Plymouth
Brethren Emulators
(circa 1970)
Miles
J. Stanford
The
Little Flock Movement
The late Watchman Nee was the
Chinese founder and leader of the assembly-type movement named after the
Brethren The Little Flock hymnal--although it had no connection with
the Plymouth Brethren movement. Having
emerged in the early 1920’s, by 1950 there were some 200 assemblies
established in China, with numbers of them spreading later into Taiwan and
other parts of Asia.
Nee sought to pattern the
assemblies after the New Testament, and they turned out to be a combination
of his extreme views, Darby’s closed views, Muller’s open views, and T.
Austin-Sparks’ moderate views. The
stress was on locality--each group an independent unit representing the
Church in its particular area. In the larger cities, each assembly was
to be in a different postal zone. Believers were required to attend
the gathering in their particular home area or zone, none other. Like
the Brethren, a number of the assemblies would congregate centrally from
time to time for a weekend teaching conference.
China being largely
unevangelized, Nee formulated an extensive year-long program for training
believers in evangelism and soul-winning. His further emphasis was
that of growth based on the identification truths. His classic, The
Normal Christian Life, depicts the latter.
In his tendency toward
extremism, Nee went into the "warfare" teaching of Mrs. Jessie
Penn-Lewis and Evan Roberts via their dangerous book, War on the Saints.
Hence much of the good of Nee’s ministry and writings (some thirty volumes
of his messages are in print at present-circa '70s) has been overshadowed by
errors such as the Arminian "baptism in the Holy Ghost" for power
in service and spiritual warfare, exercise of sign gifts (tongues not
stressed), healing in the atonement, inner light and intuitive revelation,
demon possession of believers, and exorcism.
Nee also taught a split, or
partial Rapture, i.e., the "overcomers" will be caught up prior to
the Tribulation, the "unprepared" believers will experience the
holocaust. All of the teachings mentioned here are in his books, The
Release of the Spirit, and The
Spiritual Man.
In 1952, as leader of the
Little Flock movement, Nee was imprisoned in Shanghai by the
Communists. Twenty years later, in early 1972, he was released.
A few months thereafter, at three-score and ten years, the venerable
Watchman Nee went to be with his Lord.
In 1955-56 the Little Flock
movement was crushed by the people (government-backed) as
"counter-revolutionary." Several months later the movement
was completely reorganized and formally joined the Three Self
movement. "Three Self" stands for self-governing,
self-supporting, and self-propagating. What it really means to the
Reds [Chinese Communists] is freedom from imperialist control, imperialist
finance, and imperialist "poison."
[Update February 14, 2004:
The Tu Du Sha Church, founded by followers of missionary Hudson Taylor and
his China Inland Mission, was bulldozed to the ground on June 26, 2003 in a
crackdown by Chinese Communists. Weekly attendance had grown to 1,500.
Two hundred military policemen in more than forty vehicles descended upon
300 Chinese Christians gathered in prayer. Video tape of the
destruction was smuggled out of the country. Portions of the video
footage are available on the
Voice of the
Martyrs website.
After nearly fifty years, the
Chinese government still considers all Protestant churches outside the
official government-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Movement to be
subversive. Those that join Three Self are restricted in their
doctrine and practice. Christians are regularly beaten, tortured, and
put to death. Consequently, most Protestants and genuine born-again
Christians remain underground.
Webcurator]
The
Witness Lee Movement
A disciple of Watchman Nee,
Witness Lee founded his assembly movement in Los Angeles some twenty years
ago. Since that time he and his followers have been setting up
numerous gatherings throughout the country. Formerly, he was active in
China and Taiwan.
A typical feature of all
assembly-type movements is their subjection to the domination of their
founders. An exception is the open Brethren; their individual
assemblies are usually held in line by one or more local leaders. But
within the history, of assembly leadership, Witness Lee takes precedence in
being the autocrat of them all, including Darby and Sparks. And as for
extreme teachings, he has outstripped his mentor.
