1. Free As Sons
   
2. Does "Go Ye" Mean "Go Me?"
   
3. Are We Really Born Again?
   
4. The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel
   
5. Silence Says Something
   
6. Body Language
   
7. Repentance Before Faith
   
8. I Wonder
   
9. Can I Know?
   
10. Ultimate Logical Conclusions
    
11. Errors in Peter's Sermon
    
12. Did Timothy Need Admonition?
    
13. Jesus' Youth Sermon For Adults
    
14. Why Didn't Paul Reform?
    
15. Christmas
    
16. Let The Unmarried Marry
    
17. A Dialect of Division
    
18. Our Traditions
    
19. Adding Our Safeguards
    
20. According To The Pattern
    
21. A Creed In The Deed
    
22. Samuel Did Not Know The Lord!
    
23. Response From Our Readers
    
24. Cries Of A Troubled Church
    
25. Sharing Without Fellowship
    
26. I Joined A Church
    
27. Open Membership
    
28. Another Last Will And Testament
    
29. Sad Thoughts About Church Growth
    
30. My Four Retirement Homes
    
31. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

RESPONSE FROM OUR READERS

This chapter is not a lesson, but it is a compilation of excerpts from letters that Lea and I have received since publishing Free In Christ. Because I have not asked permission of the writers to quote them, they shall remain anonymous.

While trying to get the book published, I submitted it to several publishers both among the Churches of Christ and other groups. None of them chose to handle it. That is not surprising, for they are in the business to make money rather than to promote change. No doubt, the publishing of my material would hurt their businesses, for their customers are so prejudiced as to boycott those who publish that which does not hold to the party line.

The alternative was to publish Free In Christ ourselves. Evidently, that is what the Lord wanted for he must have seen that Lea and I needed the great encouragement that feedback from the book would hold in store for us. Since all who would get the books must order them from us, that gave a personal contact through which we have received many hundreds of pieces of mail and telephone calls-calls from as far away as South Africa. These communications have been almost totally positive in nature. Readers have been enthusiastic and excited about the message of freedom. Such encouragement has breathed new life of optimism in us when we needed it most. We see long overdue and much needed change working throughout the Church of Christ.

Many of the most excited readers call rather than to write, but here are some excerpts from letters which reveal the need for our message and the joy of discovering it.

A LADY IN PHOENIX: I've just finished reading your book. Thank you so much for a lifetime of searching and learning and for sharing that with me. I've tried my entire life to keep all the rules and was so dead­ended staring at a mean, vindictive God who handed out more rules for "comfort." You've saved my life and my sanity and given me a God who loves me. And I'm so anxious to love, live, and learn for Him. Please send a copy of the book to my sister who long ago gave up on all the rules but has never wanted to give up the Lord (in Louisiana). And my brother, who is so tender­hearted and sensitive to all he knows. He has struggled so with the rules and his compassion (in Texas).

HOUSTON: I am giving these books to people who need help in breaking away from the legalism that has caused me a great amount of mental turmoil for many years.

VENTURA, CALIFORNIA: Thank you for being courageous enough to write that book. I feel that a burden has been lifted from me and I can love people that I was afraid of before because of differences in the method of worship or interpretation of the Bible. I am more hopeful now for humanity and the cause of Christ.

A DALLAS SUBURB: Words cannot express what your two books have meant to me and my wife. The joy of freedom in Christ is so wonderful. Worship services have taken on new and beautiful meanings to me. Our minister has really grown since reading your books. Also, many members have been exposed to your ideas through gifts of the book.

TEXARKANA, TEXAS: I struggled for many years with the "Am I doing enough?" syndrome. Thank you so much for reminding me of the wonderful freedom that I have in Christ.

A WELL­KNOWN AND VERY INFLUENTIAL BROTHER: "I have just read your book, Free In Christ. In fact, I've just completed it for the second time. It has blessed me immeasurably. It has made me stretch a lot. It has caused me to think and struggle. I have reached many of the same conclusions through my own study and the benefit of input of others over a period of years, but some of it is new thought to me. It will cause me to continue to think and study. It caused me deep pain at some points because of my own "lover's quarrel." And some of it has caused me to rejoice immensely. Thank you for helping me, and I promise to study. Please send me five additional copies. God bless you for this powerful and important ministry.

