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 1st 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.