“According to Mr. Webster, he has no church. Webster says, ‘The Church of Christ is the universal body of Christ.’ Paul speaks of the ‘whole family in heaven and earth.’ All saints in heaven and on earth belong to the Church of Christ. This includes the children. When the disciples asked Jesus who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven, he ‘called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’
“Hence, his church is not THE Church of Christ, neither is it A church of Christ. Again, according to Webster, ‘A church of Christ is a body of Christian believers, observing the same rites and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority.’ It denies all creeds and all ecclesiastical authority. Hence, it cannot be A church of Christ.”
He then appealed to the president, urging that, in the absence of a written creed, they should take the writings of their recognized church leaders to ascertain what the doctrines of his opponent’s church—granting that it was a church—were. The president so ruled. It then became the duty of Doctor Holt to show that the doctrines indicated were the doctrines of his church according to the church authorities, and also that they were Scripturally sound; and furthermore to prove that other doctrines promulgated by the church leaders, which he had not mentioned, were in strict harmony with the Word.
This opened up a bigger field than even the great high priest of Campbellism was prepared to occupy. Newgent was as familiar with the teachings of his opponent’s church as Doctor Holt was himself, and had foreseen and prepared for this emergency.
“I knew you would not be prepared for this, so I thought I would be good to you,” he said in a manner suggesting a cat’s habit of playing with a mouse just before crushing its bones, “I have, therefore, prepared a creed from the writings of Mr. Campbell and other leaders of your church, which will enable us to ascertain what your church teaches.”
He then read the following improvised creed, the different items of which were based upon statements cited in the writings of recognized authorities of the church Doctor Holt was so zealously defending:
I. We profess before all men that we believe in water baptism by immersion; that it is the great panacea for all spiritual maladies.
II. Immersion is the line between the saved and the lost.
III. Immersion is regeneration, conversion, and the new birth.