The large and noisy ruling
assembly from which Lee governs all is named "The Church in Los
Angeles." He maintains that God is present only in their local
assemblies. All others are outside the will and blessing of God.
He stresses that Christian "victory" is not gained by teaching,
doctrine, or prayer, but just four words of praise. The assemblies
often repeat in unison, either spoken, sung, or shouted: "O Lord, Amen,
Hallelujah"
Lee’s method of teaching and
control is a definite form of brainwashing. All who join his
assemblies are admonished to forget all the doctrine they ever knew, and
submit to the ways and teachings of the Leeites. Some disgruntled open
Brethren have gone over to Lee, and because of a resemblance to the Children
of God movement, many Jesus People have also joined the ranks.
[Webcurator Note: Also see,
Watchman Nee &
Witness Lee]
The
New Testament Missionary Union (NTMU)
Over fifty years ago Alexander
R. Hay founded his assembly union that has concerned itself mainly with
mission work in Argentina. The organization is patterned along
exclusive lines--assemblies must keep the unity by complying with the
decisions of each individual gathering. Due to the powerful leadership
and control of Hay, there have been very few divisions during the years of
development.
Twenty years ago Hay taught
that tongues were a valid gift* for the present dispensation, although the
movement does not advocate their practice. Recently [circa '70s] he has attributed
all manifestations of tongues to demon activity. He also teaches that
believers can be demon-possessed. Some of these extremes tend to
counteract his otherwise clear teaching of the identification truths for
growth. The sad assembly story repeated--lack of doctrinal balance.
[* - "All the evidence proves
without any possibility of doubt that the gift of tongues is not manifested
today except in comparatively rare instances and for a special purpose,
and that it usually occurs in the case of individuals when alone."
"We deplore the modern counterfeit of the gift of tongues, but we do not
feel that this passage [1 Cor.13:8-13] gives any ground for saying that any
gift has ceased." "It is not said that these gifts [tongues, prophecy,
and knowledge] shall cease during the Church Dispensation but "when that
which is perfect is come." [Underline emphasis and bracketed
inclusions mine] The New Testament Order for Church and
Missionary, ARH, page 197 & 198. This so-called “exception” has
time-and-again opened a doctrinal door for believers to go out into the
charismatic realm, and for charismatic doctrine to come in. Read
THE LINE
DRAWN. The NTMU has recently established a website, and
the union's current efforts are said to have shifted from “western” workers
to “Latin American and African men and women.” In
keeping with its aberrant doctrinal
legacy, the website recommends Watchman Nee's Release of the Spirit
(mentioned above), holds to "healing in the atonement" a la
A.B.Simpson, lauds the disastrous 1904-05 Welsh Revival (see
THE RED
LETTERS) (the website's Dutch editor, Jim van Heiningen, lays
claim to being "4th generation fruit" of the revival), and also links to
indeterminist Dave Hunt's
Berean Call and one-naturist
Charles
Solomon's Grace Fellowship International.
Webcurator]
The
Honor Oak Movement
It may be noted that the
majority of these Brethren-type assembly movements took root in the early
1920’s. At that time, in the Honor Oak suburb of London, the Rev. T.
Austin-Sparks and most of his Baptist congregation began to gather in
assembly fashion.
This shift came about through
Sparks’ study of the Word and the writings of Darby. Although
hundreds of other congregations have become a part of the Plymouth Brethren
movement, Sparks and his followers have remained apart, and are known as the
Honor Oak movement.
Sparks had begun to experience
the reality of the identification truths for spiritual growth, and at the
same time realized the worth of assembly-type gathering for the
implementation of growth and worship. A further vital factor was that
through his observation of the many exclusive assemblies in London he saw
the danger of overemphasizing the gathering principle, and he also saw the
necessity for scriptural balance of Body and growth truths. This is
not to say that he was able to maintain that balance.
