Why “go to church”? Or, better, why participate in the assembly of fellow-believers? Psalm 40 provides a response.
We go to tell the story, to proclaim the good news of God’s righteousness, God’s saving work. To rehearse the story of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.
We go to present our living sacrifices to the Lord and declare, “Here I am.”
We go to tell our testimonies of God’s deliverance so that others might “see” and be awed by God’s grace and truth.
We go to sing a “new song” and declare the wondrous deeds of God.
Micah envisions the coming of a Davidic ruler who is peace. That reign will extend to the ends of the earth and mean that everyone will live in security and prosperity. Yet, before that time arrives, a period of purgation–like labor pains–is necessary so that the descendants of Jacob learn to depend on Yahweh rather than their own military strength and resources.
In the previous chapter the prophet Micah envisioned a future when the nations would flow into Jerusalem to learn war no more and establish justice upon the earth. The earth, then, would be filled with prosperity and security as Yahweh reigned from Zion over the whole earth. But before that time, Judah would writhe and groan because it would suffer the consequences of their sin and ultimately experience exile in Babylon. The nations will strike the “ruler (literally, judge) of Israel upon the cheek” and humiliate the nation. Unlike the Judges who delivered Israel from their oppressors before there was a king, the king of Israel is unable to deliver, and the nation will go into exile.
But that is not Micah’s final word. Though the nation will go into exile and suffer defeat at the hands of many nations (Assyria, Babylon, and other surrounding peoples), Yahweh promises a new ruler, a different kind of ruler, in the future. One who will come from Bethlehem in Judah from David’s royal line.
The Ruler from Bethlehem (5:2-5a)
There is a contrast between the “ruler of Israel” (literally, judge) in Micah 5:1 and the one who will “rule in Israel” in Micah 5:2. The former was humiliated, and the latter will be exalted. The former engaged in the fight, but the latter establishes peace. The former was assaulted by many nations, but the latter will reign to the ends of the earth.
The birthplace of this ruler is Bethlehem of Ephrathah (meaning, house of bread, fruitful). Ephrathah is probably a clan name (e.g., Elimelech and Naomi are “Ephrathites from Bethlehem,” Ruth 1:2), and it also serves to distinguish Bethlehem in Judah from a city in Zebulon (Galilee) named Bethlehem (Joshua 19:15). But the location is more about genealogy than it is geography.
It is an insignificant town, a small village. When 46 towns are named in Joshua 15:20-63 from the tribe of Judah, Bethlehem is not mentioned. This small rural town contrasts with the monumental buildings in Jerusalem (from its walls to temple to palaces). But Bethlehem is the home of Jesse, the father of David and the grandson of Ruth (Ruthe 4:17-22; Samuel 17:12). The language and place indicate this new ruler is Davidic, and his origins are found in the early days of the nation.
David is from the root of Jesse, from the root of Ruth and Boaz. The Davidic king will come from the loins of Bethlehem Ephrathah—the ancient royal line. And God will raise up this king “for me” (that is, God’s own self). The Davidic king will serve Yahweh’s purposes.
But not yet.
This new David is future, and for the moment Yahweh has given Judah over to the consequences of its sins (those sins are named in 5:10-15). They will suffer like a woman in labor, and at the same time know the hope of a new birth. At times suffering produces hope. This probably refers to the return of the exiles, including the remnant of Israel. There will be a day when Israel and Judah are restored as one people under a new Davidic ruler.
Isaiah, who was contemporary with Micah, lived in Jerusalem also announces this hope. One will come from the “root of Jesse” and establish a kingdom that will fill the earth with righteousness, justice, and security (Isaiah 11:1-9). On that day, Isaiah prophesies, the Lord will recover the remnant from Assyria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Shinar, Hamath and other regions to assemble Israel and Judah and make a highway for a return from exile (Isaiah 11:10-16).
When that day comes, the ruler will act as a shepherd over God’s flock and in the name of God give them peace, security, and strength. It is a prosperous image filled with God’s shalom. This will fill the whole world, and not just the land Israel inhabited. It will extend to the “ends of the earth.”
“This one will be peace,” literally what the Micah 5:5a says. In contrast to all the warring that Micah experience in southwestern Judah during the Assyrian invasion, the yearning for peace will find fulfillment in this ruler. He will be peace to the world. Or, as Isaiah 9:6 says, the “Prince of Peace.”
Matthew 2:6 quotes Micah 5:2 (with some variation) as evidence that the Messiah (the king) will be born in Bethlehem. The birth of Jesus is regarded as a fulfillment of Micah’s word. The early church saw Micah’s message as coming to fruition in the birth, ministry, and reign of the Jesus, the Messiah.
But not yet in Micah’s day.
Remnant Among the Nations (5:5b-9)
Rather, in Micah’s day, the remnant finds itself in turmoil, suffering from the ravages of the Assyrians and the future deportation of the people of Judah by Babylon when Jerusalem is destroyed in 586 BCE.
This is a difficult section as there are manty different ways interpreters and commentators read this section of Micah. Is it about Judah’s healthy influence—like a morning dew—among the Assyrians, even in their exile? Is it about Judah’s attempt to do battle with the Assyrians in a losing fight? Is Micah quoting the militant resisters to the Assyrian invasion in Micah 5:5b-6?
