But Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. Ezra 4:3
Modern theologians would find this approach by Israel’s leaders to be unfair and discriminatory. After all, these folks were just asking to be able to take part in building the temple. And they claimed to be worshippers of the same God as the Israelites. What harm could it do to allow them to come in and help with the work and the expense? It might even help to unite everybody under a common banner, and everybody would be stronger for it. But these old fashioned leaders of Israel would have none of it. Rather than seeing how these people were like the Israelites, they saw how they were different, how they failed to obey the Word of God, and they knew that nothing but trouble would come of compromising with them. We need to keep their example before us today.
Organizations such as the World Council of Churches, which represents 349 different church groups, boasts of bringing all these groups together. But in doing so, it must ignore the unscriptural positions taken by most of these groups. It may promote fellowship, but fellowship outside of the truth does more harm than good. The same holds true in our Assemblies. It might seem old fashioned not to allow a speaker from a fundamentalist denomination to address an Assembly meeting. Even though such a man might preach as clear a Gospel message as one of us, and rightly divide most of the Word of Truth, his very title and position are in violation of the Word of God. We cannot allow such men to minister in the context of God’s Assembly.
What harm would it do to have an ‘outsider’ provide a message, as long as it was on a topic on which we agreed? Such an approach would undermine the principles of separation that preserve our Assemblies. It would also serve to break down the barriers between ourselves and denominationalism, causing confusion in the young people among us. The same holds true for allowing Christians from denominational churches to break bread with us. The fellowship in God’s Assembly is only for those who appreciate the truth of that fellowship.
If our Assembly holds to the truth, and if we value that truth, let us not admit to its fellowship those who have no interest in preserving the truth. -Jim MacIntosh