When I was in my early 20s, I had wonderful fellowship with an older brother in Christ who was part of the Plymouth Brethren.
We disagreed on a few doctrines (I didn’t buy into the pretribulational rapture theory, and I believed that God still healed people supernaturally). That aside, we both held to the orthodox creeds of the faith (The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, etc.) as I still do today.
Never having stepped foot in a Plymouth Brethren chapel, I was interested in visiting his church. So I did. But I was shocked when he told me that I couldn’t partake of the Lord’s Table.
This both surprised and saddened me greatly.
He received me as a brother in Christ, but because I didn’t toe the line on PB doctrine, I wasn’t allowed to partake of the bread and wine with the others in his church.
When I shared my feelings with him — that this action was a flat-out denial that I was part of the Body of Christ — he retracted his position and said I could partake of the Table.
However, his initial sectarian decision left its wound.
I wish I could say that I’ve never met this same sectarian attitude since, but I’d be lying if I did.
I’ve met it a number of times.
The fact is, every devoted Christian will be tested on whether they really believe in the oneness of the Body of Christ or whether they deny it deep in their hearts . . . especially when there is pressure from others to embrace a sectarian spirit and exclude other members of the Body.
Religious pressure is a powerful thing. And it is most often contrary to Jesus Christ.
In that connection, I’m posting some excerpts from a letter written by Watchman Nee (and some of his friends) to some of the Plymouth Brethren in his own day who excluded him from fellowship after he associated himself with T. Austin-Sparks (someone of whom they didn’t approve).
In my judgment, these excerpts reflect the mind and heart of Jesus Christ on the matter of unity and receiving other believers into fellowship.
I thank God that Nee stood strong on his position and didn’t break fellowship with Sparks due to religious pressure from his Plymouth Brethren friends.
While Nee lost the fellowship of these Plymouth Brethren due to his decision, he gained a lifelong friend in one of the greatest servants of God to ever breathe oxygen – T. Austin-Sparks.
I believe the Lord was pleased with Nee’s position, and he benefited enormously from his relationship with Sparks.
—
The Scriptures plainly show us that the basis of our receiving one another is “even as Christ also received you” (Rom. 15.7). The reason why we receive anyone is because “God hath received him” (Rom. 14.3). Hence the command of God to us is: “him that is weak in faith receive ye” (Rom. 14.1). This command is explicit, distinctive and irrevocable. It is a sin to refuse acceptance of him whom God has received, however weak or lacking in light he may be.
Nevertheless, this does not imply that the defeated [who are unrepentant] may have fellowship with God and with God’s people. Not only the world, the flesh and sin may deprive the Church of its characteristics and hinder its fellowship, even a slight deviation from the will of God and from the leading of the Holy Spirit may cause the believer to lose contact with God.
Who among any of us is really worthy to undertake this work of selection—this act of determining who is fit for fellowship? From what we learn in the Bible, our responsibility is to judge only on moral corruption (1 Cor. 5.10-13) or on heresy regarding the Person of Christ (2 John). Difference in interpretation of truth alone must not be the ground of division. Thus we receive all whom God has received for the sake of Christ.
But [so called] sins such as “denominational connection” and apparent errors of interpretation on prophecy do not cut off fellowship with God. This fact you cannot deny: that many who have not yet departed from what you call “evil association” and who, moreover, differ with you in prophetic views have most intimate fellowship with the Lord, even more intimate than we have.
We are doubtful about your current way of reception. We wonder if this is a practice truly handled by the Holy Spirit or is simply a method received by men?
We would now make our position crystal clear. We do not stand on an open ground which overlooks matters that might bring reproach to the Lord. No, we absolutely do not take that position. Nor do we stand on the exclusive ground which is according to man’s thought and not according to the Holy Spirit.
We stand instead on the spiritual exclusive ground which means that we want our fellowship to be wholly in the Holy Spirit without any mixture of the flesh. To enjoy such kind of fellowship as this, the flesh must be thoroughly dealt with by the cross of Christ.
For the flesh has absolutely no place in this fellowship. It is not sufficient merely to terminate so-called “evil association.” The total life of the flesh must be dealt with. The power of the cross must be experienced by all through the working of the Holy Spirit. Mental knowledge is of little use.
This, then, is our fellowship. Accordingly, we are as open as the early Church that received all Christians, yet we are as exclusive as the Holy Spirit in rejecting all that is of the flesh. Many whom you reckon as in your fellowship are actually not so.
Possibly the number of such people far exceeds our expectation. How very sad this is! For many believers, though they have passed your test of strict receiving, do not live in the Holy Spirit. Yet they consider themselves in the fellowship and freely partake of the loaf because they have not manifested sins! We cannot but regard such a standard of fellowship as too low.
In order to unify interpretations and practices, you tend to divide God’s children.
