Editorial

In things religious the " trend " of the last few decades has been amalgamation," but it is " amalgamation " without Christ, amalgamation with the Scriptures shut outside. There was a time iii Scotland, in the days of the Covenanters, when men and gentle women, because of their love for the Lord and His word, endured privations innumerable and in thousands of cases death rather than live with an evil conscience. We are not oblivious that in the covenanting movement, because of the wicked repressive measures upon an unoffending people there were ardent spirits who took up arms to fight oppression. The memorials of this God fearing and believing people may he seen in the stones which mark their resting places on the wild moors to which they fled for safety from their persecutors, in the places where the whaups and the pewits cry (Whaup is a Scots name for the curlew).

At a later time came the Disruption, when a few hundred ministers with some of their congregations left the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church. Mr. Spurgeon said once that such a thing could not have happened in any other country but Scotland. Be that as it may, these people separated from the Church of Scotland on principles of truth at issue in their time. But what is the history of this Free Church ? In time the light that once existed there grew dim. The Free Church amalgamated with the United Presbyterian Church and these have now, some years since amalgamated with the Church of Scotland and are back again in the darkness that they once left A few congregations remained outside such unions

Now another amalgamation confronts the Church of Scotland for there is contemplated an amalgamation of that church with the Church of England when they hope to have bishops in the Church of Scotland and elders in the Church of England. But are the Scriptures consulted on such matters. No not at all. Religious men have so much wisdom, they seem not to require God's inspired word to guide them.

The Scriptures do not speak of a minister being a minister of a congregation of people, nor do they ever speak of a bishop over a diocese. Such ideas are foreign to God s word in the New Testament. An elder was a bishop (or overseer) in New Testament times (Acts 20.17, 28), and each New Testament church was ruled by a plurality of elders (Acts 14.28; 20.17).

What is the ultimate object of this amalgamation of the Church of Scotland with the Church of England ? The secret is out; it is a secret no longer. Dr. MacLeod, the Leader of the Iona community, and Moderator of the Church of Scotland, said over the Television in a reply to the question, "Are we really talking of unity with the Church of Rome ? " " We are, for the body of Christ was one, and for 1,000 years it was possible to have one Church." Dr. MacLeod's confessed purpose is to lead the Church of Scotland back to the Romish Church. Dr. MacLeod is a Romanist at heart in the garb of a minister and moderator of the Church of Scotland. He was elected to the moderatorship by his fellow ministers of the Church of Scotland.

Dr. MacLeod must know the mind of many of his fellow-clergymen of the Church of Scotland, and we would presume he must also know the mind of many Church of England clergymen to have spoken so openly of the purpose of the amalgamation of the Church of Scotland with the Church of England. What do Dr. MacLeod's words imply? They mean that the Church of Rome was the body of Christ. He quite evidently is not correct in his ecclesiastical history about there being one church for a 1,000 years, and far less is he correct in calling what is really Christendom, the body of Christ." Though a doctor of divinity he is a blind guide, who is seeking to lead the blind. He does not know what the body of Christ " refers to It is not communities of religious people, mostly unsaved people. It is that body of believers in Christ and His atoning sacrifice who are all baptized in one Spirit into one Body (1 Corinthians 12.12, 13), who are members of this one Body and of one another (Romans 12.4). Against this Church the gates of Hell cannot prevail (Matthew 16. 18). The Lord at His coming will present the Church to Himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Ephesians 5.22-30).

"I have not got a Television set, nor would I have. My information about the proposed amalgamation and its object is derived from the Glasgow "Bulletin " of October 28, 1957.

unknown | Feb 1958
General