60^th Annual Pepperdine University Bible Lectures
Malibu, California
May 2, 2003
Victor Knowles, Teacher

Forced Fusion
Why Certain Elements of the Restoration Movement
Will Come Together in the Future

I AM NOT A PROPHET, nor am I the son of a prophet, but it takes neither a prophet or a rocket scientist to know that certain elements of the Restoration Movement are going to come together in the future—in some cases they already have. As the times grow more perilous, as men wax worse and worse, as the environs of evil close in on the righteous remnant, I believe that “forced fusion” will take place—that certain elements (not all to be sure) of the American Restoration Movement, in the searing heat of anti-Christian hostility, will come together in a holy melding, melting and molding process. I say “not all to be sure” because they do not call us the independent Christian Churches for no reason! Some Churches of Christ are not called antis without good reason! Like the poor who will always be with us, there are those who would rather fall alone than stand together. When I was in college in the turbulent 60’s I saw a weathered billboard message that I have not forgotten. It read, “Live as brothers or die as fools.” I don’t want to die as a fool. I want to live as a brother.

Leslie B. Flynn opens his book Great Church Fights (Victor Books, 1976) with this pointed illustration. Two porcupines in northern Canada huddled together to get warm, during a fierce blizzard.. But their quills pricked each other and they quickly moved apart. Before long they were shivering and cold drove them together. Same song, second verse. They needed each other, but they kept needling each other.

This reminds me of the old poem, “The Cold Within.”

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold,
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs
But the first man held his back,
For on the faces ‘round the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
He couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third man sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should he put his log to use
And warm the idle rich?

The rich man sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from sight;
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man in this forlorn group
Did nothing except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave to him
Was the way he played the game.

Their logs held tight in death’s still grasp
Is proof of human sin.
They didn’t die of cold without—
They died from the cold within!

Interesting, is it not, that the last man in the group viewed it all as a game. “Giving only to those who gave to him was the way he played the game.” After the “coalition of the willing” took Baghdad after only 21 days of war, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States closed the doors of his office and said, “The game is over.” The game is over? Hello? War is a game?

Sometimes I think we treat church as a game, Christianity as a game, spiritual warfare as a game. John the Revelator said, “I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse, and against His army” (Rev. 19:19 NASB). “War” is mentioned 228 times in Scripture. From Eden to Armageddon, it’s all about war. The apostle Paul reminds us, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12 NASB). You get the idea that Paul wanted us to stand against something—the real enemy. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. I am flesh and blood. I am not the enemy. You are flesh and blood. You are not the enemy. The elders are flesh and blood. They are not the enemy. Preachers are flesh and blood. They are not the enemy. Conservative Christian Churches/Churches of Christ are flesh and blood. They are not the enemy. A cappella Churches of Christ are flesh and blood. They are not the enemy!

In the past we have failed, miserably so, to make this vital distinction. We have put on the full armor so that we might be able to stand firm against—to resist—to use our sword (the sword of the Spirit!) against—God forgive us!—our brothers in Christ! It is time—high time—past time—that we understand who are real enemy is and take our stand together against him and the world forces of this present darkness.

I love the story of Eleazer and David. You say, “You mean Jonathan and David.” That is a good story too, but I mean Eleazer and David. Seven men in Scripture are named Eleazer (which means “God is helper”). The one of which I speak today was one of David’s “three mighty men.” It was he, according to the accounts found in 2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 11, who took his stand with David against the archenemy of Israel, the Philistines. Every Israeli soldier fled, except for Eleazer and David. Together they took their stand against the enemy in the middle of a barley field. Standing back-to-back, the “Barley Brothers” took on the evil Philistines. And here is why Eleazer is listed as one of David’s three might men. “He stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword” (2 Sam. 23:10 NIV). The King James Version says his weary hand “clave to the sword.” His hand was frozen in a death grip. He couldn’t let go. He and his sword were one. They had to pry his frozen fingers, one by one, off the hilt. Mel Gibson, eat your heart out. Meet the true “Braveheart.”

