A Short(ish) History of the Restoration Movement: Part 5

All right.

So last week I told you that I was going to do some where we are now and where we're headed and that sort of thing.

And I started looking back through some of the stuff, some of my materials, and I found something I wanted to cover and had not done it yet.

And since I'm the teacher and you're not, that's what we're going to do Morning.

Good morning.

No tornadoes out your way this week, right South of you.

Okay, I'm staying away from Monroe County.

This is like becoming Tornado Alley, you know.

By the way, jason and his lovely bride are here on their way back from their honeymoon Hooray, hooray.

So we're going to talk about.

I was looking through this book.

It's called Distant Voices, by a fellow named C Leonard Allen.

Tremendous book and I think, if not next week then the week after, I'm going to put a bibliography up here and I'll put it in the notes to show you the books that I've used, or at least most of the books that I've used for this class.

This is an excellent resource.

By the way, when I was going through the book, I would put little tabs here and there to mark stuff that I wanted to cover in class, and I was going through that yesterday because I was going to put the book away and I found this tab and I said, oh yeah, I was going to do that and I totally forgot.

So we're going to talk about a fellow by the name of Robert Richardson today, but first.

Today, but first, if I can get this to work.

Nothing is happening.

See the lights lighten up.

Nothing's happening.

Name the TV product.

Hold on a minute.

I haven't even got started yet.

Okay, here we go.

See if this works now.

This is still not working.

What is going on here?

I need to have somebody run my PowerPoint for me.

Any volunteers?

All you do is push a button, one button, all right, I don't know what's going on with this, but it ain't working.

Oh, I know why.

Hold on a second.

No, this was unplugged.

I can be a tech guy.

There we go, yeah, literally.

Now, this is not a, this is not a joke, when, when I send an email to our IT guys, you know what they tell me the very first thing unplug it and plug it back in.

Forget the 10 years of college stuff.

All right, so you were right, vegematic, you got it right.

Let's see if you know this one.

What's that Pocket fisherman who thinks he's right?

Oh, yes, the pocket fisherman.

Did you own one of those, did you?

You caught a catfish that big.

How big was it?

Bigger than the rod?

Okay, you caught a catfish that big.

How big was it?

Bigger than the rod?

Bigger than the rod?

Okay, I think that may be a fisherman's story.

Of course, the rod's only this big.

About that one.

What is that you guys watch way too much TV.

I'm telling you that was the new and improved.

Remember the Ginsu 2000?

Better than the 1000, yeah, right.

Or the 2000 BC?

It was made of stone, right?

So how about that one Garden weasel?

Yes, I have one of those.

Actually, mine's broke.

It's down to only two tines now, but of course I ain't throwing it away.

I paid for that thing.

I'm going to use it until it's got nothing left.

What's this one?

You remember this one?

The egg scrambler In the Shell.

Egg Scrambler, which was voted one of the 50 greatest inventions of the 1970s.

What about that one?

What was it?

Bamboo Steamer yes, everybody's got one of these under their sink somewhere, right?

What did you say?

Pizza stone?

Oh yeah, forgot about those, can't?

Yeah, yeah, we now use those as stepping stones to get to the garden.

Last one what's this?

Say it again yes, the smokeless ash tray.

My grandparents had one of these.

My brother and I would just, we've had so much fun with that thing.

So my grandparents okay, grandpa smoked a pipe, grandma smoked Salem's, my aunt smoked Virginia Slim's and my uncle smoked Marlboro's, okay.

So you walked in the house and it was like a blue haze, you know, I mean it was like is that you, grandma?

That is not an exaggeration, I mean, it was just smoke everywhere.

They needed an ashtray about the size of Mississippi to be able to smell all the smoke that they would generate.

Oh, my goodness, I'm lucky I don't have lung cancer.

All right, let's talk about Robert Richardson.

How many have ever heard of Robert Richardson before?

No, that's not his baseball card, he's on the $ dollar bill, he's actually on the four dollar bill.

But uh, 1806 to 1876, this is a long, long time ago.

Who was this guy?

I like his, I like his.

Uh, mutton, chop long.

I mean, remember the guy?

Remember the drummer for, uh, the kentucky headhunters?

He had the long, like it was a beard, but it was just sideburns.

Maybe Mrs Frame would?

No, never mind, she would never let me do that.

What do you think, christy, would that look good?

Long sideburns, no, okay, I could turn them into like ponytails.

