CHAPTER 2 - DUALISM
CHAPTER 2 — DUALISM
I read in the “Reformation” of January 28th, 1849: Everything in Plymouthism may be reduced to two points — the idea of the action of the Holy Spirit and the idea of the authority of the scriptures.
Plymouthism wishes to substitute for human organization the action of the Spirit. This is the reason for their principal objection to ecclesiastical ministry.
Next, remarking on the following words of Mr. Recordon, “God only blesses the labours of the workmen; He is sovereign and He acts in grace by the instruments which it pleases Him to choose” (words that accompany a reproach addressed to the faculties of theology which venture to call, to choose, to designate, to send, to displace at their pleasure, the Lord’s workman), the “Reformation” thus expresses itself:
“We see how it is: it is always a dualism set up between the action of God and means, between the Spirit and man, as if the divine work could be accomplished otherwise than in and by man.”
The “Reformation” says again, under date of the 29th November, 1846:
“The religion and ecclesiastical system, which is set forth by Mr. Vermont, rests, it seems to us, on two principles: the authority of the Bible and the aid of the Holy Spirit. It is not, of course, against those two principles, considered in themselves, that we desire to protest, but against the use made of them. Thus the action of the Holy Spirit is taken in the point of view of a gross supranaturalism. The divine action is not conceived of in its dynamic harmony with human action, but rather as a purely objective and constantly miraculous power. It seems that God is to intervene in a way which excludes man; and that where calculation, the use of means, and well considered activity, come in, the Holy Spirit can find no place. The expectation of the faithful is to be entirely passive. It must await the unfolding of divine graces and abstain from action as much as possible, so as to leave them more liberty. In a word, spiritual graces are always brought back to the supernatural form they assumed in the apostolic age.”
Alas! there is in this way of thinking and this way of speaking of the presence of God, and of the action of His Spirit, a lightness, a spirit of jesting, and a tone of petty philosophy, on the subject of holy things, extremely painful to those who feel how serious a thing it is to put oneself forward, to have to do with that which is so precious to Christ as His Church, and how solemn a thing to call oneself a workman together with God, to occupy ourselves with His work, and to say that He acts in us.
As we shall see, the author of these articles has, moreover, entirely misplaced the question.
He is not mistaken in presenting, as the foundations of what people are pleased to call Plymouthism, the authority of the scriptures and the action of the Holy Ghost. It is on these, in very truth, that I desire that my own work and that of my brethren should rest.
What is this dualism between God and man, this singular rivalry of which we are said to be guilty? A rivalry singular truly, on the part of a wretched creature, a worm, with Him who has created man. Such a thought enters not, either to affirm or deny it, the mind of one who knows what God is and what man.
[p. 58] But the author of these articles is mistaken in every respect. In order to get rid of the action of the Holy Spirit, such as he finds it put forward as one of our fundamental principles, he falls into a strange excess. According to our views, as he affirms, “spiritual graces are always brought back to the supernatural form which they assumed in the apostolic age”; and he had before affirmed with no less assurance that, according to our views, “the action of the Holy Spirit is understood in the sense of a tolerably gross supranaturalism.” The heart revolts in copying it. Does there really exist such a contempt for the action of the Holy Spirit? Alas! that at least betrays the thought of the author. He wants man to appear, man to act. The action and manifestation of the Spirit is for him a gross idea.
And again, the author is mistaken as to the facts of the apostolic age and as to the principles he condemns. The form which the work of the apostolic age assumed did not tend, in general, to a dualism of any kind — very far from it. There was, in certain cases, a sort of dualism. For example, tongues were spoken, and the one who spoke them did not always understand what he said. When that was the case, the apostle declares that this action of the Holy Ghost was of a lower order; “for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret; that the church may receive edifying.” “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him, howbeit in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries ... . He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church ... wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret ... . But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church,” 1 Corinthians 14: 5, 2-4, 13, 28. And Paul adds, as to himself (verse 19), “I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.” He will have, in speaking, his intelligence to have some part, not as if to produce in any sort another source of truth, but as a vessel blessed for himself and for others with what the grace of God communicated. By this means, there was blessing for himself and communion with others. The power of God by itself was something, no doubt; but the edification of the Church was the object which the love of God proposed to itself. The heart entered into it, spiritual intelligence submitted to it and rejoiced in it. It is thus that, in promising the gift of the Spirit, the Lord Himself says, of the one who should receive it, that “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 38); out of his belly, that is to say, from his innermost affections, according to the well known use of this expression in the scriptures.
