“This (having a church uniquely for whites) is antithetical to the gospel and to the New Testament. And I’m not saying this out of a commitment to a post war consensus or a liberal world order. The Church is not built along racial or ethnic lines.”
Rev. Joseph Spurgeon
Protesting against Rev. Michael Spangler
Bret responds
First, lets quote Reformed theologian Dr. John Frame here,
“Scripture, as I read it, does not require societies, or even churches, to be integrated racially. Jews and Gentiles were brought together by God’s grace into one body. They were expected to love one another and to accept one another as brothers in the faith. But the Jewish Christians continued to maintain a distinct culture, and house churches were not required to include members of both groups.”
John Frame,
“Racism, Sexism, Marxism”
Clearly Rev. Joseph Spurgeon doesn’t know what he’s talking about on this subject. Spurgeon has swallowed the presuppositions of liberalism and doesn’t even realize it. Now, Spurgeon’s liberalism may not be as extreme as Eli McGowan’s but it is the same liberalism all the same.
Second, one wonders if Spurgeon laments Korean Churches, Hmong Churches, or Black Churches. Does JS lament the existence of those churches?
Next, we might ask, “why is it that in Revelation 21 we find the Church entering into the New Jerusalem nation by nation if it is the case, as Spurgeon states, ‘the church is not built along racial or ethnic lines?'”
Rev. Joseph Spurgeon undaunted presses on,
“Segregating the church by race was what the Apostle Paul rebuked Peter for. Friend, you have gone off the rails completely. I don’t remember this being your position just a few years ago in the Genevan Commons group.”
Bret responds,
This is another example proving Spurgeon is wanting in his thought process.
Galatians 2 was not about what Spurgeon says. Gal. 2 was Paul saying, “One doesn’t have to become a religio-cultural Jew in order to be Christian.” The demand of the Judaizers in Gal. 2 was that the Gentiles had to give up their ethnic identity and become ethnically and culturally Jewish. This is seen in the Judaizers demand that the Gentiles give up their own dietary delicacies in favor of yucky Jew food.
Gal. 2 proves Kinism since Paul was supporting the Gentiles remaining Gentiles by not insisting that the Gentiles had to give up their ethnic identity by embracing Jewish identity.
Spurgeon owes Spangler an apology.
