The reader will observe that we do not
suppose human laws or regulations of any consequence in this
matter. Men may regulate the worship they require for
themselves and for one another; and in relation to those
regulations there may be disorder, error, innovation
and transgression. But as none but the Lord
can prescribe or regulate the worship due unto himself and
profitable to us; so, if he have done, it human regulations
are as vain and useless as attempts to prevent the ebbing of
the sea or the waxing and waning of the moon. But to proceed:
Another society meets for worship, and they sing all day;
another shouts all day; another runs as in a race all day;
another lies prostrate on the ground all day; another reads
all day; another hears one man speak all day; another sits
silent all day; another waves palm branches all day; another
cries in the forenoon and listens to the organ in the
afternoon; and it is all equally right, lawful, orderly, and
acceptable; for there is no divinely authorized order of
Christian worship. We are then, on the principles of reason,
constrained to abandon this side of the dilemma, and give up
the hypothesis that there is no divinely authorized order of
Christian worship. Now as one of the only two supposable cases
must be abandoned, it follows by undeniable consequence, that
there is a divinely authorized order of Christian worship in
Christian assemblies
Christian.Baptist.Volume.1.New.html
But soon the arm of power was
stretched out against all whose love of truth led
them to oppose reigning abuses, and those of them who
could not escape felt the vengeance of Christianity, so
called. Those who escaped took refuge in the mountains and
vallies of the Alps, and in those wintry regions subsisted
for ages by mechanical trades. Often were they invaded,
harassed, and nearly destroyed, but never exterminated
till Louis XIV, of France sent an army to assist his
son-in-law, the duke of Savoy, in accomplishing it. About
the same time Louis had converted France into a complete
slaughter house, that if he enjoyed the title of "Beloved
Son of the Church," he showed himself worthy of it by his
zeal in what he no doubt imagined to be her interests.*
Thus history shews us, that, instead of converting men by
the plain apostolic truth concerning "Jesus and the
resurrection," simply, they were more zealous to improve
upon Nebuchadnezzar's plan, who, in his zeal for the
worship of God represented by the image on the plain of
Dura, heated a tremendous furnace, and hurled the impious
into it. He had music to draw and fire to drive, and
imagined, no doubt that the heart must be hard stubborn, and rebellious, which would not
be melted by the influence of one, nor softened by the
allurements of the other. But since the great furnace is
no more, our modern have recourse to means somewhat
different in appearance, though not in effect. They make
very little use of the tale concerning Jesus and the
resurrection;" this is too stale for the improved ears of
their audience; and what gave life to the dead in sins
nearly eighteen centuries past, might seem (to them) to
have lost its effect, and will by no means answer their
purpose. Their plan is briefly this: First they set man to
judge in his own cause—man whose heart the scripture
declares "is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked, who can know it?" is set to judge of himself;
__________ *To allude to all the historic evidence
contained in the volume of Mosheim, Gibbonand others,
would be too tedious. For a concentration of historical
information upon the subject, from the most credible
authors of various parties, and writers of different ages
Now who does not perceive, from the
foregoing extracts, that when the popular religion of a
country becomes a mere formal system, it can easily unite
with the outward religion 143 of any other country? In the
present case, both have uniformity of dress, (long gowns,
&c.) both employ music in the "performance of
divine service"—both use bells—both have
their holy days, thanksgiving, preparation, fast days, and
Christmas—and both collect money on those
occasions—both have priests, with titles of
Reverend, D. D. &c.—and both "offer customary prayers"
at legislatures, courts, celebration dinners, parades,
laying corners of churches and "stone bridges," locks and
dams, &c. &c. *
1831
DISCUSSION OF UNITY
http://www.pineycom.com/Barton.W.Stone.Alexander.Campbell.Union.html
This is the "pre fabled
union" in 1831: the denial of any kind of "union" in
the Lunenburg quote was in 1837. Without passing
judgment one way or another, the Reformers saw the Disciples
as just another denomination, and saw Barton W. Stone bent
on forming a NEW INCLUSIVE denomination. Garrison proposed
to include ALL OF CHRISTENDOM. That is why the Disciples
have reached a dead end.
Does
he mean a formal confederation of all preachers
and people called "Christians," with all
those whom he calls Reformed Baptists?
(rather reforming, than reformed;) or (as
he represents them as prefering for a sectarianwhat
shall be the articles of confederation, and in what
form shall they be ministered or adopted? Shall it
be in one general convention of messengers from all the
societies of "christians" and "disciples," or one general
assembly of the whole aggregate of both people? Shall the
articles of agreement be drawn up in writing like the
articles of the "General Union" amongst the different
sects of Baptists in Kentucky? purpose the name)
disciples. If so,
We
discover, or think we discover, a squinting at some
sort of precedency or priority in the claims of
the writer of the above article, which are perhaps only
in appearance, and not in reality; but if in appearance
only, he will prevent us or any reader from concluding
unfavorably by explaining himself more in detail
than he has done.
He says, "The
reformed Baptists have received the doctrine taught by
us many years ago." "For nearly thirty years ago we
taught," &c. &c. From what source or
principle these sayings proceeded, we do not pronounce
sentence; but if they are mere words of course, and he
intended to plead nothing from them, we would suggest
the propriety of qualifying them in such a way as to
prevent mistake.
I am,
as at present advised, far from thinking that
the present advocates of reformation are only pleading,
or at all pleading, for what was plead in Kentucky
thirty years ago, after the dissolution of the Springfield
Presbytery. If such be the conceptions of brother
Stone, I am greatly mistaken. That he, with others, did
at that time oppose authoritative creeds,
and some articles in them as terms of communion,
and some other abuses, we are not uninformed; but so did
some others who set out with him.
Our eagle-eyed
opponents plainly see the difference between the
radical and differential attributes of this reformation,
which they ignorantly call a deformation, and
any other cause, however unpopular, plead in the
land.
"The
Christians" in some places, nay, in many places, are
quite respectable in the eyes of those who contemn
"the disciples" as unfit for good society.
And I think the amiable editor of the Christian
Messenger himself told me last winter,
that even he and
some of his brethren were considered by the orthodox
as degrading themselves because they associated
with us most "unworthy disciples?'
Indeed,
it was no mean proof of his christian spirit to
see him so condescending to persons of such low
degree in the estimation of the noble christians
of the land. His willingness to fraternize
with us in despite of the odium theologicum
attached to our ancient gospel, I must ever
regard as an additional proof of his unfeigned regard
to the authority of Jesus as Lord, and his love to all
them who esteem the reproach of the Messiah greater
riches than all the treasures of Egypt.
Historians should
understand the difference between Mythological History
and True History.
Among the Greeks it was
widely taught that rhetoricians, poets and music must not be
permitted to write about true history. It was ok to lie
about history when entertaining (only) but never in the
schools or called assemblies (ekklesia).
THE
1832 UNITY MEETING J.F.BURNETT
Stone and the Disciples of Christ (Reformers then)
Morrill,
in "History of the Christian Denomination," says: [6]
"The
'union' itself was consummated on New Year's day, 1832, in Hill
Street Christian Church, at Lexington,
Kentucky, where representatives of both parties pledged
themselves 'to one another before God, to abandon
all speculation, especially on the Trinity, and kindred
subjects, and to be content with the plain
declaration of Scripture on those subjects on
which there had been so much worse than useless
controversy.'
The
plain meaning is that they found common ground to
occupy, threw away their divisive teachings and
opinions, and acted as one. The men who at Lexington
pledged themselves there and then gave one another the
hand of fellowship,
speaking
for themselves, and the churches
they came from,
but not for all the churches or the
denominations in Kentucky or the United States.
There
was no voting, and no attempt at formal union, but merely
a 'flowing together' of those like-minded. In token of
that union Elder John Smith, of the Disciples of Christ,
and Elder John Rogers, of the Christians, 'were
appointed evangelists by the churches' to promote that
simple unsectarian Christian work, which was adhered to
by thousands; and Stone took Elder J. T. Johnson, a
Disciple, as co-editor of The Christian Messenger.
"This
'union' did not change the status of any name or church or
minister or piece of property.
At a later time Campbell made some public invidious
remarks about the Christians, and it began to be
claimed that they had joined or united with the Disciples.
John [7] Rogers says on this point:
'No
one ever thought (at the first) that the Reformers,
so-called, had come over to us, or that we
had gone over to them; that they were required to
relinquish their opinions, or we ours.
We
found ourselves contending for the same great
principles, and we resolved to unite our energies
to harmonize the church and save the world.
Such are the simple facts in the case."
The
Christian Messenger
(1832) says:
"It is
common for the Christians to say, the Reformers have
joined us--and no less common is it for the
Reformers to say, the Christians have joined us.
One
will say, the Christians have given up all
their former opinions of many doctrines, and have
received ours; another will say, the Reformers
have relinquished their views on many points, and
embraced ours.
These
things are doing mischief to the
cause of Christian union, and well calculated to excite
jealousy, and to give offense. They can do no good--in
fact they are not true. We have met together on the
Bible, being drawn together there by the cords of
truth--we agreed to walk together according to this
rule, and to be united by the spirit of truth.
Neither
the Christians nor Reformers professed to give up
any sentiments or opinions previous to our union,
nor were any required to be given up in order to effect
it. We all determined to learn of Jesus, and to
speak and do whatsoever He says to us in His Word.
We all profess to be [8] called Christians, being
the followers and disciples of Jesus."
The
Campbells and most people at that time defined church as a
Society for study of the Word:
- Church
as defined by Christ in the wilderness and as Ekklesia
or Synagogue was A School of Christ.
