WARNING: If you do not have a stomach for reality, please stop reading this immediately! No jelly fish allowed in this zone!

Have you ever harbored concerns regarding the future of the North American Christian Convention, the National Missionary Convention (ENVISION) and other similar brotherhood gatherings? Have you scratch your head while trying to figure out types like Woody Phillips, Boyce Mouton, Leroy Garret, Carl Ketcherside, and a myriad of many more “change agents” that have been unleashed in the brotherhood of Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. Have you wondered how their minimalist view of sound doctrine and Holy Scripture has gain such and ascendancy in our fellowship mainly through many of our institutions for “higher education”? I have had these misgivings for as long as I can remember (even from childhood). As a matter of fact, I cannot (for the life of me) remember a truly inspiring NACC whose emphasis was on strong doctrine. Now, I know many of you will voice your opposing viewpoints on this issue, but I am just stating my observations from many years that I attended both the NACC and the NMC. Of course, I am not alone in this “sixth-sense” sentiment. Lee Mason of the CRA is just one of many voices out there calling the church back to its bearings.

Well, I certainly don’t have all the answers, but this following article by Berit Kjos might just give us some good clues as to the true nature of the change that is taking place in the Church of Jesus Christ:

"Thus saith the LORD, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.But they said, 'We will not walk therein.'" Jeremiah 6:16

"LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Conservatives in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) killed a proposal Tuesday that would have allowed gays to hold positions of authority within the denomination. The conservatives won the support of a majority of the church's regional legislatures, thereby thwarting an effort to lift a 1997 ban on the ordination of noncelibate gays. Church law says that clergy and lay officeholders must 'live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness'.The church's General Assembly voted last summer to recommend a reversal of that law. Since October, the church's regional legislatures, known as presbyteries, have been voting on whether to repeal or keep the ban, with a decision requiring agreement by a majority, or 87 of the 173 presbyteries."

For a Christian Church established as a chaste "Bride of Jesus Christ", how on earth could we get to the point that a Mainline Protestant Church is fighting a battle over whether gay clergy should "hold positions of authority within the denomination"? Further, how could the General Assembly have actually voted to allow reversal of existing church law that is based upon Biblical principle? This kind of apostasy is running rampant across the globe, affecting the vast majority of denominations in the world today.

So, the question of the hour is: how have the Christian Churches gone so very wrong? How have they drifted from the Anchor of Biblical Doctrine?

The global answer is that the world is now well into the End of the Age period. In many previous articles, we demonstrate the Biblical fact that End of the Age prophecies could not begin until Israel came back to her land [NEWS1010 and Joel 3:1]. Once Israel returned to her land, Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24:33 is coming true, in our lifetime and in our Daily News.

"So also when you see these signs, all taken together, coming to pass, you may know of a surety that He is near, at the very doors." [Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary].

Then, the Apostle Paul provided the rest of the answer in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, as he sought to remove doubts the church at Thessalonica had that the Day of the Lord -- the Tribulation Period -- had already arrived. Once you understand this principle, we are well on our way to understanding specifically "how" this terrible drifting away from doctrine could have occurred.

"Let no one deceive or beguile you in any way, for that day will not come except the apostasy come first [unless the predicted great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come], and the man of lawlessness (sin) is revealed, who is the son of doom (of perdition)." [Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary].

In other words, at the End of the Age, the Christian Church is prophesied as going into great apostasy, and that apostasy will literally open the door to Antichrist! How many Liberal teachers, church leaders, and preachers have stopped once to realize that their actions are literally opening the door to Antichrist? While you might think the answer is "not many", but the reality is much different. Probably the majority of Liberal leaders know exactly what they are doing, as you will discover from our guest columnist, Christian author, Berit Kjos.

REINVENTING THE CHURCH -- IMPLANTING OCCULT STANDARDS AND BELIEFS

"The Church seems afraid to invest in new modes of being the Church, breaking free from antiquated models and irrelevant traditions toward living the gospel in a twenty-first-century context."[1] George Barna, Leaders on Leadership

"Our common future will depend on the extent to which people and leaders around the world develop the vision of a better world and the strategies, the institutions, and then will to achieve it."[2] The UN Commission on Global Governance

"...there is a substantial critical mass of people and churches that are already moving.' ...While acknowledging that there are still many unhealthy churches, there is a justified 'change in basic premises, basic attitudes, basic mind set... on the whole, we are on the march...."[3] "Peter Drunker on the Church and Denominations," Leadership Network.

BIBLICAL STANDARDS

"Thus saith the LORD, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.But they said, 'We will not walk therein.'" Jeremiah 6:16

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." [Hebrews 13:8]

"For I am the LORD, I change not." [Malachi 3:6a]

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A strange distortion of truth has spread like a grass fire on a windy day through churches around the world. It calls God's people not just to understand our changing times from the world's perspective, but to actually flow with the wind and help fuel the transformation. It uses familiar old words to persuade the people, but it conforms God's Word as well as human thinking to politically correct views of unity, community, service and change.

