Outside the Camp


We read in Present Truth, Vol.14; No. 168; October 2008, in the article entitled Is There A Biblical Pattern For The Church? these words —

At least two things are suggested by the phrase ‘gathered in (or unto*) my name’. First, identification with the Lord Jesus. That is the believer abandons all man-made ecclesiastical systems, and is identified with the rejected Christ. The epistle to the Hebrews urges this upon us all. “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb.13: 13. ‘The camp’ in that day was Judaism, and its modern equivalent is Christendom into which many of the features of Judaism have been absorbed. The believer is called to break his links with that, and be associated alone with the Man who is ‘outside the camp’, as one gathered to His name.

* In order to establish a link between being gathered and being outside the camp, the Scripture reading itself has to be altered. The word “unto” is not a suitable alternative to “in” in Matt. 18: 20 (see www.avbibleversesvindicated.blogspot.com ) The verse is misquoted anyway. The reading is For where two or three are gathered together in my name...

Those familiar with the Hebrew epistle will be aware that Christians were not being urged to separate themselves from some ecclesiastical system. They had already done it, as Heb. 10: 25 shows – not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. It is not possible to forsake something that does not already exist. When the letter to the Hebrews was written, believers were already meeting together in a scriptural manner, gathered together in His name. Further proof of this is found 13: 7 where the believers are exhorted to remember them who have the rule over them. They spoke the word of God (they were not preaching Judaism) and their faith was to be followed.
Then in 13: 17, these Hebrew Christians were to obey them that have the rule over them. Thus in the middle of a passage dealing with the right attitude to the elders in the assembly we have the “let us go forth” statement.
As Pink rightly points out, this has nothing to do with a foot exercise. It is a heart matter.
This is what Pink had to say on the subject:-
Hebrews 13:13 has ever been a great favorite with those who started "Come out" movements. It has been used, or rather misused, again and again by ambitious Diotrephes, who desired to head some new party or cause. It has been made a sop for the conscience’ by many a little group of discontented and disgruntled souls, who because of some grievance (fancied or real) against their religious leaders, church, or denomination, forsook them, and set up an independent banner of their own. It is a verse which has been called into the service of all separatists, who urged all whose confidence they could gain to turn away from—not the secular world, but their fellow-Christians, on the ground of trifling differences. That which these men urged their dupes to forsake was denounced as the God-abandoned and apostate "Camp," while the criticism they have (often justly) met with for their pharisaic conduct, has been smugly interpreted as "bearing Christ’s reproach."
Finally, the deceived are now easily drawn to become ardent propagators of their new tenets, zealous proselytizers, seeking to persuade others to leave the apostate "Camp" and join them on "the true scriptural ground." "Let any man of contrary opinion open his mouth to persuade them, and they close their ears: his reasons they weigh not, all is answered with ‘We are of God, He that knoweth God heareth us’ (1 John 4:6), as for the rest, ye are of the world" (Hooker). Such was the policy pursued by the "Fifth Monarchy men," the "Brownists,’ Thos. Cartwright and his following in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Such too was the course taken by John Kelly in Ireland, Alex. Campbell in Kentucky, more than a century ago—the latter founding "the Christian Church," denouncing all others as unscriptural. So that Mr. J.N. Darby followed a well-trodden path!

— from Exposition of Hebrews, ch.115 A W Pink.

The article in Present Truth appears to be promoting the movement described by Pink.
The “Camp” the writer to the Hebrews had in mind may well have been the camp in the wilderness as they surrounded the tabernacle. This was God appointed and God approved worship. It fulfilled its purpose and ceased to have purpose with the coming of Christ. But it was more than Judaism that killed the Lord. It was the whole world that crucified Him (see 1 Cor. 2: 8). Christendom didn’t crucify Him. Christendom, though maybe now deep into apostasy, has always acknowledged the person of Christ; His virgin birth, his death, burial, and resurrection.
“Going forth unto Him” is now a personal exercise of the heart for all those who have experienced a conversion and have been added to the local church. They are dead to the world (1 John 3: 1)
We have to point out that so many of those who regard the going forth as a matter of leaving the Baptists and Pentecostals, Presbyterians, and Methodists (mentioned in the article under consideration) have never had a conversion experience. The necessity of a conversion is played down among the Brethren and denied by many of them. We have heard a conference speaker tell his audience he had never been converted but such a confession had no impact on his preaching career. I have yet to discover a mention of the conversion of J N Darby in any biographical works concerning him.
I spent 20 years in an “Outside the Camp” assembly. It was an assembly marked by immorality from its establishment in the 1950’s until its collapse 50 years later. We saw adultery, fornication, sodomy, drunkenness practiced. A Bible class teacher spent evenings teaching the young men to play cards. An elder taught in the assembly that Christ could sin. We never though of leaving because “without were dogs”! However the dogma expressed by Present Truth was strongly adhered to. It was not an Exclusive assembly. It would have been termed by many as “open”.
One would expect “outside the camp” assemblies to be filled with “outside the camp” people!

