“And John answered Him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy Name, and he followeth not us; and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not; for there is no man which shall do a miracle in My Name, that can lightly speak evil of Me.” Mark ix. 38, 39.
1 Persons who choose their religion for themselves, or who wander about from one communion of Christians to another at their will, often urge upon us who wish to be disciples of the One Faith, which was once delivered to the saints, this passage of Scripture. They say that Christians may follow strange teachers, who come in their way, because our Saviour did not allow St. John to hinder the stranger mentioned in the text from casting out devils in our Saviour’s Name. St. John came to Christ, and told Him that he and the other Apostles had fallen in with a man who, though he wrought miracles, yet did not follow the Apostles, and that they in consequence had forbidden him. To which our Lord answered, “Forbid him not.” Therefore they argue, as the Apostles were not allowed to forbid this stranger, neither may the Church forbid strange teachers and preachers; that all have a right to preach, whether they follow the Church or no, so that they do but preach in the Name of Jesus, without any molestation. Such is the objection, and I propose now to consider it.
Now I deny that the case in the text is at all parallel to that which it is brought to justify, as a few remarks will show.
1. First, then, this man was not preaching; he was casting out devils. This is a great difference—he was doing a miracle. Our Saviour says so expressly; “There is no man which shall do a miracle in My Name, that can lightly speak evil of Me.” Now any one can preach; not every one can cast out devils. Very few can cast out devils; nay, at first sight, it would seem that none but a servant of God can cast out devils. Man cannot overcome the devil, Christ only overcomes him. If a man cast out a devil, he has power from Christ; and if he has power from Christ, he must have a commission from Christ; and who shall forbid one, to whom God gives commission to do miracles, from doing them? That would be fighting against God. But, on the other hand, many a man may preach without being sent from God and having power from Him; for Christ expressly warns us against false prophets, and He says that “many shall come in His Name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.” It does not follow, then, because we must not prohibit those who come with a Divine commission from working miracles, that therefore we may not prohibit those who do not come with a commission from preaching.
2. But it may be said, “The effects of preaching are a miracle. A good preacher converts persons, that is, he casts out devils from the hearts of those whom he changes from sin to holiness; and this is a miracle. This he could not do without power from God. Therefore he is sent from God, and therefore he ought not to be forbidden. The question turns on this, whether his preaching is with power or not, whether he is influential, whether he touches the hearts of his hearers. If he does, no matter whether he follows the Apostles or not. For the Apostles were but messengers from God, and he is a messenger from God because he is able to do God’s work, and one messenger need not follow another messenger? What is Paul? or what is Apollos? He is as little bound to follow the Apostles, as the Apostles to follow him: he has just as much right to forbid the Church to preach, as the Church to forbid him. And since we may not forbid him, we may follow him.” This is what is said.
I answer, that though such a person’s preaching were all that it is said to be, though it did work what looks like a miracle, this would not prove that he came from God; for the false prophets against whom our Saviour warns us, are to do “signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.” [Mark xiii. 22.] I do not suppose that they will work miracles such as God’s servants work, but what seem to be such, what are sufficiently like miracles to perplex those who see them; yet these prophets, of course, are not to be listened to. And, therefore, if a preacher, who kept apart from the Church, were said to do much good to the souls of others, I should very much rejoice to hear the report of it, but I should pause and require many things to be decided first, before I could be sure that good really was done; or, if so, that it was his doing. What seems good, is often not good. Persons who hear preaching often take up a serious life for a time, and then get tired of it. Or they profess a great deal more than they feel, and think themselves more in earnest than they are; or they take that to be true religion which is not; or they change one bad state of mind for another, and account certain feelings, or tempers, or opinions, or doings to be pleasing to God, which are not so. For all these reasons it is not at all an easy matter to determine that the self-appointed preachers in question do really convert the hearts of men, that is, do cast out devils, do work miracles, as they say they do.