Confessions of A Church of Christ Boy

 CONFESSIONS OF A CHURCH OF CHRIST BOY

 

            Since my earliest memory as a child, I cannot remember when the Church of Christ's doors were open that my family and I were not there. When there were Church meetings, we went every night. My father was an elder for 26 years, and I was always expected to be a certain level better than just 'good.'

            I was baptized in the Church of Christ when I was 10 years old. I was not quite 11, but I remember it clearly. When I came up out of the water, I felt very different. I no longer wanted to sneak cigarettes with the other boys in my school class, and no longer cared if the 'cool' boys used profanity, and I did not. I did not know what changed, but I did change. I knew what I was doing and why. I remember how excited I was to take my first communion on Sunday morning.

            I am so thankful that I was raised in the Church of Christ. My mother and father ensured that I attended every VBS and every Sunday School. I attended song leading school camp every summer. I started leading singing on Sunday nights when I was in high school. I was in band in public school and (later) in university and knew how to read music. I also enjoyed setting pitch, loudness, and tempo.

Recollecting, what really benefited my religious upbringing was Sunday School classes. My memory is that I listened to the sermons raptly until I was about 15 years old. My Bible Studies had begun to cause me to question some things said during sermons occasionally. I was taught that dancing, any alcohol consumption, missing Church, singing hymns with an instrument, and touching girls was evil, causing me to sin and go to hell. Most of the teaching, as I grew older, seemed to emphasize how many things there were that could send me to hell. These recollections could be flawed and may have been my misunderstanding; yet I never thought so. I think I heard more sermons on how hot hell was than how excellent Heaven would be.

                        In retrospect, when I was younger, I think our preachers were less strident and more tolerant teachers. At any rate, by the time I reached 17, I began to seriously question some of these 'go straight to hell teachings.' I started using a concordance and studying issues. I brought many questions up to my father and my Bible teachers. The answers were always the same; no, the Bible does not strictly prohibit drinking alcohol (or dancing, or singing with an instrument), but doing any of that could lead to deeper and darker sin until I was lost to God forever. I do not remember being taught about the 'free gift of eternal life,' or being saved by Grace. It was always about being saved by punching an invisible salvation card, checking off the things I did not do, and the 'approved' things I did. By the time I graduated from High School, I had reached the point that, while believing in God, I felt there was no point in trying to go to Heaven because I could never be good enough. I even had thoughts (really!) that the only way I could make it would be to have a chance to ask forgiveness for my sins moments before I died. I did not know I was flirting with the legalistic Catholic view of 'Last Rites.' I reached the point that I did not want to believe in a God that was so intolerant and mean.

            When I started attending Abilene  Christian University, I kept asking many questions, and much of my education came from my dormitory peers from Churches of Christ from all over the state, nation, and world. I was afraid to ask my Bible teachers, thinking I would get the same old answers. Even though I struggled, I never stopped reading my Bible and eventually minored in Bible at ACU (21 hours). For the first time, I understood that very little of my teaching as a youth was from the Old Testament. I remember sermons that taught the OT was done away with when Jesus died on the cross, but not much else.   Old Testament Survey at ACU opened my eyes to the importance of studying the Old Testament.  I hope to write more on that later. Undoubtedly, ACU saved my spiritual life and put it on the right track.

            When I asked questions about verses that seemed to contradict the church's teaching in my home church, I remember being told, "Well, we know it says that, but that is not what it means." Eventually, as I grew spiritually in the Lord, with increased Bible study, I decided that if I am in a discussion with anyone who tells me that scripture does not mean what it says, I no longer have a spiritual conversation with that person. I tell them I believe every word in the Bible, and as written in the original language, it means precisely what it says. I may not understand it; we may disagree on what it means, but it is still perfect in its origin. I have chosen for many years to believe the Bible means exactly what is written. I still do.

            At ACU, I heard for the first time about the Restoration Movement and what it means to the Church of Christ. In my Junior year, I made friends with a Bible Major with whom I became lifelong friends. I spent many hours with him in deep discussion. When he taught me about salvation by Grace, the scales fell from my eyes for the first time, and I learned about a God who loved me and wanted to catch me doing good instead of evil. I learned about a God who came to earth as a man, died on the cross, and took ALL of my sins on Himself forever so I could have salvation by Grace, a watershed moment in my spiritual life.

            I learned that as His child, my God loves me unconditionally, and I found that the Bible says He wants all who would come to Him to be saved. I was relieved to know that as His child, eternal life was mine and no one could take that away from me. What joy that was!

            My journey with church history started with a college class and continued to the present. For many years, my heart has been broken for the Lord who died on the cross for me; my studies showed humanity had begun corrupting His Church, which started just 3 or 4 generations after the Apostles were gone. Good people frequently tried to reform the corruption, and many were burned at the stake and persecuted. Then the reformers began attacking anyone who questioned their reform. After constantly repeating this process, the Stone-Campbell movement finally said, "Enough!" So, in the eighteenth century, the Stone-Campbell-Movement picked up steam and became a major church movement. It was a grand time for SCM. Alexander Campbell dined with presidents and once gave a sermon at a joint session of the US Congress. Campbell believed that so many churches were adopting the principles of the SCM that Jesus was returning soon.

            The beauty and unity of the SCM lasted until the American Civil War concluded, and then Alexander Campbell died. Barton Stone had gone to be with the Lord years before. At this time, bickering began in earnest. Church splits abounded. The grand slogan of "We speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent," was beautiful in its origin; yet it became the destroyer of unity. Reuel Lemmons, in 1986, said at an ACU Lectureship that most of the divisions in the SCM have been over that slogan. He said that it may be time to revisit slogans. I agree. I like some slogans, such as "Christians Only,” “No Creed But Christ,” and “In Faith Unity, In Opinions Liberty, and In All Things Love."

            With a very sad 'however', I have come to believe we need to dissolve all slogans and go back to the Bible only. Slogans seem only to become battering rams between believers. So, I now tell people when asked about a slogan, "I do not believe in slogans, but only in the Bible." When asked what Church I belong to, I answer, "The one Divine Church of my Lord Jesus Christ."

            My path has often not been a straight line. I have made many mistakes and sinned. For those mistakes, God knows I have repented. I am so fortunate to know God has forgiven every one of my infractions against His will. I am also pleased to say that I have always been a member of a Restoration Movement Church.

            After publishing two books on the subject, and at nearly 80 years old, I can humbly say, “I am still just that Church of Christ boy who loves Jesus.”

 

Robert Lee Hurley, Retired Atascosa County Judge

      Author of “Restoring the Restoration,” What Went Wrong?

            And, a historical novel “The Life of the Apostle Philip

            Email: hurley6469@gmail.com

            Phone: 830-200-8744

 

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