'Do you see yonder wicket Gate?' Evangelist pointing Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress to the way of salvation The Pastor's Letter
(A Warning to the Churches)


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My Dear Friends,

This month I would like to bring before you and recommend for your reading a book published by the Banner of Truth Trust. The book is entitled "Warnings to the Churches", and the author is the great evangelical Anglican of last century, Bishop J. C. Ryle. The book is produced as a paperback at £3.95 and contains eight addresses which unmistakably "blow the trumpet in Zion" in our day as clearly as in the day of Bishop Ryle.

The question arises, are we any more willing or prepared to listen to such a note as that trumpet is again sounded through the pages of this splendid work? Perhaps Mr Ryle answers that question for us in one of the addresses when he tells us "There is a widespread 'gullibility' among professing Christians; every heretic who tells his story plausibly is sure to be believed, and everybody who doubts him is called a persecutor and a narrow-minded man".

The warning against these veneers of spurious charity that settle over the churches surely need to be heard and heeded today when almost anything within Christendom is accepted as Christian.

Perhaps, again, Mr Ryle supplies the great touchstone of orthodoxy when he reminds us that the cardinal heresy of any day is the denial of the inspiration of God's Holy Word; this is the source of every spiritual ill; "this is not merely corrupting the cup, but the whole fountain. This is not merely corrupting the bucket of living water, which we profess to present to our people, but poisoning the whole well".

Although some of the messages of this book are addressed to ministers, Bishop Ryle, nevertheless, lays the responsibility of the Churches' work and witness and purity at the feet of every believing man and woman and young person. "An ignorant laity will always be the bane of a Church. A Bible reading laity may save a Church from ruin … let us receive nothing, believe nothing, follow nothing which is not in the Bible, nor can be proved from the Bible". He exhorts every believer to do all within his power to "prevent … false doctrine", and "promote true doctrine". "True Gospel in the pulpit, true Gospel in every religious society we support; true Gospel in every book we read; true Gospel in the friends we keep company with … ".

And what a word there is to office-bearers in our churches today with regard to the oversight of the flock of God. How many, I wonder, would subscribe to this statement, which is a point in one of the sermons - "The second (lesson) is this, that to keep the truth of Christ in His Church is even more important than to keep peace". Hard words, you say, but few "warnings" are easy!

But, it is perhaps when we read these "Warnings to the Churches" in the light of the present Ecumenical programme that we find Bishop Ryle most prophetic and most profound in a most commonsense way. "Our noble Reformers" he reminds us, "bought the truth at the price of their own blood, and handed it down to us. Let us take heed that we do not basely sell it for a mess of pottage, under the specious names of unity and peace". Rather than be re-united with the idolatrous Church of Rome", he testifies on another page, "I would willingly see my own beloved Church perish and go to pieces. Rather than become popish once more, she had better die!"

Would that some of our present pro-ecumenicals would see the commonsense in such a statement but the following: - "Unity in the abstract is no doubt an excellent thing: BUT UNITY WITHOUT TRUTH IS USELESS". Some would tell us that Rome today has changed! Perhaps she has changed her TACTICS! But, even these are, at least, as old as Ryle's day. "I believe the most powerful champion of the Pharisees is not the man who bids you openly and honestly come out and join the Church of Rome: he is the man who says that he agrees on all points with you in DOCTRINE. He would not take anything away from those evangelical views that you hold; - he would not have you make any change at all; all he asks you to do is to ADD a little more to your belief, in order to make your Christianity perfect. 'Believe me,' he says, 'we don't want you to give up anything. We only want you to hold a few more clear views about the Church and the Sacraments …"

But, if Rome's tactics HAVE changed, LITTLE else has; and surely we ever need to be warned of this; - " … when Rome has formally renounced image-worship, Mary-worship, and trans-substantiation, then, and not till then, it will be time to talk of reunion with her". Oh yes, Rome no longer uses her "black smoke" and her "white smoke" in the election of a new Pope; she now permits her people to eat meat on a Friday so she HAS changed, and would ask Evangelical Protestantism to do the same. But, for a few puffs of "holy smoke" and sausage and chips on a Friday, she would want us to surrender Justification by Faith alone!

Let me ask of you one thing before you lay this aside. Please don't say to yourself "Unity with Rome could never happen". IT IS HAPPENING! It's happening in almost every Minister's Fraternal as priests of Rome sit down with so-called "Reformed" ministers of the Gospel. It is happening; and the principles and practices are exactly the same as those exposed by the late Bishop of Liverpool.

For this reason alone, I would recommend this book to every member.
Yours in Christ,
W.J. Seaton (1968)


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This Page Title – The Pastor's Letter (A Warning to the Churches)
The Wicket Gate Magazine "A Continuing Witness".
Internet Edition number 47 – placed on line March 2004
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