Contents

FEATURES

Authentic discipleship

Thankful for partners: Zimbabwe Partnership Trust

Why hymnals?

Do we need some post-covid repentance?

Attacking Pearl Harbour, surrendering to Christ: The story of Mitsuo Fuchida

From Kyiv to Brussels: reflections one year after invasion

Sharing Christ in a post-Christian land: The work of Outreach UK

Catechising our children

COMMENT: Multi-faith coronation row should come as no surprise

GUEST COLUMN: True beauty for ordinary women

Crunch Points: Respecting sinful authorities

THINKING IT THROUGH: All creatures great and small: Christians and their pets

A WALK WITH MR O: As few regrets as possible

A SHRINK THINKS... Truth and Lies (Part One)

NEWS

News in brief

King Charles III at loggerheads with bishops over multi-faith coronation

Channel 4 TV show under fire for parading naked adults in front of children

‘Excessive’ bail conditions are relaxed for woman arrested for silently praying near an abortion clinic

Bible college sacks theologian and threatens to report him to counter-terrorism agency over Twitter postings

MP shares the gospel in a passionate speech at Westminster debate

Second panel member recused from Christian’s Employment Appeal case

Manchester Cathedral says sorry for allowing Muslim prayer in the nave

Lessons drawn from the days of Luther and Ezekiel at Free Church (Continuing) Southern Presbytery Colloquium hosted in Glasgow

Chris Hawthorne is inducted to Abbey Baptist Church, Abingdon

Lecture examined the impact of Gregory of Nazianzus (330–390), ‘The greatest preacher of his age’

Cumbrian creation conference explores the wonders of hearing and migration with Professor Andy Mcintosh

When God draws near – Wessex Conference examines various aspects of revival with speaker Jeremy Walker

Youngsters memorise Matthew 6 at Essex Memory Verse Rally

Armagh conference asks, ‘Is Catholicism a thing of the past?’

Philip Eveson retires from the London Seminary Board after fifty years

US: Florida governor DeSantis signs six-week abortion ban into law, but awaits court ruling

Australia: New South Wales leader vows to protect prayer from a ban on so-called conversion therapy

Russia: European Court denounces the punishment of pastor who hosted a prayer meeting, calling it a clear breach of human rights

Finland: Election victory for politician who was prosecuted over Bible tweet

India: Celebrations held for completed Bible translations in Thadou and Simte languages

Nigeria: Young boy killed in Palm Sunday church attack

REVIEWS

A Biblical Case Against Theistic Evolution

Challenging Leaders

If Christianity Is So Good, Why Are Christians So Bad?

The Heart of the Reformation

The Lullingstone Secret

FEATURES

Authentic discipleship

I remember very well listening to a sermon by the late Eric J. Alexander from the Book of Revelation (allow me to encourage you to listen to the series: www.ericalexander.co.uk) in which he quoted some words of Lord Reith, the first Director General of the BBC.

Lord Reith had just entered the boardroom of the BBC and found a number of the younger men in animated discussion. The DG asked them what they were so passionately discussing. They answered, ‘We are writing the obituary of the Christian church.’

It was the early 1920s. Secularism, idealist philosophy, liberal theology, and a largely spiritually-anaemic church seemed to sound the death knell of Christianity in the UK. Lord Reith’s response was memorable: ‘Gentlemen, the church of Jesus Christ will stand at the grave of the BBC.’

I can still remember the riveting effect of the words in my mind and heart. We live today in dark and foreboding times. I am not thinking primarily, or even at all, about the recent pandemic, the war in Europe, and the economic strains at home. The darkness that I am thinking about is darker and more destructive and demoralising than any of these.

The times we live in are increasingly being defined by morality and theology based on taste and inclination, and not on the Word of God. This has led to a moral and spiritual pandemic of seismic proportions.

In the proverbial blink of an eye, good is being called evil and evil is being called good. Truth has been reduced to a myriad of personal preferences. We are sowing to the wind and reaping the whirlwind.

God forsaken

As I look out on the moral free fall that is bringing ruination to multitudes, two thoughts press on my mind.

First, this is exactly what the Word of God tells us inevitably happens when men and women exchange the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25). When you stop believing in the God of the Bible, you start believing in anything.

When this happens, God does not stand idly by. Three times in Romans 1:18-32, we read ‘God gave them up’. The world we live in is not heading for God’s judgment, it is living in the midst of his judgment. God will not be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap (Galatians 6:7).

