Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six
Very often through the years, I have witnessed or heard professing believers speak about "waiting on the leading of the Holy Spirit," and what they meant actually was "waiting on circumstances that they interpreted as the leading of the Holy Spirit." The terminology, "waiting on the leading of the Holy Spirit," is very ambiguous. What does someone even mean when he is saying that? When someone does say or write it, I've seen people nodding their heads with understanding, but I'm very sure that people don't really understand. It is almost utterly subjective and allows for a great many outcomes with ultimate interpretation being that God told someone to do what he was doing almost without question.
What are people expecting when they say, "I'm waiting on the leading of the Holy Spirit?" Sometimes they mean they are waiting for an impression or a feeling or a strong desire, some kind of nearly irresistible urge. It isn't much of a different experience than the LDS "burning in the bosom." It can't be a burning in the bosom if the person isn't Mormon, but it carries with it equal authority to the LDS experience. The Mormons, however, use James 1:5 as a biblical basis for their experience, essentially saying that the feeling is the wisdom they were asking for.
The language of waiting on the Spirit isn't in the Bible. I'm not sure where it originated. Spirit-filling isn't waiting. It is active, even as "be filled with the Spirit" is present tense, continuous action. A believer is never to be waiting as it relates to his relationship to the Holy Spirit. "Walk in the Spirit," another biblical teaching, is to be continuous. The biblical idea of waiting is to wait for our reward, wait for the coming of the Lord. We don't wait to start obeying what He said.
Sometimes the "leading of the Spirit" is a series of circumstances that form a picture to a person like a mosaic, a version of "reading the tea leaves" or "reading of the coffee grounds" in Middle Eastern tradition. I admit, it is funny to me, but then I stop laughing, recognizing that it shouldn't be funny because many people are deceived in this way. I estimate that more than half, maybe three quarters, of independent or unaffiliated Baptists, and many more evangelicals and fundamentalists, label this kind of approach to decision making as "the leading of the Spirit."
I recognize that people have instinct and gut feelings, but they shouldn't call that "the leading of the Spirit." Gut feeling can't rise to the level of God talking. Some people have better instincts than others, for which they should be thankful. I've driven along a road, trying to find some place for which I'm looking, and then see enough landmarks to know that I've arrived. That isn't the Holy Spirit. It is a combination of my own experience, thinking, knowledge of city planning, road design, and memory. Police detectives use the same type of instincts for solving crimes. They look at a body in a murder investigation and clues narrow their search to a set of specific individuals that they call suspects. You've heard someone say, "Follow the money." That isn't the Holy Spirit.
I played little league and then high school baseball. Baseball is a slow moving game that requires some focus and concentration that at times I did not either possess or practice. In the middle of a practice, or even a game, while my mind was wandering, a shadow would move toward me in the field, and I would duck. My instincts said, "duck," because a ball was coming. It wasn't a ball, but a low flying bird. People in the stands saw someone convulsing and wondered what was wrong, since a pitch hadn't even been thrown. My arm raised in self preservation. I had this happen several times in my childhood. What my mind interpreted as a baseball was actually the shadow of a bird flying over. Some of you reading know what I'm talking about. I shouldn't call that a baseball just because of an impression I had.
I'm not saying that circumstances have nothing to do with decision making. I'm not saying either that the Holy Spirit isn't involved in circumstances. The Bible teaches the providence of God. I'm fine with someone calling circumstances the providence of God. Everything that happens is either allowed or caused by God. It wouldn't happen without Him. However, how someone reads circumstances should not be called "the Holy Spirit leading." The Holy Spirit leads through the Word of God. When we practice scripture we are being led by the Spirit.
Circumstances can and should be read. If the price goes up on a particular item, you might not buy it. It's now too expensive. You were going to take a trip, but you put the necessary money into a repair of your water heater or the car is acting up, so you can't trust it to take you out of town. When you are talking to someone in evangelism, he keeps looking at his watch or looking back over his shoulder. You ask him if he wants you to continue. He says, "No."
Furthermore, you candidate as a pastor for a church. The committee or the church members ask you what you believe and practice. You tell them everything. They believe and practice different than you do. They don't want you as pastor, so you don't get the percentage of vote required by their church constitution. Someone has a sign that says, "No soliciting." You don't solicit. You visit every house in town and no one receives the gospel. You start on a different town. Jesus approaches a Samaritan town and they tell Him to leave. He leaves. Are all of those the leading of the Spirit? The Holy Spirit is not disconnected from the above decisions, because the Bible has something to say about all of them, but I know that isn't what people mean when they say they are "waiting on the leading of the Spirit."
