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| Barnhouse |
"That's one less grackle to bother my bluebirds," he celebrated.
When the pair arrived at the dead bird, Barnhouse saw that he had erred; it was not a bothersome grackle lying there, but a bluebird. He used the accident to exhort his protege --- the late apologist, Walter Martin.
You are right in defending the faith from it enemies, but you are too inclined to 'shoot from the hip,' even as I was when I fired at this bird. In the excitement of the moment, it looked like a grackle, but a closer examination would have saved its life and my feelings. It is not wrong to contend for the gospel, but it is wrong to shoot first and ask questions later. What you think might be a grackle, and apostate, or an Antichrist might well be a bluebird you looked at in a hurry. (told by Richard Mouw in Christianity Today November 2006, p. 98)
Barnhouse was not just repeating advice he read somewhere in a book. He had spent a great deal of 'ecclesiastical ammunition' in his career trying to rid the Body of Christ of 'grackles.'
Early in my ministry I conceived the idea that I must strike out against all error wherever I saw it. I used only one kind of ammunition. I hit an error wherever I saw it. If it was Christian Science, Unitarianism, or in Romanism, I swung hard. If it was in some fundamental leader with whom I was in ninety-five percent agreement, I swung hard at the five percent. (Barnhouse in Eternity January 1953, inside cover)
Early in the 20th century, the young Pentecostal movement also found itself in his 'sights,' but much later when Barnhouse dramatically adopted a more irenic approach to other Christians, the Pentecostals became beneficiaries of that change. In fact, the new relationship was highlighted by Barnhouse preaching for a week at Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri in 1958 (Springfield is also home to the head office of the Assemblies of God).
A NOTEWORTHY CAREER
At the summit of his career as a preacher, Donald Grey Barnhouse was a force to be reckoned with. He crisscrossed the nation --- and the globe --- preaching and teaching. By his own estimate, he preached approximately 12,000 sermons in a three-decade span.
... Barnhouse is to be remembered as a gifted, independent, expository teacher of the Scriptures who, prior to television and the advent of Billy Graham, spoke personally to more individuals than any Protestant religious leader of his generation. (C. Allyn Russell in the Journal of Presbyterian History, Spring 1981, p. 38)
His influence was enhanced by his nationwide radio ministry, the Bible Study Hour, which at the time of his death was being "heard over 455 stations" (Russell, p. 37). He founded, wrote for, and edited a magazine called, Eternity. Additionally, he pastored the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylania from 1927-1960 (he was followed in that pastorate first by James Montgomery Boice, and later by Philip Ryken).
The 'stage' that Barnhouse walked onto was largely framed by the modernist-fundamentalist controversy in the early 1900s. According to Pentecostal scholars William and Robert Menzies,
By 1925, the era of the infamous 'monkey trial' that lampooned belief in a literal biblical creation, Fundamentalism had been driven from positions of authority in most of the great denominations. From then on, they engaged in a form of guerilla warfare. (Spirit and Power: Foundations of Pentecostal Experience, p. 29)
Church historian George Marsden further explains,
So the fundamental doctrines for which they fought included the virgin birth of Christ, his miracles, his bodily resurrection, his substitutionary atonement for sin, and his second coming. Of particular importance was the nature of the authority of Scripture. Modernists, influenced by higher criticism, emphasized the Bible's human origins; fundamentalists countered by affirming its inerrancy in history and science as well as faith and doctrine. (Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism, p. 4)
So the fight was on and Barnhouse was a willing --- and able --- combatant. At the Bible Institute of Los Angeles he had been a student of R. A. Torrey, who thought so much of him that he lent him his class notes. More intense training came from the fundamentalist 'stars' at Princeton Theological Seminary --- B. B Warfield, Robert Dick Wilson, and J. Gresham Machen. According to C. Allyn Russell,
Barnhouse's theology was a combination of dispensationalism, Calvinism, and fundamentalism. He spent a lifetime emerging from and modifying his early training in dispensationalism; he gained his Reformed theology at Princeton Theological Seminary; and, he formed his own brand of fundamentalism as the result of independent study of the Scriptures. (Russell, p. 38)
With his training and beliefs intact, he was off to proclaim the Gospel, while battling modernism and any other errors he could find --- even in his own denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA). In fact, criticism of PCUSA ministers that he thought were in error earned him censure by the denomination in 1939 (e.g., on the radio he said, "within the sound of my voice there are two Presbyterian ministers who are treasonably disloyal to the gospel of Jesus Christ." Russell, p. 46).
Barnhouse was certainly not alone in his bombast. Historian Joel Carpenter points out,
Militancy was the mark of fundamentalism, and ideological militancy especially. Fundamentalists were, in other words, a contentious lot, and they held up confrontation as one of their principal duties (Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism, p. 64).
