The Word Stands Above Theological Controversy
Campbell Morgan’s ministry in America took place in the throes of bitter theological controversies in the 1920s. While serving as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Athens, Ga., he was criticized for not aligning himself with any theological stance. Morgan was not just a denominational proponent, and reached people of many religious persuasions. His words to one critic may well speak to the contemporary controversies that are dividing mainline Protestantism:
I am resolutely going on with positive teaching and refusing to be involved in the fight. It is not easy, and I am not sure that the hour will not come when an open cleavage, cutting across all denominations, will compel everyone to move distinctly to the right or left . .. Wherever I go, I find a multitude of souls hungry for the Word of God.
Advertisement
Morgan believed the Word stood above all theological controversies, and adamantly refused to become embroiled in them. In a letter to his son, Frank Crossley in 1925, he referred to the “theological controversies blighting our age,” and added, “The mass of men are waiting for preaching of the New Testament kind, with a great message of grace to meet human need.”
The ancient builder of the walls of Jerusalem was confronted by forces that would distract him from God’s work. He replied to them, “I am doing a great work! I cannot stop to come and meet with you” (Neh. 6:3, NLT). History has proved that the Eternal Word remains when human systems have had their day and departed.
There was one moment, however, when Campbell Morgan took a stand. His friend and colleague Dr. James Murdock MacInnis, Dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (later Biola University), had been falsely accused of heresy. Some of the Board charged MacInnis with being a “Modernist,” but an investigative committee found him innocent of the charges. Because this attack threatened the institution, MacInnis was forced to resign. On Nov. 16, 1928, Morgan also resigned, citing his reason: “this action is an unjust and cruel practice of expediency.”
Morgan took no sides in the theological storms of the 1920s. In 1931, he wrote, “I dislike the word Fundamentalist as much as I dislike the word Modernist. I always decline to be labeled by either designation. My position is that of holding the Evangelical faith in its fullness.”
In the Shadow of Grace Campbell Morgan knew the shadows of life, and yet walked courageously and faithfully in the light, toward the Greater Light. At times his journey on that road was marked by detours and difficulties. But always he walked in the light.
A few years before his death, he wrote these words in a letter to his family: “It is a great thing that, even though vigor decreases, the light on the road abides, and though earthly shadows may be lengthening, one does not feel one is going down the hill, but up.”
Writer John Morgan sums up the reason that Campbell Morgan still is known and read in our time. “Faith is not living in the sunshine all the time but learning that life’s troubles can also be occasions for God’s presence as well. . . .Grace reminds us that shadows are not possible without the sun, without the light of grace. Grace is God’s promise of light which is always there, even if we are not aware of it. Campbell Morgan experienced that grace in the shadows of his life, and so may we.”
__________________
