G. C. Brewer
Encyclopedia
Grover Cleveland Brewer was among the most famous 20th-century leaders in the Churches of Christ. He was said to be "among the giants of the brotherhood" (Woods 246). "G. C." Brewer was named for U.S. President
Grover Cleveland
, "G. C." Brewer is generally known by his initials. G. C. Brewer was born in Giles County, Tennessee; he died in Searcy
, Arkansas
, on June 9, 1956. He was an author, preacher, and teacher, serving on the faculty of Lipscomb University
(then known as David Lipscomb University). His persuasive rhetoric and passionate oratory have been noted along with his uncanny ability to define mainstream Church of Christ doctrine in the mid-20th Century. (His brother, Dr. Charles R. Brewer
, was also a notable preacher and a teacher at David Lipscomb University
, where to this day a bell tower
stands in his honor.) G. C. Brewer was no stranger to controversy, challenging Catholicism
and Communism
directly and debating frequently; yet he also demonstrated a willingness to change his views, especially those regarding the doctrine of grace
.
and Brewer engaged in a longstanding feud over this and other controversial issues, "contending for the faith" at the Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures and in the pages of the Gospel Advocate
and other periodicals. Wallace took Moser's book for "denominational error on the gospel plan of salvation" (qtd. in Hicks) whereas Brewer sought to de-emphasize legalism and human works and to promote a theory of God-given "unmerited favor" (Hughes 186).
for more about the debate over this issue.) Historian Richard Hughes has characterized Wallace's "fighting style" (176-77, 182-85) in a way that could well describe Brewer's rhetorical aggression.
, he was also a product of the teachings of James A. Harding
and David Lipscomb
. At their Nashville Bible School (Lipscomb University
), where Brewer enrolled in 1904 after a year at Johnson Bible College
, Brewer learned to downplay politics, a lesson he held dear his entire life. Hughes has noted "that shortly before his [Brewer's] death in 1956 he recalled, 'I have never even voted in my life'" (186). Lipscomb had been a lifelong pacifist, even during the Civil War
, yet Brewer believed that the threat of Communism
was simply too great to ignore. Brewer therefore balanced his disengagement from the ways of the world with his active concerns for the Christian identity of American politics. This balance characterized many of the Churches of Christ in the mid-20th Century. (For the trajectory of Brewer's thoughts, from pacifism during World War I
to anti-communism and American nationalism in the 1930s, see the book The churches of Christ by Richard Thomas Hughes, especially pages 123-125.)
Lectures. Vol. 24. 1947. pg. 109.
"Christ Today: Our Mediator and High Priest." (speech given in February 1938 and reprinted on pages 199-209 of the volume Abilene Christian College Lectures printed by Abilene Christian College Bookstore later in 1938)
“Communism and Its Four Horsemen.” Voice of Freedom. Vol. 22, pg. 10. (See also “Communism and Its Four Horsemen: Atheism, Immorality, Class Hatred, Pacifism." Nashville: Gospel Advocate. n.d.)
“Grace and Law: Legalism and Liberalism” (a series of articles that originally ran in the Gospel Advocate
in 1955.) Firm Foundation reprinted some of these articles (http://www.bible-infonet.org/ff/articles/index.htm) in 1992-93.
"Read this Book," Gospel Advocate 75 (11 May 1933): 434. (Brewer's book review of K. C. Moser's The Way of Salvation http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/moser/review.html.)
“Relationship of Christian Education to the Church.” Harding University
Lectures. Vol. 24. 1947. pg. 95.
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
, "G. C." Brewer is generally known by his initials. G. C. Brewer was born in Giles County, Tennessee; he died in Searcy
Searcy, Arkansas
Searcy is the largest city and county seat of White County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,663. It is the principal city of the Searcy, AR Micropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of White County...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, on June 9, 1956. He was an author, preacher, and teacher, serving on the faculty of Lipscomb University
Lipscomb University
Lipscomb University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The campus is located in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville between Belmont Boulevard to the west and Granny White Pike on the east...
