Blues about Pink

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Von

Von

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AW Pink is well-known for his books, but was apparently not so well-known in church. Can someone elaborate or justify on the following quote:

"...To a friend he wrote that he went out to shop and get exercise for an hour, six days a week, but that otherwise he never left his study except when working in a small garden. While in Howe, he even published a note in Studies advising subscribers that "it is not convenient for us to receive any visitors, and respectfully ask readers who may visit these parts to kindly refrain from calling upon us, but please note that we are always glad to hear from Christian friends." Rather than attend church, on Sunday mornings, Pink spent time ministering to readers by letter..."
 
Could it not be said that A.W. was providentially hindered in those later days of his walk? Most believe he had clinical depression. Some might argue that that is a spiritual condition, others, not (fully).
 
Since I've read this about Pink, I am unable to read his work or even to quote him. His work seems dead to me now, lacking the lustre of a christian life lived.
Am I wrong in this?
 
Von said:
Since I've read this about Pink, I am unable to read his work or even to quote him. His work seems dead to me now, lacking the lustre of a christian life lived.
Am I wrong in this?
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As I said, would his condition be considered a providential hinderance? As well, Pink was not the only man of God who had issues of severe depression-some handle it differently. If Pink was elect, his sin would not have omitted him from glory.

Lastly, no one has the data on Pink. Much is speculation as no one in history actually took up the task; hence, we give our brethren the benefit of the doubt and keep moving.
 
Iain Murray has a very well-written biography of Pink with a sympathetic view to his struggles on church attendance.He and his wife ended up (for financial reasons if I recall rightly) spending their last days on Stornoway, and apparently felt unwelcome at the Gaelic services there (and couldn't understand what was being said). Apparently they did attempt to go to church there but gave up on it. His life before that was spend in travel and in pastoring or working with this and that work. He did suffer a nervous breakdown and probably struggled from then on. I get the feeling he didn't have good understanding in areas, especially ecclesiology. I don't think he should be dismissed because of his lack of it; he was shaped by the state of the church around him and never had any formal theological training. I do recommend the book- as someone who struggles with hermitism, it served both as a comfort in a strange way and a warning when I read it. https://www.amazon.com/Life-Arthur-...517855732&sr=8-1&keywords=life+of+arthur+pink
 
BayouHuguenot said:
It comes from the Greek word for desert or wilderness. A lot of monks retreated to the desert for prayer and fasting. The word hermit comes from eremos.
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Thank you, Jacob. As a definition this would be a fine activity and yet, Jeri, struggles with it and perhaps, Pink, did as well. I wonder how common this is amongst believers.
 
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From the two aforementioned bios of Pink I don't think it was as much that he was a 'hermit', but he was very concerned about correct doctrine and left churches where he felt the preaching was in error. He wanted to be a pastor and went back and forth from England to the USA, and back to the UK again, but his ambition wasn't realized. He eventually settled in Scotland, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, for the last 12 years of his life where he and his wife spent their last years he devoted himself fully to the small pamphlet he put out for 30 years, 'Studies In The Scriptures.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Pink
 
Jeri Tanner said:
Iain Murray has a very well-written biography of Pink
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I enjoyed Iain Murray's biography and thought Iain was very fair to Pink's ministry and health.

JimmyH said:
I too have been disturbed by Pink's forsaking the gathering ourselves together
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Scott Bushey said:
Most believe he had clinical depression.
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Von said:
Since I've read this about Pink, I am unable to read his work or even to quote him. His work seems dead to me now, lacking the lustre of a christian life lived.
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After reading Murray's biography, it seemed to me that Pink had Aspergers Syndrome. Often people with Aspergers struggle to socialise with people including in church settings. Also in Pink's time there were not a lot of confessionally Reformed churches around. This may also explain some of Pink's struggle.
 
Stephen L Smith said:
I enjoyed Iain Murray's biography and thought Iain was very fair to Pink's ministry and health.