Yes, we must warn men and women of the judgment to come. God has appointed ‘a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead’ (Acts 17:31). But no less must we tell people that we are living in the midst of God’s judgment because of our defiance of him and his truth.

In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis penned one of his most memorable lines: ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’

Can there be any doubt that whatever else the Lord may be doing in the midst of the recent worldwide pandemic and the financial strains that followed, he is most certainly seeking to rouse a deaf world to its pressing need before a holy God?

Ghetto mentality

Second, it is striking, at least to me, that by and large the Christian church has been muted in its response to the tsunami of wickedness and perversity that has deluged this present world.

Perhaps we are intimidated by the near monolithic opposition to the Christian faith that increasingly defines our world. Perhaps we are hoping that if we keep our heads down the tsunami will not badly affect us. Thinking this, we drift into a ghetto mentality, forgetting that our Saviour has called his church to be salt and light in a putrefying and dark world.

Perhaps, however, we have become pusillanimous and fearful of the consequences of boldly and unashamedly living for Christ and proclaiming his saving gospel. We are not willing to embrace the cost of authentic discipleship.

A friend of mine once caused consternation in the faculty of divinity where he was studying when, at the weekly chapel service, he spoke of ‘pusillanimous prophets, masquerading as preachers of the gospel’. To say his professors were unhappy would be a huge understatement.

Pastors have a great responsibility to preach into the times. Only too easily, Christians can become somewhat inured to the wickedness that pervades every area of national and local life.

We all breathe in the toxic atmosphere of this world; it assaults us everywhere we look and listen. One of our great needs is to hear, Sunday by Sunday, midweek by midweek, the wholesome truths of God’s enduringly true Word.

Unashamed

We need pastors and elders to be bold and unashamed servants of God, willing and ready by God’s grace to endure hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3).

Since the Reformation, Christians in the West have, in general, been spared the awful cost of gospel faithfulness that many of our brothers and sisters in the East have endured.

No longer. Legislation is being prepared in a number of nations which would criminalise men who preach against the sexual revolution that has swept through the modern world.

The day is fast approaching when faithful men and women will find themselves echoing the conviction of Peter and the other apostles: ‘We must obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29). This will lead to consequences, but God’s truth is always to be proclaimed no matter the consequences.

I am very aware this is easier said than done. The cost of faithfulness may be very bitter, as it is for fellow believers today in North Korea, China, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Nigeria (the list could go on and on). But to do otherwise would be to abandon the Saviour who commands us to follow him without qualification.

Jesus’s words in Luke 14:26-27 have been on my mind in recent times, unsettlingly so: ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.’

According to our Lord, this is not what authentic discipleship aspires to, it is where it begins. Have you, have I, begun?

Reproduced from Banner of Truth Magazine with permission.

By Ian Hamilton Associate Minister, Smithton Culloden Free Church of Scotland, Inverness.

Thankful for partners: Zimbabwe Partnership Trust

I will never forget talking to a clean and tidily-dressed young man in Bulawayo Baptist Church when I was there some years ago, amazed to discover he had no Bible. The 20 US dollars required was simply out of his reach.

As it is for many in Zimbabwe, every day was simply a struggle to pay for the bare necessities of life.

Since 2011, Zimbabwe Partnership Trust (ZPT) has continued to develop links with partners both in the UK and Zimbabwe itself in order to bring relief to our needy brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe.

The Trinitarian Bible Society is one such partner. It has given grants of Bibles faithfully translated into both the main Shona and Ndbele languages spoken in Zimbabwe.

The Christian charity ‘Tools with a mission’ also engaged with us to send consignments of refurbished tools to the Zimbabwean charity ‘Fountain of Hope Foundation’, enabling and equipping them to reach out to some of the many Zimbabwean young people who have grown up on the streets as orphans – many turning to delinquency, crime, and prostitution to provide for themselves.

Fountain of Hope has also been partnering with ZPT to build a clinic in a remote area to provide medical help to the district with a population of around 19,000 people.

Currently, these people must make a long journey to the nearest hospital or alternative clinic. They either pay for transport or face an arduous journey on foot or by donkey cart.

Local UK churches have partnered with us to fund the drilling of boreholes which bring clean drinking water to drought-stricken communities, and also make it possible to cultivate vegetable gardens.

