Fundamental
Evangelistic Association
selected
articles from:
©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
The
Duty Of Intolerance
by
T. 0. L.
Taken from the
"Eastern Methodist," an early-twentieth century voice for Biblical
Fundamentalism
in the Methodist denomination
[FOUNDATION Magazine, Sept-Oct 2004 - Volume XXV,
Issue 5]
"No more heresy trials" is a cry of disloyalty or of ignorance. The
wrath of God flames out against evil, whether in doctrine or life, and
the church must discipline its offenders. It must admonish, rebuke,
suspend from church privileges, depose from office and finally, if
necessary, must say, however sadly, "You are not of us; go your way;
ours lies in a different direction; we must separate." Of course, it
must inflict neither pains nor penalties which are not spiritual or
ecclesiastical in their nature-no calling down of fire from heaven upon
anybody now. To separate itself from evil, witnessing firmly against it,
is the extent of its power. No farther may it go, but thus far it must
go. The church's Head being absolutely intolerant of evil, it must be
also.
The Word is clear. As to immorality, there is, of course, no room for
two opinions; and when the testimony of the Scriptures is seen, evil
doctrine is found placed in the same category. Corruption of doctrine
brings in corruption of morals. Its inevitable "fruit" is a lower
standard of behavior, some concession to the flesh, an easier way than
Christ's. False teaching makes false Christians. Holiness is the aim of
God for His people, and teaching which does not promote this is
suspicious, which tends the other way is wrong. Nothing is true which
leads to sin; nothing is false which leads to true holiness.
Teachers of Evil Doctrine
Teachers of evil doctrine are called in the New Testament:
heretics, false prophets, ravening and grievous wolves, vain talkers and
deceivers, false apostles, deceitful workers, ministers of Satan
following his example in fashioning themselves as ministers of
righteousness, vessels unto dishonor, men who go onward not abiding in
the teachings of Christ and by smooth and fair speech beguile the hearts
of the innocent. And Christians are required to beware of them, avoid
them, purge themselves from them, refuse them, stop their mouths, rebuke
them sharply, separate themselves from them, count them as accursed, not
receiving them into their houses and giving them no greeting. Even the
gentle Kreble is quoted by Brierly as saying that destructive critics
were "men too wicked to be reasoned with."
A modern view of the situation is that we must be open-minded,
hospitable to every man's proposition. We sit as a court to hear and
determine. Bring in your reasons; we will hear all from everyone. There
is no adjudicated truth. Stare decisis is obsolete. Certainty, if
attainable at all, is not yet attained. We still sit, after unnumbered
centuries, to hear arguments as to God, revelation, Christ, sin, death,
immortality, judgment-anything you like. We welcome truth from any
quarter, and if anybody can show us anything better than Christianity we
will accept it. We are ready to tolerate everything but orthodoxy!
War Is Raging
The old view is that war is raging; the nations rebel against God,
His Word, His Son, His salvation, His heaven, His hell. It is war a
l'outrance—to the finish. Government must be maintained; God or Satan
must go down. We are not remote from the seat of war, but in it. The
United States government, in 1861-1865, would not stop to discuss the
right and wrong of secession, nor can we pause to discuss the
rightfulness of God's demand that every knee shall bow to His Son and
every tongue confess Him Lord—nor to listen to excuses for rebellion. We
are here to proclaim, to warn, to beseech. Look unto the Son and be
saved; refuse, and the wrath of God abideth on you. Come, ere it be too
late! Although there are many who are ever learning, yet they are never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Moral certainty on all
essentials is attainable. We, with the apostle, "know the only true God,
"know that the Son of God is come," "know that the judgment of God is
against iniquity," "know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," whither He
has gone, and the way. We "know the Father," "know the Spirit of God,"
"know the voice of the Shepherd," "know that we have passed from death
unto life," "know whom we have believed," and we know, or ought to know,
a fight when we see it and which side we are on.
The Obligation of Good Soldiers
We know also our obligation to be good soldiers of Christ and to
contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered. Compromise,
neutrality, toleration of treason are impossible. In the pending issues
there is no mean between extremes in which gentle souls may walk. The
middle way is never the right way when it is half way between right and
wrong. In this case any way but the right way is wrong.
Is there not an irenic view possible? View of what? Of a school of
criticism and theology whose foundation is that the teachings of Christ
and the apostles concerning the Old Testament are not conclusive, which
insists that the Bible is not a supernatural book with a natural element
in it but is a natural book with perhaps some slight supernatural
element in it, which insists upon the right of the "moral consciousness"
to condemn as untrue any teaching of the Bible against which it revolts?
No! We may cry peace, peace, but there is no peace. Christ and His
church must be at war with such Amalekites, from generation to
generation, forever and ever.
As God is God, He must assert His authority, vindicate His truth and
enforce His laws. The universe, to the last atom of matter, submits to
His will and, so, is holy. His creatures also must reverence and obey
His every Word. War there must be until they do. No peace is possible
save by the surrender of rebels and the crushing of iniquity. Men slew
the Son of God and cast Him out. Is that all? Is the matter to rest
there ignored forever? Christ is the Peacemaker, but He makes peace with
the sword! War, flagrant and fierce, must be occurrent until He is
triumphant and this wretched world gladly welcomes Him as its King.
Truly this is the day of amnesty, of grace and salvation but not the
day of uncertainty, indifference and the toleration of evil. The
majority of men may account it so, but the righteous judgment of God is
against them. A complaisant or irenic view of the present state of
affairs is impossible. Submit, claim amnesty and grace or endure the
wrath! No other alternative! God must antagonize evil so long as it
exists, and so must we.
Our "dearly beloved brother Paul" took no irenic view of the "new
theology" of his day and its promoters. If any man or angel preaches any
other gospel than that which the apostle Paul had preached, "let him be
accursed!" Later Paul delivered some such to Satan that they "might
learn not to blaspheme." "From henceforth let no man trouble me, he
declared, "for I bear, branded on my body, the marks of the Lord Jesus
Christ." Let no man make himself disagreeable by preaching heresy to me.
It is not worthwhile. Even if he could persuade me, Jesus Christ's mark
of ownership—His "brands"—are on me, and I should soon be identified and
reclaimed. Brands! Sore eyes from that light on the Damascus road, scars
from scourgings, wrinkles and furrows from hardships and sufferings,
tokens of conflicts and victories. Surely such a man should be exempted
from the buzzing annoyance of those who would turn men away from the
one, true Gospel of God.
The Marks of the Lord Jesus
If we are true Christians we also bear the marks of the Lord
Jesus. And He bears ours. We put the stigmata on His body on the cross.
He gave Himself to us, and we branded Him our own! We have given
ourselves to Him, and He has branded us His. Why, then, should we not
partake of Paul's confidence, indignation and disgust and without much
ceremony wave the obtrusive errorists and paralyzers of faith of our day
back into the darkness from which they have emerged?
The eighteenth century blew its brains out with its liberty,
fraternity and equality, social contact and the French Revolution. The
nineteenth century did the same for itself with assaults upon the Word
of God and a razzle-dazzle theology.
May we hope for better things for the twentieth century? Not unless
men will once more strongly assert that there is such a thing as truth
and that it is worth contending for and such a thing as error, which
must be opposed and put down.
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