The Reason Why (a Christian Only)
Carl Ketcherside
"The gentleman complains that our foundation is too broad - too liberal. It is indeed broad, liberal and strong. If it were not so, it would not be a Christian foundation. Christianity is a liberal institution." - Alexander Campbell
I have as my goal to be a Christian, and a Christian only. It is not at all easy for me. My fleshly desires are opposed to it. So are most of my fellow-believers. The love of security entices me to covet the close-hearted association of the sect with its easy answer philosophy to all of the major problems of life. But I am committed to the life of hard struggle essential to free myself from the quicksand of the partisan quagmire, and I am resolved to pursue this dream for my life until death.
Obviously I am not alone in my ambition. A great many thoughtful people make the same claim and quite a few of them are serious about it. But I think a lot of them want to be "Christians only" because they do not want to be something else in our patchwork crazy-quilt religious world. Theirs is a negative approach. They are what they are because they do not care to be what others are. They do not want to be Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, or Catholics, so they create a "Christians only" party. This satisfies their consciences, gives them identity, and may even inflate their corporate ego.
My approach is exactly opposite to this. I want to be a Christian only, because only by so being, can I share in the values of all others who believe in Jesus, but who have become fragmented by the purely human level of their lower nature. I know that they have a great many things which are not values, and in these I do not care to share. I have more than enough of such things of my own. But I do not want to miss any spiritual value for I need all of them.
I personally feel that one of the great abuses of spiritual language is to apply the word "churches" to our various sects, yet we sometimes have to "speak after the manner of men because of the infirmities of the fleshly mind." Perhaps you can forgive us for doing so in this article that we might be better able to explain. I want you to see that I am not a "Christian only" simply because I am prejudiced against something else, but that it is only by being a "Christian only" that I can really be everything else.
1. I am catholic in my religion. The word katholikon originally was applied by physicians and metaphysicians to a universal remedy which, if it could be discovered, would cure all ills and allow men to live forever. I have discovered it. It is the blood of Christ. It cleanses from all sin. It provides eternal life.
My faith is catholic. My love is catholic. I believe all truth and I love all men. I love the world. I have not seen all truth nor all men, but my faith and love are not limited by my personal experience since they are rooted in God.
2. I am a baptist. A baptist, in the true sense of the term, is one who baptizes. He is a baptizer. I have baptized a good many thousands of believers in the Messiah. I am not a baptist because I believe in baptism, but because I believe in Jesus who ordained baptism as the response to the message of God's grace.
3. I am a methodist. It is my conviction that our God is a God of order. The very universe which he created is a majestic display of order and method. I think that my approach to his service should not be slipshod of haphazard. I would want the apostle Paul to be able to write to me, "For though absent in body, I am with you in spirit, and rejoice to see your orderly array and the firm front which your faith in Christ presents."
4. I am presbyterian. I hold that each community of believers should select from its constituency a number of qualified presbyters who are properly qualified, men of unimpeachable character, who adhere to the true doctrine, and who may be well able to motivate their hearers with wholesome teaching and to confute objectors, and that these should by ordained to tend the flock of God. They constitute a presbytery in that community.
5. I am episcopal. It is my position that elders who are ordained to tend a flock are bishops; that is, overseers of the community, superintending it through power of example. The word for bishop is episcopos, so that the presbytery is the episcopate of the community of saints. The divine order is a plurality of bishops over one community; it is never a plurality of communities under one bishop.
6. I am one of the brethren. The greatest relationship we can sustain to each other is that of brethren. This simple collective noun indicates a state which transcends all others which create artificial titles to flatter the dominant and further denigrate the subservient and weaker. Few of us have ever caught the glory of the statement, "But you must not be called 'rabbi'; for you have one Rabbi, and you are all brothers."
Rabbis are made by men but brothers are made by God. Men can choose a rabbi but one cannot choose his brothers, either in the physical or spiritual realm. There is a difference between what men are called by other men and what they really are. "You must not be called 'rabbi . . . you are all brothers."
