Appendix 1
Ivor Macdonald - notes on "schism"
One of the common reponses when the question of separation is raised is "the last thing we want is a split."
That assertion presupposes that it is never right to separate from a denomination. However, the New Testament repeatedly tells us to separate from ungodliness. 2 Corinthians 6, 14 is often applied to marriage between Christians and non Christians but its primary application is to the church. The church is to be purified from the world. "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God . As God has said, "I will live with them and walk among them , and they will be my people." Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you." (2 Corinthians 6,14-17)
What is clear from this passage is that communion or fellowship in the church has clear boundaries. You cannot have fellowship with those who deny the faith. That is why Paul instructs the church to expel such people and to make clear that fellowship no longer exists with them(1 Corinthians 5,1-12).
However, in the modern Church of Scotland, true biblical discipline is absent. Our Confession of Faith does not function practically within the church so that all kinds of doctrinal error and now open immorality are tolerated. When that happens to the extent it has done in recent years and it is not possible to expel those in error, the only option open is for believers to separate. Such is the significance of communion/fellowship within a church.
Thus it is not consistent for ministers to say that they may continue to preach faithfully in their own corner and be unaffected by the state of the wider church. They are in communion with an ungodly institution and the world looking on knows it. (That is why in the 1560 Scots Confession drawn up by Knox and his associates biblical discipline is regarded as a mark of the true church. Where there is no discipline the true church soon disappears).
For the same reason, remaining within the denomination as a church within a church does not hold up to careful scrutiny. It involves affirming fellowship at one level and denying it at another which is deeply confusing to those within as well as those outside the church. Although such a polity seems (for the moment) to be workable in Anglicanism it is unlikely to work in Presbyterianism. Presbyterianism is built on the premise that we operate in a connected way rather than as congregationlists. We are either in the system, paying our dues and upholding what the system stands for, or we are not.
Sometimes, therefore, separation is the only course that is open to those who wish to uphold Christian witness.
One of the present ironies is that some evangelicals view separation with horror and yet hold as heroes men like Calvin, Luther, Knox, Owen, Wesley, McCheyne, Bonar, Chalmers, Lloyd Jones etc who were all convinced of the principle of Biblical separation. God has seen fit to bless His church in times when men and women made costly decisions to follow the truth wherever it led. Could we pray that God would unleash his Spirit on us in power as men and women in today’s Scotland make a determined stand for the truth? Our hope does not lie in gaining influence within a rebellious denomination by being better ecclesiastical politicians. Our hope lies in the mercy of God who may bless us if, humbled and chastened and shorn of the weapons of the world, we simply seek to honour His Son.
Separation may be inevitable but we are not schismatics. The goal before us is, after all, evangelical unity. In leaving an establishment that pours scorn on the truth we must make common cause with all in Scotland who uphold the Scriptures and are committed to missional, confessional Christianity. The prize is to see new energy released to plant churches, influence education, to address cultural matters biblically. The prize is to know meaningful fellowship with evangelicals who believe in the Scriptures. The prize is to see an end to evangelical fragmentation and to witness to the nation that our loyalty is to Christ who is the Way the Truth and the Life.