Evil reaches its height in the eighth head of the beast, which goes down to destruction in the apostasy of the civil power of the fourth monarchy. He goes along with the false prophet, who, having seduced the world to do homage to the beast and to take his mark, is destroyed with him.
‘After These Things’ Chapter 4.7 – The Judgment of the Nations
From our book ‘After These Things – Summaries of John Nelson Darby’s Papers on Prophecy – and more…’ Compiled by Daniel Roberts. For more about this book click on the picture or CLICK HERE
A summary of the Seventh Lecture by J N Darby on the Present Hope of the Church – Geneva 1840 entitled The Judgment of the Nations, which become the Inheritance of Christ and of the Church
Evil will reach its height in the eighth head of the beast, the fourth (Rome) monarchy. It will go to destruction along with the false prophet who seduced the world to do homage to the beast and take his mark.
The scene is now extended. God will have judged the Antichristian beast and the evil nations, making His power felt: it is the moment of His wrath.
All that is high and lifted up will be brought low by the power and glory of God, so that God, in full blessing, may enjoy the kingdom, and may have the inheritance of all nations – ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)
The Judge
At the birth of Christ, Herod showed his fury at the least thing that could challenge his royalty. He tried to get rid of Him by slaying the infants in Bethlehem. Thirty-three years later, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the true King over the whole earth, was presented to the Gentiles (in the person of Pontius Pilate), and to the Jews (in the person of the High Priest Caiaphas). Both rejected Him.
Now we have the Son anointed, King upon Zion, God’s holy hill. Zion is His throne; the (heathen) nations are His inheritance. ‘Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession’ (Psalm 2:8).
Will the nations then, at last, listen to the invitation made to them to submit themselves? No! – So God can, and will, judge them.
His Judgment
Christ will be Judge, but this is not the last or general judgment (or the Great White Throne, or judgment of the dead). Everybody existing on the earth at the end of this time (seven years) will be either subject to Christ, and therefore saved and sent to life eternal, or in rebellion and condemned to eternal punishment. It is the judgment of the living nations on this earth: those who will people the earth during the Millennium. The dead will be raised for judgment after Christ’s millennial reign. ‘Before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.’ (Matthew 25:32). The judgment of the living (or ‘quick’ -as in KJV) is as certain as that of the dead.
How God deals with the nations is entirely different from the gospel: ‘Thou shalt break them with a sceptre of iron’ (Psalm 2:9 – Darby). In the gospel, the sceptre of Christ is a rod of goodness and love, sweet and powerful. The gospel is not a sceptre of iron.
‘The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands’ (Psalm 9:16). This is not the language of the gospel; it is the righteous demand for justice. Christians who do not understand the difference between the dispensations often find these scriptures challenging. In the gospel, the grace of God is presented to the wicked, and God calls for repentance. Once the gospel has run its course, Christ will demand righteous judgment[1].
Christ invites the kings of the earth to submit themselves to Him. However, they follow their own ways; their policy settled according to the wisdom of man. Hence, if God were not to execute judgment, evil would only grow worse and worse without any consolation for the faithful. It is the time of judgment, and Christ is the Judge. ‘The Lord is King for ever and ever; the heathen are perished out of his land.’ (Psalm 10:15, 16) and Thou hast rebuked the heathen; thou hast destroyed the wicked; thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.’ (v.5). JND notes that the ‘wicked’ refers to the Antichrist.
God will assemble the nations, and pour upon them His indignation: ‘Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them mine indignation’ (Zephaniah 3:8). The Lord will manifest Himself in this act of power in Israel[2].
The next verse (verse 9) tells us ‘For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD’. This blessing, when the earth will be full of the knowledge of God, will come to pass only after He has executed judgment and put away the evildoers. This passage is a very explicit revelation. It is judgment, not grace.
The Lord’s Rule
Having accomplished this, Jesus sits down at the right hand of God the Father: ‘The LORD (Jehovah) said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.’ (Psalm 110:1). After that come the words, ‘Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.’ (v.2) The Lord will now start to exercise His power on earth. This, of course, begins the Millennium.
[1]Christians are sheltered from the approaching storm. The church’s place is with Christ, accompanying Him. The church has the privilege and glory of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. It comprises a single body of both Jews and Gentiles. It was not revealed in the Old Testament. Hence, it is not in Zion that we are to look for the church because the church has the same portion as Christ, being His body: if we seek it, we will find Christ Himself.
The church’s place is not in the midst of the nations that are to be broken in pieces, but to be united to Christ, enjoying the same privileges as Christ. There is nothing true, as regards Christ, in the glory which He has taken as Man, which is not also true of the church. It is a precious thing for us to understand our place, that of joint-heirs with Christ. And the more we think of this, the more our strength will be increased, and the more our minds will be detached from this world, which is under judgment. The world comes under judgment because it has rejected Christ, The Saviour. ’Righteous Father, the world hath not known thee’ (John 17:25). Just as unbelief separates men entirely for all eternity from Christ, grace by faith has united us wholly and forever to Him; and we ought to bless God for it.
It is at Jerusalem principally that all this disaster will take place; secondly, God has named in His word all the nations who will participate in it. We shall see all the descendants of Noah, of whom we have the catalogue in Genesis 10, reappear on the scene at the moment of this judgment of God
We shall find nearly all of them under the beast or under Gog (See Ezekiel 38) – essentially, they are the children of Japheth.
Darby drew on William Hale’s Analysis of Chronology, republished 2012 by Nabu Press, available from Amazon
.These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. … Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
‘After These Things’ Chapter 4.6 Ecclesiastical and Civil Apostasy
From our book ‘After These Things – Summaries of John Nelson Darby’s Papers on Prophecy – and more…’ Compiled by Daniel Roberts. For more about this book click on the picture or CLICK HERE
Beast, Antichrist and False Prophet
A summary of the First Lecture by J N Darby on the Present Hope of the Church – Geneva 1840 entitled ‘The Two Characters of Evil: Ecclesiastical Apostasy, and Civil Apostasy‘
There are two characters in the evil which manifests itself on the earth:
Ecclesiastical apostasy, that of the Church
Civil apostasy, that of human government and organisation.
The angel gave Daniel the interpretation of the vision of the four beasts
The lion Babylon
The bear Persia
The leopard Greece
The ‘dreadful and terrible beast’ Rome
‘These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. … Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings’ (Daniel 7:16-27).
The principal subject of the above scripture is fourth great beast. This represents the Roman Empire who exalts and elevates itself against the Most High God.
The Beast
The civil power will rise against Christ, whom God will establish King over the earth because all government belongs to Him.
‘I … saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. … And I saw one of the heads, as it were wounded to death.’ (Revelation 13:1-3). Although the imperial form of the Roman Empire collapsed centuries ago, the wound has been healed. The governing institutions the Roman empire can be re-established.[1]. The imperial beast will reappear, and the European ‘kings’ (whether monarchs or presidents) will willingly hand over their power to the beast.
The Antichrist
The course of Christianity takes place during the time of the fourth beast, Rome. At the same time, there is moral rebellion. The ecclesiastical power assumes the position of God. It takes away faith, putting aside natural religion, corrupting and perverting the revelation of God, so that men should have no other objects than themselves.
However, the ecclesiastical power will itself fall victim to the violence of the human will. By its pretensions to religion, it will openly serve Satan. It will provoke crimes which the the civil power will execute.
The corruption of the church is the worst of all corruptions. The Antichrist will deny that Jesus is the Christ; he will ‘deny the Father and the Son’ (1 John 2:22). Satan will work directly by him. It will be a sort of satanic imitation of what God has done.
In the way that the Father has given the heavenly throne to the Son; the dragon (Satan) will confer the throne in the evil world to the beast.
The Spirit acts in the church, according to the power of the Son before Him; similarly, the second beast, the Antichrist will exercise all the power of this last beast (civil authority) before him. ‘And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed’ (Revelation 13:12).
Christendom is practically apostate. Darby said this in 1840 – what is its state now?
The False Prophet
There is also another beast (not the Roman Empire) which exercises all the power of the first beast before him.
‘I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; … And he doeth great wonders, … and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth’ (Revelation 13:11-14). This second beast, the false prophet, will seduce the inhabitants of the earth (the Jews accepting a Satanic form of Christianity[2]). This has the appearance of Christ’s power, but it is Satan’s. The false prophet, who will have lost secular power, will cause them to follow the first beast, that is the civil power of the Roman Empire.
Satan, having been cast out of heaven, will come down to the earth in great wrath. Then, under his influence, the beast (the Roman Empire, the civil power) will resume his strength and form. Instead of being in submission to God, it will take on the character of Satan in open revolt against the power of God. Instead of replacing it, ten kings ‘shall give their strength and power unto the beast’. (Revelation 17:13). ‘Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women[3], nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all’ (Dan 11:37).
There will be the eighth king, yet to come. In essence, this will be the beast himself, the imperial head under a new form. He will re-unite ten kings, who will give him their power. The kingdoms will continue in existence but as a confederation. After dealing in an idolatrous and apostate way in Jerusalem, he will find his end with that first beast – they will go down to destruction. (See Revelation 13, Daniel 11:36-45).
The Mystery of the Woman and the Beast
We get the woman clothed with scarlet (the whore). She represents the ecclesiastical power. She is mounted on the beast, which is the civil power. After that, ‘the ten horns[4] which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to … give their kingdom to the beast.’ (Revelation 17:12-13)
The civil power turns on the ecclesiastical, resulting in the evident destruction of the latter
‘I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not[5];and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is[6]’. (v. 7-8)
Ecclesiastical Wickedness is always the Worst
The ecclesiastical power will no longer be wielding the secular arm, riding on the beast, and ruling it. It will take on a more mysterious and dangerous form. Its occult influence will continue, deprived of its outward splendour. The church’s revolt begins when, instead of being subject to Christ, it gives itself over to the will and power of man, leans upon man for aid, and renounces truth to follow error. When the church is not guided by the Holy Spirit, it is not subject to Christ, Christendom becomes completely apostate.
Because the ecclesiastical power is no longer a political power with the ability to depose kings and presidents, there is a temptation to suppose that it has disappeared. However, its moral influence survives. It seduces the inhabitants of the earth so that they acknowledge and worship the beast, at the same time urging the civil power to revolt against God. This will lead to its ultimate destruction (see below).
Civil apostasy will have its time of manifestation
Scripture teaches us that civil power is of God. ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God’ (Romans 13:1) – also 1 Peter 2:13-18.
Now, in the same way that the church will rebel against God, the civil government will be found in a state of revolt and apostasy. Instead of confessing allegiance to God, the source of its authority, it sets itself up against Him.
At the end of the present dispensation, the civil power will be found in this same state of revolt as the church. In the civil power, apostasy will be more manifest and prominent than it is in the church. This will take place in the bosom of Christendom, and ecclesiastical wickedness will be its motivating power.[7]
Those who will have revolted ought to have instructed the church and represented the wisdom of God, reminding governments of their duty towards God. They will conceal the truth, seduce the world, and lead the civil power to depart from God[8].
Relationship with the Jews
The beast, or the civil power of the fourth monarchy, sets himself in revolt against God. But this monarchy will establish a relationship with the Jews. This re-introduces the history of God’s people.
The unconverted Jews will have returned to their own land, though without being converted[9]. The Jews will find themselves in a relationship with the fourth beast who exalts himself against God, putting himself in direct opposition to Christ. Indeed, he will assume the rights that rightly belong to Christ, namely those of being the King of the Jews.
Persecution of the Jews
If we consider the history of the Roman beast comprehensively, both in its pagan form under the Roman emperors such as Tiberias Caesar, or in the form of the corrupted Christianity of the Middle Ages, we see there have always been persecutions against the faithful Christian saints. ‘And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth,’ (Revelation 18:24).
However, after the Rapture of the church and the breaking of the Antichrist’s covenant with the Jews, the civil power will revolt openly, and persecutions will fall on God’s earthly people, the Jews. Remember, Christ remains King of the Jews. Of course, the church will be entirely out of the scene at the time of these persecutions.
The War in Heaven
The Word of God puts in contrast
The world and the Father,
The flesh and the Spirit,
Satan and the Son of God.
Satan is now in heaven accusing the children of God. He aims to destroy Christ, and in doing so, destroy the church. However, Satan has no power over our consciences, his accusing power being rendered null by virtue of the blood and work of Jesus Christ. However, half-way through the seven years between the Rapture and the Appearing, there will be a battle in heaven – see Revelation 12:7-9. Michael will prevail; Satan will be cast out into the earth but will not yet be chained to the bottomless pit. It is said, ‘the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.’ (v.12)
Having been cast down to the earth, Satan will act through the terrestrial agency of the Roman Empire, though he will unite all the characters of the three previous beasts.
The authority of the dragon (Satan) becomes established in the Roman Empire. It is seen in the beast with seven heads and ten horns.
Armageddon
At Armageddon, the false prophet falls along with the beast. From the beginning to the end, there is always a beast, and with the beast a false prophet. It is the one or the other who guides the rebellion. But in the end, the beast takes the lead, as being able to act more directly and freely: thus, it is the beast that becomes the direct object of judgment.
Christ will finally exercise His rights as King of the Jews. He will come down from heaven, destroy the fourth beast together with the Antichrist.
A Word to the Believer
In the short time there, Paul had spoken a good deal about what was coming to the saints in Thessalonica. He had taught them to expect the Lord’s coming. After his departure, Satan tried to terrify them, by telling them that the day of the Lord had already arrived. So Paul said, ‘Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind’ (2 Thessalonians 2:1)
Those who love the truth will not be deceived by Satan’s activities. When the Lord calls His own, they will be caught up into the air. In time, the false prophet, (the second beast), will be thrown into the lake of fire along with the first. Then all those who have ‘not received the love of the truth’ (2:Thessalonians 2:10) will be judged. We need to warn people: may some be led to consider the word of God.
We may ask the question as to why all this is announced to us, the children of God, who thankfully, will see none of these things. It must surely serve to wean us from involvement with, and the influence of, what will come under judgment. May we be separate from all that drags men on to destruction!
May God make us attentive both to the character and the end of man’s pride! May God’s name of grace and glory be eternally blessed; and may He engrave these things upon our hearts! He will preserve His church from all these evils which menace the world for His church is united to Him.
[1] One can see that this would be quite easy when erstwhile sovereign states have already ceded much power to the European Union (established by the Treaty of Rome). However, let us not mix current affairs with prophecy – they are NOT the same. Darby likened Napoleon’s efforts to the Roman empire and that fell apart.
[2] I ask – what about the Muslims too? – Darby makes the point that the false prophet could not be Mohammed.
[3] An interesting question – what is meant by the desire of women?
[5] i.e the Roman civil power. The bottomless pit is the positive power of Satan.
[6] Darby reads ‘shall be present’, a better translation of the Greek παρέσται/parestai/Strong 3918 meaning present or near.
[7]When Darby says ‘the end of this dispensation’ it can be confusing as to the period he is referring to. Whereas most would see this dispensation ending at the Rapture, and the seven years either another dispensation or a transitional period, Darby considers this dispensation (as Savage did – see Chapter 1.3) to ending till the Lord’s coming to reign. That is why he refers to the ultimate apostasy of the professing church as belonging to this time.
[8] This is what Darby described when living in in Victorian England. How much more apt are these things now when ‘alternative lifestyles’ are promoted and offered to young children, homosexual marriage, abortion and divorce on demand have all gone in the face of God’s thoughts for mankind. And the church acquiesces to all of this.
[9] It is easy to regard the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 as the fulfilment of prophecy. Whilst you could say that it was laying the scene for what is to come, there is no reason why this event along with the revival of the ten lost tribes could not be have been fulfilled after the Rapture. After all, the nation is in unbelief as to Christ, is secular in constitution and comprises only two of the twelve tribes.
e must expect evil to increase in the world, particularly in Christendom, both secularly and religiously.
However evil does not come under judgment until the end of this age; that is, of the dispensation closed by the coming of Christ.
The knowledge of God will then fill the earth. How? By the judgment of God, which must begin at the house of God.
Three sorts of apostasy are brought together typified by Cain, Balaam and Korah. The beast will exalt himself above all that is called God. This must happen before the day of the Lord comes.
‘After These Things’ Chapter 4.5 – The Judgment of Evil
From our book ‘After These Things – Summaries of John Nelson Darby’s Papers on Prophecy – and more…’ Compiled by Daniel Roberts. For more about this book click on the picture or CLICK HERE
Evil on the Earth Increases
A summary of the Fifth Lecture by J N Darby on the Present Hope of the Church – Geneva 1840 entitled ‘The Progress of Evil on the Earth’
4.5 The Judgment of Evil
A summary of the 5th Lecture by J N Darby on the Present Hope of the Church – Geneva 1840 – entitled The Progress of Evil on the Earth
We must expect evil to increase in the world, particularly in Christendom, both secularly and religiously. However, evil does not come under judgment until the return of Christ at His Appearing. The knowledge of God will then fill the earth. How? By the judgment of God, which must begin at the house of God.
As evil increases, Christians see the proximity of judgment, piety increases and Christians withdraw from evil. They preach the gospel, but there is little result.
Evil increases, especially in Christendom
The notion that things will continually improve is totally contrary to what we are taught in scripture. We are deluded if we think that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord before He exercises judgment. Instead of hoping that good will continue to progress in the world and the church, we must expect evil increase. We are to expect increasing evil until it becomes so flagrant that it will be necessary for the Lord to judge it. Sadly, this is the received wisdom in much of Christendom at large and in secular society.[1]
This is the character which this wickedness will take, as an external, secular power:
Evil will go on increasing until the end.
Satan will urge it on until the Lord destroys his power.
The apostasy will take place in Christendom.
The Antichrist will fall and be ruined.
The Wheat and the Tares
We should draw on the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30). Satan had put evil in the field where the good seed of the word had been sown. This will remain there and ripen. Christians will not enjoy the result of its removal, because the evil is to remain until the day of judgment: ’Let both grow together until the harvest.’ The harvest is at the end of this age; that is, of the dispensation closed by the coming of Christ.
The tares are evil things such as heresy or the corruption of the truth. The enemy sows these after Jesus Christ had sown the good seed. But the Lord says it should remain until the harvest. The evil which Satan has produced by a corrupted religion will exist until the end. Our efforts ought to be directed – not to pluck out the tares but to gather in the children of God – to assemble the co-heirs of Jesus Christ.
It is worth remarking that the tares were already sown in the days of the apostles; and in one sense it is a happy thing for us since we have both the warning and the evidence in scripture.
Now, in God’s dealings, we have to do with grace and not with judgment. It is not for us to judge the world.
The Apostasy
Apostasy will be fully developed in the ‘last time’; when the Antichrist also will have been revealed. (See 1 John 2:18). This development will be after the departure of the Church and the restraint of the Holy Spirit.
God says:
‘The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy … .’( 1 Timothy 4:1).
‘This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come … .’( 2 Timothy 3:1-5).
In Timothy. ‘Men shall be lovers of their own selves,’ etc. These are not pagans; they are nominal Christians. It is written about them, ‘Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. … They shall wax worse and worse.’ (2 Timothy 3:5,13)
‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.’ Compare these words with Acts 20:29-31: ‘I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock; also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.’ 1 Peter 4:17. This state of things began during the lifetime of the apostles.