I watched some Olympic pole vaulting on the internet. Certain participants would skip a height to reduce their potential number of misses, since that is a tie break in the competition. It also saves on energy to make less attempts. Skipping heights isn't a good decision by a pole vaulter if he can't clear the height he has skipped to. His decision should be based upon some knowledge that he can succeed at an attempted height. Many Olympic events require strategy. The Kenyan long distance runners unsuccessfully took the 10,000 meters out to a very fast pace to wear out Britain's Mo Farah. He still had enough in the tank to pass them at the end and win despite even tripping and falling at one point in the race. Decisions Christians make take in similar considerations for decision making in their lives and its good to give God credit for enabling a good decision, but these are not "waiting on the Spirit to lead."
The people of Israel were to recognize the arrival of Jesus. To do that, they needed to be sensitive to biblical cues from the Old Testament. A lot of evidence existed to point to Him as the Messiah. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 16, when he excoriated the Pharisees for their application of meteorological knowledge while failing at scriptural evidence. He was saying they had the ability to make good decisions -- they just were taking that ability and not using it where it counted most. Judging the sky for good weather is appropriate decision making for a fisherman. That is not "waiting on the Holy Spirit to lead."
Jesus uses a similar illustration as the one in Matthew 16 in Luke 14, where He speaks of men calculating the cost of building a tower before they start to build it. He uses the analogy for the consideration of following Him. He doesn't deride the basis of calculating cost. He uses it as an illustration for the right way of making a decision. Jesus did this all the time. He said not to cast pearls before swine. That's a waste of time, so it's a bad decision to do it. You don't need to "wait for" those to make a good decision. They are the kind of basis one uses to make a right decision.
Charismatics among others often teach a concept they call "praying through." The idea, as I have read, is something like trying to get satellite radio while under an overpass. Your prayers are being disrupted by demonic or Satanic activity, but they will get through or God will get the answer through to you if you go through enough sacrifice for that to occur. The idea is that you might need to go without food and spend hours praying to get the leading of the Holy Spirit you need for a right decision. God removes the disruption, but only if you pay the price. Applying the "praying through" concept to purchasing a house would be to fast and pray, asking God to show whether you should buy the house, and then the Holy Spirit talks to you in your head, telling you what to do. That is very often what people mean by "the leading of the Holy Spirit."
What people will "pray through" to get in the way of "the Holy Spirit leading," they already have. You don't have to wait to find out if you are supposed to evangelize somewhere. The next person is fine. Just do it (my apologies to Nike). It's fine to talk to the first person in town like Paul did Lydia in Acts 16. When we started here in the Bay Area in 1987, I went to the person closest to us, and my next person was the next closest person to us. I didn't skip those two to get to the third closest person, because of a feeling I had. A huge part of the decision where we started was that there was no church in the entire town. None. No church. It was a town that had no church (and no gas station).
We have the Holy Spirit's leading. We are led by the Spirit, if we are saved. We don't need to wait on it. It's already arrived.
If I buy a piece of furniture at IKEA, which requires assembly, I wait to read the instructions before I start putting it together. I have to wait for certain supplies or tools to do a project. Usually you don't marry the first man or woman you meet. I can talk to the first person I see in class, but that doesn't mean he's my new best friend. Scriptural thinking precedes decisions about marriage, about friendship, and about many activities. It doesn't tell me how to put together IKEA furniture.
I could preach the gospel to several people a day for a month without anyone receiving Christ. I'm not seeing any results, but I don't give up. I'm doing what God wants and I'm waiting on Him for the results. God has put His love in my heart for these people. That's how you wait on the Lord. You take fulfillment in your position in Christ, the hope of eternal reward, and enjoy the multifaceted and plenty of the goodness of God. You don't become impatient and do something unscriptural to speed up the results. That's how you wait on the Holy Spirit. I waited until I had done all of the above. I'm now ready to move on. I waited until now to do that.
I take complete, thorough records. I have knocked on every door in town and left literature three different times. By following up, I have preached to someone at every door twice. In addition, I have preached to all my neighbors who would listen and every person who would listen with whom I do business. No one has received Christ. That is legitimate waiting. It's up to the town now whether they will follow the Lord Jesus Christ or not. I don't feel guilty. I don't take the blame for their indifference. They've got to do what they've got to do, and they haven't done that. I've waited for them the amount of time I'm supposed to wait and I have a biblical basis for moving on, which is how the Holy Spirit leads.
