Updated comment on The Exclusive Brethen web site in September 2010.

            It is now over 40 years since the debacle at Aberdeen, and the above web site appears to be moribund. In the circumstances it therefore appears to be unnecessary to make further comment on the site, at least until there are significant changes to it. However, one would mention that words appear when quite a number of buttons are pointed to with a computer’s mouse and not just the one mentioned in my comments in March 2010. For anyone who is interested there is one button which shows a word spelt wrongly and another where there is a Biblical reference which is incomplete. No prizes for guessing what that reference is to !

“If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free... Now the bondman abides not in the house for ever: the son abides for ever. If therefore the Son shall set you free, ye shall be really free.” (John 8:31-36).

Note the context in which Christ said what He did and the words really free at the end. I quote from some comments on this passage: “Truth is adjustment in detail, the truth disentangles you... The Son is in the house, so He brings in what is positive.” Certainly we need to consider the positive side to separation else we may find ourselves jumping out of the frying pan into the fire !

            Israel escaped from Egypt (the house of bondage - Exodus 13:14), but then they wandered in the wilderness (Numbers 32:13), and that for 40 years, before they found a home in Canaan. To get full liberty we have not only to cease to do evil, but to learn to do well (Isaiah 1:17). We don’t want to be like those who it is said wander from sea to sea (Amos 8:12).

            As is well known, Mr Darby wrote an article titled “Separation from Evil God’s Principle of Unity”, but he went on to write one titled “Grace, the Power of Unity and Gathering”. Both are necessary, both the negative and the positive. E. B’s became obsessed with the negative side and overbalanced. Only the negative article has appeared to date on their web site.

            As it is now over 40 years since the debacle at Aberdeen, the question arises whether it is not now time to move on and not keep harking back to that event, though not forgetting it, of course, or sweeping it under the carpet. On one occasion God said:”Ye have stayed long enough in this mountain. Turn and take your journey” (Deuteronomy 1:6).So far as Exclusives are concerned it may be said like it was as to Ephraim: “Ephraim is joined to idols: leave him alone” (Hosea 4:17) and Christ as to the scribes and Pharisees: “Leave them alone; they are blind leaders of blind” (Matthew 15:14).

            Paul speaks of “forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue” (Philippians 3:13). The majority of those who were leaders around 1970 have passed on now . We are dealing largely with another generation (consider Numbers 32:13-15). Certainly we should pray for relatives and acquaintances still in bondage (1 Samuel 12:23) but not become obsessed with things that happened years ago, and one should always remember that proving someone else wrong does not prove one right. We could be both wrong. Two wrongs don’t make a right !