This transforms whole districts and brings glory to the true and living God in rural areas more prone to superstition and witchcraft.

Sadly, droughts have led to famine conditions, made worse by widespread unemployment due to general economic mismanagement and corruption.

This means that an important part of our work is helping to fund emergency supplies of the staple maize meal, particularly to the many displaced people living in rough settlements.

Zimbabwe often feels like a ‘Christian country’, with a good number of churches in the cities, and its people generally peace-loving and polite. There is a huge need, however, for well-taught preachers and church leaders to disciple believers.

Many have been led astray by ‘prosperity gospel’ teachers or simply go to churches where there is an emphasis on worship but little in the way of consistent Bible teaching.

To address this need, ZPT has for many years sent a team from the UK to conduct preachers’ workshops and to train indigenous Zimbabweans to become trainers themselves.

The onset of covid in recent years ruled out sending teams from the UK, but it did open up the new possibility of Zoom conferences in Zimbabwe. This has enabled us to continue our input from the UK.

We acknowledge the goodness of God every year in giving us the resources to channel through to our needy brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe.

We are increasingly aware, however, that our human resources are critically ageing! We are seeking like-minded Christians to prayerfully consider joining with us to assist with the day-to-day running of ZPT.

If you would like to know more or would like to help in any way, please contact Roger Prime (roger@zpt.org.uk) or visit www.zpt.org.uk.

By Jon Spalding, Trustee of Zimbabwe Partnership Trust.

Why hymnals?

The people of God have always sung their faith. Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn after the Last Supper before leaving for the Mount of Olives. The church sang hymns throughout the Apostolic age (Colossians 3:16), and continued to do so for many centuries afterward.

Yet particularly during the Renaissance, congregational song in the church’s corporate worship began to disappear.

Pre-Reformation church music was dominated by beautiful yet complex polyphony. The difficult rhythms, melodies, and harmonies could be mastered only by choirs of well-rehearsed singers, confining congregations to passive observation.

A major intervention was required to recover congregational singing. This occurred during the Reformation by means of the written notation of the hymnal.

Reformation hymnals

Martin Luther gave the German church two books in the vernacular: the Bible and the hymnal. Luther published the first hymnal, known as the Achtliederbuch, in 1524.

This pivotal collection of eight hymns formally launched Luther’s revival of singing as a congregational activity and did much to cement a recovered biblical theology in the hearts and minds of early Protestant Christians.

Both friends and opponents of the Reformation admitted that Luther’s hymns did more to spread Protestant theology than his sermons.

For centuries since Luther’s Achtliederbuch, Christian leaders and denominations have followed suit by editing and publishing hymnals. These hymnals have helped set the boundaries of theological orthodoxy and musical expression in the worship of a given denomination.

Texts and tunes chosen for hymnals have made statements about what Christians should believe and how we should approach God in corporate song.

A hymnal says, ‘These texts are worthy and truthful’ and ‘These are the tunes best suited to express these texts in a corporate setting.’ For instance, John Calvin’s Genevan Psalter reflected his belief that only God’s Word is appropriate material for congregational song.

Louis Bourgeois, a church musician under Calvin’s leadership, worked to set the Psalms to music in a fitting manner. Luther’s hymns had broader boundaries that included scriptural paraphrases, prayers, and systematised doctrine. Luther borrowed from music that already existed in the church by adapting chant tunes for his hymns.

It is a myth that Luther used bar tunes to compose hymns. Rather, Lutheran chorales are constructed according to ‘bar form’, in which the first musical line is repeated before moving on to new melodic material.

The use of secular compositional material for hymns came after Luther and was protested by theologians.

Hymnals have stewarded a core ‘canon’ of hymnody over the centuries. One of the earliest hymns after the biblical canticles still sung today is the third century’s Phos Hilaron, translated ‘Hail, Gladdening Light’ or ‘O Gladsome Light’. Hymns and psalm settings are still being composed today. We should sing some of these, yet there should be an established set of timeless hymns that every Christian knows.

The tie that binds

Christians need hymns that can unite them whether they find themselves in churches or in jail cells, like Paul and Silas. This shared experience of hymnody binds generations of believers together. ‘One generation shall commend your works to another’ (Psalm 145:4).