Behavioral laboratories, schools, UNESCO and liberal churches all helped light that fire during the 20th century. Hidden from sight, their subversive efforts seared America's Biblical foundations and prepared the masses to believe a lie.

Now, at the dawn of the new millennium, "conservative" and "evangelical" churches are following suit. Worldwide "Christian" networks provide trained leadership and management consultants to "guide" God's people along this alluring superhighway to a new world order. Forget the old narrow way that leads to life. Today's "change agents" hope to popularize Christianity so effectively that whole nations will join their crusade.

Forget solid Bible teaching and "the offense of the cross." To win the masses "for Christ", the church must be re-cloaked in a more permissive and appealing image. It must be marketed to the world as "a safe place," purged of the moral standards that stirred conviction of sin and a longing to separate from the world's immorality. So they re-imagined a feel-good church stripped of "offense" - one the world could love and claim as its own.

Their march to a "better world" is well under way. In this new church, group thinking, compromise, conflict resolution, the dialectic process and facilitated consensus are in. Uncompromising conviction and resistance to group consensus are out. For God's way seems far too intolerant to fit the managed systems of the new millennium. [To better understand these terms, please read "Brainwashing in America" -- http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles.html#br-- and "The People's Church" -- http://etherzone.com/2000/proc081800.html]

Guiding the revolution

Hard to believe? Then listen to the leadership team chosen by George Barna, founder and president of Barna Research Group, to write the revolutionary book, Leaders on Leadership. I call it revolutionary because it is. It actually invites a revolution in the Church and shows leaders how to manage it.

Doug Murren, church-planter and senior pastor of Eastside Foursquare Church wrote a chapter titled, "The Leader as Change Agent." In it, he explains the first step in the psycho-social process of "managed change." Notice that he takes his cues from an experienced "change agent" at Stanford University which -- like MIT, Harvard and Teacher's College at Columbia -- is a major research institution in the area of social change, persuasive propaganda and psycho-social manipulation:

Arnold Mitchell, a social psychologist from Stanford, has spent years studying the attitudes and behaviors of Americans. He contends that three ingredients are necessary for change to occur. First, Mitchell notes that change comes from dissatisfaction.... Effective change agents assess the chances for change by evaluating the level of dissatisfaction within the group. If dissatisfaction is strong, the potential for change exist....[Read NEWS1007 to see how this principle is behind our 19th-20th Century history and is driving the world to Antichrist. Now, we see this same Hegelian Dialectic being used to change our Christian Churches! Our culture is also being manipulated to change through this same principle called the Six Step Attitudinal Change Plan, NEWS1055]

"To be effective, a leader must also deliberately develop dissatisfaction. ...

"Preparing people for change sometimes takes what seems like forever.... I shared startling or even embarrassing statistics about where we were as a church body and where we needed to be, seeking to create the right level of dissatisfaction....

"Positive change rarely intimates 'returning to the way it used to be.' Most positive change I have witnessed has been about creating a better future rather than returning to a cherished past."[4; Emphasis added]

Notice that Pastor Murren's "three ingredients" for changing people have nothing to do with God's guidelines or standards. They have everything to do with deceptive human visions of how elite "change agents" can control the masses. Their manipulative methods have become so familiar that their subjects barely notice what is happening. Lest you forget, take another look at the initial steps:

1. Assess (survey) the attitudes, values and wants of the people. Your personal assessment will be the benchmark for measuring planned change in the months and years ahead.

2. Stir dissatisfaction with the old ways so that the seeds of revolution can grow without regrets. Actually, the survey itself initiates the "dissatisfaction", since a "good" church survey would contain anxiety-producing questions that suggest internal problems and prompt public dialogue and complaint.

3. Offer an inspiring vision of "a better future." That better future must be a here-and-now future -- one that man can create with his imagination. It's the opposite of the glorious future God offers us for all eternity. In this context of worldly change, heaven serves no earthly purpose. Only visions that motivate collective efforts and drive transformation can advance revolutionary plan.

To guide this process, well trained leaders are needed. That's why Mr. Barna gathered "a team of experts that is as awesome as any of you can imagine" to write his manual for the church. "Fifteen people have contributed chapters to this book," he wrote. "I believe that the cumulative efforts of this team have demonstrated the meaning of synergy."[5] emphasis added

Mr. Barna wrote the chapter on "The Vision Thing" himself. In it, he explains that vision "is a view of the kind of world God wants us to live within, a world He can create through us if all those He has called as leaders would lead according to the guidance provided by His Spirit."[6]

Does that statement sound like an oxymoron? It is. Mr. Barna seems to imply that God will recreate the world around us if today's "change agents" would walk by the Spirit. But these leaders of "managed change" have been trained to follow a formula never given by the Holy Spirit. Man may shoot himself in the foot, but God will not give us tools that clash with...

