Separated Brethren
At the conclusion of the separation of the faithful Body from the errorists and their supporters in the Inspiration Division, Bro. Roberts and the Birmingham ecclesia are addressing those from whom they have had to separate.
By Bro. Robert Roberts, July 1885
In our judgment, it is not possible for men to commit a greater evil in our age than to corrupt and weaken the Word of God by a doctrine that it is not wholly reliable...You may believe Paul's statement to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:16) equally with ourselves, but if you make yourselves one with those who nullify it by the doctrines they hold, you erect the same barrier between us and you that exists between us and them...
We do not say by this that you are not brethren, or that Christ will refuse you at his coming. We leave that. We do not judge you: we judge ourselves. We say we cannot be implicated in the position which you feel at liberty to hold toward the new doctrine that has been introduced. We desire to regard you with feelings of friendship and brotherly love. But so long as you retain connection with a false doctrine of so dangerous a character, you compel us to step aside in the spirit of Paul's recommendation, which-while telling us to count you not as enemies, but to admonish you as brethren-at the same time directs us to have no company while things are on a footing that does not allow of it (2 Thess. 3:6, 14-15).
The salutation was, "Dear brethren and sisters." It will be noted, too, how clearly this defines Bro. Roberts' views concerning fellowshipping those who fellowship error. It is a sad, modern, Word-nullifying subterfuge to say we "break bread" with them but do not "fellowship" them. This is a Pharisaic juggling of words, and a confusion-breeding prostitution of scriptural terms.
-Bro. G.V. "Rene" Growcott
