MARCH 2018 EDITION... by Dr. Keith J. Wise

INTRODUCTION: March is an interesting month as it appears the third month of the year according to our calendar.  Here are some interesting facts about the month of March.  Great Britain and her colonies continued to use March as their beginning until 1752.  Its birth flower is the Daffodil (Narcissus).  The Anglo-Saxons called the month "Hlyd monath" which means Stormy month, or "Hraed monath" which is translated "Rugged month."  In the United States March is the National Nutrition Month, National Peanut Month, National Women's History Month, and American Red Cross Month.  Four U.S. Presidents were born in the month of March: Andrew Jackson, James Madison, Grover Cleveland and John Tyler.

DIGGING DEEPER... A Debate of Alexander Campbell

One of the most interesting features of the 19th century was the filling of vacuums concerning educational information.  One of the vehicles employed in this venture was the widespread use of public debates.  It is now widely accepted that Alexander Campbell was one of the most skilled debaters on the American continent at the time of this phenomena. We will be looking in our March blog at the Walker-Campbell debate and others in the future.  There are three generally acclaimed outcomes of Campbell's debates. 

1. They commanded the attention of the leaders of their day both religiously and politically, especially the intelligentsia of the period. Consequently, later the Robert Owen debate.

2. These communication devices strengthened the concept of "truth" and reached both spiritually and nationally as America was seeking her identity in the early years the 19th century. 

3. They invariably hastened rather than retarded the concept of Christian Union. The innovative concept of being "Christian's Only" was ingrained into the American lexicon. They kindled a new zeal for spiritual discussion and cogent thought concerning Christ and the Church in a Biblical framework.

Without a strong focus on details, let me suggest a summary of the Five Public Debates of Alexander Campbell.  The first will be the Campbell-Walker Debate.

I. The Campbell-Walker Debate-  Through a series of letters to Campbell from John Birch, a Baptist preacher in Flat Run, Ohio, there drew a public interest.  Birch,  who was familiar with Campbell and his Baptist ties, obliged Campbell because of a confrontation which had been brewing between John Birch and John Walker, a Seceder Presbyterian.  Considering Campbell's Presbyterian roots, Birch felt it would be accepted by Campbell.   Eventually, Alexander Campbell accepted the debate with Birch's insisting and urging. Campbell selected Jacob Matin as his moderator and the rules were set. It was held in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio in June of 1820. The basic topic for the debate was the "subjects of baptism and the mode of baptism."  Walker held to a typically Presbyterian Calvinistic argument.  He argued that baptism replaced circumcision so infants were fit subjects for baptism.  Campbell responded that the only fit subjects for baptism under the New Testament covenant were repentant adults. Campbell argued that children were innocent and original sin was inadequate to explain any New Testament conversions.  Attacking the circumcision issue, Campbell noted several points:

a) Baptism was done to both men and women; circumcision just to men. 

b) Baptism has no age specification unless one can hear and believe--circumcision was always done on the eighth day and thus age specific age and purpose.

c) Circumcision required only one of Jewish descent-baptism required only faith in obedience to the scripture through repentance.   

d) Circumcision could be done by parents, relative or civil officials...baptism at this time was seen only to be done by Presbyterian ministers.

e) The emblems differed as well...baptism signified a death, burial and resurrection into Christ while circumcision signified the separation of a Jew from all the rest of the human family into the national identity of Israel.

f) Pedobaptist, such as the Presbyterians, applied water to the face---Jews didn't circumcise the face... Baptism properly applied would cover the whole person not a specific part of the body.

g) Circumcision in and of itself conveys no spiritual blessings but was for Abraham and his descendents; baptism conveys spiritual blessings... in comparison, circumcision did convey temporal blessings and baptism spiritual blessing with eternal consequences.

In conclusion, Walker upheld the identity of both covenants and that the old covenant was still binding to the Christian rather than informing the Christian.  Campbell challenged that concept maintaining the existence of two distinct covenants.  Walker then turned to the "household conversion" argument in Acts of the Philippian jailer.  Campbell in detail examined the context of the verses and explained how infants were excluded in such cases. When the debate turned to the mode of baptism, Campbell cited early church fathers and the etymology of the Greek words and this argument ended quickly.  

Thomas Campbell pronounced the benediction and the debate was over.  Campbell initially printed 1,000 copies of the debate which quickly sold out.  By 1822, he printed another 3,000 copies and these too, sold quickly.  Many commentators since believe this experience taught Campbell the value of putting biblical teaching into print and thus his future editing and printing career. 