AT ODDS WITH PENTECOSTALS
Some of that militancy was directed against Pentecostals, who had arrived on the scene at the turn of the century. Pentecostals, thus called because they relate their practice of speaking in tongues to the phenomena that occurred on the Day of Pentecost in the book of Acts, came to be identified as a movement having its beginning in 1906 on Azusa Street in Los Angeles (there had been an outbreak of tongues-speaking in Topeka, Kansas in 1901, as well). While they felt they had biblical precedent for what they had experienced, there was much rejection of that claim, often vociferously, as Allen Anderson reports,
The fact that Pentecostals were isolated, rejected and ridiculed by established churches, especially by fundamentalists, eventually resulted in an anti-ecumenical attitude. These Pentecostals saw no reason to cooperate with what they perceived as the old and corrupt churches that had ridiculed them. At the forefront of this attack were leading contemporary fundamentalist preachers like Benjamin Warfield, Henry Ironside and Campbell Morgan, who reportedly called Pentecostals 'the last vomit of Satan'. (Anderson, p. 62).
Characteristically, Barnhouse got involved, writing an editorial in 1933 in Revelation (the magazine he started previous to Eternity). Gerald Wayne King recounts Barnhouse's charges (and Pentecostal pioneer Stanley Frodsham's rebuttal) in his 2009 PhD thesis. The charges went this way,
Barnhouse provided an unflattering description of Pentecostal worship, accusing them of avoiding the full title 'Lord Jesus Christ' and of devaluing the blood of Christ. (Disfellowshipped: Pentecostal Responses to Fundamentalism in the United States, 1906-1943)
The rejection of Pentecostals was not universal, however. A new organization, being spearheaded by Harold J. Ockenga and J. Elwin Wright, was open to having Pentecostal membership.
During World War II, American Evangelical leaders were charting a course for concerted action, desiring to form a collective voice to speak for their interests and not being content to be represented to the public by the World Council of Churches and its American counterpart, an entity that came to be known as the National Council of Churches. One hundred fifty leaders gathered in St. Louis in a constitutional convention for the formation of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in 1942. (Menzies, p. 28-29).
When the NAE was officially formed in 1943, two Pentecostal denominations were charter members --- the Assemblies of God and the Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee. As Gary B. McGee explains, it was a new day for Pentecostals,
Membership brought several valuable benefits. Foremost, the NAE conferred recognition as evangelicals on Trinitarian Pentecostals. No longer to be viewed as sectarians or cultists, they could now take their seats with other evangelicals. Although other members strongly disagreed with distinctive Pentecostal teachings, they no longer considered them heretical. After all, each body within the NAE had its on doctrinal distinctives. (People of the Spirit: the Assemblies of God, p. 232)
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| McIntire |
In his Christian Beacon, McIntire bitterly assailed the Pentecostals and the NAE by saying: "Tongues" is one of the great signs of the apostasy. As true protestant denominations turn from the faith and it gets darker, the Devil comes more into the open, and people who are not fed in the old line denominations go out to the "tongues" movement, for they feel that they have some life. (The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States, p. 207)
While not as harsh as McIntire, Barnhouse was not comfortable with Pentecostal membership in the NAE. Historian Edith Blumhofer writes,
Although the participation of Pentecostals did not prompt debate among NAE founders ... it troubled some fundamentalists and some Pentecostals. In 1944, for example, Donald Grey Barnhouse ... called on the annual NAE convention to solicit old-line denominational participation to counterbalance Pentecostal influence. Barnhouse unequivocally declared that the NAE could not be a meaningful force unless it was controlled by well-established denominations. (Restoring the Faith: the Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture, p. 187)
While Barnhouse has been clearly proved wrong on that count (the NAE continues to this day --- with the Assemblies of God as its largest member), the year 1944 stands out in that account.
The death of his first wife in 1944 in her mid-forties, after a lengthy bout with cancer affected Barnhouse deeply. During her final illness, Barnhouse and his wife had quietly called for elders from one of the Pentecostal churches to anoint her ceremonially with oil and to pray for her healing. (Russell, p. 49)
Whatever Barnhouse thought about Pentecostals up to that point --- whether or not they had correct doctrine, or whether or not their membership would harm the NAE --- he believed at that moment that God would, or could, respond to their prayers for healing. That is, at least, what his son told C. Allyn Russell in an interview in 1979,
Barnhouse accepted the claim of the elders that his wife had been healed. When she died, however, Barnhouse was shaken doctrinally and as well as emotionally. Donald Grey Barnhouse, Jr. declared that his father "did not seem quite so totally confident about anything after that." (Russell, p. 49)
A STUNNING REVERSAL
One could easily imagine that this was the end of involvement with the Pentecostals for Barnhouse. After all, he "quietly" summoned them --- and still lost his dear wife. But, less than nine years later, Donald Grey Barnhouse stunned the religious community in the United States when he made an announcement that was tantamount to saying that he was going to be a lot more careful about what kind of birds he was shooting at. He penned a New Year's resolution for Eternity's January 1953 issue that declared that he wanted to broaden his circle of fellowship --- and he was not going to do it in a quiet, stealthy manner. There for all to read was,
In this same spirit I have had good fellowship with men who might be called extreme in their adherence to some doctrine, such as that which fosters so-called manifestations of the Holy Spirit. When we talked together I found that we had Christ in common. It was wonderful.
