In this chapter we draw aside to the burning bush truth of biblical separation. We presented in an earlier chapter that this was one of the five needed characteristics in the Christian life in order to see the age. Remember in these early chapters we are desiring to establish principles that must become the presuppositions of the Christian life in order to biblically confront our generation. But this particular chapter is very important, for if a professing Christian does not believe in Scriptural separation, a great blindness will clearly be evident in his or her life. Biblical separation is not to be viewed as a blight or a so-called necessary evil that hinders the Christian from having “fun,” but instead it must be viewed as the guardian principle of the Christian life. We must never think of God’s Word and His commands as being unjust or unfair. Perhaps, when we were growing up (in our carnal, immature soul) we thought that certain sermons and strong passages of Scripture indicated that God was unjust or unfair in certain areas of life or that He was partial in His dealings. God may be candid, but He is not unjust or unfair. In fact, the word candid comes from the Latin word candidus which means “to be white or bleached.” This very word indicates that God, in being candid, is fair and open. Because a candid statement is an impartial statement, He is disposed to think and judge according to truth and justice. He bleaches the matter white; He gives the truth of the matter. In the light of this, we must see that God treats all subjects related to man with fairness. Do we think at times God is unmerciful in His demands of His children? Or that He does not want us to enjoy life? The Bible clearly states that “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” If God commands separation from anything, it means the thing from which we are to be separated is either not good for us or innately evil. And God is the only one Who truly knows the character of sin and evil. The command may be given with candor, bluntness, or from our perspective, unreasonableness, but God knows the power, yea, the malignant power of the matter. He has never known or experienced sin (except when Christ was made sin for us), but yet, God is omniscient, and only He knows fully the character of sin. It is God’s deepest desire to deliver us from our sins and the present evil world.

Before presenting this in the light of our contemporary, let us note several root principles concerning biblical separation or biblical holiness.

The New Man Created in True Holiness

We are told in Ephesians 4:24 that we must “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” One of the reasons that biblical separation is not seen or even desired by many is that the New Birth is not viewed in its fullness. What we mean by this is that the New Birth is simply viewed as “salvation,” which is basically sins forgiven and adoption. “I’m no longer on my way to hell, but to heaven; I am no longer under the wrath of God.” Thank God this is true, for the New Birth does bring salvation from sins and deliverance from hell. But it must be seen from a further perspective as well.

John 3:3 gives these familiar words: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The phrase born again is the Greek phrase gennao anothen. Now the word gennao in John’s writings is the gracious act of God in imparting two things to those that believe: life as well as the nature and disposition of a child. The word anothen has several meanings. It could mean “again” (like “the second time” used in Galatians 4:9), or it could mean “from above.” But what is the meaning here in John 3:3? Nicodemus’ response to this statement of Jesus indicated he viewed the word again as actually a second birth from the womb. But Christ used the term with the meaning “above,” as seen in the KJV translation in 3:31 and in 19:11. It is the miracle of begetting of life, imparting of life from above. Now going back to Ephesians 4:22, we read that we are to put off the former conversation of the old man. This means to put off the manner of living of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. But the new man in verse 24 is after God created in righteousness and true holiness. Whereas the old man is according to lusts, the new man is righteousness and holiness. Whereas the old man is “deceitful” lusts, the new man is “true” holiness. This is greatly lacking among many professing Christians: they do not see that holiness and biblical separation are woven together or that it is automatically to be a part of the Christian life from its commencement in the New Birth.

In the Old Testament the word for holiness is qadesh or qodesh. It means “bright, radiant, clear, pure”; but it also means to “cut off” or “separate.” It is that effulgent glory or radiance of God coming down on that which has been separated unto God. It has been cut off from the profane or the common. This particular truth seems to bring reaction from the depraved heart. It was at Kadesh-barnea, when the spies were sent out to view the promised land, where the failure came. They had faith to leave Egypt but no faith to enter Canaan. There is something about holiness of heart and of life that causes reaction of the soul because holiness is an enemy to the old man, who is still alive in the believer’s life after the New Birth, though suppressed in some measure. The old man longs to be the sole benefactor and resident of influence again. There will be this awesome tug of war in the carnal believer. In Galatians 5:17 Paul stated, “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” There is intense desire on both parts. Paul goes on to say, that “these are contrary the one to another.” They are lined up against one another in a spiritual duel. The sarx (the flesh) is the deadly enemy of the pneuma (the Spirit).