Hang on, okay, never mind, never mind.

Now, this comes from this book.

This is chapter 10 of Distant Voices.

Isaiah 10 · chapter mention

He was a very close friend of Alexander Campbell.

He lived in Bethany, where Bethany College is, and he became the editor.

He was not the original editor, but he became the editor of Campbell's periodical, the Millennial Harbinger Remember we talked about that before.

He was the editor.

He also wrote and edited the Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, 1868.

I have a copy of that.

I've read it.

It's quite a book.

It's very big.

In fact, originally it was issued in several volumes.

If you want to borrow it you're welcome to do so.

But he was a very literate man.

He was somebody who understood the Bible.

He's somebody who was well-read.

He understood society as well.

Who was well-read?

He understood society as well.

And he was an educated man, in that he taught chemistry at Bethany for many years.

Okay, so this is no dummy, this is a pretty smart dude.

He wrote a book in 1853.

It wasn't a very big book.

I want to see if I can get a copy of it.

It's called the Principles and Objects of the Religious Reformation.

We would call this the Restoration Movement.

He called it the Reformation and we've talked about the Reformation going back to the 1400s, 1500s.

I don't want to get those mixed up, but that's the term he used.

Principles and Objects of the Religious Re reformation, urged by A Campbell and others, briefly stated and explained.

I mean, that was the thing of the day.

They would have these long, long, long, long titles, and that's what he picked.

So he said here's what I want to do.

I want to go through what are basically the three main principles of the Restoration Movement, and these are the basis upon which we can have true Christian unity.

Okay, and that has been something we've been talking about here for the last, however, many weeks, and we talked about unity over and over and over.

What is it and what does it mean?

And he said I'm going to sit down and define what it means and here's what I think.

I'm going to sit down and define what it means and here's what I think.

When I read this, it just blew me away because it was so simple.

Here's what he says there are three basic principles, and they are these Understanding the distinction between faith and opinion, understanding the difference between Christian faith and doctrinal knowledge, and the restoration of the simple evangelical Christianity as the true basis of Christian unity.

Okay, so he says these are the three basic principles of this movement.

So let's go through these one by one Difference between faith and opinion.

And he says this.

He says Difference between faith and opinion, and he says this.

He says remember, we talked about these different statements that came up, slogans of the restoration movement right, no creed but the Bible.

That was one of them.

Right, no creed but the Bible.

He says that's appropriate, that's an appropriate statement, but what does it mean?

And he says your early church didn't do that.

They didn't have Bibles.

There were none.

They had unity, but it wasn't based on the Bible alone because there were no Bibles.

So what was their unity based on?

Now think about that for a second no creed but the Bible, but they didn't have Bibles.

I mean, what we recognize as the canon of the Bible, the New Testament especially, was not something that was adopted for quite some time, was not something that was adopted for quite some time.

So what was their basis of unity?

He says unity among, or union among, believers in the early church was based on what?

The gospel Alone.

What's the gospel?

Very simple Life, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That's it.

That's what their unity is based on.

1 Corinthians, 15, 3 and 4 says this For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.

That he was buried.

That he was raised the third day in accordance with the Scriptures Period, the end, mic drop, that's it.

That was the basis of their unity.

They all believed the same thing in terms of who Jesus was and what he did.

Do we all believe that?

Sure, we do.

Did the Baptists down the road believe that?

Do the New Day people over, not New Day, the New Point people that meet at Cambridge High School?

Do they believe that?

Do the Methodists believe that?

Yes, yes, they do.

Here's what Richardson said.

Yes, they do.

Here's what Richardson said.

He said the confession I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God should be the only test of unity and orthodoxy.

If you believe that we're united in Christ.

And he says beyond that statement, beyond saying I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, beyond that statement, we should allow each other broad room for opinions, for the growth of your faith and for your biblical understanding, growth of your faith and for your biblical understanding.

In other words, anything beyond that is not a basis for unity, it's a basis for division.

I read that and I said that's ingenious.

Why didn't I see that?

Huh, that's interesting.

In 1853, 175 years ago, matthew 16, 15 through 17.

This is Jesus right, talking to his disciples.

He asked them who do people say that I am?

Some of them said you know well.

Some of them say that you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets, etc.

Etc.

He says, well, yeah, but who do you say I am?

And what did Peter say?

You're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

There's your confession of faith.

And Jesus said to him well, what's your doctrine like?

