Contents

FEATURES

The pearl of great price – ministry on Madeira

The extreme ideology of abortion

Why the Christian Legal Centre fought so hard for Archie Battersbee’s right to life

Scripture’s hidden gems: 3 John

A time for anger

An interview with Jonathan Winch: Teaching is one of the noblest of callings

Let your sins be strong

COMMENT: The Archie Battersbee case needs careful consideration

GUEST COLUMN: The future brought forward

A SHRINK THINKS... The seduction of Eve (part two)

THINKING IT THROUGH: Humour and holiness

A WALK WITH MR O: I feel overwhelmed

CRUNCH POINTS: Trapped by porn

NEWS

News in brief

‘Complex’ Archie Battersbee case raises crucial questions

Liz Truss promises to defend free speech from Online Safety Bill

Plans for abortion clinic buffer zones will be a threat to free speech, pro-life campaigners say

Mayoral candidate sacked by housing charity for her manifesto commitment to Christian marriage

NHS transgender clinic for children to close down, with at least 1,000 people threatening legal action

Petition is launched to defend free speech on UK university campuses

Grandmother, 76, overturns fine for praying silently on the street during Covid lockdown last year

Ladies’ conference explores Christian contentment

Ten students graduate from London Seminary

200 people gather for Induction of Revd Al MacInnes at Dornoch

Martin Bakker inducted to the pastorate of Baptist churches in Dundee and Kirriemuir

The ‘convictional ministry’ of C. H. Spurgeon addressed in lectures in Notting Hill Gate

New documentary surveys history and theology of revival

‘Is creationism credible?’ explored at a CMNW meeting in Whitehaven

‘A fresh look at Christ’ at Longhorsley Bible Convention in Northumberland

US: Christian groups voice their religious liberty unease over so-called ‘Respect for Marriage’ bill

Poland: Abortions reduced by 90 per cent after court ruling

Australia: Rugby players take a stand against wearing ‘Pride’ jerseys

Canada: Street pastor who defied Covid lockdown wins his legal case

Sudan: Fears grow for four men who were arrested following conversion

Hong Kong: Religious liberty will be the next freedom targeted by China

REVIEWS

Film review: What is a Woman?

Love, Marriage – and Jesus: The Song of Solomon

Our Heavenly Shepherd: Comfort and strength from Psalm 23

The Life and Teaching of Jesus Explained and Applied

Making Faith Magnetic: Five hidden themes our culture can’t stop talking about... and how to connect them to Christ

FEATURES

The pearl of great price – ministry on Madeira

I was born into the sixth generation of a family of preachers, and I was graciously saved as a young child. But this was no guarantee that many of the world’s snares would be avoided.

As an adult I worked for five years in the British film industry, and was by then a fully-fledged hippy. I had begun to sink into the quicksand of the drug culture.

Aged 24 I travelled from Kent to Cornwall to rededicate my life to the Lord. After a year of prayer to discern what God would have me do with the rest of my life, he called me to be a missionary to the ribeirinhos (river-people) and to an Indian tribe deep in the Brazilian rainforest.

A few months later I found myself face-to-face with an aged saint called Ban Forsyth (then in his late 90s) who had formerly spent many years serving in Brazil.

It was a fascinating evening in which I was informed that not only would I have to cut my hippy hair, but that my host had written a book called The Wolf from Scotland.

Madeira

The story tells of a doctor called Kalley who travelled from Scotland to Madeira in 1838. Soon after his arrival he began attending not only to people’s physical needs, but also to their spiritual needs by preaching and importing Bibles.

Within a couple of years the Holy Spirit so poured out his power that what happened was described by Andrew Bonar as ‘the greatest happening in modern missions’.

Inevitably persecution quickly followed as the Church of Rome fought back. By 1846, despite the Queen of Portugal’s best efforts to protect both her subjects and the British citizens caught up in the cross-fire, close to three thousand Madeirans were either imprisoned, killed, or exiled from the island.

They fled to Trinidad, America, and Brazil – accompanied by Doctor Kalley – with gospel seeds which they sowed (and the Holy Spirit watered) wherever they settled. The Protestant church in Brazil today can trace its roots to the arrival of those faithful exiles from Madeira.

Unbeknown to me, that evening a seed was sown in my own heart, which one day would grow into a ministry in Madeira, continuing where other gospel workers had left off. But this was not until my completing five years of preparation for what would be thirteen years of missionary service in Brazil.

Although life on an island in the Amazon would be quite different to life on an island in the Atlantic, the time in Brazil would prove to be an excellent training ground for the work the Lord was preparing us for among the Portuguese people he would later send us to.

Call to mission

My wife Andrea and I first visited Madeira in July 2016 with one simple prayer: ‘God, please confirm if you are calling us to serve you here, or not.’

The confirmation came and preparations began. These included returning to Brazil for two years to hand over our ministry to others. Then followed three more years ministering in the UK, during which time Covid was causing chaos worldwide. It amazes me that I still managed to complete eleven short exploratory visits to Madeira during the latter two-year period.

Finally in June 2021, sent by our home church (Haven Church in St Austell, Cornwall) as Grace Baptist Missionaries, we arrived with two of our three children and our dog.

We were joined a couple of days later by the Farinha family who also came from the UK to work alongside us in church planting. The husband is called Sandro; he is Madeiran, yet was saved while in England. His wife Emma and three children are English.

Current work

We are based in Funchal, the capital of Madeira where close to 50% of the 250,000 islanders live. It is also a hot spot for most of the million-plus annual visitors.

We often tell people that we are involved in ‘God’s work on Madeira’, and that is why we named our fellowship ‘Christ’s Church Funchal’, because it belongs to him.

The name also serves as a constant and humble reminder to keep our focus Christ-centred, mission-minded, and with the Bible as our only rule of faith as we make disciples for the glory of God.

In our first year God has granted us a small and international flock to serve alongside: ten adults and ten children from countries including the Philippines, South Africa, Germany, Guernsey, England, and Madeira.

We have already distributed hundreds of Bibles and associated Christian literature, close to fifteen thousand gospel tracts, and presented the gospel to over one thousand homes to date.

Madeira’s spiritual state

Madeira is still predominantly Roman Catholic (96%), although most are nominal and secularism is growing. Spiritism and many of the cults also have a stranglehold upon those who are spiritually naive.

In our experience we would estimate that less than one percent of islanders have ever heard the gospel, and far fewer than that figure are true believers saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone.

The work ahead of us is mammoth. It could easily overwhelm us. But we are confident that God knows who his people are, where they are, and how best to reach them: none for whom Christ died shall be lost ultimately.

Future plans

Our mission vision is to help plant a house church in each of the eleven municipalities in Madeira (including one on Porto Santo, the island next door).

These house churches ought to have a plurality of elders and every member be encouraged to reach out into their respective mission-fields.

This way, no one on Madeira would be more than a half-hour walk or ten minute drive from a local church where they can know, worship, and serve Christ.

Since you have read this far, I don’t mind telling you that we have an even bigger future plan: to reach out to other Portuguese-speaking Islands, to the Azores, Cape Verde, São Principe and São Tomé, as well as forge links with like-minded churches from the mainland of Portugal.

The work has only just begun. This is certainly a season for sowing the gospel. But how we would also love to harvest a crop of righteousness, with souls saved and lives transformed, that more workers be discipled and sent out near and far to bear witness to Jesus as both Lord and Saviour.

You can be a part of this work also. You can pray. You can receive regular news from us. You can visit and help. You can even stay and serve alongside us: why not invest in Christ’s church in Madeira that which he has invested in you?

Madeira Island is a strange paradox. Some regard it as a paradise, the ‘Pearl of the Atlantic’, while in reality most will die here having never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is ‘the Pearl of great price’.

Please pray for Christ’s Church Funchal, that we may be living sacrifices on Madeira until he comes, calls us home, or deploys us elsewhere.

For more information please email murfittsinmadeira@gmail.com.

By Jason Murfitt, Jason with his family, began missionary work in Madeira in 2021.

The extreme ideology of abortion

The recent decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling has sent shock waves around the world. Many celebrities, news commentators, and politicians have complained that ‘women’s rights’ are under attack.

Some pro-abortion MPs have demanded that abortion be made a human right in the UK. President Biden has accused pro-life supporters of following an extreme ideology. However, in reality it is the pro-abortion position which is an extreme ideology because no one has the right to end the life of an unborn child.

Statistics on abortion in the UK make grim reading. Over the last 55 years there have been more than nine million abortions. Approximately 50% of women over 30 years of age have had an abortion. Now one in four pregnancies ends in abortion. Like the Holocaust, this represents killing on an industrial scale and, significantly, it is killing supported by the state.

The church has a duty to defend the rights of the unborn. However, it is important to campaign wisely and sensitively. The media will quickly highlight examples of pro-life campaigners being heavy-handed, such as being too forceful at abortion clinics, in order to give the impression that women are being intimidated in an uncompassionate way.

The sanctity of life

Psalm 139 makes it clear that every human being is formed by God in the womb. Another biblical example of human life before birth is given in Luke 1:41: ‘And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb.’

Notice in this verse that a baby is being referred to as a baby and not a foetus. Also notice that the baby expressed an emotion in the womb.

From the above biblical teaching it is clear that human life begins at conception and that the life of an unborn child should be protected. It is just as wrong to kill a child before birth as it is to kill a child after birth.

An extreme humanist ideology

The pro-abortion position is an extreme humanist ideology because it argues that a human life can be ended by the arbitrary choice of the mother. Even if the father (and others) sees the baby as precious, the mother is given the right to decide between life and death.

Modern secular society believes that if the majority of people support abortion, it must be right. This ignores the fact that the majority can be dreadfully wrong, especially when they listen to the pro-abortion media.

The BBC news style advises journalists to ‘use anti-abortion rather than pro-life’ to describe pro-life supporters. By using the negative term ‘anti-abortion’ and avoiding the positive term ‘pro-life’, the BBC are trying to weaken the case against abortion.

The media also focus on the term ‘women’s rights’ and rarely mention babies’ right to life. Media reports on pop stars giving their vocal support for abortion are clearly designed to create the impression that modern society approves of abortion. Considering the decadent lifestyles of many pop stars, it is not surprising they support abortion.

An ideology of false freedom

The slogan ‘my body, my choice’ gives the impression of freedom and empowerment. Some women have claimed that an unwanted pregnancy is a form of slavery that can ruin their career or lifestyle.

But the reality is that abortions encourage slavery to a sinful lifestyle. And abortions lead to a lifetime of slavery to guilty feelings, unless there is repentance. Scripture makes it clear that there is only true freedom through faith in Christ (Galatians 5:1).

A selfish ideology

Abortion typifies the selfish modern philosophy of ‘my right to do what I want and be who I want’. Abortion is a selfish ideology because it puts personal convenience above the duty to carry a child. The most common reason for unwanted pregnancies is sex outside of marriage.

In modern society, people demand the right to be sexually promiscuous even though there is a high chance of an unwanted pregnancy. It is a chilling thought that society in the UK has decided that nine million lives have been a price worth paying for people to have sexual freedom over the last 55 years.

A coercive ideology

The slogan ‘my body, my choice’ is actually a false statement because the mother is rarely making an independent choice. In most cases there is pressure on the mother to have an abortion from other interested parties. The pressure can come from society that expects people to have an abortion if a pregnancy is unplanned.

Sometimes the pressure comes from a boyfriend or even parents who see the baby as a big problem. After being put under pressure and having an abortion, many women bitterly regret going through with the abortion.

In a recent survey of over 1,000 women, 15% said they were coerced into an abortion they did not want to have. Since the survey included women who had not had abortions, this means that approximately 30% of all abortions involve women being coerced.

To put this figure into perspective, consider this: of the nine million abortions in the UK since 1967, around three million have involved mothers being put under pressure and later regretting the abortion.

I can give a personal insight into the problem of coercion. I was born in 1963 out of wedlock. My mother was put under great pressure to give me up for adoption and it took 21 months before I had a birth certificate.

If I had been born just four years later after the UK abortion act, my mother would probably have been put under pressure to have an abortion. My fate may well have hung in the balance depending on who could get their way or shout the loudest.

How can it be right that the lives of millions of babies depend on who can win an argument about whether the pregnancy should go ahead?

A dangerously arbitrary ideology

A common characteristic of immoral practices is that they involve arbitrary standards. If you were to ask a thousand pro-abortion supporters how they would define acceptable conditions for abortion, you would get a thousand different answers.

There would be a vast range of acceptable time periods. Some would allow abortion up to only six weeks of pregnancy whereas others would allow it right up to the due date.

There would also be a large range of acceptable reasons for allowing abortion. Some would say that rape is the only justification for abortion whereas others would say that not wanting to spoil a summer holiday is sufficient reason. Some would say that Down’s syndrome should never be a reason to abort, whereas others would argue strongly to abort babies with such a condition.

Such arbitrary and inconsistent standards mean that the decision to end a life is based on a lottery of the circumstances and people involved.

One of the reasons why abortion can often lead to heartache and depression is that those involved can never be at peace with the arbitrary decisions they have made.

There is here a great contrast with the absolute and eternal standards of biblical morality. There is only one biblical position – that the life of the unborn should always be protected. Those who make decisions based on biblical standards can always be at peace.

An ideology with double standards

We now live in a world where great efforts are made to achieve gender and racial equality. But this striving for equality is totally absent from abortion.

Immediately after birth, a baby is treated as a precious life with full human rights. However, just before birth, the unborn have no right to life in many Western countries. It makes no sense that a few days can change the rights of a baby from nothing to everything.

When a pregnant woman is assaulted and the baby dies, the assailant is charged with the crime of child destruction. The crime is considered very serious because the unborn child had the potential for life outside the womb.

But there is an obvious duplicity of standards here. How can it be considered fine for the state to support child destruction through abortion while recognising that child destruction through assault is a serious crime? Surely child destruction is always a crime.

When a woman suffers the grief of a miscarriage, it is common for medical workers to show great sympathy and refer to the foetus as a precious baby. In contrast, when a woman has an abortion at the same gestation, medical workers will reassure the woman that the foetus is not a precious baby at all. This example again illustrates the extreme contradictions of the abortion ideology.

According to modern philosophy, the preciousness of a baby is wholly determined by the mother’s view of it. Such a philosophy shows that modern society does not actually believe in equality. True equality only comes through biblical standards.

A damaging ideology

Pro-abortion supporters often give the impression that abortion is a normal and perfectly safe procedure. The advent of the abortion pill has reinforced the myth that abortion is harmless, like taking a contraceptive pill.

But abortion is not normal and it is not safe. From the baby’s perspective, abortion is totally abnormal and catastrophic. And abortion is also not safe for the mother.

One key problem for the mother is long-term mental health problems. It is wishful thinking to assume that the trauma of abortion will fade over time. Thoughts about the life that could have been create profound sadness.

The fact that parents who lose a child suffer deep grief shows that abortion is a major traumatic event. There are also physical risks to the mother including bleeding, infertility, and increased risk of miscarriage in future pregnancies.

The biblical answer for those who have had an abortion

If any reader has had an abortion or pressured others into an abortion, it is important to know that there is complete forgiveness and healing through the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The writer of Psalm 139 was guilty of murder himself but had repented and knew the peace and healing that come through forgiveness by God. Many women can testify that they have known the forgiveness of God after repenting of an abortion.