But we also see a law here. What is a law? A law is a rule of direction or a governing power of control. Romans 7:21-25 gives these words by Paul:

I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Paul goes on to tell us whence that deliverance will come: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 8:1-2 reads,

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Now the question needs to be asked, “What is the controlling principle of my life?” Is it the law of sin and death, or is it the law of the “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”?

The Principle of Biblical Separation

One of the misunderstandings that arises concerning biblical separation is that its basic principle has not been understood. Therefore, the practical reality of biblical separation is not seen. Biblical separation must begin as a principle operating in the heart. One of the sad characteristics concerning Israel, which was brought out by Stephen in his sermon in Acts 7, is that their “hearts turned back again into Egypt.” We must first see this: the heart must make the exodus from sin, or what was “experienced” in the New Birth is simply reform. But there is also the danger of the heart’s coming out of Egypt and then returning to Egypt in spirit (the body and life continue to work for God while making a profession of being a Christian). We are commanded to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Christ prayed in John 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” This word sanctify is the word hagnizo which is a cleansing and purifying unto consecration, and it is also a separating. This is part of the burden found in this prayer by our blessed Lord. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” The Evil?! The evil is the evil (poneros) of the world, the world system. Certainly grace is the most powerful entity that man can know, but depravity is next to it in power. Where sin floods a home or a life, we must believe the flood of grace can surpass it. But we must also understand the gripping power of the past and of present situations. There is the inherited pollution of Adam plus the strains of pollutions from our family and family sins. But in Romans 7 it has been compounded by an indwelling sin active from within the individual. The pollution of Adam has become the indwelling sin or a part of our own identity.

The Bible gives an illustration of such a man in the character Jacob. He inherited much pollution from Adam and his forefathers. His atmosphere, both at home and at Laban’s home, contributed to it. He was born with the proclivity to wrong, and his choices were in that direction; it had become indwelling. But the power of this trilogy, his birth, his environment, and his own choices, brought him to a severe crisis at Peniel. The incident at Peniel, found in Genesis 32, became the marked commentary of his life. For 97 years there had been a wrestling match between two wills: God’s and Jacob’s. The reaction of Jacob’s will “frustrated” the work of grace (see Galatians 2:21). The influence of his past, his environment, and his own ways would not allow human helplessness to be acknowledged. It was the fighting of the carnal man, refusing to give up his strength and ways. He “wrestled” with God. This Hebrew word comes from the root word meaning “dust,” “to roll in the dust.” My father, in his commentary on the Pentateuch, elaborates in the Leviticus section (chapters eleven through fourteen) on three areas of sin that have an effect on us: there is birth pollution, there is environment (the age) pollution, and there is our own pollution. The crisis in Romans 6, a crucifixion, if you please, will deal with the birth pollution. But biblical separation is needed to protect us from the influence of sin’s pollution around us. It will take many crises and grace workings to deal with our own pollutions and the years they have been woven into the fabric of our being. Probably the most powerful pollution is our own which has been wrought over the years. This is what it will take: God’s wrestling through our dust life. There was a crisis to come to Jacob that morning at Peniel. He struggled long because of the power of the flesh in his life, his own flesh. But God is able to pull down to the dust the stoutest of natures, the power in man to go his own way, and the power to do wrong. God hit the flesh; no flesh can glory in His presence. In regard to the environment, Paul states in Galatians 6 that I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified unto me. What is biblical separation? It is a working of grace “within” regarding separation, and it produces a separation without.

