Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

-------------------------------------------------------In Essentials, Unity;

-------------------------------------------------------In Opinions, Liberty;

-------------------------------------------------------In All Things, Love.

It is the purpose of this paper to argue that Alexander Campbell’s, Walter Scott’s and David Lipscomb’s beliefs--that Slavery was a political question and, therefore, secondary--were the result of not taking the full counsel of Scripture seriously.

This is supported by five premises.

The first two need no defense today because the vast majority of Christians already understand the errors that the first two generations of this movement held.

The third premise also need no defense, but must be openly acknowledged: the excluded middle does not apply to several key theological truths.

Most Christians when it comes to the Trinity, eschatology, sanctification, and ecclesiology recognize that the excluded middle cannot be applied in every aspect: e.g.

Jesus is both fully God and fully human.

However, this truth is often neglected in discussions of soteriology, theological anthropology, and political theology.

== I.

All four of the founders failed to recognized that the Scriptures that Jesus and the Apostles used and from which they preached was the Old Testament.

The Old Testament--not the New Testament--was considered authoritative.

Consequently, to be a New Testament church today is to follow the practice of the New Testament believers which includes using the same Scriptures that Jesus and the Apostles used to preach the Gospel.

To use only the New Testament is a miss reading of Scripture.

==II.

The Gospels--which recorded the life, death, resurrection, and teachings of Christ--are to be seen as being equal in authority to the Epistles.

(Campbell and most of the others founders held that the authoritative sections of the New Testament started with Acts 2, where the birth of the church was recorded, and ran through Revelations.)

==III.

The Employment of the Excluded Middle.

Just as the Kingdom of God is both "now" and "not yet" as well as the Lordship of Christ where Christ is now sitting at the right hand of God as Lord and Ruler of the Earth, but whose righteous rule and total subjugation of His reign is yet in the future, the Spiritual reality of redeemed anthropology is a now although it has not fully manifested itself in the church and to the world.

We are one body now spiritually even if there is still racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, and educational classism in the church.

Our failure to live up to our spiritual calling and the spiritual reality of Christ's redeeming work of the cross and His resurrection still does not negate the "real" spiritual reality that we are one in Christ as the song "Somos Uno" proclaims.

==IV.

One of the Essentials of the Gospel is the Reconciliation of Humanity with Humanity .

Almost all exegetical interpretation of Ephesian 2:11-18 explicitly state that there was a horizontal purpose for Christ’s death, that is, that there was an horizontal dimension to Christ death.

Ephesians 2 and other texts, therefore, support that the horizontal (human to human) reconciliatory purpose of Christ’s Death and Resurrection is one of the core beliefs of the New Testament church and, therefore, makes slavery, racism and ethnocentrism a sign of a counterfeit or false gospel.

==V.

Slavery, Racism, and Ethnocentrism are the result of the “Fall” and will be absent in the New Heaven and New Earth to come.

Consequently, they are inconsistent with regenerated living and mature Christian virtue.

This means minimally that Christian leadership must be unattainable for those who evidence and support slavery, sexism, racism, and ethnocentrism.

[Side Note: Although I will not argue this here in regards to slavery, Church history also shows that the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generations of Christians [from CE. 30 to 120 AD] followed this practice as no church leader, elder, deacon or bishop were slave holders when they were installed into those offices.]

*Ephesians 2:11-18,* *Galatians 3:26-29*, *1 John 4:7-21*, *John 17:20-23*, *Revelation 5:9-10; 7:9-10*

BODY

IV.

THE THREE DIMENSION OF THE GOSPEL

A. Vertical Dimension of the Cross: (Divinity to Humanity Reconciliation)

* -----------Colossians 1:21-23

* -----------Romans 5:12-19; 8:1-4

* -----------Matthew 27:51

* -----------John 3:10-21, esp.

17-18

B. Horizontal Dimension: (Humanity to Humanity Reconciliation)

* -----------Ephesians 2:11-18

* -----------Galatians 3:26-29

* -----------1 John 4:7-21

* -----------John 17:20-23

* -----------Revelation 5:9-10; 7:9-10

C. Depth Dimension: (Reconciliation Across Time)

* -----------Hebrews 9:24-10:10

* -----------1 Peter 3:18

A cross or crucifix has three dimensions (vertical, horizontal and width or thickness).

The Gospel also has three dimensions.

The vertical dimension involves God reconciling God’s self to humanity.

The horizontal dimension involves God reconciling humanity to and with humanity.