Beloved, may we humbly suggest that you carefully and prayerfully consider what we have here laid before you. We believe this that we have written is of God. Are you willing—as though knowing nothing at all—to lay aside your former preconceived thoughts written by you, and at the same time to ask the Lord to reveal to you whether or not what we have said is right and according to His will?
Now is the time for us to make this matter clear before the Lord as eternity draws near. We thank you for all that you have done for us. May God bless you.
Your brothers in the Lord,
Representing the brethren met in
Hardoon Road and North Szechuan Road, Shanghai
How (Not) to Leave a Church
Great article! Appreciate the spirit that’s carried in the letter of Nee. Thank you for bringing up this issue of the sectarian spirit here, Frank. The boldness and humility that has been showed in this letter helps to shed light on the heart and bring joy and freedom when it is under the power of a sectarian spirit.
Hi Frank
This is a great post. Thanks for sharing. It sheds much light on the matters of oneness from our history.
I was wondering if this letter by Nee was published online or in any of his books or spoken messages?
I am doing a study on the matter of Oneness as expressed by Nee, Lee, T.A. Sparks and others and would like to investigate this letter (and surrounding circumstances) in relation to it.
It’s in his book “Back to the Cross.”
I agree quite a bit with you Frank. But I have a few questions. I highly respect your willingness and ability to deal with Christians who have different doctrinal beliefs than you do. That’s something I’m struggling with. In multiple areas, such as eschatology, spiritual gifts, freedom from sin, and others, I find myself disagreeing with quite a few people around me. I want to be at a place where I can lay these aside, and love my brothers and sisters as I have been loved by Christ, but I’m not sure how to do so. You seem able to handle the fact that there are numerous doctrinal differences among Christians well, so I figured I’d ask for your advice. Thanks!
I think Nee’s letter states it about as clearly as I could. Fellowship around Christ and the things you agree with rather than the things that divide. I’ve rarely seen people’s minds change when they debate their disagreements. Especially on medium’s like Facebook.
I just finished reading The Normal Christian Church Life and where Brother Nee talks about this very subject, i kept wondering what it was like in his day and whether he actually lived out what he was writing and exactly how he and his fellow brethren dealt with sectarianism. I love how the lives we live are so connected as brothers and sisters in the Lord, though we live so many miles apart and even continents and oceans, as the one body universal, we are connected in ways that exceed the physical and are spiritual. I love that I can be so encouraged by this post and the comments, I love how the Spirit is working, teaching us all and through one another. Thank you Frank for another great post!!
One Body, One Spirit, One Lord!!! As Jesus said “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for another” – we are still apppear to have a long way to go!!
Wow, Frank. So you delete comments when they gently disagree with you? So much for ending the sectarian spirit, huh? I was under the impression this was a place where people could politely disagree, guess I was wrong.
I beg your pardon: I do not moderate the comments on this blog so I have no idea what you’re talking about. See the rules for commenting and why some comments aren’t approved: https://www.frankviola.org/rules
False accusations demand apologies.
I’m sorry, but I hope you will understand there is no way I could have known the rules, since the link you gave is nowhere to be found on the front of this site. Also, I don’t believe my comment to be guilty of breaking any rules considering I didn’t attack or defame anyone, I just disagreed.
Again, I apologize, now I know different. I was frustrated because even though I disagree with some things you say, I like the tone here and I was hoping for some good conversation.
I will say it is odd that my last comment got through when my first one didn’t, but oh well.
Even though you don’t know me, I hope there are no hard feelings as I would like to weigh in on this blog from time to time.
No worries. Lots of comments go into spam. Hundreds each day and we have no idea why. Take care.
It is difficult when brothers and sisters in Christ are treated as second class citizens regarding the Lord’s Supper.
We who believe in the real presence of the Lord in the bread and the wine (His body and blood)have a difficult time with those who believe that Christ could not be in that which He commanded.
We announce that all baptized Christians who believe Christ to be truly present (not as the Catholics believe, however)in the meal are welcome to come and receive it. Then anyone can come up and receive the free gift of Christ in the meal.
We believe that if we are to err, that it be on the side of God’s grace for sinners in need of a Savior.
Thanks.
Frank, I JUST started reading the New Testament in chronilogical order (at the encouragement of you through Pagan Christianity) and this very thing reared it’s ugly head 2000 years ago. In Paul’s first letter, he addressed this as part of the issue to the Galatians when he referred to the sectarian Christian Jews insisting that Gentile Christians be circumcised to be acceptable to God (or should I write ‘them’).
We’ll have disagreements. Paul even parted ways over disagreements with brothers in the work, however, it wasn’t sectarian in nature.
Sectarianism divides and conquers. Unity should rule whenever, wherever and as much as possible.
Peace.
