Unity claims amid Rebellion thrust: Considering Spurgeon’s advice

Koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; Thd); Visiting Professor, Department of Liberal Education, Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia

[North American Division president Dan Jackson said in his speech after loosing 41 to 59 on Woman Ordination]

“Jackson also reminded the delegates that they were still members of the world church, and emphasized that NAD was not in rebellion, and that under his leadership, they never would be in rebellion” (Sahlin 2015).

Compare this unbiblical pro-modern culture insistence and pushdrive with Lucifer’s reaction in Patriarch and Prophets, 38

“While secretly formenting discord and rebellion, he with consummate craft caused it to appear as his sole purpose to promote loyalty and to preserve harmony and peace.”

Jan Paulsen [ex-president of the General Conference and supported of the pro-woman ordination issue] stood up during the meeting to ask delegates of other Divisions to basically vote yes so that the Book of Judges can be true: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes”. That is a move away from the Books of Moses: “Everyone was following the Torah of God”. A lady stood up and reminded the discontented other Divisions that the leaders in the NAD do not represent their members.

The aftermath had president Dan Jackson gather his teams and people of the 41% in a side-room for an afterglow. And afterglow it was, as the words above revealed. Another afterglow in days after the event is the circular by an emeritus professor in New Testament and supported of Paulsen’s “for the sake of unity tolerate the wrongs and let them be” pushdrive by an email-forward call to let Paulsen know that all liked what he did. The mail arrived in our mailbox as well. Discretion is needed.

Should one congratulate Paulsen with a letter of support after he suggested a Book of Judges approach to let everyone do what is right in their own eyes, brushing Moses’ Torah and biblical tenets aside and let analogia entis or prevailing experience guide the church? Is it disunity to say “no” to woman-ordination and is it unity to say “yes”?

On this seesaw of matters the no-vote is strictly biblical and fundamentally literally so. The yes-vote is pragmatically trying to fill the corners of their decision with contemporary practices and feelings and trends and tides thereof. It is the Bible against Reason/experience. What the opposition of 41% wanted is that they should be embraced and the church should close their eyes to non-biblical practices and just for the sake of unity move on.

It appears that intelligentsia in the yes for woman ordination pushdrive think that current president Ted Wilson is divisive and past president Jan Paulsen was for unity. But is it?

A blogger on Adventist Today by the name of Sam Deli mentioned that the great preacher Charles H. Spurgeon preached on “True Unity Promoted” on the 1^st of January 1865. It is worth looking at some principles of Spurgeon in this hour.

Spurgeon on unity of the Spirit

Spurgeon opened his sermon with “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3. Then Spurgeon unwind that is to be understood by unity of the Spirit:

“The unity of error, of false doctrine, and of priest-craft may have in it the spirit of Satan—we do not doubt that—but that it is the unity of the Spirit of God we do utterly deny!

The unity of evil we are to break down by every weapon which our hands can grasp—the unity of the Spirit which we are to maintain and foster is quite another thing. Remember that we are forbidden to do evil that good may come; and it is evil to restrain the witness of the Spirit of God within us! To conceal any truth of God which we have learned by revelation of God is evil; to hold back from testifying for God’s truth and Word—against the sin and folly of man’s inventions—would be sin of the blackest hue.

We dare not commit the sin of quenching the Holy Spirit even though it were with the view of promoting unity!

The unity of the Spirit never requires any sinful support—that is maintained not by suppressing the truth of God, but by publishing it abroad; the unity of the Spirit has for its pillars, among other things, the witnessing of spiritually enlightened saints to the one faith which God has revealed in His Word.

That is quite another unity which would gag our mouths, and turn us all into dumb driven cattle to be fed or slaughtered at the will of priestly masters.”

If something presented or pushed for is not biblical, it is error, says Spurgeon and we are absolutely to resist it. Spurgeon makes it clear that a soft approach of embracing tolerance is not expected from the Christian:

Unity of the Spirit never requires suppressing of biblical truth or sinful support

“The unity of the Spirit never requires any sinful support—that is maintained not by suppressing the truth of God, but by publishing it abroad; the unity of the Spirit has for its pillars, among other things, the witnessing of spiritually enlightened saints to the one faith which God has revealed in His Word.

That is quite another unity which would gag our mouths, and turn us all into dumb driven cattle to be fed or slaughtered at the will of priestly masters.”

