Alexander Campbell Archives - Gospel Union - A blog about Christian faith and unity

Parable of the iron bedstead

Thursday, 05 May 2005 by Editor

By Alexander Campbell From The Christian Baptist No. III, Vol. IV. October 2, 1826 “Style no man on earth your Father; for he alone is your Father who is in heaven: and all ye are brethren. Assume not the title of Rabbi; for ye have only One Teacher; neither assume the title of Leader; for

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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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Opinions, opinions, opinions

Tuesday, 01 February 2005 by Editor

One of the toughest things to wrap our minds around is distinguishing between opinions and inerrant truth. Until we do that, though, we’ll continue on the path of discord, because opinions are responsible for all the division we see in Christendom, not inerrant truth. It is not possible to force ourselves to hold the same

Dogmatism opinions sectarianism Unitarianism unity

Published in Alexander Campbell, Commentary

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Are there Christians among the sects?

Thursday, 27 January 2005 by Editor

The following are excerpted quotes from Ketcherside, compiled by Lloyd A. Boyll in 1989 under the book title of A New Spirit. –KH CHRISTIANS AMONG THE SECTS by W. Carl Ketcherside “I am convinced that there are many Christians among the sectarian parties of our day.” “Mind you, I do not believe that there are

denominationalism Ketcherside sectarianism Sects unity

Published in Alexander Campbell, Unity, W. Carl Ketcherside

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Foundation of Christian union

Thursday, 27 January 2005 by Editor

The following is an excerpt from Alexander Campbell’s Foundation of Christian Union. I’ll put the last paragraph first to entice you to read the whole thing and bear with our brother’s generous use of commas: Let THE BIBLE be substituted for all human creeds; FACTS, for definitions, THINGS, for words; FAITH, for speculation; UNITY OF

Alexander Campbell creeds division opinions unity

Published in Alexander Campbell, Commentary, Unity

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The whole Bible is our creed

Wednesday, 19 January 2005 by Editor

The whole Bible is our creed, but what exactly does that mean? This is one of the most difficult issues for any Christian to think through, as evidenced by the number of debates over creeds through the millennia. Campbell, in the Parable of the Iron Bedstead, was gently urging his brothers at the time to

Alexander Campbell Bible creeds hermeneutics

Published in Alexander Campbell, Bible, Commentary

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The fellowship of the saints

Tuesday, 18 January 2005 by Editor

The following is from Carl Ketcherside’s “In the Beginning,” Chapter 19 (Thoughts on Fellowship #7). Fellowship is not a fruit of agreement but agreement is the fruit of fellowship! Does the Bible teach that? Do we come to be in the fellowship because we are of the same mind, or do we come to be

Alexander Campbell fellowship Ketcherside unity

Published in Alexander Campbell, Commentary, Unity, W. Carl Ketcherside

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Good Alexander Campbell quote

Friday, 10 December 2004 by Editor

Here’s another Campbell quote that I will probably put in the sidebar. And just a reminder…no human contrived words are authoritative, but we are to encourage and edify one another. That is the only purpose in quoting voices from the past. “But men cannot give up their opinions, and therefore, they can never unite, says

Alexander Campbell division opinions unity

Published in Alexander Campbell, Commentary

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The slippery slope of the slippery slope

Thursday, 09 December 2004 by Editor

Is accepting brothers as brothers without dividing into sects a slippery slope? Some of the most clarifying thoughts are the simplest ones–like the fact that the slippery slope argument itself can be seen as a slippery slope fraught with danger. “Where will it lead?” is the question most often asked. “Look at the slope you

division Reasoning Restoration Movement Slippery Slope unity

Published in Alexander Campbell, Commentary, Unity

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Who is a citizen?

Tuesday, 19 October 2004 by Editor

I thought this was an interesting clip from an Alexander Campbell article in The Christian Baptist. The article is a fictitious dialogue constructed by Campbell to illustrate the fallacy of thinking that one must be re-baptized for the remission of sins if they were not aware of this blessing of regeneration when first baptized. This

Alexander Campbell baptism Remission of Sins Restoration Movement unity

Published in Alexander Campbell, Commentary, Unity

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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."