Psalm 104:24-31 KJV O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. [25] So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. [26] There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. [27] These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. [28] That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. [29] Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. [30] Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth. [31] The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.
This is God’s word preached at its finest …in accuracy and in well illustration. The prayers of the preacher are also of great purity and given in accordance of God’s mind and heart. I encourage you to a close and carefully listen to this sermon.
Judges 13:7 KJV But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing : for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
The WCF says the Church is more or less pure and some have so far degenerated that they have become synagogues of satan.
I’m going to type as things come to my mind. Sources can be supplied later if any question arises.
Revelation 2 & 3 prove that Churches are more or less pure. James Durham said the Church of Laodicea may not have even had one regenerate Christian, yet it was a true Church…which means it was a Church we could and should join.
Satan casts doubt and confusion on what constitutes a true Church…MORE OR LESS PURE. One litmus test I think is easy and clear to use in determining if a church is a true church, is…can we call a local congregation a synagogue of satan? If not, we need to be careful. I’m using this test in a good way. We should not use it to open doors that should not be open. If we doubt if a local congregation is a synagogue of satan, perhaps the best thing to do is to avoid it until we have gained sufficient clarification on its status.
Personally, in life, in my business, in my work…I start with the easy parts of the job and work into the harder parts. It’s like exercise. You do a warm-up first…then after the warm-up you are ready to go and tackle the more strenuous parts. Along this train of thought, I consider clear examples when it comes to discerning what is a true or false Church. Some folks do not prefer the terminology of true or false. I don’t mean to be polemical, but I pray the reader who takes that view will allow liberty that others may not yet see their reasoning, that they may see later. Rutherford uses that terminology of a true or false church in his writings RUTHERFORD AGAINST SEPERATISM…if I recollect. As I said, I’m typing thoughts on the fly here …for time’s sake. A CLEAR EXAMPLE OF A SYNOGOGUE OF SATAN IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Thomas Vincent in SHORTER CATECHISM EXPLAINED, said not to even go into a Roman Catholic Church or an idol temple. I agree with him. A brother once offered to take me for a tour inside of one to see what they do. He was a good reformed brother I have a lot of respect for, but on this matter, I differ with him. I did not even point out my difference with him. Providence did not lead us into the idol temple at the time and I never had the opportunity to tell him of my disagreement…which in certain respects is good because there are so many fires to put out in our troubled day that we need to be careful what fires we spend energy on to try and put out. So I try to focus on the main things. I know I am not perfect in this matter either, as in all matters. We all are unprofitable servants and all our righteousness is filthy rags. Even our best works are tainted with sin.
If we know of a synagogue of satan, we have a duty to warn people of it. William Farell did this with the Roman Catholic church. He would go into towns and direct the people to compare Rome with the true Church, and he would end up in physical tussels. That is why his statue, on Reformation Wall, has his image carved with a clenched fist. The reason I point out the duty to warn people of a synagogue of satan is that most, if not all of us, would not dare to call various local congregations a synagogues of satan. If it is not a synagogue of satan it is a more or less pure Church. Here again, let’s start with clear examples. Who among us would call the Netherlands Heritage Reform Church a synagogue of satan? I wouldn’t dare to. That is tantamount to attributing the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit to satan, which Jesus called the unpardonable sin. Who would call the URC a synagogue of satan? Who would call the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland a Synagogue of satan? Who would call the Free Church of Scotland Continuing a Synagogue of Satan? Who would call the RPCNA a synagogue of satan? Not me! I hope that is the case with you as well. And so if these churches are TRUE Churches, it is not right for us to regard them with contempt, though they are plagued with various sins like 5 of those 7 Churches in Rev 2 and 3.
We can and should attend public worship with a local true Church! If I was in Corinth, I would join in public worship, even though the Corinthian Church was tainted with a man who slept with his father’s wife…even though there were there men who preached the gospel out of spite for Paul and were ungodly ministers/preachers. What about you? Would you neglect to seek out the brethren in Corinth? Would you neglect to join them in their public assemblies? Paul promoted public worship in Corinth.
I was reading the Westminster directory for Family worship this morning July 20/23. Paragraph 7 speaks against fellowship meetings…the gathering of more than one family in family worship. Thomas Boston in his sermon on 1 Cor 10 cites this to show there was a schismatic spirit in that day in which people would hold these private fellowship meetings and neglect public worship. Boston was citing this part of the directory, not to speak against private fellowship meetings, but simply to show that some were abusing those meetings by excluding/neglecting public worship. I found a pdf of that online and it’s found on page 8 of the 21 pages. Rutherford in Scott’s Worthies is quoted to have differed with this part of the Family Worship directory. He approves of fellowship meetings wherein are more than one family. He says, that which the scriptures approves, no synod can disannul. I think one of the verses he cites is Mal 3:16. It’s understandable that overseers want to prevent fellowship meetings that neglect public worship, but I agree with Rutherford…To prevent fellowship meetings from leading to the exclusion of public worship, the solution is not to ban all fellowship meetings.
