Pulpit Exchange

It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching tosave them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21)So they read in the book in the law of God distinct-ly, and gave the sense, and caused them to under-

stand the reading. (Nehemiah 8:8) Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneththe countenance of his friend. (Proverbs 27:17)

Volume 1, No. 8 Issue # 8

This is a history subject. Wehope and trust our leaders have atleast an interest in history. I feelrather seriously that eve r yordained person should have atleast a working knowledge ofhistory and have a number ofbooks in their libraries whichthey can study, and for some, wemight say, some recreationalreading when the work getsheavy. It is interesting to go back

and read how others faced theissues. There is really not toomuch new that we face in churchlife that was not faced or prece-dented somewhere in church his-tory.

In the subject of this nature,where would we go in our libraryfor a reference in history. Thereis much related to this subject inbooks. I would like to suggest afew that I think should be in our

The

IN THIS ISSUE

The Background of the“Garden City Confession of Faith”

History

The Background of the“Garden City Confession of Faith 149

Book Reprint

One Hundred Lessons In Bible Study 169

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Vol. 1 No. 8. The Pulpit Exchange is a compilation of written sermonswithout commentary, published as often as possible, in the interests of pro-moting sound preaching in our conservative Anabaptist churches. All ser-mons have been transcribed and printed with permission. Names areremoved so that we can focus on the message and content rather than on acertain speaker or style. (Names will be published in the next issue).

Messages have been selected on the basis of topic rather than the speak-er. Messages have been selected from congregations or speakers within theBerea Amish Mennonite Fellowship, Conservative Mennonite Church ofOntario, Conservative Mennonite Churches of York and Adams Counties,PA., Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church, Mennonite ChristianFellowship, Nationwide Fellowship Churches, Ohio Wisler Mennonite,Washington-Franklin Mennonite Conference, and certain selected unaffili-ated Amish Mennonite congregations.

We welcome submission of recorded sermons, topics, school meetings,writer’s meetings, and special conferences by ministry and laity (whererecording is permitted) provided permission has been obtained by thespeaker for the recording. Submissions must have a title, the name of thespeaker and the congregation responsible for recording (date would behelpful).

Published by Door of Peace Publications/Les Éditions «Porte-de-Paix» aconservative Amish Mennonite/Anabaptist publisherc/o Keith G. White, P.O. Box 104, Blyth, Ontario Canada N0M 1H0

Cost per Issue $4.95 + $2.50 p& h Canada/ $3.50 p& h USA

libraries. The Conference historybooks, for instance, prov i d eglimpses into these subjects anderas of time. Every Conferencehistory book has a few differentdetails and perhaps a little differ-ent perspective. A number ofthose are still available andreprinted. These should be in ourlibraries. The biographies of pastMennonite leaders, such as TheLife and Times of DanielK a u ff m a n by Alice Gingerich(that is a collector’s item) and

Faithfully, George R. (which isstill available). If that one is notin your library, it should be.Every one of these provides a lit-tle more detail. There is the firstbound volume of The Sword andTrumpet perhaps those are notavailable, and perhaps aga i nsome would be here and there.These books broaden our per-spective of the issues at hand.

It is not so much what we gainabout historical knowledge thatincreases and helps us to know

what happens, but as we relate itto the issues of today. I feel inmy ministry I have gained a lotfrom reading, to broaden my per-spective on things and issues weface today. As we study history,there is certainly a risk in this.There is some very sensitiveground. We are studying aboutpeople and churches of the past,which brings some positive andnegative information to the sur-face. This is true with our sub-ject today, The Garden CityConfession of Faith.

Perhaps you expected me tocome with a completely positivemessage. I will not do that. Iwant to stay as positive as possi-ble. I appreciate the Garden CityConfession that is included in ourdiscipline booklets. Yet, there issome church history connected tothis, and some repercussions, orresults, in the following yearsthat we are still seeing and livingwith and perhaps have separatedourselves from.

I have a few more thoughts inintroduction. The Garden CityConfession was formulated in1921 at the Mennonite GeneralConference session, A u g u s t24–26. This conference was heldat Garden City, Missouri. This iswhy it is called the Garden CityConfession. If we look in ourdiscipline books (at least in ourparticular church) most of the

later Mennonite groups do sub-scribe to this. The official namewas The ChristianFundamentals. There is a certainreason and body of thought thatgives it that name which we willtouch on a bit later.

The Confession has eighteenarticles of faith. The originalwork of this confession was doneby a committee of the VirginiaConference. It was formulatedby J. B. Smith primarily, andG e o rge R. Brunk and A. D.We n g e r, and was adopted inOctober 1919 by the Vi rg i n i aConference under the title of TheArticles of Faith of the VirginiaConference. Later it was pre-sented and adopted by theMennonite General Conference.

I suppose we know what thatterm means. We are not talkingabout G e n e ral Confere n c eMennonites, which was the liber-al branch of the Mennonitechurch that had separated in themid 1800’s. The MennoniteGeneral Conference was anarrangement or organization ofwhat we call the Old MennoniteConferences including most ofthe Conferences. The EasternConferences of Lancaster,Franconia and Wa s h i n g t o nCounty Maryland, FranklinCounty Pennsylva n i aConferences did not participatein this, but perhaps sent dele-

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gates. However, the influence ofthat work did reach all theEastern Conferences.

This Garden City Confessionof Faith, was not intended toreplace the older confessionswhich we know as T h eSchleitheim (formulated in 1527)and The Dortrecht (formulated in1632). It was rather an effort tounite the Church upon theAnabaptist base related to newissues and challenges. What weare looking at today is really aperiod of about 50 years ofchurch history from 1880 toabout 1930. We will rememberthis as the period that is calledThe Great Aw a ke n i n g. T h erepercussions of this and how itaffected the Mennonite churchcame to a head, or a literary con-clusion, in the confession of faiththat we are looking at.