Perhaps the last option is the best one, but it is far from certain. In response to the prophecy of a future peace under a future king, some take up arms and resist the Assyrians without such a king. Some even suggest that Micah is quoting a nationalist war-song. In this case, Micah 5:5b-6 is satirical. The rulers warn about Assyria and call the people to resist, but Micah turns the hearts of the people toward God, to trust God. As Smith-Christopher writes in the OT Library series by WJK press (p. 176), perhaps Micah is saying, “with what shall we defeat the Assyrians? A few shepherds, perhaps seven or eight?” In this case, Micah is mocking those who chose war over peace.
Assyrian and ultimately Babylon will win the wars and exile the people of Israel and Judah respectively. God’s people will not be totally destroyed or annihilated. Rather, there will be a remnant. And they will live, for a time, among the nations until they are restored as the people of God.
While the people of God are scattered among the nations, surrounded by many peoples, what is their function? What meaning and purpose is there to their loss? They must become a purged people (see next section), but they will be a witness to the reality of Yahweh in the world and God will bless them in their exiled condition.
Israel among the nations will not be a military power but more like dew and showers on the grass. The survivors will know the Lord and bless the nations among them.
But the image of a lion seems to counter the dew image; it seems contrary to the peaceful image in Micah 5:7. The remnant has become a lion! Smith-Christopher calls attention to the contrasting juxtaposition of dew and lion in Proverbs 19:12, “A king’s anger is like the growling of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.”
Some suggest that the “lion” imagery is a negative one and describes Israel’s leaders who want to continue warring as an exercise of power. Others suggest that “lion” refers to faithfulness and strength. God is symbolized in this way in Isaiah 31:4 and Hosea 11:10. The exact meaning alludes me. But perhaps we might hear “lion” as a reflection of the remnants strength to witness to Yahweh’s reign and its own purgation. In this way, the “enemies” to be destroyed or cut off in Micah 5:9 are described in Micah 5:10-15.
The Purgation of Judah (5:10-15)
The remnant, those who return from exile, will need purgation, that is, cleansing. Their sins, which brought on the exile, must be reformed. Micah describes the reformation of the remnant and what that looks like in contrast to the wickedness of the pre-exilic community. The post-exilic community must have a different look.
Yahweh is the central figure here: “I” is used nine times.
I will cut off your horses, and I will destroy your chariots.
I will cut off the walled cities, and I will throw down your strongholds.
I will cut off sorceries and soothsayers.
I will cut off your images and pillars.
I will uproot your sacred poles, and I will destroy your towns
I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey.
The sins of Judah are identified.
Military weapons
Military power
Occultic behaviors
Idolatry (images and sacred poles or Asherah).
Idolatrous communities
The Wisdom of Solomon14:16-17 describes the nation’s past idolatry, which clearly identifies the link between political and religious power in Israel and Judah.
“Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law, and at the command of monarchs carved images were worshiped. When people could not honor monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance, they imagined their appearance far away and made a visible image of the king whom they honored, so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.”
The sins of Judah are political, military, and religious. And these must be purged in the reign in the reign of the Messiah.
The final line of Micah 5 (v. 15), however, addresses the nations. Judgment may begin at the house of God, but it also includes the nations.
The position of Micah in the Hebrew canon is significant. It comes between Jonah and Nahum. The latter describes the destruction of Nineveh because of its sins, and the former tells the story of Nineveh’s deliverance from judgment in response to the preaching of Jonah.
Nineveh always had a choice. It could submit to the reign of God or rebel against it. God will execute justice against those nations that do not obey but delivers those who do obey.
Ever feel like life is not exactly the way it is supposed to be, and you wanna’ say something? Psalm 39 is for you.
Functioning like Job and Ecclesiastes, the Psalmist cannot keep silent. The fire in the Psalmist ‘s bones protests and groans over the brevity of life, its trouble and seemingly pointlessness.
Nevertheless, the Psalmist–singing this with assembled Israel–confesses there is only one hope: it is the Lord, the God of Israel.
Bobby Valentine and John Mark Hicks reflect on this godly protest and what it means for faith today.
One of the more difficult texts in Micah, the prophet struggles with the resistance of leaders to his message. Nevertheless, Micah presses the consequences of their rejection of God’s word.
Bobby Valentine, a guest presenter, discusses the meaning and significance of Micah 4:6-5:1.
As the Psalmist approaches Yahweh with a memorial offering, the petitioner confesses sin and laments the suffering. “There is no shalom in my bones, and family, friends, and neighbors have distanced themselves from me.” The memorial offering seeks God’s forgiveness, healing, and communal reconciliation.
One of the Penitential Psalms, the Psalmist owns the sin; there is no claim of innocence. But also the Psalmist is one who seeks God and seeks to do good despite.
The Psalm does not make a general claim that all personal suffering is due to personal sin. Other Psalms contest that claim as does the book of Job. Rather, the Psalmist in this specific instance recognizes the sin has created chaos in both soul and body. Thus, the Psalmist confesses sin and seeks the renewal of shalom in both body and soul.
