Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

It was certainly very wrong of you to take a false oath and still more wrong of those who compelled you to take it for their gain. We do not believe it to be “the unpardonable sin,” but you are bound to confess the sin and get out of a false position. Do not trifle with conscience, else you may get into a state which can only be compared to hell upon earth. No human power should have induced you to tell a lie, much less to swear one!

We feel deeply for you. You are evidently in a false and very trying position, but it is one thing to see this and another thing to know how to get out of it. It is clearly wrong for a Christian to be yoked with an unbeliever for any object. The fact of your having entered into this partnership in ignorance may account for your entrance, but it cannot justify your continuance therein. You have only to bow down before your Lord and confess your failure and look to Him to deliver you out of your false position. Beware how you act. Do nothing rashly. You must seek to act honorably toward your partner and toward all to whom you owe anything. God honors the bent of the heart and conscience in a right direction, and we must not do wrong things in seeking to get out of a position.

We need to know more of the circumstances of your case before attempting to give you any opinion. As you have put the matter, you seem to be in a false position. The sooner you get out of it the better. But then care must be taken to do things in a right way. It is certain that no worldly advantage should induce you to remain in a position which robs you of communion with God and His people. So far as you have informed us, it would seem to be distinctly an instance of the “unequal yoke.” May the Lord give you grace to do the right thing in a right way.

We believe there are two evils involved in such membership as you name. In the first place, you are unequally yoked together with unbelievers, which you are expressly told not to be (2 Corinthians 6:14). In the second place, you surrender your individual responsibility and become merged in an organization for whose every act you are morally responsible.

There is nothing in Scripture to hinder your being a servant of such a company as you name. To be a partner would be an “unequal yoke” which 2 Corinthians 6:14 expressly forbids.

We most assuredly judge it to be contrary to God’s will for a Christian son to enter into partnership with an unconverted father, or vice versa. It is an unequal yoke in spite of the natural relationship. A son may serve under a father, but a deed of partnership involves an unequal yoke.