Did you ever hear of a Muslim preacher who told his audience that the Koran was sprinkled with error? I have never heard of such a thing. But I have been in more than one gospel meeting where the preacher told his audience, “the Bible is wrong in this verse”. Such a man is either a dupe of Satan or is actively engaged in the service of Satan., determined to destroy faith.

This is what Sir Winston Churchill thought about Islam:

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”

—Sir Winston Churchill, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).

No publisher would touch this stuff today. Their premises would be fire-bombed by our home grown allegedly moderate Muslims. Indeed, it appears that this passage has been expunged from the latest edition.

But the leopard cannot change his spots. Islam is as big an enemy as Rome ever was, without its subtlety. last week the daily telegraph reported that a government minister is urging that “children should be taught about the contribution Muslims have made to civilisation.” Islam remains the scourge of civilisation. We preach to these poor Muslims as they pass us in the street. It would be a very costly thing for one of them\to embrace Christ even in this land of the free.

□. Ford said history is bunkum but history has a tendency to repeat itself. If we do not learn from history we shall make the same mistakes. So because we do make the same mistakes history is ever cyclic. What about the mistakes in Jeremiah’s day? They are the errors of the 21^st Century.

We read, he that hath my word, let him speak faithfully. Jer. 23: 28. So spoke Jeremiah. Now the men that mount our platforms place their bible on the dais and read from it. They read (almost invariably) from the Authorized Version of the Scriptures and then they tell\us “the good old AV is wrong here”.

A sword is upon the liars, said Jeremiah. Of course, he was referring to the Chaldeans and Babylonians. Alas, we have too many such on our platforms. What are we to do? We must obey Scripture.

The men who claim to be our teachers today rely on the works of Westcott, Hort, and similar men. The Scripture says Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. (Eph. 5: 11)

So we raise our voice against those who handle the word of God deceitfully. And we may need to do it publicly.

On several occasions I have been told “you think you are the only one who is right.” Jeremiah was right. He stood almost alone in his day. But I thank God for so many today who are like-minded with myself and who do not consider the religious system to be higher than truth. The system says, “worship scholarship”.

□A shibboleth : Get your bible teacher to read aloud the last word in Revelation 1: 12. If it sounds like “lampstands” he speaks an alien language and is not a member of the Bible believing family.

□ We recently heard a preacher tell his audience that in the light of Genesis 6; 3, if they rejected the gospel, they might find “they have crossed the line” and God would no longer allow them to get saved. He taught that one could pass the point where it would be impossible to repent. He was not speaking of death and he was not speaking of dementia.

I inferred from his preaching that God’s longsuffering could run out while a man was still fit and well physically.

I do not know of a line that can be crossed because one has gone too long in unbelief. This is not what Genesis 6: 3 teaches.

And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

Note: v.1 adam is plural. Men are spoken of. In v.3 adam is singular. The race is seen as one. What applies to one man in this context applies to all. The striving ceases for the whole human race. It is done because of his being flesh and therefore having limited time on this planet.

Note also: spirit is with a small s. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this verse. It is the breath God breathed in, as v.17 reveals. The breath of life.

The fact is we are born into disobedience and remain in it until we repent and trust Christ, or death takes us out of it. Only then does God’s grace cease towards the sinner. God’s pleading voice is heard through the gospel\ of Christ and not through emotional appeals or threats. a gospel preached on the wrong application of this verse leads to confusion and false professions of faith.

□D Oliver, in October’s Truth and Tidings, writes of , (I Quote) “the Biblical teaching of gathering to His name”. He knows very well that there is no such Biblical teaching. I challenge him to find one verse of Scripture that teaches this. All right, half a verse will do! Nowhere in my Bible do I read of “gathering to His name”. It is the rallying cry of the Exclusive brethren. They invented the term.

Oliver uses this phrase to suggest that one is not a fully submissive Christian unless one is gathering to His name, i.e one must be a member of the Brethren. I quote again, “.... a believer who does not submit to the Lordship of Christ [who is not Brethren] violates God’s Word and [marrying such] cannot be His will.

