There is one thing that is giving me a
good deal of anxiety and apprehension. In this time when
a twofold movement is taking place on a wide scale: that
is, on the one hand the great movement towards union (not
unity), as in the World Council of Churches, on the
policy of the combine and monopoly, with all the
necessary compromises and sacrifice of distinctiveness of
message; and on the other hand the unrest,
dissatisfaction, and loosening of ties with the
established system of churches and institutions,
resulting in many leaving their old associations and
either meeting in groups or drifting without anchorage in
their disappointment - my disturbing fear is that there
will be a movement, or some movements, towards the
formation of another undenominational or
interdenominational denomination, this coming about also
by policy, expediency or seeming necessity. Such a
movement would only be another tragedy and incipient
sectarian calamity, which history would show had not been
of God but of man, although with the best of motives. May
the Lord save us from this so serious mistake! It would
be a starting at the wrong end; a trying to form
something instead of an organic growth from a living
illumination, a revolutionary encounter with an unveiling
of the true nature of the Church. For this latter God
would have to lay an apprehending hand on a man or body
of men, and by a devastating showing of the true,
universal, and spiritual significance of Christ, as
effectively emancipating them from all the historic
accretions of Christianity as the Apostle Paul was
emancipated from historic Judaism. The growth of this
organism would be as other emancipated men sprang from
the essential root, and not just adhered or sponsored.
The power of such an organism would be the all-conquering
life of resurrection: "the power that worketh in
us." There is nothing artificial, imitation or
manufactured about this, and it requires no propaganda.
The Holy Spirit is the great Propagandist of what is of
heaven.
The above is written out of a very deep concern; a
longing and a fear. It should be remembered that when God
made His "new thing", His "new cruse"
as the foundation of this dispensation of the Spirit and
the Church, He did so with a nucleus of men who had been
broken by the Cross and reunited by the Resurrection.
These two things were wrought deeply into their very
constitution and were the ground upon which the Holy
Spirit built in every place. This is the only positive
ground for the Church and churches. Anything other will
be negative. They were men who had seen! It may be that
if the Lord is to have such a spiritual impact as was
then made on the world, it will be necessary to sift down
to that basis the conglomeration of the man-made and
start - or go on - with the small but intrinsic seed
plot.
This may be like a "voice crying in the
wilderness", but perhaps some wind of God would
carry it as a guide or warning where it is needed... as
things are, it is becoming more and more evident that God
must "do a new thing" if His full end is to be
reached. May He raise up His Prophets to "show the
House to the house of Israel", that they may be
ashamed, and may some Josiah, personal or corporate,
arise to lead to such a taste of the real thing as to
result in the leaving of all that is false. We can only
resort to prayer!
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1966, Vol 44-6.