Is that what Jesus said?

Well, yeah, but what's the name on your building?

Did he say that, yeah, but how are you going to your building?

Did he say that, yeah, but how are you going to sing?

That's what I want to know.

Is that what he said?

What does he say?

Bless her.

You, peter, you got it right.

You got it right.

Acts 8.

I don't want to bore you with this.

I know the font's very small.

I was trying to find a way to fit all this into one.

You all know this story, philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, right?

If you want to know what a eunuch is, talk to Tommy when he gets back.

His other elders are kind of busy, so we don't need to talk about that.

So right.

So their elders are kind of busy, so we don't need to talk about that.

So right, he walks up, the Spirit takes Philip to see the eunuch and the eunuch is stopped in his chariot by the side of the road, reading from the book of Isaiah.

Right Eunuch says to Philip I ask you, of who does this prophet speak?

Himself or some other man?

Philip opened his mouth and preached to him what Doctrine we need to talk about, the kind of building we're going to be in.

Should we or should we not have stained glass?

Is that what he said?

He said you know what?

I'm not sure that songbooks are approved by the scriptures.

What do you think, mr Ethiopian eunuch?

Is that what he said?

He said what name are we going to put on the top of our building?

Because if you want Ethiopian in it, I'm sorry, I cannot have any sort of relation with you.

Is that what he said?

What did he do?

He preached to him what Jesus Christ See here is water.

What hinders me from being baptized?

Philip said to him what, as long as you got your doctrine right, friend, I can believe you, I can baptize you right?

Is that what he said?

What does he say?

If you believe, if you believe, what?

That, jesus, what you just said?

If you, you really believe that, let's go.

Let's get down that water.

I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

That's good enough for me.

Let's go.

Obviously, I don't want to go there, not because it's unimportant, but because I don't want to get off topic.

He preached to him.

Jesus, that's enough for me.

Who led Philip to go to the eunuch?

The Holy Spirit, who do you think is still with him here?

That's pretty good authority for me.

That that's what he needed.

Believing in Jesus, you think the Holy Spirit's going to well.

Philip just didn't understand.

That's enough.

Richardson says the Bible should be our spiritual library.

We ought to read it and we ought to know it Absolutely.

The things that are in there are the test of our Christian knowledge and growth, and it helps us with our faith to grow.

But it's not a standard of Christian union, because doctrinal controversies by their nature serve to divide rather than unite.

Have we not seen that?

Isn't that where we are today?

I found this just absolutely fascinating.

I mean, I about fell out of my chair when I read that and I thought why have I never thought of that before?

I'm a moderately smart guy, you know, and I'll tell you why I didn't see it, because that's not the way I was raised.

That is not the lens through which I see the religious world.

Now, nobody ever put it in these words.

Growing up, I never heard this come from the pulpit, but it was absolutely clearly understood by everyone in that room.

We're the only ones going Because we got the doctrine right and you don't.

It was as clear as day.

It was unwritten and unspoken, but everybody understood it.

That's not what he's saying at all.

So what about doctrinal knowledge?

Oh, debbie.

Debbie Okay.

Doing.

All right, you got an email address, I'll send it to you.

So what does it mean to believe in Christ?

This is I mean.

Again.

I got back in my seat and fell out again because I read this and I said this man's a genius.

I wish I could thank him.

He says this we confuse trust in a living Savior with belief in certain doctrines, with belief in certain doctrines, and we have disunity and conflict with those whose doctrinal beliefs are different.

And here's the problem what you believe becomes more important to us than in whom you believe.

We quiz you coming through the door.

Well, what do you think about this?

What do you think about that?

Trying to figure out, where do you go?

Are you with us or not with us?

Do you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God?

Come on in, man.

Come on in Glad to have you brother, have a seat In the pews that are not talked about in the New Testament at all.

But anyway, that's a whole other issue.

What divides us religiously has nothing to do with in whom we believe.

It has everything to do with what doctrine we believe.

That just blows me away.

He says this Christ is not a doctrine, christ is a person.

Right, christ is a person, not a doctrine.

You have to have a relationship with Jesus.

Can I have a relationship with a doctrine?

No, absolutely not.

He says this listen.

Richardson says listen, christian faith centers on the person of Christ, not on a body of doctrinal knowledge.

And this is the weakness of doctrinal creeds, whether written or unwritten.

Okay, this group has an unwritten.

When I grew up, we had an unwritten creed.