- Worship
was
reading and musing the Word as is clearly defined by
Paul, Peter and the pre-Constantine periood were singing
as an ACT was imposed in c 373 and split the west church
from the east.
Any
additions would, as definitons demand, mark the imposers
as heretics or sectarians.
1837 Jenning, Walter W., Origin and Early
History of the Disciples of Christ, p. 196, Standard
Although
union was not so easily brought about elsewhere as in
Kentucky, thousands of ''Christians" did join the Reformers.
After referring to the union effected by Stone in
Jacksonville, M. T. Morrill, the leading historian of
the Christian Connection, made the following admission:
"Then
followed a wave of ' Campbellism ' that swept the
Christians off their feet, and aggregated about
eight thousand accessions to the Disciples. No
Christian churches long survived in Tennessee, their
cause was ruined in Kentucky and never has regained its
former strength or prestige. Of the Southern Ohio
Christians a majority of the preachers embraced
Campbeism prior to 1837, and only about one
thousand church members remained. A man named C. A.
Eastman, traveling through Indiana about 1846, reported
that, 'In many places they [the Christians] have
amalgamated with the Disciples, and are known only as
the same people.' Several years later it was reported
that on Stone's account conferences of the Christians
had been dissolved and churches disbanded,
and the people had become amalgamated with the
Disciples."
1833
to 1841 and beyond Stoneites denied the Atonement
Barton W. Stone dened the
Atonement and Campbell debated him from 1833 onward:
why would there be UNITY between such important
"fundamentals>? The
Millennial Harbinger 1840-41 the debate still raged.
So be it, say I.
And what have I said, more than this? I have only said, in
the conclusion of my letter, "that, believing as I
do, that it was not possible, that any one of our
race could be saved without the sacrifice of the Lamb
of God, I must hold every attempt to explain it
away into a mere moral example, or display of love
without regard to justice, as tending to subvert the basis
of the divine government, and to rob the gospel of all
that glorifies the wisdom and power, the justice and mercy
of God in putting away sin, and in saving the sinner." It
is not, then, the degree of importance that my opinion
attaches to the death of Christ, either as it respects the
glory of God, or the salvation of man, in which we differ;
but about the express scriptural reasons of its
vast importance. And here, dear brother, permit me to
express, in my turn, my sincere regret, that having lifted
up your voice for a pure scriptural reformation,
predicated upon the Bible alone, you should ever have been
led off that divine platform into the arena of sectarian
controversies. MH.NumberVII.VIv.Aug.1833
1837
REPUDIATING THE DISCIPLES / CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
http://www.pineycom.com/AC.Lunenburg.Orig.html
It is reasonable to say that
all of the so-called Stone-Campbell Movement are liars about
this issue: especially about the Lunenburg letters.
the lady from Lunenburg to write the editor of the Harbinger
is in an article entitled "Letters to England-No. 1," which
was published in the June, 1837. We use the word liars
because people pick what they want to write their own
history and the goal most often is to driven
non-instrumental churches into a guilt complex for NOT
beginning to do what they had NEVER done.
They have never read the
Lunenburg correspondence. To Campbell a "c"hristian was one
who lived according to Christian principles. We speak of a
"c"hristian nation. However, a "C"hristian is ONLY one who
has obeyed the gospel.
I. With all despatch, then, I hasten
to show that I have neither conceded nor surrendered
any thing for which I ever contended; but that
on the contrary, the opinion now expressed, whether true
or false, is one that I have always avowed.
(Footnote in original reads: It is with us as old as
baptism for the remission of sins,
and this is at least as old as the "Christian Baptist."
Read the first two numbers of that work.)
1.
Let me ask, in the first place, what could mean all that
we have written upon the union of Christians on apostolic
grounds,
had we taught that
all Christians in the world
were already
united in our own community?
2.
And in the second place, why should we so often have
quoted and applied to apostate Christendom what
the Spirit saith to saints in
Babylon--"Come
out of her, my people, that you partake not of her sins,
and that you receive
not of her plagues"--
had we imagined that
the Lord had no people beyond the pale of our communion!
3.
But let him that yet doubts, read the following passages
from the Christian Baptist, April, 1825:--
"I
have no idea of seeing, nor wish to see, the sects
unite in one grand army.
This would be dangerous to our liberties and laws.
For this the Saviour did not pray.
It is only the disciples
dispersed among them
that reason and
benevolence would call out of them,
"&c. &c. This looks very like our present opinion
of Christians
among the sects!!! 2d ed. Bethany, p. 85.
4.
Again, speaking of purity of speech in order to the
union of Christians, we say,
"None
of you [Christians] have ever yet attempted to show
how Christians can be united on your principles.
You have often showed how they may be divided,
and how each party may hold its own,
but while you pray
for the visible unity of the Disciples,
and advocate their
visible disunity, we cannot understand you." March, 1837,
vol. 4.
1839
IT appears from
the "Union Herald" of the 9th instant, that the Christian
Union Convention, out of the proceedings of which we made
large extracts in the two preceding numbers of the
Harbinger, held its second meeting, according to the
appointment of its standing committee, at Cazenovia, on the
30th of January; at which time and place, the Business
Committee reported the following resolutions:- MILLENNIAL
HARBINGER, VOLUME III.-----NUMBER III. BETHANY, VA. MARCH,
1839
THE "PATTERN" FOR
UNITY AGREED WITH THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN THE
WILDERNESS AND MANY NETWTESTAMENT EXAMPLES;:
In 1839, from the "old brother, came an article on
"The Divine Order for Evangelizing the World, and for Teaching
the Evangelized How to Conduct Themselves." He
started with the Great Commission in Matthew, and urged
the necessity of teaching and preaching.
"Let the church then take up its Book and read and
study it. The proper character of the church is
the school of [175] Christ, disciples,
Christians. . . .
It must not shame its Master by its stupid,
wilful, shameful ignorance of his Book."
He
proposed for the Lord's Day a meeting of four hours,
beginning at ten o'clock and a half-hour intermission
between each two hours. An order of service is really
suggested which provides at the close for assignments
of study for the week and "a contribution of
something to the common stock for religious purposes, as
God has prospered him.
Matthew 28:18 And
Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,
All power is given unto me
in heaven and in earth.
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore,
and teach all
nations,
baptizing them in
the name
of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [Jesus Christ]
Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever
I have commanded
you:
and, lo, I am with
you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
SO THAT PATTERN WILL NOT CHANGE
Jesus followed
the pattern as our example.
Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up:
and, as his custom
was,
he went into the
synagogue on the sabbath day,
and stood up
for to read.
Acts 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city
them that preach
him,
being read
in the synagogues every sabbath day.
1Timothy 4:11 These things command and teach.
1Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou
an example of the believers,
in word, in
conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in
purity.
1Timothy 4:13 Till I come, give attendance to
reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
1Timothy 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee,
which was given
thee by prophecy, [teaching]
with the laying on
of the hands of the presbytery.
1Timothy 4:15 Meditate upon these things;
[speaking and meditating IN THE HEART]
give thyself
wholly to them;
that thy profiting
may appear to all.
1Timothy 4:16 Take heed unto thyself,
and unto the
doctrine; continue in them:
for in doing this
thou shalt both save thyself,
and them that hear
thee
Thomas Campbell:
"Some thirty years ago, when we addressed a portion of our
fellow Christians in western Pennsylvania upon this
all-important subject, we met with universal opposition
from the leaders of the people and were considered as the
disturbers of religious society; but now, blessed be God,
it is not only our privilege to bear of some hundreds of
thousands in the United States and elsewhere that have
been awakened, by means of our humble commencement, to
advocate this blessed cause, upon pure scriptural
principles of primitive, apostolic Christianity;
but that also now, at length, there is a voluntary
movement in different parts of the camp, beyond the bounds
of our co-operative agency in favor of this
blessed cause, the cause of union in truth amongst all
the friends of truth and peace throughout all the
churches, for this was the sacred design and
motto of our commencement."
"Second, as to
the propositions adopted by the convention, they,
appear too indefinite, and, of course, have a
tendency to produce difficulties,
Thomas Campbell defined
union thusly: [The Millennial Harbinger (March 1839):
134-144.]
5.
That with respect to the commands and ordinances
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
where the scriptures are silent as to the express
time or manner of performance, if any such there be;
no human authority has power to interfere, in
order to supply the
supposed deficiency,
by making laws for the church;
nor can any thing more be required of Christians
in such cases, but only that they so observe these commands
and ordinances, as will evidently answer the
declared and obvious end of their institution.
Much less has any human authority power to impose new commands or
ordinances upon the church,
which our Lord Jesus Christ has not enjoined.
Nothing ought to be received into the faith or worship
of the church, or be made a term of communion amongst
Christians, that is not as old as the New Testament.
"13.
Lastly, that if any circumstantials
indispensably
necessary
to
the observance of divine ordinances
be not found upon
the page of express revelation,
such, and such
only as are absolutely necessary for this purpose,
should be adopted,
under the title of human expedients,
without any
pretence to a more sacred origin--so that any
subsequent alteration or difference
in the observance
of these things might produce no contention nor division
in the church."
That, of course, appears
throughout the Church historians and is common decency since
Restoration meant removing anything not required to be A
School of Christ. Neither Campbell would have "unioned" with
any group which ignored the purpose of the assembly and who
IMPOSED something in order to SUPPLY the
supposed deficiency. That has nothing to do with the "law of
silence" or "traditions" or decisions of church councils
which are owned by what became the Disciples-Christian
churches.
