A Lost Consensus
By J.P. Thackway
The Collapse of Historic Evangelicalism
And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent. 1 Samuel 11:7.
In the above verse, fearing God produced a consensus: the people followed Saul as one man in a just cause to defend Israel. The fear of God usually unites. There is nothing more coalescing than a collective reverence. Overawed by a sense of God, everything else – everyone else – pales before the One in whose presence we are. Just as “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” so the fear of the Lord is the beginning of unity.
There used to be this among evangelicals and their churches. We can call it a “consensus.” Over the essential and central distinctives there was broad agreement. Most gospel churches, until about the 1970s, had the same precious characteristics that made belonging to them a blessing. However, that tragically has been lost in the evangelicalism of the 21st century.
What were these features? How were they lost? Will they ever return? This article seeks to show that lying behind these questions is the grace of reverence, or godly fear: it has largely gone from among us. And this is the cause of our lost consensus and the comparative absence of God among us today. To demonstrate this, consider the following points.
1. HOW IT USED TO BE
The evangelicalism of the past was far different from that of today. We can find a good summary of it in F.J. Harris’ booklet Stand Fast for Authentic Evangelicalism, published by the Bible League
https://www.bibleleaguetrust.org/publication_type/booklets (Words of Truth No.7).
Remembering how things were in the 1950s Pastor Harris wrote,
The strength of these Mission Halls and the Churches which had remained untainted by liberalism was faithful preaching, prayerfulness, unity and warm fellowship. It is true that the preaching was generally of a devotional nature, but the preachers loved the Bible and the gospel was consistently preached.
There was a popular Protestantism in the Churches, with Rome being everywhere recognised as a False Church. The Authorised Version would be used, and holiness of life would be promoted. The Keswick Convention was very popular and many of the best-known preachers of the day would regularly speak there. The particular theology of holiness that was characteristic of Keswick would not be that which we would consider wholly biblical today but many were moved to seek personal holiness and there was a great emphasis on missionary work and support.
Apart from the denominational missions, most missionary societies would have been soundly evangelical, though not usually reformed in doctrine. In most Mission Halls and Churches there was also a thriving Sunday School. With only one version of the Bible used, the memorization of Bible verses and passages was very much simpler for teachers to organise, and many children grew up with Bible verses and passages stored in their memories.
We might add that the services of worship in those assemblies were characterised by reverence. The hymns, prayers, sermons, and afterwards conversation and fellowship, had about them the sense that we were in the presence of a holy and gracious God. Although church gatherings differed according to denominational persuasion – and many undenominational – the common factor was a pleasing and edifying ethos that was godly.
A.W. Tozer (who died in 1963) has also summed up this lost element. Writing in his day, as if to predict our time,
Worship is the missing jewel in evangelical circles! It is certainly true that hardly anything is missing from our churches these days — except the most important thing. We are missing the genuine and sacred offering of ourselves and our worship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The presence of God in our midst — bringing a sense of godly fear and reverence — this is largely missing today.
We are not suggesting that all was perfect in the evangelicalism of the past. This was not the case. However, much was to be cherished, and it did mean that Christians on holiday could, in most towns and villages, find a church that would be a “home from home” for soundness and blessing. And if believers moved, there would usually be a range of options when first considering a new spiritual home. How different today, when many Christians must travel long distances to find a suitable church to which they can belong.
2. THE ISSUES WITH WHICH EVANGELICALS WERE AGREED.
Essentially, of course, it is ever the gospel, with Christ’s Person and work at its heart. He is “all and in all” and has made true believers “all one” (Colossians 3:11; Galatians 3:28). As Wesley put it,
Touched by the loadstone of Thy love,
Let all our hearts agree;
And ever toward each other move,
And ever toward Thee.
However, there were also elements in church practice that were hardly ever questioned. Among these were,
a] The authority of Scripture.
Instinctively, “chapter and verse” proved a point of doctrine or conduct. Bible literacy was quite high, and God’s Word was the final court of appeal to settle matters. The Bible used was the Authorised (King James) version. Some other translations were around, like the Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, Amplified Bible, New American Standard Version – but these were used for reference and comparison, not regarded as serious replacements. It is curious that older men who today mock the AV were themselves converted through that Bible and grew up as Christians on it.
