AN unknown correspondent at the Antipodes asks help, fearful of rejecting truth, whilst resisting error. With all our heart we wish we could help all such in this day of difficulty. A sample of the teaching is given in our correspondent’s letter: ―
“To enter the Sanctuary or Holiest, the bread must first be broken to bring about that condition of soul which permits entrance there, the Lord making Himself known, and leading the praises in the midst. This is reached whilst in ecstasy or outside this scene altogether — here, too, eternal life is touched. It can only take place at stated times — Lord’s Day morning — and only by those in a fit spiritual state.”
It is not difficult to trace the source of all this mysticism, which is but a small part of a vast system of error promulgated and propagated of late years with amazing zeal.
This evil system has been ably, soberly, and fully exposed on both sides of the Atlantic in two pamphlets which are now on sale, and which contain a calm but unsparing examination of its leading features in the light of the Word of God. Our publisher will supply them to any who write to him for them, and we do not further describe them, wishing to keep our pages as free as possible from unhealthy topics of controversy.
“What is the Holiest? When is it entered, and how?”
It is sad indeed that after all the clear light enjoyed on this most important doctrine for the past fifty years such questions need to be asked, not by anxious souls seeking the true peace of the gospel and groping their way out of the darkness of a legal system into the true light of Christianity, but by bewildered souls who have long enjoyed, and that without question, the simple truth of the rent veil and access to God with boldness, now harassed and perplexed by grievous wolves, fearful lest after all the light they rejoiced in were thick darkness.
Must it once more be insisted on that the plain teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews on this point is that the veil is rent and that believers now have boldness to enter into the very presence of God without fear?
But these teachers tell us that there is no rent veil in Hebrews! Do we then enter through an unrent one? In Judaism, while the first tabernacle was yet standing, the veil was unrent, and the Holy Ghost signified thereby that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest (Heb. 9:88The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: (Hebrews 9:8)). But now since the infinite sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ in all its divine perfection, a new and living way has been consecrated for us Christians through the veil. Again, we ask, do Christians enter through an unrent veil? Let the reader forgive the absurdity of the question.
But how do we enter? Scripture answers, “by the blood of Jesus.” These teachers tell us, regardless of this plain scripture, that the breaking of bread is the way of entrance into the assembly or the sanctuary, confounding two totally different lines of truth. In Corinthians, where the doctrine of the assembly is unfolded, nothing is said about the sanctuary; in Hebrews only twice is the assembly mentioned (chap. 2: 12, 12:23), and that in no connection whatever with the holiest of all.
Believers, all believers, not merely some few extra-spiritual ones, have full liberty of access at all times into the holiest, and not merely at stated intervals of time, such as on Lord’s Day morning. The value of the work of Christ is such that we are perfected forever (that is, perpetually or continuously), and the holiest of all is our abiding place of access. We are brought to God, not now and again, but once for all.
And what a slight is put upon that touching institution of the Lord’s Supper! To them it is merely an entrance into the assembly, to be left behind as soon as possible. In Scripture we find it was to be the very object itself for which the saints were to come together (Acts 22:77And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (Acts 22:7); 1 Cor. 11.).
And what is meant by “touching eternal life?” That believers have eternal life is clear from John 3 36, and many similar passages. But this they have from the first moment of believing, and never lose. This unscriptural expression of touching eternal life seems to have taken deep root in this metaphysical system, and has, alas! deprived many of its adherents of the blessed truth, once so simply believed on the authority of God’s Word, that all believers, from the youngest to the eldest, have now, while on this earth, eternal life. Let no sophistry of man rob the reader of this all-important truth!
“What is the difference between Worship and Counion?”
Communion is that attitude of soul in which the Christian should always be. To walk worthy of the Lord in all the circumstances of daily life we need to be in communion. To serve the Lord in the gospel we need to be in communion. To serve the Lord in the ministry of the Word we need to be in communion. To worship and adore we need to be in communion.
But this system teaches that communion is a sort of ecstatic condition only reached when gathered together or abstracted from the circumstances of daily life — not even preaching the gospel are you in communion, they say; and actually the blasphemous point was reached that the Lord Himself was not always in communion, as in speaking to the woman at Sychar’s well — but this is horrible.
May the Lord deliver a multitude of His people from these and similar soul-withering speculations! — ED.
“The believer is admitted into God’s own presence by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; he has constant access to God, immediate access to the place where He is in the light. What complete salvation, what blessedness, what security!... We go in perfect liberty to God, where His holiness dwells, and where nothing that is contrary to Him can be admitted...This is our position in the presence of God through the entrance of Christ into the sanctuary.... For us the veil is rent, and that which rent the veil in order to admit us has likewise put away the sin which shut us out.”
J. N. D.