7. I am one of the united brethren in Christ. Unity is not really something we attain or achieve. It is not gained but given. It is a gift of the Spirit. We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body, and through faith we are all the sons of God in union with Christ Jesus. The only real unity we can enjoy is in Christ. Outside of him we are caught up in national, cultural, status, social and sexual differences. But in him "there is no such thing as Jews and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female; you are all one person in Christ Jesus."
Do not misunderstand this. There are Jews in Christ and there are Greeks in Christ. There are slaves in Christ and there are freemen in Christ. There are males in Christ and there are females in Christ. But in Christ, that is, in union with him, there is no such thing as Jew or Greek. National, social and sexual characteristics have nothing to do with this relationship.
Jesus did not die for only one or the other. He died for all persons that they might all become one in him. Anyone who attempts in his human blindness and prejudice to create or perpetuate a community of saints based on color, culture or caste, wars against the purpose of the Christ. You may be sure Christ does not dwell in such a community and it does not dwell in Christ.
8. I am a friend. The Master said to his disciples, "I call you servants no longer; a slave does not know what his master is about. I have called you friends, because I have disclosed to you everything that I heard from my Father." This does not indicate that I am not a servant, but rather that I am a servant who has been taken into his confidence. I know what his plans are. As a mere slave I would be on the "outside" but as a friend I am on the "inside."
Sharing in a knowledge of my Lord's intentions does not exempt me from doing what he commands. My obligation becomes even greater because it is enforced by warm regard and intimacy. "You are my friends, if you do what I command you." This was not said to the envoys of Jesus because they were apostles, but because they were disciples and I share in that discipleship.
9. I am in the church of God. As a part of God's household, I am in the church of the living God. This makes me a vital part of "the pillar and bulwark of the truth." It defines my task as responsibility to support and sustain the truth in my personal witness. A bulwark is a defense or rampart and I am obligated to stand in defense of the truth.
10. I am in the church of God in Christ. The gentiles in Thessalonica became followers of the churches of God in Christ Jesus which were in Judea. They did so because when handed God's message, they received it not as the word of men, but as what it truly is, the very word of God at work in those who hold the faith. When I was handed this message that is exactly how I received it. I have not changed one bit in my attitude toward it. It is still at work in me and on me and it is making some pretty radical changes in my attitude.
11. I am a protestant. While I recognize that this word has come to mean the registering of an objection, and there are a great many things to which I object, I want to remind you that originally it did not relate to something one was against, but to that which he was for. "Pro" literally means "for, or forth." It means an argument or vote in favor of something. Testari means to "testify" and is from testis, a witness.
For one to say he is not a protestant is to affirm that he does not stand for anything, to intimate that he is not willing to testify in behalf of anything. Like the apostle Paul, I am a two-edged protestant. I protest both for and against. I commend what I can and condemn what I cannot commend. I declare my faith and object strenuously to that which would weaken or destroy it.
12. I am a conservative. A conservative is one who seeks to conserve that which he admires and respects and which he believes to be for the general welfare. I believe in the preservation of natural resources such as forests, fisheries and wilderness areas. I am a lover of wildlife and am dedicated to the ideal of preserving its habitat. I believe in the preservation of economic resources. I am opposed to throwing money down ratholes, whether the rats who made them are domestic or foreign.
I believe in preservation of spiritual resources and I am committed to protecting them from corrosion and attack to the extent of my ability. I am not interested in maintaining the status quo, because that is just Latin for the mess we are in. Too many are concerned merely about holding the fort when they should be involved in fighting the devil.
13. I am a liberal. This word is from liberalis and means "pertaining to a freeman." "The man who as a slave received the call to be a Christian is the Lord's freedman . . .You are bought at a price; do not become slaves of men." I am resolved to remain free as a slave of Jesus. And I am not so much concerned with what I have been freed from doing as what I have been freed to do.
