April 2005 - Gospel Union - A blog about Christian faith and unity

Sitting on the fence

Friday, 22 April 2005 by Editor

As a dyed-in-the-wool, red-blooded conservative, I have always valued decisiveness and conviction. When I vote for a politician, I want a politician in office who agrees with my policy, holds most of my opinions, and will do in office what I elected him to do. After all, I figure, I hired him, so I have

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Adoption: pure and faultless religion

Wednesday, 20 April 2005 by Editor

Since my wife and I adopted two beautiful girls several years ago into our family, I know something about being an adoptive parent. As a Christian, I know something about being an adopted child. Put the two together, and I know something about love. What does that have to do with pure and faultless religion?

Adoption greatest commands

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Moving the ball upfield

Thursday, 14 April 2005 by Editor

I’m not a big sports fan, but as Paul was fond of using analogies from the popular sports of his day, so it might be helpful for us to use them as well. Let me suggest that if our individual Christianity is a lot like running a race, I think our Christian relationships are a

edification relationships

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Loveless unity? Impossible.

Saturday, 09 April 2005 by Editor

Think about the fact that it is possible to have loveless agreement on the hotbutton doctrinal issues of the day, but it is impossible to have loveless unity. Sure, it’s easier to love someone I agree with. But while I can fail to love a person I agree with, I cannot fail to love a

love opinions unity

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The semantics of immersion

Thursday, 07 April 2005 by Editor

Some good conversation has come up lately about baptism. For the sake of clarity, I’m simply going to refer to it as immersion, because that is what the word meant to the first century believers. Why it has been transliterated in most Bibles rather than translated into English, I don’t know. But the meaning of

forgiveness immersion obedience semantics

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Profound subtleties

Wednesday, 06 April 2005 by Editor

Are our sins washed away when we’re added to the right body, or are we added to the right body when our sins are washed away? Do we meet together for the purpose of taking the Lord’s supper, or is edifying one another by remembering and proclaiming Jesus’ death the goal for our gathering? Do

semantics worship

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The blame game

Tuesday, 05 April 2005 by Editor

One thing I’ve been thinking about is where the blame lies for the current state of factionalism in Christianity. As a parent, I don’t tolerate my children blaming someone else for their own unloving actions. “He started it,” I hear. When I follow up on the story, I usually find out a little more than

blame denominationalism edification sectarianism

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Dialogue and rebaptism

Tuesday, 05 April 2005 by Editor

NOTE: The following is a dialogue constructed by Alexander Campbell in 1832 to illustrate his view on the popular practice of rebaptizing someone who had already been immersed, but without the understanding that his sins were remitted at the time. The issue arose because immersion had been preached and practiced for some time in the

Alexander Campbell baptism rebaptism

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Barton Stone - "I blush for my fellows who hold up the Bible as the bond of union, yet make their opinions of it a test of fellowship; who plead for union of all Christians, yet refuse to fellowship with such as dissent from their notions. Vain men! Their zeal is not according to knowledge, nor is their spirit that of Christ. Such antisectarian-sectarians are doing more mischief to the cause and advancement of truth, the unity of Christians, and the salvation of the world, than all the skeptics in the world. In fact, they create skeptics."

Alexander Campbell - "We will not hearken to those questions which gender strife, nor discuss them at all. If a person says such is his private opinion, let him have it as his private opinion; but lay no stress upon it; and if it be a wrong private opinion, it will die a natural death much sooner than if you attempt to kill it."

Alexander Campbell - "But men cannot give up their opinions, and therefore, they can never unite, says one. We do not ask them to give up their opinions--we ask them only not to impose them upon others. Let them hold their opinions, but let them hold them as private property. The faith is public property; opinions are, and always have been private property. Men have foolishly attempted to make the deductions of some great minds the common measure of all Christians. Hence the deductions of a Luther, and a Calvin, and a Wesley, have been the rule and measure of all who coalesce under the names of these leaders. It is cruel to excommunicate a man because of the imbecility of his intellect."

Alexander Campbell - "Dear sir, this plan of making our own nest, and fluttering over our own brood; of building our own tent, and of confining all goodness and grace to our noble selves and the "elect few" who are like us, is the quintessence of sublimated pharisaism. The old Pharisees were but babes in comparison to the modern: and the longer I live, and the more I reflect upon God and man--heaven and earth--the Bible and the world--the Redeemer and his church--the more I am assured that all sectarianism is the offspring of hell; and that all differences about words, and names, and opinions, hatched in Egypt, or Rome, or Edinburgh, are like the frolics of drunken men; and that where there is a new creature, or a society of them, with all their imperfections and frailties, and errors in sentiment, in views, and opinions, they ought to receive one another, and the strong to support the weak, and not to please themselves. To lock ourselves up in the bandbox of our own little circle; to associate with a few units, tens, or hundreds, as the pure church, as the elect, is real Protestant monkery, it is evangelical pharisaism."

Alexander Campbell - "I have tried the pharisaic plan, and the monastic. I was once so straight, that, like the Indian's tree, I leaned a little the other way. And however much I may be slandered now as seeking "popularity" or a popular course, I have to rejoice that to my own satisfaction, as well as to others, I proved that truth, and not popularity, was my object; for I was once so strict a Separatist that I would neither pray nor sing praises with any one who was not as perfect as I supposed myself. In this most unpopular course I persisted until I discovered the mistake, and saw that on the principle embraced in my conduct, there never could be a congregation or church upon the earth."

Alexander Campbell - "I have no idea of adding to the catalogue of new sects. I labor to see sectarianism abolished and all Christians of every name united upon the one foundation upon which the apostolic church was founded."