Barnhouse accounted for this dramatic change by explaining that his very full and productive schedule, as well as, his combative personality had not left much room for the receptivity of love. He seemed to be expressing that he was running his 'engine' with a crankcase low on oil. Then, on the 25th anniversary of his pastorate at Tenth Avenue, there was a celebration where the congregation really poured in the 'oil.'
I began to think that perhaps a whole lot of people did love me, and suddenly I saw that this was going to make a big difference in a lot of things. (Eternity, January 1953, inside cover)
In effect, Barnhouse was going to take the love his congregation had shown him and pass it on. The doctrinal battles of yesteryear seemed to fade in importance as he wrote,
I want to make my circle of Christian fellowship on the basis of the fact that a man is going to be in Heaven with me. If he is, then why not get a little closer together here and now. (Eternity, January 1953, inside cover)
It was in that same New Year's resolution that Barnhouse made the statement about "hitting hard" at five percent disagreement even when there was 95 percent agreement with another fundamentalist. Interestingly, those same percentages came up again about four years later when he advanced further his fellowship with Pentecostal christians. Barnhouse, Walter Martin, and two more ministerial associates were invited to the Assemblies of God headquarters in Springfield in 1957 for dialogue and fellowship. After a day of "marvelous unity" around those things which were mutually believed, a second day of dialogue touched on the topics of physical healing and those with gifts of healing, or healers.
There was considerable discussion on these points. I am not attempting to express the Pentecostal position, for I am not sure that they are in greater unanimity than the rest of evangelicals. Nevertheless, as one of the Pentecostal brothers said, "We are in agreement in 95 percent of our positions." (Eternity, April 1958, pp. 8-9)
So, what fell into the five percent? (A five percent that Barnhouse no longer felt compelled to "swing hard at", though he was firmly in disagreement.) There were three areas. First, whereas the Assemblies of God stresses that healing is in the atonement, the Barnhouse group expressed that God could intervene with healing, but that "it is not always His will to heal." Also, they did not believe in "divine healers." Second, the Barnhouse group could not accept the Pentecostal belief that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an experience subsequent to conversion with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Finally, the issue of women ministers was disagreed upon; the Assemblies have women who preach to the full assembly of believers, while Barnhouse did not think that was scriptural.
By having Barnhouse preach in the Central Assembly of God pulpit for one week in 1958, the Assemblies of God leaders were signalling their unwillingness to "swing hard" at the five percent, as well. Barnhouse was both gracious and candid in reporting the invitation to his Eternity readers,
It is good for the whole body of Christ to notice that a Presbyterian minister who adheres to the Westminster Confession is an acceptable guest in a Pentecostal assembly. I go with the desire to learn everything of the graces of God that He can show me. I do not believe that my views will be changed about the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. I shall confine the subjects of my messages to those doctrines on which we are in full accord. (Eternity, April 1958, pp. 8-9)
That still left Barnhouse with lots of biblical text to roam in because, despite earlier misunderstandings, there was much that was mutually believed.
Pentecostals had always been evangelical in doctrine, teaching, among other doctrines, the infallible authority of Scripture, justification by faith, the Virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, and the second coming. Yet their emphasis on Holy Spirit baptism with speaking in tongues, belief in the full restoration of the gifts of the Spirit, and prayer for the sick set them apart. (McGee, p. 232)
Donald Grey Barnhouse died in 1960, two years after preaching in Springfield. The Christian Century, by no means a fundamentalist journal, had this to say in an obituary,
His theology was conservative, and he was honorable in controversy as well as other relationships. As a journalist as well as a commentator, he witnessed to the integrity that should characterize a Christian in those vocations by responsible and honest handling of the truth. (Christian Century, December 7, 1960, p. 1428)
Did Barnhouse earn such praise by softening to the point of compromise late in life? Was he being feted because he stopped shooting at any 'birds' overhead --- grackles or bluebirds? The answer is, no. After the New Year's resolution of 1953, Barnhouse challenged groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and Unitarians, as well as, individuals like Reinhold Niebuhr, Elton Trueblood, and the late Albert Schweitzer. He was still zealous for what he believed to be the truth; but he had learned to evaluate the criteria of spirit, as well. He evidences this in his recounting of the meeting in Springfield.
Our conference began with prayer, and long before the last man had prayed I was convinced that these were Christian brethren. No matter what differences might develop in our conversations, I was sure that these men were fully committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they they honored, worshipped and owned Him as Lord of all. (Eternity, April 1958, pp. 8-9)
The fighting fundamentalist had found "a still more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31, NRSV)
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