We may pray this Psalm at a personal level, and we may pray it at a communal level as we confess the sins of the community and seek its healing.
Bobby Valentine and John Mark Hicks discuss the meaning and significance of Psalm 38.
This article was first published as “Philip Slater Fall: Educator, Reformer, Pastor,” Tennessee Baptist History 18.1 (2016): 59-72. Click here for a PDF version.
On July 15, 1857, the Nashville Union and American announced Philip Slater Fall as the preacher for an evening service at the Third Presbyterian Church, which at that time the First Christian Church rented.[1] Interestingly, in 1821 the recently-founded Baptist congregation had built that building. Some thirty years prior, Fall led that congregation into the Reformation guided by Alexander Campbell. After an absence of twenty-six years (1831-1857), Fall returned to Nashville as the Pastor of the First Christian Church (1858). Later the congregation repurchased their original building. Fall found himself once again pastoring the same congregation in the same building where he began pastoring the “Baptist Church of Jesus Christ” in May 1826.
That same issue announced the return of R. B. C. Howell to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church in Nashville. Howell had earlier led the First Baptist Church to a period of stable growth from 1835-1850. Ironically, both Fall and Howell returned to Nashville within several months of each other, and both congregations welcomed the return of their most celebrated and beloved pastors.
P. S. Fall in Kentucky (1817-1826): Embracing Reform
Philip Slater Fall was born on September 7, 1798 near Brighton in Sussex, England. Colonel James Fall, a former military officer, moved the family to the United States, landing in New Jersey on May 10, 1817. They travelled down the Ohio River from Pittsburg to Louisville and renewed family relationships in Adair County, Kentucky, where Philip’s mother died. The family settled in Logan County near Russellville on a four hundred acre farm Philip’s father had purchased before he died on Christmas Eve, 1817. Philip, at nineteen, was the oldest of ten, including an eight-month old infant, and he was tasked with caring for the orphaned family.
Though raised Episcopalian by his mother, Philip’s great grandfather, James Fall, was a British Baptist minister, and some suggest his father was Baptist.[2] Isaac Hodgen (1779-1826), an eminent and successful Baptist minister who had officiated the funeral of Fall’s mother,[3] pastored the Mt. Gilead Church and preached throughout country between Russellville and Hopkinsville, KY. Fall, baptized on October 25, 1818, became a member of the Mt. Gilead congregation. Soon he regularly offered a “word of exhortation” to the church.[4]
Given his classical education, he began teaching at the Forks Elkhorn Academy in Franklin County, KY, in the Fall of 1819.[5] Shortly after his arrival the Church of the Folks of Elkhorn licensed him to preach on December 11, 1819. The next summer a presbytery of Baptist pastors examined his “call to the Ministry” and theology.[6] His views were “satisfactory,” though there was significant discussion about Fall’s dubious Calvinism.[7]
Accompanying Jeremiah Vardeman, a leading Kentucky Baptist minister who organized the Baptist church in Nashville, Fall preached for the Nashville Baptist church in July 1821 as well as in June 1822. Though invited to serve as their Pastor, he declined and remained in Franklin County as co-pastor with Jacob Creath, Sr. of the Frankfort Baptist Church from 1821-1822.[8] Throughout 1822 Fall preached monthly for the Louisville Baptist church. Accepting their invitation, he moved to Louisville as its pastor in January 1823 where he also taught in an academy. Here he began to pay attention to the rumblings of Alexander Campbell.
Fall first heard about Campbell from William Vaughan shortly after Campbell’s debate with the Presbyterian Walker.[9] Vaughn praised Campbell’s performance as well as his biblical knowledge. He next heard about Campbell from Jeremiah Vardeman during his tour of Tennessee, but Fall did not read from him until 1823 when he read Campbell’s controversial “Sermon on the Law,” delivered to the Redstone Baptist Association in 1816. Next, he began reading Campbell’s new publication, begun July 4, 1823, entitled The Christian Baptist. Fall received his first copy from Moses Norvell, a member of the Baptist church in Nashville. Fall remembers his first reaction was “repugnance” though he was “prepossessed in favor of its editor.”[10]
Fall “became personally acquainted” with Campbell in November 1824 when the Reformer visited Louisville by which time he had read Campbell’s debates with Walker and McCalla. After hearing him several times and visiting with Campbell in his home, Fall became one of the first resident pastors among Kentucky Baptists to fully embrace Campbell’s reform movement.[11] Campbell remembers, for example, a time when “only brethren P. S. Fall, of Kentucky, and Adamson Bentley, of Ohio, cordially espoused the cause” in their respective states.[12]
At the same time Fall was appointed clerk for the Long Run Baptist Association in 1824. Fulfilling his function, he preached the opening sermon of the association on September 2, 1825 and authored a circular letter. This is regarded as the “first movement among the Baptists of Kentucky in the direction of the principles of the Reformation.”[13] The letter affirmed the Bible as “the only sufficient and perfect rule of our faith and practice.”[14] The circular was defeated by one vote.[15]