Jude’s epistle is a treatise on the apostasy. We get three sorts of apostasy brought together upon which last judgment will fall. We are told of those who have ‘crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ’ (v.4). These have brought in (v.11):
Natural apostasy – the character of Cain – hatred and unrighteousness.
Ecclesiastical apostasy – e.g. Balaam – teaching wrong things for reward.
Open revolt – g. Korah, who set himself up against the rights of the priesthood (Aaron) and of royalty (Moses).
The great whore (the ecclesiastical system) will rule the beast whose self-will and blaspheming character will be fully manifested in the last apostasy. Meanwhile, Christians desire the destruction of the whore’s influence. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 it says, ‘That day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God.’
All this must happen before the day of the Lord comes.
Darby points out that it is evil – not the gospel – that will unite the characters of wickedness which have appeared from the beginning:
Man has always wanted to have his own will.
He has exalted himself against God.
He has put himself under the guidance of Satan
The Beasts or Gentile Empires
There are four successive beasts in Daniel 7.
The empire of Babylon (lion with eagle’s wings).
The empire of the Persians (bear).
The empire of the Greeks, or Alexander in particular (leopard – split into four heads).
The Roman Empire (a dreadful and terrible beast with marks altogether peculiar to itself).
Following the destruction of the last king of the Jews (Zedekiah in BC599), earthly dominion passed to the Gentiles in the person of Nebuchadnezzar. He began by establishing a false religion by force. He made a statue that all the world was to worship, and he became lifted up in heart and ravaged the world to satisfy his will. So, he was made to become like a beast for seven years.
The Rejection of Christ
The chief priests, who were in God’s view, the representatives of religion upon earth, and Pontius Pilate, the representative of earthly power, joined in league together to reject and put to death the Son of God. Thus, the fourth monarchy became guilty of rejecting the Messiah.
The Jews are set aside. If God permits the Jews to return to their country for a short time, it is that His Son might appear at the re-commencement of the fourth monarchy.
But as to that which concerns the church on earth, we have seen it marred by the seed of the wicked one, and the apostasy which resulted from it; (Dan. 7:9,11), ‘I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the Ancient of days did sit…. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake; I beheld, even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning’. The Roman Empire has continued; it has even become ‘Christian’.
The Lord coming to Judge
Daniel 7:13-14: ‘I saw … one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.’
The kingdom is given to the Son of man when the fourth beast is destroyed. The judgment and destruction of the fourth monarchy have not yet taken place, as we know from Daniel 2:34-35: ‘Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and day, and brake them to pieces…. and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.’
It is after the total destruction of the statue that the stone begins to grow; which signifies that the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, which is to fill the whole earth, will not begin to spread until after the fourth beast has been judged and destroyed.
‘The beast that thou sawest was, and is not’ (Revelation 7:8): is the Roman Empire.[2] As an empire, it no longer exits. However, it will come out of the pit, with a diabolical character; it will be a full expression of the power of Satan. This king will assume all the rights and privileges of Christ, arrogating them to himself: ‘I will ascend into heaven’ – what Christ only has done; ‘I will exalt myself above the stars of God.’ (Isaiah 14:13-14). Even the Jewish nation will receive him who comes in his own name.
Little Result from Preaching the Gospel
The church’s task was to proclaim the glory of Christ everywhere. Many evangelical Christians, therefore, hope that, through better evangelical endeavour, the gospel will spread itself all over the world during this dispensation. However, in these times, we can only expect poor results. There will be blessing, but there will be those who slip away
God told Noah that He was going to destroy the world. Did this prevent his preaching to his fellow mortals? This animated him, so that he might gain those who had ears to hear. And the result – eight, just his family.
Yet we preach the gospel – the only means of causing men to escape the righteous judgments which threaten them. God gives, at the same time, the power to the testimony that would separate the good from that which is under judgment. I believe this to be God’s usual mode of procedure.
When we see evil increasing, and God drawing away believers from that evil, it may be taken as a sign that the judgment of God is nigh.
Signs of the Times
There are two signs of the proximity of judgment:
Piety increases
Christians withdraw from evil
In the word of God, we see that the present economy will have an end. Evil will progress to a greater and greater height until the wicked one is destroyed by the coming of Christ.
Let us conclude with the warning which the Saviour gives us: ‘Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.’ (Romans 11:22.)
Darby’s Conclusion
‘Has the church kept itself in the goodness of God? Christendom has become completely corrupted; the dispensation of the Gentiles has been found unfaithful, with no hope of restoration. As the Jewish dispensation was cut off, the Christian dispensation will be cut off too. May God give us the grace to continue steadfast in our hope, and to rest upon His faithfulness.
[1] Darby wrote in the 19th century – he saw the trend. Now we in the 21st century see the prevalent religious view that we should labour to build the kingdom of God here. Apart from being futile, it sets aside what Christ has done. It is depicted in that rousing , popular (at least in Britain) but doctrinally perverse song by William Blake, ‘Jerusalem’.
In secular society progress has been regarded in the throwing aside of moral values promoting ‘alternative lifestyles, indiscriminate abortion, sexual perversion to the point where Christians can be criminalised for doing or teaching what is right, and much of the public church supports it.
[2] One cannot escape thinking of the liberal, Godless view of the European Union. Satan will take control of this institution.
Heir of all things, of the church as co-heir with Him, and of the coming of Christ to reign before the thousand-year millennium.
In this lecture, Mr Darby distinguishes between the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the wicked. The first takes place before the millennium; the other afterwards. The first resurrection, the resurrection from among the dead was a thing that really gripped the early church.
The truth of the resurrection of the church should become bound up in our minds, with the precious truths of our salvation.
‘After These Things’ Chapter 4.4 – The Rapture
From our book ‘After These Things – Summaries of John Nelson Darby’s Papers on Prophecy – and more…’ Compiled by Daniel Roberts. For more about this book click on the picture or CLICK HERE
The Truth and Reality of Resurrection
A summary of the Fourth Lecture by J N Darby on the Present Hope of the Church – Geneva 1840 entitled ‘The First Resurrection – or The Resurrection of the Just’.
The resurrection of Christ was the foundation of the preaching of the apostles, In Acts 1:22, they said, ‘One must be with us a witness of his resurrection’. Peter said, ‘This Jesus hath God raised, whereof we all are witnesses.’ (v.32).
Resurrection is therefore at the core of Christianity: it was the seal of Christ’s ministry. Romans 1:4 says He was, ‘declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead[1]’ – The Jews had no difficulty – they accepted a general resurrection but did not understand resurrection from among the dead. Resurrection links our hopes to Christ and the whole church, to the counsels of God in Christ; it makes us understand that we are entirely set free in Him. We are united to Him by the Holy Spirit, so He is also the source of our strength: we can glorify Him now. We are introduced into a new creation: the power of God places us, in the second Adam, beyond the sphere of sin, of Satan, and death.
‘Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.’ (Colossians 2:12). Our union with Jesus raised gives us acceptance with God. We ought to see ourselves already as beyond the tomb.
The word of God is simple, clear, and convincing; but preconceived ideas often rob us of its natural sense. We have habits of thinking apart from Scripture. Sadly, prejudices and human teachings have taken the place of the word of God, and the power and expectation of the resurrection have ceased to be the habitual state of the church.
What the Greeks Taught – Resurrection vs Reincarnation
In Athens, Paul announced, among the learned Gentiles, the doctrine of resurrection (Acts 17:18-30). This was the stumbling-stone of their carnal wisdom. Socrates, Plato and other philosophers believed, after a fashion, in the immortality of the soul (metempsychosis or reincarnation). The idea of the immortality of the soul, although recognised in Luke 12:5 and 20:38, is not, in general, a gospel topic[2].
When these scientifically minded men heard of the resurrection of the dead, they mocked. An unbeliever can discuss immortality; but if he hears about the resurrection of the dead, he turns the subject into derision. And why? Because in talking of the immortality of the soul, he may exalt himself and elevate his self-importance and power.
God can reconstitute a body that has been reduced to dust into a living and glorified man because nothing is hidden from His power. The leading truth, however, is the resurrection of the body, not the immortality of the soul.
The Two Resurrections
The Lord says, ‘The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.’ (John 5:28)
Paul says, ‘There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust’ (Acts 24:15). But they are not the same, though accomplished by the same power.
The resurrection of the just[3] is altogether distinct from the resurrection of the unjust. The resurrection of the just, which we await, precedes the Millennium. It takes place at the ‘Rapture’. The church will participate in the coming of Christ to reign. There will be a resurrection of life for those who have been already quickened in their souls; and a resurrection of judgment for those who have rejected Jesus.
We must not confuse the resurrection of the just with that of the unjust, and the judgment before the Great White Throne. The resurrection of the unjust will not take place until after the Millennium.
None of the passages concerning the resurrection speak of a simultaneous rising of just and unjust; and those which refer to the resurrection of the just always talk of it as a distinct thing. All will rise. There will be a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the unjust, but they will not take place together[4].
Because Jesus said that those who are in the graves shall hear his voice, it may be alleged that the wicked and the just will rise together. But three verses earlier it said, ‘they that hear shall live.’ So evidently, there is a time of quickening and a time of judgment; there is a period during which souls are quickened, and a period when bodies shall be raised.
‘That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead’ (Phil 3:10-11). Paul would not speak thus if the good and bad rose together, and in the same manner. This resurrection from among the dead is the first resurrection that Paul had in mind. The resurrection from among the dead was a thing that concerned the church exclusively. We should say, like the apostle, ‘I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (v.14).
The Resurrection of the Just (or The Resurrection of the Church Apart)
In the work of making alive or vivification, the Father and Son act together. Those to whom life is given are put into communion with the Father and Son. The bodies of the children of God will participate in the life that has already been communicated to their souls (the life of Christ Himself).
Several scriptures bear on this, making this resurrection clear to all:
1 Corinthians 15 sets forth very clearly the connection which exists between the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. The sequence of events is precise.
Christ is become the firstfruits of them that slept’ (v. 20).
The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible (v.52).
We shall be changed (v.52).
This mortal shall have put on immortality (v 54).
Death is swallowed up in victory (v 54).
The Appearing of Christ will therefore take place before the end;
Also, 1 Thessalonians 4 – The Lord himself shall descend from heaven (v. 16).
With a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God (v. 16).
The dead in Christ shall rise first(v. 16).
We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds (v. 17)
We shall meet the Lord in the air (v. 17).
So shall we ever be with the Lord. (v. 17).
God is the ‘God who raiseth the dead’ (2 Corinthians 1:9) – or ’quickeneth the dead’ (Romans 4:23-25). We are called upon to believe that the resurrection of Jesus is the power, or the efficacy, of our justification. The resurrection of Jesus was the great proof.
In Colossians 2:12, it says ‘Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.’ The Church is raised now because Christ is raised as its Head.
Our resurrection is the consequence of the abiding of the Holy Spirit in us ‘if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you’ (Romans 8:11). It therefore is on account of the Holy Spirit who is in us, that we shall be raised. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the church is that which characterises our position before God.
– The world does not receive the Holy Spirit, ‘because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him,’ (John 14:27) – an essential difference.
What to do?
‘Our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost’ (1 Corinthians 6:19). Therefore, our souls are filled, or at least it ought to be, with the glory of Christ. Our bodies will be raised through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. This can never be said of the wicked.
The Judgment of the Wicked
Scripture presents two acts of Christ as the attributes of His glory:
to make alive.
to judge.
‘All who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall go forth; those that have practised good, to resurrection of life, and those that have done evil, to resurrection of judgment.’ (John 5:28 Darby).
All judgment is entrusted to Christ, so that all, even eventually the wicked, should honour the Son, confessing Him Lord to the glory of God the Father (see Philippians 2:11).
Jesus was treated shamefully down here. Therefore, the way of obliging the wicked to recognise the rights of Jesus is place the process of judgment in the hands of Jesus Himself. The Father does not judge: it was not He who was wronged, but the Son. For the wicked, the time of the judgment will be at the Great White Throne.
Those who Sleep in Jesus
‘Christ has become the firstfruits of them that slept…. They that are Christ’s shall rise at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father’ (1 Corinthians 15:23). When He comes, He will take the kingdom; at the end, He will deliver it up. The Appearing of Christ will therefore take place before the end; it will be for the destruction of the wicked. He will come to purify His kingdom.
‘Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him’; ‘and the dead in Christ shall rise first.’ (1 Thessalonians 4:14-16). It is the fulfilment of our hopes; the fruit of our justification and the consequence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
The resurrection of the just will be the consummation of our happiness; after having given life to our souls, He will give life to our bodies. We never read in the word of God of glorified spirits, but always of glorified bodies. There is the glory of God, and the glory of those who will be raised.
In the Lord’s answer to the Sadducees, He said, ‘They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels[5]; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection’. (Luke 20:36). This proves a resurrection which concerns the children of God alone – we have a title in sonship.
Conclusion
Darby concludes, ‘ The knowledge of this truth, by the power of Christ, will strengthen us in our hearts. For this knowledge is that to which the scripture applies the word ‘perfection.’ (i.e. being fit, or qualified for an office). Christ was thus made perfect as to His state and position before God; so we, ourselves, are now made perfect by faith.
‘May our bodies, souls, and spirits, be preserved blameless until the coming of our Well-beloved! May the truth of the resurrection of the church become bound up, in our minds, with all the precious truths of our salvation.’
[1] νεκρῶν/nekron/Strong-3498 – this is plural so indicates ‘dead persons’; or as in Mark 9:9, – f’rom among the dead.
[2] In the expression ‘Brought life and immortality to light’ (2 Timothy. 1:10), ‘immortality’ signifies the incorruptibility of the body and not the immortality of the soul. The Saviour adds, ‘Neither can they die any more … for they are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.’
It was just when the coming of Christ was denied in the church or at least began to be lost sight of, that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul came into displacing that of the resurrection about the time of Origen (d. c253).
[3] JND refers to this as ‘the resurrection of the church apart’
[4] Note that in scripture, as in Darby’s writings the term ‘resurrection of (or from among) the dead’ refers to Christians who have died in Christ – or who have fallen asleep, their resurrection is at the resurrection of the just, (or the resurrection of the church apart).
[5] Note they do not become angels, as some would teach.
Acts 1, The promise of the Lord’s return is set forth as the only hope of the church. The disciples desired to know when and how God would restore the kingdom of Israel, but the answer was going to be hidden in God, as times and seasons belonged to the Father who had put them in His own power.
Additionally, the Holy Spirit was about to come, and because of that, they were to expect the return of Christ. So Christ’s return ruled the intelligence, sustained the hope and inspired the conduct, of the apostles.
‘After These Things’ Chapter 4.3 – The Second Coming of Christ
From our book ‘After These Things – Summaries of John Nelson Darby’s Papers on Prophecy – and more…’ Compiled by Daniel Roberts. For more about this book click on the picture or CLICK HERE
A summary of the Third Lecture by J N Darby on the Present Hope of the Church – Geneva 1840 entitled ‘The Second Coming of Christ’
The kingdom of Israel would be restored to Israel, but the answer as to when going to be hidden in God. Times and seasons belonged to the Father who had put them in His power.
The promise of the Lord’s return is the hope of the Church. Christ’s return ruled the intelligence, sustained the hope and inspired the conduct, of the apostles. Sadly, the expectation of the Saviour’s return has been lost sight of in the church. Hence the public position has declined spiritually.
The Lord will return to the Earth
Most of Old Testament prophecy, and therefore the disciples understanding, centred around the Lord’s actual return to earth and the redemption of Israel. It is not surprising, therefore, that this was the question that they asked the Lord after the resurrection.
According to Matthew 24:30, His coming will be a great public event.
The Son of man will come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
The tribes of the earth shall mourn.
The Jews ‘shall look on him whom they pierced’ (John 19:37; see also Zachariah 12:10 and Revelation 1:7).
In one of the first preachings, Peter said, ‘Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord … whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things’ (Acts 3:19-21). Both the initial preaching of Peter and the Lord’s words in Matthew 24 and 25 (correspondingly in the other synoptic gospels) relate to Israel. Darby makes this clear in his ‘Synopsis[1]’, though in his ministry he applied it to the poor state of Christendom.
The State of the Church
Let us now see how both the Lord Himself first, then the Holy Spirit, have continuously directed our attention to His return.
The degree of expectation of the Lord’s return is gauged (as with a thermometer, so to speak) as an indicator of the life of the Church. In Matthew 24, the evil servant was not prepared for the Lord to return. ‘My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites’ (v. 49-51). ‘Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh’ (v. 44).
After appeals at the start of the church period, Stephen, the first martyr had to tell the religious leaders that they would not repent and continued to resist the Holy Spirit; See Acts 7:51.
All the virgins in Matthew 25 were in the same state; the wise ones (the true saints) as well as the foolish ones, who lacked the oil of the Holy Spirit, slept and forgot the immediate return of Christ. What woke them up was the midnight cry that He was coming[2].
Christendom is in a state worse than that of the Jews or pagans, in that it has had more advantages. The evil which Satan has caused by heresies, false doctrines and false religions, continues to increase, and ripen.
The Joy of the departed Soul
This is seen in four scriptures:
‘To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’ (Luke 23:43).
‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’; (Acts 7:59)
‘To be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord’ (2 Corinthians 5:8).
‘For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better’ (Philippians. 1:22, 23).
It is far better to expect the glory and to be present with Christ, than to remain here below[3]:
The Lord says, ‘If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself.’ He, Himself will come for His church, so that the church may be there, where He is.
God will gather together all things in Christ
In the early preaching, Peter said, ‘He [God] may send Jesus Christ … whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.’ (Acts 3:20-21) The work of the Holy Spirit is not to re-establish all things here below, to rebuild creation (which sadly many Christians are trying to do) but to announce the return of Jesus, to whom every knee must bow.
We (the Church) will come with the Lord
‘For our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens, from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory’ (Philippians 3:20, 21 Darby). This scripture demonstrates that our relationship with the Lord is in heaven – that is where our citizenship is. We are aliens here. I have added this.
‘When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.’ (Colossians 3:4.) – Obviously, in order to come with Him, we shall have had already to have been taken to be with Him.
The two epistles to the Thessalonians focus on the coming of Christ. It is remarkable that this church, one of the most flourishing of those to which Paul wrote, should be the one to which the Lord chose to reveal, with the most detail, the circumstances of His coming. ‘The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.’ (Psalm 25:14.). Such was the faith of the Thessalonians that it was spoken of in all the world. They expected the Lord from heaven. May we have this same faith that the Thessalonians had!
We, pre-millennialists, expect the Lord before the thousand years. If Paul had not been a pre-millennialist too, and had expected a Millennium of the Holy Spirit before the coming of Jesus, how could he ever have said, ‘We who remain until the coming of Christ’? There was, then, in his soul, a continual expectation of the coming of Christ. He did not know the moment, but he expected it imminently.