Biblical absolutes

1. His call to trust Him, not human ways and philosophies.

2. His call to share in Christ's suffering and persecution

For example, Barna calls for "evaluative tools prepared so you can assess how well you are doing along the way, fine-tuning your implementation efforts as you go along....."

But, the Biblical truth is that God doesn't tell us to continually assess and evaluate our progress. He tells us to love Him, study His Word and follow His ways, then leave the result with Him. He will produce the fruit. He knows that if we continually measure our successes, we may shift our dependence from Him to our own efforts. That's why David was punished severely when he disobeyed God by measuring (assessing) the size of his victorious army. (2 Samuel 24)

God's Word and Spirit must guide our daily steps, not our human standards and measurement for success. And His ways tend to clash with the world's vision of prosperity, numbers and success. But that matters little to mentors of "managed change" whose ears are tuned to their methods rather than their Maker.

Molding Truth to fit the vision

Mr. Barna introduced Jim Van Yperen, another change agent on his team of experts, as "a marketing strategist and creative communications consultant." Van Yperen has "worked with a wide variety of churches, parachurch ministries and non profit organizations in the areas of vision development, strategic planning... resource development and conflict resolution."

Note those buzzwords. They help us identify the change process whenever we see it.

Mr. Van Yperen is consultant, not a pastor, but he has been "serving several churches as Intentional Interim Pastor." He hires himself out as Interim Pastor after leading a church through the initial phases (assessment, dissatisfaction, vision, etc.) of the change process. Using his strategic surveys to assess church attitudes and needs, he facilitates group dialogues and "diagnoses" the health of the church.

Since he speaks persuasively and manages this process well, he can soon inform the members that their church has some good qualities yet current conflicts and dissatisfaction demand drastic measures. To become a "healthy church," it needs leadership, new structures, new schedules, a new way of thinking and a new emphasis on spiritual growth through group relationships.

He also teaches a new way of understanding the Bible. His chapter in Barna's book, "Conflict: the Refining Fire of Leadership," contains a section called "Affirm Truth in Community." It helps set the stage for the consensus process by suggesting that the Bible can best be understood in groups where members pool their thoughts and shape their consensus. Notice how his guidelines minimize the New Testament emphasis on a personal love relationship with Jesus and maximize the world's view of the collective:

"Nearly all of Scripture is written to and for groups of people, not individuals. We must learn to read our Bibles this way. Instead of asking, 'What is God saying to me?' we need to ask 'What is God saying to us?'

"Responding to power with truth places Christ at the center and builds bridges with our brothers and sisters. It acknowledges that no one person knows the truth completely, so we need each other. It opens up the opportunity to own our assumptions honestly, state our convictions directly and allow others to give perspective openly."[7; Emphasis added]

Today's change agents don't really want everyone to "give their perspective openly." Some facts and group observations can topple their plan. They want "dissatisfaction" but not dissent. They want tolerance, but not toward uncooperative church members. Those who are found to be enemies to progress must be disciplined or changed.

I have talked with many humble and faithful Christians who were labeled "divisive" or "critical" by the new leadership in their beloved church. Some were given a simple choice: leave or stop asking hard questions. Others were told that "confession" (confessing the "sin" of questioning the change process instead of submitting to it) and counseling under an assigned change agent would be a prerequisite for permission to stay and continue their ministry.

In contrast to the critic, the perfect group member is flexible, cooperative and open-minded -- especially toward new and different ways of interpreting the Bible.

Thinking outside the box and outside the Bible

Church reform, like education reform, calls for "critical thinking," but few church members know the real meaning of this phrase. To pacify parents, public school teachers might define it as "teaching students to think for themselves." They know that the revolution in education will proceed far more smoothly if parents never realize that "critical thinking" means criticizing and challenging traditional beliefs, values and authorities.

Former pastor, Kenneth O. Gangel, is academic dean and Vice president of Academic Affairs at Dallas Theological Seminary. A prolific author, he wrote "Competent to Lead" and is considered an expert on this topic. A natural choice for Mr. Barna's book team, he wrote a chapter titled "What Leaders Do."

One of the six tasks of a leader, says Gangel, is to "think." Of course, we all think. But, in the context of managed change, thinking isn't really thinking unless your thinking fits the new formula.

Pastor Gangel quotes Stephen Brookfield who, for ten years, was Professor in the Department of Higher and Adult Education at the liberal Teachers College at Columbia University. While traveling as keynote speaker to national, and international education conferences around the world, Brookfield continues to serve as Adjunct Professor at Columbia. The statement Pastor Gangel used to support his own teaching came from Brookfield's book, Developing Critical Thinkers:

"Central to critical thinking is the capacity to imagine and explore alternatives to existing ways of thinking and living. ... Critical thinkers are continually exploring new ways of thinking about aspects of their lives....

