Biblical Separation Defended - Far Eastern Bible College

acrimonious battle with the authorities in which He unceasinglychallenged and rebuked their unbelief in Himself and their hypocriticalbitterness at His healing on the seventh day. This battle constantlyincreased their hatred of Him until at last the Pharisees resolved not onlyto put anyone out of the synagogue who confessed Him, but also to killChrist Himself.With these findings as a result of an examination of the biblicalaccounts, Dr. Ferm’s analogy and application can be properly critiqued.As to Dr. Ferm’s first analogy which equates the errors of the synagoguewith the errors of liberalism, one can say that both contained errors,while it is a more complex task to evaluate their comparative severity.The synagogues accepted the Old Testament as the Word of God whichthe liberals do not, which tends to bend the scale of blackness in themodernist’s direction. Although the synagogue leaders in those dayserred too often in making theirs an ethical rather than a redemptivereligion, until after Christ appeared and they rejected Him, they were notsinning against a particle of the light which the liberals of today have.The liberals of today, despite their pious words which unbelievers toocan utter (Matt. 7:15,22,23) and despite whatever label they travel under,have rejected the Christ of the Scriptures who is one true savior, andtaken to themselves another Christ who is not “another” (allos – anotherof the same kind) but “another” (heteros – another of a different kind) . 7Although both the majority of the synagogue authorities and theliberals are guilty of unbelief and rejection of Christ in the face of greatlight, the one having the Savior and His miracles in person and the otherhaving the completion of the written revelation in the New Testament,yet there is a notable difference as to the time of the climax of their sin.In the case of the synagogue authorities since the visitation of them byChrist constituted the great light against which they sinned, before Heentered the synagogues they were not guilty of sinning in the face ofsuch great light. When Christ visited them, as He entered, they had notyet sinned against the fullness of their light. Their sin against the greatlight could only be noted as final at the conclusion of the Lord’ssynagogue visits. This also was the case of the synagogues which Paulvisited outside of Israel. At the conclusion of these visits by Christ andPaul the synagogues stood condemned as rejecting great light and were42