’s book.
Jay, it is strange to me how you agree with Stone on the “creeds” question, all except one, Have you ever read the Stone opinion on “the trinity” ?
Stone holds more closely to my thoughts than yours, “creeds should be arrived at from bibical teachings, not man’s, such as the “Nicene creed” I don’t see a toothpick being wedged between his and mine, which are both derived from reading the bible.
Jay,
Have you wonder why after his publication of Bible Talk in the 60’s, Leroy started his publication Restoration Review? Why don’t you go to primary sources? Have you posted a commentary in the Last Will and Testament of The Springfield Presbytery? It’s a good lesson for all restorationist !
“Oh … Wow … !”
Really? That chapter was weak, Jay. Lol
Jay,
Are those pages from the Letter “An Address To the Churches of Christ” by Barton W. Stone ? Or from Leroy Book and your commentaries about the letter? We coC recognize the good work done by our pioneers, but we don’t take as a written creed quotations from our pioneers. We always are going to the primary source to verify if the claims are not misquoted . We know that God wants us to hold fast what is true. They really were focus in restoring the New Testament church as accurate as they can be as revealed in the whole pages of the New Testament (1 Cor. 3:10-11). Thing that has been forgotten by some university professors , because the peer pressure (High Criticism) of the denominations . The influence of moderns Ecumenical thinking has erased our recall memory , Pattern Memory, and association memory . Our pledge is to the bible the word of God! Not to opinions and Tradition of Men. (Col. 2:8,9).
Wow !! Any chance that letter is in the public domain…??
Stone was more a revivalist than a teacher. There is a very different aproach between the two kinds of people – both need each other, but we must not use the one against the other.
It is a true miracle that Stone and Campbell could unite into one movement. It’s not really a miracle that a few generations later the same movement divided into several sub-groups.
I do agree with Stone (or what has been quoted of him) – but the question of salvation and the quiestion of fellowship are two very different pairs of shoes. Just because God may (and will!) accept genuine believers that have not been immersed does not mean that we unite with the CHURCHES/DENOMINATIONS they are part of! No way! And it does not mean that we should just let them be in their unimmersed state either.
Alexander
Price,
It is indeed in the public domain
Alexander…I agree with you that it was a miracle that a group of conservative, strong minded people could be brought together espousing different understandings of scripture… I also agree that it’s entirely possible for human agency to break down and destroy the unity created by miraculous intervention just a few generations later…
I recall reading about the Welsh Revival in the early 1900’s… The Holy Spirit was so present that the secular papers were writing about the events and the amazement of the people… a few generations later and the London and Wales I saw had few if any people interested in God whatsoever…
It seems when God shows up…people come together…When He leaves it to us, we divide… seems He and We have a different agenda.
Somehow, we migrated from “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” to “Those who do things as we do them are sons of God”. Where did we leave the highway and go off-road? I think I may have been when someone decided that we have no real “opinions” on matters of spiritual significance– that we have “rightly divided the scriptures” and thus our opinions have been confirmed as “truth”.
We can no longer give one another latitude on “opinions” because there aren’t really any of those left.
GFT asked,
Of course. /2009/08/backgrounds-of-the-restoration-movement-barton-w-stone-and-richard-mcnemar/
Hank wrote,
Of course, a preacher wouldn’t appreciate the benefits of brevity. 🙂
GFT,
The material I quote is Garrett’s summary. I included a link to the actual letter — too good to excerpt. Here’s the link again:
http://stone-campbell.org/Stone/an_address_to_the_churches_of_ch.html