The Mistaken Term "The Brethren"
The appellation "The Brethren," as applied to companies of
believers who seek to be guided by the Scriptures alone in the principles of
their gatherings, is an utter misnomer. It is, or should be, repudiated by
those who are so called. No doubt the term "Plymouth Brethren" had an innocent
enough beginning, and arose from the fact that in their evangelistic labours
and the testimony they gave they were spoken of as "brethren from Plymouth."
The mistake arose in generalizing the circumstances of a particular
locality and in applying to other believers besides those at Plymouth a term
which was meaningless and applied without the consent or agreement of the
believers there themselves. The appellation is false in more respects than one.
It is contrary to the teaching of Scripture, which, in the spiritual sense of
the word, includes all believers and gives no justification for any such
denominational terminology. Further, it suggests, what is quite unfounded, that
the assemblies of those to whom the term is applied are amalgamated into a
denominational union, an ecclesiastical system, whereas the New Testament
teaches, as a foundation principle relating to assemblies, that each one stands
on its own separate basis in dependence on the Lord alone and in subjection to
the guidance and ministry, not of some union or organization, but of the Holy
Spirit, who indwells each company as His local temple.
That principle
is maintained by the various assemblies of those who are simply seeking to
adhere to the Scriptures of truth as the all-sufficient guide concerning the
will of God, and as "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3,
R.V.) - "once for all," that is to say, as the final revelation of the mind of
God for His people. The very adherence of such assemblies to the teaching of
the New Testament causes them (or should do so) to repudiate the imputation
that they constitute a sect misnamed "The Brethren." It is significant that no
such denominational notice board is ever used outside the buildings where such
assemblies meet.
An Unfounded
Supposition
The term is also contrary to fact in that it
presupposes that, at some time or other, those who, in different places, and
apart from any mutual association, gained an understanding of what the New
Testament teaches, and saw the importance of obeying it instead of following
the traditions of religious systems, accepted the term "the Brethren." In any
case it came to be applied as a nickname. The fallacy of such an appellation
has been to a large extent successfully exposed, though perhaps inadequately.
The fact is that, by a very marked movement of the Spirit of God, Christians in
several places, without knowing what was similarly and simultaneously taking
place elsewhere, came to see the absolute necessity of becoming obedient to
what the Scriptures teach, in contrast to the denominational systems, which
were simply an aftermath of the breakaway, in medieval times, from popery, and
which stopped short of discerning and following the whole counsel of God as
revealed in His Word. To abandon forms of error is one thing; to accept the
truth in its fulness is another.
Freedom from
Human Dictates
Moreover, the work of the Spirit of God in
opening the eyes of believers in different localities and at different times
has gone on for over a century, without being directed by the dictates or
teachings of some central authority. It is a significant fact that not only in
Britain, but in America, Australia, New Zealand and countries on the Continent,
as well as elsewhere, owing to the teaching of the Scriptures, whether by
direct and independent reading of them, or by individual teachers apart from
any society, assemblies such as those who are miscalled "brethren" have been
formed without becoming associated with similar gatherings in other places, as
in the earliest times, as recorded in the New Testament. Dishonour to the Holy
Spirit They cannot help what others call them, but that any in such companies
should tacitly accept this is unacceptable.