THE
MILLERITE CONNECTION: The Society was to make it
POSSIBLE for Jesus to return!
William J. Nottingham Global
Ministries.
"My point here is that the first
missionary society was the product of a long and
intense process which generated considerable
soul-searching. There were shared biblical
principles and at the same time fundamental
differences in theological opinion. Disagreement
grew
concerning congregational ecclesiology,
commonality in mission with other
Christians,
and
also perhaps communion of the Holy Spirit.
This tension would eventuate
in separate bodies and institutions of the 20th
and 21st centuries. [Disciples and NACC]
A full appreciation is probably hidden from us in the
distance from ante-bellum times. But the nature of the
Bible's authority,
the
relatively new idea of the autonomy of the local
congregation,
and
the centrality of millennialist eschatology for
these men and women,
with men doing most of the
writing which is left to us, seem to me to be mysteries
that can only be observed from different angles and
rarely entered into existentially by later generations
like our own.
This is evidenced in the decisions
concerning missionaries growing out of this fervor
leading up to the Cincinnati convention: Dr. and
Mrs. James T. Barclay were the first. It was in their
parlor in Washington, D.C., 1843, that the
congregation had been organized which became the
Vermont Avenue Church and in 1930 the National City
Christian Church.
They went to Jerusalem,
not because of Acts 1:8 "beginning with Jerusalem" as a
popular Disciples legend has it, but because it was taken for
granted by Alexander Campbell and his followers that
the Jews were to be converted before the return of
Christ.
RICHARD HUGES
MAKES THIS FALSE ASSUMPTION
That was a false
assumption: the Millenial Harbinger's major thrust was not
to SUPPORT Millerism but to defeat it.
Campbell denies that Jesus will return to Canaan.
Because the Church of Christ did not believe in William E.
Miller [Ellen G. White]. You will notice that it was
the Disciples who were tilted by Miller.
The title of Campbell's journal
proclaimed clearly the eschatology of the pre-Civil War
spirituality, so neglected in our denominational memory
by scholars and theologians since then.
Notice that
Campbell spoke of THE PROTESTANT THEORY: not his
because he speaks where the Bible speaks and insists on a
NEW HEAVEN and a NEW EARTH and that you could not convert
people after the literal earth was burned up.
In the Millennial Harbinger of
1841,
we read in what is called The Protestant Theory:
"The
Millennium, so far as the triumphs of Christianity is
concerned, will be a state of greatly enlarged and
continuous prosperity, in which the Lord will be
exalted and his divine spirit enjoyed in an
unprecedented measure. All the conditions of society
will be vastly improved; wars shall cease, and peace
and good will among men will generally abound. The
Jews will be converted, and the fullness of the
Gentiles will be brought into the kingdom of the
Messiah."
THIS WAS NOT CAMPBELL'S VIEW AND THEREFORE THE
FOSTER VIEWS HAVE NO FOUNDATION.
The founding of the
American Christian Missionary Society cannot be
separated from the millennialist eschatology of the
period
See
Alexander Campbell on the Second Coming to prove that
you never believe "the doctors of the Law."
This takes careful reading to grasp that Campbell
REPUDIATES any speculation.
The Disciples
followed the Millerites: not Campbell.
nor from the pragmatism
which required a foreign dimension to keep pace with other
denominations or to outgrow them! D.S.
Burnet's book The Jerusalem Mission and Dr. Barclay's
book The City of the Great King make this clear, along
with speeches and articles by various leaders like
Isaac Errett. Barclay wrote in a journal The Christian
Age:
"The ACMS...resolved...
to
make the first offer of salvation to Israel. .
.
for
the salvation of the Jews...
for
upon the conversion and resumption of Israel
1845
The Restoration Movement History: John
T. Brown in his history of "Churches of Christ," p.
153, says:
"David
S. Burnet was the father of organized cooperative
work among the disciples of Christ. He
crystallized the sentiment for cooperation. He was the
leader of leaders, who, more than any other man, advocated
the adoption of the plan of cooperation, which has grown
to its present power and usefulness among our people.
Afterward, in looking over his life-work, he said: "I
consider the inauguration of the society system, which I
vowed to urge upon the brethren if God raised me up from
my protracted illness of 1845, was one of the
most important acts of my career." He was indeed the
leader of the leaders in the work of organization and
formation of the American Christian Missionary Society.
So, according to David S. Burnet, "the
father of organized, cooperative work among the disciples
of Christ," the resolution to urge the society on the
Brethren originated in the sickroom in 1845, in
the mind of David S. Burnet, but was not put into
execution until four years later, 1849.
RETROSPECTIVE
ACCOUNTS
While
there was never a "union" in 1832 at least many groups
including the Reformed Baptists could have fraternal
relationships because at yet no one had been so daring as to
introduce instruments.
http://www.pineycom.com/Unity.Boles.html
In
1849, the first major departure was made. David S.
Burnet was the father of the Missionary
Society; it was organized in 1849. David S. Burnet
was a convert from the Baptist Church
and he brought the idea of the Missionary Society with him
from the Baptist Church. "He was brought up as a
Presbyterian but at sixteen years of age, after careful
study of the New Testament, was baptized into the Baptist
Church." ("The Story of the Churches." by Errett
Gates, p. 190.) He said, "I was born into the
missionary spirit, and did not relinquish it when I
associated myself with my present brethren." (Christian
Magazine, Vol. 3, p. 173.
Notice
Nottingham's reason why these groups were never
"unioned" because you cannot "union" congregational
churches. This also shows that Foster twisted the "apocylptic"
claim for Alexander Campbell. That is because he did not
care enough to read the original documents. Historians
daisy chain and quoting A BOOK is never scholarship. Of
course they are all defined by John as ANTICHRIST by their
neo-trinity dogma.
Church "scholars" are really a laughing stock and they
write only for other "scholars" totally missing Jesus who
said that "doctors of the law take away the key to
knowledge."
I don't write history: I post the actual documents the
RECONSTRUCTIONISTS lie about seing godliness as a means of
financial gain--occupation. Don't be a cultist: never
trust anyone who quotes Mark 1.1 and does not post the
text in context.
ALL
religious
groups rejected musical instruments because of the
persona of musicians and the fact that a disciple
fully understands that instruments always mark those
who refuse to hear the Words of God.
John
Calvin on Instruments clearly understood and
observed by presbyterians.
Does
any one object, that music is very useful for awakening
the minds of men and moving their hearts? I own it;
but
we should always take care that no corruption creep
in, which might both defile the pure
worship of God
and involve men in superstition. Moreover, since the Holy Spirit expressly warns us of this danger
by the mouth of Paul,
to proceed beyond what we are there warranted by him is not only, I must say,
unadvised zeal, but
wicked and perverse obstinacy.
Again,
Calvin notes that: "We know that our Lord Jesus Christ
has appeared, and by His advent has abolished these legal shadows.
Instrumental music, we therefore
maintain, was only tolerated on account of the times
and the people,
because they were as boys, as the sacred Scripture speaketh,
whose condition required these puerile rudiments.
But
in gospel times we must not have recourse to these
unless we wish to destroy the evangelical perfection
and to obscure the meridian light which we enjoy in
Christ our Lord." (Calvin's Commentary on the
Thirty-third Psalm, and on 1 Sam. 18:1-9).
"Unto the pure all
things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and
unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and
conscience is defiled" (Tit. 1: 15.)
For why is a woe
pronounced upon the rich who have received their
consolation? (Luke 6: 24,) who are full, who laugh
now, who "lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves
upon their couches;" "join house to house," and "lay
field to field;" "and the harp and the viol,
the tabret and pipe, and wine,
are in their feasts," (Amos 6: 6; Isa. 5: 8, 10.)
Certainly ivory and
gold, and riches, are the good creatures of God,
permitted, nay destined, by divine providence for the
use of man; nor was it ever forbidden to laugh,
or to be full, or to add new to old
and hereditary possessions, or to be delighted with
music, or to drink wine.
This is true, but when
the means are supplied to roll and
wallow in luxury, to intoxicate the mind and
soul with present and be always hunting after new
pleasures,
The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1543) Calvin wrote
For, if we
would not
throw everything into confusion,
we must never lose sight of the distinction between the old and the new dispensations, and of the fact that ceremonies, the
observance of which was useful under the law,
are now not only superfluous, but vicious and absurd.
But in
regard to the former, it is plain that
they
are destitute of authority from the scriptures,
as well as of any approved example of such intercession; while, as to
the latter,
Paul
declares
that none can invoke God, save those who have been taught by his word to pray. On this depends the confidence
with which it becomes pious minds to be actuated
and imbued when they engage in prayer.
The instruments were
tolerated because God had already turned them over to
worship the starry host and sentenced them back to
captivity and death.
WEST: "Apostasy
in music among 19th
century churches that had endeavored to restore
New Testament authority in worship and work
began,
in the main, following the American Civil War'
In 1868, Ben Franklin guessed that there were ten thousand congregations
and not over fifty had used an instrument in
worship." (Earl West, Search for the Ancient Order, Vol.
2, pp. 80, 81)
Following
the
American
Civil War "Staunch supporters of the missionary society and instrumental
music, the new look in styles
of
work and worship, had been predicting for years the early
demise of the Advocate. It was unthinkable, as these men
viewed the problem,
that even the people in the South
would not want to keep up with the times.
Lipscomb's simple ways might have been
condoned in the hills of Franklin County before
the war,
but
the times were passing him by. It
was only a question of time until the Advocate
would fold up, and when it did, as these men gleefully
envisioned, it would be a happy
day." (Earl West, Life and Times of David Lipscomb, p.
