by

A. J. Gardiner (1884 - c. 1972)

SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS

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In the foregoing recital attention has been concentrated on some of the more outstanding conflicts which the progress of the recovery of the truth has had to encounter, but conflict in one form or another has continued all down the line. In writing to Timothy, Paul enjoined that the truth was to be handed on by Timothy to faithful men, who would be competent to instruct others also, and then immediately added “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:2 and 3), evidently implying that the maintenance of the truth required the taking up of a suffering and militant attitude on the part of the faithful. Frequently the conflicts have been confined to particular localities or areas, but in such cases it will be usually found that the principles involved were those which were at issue in the Bethesda matter or the Glanton and Alnwick matter already dealt with in these pages.

There are, however, certain matters in which important elements of sound teaching were involved to which allusion should be made.

Salvation in the assembly.

In 1905 the importance of the assembly as a sphere of practical salvation from the world was emphasised in ministry by Mr. James Taylor, and was, for a time, seriously opposed by certain well-known brethren in England. It is so obvious from the early chapters of the Acts that in the early days of Christianity believers found in the assembly, into which they were introduced by faith in Christ and the reception of the Spirit, a sphere in which, in the practical enjoyment of eternal life, complete deliverance from the elements of the world was realised (see Acts 2:42-47; chap. 4:23-35), that it is difficult now to understand

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how it could have been seriously contested, but the opposition that arose at that time was an effort of the enemy to use objective truth to deny or obscure the importance and value of the presence in the assembly of the Holy Spirit and His resulting work in the saints. In this effort the enemy found material at hand in the failure, for a time, on the part of certain leaders to recognise and acknowledge the Lord’s sovereignty in using whom He would to bring out His mind for the assembly, but through the grace of the Lord the truth gradually prevailed, though many who refused a subjective line of ministry, including one of the leaders in the opposition, were carried away at the time of the Glanton issue. The truth brought out at this time is not only clearly set out in the Acts, but is equally clearly presented in Hebrews 11:7, and in the typical teaching in Genesis to which that verse alludes.

Christ in the midst.

In 1909 it was put out in ministry which appeared in print that the Lord had taken up an abiding position “in the midst” of the assembly (John 20:19; Hebrews 2:12), and that this formed the central truth of Christianity. It was said that on the day the Lord rose from the dead He fulfilled His promise in John 14:18, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you,” and that He did not relinquish the position He then took up in the midst. It is clear from John 20 itself that this is not the truth, for after saying in verse 19 that Jesus came and stood in the midst, the scripture tells us in verse 26 that eight days after His disciples were again within, and Thomas with them, and that “Jesus comes, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst.” Moreover, in chapter 21 we read that “after these things Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples” (verse 1), and from Acts 1:21, 22, we learn that during the forty days after the Lord rose, as well as during His public

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ministry before His death, He “came in and went out” among the disciples.

The suggestion that the Lord has an abiding position in the midst of the assembly tended to obscure the special privilege and blessedness of His coming to His own from time to time, according to John 14:23, leading to the highest form of assembly service Godward, and to weaken the sense that this privilege is dependent on suitable conditions, as is clearly indicated in John 14:15, 21, 23. It also indirectly tended to obscure the special grace and favour of the abiding presence with us, in the absence of Christ, of the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, in connection with Whose presence the Lord is pleased to come, from time to time, and manifest Himself to His own.

The wrong teaching as to Christ’s abiding presence in the midst was challenged by Mr. J. Taylor, and as a result of correspondence and exercise that ensued, the article in which the teaching appeared was withdrawn in 1914.

The suggestion of Christ’s abiding presence in the midst of the assembly having been shewn to be inconsistent with Scripture does not, of course, set aside the fact that, for support in administration and testimony, He is with us “all the days, until the completion of the age,” Matthew 28:20.

Fulfilled responsibility.

A few years later, considerable discussion arose on the question of fulfilled responsibility, there being an effort with some to press the fact that no one has, in fact, fulfilled responsibility absolutely (“we all often offend,” James 3:2), to such an extent as practically to destroy the force of Romans 8:4, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit.” It is clear that, as J.B.S. often remarked, in Christianity man’s capability (as

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having the Spirit) is equal to his responsibility. According to divine purpose man is set up in perfection in Christ outside responsibility altogether, but it is important also to recognise that in the grace of God and the power of His kingdom, believers are given divine capability in the Spirit to answer to His will in the sphere of responsibility. God does not contemplate that Christianity should be a failure in the wilderness position of responsibility, but that in those who recognise the presence and power of the Spirit of God there should be correspondence morally with Him Whose language was “To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart,” Psalm 40:8.

The Holy Spirit.

In recent years the personal glory of the Holy Spirit, as essentially equal in the Deity to the Father and the Son, but as graciously taking, in the economy of love in which God is revealed, a serving place with us and in us, has come much before the saints, and as the holiness which His presence requires is increasingly pursued, and the communion of the Holy Spirit is known, increasing freshness, power and liberty are becoming known in assembly service and all occasions of coming together by the saints, including liberty to address the Spirit in worship and prayer.

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Conclusion

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