Austin McGary

Last updated March 12, 2019

Austin McGary (February 6, 1846 – June 15, 1928) was an American Restoration Movement evangelist and publisher of a periodical entitled Firm Foundation , which was first published on September 1, 1884.

The Restoration Movement is a Christian movement that began on the United States frontier during the Second Great Awakening (1790–1840) of the early 19th century. The pioneers of this movement were seeking to reform the church from within and sought "the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the church of the New Testament." Especially since the mid-20th century, members of these churches do not identify as Protestant but simply as Christian.

In Christianity, evangelism is the commitment to or act of publicly preaching (ministry) of the Gospel with the intention of spreading the message and teachings of Jesus Christ.

The Firm Foundation was a religious periodical published monthly in Houston, Texas, for members of the Churches of Christ. It was established in 1884 by Austin McGary. The Firm Foundation was, for the next hundred years, one of the two most influential publications among the Churches of Christ along with the Gospel Advocate.

The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican army in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes. A detailed, first-hand account of the battle was written by General Houston from Headquarters of the Texian Army, San Jacinto, on April 25, 1836. Numerous secondary analyses and interpretations have followed, several of which are cited and discussed throughout this entry.

Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, was a Mexican politician and general who fought to defend royalist New Spain and then for Mexican independence. He greatly influenced early Mexican politics and government, and was an adept soldier and cunning politician, who dominated Mexican history in the first half of the nineteenth century to such an extent that historians often refer to it as the "Age of Santa Anna". He was called "the Man of Destiny", who "loomed over his time like a melodramatic colossus, the uncrowned monarch." Santa Anna first opposed the movement for Mexican independence from Spain, but then fought in support of it. Though not the first caudillo of modern Mexico, he "represents the stereotypical caudillo in Mexican history," and among the earliest. Conservative historian, intellectual, and politician Lucas Alamán wrote that "The history of Mexico since 1822 might accurately be called the history of Santa Anna's revolutions.... His name plays the major role in all the political events of the country and its destiny has become intertwined with his."

Texas lawman

Before becoming an evangelist, McGary was elected sheriff of Madison County, Texas, a post he held for two years before resigning to work for the state of Texas in transporting prisoners to penitentiaries. This work took place near the United States-Mexico border.

A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England, where the office originated. There is an analogous although independently developed office in Iceland that is commonly translated to English as sheriff, and this is discussed below.

Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 13,664. Its seat is Madisonville. The county was created in 1853 and organized the next year. It is named for James Madison, the fourth president of the United States.

Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U.S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast.

Personal life

McGary was married three times—to Narcissus Jenkins in 1866 (two children) until her death in 1872, Lucy Bettie Kittrell in 1875 (nine children) until her death in 1897, and finally to Lillian Otey.

Evangelist, publisher, debater

McGary became interested in religion and studied the Alexander Campbell - Robert Owen debate of 1829.^[1] He was said to have been educated in part by Church of Christ ministers including Benton, Thomas, and Basil Sweeney.^[2]

Alexander Campbell was a Scots-Irish immigrant who became an ordained minister in the United States and joined his father Thomas Campbell as a leader of a reform effort that is historically known as the Restoration Movement, and by some as the "Stone-Campbell Movement." It resulted in the development of non-denominational Christian churches, which stressed reliance on scripture and few essentials. Campbell was influenced by similar efforts in Scotland, in particular, by James and Robert Haldane, who emphasized their interpretation of Christianity as found in the New Testament. In 1832, the group of reformers led by the Campbells merged with a similar movement that began under the leadership of Barton W. Stone in Kentucky. Their congregations identified as Disciples of Christ or Christian churches. Several American church groups have historical roots in the Campbells' efforts, including the Churches of Christ, the Christian churches and churches of Christ, and Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Christian Church. Alexander Campbell also founded Bethany College in what became Bethany, West Virginia.

Robert Owen was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropic social reformer, and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. Owen is best known for his efforts to improve the working conditions of his factory workers and his promotion of experimental socialistic communities. In the early 1800s Owen became wealthy as an investor and eventual manager of a large textile mill at New Lanark, Scotland. He initially trained as a draper in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and worked in London before relocating at the age of 18 to Manchester and going into business as a textile manufacturer. In 1824, Owen travelled to America, where he invested the bulk of his fortune in an experimental socialistic community at New Harmony, Indiana, the preliminary model for Owen's utopian society. The experiment was short-lived, lasting about two years. Other Owenite utopian communities met a similar fate. In 1828, Owen returned to the United Kingdom and settled in London, where he continued to be an advocate for the working class. In addition to his leadership in the development of cooperatives and the trade union movement, he also supported passage of child labour laws and free, co-educational schools.

McGary was converted to the Churches of Christ and baptised by Harry Hamilton after hearing sermons by the latter in Madisonville, Texas. The baptism took place on December 24, 1881.

