Psalm 83:5
They have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): On all hands we hear cries for unity in this, and unity in that; but to our mind the main need of this age is not compromise, but conscientiousness…It is easy to cry “a confederacy,” but that union which is not based upon the truth of God is rather a conspiracy than a communion.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): In the light of the position in which we find ourselves I suggest that it would be a very good thing for us to state plainly and clearly that we are anti-ecumenical. Why do I start with a negative like this? For the reason that today we have to assert and defend the position that doctrine is really vital and essential. The ecumenical movement, while paying lip service to a very minimal amount of creedal statement, is merely based on doctrinal indifferentism. I think that this is generally agreed. You cannot have an ecumenical movement of the contemporary kind without such indifferentism.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): You might as well measure the moon for a suit of clothes as tell their doctrinal sentiments.
LORD SHAFTESBURY (1801-1885): Doctrine is everywhere set aside. It is like silver in the days of Solomon, it is “nothing accounted of.”―The larger portion of those who profess to believe, are eagerly eliminating from their creed all dogma and doctrine. They accept the Scriptures just as far as it suits their philosophy.
WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): It is fashionable in high places to laud religious indifference, and stigmatize as bigotry all earnest belief. This is a great mistake. They who fall into it cannot read even profane history aright.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The Romans, though attached to their old system of idolatry, were not adverse to the admission of new divinities, upon the ground of what a modern writer calls, a “spirit of inter-community;” that is, every one had liberty to adopt what worship he pleased, provided due honour was given to the ancient establishments. The votaries of the Egyptian, Roman, and Syrian deities, while they paid some peculiar regard to their own favourites, indulged each other in a mutual acknowledgment of the rest; but the religion of Jesus was absolutely incompatible with them all, would admit of no competition, and His followers could not avoid declaring, upon all occasions, that “they were no gods that were made with hands.”
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Christianity is an exclusive religion; it claims that it, and it alone, is the truth of God.
JOHN NEWTON: On this account, they were considered as a most uncharitable, proud, and narrow-hearted sect.
WILLIAM C. BURNS (1815-1868): It is by the truth alone that men are saved; and a heart new created in them—To love, embrace, and keep close to the truth, is the only defence against error of every kind.
JOHN NEWTON: And thus it will always be. Nothing will more effectually secure a man in the peaceful possession of his own errors, than his pleadings for the indifference of error in general, and allowing those who most widely differ from him to be all right in their own way; and this lukewarm comprehension, which is a principal part of that pretended candour and charity for which our times are so remarkable, preserves a sort of intercourse or confederacy amongst multitudes who are hardly agreed in any one thing but their joint opposition to the spirit and design of the Gospel. But they who love the truth cannot but declare against every deviation from it; they are obliged to decline the proposed inter-community, and to vindicate the commands and institutions of God from the inventions and traditions of men―therefore they always have been, and always will be hated, as uncharitable and censorious; and are sure to be treated accordingly so far as opportunity and circumstances will permit those who think themselves aggrieved to discover their resentment.
R. L. DABNEY (1820-1898): “Broad Churchism” delights hurl the charges of Phariseeism, hypocrisy, and malignity against the honest votaries of truth. But examine its animus and you will find it as hypocritical and bitter as it is cold. Selfish indifference does indeed make it very tolerant of all that which, if it had any sincerity, should excite its moral indignation; the only thing erroneous enough in its eyes to arouse its intolerance is honest conviction and zeal for God’s truth. And against this it harbours all the gall and bitterness which it imputes to us.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The age extols no virtue so much as ‘liberality,’ and condemns no vice so fiercely as bigotry, alias honesty. If you believe anything and hold it firmly, all the dogs will bark at you. Let them bark: they will have done when they are tired! You are responsible to God, and not to mortal men. Christ came into the world to bear witness to the truth, and He has sent you to do the same; take care that you do it, offend or please; for it is only by this process that the kingdom of Christ is to be set up in the world.
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Those that plead for a boundless toleration, what is their great argument?―[that] nothing is certain in religion.
RICHARD HILL (1732-1808): The most dangerous infidels are not the most open infidels. There is a set of men who persuade themselves that they believe Christianity, whilst in truth they are reasoning Christianity quite out of doors.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): It is fashionable now to say that all sects should be equal―that all creeds should be regarded with equal favour and respect, and that there is a substratum of common truth at the bottom of all religion, whether Buddhism, Mahometanism, or Christianity!
LORD SHAFTESBURY: Such will be the religion of the future, in which Vishnu, Mahomet, Jupiter, and Jesus Christ will all be upon a level; with some, all equally good, and with others, all equally bad.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Christianity is an exclusive religion; it claims that it, and it alone, is the truth of God. And not only is it the one and only way, it also does not need any help or assistance. There is no need to add a little Buddhism, or Mohammedanism, or Confucianism, or any other ‘ism’ to it. It is itself the way, and it is complete, it is entire…Any man who tells you that he can find God, and have access to God, other than in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is denying New Testament Christianity, however much good he may appear to do, because Christ Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me,” John 14:6. That is absolute and categorical. There is no access to God―there is no knowledge of God as Saviour and Deliverer except in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): The Scripture is plain and peremptory in this, as namely, Acts 4:14―There is none other name under heaven, whereby a sinner can be saved, but by the name of Jesus.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: It was, and is the only way―there is no other. Let the world in its supposed wisdom call it ‘narrow-minded’. As long as it does so it will continue to degenerate morally and ethically, and fester in its own iniquity.