By allowing growth in Christ to
be the motivating and sustaining principle of their assemblies, Sparks and
his people sought to avoid the Brethren division dilemma resulting from
their over-emphasis of the ground-of-gathering rule. In a letter
written shortly before his homegoing several years ago, Sparks wrote:
We have never sought to set
out any techniques or stereotyped order for church or body life. The
simple meeting for instruction, prayer, worship and corporate building up
of the believer, and outreach to the unsaved, under the Headship of Christ
and the government of the Holy Spirit is, I think, all that is needed.
"There are many
accretions and additions to this which have become
"Christianity" (?), and may have to be shed. But we do not
and cannot start from the outside. Someone as leader must know
scripturally and experientially the reality of Galatians 1:15, 16--the
revelation of God’s Son, and--like Paul--start from there.
"It is the scriptural
vision of Christ which is the basis and beginning of the Church, and
churches (universal and local). This usually, and in principle,
results from a true realization and experience of our identification with
Christ as in Romans Six.
It remains to be seen how the
Honor Oak movement will fare apart from the compelling control of Sparks.
Other
Brethren Emulators
Thus far we have sought to
depict the established Body life movements such as the Plymouth Brethren and
some of its emulators. Others in this category, though not touched
upon, are controlled by Bakht Singh in India, Poul Madsen in Denmark, and
Stephen Kaung (another Nee disciple) in the United States east coast
area. All of these have kept separate from the established Church,
also.
The motivating principle of
these bodies is to hew as closely as possible to the New Testament pattern
as they see it, for worship, instruction, and service. But the means
by which all of these movements seek to carry out that pattern is
identical--complete, over-powering leadership control, whether it be a
single leader or a number of leaders.
The
Neo-Body Life Movement
Only within the past ten years
has this church-related movement begun to emerge. Although it
approximates the assembly form of gathering, there is no real semblance of
the Body life of the Brethren.
This new Body life is not an
attempt to establish local expressions of the New Testament Church outside
the established organizations. It is rather an effort to change the
pulpit-pew churches into New Testament expressions via the Body
method. It works from within the church.
Who?
If we look first at the main
stream of this new movement we will be better able to recognize some of its
tributaries, as well as the "theology" that underlies the
whole. And if we can discover who has been fostering this
church-changing scheme, much will be known about it from the outset.
At first glance it would seem
to be biblically sound New Testament Body life because it is being promoted
in some evangelical Bible colleges and seminaries. It is also being
taught through books and seminars written and conducted by faculty members
of such institutions as Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Dallas Theological
Seminary, and Wheaton College. Furthermore, it has the blessing of
Billy Graham and other neo-evangelical leaders.
Faith
At Work Infiltration
Upon examination of the
Neo-Body Life literature, it soon becomes evident that the primary source of
much of this material and method is outside even the neo-evangelical
sphere. The real power behind the throne, so to speak, is the liberal
and sensitivity training-oriented Faith at Work movement. (See Tri-S
- Series II.)
Even in much of the Body life
material that is written by sound evangelicals, one finds many references to
FAW methods. Their recommended book lists include such FAW writers as:
Walden Howard, Bruce Larson, Robert Raines, Lyman Coleman, Keith Miller,
Norman Vincent Peale, Eugenia Price, Rosalind Rinker, and Elton Trueblood.
Other writers who have made contributions to this movement are Leslie
Weatherbead, Harry Emerson Fosdick, and Paul Tournier. It matters not
that respected evangelicals bring these leaders and their church renewal
schemes to us; such names are not for us to reckon with, but to recoil from!
For the past ten years FAW
leaders have been marshalling a big push to promote what they call
"church renewal." The response to this desperate drive has
been chiefly among liberal, denominational churches--most of which not only
need renewal, but life itself.
