MuddyPuddles

I’ve been reading a book about the life of Cecil Hook, one of my heroes in the faith.  It’s called “Grit in My Gizzard.”  Cecil was a very poor, hard-working country boy who eventually attended ACC and wound up being a long time Church of Christ preacher.  Because of his practical nature, after many years in the pulpit and much study and introspection, he started coming to different conclusions about what he had been teaching for most of his life—our legalistic doctrinal stance.  In 1984 he wrote the book “Free in Christ,” which very clearly points out so many flaws in our thinking and practice and it reveals a more accurate way to follow the Lord.  Though I was already starting to doubt some things about our “legalistic righteousness by obedience to worship doctrine” ways, this book gave so much voice to what I was feeling inside that I’ve recommended it quite a bit through the years.  Cecil has made it available free of charge to those who want a copy. 

One thing Cecil reminded me about in this autobiography is the fact that Barton W. Stone and Thomas Campbell, who are generally highly respected amoung our brotherhood, were individuals who were instrumental in uniting two fairly diverse groups of Christians.  We have articles written for the Christian newsletters of their day by which we can study their positions on various biblical topics.  Anyone who has studied them much realizes that their beliefs were quite different from each other in what many today consider to be salvation issues, and yet, they were uniters of the two groups.

Some decades later, a new philosophy cropped up.  It was the philosophy that everyone had to see those critical worship service doctrinal issues exactly the same or the alternative was that they must split—withdraw themselves from the “erring brothers.”  There was no tolerance for error.