Should We Disdain Controversy?

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                         Vol. X, No. 8, Sep/Oct 1997

There is a very strong element within Baptist life who maintain that we should avoid controversy, ignore doctrinal differences, and all live harmoniously within the church. Like so many common attitudes, this one has elements of both truth and error.

The true portion applies to the preferences, desires, egos of individuals. Never should we disrupt the peace of the body because of personal feelings, though in case after case that is exactly the cause of ill feeling within the church. Very frequently longtime members, especially those who have been “running things,” resent new members being chosen for positions of influence ... it is seen as a threat to “my” status. One angry deacon was even quoted to me as saying with great emphasis, “That pastor is bringing too many NEW PEOPLE into this church!” SUCH controversy is straight from the pit of hell.

But there is also a very false current within the anti-controversy argument: Where the controversy has not to do with personalities but rather with the honor and glory of God, the Christian not only may but MUST be willing to stand firmly upon God’s Word, to be counted first in the fray upon the Lord’s side. Please note carefully that it is NOT controversy for the sake of controversy, nor controversy for personal purposes, but rather controversy only in defense of the gospel that is permissible, even required.

"There is no learned man but will confess that he hath much profited by reading controversies — his senses awakened, his judgment sharpened, and the truth which he holds more firmly established. All controversy being permitted, falsehood will appear more false, and truth the more true." [John Milton, as quoted in The Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations, compiled by I. D. E. Thomas (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 62-63.]

This, then, is the valid and valuable role of controversy, to make doctrinal falsehood more obviously false, and Truth more clearly true.