The issue at hand, in a nut-shell, that produced this confes-sion is what is called T h eF u n d a m e n t a l i s m / M o d e r n i s mc o n t rov e rs y that had made itsinroads into the MennoniteChurch. It started in the broaderProtestant level, and this confes-sion of faith, was intended topurge the church of a blight, andreunite her in a common faithand practice. This goal, we willsadly note was never fullyaccomplished, as we read furtherin history. The primary causes of

this infection have never beenfully corrected, but we do consid-er this confession a noble effortin working with the problem, butit was never fully corrected. As Imentioned, there were broadercurrents of thought that weremoving the Mennonite Church ina different direction. T h e s eefforts finally did not completelyturn those, and maybe even laidthe ground work for future andwidespread apostasy which final-ly mushroomed in the late 40’s,50’s and 60’s.

Most of us today are part ofwhat we call the revival groups.In this, we want to express ourappreciation for the OldConference efforts in bringingthe church through those years.We believe that today we benefitfrom what has been done in thepast and we do not want to becritical about that. The so-calledGreat Awakening had ushered ina time of change, and in theprocess of being awakened thechurch had opened up channelsof communication and influencewith the Protestant world. Thisinfluence came primarily throughthe realms of mission and educa-tion.

The church was beginning todraw from men, and placing meninto leadership positions who hadbeen educated in the Protestantuniversities of the land, especial-

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ly universities such as Princetonof New Jersey and Moody BibleInstitute of Chicago. As we readhistory, most of the Prominentleaders of the Great Awakeninghad been educated there. Thatperhaps, could have been over-come in itself, but now they werefaced with contending with thisinfluence. We know that out ofthis concern and turmoil, grewthe Old Order groups (that is notour subject but which we alsohave an appreciation for) as theanswer or remedy they applied tothis era of turmoil. This howev-er, is getting a little ahead of ourstory.

The Biblical precedent forconfessions of faith. We alsowant to look briefly at the his-toric foundation as it relates tosome other confessions of faith.Then I want to look at the sur-rounding circumstances of the1921 Garden City Confession.We believe that confessions offaith and statements of thechurch do have a precedent in theScripture as found in Acts 15.The Anabaptist church was notcredal as such. It did not special-ize in statements and confes-sions. However, they did have af ew that were formulated andapplied especially to particularproblems in uniting the church.This is interesting compared towhat is happening today in the

Mennonite church at large, in thenew confession of faith that is ajoint effort between the GeneralConference Mennonites and theMennonite Conferences. It is notreally being formulated to correctissues and to unite the church ona Biblical basis, but it is beingformed rather to catch up to theapostasy that has saturated it andovercome the Mennonite church-es.

In Acts 15 there was a problemat hand and the Church looked atit and dealt with it. They deliv-ered “decrees for to keep,” (Acts16:4) which we believe doeshave the weight of a confessionof faith or a church discipline aswe are looking at it today. “Andcertain men which came downfrom Judaea taught the brethren,and said, Except ye be circum-cised after the manner of Moses,ye cannot be saved. When there-fore Paul and Barnabas had nosmall dissension and disputationwith them, they determined thatPaul and Barnabas, and certainother of them, should go up toJerusalem unto the apostles andelders about this question. . . Butthere rose up certain of the sectof the Pharisees which believed,saying, That it was needful to cir-cumcise them, and to commandthem to keep the law of Moses. .. And after they had held theirpeace, James answered, saying,

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Men and brethren, hearken untome. . . But that we write untothem, that they abstain from pol-lutions of idols, and from forni-cation, and from things strangled,and from blood. . . Then pleasedit the apostles and elders, withthe whole church, to send chosenmen of their own company toAntioch with Paul and Barnabas;n a m e l y, Judas surnamedBarsabas, and Silas, chief menamong the brethren: And theywrote letters by them after thismanner. . . And as they wentthrough the cities, they deliveredthem the decrees for to keep, thatwere ordained of the apostles andelders which were at Jerusalem.And so were the churches estab-lished in the faith, and increasedin number daily.” (Acts 15:1, 2,5, 13, 19, 20, 22; 16:4, 5)

These letters, or these writingsthat defined a position of theChurch were helpful in establish-ing the Church, and in strength-ening the stakes and lengtheningthe cords. Notice verse 2 espe-cially. There was dissension anddisputation. The matter was seri-ous. These things will enter intothe Church life. They are notalways related to carnality, butbecause of new issues whicharise. This was true in the 1921Confession of Faith and the otherconfessions. There were press-ing issues at hand and they rec-

ognized this as a problem andworked with it while there wasyet hope of unity on the question.

In verse 6, the matter wa sbrought to the ministerial counselat Jerusalem. In all of our con-fessions, the Schleitheim, theDortrecht, the Garden City, therewas a gathering of the ministry toconsider these problems. We seethat in verse 6, the apostles andelders gathered for this. In verse22 it does extend that appoint tothe whole Church, but in myunderstanding this was formulat-ed and decided by the apostlesand elders, and the whole churchwas satisfied with the decision.They brought it before the coun-sel. For instance, in Dortrecht,Holland there were fi f t y - o n eministry who met to formulateand approve that confession offaith.

Notice in verse 22 and verse31 the Church was satisfied andunified. It is important that in allof our ministerial work and deci-sion that the church is satisfied.This does not say that we shouldcompromise, but we do need tohave a way to have the churchs a t i s fied and at peace. Webelieve that in the context of aspiritual church setting this canhappen when the ministry has thecause of the church at their heartand the church wants what isright. This is a combination that

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can send peace and satisfactionthroughout the churches.