This dualism, of which the “Reformation” accuses us, is so little in my thought, that, on the contrary, in my eyes, it is precisely, save in the case we have just seen, the absence of it which distinguishes (a general, but not absolute distinction) the revelations of the New Testament from those of the Old. As a general rule, there was, in the prophets of old, this separation between the intelligence of man and the communication of the Spirit. It is otherwise in the revelations of the New Testament. The prophets, serving as channels of the Spirit of God, said, “Thus saith the Lord.” Their hearts felt morally the state of the people, but the prophetic answer of God was communicated without the full intelligence of the prophet. This is why we find in the New Testament, that they “searched diligently ... what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow: unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,” 1 Peter 1: 11, 12.
Thus, the ancient prophets themselves studied their prophecies; and there was a further action of the Holy Spirit to make them understand the meaning of them. They then found that it was not for themselves, but for us, that they ministered these things.
We, on the contrary, know that these things are ours. Christ, this precious Saviour, has accomplished the work of eternal redemption. He has entered into His glory at the right hand of God, and the Holy Ghost has come down to be the revealer of this glory of the man Christ, the revealer of the Father’s love, the seal of God upon us, as upon those who are to participate in it, and the earnest of all these blessings in our hearts: for the Head is there, and we are united to that Head; and the Spirit, come down from Him and from the Father, is in us a divine link with Christ. This Spirit, acting in the realization of the relationship of Christ to the Church,+ can reveal nothing to us which is not ours. The understanding rejoices in it. The affections of the heart attach themselves to it. There is a difference of gifts, no doubt, according to the sovereignty and wisdom of God, in order to communicate to the rest that which He has made us understand; but there is nothing to understand and to communicate but that which, by the same Spirit who renders us capable of it, we know also belongs to us. These rivers of living water flow from the heart which rejoices in the grace and the glory of which He has given us to partake, and from its communion with the Lord who has loved it.
+I say, in the relations of Christ with the Church because, in the Apocalypse given to the Church, the Spirit again becomes a prophetic Spirit, and speaks in a different manner.
[p. 60] Throughout their whole extent, then, my thoughts (and I doubt not they are, in substance, given by my God) are precisely the contrary of the dualism in question.
But there is still something to add here upon the difference people wish to make between the past and present.
At the beginning of the Church there was not only the action of the Holy Ghost, but, besides this, new revelations. Now, in the communication of these divine truths for the Church of that age and of all ages, God preserved the mouth of those whom He employed for this work, so that no error should fall from it, where He saw good to give that which was to serve as an authority. It is not that this took away spiritual intelligence from the others. Even when an apostle spoke, they searched the word to see “whether these things were so,” Acts 17: 11. If prophets addressed the assembly, the rest judged; 1 Corinthians 14: 29. There were, however, divine revelations entrusted to those who were chosen of God to be the vessel of those revelations and organs of communicating them. Perhaps some of these communications were only for the moment; but those which were for every age of the Church are preserved for us in the written word. It is true also that, at that time, one was called upon to study that which the word of God reveals, so that one’s profiting might be known to the whole Church; 1 Timothy 4: 13-16.
[p. 61] Where is dualism, save in the mind of the author, who, as regards the apostolic age, makes everything proceed from the Spirit outside the intelligence of man, and, at the present time, makes everything be derived from man without the Spirit?
In order that there may be any good, it is needful for the Spirit of God to act in man and enable him to receive, communicate, understand, either a revelation,+ or even spiritual communications of things already revealed in the word. Blessing cannot come from man; man receives it by the Spirit. He has, in order to communicate it, neither wisdom, nor power, nor direction, save by the Holy Spirit. If he acts from himself, he abandons his christian position before God. As to one who listens to him, he understands by the Spirit, and the thing is applied to his soul by the Holy Spirit alone. I do not deny that the soul and understanding of the one who speaks are the vessel of this action, this power. I know they are; that the soul, the conscience, the understanding of him who listens are so likewise; but I say that it is the Holy Ghost who acts, if there is blessing, and wherever there is.
