ARGUMENTATION ADVOCATED

“These that have turned the world upside down have come here also.” (Acts 17:6) “We have witnessed the beneficial results of public debates. A week’s debating is worth a year’s preaching, such as we generally have, for the purpose of disseminating truth and putting error out of favor. There is nothing like meeting face to face in the presence of many witnesses and “talking the matter over.’ The man who cannot govern his own spirit in the midst of opposition and contradiction is a poor Christian indeed. (Debate on Baptism, Christian Baptist, I, p 199)

“No man ever achieved any great good to mankind who did not wrest it with violence through ranks of opponents – who did not fight for it with courage and perseverance, and who did not, in the conflict, sacrifice either his good name or his life. John, the harbinger of the Messiah, lost his head. The apostles were slaughtered. The Savior was crucified. The ancient confessors were slain. The reformers have all been excommunicated. I know that we shall do little good if we are not persecuted. If I am not slandered and misrepresented, I shall be a most unworthy advocate of that cause which has always provoked the resentment of those who have fattened upon the ignorance and superstition of the mass, and have been honored by the stupidity of those who cannot think and will not learn.”

–Alexander Campbell (M.H., 1830). He debated publicly with Baptists, Catholics, Infidels, Presbyterians. All published).