Dear Friends,
From time to time debates arise within the Christian Church and in many cases one of the features that arise within these debates is the enlisting of the great names of the past – Luther, Calvin, Owen, Goodwin etc. – to buttress and give weight to the particular viewpoint being expressed. Needless to say, in the course of the enlisting, not only are the strong points of the enlisted Puritan or Reformer paraded, but also the weak points of some other, or others. And it is in this exposing of the weak points of some of these men of the past that is a disturbing factor in the minds of some believers. This is not to say that we should necessarily hide these aspects of any man’s ministry that were, or are, patently deficient; but from any debate it is obvious there would be a degree of deficiency in the handling of the deficiencies of others.
What I mean is this: there would perhaps be lots of frustration arising in the minds of many believers concerning the failings of the men of the past, if those men had not been originally presented to them as almost without failings in the first place.
Some time ago we had a Christian visiting us in our home who told us that she no longer read any of the writings of Charles Hadden Spurgeon. The reason given was that she had “come across something “ridiculous” in one of Spurgeon’s sermons. “What?” I said, “only one ridiculous thing! I have come across more than one ridiculous thing in Spurgeon’s sermons; and I thank God for those things.”
God knows the proneness of the human heart to depart from Him and set up other god in His place, and so, it is the mercy of God that gives us those reminders that men are not like God, and must not be treated as though they are. Every man that has ever been given to the Church as a “gift” from God has been given with the express purpose of leading us into the light of the truth of God in His Holy Word; but where a man deviates from that truth, then we see him as a man and treat him as such in that particular area of his thinking or speaking. And that applies to any man.
Now, unless a Christian has completely come to terms with that fact, or been brought to terms with that fact, that Christian is going to find a certain degree of perplexity of heart and mind with a certain fault or failing of some eminent saint of the past rises to the surface. And, as we’ve already said, much of the cause of that perplexity may be attributed to a presentation of some of these people of the past that has endowed them with a virtual infallibility. Too many ministers and writers have given too many impressions that too many men of the past have given the last word on too many subjects. It is “chaff” and not “wheat” for any minister to give the views of Dr So-and-So on any given doctrine or subject unless that good Doctor’s “views” square with the Holy Word of God, and are only used to hold forth the truth of the Holy Word of God.
Too many pastors spend too much time in too much discussion over too many men’s view. The result of this is that too many debates revolve around what one “Doctor” said in contrast to another, without due attention being paid to the fact that no “Doctor” – or, no one – has a monopoly on the truth of God.
Just after the Second World War, both America and Russia “liberated” a large number of German scientists; men especially skilled in rocket engineering etc. As the arms’ race and the space race then got under way and the tension between these two countries mounted, one American comedian quipped – “The real argument between us and the Russians is – our Germans are better than your Germans!” In much of the current theological arms’ races that go on it would appear that the real argument is – “Our Puritans are better than your Puritans,” or, “Our Puritans are better than your Reformers,” and vice versa. And the very real danger is that everything that a particular man has said becomes accepted, simply because some of the things, or many of the things that he has said have become acceptable, and are acceptable in the light of the Holy Word of God.
Now, for “Baptists” at any rate, all of that should be clearcut. Who doesn’t rejoice in the guiding hand of dear Mr John Calvin as he leads us through those Biblical pathways of the Word of God concerning the things of our soul’s salvation stored-up in the eternal purposes of God from time immemorial? However, when Calvin makes that notorious statement relating to the parable of the “tares and the wheat,” that – “The field is the Church,” then we must say, “Pardon me, Mr Calvin, but I must accept what my Saviour says, that – “The field is the world.
That doesn’t mean that I have to clear my shelves of Calvin, or refuse to accept him as a precious “gift” from the Risen Savour to His church here below. But it most-assuredly means that he must come to the Bar of scripture, as all must come to the Bar of scripture.
Who isn’t impressed with so much of the practicality and thoroughness of the Puritans? However, need we be reminded that, to a man, they hadn’t a clue between them with regards to the true nature and import of Biblical baptism!
Who wouldn’t stand in awe of so many of the Scottish Covenanters as they cast themselves in faith into the hand of God? However what New Testament saint in his right senses would want to follow them with a sword in his hand on to the battlefield of Rullion Green, or wherever, to shed blood in the defence of the Gospel of the Prince of Peace!
If Reformed means anything, it means being conformed to, and transformed by the Holy Word of God. And where it is evident that our brethren in the past were not Reformed in some things under that understanding of the term, then, we are not to follow them, but to follow God. To believe that the process of reformation stopped with that first great breakthrough from the darkness of Romish Papalism, is a form of Papalism itself! The outcome of the Reformation was never meant to be that we would exchange one Pope for a whole body of popes whose every pronouncements was to bind the churches of Christ for all generations to come. The Reformation was the dawning of an ongoing impetus based on the fact that God had now thrown open the doors of His Word for all generations to come – beginning with that generation.
It must never affect us that the holding of a certain Biblical position, appears to leave us out of step with the merely accepted, and denies the “historical backing” of a whole army of eminent souls of the past. If mere weight of supportive numbers, or historic lineage meant anything, Rome would have many of us licked hands-down with its hundreds of millions of members and its structured existence dating back to a thousand years before the Reformation. But, as Mr Valiant-for-truth said, “Little or more are nothing to him that has the truth on his side.”
The all-important thing for a Christian is not whether or not he is on any man’s side – or whether any particular man is on his side – but that he is on God’s side. And we, or any, may only be on God’s side in so far as we stand on God’s Word, and ultimately on God’s Word, alone. To enable us to endeavour to do this, He has, indeed, granted us an open Word; and, indeed, they do so, we rejoice in the gifts and in the God who gave them. Where they don’t, we simply remember that the best of men are only men at the best.