Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: May we earnestly seek to answer the probing of the spirit. Do we draw away from other believers because they do not follow us? Do we seek to learn whether they are true followers of Jesus Christ? For if they are following him, they belong to us, and we belong to them because we both belong to him. We may not understand the working of their minds, but again, they may not understand the working of our minds.

As for me, I have pledged myself to the Lord that I will love all men, especially all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When I find some man who claims to love Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I will seek to draw nearer to him by drawing nearer to the Lord Jesus. In Christ's own words, "By this shall men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another." And so our text is a command: welcome one another and not to argue about scruples.

Guest (Male): Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation. He started the radio ministry which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago.

The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled Doubtful Disputations. The Bible exhorts Christians to put out the welcome mat for fellow believers and receive them as brothers and sisters in the faith. But too often when we discover that others have a different point of view about a certain doctrinal matter, we yank the welcome mat out from under their feet and withdraw from them.

God's word teaches that we are to never separate from other believers because of disagreement about secondary theological matters. How can we pursue unity and fellowship across doctrinal and denominational lines with other genuine believers in Christ? The scripture text for today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible, Romans chapter 14 and verse one. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled Doubtful Disputations.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. We thank thee for thy grace and faithfulness, and pray that there may be thy power upon the preaching of the word in this hour. Help each hearer to realize that it takes as much of the filling of the Holy Spirit to listen to a message as it does to give it.

May we speak as the oracle of God so that thy word may go forth in power, in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, so that the faith of each hearer shall stand not in the wisdom of men but in thy power, oh God. We ask it in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Today we begin our study in the 14th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans with the first verse: "Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations." This 14th chapter of Romans opens with a discussion of how to treat differences of opinion among Christians. The Revised Standard Version translates this text: "As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions." Phillips' paraphrase reads: "Welcome a man whose faith is weak, but not with the idea of arguing over his scruples."

The issue is of great importance because it is pertinent to the main trend of religious thought in our day. Some generations ago, the main points of difference between Christians were on such doctrines as the sovereignty of God and the freedom of the will. Later, a subject of much controversy was the method of baptism. The point of tension in our day is the supposed conflict between fellowship and separation.

There are those who wish to prescribe a set of rules as conditions for church membership, but our text absolutely forbids this practice. Others believe that an individual must subscribe to certain secondary doctrines before he can be received into the church, and again, our text forbids such demands. Let me restate the conclusions to which I came some time ago when I examined every verse in the New Testament on the subject of separation.

I discovered that nowhere does the word of God countenance separation between Christians on a point of doctrine. Now, we must separate from a Christian who is guilty of moral lapse, but not on the ground of doctrinal difference. Not even one verse that I have ever seen justifies such separation. It must be understood that I am talking about separation between brothers in Christ. If a person does not believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, he cannot be considered a brother and must never be welcomed to church membership.

Let us establish this fact with some quotation from John's writings in his second epistle addressed to the elect lady. He says: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Look to yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward."

"Anyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into the house (that is the Sunday morning meeting of believers gathered around the bread and the wine of the communion) or do not give him any greeting (that is any blessing on him in his character as a false teacher)."

In John's first epistle, he says: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming and now it is in the world already."

Paul also speaks of his method and purpose of preaching in these terms: "And what I do I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds."

The teaching of these false apostles is further described by Paul as follows: "If someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough." And he warned the Galatians against turning to another gospel.

"Not that there is another gospel," he said, "but there are some who would trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed." And then to reinforce what he had just said, the Holy Spirit repeats himself: "As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed."

I have discovered that an attitude of love on our part is quickly detected by those who do not think as we do, and they also detect any lack of love. In my own church, our young people's services on Sunday evenings are attended by many college students. One evening some years ago, during a social time before the meeting, I was greeted by a young woman who made it her business to approach every stranger and say, "Are you saved? Are you saved?"

And she so greeted a very brilliant young woman who was teaching mathematics in a Philadelphia high school. In answer to her question, the newcomer replied, "I do not believe in the divinity of Christ." Amazed, the tactless Christian introduced the newcomer to one and all with these words, "Oh, I want you to meet Miss Blank. She does not believe in the divinity of Christ. Oh, I want you to meet Miss Blank. She does not believe in the divinity of Christ."