What people call "waiting on the Holy Spirit to lead" can be disobedience to God. They shouldn't be waiting. Their waiting is not working or not serving or not loving. It's an excuse. It can be spiritual pride. Someone says he's waiting on the Holy Spirit, so that people will think he's got some type of elite channel to the Holy Spirit beyond others. God talks to him directly unlike others, perhaps because he has sacrificed more. The people saying they are receiving these messages from God operate out of a wrong understanding of scripture, making apostolic and prophetic activity normative for today. They aren't.
There is a kind of deniability to the described signs "evidence" of the Holy Spirit. They aren't the fraudulent tongues or healings of Charismaticism. They are just not enough signs to deny they're signs, at the same time being signs. People are waiting for something. This "leading" is something. They are a unique voice in the head, validated by some circumstances or series of circumstances, that are a sign that the voice is authentic. Enough people believe in this kind of activity that they validate one another. They point to each other as a confirmation of its reality. They accept each other for saying they are getting these experiences. It spreads to others.
When I confront Charismatics on their lies, they huff and puff with offense. I'm unloving to doubt their experience. I haven't found it different with Baptists and their special means of advanced revelation. In addition, they throw down autonomy. You think you're the pope if you question them. It's going to keep going and get worse at this rate.
I consider the "waiting on the Spirit" language to be verbal and theological gobbledygook, essentially erroneous reliance on circumstances. Deny it. Leave it.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Friday, August 19, 2016
Keswick's Quakerism, Rejection of Doctrine and Rejection of Studying Scripture: in Keswick's Errors--an Analysis and Critique of So Great Salvation by Stephen Barabas, part 3 of 17
Keswick’s heavy
Quaker influence illustrates the failure among its leadership to separate from
even the most serious of errors and a lack of discernment about what is
involved in even being a Christian at all.[1] For example its co-founder Robert Wilson was
a Quaker, and from its inception the Keswick convention allowed those in
soul-damning error, such as the Quaker Hannah Whitall Smith, to mold its
doctrinal position. Holiness, sanctification, and separation
share the same word group in the Hebrew and Greek languages, and the disobedience
of the Keswick Convention to the Biblical commands to practice ecclesiastical
separation cleary hinder its intention of promoting holiness. Compromise on any area of the truth hinders
growth in holiness, for sanctification takes place by means of the truth (John
17:17).[2] What the Keswick Convention boasts of as a
strength, “that no man or woman has ever been known, through the influence or
under its teaching, to leave one communion for another,” so that “those who
accept the Keswick teaching and enter into the [Keswick] experience . . .
incline to remain where they are . . . [even in] moribund or dead churches,”[3]
is no strength at all, but, in fact, a very serious weakness. Keswick unites those professing paedobaptism
and believer’s baptism; those who think that sprinkled infants are Christians
and those who believe that one must be converted to become a Christian; those
who advocate hierarchical denominational structures and those who practice congregational
church government; those who believe in liturgical ritualism and those who
accept the regulative principle of worship; those who preach the inherent
goodness of man inherent in the Quaker “Divine seed” heresy and those who
accept the total depravity of man; and those who embrace corrupt sacramental
gospels with those who profess the true gospel of justification by faith alone
through Christ alone apart from religious ceremonies. When all such, together with sundry sorts of
other doctrinal deviants, get together for a “united communion service,”[4]
one can be happy that the Lord’s Supper is not really being practiced, as only
true Baptist churches can celebrate it, for the gross doctrinal and practical
disharmony might lead to many suffering serious illness or early death (1
Corinthians 11:30) as Divine judgment. In
sum, Keswick ecumenicalism is unscriptural and dangerous.
A
related error of Keswick, which developed out of the identical position at
Broadlands[5]
and which accorded well with the ecumenicalism of the movement,[6]
is that it “is interested in the practical application of religious truth
rather than in doctrinal or dogmatic theology.”[7] Biblically, no disjunction exists between
doctrine and practice—on the contrary, sound doctrine and practice mutually
reinforce each other (1 Timothy 4:16).
In keeping with its belittling of Biblical doctrine, Keswick has
produced an ocean of non-doctrinal books, “many volumes of devotional
literature.”[8] This non-dogmatic “literature of the
Convention . . . ha[s] circulated far and wide . . . throughout the world.”[9] Likewise, myriads of “addresses [have been]
given at the Convention year after year for over seventy-five years.” Nevertheless, “Keswick furnishes us with no
formal treatise of its doctrine of sin, and no carefully prepared, weighty
discourses of a theological nature”[10]
of any kind. This lack was abetted by
the total lack of formal theological training on the part of many early Keswick
leaders.[11] Keswick’s neglect of carefully prepared
theology is a definite weakness, although natural for those who accepted Robert
P. Smith’s view that for “souls i[n] vital conscious union with Christ . . .
the effects of any errors of judgment are neutralized.”[12]
What was
important at Keswick, as in the teaching and ministry of Hannah and Robert P.