ARKADELPHIA, ARKANSAS: The books got us really excited because we have been depressed about our church and Christianity. Our services are so negative and narrow. It has been a struggle to attend services at times.

LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO: I want to tell you how much I enjoyed your book. I stayed up late and read it the last two nights. Having experienced the diverse religious backgrounds of Catholicism and Church of Christ in my own home as a child, I appreciated your attempts to make us all think a bit about the nit­picking differences between various sects.

DALLAS: Thanks to a dear friend's request, you sent me a copy of Free In Christ. I am devouring it and am anxious to share it with friends here in Dallas who have had a need for a very long time to share your thoughts and realize that they are "not alone."

HUNTINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA: Please send me two more copies of your book Free In Christ. I wanted to reread my copy, but I had given it away. I sincerely appreciate your work; you have caused me to breathe freely again with a new love for Christ. Thank you! I had asked you to send your book to a preacher friend of mine in Ohio, and you did. I asked him what he thought of it. He said that he has so far had thirteen people in the congregation read it. They really enjoyed it!

INDIANAPOLIS: Brother, I want to thank you so much for writing of freedom in Christ. I've been a Christian 4½ years now and am currently a youth minister. I've read a lot of books but none have affected me like yours! I now have a new outlook on God, Jesus, and my position as a Christian! I want several of our Bible study leaders to read this book. Could you please send me five copies?

MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE: Your book, Free In Christ, offers just what I am looking for: a logical and motivating defense against putrid traditionalism and exclusivism. I have often maintained that you cannot motivate one to love by making him afraid. We are indeed free in Christ and should recognize the extent of it so as not to bind where God has not bound. 1, like you, have held a repugnant position for years. Thank God for His forgiveness and mercy. I thank him for you and your wife and your stand for real truth and freedom, though I imagine you have received a great amount of flack. Hang in there.

GARLAND, TEXAS: What a powerful book! Truly, the Holy Spirit directed your writing. I wish everyone in the church (of Christ) could read it. You are on target throughout the book. Praise God for faithful disciples like you who are willing to listen to the Spirit of God rather than the dogmas of men.

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO: Because of your courage to speak out (and others like you), I have come to realize that I am not alone and that others have come to the same conclusions I have. Thank you for that encouragement!

HOUSTON, TEXAS: Praise the Lord!!! I cried reading your book, Free In Christ.

GOLDEN, COLORADO: It was a refreshing surprise to me to find in printed form many of the ideas which I have held or considered through the years, including twenty years of full­time pulpit ministry. Like you, I am now "free to speak."

EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN: Thank you for your honesty. I too wish at times that I could be the janitor!" (From a minister)

SHERMAN, TEXAS: Having grown up in the (Name) Church of Christ, I heard the likes of G.C. Brewer, J.P. Sanders, Burton Coffman and many others. My uncle was Cled Wallace. Now comes Cecil Hook telling it like it really is. How refreshing.

FRIONA, TEXAS: Even though I do not go to the Church of Christ, I believe what you say applies to all churches of all denominations.

AKRON, OHIO: Thank you for your ministry, and your honesty with the word. I fear that the time may have arrived that other "movements" will pick up the banner of restoration and carry it to heights we have never dreamed of, leaving us behind. May God wake us up.

TEXAS: A friend of ours has been going through incredible emotional pain. She was "converted" from the Methodist Church twenty years ago. One day she said to me, "All those years of doctrine in Bible class are useless in helping me cope with this. You know what is the only thing that's really helped? Those papers we studied by Cecil Hook. I'm just hanging on to that."

SEARCY, ARKANSAS: According to Stanley Jaki, a Catholic writer, after the trial of Galileo in the 17th century, "cooler heads began to prevail, and it was found that the foolishness of Copernicus was Biblical after all." During some fifty years as a member of the church of Christ, I have met many whose thinking is quite like the thinking of the Jesuits when they took off after Galileo. It seems to me that you are one of the "cooler heads" in the brotherhood today.

