Judging by the views of David Lipscomb, long-time editor of the Gospel Advocate magazine, the ten-year period from 1897 to 1907 saw the Stone-Campbell Movement go from fractured to divided. In 1897, Lipscomb said there was “a radical and
fundamental difference between the disciples of Christ and the society folks.”
Society folks, he said, “desire to build up a strong and respectable
denomination. To do it they rely on strong and moneyed societies, fine houses, fashionable
music, and eloquent speeches, too often devoid of gospel truth.”[1] A decade later, in 1907, Lipscomb was ready to
declare that the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ were “distinct and
separate” bodies.[2]
Notes
[1] David Lipscomb, "The Churches across the Mountains," Gospel Advocate 39 (January 7, 1897), 4.
[2] David Lipscomb, "The Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ," Gospel Advocate 49 (July 18, 1907), 450.
