In an earlier post, I suggested that those evangelicals who are more loyal to the church than they are to the Gospel are prepared to stand idly by and watch fellow-evangelicals being slaughtered by the church and not lift a hand to help them. Shame on them all!
I read recently of how this exact thing goes on within the Scottish Presbyterian churches. The writer echoed my viewpoint when he said that he watched in horror as evangelicals were being hung out to dry by their evangelical colleagues. At times they were instrumental in betraying evangelicals, and stood there watching what was happening but doing nothing about it.
He referred to a divinity student in the Presbytery of Glasgow whose views on women's ordination were reported to Presbytery. Not one evangelical supported him and he was forced to leave. Another evangelical in another Presbytery was accused of being a 'troublemaker' in relation to the same issue, and rather than being given the support of his fellow evangelicals, found himself ostracised and he too had to leave. A third situation involved a young minister who confronted a ruling elder about an inappropriate (sinful and unbiblical) relationship he was having. This came to Presbytery and neither the Presbytery nor the evangelical ministers in it supported him, and he too was told to keep quiet about this, or to leave the ministry. He left.
It seems that evangelicals in today's churches are rather more like evan-jelly-cals than Bible believing Christians; the emphasis here is on the jelly. Ministers within the established denominations have no reason to believe that when hardy comes to hardy, they can be sure of the support of fellow-evangelicals at Presbytery or Assembly levels. These evangelicals are first and foremost churchmen rather than Gospel-men; that means that you just cannot trust them to support biblical standards either in morals or in doctrine.
Where are soundly evangelical ministers to go to who want to minister the Word of God and preach the everlasting Gospel of redeeming grace? Answer? It is impossible to say. Presbyterianism, in all its shades and varieties, is painted in the same colours. Every minister's pre-occupation is to protect himself and secure his job. Ministers within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, some of them, live in fear of getting on the wrong side of church authorities. This was the response I got when I asked why ministers will not support their brother evangelicals. They are living in fear of the church hierarchy, and they know that they have the power of life and death over their ministries. These men have taken real power into their own hands, and, my, they are prepared to use it - but only against evangelicals whose congregations do not want their preaching. They will not lift a hand to discipline or remove liberals and ecumenicals, and other time-servers, those who keep in with the authorities.
Surely the time has now come for reformed evangelicals to come together and set up a new Christian church. The unfaithfulness of the current churches is depressing. When evangelical ministers are being abused by and within their congregations and then dismissed by their Presbyteries working in conjunction with the powerful Judicial Commission. This cannot go on indefinitely. "The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. (Dan.11:32). Now is the time for action. Think of Luther and Calvin, Cranmer and Latimer, men who knew their God and who did great things for Him.
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