The believers in Thessalonica (modern Thessaloniki) had the hope of the return of Christ to such a degree that they did not think of dying before that event; and when one of them departed, his friends were afraid that he would not be present at that happy moment. Paul reassures them by asserting that those who sleep in Jesus will be brought back with Him.
Asleep in Jesus
In passing, we should note that when somebody is taken, we often hear it said, ‘He/she has gone to glory’. Paul did not see it that way. The person was ‘asleep in Jesus’ or ‘With Christ’. Our outlook is to be with Him if we are taken before the Rapture. It is not to ‘go to heaven when we die’.
‘Therefore we are always confident; knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.’ (2 Corinthians 5:6) . I have already the life of Christ: if I depart, I shall be with Him. Paul will enjoy the fruits of his waiting.
The Mystery of Iniquity
The mystery of iniquity, which was already working in the time of Paul, was to go on until the manifestation of the man of sin. He will be destroyed at the glorious Appearing of Christ Himself[4].
The Appearing of Christ is not at the end, for at the end, He will have delivered up the kingdom. In reality, the kingdom takes place at His Appearing.
We shall only be like Him when He appears for us (i.e. at the Rapture), not before[5]. ‘But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.’ (1 John 3:2) A heart that is full of this hope conducts himself accordingly – he purifies himself. Knowing that when Jesus appears, I shall be like Him. I ought to like Him now.
An Appeal – Darby’s own Words
‘May the Lord apply these truths to our hearts, on one side, to detach us from the things of the world, and, on the other, to attach us to His coming – to Himself in Person; and we shall purify ourselves even as He is pure. There is nothing more practical, nothing more powerful to disentangle us from a world that is to be judged, and to knit us to the One who will come to judge it.
Certainly, there is nothing that can serve better to show us where our purification comes from. There is nothing which can console us, invigorate us, and identify us more with the One who has suffered so that we might reign with Him, co-heirs in glory. Surely, if we were expecting the Lord any day, there would be seen in us a self-renunciation rarely seen among the Christians of the present age. May none of us be found saying, ‘My Lord delayeth his coming’! (Matthew 24:4).
[1] IN the Synopsis on Matthew 24, Darby writes as to verse 30, ‘The Lord gives the history of the testimony in Israel, and that of the people themselves, from the moment of His departure until His return; but the length of time, during which there should be neither people nor temple nor city, is not specified. It is this which gives importance to the capture of Jerusalem. It is not here spoken of in direct terms the Lord does not describe it; but it put an end to that order of things to which His discourse applies, and this application is not resumed until Jerusalem and the Jews are again brought forward’.
[2] Note that Darby makes it clear that this applies to the Lord’s second coming (the Appearing). It is not:
Death (that is not the Bridegroom),
The coming of the Spirit (not the Bridegroom either).
The aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 (The Bridegroom did not come then).
[3] Really our expectation is to be with Him. We are out of the reach of sin, and we enjoy the Lord apart from it.
[4] Now, in such a state of things where is the place for such a post-tribulation Millennium? Indeed, where is the scriptural justification for suggesting that the church will still be here when the man of sin is revealed?
[5] Note that we are not told what a body of glory will be like (See also Philippians 3:21). Scripture is not to satisfy our curiosity.
Christ is exalted, sitting on the “right hand of the majesty on high”, waiting for the resurrection of the Church. The Church has already been reconciled to Christ, the earnest of this being in the presence of the Holy Spirit in us believers. Reconciliation of all things to Him is future.
In the dispensation that will start at the Saviour’s coming, the heirs will have the enjoyment of their inheritance. All things will be subjected to Christ, and to His church, united to Him and manifested with Him.
‘After These Things’ Chapter 4.2 – What the Father has done in Grace for the Church’s Glory
From our book ‘After These Things – Summaries of John Nelson Darby’s Papers on Prophecy – and more…’ Compiled by Daniel Roberts. For more about this book click on the picture or CLICK HERE
The Name of the Father
A summary of the Second Lecture by J N Darby on the Present Hope of the Church – Geneva 1840 entitled ‘The Church and its Glory’
Christ is exalted, sitting on the ‘right hand of the majesty on high’, waiting for the resurrection of the Church. The Church has already been reconciled to Christ, the evidence of this being in the presence of the Holy Spirit in us believers. Reconciliation of all things to Him is future.
In the dispensation that will start at the Saviour’s coming, the heirs will have the enjoyment of their inheritance. All things will be subjected to Christ, and to His Church, united to Him and manifested with Him.
‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ…and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all.’ Ephesians 1 (see the whole chapter)
The Name of Father
Our hope goes far beyond escaping the wrath to come). It involves our participating in the glory of the Son, as it is said in John 17:22, ‘And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them’. In this scripture, there is a message to the world that the Father loves us as He loves Jesus. By the Holy Spirit, we are full of joy and intelligence as to those riches in glory.
Considering the Church and its glory leads us to the name of Father – how God has revealed Himself to us. The Father has given the Church to Christ as His bride, with a view to its full participation in all His glory. In adopting us as His children, the Father has bestowed on us nothing less than the dignity and glory of the Son, ‘firstborn among many brethren’ (Romans 8:29). As the bride of Jesus, we enjoy all the privileges that belong to Him, because of His incomparable love to us.
Ephesians 1
God presents Himself as ‘ourFather’ (v. 2), and ‘the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (v. 3). In v.4-8, we have salvation, ‘accepted in the beloved’. We are predestined to be the Father’s children having redemption through Christ’s blood. How great are the riches of God’s grace!
In v. 8-10, we see the actual power of grace, introducing us into the knowledge of the purpose (or decree) of God. God treats us as His friends and calms our souls to see the end of all man’s agitated efforts. God will ‘gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.’ (v.10).
Furthermore, we have the sealing by the Spirit and our future participation in the glory: ‘Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory’ (v. 13).
The remainder of the chapter is a prayer for the faithful to understand their hope in an exalted Christ, to whom the church is united, and that they might appreciate the power that works towards them as believers.
The Resurrection of the Church
Christ is sitting on the ‘right hand of the majesty on high’ (Hebrews. 1:3), waiting for the resurrection of the Church. He does not even know (as Man) when this should take place since as a Servant He waits entirely upon His Father.
Currently, Christ is glorified. But as yet, all things are not yet subjected to Him. We acknowledge His rights as Creator, as Heir of all things, as Head of the body, the Church. He is both Firstborn of every creature and Firstborn from the dead.
Christ will take the inheritance of all things as a Man, so that the Church, bought with His blood, and purified, should inherit all things with Him.
There are two fundamental points:
Christ possesses all things.
The Church, the bride of Christ, participates in all that He has, and in all that He is, except in His eternal divinity.
Jesus Exalted
We see in Ephesians 1:23:
Jesus as the Head of the Church, His body.
Jesus highly exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
All things under His feet.
The Church introduced into the same glory.
We see in 1 Corinthians 15:
The glorification of Jesus.
All things subjected to Him.
Head of a kingdom which He will possess as Man and which He will eventually deliver up to God the Father, with God all in all.
The time for His being invested with royal power will have arrived, God having put His enemies as a footstool under His feet.
Reconciliation of all Things to Christ
We see in Romans 8:19-23 that the deliverance of creation will take place at the same time as the manifestation of the sons of God. Christ will be sitting at the right hand of God. He becomes Possessor of the heavens and the earth in fact, as He is that now by right. Were there, for example, a blade of grass that was not subjected to His power in blessing, Satan would have got an advantage over Christ, His rights, and His inheritance. Clearly, ‘all things’ relates to things in heaven and earth, not to sinners in unbelief.
The things of earth and heaven will be reconciled later, by the efficacy of His blood. ‘And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you … now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh, through death’ (Colossians 1:20),
The present creation is in misery and bondage. We sigh and groan because of that. All may be in disorder here, but we know Him who has redeemed us and made us heirs of all things. He has introduced us into the enjoyment of the love of the Father, enjoying the privileges as heirs.
When He comes, Christ will be the source of joy to all creation. All the righteous titles of Christ will be vindicated.
Heavenly Places
One of the spiritual blessings that we have now is to find our abode in the ‘heavenly places’. What we enjoy now in hope, though hindered in many ways, will be for us in actuality. The earth will feel the effect of that. ‘Wicked spirits in heavenly places[1]’ (see margin, Ephesians 6:12), will cease to be the continual cause of misery and chaos of a sinful world made by sin, the ruin and of the iniquity of the first Adam. Their place will be filled by Christ and His Church, reflecting His glory. She will beam upon the earth in blessing, and the nations will walk by her light. She will be the worthy and happy instrument of His blessings, the living demonstration of their success. God has done these things, ‘that in the ages to come, he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:7). The earth will enjoy the fruits of the victory of the Christ, the last Adam. The joy of joys will be the communion of the Father and the Bridegroom for ‘God is love.’
Conclusion
Darby concludes ‘I have detailed to you, briefly and feebly, what is the destiny of the church. We live under the dispensation during which the heirs are gathered together. In the dispensation which will start at the coming of the Saviour, the heirs shall have the enjoyment of the inheritance of all things. All things shall be subjected to Christ, and to His church, united to Him and manifested with Him.
What is to follow that is not our business now. In that last period, God will be all in all, and Christ Himself, as Man, will be subject to God; and Chief, of a family, eternally blessed in the communion of God. God has loved that family, and His tabernacle will be in the midst of it – God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, eternally blessed. Amen.’
[1] The KJV translation is ‘spiritual wickedness in highplaces’, whereas the Darby version ‘spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies’. I cannot find a reliable translation which says ‘wicked spirits’ but Darby and others (Stoney, Raven etc) use the expression ‘wicked spirits’ in ministry. The Greek is ‘τὰ πνευματικὰ/ta pneumatika (spiritual things) τῆς πονηρίας/tes ponerias (of evil) ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις/en tois epouraniais (in heaven, or the celestial sphere) – See Strong. I cannot find the margin reference to which Darby refers.
Baptists are a sect, and enough to say, in my opinion I would not be part of it. If a brother believes he should be baptised, I would never seek to dissuade him, even though he had already been baptised and I believe him mistaken in the way he sees it. However, if he believes that it is according to the Word, he would be well, I think, to have it done. That does not break the unity of the body.
John Nelson Darby
The following letter (Letter No 431) written in French by John Nelson Darby, outlines his position on baptism – particularly believers’ baptism as practiced by the Baptists and other Evangelical Christians. I translated it as part of an earlier task as assisting a brother who desired to have some 475 letters of JND translated into English. However, I feel that due to the large amount of confusion that exists as to this important subject it is as well to publish my translation (slightly edited) here.
My French is far from perfect, and whilst this translation has been revised by another, I have also included the original text as a separate posting. Click here for …
In the state of confusion in which the Church finds itself, if its existence is even remembered, it is very natural that in such a matter one acts according ones individual conviction. But when it is a question of the destruction of the unity of the Church, it is a more serious question. The Baptists are a sect, and enough to say, in my opinion I would not be part of it. If a brother believes he should be baptised, I would never seek to dissuade him, even though he had already been baptised and I believe him mistaken in the way he sees it. However, if he believes that it is according to the Word, he would be well, I think, to have it done. That does not break the unity of the body.
The Baptists quote, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”
Having said that, I will give you a few general principles on this subject. I am not convinced at all by the rationale of the Baptists. I find in their reasoning, without their suspecting it, inversion of the basic principles of Christianity, and a complete ignorance of what Christian baptism is. They speak of the baptism of John, and that the Lord says “thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Matt 3:15. Think about it. Does the Christian achieve righteousness in fulfilling ordinances? Is that a Christian principle, or is it an perversion of Christianity? Moreover the baptism of John means absolutely nothing for Christians; it was a baptism just for the Jews, a baptism, which assumed the entrance, through repentance into the privileges of the kingdom, and did not assume the death and resurrection of Christ, rather exactly the opposite. The baptism of John was not done in His name, nor in keeping with the truths announced in the gospel. Consequently those who had the baptism of John had to be baptised again later in the name of the Lord, as if they had never had received any baptism beforehand.(Acts 19:4-5) . I am then urged to be baptised in obedience to an ordinance in order to fulfill righteousness (principle which inverts the fundamentals of Christianity), and a baptism which excludes the death and resurrection of Christ (only true sense of Christian baptism). This baptism however belongs historically to a system which predated Christianity which one both Jews and heathens received. The death and resurrection of Christ formed the basis of a new creation, to which the baptism of John did not have any bearing. When I hear similar arguments, I am the more convinced that that those who use them (though they are very sincere) do not understand the first elements of the subject they are dealing with, and unwillingly and unknowingly invert the foundation of Christian truth.
But there are further points which make me reject the Baptist system. That is,that I deny their principle of obedience to an ordinance and in particular to the ordinance (they say) of baptism. Baptism is a granted privilege, and the act is that of the person who baptises, not of the person baptised. I say that the thought of obedience to baptism is not in in the Word, or that there is a commandment addressed to men, it is that to be baptised
Baptism as a Privilege
Firstly, I say that the idea of obedience to an ordinance does not belong to the Christian system. I recognize that Christ established baptism and the supper, but obedience to ordinances was destroyed, in principle, at the cross. (Col 2:14 target=”_blank”Eph 2:15) target=”_blank”. When it is a matter of the supper “This do in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19), it is a directive as to the purpose of the symbol. Every time that we eat of it, we should do it with this purpose. This is not a commandment to do it, but a directive to make one intelligent in doing it.
For baptism in particular, the commandment is to given to go and baptise, that is to say that the act was the act of the apostles in receiving the gentiles into the Church. And this is so true that the apostles could not be baptised, but they did baptise those who received their teaching.
Through examining the cases presented, I find that the baptism is considered to be a privilege granted to somebody whom one admits in the house of God, and is never an act of obedience nor of testimony. The apostle says ”Can any one forbid water that these should not be baptised, who have received the Holy Spirit as we also did?” (Acts 10:47). ”What hinders my being baptised”, says the eunuch (Acts 8:36) Evidently in this case it was not a matter of obedience, but an accorded privilege, an admission into the privileges that others enjoyed. I would remark in passing, although an adult, heathen or Jew, must believe to be baptised, the words “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.” Acts 8:37KJV as foreign to the Word by everybody who are concerned with the authenticity of texts. The apostles received the order from the Lord to baptise.
I would add that the Baptists’ idea that baptism is a symbol of what we are is also contrary to the Word because it says “buried with him in baptism, in which ye have been also raised (Col 2:12). That is then not based on the assumption that we are already dead and raised. On the contrary, in figure, we die and are raised in baptism itself, that is to say that we were not that beforehand. That is the sign of the thing through which we enter, not the sign of our state to ourselves.
I totally reject the whole Baptist system, because I have received teaching from the Word of God. I am fully convinced that it is entirely false. There is an order to baptise given to the apostles, but baptism is not the subject of a particular commandment to the one who is baptised. The difference is from beginning to end in the character of the act. If I give to my business agent an order to remit a hundred francs to such and such a person, he is obligated to obey me. If I give a letter of title to somebody, the obedience the recipient is totally a different matter.
Baptism is the Reception of a Person into the Christian Assembly down here in this World
However to reject what is false is not the only thing one has to do. It is a matter of knowing the truth in order to be able to glorify God; but the question has become much simpler. Baptism is the reception of a person into the midst of the Christian Assembly down here in this world. I do not believe that one who reads the New Testament freely could deny that. Who then must be received into this assembly, baptism being recognized to be the means of receiving them (for I agree with the Baptists on this point)? I accept that in regard to the persons baptised, heathen or Jewish, in a word as to any who have not received baptism (as also for a Quaker or the child of a Baptist), those who believe ought to be baptised, because one can only receive an adult (who can act of his own accord) on his won responsibility. It is all simple so long as one does not try to push the tide back, with the big stick in his hand as Charlemagne harassed the Saxons.
But the remaining question is this – Should children of believing parents be received into the Assembly?
I should say a word as to the Assembly itself, because what has given rise to a lot of difficulties is the ignorance of what the assembly of God is on earth. I say ‘the Assembly’ not assemblies. Those baptised become, by baptism members of the Christian Assembly on earth, not of an assembly. However this assembly is the house of God where the Holy Spirit dwells. The world is the desert where Satan dwells. The Assembly is “a habitation of God in the Spirit” Eph 2:22). In this Assembly one is admitted by baptism, and it is true that it is the habitation of the Spirit for Hebrews 6 supposes that one can be partakers of the Holy Spirit without having been converted. In this case the one having the Spirit thus, was not really part of the body of Christ, but he possessed the Spirit, in the sense of a gift, being in the house where the Spirit lived and acted. So Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit. In this case, it was in the Spirit’s presence, not the gift, but for the point we are concerned about it is the same. However it is a matter of knowing if the children of Christians can be received into this house, or are they to be left in the world where Satan reigns. It is not a matter of commandment. I deny any commandment for any ordinance, baptism in particular. There isn’t one for an adult. It is a matter of knowing God’s will is in regard to this privilege. However it is clear to me that according to the Word, children should be received. It is fully evident that there would have to have been a change in God’s system of things in order not to receive them – a change which moreover has never been announced. However, here are a few passages which makes me see in a positive way the thoughts of God in regard to this. Before citing them I pose a recognized principle, because I believe it scriptural, that baptism is the Lord’s desired way to be received outwardly into the assembly of God, and its meaning is the death and resurrection of Christ. But here, in passing, I must also again remark that the views of many on this point are decidedly unscriptural. They assume that the ordinances, baptism in particular, are the sign of the state where somebody finds themselves and participates. However this idea is opposed to the testimony of the Word. The baptised person participates in an act of ordinance which is no sign at all that he participated beforehand. Thus, baptism is not a sign that a man participates in the death and resurrection of Christ. Baptism is (in figure), the participation in these things by the act itself. The testimony of Col 2:12 is positive in this regard: ”buried with him in baptism, in which ye have been also raised with him”. That is an act that the participation has taken place; it is not a sign of the participation that precedes it. It is the same in regard to the Supper. One eats (in figure) the body that was broken (1 Cor 11:24 KJV & Martin/Osterheld, not JND or JND-French and the blood that was shed. It is not a figure that one has done it already. The same principle is found in Rom 6:4. Other passages confirm the same.
Baptism and Little Children
Having made this principle clear, and having shown that the Baptist principle is not well founded, that the Word contradicts their idea that baptism is the sign that one is already dead and risen again, whereas the Word teaches that we figuratively die there and are raised. Having, as I say, brought all this into the light, I come to the passages which authorize me to believe that children of Christians are objects of this favour, baptism being the means of their being able to enjoy it.
Matthew 18 is a striking passage, showing how God considers the children. The Lord takes a little child (v2), not a converted person (He even distinguishes in v6 the difference between a believing child and others) and declares that one must become such, and that their angels continually see the face of their Father who is in the heavens (v10), that is to say that they are the objects of His special favour. But the testimony is something much more exact than that. They are lost; Christ has come, He says (v11) “to save that which was lost.” “For it is not the will of your Father who is in the heavens that one of these little ones should perish.” (v14). In receiving a little child in His name, I receive Christ, and I recognize that, even being children, this little being is lost; but that it is the object of the Father’s love which I know, and whom there is not other means of salvation, even for a child, than the death and resurrection of Christ. So I introduce it into the house by this means. The testimony is therefore very clear, we are born children of wrath.