The Louisville Baptist Church aligned itself with Campbell’s reform movement that year. The church unanimously adopted the following statement on September 1, 1825, the day before the Long Run Association meeting began.[16]
We, the Church of Jesus Christ, meeting together in Louisville, do hereby declare and agree that we do renounce all human instruments of union, such as Creeds, Confessions of faith and formulas of doctrine and practice; and that we receive the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as our only Creed, and the only rule of our faith and practice.[17]
P. S. Fall in Tennessee (1826-1831): Reforming a Church
On September 3, 1825—the date Fall spoke at Long Run—the Nashville Baptist church “unanimously agree[d] to call Bro. Philip S. Fall to act as [its] pastor.” This latest invitation started a momentous chain of events, which resulted in P. S. Fall, according to Wrather, becoming the “Father of the Christian Church in the South.”[18]
Selling the Logan County farm, Fall moved to Nashville in January 1826. He did not come simply as a pastor. Rather, the prestigious Nashville Female Academy, begun in 1816, invited him to teach. Rev. William Hume, the head of the academy, introduced Fall to the public as a “distinguished” teacher who possessed “energy, intelligence and experience.”[19] He was paid six hundred dollars per annum.[20]
Apparently, some in Nashville feared Fall’s relationship to Campbell’s reform movement. However, John C. Ewing, the clerk of the church, assured Fall in an August 28, 1825 letter: “You need have no apprehensions on this ground, and you will find enough here to support you who are tied to no doctrines but those that are indubitably scriptural.”[21] While some thought Fall came under false pretenses, he insisted otherwise: “Letters now in my possession must satisfy every candid mind that whatever my convictions may have been they were well known before my removal to Nashville.”[22]
Fall became the pastor of the Baptist church in May, though he assumed the ministerial duties when he arrived in January.[23] He served without remuneration.[24] Over the next three months, Fall introduced—with majority support—significant changes.
Weekly communion was adopted (May 1826).
Candidates for baptism were received upon a simple confession of faith (June 1826).
They renounced all creeds as rules of faith and practice, and affirmed the Bible alone as the sole authority (August 1826).
When Alexander Campbell visited Nashville in February/March 1827, he “preached frequently, to the great delight of the Church and the community.” This reception was due to the fact that the church was already “fully engaged in the reformatory movement.”[25] This exacerbated current tensions within the Concord Association from which the church withdrew on August 12, 1827. An earlier communication with the Association stated its intent to never unite with any body requiring subscription “to any human instrument of union, as the test of our obedience or practice.”[26] On May 28, 1828, the church—at a Saturday conference—resolved:
That all forms, rules, decisions, and regulations, in relation to the government, practice, worship, and ordinances of the church (including the Constitution and Rules of Order) be considered null and void; that we take the New Testament as the rule of our faith, and practice; and will form such rules from it, for our worship, and government, as may consist with the spirit and meaning, and the peace, and good order of the church.[27]
There is no mistaking the Nashville church’s reorientation and its explicit association with Campbell’s reform movement. Campbell published a letter (January 10, 1828) from the church where she confirms its “departure from Baptist customs.”[28] The congregation numbered one hundred and fifty. After his visit to Nashville in 1830, Campbell described the church, numbering two hundred and fifty, as “advanced in the reformation” because it practiced the apostolic ancient order in its weekly meetings.[29] In 1834, the church numbered five hundred.[30] By 1841, Campbell identified the congregations in Cincinnati, Louisville, and Nashville as “golden candlesticks” which “illuminate and sanctify the whole world.”[31] Two of these were led into the Reformation by Fall.
Though relations with the Female Academy were congenial, Fall started a new one with the help of his sisters. He opened a “private SEMINARY, for the instruction of Young Ladies” on January 7, 1828. Named the Female Institute, it operated out of his home and included “religious instruction.”[32] The school was a tremendous success, but between an “ever-enlarging school and a growing church at a center of influence” the load was too much. His health declined.[33] He closed the school, resigned his pastorate, and removed to Kentucky.[34] Though the church was disappointed, the “Baptist Church of Jesus Christ in Nashville Tennessee” lavished him with praise and affection in a parting letter.[35] He left a three hundred member strong church in July 1831, and he remained “strongly attached” to the Nashville church, visiting frequently throughout the years.[36] In a letter to his wife, for example, he recounts his July 1833 visit when he baptized fifteen people.[37]
When the school closed, a letter to the editor from a “Lover of Science,” commented: “The loss of such an institution is to be deplored.”[38] However, his sisters—Kitty, Mary, and Charlotte—stayed in Nashville and established “Miss Fall’s Academy.” Charlotte, who later married Tolbert Fanning, became a leading educator in Middle Tennessee for the next fifty years.
