Foy E. Wallace

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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.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Premillennialism 1.3 Pacifism 1.4 Racial relations in Churches of Christ 1.5 Institutional debate 1.6 Personal life 1.7 Later years 2 Sources 3 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] 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.

[edit] Premillennialism

In 1910, Robert H. Boll had become the 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 1907 by postmillennialist Dr. David Lipscomb Watson and which under the Chambers' editorship after 1908 and 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.

He quit the 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 he ceased publishing the Bible Banner, his campaign had been so effective that fewer than a hundred premillennial congregations remained, and those generally isolated from the mainstream, 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.

[edit] Pacifism

As America entered World War II, 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 Civil Government that grew our of Lipscomb's experience of the Civil War. Lipscomb's views were still influential after WWI. Wallace, though initially sympathetic to the position, his father being a pacifist, emerged as 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.^[1]

[edit] 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."^[2]

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.

[edit] 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^[3]. 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^[4].

See also: The churches of Christ (non-institutional)

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 ^[5].

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.^[6]

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.

[edit] Sources

• 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.

[edit] References