The biblical answer to unwanted pregnancies

An important biblical solution for unwanted pregnancies is to avoid them in the first place where that is possible.

Since most unwanted pregnancies are caused by sex outside of marriage, it is important to avoid sexual immorality. Of course, some pregnancies are tragically due to rape and therefore unavoidable.

Once there is an unwanted pregnancy, the biblical response is always to go through with the pregnancy. Of course, this is often not easy. Whereas abortion can often be carried out in secret, an unplanned pregnancy can bring embarrassment and criticism from others.

It must always be remembered that while abortion might appear to be a quick-fix solution to a problem, it is always wrong and there are long-term negative consequences.

If circumstances permit, it is best to keep the baby after birth. However, if keeping the baby is not possible, the baby can be given up for adoption. Ideally, relatives such as grandparents can bring up the child. This has the advantage that the mother can keep in touch with the baby.

Another option for adoption is for non-relatives to adopt. There are always couples wanting to adopt a baby. In the case of childless couples, the baby can be a great blessing.

Many women understandably find it hard to go through pregnancy following rape because of the thought that the father is the rapist. But it is important to remember that the baby is a totally innocent party and so it is the right thing to go through with the pregnancy.

If keeping a baby following rape is too difficult for the mother, then the baby can be given up for adoption. The key thing to remember is that once you have conceived, you have a child and there is no turning back the clock. Abortion is not an answer.

The biblical answer when the mother’s life is in danger

Very occasionally there are cases where pregnancy has medical issues that result in the mother’s life being in grave danger.

When this happens, it is the right thing for medical practitioners to consider interventions. For example, if illness means that both mother and baby are going to die if there is no intervention, then it is obviously right to make an intervention such as an early delivery of the baby, even if that risks the death of the baby.

The blessing of obedience

Proverbs 14:34 says, ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.’ From this it is clear that there is blessing for a nation that refuses to support abortion and there is judgment for those nations that allow or support abortion.

The decision of the Supreme Court in the USA has been mocked by many, yet it has the potential to lead to God’s blessing on that nation. We need to pray that UK leaders would have the courage to undo the ungodly 1967 Abortion Act brought in by David Steele.

Compared to the USA, churches in the UK have been relatively quiet on the issue of abortion. With the issue now being prominent in the media, there is an opportunity for Christians in the UK to proclaim biblical truth about abortion.

Pastors and leaders need to give practical teaching on the subject of abortion so that Christians are aware of the importance of the issue and the biblical principles involved.

It is now a crucial time to pray earnestly for pro-life laws to be passed not just in the USA but also in other parts of the world. It is also an important time to support organisations such as Christian Concern and the Christian Institute who have done excellent work campaigning against abortion for many years. May the eyes of the world be opened to the evils of abortion.

By Stuart Burgess, Stuart is a professor of engineering design and excels in mechanical engineering, both in manmade devices and God’s design in nature. He has published many articles and books on his research.

Why the Christian Legal Centre fought so hard for Archie Battersbee’s right to life

On Saturday 6 August at 12:15pm, Archie Battersbee’s fight ended as all life support was removed. The end of any person’s life is painful, but it is all the more devastating with a beautiful boy like Archie, full of so much potential and with a family full of love for him.

Like nearly everyone who followed the story, I never knew Archie before his tragic accident. I have only come to know of him through his mother, Hollie Dance, and the extended family. They were dedicated, courageous, and compassionate in contending for Archie to be given a full chance to recover. The final decision by the courts to end treatment at the hospital also marked the end of a long Christian Legal Centre case with many twists and turns.

People have questions about the case, which is admittedly complex. I have written before about why he deserved a fighting chance, explaining some of the reasoning behind our support for the case. But I want to give more context for these past months, the environment we have sought to support the family through and our reasons for doing so.

The Christian Legal Centre exists to be a voice for those who stand for life, family, and freedom as set out in the Bible. We were brought into Archie’s case when he had been given 24 hours to live. We are still by the family’s side several months later. We love and care for the family deeply and have huge admiration for them.

There have been many headlines about Archie’s ‘brain death’, but we have to remember that no doctor was prepared to diagnose brain-stem death, and the Court of Appeal expressly overturned the declaration that he was brain dead (see paragraphs 34 and 37 of the Court of Appeal judgment).

Previously, Archie had been declared dead by the courts on the ‘balance of probabilities’. That’s ludicrous: no one can be declared dead on the balance of probabilities. Someone is dead or they are not. The ramifications for getting this wrong by declaring death prematurely are far too serious to merely consider ‘probabilities’.

Archie was alive, and therein lies the crux of the case. According to the courts, at that point, he was no longer dead. For the family, where there was hope, they would press on. If no one would declare Archie dead, they were not prepared to give up. In the following rounds of cases the courts imposed their secular, utilitarian beliefs about life and death on to Archie’s case.

The judges focused increasingly on whether it was in Archie’s ‘best interests’ to die. They accepted that although Archie was not in pain that his dignity demanded his certain death at a certain time. That’s a dangerous argument to make in a modern, progressive society – the one about a person’s dignity requiring control over the moment of death at a specified hour. And who decides what dignity is?

Archie’s life (because no one was prepared to declare him dead) meant something to his parents. The family’s argument was to treat him well, to give him more time, living in the hope of something miraculous, but always facing the reality of a natural death in God’s way and in his time.

The Courts heard and accepted evidence that the family had had discussions about the possibility of Archie living in a coma on life support, and whether there was any point in that. The Courts accepted that Archie’s clear wish was for life support to continue, were he to find himself in that situation. Yet, the Courts still decided to override Archie’s express wishes with their own view of what his ‘dignity’ and ‘best interests’ require.

The idea that continuing treatment is detrimental to the dignity of a person and deprives them of their autonomy is a functional argument of despair. This arguably amounts to withdrawing treatment from a severely disabled child because his existence is seen by judges and medical staff as no longer worth living, as lacking in dignity and autonomy. It is the logic of euthanasia. In a society that has thrown off the ‘shackles’ of Christianity and the authority of God’s Word, who gets to decide what dignity entails?

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities felt it had to consider the case, and issued ‘Interim Measures’, binding in international law, for the United Kingdom to maintain Archie’s life support while his case was being considered in the UN. Controversially, the UK Courts chose to defy that international injunction and refused to delay his death even for another week.

So pressing was the need to protect Archie’s ‘dignity’ and ‘best interests’ that his life had to be immediately ended. Even his family’s preference to transfer him to a hospice was ruled out, lest this boy, who the doctors, lawyers, and courts claimed had no consciousness, die in an ambulance.

Until recently, many of these decisions have been made behind closed doors, or at least with severe reporting restrictions, in the family courts with a relatively small group of lawyers and judges who appear to know one another well. For months, the Christian Legal Centre has done its best, in a whirlwind of high emotion, legal and medical battles, to shine light on the system, to bring how it works into the open. We have advocated for a brave mother and father in the face of losing their beloved son.

This meant tireless, often all-night working from members of the team under extreme deadlines. To inform the media and the public about what was happening. To support Hollie and family.

Pundits with little to no understanding of these last months will no doubt write attack articles to imply our support was in some way disingenuous. By contrast, one of the QCs who advocated for Archie, Edward Devereux, has written in his personal capacity:

Viewed from the beginning to the end of the proceedings, as any careful analysis of the publicly available judgments would easily identify, the legal team for the parents did a truly remarkable job… The legal team for the parents did all this without receiving any fee whatsoever (pro bono as we lawyers quaintly call it). They did it having to acknowledge at all times that Archie’s medical position was, as I have said, desperately bleak. They did it working to (in my view) wholly unreasonable deadlines (on a number of occasions mere hours) set by various orders of the courts. They did it while sensitively and realistically advising Archie’s family at a time when the family were in the throes of disbelief, anger, bewilderment, and grief.

We have contended sacrificially for Archie, for his parents, and for no weakening in the law on what it means to be dead. We don’t need plaudits or recognition for the support we’ve given the family. What we need is a better system for dealing with these tragic cases. A system where hospitals give parents time rather than rushing into court proceedings. Where parents’ wishes are listened to. Where ‘dignity’ is not synonymous with dying and where ‘best interests’ are assessed in line with the patient and family’s beliefs rather than utilitarian ideology.

This case was always about Archie. It was always about contending for life. It was about standing with Hollie and the family. Archie’s fight may be over, but his light shines brightly.

‘And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away’ (Isaiah 35:10).

By Andrea Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre

Scripture’s hidden gems: 3 John

In this series Alan Hill surveys some of the lesser-known books of Scripture.

The third letter of the apostle John is the shortest book in the Bible. It is only a few hundred words long, but God saw to it that it was included in the canon of Holy Scripture. Like a rare pearl washed up on a beach, this brief letter from 2,000 years ago may be small and easy to miss, but it remains precious and worthy of attention.

3 John is about two people who were very different spiritually. What kind of person are you? If someone who knows you well was to write a letter honestly explaining your character, what would it say? What if that letter was then made public, included in the world’s best-selling book and translated into hundreds of languages? What if we could read it out loud today?

This is exactly what has happened to two 1st-century churchgoers by the names of Gaius and Diotrephes. In 3 John we have an honest assessment of their characters and lives. One assessment is very positive, one is very negative. Gaius stands as a model of what a Christian should be; Diotrephes is an example of everything believers should not be.

Thankfully our lives are not made public like Gaius and Diotrephes. But God knows exactly what kind of persons we are. He knows whether you really are a Christian, he knows how well you follow Christ; he knows your deepest thoughts. God has a record of our lives. What kind of person we are in God’s eyes is one of the biggest concerns we should have, and 3 John sheds light on the matter.

Who wrote the letter?

In humility, the writer John calls himself the ‘elder’, but he is also an apostle – a chosen eyewitness of the Lord Jesus who formed the foundation of the church. John was a cousin of Jesus and witnessed Christ’s miracles. He was there at the glorious transfiguration of Jesus, he prepared the upper room for the Last Supper, and he watched Jesus dying on the cross.

John wrote a beautiful account of the life of the Son of God and was granted a great vision of Jesus on the island of Patmos. It is this John who writes the letter.

Love and truth were favourite topics for John, and this letter is no exception. He speaks of showing love to those who walk in the truth. He says there are some we must have in our homes and some we must not. He encourages Gaius to be faithful in his service.

Who was it written to?

We are told in verse 1: To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Gaius was probably a leader of a local church. John speaks candidly about another church member, and he would not presume to do so except to another overseer.

John refers to another letter sent to the church as a whole (v. 9). It would seem therefore that John is now writing a personal letter to one of the leaders of that church.

Gaius may have been converted under the ministry of John. In verse 4 we read, ‘I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.’ However, John often used the phrase ‘children’ to describe Christians, so we cannot be certain.

It was likely that Gaius was not a well man. Verse 2 reads, ‘Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.’ John is praying that he will be as well in his physical body as he is in his soul.

Like John, we too should be concerned not just about a person’s soul but also their body. We are spiritual beings, but we are not just spiritual beings. Our priority should always be a person’s spiritual health, but that does not mean we can ignore their physical health.

Why did John write this letter?

The apostles sent people to visit churches which they themselves could not visit. This was to encourage those churches and see how they were progressing.

Those who were sent would also serve as postmen, delivering the apostles’ letters. Their names are usually mentioned at the end of the letter. I believe that the man John commends to Gaius in verse 10 (Demetrius) was the person who delivered this letter to Gaius.

John had previously sent gospel preachers to the church where Gaius was a leader. They had brought back news to John, reporting that they had met Gaius, who had been most hospitable and welcoming. They had been impressed with the way he loved the truth.

However, the visiting preachers had also met Diotrephes. He had not welcomed the visitors and had told other members to have nothing to do with them. In fact, Diotrephes had excommunicated people who had welcomed the friends of John.

When John had received this news, he first wrote a general letter to the whole church (v. 9) and now an additional letter to Gaius. He wants to assure Gaius of his love and concern for him; he wants to encourage Gaius and to tell him that John himself will shortly visit the church and deal with the difficult Diotrephes.

This is a letter from an apostle to a member of another church. That member was someone that John could trust completely. Church members are important. The strength of a church ultimately depends on the strength of the members. Why? Because a church is the members. They ultimately appoint the pastor and recognise elders. They ultimately choose whether to support the leadership or not.

A church can have the most faithful pastor and elders, but if the members will not follow their overseers then ultimately that church will weaken and die. I have seen this happen. If you are a member of a church, then you matter. Your standing in the Lord does matter.

What did John write?

The structure of John’s letter is very simple. After initial greetings we have a church member commended (Gaius in verses 2-8) and then a church member criticised (Diotrephes in vv. 9-11). Finally we have John’s closing remarks.

Let’s consider what John wrote about the two church members under four headings. Ask yourself what kind of person you are in light of these points.

1. Gaius was a Christian, Diotrephes was not

John tells us that Gaius was a true Christian. How do we know this? First, John says in verse 2 that Gaius’s soul prospers. Without Christ our soul does not prosper. Without Christ we are dead spiritually. Gaius had been made alive by the Spirit of God.

Second, in verse 3 it says that the truth was in Gaius. The truth of the saving power of Jesus had taken over his whole life. The truth had set him free! He was saved from his sins.

Third, we know Gaius was saved because he gave evidence in his life. In verse 3 we read that he walked in the truth. In verse 5 it says that he was faithfully serving. He not only ‘talked the talk’ but ‘walked the walk’.

Now consider Diotrephes. On the surface you might think he was a Christian. He attended church, he was a church member, and in fact it appears that he was an elder. There is no hint that he was not doctrinally sound or guilty of immorality.

Yet his words and deeds give him away. Verses 9-10 show how Diotrephes spoke malicious words against an apostle and his preachers. Moreover he excommunicated true believers and forbade others from showing Christian love to visitors.

The words of 1 John 3:10 are relevant here: ‘In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.’ 3 John 11 sums him up: ‘He who does evil has not seen God.’ Diotrephes’ actions showed he had not ‘seen God’.

All true believers have seen God. God is a Spirit, so to see God does not mean seeing God physically. John is saying that all true believers have seen God spiritually. God has become real in their hearts. Diotrephes had not experienced this. In other words he was not born again. The Holy Spirit did not live in him.

Now this is something quite shocking. In a church founded by an apostle there was a church member who was not saved. Worse than that, probably an elder! If it could happen in John’s day, then it can happen today.

The key issue is not whether you have been baptised, or whether you are a church member, or whether you serve in the church. The issue is this: have you seen God in your heart? Has God changed you inwardly so that you are a different person? Have you been born again? Does the Spirit bear witness in your soul that you are a child of God?

2. Gaius loved the truth, Diotrephes loved himself

The second contrast between the two men involves love. Gaius loved the truth. It was ‘in him’ (v. 3). For Gaius the truth of the Bible had taken him over, filled him, and now dominated him.

Now consider Diotrephes. What had taken him over and filled him? We are told in verse 9: ‘Diotrephes loves to have the pre-eminence.’ Indeed, Diotrephes was in love – but with himself. He was self-centred and wanted his own way. He wanted to be someone, he wanted to have power in the church and use it.

What a contrast! Gaius was driven by the objective truth he found in God’s Word. Diotrephes was driven by the subjective feelings he felt in his heart.

We live in an age that rejects objective truth. The mantra of life is ‘If it feels good, do it!’ or ‘You have your beliefs and I have mine, both are valid!’ Even Christians can become softened and tolerant of divergent doctrines because of this cultural shift.