Most conservative churches have
shied away from the obvious sensitivity training content of the
program. But now that the group therapy method has been taken up by a
number of evangelical leaders, evangelicalized and renamed with the New
Testament-sounding "Body Life," many of these churches have felt
it safe to respond.
Why?
What are some of the ways by
which a church is taken over by the Body life concept? How is it
accomplished? First, it may be through. the pastor’s
initiative. He has already tried various means to become a ‘‘successful"
pastor and to get the church "revived," but nothing has produced
the desired results.
The congregation being so dead
(!), he is wondering if it might not be the better part of valor to step out
of the-ministry completely or make one final effort by attending one of the
many "success" seminars. He might try the Narramore
"Biblical Psychology" course, the Solomon "Spirituotherapy"
workshop, the Hyles-Rice multiple bus method, the Gothard Youth Conflicts
Institute, a Faith at Work "Festival of Hope," a Hazel
Goddard--Dr. Mary Breme "Pastor’s Training and Self-Awareness
Conference," or one of the many Body Life clinics.
If he should decide upon the
latter--it being the "in" thing at the moment--his parishioners
are soon informed that they are far from the New Testament pattern of
corporate oneness, exercise of gifts, love, joy, and power. Before
long the evening meeting, if not the morning service also, is transformed
into a mutual sharing session. The pastor forsakes the pulpit for a
stool to come down to the level of the laymen, who have been encouraged to
share testimonies and Bible bits.
Such drastic measures are
enthusiastically responded to by the younger and more progressive
element. The conservative and more mature believers are often forced
out of the picture. Those who have faithfully and sacrificially
founded and supported the church all through the years have no choice but to
leave and fellowship elsewhere.
Or, neo-Body life may invade a
church via a youth leader or assistant pastor fresh from Bible college or
seminary, since all too many evangelical schools today include this
"theology" in their training. And how does such a thing
become a part of a school’s curriculum? Happily, almost never from
the top. Unhappily, almost always from the more avant garde
element of the faculty. Still, it is the "top" that condones
it.
Church
Infiltration
The infiltration accomplished
by these neo-Body life advocates is usually through the young people.
Their goal is to "revive" the young adult or youth groups and
through them "turn on" the rest of the church. The material
used is often Lyman Coleman’s "Serendipity" packet
of FAW group sensitivity techniques, produced by Word, Inc. (Interestingly
and indicatively, Word, Inc., has recently been purchased by the American
Broadcasting Company.)
Coleman’s packaged program
utilizes psychedelic light, sound, color, and trains young people in how to:
"get in touch with yourself, affirm your strengths, be a ‘self-actualized’
person, build small group interpersonal relationships, encounter biblical
truth on a feeling level, relate Scripture to group process, and experiment
in Bible study by using new ‘sensitivity’ techniques."
The spiritually struggling
church or school is prone to grasp at the methods of the world in an effort
to succeed. They become enamored of a particular success scheme by the
time the world has discovered that it doesn’t work and has begun to
discard it for the next thing that comes along.
Sensitivity
Training
Whatever worldly tactics the
church adopts, it immediately seeks to "Christianize" them for the
acceptance and utilization of its constituency. In this instance the
source is raw sensitivity training via the National Training Laboratories
and Eselen, via Faith at Work, via neo-evangelical leaders, via a few
evangelical seminary faculty members--until it is modified and codified to
become neo-Body life and Interpersonal Theology.
While this is being highly
touted by many Christian leaders as the New Testament answer to the problems
of the Church, the psychiatric profession has already "discovered"
that sensitivity training is not only worthless, but dangerous. Such
periodicals as Psychology Today and the Journal of Humanistic
Psychology have backed off from their former stand and are now
denouncing the entire theory and movement.
In the Journal mentioned above,
Dr. Sigmund Kock, Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at Boston
University recently wrote (pardon his venal verbiage!):
It is my assessment that the
group movement is the most extreme excursion thus far of man’s talent
for reduction, distortion, evading and vulgarizing his own reality.