Smith, and at the Broadlands Conferences,[13]
was not the careful study of what Scripture said, but feeling happy—the secret
of a happy life.[14] While Keswick’s neglect of the careful study
of Scripture suited the Quaker exaltation of immediate extra-canonical
revelation, for those who wanted to know what God’s Word said about
sanctification, it was a great hindrance that at “the early Conventions . . .
[a]ll the addresses were extemporaneous,”[15]
so that none of the spiritual guides who were to lead others into the way of
holiness could preach carefully exposited Scripture. All speakers had to teach unprepared:
Canon
Harford-Battersby . . . . assigned . . . speaking roles each evening for the
following day, after a time of prayer with the chairman [Robert Wilson] in his
vicarage drawing room . . . informal planning of the speakers for each day,
undertaken only during the week itself, characterized the Convention for more
than fifty years. . . . Some may see in that a more noble leading of the
Spirit, whilst others may call it flying by the seat of your pants[.][16]
Keswick maintained “a remarkable
absence of planning and organizing of speakers.”[17] It is not surprising that a later Keswick
president thought that “the reason that Convention blessings were short-lived”
was the “lack of solid exposition” at the Conference.[18] Keswick’s oft recognized[19]
lack of carefully prepared and theologically precise views of sin and the
solution for it is evident in its inaccurate presentations and bungling
refutations by Keswick advocates of alternative positions on sanctification,
its failure to deal comprehensively and carefully with the scriptural data
related to the believer’s growth in holiness, its invalid arguments, its allegorical
interpretation of Scripture, and its faulty exegesis of key texts on
sanctification.[20] In all these ways, while unfaithful to the
Bible, Keswick continued faithful to its roots at Broadlands, where the
misinterpretation of Scripture was tightly connected to the Quaker Divine Seed
heresy.[21] From the Divine Seed doctrine many an
allegorization of Scripture came forth—what need was there of careful exegesis
of the Bible for one who has the Divine Seed within, and from his allegedly
sinless spirit receives new revelations?
Keswick does not do well to set against each other “exegetical skill”
and “present illumination and anointing of the Holy Spirit,” claiming to value
the latter despite downplaying the former.
In fact, Keswick’s theological sickness is evident in the affirmation
that the “distinctive vitality” of “Keswick meetings” is “lost” if “exegetical
skill instead of . . . present illumination” is employed in preaching.[22] Indeed, Keswick authors have testified that
the generality of those that accede to their theology do so not as a result of their
having exegeted and searched the Scriptures (Acts 17:11), but because of their pleasant
feelings and experiences at Keswick conferences.[23] It is consequently not surprising that the
key requirement for ascending the Keswick platform during its founding decades
was not doctrinal orthodoxy, but, as at Broadlands, the experience of entering
into the carefree happiness of the Higher Life.[24] Keswick’s inability to support itself
exegetically, and its reliance upon testimonies and pleasant words and deeds to
lead people into its system, is explained by Robert P. Smith:
Do not press this fulness of the Gospel [the Higher Life], in its
doctrinal, dogmatic side. It is not so
much a doctrine to be argued as a life
to be lived. Confess Christ—do not profess
to be anything. . . . Your life must be your argument to those who see you constantly. Do not worry them by doctrinal statements,
but love them into the fulness of salvation.
It is usual to hear persons say, “I was wrong. I could meet the arguments, but the life of my friend has convinced me
that she was right.”[25]
Thus, careful statements of
Biblical teaching only “worry” the generality of those who accede to the Higher
Life. Although arguments for Keswick doctrine
from the text of Scripture can be easily met, as the Bible does not teach the
theology of the Pearsall Smiths, the appearance of a carefree and happy life
full of rest and quiet leads many to adopt the Higher Life. The theological imprecision that results by
setting the Holy Ghost against painstaking exegesis of the Word He dictated is
also a major explanatory factor for the other Biblical errors in the Keswick
theology. Keswick statements on
theological issues are often better when they are not taken seriously, but only
their general intention is considered; taking Keswick too seriously leads to
serious error.
See here for this entire study.
[1] Compare Jessie Penn-Lewis’s “deep conviction” that “many
who have been reckoned ‘Modernists,’ even in the Mission field, are not really
so in heart,” but are really “servants of Christ” that Keswick partisans should
“labour to help . . . all that is in our power” (pg. 280, Mrs. Penn-Lewis: A Memoir,
Mary N. Garrard). Many theological
modernists are not, Penn-Lewis affirms, unregenerate false teachers who should
be marked, avoided, and rejected.
