View source for Firm Foundation

{{short description|Religious periodical published in Texas, US}}
{{Infobox Magazine
|title = Firm Foundation
|editor = H. A. "Buster" Dobbs 
|frequency = Monthly
|category = [[Churches of Christ]]
|firstdate = 1884
|finaldate = 2010
|country = United States
|language = [[English language|English]]
}}
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]].<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation">Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, Churches of Christ'', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004, {{ISBN|0-8028-3898-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8028-3898-8}}, 854 pages, entry on ''Firm Foundation''</ref>{{Rp|337}} 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]]''.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}}

==History==
Austin McGary founded the ''Firm Foundation'' in large part to combat [[David Lipscomb]]'s views on rebaptism,<ref>{{cite book 
|title = Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement
|article = Austin McGary
|page = 337 
|location = Grand Rapids
|publisher = Erdmanns
}}</ref> as McGary adopted essentially the view which had already been espoused by [[John Thomas (Christadelphian)#Association with Alexander Campbell|John Thomas]].<ref>See, ''e.g.'', the essays edited by {{cite book
|first = David W.
|last = Fletcher
|title = Baptism and the remission of sins
|location = Joplin, Missouri
|publisher = College Press
|year = 1990
}}</ref> [[David Lipscomb]] consistently argued that if a believer was baptized out of a desire to obey God, the baptism was valid, even if the individual did not fully understand the role baptism plays in salvation.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Baptism">Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, ''The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, Churches of Christ'', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004, {{ISBN|0-8028-3898-7}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8028-3898-8}}, 854 pages, entry on ''Baptism''</ref>{{rp|61}}  Lipscomb and others among the Churches of Christ in [[Middle Tennessee]] routinely accepted [[Baptist]] converts without requiring them to be rebaptized.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}}  [[Austin McGary]] argued strongly that to be valid, the convert must also understand that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Baptism"/>{{rp|62}}  Thus, McGary did not regard baptisms performed in a Baptist church to be valid.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}} McGary's view became the prevailing one in the early 20th century, but the approach advocated by Lipscomb never totally disappeared.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Baptism"/>{{rp|62}} By the end of the 20th century a practice of having the question discerned by the congregational leadership and the individual had again become widespread.<ref>See, e.g., {{cite book
|first = Jimmy
|last = Allen
|year = 1991
|title = Re-baptism: What one must know to be born again
|location = West Monroe
|publisher = Howard Publishing
}} In ''Kingdom Come'' (2006), John Mark Hicks & Bobby Valentine advance an argument that "re-baptism" became characteristic west of the Mississippi River where the ''Firm Foundation'' held sway in the [[Churches of Christ]] but that in the area east of the Mississippi, where the ''Gospel Advocate'' (the Lipscomb influence) was formidable, the requirement for "re"-baptism was less prevalent, especially in [[Middle Tennessee]]: {{cite book
|first1 = John Mark
|last1 = Hicks
|first2 = Bobby
|last2 = Valentine
|year = 2006
|title = Kingdom come: Embracing the spiritual legacy of David Lipscomb and James Harding 
|location = Abilene, Texas
|publisher = Leafwood Press
}}</ref>

McGary was succeeded as editor by G. W. Savage in 1902.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}} Savage was succeeded by a group of editors in 1906.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}} From 1908 to 1983 there were only two editors: G. H. P. Showalter and Reuel Lemmons.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}} Showalter and Lemmons maintained an editorial policy consistent with the mainstream of Churches of Christ, and during that period many wrote for and supported both the ''Firm Foundation'' and the ''Gospel Advocate.''<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}}

The Showalter family sold the ''Foundation'' in 1983 to H. A. "Buster" Dobbs and Bill Cline.<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}} The editorial policy changed significantly under the leadership of Dobbs, supporting a "strongly conservative constituency" and "targeting progressives and 'change agents,' especially in educational institutions and highly visible congregations of Churches of Christ."<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Firm Foundation"/>{{Rp|337}}

The last version of the ''Firm Foundation'' website available on the [[Internet Archive]]'s [[Wayback Machine]] dates from June 5 of 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bible-infonet.org/ff/ |title=Firm Foundation website from June 5, 2008 |accessdate=2010-01-03 |url-status=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605050409/http://www.bible-infonet.org/ff/ |archivedate=June 5, 2008 }}</ref> The last issue of the ''Firm Foundation'' received by those with a paid subscription was vol. 125, no. 1, which bears the date "January 2010."
[[File:Last Issue of the Firm Foundation, - 1.jpg|thumb|Front Page of the Last Issue of the Firm Foundation (vol. 125, no. 1, January 2010).]]
[[File:Last Issue of the Firm Foundation, - 2.jpg|thumb|Close-up of the front page from the last issue of the Firm Foundation (vol. 125, no. 1, January 2010)]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.bible-infonet.org/ff/ |date=* |title=Firm Foundation website }}
* Go to http://firmfoundation.itackett.com/ to view a selection of ''Firm Foundation'' articles.

{{Restoration Movement}}

[[Category:Churches of Christ magazines]]
[[Category:Christianity in Houston]]
[[Category:Publications established in 1884]]