You are on the right road, and whatever you do don't let anybody persuade you that you can successfully combat error by fellowshipping it and going along with it. I have tried. I believed at the start that was the only way to do it. I've never held membership in a congregation that uses instrumental music. I have, however, accepted invitations to preach without distinctions between churches that used it and churches that didn't. I've gone along with their papers and magazines and things of that sort. During all these years I have taught the truth as the New Testament teaches it to every young preacher who has passed through the College of the Bible. Yet, in the last few years I have become increasingly alarmed at a spirit which can be seen growing among us. It manifests itself in a number of ways. It looks upon debates and confrontations with teachers of error as ignorant and low-class. It views an unyielding doctrinal stance as somehow legalistic and unloving. "Standing for the truth" and "defending the faith" are being eased out of the vocabulary. A spirit of compromise and tolerance for error are cleverly pawned off as love and concern for those with whom we disagree. The implied choices are twain: co-existence with false doctrines (thus destroying identity), or else you are a fanatical hobbyist. To help offset such a wrong and foolish notion, I want to share with you a quotation which came across my desk a number of years ago. The words were written by J.W. McGarvey to J.P. Sewell in 1902. When the division came which resulted in the Christian Church, McGarvey compromised his convictions and fellowshipped the digressives while Sewell did not. Here was McGarvey's estimate of the two courses:

You are on the right road, and whatever you do don't let anybody persuade you that you can successfully combat error by fellowshipping it and going along with it. I have tried. I believed at the start that was the only way to do it. I've never held membership in a congregation that uses instrumental music. I have, however, accepted invitations to preach without distinctions between churches that used it and churches that didn't. I've gone along with their papers and magazines and things of that sort. During all these years I have taught the truth as the New Testament teaches it to every yong preacher who has passed through the College of the Bible. Yet, I do not know of more than six of those men who are preaching the truth today. It won't work.

I would hasten to point out that McGarvey was quite different from the compromising souls of today. He speaks with remorse and regret - they have not seen the error of their way. He had convictions which he had compromised - they see such doctrinal distinctions as "much ado about nothing." He would have liked to have gone back and chosen the other road - they work for the day when all staunch defenders of the faith are no more than a historical curiosity. However, that day has not come yet, and there is still a remnant set for the defense of the Gospel of Christ. We must work to teach and exhort our brethren to stand against all innovations and apostasies. New issues must be studied and met with strong hearts dedicated to preserving the purity and identity of the Lord's church. Those who were previously "soft on error" can be influenced by word and example to greater strength. McGarvey's words are both sad and repulsive. If he saw the folly in the course he had chosen, why did he not rectify it? Another story regarding McGarvey comes to us telling of his declining days when the instrument was introduced into the Broadway church in Lexington, Kentucky where he worshiped. As a majority vote was taken a teenage girl was seen raising her hand to vote for the organ, cancelling out the vote of McGarvey against the instrument. How tragically sad! It must not happen to us. We must not be intimidated by the peddlers of division into cringing and cowardly silence. We must say with them of old, "They shall not pass."

Guardian of Truth XXXI: 16, p. 486
August 20, 1987