I have already shown that baptism is not a witness rendered to the state of the individual, but the admission that the individual is a testimony to the value of the work of Christ. The Baptist will now say to me, I know “But you admit a little heathen child” The Word tells me totally the opposite. It says that if one of the parents is a Christian, the children are holy. However they are not holy by nature, it is a relative holiness, that is to say as a right of entry into the house. That is the sense of this word in the Bible. They are not soiled or profane. A Jew who married a woman from the nations was profaned, and their children profaned, and the woman was to be sent back with them. But in Christianity it is a system of grace, and the woman, instead of making her husband profane, is sanctified and the children are holy. And this is the proper force and the evident bearing of the passage, because it concerned the question of whether a believer should divorce his unbelieving wife. Thus the children, being holy, have the right to enter into the house and it is a real advantage that they enjoy.
To speak of legitimate children is nonsense, because only modern laws have made a distinction in such a case.
One may perhaps ask me, why then do we not give the supper to children? I answer: Because the light of the word prevents me. The supper, considered from this point of view, is a figure of the unity of the body. We are all one body, and so we all participate of the one loaf. For in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, (1 Cor 12:13), that is to say that one must be baptised of the Holy Spirit to take the supper.
“Children, obey your parents” could not be said to children who were not inside. One does not address such precepts to heathens. I see then that Christ, who received the child, wants us to receive such in His name, and by doing that we receive Him, Himself. Notice that in Matt 18 the Lord applies the parable of the lost sheep to the little children (or to the letter it was to a little child who was there). I repudiate entirely any dedication to God apart from baptism. Not only is this Baptist practice a human innovation, but (without wishing it I admit), it pretends to be able to present the children to God without the death and resurrection of Christ. If one cold present them to God by the death and resurrection of Christ they are then subjects of baptism. To do otherwise is to deny Christianity: not to devote them is impossible for a Christian. In my opinion, the Baptist deprives his child of the protection of the house of God and of the care of the Spirit and leaves it in the world where Satan reigns, instead of (though it is fortunately inconsistent) to bringing it up in the discipline of the Lord…
Summary
Finally I deny entirely that there is a commandment to be baptised, as a matter of obedience. I say that the principle is false and that baptism is always presented in totally the opposite way from that which is the basis of the Baptist system. Reception into the church, the enjoyment of privilege of being brought into the house where the Spirit is, by citing the baptism of John, is to be ignorant of the first principles of Christianity and of the nature itself of Christian baptism. Baptism as the Word considers it, is a reception by the church, according to the favour of God, because they are holy. It is the opposite of the profanity of a Jew who had married a foreigner. In the case of a Christian the children are holy, whereas in the case of the Jew they are profane. I repeat this because I am seeking to use this word not to weaken the scriptural proof, whilst it only makes the truth and the bearing of these passages of scripture clearer.
Here is an outline of what, I am perfectly convinced, is the true idea according to the Word. This Word allows absolutely nothing of the Baptist system. Nevertheless if somebody, individually thinks that he has not been baptised, I do not blame him if he gets baptised. Rather, I respect his conscience like the conscience of one who believes he should only eat herbs. But if one makes a sect out of this lack of light, then I condemn it totally. However it is obvious that the Baptist position is one of pure ignorance, It is truly impossible that a man can speak of fulfilling righteousness, in being baptised according to the example of Jesus with John the Baptist, if he has the lest light of the ways of God in Christ. He may be sincere but his ignorance as to the truth of the gospel is very great….
This is a preliminary version of a planned publication of my summaries of ‘The Faith once Delivered to the Saints’. It is therefore not for general distribution.
Readers should go through it with a critical eye and let me know where
It does not make sense
It does not read well
There are typographical errors
My aim is that it should be intelligible to young and untaught believers who know the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour and are looking for His soon return.
This work is committed to the Lord for blessing and I trust that with the help of God, guided by the Holy Spirit there will be blessing and instruction.
Sosthenes Hoadelphos
Rochester, England
May 2014
sosthenes@adoss.co.uk
Copyright Notice
This document may be freely quoted and/or reproduced on condition that the authorship adayofsmallthings.com is acknowledged.
Unless John Nelson Darby is clearly quoted, it should be made clear that this is an unauthorised summary, not the original.
Easy to Read, Summaries of Papers on the Church and our Dispensation by John Nelson Darby 6
The Faith once delivered to the Saints…………………………………………………… 8
Summary of Summaries……………………………………………………………………………… 8
“The Faith once delivered to the Saints” – or -Knowing where we are, and what God wants us to do, in the Confused State of Christendom………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8
Church Unity and Sectarianism – or -The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ. 8
Separation from Evil and Christian Unity- or – Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity 9
God’s Love and Grace – Holiness, Unity and Christian Gathering – or Grace, the Power of Unity and of Gathering……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9
Independent Churches, Independent Local Assemblies, Personal Judgment and Conscience – or – On Ecclesiastical Independency……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9
The Church as the Body of Christ, the Church as the Habitation of God, and Local Churches – or – Churches and the Church…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
The Evil of Clericalism – or – The Notion of a Clergyman, Dispensationally the sin against the Holy Ghost 10
Knowing where we are, and what God wants us to do, in the Confused State of Christendom 12
“The Faith once delivered to the Saints”………………………………………………… 12
Trusting in God……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12
Man spoils what God sets up………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 13
There was soon Failure in the Early Church…………………………………………………………………………….. 13
Have a Conscience about our Position in the Church…………………………………………………………….. 13
We may have to act Individually……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14
The Church teaching? – and the Holy Scriptures…………………………………. 14
We are in the Last Days –and it is a time of Judgment…………………………………………………………….. 14
The Lord Judging the Churches………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15
The Public Ruin of the Church…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 15
The Answer to the Church’s Condition is in Jesus……………………………………………………………………… 16
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus will be Persecuted………………………………………………… 16
Seeing the Church Here……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16
The Work of the Holy Spirit……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17
A Warning………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 17
Darby on Church Unity and Sectarianism……………………………………………… 19
The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ……………………………………… 19
The Truth of the Gospel……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 19
The Sectarian Situation of the Public Church…………………………………………………………………………. 20
Unity in the Early Church…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 20
The Church in the Dark Ages…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 20
The Reformation…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 20
Non Conformist Movements and Sects…………………………………………………………………………………………… 21
Could there be a Union of Protestant Churches?…………………………………………………………………… 21
Non-sectarian Christian movements………………………………………………………………………………………………. 22
How God sees the Disunity in the Christian Church………………………………………………………………… 22
The Self-complacent Christian Church……………………………………………………………………………………….. 23
The original State of the Christian Church cannot be restored…………………………………….. 23
The Christian’s Call………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23
The Practical Way for the Christian Believer………………………………………………………………………… 24
Two or three are gathered together in His name…………………………………………………………………… 24
In the Lord and His Death on the Cross we find Christian Unity………………………………………. 25
The Lord’s Supper is the Symbol of Christian Unity………………………………………………………………… 25
Unity of the Spirit…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25
Let us go forth to Him………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25
A Plea for the Church………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 26
Darby Simplified – On Separation from Evil and Christian Unity………. 27
Christians desire Unity, but how?……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 27
False Unity is not of God……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 29
God is Working in the Midst of Evil to Produce a Unity of which He is the Centre and the Spring, and which owns His authority……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 29
Unity must have a sole and unrivalled Centre – It is Christ……………………………………………….. 30
The Church’s Centre………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30
Let us go forth to Him without the Camp, Bearing His Reproach…………………………………….. 31
The Holy Spirit is the Centre and Power down here of the Unity of the Church in Christ’s name 31
The Lord’s Supper is the Symbol and Expression of Unity and Fellowship……………………. 31
Unity is maintained by the judicial function in the church…………………………………………………. 31
Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity…………………………………. 32
Darby Simplified – On God’s Love and Grace – Holiness, Unity and Christian Gathering 33
God’s Holiness, Love and Grace………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 33
“Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity.”…………………………………………………………………….. 34
The Danger of becoming Occupied with Evil………………………………………………………………………………. 35
Real Holiness is not merely Separation from Evil, but Separation to God from Evil 35
Love precedes holiness………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 36
The true Character of Christian Fellowship – with Him, where He is, where Evil cannot come 37
Active Love Gathering Us……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 37
Law and Grace…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 37
Darby Simplified – on Independent Churches, Independent Local Assemblies, Personal Judgment and Conscience…………………………………………………………………………………………. 39
Personal Judgment and Conscience………………………………………………………………………………………………… 39
Assembly Judgment and Personal Judgment……………………………………………………………………………….. 40
One Assembly’s Act Binds Another………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 41
What is an Assembly Judgment?………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 41
What about Serious Church Matters?…………………………………………………………………………………………. 41
What the Church must Judge……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 42
What if there are Difficulties in the Assembly?………………………………………………………………………. 42
Is “Two or three Gathered Together” the Assembly of God?…………………………………………….. 43
Darby Simplified – on the Church as the Body of Christ, the Church as the Habitation of God, and Local Churches…………………………………………………………………………………. 44
What is the Church?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 44
The Church as the Body of Christ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 44
The Church as the House (or Habitation) of God……………………………………………………………………. 45
What are Churches or Assemblies?………………………………………………………………………………………………… 45
The State of Churches Now………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 46
The Scriptural View of Churches……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 47
How should a Christian view the State of Christian Churches?……………………………………….. 48
Darby Simplified – on the Evil of Clericalism – or………………………………… 49
The Church as a Worldly Institution…………………………………………………………………………………………… 49
The Exclusive Authority of the Clergy………………………………………………………………………………………… 50
Appointment of Clergymen and Bishops……………………………………………………………………………………….. 50
Resistance to the Gospel……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 51
The Clergy in the Dark Ages and Afterwards………………………………………………………………………….. 52
The Clergy in the Reformation………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 52
The Influence of the Clergy……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 53
The Gifts to the Church……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 53
Not being Lords over God’s Heritage……………………………………………………………………………………………. 53
Speaking of “My flock”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 53
The Clerical System vs. Individual Clergymen…………………………………………………………………………… 54
Conclusion – The clergy identifies the Church with the world, not God with the Church 54
J.N. Darby – A true Churchman…………………………………………………………………. 55
Copies of JND’s Collected Writings are available from………………………. 55
The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints
Easy to Read, Summaries of Papers on the Church and our Dispensation by John Nelson Darby
During the 1800′s, and up to the early 1900′s God gave His Church teaching which has been of great blessing to millions. Men like John Nelson Darby (JND), Macintosh, Wigram, Stoney, Raven, Coates, Taylor (Sr), with others perhaps less known like Bellatt, Dennett etc opened up the thoughts of the Lord’s coming, the hope of the Church, deliverance from sin, eternal life, the person and glory of the Holy Spirit, the Service of God, household baptism and much else. They also helped Christians navigate their way through the confusion caused by the public breakdown of the Church, freeing them from sectarianism and clericalism. Words like ‘dispensationalism, pre-mellenniumism, pre-trib(ulationism)’ have been used – but their object was to be free of what dishonoured the Lord to serve Him to His glory.
Some writings, like Darby’s are convoluted long and difficult, particularly to the young believer. Even at 68, I cannot claim to understand all myself, but for the benefit of my brethren (and my own), I am seeking to produce simplified summaries of a number of JND’s classic papers, books and words. This task has just been started.
I trust that God gives me the strength and resolve to continue, and I also pray that He helps me to bring out accurately and comprehensively the teaching of the papers without losing their appeal to exercised souls. Your comments are valued.
I also am happy to enter into correspondence (using my real name) with any about the truths, but will avoid contention and arguments.
In God’s grace
Sosthenes
Special Note
These are summaries, in my own words, and whilst I have sought to convey the spirit and meaning of the original, I am only too aware of my limitations. Care should be taken, therefore, in quoting from A Day of Small Things. Also, please do not attempt to attribute what has been written here to the original author, except where it is clearly a quotation.
“The Faith once delivered to the Saints” – or -Knowing where we are, and what God wants us to do, in the Confused State of Christendom
In this paper John Darby notes that whatever God sets up perfectly, man ruins. This applies equally to the Church and we must accept our part in its public failure. But it remains the Church, and it is for us to be faithful to the Lord. We are in the last days and the Lord’s coming is imminent, so we are exhorted to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude:3).
Despite the public situation, we need to have a conscience as to what is evil, and keep close to the Lord, We must heed the Holy Spirit, judging evil, resting the word, not the teachings of men. We must be prepared to act alone or with just a few. Only then we can then get a view of God’s work, and know what God’s mind is for us on our path, individually and collectively. And we can trust in God, not in our own reasoning – in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:” (Isaiah 30:15)
Church Unity and Sectarianism – or -The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ
In this paper Darby’s objective was to show Christians how the Church can be united according to the Word of God, and how it should operate consistently. The Church would therefore be strengthened in its hopes, showing the world the power of God’s grace. At the same time believers would be led to rely more on the Holy Spirit and less on human plans and co-operative schemes.
Darby looks at the way in which the public Christian Church has degenerated with worldliness, human organisation, tolerance of evil and sectarian fragmentation, running counter to the Lord’s words That they all may be one.
Church unity cannot be achieved by human compromise and confederacy. It can only be in looking to the Lord Himself, giving Him His place, by the Holy Spirit, going forth to him without the camp and being not of the world.
Separation from Evil and Christian Unity- or – Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity
Darby observed that, despite the brokenness of the church publicly, right-minded Christians were craving for unity. However, for Christians to be united, their union must be centred on God, who is righteous and holy.
But we are in a secular and religious world that is full of evil, and God cannot be united with evil. The Christian must separate from what is evil before unity can be considered. Christ – who died, rose again and ascended is to be the Centre, and the Lord’s Supper the symbol and expression of unity and fellowship. Let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
If the Church is to be maintained separate from evil, it is called upon to judge them that are within. Only thus can Christian unity be maintained in the power of the Holy Spirit and with an honest conscience.
God’s Love and Grace – Holiness, Unity and Christian Gathering – or Grace, the Power of Unity and of Gathering
After maintaining that separation from evil must be the principle of unity, Darby was at pains to show that it cannot be the power to gather Christians. Holiness may attract them together, but the power to gather is grace, working in love – love through faith. If Christians gather purely out of separation from evil, they become occupied with the evil, which is not of God.
We are to be separated from evil, but separated to God. And that is in grace, so we abound in love towards one another, our fellowship being with the Father and the Son, grace alone having revealed God’s heart. Active love gathers us together.
Independent Churches, Independent Local Assemblies, Personal Judgment and Conscience – or – On Ecclesiastical Independency
Darby observed the tendency of Christians to confuse their private, independent judgment with their conscience. My individual judgment, even if well intentioned, may be as a result of my own will, and I will act independently, whereas conscience relates to God’s rights, the Word and the Lord’s authority. If I am disobedient, I am acting independently, in self-will, and am despising God’s authority.
There is only one Church of God – the body of Christ. An action in one gathering is binding on all, even if I personally have reservations about it. Scripture does not support independent churches, whether in a place or universally. Although many Christians might prefer to belong to independent assemblies, these are unscriptural, the work of Satan and positively evil, flying in the face of known truth.
If there is blasphemy in a local assembly or association with it, then I have to act. That is not independence, but I am acting in the light of the whole: “Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf (1 Corinthians 10:17 JND). We profess to be one body whenever we break bread; scripture knows nothing else.
The Church as the Body of Christ, the Church as the Habitation of God, and Local Churches – or – Churches and the Church
In this paper, J.N. Darby introduced the thought of the local assembly and its function.
Most people, Christians included, think of churches in terms of the Anglican Church, the United Reformed Church, the Baptist Church, the Roman Catholic Church etc., and the structures, church organisations and buildings associated with them. However, scripturally the Church is the Body of Christ, and churches the expression of that body in a place. Teachers, shepherds, evangelists and other gifts apply to the whole Church. Elders (or overseers) are local. The idea of a single person, appointed or voted into a professional position is totally of man’s order and sets aside the Spirit of God.
If we believe that the public church is ruined, and governed by man, not the Holy Spirit, then we should humbly cry to the Lord. He will meet us in our need.
The Evil of Clericalism – or – The Notion of a Clergyman, Dispensationally the sin against the Holy Ghost
When John Nelson Darby, a former clergyman himself, published ‘The Notion of a Clergyman, dispensationally the sin against the Holy Ghost.’ with its understandably provocative title, it was said that he was accusing every clergyman or appointed leader of committing the sin against the Holy Spirit. He was at pains to show that this was far from the truth.
Darby’s issue was that any human appointment, whether by delegation or election, substituted the direct sovereign action of the Holy Spirit, by that of man. This is the notion of a clergyman. The system is wrong. It substitutes man for God. True ministry is by the gift and the power of God’s Spirit, not by man’s appointment.
If the authority of the clergy is derived from man, it follows that anything that is of God, by the Holy Spirit must be condemned by the system and classed as evil. This, then, is the sin against the Holy Spirit in this dispensation.
Knowing where we are, and what God wants us to do, in the Confused State of Christendom
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
“The Faith once delivered to the Saints”
What God sets up perfectly, main ruins. This applies equally to the Church publicly. But it remains the Church, and it is for us to be faithful to the Lord accepting our part in its public failure. We are in the last days and the Lord’s coming is imminent, so we are exhorted to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude:3).
We need to have a conscience about what is evil, and to keep close to the Lord, recognising the public situation. We must heed the Holy Spirit, so as to judge evil, and rest on the word, not the teachings of men. We must be prepared to act alone or with few and then we can then get a view of what God has here. So we should know what God’s mind is for us on our path, individually and collectively. And we can trust in God, not in our own reasoning – in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:” (Isaiah 30:15)
God in grace has put us, Christians, on a path, both individually and collectively. It is important therefore for us to know where we are on that path and what God’s mind for us on it. Our circumstances may vary, but God’s principles never vary. While God’s thoughts do not change, we need spiritual discernment to see where we are, and how we can go on with God, without departing from the great principles laid down for us in God’s Word.
God said to a rebellious people, under attack in Hezekiah’s time “in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:” (Isaiah 30:15). The people were being called “not my people” (Hosea 1:9). God’s mind never changed as to His people, but they were protected during Hezekiah’s time. Later they were to experience judgment. Still those who trusted would be preserved.
Man spoils what God sets up
In Adam, Noah, Aaron, Solomon and Nebuchadnezzar, God set up something good. Man spoilt it. That is because of his poor human nature. We must bear this in mind when assessing our position, otherwise it will become our own ruin. We cannot plead God’s faithfulness and promises in order to sanction evil.
As God carries on, a remnant is preserved in tune with Him. So just before the Lord came there were small numbers – Zacharias, Mary, Simeon, Anna – they were awaiting redemption. They knew one another and were intelligent too as to the Lord’s entry. Meanwhile Israel rejected Christ when He came.
There was soon Failure in the Early Church
If we look at the Church, God’s assembly on earth, in the early days of the Acts of the Apostles, 3000 were converted in one day. All had one heart and one mind and they had everything in common. The power of the Spirit of God was there and the place was shaken where they were.