We believe these confessionshave helped to do that as we havestudied them in history. Then inActs 16:4, the decision or decreewas delivered to the church, andnot only delivered, but “for toke e p .” A gain, in history, themost value that has come fromthese meetings and declarationswas that when they went to thechurches for to keep. It is rela-tively easy to draw up statementsand confessions and even topreach how it should be, but thekeeping part about it invo l ve spersonal work, discipline andsometimes disassociations, relat-ed to individuals and churches.We read this in history as well.

For instance, after the GardenCity Confession was adopted,there were a few churches thatwere dissociated from va r i o u sConferences because of theirlack of interest and support forthe Garden City Confession. Webelieve this, “for to keep,” is partof the unifying and the interestthat we must have in this work.This gives a little background ofwhat I would call the Biblicalprecedence for this.

The historic foundation forconfessions of faith. This mes-sage is not one on confessions offaith, but we cannot study theGarden City Confession without

looking at the former ones,because the Garden CityConfession was not intended toreplace the Dortrecht or theSchleitheim Confessions. Infact, it says this in our introduc-tion to the Garden CityConfession. “This statement weaccept as our creed. We alsoh ave an appreciation for theSchleitheim (1527) andDortrecht (1632) Confessions ofFaith.” There is a larger pream-ble to this which is not includedhere, but it specifically said, “It isnot to replace, but it is rather toapply the principles of those con-fessions to the issues that arefaced in that present day.”

I mentioned earlier that theAnabaptists were not known as acredal church. The Romanchurch was known as a church ofcreeds and statements, but theAnabaptists practiced what theybelieved rather than specializingin saying or writing what theyb e l i eved. How eve r, they pro-duced some confessions of faithfor particular reasons. When wecompile the writings of theAnabaptists (the earlyMennonites) there are quite afew. They are however, morerelated to holy living and practi-cal obedience and applications tothe Word, not so much on theo-logical treatises of these subjects.That is one difference between

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the Protestant and the Anabaptistview of the Scriptures.

The Schleitheim Confessionwas formulated in 1527. It isinteresting as we study the histo-ry of this that it was producedbecause of some differences thathad already occurred whichcaused disturbances. They men-tion the presence of fa l s ebrethren. That is only a yearafter the Anabaptist Church hadb egun. I quote from T h eDoctrines of the Mennonites by J.C. Wenger. This is not his writ-ing, but is part of the preamble ofthe Schleitheim Confession,

“A very great offense has beenintroduced by certain fa l s ebrethren among us, so that somehave turned aside from the faith,in the way they intend to practiceand observe the freedom of theSpirit and of Christ. But suchhave missed the truth and to theircondemnation are given over tol a s c iviousness and self-indul-gence of the flesh. They thinkfaith and love may do and permitanything and nothing will harmthem nor condemn them sincethey are believers.”

There is more to this, but thatis the background of theSchleitheim Confession.

It continues at the end,“Dear Brethren and sisters in

the Lord! These are the articlesof certain brethren who had

heretofore been in error and whohad failed to agree in the trueunderstanding so that many weakconsciences were perplexe dcausing the name of God to beslandered. Therefore, there hasbeen a great need for us tobecome of one mind in the Lord,which has come to pass. To Godbe praise and glory.”

Sometimes we think and saythat persecution purges thechurches (which it does) but inthe midst of this centre, and thebeginning of persecution, therewere many false brethren. Thechurch was faced with the duty ofdefining the faith and the practiceof her people. The SchleitheimConfession did this. Sattler ofcourse compiled this and hewrote in his farewell letter beforebeing martyred, “Remember ourassembly and strictly follow thatwhich was resolved there.” Hewrote that to his people. TheSchleitheim Confession broughtsome rest and definition (wemight say) of the faith to theearly Anabaptist church.

I am simple enough to believethat the repercussions and effectsof this Schleitheim Confessionreach us today. What if thechurch would not have definedand dealt with the false brethrenat that point? Would there be aMennonite Church today? OnlyGod knows this, but those are

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small steps that lead a movementone direction or another. I praisethe Lord for the insights and dis-cernments of brethren even atthat early time, who were notconcerned primarily about thesafety of their own bodies butwere concerned for the welfareof the Church, and the infantchurch we might say.

The Dortrecht Confessioncame from a gathering held atDort, Holland in 1632. This iswhy it is called The DortrechtConfession. This confession alsowas a climax of, and an effort toamend the differences theFlemish and the Frisian elementsof the Dutch Mennonites. Thishad risen to a rather high level ofconflict. The original signerswere fifty-one ministers. TheReformed ministry of the landprotested this extraordinary gath-ering of Anabaptists (as theycalled it). They knew that theywere meeting and they protestedit but the work went through. Iwant to quote something aboutthis too. This confession wasformulated for a reason. This isthe postscript to the DortrechtConfession.

“But finally, alas! There arosedisunion amongst them aboutmatters of faith, which so deeplygrieved the peaceably disposedamongst them, that they not onlythought about means to heal the

schism, and restore union, butdid also take the matter in hand .. . [which led to these meetings] .. . Which was then accordinglydrawn up, publicly adopted, con-firmed, signed, the so muchwished for peace obtained, andthe light again put on the candle-stick, to the honor of the nonre-sistant Christianity.”

The Dortrecht Confession wasaccepted in a joint session of theLancaster and FranconiaConferences in 1725. This also,of course, affected what was hap-pening, and beginning to happenin the Wa s h i n g t o n / F r a n k l i nConference which was we mights a y, a child of the LancasterConference up to a point.

