The following introductory chapter to Ketcherside’s book According To The Pattern is perhaps one of the most hard-hitting commentaries on the inherent logical problems with so-called “pattern theology,” i.e. the idea that we have to conform our “worship services” to the “pattern” that the first century church set for us.
The problem is that the New Testament writers never tell us to interpret their words that way. There are a number of fallacies in the logic behind this hermeneutic concept that the New Testament scriptures are a law book to be dissected and interpreted as a legal document.
I have to admit that I once interpreted the scriptures that way. I’ll save that story for another time, but if you have been taught that we have to “follow the New Testament pattern,” I highly recommend reading the following chapter and the entire book. It will challenge some of your presuppositions about Biblical exegesis, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Truth doesn’t need to be afraid of a lie.
Enjoy!
According To The Pattern
Chapter 1
I never met the man of whom I write but he was a graduate of one of the Christian colleges before the turn of the century. He was a diligent student of the Bible and a devoted disciple of the Master. It was his desire to follow in the path of righteousness and to do all things pleasing unto God. As he read the sacred pages he became aware of the fact that the primitive saints constituted “a church of the upper room.” Jesus ordained the Lord’s Supper in “a large upper room furnished and prepared.” After the ascension of Jesus the apostles and others abode in an upper room. In Troas the saints were gathered together “in the upper chamber.” The brother to whom I refer constructed a two story building and during his lifetime the congregation met to break bread upstairs. This was deemed essential in order to “do all things according to the pattern.”
I personally knew the sister to whom I now refer. She was a humble saint but possessed of strong convictions. She was a member of the congregation I attended as a mere lad. It was our custom to do our baptizing in a clear pool of a small stream that flowed through a pasture owned by one of the elders. It was a lovely spot shaded by the overhanging boughs of a large tree, although it was inconvenient in the winter when icy winds swept across the fields and chilled the observers. But when the brethren decided to construct a baptistery under the pulpit there were objections raised at once. The aged sister was more adamant than any of the others. I can recall her saying, “There’s just as much scripture for an organ on top of the pulpit as for one of them things under it. The day they put it in they can put me out. There’s no pattern for it. The Lord was baptized in a river and I don’t want to see anyone baptized in a box.”
A number of years ago my father went to speak for a congregation on the Lord’s Day. By enquiring in advance he learned that he would speak following the Lord’s Supper. Imagine his surprise when the congregation stood following the Supper, and while singing a hymn, all marched out of the building. Thinking he had misunderstood the arrangement, father got his hat and book and started out, only to meet them all coming back in. They informed him that they followed the divine pattern for the Book teaches that “when they had sung a hymn, they went out.” Father did not have the nerve to tell them that the record said, “they went out into the mount of Olives.”
In 1836, Francis Whitefield Emmons, a respected contemporary of Alexander Campbell, took the position that Acts 2:42 contained a divinely ordained order of worship and that to be scriptural a congregation must observe the sequence therein set forth for its “items of worship.” Both Campbell and Robert Richardson took issue with Emmons, denying that “this order should be considered as of divine order.” Sixty years later the controversy was revived by publication of a tract on December 1, 1897, under the heading, “The Worship.” So heated did the discussion become that one participant wrote, “That there has been haste on both sides of this unholy war is not a question. This is to be regretted and repented of. Unfair methods have been employed. Men, regardless of character have been justified; and men, without regard to character, convictions or conscience, have been condemned.” He ended with a challenge to debate.
A short time later another furor was created when a well known brother reached the conclusion it was wrong to eat the Lord’s Supper “at dinner time.” He presented the case for partaking of the loaf and fruit of the vine after dark, and continued, “History shows it was kept at night in the first centuries and never in daylight.” He said, “I think you will conclude with me that the evidence for the Supper at night is as clear as for the first day of the week. Those who contend for a restoration of New Testament Christianity will not ignore the argument for long without drifting to the common ground of indifference to the whole matter. It comes with poor grace to contend for loyalty to one example, and ignore the other. But Paul says, ‘Ye have us for an ensample.’ Phil. 3:17.”
Recently I have had letters from two sisters in Texas who tell me that they are worshiping with those who had to leave “the daylight worshipers” in order to follow the apostolic pattern. They have pleaded with me to direct my energies toward fighting the spiritual decadence evidenced by partaking of the Lord’s Supper in the daytime. I am asked to insist that everyone “come out from among them and be separate.”
On a trip to the east I learned of two small groups of brethren in the mountain regions who have declared a state of non-fellowship with the congregations around them that do not practice “washing of feet” as a proof of loyalty to the commands of Jesus. It is their contention that nothing is plainer than the statement of the Lord, “For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15).
When brethren began to become conscious of microbes and germs and the emphasis upon hygiene caused laws to be passed to abolish the common drinking cup at schools and on trains, there arose a tendency to adopt an “individual communion service.” This launched a struggle which has not ceased to our day. Many places which had always used two or three glasses took up the cudgel against individual cups. As usual, both sides quoted those who had previously been recognized as heroes of the faith and claimed them as favorable to their positions. Debates have been held in many places with a constant emphasis on the divergent views, one side contending that we must have one container “according to the pattern,” with the other just as vociferously affirming that the cup of which Jesus spoke is “the fruit of the vine.”
In an endeavor to be even more literal there are two congregations of our acquaintance which will not use a glass or goblet at all but insist upon using a cup. In the community about them they are designated as the “One Cup With a Handle Church of Christ.” They seem to appreciate rather than resent this as it serves as a means of distinction from those whom they regard as “liberals” or “glass digressives.” It is not at all uncommon for adherents of the several groups to call each other “one-cuppers” or “cups churches.” It is a strange, and almost ludicrous commentary on our condition to read in some reports of “cups preachers.”
In several areas small groups have reached the conclusion that “the pattern” calls for fermented wine in the Lord’s Supper. They have severed themselves from what they term “the grape juice churches” and claim no “fellowship” with them. Others have divided over a method of breaking the bread, with certain ones insisting that the one who presides at the table must first break a bit from the loaf and eat, then pass it to the other communicants and allow each to break off a portion in turn.
A special field of literature including magazine articles, tracts, booklets, and printed debates, has grown up around what is called “the Sunday School question.” The right to teach in classes has been challenged and discussed with intensity, and even with resultant partisan bitterness in many places. The Sunday school has been labeled, “a missionary society for the children which differs no whit from the organized missionary organizations for the grown ups.” Those who have classes have been dared to find a precedent for their practice in “the pattern.”
In recent years a question has been raised about the scripturality of congregations contributing their funds to a congregational treasury remote from them for the purpose of propagandizing by national television and radio programs. The problem of institutionalism has reared its head again as it often has through the years, but this time in relation to charitable organizations. The non- instrument segment of the disciple brotherhood has been fractured into three fragments–called “liberals,” “antis,” and “middle-of-the-roaders.” In these areas the feeling has been so deep that divisions have occurred and those who met in the same building a few years ago have set up rival encampments from which to assail each other.
What shall I more say? Time would fail me to tell of all the other ideas which have splintered and shivered the heirs of the restoration movement through the years. The things of which I have written are but a small minority of those which have been documented as having caused schisms among the brethren. I think that it is time that we should study objectively the underlying causes and basic reasons why our brethren divide periodically. Why should a movement which began as “a project to unite the Christians in all sects” end up as the most bitter and strife-torn in our generation?
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Here’s a link to download the entire book in PDF format.