Foy E. Wallace

Foy Esco Wallace Jr. 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 skilled use of logic with withering sarcasm propelled him to the forefront of at least three major schisms within Churches of Christ.

Biography

Early life

Foy E. Wallace Jr. was born 1896 September 30 on a farm south of Belcherville, Texas. His father, Foy Edwin Wallace, was a prominent preacher within churches of Christ in Texas, having been at the forefront of debate with the Disciples of Christ over mechanical instrumental music and missionary societies.

He was baptized by his father in 1909 and preached his first sermon in 1912 at Stephenville, Texas. While his initial appointments derived largely from his shared name, within a short time he had made a name for himself as a preaching prodigy. Wallace would carry the nickname of "The Boy Preacher" even into adulthood.

Wallace was married on 1914 November 29 to Virgie Brightwell.

Wallace preached locally in a progression of Texas towns (Lott, Temple, Vernon, Wichita Falls, and Fort Worth), but was best known for preaching in "gospel meetings" (commonly called "revivals" outside Churches of Christ).

Wallace also worked for a brief time with the Central Church of Christ in Los Angeles, California.

Wallace served as editor of the "Gospel Advocate" in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1930 to 1934. America was in the depths of the Great Depression at the time, and Wallace often found himself short of money and long on debt at the time.

Premillennialism

In 1909, Robert H. Boll had become the front-page editor of the "Gospel Advocate". His premillennial views were soon expressed within its pages, to the dismay of some of the "Advocate"'s writers. After considerable friction, Boll resigned the post in 1915. He purchased from Stanford Chambers, of New Orleans, Louisiana, the magazine "Word and Work", which had been founded in 1908 by postmillennialist Dr. David Lipscomb Watson and which under the Chambers' editorship after 1908, and especially under Chambers' ownership after 1913, took an explicitly premillennial view. Boll moved the magazine to Louisville, Kentucky, where it continued to promote premillennialism within Churches of Christ.

Boll's promotion of premillennialism led to more controversy in the 1920s, culminating in a written debate with H. Leo Boles in 1927. That debate ended amicably, but in 1932, the "Advocate", under Wallace, turned its eye back toward the debate with a series of bitingly critical articles on premillennialism.

Wallace himself engaged in a well-known debate over premillennialism with Charles M. Neal in January 1933 at Winchester, Kentucky. This debate——so contentious that the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that was to be its site closed its doors to the discussion after the first night——established him as the leader of the anti-premillennial faction within Churches of Christ.

Then in November 1934 Wallace participated in an equally contentious debate, also on the millennium, with Texas Baptist fundamentalist J. Frank Norris, in Fort Worth. After three raucous evenings of debate, each side claimed victory. [For Wallace's perspective see [http://www.wordsfitlyspoken.org/bible_banner/v6/v6n13p75-76.html] ; for Norris' side see [http://www.penfoldbooks.com/product/30/185] .] W. E. Brightwell, a supporter of Wallace, wrote of the debate:

:in the words of some of the boys who returned from France after the late war, I would not take a million dollars for the debate and the privilege of attending it, but I would not give a dime for another one just like it. [Quoted from "Bible Banner", July/August 1944. [http://www.wordsfitlyspoken.org/bible_banner/v6/v6n13p7-9a.html] ]

Wallace quit the "Gospel Advocate" to found the "Gospel Guardian" in 1935 and the "Bible Banner" in 1938, papers initially dedicated almost exclusively to the defeat of premillennial doctrine. By the early 1940s, every significant paper and college associated with Churches of Christ took the amillennial position, often, like Wallace, never using the terms "amillennial" or "amillennialism". By 1949, when Wallace ceased publishing the "Bible Banner", his campaign had been so effective that fewer than a hundred congregations adhered to the premillennial view, and those generally isolated from the mainline, as they remained for decades.

Nonetheless, Wallace's tactics and language caused anger in some of these power bases. Harding College president J. N. Armstrong had been alone in refusing to condemn premillennialism in 1934; a partial rejection of the doctrine in 1935 did little to silence his critics, Wallace chief among them. A war of words between the two camps ensued, with Wallace and E. R. Harper accusing Harding of sheltering premillennialists and premillennial sympathizers; Armstrong, for his part, compared Harper to the Nazis and Wallace to a pope.

Pacifism

As America entered the Second World War, another controversy gripped Churches of Christ. Pacifism had a long history in this body, and, though its influence had waned in part because of the threats and punishments from the US government during World War I, many members still held to the belief. David Lipscomb had consolidated his arguments on the Christian relationship to the civil state in his book " [http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/dlipscomb/civgov.html Civil Government] " that emerged after, and perhaps because of, Lipscomb's experience of the American Civil War. Lipscomb's views were still influential after the First World War. Wallace, though initially sympathetic to the position, his father being a pacifist, changed into an implacable foe to conscientious objectors by early 1942 (just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941), applying an increasingly stinging stream of labels to them.