But the truth matters. Take it away and the results are disastrous. The foundation of our faith is built on objective facts: the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Our eternal destiny is not based on what we have discovered, but on what God has revealed. Our morality should not be based on what we feel is right, but what God says is right. Our behaviour should not be determined by the changing views of society, but on the unchanging Word of God.

3. Gaius walked in the truth, Diotrephes walked in error

To walk in the truth means that we practise what we believe. Our life reflects our faith. Another letter in the New Testament written by James underlines how the only true faith that exists is one that results in good works.

One way that Gaius demonstrated his faith was in how he showed hospitality to travelling preachers (vv. 5-8). Remember that Gaius did this when he was probably ill. Yet even in sickness he showed practical Christian love.

Diotrephes, in contrast, walked in error. He spoke lies about the apostle John and refused to show hospitality to visitors for his own selfish reasons (v. 10).

One of the central themes of this letter is the duty of hospitality. Some may think that showing hospitality is a minor area of service. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Notice what John says in verse 8: ‘We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.’

By showing hospitality you make yourself a fellow worker with that person! When you entertain a fellow visiting Christian, you become a fellow worker in whatever avenue of service they are involved in.

4. Gaius served faithfully, Diotrephes served falsely

John commends the faithful service of Gaius in verse 5: ‘You do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers.’

Gaius showed hospitality to those who visited the church, but he went a stage further: ‘If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for his name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles’ (vv. 6-7).

Not only did he care for them while they were staying, but he also provided for the next stage of their journey. It would appear that Gaius’s packed lunches were legendary!

Gaius was a man who thought things through. He saw that it was not enough just to care for visitors while they were staying with the church; he wanted to help them on the next stage of their journey as well.

What a lesson this is for us! It is good not only to show love to visitors while they are here, but also to remember them afterwards, to continue to pray for them and to take an interest in them. Are we people who send folk who leave us ‘forward on their journey’ of life?

In contrast, Diotrephes served falsely. Rather than helping believers on their way, he hindered them!

Diotrephes spread malicious talk about the visitors. Imagine the harm such words could do when the travelling preachers reached their next destination. The church there might not receive them; the work of the gospel could be damaged.

The danger is real for us. Throughout history church members have said and done the most terrible things ‘in the name of Christ’. How many of us would be ashamed if others knew of things that we said about them when they were not there? Remember that your tongue is a lethal weapon. Think before you speak.

Face to face

3 John closes with the apostle saying that he had much more to say but he ‘does not want to use pen and ink’ (v. 13). Why was this? Was John short of paper? Had the price of ink gone through the roof? No, for he tells us the reason in verse 14: he hopes to see Gaius shortly ‘face to face’.

It is in church that we meet face to face. There is nothing like meeting believers face to face. John preferred it, and so should we. In church we hear the Word of God preached together, in church we worship God together, in church we pray together, in church we grow together.

You can grow tomatoes without feeding them plant food, but they will not be so strong or so healthy. The same is true for believers. If we wish to be strong and healthy believers, we need to be fed by worship, fellowship, and friendship. Do we organise our life so that we and our family meet other believers face to face at church?

If there was a believer who did not ‘need’ to go to church then surely it was John. He had lived with the Lord Jesus! Yet John loved going to meet with believers. He ends both 2 and 3 John with the desire to meet face to face with other believers.

This desire to go to church remained with him all his life. There is a church tradition which says that when John was an old man he became unable to walk. Yet he still insisted on going to church, albeit carried in by others.

If you want to be like Gaius, the model church member, then love the truth, walk in the truth, and serve faithfully. But also attend church services – in person.

Alan Hill is Pastor of Lausanne Free Church, Switzerland.

A time for anger

The world is filled with anger and outrage. And for good reason. There is so much to be angry about in this miserable, fallen, and sinful world. If there were no sin, there would be no anger. Anger exists because sin exists.

As Christians, we know that there is a time and place for anger against sin, yet it is difficult for us to be angry without sinning ourselves. At times we feel angry with no just cause, and at times we are not angry when we ought to be. God’s anger is perfect, and Jesus always displayed his righteous anger against those who justly deserved it.

But as Christians, we are simul justus et peccator (at the same time just and sinful), declared righteous by God yet still sinful in our hearts, thoughts, words, and actions. That is why we struggle to display righteous anger and to not sin, and it is why we so often fall short in doing so in imitation of our Saviour.

Anger can sometimes be complicated because our emotions are often complicated. Our hearts are complex. There is a war waging within us between the flesh and the spirit, and it is a war that only Christians experience.

Yet in the midst of this war within us, God calls us to put away unrighteous anger and wrath, to be slow to anger, to be slow to speak, and to be angry yet without sin.

Because our feelings can sometimes be the greatest liars, we must always strive to make our feelings conform to our doctrine and not let our feelings define our doctrine. What we believe about God, the world, and ourselves ought to be the foundation for our anger.

Too often, however, our emotions get the better of us, and we allow ourselves to erupt in unrighteous anger because we have disregarded what we believe.

What we believe must shape our emotions and inform our anger so that our anger is always shrouded by the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

It is only when we have the Holy Spirit and are walking by the Spirit that we will exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, even when we are appropriately and righteously angry.

Then, and only then, does our anger imitate the anger of our Saviour and glorify God as we live coram Deo, before his face, as we await the return of our Saviour, when there will be an end to all anger and all need for anger.

This article was first published in Tabletalk, the Bible study magazine of Ligonier Ministries. Find out more at TabletalkMagazine.co.uk or try it free for three months today at TryTabletalk.co.uk.

By Dr Burk Parsons, Senior pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida, and editor of Tabletalk magazine.

An interview with Jonathan Winch: Teaching is one of the noblest of callings

Jonathan Winch spent 31 years in education as a maths teacher, principal, and executive principal in Christian ethos schools. ET caught up with him to find out more about his experiences.

Please tell us about your upbringing.

Istanbul is a city spanning two continents, and a history as diverse: once the centre of Eastern Christendom, it came early under Ottoman rule before Kemal ‘Atatürk’ introduced a Latin alphabet and opened Turkey to Western influence.

There I was born, and there I grew up, a missionary kid with Turkish, Armenian, and American friends, attending a German school and a Greek church!

If I felt at times something of a ‘stranger and exile’, I was glad that my parents were ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Looking back it was a privileged upbringing; we were rich in everything but money.

How has your upbringing shaped you?

A missionary upbringing showed me that Christ’s one church defies labels; that the unity of the Spirit is beautified in cultural diversity though maintained by doctrinal purity. My parents taught me early to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever, and they showed me what ‘religion pure and undefiled’ looks like. I learned from them too that life involves hard work and sacrifice – and that joy may be found in sorrow.

Why did you decide to go into education?

Three things lined up for me: teaching is what I love, it’s what I can do, it’s where I could do some good. My aim at first was to follow in Dad’s footsteps and teach and preach overseas. But God spoke to me from Ezekiel 3:5, and I recognised in the sprawling estates of the North East a spiritual wasteland as needy as the shanty towns of Istanbul.

What were the key influences in shaping your educational approach?

My first headteacher was a man called John Burn, who would go on to co-found The Christian Institute. His visionary leadership had turned around a once-violent inner-city school in Newcastle, giving him the credibility to exercise influence on a national stage.

He championed Christian worship, fought for a knowledge-rich curriculum, exposed to the Thatcher government a Marxist agenda at the heart of England’s powerful teacher-training institutions. He went on to co-found a Christian ethos state school which became a top-ten school in England.

His insights were revolutionary for the time: children belong to God, not the state; wisdom not autonomy is the goal of education; as God’s image-bearers, fallen yet redeemable, children need Christ, thrive under discipline, are failed by ‘discovery-learning’. John especially loved deprived children and refused to make excuses for them.

What motivated you to pursue school leadership?

I recognised that the secret of John Burn’s success lay in the thinking he brought to bear – allied to an iron resolve to get things done. In the schools he led, education was freed from the ‘burden of bad ideas’ that trap children in a cycle of underachievement.

Where once the church was the centre of the village, now it is the school that unites a community, shapes the culture, imparts truth to the next generation. I believed that school leadership would allow me to do some good, and God in his grace opened the door.

Looking back on your time as a headteacher, what gives you the most satisfaction?

There are two ways to do Christian education. Many faith schools take an otherwise secular ‘cake’ and apply a Christian icing – special events, fringe clubs, slogans – or, worse still, substitute morality for gospel.

Our team of principals worked hard to identify and articulate the ‘why’ of a distinctively biblical educational approach located in the nature of a child, the purpose of life, the person and work of Christ.

I am still moved by the memory of hard-faced parents melted by learning of their child’s intrinsic worth, unique gifting, moral accountability.

What did you find most challenging?

Accepting public money brings public accountability. That was welcome in the early days, when educational outcomes were the focus; more recently, as the ‘inclusion agenda’ gained force, the greatest challenge was not from external opponents but from those within who advocated compromise.

How did you balance a demanding job with church and family commitments?

Solomon’s advice is pertinent: ‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.’ I love my wife and four children, so it was never a hardship to switch off completely when I was with them. I think, though, looking back, that my eldership role did suffer when I took a temporary leadership role 100 miles from home, and I regret that.

What advice would you give to a young Christian teacher?

Ad fontes – in the sense in which the Reformers used the term: go back to the Scriptures, and to Christ. Don’t underestimate the power of ideas; know that if the educational establishment is shaping your thinking, then you are the unwitting disciple of Rousseau, Dewey, Freud, and Marx. And enjoy your work; next, perhaps, to motherhood and ministry, teaching is the noblest of callings.

What are you doing now that you have stepped back from school leadership?

More school leadership! Under Dr Ian Hamilton I direct Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Newcastle, which trains men of all theological backgrounds for the pastoral ministry – including an alumnus of the first school I led!

We look forward to hearing more from Jonathan Winch concerning education in a future issue.

By Paul Smith, is a full-time elder of Grace Baptist Church, Broadstairs, Kent.

Let your sins be strong

We all tend to minimise our sinfulness. We look at the wrongs we have done and do everything we can to try and justify our actions.

Doing this, however, fails to take full ownership of our sins.

As Christians, we often admit that we need forgiveness, but we still do not like to acknowledge that our sins are utterly deplorable. We want to talk about sin and forgiveness, but we do not like to admit that we are indeed sinners. Deep down, we think, ‘Surely we are not like many other people who are real sinners.’

However, thinking like this makes us like the Pharisee who scoffed at the tax collector – utterly in denial of the reality of his sin.

Martin Luther once wrote a letter to Philip Melanchthon entitled, Let your sins be strong, where he addresses several different topics, including the tendency to downplay our sins.

Luther wrote, ‘God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world.’

We must stop trying to diminish the sins we have committed in order to maintain dignity. We must let them be strong and look at them in all their wretchedness. We must see our sins as they mock God and refuse to obey him in all his holiness.

Taking ownership of our sins is the only way we can bring what is ours to him and say, ‘I need you to bear my punishment for these. There is nothing anyone can do to atone for these sins. Jesus, you are the only one.’

His response to this request is, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.’

Thanks to the cross, no sin can separate us from his love, for his sacrifice is entirely sufficient.

Today, let us consider the words of Martin Luther: ‘Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meagre sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard, for you are quite a sinner.’

Let us not try to justify our sins, for self-justification warrants nothing but death, but no sin can prevail against Christ’s justifying blood.

My sins are mine; I know them well.

They mock at God and damn to hell.

But by his blood, I am set free.

He paid my debt at Calvary.

By Doug Eaton, Member and teacher at Bethel Grace Baptist Church in Bellflower, CA

COMMENT: The Archie Battersbee case needs careful consideration

By the time this edition of ET is published, the Archie Battersbee case will have concluded some weeks ago. But the life-and-death issues involved in the case will linger for some time. Archie, aged 12, suffered traumatic brain injuries after an incident at home in April, and doctors and his family battled in court over his continuing life-support treatment.

No doctor was able to officially declare that Archie was brain dead. But in the early stages of the legal proceedings, a High Court judge, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, took it upon herself to rule that he was. If this finding was allowed to stand it would have set an alarming precedent. Archie’s parents, backed by the Christian Legal Centre, were surely right to appeal. They did and they won. He was declared legally alive, albeit with little hope of recovery.

Then the legal debate switched to a question of Archie’s best interests. Was it in his best interests to continue with his life-support treatment? Or was it in his best interests to have the machines turned off? Who should decide? The doctors? The parents? The courts? In the end, the courts ruled that it was in Archie’s best interests to end the treatment. No doubt, pro-euthanasia groups were paying close attention.

The final phase of the legal battle centred on whether Archie’s parents could have him moved to a hospice to end his treatment there. But doctors objected, on the grounds that the move could hasten his deterioration. Given that they were going to switch off the machines anyway, one wonders why they couldn’t have agreed to the parents’ request. However, once again, the courts sided with the doctors and Archie was kept at the Royal London Hospital, where his life support was switched off on 6 August.

All sides agree that this was a very complex case. In this edition of ET we have published an article by Andrea Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre, explaining why they fought so hard for Archie. There may be nuances in this case on which faithful Christians may disagree in good conscience. But when courts decide it is in someone’s best interests to die, and when they overrule the wishes of parents, we ought to think through the implications very carefully.

GUEST COLUMN: The future brought forward

Holiness, I said in last month’s article, is not dull. I want to reinforce that point, but from a different perspective. Certainly, holiness is exciting because it involves living out our liberation from sin — that was my previous emphasis. But it is also exciting because it involves bringing the future into the present. That, too, is worth exploring.

Holiness is not native to this era between the Fall and the return of Christ. This is ‘the present evil age’ (Galatians 1:4). Its god is Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4). The moral climate of this current era is as incapable of purity as the climate of a rainforest is incapable of snow. Holiness does not belong here. It belongs, rather, to the coming age, the ‘new heavens and…new earth in which righteousness dwells’ (2 Peter 3:13).

This means, then, that the occurrence of holiness now is a marvel. It is another world, a world-to-be, breaking in before its time. Paul makes this point strikingly in Romans 13:11-13.

The present age he there likens to night-time. The future age is an approaching day. He insists that ‘the night is far gone; the day is at hand’. That is in keeping with the New Testament’s outlook: the advent of Messiah and outpouring of the Spirit now behind us, the end of the age itself is next.

We are thus at an advanced point within the present age; we are in the last days. It is an encouraging thought. Nevertheless, this age does, for the time being, remain. The night being ‘far gone’ is not the same as the night being over.

Paul’s accompanying exhortations are therefore surprising: ‘The hour has come for you to wake from sleep’; ‘Let us…put on the armour of light’; ‘Let us walk properly as in the daytime’. Think about ordinary sleeping habits. Most of us, waking up and discovering there is still an hour or two until the alarm clock shatters our peace, simply close our eyes and snuggle down again. The night may be far gone, but that does not mean we get dressed and start behaving ‘as in the daytime’!

But in relation to the night and day of which Paul speaks, we are to think differently. We are to live in the day even though the day is not yet here! We are to practise already the goodness and purity and love of an age that is still awaited. This means the holy lives of Christians are little eruptions of the future within the present. They are pools of eschatological light puncturing prematurely the prevailing darkness. Truly, ‘the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn’ (Proverbs 4:18)!