Rather, they are servants of Christ who should be assisted as much as
possible; they are simply in need of some Higher Life teaching so that all will
be well. If even modernists should be
accepted, it is no surprise that Penn-Lewis preached that “divergent views on
prophecy, on sanctification, on healing, and other matters . . . should be put
aside” to assist in bringing about “the UNITY of the Body of Christ in view of
His soon Return” (pg. 283, Ibid.). Since the Keswick co-founder, Canon
Harford-Battersby, was himself High Church, then Broad Church, and only then an
evangelical Anglican, and all without a conversion experience, Jessie
Penn-Lewis’s statements are not surprising.
[2] The following statement illustrates the less-than-proper
view of truth advocated by many Keswick proponents: “Keswick itself has been and is still
criticized; but that is of no serious consequence. The truth of God is bigger than any one view
or school of thought” (pg. 10, So Great
Salvation, Barabas). Contrary to
Barabas, true theology has the objective propositional content that was given
by the Father to His Son as Mediator to reveal to the church by the Spirit
through the Scriptures. Rather than
lightly treating criticism of Keswick because the truth of God is allegedly
bigger than any one view, such criticism should be evaluated Biblically and
acted upon if it is accurate, or rejected if it is unscriptural.
Of course, the statement that the truth of God is
bigger than any one view is itself incoherent.
If the truth of God is bigger than any one view, it is bigger than the
view that it is bigger than any one view, in which case the truth of God is not
bigger than any one view.
[3] Pg. 35, So Great
Salvation, Barabas.
[4] Pg. 149, So Great
Salvation, Barabas; cf. pg. 98, Transforming
Keswick: The Keswick Convention, Past,
Present, and Future, Price & Randall.
The open communion service would take place in the meeting place of T.
D. Harford Battersby’s Anglican congregation, where the severe errors of the
Anglican communion liturgy were recited week by week (pgs. xiv-xv, Memoir of T. D. Harford-Battersby,
Harford).
[5] E.
g., at the 1874 Broadlands Conference Robert P. Smith taught that the “purpose
of this gathering together . . . was different from that of other religious
gatherings. It was not for the teaching
of religious truths,” but for the inculcation of the Higher Life in which the
“teaching of the Spirit should be heard” (pg. 120, Memorials [of
William Francis Cowper-Temple, Baron Mount-Temple], Georgina Cowper-Temple. London:
Printed for private circulation, 1890),
in accordance with the Quaker doctrines of the Inner Light and the Divine
Seed. The “aim [was] less to enforce a
creed than to inspire a life” for Broadlands preachers such as the universalist
George MacDonald (pg. 59, The Life that
is Life Indeed: Reminiscences of the
Broadlands Conferences, Edna V. Jackson.
London: James Nisbet & Co,
1910). “The Conferences were, as Lord
Mount-Temple said at the opening of the first one, ‘not for the promulgation of
any new system, nor for the combined execution of any organized plan, but a
meeting of grateful, loving hearts, united . . . to lead a higher and deeper
Christian life’” (pgs. 119-120, Ibid.).
[6] Thus, in the words of very sympathetic Methodist
writers, whose purpose in writing was generally to defend the Keswick theology
and perfectionism (as taught, in their view, most perfectly by Wesley) against
Higher Life critics:
The [Keswick] theology . . . does very seriously expose
itself to misconception through its lack of systematic coherence and
completeness. A certain consciousness of
this seems sometimes to disturb the equanimity of the teachers, and tempts them
to speak disparagingly of dogmatic theology[.] . . . It is not to be expected,
of course, that the leaders of the movement . . . should publish to the world
their precise creed . . . [since they] have generally been careful to disavow
any connection with denominations and communions . . . on the principle of
keeping out of view everything that might raise the question of sectarian
differences . . . ignor[ing] . . . the formalities of worship, and ritual, and
sacraments . . . effac[ing] . . . the distinction of pastorship and laity . . .
[and] not always tak[ing] . . . sufficient care . . . to preclude . . . the
imputation of Pelagianism . . . brought by almost all the censors against the
movement. (pgs. 100-101, “The Brighton Convention and Its Opponents.” London Quarterly Review, October 1875)
[7] Pg. 42, So Great Salvation, Barabas.
[8] Pg. 42, So Great Salvation, Barabas.
[9] Pg. 9, So Great Salvation, Barabas.
