Are there Christians among the sects?

by Editor / Thursday, 27 January 2005 / Published in Alexander Campbell, Unity, W. Carl Ketcherside

The following are excerpted quotes from Ketcherside, compiled by Lloyd A. Boyll in 1989 under the book title of A New Spirit.
–KH

CHRISTIANS AMONG THE SECTS

by W. Carl Ketcherside

“I am convinced that there are many Christians among the sectarian parties of our day.”

“Mind you, I do not believe that there are any Christians outside the body of Christ.” 1

Answering the charge that ‘we consider the various sectarian bodies as parts of the one church of the New Testament,’ Ketcherside recognizes “This is exactly the opposite to my position. I have repeatedly said that the church of God is not a sect. No sect is the church of God. No coalition or aggregation of sects constitutes that church. The various sects exist in opposition to the word of God. They are a manifestation of the work of the flesh.”

“…we contend there may be children of God among the sects. That is far from saying that the sects are a part of the one body. There are citizens of the United States in Russia, but Russia is not a part of the United States.” 2 “But there are thousands of honest, sincere believers in Christ among the sects. God’s sheep have been smitten by men, and scattered by creeds over the hills. We feel a compulsion of spirit to seek them out and show them the way. We cannot do so by creating another sect.” 3

“It is inconceivable to me that for the greater majority of the time since He ascended to heaven, Jesus has been a shepherd without a single sheep, a king without a subject, a head without a body, or a Saviour who saved no one for seventeen hundred years. Yes I think there may be many children of God scattered among the various sects.” 4 “Not everyone in a sect is a sectarian. Some of God’s children are a dispersed, displaced and exiled people…” 5

“It is only when we recognize our brethren and love them as brethren that we can move toward a closer association with each other and a closer walk with God. We cannot unite the family by denying the paternity of those who compose it. This was clearly understood at the outset of the restoration movement of which most of our readers are the heirs. Alexander Campbell described it as ‘a project to unite the Christians in all of the sects’. We have lived to see the day when the parties resulting from such a project, or from the abuses of it, regard as ‘heresy’ the mere intimation that there are Christians in the sects. This is a complete reversal of thought. What has happened?” 6

June, 1961, p. 8
Sept., 1958, pp. 2, 3
Oct., 1958, p. 7
Feb., 1960, p. 6
Jan., 1960, p. 5
June, 1961, p. 8

Tagged under: denominationalism, Ketcherside, sectarianism, Sects, unity

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Newshound, writer, digital marketer, passionate about Jesus, unity, liberty, family, foster care & adoption.

Barton Stone - "I blush for my fellows who hold up the Bible as the bond of union, yet make their opinions of it a test of fellowship; who plead for union of all Christians, yet refuse to fellowship with such as dissent from their notions. Vain men! Their zeal is not according to knowledge, nor is their spirit that of Christ. Such antisectarian-sectarians are doing more mischief to the cause and advancement of truth, the unity of Christians, and the salvation of the world, than all the skeptics in the world. In fact, they create skeptics."

Alexander Campbell - "We will not hearken to those questions which gender strife, nor discuss them at all. If a person says such is his private opinion, let him have it as his private opinion; but lay no stress upon it; and if it be a wrong private opinion, it will die a natural death much sooner than if you attempt to kill it."

Alexander Campbell - "But men cannot give up their opinions, and therefore, they can never unite, says one. We do not ask them to give up their opinions--we ask them only not to impose them upon others. Let them hold their opinions, but let them hold them as private property. The faith is public property; opinions are, and always have been private property. Men have foolishly attempted to make the deductions of some great minds the common measure of all Christians. Hence the deductions of a Luther, and a Calvin, and a Wesley, have been the rule and measure of all who coalesce under the names of these leaders. It is cruel to excommunicate a man because of the imbecility of his intellect."

Alexander Campbell - "Dear sir, this plan of making our own nest, and fluttering over our own brood; of building our own tent, and of confining all goodness and grace to our noble selves and the "elect few" who are like us, is the quintessence of sublimated pharisaism. The old Pharisees were but babes in comparison to the modern: and the longer I live, and the more I reflect upon God and man--heaven and earth--the Bible and the world--the Redeemer and his church--the more I am assured that all sectarianism is the offspring of hell; and that all differences about words, and names, and opinions, hatched in Egypt, or Rome, or Edinburgh, are like the frolics of drunken men; and that where there is a new creature, or a society of them, with all their imperfections and frailties, and errors in sentiment, in views, and opinions, they ought to receive one another, and the strong to support the weak, and not to please themselves. To lock ourselves up in the bandbox of our own little circle; to associate with a few units, tens, or hundreds, as the pure church, as the elect, is real Protestant monkery, it is evangelical pharisaism."

Alexander Campbell - "I have tried the pharisaic plan, and the monastic. I was once so straight, that, like the Indian's tree, I leaned a little the other way. And however much I may be slandered now as seeking "popularity" or a popular course, I have to rejoice that to my own satisfaction, as well as to others, I proved that truth, and not popularity, was my object; for I was once so strict a Separatist that I would neither pray nor sing praises with any one who was not as perfect as I supposed myself. In this most unpopular course I persisted until I discovered the mistake, and saw that on the principle embraced in my conduct, there never could be a congregation or church upon the earth."

Alexander Campbell - "I have no idea of adding to the catalogue of new sects. I labor to see sectarianism abolished and all Christians of every name united upon the one foundation upon which the apostolic church was founded."

Are there Christians among the sects?

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