166)
At the
end of Alexander Campbell's life the missionary society
had grasped rights to Campbell's song book. Campbell
believed that he was putting the ownership into the hands
of a committee of brethren.
"Isaac
Errett who influenced Campbell to sign over (extorted?) his
copyright, had argued that it
was absolutely necessary
to the unity of the church to have unity of
worship,
and the latter could not be maintained
unless the brethren all used one
hymn book--Campbell's.
Accordingly,
the
Standard
and the Society opposed vigorously the
publication of any other hymn book. Lipscomb by
selling a hymn book printed in Canada had been visited
by some of the ire of these
men." (West, p. 171)
1851 Early
in 1851, J. Henshall was asked by a man who said "we are far
in the rear of Protestants" whether "instrumental music in our
churches" would consummate "the great object of Psalmody." He
replied that the worldly minded might seek such "helps to
their devotion," but true spiritual worship had no place for
an entertaining display, a choir, and "a wooden devotion
quickener." This opened discussion in the Ecclesiastic
Reformer for a short time. John Rogers, in astonishment that
any preacher would defend the instrument, wrote to Alexander
Campbell, who called upon all preachers to "cry aloud and
spare not" in opposing the practice. Campbell shortly added
that "the argument drawn from the Psalms in favor of
instrumental music" befits Catholic and Protestant churches
which seek "the Jewish pattern of things" to stir their carnal
hearts.
(8)
The 1850s saw precious little advance in the instrument cause;
almost no one favored it. "It is scarcely necessary for us to
say to our readers that we regard the organ and violin
worship, and even the fashionable choir singing of our
country, as mockery of all that is sacred," said Tolbert
Fanning in the 1856 Gospel Advocate.
(9)
The next flare-up revealed that fifty years after Thomas
Campbell's Declaration and Address (1809), Dr. L. L. Pinkerton
had placed a melodeon in the church at Midway, Kentucky.
Answering a question in January 1860, Benjamin Franklin mused
that a church without the Spirit of Christ might need an
instrument for amusement and entertainment in place of
religion and worship. This stung Pinkerton because he was the
only church known to be using one. Offering the aid argument,
he said the singing had been so bad as to "scare even the rats
from worship." Practice sessions with its use had been
followed by use in regular worship.
(10)
8. Henshall, "Instrumental
Music In Churches," Ecclesiastic Reformer, Vol. 4 (15
March 1851):171; Rogers, "Dancing"; Campbell, "Dancing"
and "Instrumental Music," Millennial Harbinger
(September and October, 1851):503-507 and 581-582.
9. On p. 199, quoted in John
T. Lewis, The Voice of the Pioneers on Instrumental
Music and Societies (Nashville: Tennessee: Gospel
Advocate Co., 1932), p. 120.
10. Franklin and Pinkerton
articles entitled "Instrumental Music in Churches,"
American Christian Review, Vol. 3 (31 January and 28
February -1860):19, 34. See Earl West, The Search For
The Ancient Order, 3 Volumes (Nashville: Tennessee:
Gospel Advocate Co., 1949; Indainapolis, Indiana:
Religious Book Service, 1950, 1979), 1: 310-312.
1859 Restoration
Movement Boles:
A second departure was the introduction of
instrumental music in the worship. This began about 1859. It
was not introduced because it was found in the New
Testament; neither were those who introduced it in the
worship guided by the New Testament. But few have been bold
enough to attempt to prove that the New Testament authorizes
the use of instrumental music in worship. Many have claimed
on other grounds that they have a right to use instrumental
music in worship, but the point made here is that no one,
guided by the New Testament, introduced the organ into the
worship. Errett Gates, in his history referred to above, p.
250, says:
"The organ controversy was
the missionary controversy in a new form,
for both grew out of the
opposition to human innovations in the work and worship of
the church ...
The organ party treated
it as a question of expediency on which there should be
forbearance and liberty.
The antiparty treated it as a
matter of principle." The arguments now used to justify the
use of instrumental music in worship are "after-thoughts"
and were not used when the instrument or organ was first
imposed on the brotherhood.
Jennings.Source.Stoneitesp312.gif
1860
The Organ: The
Christian Repository. Hickman Creek
To accuse
non-instrumental churches for being sectarians ignores the
recorded history of contemporaneous battles among ALL
religious groups.
They
were men of sincere piety and fervent zeal, but governed
in manners and in preaching by laws of their own. Unlike
the gowned clergy of our day these primitive preachers of
the wilderness were accustomed, on a hot summer's day, to
take off their coats and preach in the shirt sleeves
a very convenient habit for those who toiled coatless all
the week. Unlike the drilled theatrical disclaimers of the
modern pulpit, who read their sermons, these
earnest, unsophisticated heralds of the gospel, with no
teacher of elocution but the promptings of their own
pathetic voices, sung their sermons. Like their
illustrious ancestor with the leathern girdle, their voice
was heard "crying in the wilderness."
Vulgar
and ludicrous as the habit may seem to the eyes of learned
criticism, this sing song preaching had its
attractions. Congregations would set [sic] from three
to five hours, on backless benches, and listen
to sermon after sermon sung off in this way, without
complaining. But the congregation of this refined age, who
sit on cushioned seats, with cushioned backs, and
cushioned foot-stools, and listen to sermons enriched by
the best creations of intellect and genius, set off with
all the improved arts of voice and gesture, and
all the witchery of rhetoric, complain dreadfully
if they are kept more than forty-five minutes. There must
be a difference somewhere, either in the essence and
manner of preaching, or in the taste and instincts of the
hearers. After all it is a question whether singing
the gospel is not as apostolic and efficient as reading
it; whether the one did not make as many converts in that
day, as the other makes in this age.
It was
at this meeting-house, and under this preaching, when a
small boy, I got my first ideas of divine worship, and of
Jesus Christ as a Saviour for sinners. And this fact may
account for some notions that cling to me at the present
time. The first pastor I remember to have met and heard at
Hickman Creek was a tall, gray-headed gentleman by the
name of Durham. It was under the ministry of this aged
servant of God I first witnessed the exhibition of
instrumental church music. It was very simple and
primitive in its order. The instrument was not an organ,
nor melodeon, nor violin, nor flute, nor drum, nor horn.
It was a cheap and portable concern, that the pastor
carried in his pocket, which at the proper tune he played
himself, thereby saving the expense of a salaried
performer.
When the
hymn was announced Father Durham drew from his pocket
a lady's tucking comb, to one
side of which a piece of brown paper had been adjusted.
While the congregation struck the air of the tune, he sung
the same notes through the comb, which being reflected by
the paper, and broken into diverging and crossing volumes
by the intervening teeth, produced a monstrous jingle of
sounds, that supplied the place of bass, treble, alto, and
all the imaginary notes. Whether scientific or not, the
primitive church instrument sent out a novel clatter
of sounds, which to my uneducated ear seemed
wonderfully melodious.
Little
did I dream at that time of living to be a grown-up man;
of being transported from those native hills and dropped
down among cities; to tread the threshold of majestic
Gothic temples, and see the tucking comb
transferred from the preacher's pocket to a spacious room
in the gallery, and expanded into the beauty and grandeur
of the church organ, with its thundering sounds.
I will
not undertake to give an opinion as to the comparative
merits of the various instruments of church music. Let
those who believe in instruments do this, if they
choose. After some years of experience I decidedly prefer
congregational singing to all the instruments in the
world. Some might attribute this to erroneous education,
or the lack of education. Be this as it may, I would
rather listen, especially on the Sabbath, to some forty or
fifty clear toned human voices
1866
Moses Lard Lard's Quarterly [Volume III: April,
1866]
Until after the UNcivil war
the concensus of all of the people who flowed into either
the Christian Churches or Reformers, no one believed in nor
would tolerate the use of instruments in what Christ and the
Campbells called A School of Christ. Alexander Campbell was
quite happy as a Reformed Baptists because they did not
divide over instruments until around the turn of the
decade. However, it was the Baptists who proposed to
excommunicate Campbell because he taught that "baptism for
the remission of sins" meant "baptism for the remission of
sins..
While there was never any
organic "union" it was possible for people of most groups to
join with others in what they called "worship." Unity
of heart and soul was created by Jesus Christ before a
clergy system usurped the role of elders and deacons as the
Pastor-Teachers of the flock pledged to teach that which had
been taught.
But
the Church of Christ in halves, or a divided body of
Christ, is impossible. The moment the church is so
divided
the one part becomes an apostasy,
the other remains the church.
Suppose
the division to have its origin in some doctrinal
question. In what light, then, should it be viewed, and
how disposed of? Of course, in that case the first
question raised would be:
Is the doctrine clearly taught in the word of
God. If clearly taught in the word of God,
the case admits of
a very simple solution.
The
party rejecting the doctrine would stand, on
that ground, and for that reason alone, condemned;
while the party
accepting, would have to be held as no party, but as
the church.
But
suppose the doctrine not to be clearly taught, or
suppose it to admit of a reasonable doubt whether
it is taught or not, how, then, should we proceed?
In that case the difference should be regarded as
a difference of opinion, and hence should be made
no test of soundness in the faith, or of
fellowship.
Here, if
brethren were possessed of even the most ordinary
share of love, the difference would either permanently
rest or permanently end.
But if one of the differing parties should
persist in an effort to force its opinion on
the other,
or should dogmatically require subscription thereto,
or should make it any such test as has just been named,
then such party would have to be regarded as
having become heretical, and would have to be
repudiated.