Bob
Thanks, Bob. We see sectarianism in Corinth also, the first 3 chapters. Btw/ do you have “The Untold Story”? https://www.frankviola.org/untold – if not, you’ll love it. It guides the reader through the NT in chronological order and gives lots of historical-sociological information that lies behind the text.
Thnx Frank! I don’t know of many things more important to teach. Since day one of becoming a disciple of Jesus till this day His “Great passion” or “Gospel” as expressed in His prayer for us in John 17:21 that we may be one as He and the father are one screams to me of His love and desire.It has helped me in my OneAnothering better than all the doctrine I have learned.I want to be in THAT Kingdom subject to THAT King and if my my nonacceptance of His people would hinder them or in any way my acceptance, I would be ashamed.So until he lets me peek into His book of life I will Love everyone He puts in front of me to the best of my ability.
Lord help us to love as you do!
Thanks for this post, Frank. I have in the past year begun to fellowship with a Plymouth Brethren assembly. There, more so than in any other “organized” body of believers I have found, the love of Christ is clearly displayed and acted upon.
As I have studied some of the history of the Brethren, I have indeed seen an unfortunate amount of sectarianism in certain segments of it. However, it would be a most unfair generalization to claim this of the whole Brethren movement. For the most part, the Plymouth Brethren are composed of either “Open Brethren” or “Exclusive Brethren,” the latter being somewhat sectarian. In Open assemblies, however, this sectarian spirit is very much absent.
Chuck: The brother I made mention of in the beginning of the post was part of an Open Brethren assembly and he didn’t view himself as being sectarian. I don’t doubt that there are PB groups that are more open and inclusive than others. That’s usually the case with all groups within a denomination or movement.
Interesting. Was this then the policy of his assembly, or his own personal conviction?
Both as well as the view of the other elder. He told me it wasn’t unusual for the PB’s. Again, he didn’t view himself as being sectarian.
I suppose I can really only speak from my own experience with the Brethren on this matter, but that is quite a saddening situation indeed.
I grew up in a closed PB group and am still part of that, though more at a distance. By God’s grace, much has changed in that network of assemblies, especially in the area of fellowship with other followers of Jesus. We are now very much on the same page as Watchman Nee regarding this issue.
In my experience, some of the open PG groups are more closed than some of the so-called closed groups.
The PB made many mistakes and we have many shortcomings but as I was reading the Jesus Manifesto this morning I was reminded of one real blessing that I received from being part of that group: A real focus on Jesus. When attending one of their meetings, more than 10 fingers would needed to count all the times his name was mentioned.
Frank, I wanted to thank you for writing that book. It really warmed my heart!
Erik: What an encouraging comment! I’m truly blessed. Now a question for you: how did you find this blog post?
Frank, I found the blog post through the email list.
I am a pastor in New Zealand where the Open Brethren has thrived more than in most countries. This was widely practise amongst open brethren up to about 30+ years ago and is still practise by a very small bunch of conservative PB churches in NZ that are dying out (I wonder why). Today the PB churches in NZ are characterised by being very inclusive and don’t practise this sort of thing at all. Alot of people in PB churches are actually embarrassed that they are part of a denomination that practiced this for many years in the past and a denomination that has a very fractious history. However, apart from the very small remnant, the Open Brethen are characterised by openness and inclusiveness of people with very divergent theology to the point that it is getting hard to define what being Open Brethren is anymore. Generally they are firmly in the evangelical, Bible believing, gospel proclaiming, some charismatic some non charismatic camp similar to the Baptist in NZ. Many still hold to restrictions of women in ministry (preaching and eldership) but many have opened up on this issue as well.
Love Nee and Sparks. They deserved to be friends.
Experienced the same thing with the Old German Baptist Brethren, where they have a weekend conference communion for only members with foot washing ceremony, I was only allowed to observed, but was most grieved that the ministry was not about the glories of Christ, but about the right way to have a foot washing. Yuk.
However, there was an innner circle of precious saints there, free of sectarianism, that supported me when my husband left me, even though he was a member and I was not. They bought me a van, and helped me to the tune of thousands, and were the only folks to ever support me regularly, bless them. They were far more faithful than my own family to check on me. My only regret is that I could not throw my lot in with them because of the set in stone legalism of their ‘movement.’ But I learned many truths about community from them and have precious brothers and sisters there and elsewhere, as many have left since.
“The fact is, every devoted Christian will be tested on whether they really believe in the oneness of the Body of Christ or whether they deny it deep in their hearts . . . especially when there is pressure from others to embrace a sectarian spirit and exclude other members of the Body.” I liked what you wrote here dear brother, I have met so many from different persuasions and I can see some react when I share with them some of my different denominational backgrounds. But others I can see they accept the witness of the Spirit that I am a child of God like they and fellowship ensues.
Great article by Watchman Nee.
