Knots Untied - Ryle - XVII - Chapter 17

Required reading
Knots Untied by JC Ryle (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 17 (Fallibility of ministers).

My summary
Today Ryle reminds us that men are fallible, only the word of God is infallible.

Firstly Ryle teaches us that great ministers may make great mistakes.  So we must learn not to put implicit confidence in any man's opinion merely because:
(i) he lived many hundred years ago;
(ii) of his office as a minister;
(iii) of his learning;
(iv) he is our own minister.

Secondly we learn that to keep the truth of Christ in His church is even more important than to keep peace.  Thus Ryle speaks about the following subjects:
(i) the parochial system of the church of England;
(ii) divisions and separations;
(iii) unity, quiet and order;
(iv) controversy.

Thirdly we see that there is no doctrine about which we ought to be so jealous as justification by faith without the deeds of the law.  This is the doctrine which:
(i) is essentially necessary to our own personal comfort;
(ii) the great enemy of souls hates and labours to overthrow;
(iii) the absence of accounts for half the errors of the Roman Catholic church;
(iv) is absolutely essential to a minister's success among his people;
(v) is absolutely essential to the prosperity of a church.

What grabbed me
Good  to be reminded that ministers have been the cause of great problems for the church: 'The greatest errors have been begun by ministers. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of the High Priest, made religion to be abhorred by the children of Israel. Annas and Caiaphas, though in the direct line of descent from Aaron, crucified the Lord. Arius, that great heresiarch, was a minister. It is absurd to suppose that ordained men cannot go wrong. We should follow them so far as they teach according to the Bible, but no further. We should believe them so long as they can say, "Thus it is written," " Thus saith the Lord ; " but further than this we are not to go. Infallibility is not to be found in ordained men, but in the Bible.'

Ministers are far from being infallible - and sadly this includes myself.

Next week's reading
Read Chapter 18 (Apostolic fears).

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