I am liberal in the sense that the term implies one who is characterized by or inclined toward opinions favoring progress or reform. I want to see the cause to which I have devoted my all make gain and growth in the hearts of men. I want to see the unfinished reformation continue, and I want to be an activist in promoting God's design for his people.
MY POSITION
Thus I am a Christian only, not because I want to be narrow, limited and inhibited, but precisely because I do not want to be. If I were a Baptist I could not be a Methodist. I would be frowned upon as a compromiser by both. No sect is big enough to include all of the truth or all of the saved. Truth cannot be caught and confined in sectarian containers any more than the atmosphere can be canned and dispensed by the Democrats or the Republicans. Neither the truth to be believed nor the air to be breathed can be captured by any party, although both can be polluted by all of the parties.
I must either settle for less than the whole truth, which means trying to content myself with less than the undivided Christ, or I must be just a Christian. The love of God was not designed to run on a narrow-gauge track. I say this in full cognizance of the statement of our blessed Lord that, "The gate that leads to life is small and the road is narrow." Many of my brethren misunderstand that like they do a lot of other sayings of Jesus, and their misconceptions have dwarfed a lot of them. Some of them are pretty small and narrow, fearful of growing either up or out! Jesus was not trying to stunt us by scaring us! He was not trying to produce pygmies or manufacture midgets!
If I am any kind of Christian, I become a hyphenated one, and what is before the hyphen restricts what is after it. But I do not want to be restricted. "Christ set us free to be free men. Stand firm, then and refuse to be tied to the yoke of slavery again." I shall not be some kind of Christian nor all kinds of Christian. I do not want to grouped, typed, classed or categorized, except as a follower of Christ Jesus. "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord." It is enough for him to have me so it is enough for me to be thus.
No man belongs to Jesus because he is a Baptist, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Conservative, a Liberal or a Protestant. Disciples of Jesus may create parties, but no party can create disciples of Jesus. If men will be disciples of Jesus it will be in spite of their parties and not because of them. The body of Christ consist of many parts, not parties. I can share in all that is holy, just and good in all of the parties as a Christian only, and I simply do not want to share in less than all that is good.
All parties have a combination of truth and error. Of course this is also my condition, but as a Christian only I am free to adopt new truth at once when I apprehend it. I am also free to immediately reject error when I am made aware of it. This is not true of a partisan. He must subscribe to the error as well as the truth in the party creed, whether written or unwritten else he will be ejected from the party. Generally he will be retained longer while questioning the truth than while questioning the error of the party. Parties are often quite sensitive about their error, because it is their errors rather that their truths, which serve to give them identity. Others may have discovered the truths they hold without having been betrayed into their errors. The distinctive errors of the party are always their own brainchildren and we tend to lavish more care upon our own offspring.
It is true that most parties tend to outgrow their errors, or their errors outgrow them, but this takes centuries and I do not have time to wait. I cannot be saved by the truth held by others and I refuse to be damned by the errors held by others, so for that reason I insist that I shall belong only to Jesus.
This does not free me from a relationship to others. It enlarges it. There is no place for a lone wolf among God's sheep. A single member does not constitute a body and a head requires a body! Just as Jesus belongs to all of his disciples and all of his disciples belong to Jesus, I also belong to every person on this whole wide earth who belongs to Jesus. "We being many, are one!"
Let me say once more that I am a Christian only, not because I desire to be narrow and exclusive, but rather because I want to be expansive and inclusive. No sect on earth is broad enough or comprehensive enough to provide all of the love or truth which I crave. I am not an ecumenical Christian, but as a Christian, I am ecumenical in the inherent meaning of the term, although not in its imposed and infused partisan connotation. I do not care too much about a One World Church, but I am deeply concerned about a "one church" world, and some day I shall see it when "the sovereignty of the world has passed to our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever!" Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus!
