Name Charles Brewer Died 1971 | Education University of Chicago | |
Dr. Charles Richard Brewer (1890–1971) was a notable professor, preacher, poet, and leader for the churches of Christ. Born in near Gimlet Creek in Giles County, Tennessee, Brewer's career included many publications, television and radio shows, and a renown for biblical learning. His funeral in Nashville, TN, was attended by some 3,000 people. (He died because of complications resulting from an injury that he received in a car crash.) Brewer was named "Speaker of the Year" in his final year ([1]) and eventually a "Lipscomb Legend" by the university ([2]). He was scheduled to speak at Pepperdine University, in April of his last year, where he was to receive the school's annual Most Distinguished Service Award. A belltower that was built on the campus of Lipscomb University in 1935 was dedicated to the memory of Charles R. Brewer after his death, and it continues to bear his name. ([3]).
Contents
Education
Brewer attended David Lipscomb College (now Lipscomb University), George Peabody College for Teachers, Hardin-Simmons University, University of Texas, Vanderbilt University and University of Chicago. He taught at David Lipscomb College in Nashville and at Abilene Christian College (now Abilene Christian University) in Abilene, Texas. He taught Bible, English Literature, drama, Greek, French, and Latin. Ever the Renaissance man, Brewer's thesis at Hardin-Simmons was on Shakespeare.
Brewer also served as president of the Nashville School of Preaching. This school was for men who wanted to preach but couldn't afford the tuition and the cost of regular colleges and universities. It still exists today in Nashville, TN ([4]).
Biblical knowledge and preaching
Brewer was known to amaze people on his television program "Know Your Bible" with his arcane knowledge of the Bible. His style as a lecturer and preacher was less contentious than that of his more famous brother, G. C. Brewer. According to one of his former students, who received his help in starting a church in Syracuse, NY, Brewer "was very willing to go anywhere to plant a church, even if it was small, because he was so zealous to help people become Christians" [5].
His succinct formulation of soteriology reflects what many in the churches of Christ believed in the mid-20th Century:
“Here are some steps that God wants you to take:
1. Believe in the Lord with all your heart (Acts 16:31).
2. Repent of all sin (Acts 2:38).
3. Confess your faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9).
4. Be buried in baptism (Acts 2:38; Col. 2:12; Gal. 3:26-27).
If you obey those simple commands you will then be added to his church (Acts 2:41, 47).”
(Taken from Be Not Dismayed, pages 43–44.) Reprinted here [6].
This is the traditional approach to salvation in the churches of Christ.
Brewer's friendship with Robert Henry Boll, even though critical of Boll's premillennial eschatology, facilitated World Vision Publishing Company's 1954 edition of Great Songs of the Church Number Two compiled by Boll's close associate Elmer Leon Jorgenson. Jorgenson approved World Vision's publication of this hymnal without his name on the title page as a way of improving the book's acceptability among the prevalently amillennial churches of Christ.