P. S. Fall in Kentucky (1831-1858): Church Planter and Educator
Fall moved to Popular Hill, outside of Frankfort, KY, to a “large home on [a] farm.”[39] Country living suited Philip, and his health improved. He “was a most enthusiastic and intelligent gardener” with a greenhouse “celebrated” for its “many scientific experiments in floriculture.”[40]
With improved health, Fall’s passions re-emerged. Initially, Fall planted and nurtured a congregation in Shelbyville, KY, which grew to sixty-six members in a few months.[41] At the request of five people in Frankfort, who were unaffiliated with any other religious body, he and his wife planted a new congregation on December 2, 1832, which became the Frankfort Christian Church. He was its only “regular preacher” for twenty five years, and he served it “without any compensation.”[42] The new congregation, however, drew fire from others, and the church struggled “against much opposition.”[43]
The Christian Church erected it own building in February 1842, and Fall gave the inaugural sermon, which Campbell published. He characterized Fall as “a well-cultivated and discriminating mind” who was “the oldest ‘reformer’ in Kentucky.” His educational and reforming work is “both known and highly appreciated throughout the Valley of the Mississippi.”[44]
How does the church lead the world to Christ? Fall’s answer: “BY ITS OWN UNITY.” This includes common thought and practices. This unity—same acts, truths, and spirit—is embodied through love for another. But such unity is worthless if the “members of the church do not love one another,” including loving across denominational boundaries. Consequently, church bodies must not “separate themselves” and “work themselves up to the highest possible degree of difference and animosity.” At the center of this conviction is the confession “God is love.” “If divisions, hatred, strife, emulation, injustice, falsehood, unmercifulness, instead of their opposites, distinguish the church, how can the church exhibit the [love] of God to mankind?”[45]
To this end Fall was deeply involved at regional, state, and national levels of the Christian Church, particularly promoting cooperation and education. He was a founding trustee of the Kentucky Christian Education Society, established in 1854.[46] He was also one of the “foreign managers” of the American Christian Missionary Society at its founding in 1849.[47] Fall was a life-long supporter of society movements within the Christian Church, although David Lipscomb—based on personal conversations with Fall—insisted Fall never advocated for nor participated in societies after his return to Nashville in 1858.[48] In fact, the Nashville Christian Church did not support the society until 1881, several years after Fall returned to Kentucky. [49] He was also a trustee of both Bacon College and Bethany College, and he served as vice president of the Western Literary and College of Professional Teachers.[50]
Fall established the Female Eclectic Institute in 1832. A visitor to the school in 1846 described his home as “one of the most beautiful and romantic spots in the state.” Its educational system was “thorough, developing the powers of thinking, as well as those of acquiring knowledge.” Indeed, by 1846, “owing to the great celebrity of this school, the Principal has to reject many applications for admission.”[51]
In 1842 Fall described the substance of the school. Every morning began with song, prayer, and the oral reading of Scripture (several chapters and the Psalms). The following daily schedule reflects Fall’s motto: “Study is the business and pleasure of all.”[52]
Day
Morning
Afternoon
Monday
Natural Philosophy, Arithmetic, and Writing
Drawing
Tuesday
English Grammar, Arithmetic, and Writing
Geography
Wednesday
History, Arithmetic and Writing
Reading
Thursday
French
Drawing
Friday
Astronomy, Arithmetic, and Writing
Reading
Saturday
Preparation for Monday
Preparation for Monday
Sunday
Worship and Rest
Worship and Rest
Once again, however, Fall’s incessant activity in both church and school affected his health. The educational enterprise grew more wearisome. Fall’s wife wrote to her daughter: “we will not have a school much longer. Your Father seems more wearied than I ever saw him. He would not mind having a few day pupils, but he does not expect to have boarders but very little longer.”[53] Providently, in 1857 the Nashville church invited him to return.
P. S. Fall in Tennessee (1858-1876): Pastoring a Church
The Nashville Christian Church from 1831-1861
When Fall left the Nashville church in 1831 it numbered three hundred members, and within a few years it grew to six hundred. In the early 1850s a thousand would gather to listen to its preacher. However, in 1857 the church numbered only fifty-six members. So, what happened? [54]
After Fall’s departure, the elders decided to care for the flock themselves but employed two “Evangelists” for Middle Tennessee. The evangelist “was not regarded as the ‘pastor’ of the congregation, but was subject to the brethren.”[55] Tolbert Fanning and Absalom Adams planted and nurtured new churches throughout the region, and the Nashville church grew to “about six hundred members.”[56]
Tolbert Fanning married Charlotte Fall, Philip’s sister, on December 25, 1836, and they started a female seminary in Franklin, TN in 1837. Later they moved to Elm Crag about five miles east of Nashville and renamed it “Electic Institute for Young Ladies.”[57] Fanning planted a new church in Elm Crag and later founded Franklin College (1846).
Without their evangelists and with the size of the congregation hovering around six hundred (including over two hundred and fifty African slaves), the church appointed Dr. W. H. Wharton its Pastor, and he served part-time from 1842-1847. His congregational duties and medial practice created significant pressures. Eventually, the charismatic, young preacher Jesse B. Ferguson caught their eye during his 1842 and 1844 revivals.
In 1846 Ferguson became the only full-time resident minister among the Christian Churches in Tennessee.[58] Wildly popular, he attracted large crowds. To accommodate them, the congregation sold the Spring Street building and erected a new one on Cherry Street, which seated twelve hundred people. However, controversy soon erupted. Ferguson sparked it with an article entitled “Spirits in Prison” (1 Peter 3:19) where he argued for a “second chance” after death.[59] Ultimately, Ferguson embraced Spiritualism, Universalism, and Unitarianism.