III. DID YOU KNOW?  Some quotes of interest and information...

1. Sidney Smith a former President of the University of Toronto would often address the graduates with some wise words of wisdom for life.  One of his sagely quotes was as follows: "If you choose to work, you will succeed; if you don't, you will undoubtedly fail.  If you neglect your work, you will dislike it; but if you do it well, you will enjoy it.  If you join little cliques, you will be self-satisfied; if you make friends widely, you will be interesting to others.  If you gossip, you will be slandered; if you mind your own business, you will be liked.  If you act like a boor, you will be despised; if you act like a human being, you will be respected.  If you spurn wisdom, wise people will spurn you; if you seek wisdom, people purpose and meaning will seek you.  If you adopt a pose of boredom, you will be a bore; if you show vitality, you will be alive.  If you spend your free time playing bridge, you will be a good bridge player; if you spend it in reading, discussing, and thinking of things that matter, you will be an educated person." 

2. "Of all the deadly sins, the vilest is ingratitude, because the ingrate is both morally blind and spiritually sick.  People who constantly take everything they can grab by hook or by crook, are never happy individuals." Dr. Sweet Nicely

3. Francis Bacon, the English philosopher of the sixteenth century said: "It is not what men eat, but what they digest, that makes them strong; not what we gain, but what we save, that makes us rich; not what we read, but what we absorb, that makes us learned; not what we preach, but what we practice, that makes us lovable and genuine."

IV. NUGGETS OF NOURISHMENT... A Sermon for Good Friday (March 30)

Title: When God is Finished He is Finished Once for All

Text: John 19:28-29; also Hebrews 9:26-28 and I Peter 3:18

Introduction: There are some tremendous passages that speak to the passion of Christ and the securing of our salvation in payment for sin from the cross.  However, none is so powerful than this passage from John 19:28-30.  It fits so beautifully with other passages in the Bible that bring us to a heighten understanding that what God finishes, He finishes as a masterpiece of theological and historical truth.  The center of this John 9 passage is the Greek word, "Tetelestai."  It is so pregnant with power that it requires three English words to express it; "it is finished" or "finished" as some manuscripts translate it.  For the students who read this it is found as (Perfect Passive Indicative).  Unique to John in its articulation from the other Gospel accounts, they only note that Jesus "gave a great shout."  Only John records the word that was shouted, or "Tetelestai."  Most study Bibles and Commentaries will tell you, and very correctly, that this was a common word in the Koine culture of the time.  It contains a dualism of "inquiry" and "truth" that is not only relevant for this moment in time but is also applicable to the Christian Church's historical faith "once and for all delivered to the saints."

     "Tetelestai" can be noted in the common language of the day in the following displays of societal interaction. 

1. To the servant or slave having accomplished his task he often who report to the master, "tetelestai" or finished.

2. To the judge in a court of law when justice was served the word to dismissed the proceedings was "tetelestai" or finished.

3. To the accountant when the last payment is made on the note, it was stamped "tetelestai" or finished. (Ostraca found in the digs in Athens at the Agora or marketplace, give testimony of this usage.)

4. To the artist who completes his artwork with the last brushstroke will say "tetelestai" or finished.

5. The priest in the temple who accomplishes all that he could with the worshipper's sacrifice will say "tetelestai" or finished.

Conclusion: When Jesus accomplishes the work of the promises made in the Garden of Eden at the fall, combined with his foreknowledge of the "Lamb of God, "slain from the foundation of the world" and shouts "Tetelestai," it is finished.  God masterfully accomplished for us in perfect completion this work of universal opportunity for the world.

FEBRUARY EDITION (2018) .... by Dr. Keith J. Wise

INTRODUCTION: February is typically in the grips of winter as we write this edition.  In fact, the winter of 2018 in the midwest has been quit below normal.  However, at this writing we are in a bit of a thaw but this will change in usual fashion. On the contrary, winter still has a way to go before the early crocuses bloom. This is the month of presidents and I would like to consider some interesting aspects of Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address.  Lincoln was known to have written, with his own hand, five copies of the address and they are still in existence today.  The two drafts which he wrote before delivering the speech are enshrined in the Library of Congress.  At the request of Edward Everett, the accomplished orator who preceded Lincoln with a two-hour oration at Gettysburg, Lincoln wrote a third copy, to be sold at auction for the benefit of wounded soldiers.  Many years later it brought the highest price ever obtained for an autographed Lincoln manuscript- $150,000.  In 1944 it was sold again, the schoolchildren of Illinois raised $50,000 to procure it for the Illinois State Historical Library.  Lincoln wrote the fourth and fifth copies at the request of George Bancroft, the historian, again to be sold for the benefit of war veterans.  On of these copies is now at Cornell University, the other belongs to Oscar B. Cintas, former Cuban ambassador to the United States. (note: This information is up to date as of 1961, and before the Castro Regime.  Some of these copies may now lay in other hands and libraries).