The other party would have to be held as
the church
1867 Dr.H.Christopher.Instrumental.Music.html
1868
Following the Civil War, instrumental
music in worship began to be introduced first in a few,
then in more and more of the churches in the restoration
movement. With the introduction of the instrument also
came the resistance and controversy, which its opponents
readily provided.
A statement more insightful than the
words of J.W. McGarvey in 1868, regarding the coming
controversy, would be difficult to find. In response to
A.S. Hayden’s attempted justification of its use as an
expression of expediency and progress,
McGarvey stated: “you know that such are the convictions
of a very large number of the best and most intelligent
class of your brethren, that they will resist to the very
last extremity the introduction of instrumental music in
the worship, and that they will never, while they live,
permit it to rest anywhere in peace” (p. 217).
The following years evidence the
accuracy of McGarvey’s 1868 evaluation and
forecast. Churches in various cities and towns experienced
the introduction, resistance, and resultant controversy;
various periodicals mirrored the widening discussions and
consequently sharpening debates; church records documented
the pattern of introduction, use, resistance,
controversy, hardening of support and opposition, and
ultimately division when the offending wedge was not
withdrawn. And so the history unfolded
BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN 1877
7.
"Well, the churches generally are going into it,
and it is 'a foregone conclusion that they will have and
use the organ,' and it is useless to stand
against it."
No "the churches generally"
are not gone into it, nor are they going that
way.
We do not know the number of churches
in the United States;
but doubt not that six
thousand would be a
low enough estimate.
How
many
of them use the organ in worship? We do not know
this with certainty, but probably not more than from
[431] one hundred and fifty to two
hundred, and
certainly not five hundred. [1877]
The
organ party is yet small, and would amount to but
little, had it not found way into a few places
of note
and prominence. There are still whole States that
have not an organ in the Church.
We
think there is not one in use in Canada, not one in Virginia, Tennessee, nor Texas, that we have heard of; scarcely any
in Kentucky, West
Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and many other States. The organ is
still the exception, not the rule; and the party
is small. The main body are true to the great
principles of reformation--to the divine purpose of returning
to and maintaining, the original
practice in all things.
1883
Nashville
Choate/Woodson
note
that like David Lipscomb, E. G. Sewell worked for the
Gospel Advocate to earn a
living
and
preached
for the Woodland Street Church in Nashville. He received
little for his preaching. A new building was constructed
in 1880 and Sewell was asked to preach there
longer and devote more time.
As well funded
by the Standard
"From
the North, where the Society system was deeply
imbedded in the churches, people moved
into Nashville and many filled the Woodland
Street church. By the end of 1882,
a woman from Kentucky asked Sewell about
forming an auxiliary
society to the Christian Woman's Board of Missions. Sewel objected, and gave his
reasons.
But as
always, when a group in a congregation wants
something, and the preacher stands in their way,
there is only one thing to do: dismiss the preacher. Sewell was ousted
and at the beginning of 1883, W. J. Loos, son
of C. L. Loos, president of the Foreign
Society, was hired.
In the fall of that year young Loos attended the annual
convention at Cincinatti, telling them with some embarassment
that he was ashamed to admit he was from Tennessee for the
churches of his state were doing nothing."
When
he returned, Sewell refuted the false charges
about Tennessee churches. Loos was check-mated and was replaced later by R. M.
Giddens who "fanned the
flames of Societyism."
"The women were soon busily at work to form
an auxiliary society. Sewell's pleas to Giddens
went unheeded. During the following summer,
the women
wrote
letters to the
churches of the state
asking funds be sent
to them
so they could hire a
State Evangelist. Before long, plans were laid
to secure the services of A. I.
Myhr.
"Lipscomb
had
agreed to publish information in the Advocate after being
assured that evangelism was the goal.
However, Giddens failed to get the work under the
Woodland Street elders. J. C. McQuiddy who had helped
raise the money and Sewell who was an elder were not
consulted about Myhr.
Myhr made
his goals clear about promoting the Society and
Instrumental music
even though it would divide the churches. Myhr's goal,
Lipscome believed, was to
"ostracize, boycott, and starve every preacher that
does not APPROVE the society."
1885
THE RISE OF CORRUPTERS OF THE WORD SELLING LEARNING AT
RETAIL.
Without denying support for Evangelists
Campbell warned about the mercinary clergy, the dominant
pastor was and is divisive and the only way that the
NACC has helped any churches of Christ impose
instruments.
"The
pastor is not a necessity. He is a FUNGUS
GROWTH upon the church, the body of Christians, DWARFING
its growth, PREVENTING its development
of its members; and until the church GETS RID of him it
will NEVER prosper as it should. In the Bible we can
find all the necessities.
"I can
testify from my own observation that a good eldership
will lose its efficiency, and its members become both
UNABLE and UNWILLING to do the work of elders, in a very
few years after the employment of a pastor. And if under
the pastor system a good eldership has ever developed, I
have never seen or heard of the case. I don't believe
that has or ever will be done." --James A.
Harding, Gospel Advocate, May 20, 1885
Preaching for pay? "Give
money to make poor
pious youths learned clergy, or vain
pretenders to erudition; and they pray that they may
preach to you; yes, and pay them too.
Was
there ever such a craft as priestcraft? No, it is the craftiest of all crafts. It is so crafty that it obtains by
its craft the means to make craftsmen, and then it makes the deluded support them!" (Campbell,
Alexander, Christian Baptist, Dec. 1, 1823, Vol. 1, p. 91).
Wonder why the
Stone-Campbell Sectarians never use that?
"Those
who
lord it over the people will soon begin to destroy
Them. The word Balaam means 'the destroyer of the
people.' If we turn back to the history of this
strange figure as recorded in the book of Numbers we
find that which clarifies three passages in the New
Testament where 'the error of Balaam' (Jude 11), 'the
way of Balaam' (II Pet. 2:15) and 'the doctrine of
Balaam' are discussed." (Barnhouse, D.G., Revelation,
Zondervan, p. 54
See John Calvin on the need for a
Restoration Movement excluding professional
preachers.
These
are Paul's words. Let them, then, show us that they
are ministers of the gospel, and I will have no difficulty in
conceding their right to stipend.
The
ox must not be muzzled that treadeth out the corn [1 Cor. 9:9]. But is it
not altogether at variance with reason that the ploughing oxen should starve, and the lazy asses be fed?
They
will
say, however, that they serve at the altar. I answer, that the priests under
the law deserved
maintenance, by
ministering at an altar;
but
that,
as Paul declares, the case under the New Testament
is different. And what are those altar
services, for which they allege that
maintenance is due to them?
Forsooth,
that
they may perform their masses and chant in churches, for example, partly
labor to no purpose, and partly perpetrate sacrilege, thereby provoking the anger of
God. See for what it is that they are alimented
at the public expense!
Aeschines Against Ctesiphon
3.[220] And you
blame me if I come before the people, not constantly, but
only at intervals. And you imagine that
your bearers fail to detect you in
thus making a demand which is no outgrowth of democracy,
but borrowed from another form of government. For
in oligarchies it is not he who wishes, but he who is in
authority, that addresses the people;
whereas in
democracies he speaks who chooses,
and whenever it
seems to him good.
And the fact that a man speaks only at intervals marks him
as a man who takes part in politics because of the call
of the hour, and for the common good;
whereas to leave no
day without its speech,
is the mark of a man
who is making a trade of it, and talking for pay.
2
A quiet citizen, as distinguished from the professional
political blackmailer,su_kophant-ēs
Pl. Cur.
2.3 And then those Grecians with their cloaks, who
walk about with covered heads, who go loaded beneath
their cloaks with books, and with baskets6,
they loiter together, and engage in gossipping among
themselves, the gad-abouts
6 With
baskets: In the "sportule," or "baskets,"
the poor, and the parasitical dependants on
the rich, carried away the scraps that were given to
them after an entertainment was concluded.
Amos 8:1
Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a
basket of summer fruit.
Amos 8:2 And he said,
Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of
summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The
end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again
pass by them any more.
basket
from H3611 keleb keh'-leb From an unused root
meaning to yelp, or else to attack; a dog; hence (by
euphemism) a male prostitute:—dog.
Revelation 22:13 I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last.
Revelation 22:14
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they
may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in
through the gates into the city.
Revelation 22:15
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and
whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Revelation
22.15 exō hoi kunes kai hoi pharmakoi kai hoi pornoi kai hoi phoneis kai hoi eidōlolatrai kai pas philōn kai poiōn pseudos.
Revelation 22:16 I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these
things in the churches. I am the root and the
offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
Pornos , ho, A. catamite,
Ar.Pl.155,
X.Mem.1.6.13,
D.22.73,
II. Idolater,
Suid.
Xen.
Mem. 1.6.13 So is it with wisdom.
Those who offer it to all comers for money are
known as sophists, prostitutors of
wisdom,
but we think
that he who makes a friend of one whom he knows to
be gifted by nature, and teaches him all the good
he can, fulfils the duty of a citizen and a
gentleman.
Sophis-tēs
, master of one's craft, experts, poets,
musicians, harpists, "making melody in holy
places." a Sophist, i.e. one
who gave lessons in grammar, rhetoric,
politics, mathematics, for money,
3. later of the rhētores, Professors
of Rhetoric, and prose writers “Apollōnidē sophistē”
2Corinthians 2:17 For
we are not as many, which corrupt the word
of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the
sight of God speak we in Christ.