Critical thinking is complex and frequently perplexing, since it requires the suspension of belief and the jettisoning of assumptions previously accepted without question."[8]

Did you catch the message? "It requires the suspension of belief and the jettisoning of assumptions previously accepted without question." That's the essence of "critical" thinking! Church managers can't establish the new view of "reality" without first undermining the old Biblical beliefs. Before they see success, the group must let go of the old absolutes and dare to flow with the changing wind.

Linking the old mental hindrances to negative feelings speeds the process and brings lasting change. That's why each group member must learn to associate the "poor thinking" of the past -- including Biblical absolutes that can't be bent to fit our times -- with something unpleasant or unacceptable. [See Mind Control Illustration -- http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/mc9-24-98.html#Matt]

On the other hand, "good thinking" must feel good and be linked to the "right" things such as peace and empowerment or fun things such as freedom to read Harry Potter books or see a questionable movie. This illusion of freedom without consequences is illustrated by a set of Middle School lessons published by the curriculum branch of the mighty, liberal National Education Association:

Good Thinking vs. Poor Thinking

"This model helps us make some valid and useful distinctions between good and poor thinking. Here we wish to distance ourselves from those who equate good thinking with a long list of discrete mental operations and those who describe poor thinking in terms of several logical errors.

"Good thinkers are willing to think and may even find thinking enjoyable. They can carry out searches when necessary and suspend judgment. They value rationality, believing that thinking is useful for solving problems, reaching decisions, and making judgments. Poor thinkers, in contrast, need certainty, avoid thinking, must reach closure quickly, are impulsive, and rely too heavily on intuition."[9] Emphasis added

This issue is illustrated in New Beliefs for a Global Village.

Does the phrase "suspend judgment" remind you of Dr. Brookfield's call for "suspension of belief."? It should! The two phrases make the same point. They also show that the new breed of church leaders are simply taking the world's pedagogic formulas and psycho-social strategies and peppering them with "Christian words" to veil the unbiblical source and diffuse opposition.

Do you wonder how Pastor Gangel, the academic dean at Dallas Seminary, could use Dr. Brookfield -- a globalist change agent -- as a model and authority? I do and it grieves me to see such deception in high places. [Matthew 24:24 in action]

It's no secret that Columbia's Teachers College embraces the UNESCO education agenda and leads the world in training teacher-facilitators for the new global management system which has no tolerance for Biblical truth. As in the former Soviet Union, the education goal is nothing less than "developing a new kind of person" -- not with facts and logic but with the latest high tech versions of the mind-changing strategies first used to manipulate and monitor the Soviet masses.

Taking our stand

This is spiritual war, friends. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood," writes the apostle Paul, "but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Paul tells us how to "stand" in the victory Christ won for us on the cross: "...take up the armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth...." Ephesians 6:12-14

The main truth has to do with the nature of God Himself. We need to know Him as He has revealed Himself through His Word. We need to know...

His justice in order to understand His mercy

His wrath in order to appreciate His amazing love

His mighty power so we trust Him in our weakness

His wisdom so we can let Him be our guide always.

The second truth of the armor deals with our new identity in Christ. If you indeed have "been crucified with Christ" and filled with His Holy Spirit, you belong to Him. You are already a "new creation"[10] blessed with a personal relationship with the King of the universe! As you set your heart to follow Him, He will speak to you through His Word and guide you by His Spirit through the challenges of each day.

Jim Van Yperen may tell us that the Bible must be understood in groups - as something "written to and for groups of people, not individuals."[11] Don't believe it. The Bible was written for YOU, and ME, individuals throughout the ages.

Like the serpent's deceptive arguments in the garden, those misleading words sound believable because the message is cloaked in a half-truths.[12] We do need each other, but each of us can best encourage others when we know Jesus as our life and His Word as our guide. Then, even if we must stand alone for His name's sake, His loving presence will be enough. Many tortured and persecuted martyrs can testify to the sufficiency of Christ when all other help is gone.[13]

What we don't need is dependence on a group that would divert our hearts and attention away from Jesus to hollow alternatives. The facilitated group consensus that Van Yperen promotes trains people to compromise their understanding of truth under the noble banners of relationship, "conflict resolution" and "common ground." While God wants us to practice standing firm in our faith, such groups press members into oppressive re-learning sessions which force everyone to practice -- over and over -- conforming their convictions to that of the group.

As His ambassador and earthen vessel, I must follow His narrow and rocky way. But it's easy and sweet when He takes my hand. I must refuse to compromise, but I'd rather have Jesus than the world's fame and fortune. An old hymn summarizes the disciple's walk well:

When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small: Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

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Endnotes:

1. George Barna, editor, Leaders on Leadership (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1997), page 29.

2. Our Global Neighborhood, The Report of The Commission on Global Governance (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995), page 12.

