In Anticipation

A little later in the lesson, we will talk about the other information I have provided to you, and that will have to do with the 1906 U. S. Census that really marked the “official,” I suppose would be the correct word to use—the official division between the Disciples of Christ, or the Christian Church, and the Churches of Christ. And we’ll be talking about the numbers that you’ll see there and a comparison of those numbers of membership in each as of the 1906 U. S. Census.

A Brief Review

Well, in past weeks, we have talked about several issues that became divisive issues in the Restoration Movement. We go back to the 1830’s with the beginning of the American Missionary Society, and we have spoken a good bit about that and about those who were for and those who were against the Society, and some of the issues that surrounded that. Also, we talked about the introduction of instrumental music into the worship of some churches, some congregations, that were part of the Restoration Movement, and what a divisive thing that that was, of course. And then, we also talked the Civil War—in fact, spent a whole class period on the Civil War, and how that the Civil War ended up dividing churches, in addition to dividing the country, North and South. It also had the result of dividing churches over the issue of the War itself, over the issue of fighting in the army, whether it was the Union Army or the Confederate Army, and in fact, it even divided not just along geographic lines, but also divided even churches; that is, some were for the War, and some were not, and so on.

Last week, we talked about the influence of several journals that were published during this period, the middle 1800’s into the latter part of the 1800’s. We mentioned their editors, the influence and power that these editors would wield through the instrumentality of their journals that they wrote.

Among them, of course, is one named Benjamin Franklin. So now, you have some more detailed information about Benjamin Franklin and the writings that he did. He, of course, was in the Northern part of the United States, and he was a conservative voice there, as he wrote and published several journals, the best-known being The American Christian Review.

And then, another editor was one named Isaac Errett, and he wrote and published The Christian Standard. It was also based in the Northern part of the United States, but it had a more liberal bent to it, and Franklin and Errett would sort of go back and forth with their journals and debate and discuss a number of issues.

Then, in the South, there was David Lipscomb and The Gospel Advocate, and then J. W. McGarvey and Moses Lard publishing The Apostolic Times and Lard’s Quarterly. Both of them were based in the Southern part of the Unites States. All three publications, Lard’s Quarterly, The Apostolic Times and The Gospel Advocate, were conservative journals.

Now, as we pointed out, the influence that these publications had through the written word, through the positions of their respective editors, and what not, indeed carried a lot of weight and had a significant impact and effect upon Christians and what they believed, what they understood, about the Scriptures, about the Restoration Movement, and so on. And, we noticed and highlighted some of these issues, some of these matters that were debated and discussed in these journals; they fell along the lines of those divisive things that we’ve already mentioned: the American Missionary Society, instrumental music and, of course, the Civil War. And so, these matters were debated, were discussed back and forth, and it was sort of point-counterpoint, tit-for-tat sort of exchanges that would take place on these issues, as well as other things.

There was one other thing which took place which would add some fuel to the fire. There was an attempt in the middle 1860’s to sort of reconcile some of the differences, primarily the differences that brethren had over the American Missionary Society. It was called the Louisville Plan, and there were several leaders of the Restoration Movement who would come together; and they would talk about some ways that they could, perhaps, reconcile these differences that they had, and ways to approach that.

Well, it ended up falling apart before it ever really got started. And then, to add to that problem of the Missionary Society, Isaac Errett along with W. T. Moore in 1875 would lead an effort to establish a Foreign Missionary Society, resulting in really doing nothing more than just adding fuel to that fire that was already raging.