No creed, but the Bible.

But we had a bunch of stuff that everybody was supposed to believe and it wasn't written down.

And if you violated it by golly, you're going to find out.

We confuse correct knowledge of doctrine with a relationship with Jesus.

We think we've got a good relationship with Jesus if we correctly understand church doctrine.

No, no, no, no.

Here's the thing that frightens me to death.

Remember, jesus said on the last day many are going to say to me what, lord, lord, didn't we have pews that faced the right way?

Didn't we have stained glass windows?

Didn't we sing four-part harmony?

Didn't we refuse to call the preacher pastor, didn't we?

And Jesus said to them what?

I didn't know you, that's a relationship word, right, I don't know who you are, who are you?

I don't know who you are when we stand in front of God.

We're not going to get a quiz on doctrine.

Jesus isn't going to ask us what our doctrine is.

God's going to say do you know this man?

Do you know him?

And all the doctrine in the world isn't going to help you if you don't know who he is.

The only true foundation of faith is a deeply personal relationship with Christ, reflected how In a changed inner life and a changed outer life.

I used to hear this sometimes.

I wish he would just get baptized.

All he needs to do is get wet.

He doesn't have to change a thing.

Baloney, baloney, baloney, baloney, baloney, baloney, nonsense.

You have to change everything.

That is a focus on the exterior, a focus on the stuff rather than on the person.

Does that make sense?

So then, this is the third one.

This is the third one that Richardson says.

He says we don't understand the distinction between unity and unity.

We throw these words around and we don't even understand what they mean.

He says unity is a spiritual oneness with Christ.

A spiritual oneness with Christ, we are with him, I am with Christ.

Union is an agreement of cooperation of Christians with each other.

Different, unity is my oneness with Christ.

Union is saying okay, we're going to get along well enough that we can pool our resources and be together in the same building without fighting each other, right?

Richardson also says this.

Universal doctrinal uniformity is simply impossible.

It's not possible.

Partly because of our traditions, and that's a big part of it.

It's our traditions and folks.

There's nothing wrong with tradition.

Tradition is a great thing.

It gives structure to what we believe and what we are.

But structure can go from being a skeleton to being a straitjacket.

We don't recognize what it is, partly because of our traditions, partly because of our human ignorance, because we're people, we can't understand everything correctly.

It's not possible.

You ever changed your mind before, rigo?

I know you've got it all right.

I'm sure that you have never changed your mind before.

Well, karen, has he ever changed his mind?

Yes, occasionally, right, we just we don't know.

There's stuff we just don't know, and we're learning and we're growing, and we change't know.

There's stuff we just don't know, and we're learning and we're growing and we change our minds.

But also our sinful pride gets in the way.

I ain't changing, I ain't going to do that.

This is the way I've always done it and I'm not changing it.

Yeah, we confuse different with wrong, different equals wrong, different with wrong, right Different equals wrong.

You know, doctrinal uniformity between believers in the same denomination or even in the same local church is not possible.

I've said this a couple of times before.

If you went around and asked people in this room what do you think about and you fill in the blank, whatever it is, you would be shocked.

You would fall out of your pew.

If you knew what your fellow believers in here think about some of these issues, you would be shocked.

But I'm not sure that doctrinal uniformity is even desirable.

Why?

What's the slide?

Say You'll never grow If everybody thinks the same.

You'll never grow.

If everybody thinks the same, you'll never grow.

You'll never go beyond what you are today, because no one will ever challenge your thinking, just as your thinking ever get challenged.

Never Did she say.

You could say that.

Oh okay, we need to be able to grow, we need to be able to talk about things and say you know what?

I've been wondering about this.

What do you think?

Well, let's take a look and find out.

Why not Go back to John 17.

This is at the Last Supper and he's praying for his disciples.

You look in verses 20 through 26,.

He asks God to bless them with what Unity To be together.

Nowhere does he mention doctrinal uniformity.

Lord, help them all.

Please sit in a pew that faces forward, instead of those chairs that people like to put in circles.

Doesn't mention that stuff.

What does he want?

You know what?

When somebody is making a dying declaration, this is the lawyer in me coming out.

You ever heard of the hearsay rule?

Right?

This is an out-of-court declaration made to prove the truth of the matter being asserted.

So what did he say to you?

Objection Hearsay.

One of the exceptions to the hearsay rule is a dying declaration, and the assumption is that when people know they're dying, they ain't going to lie.