One’s view of biblical separation will have a great effect upon his preaching, how he views the age, his lifestyle, his habits, his companions, his music, and every facet of the Christian walk. Some views of separation are weak and will lead to compromise of truth; others are too strict and will lead to legalism and self-righteousness; and still others will lead to bitterness and hate. But any view of separation that does not seek and pursue as both its motive and its goal the exalting of Christ the Lord in all of His glory, His truth, and His beauty of character is not worthy to be called biblical separation. There truly has to be a separation from some things, but the motive and goal for separation from these things is to be a separation unto Christ. For instance, the highest reason we separate from the Pope and Romanism is that they hinder the Christian’s pure and true sight of Christ.

There has been no greater doctrine of the Christian faith that has become more of a stigma than biblical separation. It is the doctrine that has and will produce Christian martyrdom. History proves that the reason Christians in Rome were persecuted was not that they worshipped Christ Jesus, but it was that they worshipped and lauded and lived according to the words of Christ alone, giving Caesar and Rome no room to exist with Jesus Christ. To these Christians it was not Christ and Rome, but Christ alone. Because they separated from the things of earth that dimmed the sight of Christ, Rome hated them. There must be separation from Caesar’s competing personage and Rome’s religious system. Yes, the people of this world would have no major problem with strong Fundamental preaching and teaching if we would allow or tolerate some sin or part of the world in the life. This is where the battle now rages.

We mentioned in our first chapter of a first principle truth called “light.” But there was also another a priori that is clearly evident and was found on the first day of Creation as well. The principle is biblical separation. “God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.” We see from the beginning that the holy God was dedicated to creating this planet through the principle of separation. The clear distinction in the separation of light from darkness is evident. We also read that God divided the waters from the waters on the second day and divided the waters from the land on the third day. Thus the first three days of Creation are dedicated to separation. And this separation prepares the universe for the greater purposes of the last three days. The heavens were filled with sun, moon, and stars; fish and whales were placed in waters; and animal life and man were placed on the land.

There must be biblical separation in the life and ministry before there can be true, biblical fruit. I am not referring to manifested results that churches can gain without the presence of God. Biblical fruit will come only when biblical separation is evident in the life and the ministry.

Divers Seeds Corrupt the Fruit

Another truth of importance on this subject is found in Genesis 1:11: “And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” Let us draw from the phrase, “yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself.” This is a verity not only in the realm of physics but also in the realm of the spiritual. The life is in the seed, and the fruit is the evidence of the innate character and power of the seed. This truth is furthered in Deuteronomy 22:9: “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.” The seed is designated for beginning. The warning here is that the sowing of the vineyard was not to be with divers or different kinds of seeds in the same field. The concern was for the outcome of that seed found in the fruit, “lest thy fruit be defiled.” Peter speaks of the fact that we are born again, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” In Matthew 13, in the cluster of seven parables given concerning the kingdom of heaven on earth, we view the parable of the wheat and tares. This was a mixing taking place in the field. “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” (vv. 24-25) God may allow for a time the divers seeds in the field, which is the world, but God has never intended for this to be true in the Church. The casualty of the mixture of seeds will be realized in the fruit. Mixing of seeds will produce a mongrel fruit, an improper fruit. This is why we cannot mix the truth with other seed, thinking it will help in the harvest. The individual may be used as a statistic for the evangelistic roster, but what kind of “fruit” will come in his life? God’s people cannot be like the Neo-Evangelicals and use compromising methods, believing that the end will justify the means. If you mix the seeds, then you corrupt the fruit.

Contemporary Christianity is now harvesting hybrids. They are the result of a variety of seeds of the Gospel, “different” gospel, and “like” gospel. Many evangelists, pastors, and music ministers using this method may truly hope that the fruit will all come out right. But we noticed in our last chapter, when referring to Genesis 6, that when the sons of God went unto the daughters of men, that the offspring was abnormal; they contributed to the violence of those days. Hybrid Christianity—what a label. The word hybrid was a word that originally signified some sort of monstrosity.