Satanic Separatism Series

Harry Emerson Fosdick has much thinking that is not

acceptable to the evangelical Christian, but he also has many

valuable insights that make his writings of real worth. One of his

ideas is that a man should not be judged so much by the position he

is in, as by the direction in which he is moving. He uses the stockmarket

as an illustration. To judge the value of a figure quoted on a

certain stock, it is not enough just to have the figure of its present

position, but one must know whether it has reached that figure on

the way up or the way down. It is not where it is, but the direction

in which it is going, that tells the value of the stock.

So it is with people. It is not enough just to know where they are.

You must also know which way they are headed, and whether it be

up or down. Some start very high by natural endowment or

fortunate circumstances, and then head downward, while others

start at the bottom and struggle upward, and at some point says

Fosdick, they will pass, and be considered equal, but not so, for one

is drifting down while the other is climbing up. It is not their

position, but their direction that determines the value of their

position.

This is true, not just for judging for secular success, but it fits the

spiritual life as well. The Apostle John is using it as a standard by

which to judge the antichrists of his day. In verse 19 John says that

they have been made manifest by the direction in which they have

gone. They were visibly with us at one time, and could have been

judged as equals, for they were in the same church and same

fellowship. Now, however, they have gone out from us, and this

departure shows us they were really not of us, even when they were

with us. Their position fooled us for a while, but once we saw the

direction in which they were going, we knew they were not of us.

It is significant to note that the antichrists were not outsiders, but

were those who were within, but who then went out of the church.

This makes sense, for false doctrines seldom have their origins

outside the church, for those outside have no interest in doctrine.

The heretics down through the centuries were men who were deeply

interested in theology, and considered themselves Christians. So it is

today with the radical theologians who question orthodox theology.

So it was with the Gnostics in John's day. They were not anti-God

by any means, but they were convinced they had the real truth about

God, and they were deeply religious. Their departure from the true

church, and from the deity of Christ revealed that they were really

never a part of the body of Christ.

What makes this of interest is that John is admitting that the

Apostolic Church was not infallible by a long shot. Just like

churches today, the membership roles then were filled with those

who were not truly saved. Whenever you hear some saint

complaining because non-Christians get into the membership of the

church, you can remind them that Judas got in on the ground level

when Christ began to build the church, and that the church of the

first century was also filled with false Christians. That has been the

case in every age.

It is ignorance of history that causes Christians to look upon the

past as golden, and see only rust in the present age. The church is in

bad shape in many ways, but is far stronger now than it has been in

other periods. The sooner we quit groaning in self pity and

recognize we face only the same problems the church has always

faced, the sooner we will get moving along the road of fulfilling our

task. John says that there was a great apostasy in the church of his

day. John doesn't sink into pessimism, but simply says that it

teaches us that all who are with us are not necessarily of us. Every

church since has had to recognize this, that just as Christians can be

in the world but not of it, so the world can be in the church but not

of it.

When the unsaved within in the church get organized, as they did

in John's day, then you usually have a split. This is not to say that

all splits are a matter of saved and unsaved factions, for this is not

so. This would be giving Christians a credit they do not deserve, for

they have often been foolish and unchristian, and have been tools of

the devil in causing divisions. In John's case, however, he judges