DIGGING DEEPER... A Look at the Restoration Movement in America

As we have looked at a number of major denominations over the year of 2017, it is now time to talk about movements, especially in America that were unique in their own experience to this phenomena.  In reality, most of the Churches that came to America were in a metamorphosis of and from the Protestant Reformation.  One singular attribute of the Reformation was the centerpiece of the Bible and its truths.  Myriads of groups in Europe had emerged with similar but different views of scripture and its emphasis.  As noted before, the American Revolution set a new reality of a new country, in a new hemisphere changing power perspectives over the next century.  Everything was questioned, especially religious interpretations and understandings.  But to this questioning it was the broad understanding that logical, meaningful and faith based answer could be given and understood. As Dr. Jack Cottrell noted scholar and writer at the recent Florida Bible Conference remarked in part, "...The Bible is God's personal communication to his human creatures. (I Cor. 10:11; 2 Tim.3:16-17)  Second, when God communicates with us in the Bible in human language, he intends for everything he says to have one specific true and right meaning." (Ish.55:11; I Cor.14:9-10)  The Restoration fathers saw the Bible as a clean spring to speak to the human heart from the heart of God.  In fact, they often knew from their pioneer experience that the newest the purest water came from the head of the fresh spring. What did the spring of scripture by itself say in its bedrock meaning?

From the British Isles, the tradition of congregational autonomy, as exampled in scripture, emerged from Scotland under such figures as the Haldane Brothers. This principle spread conceptually to the American frontier. The infused concept of independence that permeated America after the American Revolution, likewise sparked the passion for the Church.  But what would the Church in America look like?  It would be based on the scripture, especially the new covenant of the New Testament. Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterians would be reflective and rewarded for a fresh look at every doctrine, concept and reevaluation of  historic Christianity.  What did the Church look like in the first century?  What was its emphasis and its doctrinal complexion?

Leading pioneer figures were such men as Elias Smith and Abner Jones in New England, James O'Kelley in North Carolina and Virginia, Barton W. Stone in Kentucky, Thomas and Alexander Campbell in Western Virginia(now West Virginia) and Pennsylvania, and Walter Scott in Northeastern Ohio came to similar conclusions concerning faith and practice.  What is remarkable is that there is little or no contact among most of these individuals, but they all reached a near similar consummation to such vital areas as salvation, the church, church leadership, missions and the primary emphasis of Apostolic preaching.  With a frontier hungry for information and transformation, a mildly literate or preliterate pioneer population saw a repeat of conversion scenarios similar to  pagan Europe being converted to Christian Europe; a renaissance if you will.

To communicate a salient message in the culture of the day, slogans became very important in all areas of frontier American in the first half of the 19th century.  Religiously speaking, this movement made dramatic strides with a number of these slogans that struck a chord on the frontier and in the country across denominational lines.   These slogans took many forms: "We speak where the Scriptures speak, and are silent where the Scriptures are silent; "In essentials unity, and non-essentials liberty, but in all things love;" "Call Bible things by Bible names;"  "No book but the Bible, no creed but Christ;" "The New Testament is our only rule of faith and practice;" "We are Christians only, but we are not the only Christians."  A powerful dual dynamic emerged in which a desire to follow sincerely the Bible and to call all Christian communities to unity were broadcast.  Many of the later state universities and colleges found their roots in the education of whole populations to Christian ideals.  Thomas and Alexander Campbell gave a model to this growing scholasticism in birthing Bethany College in Bethany, Virginia(now West Virginia).  

Another avenue of information and communication of the day were debates.  Alexander Campbell debated any number of denominational representatives on the sanctity of scripture and knowing what the scripture exclusively proclaimed about itself without the filters of denominationalism.  One of his most celebrated debates was against the atheist Robert Owen who confronted Alexander Campbell.  It was published and circulated and when read and considered gave Campbell the noted title of "defender of the faith."  To over summarize, the movement of this type has been distilled in many ways, but here are a few still relevant positions that are held today within the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ.