Churches of Christ are autonomous Christian congregations associated with one another through distinct beliefs and practices. Represented chiefly in the United States and one of several branches to develop out of the American Restoration Movement, they claim biblical precedent for their doctrine and practice and trace their heritage back to the early Christian church as described in the New Testament.

Harry E.dwin Hamilton is a former professional American football player. Hamilton was the first Black African-American to graduate from John S. Fine High School, Nanticoke, PA.

Madisonville is a city in Madison County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,396 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Madison County. Both the City of Madisonville and the County of Madison were named for U.S. President James Madison, the fourth chief executive.

He began publication of the Firm Foundation in 1884, in his own words:

"to oppose everything in the work and worship of the church, for which there was not a command or an apostolic example or a necessary scriptural inference."

Rebaptism controversy

In debates with David Lipscomb, editor of the rival publication Gospel Advocate , McGary advanced positions regarding the relationship between baptism and salvation, some of which were already seminal^[3] in the formation of the group of Christian churches known as the Churches of Christ, others of which would become the basis for continuing disagreement among members of that body.

David Lipscomb Leader, American Restoration Movement

David Lipscomb was a minister, editor, and educator in the American Restoration Movement and one of the leaders of that movement, which, by 1906, had formalized a division into the Church of Christ and the Christian Church. James A. Harding and David Lipscomb founded the Nashville Bible School, now known as Lipscomb University in honor of the latter.

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.

Baptism is a Christian rite of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the use of water, into Christianity. The synoptic gospels recount that John the Baptist baptised Jesus. Baptism is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. Baptism is also called christening, although some reserve the word "christening" for the baptism of infants. It has also given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations.

The substance of McGary's argument was based on the notion, generally accepted by members of the Churches of Christ, that the state of human salvation begins at the moment of that individual's baptism. McGary, however, further asserted that another condition of salvation lay in the believer's knowledge and acceptance of this idea (of baptism securing the remission of sins) at the moment of baptism, concluding that baptisms occurring outside of this condition were invalid, and did not bring about the salvation of those baptised in the absence of that state of belief. Lipscomb took the opposite position: that baptism for any scriptural reason qualified as scriptural baptism, independent of the candidate's full knowledge and acceptance of that concept. McGary's position was often dubbed "The Texas Heresy" by its detractors.

The extent of the re-baptism controversy and McGary's role in it are evident in various essays in David W. Fletcher's edited 432-page collection of essays Baptism and the remission of sins: A historical perspective published in 1990.^[4] By the late 1930s the McGary position came to dominate American Churches of Christ in all but Middle Tennessee (the area most under Lipscomb's continued influence), but the Lipscomb view has since become more popular in some elements of the fellowship nationally.^[5]

Later life

After resigning the editorship of the Firm Foundation in 1902,^[6] McGary lived in California and then in Oregon before returning to live in Texas.

Other later periodicals published by McGary included The Lookout and The Open Arena.

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References

↑ Campbell-Owen Debate at the Restoration Movement pages at Memorial University of Newfoundland Archived December 19, 2005, at the Wayback Machine ..
↑ Handbook of Texas Online: MCGARY, AUSTIN
↑ See, e.g., Dr. John Thomas (1805–1871), whose insistence on so-called rebaptism and whose promulgation of that and certain other beliefs formed a wedge between him and Alexander Campbell. Thomas went on to found the Christadelphians.
↑ (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 1990), ISBN 0-89900-422-9.
↑ Hicks, John Mark, and Valentine, Bobby "Kingdom Come"(Abilene, Texas: Leafwood Publishers), ISBN 0-9767790-6-4.
↑ Terry J. Gardner, "McGary, Austin (1846-1928)", in The encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell movement, ed. Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, D. Newell Williams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), ISBN 0-8028-3898-7, pp. 507-508.

External links

Biography at TheRestorationMovement.com

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[1] Campbell-Owen Debate at the Restoration Movement pages at Memorial University of Newfoundland Archived December 19, 2005, at the Wayback Machine ..

[2] Handbook of Texas Online: MCGARY, AUSTIN

[3] See, e.g., Dr. John Thomas (1805–1871), whose insistence on so-called rebaptism and whose promulgation of that and certain other beliefs formed a wedge between him and Alexander Campbell. Thomas went on to found the Christadelphians.

[4] (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 1990), ISBN 0-89900-422-9.

[5] Hicks, John Mark, and Valentine, Bobby "Kingdom Come"(Abilene, Texas: Leafwood Publishers), ISBN 0-9767790-6-4.

[6] Terry J. Gardner, "McGary, Austin (1846-1928)", in The encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell movement, ed. Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, D. Newell Williams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), ISBN 0-8028-3898-7, pp. 507-508.