Taking a Stand

To be firm stand in some areas of life can be so simple, yet so difficult in other areas. I had been thinking on this when a friend posted one day on Facebook.

Here is an excerpt from a work of Baptist history, “Spurgeon’€™s early complaints centered upon three problems; the decline of prayer meetings among the Baptist churches, the worldliness of ministers relating to entertainment, and doctrinal problems which stemmed from the inroads of the €œhigher criticism€? of that day. This controversy isolated Spurgeon from many who refused to stand with him for the defense of biblical truth. Many believe that the grief and conflict of this battle hastened his death after a period of illness at Mentone in Southern France. He died on Jan. 31, 1892 at 57 years of age. In our day when apostasy abounds, God grant us men of God like him.”

Spurgeon lived a short life, and died young, yet even now his testimony lives on. Things haven’t changed much. Today we still must stand against those same issues. I agree with the author, God grant us men (and women) of God like him. – Abby Louise Allison.

There are individuals, like those who are not part of traditional “Bible believing” circles, for which it is easy to mark the false doctrines and to stay well away from, but what of those who are brethren, yet have departed from sound doctrine in few or many areas? This is what Spurgeon dealt with. He had to separate from his peers and friends on the basis of false doctrine; something which I am seeing more and more for in this day and age. We love these brethren, yet to love the Lord, we are commanded to separate – but of course not treat as enemies.

There seems to be a general hesitancy among Independant Baptist churches to label “our kind” as heretical, cultish, etc. If you doubt this, research how long it took for some so called IFB preachers to be labeled as abusive cult leaders by the majority of IFB churches. However, in order to stand before the Lord in good conscience and not to be respecters of persons, this is what must be done. To stand with those who abuse God’s people, are lords over God’s heritage, and preach their own philosophies as doctrines, is to stand in opposition to the Lord.

In the last few years, I actually removed posts on modesty from my blog which, although they declared a sound doctrinal position on women’s attire and modesty, emphasized man’s philosophies and IFB cult leaders’ quotes, versus the Word of God. Verses had also been pulled out of context to prove their point. For this, I truly apologize. We are to be students of the Word of God, not blindly follow men simply because they have a title. Also, if a position is Biblical, there is no need to twist verses to bolster a sound position. God’s Word stands alone.

May the Lord give each one of us the grace and strength to stand against error and apostasy, regardless of who is the source.