A church I once served had a tradition of Christmas caroling at a nursing home with their children’s choirs. Residents wept as they resonated with familiar words and tunes. In the memory-care wing, where names of loved ones were long forgotten, Christians knew their Christmas hymns, and they sang.

Layman’s theology text

The hymnal is the layman’s theology text. Over the centuries, hymn writers have beautifully fleshed out every aspect of faith and doctrine. The devotional and catechetical nature of hymnody can deepen our piety and develop our theological knowledge.

This should motivate us to move beyond singing familiar favourites to explore hymns from other genres and time periods.

One may be well versed in 19th-century gospel songs that highlight the Christian’s personal experience of Christ. But if we are to be well rounded in our hymnody, we should also be singing Ambrose of Milan’s hymn ‘O Splendour of God’s Glory Bright’, Samuel Crossman’s ‘My Song Is Love Unknown’, and Paul Gerhardt’s ‘O Lord, How Shall I Meet Thee?’

Singing the faith

Hymnals invite participation. Worshipers with little musical background can learn to read the music in the hymnal by observing the movement of melody and rhythm.

More experienced musicians can read and sing the harmonies. Good hymnals thoughtfully limit tunes to those that are well constructed and can be sung with relative ease by congregations. These tunes generally consist of straightforward rhythms, melodic lines, and harmonies. Good hymnals pair texts with tunes that appropriately convey the message of the text. In the best pairings of text and tune, the tune will ‘paint’ or exposit the meaning of the text.

Hymnals, like creeds, can help us avoid theological drift and a resulting diluted, culturally syncretistic Christianity. Creeds remind worshipers of core beliefs that Christians have confessed over the centuries and guide them in confessing those beliefs. Likewise, hymnals remind worshipers of what they believe and guide them in singing their faith. Churches are wise to guard against worship forms that foster a congregational passivity mirroring that of the pre-Reformation church.

If your church doesn’t use a hymnal, find a good one for your private family worship and sing through it. Let us be a people who do not neglect to sing our faith.

As Isaac Watts admonished in his hymn ‘Come, We That Love the Lord’:

Come, we that love the Lord,

and let our joys be known;

Join in a song with sweet accord,

and thus surround the throne.

Let those refuse to sing

that never knew our God;

but children of the heav’nly King

may speak their joys abroad.

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 Todd Alexander, Chief musician at Saint Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida.

Do we need some post-covid repentance?

We’re finally figuring out what ‘living with covid’ or ‘living in a post-covid world’ means. For some, this is a welcome relief. For others, life is still fraught with concerns. Perhaps the greatest of these is the strain that recent years have put on our relationships. Have we taken the time to take stock of our responses to those closest to us over covid?

We wish we had handled the last three years better, but we’re not sure what we could have done differently. How many of us entered the lockdowns fully intending to use the ‘extra time’ for spiritual disciplines and family growth, only to watch it drain into Netflix binging?

How many of our desires to serve and care for one another faded to tired resentment? Maybe we alienated friends and family with our views on all things covid. We meant to start well, but now? Now we’re not entirely sure what to do.

Maybe it’s time for some post-covid repentance. In the home. In the workplace. Definitely in the church.

How many solid Christian friendships – friendships that we previously valued – did we lose or drive away solely over differences on how to approach covid? How many relationships did we permanently mar as a result of conflicts during the last several years?

Issues such as how closely to follow track-and-trace in church, how often to test, and whether or not to vaccinate all became battlegrounds. We lost friends over covid, and we can’t say it was just their fault.

Vaccine saviours

Many, if we are honest, saw the lockdowns and restrictions and vaccines as our saviours – anything to protect us from covid and end this nightmare. Sure, there were those in our churches who chose not to get the vaccine for various reasons or who had questions about the public approaches taken, but how many of them had to keep their heads down lest they break relationships for their decidedly unpopular views?

Did we stand up for those in our churches with different views? Sadly, all too often we encouraged their ridicule – not to their faces of course, but in casual conversation. We spent more time talking about the latest news and the outrageousness of those who dared disagree with the prevailing winds of culture. We demanded that everyone ‘follow the science’. Objections were met with disdain. ‘Peer-reviewed!’ was the rallying cry. Warnings against misinformation, conspiracy theories, and anti-vaxxers abounded. Charity and a willingness to listen to different viewpoints? Not so much.

