Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 19
NEED_DATE
NUMBER 36, PAGE 4

"The Man Of God"

Editorial

The "man of God" in Biblical parlance was a teacher of God's will. Sometimes he was inspired; sometimes he was not. But, inspired or uninspired, he faithfully and accurately set forth the will of God. John T. Lewis was surely such a man. He dedicated a lifetime to that task. And he left a monument to his labors which will be a blessing to generations yet unborn. For there can be little question in the mind of any informed person that it was the towering influence of this great, yet simple, man which has made Birmingham the strongest city in the nation, and in the world insofar as primitive Christianity is concerned. In this day of sorrow and heartache, when city after city, and church after church, has felt the blighting and searing influence of the "go-go-go" promotions; when entire congregations have been swept into the popular tide of compromise and digression, the great city of Birmingham has been noted for the strength and power of her simple New Testament congregations.

And Birmingham and John T. Lewis were almost synonymous in the conversation of knowledgeable Christians. For in a very real sense it was the teaching of John T. Lewis, the plain, down-to-earth common sense of the man as he applied Biblical teaching to specific situations which gave glory and strength to the cause of Christ in this city. Blunt and matter-of-fact, he never learned how to be politie or diplomatic. But with all his gruffness he was neither cruel nor unkind. He could not be; for it was simply not in his nature to be so. Those who knew him best and most intimately were wont to say that his rough hewn exterior front, which strangers often found so abrasive, was in reality but a "cover-up" for a heart as tender as that of a child.

Through the years of his labors in Birmingham many problems arose, as they always do among growing churches. Brother Lewis was adamant in his firm stand for what he believed to be the truth, and would yield not a fraction of an inch in any matter of doctrine or Bible teaching. But he had great sympathy and compassion for the frailties and weaknesses of his fellow mortals. And no matter how bitterly and sharply he might oppose a man, he was always ready and willing to hold forth the hand of friendship and brotherly love. He might believe with all his heart that a man was wrong in his position and teaching, but at the same time he did not consider himself that man's enemy because of pointing out the thing he thought wrong. On the contrary he felt he was a true and genuine friend for so doing and was somewhat puzzled that the man himself did not always share his point of view!

For many years to come brethren will be repeating (and no doubt embellishing) some of the Lewis stories. We always got a chuckle out of the widow whose second marriage turned out disastrously. She was quite old, quite fat, and fairly wealthy. About a year following her first husband's death she married again. The marriage lasted only a few months, and the aggrieved bride confided to a friend, "I became convinced that the only reason in the world he married me was for my money." When this sad story was related to Brother Lewis, he snorted, "Why in the Sam Hill did she think he was marrying her?" Sham, pretense, pomposity were simply impossible for him. He spoke the truth as he saw it, with never a thought as to whether it would be palatable or unpalatable to those who heard.

This issue of the Gospel Guardian is devoted to the memory of a great and good man. And we have selected three articles from his pen which we believe are worth preserving, and which will give our readers some idea of his heart and spirit. He attributed much of his worth as a gospel preacher to the eight years he spent in Nashville Bible School as a student of the great David Lipscomb. We give in full his own comment on those years which he wrote as a preface to Earl I. West's "Life and Times of David Lipscomb."

One of the burning issues thirty-five years ago had to do with the matter of churches contributing to Christian colleges. (The question is still with us.) Brother Batsell Baxter had written an article or two which seemed to favor such a practice. Brother Lewis reviewed his article in the Gospel Advocate. We reprint that article from him. Then in recent years, even when the aged preacher had already gone well beyond his three-score and ten years, a new digression appeared and began to make grievous inroads among the churches of God. Once again, John T. Lewis was in the fore-front of the battle. His article on "Institutionalism" covers the field, and leaves little to be said.

The aged frame of the old disciple is now returning to the earth from whence it came; but his spirit has returned to God who gave it. And he lives and will live in the hearts of those who knew and loved him. Our world is a better place because he lived in it. Each of us can walk with a happier step, and our heads can lift a bit because he was here. We grieve his going, of course; but it is a grief without bitterness. As the full grain bends low as it ripens and finally falls to earth, so in the fullness of years he left us. But we sorrow not as those who have no hope. We shall meet again.