AND is it so, I shall be like Thy Son,
Is this the grace which He for me has won?
Father of glory! Thought beyond all thought,
In glory to His own blest likeness brought!
AND is it so, we shall be like Thy Son,
By John Nelson Darby (1800-1882)
10.10.10.10
AND is it so, I shall be like Thy Son,
Is this the grace which He for me has won?
Father of glory! Thought beyond all thought,
In glory to His own blest likeness brought!
O Jesus, Lord, who loved me like to Thee?
Fruit of Thy work! With Thee, too, there to see
Thy glory, Lord, while endless ages roll,
Myself the prize and travail of Thy soul.
Yet it must be! Thy love had not its rest
Were Thy redeemed not with Thee fully blest –
That love that gives not as the world, but shares
All it possesses with its loved co-heirs!
Nor I alone; Thy loved ones all, complete,
In glory around Thee with joy shall meet;
All like Thee, for Thy glory like Thee, Lord!
Object supreme of all, by all adored!
And yet it must be so! A perfect state,
To meet Christ’s perfect love – what we await;
The Spirit’s hopes, desires, in us inwrought,
Our present joy – with living blessings fraught.
The heart is satisfied, can ask no more;
All thought of self is now for ever o’er;
Christ, its unmingled Object, fills the heart
In blest adoring love – its endless part.
Father of mercies, in Thy presence bright
All this shall be unfolded in the light;
Thy children, all, with joy Thy counsels know
Fulfilled; patient in hope while here below.
[1872]
Edited version in Hymns for the Little Flock 1962 and 1973 and in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs 1978 – No 247
Dans ce désert aride
Et sans chemin tracé,
Mon modèle et mon guide,
Mon Sauveur a passé.
Par lui je viens au Père ;
Il est tout mon bonheur ;
Aussi rien sur la terre
N’a d’attrait pour mon cœur.
Dans ce désert aride
Et sans chemin tracé,
Mon modèle et mon guide,
Mon Sauveur a passé.
Par lui je viens au Père ;
Il est tout mon bonheur ;
Aussi rien sur la terre
N’a d’attrait pour mon cœur.
Sur lui ma foi repose.
Puis-je le suivre en vain,
Ou perdre quelque chose,
Quand lui-même est mon gain ?
Si les biens de la vie
Prétendent m’arrêter,
Sa puissance infinie
Me les fait rejeter.
Heureux, l’âme affranchie,
Avançant vers le ciel,
Déjà je m’associe
Au cantique éternel.
Douleurs, fatigue ou peine,
N’ébranlent point ma foi.
L’épreuve est toute pleine
De fruits bénis pour moi.
Dans ce trajet d’une heure
Où je suis engagé,
Si je gémis et pleure,
Suis-je découragé ?
Non, ta grâce parfaite
Est mon constant recours ;
Ton bâton, ta houlette,
Me consolent toujours.
Ô Jésus, pain de vie
Que je goûte ici-bas,
Ta vertu fortifie
Mon âme à chaque pas.
Pour t’être enfin semblable,
Bientôt je te verrai
Dans ta gloire ineffable,
Et je t’adorerai !
God presents what He is to men, so we know that He is holy, righteous and love. He is love, and love draws me. Love is the divine nature.
I need to be separate from evil: “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” (Heb 12:14). It is not said, ‘He is holiness’. Indeed I as a sinner would be repelled by mere holiness. He is holy. He is just, and He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. (Hab 1:13) He may be the God of judgment, but He blesses His own so that they might be eternally happy in holiness, for He is holy love.
A summary by Sosthenes
God presents what He is to men, so we know that He is holy, righteous and love. He is love, and love draws me. Love is the divine nature.
I need to be separate from evil: “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” (Heb 12:14). It is not said, ‘He is holiness’. Indeed I as a sinner would be repelled by mere holiness. He is holy. He is just, and He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. (Hab 1:13) He may be the God of judgment, but He blesses His own so that they might be eternally happy in holiness, for He is holy love.
Whatever our state may be, God is perfect in His love, and He would make us learn, enjoy and walk in it now, not when we get to heaven.
