Biblical Separation Defended - Far Eastern Bible College

Ferm seems to have applied his alleged findings concerning Christ’sindifference to the orthodoxy of those “to whom” he went to minister, tothose “with whom” the conservative cooperative evangelist ministers. 2If this is denied then he would be arguing for an evangelist’s not havingto inquire as to the orthodoxy of those in the pews to whom the gospelmessage is being addressed; and he could not be arguing for this, for noone, be he a separatist or not, has ever maintained that one who does notyet believe must adhere to the fundamentals in order to be allowed to sitin the pews and be preached to as an unconverted sinner. Thus Dr. Fermseems to have concluded on the basis of Christ’s alleged conduct towardthe unconverted, that the evangelist need not ascertain the orthodoxy orheterodoxy of the ones “with whom” he cooperates, and therefore,cooperating with modernists is legal.It is evident that Dr. Ferm has also concluded that the Christianpreacher of today must not stress negatively any sin more than the Lordstressed that same sin, regardless of how the contemporary situationmight differ from that of the Lord’s day. This is the reasoning whichundergirds his concept that since our Lord did not stress the evil ofheterodoxy (which point has assuredly not been established by proof),the evangelist of today would be wrong to stress it.The Writer’s Critique“On no occasion did he [the Lord] inquire concerning the theologyor even the conduct of those to whom he went to minister,” is aremarkable statement for Dr. Ferm or anyone to utter.In John 4 Jesus is found ministering to the Samaritan woman, andHe here both inquires into her conduct and points out error in hertheology. His words to her, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither”(John 4:16), are the beginning of Christ’s inquiry into her immoralconduct of life, and they result in the Lord’s exposing her past sin andher present living with one who is not her husband, thus establishingwithin her conscience her sinfulness and need of forgiveness (John 4:16-18). After she displays her theological ignorance Christ exposes hererror clearly by saying, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know whatwe worship: for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). This mirrors the63