And the width or depth dimension involves how Jesus’ death and resurrection was efficacious for all time and for all persons—past, present and future.

I would like to briefly explore in more depth the Biblical basis for our understanding of the horizontal dimension as being an essential truth of Christian belief.

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Many people believe that God had only one purpose for Christ’s life, death and resurrection—that God had only one purpose for the Cross.

However, the Scriptures state that there were two purposes.

We all know the first reason—everlasting life to “whosoever believeth.”

This is what we were taught in Sunday School and what we hear in Evangelistic crusades done by the likes of Franklin Graham, Luis Palau and Greg Laurie.

But few are taught that God had a second purpose.

The Scriptural basis for this second purpose is found in Ephesians 2:11-18 and Galatians 3:26-29.

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

* [Quote] * For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.

*HIS PURPOSE* [GK: HINA “IN ORDER THAT, THAT, SO THAT”] *WAS TO CREATE IN HIMSELF ONE NEW MAN OUT OF THE TWO, THUS MAKING PEACE, AND IN THIS ONE BODY TO RECONCILE BOTH OF THEM TO GOD THROUGH THE CROSS, BY WHICH HE PUT TO DEATH THEIR HOSTILITY.*

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit (NIV, emphasis added).

* [Quote] * All of us are God's children because of our faith in Christ Jesus.

And when we were baptized, it was as though we had put on Christ in the same way we put on new clothes.

*FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS IS WHAT MAKES EACH OF US EQUAL WITH EACH OTHER, WHETHER YOU ARE A JEW OR A GREEK, A SLAVE OR A FREE PERSON, A MAN OR A WOMAN*.

So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of Abraham's family, and you will be given what God has promised.

(CEV, emphasis Added.)

Racial and ethnic reconciliation are not an item that individuals have the freedom to accept or reject based on personal or cultural choice or preferences.

Why? God’s purpose for Jesus’ crucifixion was “to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.”

Both our individual salvation (our reconciliation with God on the vertical dimension) and humanity's reconciliation with one another (reconciliation on the horizontal dimension) are the results of Christ’s death and resurrection.

We are justified by faith and reconciled to one another by faith.

We are saved by grace and reconciled to one another by grace.

These are gifts not of our own making lest we boast.

This is a central and foundational truth and as such this makes racial and ethnic reconciliation an essential doctrine of Christianity.

Racial and ethnic reconciliation does not, therefore, come about as a secondary process that results from our Christian maturation or sanctification any more than our salvation comes about as a result of our Christian maturation, works, efforts or sanctification.

Salvation (vertical reconciliation) comes before sanctification; humanity’s Oneness (horizontal reconciliation) comes before sanctification.

If orthodoxy supports the doctrine of “sola fide” [by faith alone] and “sola gratia” [by grace alone] for salvation, then it must also do so for humanity’s reconciliation.

In Christ and among brothers and sisters of Christ, there should be no Jews or Gentiles, slave or freeman, male or female.

Slavery, racism and ethnocentrism are incompatible with this Gospel of vertical and horizontal reconciliation.

Humanity’s reconciliation is not, therefore, a secondary issue of sanctification and the results of sanctified individuals transforming society.

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Nevertheless, just like our salvation, the reconciliation of the tribes and nations requires a “working out” of this gift (cf.

“the working out of salvation” in Philippians 2:12).

It requires growing into this spiritual reality brought about by the cross.

While the fullest expression of this gift of reconciliation will be found in the New Heaven and New Earth (Revelation 5:9-10; 7:9-10), we are, nevertheless, called to live out that truth now (1 John 4:7-21; John 17:20-23).

Consequently, racial and ethnic reconciliation are at the heart of the Gospel message and finds its fullest expressions in the age to come.

*V.

Other Supportive Biblical Arguments Against Racism and Ethnocentrism* \\

----------A.

Biblical Arguments Against Racism and Ethnocentrism.* \\

\\ The Scripture is replete with messages calling Gentiles to participate in God’s salvation.

Gentiles (non-Jewish persons) have been descriptively and prescriptively included in both the Jewish and early Christian communities.

There have been passages that limit certain Gentiles from being a part of God’s community as punishment for their individual and collective sins and because they would lead the Israelites away from God; however, this is not a universal or common theme: Consequently, racism and ethnocentrism should be consider a turning away for God’s standards, not just a political matter left up to Christian individuals and communities to decide.

We can say this because of the following reasons.