It is also the most poignant exercise of that talent, for it seeks and
promises to do the very reverse.
It is adept at the
image-making maneuver of evading human reality in the very process of
seeking to discover and enhance it... It provides, in effect, a
convenient psychic bawdyhouse for the purchase of a gamut of
well-advertised existential "goodies"; authenticity, freedom,
wholeness, flexibility, community, love, joy, peace. One enters for
such liberating consummations but settles for psychic striptease.
Neo-Body
Life And Interpersonal Theology
In varying degrees, this new
movement is based upon a combination of Scripture and so-called
Interpersonal Theology. It is a technique combining psychology and the
use of sensitivity training in group therapy, in an effort to make the Bible
relevant to life.
As a result, the Word of God is
manipulated and muffled by humanistic psychological methods and goals.
This type of "theology" is interested in psychological wholeness,
rather than doctrinal correctness. Its focal point, its object, is not
Christ but man. Therefore, Neo-Body Life stands condemned as
self-centered.
-
The
first and fatal flaw in this theology is that it is interpersonal:
person-to-person, rather than person-to-God. The individual is
taught to accept himself as he is, and others as they are. It is
corporate Body life at any price: "I’m OK, you’re OK" - a
sort of unreality therapy.
-
Instead
of "thus saith the Lord," their chief "use"
of Scripture is for building up the individual’s self-esteem and
self-image for confidence in himself and toleration of others. It
is sought by this means to create a better person, thereby to improve
the Church and the world in general. Christian service tends to be
the economic, the political, the social.
-
The
accusation of interpersonal theology is that the Church is under the
domination of one-man rule, the members are cold and impersonal, and are
lacking in concern for the world’s economic and social problems.
What this new movement calls for is the small group concept where all
personal barriers are to come down via open confession, and where there
is mutual ministry in order to create oneness and understanding.
-
Those
holding this theology insist that the fundamental truths of the Word of
God have not been adequate to produce mentally and spiritually mature
persons, those who are able to cope with themselves, others, and the
exigencies of life. Their claim is that Bible truth must be
supplemented by psychological factors in order to produce healthy Body
life.
-
This
system calls for complete honesty in sharing all with all as the means
of creating corporate unity. The focus is upon the group instead
of God. The Lord Jesus never set such an indiscriminate example of
sharing: "But Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he
knew all men" (John 2:24).
-
Besides
being completely frank and earnest, each is to minister to the other by
sharing and rebuking. But the sharing soon dwindles to a
reciprocation of ignorance; the Bible classes and study groups become
little more than Christian sensitivity sessions where people simply talk
about themselves. It is
claimed that the individual cannot mature alone but only by
interrelating with the whole body. However, the group therapy
scheme always degenerates to its own lowest level--the weak and the
blind leading the blind and the weak. The Word says,
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye who are
spiritual restore such an one...in the spirit of meekness"
(Gal. 6:1).
-
Interpersonal
Body life contains, among other things, a strong element of
Arminianism. The individual is urged to develop and freely
exercise his "gift," little or no distinction being made
between present-day gifts of the Spirit that are for the edification of
the Body, and the sign gifts that are not for this dispensation.
Besides regarding gifts and talents as synonymous, this theology
stresses gifts to the detriment of spiritual growth; and in many cases
hinges the use of gifts upon the "baptism in the Holy
Ghost"--thereby creating the ground (sand) for charismatic errors
and excesses.
-
This
theology is low on Scripture and high on experience; a combination of
the Covenant amillennial kingdom-building by means of the Arminian
charismata. There is only one way for the church to go once it is
in the grip of interpersonal theology, and that is to be dragged
downward. Self can neither pick itself up, nor cast itself
out. The Cross for the self-life does not exist in this theology;
the identification truths for growth are not a part of this neo-Body
life.
"Conservative
Radicalism"
There is a harsh radical and
rebellious faction within the neo-Body realm, mainly student-centered.