3. "Peter Drucker on the Church and Denominations". This pdf file is posted on the Leadership Network website at http://www.leadnet.org/archives/netfax/1.pdf

4. Doug Murren, "The Leader as Change Agent," Leaders on Leadership (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1997), pages 204-206.

5. George Barna, editor, Leaders on Leadership (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1997), page 7.

6. Ibid., page 48.

7. Jim Van Yeperen, "Conflict: The Refining Fire of Leadership," Leaders on Leadership (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1997), pages 246-247.

8. Stephen D. Brookfield, Developing Critical Thinkers (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1987), pages 8-10. Cited by Kenneth O. Gangel, "What Leader Do," Leaders on Leadership (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1997), page 40.

9. Alan A. Glatthorn and Jonathan Barron, "The Good Thinker," Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking (Alexandria, Virginia: The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1985), 51. Included in Caught in the Middle: Educational Reform for Young Adolescents in California Public Schools, Report of the Superintendent's Middle Grade Task Force (Sacramento: California State Department of Education, 1987), 14.

10. Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 5:17.

11. Van Yeperen, page 246.

12. The Nature and Tactics of Satan

13. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide/ The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide./ When other helpers fail and comforts flee,/ Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

Answers

Just further proof of what conservative (i.e. Biblical) Christians have known for years!

When in doubt on this type of situation, just go read Galatians chapter 1 again. Paul minces no words here - to use the rude, crude vernacular of our day..........Paul basically tells those who distort the Gospel to "go to Hell". And why not.....any distortion of that which was given us by inspiration via the Apostles is not of God.... but from Hell - so let it and those who spread it go back to its place of origin!

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2002

I guess I'll bite . . . what have you got against Leroy Garrett and Carl Ketcherside?

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Sam Have you read anything of either Leroy Garrett or Carl Ketcherside? Carl's "conversion" story was published in the One Body magazine by Victor Knowles. I also have almost a complete collection of his Mission Messenger. As for Garrett, his momumental revisionist history of the Restoration Movement was published by College Press "The Stone- Campbell Movement".

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Phillip:

I've read pretty close to EVERYthing by Leroy Garrett and Carl Ketcherside. I even visited Carl's church in St. Louis a number of times while we both lived there. And I ask again -- what's your beef with them?

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Philip.....you are right on the money about Garrett. That book he wrote on Rest. History is the biggest revisionist piece of work I have ever seen. After you read his book...you get the impression he wants us to apologize for the R.M.....maybe even pay reporations to denominations for the people we pulled out of there. ha!!

Anyway.....Scott Sheridan....do you have a link or something of Chambers review of Garrett's book for Sammy??

Otherwise.....I'll have to cut and paste....(or maybe you can do that).

Thanks!

Oh....and by the way....Mark is right....I've NEVER attended a NACC for the very reasons Philip cited. I wouldn't go if it was across the street on my day off.

I'd much rather go to the Christian Church Hog Hunt in Florida where real men gather and truley fellowship in the Lord while stomping through swamps and chasin' critters!

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

The article is at www.cccflorida.org/Plea%20of%20History.htm. I'll eventually have all of Chambers' stuff on the Crown Hill site.

My alternative to the NACC is the Hillsboro (OH) Family Camp. Better preaching, better fellowship, and I leave encouraged rather than embarassed at what I heard proclaimed from the pulpit.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Thanks Scott!

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

First of all, let me clarify that I mentioned Leroy Garret and Carl Ketcherside only as two examples among a myriad of individuals who have exerted a significant influence in our brotherhood's leadership, even to the point of contributing to the present mega paradigm shift in our thinking regarding the Scriptures, Christian unity, and most importantly God's plan of salvation.

Since Scott seems willing to tackle Garret's revisionism, I will stick with Ketcherside for the remainder of this thread. In doing this, let it be known that I do not judge Carl's heart even for one second, for I truly believed he loved God with all his soul and desired to do His will above all things. Furthermore, I can join in the opinion contributed by Bill Pile of Christ's Church in the City in Highland Park, CA. who sees individuals like Ketcherside, Garret, Word, et. al. as "course correctors". In other words, while we may disagree with many of the things they said or stood for, their particular emphasis was a response or a reaction to something that was lacking in the church at that time. We must not be too hasty in evaluating their life's work without giving them honor where honor is due.

Ketcherside certainly fits this profile for he made us conscious of the fact that our movement had stopped moving and that we were quite content with talking to ourselves. He also opened our eyes to restoration movements that exist beyond the frontiers of the American RM, thus reconciling us with the past and giving us a better vision for the future.

Having said that, we must take care to weed out those elements of Ketcherside's thinking that were not only non-Scriptural, but that seriously had the potential of undermining the soul of the RM (Restoration Movement).

