A few months ago we began mailing TRUTH MAGAZINE to several hundred Canadian brethren. The following article was thereafter published (March 15, 1964) in THE VOICE OF SIMCOE COUNTY edited by my good friend, Brother L. Wesley Jones who lives in Barrie, Ontario.

A LONGER LOOK AT THE LABEL!

No trademark or copyright can be secured for Bible names and phrases. In the scriptures, God's house called the "Church of the Lord" -- congregations are called "Churches of Christ." All are at liberty to use the phrase and even fanatics and cranks have done so, as well as many sincere people.

Right name does not make right religion. One must look beneath the surface for "truth and spirit."

A WARNING

Ontario is of late being circulated in the name of "Truth." An outwardly attractive magazine leaves the impression that Churches of Christ cannot care for needy persons in the professional and legal arrangements of homes for the indigent. Also stated is a condemnation of scriptural Church cooperation in evangelism.

We regret such a question being brought into Canada on such a scale, and pray for brethren to be alert, and not easily deceived. Let us lend no assistance to such a strife-ridden cause, but pursue goals of unity we have held in common.

--The Editors

From 1953-1957 I lived in Indianapolis, Indiana while Brother Jones lived twenty-five miles away at Franklin, Indiana. He later moved to Louisville, Kentucky. While living in Indianapolis, Brother Jones and I were together frequently. In fact, we studied the very matters together that he now is so excited about studying through TRUTH MAGAZINE. Brother Jones then himself opposed churches contributing to any human institution (orphan home or otherwise). He also opposed then the centralization of church work under a sponsoring church, which practice the Simcoe article now calls "scriptural church cooperation in evangelism." Incidentally, what scripture authorizes it, Brother Jones?

I want to be perfectly fair in the management of TRUTH MAGAZINE. I, therefore, will be glad to publish from Brother Jones articles reviewing any position we take which he believes to contain error. (Will the GOSPEL HERALD, published at Beamsville, be as fair? I should hope so but have reasons to doubt their willingness to do so.) However, I would appreciate the deletion from Brother Jones' articles of such prejudice arousing terms as "fanatics and cranks," and "strife-ridden cause." If he can find Bible authority for that which he calls "scriptural Church cooperation" I will be glad to have him to present it. And if any man can find Bible authority for such, and can ably present it, Brother, L. Wesley Jones is the man!

TRUTH MAGAZINE stands for the same things in 1964 that L. Wesley Jones stood for in 1953-1957, and Brother Jones knows that. In fact, my studies with him helped to solidify my own thinking on these controverter points. If I am now in error on these points, Brother Jones helped me into this error. Rather than merely give "A WARNING" against what I teach, it would be much more helpful to me, and to our Canadian readers, for him to point out specifically the errors taught, and to produce the scriptural authority for those practices to which we object.

Growing out of our private studies together, between 1953-1957, were some typewritten notes on these very issues. Brother Jones typed up these notes and sent me a copy of them, which I still have somewhere. Brother Jones will find his biggest problem in any discussion of these matters to be the scriptural arguments Brother Jones made in 1953-1957 against church-supported institutional orphan homes and sponsoring churches. Exactly when he changed his position I do not know but it was considerably after 1957. But if Brother Jones of 1964 can answer Brother Jones of 1957 with scripture, I shall be glad to permit him to do so through TRUTH MAGAZINE.

Truth Magazine VIII: 10, p. 2 July 1964