Unity of locusts have one common object: ruin

Spurgeon indicated that the unity of the wrong can have devastating effects on a church:

“There is a unity which is seldom broken—the unity of devils who, under the service of their great liege master, never disagree and quarrel. From this terrible unity keep us, O God of heaven! The unity of locusts have one common object—the glutting of themselves to the ruin of all around. The unity of the waves of Tophet’s fire, sweeping myriads into deeper misery—from this also, O King of heaven, save us forevermore. May God perpetually send some prophet who shall cry aloud to the world, “Your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand.” May there always be found some men, though they are rough as Amos, or stern as Haggai, who shall denounce again and again all league with error, and all compromise with sin, and declare that these are the abhorrence of God! Never dream that holy contention is at all a violation of my text. The destruction of every sort of union which is not based on the truth of God is a preliminary to the edification of the unity of the Spirit.

We must first sweep away these walls of untempered mortar—these tottering fences of man’s building— before there can be room to lay the goodly stones of Jerusalem’s walls one upon the other for lasting and enduring prosperity.”

Unity is not uniformity but also not permissive outside-biblicalness

Spurgeon then went on to explain what the text of Ephesians means by unity of the Spirit. It is not uniformity. However, a close look at his words does not mean that he is promoting a  permissive outside biblical-ness.

“The exhortation runs thus—“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.”

Again, you will observe it does not say, “Endeavoring to keep the uniformity of the Spirit.” The Spirit does not recognize uniformity. The analogy of His work in nature is against it; the flowers are not all tinted with the same hue, nor do they exhale the same odors; there is variety everywhere in the work of God. If I glance at providence, I do not perceive that any two events happen after the same form—the page of history is varied. If, therefore, I look into the Church of God, I do not expect to find that all Christians pronounce the same slogans or see with the same eyes. The same, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,” we rejoice to recognize, but as to uniformity of dress, liturgical verbiage, or form of worship, I find nothing of it in Scripture. Men may pray acceptably standing, sitting, kneeling, or lying with their faces upon the earth; they may meet with Jesus by the river’s side, in the Temple porch, in a prison, or in a private house, and they may be one in the same Spirit, although the one regards a day and the other regards it not. So what is this unity of the Spirit? I trust, dear brethren, that we know it by having it in possession; it is most certain that we cannot keep the unity of the Spirit if we don’t already have it! Let us ask ourselves the question, “Have we the unity of the Spirit?” None can have it but those who have the Spirit, and the Spirit dwells only in new-born believing souls.”

Do not make love an excuse not to rebuke

Spurgeon also spelled out how the triumphantists [59% winners of the no-vote on woman ordination] should deal with the defeatists [41% loosers of the yes-vote on woman ordination]:

“It was a motto with Bucer, “To love all in whom he could see anything of Christ Jesus.” Be this your motto, brethren in Christ; make not your love an excuse for not offering stern rebuke, but rebuke because you love! Some persons think that unless you smooth your tongue, and cover your words with sugar, no matter though it may be sugar of lead; unless you cringe and compliment and conceal, there is no love in your heart. But I trust it will be our privilege to show in our own persons, some of us, how sternly we can dissent and yet love; how truly be Nonconformists to our brethren’s error, and yet in our very nonconformity prove our affection to them and to our common Master.“

Sin, anger and envy causes disunity

Spurgeon indicated that sin, anger and envy can be three natural factors that prevent us from having unity of the Spirit:

“Our sins would, very naturally, break it; if we were all angels, we should keep the unity of the Spirit, and not need even the exhortation to do so, but, alas, we are proud and pride is the mother of division! Diotrephes, who loves to have the pre-eminence, is very sure to head a faction. Envy, too, how that separates friends! When I cannot be satisfied with anything which is not hammered on my anvil, or run in my mold; when another man’s candle grieves me because it gives more light than mine; and when another man troubles me because he has more divine grace than I have—oh, there is no unity in this case! Anger—what a deadly foe is that to unity! When we cannot take the smallest disrespect; when the slightest thing brings the blood into our face; when we speak unadvisedly with our lips—but surely I need not read the long list of sins which spoil this unity of the Spirit, for they are legion! O, may God cast them out from us, for only so can we keep the unity of the Spirit!

