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 The
July ’70 issue of ACTION announced Jimmie Lovell’s latest
brainstorm for all church work: a Bible Foundation to print and
distribute the scriptures. He wrote, “In order to get things
moving we must clear all legal angles, select a name and get a
corporate address. We must set up a board of national and
influential directors — men and women of all faiths.” I have
heard that Pat Boone has been appointed as President.
Institutional
churches are moving faster and faster toward universal church
organization — with exactly the same principles that put an
earlier digression there. Ponder the following quote from “Search
For The Ancient Order,” by Earl West, Vol. 1, p. 164-f. And
note how brethren “reasoned” in 1845. Today brethren follow
the same path to organized folly.
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“One
major step in this direction needs special attention, viz.: the
American Christian Bible Society. It was the first attempt at
anything similar to a brotherhood- wide organization yet
promoted. It was founded by D.S. Burnet in Cincinnati, Ohio, on
January 27, 1845. Soon after its establishment, its constitution
was widely published in brotherhood periodicals along with
articles urging the support of the brotherhood to this society.
No
sooner was the Bible Society organized than opposition poured
down upon it. Aylette Raines, editor of the Christian Teacher,
a Kentucky publication, doubted the practicability of the
enterprise...J.J. Goss, editor of Christian Intelligencer
of
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Virginia, thought it would be wiser to
cooperate with the American and Foreign Bible Society, a Baptist
organization, than to establish another. Campbell himself
thought the Bible Society to be premature, thinking the brethren
were not yet ready for it. Campbell also felt that the colleges—
Bethany, Bacon, and Franklin — should be put on a more
substantial financial basis before trying something like a Bible
Society.
Burnet
seemed to have been stunned by the opposition. For several
issues of the Harbinger after 1845 he and Campbell
defended themselves over the society. Burnet wanted to know if
the brotherhood had been sufficiently consulted when Campbell
established Bethany College. Campbell’s reply was that the
nature of the two institutions was entirely different. Bethany
College was a private institution, established from the funds of
himself and his friends, whereas the Bible Society purported to
be a brotherhood organization. Very little of the opposition to
the Society came because brethren thought it was an
organization, but only because it was inexpedient at that time
to start it.
For
eleven years the Bible Society existed with very little interest
displayed in it. It was off to a bad start and never got much
sympathy behind it. In 1856 the Ohio State Convention met and
agreed to terminate the Bible Society and turn its funds over to
the American Bible Union. This was done, and so ended the firs
general brotherhood attempt at organization.”
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