[10] Pg. 51, So Great Salvation, Barabas. This fact mentioned
by Barabas does not mean that nobody associated with the Keswick theology has
ever produced anything with at least a certain amount of scholarly value; it
does mean that no Keswick advocate has ever composed a careful and scholarly
presentation or theological defense of the distinctives of the Keswick
doctrine. Rather, Keswick writings are
“a mass of unsystematic literature, not always absolutely consistent with
itself” (pg. 259, “Means and Measure of Holiness,” Thomas Smith. The
British and Foreign Evangelical Review [April 1876] 251-280). Barabas is by no means the only Keswick
advocate to recognize that no carefully prepared and theologically precise
presentation of its position has even been written—this absence has been
continually recognized from the very origin of the Keswick movement. R. W. Dale noted:
I said to Dr. Boardman only a
few months ago that it seemed to me that this [Higher Life] movement had
prophets, but had not teachers; and he acknowledged that there was a great deal
of truth in that. I asked where he could
show me a theological book in which this doctrine was so stated as really to
satisfy any theological mind, and he was obliged to acknowledge that it was
very difficult indeed to name any such book. . . . I have been called upon as
one not hostile to this movement, [but] as favorable to it. (pg. 450, Record of the Convention for the Promotion
of Scriptural Holiness Held at Brighton, May 29th to June 7th,
1875. Brighton: W. J. Smith, 1875)
[11] E. g., Evan Hopkins & Webb-Peploe “had no formal
theological training” (pg. 68, The
Keswick Story: The Authorized History of
the Keswick Convention, Polluck); neither did Hannah or Robert Pearsall
Smith, Robert Wilson, or many other Higher Life leaders.
[12] Pg. 186, Account
of the Union Meeting for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness, Held at Oxford,
August 29 to September 7, 1874. Chicago: Revell, 1874.
Smith’s doctrine that errors of judgment have no negative consequences
for people who experience the Higher Life as he had done helps explain both his
adoption and continued propagation of the erotic Bridal Baptism doctrine. His judgment might indicate that he was
propagating the vilest of perversions, but such judgment was to be set aside
for the thrills of a “conscious union” where the rational could be set aside.
[13] The
wonder of the Higher Life resulted in “[t]he intense happiness experienced at
Broadlands,” which was “as the dawn of a fresh springtime in th[e] lives” of
many (pg. 267, The Life that is Life
Indeed: Reminiscences of the Broadlands
Conferences, Edna V. Jackson.
London: James Nisbet & Co,
1910). Although the vast body at the
Broadlands Conferences had never been born again but were wretched and
unconverted sinners, they were not led to feel their awful misery, but were
confirmed in carefree happiness and self-delusion. “[A]t Broadlands . . . changed lives and
characters . . . could not be gainsaid . . . one noted a great and marked
increase in gladness and cheerfulness” (pgs. 246-247, Ibid). Indeed, Broadlands
leaders testified that the spiritualism and the presence of demons
impersonating the spirits of dead people contributed to the great happiness of
those present. As the Mount-Temples
believed, “the presence of unseen heavenly ones added to the deep gladness that
was felt” (pg. 262, Ibid.).
[14] Thus, at the Oxford Convention, people learned: “If our preaching does not make people glad,
we have not got the right message” (pg. 263, Account of the Union Meeting for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness,
Held at Oxford, August 29 to September 7, 1874.
Chicago: Revell, 1874). For the Oxford Convention, then, it would
seem that the Lord Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, did not have the right
message when He proclaimed: “Blessed are
they that mourn” (Matthew 5:4; cf. Luke 6:25; 7:32; 1 Corinthians 5:2; 2
Corinthians 7:7; James 4:9; Daniel 10:2; Joel 2:12, etc.). Rather than the message of Christ and the
Apostles, Hannah Smith taught at Brighton that the Holy Spirit is not “one to
make us unhappy”—thoughts that make one unhappy “always come from Satan” (pg.
376, Record of the Convention for the
Promotion of Scriptural Holiness Held at Brighton, May 29th to June
7th, 1875. Brighton: W. J. Smith, 1875). The Christian is to enter into the Higher
stage where “he
abides in utter unconcern and perfect rest . . . perfect abandonment of ease
and comfort . . . the Higher Christian Life” (Chapter 3, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, Hannah W. Smith).