G2585 kapēleuō
kap-ale-yoo'-o From κάπηλος kapēlos (a huckster);
to retail, that is, (by implication) to adulterate
(figuratively):—corrupt.
ka^pēl-euō ,
1) to be a
retailer, to peddle
2) to make
money by selling anything
a) to get
sordid gain by dealing in anything, to do a thing
for base gain
b) to trade in
the word of God
1) to try to
get base gain by teaching divine truth
c) to corrupt,
to adulterate
1) peddlers
were in the habit of adulterating their
commodities for the sake of gain
k. tēs hōras anthos or tēn hōran, of
prostitutes
Instead of
killing all of the people of Lydians, croesus
advised:
Hdt.
1.155 [3]
“O King, what you say is reasonable. But do not
ever yield to anger, or destroy an ancient city
that is innocent both of the former and of the
present offense. For the former I am responsible,
and bear the punishment on my head; while Pactyes,
in whose charge you left Sardis,
does this present wrong; let him, then, pay the
penalty.
Grant,
then, forgiveness to the Lydians, and to make sure of their never
rebelling against thee, or alarming thee more,
send and forbid them to keep any
weapons of war,
command them to
wear tunics
under their cloaks, and to put buskins upon
their legs,
..........and make them bring up their sons to cithern-playing (Kitharizein), singing (psallein), and shop-keeping (Hucksterism).
So
wilt thou soon see them become women instead of men,
and there will be no more fear of their
revolting from thee."
-[4] Ludoisi de sungnômên echôn tade
autoisi epitaxon, hôs mête aposteôsi mête
deinoi toi eôsi: apeipe men sphi pempsas
hopla arêia mê ektêsthai, keleue de spheas
kithônas -[khiton
David's garment] te hupodunein toisi heimasi
kai kothornous hupodeesthai, proeipe d'
autoisi -kitharizein te kai psallein kai kapêleuein [prostitutes, petty trade,
playing tricks, corrupting] paideuein tous
paidas. kai tacheôs spheas ô basileu
gunaikas ant' andrôn opseai gegonotas, hôste
ouden deinoi toi esontai mê aposteôsi."
The word kitharizo means to PLAY THE
CITHARA and does not include singing.
- -Kitharizô 1 [kitharis] to play the
cithara, phormingi [Apollo]
kitharize Il., Hes.; lurêi eraton
kitharizôn Hhymn. (so that there can have
been no great difference between the
kithara, lura, and phorminx ); kitharizein
ouk epistatai, of an uneducated person,
-
-Kithar-isis , eôs, hê, playing on the
cithara, Pl.Prt.325e; k. psilê,
i.e. without the voice,
Id.Lg.669e, cf. Pae.Delph.15; aulêsis
kai k. Phld.Mus.p.23 K.
-Arassô ,of any violent impact, with collat. notion of rattling, clanging, as of horses, hoplais, pound in a mortar, strike with a shower of stones.
a). kitharēn strike
the lyre, Orph.A.382;
humnon, melos, etc., Nonn.D.1.15,440,
etc.
2. c. dat. modi, arassein tina
oneidesi, kakois, assail with reproaches or threats,
II. Pass., to be dashed against, dash one against the other
Pound in a mortar, “holmō a.” Nic. Th.508
Used by O.E.Payne to
justify PSALLO as a command [p.106
7
The gad-abouts: Drapetæ. From the
Greek dremō, "to run."
He probably alludes to the propensities of the
Athenians for gossipping and running
about from place to place. Probably, at the time of
Plautus, they had begun in considerable numbers to
resort to Rome. By his reference to the books,
he is, perhaps, more particularly alluding to their
Philosophers. The Romans considered it effeminate
in civil life to go with the head covered.
su_kophant-ēs
became notorious as pettifoggers, blackmailers, professional
swindler or confidential agent,
kolax , a^kos, ho,
2. in later Gr., = Att. goēs, Moer. p.113 P.
II. lisping pronunciation of korax, Ar.V.45.
goēs , ētos, ho, A. sorcerer,
wizard, Phoronis g. epōdos Ludias apo khthonos” E.Ba.234,
cf. Hipp.1038;
prob. f.l. for boēsi Hdt.7.191.
2.
juggler, cheat, “deinos g. kai pharmakeus kai sophistēs” Pl.Smp.203d;
“deinon kai g. kai sophistēn . . onomazōn” D.18.276;
“apistos g. ponēros” Id.19.109;
“magos kai g.” Aeschin.3.137:
Comp. “goētoteros” Ach.Tat.6.7
Sophis-tēs ,
ou, ho, A. master
of one's craft, adept, expert, of diviners,
of musicians, “sophistēs . . parapaiōn khelun” [harp]
with modal words added, “hoi s. tōn hierōn melōn” Ael.NA11.1;
Ael.
NA 11.1
anthrōpōn Hupeboreōn genos kai timas Apollōnos
tas ekeithi hadousi men poiētai, humnousi de kai suggrapheis,
en de tois kai Hekataios, oukh ho Milēsios, all' ho Abdēritēs. ha de legei polla te kai semna hetera,
melōdountes, alla hōsper oun ek tou khorolektou to endosimon labontes kai tois sophistais tōn hierōn melōn tois epikhōriois sunasantes. eita tou humnou telesthentos hoi de anakhōrousi tē pros ton daimona
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata I
But he that speaks through books, consecrates himself before God, crying in writing thus:
Not
for gain, not for vainglory, not to be vanquished by
partiality, nor enslaved by fear nor elated by pleasure;
but only to reap
the salvation
of those who read, which he does,
not at present participate in, but awaiting in expectation the
recompense
which will certainly be rendered by Him, who has
promised to bestow on the labourers the reward
that is meet.
But
he who is enrolled in the number of men [Ps. li.
7-12.] ought not to
desire recompense.
For
he that vaunts his good services, receives glory as his reward.
And he who does any duty for the sake of recompense, is he not held fast in the
custom of the world, either as one who has done
well, hastening to receive a reward, or as an
evil-doer avoiding retribution?
We
must, as far as we can, imitate the Lord. I And he
will do so, who complies with the will of God,
receiving
freely,
giving freely, and receiving as a worthy
reward the citizenship itself.
"The
hire
of an harlot shall not come into the
sanctuary," it is said: accordingly it was
forbidden to bring to the altar the price of a dog.
(male
prostitute)
And
in whomsoever the eye of the soul has been blinded
by ill-nurture and teaching, let him advance to the
true light, to the truth,
which
shows
by writing the things that are unwritten.
"Ye that thirst, go to the waters," [Isa. lv. 1] says Esaias, And
"drink water from thine own vessels," [Prov. v.
15] Solomon exhorts. Accordingly in "The Laws,"
the philosopher who learned from the Hebrews,
Plato, commands husbandmen
not to irrigate or take water from others, until they have first dug
down in their own ground to what is called the virgin soil, and found it dry.
For it is right to supply
want, but it is not well to support
laziness.
For Pythagoras said that,
"although it
be agreeable to reason to take a share of a
burden, it is not a duty to take it away."
1889
TWISTING SAND CREEK
There is nothing about Daniel Sommer's
claimed bad attitude which can divert people from the
facts abot imposing instruments as the "laded burden"
straw which broke the backs of people who had been
lulled into the Cult of Unity. The only lovely and
honorable "evangelist" who understood the CENI of the
Great Commission was labeled a Sommerite. But, then so
was Carl Ketcherside and Leroy Garret in attitude: we
might say that the Stone-Campbell Movement derived from
Daniel Sommer
There was never any organizational union
between the Church of Christ and the Disciples
(Christian Churches). However, at one time there
would have been nothing in the public assembly which
would offend the Bible knowledge and sensibilities of
most people. If and when it is apparent that one
group in "fellowship" is purpose driven to "infiltrate
and divert" your congregation, and when that attacking
church is organized and financed, the honorable thing to
do is to try to cut off contact with that group.
Several "unity lovers" have discovered since the origin
of the Stone-Campbell Movement that they will not, have
not hesitated to twist all recorded history of the
"instrument cult" to take you captive.
Rick
Atchley: The era
of the progressive Church of Christ
is over.
Back in the 80’s you could go to any
major city, especially in the South, and you could find
a progressive Church of Christ — and if they
would preach grace, and if they would put words
on a screen, and if they would let divorced
people place membership, they would grow.
The generation of Boomers has
enough denominational loyalty that they’re going to find
the least legalistic
Well, we discipled the children
of those progressive churches
for a whole generation to grow
past us Boomers.
They never heard the sermons
we heard.
They never heard the rationale
for a cappella music.
We sent them to youth
rallies and Church of Christ events
with some of the finest Christian
bands in the world.
We discipled
our children to leave our Movement!
The church at Sand Creek was without any
of the innovations. When a group attempted to
impose instrumental music there was objection. To
their credit they left rather than steal the
property. A Supreme Court decision declared that
the property belonged to the non-instrumental group
which had founded the congregation
People do not let minimal ethics stop
them when they use the law and lying to take over a
church as a defacto Christian Church. People of
the Stone-Campbell Cult love to point to Sand Creek to
denounce them for refusing to be TAKEN CAPTIVE.
People who use virtual violence against Daniel Sommer
over the instrument issue are the same ones who get
violent when Churches of Christ will not submit to what
Scripture and recorded history calls sin: "making the
Lamb dumb before the slaughter."
Whatever the few dupes of the NACC claim
about "everone wants instruments" the lust usually
begins with one misleader. As confessed, they "cut out"
a small herd and instill the idea into their heads. Rick
Atckley took over a decade of being "intentional" as
they say before a spirit told him that it was time to
preach that sermon enforced by David Faust and the NACC.