Nowadays, a glut of modern Bible translations has appeared, proving more financially lucrative for the publishers than spiritually profitable for the readers. These have had a diluting effect rather than establishing believers in their holy faith. Paraphrased versions, like the New Living Translation (formerly Living Bible), interpret God’s Word instead of translating it. “Dynamic equivalence” versions, such as the New International Version give thought-by-thought rendering of the original rather than word-for-word. The current favourite of the Reformed, the English Standard Version, is based on a critical New Testament text that is around one-third shorter than the AV, thus taking away from God’s Word. Even the New King James Version, which claims to be based on the New Testament Received Text,has footnotes that cast doubt on the authenticity and preservation of these missing portions.
This has had the effect of much less “trembling at the word” (Isaiah 66:2) and the reverence before God that it brings. If the Word of God is diluted, the authority of it is weakened, the clarity of it is diminished, and the majesty of it is reduced. Has this playing fast and loose with it not grieved the Spirit of God? Is it any wonder that there seems a divine withholding of blessing in our day?
Moreover, a precious consensus is lost when the Authorised Version is not the one Bible a congregation uses. As the preacher quotes verses and passages, the welcome rustle of pages shows that the hearers are with him in the Lord’s message. A variety of Bible translations, on the other hand, means verses or passages will read and sound different. Often, Bibles stay closed because it is just not worth the effort of finding places in it which read in a variety of ways. Sometimes, worshippers do not even bring Bibles at all, and churches end up with less of God’s word altogether!
b] Reverence in worship.
Knowing God makes it self-evident that worship is vertical – praise offered to Him for His acceptance and glory. That view prevailed and was shaped by verses of Scripture like:-
Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him (Psalm 33:8).
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him (Psalm 89:7).
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Hebrews 12:28).
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him. (Revelation 14:7).
Tozer, in his book Whatever Happened to Worship? put his finger on it:
When we come into this sweet relationship, we are beginning to learn astonished reverence, breathless adoration, awesome fascination, lofty admiration of the attributes of God and something of the breathless silence that we know when God is near.
You may never have realized it before, but all of those elements in our perception and consciousness of the divine Presence add up to what the Bible calls ‘the fear of God.’
Like Jacob, true worship will always have about it the sense that, “this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:17; cf 1 Corinthians 14:25). And this was not thought a strange but a welcome thing. It seems foreign today.
c] Separation from the world.
“The World” in the old evangelicalism was the next most dangerous enemy after the devil. Our forebears saw it as everybody who was not a Christian in organised rebellion against God. By its sin, the world could easily contaminate believers who were “delivered from this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4). Therefore, warnings were frequent, and believers were careful in their walk with God through it. There was the danger of listening to it (Psalm 1:1), likeness to it (Romans 12:2), and loving it (1 John 2:15).
To prevent this, the Word was our directory for life and living, and the Holy Spirit our enabling to live out a truly Christian life. Such scrupulosity is now thought quaint and outdated. So many sermons and writings are devoted to assuring us of what we can do now, rather than what we should not do. In the rush to convince the world that we are normal and ordinary people we have, I fear, forgotten what it is to be extraordinary and “peculiar people” (Titus 2:14). And the world becomes convinced that there is not much difference after all. This virtual denial of true discipleship has made many other “disciples” in its image; whether they are real disciples is another matter (John 2:23-25; 8:31).
3. THE MISSING FACTOR
The various factors that have contributed to the collapse of the evangelicalism of a generation or two ago all stem from one cause: the loss of the fear of God. Tozer once wrote about “the psychology of sin,” and said: “When men no longer fear God, they transgress His laws without hesitation. The fear of consequences is no deterrent when the fear of God is gone.”
Although this is absolutely true of the ungodly (Psalm 36:1) it can be largely true of believers. Nehemiah said that godly fear kept him from the sins of past Governors of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 5:15) – implying that without it he, too, would have been as bad. What is this fear of the Lord?
It is known as “filial fear,” which is about being a son or daughter and the respect due from such. God through Malachi reminds Israel, “A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts” (1:6). It has two blessed effects,
a] It turns us against our sin.
Proverbs 16:6 says, “by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” This is because we know He is there, that He sees everything we do. It has a gracious, restraining effect, and is a sanctifying grace. When someone suggested to his puritan friend that he was rather “precise,” the rejoinder was, “Sir, I serve a precise God.” In the fear of God, we fear losing the comfort of God’s approval and the leanness of soul that inevitably follows.
b] It moves us to scrupulous obedience.
