Jon Gary Williams
Articles / Resources
0202
J. W. Chism vs R. B. Key (Missionary Baptist)
April 16, 1925
(By C. H. Smithson)
Mr. Key affirmed "The church of which J. W. Chism and his brethren are members (known as Churches of Christ) originated with Alexander Campbell and his associates in the nineteenth century in the United States of Ameraica."
Mr. Key opened with: "I am not here to make war on Chism or his people; I am not here to prove the scripturalness nor unscripturalness of the proposition; but I am here to show that Alexander Campbell started a church, and then to show that the church Chism is a member of is identical with it, and then to challenge him to show that the church of his faith existed before Campbell."
Mr. Key read from history and from clippings about the work of the Campbells reading from the "Declaration and Address" of Thomas Campbell, showing that they were starting something. So Mr. Key concluded his first speech for Chism to run a line of succession. He challenged Chism to "back up and hitch on" to the apostolic church. Bro. Chism replied in first negative speech: "while Mr. Key is reading history, I will tell you something. I will just preach you a gospel sermon." He then quoted Luke 8:11: "Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God." He then reasoned that a seed had the life germ within itself, and, hence, this "word" had the life element in it; that a turnip seed was of such a nature that it would take hold on the soil, sop it up, and convert the soil into a turnip; that the soil in the parable is man's heart, his thinking faculty, and that the seed had the life germ, the idea, in it; that the word, containing the idea, the life germ, would take hold of the soil, man's heart and thoughts, and convert the soil into a Christian.
He then showed that this was done on Pentecost. Peter preached, the people heard, believed and were baptized. Immediately we read of "the church" for the first time in the New Testament where the disciples of Jesus were ever called the church. He then went to Ephesus, showing that the word (seed) was planted there. People obeyed and there was a church at Ephesus. The same word was sown at Corinth and "many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized." and shortly we read of the "Church of God which is at Corinth. The same word was sown at New Lisbon, Pennsylvania, November 18, 1827 and was heard, believed, and obeyed, and so constituted the "Church of God at New Lisbon." The same seed sown would make the same kind of plant, for the reason that like always produces like.
Then Bro. Chism drove home a great truth: "Some years ago a scientist found some wheat hid away in an old temple in Egypt. This wheat had been there 3,000 years. A Mr. Johnson brought some of this wheat home to America and planted it; and notwithstanding the seed was wheat, it produced Johnson grass." Even Mr. Key saw the absurdity of this. Chism then reasoned that the seed does not partake of the nature of the person sowing it, but produces after the nature of the see sown; and since the word sown was God's word, though sown by the Campbells, it would produce children of God.
Mr. Key demanded that Chism show a succession from the apostles to the present time. When challenged, Mr. Chism answered by an appeal to Daniel 8:14 showing that the casting of the truth down to the ground was the pollution of the sanctuary, and the cleansing would be but the reinstatement of that same truth. He then went into detail, showing that the vision began 473 B.C., and as each day was given as a symbol of a year, the time would be 1827 for the reinstatement of this truth. He then showed that this date was acknowledged to be the beginning in practice what had been taught for several years past.
Chism then showed that the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24-26 was to seal the prophecy and that it turned exactly a day for a year. He then showed the fall of pagan Rome to be 492 A.D. and the 1335 days (years) dating from that ended at 1827, the blessing promised; that the papacy proper was set up in 537 A.D. and by 606 his look had become more stout than his fellows and that the 1260 days (years) ended at 1798 (beginning of that consume it to the time of the end, and that it was during this 1260 years the pope was to have full sway and was to scatter the power of the holy people, which he had done. He then showed that the work of the Campbells and their associates was to restore the ancient gospel, and that this was precisely what the cleansing of the sanctuary was to be - hence, Chism "hitched on" - as he expressed it; "all right, Mr. Key, I have backed up and hitched on."
Mr. Key's only effort along this line was to complain that Chism was not debating logically and to try to show that this prophecy was about temporal Israel. But Bro. Chism showed that Israel in the flesh had no promise left more than the Gentiles, since they rejected Christ (Jeremiah 19:1-11) and that all these promises were on conditions which the Jews had never kept (Jeremiah 18:7-12).
Bro. Chism closed by showing that Key affirmed that Campbell originated the church and showed that "originate" means to produce for the first time. He showed that Key's affirmation was not correct, but that Campbell was only using the gospel, the seed that produces children of the kingdom, and hence, that the churches coming from this work were not original products, but were reproduced from the same old gospel seed, and, hence, were Church of God and his Christ.
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