But aren't
you creating an "in-group" and an "out-group" on this website?
Aren't you creating division in the body of Christ?
Yes -as we ought to. We must discern clearly who walks in His
very bosom. In Him there are always various levels of light and
reward; this is true and necessary here on earth and even more in the
hereafter. Although "incorrect" according to the world, He does
this in the church for very clear reasons. This is not at all
new or unorthodox. This works to build Oneness in Him, without
interfering with the fallen earthly "unity". Each level has their
own distinct challenges
to cope with and may need support from those who share the same
problems
or blessings.
Wesley made such
distinctions.
155. Did Mr. Wesley organize special
societies and meetings for the promotion of holiness, and attend them
himself?
"He did. This is stated distinctly and repeatedly in his journals. He
alludes to their organization, to his attendance, and to their results
in
scores of instances. In many places he organized these societies
himself;
he called them the “Select Society,” or “Select Band.” He attended them
in numerous places, and gives items concerning them in a multitude of
cases.
Declarations like the following are common in his journal “I met the
Select
Band.” “Afterward I met the Select Society.” “ I joined again the
Select
Society.” “I met at noon, as usual, those who believe they are saved from
all sin.” “Met Select Society and talked with twelve of them.” As
to
the origin of these Select Societies, see Works, vol. v. pp. 184-185.
Dr. Stevens, in his Church History, vol. ii. p.
458, says: “Mr. Wesley established meetings for penitents and
backsliders, and select societies for persons who were especially
interested in the subject of
Christian perfection.” Mr. Tyreman
says: “The select societies were taken from the bands, and were
composed
of those who seemed to walk in the light of God’s countenance.
Tyreman. Vol.i. p. 444."
(From “Perfect Love” by J. A. Wood -found on the “Entry
Directions” page of www.enterhisrest.org
)
God and
believers made
such distinctions.
“In March, 1877, the Wallace Band began a meeting in the Cumberland
Presbyterian church in Ennis, Texas. They preached so hard against
tobacco and worldliness that the ruling elders had a session and
ordered Cyrus Hogan, who was then an elder in the church to lock the
doors, but on his way to do so he met John A. McKinney, who told him he
need not do so as they would vacate without the doors being locked, and
the meeting was finished out under the trees in
McKinney’s yard.
This caused
great division in the town,
while many tobacco-soaked church members fought holiness, the sinners
in town contended for the holiness meeting to run on. At every place
they held meetings they organized holiness bands, started Tuesday night
holiness prayer meetings, and took subscribers for The Banner of
Holiness, a paper published in Illinois. At the Ennis meeting some
Baptists were sanctified, and at the next regular church meeting they
were excluded from the church, their pastor telling them that they had
accepted the Methodist faith by being sanctified, and were
no longer Baptists. That same night a tremendous storm struck the town,
utterly demolishing the Baptist church, the only building that was
seriously damaged in the town. A company of Texas toughs waited on the
deacons the next day and told them that it was
the curse of God,
for turning out these
holy people. Before leaving Texas they had a great meeting at Lawrence,
in
the Methodist Episcopal church.
Through reading The Banner of Holiness, the name of Rev. W. B. Colt was
seen as a holiness evangelist, and he was invited to come to Texas for
some meetings, the first one was at Ennis, September 20, 1877, where
the Wallace Band were put out of the Cumberland Presbyterian church.”
“Pioneer Days of the Holiness Movement in the Southwest”
(page 9) is found on the
“History” page of www.enterhisrest.org )
The integrity of
the whole gospel demands such distinctions.
"Another reason for our advice is, that no truth in
the Gospel scheme was designed to be isolated from its connection with
the
whole system, and magnified out of due proportion by being exclusively
dwelt
upon. Such treatment of a most vital truth creates error.
Justification by faith, preached alone, without
the safeguard set up by St. James, runs into the rankest Antinomianism.
But justification by works exclusively preached begets Pharisaism. The
sovereignty of God
may be magnified into the iron scheme of fatalism; the merit of
Christ”s suffering and death may be preached to the total neglect of
the regenerating and sanctifying offices of the Holy Spirit, and result
in Universalism. Likewise,
there may be so long and so absorbing a contemplation of the doctrine
of
Christian perfection as to lose sight of the duty of calling sinners to
repentance. We may linger with Jesus so long on the mount as to forget
that,
at its foot, is a world lying in the ‘wicked one, greatly needing our
added
faith to expel the devil from his usurped possession.
Hence, while the whole Gospel is preached, the wise workman will be
careful to rightly divide the word of truth. Yet there is in every
living Church a felt necessity for a meeting,
under competent
supervision, for the promotion of advanced Christian experience.
Wesley, with an admirable sagacity, met this need by his ‘ select
societies„ and ‘ bands. Where there is no provision for this want,
hungry souls may [27] fall into the hands of ill-balanced and
unskillful teachers of these deep mysteries.
The universal disuse of these in America, and their removal from the
Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1856, is the natural
consequence of the general decline of preaching evangelical perfection
as a distinct work of the Spirit.
We earnestly hope that some
substitute for the "select society"
will be devised by the next General Conference, and that it will
incorporate
into its itinerancy evangelists, who, like Paul and Wesley, shall go
flaming
through the Church calling sinners to Christ, and believers to the
fullness
of the Spirit."
......"At the age of eighty-five he (J. Wesley) writes thus to a
circuit preacher: ‘ No circuit ever did, or ever will flourish, unless
there are bands in the large societies... At first the united societies
embraced the awakened; the bands, the justified; and the select
societies,
the entirely sanctified. At the date of Wesley”s
letter the select societies seem to
have been merged in the bands, which aimed at the edification of those
whom
Fletcher styles ‘ adult believers..."
from “Excerpts” by
Daniel
Steele in the “Wisdom for Ministers” page of
www.enterhisrest.org )
.
1. Who We Recognize
"for you are still carnal. For where there are
envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving
like
mere men? 4 For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am
of Apollos," are you not carnal?
5 ¶ Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through
whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted,
Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he
who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the
increase.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will
receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are
God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. 1
Cor.
3:3-9
Similarly then, who is Steele and who is Carradine? Who are
Plumb, Adams, McGatlin, Long, White et al? They each do their
portion, but God gives the increase, so give God
the glory!!! The "increase" as far as we are concerned, is
the contribution to
our ability to communicate clearly the reality of His Rest and the way
souls may obtain it with as little difficulty as possible.
It is our policy and practise to regard His truth, rather
than the vehicle it arrives in.