In his now almost legendary address at the opening of a 'National Assembly of Evangelicals' held in October 1966, Martyn Lloyd-Jones urged that evangelicals must stand apart from false ecumenism and 'stand together as churches, constantly together, working together'.1 It has been all too easy for commentators of every doctrinal hue to draw simplistic and unjustifiable conclusions from what was said that night. The fact is that the preacher had no clear blue-print for the future in his mind.
An examination of Lloyd-Jones's practice, however, reveals him to be firmly in the tradition of Spurgeon and Poole-Connor in his outworking of the biblical principles of unity and separation. Along with them, he believed that to remain in a 'mixed' denomination, in company with those who denied the true gospel, involved unacceptable confusion and compromise. Nevertheless, he was no hyper-separatist, maintaining many strong links with individuals, churches and organisations that did not share his convictions at this point.