Well, when Miss Blank was introduced to me in this manner, I shook hands and merely remarked, "Oh, she will someday." And then I brought other people into the conversation in order to relieve her embarrassment. After the meeting, I stood near the door while the young people were leaving. I smiled at Miss Blank and said, "I'd like to have a talk with you sometime." She said she would be glad to talk with me and we made an appointment.

When she came to my office for the interview, she remarked: "When that girl introduced me to you, I was about to leave. I just could not take it anymore. When you waved her aside and got me out of her clutches, I decided to stay." Well, as the result of our conference that day, Miss Blank trusted Christ as her Savior and Lord and within a year enrolled in a Bible training school. Three years later, she was teaching in a high school on a foreign mission field where she led many students to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Now, from this incident, I draw the lesson that we must be careful not to alienate people who express unbelief which they really do not mean. I suppose that doctrine detectives, as some people call certain DD's—doctrine detectives—I suppose they would have flailed this young woman with arguments and would have given her a hard time with apologetics to convince her of the deity of Christ.

Beyond question, that doctrine is central to the Christian faith, but there are many on the fringes of belief who are unsure, but who can be won to our Lord when they see him in us holding out his hand to them in love. Now, it is evident that the Bible teaches spiritual separation from the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I repeat, there is no line in the New Testament which tells us to separate from someone who does not regard secondary doctrines in the same light that we do.

There is no justification for forming a new denomination in order to emphasize one or another doctrine. We are not being biblical when we separate from another believer because he differs from us in his interpretation of biblical prophecy, for example, or in the manner of carrying out ordinances or sacraments. I heard once of a small group of believers who gathered to form a church. They got into a great discussion about the Lord's Supper.

Some maintained that they should use only unleavened bread. Others thought that ordinary bread would be proper. Finally, the argument became so heated that the first group withdrew and founded another assembly. Such an attitude reveals failure to understand the nature of Christian oneness, that believers are never to separate on points of practice. I have taken communion in many parts of the world with many different elements.

There is neither wine nor grape juice available in the heart of Africa or South America, so I have taken communion with coffee instead of with wine, with coconut milk tinted pink with berry juice, and even with our nationally known cola drinks. A common substitute for the fruit of the vine is a colored powder mixed with sugar when diluted with water; it has a purplish appearance like wine.

Now, we can see that it's the height of nonsense for Christians to fight over the symbols of the very death of Christ which was meant to unite them. Something is very wrong when men consider the form more important than the reality, and when the ceremony is considered more important than that for which it stands. The Christian faith is not a despotic system which demands adherence to each point in a long statement of doctrine.

Never in church history have all true believers agreed on every point of doctrine, but they do agree on these primary teachings: that the Lord Jesus Christ is God Almighty, the second person of the Godhead, and that conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he became man in order to go to the cross and die for us, and that he arose from the dead.

Now, these are the fundamentals, the irreducible minimum which one must believe in order to be saved. When a man believes this heart matter of the Christian faith—the person and the work of Christ—I know that God has touched that man and that he is redeemed by Christ even as I have been. I shall not fight with him. I shall not fight with him if he does not accept my concept of baptism, my idea of the true meaning of the Lord's Supper, my belief as to the nature of the inspiration of the Bible, my outline of the events that relate to the second coming of Christ, my doctrine of ordination, my idea of the nature of the church.

Now, I have strong views on all of these points, and I believe that I hold them from the Bible, and I do not think it possible to shift from the conditions that I hold. I believe all the doctrines which most fundamental Christians hold: that the Bible is the inspired word of God, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that men will be separated from God forever if they do not receive the life of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe that our Lord is coming again and that he will take his church out of the world before the great tribulation. But is it necessary to believe all of these things in order to be saved? Although these doctrines are among the essential tenets of our faith, I believe that a man need only believe the truths about who Christ is and what he has done for him in order to be saved.

A few summers ago, I was preaching at a Bible conference. After a morning meeting, a minister approached me and gave me his card, which indicated that he was pastor of a church in a certain Midwestern city. With a slightly belligerent air, he informed me that he did not believe in the doctrine of the virgin birth of our Lord, nor in the eternal punishment of the lost.

I asked him very kindly if he had really studied these doctrines. Had he read Machen's masterpiece on the Virgin Birth? No, he had not. Had he read my book, God's Wrath, in which the doctrine of eternal judgment is fully discussed? No, he had not. We went to the conference bookstore where I bought a copy of God's Wrath. I wrote this man's name on the flyleaf and presented it to him.