But, beloved, our very virtues may make it difficult for us to keep this unity. Luther is brave and bold, hot and impetuous; he is just the man to lead the army, and clear the way for the Reformation. Calvin is logical, clear, cool, precise—he seldom speaks rashly. It is not in the order of things that Luther and Calvin should always agree; their very virtues cause them to fall out, and consequently, Luther, in a bad temper, calls Calvin a pig and a devil! And, albeit, Calvin once replied, “Luther may call me what he will, but I will always call him a dear servant of Christ.” Yet John Calvin knew how to pierce Luther under the fifth rib when he was in humor.“

Everyone is a constant liability to disunity

Spurgeon said that everyone should consider himself a liability to cause disunity:

“I am not, when I join a Christian Church, to say, “I am quite certain I shall never break its unity.” I am to suspect myself of a liability to that evil, and I am to watch with all diligence that I keep the unity of the Spirit.“

Not to treat otherwise thinkers as monsters

Spurgeon then exhorted his members not to treat other members as monsters because there is a mysterious bond that linked them:

“Beloved, there should be much peace, perfect peace, unbounded peace, between the people of God. We are not aliens. We are “fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”

Realize your fellow citizenship! Treat not Christian people as foreigners, and this bond of fellow citizenship will be one bond of peace. You are not enemies; men may be fellow citizens, and yet hate one another, but you are friends, you are all friends to Christ, and in Him you are all friends to one another. Let that be another bond. But you go farther—you are not mere friends, you are brethren born of the same parent—filled with the same life. And shall not this be a bond? See that you fall not out by the way; strive not one with another, for you are brethren. This is not all, you are closer than this—you are members of the same body! Shall this mysterious union fail to be a bond of peace to you? Will you, being the foot, contend with the eye? Or will you, being the eye, contend with the hand, and say, “I have no need of you”? If it is, indeed, the truth of God, and not a fiction that we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones—because the joints and bones in other men’s bodies may not agree—let it never be said of the mystical body of our blessed Lord that there was such a monstrous thing in it! Let it never be said that the various parts would not co-work, but fell to battling with another! I believe I have brought out the meaning of the text. There is a unity of the Spirit which is worthy to be kept—we ought to keep it—we must try to keep it in the bond of peace.“

Spurgeon’s unbiblical suggestion putting all churches on equal par

When Spurgeon offered suggestions, he made claims that are not fully in keeping with the Word of God. He suggested that one church should never say that they are the full truth church and others are of a lesser rank. Biblically and dogmatically on can claim superiority over another churches hermeneutics or exegesis of the biblical text especially if the others are refusing to see what is clear evidence: Baptism, Sabbath truth, Prophetic charts of the Bible.

“What right has any one church to set itself up as the standard, so that those who do not join it are necessarily dissenters?“

With this statement, Spurgeon is shooting himself in the foot. For if you call or insist on unity of the Word of God, how can you insist on equality with other “Words of God”? God has not many tongues. Only one. So biblically, exegetically and hermeneutically there should be only one, not many. Spurgeon is not correct here on this issue in 1865.

Truth cannot be decided by the vote of the majority

Spurgeon mentioned that truth cannot be decided by the vote of the majority, a principle that Ellen White has in Great Controversy 595 used by Edward Heppenstall in his 1981 lectures at Helderberg College, Somerset West South Africa:

“The opinions of learned men, the deductions of science, the creeds or decisions of ecclesiastical councils, as numerous and discordant as are the churches which they represent, the voice of the majority – not one nor all of these should be regarded as evidence for or against any point of religious faith”.

In like manner, also Spurgeon in 1865 said similarly:

“Ah, but we are the larger number! Are divine things to be ruled by the majority? Where would the Church of God be any day if it came to polling? I am afraid the devil would always be at the head of the poll.“

Unite but on biblical grounds

Spurgeon also made a call to schismatics [those wo want to divise] to unite, but based on the Bible:

“Let us meet on equal ground; let us lay aside all pretenses to superiority; let us really aid, and not oppress each other! Let us mingle in prayer; let us unite in confession of sin; let us join heartily in reforming our errors, and a true evangelical alliance will cover our land! If any church will take the Bible as its standard, and in the power of the Spirit of God, preach the name of Jesus, there are thousands of us who will rejoice to give the right hand of fellowship with a hearty greeting to all such!“

Gossip to be avoided

Spurgeon warns against gossip:

“Gossip—gossip is a very ready means of separating friends from one another; let us endeavor to talk of something better than each other’s characters. Dionysius went down to the Academy to Plato; Plato asked what he came for, “Why,” said Dionysius, “I thought that you, Plato, would be talking against me to your students.” Plato made this answer—“Do you think, Dionysius, we are so destitute of matter to converse upon, that we talk of you?” Truly, we must be very short of subjects when we begin to talk of one another! It is far better that we magnify Christ than detract from the honor of His members; we must lay aside all envy.“

Sources:

Monte Sahlin, “North American Delegates Meet after Women’s Ordination Fails” in Adventist Today, Daily Bulletin 4 (8 July 2015).

Charles H. Spurgeon, “True Unity Promoted” Delivered on Sunday Morning, January 1, 1865 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. Volume 11: No. 607 at the link www.spurgeongems.org 1.

Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets.

Ellen White, Great Controversy.