An Open Letter to Open BrethrenMiles J. Stanford May 1992 My dear Brethren brother Thank you for your edifying letter; I value you, among other Brethren correspondents. Your request that I evaluate Mr. William MacDonald's book, True Discipleship, is appreciated, to which I hereby accede. In using the term "Brethren," I refer to those of you who hold to the "open" policy of Mr. Muller, rather than the "closed" one of Mr. Darby. Quotes from Mr. MacDonald's book are in italics, and the material is considered from the dispensational standpoint. My comments will not involve extensive Scripture references, in light of your thorough grasp of the Word. When one who rightly divides the Word of truth encounters Dr. John MacArthur's book to the Church entitled The Gospel According to Jesus, he should, by the title alone, realize immediately that the book is disqualified--that it is composed of anti-dispensational, Synoptic-centered Covenant theology. And what of Mr. MacDonald's title, True Discipleship? It is no different than that of Dr. MacArthur--wrong dispensation. And all the more reprehensible, the Brethren being the veritable repository of dispensationalism. This is a law-oriented kingdom book. It could have been written by a Synoptic, Sermon-centered Covenant writer--a Martyn Lloyd-Jones, or a John MacArthur. It could have been written by a Sermon-centered Liberal--an E. Stanley Jones, or an Albert Schweitzer. It could have been written by a Romanist--a Francis of Assisi, or even by Mother Theresa herself. Quite an indictment; but there is no limit to the error fostered by failing to, or wrongly dividing, the Word of truth. In order for "discipleship" to be applied to a heavenly member of the Body of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ, he must be drawn off Pauline Church-ground, down onto Israel's earthly, Synoptic, Sermon, Kingdom ground. Norman B. Harrison knew:
In his Foreword, Mr. MacDonald wrote:
One might admire the zeal of these young people, but, as with Israel, "they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" (Rom. 10:2). Mr. MacDonald says that these Synoptic and Sermon-on-the-Mount truths of discipleship are the "aspirations of our heart," and that "they are the only terms which will ever result in the evangelization of the world." Contrary to these dogmatic claims, and totally apart from "discipleship," our Father, by means of His Christ-centered saints, will bring in every single elect member of the Body, the Church, without exception. None will be missing. His beloved Son's Bride will be complete, "that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 27).
Centered in Matthew, the author fails to give the Pauline answer to the Adamic self-life, i.e., "Reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto sin [the Adamic life, law, the world, Satan, etc.], but to be alive unto God in Christ Jesus, our Lord" (Rom. 6:11). There is mention here of self's "complete submission to the Lordship of Christ...." Self submits to nothing but the death of the Cross, counted on by faith and carried out by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16). There is a good deal of Lordship teaching in Brethren ministry, much of which may well have been derived from the MacDonald book. The answer to this harmful error is to get back to Pauline Life-ship: "For to me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21).
Taking up the Cross is on the basis of the finished work: "I have been crucified with Christ..." (Gal. 2:20); resulting in the ongoing outworking of that death, from which life--His life--emerges: "... always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4: 11). Being pre-Cross, the Synoptics never get one to this position: life in the New out of death to the Old. Applying the demands of past or future dispensations to a present dispensation would-be "disciple," can cause great harm:
In the first place, the member of the Body of Christ does not seek the kingdom of God--he is a born-again member of it. Nor does he seek His righteousness, since he has already been "made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). Wrong dispensation, wrong in toto! Mr. MacDonald is teaching from dispensations which do not apply to the Church--Israel's law-based, pre-Cross dispensation, and Israel's post-Rapture, law-based, kingdom dispensation. In these dispensations disciples were, or will be, for the most part, succored. In this present dispensation of Grace, of the Church, the principle for the believer is that of the One who is his Life: life out of death--suffering. As an early Brethren writer explained:
It certainly was for Paul, who said, "I beseech you, be ye followers of me" (1 Cor. 4:16):
The principle of growth and service in the Christian life is life out of death: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" (Phil. is 3:10).
The emphasis in this dispensation is not as Mr. MacDonald would have it, that of sacrificing all to be disciples to evangelize the world and win the lost. Now the evangelist has but a part in the primary issue--for the completion of the Body of Christ. His ministry is to win "whosoever will," the elect, the lost, to complete the Body of Christ, the Church. The fruit of his work is assumed by the shepherds, the pastors, for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ.