Lockdown tyranny

Others of us took it upon ourselves to rail as the prophet Elijah against the tyranny of lockdowns and restrictions.

We knew the answers. We had the solutions. We had faith. We thought we saw clarity where everyone else saw fog, and we attempted to cut through that fog with our decisive rhetoric and bold counsel.

We were flippant about the suffering many faced. We mocked those who got the vaccine as gullible, at best. At worst, we saw them as compromisers. We were prepared to stand boldly in the breach and fight against any enemies who stood in our way, even if they were fellow Christians.

We also alienated those around us. We were dismissive towards other views. We also hurt those in our families, in our circle of friends, in our churches. We had all the zeal of the sons of thunder. The Saviour’s love and compassion? Not so much.

Shepherds or ranchers?

Some of us were pastors during the past few years. How many of us shut down our churches’ gatherings at the government’s demands, with little to no thought given to the pastoral ramifications of cancelling meetings?

What of the sacraments, what of the necessity of interpersonal relationships?

We assumed we could figure that out later, if we thought about those things at all. ‘Submit to the governing authorities’ obviously had to supersede ‘we must obey God rather than men,’ because, well, Romans 13.

We saw so clearly what love for our neighbour meant. How to interact with a believing neighbour who disagreed? Not so much.

Others of us were going to be the one who stood against the capitulation endemic in today’s church. We had the truth, and we weren’t afraid to use it.

But we moved too quickly for our sheep, acting as ranchers rather than shepherds. Our sheep became more afraid of us than of covid, if they stuck around for long enough, that is. We encouraged rebelliousness and disdain of authority. We contributed to the breakdown of relationships as much as the covid conformists did.

Of course the church should rebel against the restrictions – what authority does Parliament have over the church? Then we were surprised when those in our own congregations wouldn’t follow our authority.

We were prepared to wage war for the truth. A willingness to patiently and lovingly bear with Christ’s tender sheep? Not so much.

Day of repentance

Maybe what we really need is a post-covid day of repentance.

Such days were common during the Puritan era – days set aside for confession and lamentation over our own and our nation’s sin. Days that were set aside for reconciliation with God, and days set aside for reconciliation with other believers.

Maybe we need to admit we acted out of fear during the lockdowns – fear which (if we’re honest) we made a higher priority than loving our neighbours.

Maybe we acted recklessly and without respect for others in our self-concern. Maybe we became insular and kept our own counsel, ignoring the input of others.

Maybe we developed edges to our personalities, edges that previously would have been worn down by the regular and loving interpersonal fellowship of the local church.

Maybe we were self-assured in our views. Maybe we were simply proud: we knew how to interpret the science or the culture or the whatever; we were right, no matter what anyone else said.

Maybe we hurt those around us with our attitudes, with our rhetoric, or with our actions. And maybe what we really need now is repentance for how we have contributed to the breakdown of relationships in our own lives. Maybe it’s time to admit we were wrong.

Many of us are ashamed at how much fear or self-interest drove us and our concerns during the lockdowns. Or maybe it’s the lingering guilt over letting our parents, grandparents, friends, and fellow church members die alone in hospitals and care homes.

Some of us were terrified of covid itself, and others of us were terrified of authoritarian governments, but we were all afraid.

Maybe what we most need now is repentance before God. We need repentance of our failure to trust God, repentance of our failure to value and prioritise Christ’s church as his Word commands us, and repentance to our churches and families for our abrasiveness, for our pride, for our lack of charity with one another.

Perhaps part of our own recovery from the relational trauma of the last several years involves recognising where we went wrong towards those whom we have hurt with our words and actions. Maybe our own healing from covid starts with our own repentance.

By Aaron Prelock, Pastor of St Giles Mission, London.

Attacking Pearl Harbour, surrendering to Christ: The story of Mitsuo Fuchida

This is a war story, but also a story of how our almighty, sovereign God worked in the lives of three very different people to bring glory to his name against backdrops of utmost cruelty.

It is based on the memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida. They largely concern his experiences as a Japanese fighter pilot, but also trace a spiritual seam running through his life that leads to a pot of gold.

Hate your enemies

In 1905, when Fuchida was a toddler, war broke out between Japan and Russia. Japan was victorious over her mighty neighbour, and pride swept the nation. Soldiers became overnight heroes, and Fuchida decided that he would one day join the military.

