Firm Foundation - History

History

Austin McGary founded the Firm Foundation in large part to combat David Lipscomb's views on rebaptism. 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. Lipscomb and others among the Churches of Christ in Middle Tennessee routinely accepted Baptist converts without requiring them to be rebaptized. Austin McGary argued strongly that to be valid, the convert must also understand that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. Thus, McGary did not regard baptisms performed in a Baptist church to be valid. McGary's view became the prevailing one in the early 20th century, but the approach advocated by Lipscomb never totally disappeared.

McGary was succeeded as editor by G. W. Savage in 1902. Savage was succeeded by a group of editors in 1906. From 1908 to 1983 there were only two editors: G. H. P. Showalter and Reuel Lemmons. 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 Foundation and the Advocate.

The Showalter family sold the Foundation in H. A. (Buster) Dobbs and Bill Cline in 1983. 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."

The Firm Foundation is available for subscription through the Firm Foundation Publishing House Inc. in Houston Texas. The last version of the Firm Foundation website available on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine dates from June 5 of 2008.