After reading Murray's biography, it seemed to me that Pink had Aspergers Syndrome. Often people with Aspergers struggle to socialise with people including in church settings. Also in Pink's time there were not a lot of confessionally Reformed churches around. This may also explain some of Pink's struggle.
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From what I recall of the two bios I read that was definitely an issue with him. I attended churches that were non confessional when I was clueless but once informed I was fortunate to find an OPC congregation close by.
I ponder sometimes whether it is 'better' to forsake church altogether, or to go in spite of incorrect doctrine, for those who are not so fortunate ? I suppose every situation/person is different, but it does seem a conundrum to me.
 
I have stood at the side of his grave in Sandwick cemetery, Lewis Island, and outside his house in Lewis Steet, and pondered over his refusal to join the worshippers in those more Reformed days. He did not seek fellowship with other Ministers, or attend the Free church which was quite near the home. Apparently his wife did after he died. It was because of his separation stance that Dr M.L.Jones would not have his books in his library. The locals said that his Brethren views were the hindrance, but if there were clinical issues that also could be a contributing factor.
 
Cedarbay said:
Jeri, would you say more about hermitism? I've not heard of this.
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Haha, I just meant that I tend to want to be a hermit! I like being at home. Not in the sense of having a disorder or being part of a religious order. [emoji4]


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Jeri Tanner said:
Haha, I just meant that I tend to want to be a hermit! I like being at home. Not in the sense of having a disorder or being part of a religious order. [emoji4]


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I thought it was more serious, and am glad it's not.
 
Cymro said:
It was because of his separation stance that Dr M.L.Jones would not have his books in his library.
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I'm not sure where you got this information from. In Iain Murray's biography he says MLJ was going through a difficult time and he was not able to get encouragement from the scriptures or the Puritans. He had a Pink work open (possibly his studies in the scriptures) and he saw the word 'glory'. Immediately, Murray tells us, he was blessed and spiritually encouraged.

Also MLJ encouraged ministers to read Pink for spiritual nourishment, not Barth or Brunner.

Cymro said:
The locals said that his Brethren views were the hindrance
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Pink was a bit of an odd ball theologically, but when he wrote 'The Divine Covenants' he is defending covenant theology. By this stage he appears to have left Brethren theology behind.
 
I think two things help to explain Arthur Pink (1886-1952). First, he left dispensationalism for the Reformed faith and attempted to minister as a pastor at a time (1920s - 1940s) when theological liberalism was rampant in the churches of his time (this era was, in fact, the high-water mark for classic liberal theology in the United States, and a time when neo-orthodoxy was beginning to take shape, not that it was an improvement). And, second, Pink had a rather blunt personality and temperament and was, apparently, not often willing to pull his verbal punches. It was the combination of both of these things that got him fired from just about every church he pastored.

If I remember rightly, his refusal to attend church in Stornoway came from a combination of bitterness over how he had been treated by churches in the past (when, in his view, he was only trying to improve their theology) and his own naturally cranky personality.

I don't think clinical depression or Asperger's Syndrome had anything to do with this - and those are just sheer guesses, anyway.

His real ministry was his monthly magazine, Studies in the Scriptures. By God's grace, Pink was able - under extraordinarily trying circumstances (especially during the war years) to put out an issue every month (with most of the articles written by him) and never miss an issue during the entire 31-year run of the magazine (1922-1953). The magazine is still read today because many of his articles have been published in book form, while the liberals who couldn't stand him are long-since forgotten.

Also, after Pink's death in 1952, and especially after Studies in the Scriptures folded at the end of 1953, for which she assumed the position as editor (Pink had written enough material in advance to keep the magazine running that long), Pink's widow, Vera, was able to attend church regularly, make some new friends, and generally get out and about - to have more of a normal life, in other words). She died in Stornoway in 1962 and was buried beside her husband - also in an unmarked grave. The Pinks had no children.
 
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Cymro said:
I have stood at the side of his grave in Sandwick cemetery, Lewis Island, and outside his house in Lewis Steet, and pondered over his refusal to join the worshippers in those more Reformed days. He did not seek fellowship with other Ministers, or attend the Free church which was quite near the home. Apparently his wife did after he died. It was because of his separation stance that Dr M.L.Jones would not have his books in his library. The locals said that his Brethren views were the hindrance, but if there were clinical issues that also could be a contributing factor.
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Stephen L Smith said:
I'm not sure where you got this information from. In Iain Murray's biography he says MLJ was going through a difficult time and he was not able to get encouragement from the scriptures or the Puritans. He had a Pink work open (possibly his studies in the scriptures) and he saw the word 'glory'. Immediately, Murray tells us, he was blessed and spiritually encouraged.