In Philippians 3:20 Paul says the same thing but draws on different imagery. He pictures Christians as heaven’s colonists. That is what the phrase, ‘our citizenship is in heaven’, would have signified to its first hearers. Philippians were citizens of Rome. That did not mean they were waiting to relocate there. It meant they were colonists, bringing Rome’s culture to this far-off city in Macedonia.

Being citizens of heaven works in the same way. Paul’s point is not that we are waiting to relocate there. He is saying, rather, that by our holy conduct we bring heaven’s culture to our classrooms and workplaces and neighbourhoods. In the coming age, when ‘the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord’ (Revelation 11:15), that culture will prevail everywhere. God’s will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). We colonists offer a glimpse, already, of what that looks like. How exciting is that!

Dan Peters is minister at Newcastle Reformed Evangelical Church.

A SHRINK THINKS... The seduction of Eve (part two)

Christopher Nolan specialises in directing bamboozling, mind-bending films. Perhaps his most well-known is the 2010 film Inception. And that film deals with a problem similar to the one Satan has in the garden of Eden: how do you persuade someone to do something they have no desire to do?

In Inception the problem is the threat a multibillionaire faces from the expanding empire of a rival business multibillionaire. He decides he needs to get his rival to break up his empire. But his rival has no intention of doing anything like this, and so via manipulation using dreams the idea of breaking up the business is created in his mind – what the film calls an inception.

The first such inception was in the garden of Eden where Satan used seduction to trick Eve into thinking of sin and then doing it. Last month we considered the first stage in Genesis 3:1 in which Satan generated in Eve’s mind the idea that God might not be altogether good and might in fact be a bit mean, denying good to her. With his second speech in Genesis 3:4-5, Satan builds on this by further using ambiguity to twist the meaning of God’s good command.

Stage Two: Twisting the Good

We learn from later uses of the phrase ‘knowledge of good and evil’ (Genesis 24:50; Deuteronomy 1:39; 1 Kings 3:9) that a key purpose of the prohibition to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to enable Adam and Eve to learn to make the right decisions.

By godly fear they would keep the command and thus grow to be wise and mature humans. God’s purpose in making this prohibition was good (there was an even greater covenantal purpose too which is beyond the scope of this article). They would increase in wisdom, learn right from wrong (have their eyes opened) by obedience to the good command, and so become more godly, more like God.

Satan’s craftiness was to insinuate to Eve with his ambiguous words that what was good in itself (having their eyes opened to right and wrong, gaining wisdom, and so becoming like God) could be gained from eating rather than from not eating. Because in order to get an innocent to sin, to induce sin in someone with no internal desire for it, the external suggestion has to be to do something which is in itself good. Or at least appears to be good. For in Eve’s mind eating from this tree was made to appear a good thing because to do so would seem to lead to the very blessing that God wanted her to receive.

Have you ever noticed how what happens here in the Fall in Genesis 3 is shocking because as we read it we find Satan appears to be telling the truth and God to be lying? God says they will die if they eat the fruit (2:16). Satan says they won’t die (3:4). What happens? They don’t die. Adam and Eve live on for many years.

Again, Satan tells Eve that their eyes will be opened (3:5) and what happens? Their eyes were opened (3:7). Satan also says they will come to know good and evil and be like God (3:5) and what happens? God himself tells us in 3:22 that they have become like God, knowing good and evil.

So what is going on? It is meant to make us think. For we rightly think this can’t be right! We need to consider carefully the meaning in these key phrases and find in doing so a series of double entendres.

Satan first casts doubt on the threat of death. Wenham: ‘There is undoubtedly a double-entendre in his opening remark “You will not certainly die”….does it mean “Certainly you will not die” or “It is not certain that you will die”?’ Again to paraphrase: he might be innocently saying, ‘It isn’t clear whether you will die or not, you might do or you might not, it isn’t certain’, or malevolently he could and did mean ‘Certainly not! You won’t die if you eat that fruit.’

So again, if Eve challenges him on this denial of God’s truthfulness he could retreat by declaring, ‘No, no, I didn’t mean that, I’m not sure whether this is right or not and was wondering if it is certain or not.’

Then we come to the meaning of ‘die’. God meant they would die in the most profound and important sense: they would be cut off from him. And that is what happens. Immediately they run and hide from God and feel ashamed in his presence. This death is made tangible when God then banishes them from the Garden. Satan meant ‘you won’t drop down dead’ – that is, die medically (as we read of death repeatedly in Genesis 5).

The other three statements (eyes being opened, becoming like God, knowing good and evil) are all ambiguous and fit closely together. Becoming like God meant for Satan asserting their autonomy by making their decisions without reference to God, thus making themselves gods. But we’ve seen God intended Adam and Eve to learn by not eating to make wise decisions and so become more godly, more like God in doing what is right.

Knowing good and evil meant for Satan experiencing doing wrong and its consequences of guilt and shame, which relates to his meaning of having their eyes opened as learning they were naked and exposed as guilty sinners. But God wanted Adam and Eve to have their eyes opened in the sense of learning right from wrong by doing the right and so experiencing the blessings of such obedience.

Tragically. by bamboozling Eve with his cunning ambiguities, he induced in her the idea of gaining the good, wisdom and what goes with it, the easy way by eating. By first bringing her to doubt God’s goodness and then blunting the threat of punishment by insinuating that she wouldn’t die, he paved the way for Eve to think the good could be achieved through disobedience.

There is a wider lesson here: both eating and not eating the fruit would lead to change in Eve. And when faced with temptations to sin our decisions never leave us unchanged. By caving into temptation we increase the likelihood of sinning again because we make ourselves weaker, immature people who choose the easy and foolish way. But by choosing the good we mature in our resistance to temptation and grow in wisdom and in godliness. Every decision changes us for good or ill.

Alan Thomas, Professor and Consultant in Psychiatry. Elder at Newcastle Reformed Evangelical Church.

THINKING IT THROUGH: Humour and holiness

Twice a year I leave home, head off to a conference centre, and spend five days with a group of fifteen or so preachers. The purpose of our gathering is to study – and that’s what we do. Seven hours or more round the conference table each day and personal assignments to be completed in the break times. We work through a book of Scripture, grappling with historical issues, exegetical problems, biblico-theological themes, questions of application.

We may write out paraphrases of each chapter as we go. We may draw up sermon outlines and present them to the group with the help of a projector. It’s demanding, intense, purposeful, exhausting, and deeply serious. We’re conscious that we are wrestling with God’s Word, and the goal is that we should be better equipped to preach it to God’s people. That’s a serious business.

We share news together from our churches. We rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. We discuss the dilemmas we’re facing. We pray earnestly for one another. Again, this is serious business.

And yet alongside the seriousness of what we’re doing, we have a lot of fun together. We enjoy these days together. Lots of laughter around the study table as well as at meal-times and over late night cocoa. There’s the usual north vs south teasing; there are the hilarious anecdotes of embarrassing personal disasters; there are the absurd flights of fancy; as the days go by, there are the practical jokes and the appropriate retributions.

Humour is dangerous

The Bible warns us many times about the dangers of humour. Humour can become unseemly and crude: ‘Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving’ (Ephesians 5:4).

Humour can spring from folly – a refusal to take life seriously: ‘...as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools’ (Ecclesiastes 7:6).

Humour can be blasphemous – the men who stood at the cross and mocked the Lord Jesus thought they were being funny. ‘He saved others, he cannot save himself’ (Matthew 27:42).

Humour can be irresponsible, insensitive, or hurtful: ‘Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death, is the man who deceives his neighbour and says, “I am only joking!”’ (Proverbs 26:18-19).

Humour can be used to excuse wicked behaviour. ‘Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool...’ (Proverbs 10:23).

Screwtape’s advice

Listen to C. S. Lewis’s senior devil Screwtape as he explains to his pupil how humour can be used to destroy human souls:

Humour is for them the all-consoling and (mark this) the all-excusing, grace of life. Hence it is invaluable as a means of destroying shame. If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is ‘mean’; if he boasts of it in a jocular manner and twits his fellows for having been scored off, he is no longer ‘mean’ but a comical fellow... Cruelty is shameful – unless the cruel man can represent it as a practical joke. A thousand bawdy, or even blasphemous jokes do not help towards a man’s damnation as much as his discovery that almost anything he wants to do can be done, not only without the disapproval but with the admiration of his fellows, if only it can get itself treated as a Joke…

But, Screwtape goes on to say, there is a still more effective way in which humour can destroy souls:

But flippancy is the best of all... Only a very clever human can make a real Joke about virtue, or about anything else; any of them can be trained to talk as if virtue were funny. Among flippant people, the Joke is always assumed to have been made. No one actually makes it, but every serious subject is discussed in a manner which implies that they have already found a ridiculous side to it. If prolonged, the habit of Flippancy builds up around a man the finest armour-plating against the Enemy [God], that I know…

If you want to understand what Lewis is getting at, just listen for ten minutes to any Radio 4 ‘comedy’ show. What do you get? A stream of flippant comments about virtue, immorality, drunkeness, Christians, heaven, hell, angels, devils, the Bible. No one ever actually says what’s supposed to be funny about these things. But all the clever people talk as if they’re obviously hilarious.

There are some subjects which we as Christians must never make jokes about. We cannot trivialise serious things – things that ought to make us tremble. I’ve heard jokes from the lips of Christians – and yes, from preachers – about Adam’s Fall. How can any believer joke about the act of wickedness from which all human sin and pain has flowed?

I’ve heard jokes about the Flood – the greatest catastrophe yet to come upon the human race through human sin. I have heard jokes about Satan – my greatest enemy and God’s. I have heard jokes about Judgment Day and hell. And I’m leaving wondering, ‘Do we really believe what the Bible says about these awful realities?’

Humour: better banned?

So humour is dangerous. And yet, again and again when I’m on study week I find myself smiling at some witty or wry comment. Or grinning at some ingenious pun. Or guffawing at some bizarre leg-pull. Should I feel guilty about that? Is humour inappropriate when we’ve come together for such a serious purpose? Should men studying the Bible and training as preachers be laughing together? Doesn’t it undermine the sanctity of what we’re seeking to do and to be?

Of course it’s not just study week. At almost every meeting of the church I hear something that tickles my sense of humour. And if Christian friends join us in our home, it would seem strange if we never laughed together. Should I be alarmed by that? Are humour and holiness incompatible?

No, I don’t think so. The Bible itself is laced with humour. Word-play, wit, satire, farce, are all there within the pages of Holy Scripture. The Bible writers loved puns, word-play, riddles. The story of Samson is full of puns and double entendres. Of course most of them can’t be translated into English. Take Samson’s words in Judges 15:16: ‘With the jawbone of donkey, heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I struck down a thousand men.’

Not very funny, until you realise that the Hebrew words for ‘donkey’ and for ‘heap’ are identical. With the jawbone of a hamor, I made...hamors out of them! He obviously thought that he was being very amusing... and at least his pun was better than most of mine.

Some Bible word-plays are very dark. Remember Joseph’s interpretation of the butler’s and the baker’s dreams? First to the butler, he says, ‘In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office...’ (Genesis 40:13). The baker heard what Joseph had said to his colleague and ‘saw that the interpretation was favourable’ (v. 16). So he decided he wanted Joseph to tell him his fate too. And Joseph does: ‘In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head... [wait for it!] – from you!’ (v. 19).

First Joseph uses the phrase ‘lift up your head’ to mean something very positive. And then he uses it again, leads the baker – and us – to expect something equally positive, until – bang! – the punchline. Grim humour, but so effective in driving home the message of God’s sovereignty. The same God who had ordained that the butler’s head by lifted up in honour had ordained that the baker’s head was lifted up in disaster.

Satire in the Bible

The Old Testament prophets often used satire. Sometimes it can be very barbed. Remember Elijah’s mocking of Baal’s prophets and their ‘god’? ‘Cry aloud, for he is a god! Either he’s musing, or he’s relieving himself, or he’s on a journey – or perhaps he’s asleep and must be awakened’ (1 Kings 18:27).

Or in the same vein, Isaiah’s exposé of the absurdity of the idol worshipper: ‘He cuts down cedars or he chooses a cypress tree... Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes half of it and warms himself, he lights a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he turns it into an idol and falls down before it! Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol and falls down to it and worships it...’” (Isaiah 44:14-17).

Jeremiah’s picture of idol worship is even more cutting. The idol has to be fastened into place ‘with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk’ (Jeremiah 10:4-5). What a picture! The gods of the nations, shining with silver and gold, decked in royal robes, adored by the crowds, are just scarecrows stuck out in the field, putting up a fine show but incapable of doing anything!

The Bible tells us that God laughs at the hopelessness of human attempts to overthrow him (Psalm 2:4). And there are times when God’s spokesmen – the prophets – have to laugh with him. But their laughter doesn’t make sin seem trivial or funny. Rather it shows up human sin as contemptible and inexcusable.

The Bible faithfully records the absurd things that people do and say, and we laugh at them. My children laughed when we came in our family worship to Aaron’s words in Exodus 32:24: ‘they gave it [their gold] to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.’ But as they laughed at Aaron’s absurd excuse, they were made to feel how absurd their own excuses so often are.

Comic characters, comic pictures, comic situations

The book of Job is an immensely serious book, an unparallelled presentation of tragedy and triumph, couched in some of the greatest poetry ever written; more than that, a supreme declaration of God’s sovereignty. Yet it has its moments of comic relief. Just try to read aloud Elihu’s speeches in chapters 32 and 33 without laughing. I can’t.

Elihu is one of the great comic characters of all literature – what a portrait of a young man, confident of his own wisdom and using a thousand words where twenty would do! On he orates, telling us that he’s got something to say, and that he’s going to say it, and that it’s going to be very important, and that Job really needs to listen.

He says it once, he says it twice, he says it once again. But when is he going to start? On into chapter 33 and you’re still waiting, and enduring such gems as, ‘Behold, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks!’ (33:2). He’s still a long way from getting to the point. Job’s other counsellors may have tortured him with their misplaced judgments. Elihu was more likely to bore him to death.

The book of Proverbs is perhaps the funniest book in the Bible – full of witty observations and comic pictures:

The sluggard says, ‘there is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!’ (Proverbs 22:13).

As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed (26:14).

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth (26:15).

Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears...’ (26:17).

Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion (11:22).

It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife (21:9).

Any preacher who preaches on verses like these without making his congregation grin or giggle has failed to use them the way they’re intended to be used. They’re supposed to tickle the imagination. That was the writer’s God-inspired way of challenging his hearers to serious thought and changed behaviour.

What about the comic situations in the Bible? Baalam, the greatest prophet of his day, feared and respected across the East for the power of his words, finishes up in an argument with his donkey and comes off worst (Numbers 22:22-30). What a rebuke to the wisdom of man, when a donkey shows itself wiser than its master! Pharaoh, the great Emperor, worshipped as a god by his people, can’t keep the frogs out of his bed (Exodus 8:3). What a rebuke to man’s fancied greatness!

And what about the sheer farce of Esther 6 where Haman, convinced that he’s ‘the man the king delights to honour’, lists off all the honours due to such a man, only to find that he’s committed himself to give them all to his worst enemy, Mordecai? Haman is forced to dress Mordecai up in royal robes, to mount him on the king’s horse, and then to lead him through the streets, shouting his honours. Can you read that chapter without laughing? I can’t. But what a rebuke to man’s lofty ambitions!

