REJECTION OF BIBLE SEPARATION
A SLIPPERY SLOPE
BY DAVID CLOUD
(Friday Church News Notes, July 6, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:The rejection of Bible separation is a slippery slope. It begins in “small” ways with “a little leaven” and takes incremental steps, always moving farther away from the Bible’s teaching on separation. The rejection of separation begins softly and quietly. It is something that can be difficult to put one’s finger on, something not easy to identify. It is a change of mood as much as anything. The rejection of separation begins with a mere change in mood toward a more positive emphasis. It is characterized by a greater tolerance of error. It is a gradual loss of militant zeal in the defense of the faith. The first step in the rejection of separation can be identified not so much by what a preacher or a church or a Bible college does or says as by what it fails to do and what it neglects to say. Typically, those who are at the outset of rejecting separatism are offended when someone challenges them that this might be happening. They still want to be known as separatists because they are still associated with separatists or with those who want to be known as separatists. The following questions can help identify whether or not a church is going soft on separation: Do clear warnings go out from the pulpit? Are the people who sit under the church’s ministry well educated about influential compromisers and heretics? Does the church invite strong separatist preachers to blow the trumpet against compromise in a plain way? Does the church warn more about disunity and “fragmentation” than it does about compromise? Does the church dislike men who give plain public warnings about compromise? Does the church ever host a conference on separation and give clear warning on issues? Does the church publicly and unhesitatingly identify itself with forthright separatists? Does the church recommend literature on separation to its members? What is in the bookstore? Is separation something that was once preached, talked about, and practiced but now left out of the agenda? Is the church affiliating with those who are careless in their affiliations? Is the church warming up to “conservative evangelicals”? Does the church routinely recommend books by New Evangelicals? Is the church affiliating with those who use CCM and contemporary Southern Gospel and perhaps moving toward adopting this music itself? CCM is not just music; it is a philosophy of Christianity that is diametrically opposed to separatism and CCM and a separatist stance cannot and will not live in harmony for long.