Our selfish, unbelieving nature hinders us down here, but this only serves to magnify God’s grace and love. In spite of all, He brings us to the knowledge of perfect love because “Perfect love casteth out fear, for fear hath torment” (v.18). If, when thinking of God, we fear, we have torment. That is the conscience. Man may seek to bury his conscience, but only succeeds in hardening it.
If we seek peace in ordinances, it is not love but fear. The effect of true ministry is to put the soul in direct contact with God. False ministry brings in something between the soul and God.
The soul must have the blessed consciousness of perfect peace with God. God brings you into the joy of His perfect love in His presence; “Who shall separate us? … More than conquerors.” (Rom. 8:35)
The family character of the children of God is light and love. It is God’s nature, and seen in both in Christ and in all God’s children. I must have the new nature to know this; but how do I get it? Where is it found? In Jesus Christ Himself, image of the invisible God. (Col 1:15). In Christ I find a perfect manifestation of His love. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us” (v10).
There is no mention of anything required of us, but the simple fact of what we were “dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph. 2:1)
Though He is a God of judgment, He brought out the means of our approach: through Christ’s sacrifice. Abel’s faith testified how man was to approach to God, so from Abel downwards God showed mercy.
Man as man refuses to come to God “none righteous.” (Rom. 3:10) When Christ comes, it is another thing altogether. God now approaches man in grace; not man approaching God. He visited men in their sins, “that they might live through him.” (v.9) All around was darkness, degradation, and idolatry. God took them out of that condition that they might live through Christ. “God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” (1 John 5:10). Thus we are brought into His presence.
We live through His only-begotten Son. He is bringing us into His presence, before the One in whom all His delight was from eternity. It is the eternal enjoyment of it to know eternal life in the Son; but down here we often question it, because we do not see this love in us. He is “a propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 2:2)
God has loved me not only when I wanted it, but because His knew what I wanted. He has not mistaken my case; Christ on the cross made the propitiation for my sins. So I can say, “Herein is love.” (v.10) I have found God, and my soul rests there. The cloud has been taken away for ever. If you say, ‘I have committed such and such a sin’; I answer, ‘It is for the sins you had or still have that Christ died; for He died for your sins.’
He cannot bear sin, and therefore He must put the sinner in his sins away, because He cannot bear the sins. I learn to judge sin according to God, because I am brought into the light. I find many sins in myself. He is the propitiation for my sins. I believe this, and then I enter into communion with Him. Why do I find fear and torment when I find sin in myself? Can I not trust that love? Have I not believed the love God has towards me?
God does not expect fruit from man, but His grace produces fruit. We should feel sin, and know it has been blotted out. We are told that “The glory thou hast given me I have given them, that the world may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:24) “There is no fear in love.” (v.18). It is a matter of communion and we live through Him. “… Perfect love casteth out fear.”
I am not honouring God, if I do not trust the work of Christ in love on the cross. I come to Him just as I am, and then I know God. He enables me to trust in blood of Jesus Christ His Son – the perfectness of His work in putting away sin.
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 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….
Since writing this newsletter in 2014, I have come to it that much of what I had written was faulty. The biblical principles are of course right, but in the application of them we need to avoid what is sectarian. In seeking to judge one, it is easy to slip into another. In 2017, my wife and I had to leave the company of Christians we had met with for over 40 years – that was sad, We have continued to seek to walk in the Light of the Assembly – but that does not need another book. Hence I have withdrawn this publication, Please feel free to contact me– sosthenes@adoss.co.uk.
This subject has engaged me a lot recently, not least because Satan is doing his best to spoil what is closest to the heart of our blessed Lord. As soon as man’s mind, with its politics and organisational ability, starts to get involved the result is sorrowful. The service of praise continues; believers still enjoy bible readings and preachings, but is the Lord still the centre of everything?