Dainel
Sommer Addresses Sand Creek. About 20 decided to
force instrumental music and 100 Christian
Church and filed a lawsuit to take over the new
brick church house. opposed. The
20 discorders took the name The Illinois Supreme court
decided that the group founded by the
principles of Alexander Campbell and existing since 1834
owned the propert. In his very godly address
Daniel Sommer concludes:
"When
they determined to have their devices if they
had only left the established congregations in peace and had
gone out into new fields and built up
churches, they would have acted with some honor.
But
instead of so doing they have thrust their devices
upon congregations established upon primitive
simplicity, and thus have become
usurpers of other men's labors. We were
once a happy and a peaceful and a
prosperous people and for peace we pled.
We entreated
them for God's sake and for the love of heaven not to
thrust their devices upon us, but they
would not hearken. WHAT THEN MUST BE DONE? In the
language of the Apostle Peter I answer: "THE TIME IS
COME THAT JUDGEMENT MUST BEGIN AT THE HOUSE OF GOD."
It is not an honorable
thing to denounce Churches of Christ as sectarian by
attempting to force them to approve of that which has
divided since singing as an ACT was first introduced in
the year 373.
The Britannica Notes that: Or Click
Here
The introduction of musical
instruments (reed organs) into
Christian worship led to many local disputes. Other innovations added occasion
for controversy--the infringement of the "one-man
pastoral system" on the local ministry of elders,
introduction of selected choirs, use of the
title Reverend, and lesser
issues.
In
1889 several rural churches in Illinois issued the
Sand
Creek Declaration, withdrawing fellowship
from those practicing "innovations and corruptions."
Foster etal loves to use the "rural"
word to describe how churches of Christ had such an
appeal in Tenneessee. However, it was the Bible
Reading Moms who forced the Stoneites to preach baptism
in North Alabama where the appeal to raw emotion (called
sorcery or witchcraft) failed to produce the falling
down mad conversions.
R. L.
Dabney Presbyterian
It has always been common among the advocates of this
Popish mode of worship,
- to
meet the objections of simple minded Protestants to the
organ,
- with
the retort that their scruples were the relics
of fanatical prejudice,
- and
rustic ignorance.
It is
not strange that men, such as the present advocates of
the organ in Presbyterian churches in America,
should bring such a charge against such men; many of
them educated amidst the richest specimens of the
fine arts in the old world, their youth
imbued with the spirit of a gorgeous and poetic age?
According
to Philo, the gods of the pagans exploit this weakness of men. For the sake of a better effect, and with the intention of more easily
cheating
their devotes, that they have set their lies to melodies, rhythms and meters.." Click for more.
"Philodemos considered it paradoxical that
music should be regarded as veneration of the gods
while musicians were paid for performing this so-called veneration. Again,
Philodemus held as self-deceptive the view that music mediated religious ecstasy. He saw the entire condition
induced by the noise of cymbals and tambourines as a disturbance of the spirit. (Paul
called it mad or insane)
He found it significant that, on
the whole, only women and effeminate men fell into
this folly."
"According
to
Philo, the gods of the pagans exploit this weakness
of men. For the sake of a better effect, and with
the intention of more easily cheating their devotes, that they have set their lies to
melodies, rhythms and meters.." (Father Johannes
Quasten, p. 52)
Contrary to the instrumental group who
got in debt and needed entertainment to dig them out,
Alexander Campbell derived his views of a professional
clergy from John Calvin.
"A
preacher, like any other man who gets in debt and fails to
pay, soon becomes demoralized, and indifferent about
paying--becomes, indeed, dishonest.
"We have
never been willing, when not actively engaged in preaching
to sit
around on our professional dignity, but have
labored at whatever work presented itself to make a living." (West, p.
167)
1890
CHRISTIAN STANDARD PROMOTES A NATIONAL CONVENTION IN
TENNESSEE
In
1890 the first convention was called at
Chattanooga to organize the state society.
The only churches in the state of Tennessee were those who
had already adopted the organ in their worship.
The Christian Standard pumped up the news and "it
is reported that the brethren in Nashville, Tennessee are
desirous of entertaining our National
Convention next year."
This of course was just two congregations. A
survey showed that out of 2500 members in
Nashville, less than one hundred wanted the society.
Lipscomb noted that among the Society people
"the Bible is as popular as last year's almanac."
"The
supporters of the missionary society organized the Tennessee
State Missionary Convention on October
6, 1890, with one purpose in mind, as stated by
J.
H. Garrison. He said at that time:
"We will take
Tennessee for organized mission work...within five
years."
A. I.
Myhr was dispatched to Tennessee to head the new state
society despite the protestation of
David Lipscomb that Tennessee was not a destitute
mission territory. Myhr and his supporters moved
resolutely ahead to accomplish their mission.
"Their
efforts met with some success and the intent was
clear. Myhr was aggressive and abrasive in his operations. His actions were of
such a nature, in promoting the missionary society, that
he came under the direct attack of E. G. Sewel and David
Lipscomb. And as later event proved, Myhr was no match
for Lipscomb and the Gospel Advocate.
1890
The Plan:
Again "We will take Tennessee for organized
mission work...within five years."
- Why would anyone ENDORSE and
accept pay from those always on a hostile path?
Myhr made his goals clear
about promoting the Society and Instrumental music
even though it would divide the churches. Myhr's
goal, Lipscome believed, was to
"ostracize, boycott, and starve
every preacher that does not APPROVE the society."
- How could any godly person REBUKE
and use all of the RACA words on a people who simply
refused to be TAKEN?
BECAUSE
OF THE RADICAL ATTACK AGAINST THE NON-INSTRUMENTAL
CHURCHES..
Notice
that the use of the organ affected only a few Christian
Churches. That did not prevent the Disciples
leadership , prompted by the Standard, to IMPOSE
instruments into the Christian churches. This is proof
that Churches of Christ had no organs.
"As
early as 1882, Sewell and Harding were
urging that a separation be brought about to identify that part of the
Christian Church fellowship
which supported the organ and the society. Lipscomb, at the time, rebuffed his
brethren who called for such division. He sought no
compromise, but hoped that the church would not
suffer division."
That, of Course, proves
that they saw the Christian Church Fellowship as not
the same as The Church of Christ.
Not
until 1878 did anyone in history MISuse psallo to justify the
massive discord they had already sown by using the
ORGAN and Life Members of even
children of the Missionary Society. This has a
foundation beginning in heaven where Lucifer began to
TRAFFICK in some spiritual world we do not understand.
Being CAST AS PROFANE (a musical term) out of heaven
he or most often showed up in the garden of Eden as
the serpent meaning a MUSICAL ENCHANTER.
"By 1897,
Lipscomb was reconciled to the fact that division
had already occurred and the supporters of the innovations
would be satisfied with nothing less than a complete take-over of the churches... (Adron Doran, J.E.Choate, The
Christian Scholar, p. 59
1901 Instruments of Music in the Service of God By David Lipscomb
Instruments had been
added into the Disciples of Christ--Chrisitian Churches.
In time the determination was to "take Tenneessee for the
organ and society party within five years." That is
proof that churches of Christ in Tennessee did not belong
to the Stone-Campbell and God wants people to stop lying
to "take Tennessee a hundred years later."
When the church determines to introduce
a service not required by God,
he who believes it
wrong is compelled to refuse in any way
to countenance
or affiliate with the wrong.
Sometimes when a part of a church insists
on and adopts the wrong,
had I not better yield than to create
division in the church?
A church that requires disobedience
to God to maintain peace in it is already an
apostate church; it has rejected God as it
only Ruler.
While forbearance and
love should be exercised in seeking to show them the
right and persuading them to do it, it is sinful to so affiliate
with them as to encourage and build up a church
that is going wrong.
In the case where the
Society and Organ party goes to law to seek control of the
property they have stolen, Lipscomb urged people not to go
to law over property.
1902
THE NEWBERN HOSTILE TAKEOVER
In
1902 the church at Newbern was taken
over by society and organ people. The
church, against Lipscomb's advice, sued to retain
the property. Of course the society could muster
a majority and won the lawsuit. The decision was handed
down in 1905 that the trouble did not warrant
the intrusion of the courts:
"The pro-organ party had said during the
trial thatwhen the organ was used as a part of the
worship, it was sinful; but they defended it on the ground
that it was an AID to worship.
Lipscomb,
on
the other hand, had insisted that it was a distinct
service, and when persisted in
always supersedes and destroys congregational
singing.
"The
court, passing on this phase of the question, said that
the claim that the organ was not
a part of the worship was untenable and
it could not be considered as merely an aid to
worship."
There is no command, example
or remote inference that any of God's people assembled for
congregational singing with instruments. Of course it
comes as no surprise that Doctors of the Law who take away
the key to knowledge do not care enough to grasp that SPEAK
is the direct command for teaching the written LOGOS of the
Living Word. Bringing in an organ as an AID was
grasped by Churches of Christ as a weapon of violent
invasion.
The
the Logos.Mythos or Word.Music proof that when
people move away from the Logos.Word of Jesus Christ they
have fallen into an effeminate or perverse trap and will
never get out.
Logos, Opposite.
kata pathos, Arist.EN1169a5
or personal experiences
Logos,
verbal noun of lego
Opposite
kata pathos
Opposite music, poetry or rhetoric
Opposite
human reasoning
Opposite
Epagoge bringint in to one's aid, introduction
Alurement, enticement, incantation, spell
Epagōg-ē , hē, 2. bringing
in to one's aid, introduction, 3.
invasion, attack,
5. process of reasoning, Aristox.Harm.pp.4,53M.
b. esp. in the
Logic of Aristotle, argument by induction (cf. “epagō”
1903
Stark:
In the Stark
Warlick Debate, thought of worship as the
emotion of the soul and that it might
"produce singing, shouting, praising,
leaping, dancing, hand clapping, or
thanksgiving and such should not be
suppressed by man made rules."