This element seeks to bring down the Establishment, including the Church and
present form of federal government. Their creed is more political and
social than scriptural, and is probably most clearly expressed in the recent
Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern, now known as "The Chicago
Declaration."
Social
Declaration
A cross-section listing of
those who formulated and those who signed this Social Declaration should
give each of us pause for thought. Besides "evangelical
radical" students, the who’s who includes: Sharon Gallagher, editor
of Christian World Liberation Front’s paper, Right On; Samuel Escobar,
IVCF’s director in Canada; Carl Henry, ex-editor of the neo-evangelical Christianity
Today; Carl Thomas McIntire, of Toronto’s Institute of
Christian Studies (leftish son of Dr. Carl McIntire); William Petersen,
editor of Eternity; Bernard Ramm, professor at California Baptist Seminary;
Foy Valentine, Southern Baptist social-concerns executive; Joseph Bayly,
author; Jim Wallis, editor of The sojourner; Paul Henry, of Calvin College;
Wes Michaelson, aide to Senator Mark Hatfield; Myron Augsburger, president
of Eastern Mennonite College; William Pannell, of Tom Skinner Associates;
Frank Gaebelein, former headmaster of Stony Brook School; Rufus Jones,
Conservative Baptist executive; David Moberg, professor of Sociology at
Marquette University; and Lewis Smedes, theologian at Fuller Seminary.
Social
Tabloid
One of the propaganda papers of
this radical party is the sub-culture tabloid, The Post-American.
Its motto is, "Our faith must be distinctively
post-American." This particular small, but typically vocal,
radical nucleus is composed mainly of students and grads centered about
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. It must be
said that their attitude and aim do not reflect those of the school as a
whole.
Anti-Social
The trouble with these young
Turks is that in their laying about with their curved swords to cut down the
Establishment, their inexperience and blood-thirsty spirit is causing them
to cut themselves asunder. I n living by the sword, the movement is being
hopelessly divided by the same sword.
Social
Textbook
The present
"textbook" of this movement within a movement is Richard
Quebedeaux’s The Young Evangelicals. One of their patron
saints is Dietrich Bonhoeffer with his non-doctrinal discipleship.
Fuller Seminary is one of the sources of their "revolutionary biblical
Orthodoxy."
Although this type of Body life
gathers in cells outside the established church, the young evangelical
radicals are urged to become "subversive" for Christ in their home
churches. Their "truly evangelical social Gospel" calls for
the "proper use of political power and economic pressure" to bring
about "a more just acquisition and redistribution of the nation’s
wealth and services." In all of this burden concerning the woes
of the world, there is nary a word in opposition to Marxism or
Communism.
Despite their progressive
stance and challenge, they still advocate and utilize sensitivity training,
transactional analysis, and group encounter in their version of
interpersonal theology. Like so many others, they see the
"wrongs" but fall short of producing the "rights" for
replacement.
Final
Analysis
We have come a long way from
the Body-beginnings in Dublin, haven’t
we? After what we have seen develop, it will be a relief to return to
a more biblical expression of Body life for some pertinent questions and, we
trust, some scriptural answers.
Back
To The Brethren
It is to the Brethren that we
shall turn once more, because if the spiritual solution to their problem is
clearly presented it will be accessible not only to them but to all others
seeking after true Body life. The questions might reflect serious and
complicated problems, but we can be thankful that our Father’s scriptural
answer is simplicity itself.
How is it possible that the
once-marvelous movement of the Plymouth Brethren became such a terrible
spectacle to both men and angels after just twenty brief years? With
their godly leadership and constituency second to none since the
first-century Christians, how could they engage one another, over a single
point of assembly procedure, in such an un-Christlike and devastating civil
war?
