"JOHNSONITES"
from
WHERE THERE IS NO VISION
THE PEOPLE PERISHMaurice M Johnson
Los Angeles, California
1962It was Christ that's different. You see the devil doesn't care what he has to do to rob Christ of His unique character. God help you to see that. Why, I see that plainer and plainer in the question of the church. What's wrong with the Baptist Church? They preach a lot of the gospel and do a lot of good. They are thieves! in taking any of the truth of Jesus Christ and labeling it Baptist. What's wrong with the Church of the Open Door? It's a thieving institution in this sense: that they take a lot of the truth of God and organize it and incorporate it and name it! Those words are bloodsucking words, they're weasel words, they're fungus growth, they're mistletoe, they rob the ...
Down at Pershing Square last night, while I was listening to that preacher in his pitiful performance, a man standing by me, he said, "You know him don't you, Mr. Johnson?" I said, look, I said, "No." "Why he's been down here for years." And I said, "I seem to recognize his face, but I don't know him." And directly he said, "Well your boys are down here every Sunday," he said, "I suppose they know him." My boys. My boys. "Well my boy lives in San Luis Obispo. He hasn't been partly here for a good while." Of course, I knew what he meant.
Now what did he mean? Well I talked to ram ... ah yes, I talked to Tom too but brother James Cox the last week a good deal about that, but I'm not going to go into that now, about the psychology, the devilish cunning in the accusations "Johnsonite". Or you've heard me say, "I used to be an "O'Hairite"". People that know I had been with brother O'Hair and that I taught some of the things that I got from under his ministry. "Oh yeah, I know. I know. You follow O'Hair. Yes, I know. Never mind, I know." That's what Graham says, not Billy Graham but the... yeah, James R Graham; said, "Oh yes, I heard brother O'Hair every day for months at one o'clock when I was up at Wheaton. I heard him from Chicago." Well I said, "But what's that got to do brother Graham with what I want to study with you about?" "Well I know the doctrine, I know O'Hair."
And then I was a "Thompsonite" for years. People that knew that I sat under the ministry of the late Nels Thompson and stood with him. I was a "Thompsonite". So I've been through that. I know what it means.
And I'm defeated only in those times when I was accused of being a "O'Hairite", when I was a more man follower, if and when. Those are the only times I resented being called it. When I knew that I was standing for beautiful truth that I got under brother O'Hair's ministry, I knew I wasn't an "O'Hairite". Similar with Nels Thompson. And the same way for you with "Johnsonites".
Now, if there's anybody that any of you young fellows that others have gone down to Pershing Square and says, "Maurice Johnson says so-and-so." We used to have a young fellow among us you know. He'd come up, "Brother Johnson, what do we believe about this?" I wasn't surprised, though I was very sorrowful, when I learned that when he went back to his native town Boston, first thing we know he's joined the Swedenborg religion. If anybody could be farther from the simple Bible truth than Swedenborg was, I don't know. That scholarly German, philosopher, and mathematician, and religionist. "Brother Johnson, what'd we believe?"
But now back to this. Why is it that people identify, want to identify us with somebody besides Christ? I don't want to be identified so far as origins are concerned, so far as authority's concerned, I don't want to be identified with anybody but Christ. But if I find brother Baker that you want to be identified with Christ too, well God bless you. Amen. Put for here! If I find that you don't want to be identified with anybody but Christ so far as authority's concerned, the author and finisher of our faith, "Say, where'd you get what you believe?" "From the author and finisher of our faith." When I find out that you want to be identified with Christ, I do too, come, listen, put for here. Same for you brother Tedford and so forth. Oh, let's know something of the devil's cunning. He wants to rob Jesus Christ. He knows who defeated him. He knows who's going to put him in the pit for a thousand years and later in the lake of fire. I have no reason to doubt that the devil can read the Bible, and maybe he knew some of those things without reading the Bible, I don't know. But I certainly have no reason to doubt that he can read the Bible, that he's going to be put in the pit. I have no reason to doubt that he can read the Bible and learn he's going to be put in the lake of fire where the false prophet and all who followed him, the devil, instead of Christ. So the devil wants to rob Christ of His glory. He wants to rob Christ.