At school Fuchida proved very shy, often turning bright red at any attention. Classmates dubbed him ‘octopus’, but the nickname proved doubly appropriate, because this octopus’s ambition was to join the navy.

Aged 18, Fuchida entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. Among other things, the students were told that they only had one enemy: the United States of America. Japan was engaged in an intensive ship-building programme, and their putative target was the US Navy.

While Fuchida was at the Academy, it received a visit from two seaplanes. In those days aircraft were a rarity, and the students were invited to observe them take off and land. Fuchida managed to get himself a flight aboard one of them, and became hooked on aviation. He no longer aspired to be an admiral, but a pilot!

Preparing for Pearl Harbour

Eventually, Fuchida qualified as a fighter pilot and rose through the ranks.

In September 1941 he was called to a meeting with an old friend, who whispered to him some unexpected and classified information: Fuchida would command a bombing raid against the US naval base at Pearl Harbour.

Peace talks between America and Japan were not going well, so plans were being made to launch a surprise attack as soon as war broke out, with the aim of devastating America’s Pacific fleet.

On 7 December a Japanese battle fleet arrived in the target area with Pearl Harbour in its sights. The sea was rough, so the maintenance crew had to hold onto the planes to stop them pitching into each other. The weather was deteriorating, the sky was black, and waves crashed over the decks. However, there was no going back – the attack must proceed.

Attack

One by one the pilots got into their planes and took off. Eventually 353 aircraft were airborne, and Fuchida, as lead pilot, made course for Pearl Harbour.

Clouds covered Hawaii that day, but as Fuchida descended he began to recognise landmarks from the scale model of the area he had previously studied. The bomber crews identified their first target, which was the US battleship Nevada, and began their attack.

Within five minutes the US navy responded with anti-aircraft fire, and soon the Japanese planes were flying through a barrage of shells. One explosion told Fuchida that his plane had been hit – a shell splinter had ripped a hole in the fuselage and the control cable was now hanging by a thread. Skilful flying was needed if Fuchida was to survive, and he eventually limped back to his aircraft carrier.

But Fuchida was satisfied: the battleships of the US navy lay engulfed in fire and smoke like wounded dragons in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbour.

The Doolittle Raid

For Fuchida the ultimate honour was bestowed when he was called to an audience with Emperor Hirohito, where he reported on a successful mission.

America was shocked and duly declared war on Japan. Preparations for a retaliatory raid were soon underway.

Lt Col James Doolittle of the US Air Force made a daring suggestion. He proposed an air raid on the Japanese capital itself. It proved a difficult mission, involving bombers launched from a US aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

After completing the raid on Tokyo and other areas, the US bombers headed west for Lingshui in China – a country allied with America against Japan after the Pearl Harbour attack.

However, bad weather caused problems for the pilots, and not one of them landed at the intended destination. One of the bomber crews was captured and taken prisoner by the Japanese.

This proved to be key in Fuchida’s spiritual journey, so we will return to it later.

Saved from Hiroshima

During the pivotal Battle of Midway in June 1942, when the Japanese navy suffered heavy losses at the hands of US forces, Fuchida happened to be recovering from an emergency appendectomy. Once again he was spared, just as he had been when his plane was hit during the raid on Pearl Harbour. The Lord had his hand on his servant, even though that servant hardly knew his name.

The war went on, even though it became clear that Japan would be defeated.

In 1945, Fuchida was sent on a mission that in later years he was reluctant to talk about, but it was because of what happened then that he first became aware of the presence of an Almighty power in his life.

On 5 August, Fuchida visited the city of Hiroshima because he was involved in planning raids on US airbases where B-29 bombers were housed. The meeting broke up at midday and Fuchida returned to his hotel. He planned to stay the night in Hiroshima, but an unexpected phone call instructed him to proceed to Yamato airbase straightaway. The change of plan was annoying for Fuchida, but he had no choice and left Hiroshima immediately.

The next morning in Yamato, disturbing rumours began circulating about apocalyptic events in Hiroshima. In fact, at 8.15 a.m. that morning while Fuchida was having breakfast in Yamato, Hiroshima had been obliterated by an atomic bomb.

A fact-finding group was dispatched from Yamato, which Fuchida was ordered to join. On 7 August he entered Hiroshima on a mission to discover whether the rumours of destruction were true.