I would like to say that that is the way Christian Churches and Churches of Christ have taken their stand against the enemy—back to back, wielding the sword of the Spirit against Satan and his malevolent minions. I would love to say that. I wish I could say that. But all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire and that’s one lake I have no wish to take a dip in! Rather, we have often stood face to face, slashing at each other, slicing and being sliced, drawing blood and shedding blood, until our hands have grown weary and froze to the blood-soaked hilt of the sword. Think of the bloody debates. Think of the cutting editorials. Think of the caustic “sermons.” Think of the time wasted, the energy expended, the young people wrongly impressed, the money spent, the souls lost.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind;
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper rev’rence, praise.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
(John Greenleaf Whittier)

Forced fusion. What do we mean by that term? Fuse (to melt, pour together) and foundary (a place where metal is melted and poured) come from the Latin fundere, to melt. The same Latin word gives us confuse and confound; it also gives us diffuse and fusion—something melted together as a group or aggregate. Similar words for fusion might be: union, merging, alliance, coalescence, coalition, etc. To fuse is to consolidate, link, combine, solidify, etc.

Our title implies that this fusion is forced. Human nature being what it is, it may take a foreign force to create this coalescence. On September 19, 1950, the Communist regime in the Republic of Poland began arresting nearly every minister, pastor and teacher in the Union of Churches of Christ (instrumental; they numbered 85 churches, 320 mission stations, with over 4,000 members). They were charged with espionage and treason. Along with Evangelical Christian, Free Brethren, and Pentecostals, they were sent to forced labor camps in Siberia where they worked in the salt mines until their release in 1956. I asked one of the teachers, a woman named Halina, what her “crime” was. She replied, “They came into our village and said I could no longer teach the children about Christ.” I asked, “What did you do?” She smiled and said, “I continued to teach the children about Christ.” In prison, all of these believers were forced into union. It’s hard to argue about opinions and disputable matters when you are in chains—cold, hungry, starving, being beaten within an inch of your life. They sang together, prayed together, worshiped together. And for some time after their release they stayed together (until the Pentecostals began pushing their tongues doctrine once again).

My oldest sister Rebecca spent seven years in Saudi Arabia (her husband, an American, was with ARAMCO). They lived in the American compound in a large city. To proselytize in this fiercely Islamic country meant certain deportation. You could not wear a cross, openly display a Bible, or even wear the name Christian on a T-shirt (like Abilene Christian University). Americans managed to bring Bibles in by gutting a book and placing the Bible inside the covers. On Sundays believers from many different religious backgrounds met in the compound for worship. This was usually at night. Their assemblies consisted of prayer, Bible study, and the Lord’s Supper. Baptisms were performed by immersion, under the cover of darkness, in the swimming pool. Their hostile environment drove them into each other’s arms and reduced their religion to the bare essentials. Is there a lesson to be learned here?

When I graduated from Bible college, May 22, 1968, I remember an arresting statement made by one of my fellow graduates in his graduation sermon. He said, in essence, “I believe that in the future we will not be arguing and defending some of the things that we are today, but will find ourselves standing for the very existence of God and truth itself alongside those we never dreamed we would.” It seemed fantastic at the time. After all, Iowa was the Bible Belt and we felt our alma mater (Midwestern School of Evangelism) was the very buckle! Yet it was more prophetic than fantastic for that is about where we find ourselves a scant 35 years later. Postmodernism has proved him to be a prophet.
Welcome to the “whatever” world—a karaoke world where images impact ideas and experiences create beliefs (Rick Chromey). Futurist Len Sweet has described the difference between moderns and postmoderns as two worlds: land and water. The modern era was solid and systemized, while the postmodern age is fluid and free.

You folks in California don’t need a Midwesterner to come here and tell you what is obvious: we not only find ourselves in a “whatever” world, we also find ourselves in a hostile world—a world that is hostile to Christ, Christians, Christian values, and Christian churches (used in the broadest sense). From the President of the United States to the person in the pew this is true. President Bush has been taken to task because of his active faith in God. (Some would evidently prefer a preying president to a praying president.) The prayer offered in the name of Jesus by Franklin Graham at Bush’s inauguration instantly came under criticism and attack. (Pray tell, in what name would a Christian minister pray?)

The “offense of the cross” is very real today. In 1934 a group of World War I veterans erected a 10-foot high steel and concrete cross in the middle of Southern California’s Mojave Desert. They did so as a tribute to their fallen comrades. In recent years many locals have gathered at Sunrise Rock on Easter morning for sunrise services. But this year when they arrived they found the cross wrapped in a thick, white tarp with a tightly wound steel chain padlocked at the bottom. The National Park Service covered the cross until a lawsuit brought by the ACLU can be settled. But at 6:45 a.m., as about 40 hardy souls assembled for the service, the sun peeked over the mountains and the cross’ silhouette was clearly visible as the people prayed and sang.

