Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 10
February 19, 1959
NUMBER 41, PAGE 4-5b

Welcome, New Readers!

Editorial

This issue of the Gospel Guardian will be read by several thousand NEW subscribers, who have joined our ranks since the first of the year. We are truly heartened by the nation-wide response we are receiving to our drive for an increased circulation. From Blytheville, Arkansas, Jesse M. Kelley writes: 'Here is a list of thirty names, with $5.00 to pay for the first month. I hope to send another list of thirty more very shortly. I've talked to a number of brethren here, and believe we can send in quite a few lists of thirty from this area." From Mulvane, Kansas, Judson Woodbridge writes: "We have now sent in 500 subscriptions." From East Long Beach, California, Bill Fling writes: "I think your 'gift subscription' is a wonderful idea. I expect to get at least five or six lists of thirty from here." From Fort Worth, Texas, Harry Pickup writes: "I am personally paying for a list of 160 names, and hope to get several more brethren in Fort Worth to send in lists of subscriptions."

These are but samples of scores of letters we have received from brethren over the nation — from Memphis, Houston, Dallas, from Nashville, Lubbock, Los Angeles, Birmingham, Little Rock, Seattle, Atlanta, St. Louis; and from many small towns throughout the land. To say we are delighted would be putting it mildly. We are thrilled! The enthusiastic response to this appeal for new readers shows us that the great brotherhood of conservative brethren are at last awakening to the dangers of encroaching liberalism, and are beginning to bestir themselves to try to do something to stem the tide.

YOU can help! Send the Gospel Guardian to a list of thirty people — and pay for it on the simple plan of $5.00 per month.

— F. Y. T.

Cogdill's Review Of Dr. Thomas

Dr. J. D. Thomas of Abilene Christian College has written a book, "We Be Brethren", which sets forth the basic arguments of certain brethren in defense of such things as church contributions to colleges, church organization and support of benevolent societies, church building and maintenance of "fellowship" halls for recreational and social purposes, etc. This book is being used as a class text-book in some of the more liberal congregations; and will no doubt be generally accepted as the standard work among them in defense of such activities.

This book will be reviewed shortly by Brother Roy E. Cogdill in a series of articles in the Gospel Guardian. We urge all who may read this issue, and who are not now regularly receiving the Gospel Guardian, to subscribe at once, (today!) so you will not miss a single one of Cogdill's articles. The issue now has gone far, far beyond such simple things as whether it is right or wrong to send a contribution to an orphan home. Really, this has never been the real issue; it has been only one facet, or one side, of the basic problem of "What constitutes authority in Christianity?"

The Church of Christ is this day facing an inevitable crisis over the "social gospel" ideas — a philosophy which devastated the denominational churches two generations ago, and which has split the Christian Church into two warring and hostile camps within the last thirty years, but which has up to now hardly been evident at all among the Churches of Christ. Dr. Thomas' book shows how seriously the problem has affected the thinking and attitudes of some of the men now in places of great influence in the Christian colleges. Cogdill's review will show how far Dr. Thomas has gone into the camp of the liberals, and to what a great degree he has (perhaps unwittingly, and in the very act of denying modernism's theological claims) accepted and adopted the philosophy of the "social gospel".

Be sure to subscribe for the paper yourself — and why not send it to thirty of your friends? Our simple "gift subscription" plan enables you to subscribe for thirty people, and pay for it on the basis of only $5.00 per month — the subscriptions to continue just as long as your monthly payments continue to be made.

— F. Y. T.

Brother Inman's Article

Elsewhere in this issue is an article by Brother Clifton Inman, "Let's Consider," in which some pertinent information is given as to the value of Christian colleges. While the information is of interest to us all, we cannot print the article without accompanying it with a word of warning as to the present course of most (not all) of the "twelve colleges now owned and operated by members of the church of Christ throughout America." Most of these schools are clearly and unequivocally committed to a promotion and propagation of the ideas presented in Dr. Thomas' book (mentioned above). We are certain that in most of them (not all) no representative man would be allowed on the platform in any of their lectureships to oppose the idea of church contributions to colleges, or of church sponsored social, recreational, and benevolent organizations. We have heard a plea for church hospitals presented in some of the lectureships, with not a word of protest or opposition from either administration or faculty; we have seen women preachers (Church of Christ women preachers, that is) standing in the church pulpits at-these lectureships-to deliver stirring gospel messages to audiences composed of both men and women; we have heard endless propaganda (to the point of nausea almost) for support of "our" orphan homes, "our" old folks' homes, and "our" national radio and television programs.

We know that some of the faculty in some of these schools go out of their way to ridicule, misrepresent, and embarrass students in their classes who happen not to agree with the teacher's convictions on church support of orphan homes, Herald of Truth, church contributions to the colleges, etc.

Let no one take this as an indication that we are "anti-college." We believe there is a rightful place for a college, and that brethren have every moral, legal, and scriptural right to build and maintain such institutions. Our concern is not with the existence of colleges, but with the unchristian and unwholesome present trend among most (not all, we repeat) of the "twelve colleges now owned and operated by members of the church of Christ throughout America."

Our warning to parents: Know your college, before you submit your son or daughter to its influences. It may (and some of them do) teach your child the very opposite of your most cherished beliefs concerning the church, the Bible, and the Christian life.