Saturday, February 22, 2014

The Break between Stott and Lloyd-Jones

"The situation is indeed so novel that I am afraid that many of us as evangelicals do not yet quite realise (sic) it and are not aware of what is happening." (John Stott, 1966 Evangelical Alliance)

What was at issue was how the situation was to be interpreted. Stott believed that a new opportunity was occurring both for the advance of Evangelicalism (given its much higher national profile since 1954) and (sic) for a renewal of evangelical influence within major denominations.

Lloyd-Jones believed that both of these objectives could not be achieved at the same time. He saw that for evangelicals to gain ecumenical and denominational acceptance they would have to pay a price which would imperil the very legitimacy of their distinctive beliefs. If evangelical beliefs is in essence, gospel (sic) belief, how can Christian fellowship exist independently of any common commitment to such belief? How can a right belief on fundamentals retain the primary importance which Scripture gives to it if, after all, it is not necessary to salvation? How can evangelicalism be said to represent biblical essentials if one regards as Christians and works alongside those who actually deny these essentials? The effect of such broad co-operation, he argued, would be bound to promote the doctrinal indifferentism of the ecumenical movement."

Taken from Iain H. Murray's Evangelicalism Divided: A Record of Crucial Change in the Years 1950-2000, page 45

2 comments:

laurie said...

I respect MLJ tremendously for his solid stand on truth and against error. He once refused to be a part of a crusade with Billy Graham for this reason - "When Billy Graham visited London for a Crusade in 1954-55, a number of theologically liberal churches participated because they believed the Crusade was a pragmatic way of increasing their church numbers. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was the sole British evangelical who declined the invitation to participate. The major issue for Lloyd-Jones was Graham’s ecumenical spirit and “liberal” view of salvation. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was not pleased with Lloyd-Jones’ decision. It was not until the summer of 1963 that the two men met and talked in the vestry at Westminster Chapel. After some conversation, Lloyd-Jones made a proposal to Graham:

“I said I’d make a bargain: if he would stop the general sponsorship of his campaigns – stop having liberals and Roman Catholics on the platform – and drop the invitation system, I would wholeheartedly support him and chair the [World] Congress. We talked for about three hours, but he didn’t accept these conditions.”[1] from http://thesaintsarmor.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/martyn-lloyd-jones-on-altar-calls/


Thank you for posting this; may we all, by His grace and power, stand firm on His truth.

Anonymous said...

An interesting issue Gregg, I can remember Billy Graham coming to the City I was brought up in and made a big impact there,

Yvonne.