What does all of this mean? We are told that these are new times. That, curiously, seems to be the new interest. Rather than the antithetical stance Nouthetic Counseling has taken in the past toward eclectic error, we now must approach those who hold to eclectic views of various sorts and team up with them as much as possible. It’s time for bridge-building; rapproachment.

But this isn’t a matter of refinement, maturing, or meeting the changes of a new and different time. The eclectic issue has been with us from the beginning. Consider Aaron’s golden calf, where he threw gold into the fire and “out came” the calf. The calf’s existence was not a call to abandon Yahweh, or His faith. It was intended as a help to undergird and foster it. But, instead, what emerged was a new religion that God condemned. The Samaritans wanted to join the returning Jews who were rebuilding their city. But, uncharitable as it may have seemed on the part of Nehemiah to refuse their offer of help, he wisely did so anyway, doubtless recognizing that his action would create hostility for years to come—as, indeed, it did. Why, then did he do so? Because he understood what it seems that some of our well-meaning “big tent” friends fail to recognize—when you build bridges, traffic moves in both directions. And it has been demonstrated again and again in the Scriptures, and over and over during many centuries since, that the more influential traffic is that which is incoming rather than outgoing. The history of the church has been a history of weakening through compromise by affinity. Naturally, no one intends to compromise; rather, he hopes to win those who disagree with the truth. But you can’t do this by joining them. As soon, as one begins to become buddy-buddy with some who hold views diverse from the Scriptures, he discovers that (in spite of that fact) there are some really “nice” integrationists. And the more buddy-like that they become, the more he is influenced in all sorts of ways by them. All of this is not to say that one must be hostile toward them. Nor is there a need to cease “converting” them to the “Nouthetic Faith” (I hope you understand my factious use of these terms). But the notions of converting and unifying are incompatible. And, it would seem that this fact has been lost by those seeking to adjust to these “new times!”

Of course, I recognize that some find it uncomfortable to be huddled in a small tent together with those who, personally, may not be as pleasant and affable as those in the big tent next door. People with strong views tend to assert them. Euodius and Synteche had been “fellow workers” with Paul. It’s people like them, who do things, who are often a “bit too stringent” about their beliefs. It is easier—and much more pleasant– to buddy-up to those who never seriously challenge beliefs. Oh, of course, there is academic discussion galore. Differences of opinion are vigorously banded about. Such discussion is very pleasant. And one can even believe that he is bringing the Samaritans with their mixed faith into line with his own Yahwehistic views. It will happen one of these days, he comes to believe, but it never—or at least, very seldom—does. Yet, all the while that he has been comporting himself in this manner with his new-found friends, he has been strangely influenced himself. Because it is so gradual, and precisely because he has consciously sought to avoid it, he fails to recognize what is happening. But, if he wants to see what is happening, let him only consider the growing coldness of his relationships with his former compatriots. He is ashamed to use their materials, be called by their names, remain closely associated with their work. Indeed, he can only look down at what they are doing in counseling as a primitive form of what he has now come to see truly biblical counseling ought always to have been like. It’s time to re-write documents and set forth beliefs in a more winning manner. No wonder such “advanced thinkers” consider themselves the “second generation!”

But some of us have lived for two generations. Our perspective is broader than those with pen in hand could ever realize at this stage in their lives. We saw what happened in the past and participated in hard-fought battles that finally rescued and brought the present prosperity to a church which previously had been compromised by such a robust form of liberalism that J. Gresham Machen called it “another religion.” What happened then in those broader circles, looks like it might be on the road to happening again in the narrower field of biblical counseling. If this should happen, then the gains of generations past are likely to be lost. Just as that which has been attained at such cost is ready to “take off,” it is likely to flounder. Oh, no. I’m not speaking of numbers, either of a bodily or of a financial sort. In those respects this well-healed, new alliance is likely to “take off” all right! But what is its destination?

To be continued . . .