George Whitefield - Philip - XII - Chapter 9 concluded

Required reading
Life and times of George Whitefield by Robert Philip (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Finish reading Chapter Nine

My summary
Today we finish reading Chapter 9 which concerns Whitefield in Scotland.

We continue to hear of Whitefield's interaction with the Erskines - namely their unsuccessful attempts to convince him that their form of church government (Presbyterianism) is the only right one.

The rest of the Chapter recounts Whitefield's work in Edinburgh.

What grabbed me
It was a little disturbing to hear how dogmatic some Christians can be about church government.  The Erskines' appear to not recognise people as Christians if they are outside their Presbyterian denomination: 'I [Whitefield] then asked them what they would have me to do; the answer was, that I was not desired to subscribe immediately to the solemn league and covenant; but to preach only for them till I had further light.  I asked, why only for them?  Mr Ralph E------ said, "they were the Lord's people."  I then asked, whether there were no other Lord's people but themselves?  and supposing all others were the devil's people, they certainly had more need to be preached to, and therefore I was more and more determined to go into the highways and hedges; and that if the pope himself would lend me his pulpit, I would gladly proclaim the righteousness of Jesus Christ therein.  Soon after this, the company broke up'.

Now Philip is fair and says others reported Ralph Erskine never believed that only his denomination contained Christians.  But the affair does illustrate a dangerous temptation - to be so taken up with secondary issues that you begin to make them primary issues.

While I am a Baptist and do firmly believe that congregational church government is the form found in the New Testament, this doesn't force me to not recognise other denominations as containing true Christians.  We must permit other Christians to follow their own consciences on secondary issues and allow them freedom to do so within their denominations.  This is not to suggest that such issues are not important - without a firm conviction on church government you won't be able to function as a church.  But it is not a primary issue - in other words, not a salvation issue.

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 10.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.