I shall begin with K's testimony of "conversion" (or re-conversion) as presented by him in the One Body magazine. I must present it in Toto so that I will not be accused as having taken it out of context:

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2002

SORRY IF THIS POST SEEMS TOO LONG FOR SOME OF YOU! MY ONLY INTENTION IS TO DO JUSTICE TO KETCHERSIDE'S VIEWS.

This excerpt is taken from "Pilgrimage of Joy", published by College Press in 1991.

THE KNOCK AT THE DOOR I come now to the place where I must recount a life-changing experience which was destined to completely re-orient the whole philosophy of my relationship to the kingdom of heaven. I apologize to my readers for the time to be spent in narrative, seeing that nothing is ordinarily quite so boring as listening to another recount what happened to him. I must preface what I shall say with the statement that I am a pragmatist, and not a mystic, by nature, although all of us are combinations of both. I suspect that every wholehearted follower of Jesus is confronted sooner or later with a sense of a great gulf which exists between what he believes and what he really is. For some, the confrontation with the Living Lord is gradual and almost academic. For others it may come as a flash of light in a crisis situation. That the latter should have been my lot is as unexplainable to me as it will be to those of you who now read about it.

It occurred on the afternoon of March 27, 1951. I know where it took place and I know the moment it took place. I am convinced now that if I had never left America it would not have happened at all. Before I went to Ireland I conveyed to the brethren there my hope of visiting the little village of Ahorey, and the meetinghouse in which Thomas Campbell had ministered. William Hendren and Joe Hamilton made contact with Mr. T.S. Hoey, secretary of the little Presbyterian congregation, and he graciously suggested that we conduct a service in the quaint little place. Arrangements were made for Easter Monday, which is a "bank holiday" upon which all business places are closed and workers are free.

Sixty-five of us met at the little Berlin Street meetinghouse early in the morning of a dark and dreary day with the rain pouring down. After a time of prayer we boarded the two chartered buses and set out upon our trip. Fortunately, by the time we reached Ahorey, the rain had ceased. The little village where Alexander Campbell spent his early boyhood was small indeed. Only three Irish farm cottages could be seen. One of them was used as a post office. The meetinghouse sat back in a yard which could have been the setting for Gray's Elegy. We made our way along the path which was flanked by the moss-covered grave markers to the door of the lovely little building where we were warmly greeted by the Presbyterian welcoming committee.

In the entrance hall was a bronze plaque of Thomas Campbell inscribed with the words Prophet of Union. He was the second pastor of the congregation, assuming his charge in 1798. When we entered the place of meeting its quaintness and old-worldliness struck our attention. It was lighted with paraffin lamps. The pews had to be entered through little gates which had first to be unlocked. When the brethren had filed in and our Presbyterian hosts were seated, I unlocked the door leading to the speaker's platform and took my place behind the stand containing the same large pulpit Bible from which Mr. Campbell had often read.

The audience stood and sang "The Lord's My Shepherd" to the haunting melody of the tune Crimond. William Hendren led a prayer for the unity of all believers in the Lord Jesus. I turned to Ephesians 2 and read the chapter. I was moved to speak, as never before, on verse 14. "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us." I must have spoken more to myself than to the others, because all the rest of the day the expression "He is our peace" kept rising to the surface of my consciousness, to be repeated silently.

We were taken on a tour of the manse which had been completely refurbished in anticipation of the coming of the new pastor a fortnight hence. Then a gentle elderly woman who lived in a low whitewashed cottage with a thatched roof, sent word asking if the American visitor would grace her humble abode for tea. Five of us readily accepted her invitation and sat down for a country repast in a dark little room where chunks of peat glowed in the tiny fireplace. Legend had it that when the Campbells resided in the manse, Alexander often stopped at this ancient cottage while returning from Armagh, which was about four miles distant.

We went to Armagh, which dates its existence from 300 B.C., and to the great library established by Primate Robinson in 1771. We walked across the city to the observatory, founded on "The Hill of Honey" in 1790, to be greeted by the present director, Dr. E.M. Lindsay, of Harvard fame, and now recognized in astronomical circles throughout the world. Dr. E.J. Opik, driven from his home in Estonia by the Soviet invasion, explained to us at length his research into the nature of solar eclipses. We ended our visit in the area by exploring Saint Patrick's Cathedral, more than six centuries old, and now the headquarters for the Anglican Church in North Ireland.

As we boarded the buses for the return to Belfast the weather became nasty and bad, and soon the rain turned to snow which took the form of a sweeping blizzard by the time we reached the city streets. Because of the long and tiresome journey of the day, those with whom I lodged went on home, while I lingered with the George Hendren family for tea before the cheerful fireplace. Later, when I stepped out into the night to begin the more than two mile walk, I was engulfed in swirling snow. I had to make my way from one faint street light to another as I trudged along through five inches of accumulated snow.