(then known as David Lipscomb University). His persuasive rhetoric and passionate oratory have been noted along with his uncanny ability to define mainstream Church of Christ doctrine in the mid-20th Century. (His brother, Dr. Charles R. Brewer
Charles R. Brewer
Dr. Charles Richard Brewer was a notable Church of Christ professor, preacher, poet, and leader. Born in near Gimlet Creek in Giles County, Tennessee, Brewer's career included many publications, television and radio shows, and a renown for biblical learning. His funeral in Nashville, TN was...
, was also a notable preacher and a teacher at David Lipscomb University
Lipscomb University
Lipscomb University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The campus is located in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville between Belmont Boulevard to the west and Granny White Pike on the east...
, where to this day a bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
stands in his honor.) G. C. Brewer was no stranger to controversy, challenging Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
and Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
directly and debating frequently; yet he also demonstrated a willingness to change his views, especially those regarding the doctrine of grace
Divine grace
In Christian theology, grace is God’s gift of God’s self to humankind. It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to man - "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" - that takes the form of divine favour, love and clemency. It is an attribute of God that is most...
.
Grace
According to Leonard Allen (163-64), John Mark Hicks http://johnmarkhicks.faithsite.com/content.asp?CID=8023, and Richard Hughes (186-87), Brewer's championing of K. C. Moser's book The Way of Salvation (1932) signaled a paradigm shift in the way that people in the Churches of Christ were thinking about grace. Brewer wrote that "Our salvation does not depend upon our perfect adherence to the requirements of law. . . . By making our salvation dependent upon our own perfection, we make void the grace of God" (qtd. in Allen 164). Especially in the 1930s, Foy E. WallaceFoy E. Wallace
Foy Esco Wallace was an influential figure among American Churches of Christ in the early to middle 20th century. Through his writing and speaking, Wallace gathered a considerable following among this autonomous group of churches; his combination of the skilled use of logic combined with charisma...
and Brewer engaged in a longstanding feud over this and other controversial issues, "contending for the faith" at the Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures and in the pages of the Gospel Advocate
Gospel Advocate
The Gospel Advocate is a religious magazine published monthly in Nashville, Tennessee for members of the Churches of Christ. The Advocate has enjoyed uninterrupted publication since 1866....
and other periodicals. Wallace took Moser's book for "denominational error on the gospel plan of salvation" (qtd. in Hicks) whereas Brewer sought to de-emphasize legalism and human works and to promote a theory of God-given "unmerited favor" (Hughes 186).
Non-Institutional Churches
One facet of their disagreement, more financial than theological, eventually lead to a schism. Wallace and Brewer debated about the propriety of churches funding colleges. Non-institutional Churches of Christ remember Brewer mainly for his unwavering call for congregational support of colleges associated with the Churches of Christ, a position that non-institutional churches reject. (See The churches of Christ (non-institutional)The churches of Christ (non-institutional)
The label "non-institutional" refers to a distinct fellowship within the churches of Christ who do not agree with the support of para-church organizations by local congregations. They contend that the New Testament includes no authority for churches' support of such institutions...
for more about the debate over this issue.) Historian Richard Hughes has characterized Wallace's "fighting style" (176-77, 182-85) in a way that could well describe Brewer's rhetorical aggression.
Politics and Pacifism
Despite Brewer's clearly stated patriotismPatriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
, he was also a product of the teachings of James A. Harding
James A. Harding
James Alexander Harding was an early influential leader in the Churches of Christ.Several schools are named after Harding: Harding University in Searcy, AR, Harding Academy , Harding Academy , and Harding University Graduate School of Religion in Memphis.Harding helped David Lipscomb, another...
and David Lipscomb
David Lipscomb
Lipscomb's beliefs on government can be classified as a radical theory of religious freedom, classical liberalism, even potentially consistent with fundamental positions of Anarcho-primitivism. Lipscomb believed in creating a peaceful, cooperative, decentralized communion in which freedom,...
. At their Nashville Bible School (Lipscomb University
Lipscomb University
Lipscomb University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The campus is located in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville between Belmont Boulevard to the west and Granny White Pike on the east...
), where Brewer enrolled in 1904 after a year at Johnson Bible College
Johnson Bible College
Johnson University is a private, co-educational college located six miles southeast of Knoxville, Tennessee....