The very purpose of the
Brethren was, and is, to experience and maintain the oneness that is theirs
in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. The method they chose to accomplish
that goal was to them as close to the New Testament pattern as
possible. Yet, after so brief a time they suddenly became and have
since remained a by-word both within and without the Church. For all
their doctrinal and ecclesiastical advantages, they have not been able to
"keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"
(Eph. 4:3).
Enigma
Should it not alert one when it
is realized that the very foundation of the Brethren movement--their New
Testament ground of gathering--has been the chief cause of their divisions
and battles over the past 130 years? Their rejoinder is that the Body
truths and principles are not at fault, but the people are to blame.
Most of the leadership’s
attention and labor through the years has been focused upon their
assemblyism in an effort to maintain their status quo. As a matter of
fact, the assembly leaders dominate their people to a degree that few sound
pastors and church boards would ever dare attempt. There is
something questionable about a concept requiring that much control while
producing that much chaos! As Dr. D.G. Barnhouse once mused,
"The Plymouth Brethren claim to have no leadership except that of the
Holy Spirit, but they have the neatest little system!"
Reversed
Ground
May it not be that the Plymouth
Brethren constitute the Church’s classic example of the error of truth
unduly emphasized? The dear Brethren have become enslaved by their
fight for freedom. In their extreme emphasis upon the gathering
truths they have inadvertently de-emphasized, and even missed, the growth
truths! They have depended upon gathering for growth, instead
of the exact opposite: the truly scriptural principle of growth for
gathering!
This is the answer we submit
for the Brethren dilemma. The movement commenced on the basis of
healthy spiritual growth, with loving and harmonious gathering as the
result. But as soon as the emphasis veered to the maintenance of their
ground of gathering, they slipped off the ground of growth, and
allowed it to become fallow!
Twenty-five years ago Sparks
revealed the very crux of the Brethren misstep and subsequent failure, when
he wrote:
There are some who seem to
think that it is all or largely a matter of order and technique, and if we
were to return to New Testament order of assemblies all would be
well. The fact is that, while certain things characterize the New
Testament churches, the New Testament does not give us a complete pattern
according to which churches are to be set up or formed!
There is no blue-print for
church in the New Testament, and to try to form such is to create another
system which may be as legal, sectarian and dead as others.
Churches, like the Church, are organisms which spring out of life, which
life itself emerges out of the Cross of Christ wrought into the very being
of believers. Unless Christians are crucified and risen people,
there can be no true expression of the body life of the Church!
The
Centrality Of The Cross
There it is--God’s answer:
the Cross! Where did Sparks find this key? He obtained it
from the Word of God with the assistance of Darby’s writings. How
ironic! The positional truths of our identification with the Lord
Jesus in His crucified, risen and ascended life have always been a Brethren
possession. But for the most part they have failed to possess their
possessions because of their preoccupation with the ground of gathering
issue.
Pro-
And Anti-Darby
To the open Brethren the name
of Darby is anathema. Was he not the culprit who shattered the
wonderful Body life movement over a century ago with his erroneous
exclusivistic views? Yet these same Brethren unwittingly but
scrupulously adhere to Darby’s assembly pattern, with the exception of one
point. However, they have had little or nothing to do with his most
valuable contribution to the spiritual health of all true Body life: his
writings concerning the identification truths of the Cross for the death of
the old nature, and the risen Lord as Life for the new nature.
If the truths entrusted by the
Lord to the Brethren had been held in biblical balance, with the Cross and
the Christ-life central, there would never have been the initial rupture
between Darby and Muller, not to mention the multiple fragmentation since
that sad day.
Objectivity
Even where the open Brethren
know the positional principles and truths, in most instances they make sure
to keep them very objective, thereby failing to experience their
reality. Ever since the days of the Irvingites (1830’s), the
Brethren have been deathly afraid of the extreme subjectivity of the
charismatics. The basic Brethren problem is doctrinal imbalance--for
them the manner of gathering (ground) takes precedence over the means
of gathering (growth).
