Stoned-Campbell Disciple

Alexander Campbell on Branding Bible Students ‘Heretics.”

Alexander Campbell once protested a trend he witnessed among some disciples. That was the trend of blacklisting, calling names, branding a person as liberal, unsound, or heretic simply because the individual knows his or her Bible better than the accuser/s. It is the pernicious sectarian spirit that drives this abuse of God’s gracious gifts. Campbell notes the critic could never admit the accused might understand the Bible BETTER than accuser. Campbell observed:

“Indeed, in most cases where proscription and exclusions now occur in this country, the excluded are the most intelligent members of the society (i.e. church family); and although no community will accuse a man [or woman] because he knows more of his Bible than his brethren, and on this account exclude him from their communion; yet this, it is manifest, rather than heresy, (of which, however, for consistency’s sake, he must be accused,) is, in truth, the real cause of separation.

“If God has bestowed better gifts or better opportunities on one man [or woman] than another, by which he has attained more knowledge, instead of thanking God for his kindness to the community (i.e. church), they beg God to take him away; and if he will not be so unkind, they will at length put him among them under the charge of heresy. In most instances the greatest error of which a brother [or sister] can be guilty, is to study his Bible more than his companions–or, at least, to surpass them in his knowledge of the mystery of Christ.” (Gospel Restored, p.127).

I have witnessed this so many times among Churches of Christ and other groups repeatedly. A person may have invested twenty, thirty, or more years intensely investigating a biblical book, theme or topic. This careful student works up the courage to share her or his insight. And people who have not given the matter an hour’s actual study in those twenty plus years declare the student a liberal, heretic, false teacher, etc.

A three minute Google search, a four minute read of Wikipedia, or even posting numbers for words in the back of Strong’s or Thayer’s incredibly outdated lexicon does not mean you (or I) have any understanding of the matter or actually done “study.” Exegesis by meme is not study.

If you doubt me, I challenge you to allow a person on the street to read the Wiki article on surgery and let them operate on you.

We should be praising God for the gifts he bestows upon the family. We are grateful for those gifts (meditate on Ephesians 4.11-16). If a person’s walk with the Lord clearly demonstrates they love the Lord with all of their heart (and mind) and the character of their life shows it, we should be very cautious in labeling anyone.

The Sectarian Spirit will always bristle and exclude any information that does not already fit what a person believes. The Sectarian Spirit is the anti-matter to the Berean Spirit.

The questions that a disciple asks, however, are

1) what is the evidence?
2) how did you arrive at this conclusion?
3) does this cohere with the historical, literary, and canonical context?

Alexander Campbell was not inspired. But you do not have to be inspired to speak the truth … and on this matter he hit a truth home run.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 at 9:52 am and is filed under Alexander Campbell, Church, Restoration History, Unity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.