A letter bearing the above title has just come to hand, and in view of the subtle misuse of scripture which pervades it, as well as the utter ignorance of the word of God, and confusion of the writer’s own mind, evidenced therein, some notice of it seems called for, as a warning to any who may be deceived by a crafty counterfeit of the enemy. It is, as the writer himself says, with principles not with persons we have to do.
First, there is a painful absence in the letter of any divine conception of the true nature and character of the church, the body of Christ. I cannot find once in all that is written, a sentence which conveys the thought of a divinely Spirit-taught mind as to this great secret and counsel of God before the foundation of the world; he seems never to rise beyond the association of believers on earth, and inasmuch as every association, according to the scripture thought of it, has the fact of one body for its basis, the writer is even in what he treats of, entirely apart from the thoughts and mind of God.
The letter is professedly issued as an exposition of the reasons which led the writer to sever his connection with a company of Christians with whom he had been for some time in fellowship.
But the object of these comments is to point out the perversion and misapplication of scripture which underlies the whole.
On page 2, last paragraph, a number of scriptures are put together, and it is said that these designate in various ways a principle in the New Testament, namely, “Who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love” (Col. 1:1313Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (Colossians 1:13), R.V.). The scriptures so put together are 1 Cor. 1:9; 3:169God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9)
16Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16); Heb. 3:6; 1 Tim. 3:1515But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:15); 1 Peter 2:55Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5), R.V.; Eph. 2:21, 2221In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21‑22), where it is said, “a similar thought is found.” A more sad confusion and perversion of scripture could hardly be found than this. In order to set up what is called a “conditional” fellowship or association, “the kingdom of the Son of his love,” which is a precious unfolding of the Father and the Son, the counsels of the Father accomplished by the Son, the sovereign operation and power of God placing us in an entirely new position and relationship with Himself, this we are told is the same as the “house of God,” where the responsibility of man as a builder is seen, where we are justified in “looking at the outward thing in this world as a building which in pretension, character, and responsibility, is God’s building—yet has been built by man, and built of wood and stubble, so that the work is to be burnt up in the day of judgment which is revealed in fire.” Though he may not be aware of it, the writer of the letter is in the darkness of that confusion and error on which Popery, Puseyism, and the whole ritualistic system is built, namely, he confounds that which Christ builds with that which man builds; but the confusion is seen at its height when it is asserted that 1 Pet. 2:55Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5) “leaves no doubt as to its being a conditional state!” It would be difficult to find a more flagrant perversion of scripture, than to apply to what is called “a conditional state” a passage which speaks of the building in its true perfect adjustment, without any instrumental builder. However differently viewed according to the ministry of each, Paul in Eph. 2:21, 2221In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21‑22), and Peter in the passage in question, as well as Heb. 3—Christ’s house, all speak of the same building; never is it said of that which men build on the foundation laid by Paul the master-builder, that it is “fitly framed together”; there responsibility of builders is found, and man never yet “fitly framed” anything. This confusion loses sight of the true distinction between God’s house, His habitation by the Spirit on earth in its normal condition, and the building the work of man, where wood, hay, stubble are found, what is commonly called Christendom.
Further his statement that the “first principles of gathering” with what he calls “the seven-fold order” are found in Acts 2:41, 4241Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:41‑42) has no foundation in fact. It is well to bear in mind that the Acts is rather a divine record of facts and the actings of the Holy Ghost after His descent at Pentecost, than a book of doctrines and principles.
Now in the passage in question, we find that all was there that God had given; the blessed Spirit had come down, but was in fact circumscribed within the limits of Jerusalem and among Jews: no Gentile had as yet been received, nor was the unity of the body taught, all was yet undeveloped and the union of Jew and Gentile in one body was not, as has been said, “in evidence.” It is very evident from the application of this scripture that the author does not understand the meaning of verse 47. “To the assembly” here is evidently a gloss, and the word found in chapter 3:1 should come in here; it will thus read, “and the Lord was adding day by day together those that were to be saved,” that is, the spared ones at the close of the Jewish dispensation. It is beyond all question a lovely picture which is here presented to us, and that too for but a brief moment; there never had been seen such a picture previously on earth; it was the effect of divine grace, and it was in the name of the once crucified, but now glorified One; yet it was of a transitional character, and as to fact was confined to Jerusalem and Jews, so much so that if the nation had repented, Acts 3 might have been fulfilled. It is not until we come to Paul that we are instructed as to the body of Christ; as soon as the blessed One is rejected entirely, both in humiliation, and from glory, then the great secret is revealed, and the words “Why persecutest thou me?” told out the great fact that Christ was here on earth in His body, the church; now as all church association and fellowship must be on the ground of “one body,” how can any one be clear in respect of the principles of gathering, if they have no true conception of the heavenly nature and character of the church the body of Christ?
Another sad confusion as to scripture is found on page 4, middle paragraph, where John 1:1313Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13) and 10:28, 29 are adduced as evidence of the Lord building His church Himself, and “that we are added thereto unconditionally and eternally.” There is perhaps no part of the letter in which the total absence of any spiritual apprehension of the body of Christ is more apparent than here.
There is not a word in either of these passages in John of the Lord building His church, or our being added thereto; such is not the subject of John’s ministry or apostleship; it is specially and characteristically that of Paul; further, we are not “added thereto,” as the letter asserts; we are, by the Holy Ghost, united to Christ as Man glorified in heaven, and equally united together in one body; the distinction between “adding” and “uniting” is of every importance. It is very certain that independency is hostile to the whole principle of one body. The church is not a voluntary system, not a trace is to be found of the principle of independency, it everywhere speaks of one body on earth, whose unity was, as has been truly said, “the foundation of blessing in fact, and its maintenance the duty of every Christian.” Let the writer of the letter we comment on take care that he is not in principle and in fact on the lines of a new and subtle independency, which is a crafty counterfeit of Satan. “There is one body and one Spirit,” is the divine ground and principle of all gathering and association of saints together, and all who are gathered to His name, would act as one simply because they are one.
To Paul was committed this special ministry. He tells us he was a minister of the church to complete the word of God, and so we are prepared to find the doctrine of the church as the body of Christ, fully set forth in his writings; we find full and detailed unfolding of it in Eph. 1 and chapter 3, in 1 Cor. 10 and chapter 12, and also in Colossians, yet there will not be found therein any such thought as building a body; what we do find is that the risen glorious Man exalted at the right hand of God is the head of His body, the church, and that He was given by God as such to be this—The thought of a building, a habitation of God, is distinct in itself, in it there is no thought of head, or body, or union at all. It is important to see that in Ephesians we have Christ as the glorious Man raised and exalted in glory, Head over all things to the church His body; next we find those dead in sins, whether Jews or Gentiles, children of wrath, quickened together with Christ, raised up together and seated together in Him in heavenly places, as His body, all this being the fruit of the purposes and counsels of God before the foundation of the world; but when we turn to 1 Cor. 12 we see the body of Christ on earth, and maintained in unity by the power of the Holy Ghost. This it is which gives such force to verse 27, “Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular,” that is, they were so in principle as gathered together at Corinth, but not in any wise as separating them from the whole body on earth, but as forming part of it, and on the basis and ground of it in principle and constitution.
As feeling the deep importance of the truths called in question in this letter, as well as the great truth of the moment, the body of Christ on earth, now the object of Satan’s direst opposition in various ways, but chiefly by counterfeit and imitation, I have entered thus into detail, with the earnest desire and prayer that God may open the eyes of the hearts of His people to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.