I have never experienced a greater sense of loneliness. It was as if I was walking through a universe devoid of all life but my own. The only sound to be heard in a great city was that of my shoes crunching the snow beneath them. The activities of the day came surging back into my mind and mingled with the reveries were the images of the noble souls who dared, in the midst of division, to dream of a united church. I thought again of the text which came to me as I read the Word, and of how it had also stirred the mind of a Presbyterian minister in such a rustic setting. I recalled the message I had recorded in the home of Mr. Hoey to be played at the next meeting of the Synod in Belfast. In that talk I urged that if they had others of the caliber of Mr. Campbell, that they send them to American shores to encourage unity among the frightfully-divided heirs of the movement launched by their gentle minister of yesteryear.

I was smitten with the hypocrisy of a plea for a humble peasantry to provide another apostle for oneness while I was among them as a factional representative. It came home to me with force that I had never really labored for the unity of all who believed in Jesus. I had actually, in mistaken zeal, contributed to the fragmentation of the very movement which Thomas Campbell had launched with such high hopes and great promise. Instead of furthering the noble "project to unite the Christians in all of the sects," I had absorbed and sometimes even gloried in a sectarian spirit.

As I stumbled along through the deepening snow, alone in a foreign city, I found myself weeping and praying and making promises to God of what I would do if my life was spared through His grace. The word grace came like a ray of hope and I rolled it on my tongue like a juicy morsel. What I needed to make life worth living, to overcome my frustration, to rise above the futility of my own efforts was grace. In all of my forty-three years no other thought had ever struck me with such force.

In my darkened room I lay awake all night wrestling with my own thoughts. The hours dragged on in the velvety blackness as I went back over every step of the day before. When dawn came I was empty, drained and helpless. Every dream of my life had vanished. Every ship of hope I had launched lay in broken pieces upon the rocks of my own past. I went downstairs to gaze out upon a world of diamond-flecked whiteness but even its scintillating beauty impressed me but a fleeting second.

I sat down before the little hearth with its one lump of coal (the last one of our ration) and picked up the Bible. My eyes were dim from weeping and from staring into darkness through a sleepless night. Without design I began reading with verse one of Revelation. I became aware that thoughts were leaping from the pages which I had read so often and taking lodgment in my benumbed brain. It was fascinating to have words come alive and to see their souls separate from the characters which the typesetter had given them as bodies, and free themselves from the prison of print to take up abode in my mind.

I read until I came to the letter addressed to the community of the reconciled ones at Laodicea. I could identify with it as representative of our movement. We thought of ourselves as rich and increased with goods, and needing nothing. I remembered the oft- repeated question, "What is there left to restore?" or, sometimes, "What do we need that we do not have?" But I could also realize that we were poor, and wretched, and blind, and naked, as God saw us. I read on and came to realize what was meant by the gold tried in the fire which could be purchased only at the divine currency exchange by those willing to pay the staggering price. At last I knew what was meant by the white raiment which covers the nakedness of congregations which parade unashamedly, unaware that their garments of fig leaves and their masks are transparent, and they are wearing see-through apparel while the world looks and laughs. For the first time I also knew what was meant by the ointment which restores sight to eyes that are blinded by cataracts of pride, ambition and sectarian prestige.

And then I saw the answer to all of my longings, all of my loneliness, all of my lovelessness to others, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." I had never once invited Jesus to come in. True, I had never asked Him to stay out, but I had never shared with Him the kind of intimacy He had promised, the warm glow of companionship at the supper table, the convivial atmosphere in which friends talk and laugh and joke together, and let themselves go in the firm trust that they perfectly understand one another.

I had come to Jesus thirty years before, and then some, but it is one thing to come to Jesus at His invitation, and a wholly different thing to have Jesus come in to you at your invitation. I came to Him out of a state of alienation, like a refugee fished out of the muck and mire who needs to be cleaned up in the bath of regeneration and given an abiding place. But the statement to the Laodiceans was not made to those outside. It was made to those inside. It was Jesus who was outside. Regardless of the state of the things in the congregation with which one was identified, that one could have a royal guest sitting at his supper table and gracing his abode with His presence.

He did not need to leave where he was. He did not need to look for another "church." In the midst of poverty of spirit, wretchedness, misery, blindness and shameless nudity, he could be filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. I had never really experienced that kind of joy. In fact, nothing had ever happened to me that I could not describe and glibly enough at that. I had been dubious of anyone who had been too happy. It did not seem right for a Christian who ought to be "walking on eggshells" for fear there was a minute law he might have overlooked and which would bring the wrath of God down upon his unsuspecting skull like the pagan temple which killed blind Samson while the idolators were laughing at him.

