"Sensing that they are part of a hopeless minority there are evangelicals who would precipitate a new alignment among those of like mind. But some of us feel this could prove a disastrous tactic. ...
A 'rear guard' tactic has won many a battle thought to be lost. In the Church some of us feel strongly that this battle is the Lord's and that through a mighty work of the Holy Spirit all of Protestantism can be reclaimed to preach and live the Gospel in the midst of a lost world.
To amplify: by 'rear guard' tactic we mean that in season and out of season we live our lives in the clear light of God's revealed truth, witnessing to the power of the living Christ and His Spirit, to the Gospel of His cross and the power of His Word.
Then, leave the future in God's hands."
-- L. Nelson Bell, "Looking Ahead," Presbyterian Journal (May 21, 1969), p.13 quoted by cited by Frank J. Smith, The History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 35.


"And now that the Church is so thoroughly infiltrated with and compromised by the world, what should be done? Should we pull out and start a new Church of committed believers? In this writer's judgment that this the very last thing which Christians should do, although we respect the earnest convictions of those who differ with us about it.
The solution is, we believe, to continue to witness where it is so desperately needed -- within the Church, unless or until the individual's conscience is bound or his right to witness is denied. Separation is not the answer, for those who have separated from an organization no longer have either voice or vote in that organization."
-- L. Nelson Bell, "Separation Isn't the Answer," Presbyterian Journal (July 29, 1970), pp. 13,18 quoted by cited by Frank J. Smith, The History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 34.


[When] the Journal Board took its stand [to join the Steering Committee for a Continuing Presbyterian Church] officially, one of the magazine's founders, painfully yet amicably, parted ways. In his last "A Layman and His Church" column, Dr. Bell wrote that there was no doctrinal issue imminently before the church, either in terms of ecclesiastical merger or a watered-down Confession of Faith. Therefore, while he still had the freedom to do so, he believed that he needed to be in the church bearing witness to the truth.
-- L. Nelson Bell, "Regretfully Yours," Presbyterian Journal (September 1, 1971), p. 13 cited by Frank J. Smith, The History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 35.