Yes, I know all of this very well. Once my understanding of CHristian unity was heavily shaped by the Plymouth Brethren. And while I still share their convictions of for instance refusing to bear any name that is schismatic in itself and also some standards concerning who may and may not partake of the Lord’s Supper, I completely got rid of the idea that we cannot fellowship a brother or sister who has had contact or even friendship with a church that is still in the realm of denominationalism.
Today I am in a Church of Christ which some regard every bit as sectarian as the Plymouth Brethren. Yet this varies from congregation to congregation. By now we respect/accept believers baptisms from other churches and don’t rebaptize anymore. Yet our conviction still is that unless someone has been baptized he should not partake ofthe Lord’s Supper. Yet we don’t snatch it away if a guest still does take it …
The Early church, as you may be aware of, had equally strict standards, that’s why they had these “letters of communion/recommendation” in which the elders of a congregation testiefied the “good standing” of a member to be presented to the leaders of a church he visited. the reason, i think, is that unity is not just a word, but must be in spirit and truth.
Alexander
Thx for the comment. I believe letters of commendation are still a wise practice among churches that are networked together. And I have always encouraged them in the churches I have related to.
However, to refuse the Lord’s Supper to someone who is in Christ and is not walking in present unrepentent sin is sectarian and divisive. Division over peripheral doctrinal issues or associations with other true believers who may differ with us is just wrong. That is what Nee is protesting against. And he is pretty bold to call it sin.
Interesting the Church of Christ and the Plymouth Brethren have an almost identical history, and they were started at the same time in different places as well. I discuss this in “Revise Us Again” which has been a help to many PB and Church of Christ Christians. https://www.frankviola.org/books
I’m glad you’re part of a non sectarian group.
There was a wise saying by John Nelson Darby, although he or his movement never practiced it consistently (retranslated into English):
“We have to maintain a wide/open heart (towards others) while walking the Narrow Path.”
Today I attended a Pastors’ Breakfeast in our 10th district of Vienna, together with Pentecostals, Evangelicals and Lutherans (and one “Church of Christer”) And there is unity in this fellowship, although there are differences in doctrine and practice among us that make it difficult for full congregational fellowship. Yet, it is an important meeting, less for us, but for the Kingdom as a whole.
Alexander
So glad to hear of this meeting. I have believing and not yet believing family in/near Vienna and have been aware of the great need for believers to see God moving in power – and to reach into the hundreds of small towns with no witness. Replicating the status quo elsewhere is not going to win Austrians,ignorant, cynical or hardened against religion, to Jesus. I pray that as you seek God more and more hungrily, willing for Him to adjust thinking and practice as necessary for Him to be clearly seen, that His presence will increasingly transform and empower your witness to Austria.
Very much agree! I remember when growing up in my independent Baptist church…as a fellowship we of course were very guarded from other sects or denominations, and didn’t even associate with other churches of our own denomination. It was so refreshing one summer when I attended summer church camp with a school friend to find three of the big Baptist churches in Kansas City…Blue Ridge Bapt., KC Baptist Temple, and another I cannot recall at this time all shared camp together. As a youth, it meant so much to me to make broader connections and friendships across the city. Sometimes it is sectarian spirit that keeps us exclusive…and some times it’s plain old “competition.” Both hinder the unity of the whole body of Christ. I also recall a mother of a church friend who never partook of the Lord’s Supper and remember my parent’s telling me that she did not believe in moving her membership from her original church, therefore was unalbe to partake with our church body…seems so ridiculous now and how hurtful for that family for her to be excluded.
Another great post Frank. Sectarianism is still alive today. Watchman Nee’s letter and your post on rethinking christian unity should convict any person who is participating in this wrong.
Wow and amen. That’s really powerful!
“Difference in interpretation of truth alone must not be the ground of division. Thus we receive all whom God has received for the sake of Christ.”
“We stand instead on the spiritual exclusive ground which means that we want our fellowship to be wholly in the Holy Spirit without any mixture of the flesh. To enjoy such kind of fellowship as this, the flesh must be thoroughly dealt with by the cross of Christ.”
“Are you willing—as though knowing nothing at all—to lay aside your former preconceived thoughts written by you, and at the same time to ask the Lord to reveal to you whether or not what we have said is right and according to His will?”
Did I say wow?
PS: I really appreciate the way Watchman Nee handled the situation. Apparently, he met with others to discern what the Lord’s will was before responding. Then he crafted a very articulate and compassionate letter that did not stoop to being critical or arrogant. He seems to approach the whole situation with humility. It is clear that he is responding out of love for the Brethren, but also firm in his revelation of the Lord’s heart. It is difficult to know how to respond to these situations, but Nee sets a great example.
Indeed. Nee wrote the letter with several others (it was a team effort), but he was the main writer.