Now I was being tendered an offer of genuine, thrilling, life- changing association which could have been mine all along if I had not wandered in the fog boiling up from the dank and boggy marshes of legalism and tradition. All I had to do was to hear a voice and open the door. That was it. There was no other condition, no regimen of penance, no burden of regret about yesterday. There was no high- pressure selling, no arm-twisting. Loneliness would leave through the same door by which He entered, exactly as light must dispel darkness.

I heard his knock! I heard His voice! I am not talking about audible impressions or things like sound waves or reverberation. It was too deep "for sound or foam" as the poet said. So I arose and put on my overcoat and the borrowed overshoes which had been loaned to me by a kind brother, and walked the two blocks over to where the double- decker bus stopped to pick up riders bound for the heart of the city. I swung off of the platform at Shankill Road and walked up to the little meetinghouse on Berlin Street. Inside it was dark and filled with cold which caught warm breath and sent it swirling upward like a cloud.

I sat down in a pew selected at random and counted the cost of what I was about to do. I realized that I had been tracked down and brought to bay by "the hound of heaven." It must have been an hour I sat there with the cold seeking the openings in the fibers of my clothing. At last I kneeled down and spoke, perhaps audibly, "This is it! I have come to the end of the road and I'm opening the door! Come in!" Immediately He did exactly what He promised He would do, and I knew it! There were no hot flashes, no hair standing on end, no goose- pimples, no spinal chills, no "speaking in tongues." There was none of that!

But there was the indescribable feeling of the rightness of all things, the possession of a peace which transcended human rationality and understanding. I knew a part of me had died and that part would never be resurrected. It had been replaced with a new "me" who was not all of my own creation. I was different and I knew that I was different. I also knew I would never be the same again. Never, regardless of what happened. And then there was that joy! Perhaps the most powerful thought which gripped me was that I had no further enemies among the brethren. They were all children of God! We had a common Father. It struck me like a flash that I could never again hate those whom He loved.

As J.B. Phillips put it, "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." It was months before I learned that the love of God had been poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit He had given me (Romans 5:5).

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2002

Ok, so what was the experience that Ketcherside had? It is hard to tell from his writings. At times it seems that he is describing the new birth or regeneration that accompanies salvation. At other times it sounds like Carl experienced a certain fullness of the Spirit. It is rather heard to pin down what he is attempting to say.

But wait, hadn't he been immersed into Christ years before? So, if he had already been saved what was this "opening the door of the heart" experience? From Carl's other writings and messages, one seems to get the impression that Ketcherside saw this encounter as the point of his salvation.

What do you think of it Sam?

-- Anonymous, May 11, 2002

What do I think about it? I think that you have taken this particular article and divorced it from the rest of Ketcherside's writing, and are using it to say something about him that is not true at all.

In addressing any matter of meaning or interpretation in the Bible, one does well to consider the whole counsel of God, in that no part of the scriptures will contradict any other part. And when you find something troubling in the scriptures, you look to other bits to help explain it or give background to help understand. While I mean to make no undue parallel between the writings of God and the writings of Ketcherside, the principle still applies. Look to the man's other writing to get the background and understanding of what he says here.

If you do that, you quickly see that the experience he describes in the article above is not one of salvation, nor of some special indwelling of the Spirit, or some supernatural revelation of Jesus.

Ketcherside spent his late writing career trying to undue the damage he did in his earlier writing and speaking career. In his younger days in the ministry among non-instrumental churches, his was a faith for the head only. He knew what (he thought) was and what wasn't, and that was the extent of his faith. He spent years living and preaching an intensely legalistic, sectarian system of belief: us against them, our way or their way, in which all the emphasis was on KNOWING AND BELIEVING THE RIGHT THING. But he had never known, in his heart, in his spirit, the freedom of being in relation with Jesus. He was NOT free. He was bound to and by as strict a legal system as any the Jews ever had.

It was in this experience (the one described in the article) that he realized how foolish he had been. He finally understood that salvation in Jesus frees us from having to worry about DOING IT RIGHT, that salvation comes to us because God gives us grace as we place our life in his hands in faith.

Ketcherside never abandoned baptism as the event which, in a way, ushers us into salvation. He preached and taught baptism for the remission of sins until the day he died. The event described in the article therefore could not have been his attempt at describing some supernatural saving event. It is best understood as a description of the moment when he finally found FREEDOM in Christ, and finally knew that the Spirit was alive in him, instead of being stifled and shackled by Ketcherside's legalism for so many years. He finally gave up the burden of striving and doing, and finally understood the sense of forgiveness and peace available when one comes to God by putting faith NOT in what we do, bit in what God does and has done.

If you understand that, then you'll understand pretty much everything Ketcherside wrote and said from then on.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002

And while I'm here, let me say this: I received Saturday my copy of Garrett's most recent newsletter, "Once More With Love". The main article is titled, "The Gospel In Water." It is about baptism and its place in salvation, and any one of you would be proud to read it as your own from your pulpit.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2002