The Reformed Presbytery wrote a Society Directory, and it essentially is based on Rutherford’s reasoning, that fellowship meetings are good and they are scriptural. The way I describe it, is that there is much more to being a Christian than sitting in the pew beside your brothers and sisters for 2 or 3 hours on the Lord’s day. If we are a body and all have gifts, we need to gather together OUTSIDE of public worship. Simple math for those who read the bible.
For this reason, I inquired of a scholar of Scottish Church history, about what happened with Samuel Rutherford when the Church split between the Protestors and the Resolutioners. He told me that he was basically cold-shouldered out of the Church. I believe he said the Presbytery did not call him to their meetings. He was not excommunicated and he did not leave the Church over the grounds of the division. He held to the truth and was excluded for holding to the truth. Why is this important? RUTHERFORD AGAINST SEPERATISM promotes the unity of the Church, in spite of all the failures of the Church… as in the case of Corinth. Rutherford, notes that Paul never told the Corinthians to leave the Church and start their own new sect, or to hold fellowship meetings to the exclusion of public worship. So Rutherford kept on with the tainted Scottish Church that had men holding to the tainted Resolutioner position UNTIL they essentially booted him out… though the booting was done ever so diplomatically and silently. I don’t know all the details or history of how that transpired.
I trust we can all agree that private fellowship meetings that exclude public worship are schismatic. Even those of us who are more particular and scrupulous must agree with this general maxim. If you and I were in Rutherford’s congregation during the division of Protestors and Resolutioners, we would not be justified in having private fellowship meetings to the exclusion of public worship because we thought Rutherford should not remain in the Church with Resolutioners in it… especially when Rutherford was preaching. I trust all of us agree that we would not bail out on Rutherford leading public worship, WHILE the Protestor/Resolutioner trial was plaguing the Church, and while Rutherford remained in the Church despite this corruption plaguing the Church. I dare say, neither would we abandon public worship with David Dickson, who was a Resolutioner, when this plague 1st struck the Church of Scotland. I would do like Rutherford did if I was in Dickson’s congregation. I would hold to the truth and bring the scriptural arguments to my pastor David Dickson. In other words, I would not bail out on the Church of Scotland, just like Rutherford did not bail out. He was excluded…persecuted for his faithfulness to God. That is part of the cross Christians have to bear at times.
There is no perfect Church, nor has there ever been, on earth. The Church glofified is perfect, but not the Church militant. If you claim to find a perfect Church, the moment you stip into it, you have made it imperfect. This is not to counter the words of Jesus in Matt 5:48. We are to STRIVE for perfection, though we will not attain it in this life. I always remember those words describing the situation of the Scottish Church when it split. “We were so focused on crossing out T’s and dotting our I’s, THAT WE FORGOT ABOUT LOVE.” It’s such a true statement, that I like to think it was from Rutherford, but I forget who said it.
Think about your own family. I remember how Steve Schlissel exposed the error of the Baptists. He gave and example of how a Baptist supper table should be according to their teaching. He said the head of the home, prior to giving thanks would say, “Mary Jane and Billy Bob, you get away from the table now you stinking filthy pagans. We are going to pray now.” That is the spirit of separatism. Good parents are not like that. Often, we forbear our children’s sins and ignorance, and maintain the unity of the family. And we often run into very difficult situations with our children or even our spouses…but we FIGHT HARD to preserve the unity of our home, in spite of horrendous situations. I remember Rutherford in part 1 of RUTHERFORD AGAINST SEPERATISM said that a wife is not to leave her excommunicated husband. I dont’ think that is the mindset of very many Christians in our day though.
We do not understand Church discipline, Grant Soles said to me one day. He was the man you handed me the 1st copy of the WCF I ever saw. It’s true. The goal of Church discipline is love…It’s to restore the offending Christian. Its purpose is not to just cut and hack and destroy. It is rooted in love. 1 Cor 5 and 2 Cor 2:7,11 prove that. The incestuous Corinthian was restored.
What is all of this about? Well, first and foremost it’s about God’s glory. He gave his son for the Church, and she is the apple of his eye. This paper is about preserving the apple of God’s eye and therefore this paper is putting God’s glory first. But also, this paper is about you and me. We HURT when we are divided. The body parts HURT when we are scattered. We all want and need to be loved by other Christians. I do, and I am sure you do…no matter who you are. We have all experienced the pain of division, most likely. Isn’t it time to heal our divisions as we pray for in the Public Worship Directory of the Westminster Standards? Jesus taught us to love our enemies. He died for us while we were yet his enemies. That is the way for us to heal our divisions….to go to our brothers and sisters first. Let us be like Jesus and not wait for them to come and put balm on our wounds. We have limited time in this life. Why waste it with divisions that love can and will heal?
A .pdf copy of Boston’s sermon on 1 Cor 1:10 can be obtained here.
RAIN MAKER (1Kings 8:35, 36) 