The purpose and use of confes-sions of faith. This wo u l dinclude the Garden CityConfession. I have five reasonslisted how they were used and thepurpose for them. 1) As aresponse to unScriptural influ-ences upon the Church. All ofthe confessions of faith before1950 are related to some particu-lar church issue. This changed ofcourse after. In other words, thelater confessions, even the 1963[not the Hartville restatement] isa movement in another directionto try to accommodate more ofthe apostasy that was creepinginto the church.

2) It was used as instrumental

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tools for the instruction of they o u t h. Perhaps some of youolder brethren would rememberwhen the confession of faith wasused as the main text for theinstruction of the youth. Thiswas a very helpful instrument.

3) As a witness to the faith andsociety in general. In colonialAmerica, some of the Germanwritings and the DortrechtConfession were translated intoEnglish to give the use in thecommunity so that the English-speaking people would knowmore about the Mennonite wayof life. This was a very nobleinterest and effort.

4) It was used as a means ofdefining the differences betweench u rch denominations andgroups. This is especially true inthe one we are studying today.These confessions helped tomaintain the line of separationbetween the Anabaptists and theProtestant churches at larg e .When that line is obliterated (orwe might say becomes fa i n t )there is a real danger that tends tomove in and rend the Anabaptistgroups.

5) As an effort to unify thechurch in matters of faith andpractice. The other ones wereespecially given to practicalapplications.

I want to move into the nextpart of this message, especially

relating now to the 1921 confes-sion of faith. T h eM o d e r n i s m / F u n d a m e n t a l i s mControversy. This raged aroundthe turn of the century and hadm oved into the Mennonitechurch. In the latter third of the1800’s there was the rise of evo-lutionary theory in the scientificworld, and the rise of higherBiblical criticism in the religiousworld. We remember men likeDarwin who were motiva t o r s ,and we might say, “hatched” outthe evolutionary theory in the late1 8 0 0 ’s. The higher Germanthought was bearing on the uni-versities and colleges of our landthat had Biblical studies. It iscalled higher criticism. Thesenew philosophies challenged thesupernatural origin of the earthand the accuracy of the Bible,and were moving into the church.Those who favoured the adapta-tion of religious beliefs to thisnew modern thought were called“Modernists.”

Sometimes we think ofModernists today as people whowant to be modern. This termmeans more than that, and itrelates to theological thought pat-terns. T h ey were called“ M o d e r n i s t s .” Modernisticthought included (and stillincludes) the denial of the virginbirth of Christ, His miracles, Hisbodily resurrection and the shed-

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ding of His blood on Calvary as ameans of atonement. We mightsay it was a radical movementthat was beginning — had itsbirth — in that era of time and itstill has its repercussions and itsdisciples today.

This modernistic thought wasa ffecting most denominationsand in a measure was beginningto affect the Mennonite church.The dissemination of this philos-ophy was done primarily throughthe colleges and universities ofthe land. In fact, this is how theMennonites were introduced toit. When we study, for instance,what we call the Goshen contro-versy (Goshen College was achild of the Mennonite church)and how it was closed in 1923because of modernistic men andfaculty. Those men were trainedat the feet of these professors inthese colleges and universities ofthe land.

I want to quote something thatwas taken out of the book calledThe Mennonite Church andCurrent Issues written by DanielKauffman [in 1923] to give us alittle bit of an idea. He givestwelve points of the modernisticthought, then he says this,

“Me thinks, I hear someones a y, ‘surely there are noMennonites who reject the fun-damentals of the Christian faith,’put in this form the question

might be answered, ‘no.’ Youwould have to go a long way tofind a communicant member ofthe Mennonite church whowould openly reject the doctrineof the inspiration of the Scriptureand so on. But you find then, anastonishing large percentage ofthose who within the past tenyears have attended colleg e s ,u n iversities and seminaries ofliberal leanings who are weakenough on the fundamentals ofthe Christian faith that they sel-dom, if ever, defend them exceptin a general way. We seem tohave a greater relish for liberalis-tic literature than for the writingsof those who are outspoke nagainst modernism, who mani-fest a greater friendliness towardo u t s p o ken champions of mod-ernism than toward those of theirown brethren who discern thesigns of the time and are warningour people [about the] dangersconfronting us. Unless theMennonite Church takes aneffort and begins at once a vigor-ous policy of conservation of theold orthodox faith and of ouryoung people for this fa i t h ,another decade will find uswhere many of the popularchurches have gone.”

This gives us an idea of thethought patterns and the contro-versy that was within theMennonite church. There was an

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effort to try to stall this. Wemust remember that theMennonite Church at this time(around the 20’s — the early partof the Twentieth Century) wasalso in an acculturation processthat was not related necessarilyto this theological movement. Instudying this, it seems to me thatsome of the blame of what washappening in the Mennonitechurch, was placed at the feet ofModernism when really it wasmerely catering toward worldli-ness that was not necessarilydriven by theological movement.Perhaps this was confused a bit,to the damage of the Mennonitechurch in that evaluation process.

The trends of apostasy andworldliness were stirring up thec o n s e r va t ive elements of thechurch. I mentioned GoshenCollege that was staffed with lib-eral modernistic men. By 1923,the problem had grown to a levelwhere the college was closed forone year. This is the modernisticside of it.

The other part is what we callF u n d a m e n t a l i s m. In studyingh i s t o r y, I believe that theFundamentalist influence wa smore critical to the church thanthe modernistic point.Fundamentalism was a defenseagainst modernism and this was aProtestant movement. Today westill have Fundamentalism. It

still is a threat to the church.This was a Protestant movementthat was interdenominational. Itwas an effort to strengthen thesimple fundamental truths of theGospel. In 1919 the Wo r l dChristian FundamentalsAssociation was formed andbegan to have large campaignsand movements that went outacross the nation to rally the sup-port of the people against mod-ernistic thought. We do notdespise them in this, for whatthey did.

