Knowing the Times

Doctor Lloyd-Jones's address to the Evangelical Alliance in 1966 is one of the landmarks of evangelicalism in the UK this century. In this his centenary year, we reprint one of its most striking sections, taken from Knowing the Times, published by The Banner of Truth.

Why are we as evangelicals thus divided? Why are we divided up among the main denominations?
I think if we are honest we will have to admit that most of us really do not know. It is an accident of birth. I was born a Baptist or and Anglican or a Congregationalist or a Methodist, or whatever it was, and, because I was born there, I stay there and I am prepared to fight for it. How often is that the case? I am arguing that for us to be divided- we who are agreed about everything that really matters - for us to be divided from one another in the main tenor of our lives and for the bulk of our time, is nothing but to be guilty of the sin of schism. And we really must face this most urgently.

Why not come together?

Let me therefore make an appeal to you evangelical people who are here present this evening. What reasons have we for not coming together? I think we ought to be able to give an answer to that question. Many reasons are given. We are told that we will miss an evangelistic opportunity, or something like that. I do not accept that argument for this reason: where is the Holy Spirit? Surely he will honour truth if we stand for it together. Why is it, I say, that we have this desire to hold on in this way to the contradictory position in which we find ourselves? That is the position of evangelicals in all the major denominations at the present time; they spend a great deal of time criticising their own leaders but, remember, those criticised are still their leaders. You cannot justify remaining in an episcopal situation, or in a Methodist or a Presbyterian situation, you cannot justify that honestly in terms of your 'independence'. But that is what we tend to do. We say: 'As long as I am given liberty in my own church I am going on like this.' But you cannot dissociate yourself from the church to which you belong.
That is not only a contradictory position; it is, in addition, one which the man in the street must find very difficult to understand. What cogent reason have we for staying as we are when we have this new and, as I regard it, heaven-sent opportunity for doing something new? What are our reasons for rejecting and refusing the need for change?

Guarding the Bible

Let me put it positively. Do we not feel the call to come together, not occasionally, but always? It is a grief to me that I spend so little of my time with some of my brethren. I want to spend the whole of my time with them. I am a believer in ecumenicity, evangelical ecumenicity. To me, the tragedy is that we are divided. Is it right that those of us who are agreed about these fundamental things should only meet occasionally and spend, as I say, most of our time when we are among others fighting negative battles, showing how wrong our own leaders are and so on? Now you and I have been called to a positive task. We are guardians of the faith, the faith that has been given once and for ever to the saints. Traditionally, it has always been we evangelicals who have been the guardians and custodians of the New Testament heritage. We believe the Bible; we take it authoritatively; we do not impose our philosophies and ideas upon it; and we are the only people who are doing this. God, I believe, has given us the solemn charge of guarding and protecting and defending the faith in this present evil age in which we find ourselves.
My friends, we are not only the guardians and custodians of the faith of the Bible; we are the modern representatives and successors of the glorious men who fought this same fight, the good fight of faith, in centuries past. Surely, as evangelicals, we ought to feel this appeal. We are standing in the position of the Protestant reformers. Are we accepting this modern idea that the Reformation was the greatest tragedy that ever happened? If you want to say that it was a tragedy, here was the tragedy, that the Roman Church had become so rotten that it was necessary for the reformers to do what they did. It was not the departure of the reformers that was the tragedy. It was the state of the Roman Church that was the tragedy. We are the modern representatives of these men, and of the Puritans, the Covenanters, the early Methodists, and others. Can you not see the opportunity?

The Holy Spirit's work

I believe that God is calling upon us to maintain this ancient witness, not occasionally, not haphazardly, but always, and to put it to the people of this country. The need has never been greater, the need of conviction of sin, of new life, of turning to God, and becoming God's people. That is work that the Holy Spirit alone can do. But have we a right to ask his blessing upon churches who spend most of their time in arguing about the essentials and the vitals of the faith? Surely, the Holy Spirit will only bless his own Word, and if those of us who believe it would only come together, stand together as churches, constantly together, working together, doing everything together, bearing our witness together, I believe we would then have the right to expect the Spirit of God to come upon us in mighty revival and re-awakening. I know people talk about the difficulties, and I am not here to minimise them. I am trying to put before you the positive principles. These are the things about which we have got to be agreed. We will then have to work them out.
There are great and grievous difficulties; I am well aware of them. I know that there are men, ministers and clergy, in this congregation at the moment, who, if they did what I am exhorting them to do, would have a tremendous problem before them, even a financial, an economic and a family problem. I do not want to minimise this. My heart goes out to such men. There are great problems confronting us if we act on these principles. But has the day come when we, as evangelicals, are afraid of problems?

Turning point of history

My dear friends, we are living in tremendous times. We are living in one of the turning points of history. I have said already and I say it again, there has been nothing like this since the 16th century. It is a day of glorious opportunity. We may be small in numbers but since when has the doctrine of the remnant become unpopular among evangelicals? It is one of the most glorious doctrines in the whole of the Bible. We are not interested in numbers. We are interested in truth and the living God. 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' Go home and read the story of Gideon again. Go home and read many another example of what God, at times, has accomplished through just one man. Do not be concerned about numbers. If we stand for God's truth, we can be certain and sure that God will honour us and bless us.
Therefore, my dear friends, fellow evangelical Christians, let us rise to the occasion. Let us listen to what I believe is the call of God. We shall need great grace. We shall need to be filled with the Spirit. We shall all need to be humbled. But if we have got one objective only, namely the glory of the Lord, and the success of his kingdom, I think we shall be led by the Spirit to the true answer to these varying problems. And who knows but that the ecumenical movement may be something for which, in years to come, we shall thank God because it has made us face our problems on the church level instead of on the level of movements, and really brought us together as a fellowship, or an association, of evangelical churches. May God speed the day.

An extract from the book Knowing the Times on evangelical unity

Why not come together?

Guarding the Bible

The Holy Spirit's work

Turning point of history

Main Articles

Other articles