Evil got in when Ananias and Sapphira made things out to be different from what they were. But because the Spirit of God was there, these two fell dead and fear came upon all, both inside and outside. However, that line of corruption has continued, so that even before the close of scripture the whole profession was mixed up with the world, and judgment was called for. Just look at the church now, the Roman Catholic system included!
Have a Conscience about our Position in the Church
Due to a lack conscience, most do not have a sense of the condition that they are in, and also how God is working. To be intelligent spiritually, as being part of the professing church, we need a sense of our condition.
We may have to act Individually
Abraham acted alone – Look to Abraham … I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him (Isaiah 51:2) . Being little was of no consequence. God blessed him; He will bless us still more.
The Church teaching? – and the Holy Scriptures
The Church’s teaching? People say the church teaches this and that, but who is that? The church? What do they mean? We never see the church teaching. The church does not teach – it is taught; individuals teach. But remember that there is no inspired person in the church now to teach with absolute authority. So for authority we must turn to the Word of God itself. We must learn from Peter and Paul.
Paul reminds Timothy of the things he had learned – the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15).
The scriptures are the direct authority of God; they determine everything. Meanwhile we have His Spirit to communicate things. We have ministry too, which is a help. But it is a poor thing if we look only to men as guides.
We are in the Last Days –and it is a time of Judgment
It is on the authority of scripture that we know that we are in the last days. Unfortunately many people do not appreciate that. Being in them requires us to have a judgment as to the general condition around us. What so many do, even if they have right feelings as to the condition, is to shelter in what they regard as the church’s teaching, a wrong principle as we have seen.
We see from scripture that the Church has departed from God, and ruined what He set up. That was already happening when Jude wrote: it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude:3).
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17). In Ezekiel judgment was to start at God’s house – begin at my sanctuary, (Ezekiel 9:6).
As to the last days John said, Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 John 2:18). God has borne with the state of the church for centuries: it has not improved. Now God is calling souls to Himself in grace (as He did Israel).
Our hearts should take notice: what was set up so beautifully in the power of God’s Spirit – what has it all come to? It casts us on the strength that can never fail!
The Lord Judging the Churches
In Revelation 2-3, Christ addresses the seven churches in Asia. He was not speaking to the churches as Head of the body, though He is always that, but as looking on them in their responsibility to maintain His interests down here on the earth. This was Christ walking in the midst of the candlesticks, judging the state of the churches. The Churches had to listen to what He had to say. What had they made of the blessings that had been entrusted to them? For example, to the young assembly in Thessalonica (Thessaloniki) the Bible speaks of works, labour, faith, love, patience and hope; but to mature Ephesus it is just works, labour and patience – faith and love were missing. Indeed in Ephesus the spring was missing – judgement was needed, and the candlestick would be removed if they did not repent. Hence the faithful were exhorted: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 2:7 etc).
The Public Ruin of the Church
Christians were losing their place. “All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philippians 2:21) , but they did not cease being the church. Nevertheless it says, “In the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves and so on; (2 Tim. 3:1-2). Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). There is the professing church, such as it is, and things would return to the level of heathendom. Mere formality was leading to infidelity or superstition and it was clear that this is how things were going.
The Church has failed publicly in being the representative of Christ. It is not a question of apportioning blame or attacking persons, because we are all involved. Things were set up so beautifully in the power of God’s Spirit – what have they all come to? It has not ceased to be the church of God. But the state of the Church has to be judged. But grace fits the condition.
The Answer to the Church’s Condition is in Jesus
Christ is as sufficient for the Church now, as He was at when He first set up the church in its beauty and blessedness. We have to look at His word and see what His mind is, whilst not hiding our eyes from the state we are in. There is power to overcome in the midst of evil.
Things get mixed up – the good and the evil go on together. The wise and foolish virgins were all asleep, but things changed at the words ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh’ (Matthew 25:6). The Lord’s coming is imminent. Our relationship with God is to be more than our testimony to men, otherwise we will break down and fail. We mustrenew our strength. We must remain in that which was from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father (1 John 2:24). The great secret of Christian life is our intercourse with God by the Holy Spirit. And that makes nothing of ourselves.
When the children of Israel failed in Joshua’s time, they had to get back to Gilgal – complete separation from the world. But the angel of the Lord went to Bochim, the place of tears. This means that as well as being separate, we should feel the situation.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus will be Persecuted
It does not say that every Christian will be persecuted, but all that will live godly (2 Timothy 3:12). The world will not stand a man showing the power of the spirit of God. It drew out the enmity when Christ was here, and it does now. All those who seek to be faithful to the Lord in days of departure can expect that.
Seeing the Church Here
I see what God set up; I see the unity of the body, and Christ as the Head. That is what the Church was to be on earth. Jesus said “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18). It is Christ’s building, and that building is going on still. It is not finished. Paul says of the building, fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:21). Now that is what Christ’s work is – men call it the invisible church.
We are building, and if rightly, on the foundation laid by Paul. If I build with the wrong materials wood, hay, stubble my work will be destroyed. But Hades gates will not prevail. 1 Corinthians 3:12 .
The Work of the Holy Spirit
As an individual I find that the secret of power of good against evil, outside or inside, is the presence of the Spirit of God, – the Word being the guide. Paul said to some going on badly, “Do you believe, beloved friends, that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost?” ( 1 Corinthians 6:19). Then what kind of persons ought we to be?
It is the same collectively, “know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16 ). The presence of the Spirit gives power for real blessing – whether in the church or the individual.
Now, we have true and full redemption; the Holy Spirit dwells in those who believe. We can be the expression of what Christ was Himself when He was down here. When a person is really a Christian, God dwells in him; he is sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the power for all moral conduct. If we really believe this should not we be in subjection and not grieving the Spirit?
Things which are inconceivable to man are revealed unto us by God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9). The Spirit of God and the spirit of the world are always in contrast. What God has revealed is, in spite of our state, and this includes our apprehension of the Church in these days of ruin.
In 1 Corinthians 2 the Holy Spirit is seen in three ways
Things are revealed by the Spirit;
Things communicated in teaching by the Spirit;
Things spiritually discerned – received by the power of the Spirit.
A Warning
I cannot have my private judgment in the things of God. The moment I get my own thoughts into divine things I start judging the Word of God. Not accepting God’s word in Scripture is one sign of the evil of our times. But if I own the Word of God, brought by His Spirit, I hear what God says to me: it judges me; I do not judge it. It is the divine word brought to my conscience and heart, and who am I to judge God when God is speaking to me? But it has to be the Word of God – what was inspired at the beginning, and nothing else.
If I were to say I understand and judge the Word of God by itself, I am a rationalist – it is man’s mind judging the revelation of God. But where I get God’s mind communicated by the Holy Ghost, spiritually discerned, I get God’s mind. God has given us the wisdom and power to meet the state of ruin in which we are now, just as at first when He set up the church. That is what I have to lean upon.
Darby on Church Unity and Sectarianism
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
The Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me – John 17:21
In this paper Darby’s objective was, with God’s blessing, to show Christians how the Church can be united according to the Word of God, and how it should operate consistently. It would therefore be strengthened in its hopes and show the world clearly the power of God’s grace, leading believers to rely more on the Holy Spirit and less on human plans and co-operative schemes.
Darby looks at the way in which the public Christian Church has degenerated with worldliness, human organisation, tolerance of evil and sectarian fragmentation, running counter to the Lord’s words That they all may be one.
Church unity cannot be achieved by human compromise and confederacy. It can only be in looking to the Lord Himself, giving Him His place, by the Holy Spirit, going forth to him without the camp and being not of the world.
All genuine Protestant churches profess the great truths of the gospel. Receiving the gospel by faith leads to our having pure desires in love and a life for Him who died for us and rose again, a life of hope in His glory.
The Sectarian Situation of the Public Church
However, believers’ standards of unity and gathering are generally very mixed, falling far below God’s. If unity were based on human standards, God would be acquiescing in the moral inconsistency of degenerate man, sinking below the glory of Christ, without even a testimony to His being dishonoured.
Unity in the Early Church
In the early church there was unity. “The Lord added daily such as should be saved“, was when none said anything was his own (Acts 2:43-47), and their conversation was in heaven (Phil 3:20); for they could not be divided in the common hope of that. It knit their hearts together.
But soon division began about the goods of the church; for where there could be division, there could be selfish interests.
The Church in the Dark Ages
In the hundreds of years leading up to the Revelation, there had been judgments which dishonoured to God. Meanwhile the church was sinking, and utterly sank in apostasy. Indeed, apostasy and moral corruption overwhelmed the professing church.
Witnesses sighed and cried for the abominations that were done in the church. Even without much spiritual understanding and teaching, but the redemption by the Lord Jesus, they testified against the state of the degenerated church.
The Reformation
We are therefore thankful for the Reformation. However, this did not institute a pure form of church, but re-established “Justification by faith” in which believers might find life. Sadly, it was mixed with human activities and much of the old system remained. Whilst those involved were excellent saints, the character of the Church remained short of that which was acceptable to God.
Non Conformist Movements and Sects
As religious and world leaders were more secularly minded and alienated from God, many recognising the authority of the Word of God, separated seeking to follow it more closely. Hence arose all the branches of nonconformity and dissent.
So long as people pride themselves on being Church of England, Presbyterian, Baptist, Independent, or anything else, they are antichristian. How then are we to be united? – it must be the work of the Spirit of God. Believers should consider , “Is Christ divided? (1 Cor 1:13) whereas there is among you envying and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (1 Cor 3:3) Darby wrote: “There is no professed unity among you at all.”
What do we see? Both the Established and non-conformist churches are using unbelievers to gain secular advantages and honours of that world – the very world out of which the Lord came to redeem us. Are they behaving like His peculiar people? What can I to do with these things? Nothing.
Because of the diversity of sects, the true Church of God has no avowed communion at all. This is an anomaly. Individuals of the children of God are to be found in all the different denominations, professing the same pure faith; but where is their bond of union? Indeed, the bond of communion is not the unity of the people of God, but in fact on their differences.
If this is correct, we must conclude that one who seeks the interests of any particular denomination is an enemy to the work of the Spirit of God. Those who believe in “the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:16) ought therefore to keep separate from such activities, otherwise they are drawing back the church to a state occasioned by ignorance and non-subjection to the word. A most subtle and mental disease prevails amongst groups of Christians, especially those of higher orders. This can be illustrated by what the disciples said, “he followeth not us,” (Mark 9:38). Let us not hinder the manifestation of the church by this spirit. This line of thinking infests groups of Christians, especially those of higher orders.
Could there be a Union of Protestant Churches?
If Protestants formed a formal union, it would be impossible that such a body could be at all recognised as the church of God. It would be a counterpart to the Roman Church, but without the power of the word and the unity of spiritual life.
No meeting, which is not framed to embrace all the children of God in the full basis of the kingdom of the Son, can find the fullness of blessing, because it does not contemplate it – because its faith does not embrace it.
Protestants have often professed to the Roman Catholics that their unity in doctrinal faith. Why then is there not an actual unity? If they see error in each other, ought they not to be humbled for each other? If there was diversity of mind, instead of disputing on the footing of ignorance, why not wait in prayer, that God might reveal this also unto them? Yet I well know that, till the spirit of the world be purged from amongst them, unity cannot be, nor can believers find safe rest.
Unity is the glory of the Christian Church; but unity to secure and promote our own interests is not the unity of the church. It is confederacy, and a denial of the nature and hope of the church and not the Lord’s work.
Non-sectarian Christian movements
The people of God have found a sort of remedy for this disunion in the Bible Society, and other missionary ventures, giving a sort of vague unity in the common acknowledgment of the word, or of of desire and action. In many instances the genuine cravings of a mind actuated by the Spirit of God has been behind it, and doubtless partially afforded testimony to what the Church was.
How God sees the Disunity in the Christian Church
Sensing our immense distance from genuinely exhibiting the purpose of God in His church, we ought to be thankful that He still deals with us. It should lead us also to seek Christ’s current mind, so that our path may be according to His present will, rather than our own.
It was God’s purpose in Christ to gather into one all things in heaven and on earth; reconciled unto Himself in Him; and that the church, by the energy of the Spirit should be the witness of this on earth. Believers would know therefore that all who are born of the Spirit have substantial unity of mind, so as to know and love each other, as brothers and sisters. What is more, they were so to be all one, as that the world would know that Jesus was sent of God. But this is not all. Sadly this has not been fulfilled in practice, and in this we must all confess our sad failure.
Are believers happy with the current state of the Church? Clearly not. Do we not believe that it has, as a body, utterly departed from Christ? Has it been restored so that He would be glorified in it at His appearing? Is there not a practical spirit of worldliness at variance with the death and coming again of the Lord Jesus as Saviour.
Darby said “I shall seek to establish healthful principles: for it is manifest to me, that it must flow from the growing influence of the Spirit of God and His unseen teaching; but we may observe what are positive hindrances, and in what that union consisted.”
The Self-complacent Christian Church
Christians are little aware how the spirit of the world prevails in their minds and how they seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. While the spirit of the world prevails spiritual union cannot subsist. Believers think, because they have been delivered from secular dominion, that they are free from the practical spirit which gave rise to it; and because God has wrought much deliverance, therefore they are to be content. In this state of self-complacency, the springs of grace and spiritual communion dry up.
We have learned to trust in too much in the outward ‘Temple of the Lord’, adorned with goodly stones and gifts, and have ceased to look to the Lord of the temple. We have almost ceased to walk by faith. The unclean spirit of idolatry may have been purged out; but the great question still remains, whether there is the effectual presence of the Spirit of the Lord.
The original State of the Christian Church cannot be restored
Those who parted the Saviour’s garments among them could not rend that inner vest – which was inseparably one in its nature. That has fallen into the hands of those who do not care for Him, the Lord will never clothe Himself with it again.
The Christian’s Call
Should believers to correct the churches? Darby says, “I am beseeching them to correct themselves, by living up, in some measure, to the hope of their calling. I beseech them to show their faith in the death of the Lord Jesus, and their boast in the glorious assurance which they have obtained by it, by conformity to it – to show their faith in His coming, and practically to look for it by a life suitable to desires fixed upon it”. Let believers testify against the secularity and blindness of the church; but let them be consistent in their own conduct. “Let your moderation be known to all men.” (Phil 4:5)
The Practical Way for the Christian Believer
We as believers can see in ourselves things that are practically inconsistent with the power of Lord’s return. We are conforming to the world, showing that the cross does not have its proper glory in our eyes. However, we can be thankful that we have a way marked out for us in the word.
Our duty as believers is to be witnesses of what we believe. God says “Ye are my witnesses” (Isa 43:12) in His challenge to the false gods; and as Christ is the faithful and true Witness, such ought the church to be. Of what then is the church to be a witness? – against the idolatrous glory of the world. How? by its members being in practical conformity to His death, with a true belief in the cross, crucified to the world, and the world to them.
If we are not living in the power of the Lord’s kingdom, we certainly shall not be consistent in seeking its ends.
Two or three are gathered together in His name
Where two or three are gathered together in His name, (Matt 18:20), there is blessing; because they are met in the fullness of the power of the unchangeable interests of that everlasting kingdom in which it has pleased God, the glorious Jehovah, to glorify Himself. He has been pleased to make His name and saving grace known in the Person of the Son of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the name of Christ, even two or thrr enter (in whatever measure of faith) into the full counsels of God. They are “God’s fellow-workmen.” (1 Cor 3:9). Therefore whatever they ask is done, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13). As we seek the Lord’s glory of the Lord we will find personal blessing.
In the Lord and His Death on the Cross we find Christian Unity
In the Lord alone we find unity. He declares, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will drawn all men unto me: this he said signifying what death he should die.” It is then Christ who will draw to Himself by being lifted up from the earth (John 12:32). So we find Hisdeath is the centre of communion till His coming again. In this rests the whole power of the truth and nothing short of this can produce unity. Otherwise He that gathereth not with him, scatterethMatt 12:30).
The Lord’s Supper is the Symbol of Christian Unity
The outward symbol and instrument of unity is the partaking of the Lord’s supper – for we being many are “One bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” 1 Cor 10:17 And “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. (1 Cor 11:26). Therefore the essential and substantial unity, to be seen in glory at His coming, is conformity to His death, because that is how the glory was brought about. The Lord’s death is the sole foundation on which a soul is built for eternal glory.
Unity of the Spirit
There are two things in seeking unity, which we have to consider.
Are our objects in our work exclusively the Lord’s objects?
Is our conduct the witness of our objects?
Have we faith in these things? How shall we show it? By acting on these directions of our Lord: If any man serve me let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. (John 12:26)
Unity of the Christian Church, is the unity of the Spirit, and can only be in the things of the Spirit. It therefore can only exist between persons who seek to be led by the Spirit of God
So there can only be Christian unity if the Spirit of God brings God’s people together. And it can only be achieved as they follow the Author and Completer of faith, looking for His return.
Let us go forth to Him
The children of God can but follow one thing – the glory of the Lord’s name, according to the way marked in the word. They have nothing else left, but as He, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, “suffered without the gate, to go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” (Heb 13:!3)
But what are the people of the Lord to do? Let them wait upon the Lord, according to the teaching of His Spirit, and in conformity to the image of God’s Son, by the life of the Spirit. Let them go in the footsteps of the flock, as the good Shepherd feeds His flock. And if this way seem dark, remember the word of Isaiah: “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” (Isa 50:10)
A Plea for the Church
The Lord Himself says, “That they all may be one; as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:21-23)
May we as believers consider this word, and see if the Church shining in the glory of the Lord, and fulfilling that purpose for which bit was called. Do we look for or desire this? or are we content to sit down and say, that His promise cannot be fulfilled?
If we cannot say, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,” (Isa 60:1) we should say, “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, as in the generations of old” (Isa 51:9)
“Surely the eye hath not seen nor ear heard what He prepareth for him that waiteth for Him”. (1 Cor 2:9)
Darby Simplified – On Separation from Evil and Christian Unity
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity
Every right-minded Christian feels the need of unity. However if Christians are to be united, the union must be centred on God who is righteous and holy. The secular and religious world is full of evil, and God cannot be united with evil. The Christian must separate from the evil – and only then can unity be considered. Christ – who died, rose again and ascended is to be the Centre, and the Lord’s Supper the symbol and expression of unity and fellowship. Let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach.”
If the Church is to be maintained separate from evil, it is called upon to judge them that are within. Thus Christian unity is maintained in the power of the Holy Spirit and an honest conscience.
Every right-minded Christian feels the need of unity now. Saints appreciate both grace, truth, and also the one body. However, we all feel the power of evil, in Christendom. Christians of all types cannot be blind to that.
But there are many opinions as to how unity can be achieved. Some people might continue to trust in their existing bulwarks in spite of the many shortcomings they find; others might trust in a particular aspect of the truth, others to a union through a compromise agreement. None of these are ever satisfactory.
Partisan Sectarianism
Some may abstain from any agreed union, generally due to existing obligations or relationships. They tend only to form a party.
If denominationalism is used as a basis of some kind of church unity, any divergence is regarded as divisive. Denominationalism attaches the name of Christian unity to what is not God’s centre and plan of unity.
