In the Autumn of 1887, Charles Haddon Spurgeon and his congregation withdrew from the Baptist Union.
In his magazine, ‘The Sword and Trowel’ of November 1887, he wrote the follow definition of what the Baptist denomination had become and why it was he had to withdraw from it.
His definition is truly one that gives us a clear view of just what it is for a Christian church to apostatise. It also pictures for us the spiritual state of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, from which Dr Paisley led a separation back in March 1951. As a result of the heresy of Prof Davey and his ilk the PCI had sunk down into the same depths as the Baptist Union in the last century.
“As a matter of fact, believers in Christ’s atonement are now in declared religious union with those who make light of it; believers in Holy Scripture are in confederacy with those who deny plenary inspiration; those who hold evangelical doctrine are in open alliance with those who call the fall a fable, who deny the personality of the Holy Ghost, who call justification by faith immoral, and hold that there is another probation after death, and a future restitution for the lost. Yes, we have before us the wretched spectacle of professedly orthodox Christians publicly avowing their union with those who deny the faith, and scarcely concealing their contempt for those who cannot be guilty of such gross disloyalty to Christ. To be very plain, we are unable to call these things Christian Unions, they begin to look like Confederacies in Evil. Before the face of God we fear that they wear no other aspect. To our inmost heart, this is a sad truth from which we cannot break away.”
(Extract from an article in ‘The Sword and Trowel’ of 1887)
The recent controversy within our denomination regarding Contemporary Christian Music has indeed brought to the surface the sad truth that ‘there is sin in the camp’. But it is not sin to the dreadful degree as that set forth by CHS with regards the Baptist Union back in his day and because of which he separated from that Union.
We must be clear that the Saviour has not left the Free Presbyterian Church because of CCM. Such music does not please Him and He would have the church purged of it and the wrong done to Rev DiCanio put right. If that does not happen, then things will deteriorate and end up as the theological hodgepodge that the Baptist Union had become by 1887 and the PCI by 1951 and from which the Lord separated and led out His faithful ones.