+1 Corinthians 2: 12-15. When I say, a revelation, I speak of the apostolic times. For us, the complete revelation of truth is in the word. If there be a distinctive principle of Christianity, it is that of the presence and action of the Holy Ghost the Comforter.Luke 24: 49. John 4; chapter 7; chapter 14: 17-26; chapter 15: 26; chapter 16: 1-15. Acts 1: 8; chapter 2: 38, 39; chapter 4: 31; chapter 5: 3; chapter 8: 17; chapter 10: 47; chapter 11: 15; chapter 13: 9; chapter 19: 2. Romans 8, almost the entire chapter (compare verse 9 and 7: 5). 1 Corinthians 2: 9-16; chapter 3: 16; chapter 6: 19; chapter 12; chapter 14. 2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22; chapter 3: 8, 17, 18; chapter 6: 6; chapter 11: 4. Galatians 3: 3-5, 14; chapter 4: 6; chapter 5: 16, 17, 25; chapter 6: 8. Ephesians 1: 13; chapter 2: 18-22; chapter 3: 16; chapter 4: 3, 4; chapter 5: 18; chapter 6: 17. Philippians 1: 19; chapter 2: 1. Colossians 1: 8. 1 Thessalonians 1: 6; chapter 4: 8; chapter 5: 19. 2 Timothy 1: 14. Titus 3: 6. 1 Peter 1: 12; chapter 4: 14. 1 John 2: 27; chapter 3: 24; chapter 4: 13; chapter 5: 8. Jude 20.The attentive reader must have observed, in following these passages, that I have not cited those which refer to regeneration, a universally recognized work of the Spirit; but only those which concern the reception of the Holy Spirit by believers, and this action in believers. (Compare John 7: 39; Galatians 4: 6; chapter 3: 24; Ephesians 1: 13.) If we have lost all this, what becomes of the Church?I beg the reader that he will go through all these passages in order — that which is not often done. He will not fail to find his reward in doing so. I think that will be worth all the rest of my pamphlet to him.I always maintain, as the only true and possible meaning of the passage 1 Peter 4: 10, 11 that to speak as the oracles of God does not mean to speak according to the scriptures, though this be also necessarily; the case, but to speak as announcing the oracles of God, as Martin translates it. For my part, if this be not done, I know not why I should listen. The reason given, namely, “that God may be glorified in all things,” puts it beyond question that this is the meaning of the passage.
[p. 62] If then any one objects, and says, No; it is he who introduces dualism; it is he who separates man from the Holy Ghost. That is indeed the dualism of incredulity, which makes of man a being capable of acting in the things of God without God’s being with him, or acting in him. It is rationalism.
The movement is impressed on man and effectuated in man; but it comes from God: if not, it is evil. This is a point as capital as it is elementary. And, whatever may be the contempt with which the journalist treats these things, and accuses this system of meaning that the faithful should abstain from action as much as possible and take a more passive position, I boldly avow that I desire for all my brethren, as also for myself, that we should feel even more and more our entire dependence on God; that it is the Spirit which quickeneth and that the flesh profiteth nothing; yes, that we should feel our constant dependence, and that, if the Spirit does not lead us, we should not pretend, either in a smaller or a greater way, to meddle with the things of God. I believe, then, that the Spirit of God acts in man and by man, and in particular by the members of the body of Christ. He gives understanding, power, and energy. He is a Spirit of power and of liberty! But if He thus acts, His grace produces in the heart of man a spirit of humility and of entire dependence on God, a spirit which would be unwilling even to do a miracle if one could, unless the express will of God led one to do it. The life of the new man lives by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, and does not dare to act out of dependence on Him. That the Spirit should act in man and not outside man (an idea foreign to any system whatever), this is not, whatever may be said, what is intended.
What is intended is as follows: It is intended that people should calculate, reflect, employ means, arrange forms, without the Spirit and without the Bible, as we shall see; it is intended that all this should be done according to “human order,” that is to say, of people’s own will, yes, without the action of the Holy Spirit, without the direction of the Bible, which, say they, furnishes no rules as to church matters. And then, after all that, when man has acted without God, after his own counsels, people flatter themselves that God will put His hand to it. “I know,” says the author, “that the Spirit of God can manifest His power, not only in spite of diverse forms, but even in these forms.” That is to say, man will act alone, without the Spirit of God, without any direction from the Bible; then, God may come in and act, if He will.
[p. 63] I believe that in all systems, or rather, in spite of all systems, where there is faith, God will be found. But what a strange piety, to arrange things in the first place in one’s own way, then to leave God to come in later, if He sees good! It is just man who wants to have man and the commandments of man.
As for me, I do not seek for “miracles”; but I do desire true dependence on God. I desire that man should not act without Him; that the presence of God in the midst of our assemblies should be our power and our blessing. Does the author of the article want God not to be present? Or does he want man to act without Him in His presence?
I have said that people wish to act without any direction from the Bible. They wish, in fact, as to all that concerns the Church, to set aside the Bible, as well as the Holy Spirit. Now, I say that man has nothing to do in the things of God without the Bible — that he has not to act without the Bible any more than without the Holy Ghost.
This is the second point I desire to treat.