Recently, shots have been taken against Slavic Reformation Society (SRS), and some of the pastors and teachers associated with that ministry (these comments have been blogged, but I’m not going to dignify them by linking them here. If this is a mistake, feel free to tell me). Now, I am very biased toward SRS, since Pastor Blake Purcell is a personal friend, not only of mine, but of our entire congregation. This is the only mission work we are presently able to support, and they are regularly named in our corporate and private prayers. Blake and his family have given years and years of service in the former Soviet Union to promote the Gospel, and to serve the kingdom of Christ in that desolate land. And instead of applauding Blake, his family, and those pastors and teachers who are willing to make sacrifices, and even risk their lives for the cause of Christ, they have all come under criticism for their supposed perpetuation of another gospel – a claim that is flatly false. So, who argues like this? Who would take shots at faithful ministers of the gospel, and why?
In his excellent little book, In the Beginning. E.J. Young expounds upon Satan’s deception in Genesis 3, and provides some insights that are profoundly applicable to the situation I described above. He argues that Satan is impugning motives. “He sees that Eve is listening to him, and so he goes on to say: ‘For God knows that in the day that ye eat thereof, your eyes will be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.’ There is Satan’s reason. He is hitting below the belt, as it were. Satan works in that way. I do not think we can make a greater mistake than to assume that Satan comes with an objective argument.”
Think of what often happens in the churches in these days. We have controversy every now and then. We must needs have it, because it is the truth of God that is involved. But the tragedy of it all is that the doctrines in dispute cannot be brought out into the open and discussed objectively. There is always someone who introduces personalities and impugns the motives of the man who is taking a different position….
We must have honest discussion in the church. Failing that, the church is going to die. We have to be constantly considering the things of God, and we must expect differences of opinion. When you have that kind of controversy it can be carried on in love. We can respect one another, even though at times we may disagree with one another. We find that out as we go on. The same holds true of denominations. They do not agree on everything, but the remarkable thing to me has been that we can respect one another’s differences. We can differ in love, and we can realize that other people are good Christian people, even though we may not quite see everything as they do. We need to have that respect for one another which is based upon genuine Christian love, and which allows other people to have honest differences of opinion from yourself. When Christians can get along in that way, we have real Christian unity. I think that Christian unity is a fact. We see it wherever Christian people get together. When there are differences they are discussed in love, and we realize that each one is in earnest in trying to understand the Scriptures. There is real Christian unity because it is based on Christian love. But that is not the way the Devil fights, and we find very often that those who are on the side of the Devil use his tactics.
One of the greatest disgraces of the church of Christ – and this applies to the Protestant churches as well as to the Roman Catholic church – is the playing of politics in the church by ecclesiastical politicians. That type of person speaks whatever will gain the end that he desires. You can see it happening in church history. The burning of John Huss, for example, will serve to show what I have in mind. People will manoeuvre behind the scenes in order to suppress their opponents. It has been vividly brought home to me by the experiences I had in connection with the late Dr. J. Gresham Machen. Nobody would come right out in the open and answer his arguments, but they could smear his name. They could spread stories about him that were not true, and those stories are hard to live down. People are willing to believe the falsehood rather than the truth, and this is the way that Satan fights. Here is a good practical rule for us as Christians: when somebody says something derogatory to you about someone else, just forget it. Do not believe it. It may be true; it may not be true. Whatever you do, do not spread it; do not repeat it. Gossip is a terrible thing. At times I think it one of the worst of sins. You can destroy a person’s character by gossip, and Satan delights in that. This gossip simply eats at the bones of the another person and destroys him. It is easy to spread derogatory stories about a minister who is contending for the truth, because they take hold and they do a great deal of harm. You may for a time effectively stifle his witness, but if that man is contending for the truth earnestly, remember that the truth has a way of coming to the fore sooner or later. It is wonderful how God defends those who are on his side. Truth will prevail in the end. We must help those who are defending the truth by refusing to believe the stories that Satan spreads about them. All kinds of stories were spread about the late Dr. Machen. There was no truth in them, but people believed them. I say these things because in Genesis chapter three that is precisely the line that Satan is taking: ‘God knows that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes will be opened.’
Though published in 1976, Dr. Young’s words are prophetic, and certainly applicable to the climate of our day.