[15] Pg. 16, Keswick’s
Authentic Voice, ed. Stevenson. It is
admitted that Keswick addresses were often “rather disjointed” because of this
lack of study (pg. 17), even as at the Brighton Convention Robert P. Smith
noted: “I do not think that there has
been a single address arranged; I know there have been no formal preparations
made in any respect,” as not until late in the evening were speakers for the
next day selected (pgs. 12,
437-438, Record of the Convention for the
Promotion of Scriptural Holiness Held at Brighton, May 29th to June
7th, 1875. Brighton: W. J. Smith, 1875). Likewise at the Oxford Convention it “was not
so much what was said, in the purely extempore remarks or addresses,” for all
that the people heard were “unpremeditated extempore addressess,” concerning
which what mattered was “the preparedness of the heart to listen” (pgs. 180, 200, Account
of the Union Meeting for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness, Held at Oxford,
August 29 to September 7, 1874. Chicago: Revell, 1874). People were profoundly prepared to accept in
their hearts whatever the speakers said or taught in their unprepared and
unpremeditated addresses; this was possible because, as Robert P. Smith
explained, for those in the Higher Life “the effects of any errors of judgment
are neutralized” (pg. 186) so no negative effects would result from the many
misinterpretations and misapplications of the Bible.
[16] Pg. 205, Transforming
Keswick: The Keswick Convention, Past,
Present, and Future, Price & Randall; pg. 44, The Keswick Story: The
Authorized History of the Keswick Convention, Polluck.
[17] Pg. 49, The Keswick
Story: The Authorized History of the
Keswick Convention, Polluck.
Quotation marks within the reference above have been removed.
[18] Graham Scroggie; see pg. 71, Transforming Keswick: The
Keswick Convention, Past, Present, and Future, Price & Randall.
[19] For example, Hannah W. Smith stated:
As to the matter
of theology in this [doctrine of the Higher Life], I beg, as I always do, that
nobody will listen to me with theological ears.
It is very likely that I make plenty of mistakes in that direction, but
if you get hold of the experience, then you can put the matter straight . . .
[I may not give] a very clear or exact statement of Christian truth; but I am
sure . . . that [I present] an exact statement of Christian experience. (pg. 54, Record of the Convention for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness Held
at Brighton, May 29th to June 7th, 1875. Brighton: W.
J. Smith, 1875)
Of
course, it is impossible to have an exact view of Christian experience without
an exact statement of Christian truth, and believers are always to evaluate
what they hear with “theological ears” that are carefully sifting with
Scripture what others affirm (Isaiah 8:20; John 5:39; Acts 17:11; 1 John
4:1-3). If Mrs. Smith admits that she
makes many mistakes with Christian truth, she ought not to be preaching at
all—a certainty in any case (1 Timothy 2:11-15).
[20] The phenomena mentioned in this sentence are
examined in more detail below.
[21] For
example, teachers at the Broadlands Conference proclaimed: “Whenever I meet a man, I know the germ of
the Christ-life is there. . . . Christ is the life of men, the Divine seed in
every one” (pgs. 178-179, The Life that
is Life Indeed: Reminiscences of the
Broadlands Conferences, Edna V. Jackson.
London: James Nisbet & Co,
1910). The Divine Seed led to many
allegorical misinterpretations of Scripture at Broadlands. For example, in Revelation 22:2, “The leaves of the tree are for the healing
of the nations” is not about the leaves of the tree of life in the New
Jerusalem, but really means: “We cannot
live in this world without longing to be healers” (pg. 179, Ibid). After all, the New Jerusalem only
“signif[ies] glorified humanity” (pg. 132).
With similar allegory, “The birds of the air came and lodged in the branches” (Matthew 13:32) means, to the
amazement of the student of Scripture:
“We are to be the support and sustainers of those who are seeking rest”
(pg. 179, Ibid. Italics reproduced
from the original.). Indeed, Broadlands
even made the astonishing discovery that in Luke 16 Lazarus was worse off than
the rich man: “Lazarus was the most
wanting in brotherly kindness, for Dives [the rich man] got no help from Lazarus . . . They were both in Hades. Better to be a sufferer than a helpless
witness of suffering. . . . The only true heaven is a character like God’s”
(pg. 208, Ibid. Italics in original.). Perhaps such an exaltation of the rich man in
hell above Lazarus in paradise was assisted by the Broadlands confusion of the
Antichrist with Christ in texts such as Revelation 6:2 (pg. 207, Ibid), but such is uncertain.
Keswick allegorization and Scripture-twisting thus
followed the pattern set at the Broadlands Conference and its successors. At Broadlands in 1874 a “very distinct
feature of this Conference, [which] must not be omitted in any attempt to
delineate it . . . [was] the conversations over passages in Scripture [where
people] had not tarried in the letter
of the Word, but had discerned everywhere beneath it the living Word . . . unveiling . . . the inward and spiritual meaning
in the Jewish history and ceremonial” (pgs. 122-123, Memorials [of William Francis
Cowper-Temple, Baron Mount-Temple], Georgina Cowper-Temple. London:
Printed for private circulation, 1890). Consequently, for example, the Oxford
Convention took the fact that “[a]ll priests are Levites, but all Levites are
not priests” and allegorized it to support the division of Christians into
those living the Higher Life and those not.