There's no reason to lie anymore.

You're going to tell the truth.

Tough to cross-examine, which makes it really good if it's in your favor, right, unless you get John Edward in there.

I see a man.

I see a man, anybody, anybody, a man.

So doctrinal uniformity is not what Christ is interested in.

He didn't talk about that at all.

He talks about I want my people to be together.

I want them to be unified.

I want them to be unified with Him, christ, with the Father and with each other through who, the Holy Spirit.

Believe in me, trust the Father and be one through the Spirit.

That's what I want.

Do we ever fight about that?

Do we ever divide over that?

No, what do churches divide over?

Praise team, praise team.

Show me that in the Bible.

You can't show me that in the Bible.

It's not in there.

Oh my goodness, I can't believe One cup.

He said drink ye, all of it.

It's not in there.

Oh my goodness, I can't believe.

One cup.

He said drink ye, all of it.

It is one One cup.

That is it.

I can't be with you people.

That's the stuff, my opinion, the stupid stuff that we divide over.

He says I want them to be one through the Holy Spirit.

Ironically, woody is going to have a lesson about this very thing coming up here in a few minutes.

Now, this is for me and it's in very small font.

I apologize again.

This kind of brings in all the stuff we've been studying for the last three months.

Who's counting?

Three months, three and a half months.

We have two weeks left.

Remember Gutenberg and the Bible.

Publishing the Bible in the German language.

Remember that.

And remember William Tyndall wanting to have the Bible published in English.

Remember all that stuff.

One of the reasons I wanted to go through all that stuff is now the Bible is accessible to an individual in his own language and he doesn't have to go through a priest.

He doesn't have to go through a preacher, he doesn't have to go through a church council.

I've got the Bible here.

I can read it myself in my own language.

This was impossible before.

This is revolutionary, because now I am free to interpret the scriptures myself and nobody else has to tell me.

The mistake the Roman Catholic Church made was believing that if we could keep the Bible out of people's hands, our doctrinal uniformity will equal unity, and it didn't.

The result was people start reading it themselves and they start saying, hey, what about this, hey, what about that?

And you get all sorts of different things going on, all because they could read it themselves in their own language.

And in America this is especially important because, as Americans, we are very independent people.

Right?

Americans are very stubborn people.

I'm going to read it myself and you're not going to tell me what to think.

I've got a brain.

I can figure it out myself, right, sarah?

I don't want to know what you did.

So let's think about this for a minute.

Is Christian union or uniformity possible?

Uniformity, meaning we all believe the same thing.

What's that?

You think we'll all have uniform practices, uniform doctrines oh really.

How come we don't though?

Okay, oh okay.

I don't think it's possible.

Personally there are those who do I just tend to disagree.

I don't think it's possible.

Personally, there are those who do.

I just tend to disagree.

I don't think it's even desirable, quite frankly.

But how do we demonstrate unity with other Christians?

How can we do that?

Say it again, okay, but how do you demonstrate that unity?

You don't attack them at every turn.

Who would do such a thing?

You know, one of the saddest things is Christians fighting Christians.

You know, my goodness, I mean, you've got, as we used to say, a lost and dying world.

And they take a look at these churches that are fighting each other and saying awful, nasty things about each other, and you say, holy cow, why would I want to be a part of that?

Right, and here's what I always felt growing up.

It was not.

Our call to the world was not come and believe in Jesus with us.

It was come and join our team.

Come and join our team.

We're on the right team.

You know, we're on the good team.

Don't get out of that Baptist church.

They're the wrong team, they're the bad guys, right?

Oh?

And those Presbyterians?

Oh my goodness, don't even think, don't even darken their door.

Oh my goodness, so awful.

Join our team.

And it became a matter of rah-rah for us rather than come on, let's all get together for Jesus.

That's how I was raised.

Okay, were they bad people?

No, not at all.

They loved Jesus.

Yes, they did.

People no, not at all.

They loved Jesus.

Yes, they did.

But I think they just had maybe missed a couple of things.

So have we confused doctrinal uniformity with what it means to be a Christian?

Clark is shaking.

I hear it rattling all the way up here.

Clark, all right now, of course, you know, if you say yes, you have to explain why you said yes.

I went back to a good in 1 Corinthians 8-12, where it talks about sinning against the brethren, where it talks about the need to brother, that this idea that we're all the same but the reality is the description tells us that sometimes we believe things differently in our approach.

