RECOGNIZING PAUL CAMPBELL

Evangelist W. Blythe Robinson, Ph.D., Psy.D.

 

It would be easy to get the impression that Paul Campbell is the most popular man in the Brotherhood.  His ideas are perhaps the widest spread and undoubtedly the most influential in many circles of power.  His views are sweeping across an ever-increasing number of Christian publications.  His perspective is increasingly dominating our colleges and graduate schools.  His drumbeat only grows louder with time.  Yet, in spite of all this, some ask, “Who is he?”

 

The answer lies in the research of a Russian scientist experimenting with dogs.  His breakthrough discovery came when he noticed that upon arriving to feed the dogs they were already salivating.  They had associated the sound of his footsteps with the eating of meat. 

 

His name was Pavlov.  Does that name “ring a bell?”  It should because from this he learned how to modify both animal and human behavior.  He discovered that when he paired together the sound of a bell with the presentation of meat, the dogs continued to salivate. 

 

Later, he was able to gradually remove the meat and found that the dogs would continue to salivate to the sound of the bell alone.  Thus was born one of the most powerful tools of modern psychology called, “Learning Theory,” which became the foundation of behaviorism or behavior modification.

 

Today this technique is being used on unsuspecting multitudes in the Lord’s Church.  We are being besieged by a new theological paradigm with a three phase (Mark 4:28) overlapping plan for change of historic proportions.  Brevity necessitates a generalized overview. 

 

PHASE ONE IS FOUNDATIONAL

It is the pairing of the Apostle’s Doctrine (representing Paul) and Restoration slogans (represented by Campbell).  This has resulted in the creation of “Paul Campbell”, the new mythological, anthropological, metaphorical leader of “The Brotherhood.”  It is a flawed and fatal assumption that presumes that they are identical. 

 

The Declaration and Address, though wise and useful, will forever remain a manmade document.  It can never be allowed to rise to achieve unity; Paul gave us Christ’s all-inspired, all-authoritative, and thus all-sufficient written Word.  This only is God’s final “Declaration and Address” for all ages and all people everywhere.  This is the Gospel that we must preach to all nations.  “The Plea” must be Christ and His Church, not “Our Tradition.”

 

PHASE TWO IS TRANSITIONAL

It is the gradual removal of the meat of the Gospel and instead salivating to the bell of Restoration slogans that are non-contextually misapplied and abused.  This phase is well under way among formerly conservative groups commonly known as the Christian Church and the Church of Christ (or as those who do or do not use “the instrument”). 

 

There are many of these churches that diminish or delete from public view many vital basic New Testament doctrines regarding salvation and the church.   For them, reason must triumph over revelation.  They  use  the criterion  of subjectivism and relativity

as the most practical approach to a generation that thinks with their feelings and listens with their eyes.  Anything deemed offensive to sinners, the denominational world, or liberal “scholarship” must be removed in one form or another. 

 

This is most apparent in “giving the invitation.”  Instead of a public presentation of apostolic requirements for salvation, a generic, “loving”, “non-offensive” invitation is given.  Often those who come forward are removed from the public assembly and put into a “private” room.  There they are told what “our tradition” teaches that they must do to become a member of “our church”, and they are given literature on “our practices”.  Multitudes are being led to believe that we can only survive and grow by playing down the ancient Gospel and replacing it with a new “seeker-sensitive”, practical, popular Gospel of Psychology.

 

Some have already moved to the next phase.

 

PHASE THREE IS IMPLEMENTATION

A new Church for a new millennium is underway.  It is a generic, non-denominational community church.  It preaches a generic Christianity with an evangelical overlay.  It is politically correct and focus group oriented.  It will affirm that it is in some sense A Church of Christ, but deny that it is THE Church of Christ.  The emphasis is on “our tradition” as expressed in the “Restoration Principal.”  “Our tradition” is a euphemism for “our denomination”, with one tradition no better that another.  The ultimate goal is to have a place at the denominational table, not as an outsider, but as an insider, as one of “the new evangelicals” in love, harmony and unity.  All of this is being done in spite of Jesus’ Words, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”  (John 14:15)

 

But is all this really new?  Hasn’t this all been tried before and didn’t this result in the “Disciples of Christ”?  There is a small church in a small town of western Pennsylvania called “Christian Baptist.”  It is a contemporary monument of the dying remains of a similarly attempted historical compromise from a Campbell’s time. 

 

When will we learn to distinguish between bending the Book to fit the man and bending the man to fit the Book?  Will we sit by idly and watch history repeat itself?  Or will we rise up with love in our hearts, conviction in our heads, and humbly but forcefully declare that we will continue “steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine”?  (Acts 2:42)

 

Did our Lord command FULL DISCLOSURE in these words, “Teaching them to observe ALL THINGS whatsovever I have commanded you”?  (Matthew 28:20)

 

Will we obey, as the apostles did, the command to “Go, stand, and speak in the temple (church) to the people ALL THE WORDS of this life”?  (Acts 5:20)

 

Will “the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Timothy 3:15), be prepared to declare as Paul, “I have not shunned to declare unto you ALL THE COUNSEL OF GOD”?  (Acts 20:27)

 

Will we sell our souls for unity, or will we give our lives for truth?  That is the ultimate question that will decide our destiny.

 

What will YOUR decision be?