Furthermore, the number of days it took to cleanse the temple in 2
Chronicles 29:17 was allegorized into Higher Life truth, and an address was
given on “Joseph a type of the risen life.”
Another allegorization included Samuel’s predictions about the
conclusion of Saul’s search for his father’s donkeys, receipt of bread from
people, and encounter with a company of prophets in 1 Samuel 10 as “a picture
of the Christian life” where people are “first chosen, then consecrated.” Likewise, the water coming from Ezekiel’s Millennial
temple (Ezekiel 47) teaches the Higher Life; the Valley of Achor (Joshua 7, 15;
Isaiah 65; Hosea 2) is “the place of entire absolute renunciation of all
discovered evil for a door of heavenly blessing”; “Kadesh Barnea” is
allegorized into a font of Higher Life truth; the fact that Solomon wrote the
Song of Songs teaches that the Higher Life is a “reign of peace,” and so on
(pgs. 58, 60, 124, 128-130, 148, 268-269, 306-7, Account
of the Union Meeting for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness, Held at Oxford,
August 29 to September 7, 1874. Chicago: Revell, 1874). It is difficult to know whether it is better
to laugh at such ridiculous allegorizations or cry because of their dishonor to
God’s holy Word.
Similarly, Keswick convention founder T. D.
Harford-Battersby adopted the Higher Life theology after hearing an allegorical
misinterpretation of John 4:46-53 by Evan Hopkins (cf. pgs. 157-158, Memoir of T. D. Harford-Battersby; pg.
52, The Keswick Convention: Its Message, its Method, and its Men,
Harford; pgs. 113ff., 174, Account of the Union
Meeting for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness, Held at Oxford, August 29 to
September 7, 1874. Chicago:
Revell, 1874). Compare also the
numerous examples of severe eisegesis in the elenctic examination of
controverted passages on sanctification and the several vignettes of central Keswick
leaders in the various chapters of this book.
The Higher Life was found in countless texts when allegorized, although
it was not in any when principles of grammatical-historical hermeneutics were
applied.
[22] Pg. 214, The
Keswick Convention: Its Message, its
Method, and its Men, ed. Harford.
[23] For instance, A. E. Barnes-Lawrence, in The Keswick Convention: Its Message, its Method, and its Men, ed.
Harford, on pgs. 188-191 describes how a typical “cleric of devout mind who for
the first time has come to Keswick, prepared to find fault, but for the moment
is withholding his judgment” is brought to adopt the Higher Life doctrine. He goes to a prayer meeting, sees a lot of
people who are fervent (pgs. 188-189), hears “the flood of melody as the hymn
is taken up by the great assembly,” is impressed by the “sudden hush and
expectant quietness that falls” in the “Bible Readings,” concludes that his own
“best sermons” arouse “languid” interest in comparison with those at the
Convention, and that people at the Convention are more “keen” than those in his
congregation, and he therefore adopts the Keswick theology, even while
averring: “It was not the address,
certainly not . . . and I should have treated that last point quite differently
myself” (pg. 190). By such impressions
and feelings, rather than by careful study of the Bible, hundreds of ministers
receive the Keswick message (pg. 191).
“Such a testimony is not unfrequent, and it carries its own imprimatur” (pg. 190).
For further examples, note Griffith-Thomas’s attempt
to respond to Warfield’s crushing critique of the Keswick theology by testimonial,
rather than exegesis, in this work’s chapter on whether Keswick critics
misrepresent Keswick; cf. also pgs. 66, 85-86, Record of the Convention for the Promotion
of Scriptural Holiness Held at Brighton, May 29th to June 7th,
1875. Brighton: W. J. Smith, 1875.
[24] “The
only qualification required from the speakers [at Broadlands] was that they
should have personal experience of the truths they uttered” (pg. 120, cf. pg.
265, The Life that is Life Indeed: Reminiscences of the Broadlands Conferences,
Edna V. Jackson. London: James Nisbet & Co, 1910). Of course, Christian preachers should know
experientially the truths that they proclaim, but testimony to having received
a certain experience is by no means a sufficient standard for allowing a person
behind a pulpit (cf. 1 Timothy 1:3, 13; 2 John 7-11).
[25] Pg. 291, Account
of the Union Meeting for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness, Held at Oxford,
August 29 to September 7, 1874. Chicago: Revell, 1874.
Italics in original. Cf. pg.
263. Note that the generic “friend” who
leads another to adopt the Higher Life is a “she.”
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