And what about the teasing? Joseph’s kindness to his brothers was beyond measure. He forgave them freely; he lavished gifts upon them. But he couldn’t resist a sly dig as they set off back to dad. ‘Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way!”’ (Genesis 45:24).

Jesus the Master, Paul his pupil

What about the Lord Jesus himself? Jesus was not afraid to use comic pictures and stories to drive home his utterly serious message. One man with a plank sticking out of his eye is determined to get the speck out of another’s (Matthew 7:4). A man has a collection of pearls and decides to feed them to pigs (Matthew 7:6). A camel tries to squeeze through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24) – and no, there’s no evidence that there was ever a gate in Jerusalem called ‘the Needle’s Eye’. These are absurd, over-the-top pictures. People must have smiled when Jesus drew them. But they went home with an arrow of conviction in their hearts.

Jesus’s hearers must often have grinned as they recognised his wry caricatures of their friends and neighbours: a man who’s got the cheek to wake up his neighbour in the middle of the night to borrow food for his visitor (Luke 11:5-8); a lad who when talking to his father insists on calling his brother this son of yours (Luke 15:30); a manager who’s given notice but hangs on to his job long enough to use his master’s money to make friends for himself (Luke 16:1-8); a widow who wears out a ruthless judge by her constant nagging (Luke 18:2-5). But as the great Story-Teller pressed home his applications, the same hearers must have squirmed as they found their own follies exposed.

Paul was not above using puns and word-plays in his letters, sometimes with shocking force. Again they often can’t be translated effectively into English. But we can still appreciate them. Judaising false teachers went on about the importance of peritome – circumcision. But when Paul responded to them, he preferred to use a different word – katatome – mutilation! (Philippians 3:2).

He was fond too of sarcasm. ‘Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us (the apostles) you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!’ (1 Corinthians 4:8). I hope the Corinthians smiled ruefully as they realised the absurdity of their vanity.

Of course, all these examples I’ve given of humour in the Bible have a serious purpose. The Bible is a serious book. It was breathed out by God in order to ‘make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus... for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness...’ (2 Timothy 3:14-16). But the Bible writers are not afraid to use puns, satire, farcical episodes – all the tools of comedy – to drive home their serious message.

And what about fun?

So laughter can be used for serious purposes. But the Bible doesn’t say that that’s the only way it should be used. Laughter can simply be the natural overflowing of friendship, happiness, celebration.

When Sarah at last gave birth to Isaac, she laughed! ‘And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me... Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age’” (Genesis 21:6-7). She knew that other folk would laugh when they thought of her – at her age! – nursing her first child. But it would be happy laughter, and she would laugh with them.

The exiles who returned from exile in Babylon were like people in a dream. It seemed too good to be true. ‘Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy...’ (Psalm 126:2). When a group of people who love one another are together, delighting in some happy experience, it takes very little to set them laughing! Jokes that would fall flat at other times seem hilariously funny. A bad pun is enough to set them giggling with delight. That was the way the returning exiles felt!

C. S. Lewis describes so well this sort of happy laughter. Here’s Screwtape again. You will see it, he says ‘among friends and lovers reunited on the eve of a holiday. Among adults some pretext in the way of Jokes is usually provided, but the facility with which the smallest witticisms produce laughter at such a time shows that they are not the real cause...’ I’m glad to think we’ve tasted something of that during our study weeks year after year. I’m glad when I find it within the life of the church.

C. H. Spurgeon: Pure Fun

For some Christians, natural, overflowing, happy laughter is rare. For others, it seems to be woven into their whole personality. C. H. Spurgeon was an intensely serious man, utterly committed to the cause of Christ and his kingdom. He went through harrowing experiences and through times of black depression. And yet, he was never far from laughter. I wish I could quote the whole chapter ‘Pure Fun’ from his Autobiography (Banner ed., vol. 2: The Full Harvest), but I’ll just give a few sample paragraphs:

Arriving late at a friend’s house, he explained that he ‘had stopped on the way to vote. “To vote!” exclaimed the good man; “but my dear brother, I thought you were a citizen of the New Jerusalem!” “So I am,” replied Spurgeon, “but my old man is a citizen of this world.” “Ah! but you should mortify your old man.” “That is exactly what I did; for my old man is a Tory, and I made him vote for the Liberals!”’

At one of the meetings when contributions for the new Tabernacle were brought in, the names of Knight and Duke were read out from the list of subscribers, whereupon Spurgeon said, “Really, we are in grand company with a knight and a duke!” Presently, “Mr. King, five shillings,” was reported, when the Pastor exclaimed, “Why, the king has actually given his crown! What a liberal monarch!” Directly afterwards, it was announced that Mr. Pig had contributed a guinea. “That”, said Mr. Spurgeon, “is a guinea-pig.”

Dr. John Campbell was once in a second-hand bookseller’s shop with Spurgeon, and, pointing to Thorn on Infant Baptism, he said, “There is a thorn in the flesh for you.” Mr. Spurgeon at once replied, “Finish the quotation, my brother – the messenger of Satan to buffet me.”

Preaching at a wedding, ‘the Pastor, addressing the bride, said, “According to the teaching of the apostle, the husband is the head of the wife. Don’t you try to be the head; but you be the neck, then you can turn the head whichever way you like.”’

You never have to read very far in Spurgeon’s works – his sermons, his letters, his lectures – before coming across a whimsical comment, a lame pun, or a comical anecdote. Even his Commenting and Commentaries is littered with jokes. You might expect a catalogue of Bible commentaries to be the dryest of reading. Not if it’s written by CHS! Here he is, reviewing Coke on Exodus:

‘... next door to a fraud, for it is in the main a reprint of the work of Dr Dodd, without that author’s name. Ah, Dr Coke, this is a burning shame!’

And here’s his comment on Barker’s Thirty-six psalms with commentary and prayer for use in families: ‘What platitudes people will write for the use of families. Families will best use these commentaries and prayers by lining their cake tins with them.’

Holiness and humour

Spurgeon wasn’t unique. Luther, Berridge, Latimer were all deeply serious men who overflowed with humour and who turned it to good use. Here’s a sample of Latimer’s preaching – before the king of England, and many magistrates and judges:

A good fellow on a time bade another of his friends to a breakfast, saying, “If you will come you shall be welcome, but I tell you beforehand, you shall have but slender fare, one dish, and that’s all.” “What is that?” said he. “A pudding, and nothing else.” “Marry,” quoth he, “you cannot please me better; of all meats that is for mine own tooth; you may draw me round about the town with a pudding.” These bribing magistrates and judges follow gifts faster than the fellow would follow his pudding.

Lovely. Courage and comedy marching together. Holiness and humour going hand in hand.

All people that on earth do dwell,

Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice;

Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell;

Come ye before him and rejoice.

All Bible quotations in this article are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, published by HarperCollins Publishers © 2001.

This article first appeared in the monthly bulletin of Grace Baptist Church, Stockport.

Stephen Rees is pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Stockport

A WALK WITH MR O: I feel overwhelmed

I’m especially glad of our walk today, Mr O, because right now I feel overwhelmed and I need to talk about it. There is so much on my mind. I feel like a drowning man who is about to go under for the last time.

Go on, get it all off your chest. But please slow down! I’m beginning to get old and it’s hard for me to understand fast talk.

I’m sorry. But the world is in a mess, isn’t it? There’s war and tension and unrest everywhere you look. Our culture is riddled with sin. Bible-believing churches aren’t having much influence and they have problems of their own. Our standard of discipleship is very low. Lots of professing Christians are – to put it bluntly – worldly. Our prayer life is poor. We are not winning the lost as we should. And my own Christian life is no great shakes either. And everything is getting on top of me.

I get the picture. Stop now and let me talk straight. Your problem is that you are making the Christian life too complicated. You’ve got your mind on a thousand things at once. You’ve forgotten that the Christian life is essentially simple. We are men and women of one thing. What did our Lord say to Martha at the end of Luke 10? ‘One thing is needed.’

You’ve got my attention, Mr O. But I don’t know what the ‘one thing’ is.

Yes, you do, but you need to stop and think about it. When our Lord told us to stop worrying about food and drink and clothes, he then said, ‘But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.’

That’s Matthew 6:33, of course, but I don’t really know what it means.

And I’m not going to give you a detailed exposition. Put simply, in this verse our Lord is telling us to make an effort. Every day we Christians are to make sure that nothing, nothing, nothing is more important to us than God and the things of God. When we are doing that, everything else will fall into place. By doing one thing we will have everything – that is, everything we need.

So how does that work out in practice?

Well, you’ve got to start somewhere, so why not start by focusing on the word ‘first’? Put God first. Do it chronologically. Start the day with him. As your first act of the day, give him time. Make this your way of showing to him that he is more important to you than your body is – more important than showering, dressing, eating, talking, travelling, working, and relaxing; more important than family, friends, social media, world news, and anything else.

So you are basically underlining the importance of a ‘Quiet Time’.

If you remember, we’ve already talked about ‘the Quiet Time’ and about the fact that personal Bible reading is no substitute for church. I am talking about what some previous generations used to call ‘The Morning Watch’. For example, Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, wrote, ‘To some it is not at all easy to secure time for the morning watch, but nothing can make up for the loss of it.’ Isn’t that why the Saviour used to get up early, to go out and find a lonely place, and to give himself to prayer there?

Robert Murray M’Cheyne believed that he ought to pray before he saw anybody else. This is what he wrote about the times that that didn’t happen: ‘I can do no good to those who come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the soul is often out of tune. I feel it far better to begin with God – to see his face first, to get my soul near him before it is near another.’

You won’t be with the Lord long before you find yourself reflecting on his great love, on the glories of the cross, and on all the benefits which Christ has purchased for you. With your mind filled with such great themes, you will quickly find that you are beginning to think clearly about everything else.

Stuart Olyott, is an actively retired minister and conference speaker. He preaches most Sunday mornings at Caergwrle Evangelical Church.

CRUNCH POINTS: Trapped by porn

We all value biblical advice from our elders, the first ones to whom we turn for counsel. Jeremy Walker outlines the kind of answer he might give to a question received at the chapel door.

‘I want to be free from porn but feel trapped. I repent, resist, then give in. Is my desire to be free realistic? Do I just need to get married?’

I am very grateful that God has given you the humility and courage to speak about this. It is hard to fight these battles alone. The shame associated with this sin means we easily become isolated, and that is dangerous.

You are entering a hard battle. A sinful attachment to pornography often produces just the kind of guilt you describe and the cycle of sin that you identify. Sinful sexual indulgence may actually produce physical changes, literally ingrained mental habits.

However, do not despair. United to Christ, and in communion with him, there is triumph over sin. Paul could say to the Corinthian Christians, some of whom had indulged in serious sexual sin, ‘such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God’ (1 Corinthians 6:11).

This new life in Christ is a life of spiritual freedom. The reigning power of sin has been broken. A Christian is no longer ‘trapped’ by sin – we are no longer slaves of Satan. That liberation, absolute in principle, can be hard work in practice: having been delivered from reigning sin, we need to fight remaining sin. The cycle of sin can take time to break. Some people are converted and find some constitutional sin is at once gone. Others spend the rest of their lives fighting – sometimes constantly, sometimes occasionally – against those sinful desires.

Marriage can and should be a part of God’s solution to this problem. After all, healthy sexual appetites, in and of themselves, are natural and normal. They become sinful when they are turned into illegitimate channels, toward someone with whom we are not in a relationship that provides for their holy satisfaction. That’s one of the reasons why the apostle Paul offers that beautifully positive language of mutual sexual satisfaction in 1 Corinthians 7:1-9.

But too many people have married hoping that it will solve the problem, only to discover that it is a problem not just of the body, but of the heart, and that they have simply carried their habit of sinful sexual selfishness into a new arena. Others assume that accountability partners or software will solve the problem, but – properly helpful as real friends should be – if we have no will to overcome sin then we will find ways around it all.

So the heart of this battle will be a battle of the heart. Progress toward holiness might involve seasons where you are sinning less, less often, repenting more quickly, learning spiritual strategies to guard your heart. Don’t just empty your mind of pornography (which will have an ugly habit of replaying) but fill your mind with truth: displace the vile and the vulgar with the pure and the sweet – not just ‘battle texts’ about temptation, but high and holy thoughts of God.

As you say, you must repent; God will help you to resist; you are no longer obliged to give in because you are no longer a slave of sin – we should read through Romans 6 together. The root will be a delight in and obedience to Christ that keeps you from sinning, a close walk with him which makes this and other sins truly abhorrent to you.

Be assured that the power of the risen Christ and the operations of his gracious Spirit are sufficient for you to overcome this sin, as you use God’s means to accomplish God’s ends. I will be praying for you. I think it would be good for us to meet fairly regularly to begin working through how God will help you to win this fight.

If you would like an answer to a crunch question, please email crunchpoints@evangelical-times.org. We cannot guarantee an answer to every question.

Jeremy Walker, pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley.

NEWS

News in brief

New orthodoxy is ‘dangerous’

Suella Braverman QC, the attorney general for England and Wales, has warned that the ‘new orthodoxy’ behind diversity training is ‘downright dangerous’. She said she had directed officials in her department to scrap programmes promoting ‘Diversity, Equality and Inclusion’. Separately, in July, she said the ‘trans rights culture’ was ‘out of control’.

Immoral revolution

Pastor Alistair Begg has said, ‘Within a quarter of a century, our nation has lived through an immoral revolution.’ Speaking at the 2022 Keswick Convention he challenged Christians, and especially church leaders, to stand firm on the truth of God’s Word. He said we either bow the knee to Scripture or we will be swept away by the culture.

Graham tour ends

An evangelistic event in London marked the end of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s (BGEA) ‘God Loves You’ Tour. Previous events were held in Liverpool, Cardiff, and Sheffield earlier this summer, amid some vocal opposition. Despite the backlash, the BGEA said 18,700 people heard the gospel along the tour.

120+ bishops back marriage

Over 120 Anglican bishops have reaffirmed the denomination’s adherence to the Bible’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) urged bishops at the Lambeth Conference 2022 to reaffirm the Lambeth 1.10 resolution from 1998. The resolution backs biblical marriage and says homosexual practice goes against the Bible.

FCS(C) concernmover Kirk stance

The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) has formally expressed ‘grave concern’ over the recent decision of the Church of Scotland to allow same-sex marriages. In a resolution passed in May, the General Assembly of the FCS(C) stated that it ‘deplored’ the decision and outlined the biblical basis for exclusively heterosexual marriage.

Seminary prof’s charity challenge

A faculty member of Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Newcastle recently completed a long-distance walk to raise money for AGE UK. Dr Donald John Maclean, Adjunct Professor of Historical Theology, scaled five of the UK’s six highest mountains during a 22-hour hike through the Cairngorms in Scotland. Dr Maclean covered 22 miles and 8,200ft of ascent.

Service marks 50 years ministry

Members of the Southern Presbytery of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) met in Partick in June to mark 50 years of ministry for both Revd William B. Scott and Revd Donald N. MacLeod. Revd William Macleod, Moderator of the Presbytery, preached from 1 Corinthians 3:6. Following worship, presentations were made and food was served.

GBP holds online microconference

What does preaching, conversion, church membership, and leadership that is biblical look like? This was the subject of a 70-minute online ‘microconference’ in June. Organised by Grace Baptist Partnership, the ‘Foundations’ microconference was hosted by Chola Mukanga, and featured short Zoom talks by Mark Chanski, Barry King, Ali McLachlan, and Matt Smethurst.