Some years ago I was on a plane from San Francisco to Sydney. Across the aisle from me there was a family of Taylorite Exclusives. I cried to the Lord for a word for them. In my bag I happened to have a volume of James Taylor Sr’s ministry (that is the older JT – not his infamous son!). I found there something I have never found since, though I have tried with the ministry search engine. It read ‘There comes a time when we realise that the Lord is the centre, not the system’. So often we make the system the centre, our own sect, our little meeting, our circle of Christian friends or whatever, and we protect it in every way we can.
I am producing another booklet including a paper I have written Walking in the Light of the Assembly. It is still a draft, so I would appreciate yourcomments and suggestions before putting it forward for publication. I also include three helpful letters by Charles Coates, and one by J N Darby on the ‘Bethesda’ (ie Open) matter.
May we all have a greater appreciation of the infinite resources available to the Church of Christ, and be filled with grace. We have been forgiven so much, so we are to be ‘kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you’ (Eph 4:32).
Theological Seminaries – Do we need them?
There are many sincere believers, and sound teachers who work in these institutions. There are many earnest young Christians, men and women, desirous of serving the Lord, who attend them, and have gone on to serve Him faithfully. But is there any scriptural basis for them?
I have looked at a few websites recently and there are some noble statements. The Dallas Theological Seminary, for example, is very much influenced by the ministry of John Nelson Darby, and has produced some worthy alumni, such as my friend Paul Wilkinson. It states, ‘The mission of Dallas Theological Seminary is to glorify God by equipping godly servant-leaders for the proclamation of His Word and the building up of the body of Christ worldwide.’ Nobody could criticise that – in fact the church needs more and more workmen. But what do many desire? A Doctor of Ministry degree? A wonderful graduation ceremony in robes? And how much does it cost? not that a degree should be without cost, of course. Timothy was told ‘for those who shall have ministered well obtain for themselves a good degree, and much boldness in faith which [is] in Christ Jesus.’ (I Tim 3:13 JND). They get their degree by ministering; they do not get their degree in order to minister.
Furthermore, like any college, it is a social institution with sports, clubs etc., and you only need to look at Facebook to see that. Nothing wrong, of course, with sport and social activities, but are they part of the church?
There was the School of Tyrannus in Corinth. It was a place to read and discuss the word, and for interested persons to come to the Lord. If it was a formal school, I don’t think it was more than a place of convenience for Paul. Then there was the home of Aquila and Priscilla. I don’t think either had a doctorate, but they were able to take Apollos (who maybe had one) expound unto him the way of God more perfectly (Acts 18:26).
So, maybe the best place to learn is in the assembly. We are to learn in the school of God. There is a good book by James Butler Stoney (1814-1897) – Discipline in the School of God. Maybe this is a good place to start. Though we had best start on our knees first.
Baptism
This is a subject which creates quite a bit of debate. Believers’ baptism, infant baptism, household baptism – which is right? Baptism by water puts us on Christian ground; it puts us into the house. It does not confer salvation on us. It does not put us into the assembly (or church) – By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body (1 Cor 12:13) – That is because of God’s work, and our faith, which itself is God-given. In an earlier project, I translated a very helpful letter, which I have put on ADOSS – see Why I could not be a Baptist. – Believers’ Baptism – Infant Baptism – Household Baptism – the House and the Assembly.
ADOSS Website
Even after a few months, the ADOSS website is getting a bit unwieldy. I am therefore reorganising it, using ‘posts’ rather than ‘pages’ and indexing using categories. Hopefully I shall avoid dead links, but apologies if you find some.
Money, Money, Money
A song of the world, by Abba, I think! But I really get upset when I receive messages, some in heart-breaking terms, asking for money. Maybe there is a genuine need; I don’t know, and cannot judge. I am happy to help a known individual who I have met, and shared Christian experiences together who have a need. Other than that there are organisations who know what local needs are, and are worthy of financial support.
I don’t like saying ‘No’, so please do not ask. I will just point you to our heavenly Father who knows what we need and will give us everything necessary to prove His goodness. Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.3But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt 6:31-33)
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.
_______
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, JN 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.
A summary by Sosthenes of John Nelson Darby’s
Churches and the Church
In this paper, JN 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 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.
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.