By Rev. A. BEATON, Gairloch.
IN view of the fact that the Convention held at Strathpeffer annually prior to the war is to be held there from the 3rd to the 6th October this year, it seems appropriate that we should briefly examine the doctrinal teaching of this Convention. Among the speakers mentioned as taking part is Mr. Fred Mitchell, Chairman of the Keswick Council. It is a well known fact that the teaching of the Keswick Convention is both Arminian and antinomian, so that it is strange that ministers of the Free Church not only visit the Keswick Convention, but that an approving record of their impression of that Convention appears in the Free Church Monthly Record. The Strathpeffer Convention is modelled on the larger Keswick Convention doctrinally and otherwise. It is reported that Rev. Ian M. MacRury,
Free Church, Strathpeffer, is the Chairman of the Committee of the Strathpeffer Convention. The Free Church Record claims that the news of the resuscitation of this Convention in Strathpeffer “will be received with gratification by many who feel the need at this hour of spiritual quickening and refreshment.”
This raises the question, is the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism, or, better still, between free grace and free will so insignificant that we can pass from one to the other, and associate one with the other as the occasion suits us, or is there, in reality, an unbridgeable gulf fixed by the Word of God between these two opposing systems of interpretation of Scripture? But, if free grace is taught in the Bible, as we believe it is, then its opposite, free will, is forever excluded. It is as futile to attempt to mix oil with water as to mingle free grace and free will as if both were taught in the Bible. It is, therefore, as clear as daylight that it is an “enemy” that sowed the seed of Arminianism while sections of the professing Church slept. Various deadly heresies such as Romanism and Modernism have sprung from free-willism. It is a well known fact also that, generally speaking, Keswick Convention patrons and teachers have no time for arguments against Popery. Many of them prefer to call the Pope’s Church a sister church in the name of Christian charity.
Countenancing errors in Churches and Conventions on the part of professedly Calvinistic Churches, like the Free Church of Scotland, is the surest way to establish error in the professing Church and create further divisions. When the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Truth, will come again to build up Zion, unmixed Scriptural Truth and doctrine will be His means and weapon. Arminians imagine that organisation and heated emotional fervour can convert souls. Signing decision-cards, and counting heads take the place of that solemn sobriety and propriety which characterises the preaching of those who realise the truth of Divine sovereignty, and who wait patiently and prayerfully for the Holy Spirit: “Without me ye can do nothing.”
We are well aware that the other extreme of the pendulum is fatalistic Hyper-Calvinism which virtually, if not actually, ignores the doctrine of human accountability and responsibility. Sinners must be urged, according to the scriptures, to repent and believe the Gospel, and are held responsible for their refusal of Christ. Human beings are rational, responsible creatures and not automata.