tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17617194.post3028199675347917697..comments2024-03-07T06:52:34.516+00:00Comments on Exiled Preacher: Evangelical unity: 1966 and todayGuy Davieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09184743462264437085noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17617194.post-26450135285906771802010-03-19T14:05:57.176+00:002010-03-19T14:05:57.176+00:00J,
I agree that separation from the mixed denomi...J, <br /><br />I agree that separation from the mixed denominations is an imperative when there is no realistic hope of reform. But I am not a second degree separatist. We can still have fellowship with Evangelicals who have not yet come out of the denominations.Guy Davieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09184743462264437085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17617194.post-33379783785109800702010-03-19T12:36:59.866+00:002010-03-19T12:36:59.866+00:00Surely this is because for many seperation is a mo...Surely this is because for many seperation is a moral imperative and they view their brethren within as being disobedient to God's commands?Jonathan Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12341478626195362383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17617194.post-16582810965287971982010-03-18T21:31:33.660+00:002010-03-18T21:31:33.660+00:00Thanks for your helpful comments, Neil.
I would ...Thanks for your helpful comments, Neil. <br /><br />I would want to distinguish between two kinds of Evangelicals who have remained in the mixed denominations. There are those who take an integrationist position such as the one adopted by Anglicans at the 1967 Keele Conference. I believe that they are in the wrong. As I said in the post their stance relativises the gospel. <br /><br />Then there are other Evangelical friends who regard themselves as the true Anglicans/Church of Scotland Presbyterians. They believe that the Liberals/Anglo Catholics should leave the denomination, not the Evangelicals. After all it is they who hold fast to the denomination's founding confession of faith. <br /><br />I may believe that Evangelicals in this second category are misguided to think that they can reform their denominations from within, but that is a matter of judgement rather than principle. However, there must come a point where a denomination's abandonment of biblical doctrine and ethics becomes so endemic that Evangelicals will have to face the issue of separation. Has the CofE and CofS already reached that point? <br /><br />I agree that EA is far too broad, which is why I favour Affinity, but with a beefed up Reformed confessional basis that is generous enough to accommodate differences on ecclesiology and baptism etc. <br /><br />Sorry to hear of your local experiences with ---tists. It's a great shame that separated Evangelicals are not more supportive of their brethren who are battling it out in the mixed denominations.Guy Davieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09184743462264437085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17617194.post-2166098440765305712010-03-18T21:02:45.762+00:002010-03-18T21:02:45.762+00:00Guy, I appreciated this post greatly. May I as a m...Guy, I appreciated this post greatly. May I as a member of a large, compromised, old denomination respond to your points to show how someone outside nonconformist independency sees things? Specific responses to your numbered points:<br /><br />(1) I agree and we in these denominations should not be simply satisfied with being a "wing"; after all wings are the least nourishing part of a chicken. But we can with some validity say that we are not the ones out of line. I subscribed to the Westminster Confession with sincerity and my liberal colleagues are the hypocrites; why should I leave?<br /><br />(2) Agreed absolutely; parachurch bodies have often done a lot of harm and tend to act as a "church" whilst denying that they are one.<br /><br />(3) "For my money a form of interdependent independency.." sounds good. The problem is that such bodies either become theologically as broad as denominations (what does EA stand for?) or so narrow that they become as exclusive as the smallest churches. Is it in the evangelical heart to show the necessary catholicity of spirit?<br /><br />(4) Amen! Amen! I will believe it when my former independent friends stop describing my responding to a call into a denomination as "backsliding".<br /><br />(5) Again Amen! How good it would be to have some sort of confessionally-based mutual support. But here's the rub - our local ----ist Church which has never been notable for its zeal for doctrine has a pastor who widely announces that nobody in my denomination locally "preaches the gospel" apart from one - a fuzzy charismatic. Who is my brother: the one who has a clear (in his own mind) view of the gospel and who rejects out of hand my ministry; or my denominational colleague who differs but with whom I can have a civilised conversation and explain why I differ over certain things?<br /><br />Again - thank you for a thought-provoking and very helpful article. I could say more but it is your blog not mine!Neil R Combehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11777136821522727962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17617194.post-85320273579416785762010-03-18T15:17:23.579+00:002010-03-18T15:17:23.579+00:00Aff.....somethingAff.....somethingJonathan Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12341478626195362383noreply@blogger.com