Three Chibok girls located

Three more Nigerian Christian women kidnapped as teenagers by Boko Haram Islamist terrorists from a school in Chibok eight years ago have been found. According to reports, they were recovered with their children by the Nigerian Army during operations against Boko Haram in Borno State between 27 June and 25 July.

Nigerian attacks target Christians

Extremist groups are specifically targeting Christians in Nigeria, according to new research by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA). The group reveals that Christians are between seven and ten times more likely to be killed than Muslims. Dr David Landrum of the religious liberty group Open Doors said these figures are just ‘the tip of the iceberg.’

Global Bible sales are up

The United Bible Societies (UBS) says the distribution of Bibles increased worldwide in 2021. As reported by Premier Christian News, at least 32.6 million complete Bible editions were distributed last year, an increase of 5.5 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020. Around 20 per cent of all distributed Bibles were downloaded from the internet.

Pro-lifers win Slovenia case

A ban of pro-life bus ads was discriminatory, a state equality body in Slovenia has ruled. The pro-life group that had its ads banned, Zavod ŽIV!M, welcomed the decision. A spokesperson said, ‘Everyone should be able to agree that it is wrong for the state to simply censor messages with which it disagrees.’

‘Complex’ Archie Battersbee case raises crucial questions

The complex case of Archie Battersbee has given rise to a debate about how our society handles such tragic cases, where doctors and families battle in court over life support treatment.

Archie, aged 12, suffered traumatic brain injuries after an incident at home in April. Doctors eventually wanted to end his life support treatment, but his parents objected and the case ended up in the courts.

Archie’s parents were supported by the Christian Legal Center. Its CEO Andrea Williams writes in this edition of ET to explain why they fought so hard for Archie’s right to life.

‘People have questions about the case, which is admittedly complex,’ Williams writes, adding, ‘Archie was alive, and therein lies the crux of the case.’

Doctors were not able to carry out brain stem tests, and therefore were not able to officially declare Archie ‘brain dead’.

A High Court judge decided he was dead ‘on the balance of probabilities’, but that finding was overturned on appeal.

Many commentators are agreed it was good to have that finding overturned – otherwise courts could declare people dead even when doctors could not be sure.

Williams writes, ‘For the family, where there was hope, they would press on. If no one would declare Archie dead, they were not prepared to give up.’

But others saw the case differently. Dr Trevor Stammers is an Associate Staff member at the Christian Medical Fellowship, and he believes Archie was already dead.

He acknowledges there had been a breakdown of trust between the medics and the family which inevitably led to the case ending up in court.

He said, ‘Within three days of his admission, the family understandably became very upset that a consultant had approached them about Archie becoming a deceased organ donor.’

Stammers added, ‘As in previous cases such as those of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans, the fate of children for whom further medical intervention is considered to be of no benefit raises strong emotions.’

He pointed out that ‘brain death is a difficult concept even for medically qualified professionals to fully comprehend’.

‘When people are convinced that death occurs only when the heart stops beating, it takes much time and patience on the part of hospital staff to allow parents to accept that, although their child’s heart may be beating, they can still be clinically dead.’

After four months of legal battles, the courts finally decided that it was in Archie’s ‘best interests’ to have his life support removed.

The courts also overruled his parents’ wishes that he should be moved to a hospice where he could die peacefully away from the machines. Doctors said it was too risky because he could die in transit.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Dominic Lawson said, ‘If they were right that he was “brain-stem dead”, then what possible further harm to the boy could have been done by moving him to a hospice?’ He concluded, ‘We cannot go on like this. There must be a better way.’

By Mike Judge, Editor

Liz Truss promises to defend free speech from Online Safety Bill

Tory leadership candidate front-runner Liz Truss has vowed to defend free speech when the government passes its Online Safety Bill.

Truss, who is the favourite to become the next Prime Minister, said children must be protected from online harms like pornography and social media bullying.

But she added, ‘Where it’s about adults being able to speak freely, they absolutely should be, and it should be the same online as offline. That’s a really important principle, and I’ll make sure the Online Safety Bill does reflect that.’ The bill has potential to limit the freedom of evangelicals to express their beliefs online.

Elsewhere, her campaign director Iain Duncan Smith said he ‘hates’ the idea of banning so-called ‘conversion therapy’ and that Liz Truss is strongly against this ‘ghastly woke culture’.

However, he later clarified his remarks by saying she is in favour of a ban, but the proposal ‘isn’t in the right shape’ and needs to be ‘reworked’ and ‘looked at again’.

Plans for abortion clinic buffer zones will be a threat to free speech, pro-life campaigners say

Campaigners have blasted plans to introduce buffer zones around abortion clinics in Scotland and Ireland.

They warned of dangerous limitations to freedom of speech and expression of belief, which contradicts people’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Groups have also expressed alarm at proposals that would mean anyone flouting a buffer zone or prayer ban could end up with a custodial sentence.

In its two-page submission to the Scottish Parliament’s consultation on the Proposed Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill, charity and advocacy group Care for Scotland, said, ‘We have concerns about how your proposed Bill relates to freedom of speech.

‘This is specifically regarding potentially excessive restrictions upon the public right to legitimate and no- intimidatory protest, and an inadequate balance of competing rights under the ECHR.’

The submission, sent to MSP Gillian Mackay, also said, ‘We are especially worried about the proposed introduction of custodial sentences for so-called protesters, which sits uneasily with the notion of Scotland as a free and open democratic society.’

The Bill was put forward by Mackay in May. It proposes to put a 150m protest buffer zone in place outside hospitals and clinics to combat ‘protestors’.

But Care warned against using emotive terminology such as ‘protestors’, stating that while it condemned ‘any behaviours that harassed others’, most people were there to help.

Similarly, Right to Life UK has condemned a Bill in Ireland that would ‘prohibit the expression of pro-life views within 100m of medical facilities able to provide abortions’.

The proposed legislation would also ban silent prayer, holding signs, and offering alternatives.

Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said, ‘The Irish Government seems … driven by its zeal to prevent alternatives to abortion being peacefully presented to women.’

In May, Labour MP Dr Rupa Huq tabled an amendment to the Public Order Bill to introduce censorship zones across England and Wales within 150m of abortion clinics.

Huq’s amendment would make it illegal to interfere ‘with any person’s decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services in that buffer zone’; doing so could see the individual end up with a two-year sentence.

This, according to Right to Life, would ‘criminalise offers of support and prayer outside of abortion clinics’.

Already individual councils have started consultations on the matter. In July, according to the BBC, Bournemouth council asked residents to have their say over plans for a buffer zone outside the BPAS clinic.

The BBC reported that more than 4,000 people previously signed a petition calling for measures to be put in place at the site.

Mayoral candidate sacked by housing charity for her manifesto commitment to Christian marriage

A Christian mayoral candidate lost her job at a housing association for expressing her beliefs about marriage in her election manifesto.

Maureen Martin, President of the Christian People’s Alliance, had stood to be Mayor of Lewisham in April this year.

As part of her election manifesto, she had outlined her political position on various topics, including on marriage.

The manifesto stated, ‘I pledge to cut through political correctness and simply state the truth that natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society and the safest environment for raising children.’

However, following the publication of the manifesto, complaints were made against her for ‘hate speech’.

Her employer, the housing association L&Q, investigated the complaints and told her that her beliefs could ‘bring L&Q into disrepute’.

Despite working for the company for 13 years with an exemplary record, she was suspended and, following a full disciplinary hearing, was later sacked for gross misconduct.

The Christian Legal Centre is supporting her as she challenges L&Q on the grounds of discrimination, harassment, and unfair dismissal.

Commenting on her case, Maureen Martin said, ‘I was devastated, but also sadly not surprised that L&Q would treat me in this way.

‘I have a right to express my own Christian beliefs in my own private time and should not be required to self-censor valid beliefs on marriage, abortion and US politics.

‘I would not treat people in any way other than professionally. It was a general statement I made and I am quite within my right to make it.

‘We either have freedom of speech in the UK, or we do not. We must have the freedom to disagree with each other without it resulting in people having their lives torn apart.

‘I am determined to fight for justice and to ensure that no other Christian political candidates and employees go through what I have.’

The Christian Legal Centre’s Andrea Williams said, ‘As Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak jostle to become leader of the Conservative Party (and thus to become Prime Minister), the importance of encouraging informed participation in the democratic process would seem obvious.

‘By contrast, L&Q, the prominent housing charity, claims a right of veto over the manifesto of any of its staff standing for office.

‘The veto will be exercised if it thinks LGBT+ staff or customers might be offended by the candidates’ views. That is what emerges from the story of Maureen Martin.’

Williams added, ‘Maureen Martin has issued proceedings in the Employment Tribunal, supported by the Christian Legal Centre.

‘We believe this is the first time that a UK political candidate has been sacked by their employer for expressing their Christian beliefs as part of an election campaign.’

NHS transgender clinic for children to close down, with at least 1,000 people threatening legal action

A controversial NHS transgender clinic for children is set to close following a highly critical independent review.

In addition, a lawyer says at least 1,000 clients could sue the clinic run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust.

The independent review called for a full investigation into claims that vulnerable children were fast-tracked towards gender transition procedures.

It found children younger than 10 years old had been fast-tracked and put on the same drugs used to chemically castrate sexual offenders after only one consultation.

The NHS has now said the centre will close in 2023 and two regional clinics set up to replace the service.

Law firm Pogust Goodhead is pursuing group legal action against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), and is set to submit papers to the High Court within the next six months.

The clinic could be sued for failing in its duty of care by pursuing an ‘unquestioning, affirmative approach’ towards gender-confused children and prescribing experimental puberty-blocking drugs.

Tom Goodhead, Managing Partner of Pogust Goodhead, told The Times he expects at least 1,000 clients to join the case.

He said, ‘Children and young adolescents were rushed into treatment without the appropriate therapy and involvement of the right clinicians, meaning that they were misdiagnosed and started on a treatment pathway that was not right for them.

‘These children have suffered life-changing and, in some cases, irreversible effects of the treatment they received.’

In a letter to The Times, gay campaigner Paul Barnes, who had helped set up Stonewall, wrote, ‘Children have been subjected to life-changing procedures by a system that allowed aggressive political dogma to take precedence over professional medical practices.’

One feminist campaigner tweeted, ‘We sent 234 children to Tavistock in the past 10 years, two of them five-year olds – despite warnings. We don’t just need a full investigation and a public conversation; we are duty-bound to have one.’

The Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust clinic, known as the Gender and Identity Development Service (Gids), was launched more than three decades ago to treat young people struggling with their gender identity.

Petition is launched to defend free speech on UK university campuses

Students are being cancelled for lawfully sharing their views at UK university campuses, according to campaigners.

As a result, a petition by advocacy group ADF UK has called on the government to ‘defend’ students and academics and to keep universities and colleges as places where freedom of expression and thought can prevail.

ADF said the government needs to pass the Higher Education Bill, and has set up a petition on its website to garner 10,000 signatories to attach to its open letter to the government.

Its letter states, ‘The introduction of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill is a long-overdue response to campus culture at many universities.

‘The prevalent culture of no-platforming, censorship, and the discrimination of student groups and individuals with minority views is well-documented and ongoing.

‘Despite many opportunities since the introduction of the Bill in May of 2021, the government is yet to bring the Bill to Report Stage, and it appears to be on indefinite pause.’

It urged, ‘Enough delay: with every passing month during which the Bill stagnates, the systemic problems afflicting students and academics it seeks to ease remain possible.’

Evangelical Times has previously reported on cases, such as that of student Felix Ngole having to fight Sheffield University over a Facebook post.

In a separate case in 2021, an Oxford College was forced to apologise for hosting a Christian conference.

In July the then Higher Education Minister Andrea Jenkyns warned against on-campus censorship after a reported increase in speakers and events being cancelled.

Grandmother, 76, overturns fine for praying silently on the street during Covid lockdown last year

A 76-year-old grandmother has successfully overturned her fine after she was arrested for taking a prayer walk near an abortion facility.

Rosa Lalor, from Liverpool, went for a walk during the Covid lockdown in February 2021, as she was lawfully entitled to do.

While she walked, she was praying silently to herself, and wore a face mask even though that was not legally required.

A police officer approached her and asked why she was outdoors. She answered that she was ‘walking and praying’.

The officer responded that Lalor wasn’t praying in a place of worship, and that she did not have a ‘reasonable excuse’ to be outdoors at that time.

The officer claimed that Lalor was there to ‘protest’. The grandmother was arrested, detained, and issued a fine.

ADF UK, a religious liberty legal group, came to her defence. Now Merseyside Police have conceded that such detention was wrong, and that Lalor was acting within her rights.

She said, ‘I’m delighted that the prosecution has finally dropped this charge after a long and exhausting battle for justice.

‘I took this challenge forward with support from ADF UK to show that we do all have a fundamental right to pray – not least pray as I did, in the privacy of my own mind.

‘It was wrong for the police officer to tell me that I could not pray in a public street.

‘It’s important for officers to respect basic religious freedom, and improve their understanding of how that right manifests, in order to maintain a truly tolerant society.’

Ladies’ conference explores Christian contentment

In March, Oldbury Congregational Church welcomed around 80 ladies for the 8th Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches Ladies’ Conference. The theme was ‘Christian contentment’.

This was an eagerly-anticipated event by many, as due to the coronavirus pandemic the 2020 conference had been cancelled and the 2021 event was held online.

The Friday evening consisted of prayer time in groups spaced around the building, a book promotion by Natalie Brand, and a ‘traditional Oldbury supper’ from the local chip shop.

This was followed by two speakers: Barbara Ladds, who spoke on ‘Developing contentment during problems in family life’, and Louise Boxall, who spoke about her experiences finding contentment as a nurse amid the pandemic.

Both were very emotional topics, but it was greatly encouraging to see how both ladies coped by fully resting on our Lord and Saviour while still experiencing their human emotions.

The following morning, group prayer time once again took place, and at 10.30am everyone was seated ready for the main speaker, Helen Jones (wife of Matt, pastor at Wall Heath Evangelical Free Church).

Helen spoke from Philippians 4, Psalm 139, and John 6. She talked about how despite our daily struggles God is perfecting us. We must remember that God is in control at all times, in all areas of our lives.

After lunch there was a question-and-answer session with Shirley Evans reading questions which had been submitted anonymously during lunch. They were answered by a panel consisting of Helen Jones, Lucy Beale, Marianne James, and Natalie Brand.

All too soon, it was time to depart. Phone numbers were exchanged, final hugs were given, and goodbyes were said.

Feedback on the whole event, including the venue and accommodation, was very positive and I think the ladies were ‘content’ with this year’s conference, and are no doubt looking forward to the next one! I know I am!

By Cathy Cook

Ten students graduate from London Seminary

The annual Thanksgiving Service at London Seminary took place on Saturday 25 June.

Ten students who had completed their seminary studies gave testimony as they looked forward to the challenges and opportunities of future ministry.

Eight of these students are heading into ministry in the UK, and two are planning to plant churches in Italy.

It was good for the students to be together. While most students had been taking the course on site and in person, some in Europe and in the north of England had been joining lectures via livestream link.

The service was led by Dr Reuben Danladi, pastor of West Ham Tabernacle.

