Outside the Camp


We read in Present Truth, Vol.14; No. 168; October 2008, in the article entitled Is There A Biblical Pattern For The Church? these words —

At least two things are suggested by the phrase ‘gathered in (or unto*) my name’. First, identification with the Lord Jesus. That is the believer abandons all man-made ecclesiastical systems, and is identified with the rejected Christ. The epistle to the Hebrews urges this upon us all. “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb.13: 13. ‘The camp’ in that day was Judaism, and its modern equivalent is Christendom into which many of the features of Judaism have been absorbed. The believer is called to break his links with that, and be associated alone with the Man who is ‘outside the camp’, as one gathered to His name.

* In order to establish a link between being gathered and being outside the camp, the Scripture reading itself has to be altered. The word “unto” is not a suitable alternative to “in” in Matt. 18: 20 (see www.avbibleversesvindicated.blogspot.com ) The verse is misquoted anyway. The reading is For where two or three are gathered together in my name...

Those familiar with the Hebrew epistle will be aware that Christians were not being urged to separate themselves from some ecclesiastical system. They had already done it, as Heb. 10: 25 shows – not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. It is not possible to forsake something that does not already exist. When the letter to the Hebrews was written, believers were already meeting together in a scriptural manner, gathered together in His name. Further proof of this is found 13: 7 where the believers are exhorted to remember them who have the rule over them. They spoke the word of God (they were not preaching Judaism) and their faith was to be followed.
Then in 13: 17, these Hebrew Christians were to obey them that have the rule over them. Thus in the middle of a passage dealing with the right attitude to the elders in the assembly we have the “let us go forth” statement.
As Pink rightly points out, this has nothing to do with a foot exercise. It is a heart matter.
This is what Pink had to say on the subject:-
Hebrews 13:13 has ever been a great favorite with those who started "Come out" movements. It has been used, or rather misused, again and again by ambitious Diotrephes, who desired to head some new party or cause. It has been made a sop for the conscience’ by many a little group of discontented and disgruntled souls, who because of some grievance (fancied or real) against their religious leaders, church, or denomination, forsook them, and set up an independent banner of their own. It is a verse which has been called into the service of all separatists, who urged all whose confidence they could gain to turn away from—not the secular world, but their fellow-Christians, on the ground of trifling differences. That which these men urged their dupes to forsake was denounced as the God-abandoned and apostate "Camp," while the criticism they have (often justly) met with for their pharisaic conduct, has been smugly interpreted as "bearing Christ’s reproach."
Finally, the deceived are now easily drawn to become ardent propagators of their new tenets, zealous proselytizers, seeking to persuade others to leave the apostate "Camp" and join them on "the true scriptural ground." "Let any man of contrary opinion open his mouth to persuade them, and they close their ears: his reasons they weigh not, all is answered with ‘We are of God, He that knoweth God heareth us’ (1 John 4:6), as for the rest, ye are of the world" (Hooker). Such was the policy pursued by the "Fifth Monarchy men," the "Brownists,’ Thos. Cartwright and his following in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Such too was the course taken by John Kelly in Ireland, Alex. Campbell in Kentucky, more than a century ago—the latter founding "the Christian Church," denouncing all others as unscriptural. So that Mr. J.N. Darby followed a well-trodden path!

— from Exposition of Hebrews, ch.115 A W Pink.

The article in Present Truth appears to be promoting the movement described by Pink.
The “Camp” the writer to the Hebrews had in mind may well have been the camp in the wilderness as they surrounded the tabernacle. This was God appointed and God approved worship. It fulfilled its purpose and ceased to have purpose with the coming of Christ. But it was more than Judaism that killed the Lord. It was the whole world that crucified Him (see 1 Cor. 2: 8). Christendom didn’t crucify Him. Christendom, though maybe now deep into apostasy, has always acknowledged the person of Christ; His virgin birth, his death, burial, and resurrection.
“Going forth unto Him” is now a personal exercise of the heart for all those who have experienced a conversion and have been added to the local church. They are dead to the world (1 John 3: 1)
We have to point out that so many of those who regard the going forth as a matter of leaving the Baptists and Pentecostals, Presbyterians, and Methodists (mentioned in the article under consideration) have never had a conversion experience. The necessity of a conversion is played down among the Brethren and denied by many of them. We have heard a conference speaker tell his audience he had never been converted but such a confession had no impact on his preaching career. I have yet to discover a mention of the conversion of J N Darby in any biographical works concerning him.
I spent 20 years in an “Outside the Camp” assembly. It was an assembly marked by immorality from its establishment in the 1950’s until its collapse 50 years later. We saw adultery, fornication, sodomy, drunkenness practiced. A Bible class teacher spent evenings teaching the young men to play cards. An elder taught in the assembly that Christ could sin. We never though of leaving because “without were dogs”! However the dogma expressed by Present Truth was strongly adhered to. It was not an Exclusive assembly. It would have been termed by many as “open”.
One would expect “outside the camp” assemblies to be filled with “outside the camp” people!