Are You Equipping Your Congregation to Identify the Wolves? (Timothy Raymond)

In our current Wednesday night Bible study, my congregation has been discussing the need for the entire local church (and not merely the pastors or elders) to guard the truth of the gospel against false teaching (e.g., Galatians 1:8-10, etc.).  Below is a striking example of a congregation which was thoroughly equipped to do this by their pastor, Donald Grey Barnhouse.

While lesser known today, Barnhouse (1895-1960) was the legendary pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1927 to his death. (Incidentally, Tenth has been blessed with a pretty amazing legacy of pastors who were outstanding Bible expositors and defenders of the faith, including James Montgomery Boice, Philip Graham Ryken, and currently Liam Goligher.) Barnhouse is best remembered as the voice of the popular radio program The Bible Study Hour, which can still be heard online today as Barnhouse and the Bible.  He was impressive, intelligent, eloquent, courageous, authoritative, and a powerful defender of conservative biblical theology.  His magisterial four-volume commentary on Romans continues to have an impact today.

As you consider the congregation Barnhouse left after his death, I’d encourage you, my brother-pastors, to imagine what kind of congregation you’d leave if you were to die today.  And more specifically, are you so equipping your congregation that they’d be able to identify the wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15) after you’re gone?

“[Mariano] Di Gangi [Barnhouse’s successor] was profoundly amazed at the [congregation] that Barnhouse had built…Di Gangi had a taste of just how well Barnhouse had taught his people on the first day that he met Tenth’s pulpit committee [which was comprised of laymen]:

‘Each member of the committee was permitted to ask three questions—searching, perceptive, penetrating, necessary questions.  The very first question was: What is your relationship to Jesus Christ?  Then there were questions on: What is your view of education?  The role of the minister in evangelism?  Calvinism and Arminianism?  What is your eschatology?  How would you understand dispensationalism, premillennialism, amillennialism, postmillennialism?  What is your view of the sovereignty of God and its relationship to evangelization?  The questioning went on for about six hours.  Then most of the committee adjourned.  The chairman and secretary, George Moffitt and Manfred Garibotti, went with me to my hotel room and continued the questioning: What is your view on the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch?  What is your view on the documentary hypothesis?  What is your view of the unity of Isaiah?  I should have gotten a master’s degree in theology at the end of the day.’

“As the two meticulous elders left some hours later, one of them apologized to the weary minister. ‘You know, this is the first time we have had to choose a preacher in thirty-three years.  You’ll have to forgive us if we haven’t been sufficiently thorough.’  Mentally, Di Gangi’s jaw dropped.”[1]