Scriptorium Daily
Here, from the August-September 1912 issue of The King’s Business, is a page of vintage Sammis: Three Dozen Doctrinal Dont’s. (Click through to the original page for the Scripture references)
Three Dozen Doctrinal Dont’s
“Rightly dividing the Word of Truth”
Don’t boast that the world is growing better.
Don’t deny that it is more comfortable.
Don’t prate of the divinity of humanity.
Don’t ignore differences; the brotherhood in Adam is not a brotherhood in Christ.
Don’t lay unequal stress on the value, or validity, of one Testament against the other.
Don’t exalt the gospels above the epistles.
Don’t reduce a ‘thus saith the Lord’ to a thus saith the prophet.
Don’t parallel the cross of Christ with the cross of the Christian.
Don’t preach Christianity but Christ.
Don’t seek members of the church but members of the Christ.
Don’t confuse reformation of the manner with regeneration of the man.
Don’t confound civilization with Christianization.
Don’t mistake the elevation of society for the salvation of souls.
Don’t offer fancy soap to filthy sinners.
Don’t trample the blood of Christ underfoot.
Don’t merge ‘this present age’ with ‘the age to come.’ The proclamation precedes the consummation of the Kingdom, and between lies the revelation of the King.
Don’t delocalize King and Kingdom, and make ‘reign on earth’ read ‘reign in heaven.’
Don’t identify ‘my Father’s throne’ with ‘my throne,’ the throne Divine with the throne Davidic.
Don’t make God a liar. He swore to Abraham that Abraham’s seed should have the land forever; He swore to David that David’s throne should be forsaken never.
Don’t, therefore, rob the patriarchal tombs of their covenant jewels.
Don’t spiritualize what God has literalized.
Don’t cudgell the Jew with the curse of the Law, and coddle the Gentile with the grace of the promise. ‘To the Jew first, and also to the Greek’ works under both.
Don’t deem immortality synonymous with resurrection.
Don’t substitute the abstract for the concrete. ‘Rise from death’ is not equivalent to ‘rise from the dead’ (ones).
Don’t juggle with prepositions: we look not for a house ‘in heaven,’ but for a ‘house from heaven.’
Don’t transmute adjectives to adverbs, a ‘house eternal in heaven,’ is not a house eternally in heaven.
Don’t think you preach the glorious gospel unless you preach the gospel of the glory.
Don’t assume that ecclesiastical unity and evangelical unity are one and the same thing.
Don’t yoke believers and unbelievers for team work in the field of the Kingdom, it is forbidden.
Don’t expect the fruits of the Spirit apart from the roots of the doctrine.
Don’t deceive yourself that you can have the Word of God without the words of God.
Don’t malign dogmatism as doggedness. What is true hold with a bulldog grip.
Don’t define indifference as broadmindedness, nor inanity as peaceableness.
Don’t fight for the faith with a fiery tongue, but contend for it with a fervent spirit.
Don’t preach Christ for imitation till you preach Christ the propitiation.
Don’t fail to put first things first: first faith, then works.
Don’t break the saint’s bread to sinners, nor feed the sinner’s portion to saints.
Don’t think to destroy the old man with the new theology; nor to build the new man without the old.
Don’t imagine you can hold a virgin Christ without the virgin birth.
SAMMIS