, Brewer learned to downplay politics, a lesson he held dear his entire life. Hughes has noted "that shortly before his [Brewer's] death in 1956 he recalled, 'I have never even voted in my life'" (186). Lipscomb had been a lifelong pacifist, even during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, yet Brewer believed that the threat of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
was simply too great to ignore. Brewer therefore balanced his disengagement from the ways of the world with his active concerns for the Christian identity of American politics. This balance characterized many of the Churches of Christ in the mid-20th Century. (For the trajectory of Brewer's thoughts, from pacifism during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
to anti-communism and American nationalism in the 1930s, see the book The churches of Christ by Richard Thomas Hughes, especially pages 123-125.)
Books by G. C. Brewer
- The Model Church. Nashville, TN: McQuiddy Printing Co, 1919. ISBN 0-89225-167-0 See http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/gbrewer/tmc/TMC00A.HTM for online text. Also reprinted by the Gospel Advocate, ISBN 0-89225-123-9.
- Christ Crucified: A Book of Sermons Together with a Lecture on Evolution. Nashville, TN: Gospel AdvocateGospel AdvocateThe Gospel Advocate is a religious magazine published monthly in Nashville, Tennessee for members of the Churches of Christ. The Advocate has enjoyed uninterrupted publication since 1866....
, 1959. (rpt. of 1928 ed.)
- Contending For the Faith. Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1941.
- As Touching Those Who Were Once Enlightened. Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1946.
- Forty Years on the Firing Line. Old Paths Book Club, 1948.
- Foundation Facts and Primary Principles: Being the Restoration Story Related and Re-Examined in a Manner Suited for a Textbook. Kansas City, Mo.: Old Paths Book Club, 1949.
- A Story of Toil and Tears of Love and Laughter: Being the Autobiography of G. C. Brewer. Murfreesboro, TN: DeHoff Publications, 1957. (Sometimes this is cited simply as "Autobiography of G. C. Brewer.")
Articles and miscellaneous publications
“Can Churches Scripturally Contribute to Christian Colleges?” Harding UniversityHarding University
Harding University is located in Searcy, Arkansas, in the United States, about north-east of Little Rock. It is a private liberal arts Christian university associated with the Churches of Christ. The university takes its name from James A...
Lectures. Vol. 24. 1947. pg. 109.
"Christ Today: Our Mediator and High Priest." (speech given in February 1938 and reprinted on pages 199-209 of the volume Abilene Christian College Lectures printed by Abilene Christian College Bookstore later in 1938)
“Communism and Its Four Horsemen.” Voice of Freedom. Vol. 22, pg. 10. (See also “Communism and Its Four Horsemen: Atheism, Immorality, Class Hatred, Pacifism." Nashville: Gospel Advocate. n.d.)
“Grace and Law: Legalism and Liberalism” (a series of articles that originally ran in the Gospel Advocate
Gospel Advocate
The Gospel Advocate is a religious magazine published monthly in Nashville, Tennessee for members of the Churches of Christ. The Advocate has enjoyed uninterrupted publication since 1866....
in 1955.) Firm Foundation reprinted some of these articles (http://www.bible-infonet.org/ff/articles/index.htm) in 1992-93.
"Read this Book," Gospel Advocate 75 (11 May 1933): 434. (Brewer's book review of K. C. Moser's The Way of Salvation http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/moser/review.html.)
“Relationship of Christian Education to the Church.” Harding University
Harding University
Harding University is located in Searcy, Arkansas, in the United States, about north-east of Little Rock. It is a private liberal arts Christian university associated with the Churches of Christ. The university takes its name from James A...
Lectures. Vol. 24. 1947. pg. 95.
External links
- Brewer at The Restoration Movement website www.therestorationmovement.com
- Brewer's The Model Church online http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/gbrewer/tmc/TMC00A.HTM
- Warren Saunders Jones's dissertation, G. C. Brewer: Lecturer, Debater and Preacher. (Wayne State UP, 1960) http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/dissertations/AAI6002327/
- John Mark Hicks on Brewer's theory of grace http://johnmarkhicks.faithsite.com/content.asp?CID=8023 (accessed 13 April 2007)
- John Mark Hicks's intro to K. C. Moser situates Brewer as spokesperson for the strong grace position http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/moser/jmh_2.html#b139