What is the Salvation Army?
The Salvation Army is a religious movement founded by William Booth, organised on military lines with officers, uniforms and a "General" at its head, and known for street preaching and social work. One writer sets out its published handbook, The Doctrines and Discipline of the Salvation Army, beside the Bible, and asks whether a young believer thinking of joining would be gaining or losing.
Testing a movement by its own book
The examination is not built on rumour but on what the movement prints about itself. A young Christian brings the handbook; the older evangelist brings Scripture, and they read both together.
C StanleyThat is the very book that will answer all these questions. Well, sit down and take the book in your hand; and I will sit down with God's word in my hand; and let us calmly, in the fear of the Lord, examine all these questions.
The finished work of Christ
The first thing that came out of that reading concerned the cross. The handbook states the ordinary gospel view of Christ dying in the sinner's place — and then rejects it.
C Stanley"You will sometimes hear people talk about the finished work of Christ. What is meant by it? That Christ, when He died on the cross, put Himself in the place of the sinner, and bore the exact amount of punishment which he deserved, thus actually paying the debt the sinner owed to divine justice. And if the sinner will only believe this, he is for ever free from the claims of the law, and can never be brought into condemnation, either here or hereafter. Is this so? We think not." Well, I must say, this seems to me dreadful.
Repentance made the price
With substitution gone, something else has to secure forgiveness. In the handbook it is the quality of a person's repentance.
C StanleyIs not repentance put as the condition, or price, of salvation? Repentance is first; the blood of Christ, second: "A thorough repentance brings a complete forgiveness." So repentance leads to the goodness of God, and a man believing he has repented enough may then believe he is saved. By this device of Satan, millions are kept in uncertainty.
A new birth called imperfect
The same pattern shows up in what the handbook says about being born again — not a new creation from God, but the old life touched up.
C StanleyWith them there is no new birth, no real new creation, but a change of the old man. "He makes him a new creature." "It is like being made over again; like becoming a new creature; like being born again … It is very imperfect." "Regeneration is the change of our nature … is a change in our character." Yet all, remember, very imperfect, sin still left hanging about the soul.
Holiness sought as an attainment
The young man's whole reason for joining was the holiness the movement preached. The reply is that a Christian is already set apart to God, and the confusion is like a man in uniform longing to become a soldier.
C StanleyA man says, "I know with certainty that I am a soldier — I know the day I was enlisted; I wear the uniform: but, oh, I do so long to be a soldier." Would not the desire to be a soldier be a total mistake? … This is the mistake of the Salvation Army. They do not know what a Christian is; they are like the man longing to be a soldier, when he is one.
And the standard they set turns out to be lower than the law itself: "love and serve God according to your knowledge and ability, and He will be satisfied."
C StanleyI ask you, did you ever read anything more contrary to Scripture than this? And this is the boasted holiness of the Army! God is too good to expect anybody to keep the law. Yes — a standard lower than the law. What would the apostle James say to this? … And a man doing the best he could, and God would be satisfied?
Obedience redirected
Members promise absolute obedience to the General, while two things the Lord Himself asked of His followers are left optional. Of baptism the book says "decidedly not" a duty; of the Lord's Supper:
C Stanley"When such an ordinance is helpful to the faith of our soldiers, we recommend its adoption." Is there anything in print to surpass this for wickedness? The audacity of a mere man telling his soldiers that when it is helpful to obey Christ, he recommends them to do it!
Another writer notes the same two omissions, alongside the movement's practice of women leading and preaching publicly.
C KnappIt is a notable fact that in the religious bodies where women's public speaking and leadership are approved, as with "the Friends" and the Salvation Army, expediency or the human will largely replaces the Word of God. In both of these, Christian baptism and the Lord's Supper are deliberately disregarded; and deliberate disobedience in one thing leads to many others.
Eternal life postponed
The handbook promises eternal life to the faithful "when this short life is over" — not now.
C StanleyThe true grace of God is entirely set aside, and the record of God is entirely denied … Nothing can be more blessed than to believe Jesus, and so know that we have not a life that may be lost or perish in a day, but eternal life.
Souls still saved
Commentators differ on the fruit. Stanley says he made many inquiries and did not find the converts claimed, while adding, "who would limit the grace of God?" Another records a plain case.
J. T. MawsonHe told us that twenty-one years before, he was without exception the worst sinner in Stockton-on-Tees — a drunken, blaspheming sceptic; but God laid His hand on him in a Salvation Army meeting, and he turned to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Summary
- Foundation. Its own handbook answers "We think not" to Christ bearing the sinner's punishment — and everything else shifts once that foundation moves.
- Price. With substitution removed, forgiveness is priced at "a thorough repentance," which leaves people never sure they have repented enough.
- Birth. A regeneration described as "very imperfect" charges God with imperfect work; Scripture makes the new creation wholly of God.
- Holiness. Chasing a holiness you already possess in Christ is like an enlisted soldier longing to be a soldier — and the standard offered is lower than the law.
- Obedience. Absolute obedience is owed to a General, while Christ's own baptism and Supper are made optional; test every movement, as these writers did, by its book against the Book.