This emphasis appealed to theMennonites for which we canunderstand. It was the emphasison Biblical inerrancy and strictadherence to basic beliefs thatcorrespond with whatMennonites believe. They beganto absorb (we might say gobble itup) and support it. However,there was a group of discerningMennonites who soon realizedthat they were not comfortablewith the Fundamentalist thought.This was not so much in whatthey said and professed, but inwhat they omitted in their theolo-gy. I am thankful that there werediscerning men of that time whodid not identify with the funda-mental movement that was com-batting modernism.

Yes, the Mennonites were alsoconcerned about the same thingsthe Fundamentalists were, but,

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the threat of Fundamentalism atthis point, was therefore perhapsequally or more dangerous thanthe threat of modernism. This istrue in our setting today. Anexample of this is the subject ofCreationism today. We believe inCreation also, but we are notCreationists. We do not followCreationism. I fear again theFundamentalists are reachinginto our circles through litera-ture, and perhaps tapes, sayingthings that we like to hear, andthat we believe. However, whatthey do not say is what is so dam-aging to our thought patterns.This was true in this setting aswell.

There is an article in the boundS w o rd and Tr u m p e t by J. L.Stauffer that was written in theearly 30’s. He identified the dif-ferences that were becomingmore clear as time went along —their belief in Eternal Security,and especially their non adher-ence to the doctrine of noncon-formity and Nonresistance.There was also the patriotism inWorld War I. While this contro-versy was raging, theFundamentalists were ready tosend their young men out andfight against the enemy. SecretSocieties, infant baptism orimmersion, are all subjects, or wemight say beliefs, that bring theline of separation between

Protestantism and A n a b a p t i s minto sharp focus. The confessionwhich we are looking at, wemight say, established anAnabaptist/Mennonite positionthat brought into focus the threatsof Modernism and the threats ofFundamentalism.

I want to mention a very sensi-tive one here related to this con-troversy and that is the propheticissue [eschatology]. One of thebeliefs and promotions of theFundamentalists was what iscalled Dispensationalism, or thedeferred, or postponed kingdomidea. This fit in with the broaderPremillennial thought, but it wasan extension, we might say, ofthis. Fundamentalism brought anincreased interest in propheticstudy. It is interesting how theMennonite church at large relat-ed to this. There were a fewConferences which (at least Ik n ow that Franconia had form a ny years [and so does theWashington/Franklin CountyConference]) ruled against thatparticular prophetic thought orposition of Premillennialism.The larger Mennonite responsewas that they did not prohibit theprophetic interest or necessarilyestablish a prophetic position.Rather they strongly resisted theclearly unscriptural aspects of themovement, which was the post-ponement theory, that led to a

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donning of the Scriptures —placing certain parts of the NewTestament in a distant era — aprophetic era — the future. Thisdefinitely was unscriptural. AndI am thankful at least that theChurch dealt with this. Theywere able to get a hold of anunscriptural element of thisprophetic issue and deal stronglywith it (like the Mennonite posi-tion against the Scofield Bible).That was a universal applicationthat crossed the prophetic views,and we are glad for that. Webelieve that we are still reaping inthat. Also, the Fundamentalcreeds established or mandatedthe Premillennial view.

I appreciate what they did inthe statement on The SecondComing in the Garden CityConfession [Article XVI]. Thiswas written in a time of very seri-ous discussion and conflict onprophetic issues. This particularconfession did not bring thoseconflicts into focus. However, itgave a general and direct teach-ing on this.

“We believe in the personal,imminent coming of our Lord asthe blessed hope of the believer;that we who are alive and remain,together with the dead in Christwho will be raised, shall becaught up to meet the Lord in theair and thus ever be with theLord.”

Is that Amillennial orPremillennial? I think the churchwisely came up with a statementthat brought some rest to that.However, in the other writings,they strongly resisted the direct,unscriptural views that had comewith this prophetic view.

Sometimes we hear commentsthat this or that view is wrong orright because of where it camefrom. Some of this did comefrom Moody Bible Institute andsome of the renewed interest inprophetic study as the end timeage crept in. However, I say this,we can be at least thankful inspite of what they did not do, oreven in light of our propheticview, that the Mennonite churchdealt with the prophetic issue andstamped out the postponementtheory and would not ally to theScofield Bible. I would say thatwas looking at an issue at least ina measure that I am thankful fortoday.

The answer of the Mennoniteswas to formulate a confession offaith of their own that touchedboth of these questions. I want topoint out especially a number ofthese articles that were dealingwith the issues of the day. ArticleI, “The Word of God.” “Webelieve in the plenary and verbalinspiration of the Bible as theWord of God.” Was that address-ing the Modernistic or the

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Fundamentalistic threat — whichwas it? The Modernistic. Lookat Article III. There is a reasonwhy this is in because of the evo-lutionary theory. “We believethat the Genesis account of theCreation is a historic fact and lit-erally true.” Article V, Of JesusChrist, spells out, or mentions,His conception by the Holy Spiritand the virgin birth. All thosewere raging issues of the day.The church defined theMennonite, Biblical position onthat, but they did not stop there.