Sparks had an understanding of
the Brethren in this, too:
There is a very large body of
believers who just will not have the Cross on its subjective or
experiential side. If the old man remains free to influence the
realm of Divine things, there is bound to ensue a static system of
teaching, a fixed horizon of vision, a legal bondage to tradition, a fear
of man, a deadening domination of the "letter" as separated from
the "spirit," and many other unhappy situations of spiritual
death, endless divisions, and spiritual pride.
Paul’s remedy for
traditionalism and legalism in relation to Christians, was co-crucifixion
with Christ, as seen in Romans and Galatians. The same remedy was
set forth for all the painful works of carnality amongst believers, as
seen in 2 Corinthians.
Awakening
During the past ten years or so
there has been a definite awakening and hunger among believers for spiritual
growth in Christ, i.e., to be conformed to His image (2 Cor. 3:18).
This includes a heartening number of the Open Brethren. Some of their
leaders, especially within the newer assemblies, are beginning to see that
true individual identification with and growth in Christ risen provide the
unifying ground of corporate oneness for which they are so heavily burdened.
However, the real awakening for
spiritual growth thus far has been taking place in sound, Bible-based
churches. This has not been in the pulpit-pew context as much as
through awakened pastors and others leading groups within the
membership--hungry hearts studying the growth truths in the Word along with
explanatory literature.
The
Cross
It is not necessary to alter
one’s manner of gathering in order to obtain growth and oneness in
Christ. The ground of growth consists of the Cross to deal with the
old nature, and the ascended life of the Lord Jesus as the source of the new
nature. Here is the scriptural Body truth and the foundation of
oneness, whether in a church or a "chapel."
It is obviously true that a
vast number of evangelical churches and assemblies are in great spiritual
need, plagued by boldness, immaturity, lack of fellowship and worship, as
well as effective sources of soul-winning and other beneficial outreaches to
the lost world. And this has been the case centuries before
interpersonal theology and its brand of Body life were conceived.
For the needs both of church
and assembly, there is a scriptural answer--but it is emphatically not
interpersonal theology. For the sound church, it is not necessary to
tear out the pews, do away with the pulpit and go concentric, relying upon a
group therapy technique for maturity and oneness. With all the
scriptural truth already held, the "one thing thou lackest"
is the message of the Cross in order that the deadly old nature might be
dealt with. Interpersonal Body life gives life to the old man,
not death!
Scriptural
Balance
Open Brethren assembly needs
are the same as church needs. The one truth yet required to bring all
into scriptural balance is the finished work of the Cross ministered and
progressively experienced in the life of each believer. "For
we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (and
in our assembly!) (2 Cor. 4:11).
Scriptural balance is all that
the open assemblies need. It is all that any fellowship of believers
requires--whether moderate or radical! When the Cross is given its
central position in the Body, all else will ultimately have its place in the
unified whole. When the Cross is allowed to deal with the divisive old
man, the Christ-life of the Body will begin to flourish and flow--all one in
Him, both positionally and experientially.
Implementation
Although there is neither
church nor assembly that is wholly ready to comprehend the identification
truths, there is always a small company that is yearning to be free from the
domination of the old nature and hungering to grow in the new nature.
In most cases, these awakened believers have either studied on their own, or
in small home groups, and/or attended Keswick and "deeper life"
conferences.
Happily, more and more of these
conditioned ones are being ministered to for growth in their own churches by
their pastor or teacher. This is not done from the pulpit in the
regular services, but rather in a class purposely arranged for those who
have been readied by the Holy Spirit. As these individuals and couples
grow, they in turn become an en-hungering and preparing influence upon
others in the church, thus affecting the overall spiritual condition of the
Body.
It is the Cross, rather than
therapy, that brings life out of death. "Not I, but
Christ"; "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in
God"; "For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’
sake, that the life also of Jesus right be made manifest in our mortal
body"; "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God in Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3; 2
Cor. 4:11; Rom. 6:11).