The Lord described Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac as, “now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Genesis 22:12). Charles Bridges defines it this way: “But what is this fear of the Lord? It is that affectionate reverence, by which the child bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.”
And Joseph Hart summarised it memorably,
This fear’s the spirit of faith,
A confidence that’s strong;
An unctuous light to all that’s right,
A bar to all that’s wrong.
Applying this to Christian life and living, and to the church’s worship and service, where is the evidence of this in the evangelical and reformed scene of today? There are exceptions, of course, for which we are thankful, but by and large there is a palpable absence of the fear of the Lord and its gracious fruits. Which is another way of bemoaning the absence of historic evangelical consensus.
In professedly evangelical and reformed churches today, almost anything goes. This is because the default in our worship, if left to ourselves, is “there is no fear of God before his eyes” (Psalm 36:1) leading to “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). The astonishing variety of worship styles and genre abroad today, all imported from the degenerate culture of the world, is surely testimony to this! When the church’s view of God is small, these things come in; when she sees God as holy, majestic, eternal, and glorious, there is the simplicity of scriptural worship and God is gloried. To a large degree this latter spirit bound evangelical churches together more than any organisations could.
Nowadays, the worship is characterised by the praise band, complete with guitars and drum kit – singing songs more redolent of a secular gig than the house of God. It is more a performance than an act of worship. “Hallowed be thy name” is strange. If a congregation feared God, could they really offer Him this profanity? And was it not, in better days, this very fear of the Lord that made such things unthinkable? It is as if a spiritual Coronavirus is among us, infecting one church group after another, to such an extent that many Christians count it self-evident that contemporary worship and evangelism is the only way. Even older believers, who should know better, have succumbed.
We can visit the web sites of churches founded in the 18th and 19th centuries which are associated with revered names. Although the current minister and members glory in their church’s past associated with those names, yet to see what is done there now beggars belief. One such, had a picture of the present minister dressed in a costume and wig, in the middle of a small orchestra, obviously play-acting something to do with Easter! The well-known 18th century former minister of that church would turn in his grave to see this! And if he were alive, he would undoubtedly cry out, “Take these things hence”! (John 2:16). Yet, the impression is given on the web site that the church is still in that godly and reformed tradition!
The advocates of this would allege that the sober, word-centred approach to worship and evangelism was appropriate in the 18th century. But we are in the 21st century and must “walk the old paths in new shoes,” or “reboot the Reformation.” The fallacy of this reasoning can be seen if we consider certain essential things that have never changed.
a] Man’s heart is the same.
Ruin by the Fall is only ever remedied by redemption and regeneration.
b] God’s Word is the same.
It “liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23). It is the converting instrument God has ordained and used, either preached or read. There was singing and drama in the culture of our Lord’s and the apostles’ time, – but no suggestion that they supplement the mandate to “preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15; 1 Corinthians 1:21). The same unchanging Scripture must regulate worship. Note that in Nehemiah 8:18 “a solemn assembly” is in the margin “a restraint,” implying that if we depart from solemnity, we let loose its opposite: frivolity and flippancy. Is not this what we are seeing all around us?
c] God’s church is the same.
To vary or add to Christ’s ordinances is to undermine them and leave His “commanded” things (Matthew 28:20). God’s worship and work must be done in God’s way if there is to be God’s blessing. Who will deny that the church of the 21st century looks vastly different from the church of the New Testament?
Godly fear takes these things seriously and results in united adherence and the “fellowship of the gospel” (Philippians 1:5). In rejecting their novelties and innovations, our detractors accuse us of being divisive, but we need to ask, who is doing the dividing? Surely, it is they who, in leaving the biblical and historic ways of our forefathers, create modern trends which neither they would, nor we can, recognise. WE have not changed: it is THEY who have changed. They have parted company and gone another way. We still represent as historic evangelicalism as it has ever been, and see no need to change. Therefore, surely it is those who modernise who are divisive. Unity and fellowship is not created by adapting to worldly trends, but by keeping to the “the old paths, where the good way is” (Jeremiah 6:16) – the way of God-fearing submission to God and His Word.
In the light of this, we call upon God’s people everywhere seriously to consider these things, and if they are part of the New Evangelical scene, to “come out from among them” and come back to the right ways of the Lord. Let us unitedly pray that God will restore to us biblical and historic evangelicalism at its best. And the recovery of the lost consensus. May we see again the fear of the Lord in Christ’s visible churches, and the “one consent” in all their worship and witness.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, UN-moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).