The principal, Bill James, gave a report highlighting the importance of a well-rounded and rigorous training for ministry if pastors are to be equipped to face the challenges of ministry today.

Not only biblical studies, but also systematic theology and church history are vitally important, along with analysis of our contemporary culture.

In an age of leadership scandals, the seminary culture of fellowship between lecturers and the diverse student body is important in modelling healthy church life.

John Stevens, National Director of the FIEC, preached from Romans 1:16-17, emphasising that we should not be ashamed of the gospel.

His ministry was greatly appreciated, especially by the students beginning their ministries. The service is available on the seminary website londonseminary.org.

By Bill James

200 people gather for Induction of Revd Al MacInnes at Dornoch

In June approximately two hundred people gathered at Dornoch Academy in Sutherland for the induction of Revd Al MacInnes to Dornoch Free Church.

At the induction, Revd Ben Fiddian (Lairg and Bonar Bridge) preached a most appropriate sermon from 1 & 2 Kings, looking at three references to Elisha and the cloak of Elijah, and applying them to Al and Dornoch’s situation.

He opened with the words, ‘We often focus on ordinations and inductions as new beginnings. Of course in one sense they are new beginnings, but zoom out a little and you see that they are really transitions.

‘No minister steps out of a vacuum or into a vacuum. Every Joshua has a Moses. Every Timothy has a Paul.

‘The honour and glory of building the church belong to Christ and to Christ alone. Ministers of the gospel are his tools: picked up, used, laid aside, moved on, at his sole discretion.

‘Paul plants, Apollos waters, God directs the whole process, God gives the increase. Every ministry is limited – limited by the gifts a man has, his health, age, and so on.

‘Christ alone is able to fulfil a continuous and unending ministry: he alone continues forever and is consequently able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for us.’

By the Free Church of Scotland

Martin Bakker inducted to the pastorate of Baptist churches in Dundee and Kirriemuir

About 90 people met in Kirriemuir in June for the ordination and induction of Martin Bakker to the pastorates of Trinity Baptist Church (TBC) Dundee and Kirriemuir Free Baptist Church (KFBC).

The service was led by Derek Johnston, pastor of Blairgowrie Evangelical Church (BEC).

Martin described how he came to faith and how God called him to the ministry, and Ian Shaw (elder at BEC) led the ordination of Martin.

Daniel Scott (elder at TBC) gave the history of the call to TBC. Martin had started studying at St Andrews for a Theology PhD in January 2018. In the providence of God, David Scott (then an elder at TBC) met Martin at a Reformation Trust Scotland conference. Martin started to attend TBC soon after and joined the church in February 2019.

The church rejoiced with Martin when God gave him a supportive wife in Corinne later that year.

The church recognised that Martin had a special gift of coming alongside people to sympathise, counsel, and disciple.

He was ordained as elder in November 2020 and appointed part-time pastoral worker in June 2021.

In early 2022 the church recognised that the pastor that was needed had already been sent to them by the Lord, and Martin was called to take up that role on a part-time basis, which he accepted.

Jonathan Fagerson (secretary of KFBC) gave the history of the call to KFBC.

David Scott had introduced Martin to the previous pastor of KFBC, David Martin, as a potential preacher. Martin was invited to preach and subsequently became assistant pastor in September 2019.

The congregation appreciated his ministry and the personal care and support he gave to individuals.

In spring 2021 the church wanted to call him as pastor but recognised that his studies had to take priority for the time being.

However, in March 2022 the church welcomed Martin and Corinne into membership and extended a call to Martin to the pastorate, which he accepted, also on a part-time basis.

Derek asked the standard questions of Martin and the churches before Martin was inducted to the pastorates of TBC and KFBC. Several representatives of other churches prayed for Martin, and Derek then preached on John 21:15-19.

The meeting concluded with a time of food and fellowship.

By Elisabeth Shrimpton

The ‘convictional ministry’ of C. H. Spurgeon addressed in lectures in Notting Hill Gate

Bethesda Church in Notting Hill Gate, London, hosted an informative and encouraging afternoon on 9 July for believers interested in the life of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

The Strict Baptist History Society organised two lectures by Peter Tervet and Dr Geoff Chang, who have both made major studies of Spurgeon’s life.

Peter Tervet took us through Spurgeon’s early life with pictures and maps. He gave us the benefit of his unique and detailed research into Spurgeon’s family background and spiritual mentors. He showed the influences on the young Spurgeon which shaped the man he was to become.

It was also a privilege to hear Dr Geoff Chang (pictured, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), who is curator of his seminary’s Spurgeon archive.

He spoke about the ‘convictional ministry of Spurgeon’. He demonstrated how Spurgeon was influenced in his ministry by biblical conviction and Baptist traditions more than anything else.

This contrasted with the research of Spurgeon biographer Patricia Stallings Kruppa, who described Spurgeon as ‘exercising papal authority and power’ and bearing all the attributes of a 19th-century revivalist.

Dr Chang highlighted three areas in which Spurgeon’s biblical convictions are evident: a belief in a regenerate church membership, in congregationalism, and in a plurality of elders.

In an age when church-going had become ‘fashionable’, Spurgeon was concerned to make sure only believers became members. He introduced a lengthy system of bringing people into membership which involved the whole church. This resulted on average in a church meeting to discuss applications for membership nearly every week of the year!

As an example of Spurgeon’s principle of church congregationalism, it was a fairly daring decision to use the Surrey Music Hall as a venue for evangelistic meetings, but this was not a decision that Spurgeon took alone. It was agreed in a vote by the church congregation.

Spurgeon’s introduction of elders was radical in Baptist churches of the time, but Spurgeon believed the role to be the pattern of biblical leadership.

He did not impose this on the church, but he did preach on elders regularly, and let the idea sink in until the congregation felt the need for elders. In the beginning nine men were appointed as elders, but by 1879 there were 30.

Both of the day’s lectures are well worth listening to, and are freely available on the website of the Strict Baptist Historical Society (sbhs.org.uk).

By Pauline Johns

New documentary surveys history and theology of revival

A new documentary about historic revivals is due to be released later this year.

Entitled REVIVAL: The Work of God, the film is written and presented by Jeremy Walker (Maidenbower Baptist Church, Crawley). It is produced and distributed by Reformation Heritage Books (Grand Rapids, Michigan).

Historic churches and locations are featured, and production involved filming on location across the UK and the United States in places ranging from London and Aberystwyth to New York City and the Isle of Lewis.

The film highlights revivals from across the centuries. ‘We begin with Pentecost’, director and producer Dan Pugh told ET, ‘and address the blessings of God through church history, focusing on the better-attested episodes.

‘We move through the Reformation, the Puritans, Kirk O’ Shotts, Jonathan Edwards, the Calvinistic Methodists in England and Wales, Kilsyth in 1839, the 1859, Revival and the 1949 Isle of Lewis Revival.’

Mr Pugh is no stranger to documentaries on revival: he is simultaneously producing Welsh Awakenings, a film focusing specifically on events in Wales, which will be released in 2023.

He is aware that the new film can only cover so much ground: ‘REVIVAL isn’t intended to be a comprehensive history, but rather snapshots of key periods and events to help illustrate the lessons and the theology. It is a representative study.’

REVIVAL features interviews with ministers and church historians, as well as on-location presentation from Jeremy. Contributors include Geoff Thomas, Joel Beeke, Ian Hamilton, Brian Edwards, Stuart Olyott, and others.

However, Jeremy and Dan are keen for the spotlight not to shine on the contributors or even the men involved in leading historic revivals: ‘Our aim is not to make much of the people and places, but the God who worked through and in them, and the means and instruction he provides in his Word for seeking him. God has done mighty acts in the past, and he can do so again.’

Visit https://revival.movie for more information.

By John Tredgett

‘Is creationism credible?’ explored at a CMNW meeting in Whitehaven

Matthew Pickhaver, associate lecturer with Biblical Creation Trust (www.biblicalcreationtrust.org), presented two talks at a recent meeting hosted by Creation Matters North West (CMNW – www.cmnw.org.uk) in Whitehaven, Cumbria.

CMNW seeks to promote the biblical and scientific teachings of creation to churches in the northwest by inviting eminent speakers to present two meetings every year.

In ‘Is evolution proven?’, Matthew addressed many of the misconceptions Christians can have about science because of how it is presented in the media.

Matthew affirmed that science is not about proving things so much as formulating models based on observations and experiments. Well-tested models go forward to become theories, such as the theory of gravity.

Does the theory of evolution pass this basic scientific method? Matthew, using many examples from both the history of science as well as contemporary sources, argued that many ‘facts’ cannot be explained by evolution.

Indeed, many accepted theories have subsequently turned out to be wrong. Vestigial organs provide a good example, as it turned out that these so-called ‘redundant organs’ from an ‘evolutionary past’ actually play many important biological roles.

When Matthew turned his attention to creationism, he argued that all the ‘gaps’ in the theory of evolution and the origins of species can be explained by a single creator God.

The second talk was titled ‘Is creation credible?’ and addressed many of the criticisms from modern science. Matthew explained how creationism both upholds the authority of Scripture and fully supports the rigours of the scientific method.

By Rafael Cobos

‘A fresh look at Christ’ at Longhorsley Bible Convention in Northumberland

The preaching of Rupert Bentley-Taylor and David Campbell was greatly appreciated during the Longhorsley Mission Bible Convention in July.

It was good to be able to meet again in person after a two-year gap. The ministry was well worth the wait.

Those who gathered in Longframlington, Northumberland, were glad to respond to a call from Rupert Bentley-Taylor (based in Bath) to let a great and glorious truth which God’s people affirm sink down more deeply within them.

His two sermons focused on the resurrection of Jesus, which he ably demonstrated to be inevitable, unstoppable, and verifiable. It demands a response. God’s people should proclaim the truth of it in the face of denial and opposition.

David Campbell (serving in Preston) invited us to take a fresh look at what we know about Jesus. He considered the transfiguration and the events in Gethsemane. Both were times of prayer, and both were with a view to the cross.

On the mount of transfiguration, the cross was on the Saviour’s mind. It was also the topic of which Moses and Elijah spoke. In Gethsemane, Jesus was very aware that his death was near.

On the mount, Jesus being both the Son of God and the chosen one was affirmed. In the garden, the hell that God’s chosen one would suffer weighed heavily upon him. Yet he did not recoil from nor refuse it.

In 2023, the convention will feature Andrew Lucas (Omagh) and Conrad Pomeroy (Dudley), God willing. The 2022 sermons are available at longhorsleymission.org.uk.

By George Curry

US: Christian groups voice their religious liberty unease over so-called ‘Respect for Marriage’ bill

More than 80 Christian groups have signed a letter outlining their concerns that a proposed new federal law could punish them for their biblical beliefs about marriage.

The so-called ‘Respect for Marriage’ bill would require the US federal government and its agencies to recognise the validity of same-sex marriages in the United States.

Not only that, but the Act would also require the government to recognise the validity of any one state’s definition of marriage.

That could include plural marriages, time-bound marriages, open marriages, marriages involving a minor or relative, platonic marriages, or any other new marriage definition that a state chooses to adopt.

Any faith-based groups who work with the state, for example by providing fostering services, could be sued if they act upon their belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.

The law could also catch religious social service organisations that are heavily funded by and work jointly with the government to serve their communities.

Religious groups and businesses that provide services under contract with the government would also be affected.

The letter of concern, signed by more than 80 Christian groups, was organised by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal group that defends religious liberty.

ADF President and CEO Michael P. Farris said the so-called Respect for Marriage Act ‘empowers the government to punish millions of Americans who hold decent and honourable beliefs about marriage – beliefs that have existed since time immemorial – exposing citizens to predatory lawsuits and even endangering the nonprofit status of faith-based organisations’.

He added, ‘When culture and political institutions fail to respect the institution of marriage and instead promote open aggression against those who believe that marriage is between a man and woman, they not only undermine human flourishing but seriously harm religious freedom.’

Dr Albert Mohler was one of the Christian leaders to sign the letter of concern. The letter calls on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to oppose the bill.

The letter states, ‘The Act, which was suddenly rushed through the House without any public hearings or input, is an attack on millions of Americans, particularly people of faith, who believe marriage is between one man and one woman.’

It continues, ‘the proposed Act goes far beyond merely codifying same-sex marriage in federal law. It is a startling expansion of what marriage means – and who may be sued if they disagree – that threatens the freedom of numerous “decent and honorable” Americans of different faiths, creeds, and walks of life who wish to live consistent with their deeply-held beliefs.’

Poland: Abortions reduced by 90 per cent after court ruling

The number of legal abortions in Poland has declined by 90 percent from 2020 to 2021, new figures reveal.

The drop, announced by Poland’s Ministry of Health, follows a court ruling that made it illegal to terminate a pregnancy based on a pre-birth medical diagnosis such as Down’s syndrome.

According to the official figures, 1,076 abortions were carried out in Poland in 2020, compared with just 107 in 2021.

Pro-life groups welcomed the news, saying the new law effectively saved the lives of nearly 1,000 children in just one year of its implementation.

Magdalena Korzekwa-Kaliszuk, head of the pro-life Proelio Group Foundation, said, ‘This means that the law is working and has allowed specific people to be saved.’

She added, ‘The right to life should not depend on the diagnosis of a medical condition.’

And she said the court ruling removed the basis for doctors to ‘propose or even pressure parents to have an abortion’.

In 2001 Polish President Andrzej Duda gave an interview to US television in which he said, ‘I’m pro-life, I defend life, I believe that life is sacred.’

He added, ‘I believe [life] should be guarded, and families have to be supported as strong as they can because family is the foundation of every nation.’

As reported by ET back in 2020, Poland’s highest court ruled that abortions on the grounds of disability will no longer be permitted.

The Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the law was unconstitutional, leaving only limited grounds for a legal abortion.

Abortion in Poland is only legally allowed in cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s health is at risk.

In the 2020 ruling, the Tribunal stated that ‘the unborn child, as a human being who is entitled to inherent and inalienable dignity, is a subject having the right to life, and the legal system must guarantee due protection for this central good’.

At the time, pro-abortion activists were angered by the ruling and protested outside churches.

Activists carried placards with messages including ‘Let’s pray for the right to abortion’.

Church buildings in Warsaw were defaced with slogans such as ‘unlimited abortions’.

Pro-abortion protestors shouting ‘This is war’ had previously broken Covid lockdown rules to clash with police forces.

While legal abortions have been dramatically reduced in Poland, it is not clear how many illegal abortions are taking place.

Pro-abortion campaigners estimate the number is in the thousands but that claim has not been independently verified.

It is reported that women in Poland seeking illegal abortions resort to purchasing abortion pills online.

Australia: Rugby players take a stand against wearing ‘Pride’ jerseys

Seven Australian rugby players have boycotted their team’s match after the club unveiled jerseys with an LGBT+ affirming motif.

The incident began in July after Sydney-based Manly Warringah Sea Eagles team members refused to wear the ‘Pride’ rugby shirt.

The team members, from Polynesia, cited ‘religious and cultural’ convictions and said they had not been consulted about the new kit.

Instead, the players only found out about the new kit after it was shown to the media days before they were due to play a crucial league match against local rivals Sydney Roosters.

Defending the seven’s decision to boycott a match and refuse to wear the new kit, their team coach Des Hasler said the club was at fault for not having consulted the team first.