God Himself has to be the Spring and Centre of Unity
God Himself has to be the spring and centre of unity, which He alone may be in power or name. Any centre of unity outside God is a denial of His Godhead and glory, an independent centre of influence and power. God is one – the righteous, true, and sole centre of true Christian unity. What is not of God is rebellion. God should be the centre in blessing and power.
Unity in Creation
The principle of unity is true in creation. It was shaped in unity with God as its only centre. It will be brought back into unity once more, centred in Christ as Head, since all things were created by him, and for him. (Colossians 1:16).
It was man’s glory to have dominion with Eve as his dependent help-mate. He was the image and glory of God. His dependence made him look up to God.
The Fall of Man
Man’s fall reversed this. Man became independent – in sin and rebellion he has become the slave of a mightier rebel than himself. Initially, he was in innocence, a blessed but not a divine state. But this was lost in his assertion of independence. If man became as God, knowing good and evil, it was because he had a guilty conscience. He knew evil and had become the slave of it. And he could not sustain himself. He had morally lost his dependence on God to rely on himself.
Separation from Evil necessarily becomes sole Basis of Unity
Evil then exists. The world is in wickedness, while the God of unity is the Holy God. God cannot be united with evil. Thus, separation from evil necessarily becomes the sole basis and principle of unity. As evil and consequently corruption exists, those who desire to be in God’s unity must be separate from it. Otherwise one is attaching God’s authority to evil, rebelling against His authority, and being independent of Him. God must be the centre and power of that unity.
Worldliness destroys Unity
Worldliness always destroys unity. The flesh cannot ascend to heaven, nor go down to meet every need in love. It walks in schismatic self-importance. “I am of Paul,” etc. ” The sectarian minded Christians in Corinth were earthly-minded and unity had disappeared.
False Unity is not of God
Latitudinarianism or the maintenance of outward unity by broad religious tolerance unity might be respectable and amiable in the religious world, as it is often connected with good intentions. However it is permissive and does not exercise the conscience. Often those with liberal views will regard those who do not subscribe to these views as narrow, divisive and sectarian.
Confederacy, or the outward bringing together of different groups, is not unity. This unity is professed to be of the church of God, but it is not based on separation from evil. Bringing companies together without evil being dealt with is a serious matter. The only way that such confederacy is held together is by the clerical principle. Indeed, the Holy Spirit cannot be its power, and clericalism takes its place, guides and rules in its place. Otherwise such a body falls apart.
God is Working in the Midst of Evil to Produce a Unity of which He is the Centre and the Spring, and which owns His authority
God is not doing this by judicially clearing away the wicked. But He cannot unite with or have a union with anything that serves the wicked. So He separates the called ones from the evil. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.2 Corinthians 6:17-18
God says “Come out from among them“. He could not have gathered true unity around Him otherwise. Since evil exists (our natural condition) there can only be union where the Holy God is the centre and power by separation from evil. Separation is the base of unity and union.
Unity must have a sole and unrivalled Centre – It is Christ
For unity to be maintained there must be an intrinsic power holding the union to its exclusive centre. When such a centre is found it denies all others. There must also be a power separating from evil from it when it arises. The answer is simple for the Christian – Christ. He is the object of the divine counsel – the manifestation of God Himself – the unique vessel of mediatorial power, entitled to unite creation as He is the one by whom and for whom all things were made. To the church He is its Redeemer, its head, its glory, and its life. This is a double headship – He is the head over all things to the church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:23).
Christ becomes, as the centre of divine affections in man, the One round which Christians are to be gathered. He is the sole divine centre of unity. Hence Jesus says “he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” (Luke 11:23). Even in death He said: “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” (John 12:32) And more specifically, He gave Himself “not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad.” (John 11:52) But here again, we find this separation of a peculiar people, “He gave himself for us that he might . . . purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”(Titus 2:14). He was the very pattern of the divine life in man, separate from the evil around. He was the friend of publicans and sinners, displaying grace and love to men; but He was always the separate Man.
The Church’s Centre
Christ is the both centre of the church and the high-priest. “Such a high-priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” – and, it is added, “made higher than the heavens.” (Hebrews 7:26) So the centre and subject of this unity is heavenly. By His death He broke down the middle wall of partition, dividing Jew and Gentile, making them into one. Now as risen, higher than the heavens He becomes the centre and exclusive object of unity amongst Christians.
Let us go forth to Him without the Camp, Bearing His Reproach
“Let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” (Hebrews 13:13). The Lord’s own were not to be taken out of the world, but kept from the evil, and sanctified through the truth. Accordingly, Jesus has set Himself and us apart to this end.
The Holy Spirit is the Centre and Power down here of the Unity of the Church in Christ’s name
The Holy Spirit was sent down from heaven to identify the called ones with their heavenly Head, and to separate them to Christ out of the world in which they were to remain. Hence God Himself in the Holy Spirit, as dwelling amongst them, becomes the centre and power down here of the unity of the church in Christ’s name. The saints, therefore are gathered into one, became the habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). Indeed, the very name of Holy Spirit implies it; for holiness is separation from evil. Otherwise we would provoke the Lord to jealousy, as if we were stronger than He.
The Lord’s Supper is the Symbol and Expression of Unity and Fellowship
For we, being many, are all one bread (loaf), for we are all partakers of that one bread.(1 Corinthians 10:17).
Unity is maintained by the judicial function in the church
How will separation from evil maintain unity? Here we must touch on mystery of iniquity, since the very nature of the Holy God cannot be put aside. Separation from evil is the necessary result of The Holy Spirit of God’s presence. Through holiness there is the power to reject evil. This has a direct effect on believers’ conduct and fellowship. When evil arises there is the power against evil because of the need to maintain the sanctity of the position. Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. (1 Corinthians 5:12-13)
Thus the church maintains its separation from evil. And unity is maintained within the power of the Holy Spirit and an honest conscience.
Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity
The Lord exposes evil to the body through the word or by judgment. In so doing it maintains the body’s spiritual energy, holding to His glory and its place. If the church refuses to answer to God’s nature and character, by not separating from evil, it becomes a false witness for God. Then the primary and changeless principle recurs, the evil must be separated from. “Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2 Timothy 2:19). Whatever the consequences are, it makes no difference: it is a matter of faith.
For the saint in these days who seeks to walk truly and thoroughly with God, these principles are fundamental.
J N Darby – Summary by Sosthenes – August 2013
Darby Simplified – On God’s Love and Grace – Holiness, Unity and Christian Gathering
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
Grace, the Power of Unity and of Gathering
Grace is the active power that unites and gathers saints together. Separation from evil is necessary, but it cannot be the power to gather Christians. Holiness may attract, but the power to gather is grace, working in love – love through faith.
We are to be separated from evil, but separated to God. And that is in love, so we abound in love towards one another, our fellowship being with the Father and the Son, grace alone having revealed God’s heart. Active love gathers us.
If Christians gather purely out of separation from evil, they become occupied with the evil, which is not of God.
In God’s nature there is both holiness and love. As Christian saints we possess these because of the life that has been given to us. Holiness, is needed by all who approach God, but love, the spring of activity, provides the energy for us to do so. God is holy – God is not just loving, but love. Wherever love is found, it is of God, for God is love. This is the blessed active energy of His being. And God displays His love in the riches of His grace to sinners. It is to their eternal blessing as He will show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus (Eph 2:7)
God imputes no sin to the Church. Through grace and redemption this fact is always blessedly and eternally true.
We are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. (Eph 1:4). God is holy; God is love, and in His ways, blameless. We are sinners. but in His love God has put sinners in the place of holiness and blamelessness. He has shown us favour in the Beloved – In Christ the Son, the blessed one. We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (what we need) – so we can enter where we can be to the praise of the glory of His grace – and this according to the riches of his grace (Eph 1:6-7)
Our Heavenly Position
When Christ was here He was alone; grace was rejected here, but in His death redemption was accomplished and atonement made. Jesus has revealed God, even though His power is seen in creation, and we thus know Him to be love and light too. Blessed knowledge!
In the exercise of that love God gathers to Himself those who display that love in Christ. He is the great power and centre.
In bringing us into unity, God has the highest thoughts for us. In Eph 1:3, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In John 20:17, Christ speaks of us as His brethren. Our wonderful part in sweet and blessed grace is up there in the best and highest sphere of blessing, where He dwells.
We therefore have an inheritance. The Holy Ghost is the earnest of the inheritance, (Eph 1:14) but not of God’s love. That is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. (Rom 5:5).
“Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity.”
Darby’s earlier tract “Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity” bore on state of the Church of God in general, and not any member in particular. However, anybody denying the basic principles of that tract is not on Christian ground at all. Is not holiness the principle on which Christian fellowship is based? And the real message of that tract is simply that.
The Danger of becoming Occupied with Evil
Separation from evil, distinguishes the person who separates from the person who is separated from. The danger when we separate we get over-occupied with our position as separate – this tends to make our position important to us. Our treacherous human hearts being what they are, mix up our position with self. If separation from evil becomes the gathering power, then what is in my mind is my position, and I am over-occupied by its importance.
As a Christian separates from evil, it is the evil acting on the conscience of the new man, which drives him out. He knows it to be offensive to God but if he becomes occupiedwith the evil, he is in a dangerous situation. Naturally he is anxious about those he has left, to justify and demonstrate to them clearly the ground on which he left. Meanwhile those he has left tend to cover things up in order to explain their position. So our friend becomes occupied with proving the evil to others. This is slippery ground for the heart, to say nothing of danger to love. This is not holiness, nor separation from evil. It harasses the mind, and cannot feed the soul.
God separates us from evil, but He does not fill the mind if we continue to be occupied with it; because God is not in the evil. Where conflict with evil not maintained in spiritual power, communion is lost, and it becomes impossible to maintain unity.
Real Holiness is not merely Separation from Evil, but Separation to God from Evil
What is holiness? Holiness is separation to God. We are brought to God and to know Him. The prodigal came to himself and said “I will arise and go to my father.” God says “If thou wilt return, return unto me.” (Jer 4:1) A soul is never really restored until it returns to God. Even if the fruits of flesh have been confessed, forgiveness and restoration are from God in love.
God is above all. The new holy and divine nature, being exercised in life, revolts from evil when it has to face it. Natural conscience involves the rejection of evil. But real holiness is not merely the rejection and the separation from evil, but separation to God from evil. God is our object. Real holiness, then, is separation to God, as well as from evil; for only thus are we in the light, for God is light. (1 John 1:7)
So instead of the heart being occupied with the evil, which it abhors, it is filled with good. This does not weaken separation, but puts the evil quite out of mind and sight. Hence the heart is holy, calm, apart from, and abhorring evil. God is good, and we can be positively filled with God in Christ. As we become occupied with good, we become holy. Hence we can abhor evil, without occupying ourselves with it.
The soul goes from sin to love, and goes there because love was displayed in Him that was made sin for us. Love is the power that separates us from evil, and ends all connection with it; for if I die then to the nature I used to live to, I live hereafter in the blessed activity in love.
Through the Holy Spirit’s working, purifying our affections our souls are drawn to what is good. We recognise evil, not by a mere uneasy conscience, but by sanctification. This is all in the power of God’s grace.
Love precedes holiness
Love comes before holiness, wither mutual amongst the Christian saints , or individual in enjoying the revelation of God. “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints,”1 Thess. 3:12, 13. Also “Ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. … God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” (1John 1:4-6). So separation from evil involves walking in the light, in God’s revealed character in Christ, in the truth as it is in Jesus in whom the life was the light of men (John 1:4). If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But what makes the fellowship?
Christ therefore becomes the centre. Jesus had won John’s heart, and was the gathering power into fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. John knew that by the Holy Spirit. He knew that is what made the fellowship.
The true Character of Christian Fellowship – with Him, where He is, where Evil cannot come
As we have been restored to God together, we can gather to a common Christian fellowship. We are to have fellowship in something, that is, with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus says “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). Now here was perfect love, entire separation from all sin and in condemnation of it. But He is risen and ascended, so It is a heavenly place that He takes, and our gathering through the cross is to Him there, in the good where evil cannot come. There is our communion – entering into the Father’s house in spirit. And this is the true character of the assembly, the church, for worship in its full sense. It remembers the cross, it worships, and all known in heaven before God.
Our fellowship or communion, is in that which is good – heavenly, no evil being there. Hence it is said: “If we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” (1 John 1:7) The only way in which we can walk out of darkness is by walking in the light, that is, with God: and God is love, and were He not, we could not walk there.
And this is true even if realised imperfectly.
Active Love Gathering Us
In love we are bought into fellowship, love acting to bring us together. In love we have our part. Love, while sanctifying and maintaining God’s holiness, makes us partakers of it, revealing God and gathering weary souls.
Love is active. Jesus has revealed God, and we know Him to be love and light; He has given us eternal life. The Lord said : “My Father worketh hitherto and I work ”. (John5:17) He gave himself . . . that he might gather into one the children of God, which were scattered abroad. (John 11:52)
It is evident to the Christian that love gathers to holiness, and on the principle of it. Grace alone fully reveals God; without grace that to which we are to be gathered cannot be seen. Grace reaches the heart.
Law and Grace
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). The law told man what he ought to be. It did not tell him what he was, nor did it tell him what God was; that remained concealed. The truth is not what ought to be, but what is – the reality of all relationships as they are, and the revelation of Him who must be the centre of them. And that cannot be without grace, for man is a ruined sinner, and God is love.
Through grace, God Himself, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are revealed as They are, and also what man is in perfection, in relationship with God. We see the contrasts: obedience and disobedience, holiness and sin, God and man, heaven and earth. With the fullest revelation of Himself, we see His counsels with Christ as the centre. Hence grace is the acting power in and is alone capable of revealing truth; for Christ’s being here is grace; His working is effective grace.
Now grace is the gathering power, gathering into unity, for it must, being divine, gather to itself. Every renewed soul must know that all such are drawn together to Christ.
Grace reigns through righteousness. It does it by uniting souls in the power of the Holy Spirit to Jesus, the one who was here, was on the cross, but now as Christ in heaven, where our true place is by faith.
This is love, infinite, divine; and, through the Holy Ghost, we have fellowship with Him. We join in it. Now that, we perceive, is the gathering power for Christians who desire to be separate from evil.
A summary by Sosthenes – September 2013
Darby Simplified – on Independent Churches, Independent Local Assemblies, Personal Judgment and Conscience
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
On Ecclesiastical Independency
I must not confuse my private, independent judgment with conscience. My conscience relates to God’s rights, the Word and the Lord’s authority. God has vested authority in persons, even though they are not infallible. But if I am disobedient, I am acting independently, in self-will, and despising God’s authority.
There is only one Church of God – the body of Christ. An action in one gathering is binding on all, even if I personally have reservations about it. Scripture does not support independent churches, whether in a place or universally. Many Christians might prefer to belong to independent assemblies, but these are unscriptural, the work of Satan and positively evil, flying in the face of known truth.
If there is blasphemy in an assembly or association with it, then I have to act. That is not independence, but I act in the light of the whole: “Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf (1 Corinthians 10:17 JND). We profess to be one body whenever we break bread; scripture knows nothing else.
It is a fatal mistake to confuse your private, personal and independent judgment, with conscience. To do so leads to chaos, confusion and disintegration. That is the trouble with Protestantism.
A father has authority. He is not infallible. But I have to respect his authority, and submit to it, even if I disagree with my father. If I disobeyed my father whenever it conflicted with personal judgment, I would be despising his authority. In fact I am putting my self-will above obedience. Indeed, in many situations – government, employment and so on, obedience is obligatory although there is no infallibility. Otherwise there would be no order in the world at all. There is blessing in doing what we know in obedience.
But if Christ’s authority is a stake, a denial of the Word, or the confession of His name, then that is a matter of conscience. I am bound to love Christ more than father or mother.
However, obeying God rather than man is not to give liberty to the human will. Scripture does not tolerate that. We are sanctified to the obedience of Christ. And this principle – our doing God’s will in simple obedience, without analysing every matter that comes up – is a path of peace. Many who consider themselves wise do not regard that, but it is the path of God’s wisdom.
Assembly Judgment and Personal Judgment
The same principle applies in the Church. Say a Christian assembly has put somebody out for evil. The assembly feels that he is humbled and repentant and restores him. I think he is not. It would be a despisal of the assembly for me to refuse to break bread with that person because of my private judgment. The same applies if the converse is true. If I think he is humbled and the assembly is not, then I have to continue humbly in prayer and look to the Lord to set things right.
I might disagree with something that arises in my Christian gathering. Who am I to impose my individual way of thinking on my brethren? If I set up my judgment as superior to that of the Assembly of God which has been entrusted to care for the Lord’s interests, I am neglecting God’s word and He will not honour me in that. Moreover, if I leave an assembly because it does not agree with me in everything, I cannot belong to any assembly of God anywhere the world. I am denying the presence and help of the Holy Spirit, and the faithfulness of Christ to His people.
Darby said: There is such a thing as lowliness as to self, which does not set up its own opinion against others, though one may have no doubt of being right.
One Assembly’s Act Binds Another
Scripture does not support the idea of independent Christian assemblies. All Christians are members of the Body of Christ. When the assembly in Corinth was called to act as to the incestuous man in 1 Corinthians 5, that assembly was responsible for maintaining things pure for the Lord, and action was taken by the whole assembly in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wicked person could not have been received in Ephesus or nearby Cenchrea. If assemblies acted as independent churches and received independently of one another, then they would be rejecting the unity of the body. There could then be no practical unity.
Christian unity is maintained by the headship of Christ, not by His lordship. Christ is Lord to individuals, but Head to the whole body, – head over all things to the church.(Ephesians 1:22). Therefore unity is not by lordship. Obedient, godly individuals will help to maintain it; but unity is the unity of the Spirit, in the whole body, not in multiple bodies.
As to Church unity, scripture does not speak about churches or a bond linking individual churches. Unity does not consist of union of churches. The idea of Independent churches: one body of Christians being independent of every other but united by voluntary association, is unscriptural. It is a simple denial of the unity of the body.
What is an Assembly Judgment?
If a judgment is made by one or a few dominant Christians in an assembly, not by the whole assembly, then the Lord’s place in the midst of an assembly is set aside. Individuals are acting in the flesh. It cannot be called an assembly judgment.
The saying “Obedience to first Christ, then the Church” is totally unscriptural. That is separating the two: if Christ is not in the church, then it is not the Church of Christ. It would justify my putting private judgment above that of the assembly.
What about Serious Church Matters?
If a Christian assembly supports or associates with what is blasphemous, then that is a totally different matter. I cannot be associated with that. I cannot use lowliness as to self to justify my remaining in that assembly; I would be setting aside the idea of the Church of God. I am free to act: we are a flock, not an enclosure.
What the Church must Judge
The judicial authority of the Church of God is in obedience to the word. Paul says “Do ye not judge them that are within? Them that are without God judgeth. Wherefore put out from among yourselves that wicked person.” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13) Where a person has been judged unfit for Christian fellowship, Christians everywhere are bound to respect it. Even if something had been done in the flesh, it is met by recognising the supreme authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the presence of the Spirit of God amongst the saints.