• Recognition of Christ as supreme authority in all aspects of faith, and the New Testament as the only rule of faith and practice.  This would automatically do away with creeds and human authority.
• A proper distinction between the Old and New Testaments.  An often quoted truism was "...the old is the new concealed and the new is the old revealed." 
• The recognition of the New Testament as the ideal pattern of the Church. The book of Ephesians penned by the Apostle Paul gives this perspective.
• The autonomy of the local church.
• The unity of all Christians under Christ as the ultimate authority of submission.

DID YOU KNOW?   A Continued Look at the Reliability of the Bible...

In the course of the monthly editions of my blog over the 2017-18 I felt compelled to write about interesting aspects of scripture and how they are reliable for faith, truth and hope. Consider Psalm 119:5 "...Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  As our culture has become more secular the voices of critics have become louder and have intimidated the faithful in the church at large.  However, this is not the first or the last time the banging bells of unbelief will be sounded, but we must peal the enlightened word of truth even louder.

When we consider the Bible's authenticity we might pause and consider the following:

I. Its Resistance: As far back as the 4th century A.D. the emperor Diocletian with the power of Rome behind him attempted to eradicate and eliminate the Bible and the Church. Archaeologist have found in several parts of the old empire a public monument which read, "The name of the Christians has been extinguished."  But within twenty years of this attempted confident proclamation, Constantine the next emperor with adopt the Christian faith as the faith of the Empire.

In the eighteenth century, Voltaire (1694-1778) declared that the Age of Reason would soon eclipse the age of revelation and the Bible. He often noted that the Bible would soon be discarded.  However, the Bible today is still the best seller and is in demand worldwide.  In Colonial America Thomas Paine (1737-1809) made discouraging prophecies concerning the Bible.  He declared presumptuously that he had cut down the myths of the Bible.  Yet, two hundred years after Paine died the Bible lives on.  Every instrument of potential destruction that human wisdom, human destruction and wickedness could devise has failed.  Its precious promises and declarations that have been damned by atheists, exaggerated by fanatics, misconstrued by preachers, ignored by carnal christians, discounted by scientist have and will come to naught.  By the way, the Louvre in Paris has a wing of old science textbooks that are full of declarations of so called "science" that are no longer considered "scientific."  

II. Its Reliability: Because Christianity is rooted in historic Judaism and reliable records of history, commentaries concerning old kingdoms and individuals once thought mythological, have been found to be true.  In the book of Genesis Abraham (Abram) was called out of the land of Chaldees.  The city noted was Ur of the Chaldees.  Sceptics derided this information for decades saying these were fictitious places.  However, C. Leonard Woolley in the 1930 excavated Ur that was even older than the time of Abraham.  You see, "dead men do tell tales..."  We could go on and talk about the veracity of the Hittites in modern day Turkey or the comments of John 5 of the pool of Bethesda with its five porticoes that have been verified by excavations in Jerusalem.  God has sought to preserve this divinely authored tome with exceptional precision.  

III. Its Relevance: It is a light as our scripture text does indicate in all the dimensions of life.  To those in grief, the Bible gives comfort.  As a retired minister in the local church, I have had as many as five funerals in a week.  I have seen the devastation of loss from drugs, suicide, terminal illness and age.  But I have seen the remarkable hope offered in passages of scripture for families when a loved one is tragically gone.  God's Word the Bible can permeate the sorrowful heart with comfort.  To those who are lonely, the Bible gives the promise of God's presence.  One of the greatest verses in the Bible is Matthew 28:20 where Jesus promises to His disciples of every generation, "...I am with you always, even to the end of the age."  This book of antiquity, even in our modern world, speaks a word of relevance to our every need.  When I see how it reclaims and reforms lives it is no ordinary book of "religion" but a profound book of "Relationship."

Conclusion: There is sufficient evidence to convince anyone that the Bible is no ordinary book.  No explanation is sufficient except the clear "proclamation" of the truth to the human heart. Faith comes by hearing... and as we hear we believe and continue to believe His transforming power through His Word transcends our circumstances.

IV. Quotes by Topic to Remember:

A. Prayer: "Men are looking for better methods, God is looking for better men." (E.M Bounds)

B. America: "One of the problems we have in this country is that too many adults believe in Santa Clause, and too many children don't." (Lee Lauer)

C. Influence: "Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means." As quoted by Albert Einstein.