Here is where theFundamental creeds would havestopped. Look at Article X, “OfS e p a r a t i o n ,” Article XI, “OfD i s c i p l i n e ,” Article XII, “OfO r d i n a n c e s ,” Article XII, “OfR e s t r i c t i o n s ,” all those andArticle XIV, “Of A p o s t a s y.”Those articles were addressingthe Fundamental threat that wasalso coming into the church. Iappreciate that this confessionlooked at the total picture andtargeted, we might say, their gunsat the right place. Sometimes itis easier to shoot way out at theModernists, more or less, bu twhere they lived and touched,t h ey also addressed this andspoke to it. This may be a lessonfor us today. We need a well-rounded view of the picture andof the threats, then we need tospeak to the issues at hand and

make them apply to where welive and where it hurts, we mightsay, and where it is needed in ourown church group.

This confession represents anoble effort by the church in fac-ing the challenges of that day. Itwas widely accepted and ithelped direct the church. Todaywe still benefit from it. Weshould have a good acquaintancewith the Dortrecht andSchleitheim Confessions and notuse this, or think of this, as ouronly confession, because this isbuilt on the former ones. Weshould have good wo r k i n gknowledge of those as well.

A few “negative observations”which must be reckoned with atthis point. Because of this state-ment, the emphasis seemed toshift from the old A n a b a p t i s tconcept of practical obedience tothe Scriptures to more of a theo-logical agreement to the inerran-cy of the Scriptures. This firstarticle, of the plenary and verbalexpression we call this, is men-tioned in history as a plenary andverbal formula. The earlier con-fessions did not mention this andit would presuppose that all pro-fessing members would believein the Bible and accept its infalli-bility.

H ow eve r, when we need tostart defining an issue and mak-ing people verbally commit

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themselves to it, there is always adanger that they may be doing itwith their mouth but not withtheir heart. This is a little bitwhat happened here, as we readfurther in history, for instanceafter this. The questionnairesthat were formulated by the mis-sions boards which would havebeen the Mid Western, asked themissionaries to commit them-selves to believing the plenaryand verbal inspiration of theBible. This was relatively easy tosay. However, those question-naires were weak in the practicalapplications. It may be that thesame people that were dressed inmore worldly clothing, but thetest was whether they believed inthe plenary and verbal inspirationof the Scriptures. It is right tosay yes to that, but the emphasisseemed to be shifting.Eventually it became more of atheological question rather than apractical question. This ofcourse, is a challenge for ustoday, that when we commit our-selves to say, “Yes, the Bible istrue,” we also mean that the Bibleis practical and that we apply it todaily living. We see a little shiftin that as this confession wasused as a basis for testing, wemight say, the church workers ofthat era.

The apostasy within theMennonite church, was not cured

by this confession. The feed linesfrom the Modernists and theFundamentalists had not been cutoff. It still existed in three areas,1) Education. They continued toattend the universities of theland. Also Mennonite Collegeswere established that were stills t a ffed with university trainedmen who did not have a deepundercurrent of support for theMennonite position. T h e r e f o r e ,the educational institutions of theland, in particular the Mennoniteones, continued to contribute tothe apostasy and theProtestantizing of the Mennonitechurch.

2) In the area of publishing. Inspite of the good that The GospelHerald did, I read a few times inmy studies that in 1922, roughlyhalf of the articles on Biblicalsubjects appearing in the Heraldwere drawn from non-Mennonitesources. That seems very strangeto us today. If we would go toThe Contender or our churchpaper and half of the articleswould be written by non-Mennonite people, we would saysomething is wrong, and some-thing was wrong. That influencecontinued to build up and to haveits effect on the Mennonitechurch. We believe The GospelHerald did much good and hadmany good articles, but it showsthat there were some feed lines

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established to these threats anddangers that were never com-pletely cut off or cured by thenoble effort of this confession.

3) In the area of missions,especially the work in India andArgentina, it was counter produc-t ive to Mennonite belief andpractice in two areas. There werethe contacts on the field withother fundamental groups andalso the beliefs of those whowere sent. Even though thosewho were sent subscribed to thisconfession and said “Yes, webelieve in the plenary and verbalinspiration,” in heart they wereProtestant, or had Protestantleanings. This helped to movethe mission work in a differentdirection.

The lesson is that creeds andstatements in themselves did notsolve the problem in this era.Following this era, there werevoices of concern and proteststhat continued to be sounded, butthe course of the Mennonitechurch at large seemed continuedin one direction. We appreciatethe efforts of The Sword andTrumpet and various articles inThe Gospel Herald, but it seemedlike the course of the church, andthe undercurrent had moved adifferent direction.

Five lessons we should learnf rom this study and from ourobservation of this era of history.

1) We must seek to resolve issueswithin the church, while there isyet hope. The Church fa c e dthreats from within and without.We noticed a determination andan effort to confront and resolvethe issues at hand. It is importantto see the issues. It is importantto meet like they did in Acts 15,and at these conferences that pro-duced these confessions, look atthe issues, find a solution, andresolve the problem. These con-troversies and conflicts related todoctrine or practice cannot con-tinue year after year after year inchurch groups and come outright. In one way or the other,t h ey must be resolved. T h i smust, of course, be done in thecontext of being clothed with thegarment of humility. In thisprocess there were some peoplewho were not satisfied and left.For instance, the president ofGoshen College, J. S. Hartzler,was not satisfied and joined theGeneral Conference Mennonites.I suppose they wished they couldhave saved all the people, andthat they would have all stayedwith them, but in that processthere was some sifting.