It is wrong for one Christian church or assembly to assume the competency to judge another. Otherwise that would justify independent churches. This is unscriptural and denial of the whole structure of the Church of God. Many Christians understandably prefer to be members of independent churches; it is more comfortable, and they can choose an assembly that suits them, but that is wrong. The Church is not a voluntary association; It is not formed of independent churches, each acting for itself. When Antioch admitted Gentiles, there was no suggestion that Jerusalem would not. There is one body and every Christian has the duty to maintain its unity. Self-will might wish otherwise, but grace certainly does not.
What if there are Difficulties in the Assembly?
We do not have an apostolic centre now, as there was in Jerusalem in Acts 15. But we do have the the Holy Spirit, acting in healing grace and helpful gift, and the faithfulness of a gracious Lord who has promised never to leave us or forsake us. The Holy Ghost acts in the body, maintaining its unity.
But what if the flesh acts in the Christian assembly? It may do. But what denies the unity of the Church, and splits it up into independent churches, is unscriptural, and nothing but the flesh. It is the dissolution of the Church of God. The remedy is in humble, subject minds, helped by God’s Spirit in maintaining the unity of the body and the Lord’s faithful love and care. If I cite the question of infallibility to justify my judgment over against divinely-ordained authority met by lowly grace, I am on independent lines, rejecting the whole authority of scripture in its teaching on the subject of the Church. I am setting up a system of man instead of God.
Is “Two or three Gathered Together” the Assembly of God?
If two or three are gathered together, it is an assembly, and if scripturally assembled in the Lord’s Name, an assembly of God. If it is the only Christian assembly in a place, it is the assembly of God in that place. But if souls set up an assembly, and assume the exclusive title of the assembly of God, they may lose sight of the ruin of the church. Any assembly set up by man’s will, independent of the unity of the body cannot morally claim to be the assembly of God in God’s sight. The whole independent system is unscriptural, the work of Satan and positively evil, flying in the face of known truth. Ignorance is one thing; opposition to the truth is something else.
It is alleged that because the Church is in ruins the unity of the body can no longer be maintained. So if we maintain that but gather to break bread, we are in disorder and defying God’s word “Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf (1 Corinthians 10:17 JND). We profess to be one body whenever we break bread; scripture knows nothing else.
Darby Simplified – on the Church as the Body of Christ, the Church as the Habitation of God, and Local Churches
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
Churches and the Church
Most people, Christians included, think of churches in terms of the Anglican Church, the United Reformed Church, the Baptist Church, the Roman Catholic Church etc., and the structures, church organisations and buildings associated with them. Scripturally the Church is the Body of Christ, and churches the expression of this in a place. Teachers, shepherds, evangelists and other gifts apply to the whole Church. Elders (or overseers) are local. The idea of a single person, appointed or voted into a professional position is totally of man’s order and sets aside the Spirit of God.
If we believe that the public church is ruined, and governed by man, not the Holy Spirit, then we should humbly cry to the Lord. He will meet us in our need.
The Greek word ἐκκλησίᾳ / ekklēsia simply means assembly – generally of citizens or privileged persons. God’s Church or assembly comprised all believers formed into one by the Holy Spirit. It is viewed as the Body of Christ and also the Habitation of God.
The Church as the Body of Christ
The assembly is the Body of Christ; – his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all (Ephesians 1:23). It is by one Spirit we are baptised into one body. The church is still being formed, and it will only be complete in heaven.
Jesus said “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it“ (Matthew 16:18). Peter understood this and spoke of unto whom coming, as unto a living stone, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house(1 Peter 2:4), and Paul “in whom the whole building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord(Ephesians 2:21). The Lord continues to add to the church those that are to be saved (Acts 2:47), and He will have it in perfection. This has resulted in what some call ‘the invisible church’.
When Christ ascended up on high, He gave gifts to men: apostles and prophets were the foundation (Ephesians 2:20); then there were evangelists, shepherds and teachers. These were set in the whole church or assembly according to 1 Corinthians 12. So a teacher in Corinth could teach in Ephesus. A man with a gift of tongues spoke wherever he was, it was a gift to the whole body, to the perfecting of the saints and edifying of the body till we all grow to the stature of Christ (Ephesians 4-12:13). Christians were to wait on one another in prophesying or exhorting. Women were to keep silent in the assemblies.
The Church as the House (or Habitation) of God
There is another view of the Church, that is the House, a habitation of God, but built by people in responsibility. God did not dwell with Adam or Abraham, but He did with Israel after it was redeemed out of Egypt. He now dwells in the house of the living God, by the Holy Spirit, consequent on Christ’s redeeming work on the cross, His resurrection and ascension. The house is where the Holy Spirit dwells – a habitation of God through the Spirit,” (Ephesians 2:22).
That is in spite of the fact that man has built a lot that is not of God. Paul says “As a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon (1 Corinthians 3:10). That means that there can be a lot of things which were not sound structurally – wood and hay and stubble, fit only to be burned. However, God has not yet executed judgment, but this is why, when He does judgment must begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17)
That is how the church or assembly is depicted in scripture.
What are Churches or Assemblies?
In New Testament times, Churches were local. Believers could not meet all in one place so there were assemblies in each town or city, each forming God’s assembly, the unity of the body, in that place. There was one church in Corinth, one in Thessalonica, Jerusalem or Ephesus; in Galatia, a province, there were several. Wherever there was an assembly it could be addressed as such. Paul could write a letter unto the church of God which is at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:2), and that was to the whole assembly in that city. It could be small or large, from ‘two or three’ to hundreds or thousands. Elders or overseers looked after God’s flock.
They did not have church buildings – they met in houses. The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands (Acts 7:48). Many houses must have been used, but there was just one assembly in the place and elders related to the whole assembly in the place. The Christians that composed it were members of the whole body, not the local one, the only membership seen in scripture being of the whole of Christ’s body.
Elders (called bishops in KJV, but the word means ‘overseer’) were local. Qualifications were needed: blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach (1 Timothy 3:2) , Gift was not essential, though the ability to teach was desirable. They were elders in the one assembly of God, in the place in which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers (Acts 14:23; Titus 1;Acts 20:28
The State of Churches Now
Churches are totally different now. Although the Lord still speaks, and those who have been raised up may minister as God has given them the word, man has organized them according to his fancy. The thought of Church of God has been forgotten save for owning some ‘invisible church’ to which the Lord is faithful. This is sad, because if it is to be the light of the world, how can it be invisible? It may be more visible when persecuted for there people give their testimony under extreme conditions.
Publicly the church has sunk into popery, or eastern orthodoxy, or Protestantism. In the latter governments have set up national churches. For some time after the reformation people were coerced into certain churches, but later there was religious liberty. This led to the setting up of independent or non-conformist churches, but nobody thought of anything other than systems of organized churches, humanly united. The unity of the body of which we were all members and that the Holy Spirit was here, the gifts being given by Christ, and those with them bearing responsibility for the whole church; all this was wholly forgotten and left aside. Truth as contained in scripture as to the Church and the presence of the Holy Spirit was ignored.
In the establishment, episcopal authority is deemed to be passed on by succession. Furthermore, they claim to make people members of Christ by baptism of water – totally unscriptural, instead of seeing that one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. (1 Corinthians 12:13). Baptism is to the death of Christ.
Even outside the episcopal system assemblies are formed by men who appointe or vote for a man, or woman, at their head. Sometimes this causes a division. People regard themselves as members of this so-formed church or assembly – a body organised by man and acting humanly. They may be members of Christ or not: what counts is that they are members of a particular assembly. The way this is done varies but the Holy Spirit is totally left out of consideration. From beginning to end, all action is of man.
What is more, the assembly has a single church leader, be it a vicar, pastor or minister. That person, often salaried, will think of it has his flock, not the flock of God. If gifted, he may be a preacher, but he preaches in his church; his gift is constrained to one place. He may even not even be converted, but he has been educated for the ministerial profession and ordained. His object is to increase the congregation, especially of well-to-do people who can contribute to the church’s funds and influence. If he does not succeed he may be dismissed or forced to resign. God’s constitution for the church has ben substituted by man’s and the Holy Spirit’s power and order is ignored, if it is believed on at all. The results – let us not even talk about them! The miserable consequences are well known in the church and in the world too.
The Scriptural View of Churches
In scripture there is no thought of a membership of a particular church, or a vicar, minister or pastor of a flock peculiar to him, and no thought of a voluntary assembly with its own policies or principles. There is God’s church or assembly, not man’s churches. If Paul wrote a letter “To the assembly of God in x”, where would it be delivered now? No such body exists because churches have set aside the Word, the church of God and the Holy Spirit.
There are evangelists, shepherds and teachers. But they should exercise their God given talents wherever they happen to be, not in a nominated church where they are appointed or chosen, and certainly not amongst ‘their flock’. Gifts are for the whole church.
How should a Christian view the State of Christian Churches?
When questioned, the answer from Christians who appreciate what is right is often, ‘That is how it is’. Godly, conscientious people are conversant with the state of things, and may acknowledge the principles that we have seen. Their groans are heard. But the system makes them powerless. They are hindered by the fear of man, and the desire to be pleasing to men. Paul said if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:10). Exercised souls need to act in faith trusting God, by His Spirit, to rule and bless His own house.
2 Timothy 2 and 3 clearly point out the condition of the church in the last days, and the pathway for the believer who acknowledges that condition.
Darby asks the simple question: Is the existing order of things scriptural or anti-scriptural? …Happy is he who follows the word, and owns the Spirit, if he be alone in doing so. The word of the Lord abides for ever, as does he who does His will.
Darby Simplified – on the Evil of Clericalism – or
The Notion of a Clergyman, Dispensationally the sin against the Holy Ghost
When John Nelson Darby, a former clergyman himself, published ‘The Notion of a Clergyman, dispensationally the sin against the Holy Ghost.’, with its understandably provocative title he was said that he was accusing any clergyman or appointed leader of committing the sin against the Holy Spirit. He was at pains to show that this was far from the truth.
Darby’s issue was that any human appointment, whether by delegation or election, substituted the direct sovereign action of the Holy Spirit, by that of man. This is the notion of a clergyman. The system is wrong. It substitutes man for God. True ministry is by the gift and the power of God’s Spirit, not by man’s appointment.
If the authority of the clergy is derived from man, it follows that anything that is of God, by the Holy Spirit must be condemned by the system and classed as evil. This, then, is the sin against the Holy Spirit in this dispensation.
The word ‘clergy’, or the clerical principle, has the characteristic mark of apostasy in it – that is the substitution of man’s privileged order on God’s Church. This has resulted in the Holy Spirit’s being despised in the Church. Instead of those who had the lot of being instructors or spiritual overseers, ministers have now made themselves lords over the people and even the very Church itself. So people speak of “going into the Church”.
Because this power is attached to the ministry, it has become the Church itself in the eyes of the world. The world can therefore save itself the trouble of being religious by throwing all on to the clergy, so that irreligious people can regard religion is the clergy’s business, not theirs. The substitution of the clergy for the Church is essentially apostasy.
It may be asked whether this is not really the sin against the Holy Spirit, merely resistance to Him. However anything that interferes with the Holy Spirit’s vicarship of Christ in the world is a direct sin against Him is pure, dreadful, and destructive evil. It is the very cause of destruction to the church. Alas, even if not knowingly or willingly, every clergyman is contributing to this.
The Exclusive Authority of the Clergy
The Holy Spirit gives the word by whoever and whenever He choses. But if clergymen have the exclusive privilege of preaching, teaching, and ministering communion, which is what they claim, then in their eyes anything else must be disorder and schism.
This accusation is therefore levelled directly against the sovereign operations of the Spirit of God. That is ascribing to the power of evil that which comes from the Holy Spirit. This is the sin (or blasphemy) against the Holy Spirit. – This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils…whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him (Matthew 12:24,32).
God’s truth is always profitable, and by it the testimony is maintained in the world. But the principles of the truth were established before their being subjugated by the papal power. Believers have now to rest on the Lord, or sink into the system. But dependence on the Lord is by the work of the Holy Spirit. That is not resting on the official church, so it is condemned by the clerical system. Hence, the very notion of a clergyman is effectively apostasy and rebellion against God.
Appointment of Clergymen and Bishops
Are all clergymen and bishops, occupying a humanly appointed office, converted themselves? Whilst many are truly godly, there are some who are even haters of God. If so why are they in that position in the church? It must be that there is honour attached to the position and that they are authorised to confer honour on others.
Most godly clergymen and bishops will admit that their appointment is not by God. Accordingly, in their position of being clergymen, they are forced either to resist God in the Holy Spirit or to resist the bishops and higher authorities from whom they derive their authority. Darby ventured to say that the most successful clergymen were the blindest, darkest and most ignorant in the external practice of religion.
And what about the bishops? Their appointment varies, but they may receive Letters Patent, in Britain by the Sovereign, with the support of the secular authorities. They, with their invested authority, are not appointed by God at all, but often by godless, worldly politicians. And if they are honest they will recognise it, even though the system must charge anybody who does not accept their authority with dissention and schism.
Resistance to the Gospel
When the gospel is preached, there is witness to the Redeemer’s love: people are bought into the communion of the Lord’s love, to bear witness to their sole dependence on His dying love. This witness is by ordinary lay persons. But their testimony is not accepted because they are not, nor have been brought together by – clergymen!
It will therefore be observed that where there is lay evangelical activity, which is blessed of God, opposition will come from the clergy. Some will even condemn it as evil. In Britain this will be from the vicars and bishops, in American from the presiding bishops and clergy, in Southern Europe, Latin America and Egypt from the Catholic and Coptic priests, in the Greek church from the papas – even if their numbers fall.
Darby cited a movement at that time in Ireland known as the Home Mission. Opposition from the Establishment was so strong that meetings were forcibly broken up, and those involved were excommunicated. This is despite the fact that thousands flocked to hear and enjoy the gospel. No doubt the clergy thought that it was their exclusive prerogative to preach, and therefore they should hinder any who were not ordained.
The situation is the same whether in Protestantism or Roman Catholicism. Indeed the status is the same; they are mutually respected, [witness the 21st century ordinariate]. If one is bound to acknowledge the one, he is bound to acknowledge the other in the same title and office. They are their own witnesses that there is no difference between them in title as clergymen. The only difference is that one authority is passed down from the Pope, the other from the Sovereign. In either religion, this is the notion that meets you, as the barrier to God’s truth and work.
The Clergy in the Dark Ages and Afterwards
As Christianity became the imperial religion, the church sunk into worldliness and embraced the world’s methods and standards. The world therefore became its head. The world cannot manage a spiritual office, but it can manage global, national, regional and local authorities. So it set up these authorities to minister, guide and manage the church.
For a long time, due to ignorance and superstition, ecclesiastical offices wielded more power than kings and the secular nobility. Later secular power reassumed supremacy, but the ecclesiastical structure remained the same. The world’s geographical secular powers used the church as an instrument to manage the mass of people. Those who desired to put themselves in Christ’s hand would be regarded as rebellious, because people were taught to rely on the Church rather than on Christ’s hand by the Holy Spirit. Meanwhile the official church’s – not the true Church of God’s – influence declined. The church, bound up with the world, has become merely a compound of secular influence and remaining superstition, where spiritual energies are cramped.
The Clergy in the Reformation
The reformation introduced a statement of individual faith, and broke off from the power of Rome and Popery. But it did not separate the Church from the world. Outward signs changed, but Christ and His Spirit did not rule. Darby said he believed that eventually the principle of the clergyman would result in the re-introduction of the power of Popery, since in all cases the religion is based on a doctrine of succession, not on the presence of the Holy Spirit. No Protestant minister, as a clergyman, can prove his title any more than the Pope can. It is not a question of what doctrine is held, though in a great number of instances the clergy do not preach the truth, and many would question whether some are even Christians.
The Influence of the Clergy
As a position, the rank of clergyman has an amazing pernicious influence on the minds of people. This has grown up though its association with the world, and a hindrance the operation of God’s Spirit. Indeed, it charges the operations of the Spirit of God with evil, as rebellion to its authority, because it does not act within its defined territorial limits, or conform to its secular and ceremonial arrangements. Nor too does the true Church recognize ecclesiastical hierarchy. Their godly and faithful brethren, acting under the Spirit of God are rejected, and branded divisive schismatics.
The Gifts to the Church
There are gifts: He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4:5, 7, 11); so in 1 Corinthians 12, To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit But these are known only as gifts. The notion of a Clergyman substitutes something which cannot be said to be of God at all in the place of all these. And is not found in Scripture either.
Not being Lords over God’s Heritage
Peter spoke of those who were elders or instructors: Neither as being lords over God’s heritage (κλήρων, kleron), but being ensamples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:3). That is the real meaning of the word kleros or lot. The only use therefore of the word ‘clergy’ in Scripture is, as applied to the laity, contrasted with ministers, charging them to assume no lordship.
Speaking of “My flock”
How often have we heard that expression from the mouth of a minister or clergyman – “My flock,” as if it were a virtue to think of the congregation as such. To claim that is a shocking blasphemy, even if not done so knowingly or wilfully. Not even an apostle would have dared to claim the flock as his own. It was God’s flock which they might be given to oversee – Christ’s sheep – which they might be entrusted with a portion of, a lot (kleros), to feed and guide. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. (Acts 20:28-30)
Vicars, pastors or ministers who talk about their sheep, or their flock, put themselves in the place of God or His Christ. They do so because they are clergy: they count it their title as clergy – they would effectively be as gods. What will they say before the Righteous Judge?
The Clerical System vs. Individual Clergymen
Nevertheless, Darby, having been a clergyman once himself, had high esteem for many individuals amongst the clergy, and he did not doubt that there were many others as worthy that he did not know. But it is not an individual question, but one affecting God’s glory and the whole order of the Church. For the official church publicly has departed from God, and has become what it is, both in name and title. It has become the concentration of that which, by its denial of the Holy Ghost and gratuitous blasphemy against Him, brings destruction on all to which it is attached.
Conclusion – The clergy identifies the Church with the world, not God with the Church
The clerical system identifies the church with the world, not God with the Church. Being of the world it is of Satan, and the world denies, rejects, and even blasphemes the Holy Ghost.
JND concludes: What is the remedy? It must be the recognition of God’s Spirit wherever He operates, personally bowing to His guidance and direction. The Christian will see as the hand of God, in the Comforter who has been sent to abide with us, and works in us by obedience. As a result we can possess its joy in boldness, against all that grieves Him. This we do against joining the world, which cannot own or receive Him, and which denies the truth, of which He is the witness.
May the Lord give us to discern things that are not of the Holy Spirit, and to separate the precious from the vile.
A summary by Sosthenes – September 2013
J.N. Darby – A true Churchman
John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), an Anglo-Irish evangelist, was led to the fierce conclusion that all churches, as man-made institutions, were bound to fail. The believer’s true hope was the return of Jesus Christ. With others Darby gathered in a less formal way, free of clergy and human structure, founded on a desire to be separate from unholy organisations.
