Controversial Issues Troubling the Church in the 20^th Century

Also, in the 20^th Century, in addition to the growth that was seen—these great preachers, and so on—there were some controversial issues that would trouble the church. As an example, there was an anti-Sunday school movement. The question would come about just after 1900 whether it was Scriptural for the church to have a separate Sunday school program. This issue was actually more serious in Texas than it was elsewhere. But ultimately, the majority of the churches of Christ would accept Bible classes as an expedient; as an invaluable means of adding to the teaching of the Scriptures. A minority of congregations who regard Sunday school as unscriptural continue to this day.

Well, again, there were (and continue to be) some controversial issues that troubled in the 20^th Century. In addition to the Sunday school class issue, there was also an issue regarding Premillennialism. During this series, we’ve talked about the Premillennialism doctrine—simply that Christ will come to the earth and reign for a thousand years in an earthly kingdom. And this question would come up among members of the church in about 1915 when a brother names R. H. Boll began teaching Premillennialism in his front-page editorials in, of all places, The Gospel Advocate! Well, once it was realized what he was doing, he was dropped from the Advocate staff, but the next year, in 1916, he became the editor of a paper called Word and Work. Through this journal, he would promote and represent the millennial view. Boll’s views precipitated a very stormy controversy, which plagued the church for more than 20 years.

There were two milestones in this controversy. One was a written debate between R. H. Boll and H. Leo Boles in 1928; and then an oral debate, which took place between Foy E. Wallace and one named Charles M. Neal in 1933. (By the way, from time to time I receive offers for books that are out of print from book dealers; books that are hard to get. And just a couple of days ago I got an offer for the debate between Boll and Boles. I didn’t buy it.)

Well, Brother Wallace—Foy E. Wallace, Jr.—would lead the struggle against Premillennialism in the church, and he would lead this effort in a successful way; and it would ultimately be rejected. However, the center of this controversy was found in Louisville, Kentucky, and we’ll see something come up about that again in just a moment.

There was another controversy which came up during the 20^th Century, and that was something called “Sommerism.” These are the views of one named Daniel Sommer, opposing located preachers, colleges and orphan homes. This controversy troubled the church—primarily Northern congregations—throughout the 20^th Century. A man named Carl Ketcherside and another man named Leroy Garret were the champions of these views in the 1940’s and 50’s; and they refused fellowship with those who would not accept these very conservative views. But, interestingly enough, both Ketcherside and Garret would do an about face in the 1960’s, and even begin to plead for a wider fellowship to include all who stand on the Restoration tradition without regard to doctrinal differences.

Another thing that we had talked about during the past years of the Restoration, particularly in the Civil War years, was the controversy that troubled the church regarding the question of war—whether a Christian could take a life in the military service, or even serve in the military. This has been a frequent topic of debate in the churches of Christ. Throughout the early part of the 20^th Century, it would be that many would continue to be influenced by Brother David Lipscomb’s position of “passivism.” However, after the First World War and into the Second World War, it would be the case that many if not most Christians who were called to military service—members of the church—would serve in the military when called. Also, for the Second World War, preaching passivism from the pulpit was very rare, as well. Nevertheless, it was still an issue; an issue that troubled the church; that divided the brethren and caused a considerable amount of angst.

Missions

There was an “awakening,” I guess is the best way to put it, of world missions in the early part of the 20^th Century. In 1892, there would be a brother named J. M. McCaleb, who went to Japan. He would be there for some three decades. At the end of three decades, he reported a total of 33 Americans who had worked in Japan in the capacity of preaching and teaching and that a thousand native Japanese had been baptized through those efforts—a period of thirty years. The church of Christ in Japan, with only about a thousand members, was the seventh largest protestant body in that country.

Concerning the Premillennialism controversy mentioned earlier, the cause of missions was weakened through the 1920’s because of its ties with Premillennialism. The Highland church in Louisville, Kentucky, was a leader in encouraging missionary work; yet it was known to be a Premillennial congregation, and R. H. Boll and Don Carlos Janes were both associated with Highland. It seemed that when missionaries returned to the United States for visits, they inevitably went to Highland. Thus, the brotherhood came to suspect that the missions in Japan, India and perhaps Africa were Premillennial, and this fear reinforced their apathy toward the support of missions. When J. W. Shepherd published a Missions Directory in 1931, he could list only 29 missionaries. They were working in Africa, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Brazil.

Well, other countries where early missionary efforts were attempted were India, Persia, South Africa and Mexico. It would really not be until the 1940’s that real inroads, real success and real progress in foreign fields would be seen. And, this was primarily (no surprise here) because of U. S. servicemen who were members of the church, going into these countries. Particularly after the war in Europe, occupation forces were there, in Japan as well, and they would meet together, would worship together and would undertake evangelistic efforts among the local population.

As a matter of fact, in Germany…I’m sure most of you are familiar with the name “Otis Gatewood.” Brother Gatewood died about two years or so ago, I believe. But, Brother Otis Gatewood was not just the first church of Christ missionary to travel to Germany after the war, but he was the first missionary from the United States to arrive in Germany. He wrote a very interesting book. We had the great joy of getting to know Brother Gatewood when we [John and his family when he was serving in the military] were in Germany in the 1970’s; a wonderful man; marvelous man; he did so much in the mission field in Germany, and then later, in Russia. He made many trips behind the Iron Curtain, taking Bibles in, etc. Anyhow, he wrote a very interesting book called Preaching in the Footsteps of Hitler. In that book he documents the efforts that were made, beginning in about 1947, when the Broadway church in Lubbock, Texas, sponsored him and sent him over to Germany to undertake this work.

There is a great deal of activity, a great deal of attention that is being paid now to work in the foreign fields. There was a lot that was going on in the 20^th Century, and of course, we are now in the 21^st Century, and we’re glad to say that many of these good works are still underway.

Well, this has been just a whirlwind view of things that occurred in the 20^th Century. We’re going to wrap this series up next week. I’ve got some summary-type things that I want to share with you; talk a little bit about the future of the church, the future for the church, where we are going, and so on. And then, we’re going to finish up this series of lessons and we’re going to move on to something else, probably a textual study.