Clothesline

Greetings to all

Word for the Day
Rationalism - the “theological or philosophical position which values reason as the ultimate judge of all statements,” [1] exhibited in the works of 17th century writers John Locke and Francis Bacon.

Quote for the Day
“When the Holy Scriptures serve as more than a source for sermons, fires of awakening begin to burn. We have shown how Enlightenment methods of biblical interpretation have led to treating Scripture primarily as an object to be dissected and analyzed. Being on the cutting edge means receiving from these ancient texts a word from God for today.” [2]

Website for the Day
www.dtour.com.au/articles/article.cfm?id=89
This article will set you to thinking!

Thought for the Day
When Alexander Campbell and others embarked on the journey that we call the Restoration Movement he believed one could arrive at Biblical truths in the same way one calculates the period of a pendulum or the orbit of a planet. The facts are there, just waiting to be discovered. The Age of Enlightenment was upon us and the logic of rationalism impacted our ancestors’ Bible hermeneutic more than they could have ever realized. But not everyone agreed with Campbell’s adherence to a faith based on the Word only. One man who dared to oppose Campbell was Robert Richardson, a close personal friend of Campbell. Richardson “argued that one does not properly interpret the Bible by a merely ‘formal’ or rational reading of it.”[3] He went on to argue that the Baconian logic employed by Campbell had ignored the role of the Spirit in fully restoring New Testament Christianity.

As one can imagine, this view was promptly attacked by Campbell’s camp. In this case Tolbert Fanning, an ally of Campbell, responded in part by calling Richardson’s views “purely metaphysical”[4] and an open door to mysticism. And so the role of the Holy Spirit became the flash point for one of our earliest debates. Articles continued to fly back and forth in the Millennial Harbinger and the Gospel Advocate during 1857.

Richardson said, “it is not organization that can impart life. It is not the election of officers or the giving to them titles of pastors or elders that can reanimate a dying church.”[5] He feared that Campbell’s (and Fanning’s) view reduced faith to “little more than an intellectual assent to the truthfulness of facts rather than a person.”[6] I believe that Jesus put it this way, “You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”[JOH 5.39] Does that statement not indict us today just as surely as it did the Pharisees of the first century?

In those days Campbell and his successors, rather than Richardson, dominated the thinking in what became the Church of Christ. As recently as 1966, the same question sparked debate when raised at the Abilene Christian University Bible Lectureship. Once again, the brotherhood periodicals exchanged articles on the dangers of deviating from a Word only theology. And so for about 100 years our fellowship has not embraced a full and active role of the Holy Spirit in modern believers. That began to change during the last quarter of the 20th century as we transitioned into the post-modern era.

The application of rational thought would ensure that every student of the Word who approached it “with an honest heart, common sense and the proper inductive methods would arrive at the same truth in all matters of Christian belief and practice.”[7] And we in the Church of Christ remain the recipients of that way of thinking. Hence, our dependence on command, example, and necessary inference to support our doctrines. Different conclusions meant that one was intellectually flawed or dishonest. Today we put it this way, “Don’t you know that God won’t save anyone who thinks the way you think and does the things you do?”[8] And yet, we believe that God calls us to take risks for the kingdom just as our spiritual forefathers did.

Today we again stand at a crossroads of theological direction. Everything is being reexamined or called into question. The same question disturbs us once again - which path to choose. We find ourselves called back to the Bible to read it afresh. We can relate to Pilate who asked, “What is truth?” [JOH 18.38] In the next issue we will examine some of our inconsistencies with the “command, example, inference” hermeneutic and consider an alternative to that. May we continue to grow as the Spirit leads us.

May God Bless
Mike Toole
clw, ed.

1. Osburn, Carroll, Women in the Church, ACU Press, Abilene TX, 2001, p.xviii
2. Johnson, Ben Campbell and Andrew Dreitcer, Beyond the Ordinary -Spirituality for Church Leaders, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids MI, 2001, p. 160
3. Allen, Leonard and Danny Swick, Participating in God’s Life, New Leaf Books, Orange CA, 2001, p. 38
4. ibid., p.38
5. ibid., p.41
6. ibid., p.45
7. Childers, Jeff and Doug Foster and Jack Reese, The Crux of the Matter, ACU Press, Abilene TX, 2002, p.87
8. Montgomery, Robert, “The Greatest Questions Never Go Away” found at www.gal328.org

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