The group was made up of high-ranking officials with little knowledge of what had actually happened – they walked around the city wearing no protective equipment whatsoever. Later on most of the group died of radiation sickness, but Fuchida suffered no ill effects.

Fuchida visited the place where his hotel had stood two days earlier. As he gazed at the rubble he began to shake. He had been ordered to leave Hiroshima against his will, and as he looked around he felt he had been preserved by what he perceived to be the grace of the gods. In retrospect, he acknowledged that this was the first seed of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

After the war

Japan surrendered to the Allies on 14 August 1945. Men like Fuchida, who had devoted their lives to the Japanese armed forces, were purged and lost everything, including their reputations and their friends. He returned to his hometown and became a peasant farmer.

In the course of time, Fuchida came into contact with Japanese servicemen who had been prisoners of war in America but were now returning home to post-war Japan.

One group he encountered had various prosthetic limbs as a result of combat injuries. They told Fuchida how they had been interned in a camp in Utah, where they had received treatment.

Recently, a young American woman had arrived at the POW camp and had started to show great care for the prisoners. Every day she helped them, nursed them, and provided for their needs, until eventually one of them asked her why she was being so kind to them.

Her answer shocked them all: ‘Because my parents were killed by the Japanese army.’

Baptist missionaries

When he heard this, Fuchida was astonished. The former POWs told him that the woman’s name was Margaret Covell, and that her parents had been Baptist missionaries in Japan. When the situation had deteriorated during the war, they moved to Manila in the Philippines and when it was occupied by the Japanese, they took refuge in the mountains.

For three years they remained hidden, but were eventually discovered by Japanese soldiers. The missionaries possessed a small radio receiver, which the Japanese assumed was a communications device. They summarily beheaded the missionary couple with a sword.

When this terrible news was conveyed to their daughter Margaret back in Utah, she was filled with hatred for the Japanese soldiers who had killed her parents.

Eyewitnesses of the execution relayed how the couple continued to pray while blindfolded. As Margaret thought about their final moments she realised that – just as the Lord Jesus had done when he was hanging on the cross – they would have been praying for the soldiers and asking God that they would be forgiven for their actions.

She realised that it was now her responsibility to show love to her enemies, just as her parents had done.

Margaret thought of how sad and lonely the lives of Japanese POWs held captive in America must be. She went to a local hospital where some were being tended, told them her story and was granted permission to visit the Japanese soldiers every day.

Fuchida could not stop thinking about what he had heard and wondering what the last prayer of the missionary couple might have been.

Christian tract

Later, he found himself getting off a train in Tokyo, where he was due to attend a meeting about events that happened during the war. The station was crowded, but Fuchida spotted a Caucasian man handing out leaflets to passersby.

He took one entitled I was a Japanese Prisoner of War. As Fuchida waited for a bus he sat down and read it. His interest was instantly piqued when he saw that the author was Jacob DeShazer, who had been a bombardier during the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.

Jacob DeShazer

DeShazer had been born in a Christian home but fell away from the faith as a teenager. He enlisted in the US army, and in 1941 was on cooking duty peeling potatoes when he heard over the radio about the attack on Pearl Harbour. All he wanted to do was get revenge on the Japanese, so when he was given the chance to take part in a high-risk mission he did not hesitate, even if the details were still undisclosed.

Six months’ training ensued, including taking off multiple times from an aircraft carrier. The men deduced that this would be a key part of their mission.

On 1 April 1942, sixteen B-25 bombers were loaded onto an aircraft carrier in San Francisco Bay. The ship set sail, and only then were the men informed that their target would be Tokyo.

When the ship was approaching its destination, a Japanese fishing boat was spotted. Knowing that news of their presence would be reported, the Americans opened fire and sank the vessel. They knew that the bombing mission would have to begin ahead of schedule, so the aircraft took off while still 650 miles from Japan.

Once over the target area, DeShazer released his bombs onto oil tanks and factories, then headed for the Chinese coastline.

However, weather conditions were poor and the crew soon lost their way. They saw lights ahead, but the plane had now been in the air for 14 hours and fuel was gone. They had to bail out, hoping they were now over friendly territory.

DeShazer landed safely, but soon discovered that he was still on enemy soil. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Japanese.

Prisoner of war

DeShazer was interrogated and tortured. At a military court he and seven other captured airmen from the Doolittle Raid were sentenced to death. Five of them, including DeShazer, later had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. Three were executed.