2) We must continue to definethe position of the church in writ-ing for the benefit of the presentand future ge n e ra t i o n s.Preaching and ministers’ meet-ings are good but writing sets our

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convictions in a permanent form.In this way we are able to dis-seminate, spread, or circulatethem to the Church. There is thepossibility of a conviction levelamong the ministry that never fil-ters down to the laity, or to themembership. We should be veryconcerned about that. In ourminister’s meetings we discussmany things and we grow in ourc o nviction. The question is,“How can we communicate thoseburdens and convictions to ourpeople?” It is through preaching.However, the power of the penand the liberty — the freedom ofthe press — to write these thingsis very important. It alsobecomes a witness against peopleand church groups who choose todepart from the faith in futuregenerations.

3) We must continue to recog-nize the line of separa t i o nbetween Anabaptist andFundamentalist pers p e c t i v e s.We must interpret the issues ofthe day in the framework ofAnabaptist distinctive n e s sincluding the separation ofChurch and State. In our daythere are strong fundamentalmovements and they should notdraw us into them. For instancethe Home Schooling Movementacross America is motivated byFundamentalist powers. We arenot saying it is a wrong move-

ment. It is good for America. Itis good for the homes of our land,but it does not synchronize withthe Anabaptist faith.

There are Creationism andPatriotism. Do we know thatthere is a lot of new interest indinosaurs? Should we put thosebooks in our school? My answeris “No,” to that. There are booksabout “Noah’s Ark” and “TheYoung Earth.” Some of thesemay be all right. However, thed i s t r i butors and promoters ofthese books are driven by theforces that moveFundamentalism. They also pro-mote books like G e o rgeWashington, A Man of Prayerand Courage. Robert Lee aGallant Christian Soldier,Abigail Adams: Fi rst Lady ofFaith and Courage. We may say,“ We will simply take theCreationism and the dinosaurs.”However, finally we cannot sepa-rate them. We must be very care-ful in this, especially the bookswe promote and what we listento. The separation betweenFundamentalism andAnabaptism must remain distinctif we want to maintain aMennonite church in this our age,with the pressures that surroundus.

With regard to our school cur-riculum, it is so easy to bring inthe Fundamentalistic material

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such as Bob Jones University orA Beka, Some say it is better.However, what do we do aboutthe patriotic influence when theymake George Washington a goodChristian? Is that better or worsethan a secular view of history?We will not answer that. Maybethere is not a good answer forthat. Let us remember that weare Anabaptists. If theMennonite church in 1921 wouldhave looked at the issues likesome of our people (when I say“ o u r,” I refer to Conserva t iveMennonites) today are feedinginto the FundamentalistPublishers and so on, I do notthink there would have been astatement like this. I give that asa challenge to us. We need tokeep this clear so that when theissues come we remember thatwe are not Fundamentalists butAnabaptists.

Recently there was a vote onthe school issue that stirred upthe whole of America. T h epoliticians said, “Do not call usanymore, we are flooded withc a l l s .” Should we join thateffort? Do we also call our legis-lators and tell them? No, weshould not.

4) We must maintain a balancebetween the promotion of theo-logical accuracy and practicalholiness and obedience.Statements and creeds do not

provide a total solution to thechurch problems and issues. Thetendency is that when we have aproblem, we will discuss it andmake a statement on it. There isa place for this but when a state-ment and a position is written tocorrect a problem it rarely doesthat. Statements serve the bestafter there is a discussion of aproblem and a report on the find-ings of meeting and a group ofpeople. This means that peopleadhere to, and support it.Statements rarely are effective incorrecting trends of direction andundercurrents of thought. Let usbe careful that we divide that. Iam not saying we should not for-mulate statements and confes-sions, but it is not the totalanswer to the problem. I thinkthere was a little bit of this think-ing in the back of the GardenCity Confession.

5) We must staff our institu-tions and boards with brethren ofconviction and loyalty. This isespecially true in two areas relat-ed to the historic perspective —those who are influencing ouryouth and those who are definingour doctrine. In those two areas,this brings all the ministry intofocus. It brings certain ministryrelating to boards and institutionsbut the entire ministry are help-ing and defining doctrine. Webelieve in the faith approach to

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s t a ffing our church. We dobelieve there is a place for gift,and we should covet earnestly thebest gifts, but part of the downfallin this area and era was related todrawing on men who supposedlyhad the knowledge of the subjectand were schooled in these par-ticular areas. We are certainly infavour of learning and Biblestudy, but that must always bedone in the framework of faith inGod and loyalty to the cause and

the church that we have identi-fied with.

May God give us the grace tobe what we should be in this gen-eration to see the issues, to scanthe horizon, to give direction tothe people and that if the Lordtarries and somebody studieswhat happened in 1994 that therewould be some positive contribu-tion that we could make to thehelp and the faithfulness offuture generations.

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Scripture References

Acts15 15315:1, 2, 5 15415:6 15415:13, 19, 20, 22 15415:31 15416:4 153, 15516:4, 5 154

From the Previous Issue:

Keeping Peer Pressure ManageableFrom a message by A. Wayne Rudolph

Orchardville Mennonite ChurchWednesday, December 29, 2004

I. Sketch of his life.1. Birth. — Genesis 30:23, 24.2. His father’s favorite. — Genesis 37:3.3. The slave.

a. Sold to Ishmaelites, who carry him to Egypt and sellhim to Potiphar. — Genesis 37:18–36.

b. Resists temptation. — Genesis 39:7–12:NOTE. — To testify against yielding to temptation is noble. To

resist temptation is nobler.c. Is thrown into prison. — Genesis 39:13–20.

NOTE. — Happy is he, who for righteousness’ sake, suffers per-secution (Matthew 5:11).

d. Won the confidence of the jailer. — Genesis39:21–23.

NOTE. — Sterling character in time becomes manifest under themost adverse circumstances. It is usually recognized, though not alwaysrewarded.

e. Is released and made ruler over Egypt. — Genesis41:9–43.

