WHY DOES MR. CLAIBORNE EXTOL ALEXANDER
CAMPBELL
ON BAPTISM IN THE LIGHT OF CAMPBELL'S EXPERIENCE?
[05/09/04]
Mr. Winford Claiborne, the transcript reader for The
International Gospel Hour, sponsored by the West Fayetteville Church of Christ,
Fayetteville, Tennessee, says:
"We can and must do what men like
Alexander Campbell, Barton Warren Stone and other faithful gospel preachers have
done. We must return to the clear Bible teaching about
baptism." Transcript #1908 http://www.gospelhour.net/1908.html
Church
of Christ preachers -- and especially their debaters -- have always had a first
class "problem" with Alexander Campbell.
They would like very
much to extol Mr. Campbell and embellish his work in the 1800s for allegedly
"restoring" the church, the gospel, and the "ancient order of things,"
but in reality none of them can even approve of Mr. Campbell's personal
experience in regard to what he regarded as his salvation. I do not envy the
position which Mr. Winford Claiborne and other Church of Christ ministers are in
with respect to Mr. Campbell. He is indeed a virtual Albatross around the neck
of their cause.
Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) and his early
associates, Thomas Campbell (Alexander's father), Barton W. Stone, and Walter
Scott, were the virtual founders of the movement from whence the present-day
"Church of Christ" in due course of time developed.
Needless to say,
today the modern Church of Christ is not what the Campbell movement was
in the 1809-1830 formation period.
NONE of the founding fathers, or
"pioneers" as they wont to be called, was baptized in accordance with the "plan
of salvation" which is required in the Church of Christ of today. In fact,
all of these early leaders claimed to have been converted PRIOR to being
baptized, and not a one of them was ever baptized "in order to obtain the
remission of sins," as the Church of Christ of today insists that one must do to
be saved.
The truth is, the modern Church of Christ could not accept
any one of the founding fathers -- Alexander Campbell, Thomas Campbell,
Barton Stone, or Walter Scott -- into their fellowship, for based on the modern
teaching none of the four could have been saved, if the modern doctrine
on "baptismal remission" is true.
Neither Mr. Claiborne nor any other
minister of the Church of Christ who teaches "baptismal remission" can possibly
find a way whereby that can affirm that any one of the pioneers entered the
Kingdom of God and still maintain the teaching on the necessity of baptism for
salvation.
The record of what Mr. Campbell regarded as his own salvation
experience is on the Internet, posted in the Memoirs of Alexander
Campbell, volume 1, chapter
3:
>>
As he had an excellent knowledge of the Scriptures,
and as the chief points in the divine plan of salvation had been long familiar
to him, he, in the course of his meditations, became awakened to a livelier
consciousness of their importance, and began to feel an unwonted personal and
individual interest in them. As his convictions deepened, he underwent much
conflict of mind, and experienced great concern in regard to his own
salvation, so that he lost for a time his usual vivacity, and sought, in
lonely walks in fields and by prayer in secluded spots, to obtain such evidences
of Divine acceptance as his pious acquaintances were accustomed to consider
requisite; it being universally held by the Seceders that "an assured persuasion
of the truth of God's promise in the Gospel, with respect to one's self in
particular, is implied in the very nature of saving faith." Of this particular
period in his religious history he himself gave, many years afterward, the
following account: "From the time that I could read the Scriptures, I became
convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. I was also fully persuaded that I was a
sinner, and must obtain pardon through the merits of Christ or be lost for ever.
This caused me great distress of soul, and I had much exercise of mind under the
awakenings of a guilty conscience. Finally, after many strugglings, I was
enabled to put my trust in the Saviour, and to feel my reliance on
him as the only Saviour of sinners. From the moment I was able to feel this
reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, I obtained and enjoyed peace of mind. It
never entered into my head to investigate the subject of baptism or the
doctrines of the creed."
>>
This was when Campbell was 17 years
old (page 47) and the family lived in their native Scotland where they were
members of the Presbyterian church. Campbell's experience is described in
his Memoirs as "one which any Baptist church would have cheerfully
received" (Vol. 2,
pages 111, 112). Note this excerpt from volume two of the
Memoirs:
>>
"On the next morning we parted company with the
balance of the preachers, and Brother Campbell and myself started for Mt.
Sterling. Much interesting conversation took place on the way, and conduced
much to my correct understanding of his views. I will not attempt to relate
all that passed. One little incident I will relate. Having crossed Licking
River and riding slowly up the bank, I asked Brother Campbell to tell me
his experience. He readily did so, and in turn asked a relation of
mine, which was given. "After hearing his
experience, I would cheerfully have given him the hand of fellowship. It
was one which any Baptist church would have cheerfully received, and was
almost substantially such as mine. He took occasion to say [111] that he had
never discarded the existence of such experience on the part of the sinner,
but objected to the use made of such things, as determining the proper
prerequisites of baptism, and went on to explain the necessity of taking the
word of God, rather than our feelings, as guides in such
things.
>>
Mr. Campbell's BAPTISM came much
later than what he regarded as his salvation experience in Scotland, and was
only after the family had come to America. He was baptized in 1812 by a
Baptist preacher, Matthias Luce, in Buffalo Creek, Brush Run, near
Bethany, West Virginia and west of Washington, PA. Pastor Larry Keenan
and I visited the area in 1979 when I was in a debate with Garland Elkins in
Parkersburg, West Virginia. At the time, we beheld some buzzards circling over
the area, and wondered if perhaps they were signifying the site of Mr.
Campbell's baptism!
All the information about his baptism are on the
Internet in chapter
17 of Memoirs. And though they repudiated their "infant baptism," and were
baptized by immersion, they did not at that time believe what they later
supposedly "discovered" and alleged to be the "restoration" of the "ancient
gospel."
The Memoirs say, "The necessity felt for unity brought them
to the Bible alone; this led them to the simple primitive faith in Christ, and
this, in turn, had now guided them to the primitive baptism as the public
profession of that faith. The full import and meaning of the institution of
baptism was, however, still reserved for future discovery" (Vol. 2, page
405).
It was not until 1823 that Campbell claimed to have finally
understood the purpose of baptism, and even then it was not put into
practice for the "first time" until 1827 when Mr. Walter Scott
baptized William Amend, a man who later joined the Mormons. The Mormons
learned their doctrine on baptism from apostates from the Campbell movement,
foremost of which was Mr. Sidney Rigdon, at one time Mr. Campbell's
assistant in debate. It is believed by some historians, such as William
Whitsitt, that Rigdon is responsible for the "restorationist" views adopted
by Joseph Smith and his early followers.
Now, if we are follow the
advice of Mr. Claiborne of The International Gospel Hour, and "do what men
like Alexander Campbell" did, then we must be saved before baptism,
and later be baptized by a Baptist preacher. That is what Mr. Campbell
did, and he never professed any other salvation or received another
baptism.
My books on the Campbell movement and current Church of Christ
doctrine and practice delineate the entire account of this alleged
"Restoration Movement." If you desire to make a further study, then we
recommend the following books:
Campbellism, Its History and Heresies
($6).
Acts 2:38 and Baptismal Remission ($4)
The Restoration Movement
($5)
Campbellites, Cowbells, Rosary Beads and Snake Handling
($5)
You have have all four books plus a number of other related
booklets and articles for $25 postpaid. Consult the Pilgrim Publications
website for more information about these titles.
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