The vast majority of Scripture via Paul exclusively concerns the Church, and the individuals who make up that blessed Body. Evangelism of the lost--the work of the evangelist--is comparatively a minor, albeit vital, part of the whole. Mr. Darby remarked, back in 1850:
We will close our comments concerning Mr. MacDonald's book by including two final statements, sans comment, in that they speak for themselves:
* * * * * * It may be helpful to shift now from the dispensational aspect of separation between Israel and the Church, Law and Grace, to the even more vital dispensational aspect of separation between the believer's position and his condition. The believer who realizes scripturally just who, and where, and why he is in the glorified Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, would never leave that position (if he could) to descend to Israel's earthly, law-governed kingdom ground. That is what Mr. MacDonald has done via discipleship--and it seems that the Brethren would have it so. I will mention in advance that I intend, by His grace and Word, to hold you to the truth that you hold--I trust at the cost of the error by which you are held. Truth for error is a valuable exchange. I will share a few simple statements; it doesn't matter by whom. What does matter is that they express that which has always been held by all Brethren, whether Open or Closed. This has to do with the foundation and heart of Brethrenism--the Lord's Table.
I have never been able to understand how Mr. Darby, the "father" of dispensationalism, could reach back a dispensation to Matthew, for a single verse upon which to establish the heart of Brethrenism, i.e., "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). For one thing, the previous verse, in context, states clearly that the subject is prayer, not remembrance. The rightly-divided Word precludes any possibility of going back to Matthew, or anywhere else in the Word outside of the Pauline Church Epistles, to establish anything concerning the heavenly Body of Christ, the Church. Mr. Darby, having gone this far astray, insisted that the Holy Spirit not only indwells the individual Christian, but also "the house of God," the assembly, as well--and that without a shred of rightly-divided Scripture to sustain such a claim. Whatever the Lord Jesus meant during that pre-Cross dispensation, in His reference to being in the midst where two or three are gathered together for prayer, He does not teach any such thing through Paul to His Body in this dispensation. He, by His Spirit, surely indwells the believers gathered in His name, but He is not present in any other manner. And believers are certainly not to commune with, nor worship the Lord within themselves. Beloved Mr. Darby, and all of his incomparable co-laborers, and 150 years of Brethrenism notwithstanding to the contrary, the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ does not leave the heavenly glory in any manner to be present in any gathering, to be remembered, communed with, or worshiped. The ground of gathering is not on the ground! He does not come here to the Church; rather, He has taken the Church to be with Himself There! We are to abide above, and that not just during a weekly gathering. The only discernment the believer may have by the Spirit concerning Christ is that He is seated at the right hand of the Father. As for His being the Host, and the believers His guests in the assembly, He is rather the heavenly Head and Life of the heavenly Church, and every member thereof. Mere guests they are not--co-heirs with Him they are! Mr. Darby held, realized, and taught these heavenly, positional truths. He knew who and where and why he was in Christ in glory, and he abode There, fellowshipped with the Father and the Son There, and worshipped them There. Just why he insisted upon both an earthly and a heavenly presence, we may never know. Now, over a century later, the Brethren maintain the same error of His earthly presence, along with the same truth of His heavenly presence. They hold the Ephesians truth of their personal position in Him, "hidden with Christ in God." But for the most part, they have kept those heavenly, positional truths in the objective mode--for all intents and purposes, impersonal. "We mustn't be too subjective," it is stated. The Brethren hold Ephesians and Colossians truths, but they are not, by and large, held by them. Instead of living and abiding in Him above, they expect Him to come down and presence Himself among them in their weekly gathering. Mr. Darby's lament, in his day, was:
And if he were to visit your assembly today, would his heart be comforted? Just in case hackles are beginning to rise, it is suggested that you sit down with a cross-section of your assembly, and ask each one, without prompting in any way, to describe to you clearly where he or she believes the Lord to be during the gathering of remembrance. That, my dear brother, will bring down any hackles, as well as--I trust--knees. Few there are today in the assemblies (or elsewhere) who know anything at all of their identification with Christ in His death and ascension. Fewer still are those who know, and as a result, abide in Him above. "My brethren, these things ought not to be so"--but they are. Paul preached, and warned, and taught every man and woman, that he might present each one complete in Christ Jesus (Col. 1:28). This vital lack is especially tragic when the Holy Spirit insists, through Paul:
By centering upon the Lord here in the assembly, believers are hindered from learning of their position in His presence above. They are hindered further by being taught that positional truth is to be objectively, impersonally held. I am simply astounded at the priorities of many of the Brethren. Almost invariably, during their initial discussion with someone from the "outside," they will bring up the subject of women's head covering. Even you did so in your very first letter to me. The other shoe is usually dropped when the "error" of one-man ministry is broached. Mr. Darby's grief is not unique, I fear. The Brethren have avoided Mr. Darby because of his "exclusivism," but they have thrown out the water with him! All of the vital, life-giving positional truth that they have, and now hold so objectively and hence ineffectively, they have received via Mr. Darby. It was he who was given these truths anew by the Lord, they having been lost to the Church since Paul. Martin Luther for justification; John Darby for sanctification. They have received all from Mr Darby; not from Mr. Muller, or Mr. Craik. It is both interesting and encouraging to know that there are Brethren leaders who are studying Mr. Darby's writings--and even those of Mr. J. Butler Stoney, forsooth! An early Brethren leader stated the following, surely for the benefit of each of us now:
The same truth has been expressed in this way:
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