4. The interpreter of dreams.a. The dreams which enraged his brethren. — Genesis

37:5–11.b. The dreams of Pharaoh’s chief butler and chief baker.

— Genesis 40:5–19.c. Pharaoh’s dreams. — Genesis 41:1–36.

5. The statesman.a. Called to be ruler over Egypt. — Genesis 41:37– 45.b. The seven years of plenty. — Genesis 41:46–49.c. The seven years of famine.

i. Sells corn to the Egyptians and surroundingnations. — Genesis 41:53–57.

ii. Deals with his brethren. — Genesis 42–45.iii. The wealth of Egypt passes into the hands of

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Book Reprint (Continued)One Hundred Lessons In Bible Study

LESSON 7.Joseph.

Pharaoh. — Genesis 47:13–26.6. Meeting with Jacob. — Genesis 46:28–30.7. Takes care of his father and brethren. — Genesis 40:31–34;

47:1–12.8. Death. — Genesis 50:26.

II. Thoughts on his life.1. The life of Joseph stands out without a blemish. His pure

life in childhood won the admiration of his father. By resisting theadvances of Pharaoh’s wife, he showed that with him chastity was not atheory, but a reality. His exemplary life while in prison won the confi-dence of the jailor. As ruler over Egypt, his wisdom, prudence, and gen-erosity strengthened the crown and won the hearts of the people. Thegenerous treatment of his brethren showed him to be above the feelingof revenge. His meetings with his brethren and with his father revealeda lamb-like spirit in a lion’sheart. Through all his trials, he remained uncrushed. Through all his tri-umphs he continued his allegiance to a humble people. Like a glisten-ing diamond amid a mass of rubbish, shines his pure soul amidst thedarkness of a sinful age.

2. Joseph was sold as a slave. His brethren meant it for evil;but God turned it for good. God often uses wicked men in carrying outHis designs, and the most wicked deeds are sometimes utilized as instru-ments for the greatest good. It must not be understood,however, that God justifies the evil doer because his wicked deeds areturned to good account. “ It must needs be that offenses come; but woeunto that man by whom the offense cometh!

3. From slavery to the governorship. Quite an advancement;yet this was nothing like the advancement made in the transfer from thepower of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Then slaves tothe enemy of human souls; now kings and priests to God. (1 Peter 2:9;Revelation 1:6.)

4. The magicians of Egypt failed in their attempt to do what apoor slave easily accomplished. Worldly wisdom is of no avail insearching the deep things of God. (James 1:5.)

5. Reuben desired to save Joseph’s life; but was afraid to asserthimself. The result was just the same as if he had been among, the fore-most conspirators. Speak out, ye friends of God, for in this way onlymay your friendship be of service to the cause.

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1. Enumerate the discouragements which Joseph encountered duringhis career.2. Show how the hand of God favored him all through his career.3. Whom did Joseph marry ?4. Describe the religion of the Egyptians.5. Was the sin of Joseph’s brethren lessened because good camefrom it?

Maintaining Godly Music in Our Homesand ChurchesMaintaining Spiritual and ScripturalStability in the Midst of ReligiousConfusionMaintaining the Integrity of the ChristianDay SchoolMinistry of Encouragement, TheMystery of the Incarnation in the Life ofChrist, TheNonconformityNonresistanceOne of These Little OnesOnward -- the Christian's WatchwordPeacePeace of God, ThePersonal DisciplinePlace of and Purpose of ConfessionPlow, thePrayerPreparations for a Successful YearPrideRedeeming the TimeRemember Our Creator in the Days ofOur YouthRemnant, TheRemorse and ReconciliationRespectScriptural Authority in the Church,Home and SchoolSecond Coming of Christ, TheSee That Ye Fall Not Out By the WaySee that Ye Refuse Not Him ThatSpeaketh -- Hebrews 12:25

Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God andHis Righteousness"Shipwreck of FaithSignificance of Christ's Birth, TheSound DoctrineSound SpeechSpeechSpiritual BrotherhoodSpiritual SacrificesSprings of Living WatersStewardship of the Gospel, TheStrangers and PilgrimsStrengthening the Marriage BondSubmissionSufficiency In ChristTechnological Convictions in a World ofTechnocracyTemptationTestimony of Our Conscience, TheThat the World May KnowThe Church -- Beautiful for SituationThe Implications of Your Presence --What does our presence imply in theplaces we go?The Lord -- Our Rock of DefenseThought Patterns that Lead to God-Honoring ChoicesThree Crosses, TheTimeTimes and Seasons of Life, TheTongue, TheTraits of a Good ConscienceTrue DiscipleshipVessels of Mercy

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Recent Sermon Titles

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The Pulpit Exchange

Voice of the Blood, TheWhat is Grace?Which Way Are You Leaning? --Ecclesiastes 11:3Whosoever Will May Come

Why I Need the ChurchWiles of the Devil, TheWonders of God's Love, TheYe Fathers" -- Ephesians 6:4

Recent Sermon Titles (continued)

Sermons transcribed and ava i l-able on various topics.

Volumes 1 – 8 available.Back Issues Available

Ministry TopicsSpecial Meetings Available

Book Reprints are available• 100 Lessons in Bible Study• A Talk With Church Members• Bible Wines: Laws of

Fermentation• Christian Attire• Christianity and Dress• Christ, The Apostles and Wine

• Dress: A Brief Treatise• The Ideal Christian Home• The Ministry• The Temperate Life• Wordly Conformity in Dress

Others Currently in Progress:10 CommandmentsExposition of ColossiansNonresistance MeetingsWriter’s MeetingsLiterature EvangelismVarious Fellowship MeetingsGarden City Confession of Faith

Full Catalogue available

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