Why I am no longer in the Church of Scotland (8)

Why I am no longer in the Church of Scotland (8)

In 1995 I produced a small booklet on biblical separation. This is the eighth extract from that booklet:

2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14

6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us… 14 If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.

The general principle of separation from those who do not receive and obey apostolic instruction is here applied to a specific case, the willfully idle or the disorderly.  We are to identify such individuals and dissociate from them. Paul says keep away from them, and have nothing to do with them.

Is this compatible with denominational recognition of those who disobey and disregard apostolic teaching and acceptance of and fellowship with those who reject apostolic instruction and doctrine?

1 Timothy 1;3

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.

False teachers are not to be tolerated; they are to be commanded not to teach false doctrine.  If they do not repent accordingly then appropriate action is to be taken against them.  When the church, instead of silencing false teachers, promotes them, fetes them, and recognises the legitimacy of their right to express and teach their unbiblical viewpoint, it clearly disobeys this command. When the church is no longer willing to differentiate between true and false doctrine and does not exercise biblical discipline against such men then it is no longer possible for true Christians to obey this portion of Scripture.  Unrestricted loyalty to the denomination has led to a selective disobedience of Scripture.

1 Timothy 6:3, 4

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

The willful rejection of sound (spiritually healthy)  instruction, and the promotion of false, therefore spiritually destructive doctrine, is a sign of spiritual ignorance and conceit. Do we imagine that Paul would endorse the church recognising and accepting such destructive false teachers or encouraging a denominational fellowship with them?

2 Timothy 3:1-5

But understand this,that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Biblically speaking the last days began with the coming of Christ and will be consummated at his second coming.  The church is therefore currently living in the last days; they are the present reality. Timothy is warned that in this age some will adopt a façade of religion, a mere form of godliness, but will not be true lovers of God and the good. Timothy is clearly instructed to have nothing to do with such individuals.  They are subjects for evangelism in need of the Gospel, not partners in fellowship.  Denominational fellowship with such individuals is clear disobedience to the apostle’s command that we avoid them.

Titus 1:9-16

9 An overseer must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. 13… rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

This is perhaps one of the most intense and sustained New Testament attacks on false teachers.  Two things are to be done with such individuals.  Firstly, they are to be “silenced”. Like a dangerous dog, they need to be muzzled.  To silence them is to deprive them of the opportunity to spread their deceitful and destructive heresies. The godly intolerance taught in Scripture refuses to allow such individuals the right to spread their error.  Secondly, they are to be “rebuked”, not mildly but “sharply”.  They are to be subject to discipline in the hope that they might renounce their errors and come to a sound faith.

When a church refuses to rebuke, even mildly, those who teach error in belief and behaviour, when instead of silencing them it places them in pulpits, professorships, and public office, then it no longer can command the allegiance of those who seek to obey Scripture.  When evangelicals will denounce, in the safety of their own pulpit, the errors of false teachers, but at a denominational level will not demand their silencing and discipline, then they share in some measure the responsibility for the damage in which such heresy results. If Scripture teaches that heretics are to be strongly rebuked and silenced then nothing less is acceptable.

Titus 3:10

As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.

False teaching is a cause of division.  Those who engage in it are to be disciplined.  If they refuse to acknowledge that discipline and amend their ways then we are to have nothing to do with them. When, within a denomination, it becomes impossible to formally warn and discipline  a divisive false teacher, when the admonitions of evangelical presbyters are openly mocked and ridiculed, then we must have nothing further to do with such false teachers and overseers.  How is this compatible with denominational recognition of and fellowship with such an office-bearer?

[To be continued.]