That has to be christian and there's different beliefs, but we're still unified in christ just where we are in our relationship.

That has to grow.

So sometimes I feel like when you talk uniformity and this idea of just absolute sameness, you're not creating that for growth and maturity or shine or anything.

If you're conscious Christian, I need to appreciate that.

We're human, we're going to have those steps.

I asked you earlier have you ever changed your mind before?

Have you ever changed your mind before?

Have you ever changed?

You may want to rethink that, clark.

Have you ever changed your mind about a religious issue?

Well, wait a minute.

I thought you had it right to begin with, didn't you, didn't you?

I thought you had it right to begin with, didn't you?

I thought you had it right to begin with.

How could you change your mind if you had it right to begin with?

Gary, I've been baptized three times.

Well, I hope number four works.

Why do we feel like grace is going to cover us because we're in the church of Christ and it's not going to cover us Because we're in the church of Christ and it's not going to cover us Because we're right?

This is what I was trying to get at.

Yes, our doctrine is correct.

Therefore, we're in a right relationship with Christ.

And what I was trying to get across to us was doctrine and relationship are not the same thing and they're not even interchangeable.

We mess that up and I become more and more convinced of that.

I've changed my mind religiously.

How's that?

Yes, I want you to say you agree, go ahead.

It's like what you said earlier we're the only ones going.

The last point you have kind of falls along with it, but it's the doctrine-style stuff.

You'll hear a lot of people say things like well, we're just worried about putting our souls in danger and stuff like that.

They'll never say definitively that this is 100% wrong or doing it like this is 100% wrong.

They just say things like well, we just think it's a risk and this and that because those people that say those things never want to be the ones to definitively make the decision, because they don't have any backing to say that if you do it this way, you were wrong, because that is a big pair of pants to put on.

That way, the more ambiguous you remain.

You were never the one that told people if you do it this way, you're completely wrong, when we know they actually think that way.

But if they never officially come out and say it, then they were never the one that made the final decision on that.

Does that make sense?

No but.

I tried to not say that, thanks.

But yes, that's what I mean.

They just kind of leave things ambiguous, but it's kind of that.

You know what I mean.

They just kind of leave things ambiguous, but it's kind of that.

You know what I'm getting at.

Okay, Is this what you're talking about?

Maybe.

I don't know.

Yeah, yes.

I honestly believe if I work on my relationship with Christ, if I get that right, as right as I can as a human being, the other stuff is going to take care of itself.

And I get so concerned.

Instead of saying how can I help you with your relationship, I say let me help you with your doctrine.

I don't want your help with my doctrine.

Look, I need to focus on my relationship with Christ and let the rest take care of itself.

Because when I stand before Christ, it's going to be me, it ain't going to be Cliff who told me some doctrine, it ain't going to be Chuck, it's going to be the framer standing there, and the only thing I need to do is to make sure that when I see Jesus, he says how you doing, gary, good to see you Ain't going to be no quiz about any of the stuff that divides us.

For me as an elder and I learned this from my father-in-law all the decisions we make and we make lots and lots of decisions all the decisions that I make one thing in the back of my mind is what does this do to our unity as Christians, our union as Christians?

What does it do If it negatively affects it?

I don't want to do it, because that's the last thing Jesus prayed for.

I want them to be together, and anything that's going to mess with my faith, my relationship with Jesus, I don't want to have anything to do with it.

Does that make sense?

All right, let me blow your mind with one last question.

Are there Christians outside the churches of Christ?

Are you serious?

Look at Mo oh, growing up.

The unspoken answer was absolutely 100% not.

And even within the Church of Christ there are some that are probably on the outside looking in because their doctrine's not right.

That's how I was raised.

I'll be back Only in reruns Next week.

I promise we will start looking at where we are today, what stuff divides us today and what stuff may divide us in the future.

And then the last class that we're going to do.

What I plan to do is to spend some time talking about what you've learned in this long four-month class.

What have you learned, what things have surprised you, what things did you not know before, and how is it going to help you in the future to be a better Christian?

That's what I want to talk about in a couple of weeks, okay, and then we're going to wrap it up For the summer, for June and July, we're going to have something like we've had before, where we have different guys come up and give you a lesson on their favorite Bible chapter.

Okay, I am not in that group, I opted out.

So, yes, but don't worry, in the fall I'll be back.

All right, you've been a good class.

We'll see you next week.