K. C. MOSER AND CHURCHES OF CHRIST: A THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 1 by John Mark Hicks Harding University Graduate School of Religion Given the reactions of Showalter, Wallace and Whiteside to Moser as well the persistent advocacy of Moser and Brewer, it is clear that there was a perceived difference between these two groups. The Lipscomb-Harding or "Tennessee" tradition and the McGary-Tant or "Texas" tradition were butting heads in the second generation of the life of the two papers, the Gospel Advocate and the Firm Foundation. The "Man or the Plan" controversy was not a new phenomena in the 1960s, but had it roots in the 1930s, and may have been prefigured in the debate on rebaptism between the Advocate and the Firm Foundation in the 1890s. The 1960s and 1990s do not reflect a new struggle, but an old one which goes back to the emergence of Churches of Christ in the late nineteenth century. 2 My concern in this article is theological. What theological point was at stake in the "Man or the Plan" controversy? Why did Moser's work receive such a negative reaction, and why was Moser so insistent and persistent? Sixty years after it was published, Moser's The Way of Salvation is still the object of attack. 3 My purpose here is to lay bare the theological concerns of both groups so that we might recognize their similarities as well as their essential difference. Emphasis on the Man Moser's lifelong concern was to combat legalism, whether it arose from the left in modernism 4 or from the right among his own preaching brothers. 5 From the left he saw a denial of the atonement, and from the right he saw its neglect which was a practical denial. Moser reflects a lifelong attempt to defend, explain and apply the atonement of Christ in the context of the Churches of Christ. His theology emphasized salvation by grace through faith. This excludes any legal principle of justification by works. The contrasts are strong in Moser: grace versus law, faith versus works, imputed versus inherent 1 This article was published in Restoration Quarterly 37/4 (1995), 193-211. 2 This is article is a theological follow-up to the historical interpretation of the "man or the plan" controversy offered in Restoration Quarterly 37/3 (1995), 139-57. This first paragraph is a summary of the previous article's conclusion. 3 Moser, The Way of Salvation (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Co., 1932). In 1976 Fanning Yater Tant, editor of the Vanguard, asked Robert Turner to writer a response to Moser's The Way of Salvation. This testifies to the enduring nature of his book, its use among the non-institutional segment of the Churches of Christ, and their unrelenting opposition to it. See "Theology and the Gospel Preacher," Vanguard 2 (9 September 1976): 1, 14-5; "Theological Coloring Book," Vanguard 2 (24 September 1976): 1, 14-5; "The Sinful 'Nature' of Man," Vanguard 2 (18 October 1976): 1, 18-9; "Wrestling with the 'Law of Sin'," Vanguard 2 (28 October 1976): 1, 11, 14; "System of Law and Faith," Vanguard 2 (11 November 1976): 1, 14-5; "The Imputation of Righteousness," Vanguard 2 (25 November 1976): 1, 14-5; and "What Must I Do To Be Saved," Vanguard 2 (9 December 1976): 1, 14-5. 4 K. C. Moser, "'The Essence of the Gospel According to Paul'--Reviewed," Gospel Advocate 90 (4 November 1948): 1065, 1069; (18 November 1948): 1112-3; and (2 December 1948): 1158-9. Gospel Advocate is hereafter abbreviated GA. 5 Moser, "Christ Versus a 'Plan'" (Searcy, AR: Harding College Bookstore, 1952).