Will Brother Thomas B. Warren Prove His Sincerity?
The following letter was mailed to Brother Warren on February 2, 1956. Does he really want someone to review his tract and answer his questions?
P. O.Box 67, Brownwood, Texas February 2, 1956
Mr. Thomas B. Warren, Eastridge Church of Christ,
4307 N. E. 28th Fort Worth, Texas
Dear Brother Warren:
In your tract, "Cooperation Between New Testament Churches," you make these and several similar entreaties: "Brethren, I appeal to you to answer this if you can see that it is not according to the Bible"; "I am anxious to see it answered if it can be."
A list of more than fifty questions occupies about one-fourth of the space in your tract. Referring to those questions, you say, "This writer, therefore, would be very pleased to have someone to give us clear, concise, unevasive answers to the following questions."
Brother Warren, I plainly can see that the things you have written are "not according to the Bible," and I can answer every one of your questions printed in your tract, and I am very, very anxious to do so. Will you please give me an opportunity to answer your pleadings, supplications and prayers for someone to review your tract and answer all your questions?
You reiterate your "sincerity and desire for the truth," you beg and beseech someone to guide you if you are wrong, and you otherwise make obvious efforts to convince your readers that you really do want someone to review your tract and answer your questions.
In spite of your "appeal," prayers and entreaties, some of your readers do not believe that you want your tract reviewed and your questions answered by anyone who may disagree with you. Therefore, Brother Warren, I think you should welcome an opportunity to prove that you do mean what you say. Here is how you can prove your sincerity to all who doubt it.
1. First Thing To Do.
Your tract was published, in the form of a series of articles, in the Gospel Advocate. Now, don't you think that the Gospel Advocate would be a good place also for someone to review your tract and answer all your questions? Wouldn't you like for the Lord to answer your prayers through the medium that you used 'so freely in asking the questions and praying for answers?
I have written five articles to prove that your tract "is not according to the Bible," and I can answer every question in your tract. Now, in order to prove your sincerity, will you please write to the editor of the Gospel Advocate and tell him that I will mail to him my check for one hundred dollars ($100.00), if he will publish in the Advocate my five articles and my answers to all your questions?
The editor of the Advocate freely published your questions and supplications for someone to answer them, but I think he has his mind made up to stand guard and see to it that neither God nor man answers your prayers through the Advocate. But your asking him to print my five articles and my answers to your questions will help you to convince your readers that you do want someone to answer. --
2. Second Thing To Do.
After the editor of the Advocate refuses to let me answer your questions in his paper, where your -request was made, you still can do something to prove that you do want them answered. You can go to the elders of the Eastridge church in Fort Worth where you are a member and ask them to let me come there at my own expense and appear before the Eastridge congregation and answer all your questions in your tract. I will not skip a single one; I will answer every question. Wouldn't you like for the members of the Eastridge church to hear the correct answers to your questions? Are the elders there willing to "cooperate" in a study of your theories? Or, are they "anti-cooperation brethren"?
3. Third Thing To Do.
If the editor of the Advocate and the Eastridge elders turn you down and thereby prove that they are "anti-cooperation brethren," I still will be unwilling to leave you in ignorance of the correct answers to your questions. Therefore, if you will come to my office at 3608 Third Street in Brownwood, I will answer your questions and try to show you that your theories are "not according to the Bible." Your coming to Brownwood will cost you nothing, except your transportation. While you are here I will give you a room in my home and three meals and two coffee breaks daily as long as you wish to stay and study these questions. My family and I will treat you as an honored guest. Will you come, and prove thereby that you do want someone to answer your questions and show you that your tract "is not according to the Bible"?
Brother Warren, there are other ways by which I could answer your questions, but I think it should be done in a way that will give you an opportunity to prove the sincerity of your appeal for answers. Other ways might not serve that purpose for you, but the plan I have outlined herein will give you that opportunity. Will you please "cooperate"? Don't be an "anti-cooperation brother," like Earnest Harper and Roy Lanier. They won't "cooperate" with me in anything. Roy won't even answer my letters. Will you?
Faithfully yours, Cecil B. Douthitt