In November 1853 twenty-five members signed a formal protest. They objected to Ferguson’s theology, the lack of growth in membership (despite larger attendance), and his worldly leadership. Wharton resigned as associate Pastor, and fifty withdrew and began meeting at the old Spring Street building. After years of controversy, Ferguson resigned in June 1856. The ownership of the Cherry Street building was then contested. After the anti-Ferguson faction took possession of the Cherry Street building, it burned (“the general and confidential opinion [is] that it was set on fire”).[60] Consequently, the Nashville Christian Church returned to where it started—it rented and then purchased the Spring Street building. But now it was only fifty-six members (including fourteen African slaves).
Some believed the church should return to its pre-Ferguson days and encourage elders to nourish the flock. Tolbert Fanning, who worshipped with the Franklin College congregation on his farm, offered this warning: “Should the members determine to hire another pastor to come to Nashville to take charge of the worship of God for them, no better results can be anticipated than those already experienced.”[61]
Yet, the church decided their best opportunity for revival was the return of Philip Slater Fall. “While we know it to be wrong to trust to an arm of flesh,” they wrote Fall, “we believe that, as far as human means go, you are the one person who can save the church.”[62] Fall returned as Pastor of the Nashville Christian Church in January 1858, and the congregation was encouraged by a visit from Alexander Campbell that year.[63]
In the summer of 1861 Fall reported the church’s progress to the Christian Pioneer. “I am happy to say that the cause of Christ is in a measure restored to its former status in the city.” With the immersion of sixty persons in the recent past membership now totals “as many as in the best days of the congregation,” two hundred and sixty-five “white members.” The “colored members were organized into a separate church [1858]; and there are possibly more than two hundred of them together now; but some twenty prefer to remain with us.” Consequently, the Christian Church in Nashville was nearly as large as when Ferguson arrived in 1847. “The greater number of the old members have returned to their places,” Fall said, “and now value their privileges more highly than ever. Peace and love abound amongst us…The unpleasant past is forgotten; and the author of the evil is rarely ever mentioned.”[64]
The Civil War
Darkness soon descended upon all the churches of Nashville with the outbreak of the war and Tennessee’s July 1861 succession from the Union. The two leading Protestant Pastors of the city, R. B. C. Howell and P. S. Fall, were avid supporters of the Confederate cause. Both encouraged their members to join the Army of Tennessee.[65] In fact, Fall’s son, Albert, enlisted and was killed at Fort Donelson on February 14, 1862.
When Union forces occupied Nashville, church buildings were converted to hospitals, public schools were closed, and ministers were required to swear loyalty to the Union. Every minister in Nashville, who refused the oath, including Howell,[66] served time in the penitentiary except for Fall. He escaped by appealing to his British citizenship: “If the oath I have taken (in order to become a voter) is not sufficient, I prefer to remain a British subject.”[67]
Fall served the city throughout the occupation. When public schools closed in occupied Nashville, Fall began one in his home, which continued until 1871. He ministered to the sick, helped needy prisoners, and comforted the dying, significant because other ministers were languishing in prison.[68] After the battle of Stone’s River (December 1862), Brigadier General Smiley restored Fall’s building to the Pastor, and said: “I believe that Mr. Fall’s teaching in that church will do more than all the bayonets to subdue, regulate and control this community.”[69] Despite his rather benevolent treatment, Fall refused to support the Union war effort and, in particular, refused Andrew Johnson’s order to offer a thanksgiving prayer for the death of the Confederate General John Morgan. He retorted: “I will ‘render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,’ but no man shall dictate to me what I say in my pulpit.”[70]
Christian Church in Nashville After the Civil War
The postwar years were difficult in Nashville as the destitute, widows, and orphans were numerous in Middle Tennessee and the South. Fall joined David Lipscomb and Tolbert Fanning in raising funds for the poor throughout the Christian Church “brotherhood.”[71] Fall encouraged this national request for benevolence in the newly revived Gospel Advocate (1866), asserting, “Nothing we possess is our own.”[72] Ultimately, they raised $100,000 for the southern poor.
The relationship between David Lipscomb and Tolbert Fanning with P. S. Fall was cordial and brotherly. For a time, Fall was an associate editor of the Gospel Advocate with Lipscomb and Fanning.[73] Lipscomb enjoyed Fall’s preaching, and he sometimes published his sermons in the Gospel Advocate.[74] But differences between them existed, and they were pronounced at points. Three points are particularly important.
Pastor System. Fanning and Lipscomb advocated a “mutual edification” approach to Christian assemblies and believed the church was most effectively nurtured by a plurality of leaders. Fall, however, thought this was dangerous. In a letter to his sister, Charlotte Fanning, he warned she whould “never be edified by the crudities of those who do not know how even to read the scriptures &, much less, to interpret them…And the notion…that everyone is ‘able to teach”…is too absurd for anyone of sense to hold.”[75] Fall thought an educated Pastor should lead the church.
