Don’t you love it when you see a movie that is “based on a true story”?

Sometimes the story is fairly decent history, other times it’s wild fantasy with almost no hint of truth, but both can say “based” in a true story… think about it….

Well, this post is based on a true story because these things actually happened, but I’m not going to name names or get into the actual details, because I would rather not identify the parties involved, and I’m doing that to stay out of trouble! (nothing sinister, I just don’t want to hurt any feelings or ruffle any feathers)

Once upon a time, there was a man who was disenchanted with the way things were going in church. He noticed that the church was leaning too far into its traditions and teachings, while those traditions and teachings seemed less about the teachings of Scripture, and more about keeping up the way things had always been done. This was in the early days of America, when all things were new; there had been many changes and a whole new realm of possibilities was at hand, so this man started writing and teaching what he believed the Bible taught.

Now as you might guess, this didn’t always go over very well with the established churches in the area, and he soon found himself out on the fringes with only those who saw his teachings for what they really were, an attempt to teach the truth, even though it wasn’t popular with the leaders of the day. Our fried had an idea, what if we figured out as best we can how they did church in the very beginning, back in the first century, the book of Acts, and went back to that way… wouldn’t that be better?  Wouldn’t that be a way for all of us to be united? Wouldn’t that be a dream come true?

The problem was that there were many differing views on the details, even though most could agree on the big things, like the divinity of Christ, the death, burial and resurrection… these weren’t the problem, it was always the little things… those pesky details where the devil dwells.  So our boy wrote a paper, published it and distributed it far and wide making his case; it was a unity document, and it contained a revolutionary new idea, for he added a line, a thought, a principle: “Where the Bible speaks,” he wrote, “we will speak, and where the Bible is silent, we are silent.”  for he had come to realize that it was the things the Bible didn’t really say where we always seemed to disagree.  So why not let people agree on the big stuff, the basics, the important stuff that sets a Christina apart from a non-Christian, and then agree that it’s OK for brothers in Christ to have their own opinions on the stuff the Bible doesn’t talk about. His paper was a “unity document” of a new kind in a new Nation, where new was the order of the day…

Our friend preached and taught, others joined in, many came to Christ and a movement for Christian unity came about.  Our boy’s ideas crossed the oceans and people far away heard about what he was doing and became interested.  Over time they built churches, schools, orphanages, colleges and established missionary groups to take the gospel around the world to save the lost and invite the saved to join the movement, and they came in large numbers.  By mid-century, this was the second largest church group in America, and it was based around that simple thought: Where the Bible speaks, we speak,; where the Bible is silent, we are silent.

Then the War came, and along with the War came politics, and along with war and politics came new challenges…

Then what happened?  I’ll tell the rest of the story tomorrow!