Promoting the Holiness of Christadelphian Fellowship

The Second Series

      1.      —In the accomplishment of its mission among men the truth acts by separation and association.

a.      It separates men from the world: "Come out from among them and be ye separate."

b.      It associates those so separated: "Ye are all one . . . forsake not the assembling of yourselves together."

      It produces these results by the creation of scripturally derived ideas in the minds of those operated upon. By these ideas they are dominated and controlled. They become mentally new creatures, and manifest the change in their altered relations to men and things around them.

      2.      —But the association of those separated by the truth, is governed by conditions, that sometimes interrupt that association. Hence, "Have no company:" "withdraw:" "turn away" —are apostolic commands concerning some who have been actually separated by the truth.

      3.      —The conditions of association relate to two departments of our standing in Christ which may be expressed as conviction and character . . . Unity of conviction and mutuality of conformity to a certain standard of action, are the two conditions out of which association and fellowship grow, and by rupture of which, it is necessarily interfered with.

      4.      —This rupture may be only partial in either department and yet be sufficient to cause suspension of association in fellowship. Apostolic examples:—

a.      Refusal to recognise that Christ had come in the flesh was made a reason for not receiving men who believed in God and the Kingdom, and a number of other elements of truth.

b.      Idleness was declared a ground of disfellowship where men had otherwise submitted to the commandments of Christ.

      5.      —That the first condition of association is the belief of the truth, apart from the perception and reception of which, there is no basis of fellowship.

      6.      —That the truth forming this basis is made up of a number of items or elements, that are each essential to its integrity as a whole.

      7.      —That it is a matter of duty to require the recognition of these at the hands of those claiming association with us in the truth.

      8.      —That we are not at liberty to receive any one who denies or refuses to believe any of them, because the receiving of such would open the way for the currency of their principles among us, with the tendency of leavening the whole community. The elements of the truth are so mutually related that the displacement of one undermines the foundation of the whole.

      9.      —A man himself believing the truth, but willing to wink at its denial among those in fellowship in any of its essential elements, becomes, by this willingness, an offender against the law of Chist, which requires the faithful maintenance of the whole. Faithful servants of Christ cannot unite with such, on the ground that though he hold the truth himself, such a man is responsible for the error of those whom he would admit, and therefore becomes the channel of a similar responsibility to those who may endorse him in fellowship:—"He that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds."

      10.      —That it is the duty of the friends of the truth to uphold it as a basis of union among themselves by refusing to receive either those who deny any part of it, or those who would receive those so denying.

      11.      —Paul commands withdrawal from "any man" who "obeys not his word," "delivered by epistle." He commands the brethren to hold fast the traditions taught by him, "whether by word or epistle."

      12.      —Paul teaches by epistle that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

      13.      —We are bound to hold fast by this, and to refuse association with any man refusing submission to this apostolic tradition.

      14.      —The doctrine of partial inspiration is a nullification of this apostolic tradition; and a doctrine consequently, from the holders of which, we are bound apostolically to withdraw.

      15.      —That the highest sanction of reason supports this apostolic obligation, since logically, the doctrine of partial inspiration, when worked out, deprives us of confidence in the only access we have to the divine mind in our age.