OCC: I thoroughly enjoyed your book. I am a student at Oklahoma Christian College and, after sitting through a semester of class discussing a voluminous amount of issues in the church, I was very confused. Your book is helping me answer some questions. The title was an excellent choice, for as I progressed through the book, I began to feel a true sense of freedom.

A PUBLISHER AND RADIO SPEAKER: You are on target. Please send me fifteen copies. I can distribute them easily and I think it will do some good. I know we need to "rethink" here in (city). I appreciate you, and thanks for writing the book and another thanks to those who enabled you to print it and those covering the postage.

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: I recently read Free in Christ. I laughed, cried, praised the Lord, got mad, and got over it -all in one afternoon! Right there before my eyes someone questioned a lot of things openly that I questioned secretly and also attacked some of my sacred cows. Praise God for your courage. I have been praying earnestly for answers in my personal life. I believe your book is one of the answers. Please pray for me.

SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA: Excellent! Concise! Needs repeating again and again! Goes to the real heart of the matter! A good reinforcement of values for some; and a new beginning for others! Not since The Twisted Scriptures, Voices of Concern, and "The Authority Totem" has a work been so reflective of the things that need to be rethought (in my opinion) throughout the "Brotherhood. " I just had to write you both to compliment you on Free in Christ. It covers, quickly, a broad range of the issues I have found to be troublesome over the years. In fact, no other book I have run across better characterizes where my mind has been for the last ten or twelve years. I want to encourage you in the distribution of this book. Again, the thoughts of the book, I think, need to be reemphasized, with judicial timing, throughout the Brotherhood. The message is certainly on track.

PALMETTO, FLORIDA: Thank you for Free in Christ. I admit to entertaining the same thoughts for years. But when compiled into one book and read in one setting, it has quite an impact. It's a big bite! I am chewing it now and expect to digest it in time.

SAN LOUIS OBISPO, CA: We learned about your book at an "Adventures In Christian Living" seminar in San Leandro, CA. It sounds wonderful. I don't know if you have a limit you send at one time, or to one person, but we'd like enough for our deacons and elders.

RHINELANDER, WISCONSIN: I don't agree with all your ideas and information but I totally agree that all the divisions we have in the Church of Christ are wrong. In some areas we are as tradition bound as the Jews in the time of Jesus. I pray that your book will cause Christians to love more and work together more and stop all this division.

DALLAS: Thank you for being bold enough to write Free in Christ. Praise God for using you in such a courageous way. My wife and I have read it aloud to each other getting more excited with each chapter. The Lord has sent this at a perfect time (isn't he smart!) in our lives and in the life of our congregation. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Maybe this is an over­kill of testimony which takes on too much of the nature of boasting. My problem here has been in selecting such a few of the many delightful responses. Surely, you can identify with many of these readers whose thoughts we have included. I am thinking that you will find them interesting, else I would not take this precious space for them.

We have no list of donors on whom to call for continued free distribution of books; however, hundreds of gifts from people whom we have never seen, ranging from fifty cents upward, have enabled us to continue to give them away. We accept this as a ministry from the Lord, and we are more eager to spread the message than to make monetary profits, as desirable as that would be, from the sale of the books. We thank God continually for sending these partners and we invite you to become a partner in the ministry also.

Very necessary and appreciated partners also are those who distribute the books, whether they have money to give or not. We depend on others to pass them to those whose hearts the Lord is opening. We invite your partnership in this also for the books do no one any good stored in our garage. A retired minister in Kansas City has distributed 250 copies and a brother in Arlington, Texas has paid for and given away 210 copies. Thank God for those men and many others who have helped. Some kind persons have paid us retail price for books so we could benefit from the added income.

In the thirty­two months of distribution up to the time of this writing, we have distributed an average of 16.6 copies per day. They have gone into nearly every state with greater numbers going to Texas, California, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, New Mexico, Louisiana, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, West Virginia, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Pennsylvania, and Alaska. They have gone into Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, Guatemala, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Greece, India, Singapore, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, England, and Grand Cayman Island. Numerous ministerial students have read them. Many books have gone to both members and ministers of the Christian Church, and of other churches.

This is a ministry involving many people in many places. Lea and I praise God for using us and you in it.