Dear brother Ohio,
I really appreciate all the fellowship you have shared about the Brethren. It is now very clear to me that while we were in the LC, a view of the Brethren was presented to us that was very one-sided, to say the least. The terrible attitudes and behaviors of Darby, the head of the Exclusives, became, as you said, “the perfect example to use in order to promote one's own narrow, exclusive, elitist, sectarian and judgmental views.” This really saddens my heart. O, what could have been!
Ironically, all this happened in spite of the very negative experience WN himself had with the Exclusives back in the mid-1930’s!
I am certainly not the Lord and I am not the judge of anyone else’s heart. However, as one who will also appear one day before the Judgment Seat of Christ, my choice is clear: On that day I would much rather be brother Muller or brother Chapman compared to brother Darby or one of Darby’s “co-workers” like brother Wigram. I would much rather have a lifetime of works of love (wasn’t brother Chapman known all over England as “the apostle of love”?) and a history of openness to all God’s born-again children compared to a lifetime of doctrinal debate and division.
May we all tremble and fear before these things. May God have mercy on us all.