The War Question. Both David Lipscomb and Tolbert Fanning opposed participation in the Civil War. They were long-time advocates for peace and peacemaking, and they opposed any kind of violence.[76] Fall supported the Confederate cause in the war.
Scripture and the Holy Spirit. During the 1850s controversy erupted between Tolbert Fanning and Robert Richardson. Fanning located the work of the Spirit in the written word of God while Richardson affirmed a sacramental work of the Spirit within the believer.[77] Fanning feared a renewal of Ferguson’s spiritualism. Fall sided with Richardson.[78] In a letter to Fall, dated July 30, 1857, Richardson wrote: “It gives me great satisfaction to know that this view I have given of faith is acceptable to one of such excellent judgment as yourself.”[79]
Despite these differences, they shared a common vision of the practice the Christian Faith as a New Testament church, including the exclusion of instrumental music from the worship of the body.[80] Following the “pattern” of the New Testament, it is “perfectly practicable to reconstruct an apostolic congregation.”[81] This ecclesial unity was sufficient for the time, though a day would come when the theological trajectories of Fanning and Fall would result in two distinct bodies: the Churches of Christ and the Disciples of Christ.
Throughout his ministry in Nashville Fall was fully engaged with the city, particularly in education and city development. At various times, he was President of the Agricultural Society,[82] President of the Chamber of Commerce,[83] President of the State Association of Teachers,[84] a member of the Public Education Board (sometimes President),[85] and an “examiner” for several schools (e.g., Columbia).[86]
Conclusion
Fall returned to Frankfort in 1877. His Frankfort friends supplied him with a modest home as a token of their loving appreciation.[87] Retiring from the pastorate, he continued to preach. He regularly spoke, for example, for the Presbyterian Church in Frankfort as well as the First Christian Church.[88] In 1887, Fall returned to Nashville to preach the last sermon in the original Spring Street building before the congregation moved to Vine Street.[89] On his 92nd birthday “his faculties were unimpaired,” and he “preached a powerful sermon in his old church [Frankfort], from the text, ‘And the books were opened.’ A most impressive occasion to all.”[90] He died a few days later on December 3, 1890. His obituary remembered, “No man was ever more beloved by his Church, his friends, and the community generally than was Mr. Fall.”[91]
The legacy of Philip Slater Fall is an important one.
As Reformer, he was one of the earliest and most ardent supporters of the Reformation inaugurated by Alexander Campbell.
As Educator, he provided education for young people wherever he lived and advocated for public education even as he supported private institutions among the Christian Church.
As Pastor, whether reforming congregations, planting others, or reviving the one in Nashville, he was regarded as an eminent preacher and compassionate presence by his peers.
[1]Nashville Union and American, July 15, 1857, 3.
[2] Pattie Burnley, “Philip Slater Fall,” Register of Kentucky State Historical Society 7.21 (September 1999) 63.
[3] John H. Spencer, History of Kentucky Baptists (Cincinnati: J. R. Baumes, 1886), I:241.
[4] Philip S. Fall, “Reminiscences of Philip S. Fall,” MS in the Philip S. Fall Memorial Library, Christian Church, Frankfort, KY.
[18] Eva Jean Wrather, “History of the Vine Street Christian Church,” unpublished MSS, Disciples of Christ Historical Society, Wrather 120 II/7 Vine Str. Chapter 1 Revised, p. 50, and also so named by Cox, 74.
[23] R. B. C. Howell, A Memorial of the First Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee (Nashville: Historical Commission, Southern Baptist Convention, 1942), 42.
[47] “The Convention of Christian Churches,” Millennial Harbinger 3rd series, 6.12 (December 1849) 691.
[48] Herman Norton, The Life of Philip Slater Fall (M. A. Thesis, Vanderbilt University, 1951) 70-72 and David Lipscomb, “Consistency,” Gospel Advocate29 (6 April 1887) 215.
[49] Wayne H. Bell, “A History of Vine Street Christian Church,” in Seven Early Churches in Nashville (Waynesboro, TN: Elder’s Bookstore Publisher, 1972), 85.
[50] Sarah Harwell, “Fall, Philip Slater (1798-1890),” The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 330.
[51] Extracted from the Protestant Unionist, “Educational Institutions,” Millennial Harbinger, 3rd series, 3.9 (September 1846) 429-430,
[52] “Bishop P. S. Fall’s School Near Frankfort, Kentucky,” Millennial Harbinger, 2nd series, 6.6 (June 1842) 284-85.
[54] Johnny Tucker, Like a Meteor Across the Horizon: the Jesse B. Ferguson Story (Fayetteville, TN: Tucker Publications, 1978), James R. Wilburn, The Hazard of the Die: Tolbert Fanning and the Restoration Movement (Austin, TX: Sweet Publishing Co., 1969), and Robert E. Hooper, Crying in the Wilderness: The Life & Influence of David Lipscomb (Nashville: Lipscomb University, 2011) narrate the history of the Nashville church in the 1830s-1850s.
[55] Tolbert Fanning, “The Church in Nashville,” Gospel Advocate 3 (March 1857) 71.