As part of this effort, he turned the pages of the "Bible Banner" to refuting the writings of Lipscomb. Wallace's point of view again triumphed, as many men of Churches of Christ embraced military service; however, the victory again earned him well-connected enemies. Chief among these was B.C. Goodpasture, the latest editor of the "Gospel Advocate", who was publicly quiet on the "war question" but raised money for pacifist Christians placed in conscientious objector camps. [In a 2007 Ph.D. dissertation at Texas Tech University James Cook re-analysed the history of pacifism in the Churches of Christ. His dissertation is available online at http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses/available/etd-06262007-103142/unrestricted/cook_dissertation.final.pdf . Further, the shift in Wallace's opinion of conscientious objection after the 1941 December 7 bombing of Pearl Harbor typified much of American society, which went from no-war isolationism to visceral support for a military solution. The nature of warfare had changed, with tactics such as "Blitzkrieg" and saturation bombing and strategic weapons such as aircraft carriers rendering the distinction between soldiers and civilians increasingly difficult to make and effectively overriding the historical arguments based on sacred scriptures.]

Racial relations in Churches of Christ

Pacifism was not the only issue where Wallace took a position opposite David Lipscomb. In 1878, a Texas church had refused membership to an African-American Christian, and Lipscomb responded in the pages of the "Gospel Advocate" by writing that such a refusal was blasphemous. Nevertheless, after Lipscomb died, segregated churches became common, and Wallace not only championed but also demanded this segregation. In a publication in the "Bible Banner" (1941), he argued that whites should not be allowed to listen to black preachers and vice versa. In Wallace's words, a racially mixed meeting "lowers the church in the eyes of the world." [For Wallace's statements, a responding letter to the editor from Marshall Keeble, and Wallace's rejoinder, see the analysis by [http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/race/haymes8.html Don Haymes] .]

Some opponents of Wallace questioned the rightness of his admitted concern with worldly opinion of those outside the church. Pacifist supporters of Lipscomb also considered Wallace's position on race and pacifism as representative of moving the Church of Christ to a more typically conservative Southern American position of that time. To some, even Wallace's later position on institutions represented accommodations to maintaining the growing wealth within the Church as opposed to the persecutions and loss of wealth felt by those who maintained conscientious objector positions.

Institutional debate

Shortly before World War II, the issue of institutionalism——that is, support of outside organizations from churches' treasuries——was debated. Some leaders (most prominently G. C. Brewer) had actively promoted church funding of Bible colleges. Others, such as Wallace, had written and spoken in opposition.

After the war, pro-institutional churchmembers started tying church support of colleges with church support of other institutions, orphans' homes being a notably contentious example. The addition of an emotional element proved successful at persuading many who had been on the fence to the institutional side during the 1950s. It also led, however, to rancor; what had previously been a debate characterized by logic erupted into name-calling. Non-institutional brethren were called "orphan haters" and "Pharisees" and the like; for their part, non-institutionals such as Wallace returned (and at times initiated) the rhetorical fire.

In 1951, the Church of Christ in Lufkin, TX, where Wallace's brother Cled preached, split over personal disputes between non-institutionals. [Terry J. Gardner, "Wallace, Cled Eugene 'Cleddie'" in "The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement", ed. Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, D. Newell Williams (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), ISBN 0-80283898-7, p. 767.] Thereafter, Foy Wallace, who had been the most polarizing figure in the debate, ceased arguing for a non-institutional position; indeed, by the mid-1960s, he associated himself exclusively with institutional churches [ [http://www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume8/TM008244.html Foy E. Wallace, Jr. Then and Now or "How the Mighty Have Fallen" ] ] .

Personal life

In 1952, while Wallace preached a gospel meeting in Cushing, Oklahoma, his wife suffered a major stroke. He cancelled his engagements in order to remain by her side.

Later years

The firebrand preacher lived out his later years in relative quiet, holding meetings and writing only occasionally. His conversion to institutionalism won him praise from his former enemies at the colleges and papers, but he never again came close to the popularity of his early years. Much of his writing during this time was spent unsuccessfully attempting to reconcile his prior position on institutionalism with his current one; this led to estrangement with some members of his own family, notably son William [Wallace, William E. "Foy E. Wallace Shall Not Pass," parts [http://www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume12/TM012103.htm 1] and [http://www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume12/TM012126.htm 2] , "Truth Magazine", XII: 6, pp. 6-10, March 1968.] .

In the 1960s Foy Wallace touted the view that the Holy Spirit operates only through the scriptures; thus Wallace opposed preaching which expressed belief in the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In the 1970s he published an 850-page book attacking modern-English translations of the Bible. [Wallace, Foy E., Jr. (1973). "A Review of the New Versions, Consisting of an Exposure of the Multiple New Translations". Fort Worth: Foy E. Wallace Jr. Publications. ASIN B0006CGJSO. Wallace wrote this work before release of the New International Version (NIV), but the ink was hardly dry before he was opposing the NIV as well.]

Wallace developed a blood condition similar to hemophilia and required frequent blood transfusions; from these transfusions, he developed hepatitis. His condition necessitated a move to Hereford, Texas, near his son, Wilson. He continued preaching for a time, but after two weeks in the hospital due to his disease, he suffered a stroke and passed away on 1979 December 18.

Sources

* [http://www.therestorationmovement.com/wallace,fe,jr.htm Sketch On The Life Of Foy E. Wallace, Jr.]
* Hughes, Richard. "Reviving the Ancient Faith: The Story of Churches of Christ in America."
* Harrell, David Edwin, Jr. "The Churches of Christ in the 20th Century: Homer Hailey's Personal Journey of Faith."

References