So we learn from him that marrying outside the Brethren is a denial of the Lordship of Christ and is outside God’s will. There are seemingly a lot of disobedient Christians among us and a lot of them appear to be happily married.

Marrying in the Lord is to marry one of like precious faith. We are well aware, however, that there are some who are members of a local assembly but have never experienced a conversion. For a believer to marry such would constitute an unequal yoke.

We await a BIBLICAL response from D Oliver.

□The Codex Sinaiticus can now be seen online at codex-siniaticus.net. This is the Greek manuscript found in a waste bin in a popish monastery. It was rejected by early Christians because of its being seriously depraved, but excited Westcott and Hort upon which they built their perverted RV.

I looked to see if the multitude of alterations are visible and sure enough they are —on every page.

This is admitted on the website where we read

“In the Codex, the text of both the Septuagint and the New Testament has been heavily annotated by a series of early correctors.” This speaks for itself. Its depravity remains visible. Despite this, the BBC reports that

“Fundamentalists, who believe every word in the Bible is true, may find these differences [found in the Codex Sinaiticus, and in conflict with every other manuscript} unsettling. Well, we would expect God-haters and latter-day scoffers to say this. If you found a filthy bit of paper in a dustbin and read on it that your mother was a whore, you would, in a rage, destroy your birth certificate, wouldn’t you?

The truth is, all that needs to be known about this manuscript was discovered more than 100 years ago and its uselessness was documented then by Bible believing scholars.

Roger Bolton, reporting for the BBC, concerning the digitising of this Codex, wrote

‘ "It [the Bible] should be regarded as a living text, something constantly changing as generation and generation tries to understand the mind of God," says David Parker, a Christian working on digitising the Codex.

Others may take it as more evidence that the Bible is the word of man, not God.’

What this long rejected popish relic has to do with the Bible I read, he failed to explain. I take this and similar codices to be evidence of the hatred of men toward the things of God.

□ I hadn’t thought until recently that believers would get hooked on internet pornography. There is so much Scripture that helps keep a believer away from this kind of stuff. for instance, As he thinketh in his heart, so he is (Prov. 23: 7).

According to comScore Media Metrix, there were 63.4 million unique visitors to adult websites in December of 2005, reaching 37.2% of the Internet audience.

Another online (unscientific and unsubstantiated) survey in 2006 reported that “50% of Christian men are addicted to pornography”.

It must be a disaster for any believer to get entangled with this evil practice.

An internet organisation known as Covenant Eyes provides a filtering system where the subscriber chooses a mentor who will be able to monitor all websites visited by the subscriber.

I asked the person who told me about this website why it was not sufficient to know the eye of the Lord was upon him.

He had no answer, but there is an answer given by Job, I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? Job 31: 1.

Job did not make a covenant with any other person., who could then use the information gained to exercise power over him or even blackmail him. The covenant is made before God. It is the kind of covenant that is character forming.

The believer keeps himself conscious that he is ever in the presence of a thrice holy God.

We read some strange things on the Hebron Hall, Bicester, Assembly (Brethren)website.

This stuff is being taught in the Assembly Bible Class

Under “Articles” we find some paragraphs dealing with the humanity of Christ.

Penfold has taken a quote from Adam Clarke;

He took upon Him human nature, and thus became a kinsman of the great family of the human race, and thereby possessed the right of redeeming that fallen nature of which He took part [sin apart], and of buying back to man that inheritance which had been forfeited by transgression.” Adam Clarke.

Aware that this statement denigrates Christ, he has sanitised it by adding the words in square brackets, [sin apart] thereby declaring that though Christ possessed a sinful nature, he was able not to sin. Be fully persuaded that a fallen nature is a sinful nature.

Then he claims that the blood of Christ was indeed corruptible and no longer exists.

Referring to Mark 4: 38, 39, He writes that the Lord performed a miracle in His sleep. This merely shows Penfold hasn’t even bothered to read the passage.

He thinks weariness is an aspect of human nature and hasn’t noticed that animals get tired. They feel pain, get hungry and some can even cry real tears. (Elephants will weep at the death of one of their number.)

Human nature differentiates us from the animal kingdom. Made in the image of God, we have the ability to communicate with God.

There is also a serious alteration of Scripture, when he quotes Gal 4: 4 as “born of a woman”. There is utterly no authority for this. The Scripture tells us the Lord was MADE of a woman.

These are serious errors and believers need to have their attention drawn to them.

Read it for yourselves. Hebron Hall Bicester.