Actor and director Mel Gibson is now feeling the heat of anti-Christian hostility from his own crowd. Gibson, a devout Catholic, is directing a new film, The Passion, which vividly depicts the last 12 hours on earth of Christ. Filmed in Italy, the picture will be done entirely in the ancient languages spoken in Christ’s time (Aramaic, Latin, Greek, Hebrew). Gibson has had to fund the movie entirely with his own money. He told Fox News that a reporter from a “reputable” publication was sent to “dig up dirt” on him and his family (including his 85-year-old father). Hollywood is cool to Gibson on this one. Let Martin Scorsese produce a sacrilege such as The Last Temptation of Christ and all Hollywood cheers. Let Mel Gibson produce a Christ-exalting piece like The Passion and the cheering stops—and the jeering begins. Welcome to the reel world.

Life is not a game. Life is more than a movie. Every day we live brings us closer to Armageddon. Do not debate whether it is a literal or figurative battle. Just agree that it is a battle. The barbarians are at the gates. Our backs are to the wall. Now, more than ever, we need each other. It is time to stop needling each other. It is time to come together, band together, and take the battle to the enemy—the real enemy. The promised crushing of Satan will come under a multiplicity of feet (Rom. 16:20)—feet that belong to people who have learned to accept one another without passing judgment on disputable matters —feet that belong to people who have stopped looking down on one another (the sin of condescension) and have stopped judging one another (the sin of condemnation)—feet that belong to a people who would never destroy a brother for whom Christ died—feet that make every effort to do what leads to peace, for it is the “God of peace” who will soon crush Satan under our feet!

The vaunted “gates of hell” are a defensive mechanism. Gates are to guard. They guard the city of the doomed and the damned. Gates do not advance. The army of the Lord needs to advance. It is time to storm the gates. Together. With all who believe in Christ (John 17:20). With all who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours (1 Cor. 1:2). Unity starts in our own back yard. The back yard of the Restoration Movement has been cluttered far too long. It is time to clean up our own back yard, move to the front yard, and then to the streets, and then, as a spiritual “coalition of the willing,” march to the nations of the world with the only message that will save souls and prepare people for heaven.

Americans experienced forced fusion on September 11, 2001, when radical Islamic terrorists hijacked four airplanes. One was flown into the Pentagon. Two were flown into the World Trade Center. The fourth plane, United Flight 93, was headed either for the Capitol or the White House when something extraordinary happened. At least four passengers, Thomas E. Burnett, Jr., Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, and Mark Bingham, somehow banded together to heroically divert the plane from its intended target and brought it down in the quiet countryside of Pennsylvania. There were no survivors.

The October 2001 issue of The Christian Chronicle, a monthly journal published for members of churches of Christ a cappella) carried Burnett’s story. Thomas Burnett was a 1992 graduate of Pepperdine University. He managed to call his wife Deena in San Ramon on his cell phone. By this time several passengers had learned the fate of the other planes that had been hijacked. Burnett told his wife that he and some other passengers were going to try to stop the hijackers. He said, “I know we’re all going to die. But some of us are going to do something about it.” Deena later told a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, “I know without a doubt that plane was bound for some landmark and they saved many, many more lives than were lost on that plane.”

The December 30, 2001 issue of Christian Standard, a weekly paper published for members of conservative Christian churches and churches of Christ, carried a story about Todd Beamer. It was called “Leaving a Legacy” and was written by Todd’s father, David Beamer, a member of the Manor Woods Church of Christ in Rockville, Maryland. Todd Beamer’s words, spoken to a GTE phone supervisor, were caught on tape. After asking her to recite the Lord’s Prayer with him, Beamer spoke to his fellow passengers: Are you guys ready? Jesus, help me. Let’s roll!” The rest is history.

So here were two men who at least had some connection with our Restoration Movement. There was no time to discuss the differences. They banded together with some others (whose religious affiliations, if any, are unknown to me) in a selfless, redemptive manner. Friends, we are all going to die some day. But there’s something we can do before then. We can come together for the sake of others. If total strangers could come together in a crisis, surely we who know about each other can come together as a band of brothers in prayer and service in an equally selfless and redemptive manner to save those who have been hijacked by Satan and are hurtling for eternal doom.

Brothers and sisters: we are all going to die some day. But some of us are going to do something about it. Are you ready? Jesus, help us! Let’s roll!

VICTOR KNOWLES is founder and executive director of POEM (Peace on Earth Ministries), Joplin, MO. He may be contacted at POEM, P.O. Box 275, Joplin, MO or at vicknowles@aol.com or www.poeministries.org.