John Mark Hicks

“Send bread now, brethren, and afterward the Bibles and preachers,” David Lipscomb (1866). I’ve often heard and said that people won’t care what you say until they know you care.  I think the following small blurb by Lipscomb reflects that principle. **** David Lipscomb, “Fellowship,” Gospel Advocate 9 (June 1867) 476. [After listing a number of […]

The bloody stress of the Civil War strained relationships between northern and southern members of the Stone-Campbell Movement to a breaking point. While sectional attitudes created tension as well as the diverse response to participation in the war, the gut-wrenching reality–as Lipscomb saw it–was that northern brethren were more interested in high-salaried preachers, worldly buildings […]

The situation in the South through 1866 and for several years thereafter was critical. The hungry, naked and homeless were present in overwhelming numbers. The War had devastated the country. I think this is one reason we see a constant stream of small blurbs from Lipscomb in the 1866 Gospel Advocate on the poor and the […]

The February 27 issue of the 1866 Gospel Advocate contains two short blurbs by David Lipscomb about the poor (p. 141).  The first expresses his concern that the poor “should, above all others, feel at home in the church.” The second encourages believers to continually share with the poor. This first blurb reminds us that […]

As the Gospel Advocate begins again in January 1866–this time as a weekly rather than a monthly–one of the constant emphases of the editors, particularly David Lipscomb, is the privileged position of the poor within the kingdom of God. No doubt this is contextualized by the economic and social conditions of the postbellum South, but it […]

September 11 means something to us. It raises questions about forgiveness, war and our future. I don’t think that date meant anything particular to David Lipscomb, but on that date in 1866 Lipscomb addressed the problem of war and forgiveness (Gospel Advocate 8 [11 September 1866] 579-583). How do we forgive those who sought our […]

In the second issue of the rebirthed Gospel Advocate in 1866, Lipscomb addresses the question of how God was or was not involved in the Civil War which ended eight months ago. He asks, “Does God Take Part in the Conflicts of the Kingdoms of this World?”  His answer, “Yes!” God has a role in everything within […]

The church in Murfreesboro was divided over the war. Previously Fanning had published a letter from Lillard, Harding and Ransome, and he had printed an article by “Disciple” who responded to that letter from within the same church. Fanning now feels compelled to comment on their exchange. He uses the occasion to clarify his position. […]

It may sound rather strange to some ears, but at the turn of the 20th century there was some debate among Churches of Christ whether the Sermon on the Mount was intended for Christians. For example, Lipscomb was asked on one occasion whether he could “show that it s a Christian duty to try to […]

I would say that it is wrong to encourage sectarianism in any way, if we can tell which are sectarians. But my observation is that it takes a sectarian to ferret out a sectarian, just as “it takes a rogue to catch a rogue.” Unfortunately, all the sectarians are not in sectarian churches; and I […]