Darby, after resigning his curacy in the Church of Ireland, became a tireless traveller, talented linguist and Bible translator. His influence is still felt in evangelical Christianity. He is credited with opening up the truth of the dispensational character of the ways of God with men, the Lord’s coming and the rapture of the Church – nowadays called pre-trib or pre-millennial dispensationalism
After maintaining that separation from evil must be the principle of unity, Darby was at pains to show that it cannot be the power to gather Christians. Holiness may attract them together, but the power to gather is grace, working in love – love through faith. If Christians gather purely out of separation from evil, they become occupied with the evil, which is not of God.
We are to be separated from evil, but separated to God. And that is in love, so we abound in love towards one another, our fellowship being with the Father and the Son, grace alone having revealed God’s heart. Active love gathers us together.
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
Grace, the Power of Unity and of Gathering
After maintaining that separation from evil must be the principle of unity, Darby was at pains to show that it cannot be the power to gather Christians. Holiness may attract them together, but the power to gather is grace, working in love – love through faith. If Christians gather purely out of separation from evil, they become occupied with the evil, which is not of God.
We are to be separated from evil, but separated to God. And that is in love, so we abound in love towards one another, our fellowship being with the Father and the Son, grace alone having revealed God’s heart. Active love gathers us together.
In God’s nature there is both holiness and love. As Christian saints we possess these because of the life that has been given to us. Holiness, is needed by all who approach God, but love, the spring of activity, provides the energy for us to do so. God is holy – God is not just loving, but love. Wherever love is found, it is of God, for God is love. This is the blessed active energy of His being. And God displays His love in the riches of His grace to sinners. It is to their eternal blessing as He will show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus (Eph 2:7)
God imputes no sin to the Church. Through grace and redemption this fact is always blessedly and eternally true.
We are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. (Eph 1:4). God is holy; God is love, and in His ways, blameless. We are sinners. but in His love God has put sinners in the place of holiness and blamelessness. He has shown us favour in the Beloved – In Christ the Son, the blessed one. We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (what we need) – so we can enter where we can be to the praise of the glory of His grace – and this according to the riches of his grace (Eph 1:6-7)
Our Heavenly Position
When Christ was here He was alone; grace was rejected here, but in His death redemption was accomplished and atonement made. Jesus has revealed God, even though His power is seen in creation, and we thus know Him to be love and light too. Blessed knowledge!
In the exercise of that love God gathers to Himself those who display that love in Christ. He is the great power and centre.
In bringing us into unity, God has the highest thoughts for us. In Eph 1:3, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. In John 20:17, Christ speaks of us as His brethren. Our wonderful part in sweet and blessed grace is up there in the best and highest sphere of blessing, where He dwells.
We therefore have an inheritance. The Holy Ghost is the earnest of the inheritance, (Eph 1:14) but not of God’s love. That is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. (Rom 5:5).
“Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity.”
Darby’s earlier tract “Separation from Evil, God’s Principle of Unity” bore on state of the Church of God in general, and not any member in particular. However, anybody denying the basic principles of that tract is not on Christian ground at all. Is not holiness the principle on which Christian fellowship is based? And the real message of that tract is simply that.
The Danger of becoming Occupied with Evil
Separation from evil, distinguishes the person who separates from the person who is separated from. The danger when we separate we get over-occupied with our position as separate – this tends to make our position important to us. Our treacherous human hearts being what they are, mix up our position with self. If separation from evil becomes the gathering power, then what is in my mind is my position, and I am over-occupied by its importance.
As a Christian separates from evil, it is the evil acting on the conscience of the new man, which drives him out. He knows it to be offensive to God but if he becomes occupiedwith the evil, he is in a dangerous situation. Naturally he is anxious about those he has left, to justify and demonstrate to them clearly the ground on which he left. Meanwhile those he has left tend to cover things up in order to explain their position. So our friend becomes occupied with proving the evil to others. This is slippery ground for the heart, to say nothing of danger to love. This is not holiness, nor separation from evil. It harasses the mind, and cannot feed the soul.
God separates us from evil, but He does not fill the mind if we continue to be occupied with it; because God is not in the evil. Where conflict with evil not maintained in spiritual power, communion is lost, and it becomes impossible to maintain unity.
Real Holiness is not merely Separation from Evil, but Separation to God from Evil
What is holiness? Holiness is separation to God. We are brought to God and to know Him. The prodigal came to himself and said “I will arise and go to my father.” God says “If thou wilt return, return unto me.” (Jer 4:1) A soul is never really restored until it returns to God. Even if the fruits of flesh have been confessed, forgiveness and restoration are from God in love.
God is above all. The new holy and divine nature, being exercised in life, revolts from evil when it has to face it. Natural conscience involves the rejection of evil. But real holiness is not merely the rejection and the separation from evil, but separation to God from evil. God is our object. Real holiness, then, is separation to God, as well as from evil; for only thus are we in the light, for God is light. (1 John 1:7)
So instead of the heart being occupied with the evil, which it abhors, it is filled with good. This does not weaken separation, but puts the evil quite out of mind and sight. Hence the heart is holy, calm, apart from, and abhorring evil. God is good, and we can be positively filled with God in Christ. As we become occupied with good, we become holy. Hence we can abhor evil, without occupying ourselves with it.
The soul goes from sin to love, and goes there because love was displayed in Him that was made sin for us. Love is the power that separates us from evil, and ends all connection with it; for if I die then to the nature I used to live to, I live hereafter in the blessed activity in love.
Through the Holy Spirit’s working, purifying our affections our souls are drawn to what is good. We recognise evil, not by a mere uneasy conscience, but by sanctification. This is all in the power of God’s grace.
Love precedes holiness
Love comes before holiness, wither mutual amongst the Christian saints , or individual in enjoying the revelation of God. “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints,”1 Thess. 3:12, 13. Also “Ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. … God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” (1John 1:4-6). So separation from evil involves walking in the light, in God’s revealed character in Christ, in the truth as it is in Jesus in whom the life was the light of men (John 1:4). If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But what makes the fellowship?
Christ therefore becomes the centre. Jesus had won John’s heart, and was the gathering power into fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. John knew that by the Holy Spirit. He knew that is what made the fellowship.
The true Character of Christian Fellowship – with Him, where He is, where Evil cannot come
As we have been restored to God together, we can gather to a common Christian fellowship. We are to have fellowship in something, that is, with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus says “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). Now here was perfect love, entire separation from all sin and in condemnation of it. But He is risen and ascended, so It is a heavenly place that He takes, and our gathering through the cross is to Him there, in the good where evil cannot come. There is our communion – entering into the Father’s house in spirit. And this is the true character of the assembly, the church, for worship in its full sense. It remembers the cross, it worships, and all known in heaven before God.
Our fellowship or communion, is in that which is good – heavenly, no evil being there. Hence it is said: “If we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” (1 John 1:7) The only way in which we can walk out of darkness is by walking in the light, that is, with God: and God is love, and were He not, we could not walk there.
And this is true even if realised imperfectly.
Active Love Gathering Us
In love we are bought into fellowship, love acting to bring us together. In love we have our part. Love, while sanctifying and maintaining God’s holiness, makes us partakers of it, revealing God and gathering weary souls.
Love is active. Jesus has revealed God, and we know Him to be love and light; He has given us eternal life. The Lord said : “My Father worketh hitherto and I work ”. (John5:17) He gave himself . . . that he might gather into one the children of God, which were scattered abroad. (John 11:52)
It is evident to the Christian that love gathers to holiness, and on the principle of it. Grace alone fully reveals God; without grace that to which we are to be gathered cannot be seen. Grace reaches the heart.
Law and Grace
The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). The law told man what he ought to be. It did not tell him what he was, nor did it tell him what God was; that remained concealed. The truth is not what ought to be, but what is – the reality of all relationships as they are, and the revelation of Him who must be the centre of them. And that cannot be without grace, for man is a ruined sinner, and God is love.
Through grace, God Himself, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are revealed as They are, and also what man is in perfection, in relationship with God. We see the contrasts: obedience and disobedience, holiness and sin, God and man, heaven and earth. With the fullest revelation of Himself, we see His counsels with Christ as the centre. Hence grace is the acting power in and is alone capable of revealing truth; for Christ’s being here is grace; His working is effective grace.
Now grace is the gathering power, gathering into unity, for it must, being divine, gather to itself. Every renewed soul must know that all such are drawn together to Christ.
Grace reigns through righteousness. It does it by uniting souls in the power of the Holy Spirit to Jesus, the one who was here, was on the cross, but now as Christ in heaven, where our true place is by faith.
This is love, infinite, divine; and, through the Holy Ghost, we have fellowship with Him. We join in it. Now that, we perceive, is the gathering power for Christians who desire to be separate from evil.
J.N. Darby (1800-1882)
John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), an Anglo-Irish evangelist, was led to the fierce conclusion that all churches, as man-made institutions, were bound to fail. The believer’s true hope was the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. With others Darby gathered in a less formal way, free of clergy and human structure, founded on a desire to be separate from unholy organisations
Darby, after resigning his curacy in the Church of Ireland, became a tireless traveller, talented linguist and Bible translator. His influence is still felt in evangelical Christianity.
In this paper John Darby notes that whatever God sets up perfectly, main ruins. This applies equally to the Church publicly. But it remains the Church, and it is for us to be faithful to the Lord whilst accepting our part in its public failure. We are in the last days and the Lord’s coming is imminent, so we are exhorted to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude:3).
Despite the public situation, we need to have a conscience as to what is evil, and keep close to the Lord, We must heed the Holy Spirit, judging evil, and resting the word, not the teachings of men. We must be prepared to act alone or with just a few. Then we can then get a view of God’s work. So we should know what God’s mind is for us on our path, individually and collectively. And we can trust in God, not in our own reasoning – in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:” (Isaiah 30:15)
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
“The Faith once delivered to the Saints”
In this paper John Darby notes that whatever God sets up perfectly, main ruins. This applies equally to the Church publicly. But it remains the Church, and it is for us to be faithful to the Lord whilst accepting our part in its public failure. We are in the last days and the Lord’s coming is imminent, so we are exhorted to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude:3).
Despite the public situation, we need to have a conscience as to what is evil, and keep close to the Lord, We must heed the Holy Spirit, judging evil, and resting the word, not the teachings of men. We must be prepared to act alone or with just a few. Then we can then get a view of God’s work. So we should know what God’s mind is for us on our path, individually and collectively. And we can trust in God, not in our own reasoning – in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:” (Isaiah 30:15)
As Christians, God in grace has put us on a path, both individually and collectively. It is important therefore for to know where we are on that path and what God’s mind for us on it. Our circumstances may vary, but God’s principles never vary. While God’s thoughts do not change, we need spiritual discernment to see where we are, and how we can go on with God, without departing from the great principles laid down for us in God’s Word.
God said to a rebellious people, under attack in Hezekiah’s time “in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:” (Isaiah 30:15). The people were being called “not my people” (Hosea 1:9). God’s mind never changed as to His people, but they were protected during Hezekiah’s time. Later they were to experience judgment. Still those who trusted would be preserved.
Man spoils what God sets up
In Adam, Noah, Aaron, Solomon and Nebuchadnezzar, God set up something good. Man spoilt it. That is because of his poor human nature. We must bear this in mind this when assessing our position, otherwise it will become our own ruin. We cannot plead God’s faithfulness and promises in order to sanction evil.
As God carries on, a remnant is preserved in tune with Him. So just before the Lord came there were small numbers – Zacharias, Mary, Simeon, Anna – they were awaiting redemption. They knew one another and were intelligent too as to the Lord’s entry. Meanwhile Israel rejected Christ when He came.
There was soon Failure in the Early Church
If we look at the Church, God’s assembly on earth, in the early days of the Acts of the Apostles, 3000 were converted in one day. All had one heart and one mind; they had everything in common, and the place was shaken where they were. The power of the Spirit of God was there.
Evil got in when Ananias and Sapphira made things out to be different from what they were. But because the Spirit of God was there, these two fell dead and fear came upon all, both inside and outside. However, that line of corruption has continued, so that even before the close of scripture the whole profession was mixed up with the world, and judgment was called for. Just look at the church now, the Roman Catholic system included!
Have a Conscience about our Position in the Church
Due to a lack conscience, most do not have a sense of the condition that they are in, and also how God is working. To be intelligent spiritually, as being part of the professing church, we need a sense of our condition.
We may have to act Individually
Abraham acted alone – Look to Abraham … I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him (Isaiah 51:2) . Being little was of no consequence. God blessed him; He will bless us still more.
The Church teaching? – and the Holy Scriptures
The Church’s teaching? People say the church teaches this and that, but who is that? The church? What do they mean? We never see the church teaching. The church does not teach – it is taught; individuals teach. But remember that there is no inspired person in the church now to teach with absolute authority. So for authority we must turn to the Word of God itself. We must learn from Peter and Paul.
Paul reminds Timothy of the things he had learned – the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15).
The scriptures are the direct authority of God; they determine everything. Meanwhile we have His Spirit to communicate things. We have ministry too, which is a help. But it is a poor thing if we look only to men as guides.
We are in the Last Days –and it is a time of Judgment
It is on the authority of scripture that we know that we are in the last days. Unfortunately many people do not appreciate that. Being in them requires us to have a judgment as to the general condition around us. What so many do, even if they have right feelings as to the condition, is to shelter in what they regard as the church’s teaching, a wrong principle as we have seen.
We see from scripture that the Church has departed from God, and ruined what He set up. That was already happening when Jude wrote: it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude:3).
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17). In Ezekiel judgment was to start at God’s house – begin at my sanctuary, (Ezekiel 9:6).
As to the last days John said, Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 John 2:18). God has born with the state of the church for centuries: it has not improved. Now God is calling souls to Himself in grace (as He did Israel).
Our hearts should take notice: what was set up so beautiful in the power of God’s Spirit – what has it all come to? It casts us on the strength that can never fail!
The Lord Judging the Churches
In Revelation 2-3, Christ addresses the seven churches in Asia. He was not speaking to the churches as Head of the body, though He is always that, but as looking on them in their responsibility to maintain His interests down here on the earth. This was Christ walking in the midst of the candlesticks, judging the state of the churches. The Churches had to listen to what He had to say. What had they made of the blessings that had been entrusted to them? For example, to the young assembly in Thessalonica (Thessaloniki) the Bible speaks of works, labour, faith, love, patience and hope; but to mature Ephesus it is just works, labour and patience – faith and love were missing. Indeed in Ephesus the spring was missing – judgement was needed, and the candlestick would be removed if they did not repent. Hence the faithful were exhorted: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 2:7 etc).
The Public Ruin of the Church
Christians were losing their place. “All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philippians 2:21) , but they did not cease being the church. Nevertheless it says, “In the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their own selves and so on; (2 Tim. 3:1-2). Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). There is the professing church, such as it is, and things would return to the level of heathendom. Mere formality was leading to infidelity or superstition and it was clear that this is how things were going.
The Church has failed publicly in being the epistle of Christ. It is not a question of apportioning blame or attacking persons, because we are all involved. Things were set up so beautifully in the power of God’s Spirit – what have they all come to? It has not ceased to be the church of God. But the state of the Church has to be judged. But grace fits the condition.
The Answer to the Church’s Condition is in Jesus
Christ is as sufficient for the Church now, as He was at when He first set up the church in its beauty and blessedness. We have to look at His word and see what His mind is, whilst not hiding our eyes from the state we are in. There is power to overcome in the midst of evil.
Things get mixed up – the good and the evil go on together. The wise and foolish virgins slept together, but things changed at the words ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh’ (Matthew 25:6). The Lord’s coming is imminent. Our relationship with God is to be more than our testimony to men, otherwise we will break down and fail. We mustrenew our strength. We must remain in that which was from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father (1 John 2:24). The great secret of Christian life is our intercourse with God by the Holy Spirit. And that makes nothing of ourselves.
When the children of Israel failed in Joshua’s time, they had to get back to Gilgal – complete separation from the world. But the angel of the Lord went to Bochim, the place of tears. This means that as well as being separate, we should feel the situation.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus will be Persecuted
It does not say that every Christian will be persecuted, but all that will live godly (2 Timothy 3:12). The world will not stand a man showing the power of the spirit of God. It drew out the enmity when Christ was here, and it does now. All those who seek to be faithful to the Lord in days of departure can expect that.
Seeing the Church Here
I see what God set up; I see the unity of the body, and Christ as the Head. That is what the Church was to be on earth. Jesus said “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18). It is Christ’s building, and that building is going on still. It is not finished. Paul says of the building, fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. (Ephesians 2:21). Now that is what Christ’s work is – men call it the invisible church.
We are building, and if rightly, on the foundation laid by Paul. If I build with the wrong materials wood, hay, stubble my work will be destroyed. But Hades gates will not prevail. 1 Corinthians 3:12 .
The Work of the Holy Spirit
As an individual I find that the secret of power of good against evil, outside or inside, is the presence of the Spirit of God, – the Word being the guide. Paul said to some going on badly, “Do you believe, beloved friends, that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost?” ( 1 Corinthians 6:19). Then what kind of persons ought we to be?
It is the same collectively, “know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16 ). The presence of the Spirit gives power for real blessing – whether in the church or the individual.
Now, we have true and full redemption; the Holy Spirit dwells in those who believe. We can be the expression of what Christ was Himself when He was down here. When a person is really a Christian, God dwells in him; he is sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the power for all moral conduct. If we really believe this should not we be in subjection and not grieving the Spirit?
Things which are inconceivable to man are revealed unto us by God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9). The Spirit of God and the spirit of the world are always in contrast. What God has revealed is in spite of our state, and this includes our apprehension of the Church in these days of ruin.
In 1 Corinthians 2 the Holy Spirit is seen in three ways
Things are revealed by the Spirit;
Things communicated in teaching by the Spirit;
Things spiritually discerned – received by the power of the Spirit.
A Warning
I cannot have my private judgment in the things of God. The moment I get my own thoughts into divine things I start judging the Word of God. Not accepting God’s word in Scripture is one sign of the evil of our times. But if I own the Word of God, brought by His Spirit, I hear what God says to me: it judges me; I do not judge it. It is the divine word brought to my conscience and heart, and who am I to judge God when God is speaking to me? But it has to be the Word of God – what was inspired at the beginning, and nothing else.
If I were to say I understand and judge the Word of God by itself, I am a rationalist – it is man’s mind judging the revelation of God. But where I get God’s mind communicated by the Holy Ghost, spiritually discerned, I get God’s mind. God has given us the wisdom and power to meet the state of ruin in which we are now, just as at first when He set up the church. That is what I have to lean upon.
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J.N. Darby (1800-1882)
John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), an Anglo-Irish evangelist, was led to the fierce conclusion that all churches, as man-made institutions, were bound to fail. The believer’s true hope was the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. With others Darby gathered in a less formal way, free of clergy and human structure, founded on a desire to be separate from unholy organisations.
Darby, after resigning his curacy in the Church of Ireland, became a tireless traveller, talented linguist and Bible translator. His influence is still felt in evangelical Christianity.
‘After These Things’ Chapter 4.7 – The Judgment of the Nations
Evil will reach its height in the eighth head of the beast, the fourth (Rome) monarchy. It will go to destruction along with the false prophet who seduced the world to do homage to the beast and take his mark.