Next morning, he came to me again and said he had spent half the night reading the book. He now had a different attitude toward the subject of eternal punishment. Said he, "What aroused my interest was the fact that you gave me this book. When I first approached you, I expected that you would bark at me and damn me for my unbelief." And then this liberal minister sat down with me and talked for a couple of hours.

On the fourth day of the meetings, he told me that he now believed in the Virgin Birth and in eternal punishment, and that he had become concerned about his congregation because he had misled them. For several hours, we worked together on the preparation of two of his sermons to be preached the following Sunday. He then promised to read a number of books which I recommended to him and to confine his reading to those books for the next three months.

I have long since learned that most liberals do not know of the existence of the outstanding books which give the conservative view of the Christian faith. When they read these books, many such men are given a fresh vision of the scriptures and henceforth seek to preach as faithful ministers of Jesus Christ. Thus we see that our text in Romans applies even to ministers who are weak in the faith.

If they are received in love and are not confronted with our pet interpretations of particular doctrines, it is possible to help them to see the truth from the scriptural point of view. And the principal force in bringing them to see that truth is the love of Christ revealed in the person with whom they differ. Finally, let us consider why some Christians seem so determined to force particular doctrines on others, or to make secondary doctrines the standard of fellowship.

I believe the answer to this question can be found in an experience of the Apostle John, who in later life was known as the Apostle of the love of Christ. In his youth, however, while Christ was on earth, John had a colossal pride. On one occasion, there was a great dispute among the disciples about who should be the greatest. Christ set a little child among them and taught the great lesson of humility.

The conscience of John was pricked, for he recalled an incident when he had shown intolerance. He said to Jesus, "Master, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and he does not follow us, and we forbade him because he does not follow us." I am convinced that here God reveals to us the source of the spirit of division and separation that has plagued the church through the centuries: "He does not follow us."

The Lord Jesus rebuked John in these words: "Do not forbid him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me." I believe that from this great lesson came the marvelous spirit of love that pervades the writings and the deeds of John. There is even an early tradition recorded by one of the men who was practically contemporary with John: that when the apostle was an old man, too old and feeble to move around freely, that he sat in a chair carried by four men, and that he went from town to town, from church to church, and simply lifted up his hands and said, "Little children, love one another. Little children, love one another."

Oh for more of that spirit in the church of Jesus Christ. May God search our hearts. May we earnestly seek to answer the probing of the spirit. Do we draw away from other believers because they do not follow us? Do we seek to learn whether they are true followers of Jesus Christ? For if they are following him, they belong to us, and we belong to them because we both belong to him.

We may not understand the working of their minds, but again, they may not understand the working of our minds. As for me, I have pledged myself to the Lord that I will love all men, especially all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When I find some man who claims to love Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I will seek to draw nearer to him by drawing nearer to the Lord Jesus.

I will try to learn from each believer what he has seen in Christ that I may not yet have seen. I will try to show to each believer the glory that I have found in Christ and which he may not yet have seen. And thus we will love one another to edification, and being builded together in Christ, we shall show forth a witness to the world that the love of Christ is drawing us to himself.

In Christ's own words: "By this shall men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another." And so our text is a command: welcome one another and not to argue about scruples. And our God and Father, we pray thee that the Holy Spirit shall indeed give us the earnest love of Jesus Christ, that men may take knowledge of us in all our attitudes in every word, that we are seeking thine honor and glory, that we want thy holiness, and that we want men to see thee better, that they may know thee and love thee more. We give thee the praise through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Guest (Male): We must readily accept those of weak faith and refuse to pass judgment on each other in disputable matters as we pursue unity and fellowship among all true believers in Jesus Christ. We hope you have benefited from today's message entitled Doubtful Disputations. Listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via the internet at Alliancenet.org.

An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Today's message is entitled Doubtful Disputations, or simply request message number R14-1. We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled First Things First. If we are to experience peace and victory in the Christian life, we must have a firm grasp of the primary foundational concepts about God.

This six-chapter booklet focuses on spiritual priorities including the Word of God, the Lordship of Christ, witnessing, fellowship, and repentance. You will learn the tremendous benefit of putting first things first in your spiritual life. Ask for your free copy of First Things First when you call or write. Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

We exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of reformation theologians from decades and even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching which will equip all believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place. We also produce the radio broadcast, The Bible Study Hour, featuring the teachings of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and Every Last Word, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken.

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