These commands of men are the
creed of their division of God's
people. Like Paul's '"man of sin," they
have taken their place in the temple of God
and assume to speak as God. God put it into
his sanctuary by command; and if he has not
taken it out, it remains there, unless some one
claiming superior authority to God shall as God put it
out of the temple of God. That character Paul calls
"the man of sin who opposseth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God: The Doom of such
is HELL. I need no authority for using
it; for where there is no law, there is no
transgression. [p.15]
What have they to do with my
worship of God? The whole thing comes from a devilish,
domineering spirit, which, instead of worshipping
God, has taken God's seat in judgment to control the
praise others may bring... it is well enough
to teach them: but 'rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft, and stubborness is as iniquity and
idolatry. (1 Samuel 15:23)
Like Paul's '"man of sin," they have
taken their place in the temple of God and assume to
speak as God. God put it
[instrumental music] into his sanctuary by
command; and if he has not taken it out, it
remains there, unless some one claiming superior
authority to God shall as God put it out of the
temple of God. That
character Paul calls "the man of sin who opposseth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God: The
Doom of such is HELL. I need no authority for
using it; for where there is no law, there is no
transgression. [p.15] What have they to do
with my worship of God? The whole thing comes from a
devilish, domineering spirit, which, instead of
worshipping God, has taken God's seat in judgment to
control the praise others may bring... it is
well enough to teach them: but 'rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft, and stubborness is as iniquity and
idolatry. (1 Samuel 15:23)
Who put the twelfth
commandment into God's law, saying, "Thou shalt not
have an instrument of music in the congregation of the
saints?" David [Lipscomb], the destructive
critic, when, like the "man of sin," he sits in the
temple of God, says: "Thou shalt not." That is
the corner stone of his departure--the foundation of
his schism. Their church is built upon it, and a
few old fogies have made it a test of
fellowship. God will shake their thunder out of
them and put some lightning into them one of these
days. [p.28]
1903
J.W.McGarvey What Shall
we do with the Organ
Before this it
had bred similar evils among
Methodist societies and Baptist and Presbyterian churches; for all
these bodies in their early days knowing that the practice
originated in the Roman Catholic Church, regarded it
as a Romish corruption and refused to tolerate it
until it was forced upon them by the spirit of
innovation which characterized the
present century.
Now it is
obvious that these evils, the baleful
effects of which will never be fully revealed until the day
of judgment,
> must be
charged either against those who have introduced the
instrument
>
or against those who have opposed its
introduction.
I begin by arguing that the
practice belongs to a class of things expressly
condemned in the New Testament.
Jesus said in reference to certain additions which the Pharisees had made to the ritual of the law: "In vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men." In these words he propounds the
doctrine that all worship is vain
which originates in human
authority; or, to put
it negatively, that no worship is acceptable to God
which he himself has not authorized.
Paul echoes this
teaching when he condemns as "will worship"
the observance of, ordinances "after the precepts
and doctrines of men." (Col. 2: 20-23, R. V.)
The Greek word here rendered "will worship"
means
worship self-imposed, as
distinguished from worship imposed by God; and the
practices referred to in the context are condemned on
this ground, thus showing that all self-imposed
worship is wrong in the sight of God.
To deny, then, that
the present use of instrumental music in the church is a part
of the worship,
is a subterfuge and an afterthought
ingeniously got up to obscure the fact that it comes
under the condemnation pronounced
against vain worship and will worship.
DEAR
BROTHER: Your second question is this: "
>
Should we fail to convince the brethren that
the use of the organ is wrong,
>
what else can we do to keep
them from forcing it upon us?"
Did I
not know that organs have often been forced into
churches by the act of a few individuals without
asking formal consent, and
that
majorities
have
often put them in without regard to the protests of
minorities, I would be surprised at
the form in which you put your question;
but
I hope that the brethren to whom you refer are too
conscientious to do such a thing.
If conscience
does not deter them, they ought to be restrained by fear
of bringing into contempt the
practice which they advocate; for nothing can sooner
bring the use of the organ into contempt
than
to
see its advocates force it upon churches
in an unchristian manner.
To act
wickedly in order to worship
God more to your taste is to imitate
Rachel, who stole her father's
gods in the hope that the stolen property
would help her religiously (And give her the deed
to her father's property!)
THE
1906 BIG FAT LIE
Christian Union: Chapter 5 - Period Of
Reunion 1906
By J.H.
Garrison
Speaking of a
National Organization by others, he notes:
"These fragmentary movements,
while of value in preparing the way for something better,
were not satisfactory. It was believed that something
better was practicable, and the great Inter-Church
Conference in New York City in November, 1905
was called, in this conviction. It was believed that the
time had come when the evangelical Protestant bodies of
Christendom--
J. H. Garrison defines the
instrument as "matters of opinion" but if you
don't share his opinion then you are disloyal to the
"progressive" movement and to Christ. Furthermore, to allow
Paul's instructions about singing in church to govern one's
worship practices is equivalent to falling back under the
Law of Moses. With that in mind it is easy to see how
division was necessary.
"The same erroneous method of reasoning has been applied
to the Sunday-school, to missionary
organizations. "We come now to the consideration of the
very latest of these efforts to give visible and tangible
expression to the growing unity of the Church, for the
double purpose of
utilizing this
unity in the service of our common Master, and of
promoting a
still closer unification of the religious
forces of Christendom.
"We are bound, therefore, by every
consideration of loyalty to Jesus Christ, and by
every regard for our future growth and development, to co-operate
to the fullest extent possible,--which would be in
different degrees, no doubt, in different places--
with all who love and
serve our Lord Jesus Christ for the advancement of his
kingdom among men.
This
is what the federation movement means, and
as such, it is the next logical step--the next inevitable
step--toward the complete unity of Christians.
But there are other ways in
which some have been disloyal to this high ideal.
This ideal implies that Christianity consists, as it does,
of faith in and devotion to Christ, and is pre-eminently a
spiritual religion; that it is a life, rather than a
system of doctrine, although it involves sound
doctrine. And yet it has often happened that in their
preaching and teaching the chief emphasis has been laid by
these men on things that are external, rather than
on things which are internal and vital. Obedience
to an externalcommand, like baptism
or the Lord's Supper,
In some instances local churches have
been rent asunder over the organ question, and sister
congregations have been alienated from each other because
of the different ways of doing missionary work. It is easy
to see, of course, how utterly inconsistent with any claim
of catholicity of position or spirit, for the movement,
The fact that they had
almost no success in their hostile takeover of Churches of
Christ, the Disciples of Christ-Christian churches tried to
COUNT the Churches of Christ as their members--all
of them.
The Churches of Christ did
absolutely nothing sectarian: by definition the Sectarians
or Heretics are those who IMPOSE something not required over
the views held entoto. En toto included almost 100% of
the churches in Tennessee in 1906. Therefore, the
Disciples/ Christian churches financed by their denominatal
money extorted from the congregations were not even
COUNTABLE in the state and the Society could not tolerate
such a census.
The 1906 Census which was,
I believe, the first, saw the Disciples / Christian Churches
attempting to do a body count including the Churches of
Christ in Nashville. The Census taker knew this was utterly
false and consulted Lipscomb who just said NO to the body
snatchers.
The Disciples-Christian
churches already had a Denominational Movement underway and
needed the body count to send them vast sums of money.
As far as the PRESENT CLAIM
by the Christian Churches you have to grasp that they did
not begin to hold separate denominational meetings until
1927 and were still counted as Disciples unto THEY were
removed from the census as late as 1971. That was the time
when Garrett etal began to "cut out" Churches of Christ
where "unity" meant you AFFIRM instruments or you CONFORM
and then we can have unity.
Now why would people fall
for the NACC effort at "unity" and claiming that Churches of
Christ were legalistic sectarians when the Christian Church
did not BEGIN to SECT out of the Disciples until 1927?
When Churches of Christ
denied that they had ever been "joined" even fraternally
since the introduction of instruments among the Disciples
which split that group. At that time the Disciples/Christian
Churches issued a Centennial edition of the Declaration and
Address which should prove to anyone that Churches of Christ
could not be counted on.
1907 --
Disciples in the
United States become charter members of the
Federal Council of Churches;
a College of the Bible is founded in Melbourne, the first
school established to serve the Movement in Australia and New
Zealand
THIS IS WHY
THE ORGAN AND SOCIETY PARTY HOPED TO "TAKE TENNEESSE IN
5 YEARS"
While Churches
of Christ were NEVER joined to this institution intended
to include 'ALL OF CHRISTENCOM', the Christian Churches
(NACC) began their defection in 1927 and were not
DISCOUNTED in the Disciples census. The only ones who ever
SECTED out of an organized SECT is the NACC and it is not
honest by convince people that the Church of Christ sected
out of the Christian Churches which would not be
formalized for decades.
While churches attacked by the society and organ party
were split and families and friends were forced apart, in
Tennessee there was virtually not vicroy from the attack.
Only when individual Christian churches were "infiltrated
and diverted" was fellowship impossible. It borders on
insanity to make a living telling everyone that Churches
of Christ were even when they refused to continue
fraternal fellowship when to do so would be to turn the
flock over to the Purpose Driven Cult.
![[linked image]](D&A.Cent.Aims.jpg)
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