Also MLJ encouraged ministers to read Pink for spiritual nourishment, not Barth or Brunner.


Pink was a bit of an odd ball theologically, but when he wrote 'The Divine Covenants' he is defending covenant theology. By this stage he appears to have left Brethren theology behind.
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In the bio by Richard Belcher Pink began embracing covenant theology sometime before the 1933 edition of his pamphlet, Studies in the Scripture. I can't find my Ian Murray bio at present, but I think it had that 'Read Pink' blurb attributed to MLJ on the back cover. Not sure, but I know I've seen/read that before. I did find this review tonight through my friend google ;
https://discerningreader.com/the-life-of-arthur-w-pink/

Who was Arthur Pink? Iain Murray calls him “one of the most influential evangelical authors in the second half of the twentieth century.” Within two decades of his death, people couldn’t get enough of his writings. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, late pastor of Westminster Chapel (whose biography Murray gives us in two excellent volumes), gave a fellow preacher the following advice: “Don’t waste your time reading Barth and Brunner. You will get nothing from them to aid you with preaching. Read Pink.”

 
I'm not a big Pink fan, but I have appreciated some of his writings. As with any non-inspired writer, take the good and leave the bad.

Here's some inspired wisdom that I think applies:

"Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." (Phil. 1:15-18)
 
One cannot claim to embrace Christ but reject His bride. Pink was never recognized permanently for office by any church. That should give us pause. Had he been one of my sons (and one of them is developmentally impaired) I'd have told him to settle in one place with a good church, find other emploment, and whole-heartedly serve that church in a non-teaching capacity.
 
Are invalids, part of the bride? Most invalids are providentially hindered. Pink didn't reject the organized church( from what we know), but that he had some kind of thorn in his flesh. The 'pause' we should give is to be gracious with the dear man. If we had more details, like, he rejected the church because of....but we don't; we do have some details of he having some kind of agoraphobia.
 
jwithnell said:
One cannot claim to embrace Christ but reject His bride. Pink was never recognized permanently for office by any church. That should give us pause. Had he been one of my sons (and one of them is developmentally impaired) I'd have told him to settle in one place with a good church, find other emploment, and whole-heartedly serve that church in a non-teaching capacity.
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I didn't know Pink was self-ordained. A man in my extended family was. For lack of better words he was absolutely impossible much of the time. These are two mere anecdotes but there are things to be said for the accountability that ordination implies.
 
The promotion of A. W. Pink by Banner of Truth et al was a major mistake owing to his disastrous separatist ecclesiology. While I can sympathise with someone who is clinically depressed (and I might grant that his condition was a valid medical excuse for not being able to attend church as regularly as one would like), he lived in the same town as the Revd Kenneth MacRae, who was a great preacher of the gospel, and he did not attend the Free Church in Stornoway.
 
Reformed Covenanter said:
The promotion of A. W. Pink by Banner of Truth et al was a major mistake owing to his disastrous separatist ecclesiology. While I can sympathise with someone who is clinically depressed (and I might grant that his condition was a valid medical excuse for not being able to attend church as regularly as one would like), he lived in the same town as the Revd Kenneth MacRae, who was a great preacher of the gospel, and he did not attend the Free Church in Stornoway.
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I did not know these facts about Pink. Did the Murray biography leave out these kinds of things, I wonder. I didn't understand reformed ecclesiology when I read the book.


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Jeri Tanner said:
I did not know these facts about Pink. Did the Murray biography leave out these kinds of things, I wonder. I didn't understand reformed ecclesiology when I read the book.
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Jeri, admittedly it is over a decade since I read Iain Murray's biography of A. W. Pink (it may even have been in 2004). However, I distinctly recall Mr Murray referring to correspondence between Pink and Rev. MacRae in which they attempted to organise a meeting. It did not come off owing to some very petty reason about one only wanting to meet in the morning, while the other was only free to meet in the afternoon.
 
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