He was quoted as saying, ‘These young men are strong in their beliefs and their convictions and we will give them the space and the support they require.’

In July, the team’s Twitter account unveiled a video of the new kit in support of ‘Pride month’. It also tweeted, ‘You, Me, Everyone in League’.

But supporters were quick to respond, with one stating, ‘Every year there are more and more Pacific Islanders playing NRL who come from conservative faith-based traditions.

‘To mandate they wear a jersey that contravenes their beliefs, perhaps lacks cultural sensitivity and awareness. I wonder if there is a better win-win solution?’

But another respondent tweeted, ‘Imagine being offended by rainbow colours but have no issue wearing a gambling sponsor.’

In June, as reported by The Christian Institute, five Tampa Bay Rays baseball players in the US refused to wear a kit designed to promote ‘Pride month’.

Meanwhile, last year, Christian rugby star Israel Folau was expected to make a return to the sport in his homeland Australia after he was previously banned for an Instagram post in which he said homosexuality was a sin.

As reported by ET in 2019, Australian rugby authorities said, ‘Folau does not speak for the game with his recent social media posts. In the absence of compelling mitigating factors, it is our intention to terminate his contract.’

Canada: Street pastor who defied Covid lockdown wins his legal case

A Calgary-based street pastor and others who were accused of breaching a Covid lockdown order have won an appeal against a contempt of court finding.

In a unanimous decision, a three-member Alberta Court of Appeal panel ruled that the order was ‘not sufficiently clear’ so it must set aside the contempt finding.

The court ordered that fines, cost orders, and other sanctions against Artur Pawlowski and his co-defendants be returned to them.

The judges said they do not necessarily condone the actions of the defendants, but the issue at hand is whether the injunction applied to them such as they could be found in contempt of it..

Sudan: Fears grow for four men who were arrested following conversion

Four Sudanese men who converted to Christianity from a Muslim background have been charged with apostasy.

The men, who are not being named for fear of reprisal attacks, were arrested following a raid on their church in Zallingei, Darfur, on 22 June this year.

They were each questioned and beaten before being released. The authorities also confiscated Bibles and technical equipment belonging to the church.

On 28 June the men were called back to the police station, questioned further, and charged with apostasy. While they are awaiting their trial, they have gone into hiding.

However, the charges were made under a law that had previously been abolished.

Article 126 of Sudan’s Penal Code made it illegal to convert from Islam to another religion, and gave the death penalty for apostasy.

But in 2020, Article 126 was abolished as part of a package of reforms designed to uphold the principle of religious freedom.

The use of the law in this case has caused concern that Sudan’s reforms have been ‘rolled back’, signalling a return to Islamism by the government, according to Barnabas Fund.

Hong Kong: Religious liberty will be the next freedom targeted by China

A Christian pro-democracy campaigner for Hong Kong says religious freedom will be the next thing to be threatened by the Chinese government.

Speaking in response to the 25th anniversary of the UK handing the territory back to China, Benedict Rogers – co-founder of Hong Kong Watch – said he was concerned.

He said a free media, freedom to protest, and academic freedom had all been taken away, adding, ‘And I do think that freedom of religion or belief is likely to be the next target in Hong Kong.’

Under the agreement between the UK and China, which led to the return of Hong Kong to China 25 years ago, certain freedoms were meant to be protected in the territory.

But China has been increasing its clampdown on civil liberties, claiming it needs to restore ‘order’ and avoid ‘chaos’ following pro-democracy protests in 2020.

But Benedict Rogers told Premier Christian News, ‘China has totally dismantled Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy, but they’re still trying to pretend that all is well.’

He said, ‘In terms of the major media, there’s no independent media left. There’s no freedom to protest. Academic freedom is under increasing pressure.

‘There are now textbooks changing accounts of history to give the Chinese Communist Party’s version of history in schools.

‘And Hong Kong has gone very rapidly from being one of the freest and most open societies in Asia, to being a full police state.’

Britain introduced an immigration route for holders of British National (Overseas) passports last year.

It is understood that there have been 120,000 applications under the scheme by Hong Kongers.

Many UK churches are reporting an increased number of Hong Kong Christians joining them having moved to this country.

Some of those Hong Kong Christians have expressly stated they fear a major clamp down on religious liberty is not far away.

REVIEWS

Film review: What is a Woman?

Presented by Matt Walsh

Produced and distributed by The Daily Wire

95 minutes

BUY

This is the question which has got the proponents of transgender ideology stumped. In this high-quality documentary, Matt Walsh demonstrates the language-hollowing absurdity which results when you disconnect gender from biology. He also reveals the horrors of the life-altering treatment that’s being pushed upon vulnerable people in the name of inclusivity.

Walsh is an American journalist and practising Roman Catholic. Through most of the film he is seen interviewing professionals in gender-related fields. His simple questions elicit some jaw-droppingly honest answers.

A paediatrician asserts that very young children who believe in Father Christmas can ‘figure out’ that they are transgender, and that doctors like her are right to affirm that belief through hormone treatment. A respected surgeon admits to having carried out vaginoplasties (the construction of artificial female genitalia from parts of a male’s body) on boys as young as 16 – without any concern about their decision-making capacity. A professor of gender studies declares the concept of objective truth in this area to be ‘condescending and rude’.

We also meet the (human) man who identifies as a female wolf; the family therapist who believes ‘Some women have penises, some men have vaginas’; and the doctor who insists that even ‘a chicken has an assigned gender’. It is astonishing to see intelligent people speak such lunacy while keeping a straight face.

On that most basic question, ‘What is a woman?’, the interviewees are flummoxed. They shift. They squirm. They try circular definitions. They turn the question back on the interviewer. And in many cases, they hit back: the questioner is transphobic and hateful; the interview is ended.

Thankfully, other professionals will speak up. They point to the social contagion of online communities which encourage anxious and lonely children to ‘transition’. They call out the medics who fast-track them into what is effectively chemical castration, who sterilise girls and remove their healthy breasts. The long-term consequences are uncertain – except for the financial boon to the industry, which has gained another life-long patient.

There are moving testimonies from individuals whose lives have been adversely affected by this movement. An elite high school athlete expresses her heartbreak at missing out on medals and higher-level competitions because she was consistently outrun by biological males. An anonymous teammate of male-bodied swimmer Lia Thomas says that swimmers who questioned his participation in women’s events were branded transphobic by the sports authorities and offered psychological help.

A Canadian father describes being arrested and fined for ‘misgendering’ his 13-year-old daughter, on whom a hospital had begun hormone treatment against his wishes. A woman articulates her hurt and outrage at having been misled into this experimental therapy and surgery – and the awful, permanent physical side effects of which she was never warned.

At times Walsh is clearly poking fun at the irrationality of this ideology. When he asks remote tribesmen in Kenya their opinion on changing gender, they roar with laughter at the very thought. (The bigots!)

There is certainly Scriptural precedent for gently mocking the idolatry of the day (1 Kings 18, Isaiah 44). But on reflection, the sheer evil which this documentary exposes should provoke tears instead of laughter, and a prayer that God would have mercy on our corrupt, degenerate Western society.

What is a Woman? can be watched at www, where a one-month subscription costs 14 US dollars. Viewers should be aware that it contains the sort of crude anatomical terms which you would expect to hear in non-Christian conversation.

Matthew Cox

Bethersden, Kent

Love, Marriage – and Jesus: The Song of Solomon

Jonathan Bayes

Wipf and Stock

132 pages; £12.00

BUY

The Song of Solomon is a book about love. It gives us a picture of the beauty of the marriage relationship. It is a book that is seldom taught and applied. Therefore I am very thankful that Dr Bayes has written this theologically rigorous and immensely practical and applicable work.

This book is a biblically grounded call for husbands to ‘fly that banner of love and protection of their wives’. It is a challenge for husbands and wives to cherish one another passionately and joyfully in this lifelong covenant.

Love, Marriage – and Jesus is a very detailed exegetical study of the Song of Solomon. It is not merely a commentary, however. It is also very practical. The pastoral counsel and applications are great strengths of this work. Dr Bayes very effectively draws out the theological significance of the Song as it pertains to marriage relationships and our relation to Christ, and he helps us to consistently fix our gaze upon the hope that we have for that banquet feast with our Bridegroom in glory.

The chapters and structure are rigorously focused on unpacking the doctrinal richness of the entire book, following the flow of the Song of Songs. It would be very beneficial for readers who want to establish a biblical grounding on the topic of marriage, and certainly of the Song of Solomon.

This book does not provide significant and detailed practical considerations for Christian marriages today, but it could assist in providing needed biblical grounding on this crucial topic. It is also another reason why I would greatly encourage professing Christians to read and study the Song of Solomon, and highly recommend Dr Bayes’ book as an excellent companion in such a study.

John-William Noble

Aberdeen

Our Heavenly Shepherd: Comfort and strength from Psalm 23

Ian Hamilton

Reformation Heritage Books

112 pages; £7.99

BUY

Merely reading the title of this lovely little book was enough to encourage me. Given that there is so much both around us and within us that seeks to bind us to this earth, it was such a blessing to be reminded that as believers we have a heavenly Shepherd.

Yes, most Christians are already very familiar with Psalm 23, but you know what they say about familiarity! And how proud and foolish we would be if we ever felt that we had nothing more to learn about our heavenly Shepherd.

Ian Hamilton’s main aim is to help us to see ‘how personally committed the Lord is to care for, protect, and bring His people to be with Him in the glory of His heaven’ (p.12). He definitely hits the target, as he helpfully works his way through the Psalm, explaining each verse so clearly and warmly.

Just two examples will have to suffice. First, in commenting on the clause, ‘I shall not want’, the writer corrects us from having too low a view of doctrine. He says, ‘It is our doctrine of God that alone will sustain us in the midst of life’s bewildering providences’ (p.19).

Second, on the statement, ‘He restores my soul’, we are told: ‘The best of Christians fall into sin and need God’s restoring mercy. Never think, far less say, “It could never happen to me”. It has happened to better Christians than you and me’ (p.46).

On several pages religious unbelievers are addressed, so this book would be very appropriate to give to friends or relatives in that needy category. The writer peppers each chapter with illustrations and quotations from church history. How good it is to be reminded of the richness of the spirituality of godly men of old like Bunyan, Calvin, Luther, and Owen.

On page 78 the writer sums up the contents of the Psalm thus: ‘In every verse, David fixes his thoughts on the Lord and the fountain of blessings He has lavished on His children.’ With that in mind, may we never tire of returning to Psalm 23, and of fixing our eyes on our heavenly Shepherd. This book is very warmly commended.

Andy Banton

Dunstable

The Life and Teaching of Jesus Explained and Applied

Gareth Crossley

Published independently

477 pages; £12.00

BUY

This hardback is an understandable follow-on from the author’s previous work, The Old Testament Explained and Applied, and the current volume is up to the same high standard.

In this book we are taken to the four Gospels and shown various events from the life of our Lord. At the beginning we have a harmony of the Gospels, going through the different stages of Christ’s life. Each account is given a page or two, expounding and applying the event in hand. These are thoughtful explanations undergirded by reliable commentators and exegetes. 134 occasions are covered all told, constituting most of the book.

After this is a section on ‘significant facts’, explaining words that crop up such as ‘covenants’, ‘Pharisees’, and ‘Sanhedrin’. The last section homes in on each of the Gospels, giving a sketch of its author and an outline of its content, context, distinctive features, and Christology. The work includes useful maps and a chart.

You will find this resource reliable, readable, and useful: reliable because it is biblical, readable in its style, and useful if you have any teaching or preaching responsibility – or are simply a spiritually hungry believer wanting to know more of the lovely Saviour we adore.

We always need books that centre on the Lord Jesus Christ and stir us up to think of him and live for him. I therefore warmly commend this tome.

The Life and Teaching of Jesus Explained and Applied can be purchased via www

Ben Hutton

Thornhill, West Yorkshire

Making Faith Magnetic: Five hidden themes our culture can’t stop talking about... and how to connect them to Christ

Daniel Strange

Good Book Company

176 pages; £9.99

BUY

As Christians, when we try and share our faith with family and friends, it is common to be ignored or considered irrelevant and simply out of touch. Much to our frustration, many people behave as if we have nothing of value to say to them, because they have rejected the fact that God exists. Faced with such resistance, how can we share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that will connect with a person’s inner needs?

Here Daniel Strange’s latest book can help us. Drawing on insights from the missiologist J. H. Bavinck, he identifies five interconnected themes with which many people in our society are obsessed. Each of these ‘magnetic points’ produces a basic question that people must answer. Their answer may be a myth, a fairy tale, or a story, but they are subjects that cannot be ignored. And the author shows how the true answer can only be found in the gospel of Jesus.

This book is well written and full of helpful illustrations which demonstrate the place that the magnetic points occupy in people’s thinking. Making Faith Magnetic will appeal to anyone interested in evangelism or apologetics, and contains insights that will help preachers connect the gospel to the hearts of their congregations.

Matthew Clay

Tenterden, Kent

Table of Contents

FEATURES

The pearl of great price – ministry on Madeira

The extreme ideology of abortion

Why the Christian Legal Centre fought so hard for Archie Battersbee’s right to life

Scripture’s hidden gems: 3 John

A time for anger

An interview with Jonathan Winch: Teaching is one of the noblest of callings

Let your sins be strong

COMMENT: The Archie Battersbee case needs careful consideration

GUEST COLUMN: The future brought forward

A SHRINK THINKS... The seduction of Eve (part two)

THINKING IT THROUGH: Humour and holiness

A WALK WITH MR O: I feel overwhelmed

CRUNCH POINTS: Trapped by porn

NEWS

News in brief

‘Complex’ Archie Battersbee case raises crucial questions

Liz Truss promises to defend free speech from Online Safety Bill

Plans for abortion clinic buffer zones will be a threat to free speech, pro-life campaigners say

Mayoral candidate sacked by housing charity for her manifesto commitment to Christian marriage

NHS transgender clinic for children to close down, with at least 1,000 people threatening legal action

Petition is launched to defend free speech on UK university campuses

Grandmother, 76, overturns fine for praying silently on the street during Covid lockdown last year

Ladies’ conference explores Christian contentment

Ten students graduate from London Seminary

200 people gather for Induction of Revd Al MacInnes at Dornoch

Martin Bakker inducted to the pastorate of Baptist churches in Dundee and Kirriemuir

The ‘convictional ministry’ of C. H. Spurgeon addressed in lectures in Notting Hill Gate

New documentary surveys history and theology of revival

‘Is creationism credible?’ explored at a CMNW meeting in Whitehaven

‘A fresh look at Christ’ at Longhorsley Bible Convention in Northumberland

US: Christian groups voice their religious liberty unease over so-called ‘Respect for Marriage’ bill

Poland: Abortions reduced by 90 per cent after court ruling

Australia: Rugby players take a stand against wearing ‘Pride’ jerseys

Canada: Street pastor who defied Covid lockdown wins his legal case

Sudan: Fears grow for four men who were arrested following conversion

Hong Kong: Religious liberty will be the next freedom targeted by China

REVIEWS

Film review: What is a Woman?

Love, Marriage – and Jesus: The Song of Solomon

Our Heavenly Shepherd: Comfort and strength from Psalm 23

The Life and Teaching of Jesus Explained and Applied

Making Faith Magnetic: Five hidden themes our culture can’t stop talking about... and how to connect them to Christ