[56] Alexander Campbell, “Sketch of a Tour of 75 Days,” Millennial Harbinger 6.6 (June 1835) 280.
[57] Alexander Campbell, “Female Seminaries,” Millennial Harbinger 2nd series 4.8(August 1840) 384.
[63] Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1870), 2:638.
[64] Philip S. Fall, “Letter from Elder Philip Fall,” Millennial Harbinger 5th series, 4.9 (September 1861) 530. See also Fall Papers, ““Discourse on the Reconstruction of the Congregation, No. 1,” 1-5.
[65] Joe Early, Jr., “Tennessee Baptists and the Civil War,” Tennessee Baptist History 8 (Fall 2006) 12; Taylor, p. 56.
[71] W. K. Pinkerton, “A Big Proposition,” Millennial Harbinger 37.12 (December 1866) 561. Cf. P. S. Fall, “Letter from a Committee Composed of Fall, V. M. Metcalfe, and David Lipscomb, Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 16, 1866, Concerning Relief for the South,” The Evangelist 7 (5 January 1867) 8.
[72] P. S. Fall, “The Responsibility of the Disciples of Christ as Stewards of God,” Gospel Advocate 6 (23 October 1866) 673-688, quote from p. 679.
[73] P. S. Fall, “To the Readers of the Advocate,” Gospel Advocate (3 January 1867) 2.
[74] For example, P. S. Fall, “’What Must I Do to be Saved?’ Acts xvi.30,” Gospel Advocate 18.21 (25 May 1874) 483-504.
[75] Philip S. Fall, “Letter to Charlotte Fall Fanning” (November 21, 1885), Disciples of Christ Historical Society, Fall Papers, II/16.
[76] Fanning published thirteen articles in the Gospel Advocate throughout 1861 as he attempted to dissuade his readers from participating in the war effort.
[77] This controversy is explained in C. Leonard Allen and Danny Gray Swick, Participating in God’s Life: Two Crossroads for Churches of Christ (Orange, CA: New Leaf Books, 2001).
[80] David Lipscomb, “An Explanation,” Gospel Advocate 53.16 (20 April 1911) 465. Fall’s congregation did not introduce the instrument until 1891 (Bell, 85).
[81] P. S. Fall, “How Old is your Church?,” Gospel Advocate (3 January 1867) 3.
[89] Wayne H. Bell, “A History of Vine Street Christian Church,” in Seven Early Churches in Nashville (Waynesboro, TN: Elder’s Bookstore Publisher, 1972), 85.
When the wicked prosper, what do the righteous do? When people oppress the poor and needy to enrich themselves, what does wisdom say to community of God when they gather to praise God?
“Depart from evil, trust God, and do good.” The way of the wicked leads to destruction, but the meek shall inherit the earth.
This was also the message of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount.
Bobby Valentine and John Mark Hicks discuss the meaning and significance of Psalm 37.
Psalm 35 is a passionate lament that contains a strong contrast between human injustice and divine righteousness. Though the Psalmist empathetically prayed and fasted for those who seek to do the Psalmist harm when they were weak and needy, now they devise evil and hate him without cause.
The Psalmist prays for justice according to God’s righteousness. Those who live in comfort are uncomfortable with such prayers (imprecations), but the oppressed understand them, and the righteous stand with the oppression in prayer with them.
Jesus knew this Psalm, quoted it about himself in John 15:26. Jesus saw himself as the Psalmist who suffered at the hands of the powerful and sought God’s vindication. It is the story of his cross and resurrection.
It is the story of Israel in which Jesus participates and brings to fulfillment. Those oppressed by the powers are delivered by the righteousness of God.
Bobby Valentine and John Mark Hicks discuss the meaning and significance of the Psalm for Israel, Jesus, and us.
“The Lord is near the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 34 reminds us that when we cry out to God in the midst of our suffering, the Lord hears and acts because God is good and gives good things.
The righteous sufferer is protected and endures by pursuing peace, doing good, and eschewing evil.
1 Peter 3 quotes Psalm 34:12-16 as Peter appropriates its instruction for how to live in the context of hostility and opposition.
The Gospel of John (19:36, quoting Psalm 34:20) appropriates the Psalm as the voice of Jesus on the cross. Though he suffers, he cries out and God delivers him.
Bobby Valentine and John Mark Hicks discuss the meaning and significance of Psalm 34.
The worshipping assembly of Israel proclaims that they do not trust in military power or national agendas. Instead, it lives by faith in the steadfast love of the Lord.
The praise of God on the lips and instruments of God’s people is lovely, fitting, and awesome. Not because of who we are but because of who God is and what God does.
Yahweh is righteousness and fills the earth with steadfast love. God created the world, frustrates the plans of the nations, chose Israel as God’s own possession, and fashions the hearts of people. God is no passive agent but is involved in human history.
Therefore, we wait on the Lord, and pray, “Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.”
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Biblical Texts | Tagged: Assembly, Church, Hebrews 10:5-7, Hesed, Lament, Psalm 40, Sacrifices, Steadfast Love, Waiting, Worship | 
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Posted by John Mark Hicks