DeShazer’s hatred of his enemies grew. But soon he began to think about why the Japanese and Americans detested each other so much. This in turn led him to remember that when he was a child he had heard about Jesus Christ, who could turn hatred into brotherly love.

Three weeks and a Bible

DeShazer consequently developed a strong desire to read the Bible for himself. But a Japanese POW camp was not a likely place to find a copy of the Word of God, so his desire went unfulfilled, even though he kept pestering the guards. Eventually one of them sourced him a copy of a King James Bible, the caveat being that he could only have it for three weeks.

DeShazer promptly read the Bible from cover to cover. When he read Romans 10:9 he knew he had been saved; when he read 2 Corinthians 5:17 he knew he was a new creation.

He had suffered terribly in a Japanese prison, but he no longer hated the guards. He knew that they behaved as they did because they did not know Jesus. It also became clear to the guards that DeShazer had changed after reading the Bible. Once the three weeks were up, he was allowed to keep it.

DeShazer grew in grace, and his prayer was that he might one day after the war bring the good news of Christ to the people of Japan. This is exactly what happened.

Love your enemies

After reading the tract containing DeShazer’s story, Fuchida thought that he too would read the Bible. Obtaining a copy in post-war Japan was difficult, so Fuchida decided to return to the station in Tokyo and ask the missionary who first handed him a tract.

When he got there, his heart sank. The missionary was not there! Instead, another man was in the same place offering books for sale – but the book turned out to be the Bible, and the man selling it was a member of the Japanese Bible Society.

Fuchida bought a copy, and began to discover Scripture for himself, seeking a revelation from Christ. After a month he came to Luke 23 and the account of Jesus’s crucifixion. The words ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do’ struck Fuchida. He reflected on Margaret Covell’s parents’ story and how their last prayer would have been in the same vein as was Christ’s on the cross. Tears rolled down his cheeks.

As he thought more about the cross, Fuchida was struck by another thought. When Jesus cried ‘forgive them’, that included people like him, and when Jesus said ‘they know not what they do’, that applied to him as well. For 47 years he had not known what he had been doing, and felt ashamed. He thought of all the families whose lives had been ripped apart when he had killed soldiers during battle, and knew that he was a sinner who needed a Saviour.

He wrote on a space in DeShazer’s memoirs, ‘Now I receive the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, as my Saviour. Date of this contract, February 22, 1950.’

For the rest of his life Fuchida was involved in evangelistic work with organisations like the Sky Pilots Association, as well as Billy Graham.

In the last chapter of his memoirs, Fuchida said, ‘My desire is to be always with Jesus after leaving this world.’ In 1950 Mitsuo Fuchida met Jacob DeShazer, who was now a missionary living in Osaka. There is no record that he ever met Margaret Covell in this life.

Fuchida lived until the age of 73, passing into glory in 1976.

By Paula Hill , Paula is a member of Lausanne Free Church, Switzerland.

From Kyiv to Brussels: reflections one year after invasion

Just over a year has passed since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Without doubt every Ukrainian has experienced irreversible changes during this terrible time.

Those who left faced new challenges and had to adapt to a different way of life. The city I arrived in, Brussels, became for me a place of rest and quiet. At the same time I had to rethink my goals.

Here, quiet, cosy streets lead to a leisurely pace of life. People around are friendly and full of the desire to help. From high-ranking officials to small children, everyone I met on my way showed compassion and always helped in word and deed.

The preparation and promptness of Belgian authorities for such unexpected, tragic events in Ukraine and the subsequent reception of refugees was very high.

Complex bureaucratic processes for obtaining all the necessary documents were simplified as much as possible. Many families have shown a desire to take in complete strangers for an indefinite period of time.

The same could be said about the church I joined. This is an English-speaking church on the outskirts of Brussels called International Baptist Church.

The members of the church are representatives of different nationalities, so I don’t feel like a stranger.

The leaders of the church allowed me to come and play the piano in the church every day, as I had my final exams to complete at the conservatory in Ukraine. I also started to serve by playing the piano as part of the church’s music team.

I didn’t have to get used to a completely new church environment. The difference between the International Baptist Church in Brussels and the church I was a member of in Ukraine can only be seen in the order of service.

In Kyiv, I attended a large church with several pastors, so small groups played an important role, creating an atmosphere of trust and spiritual closeness.

I see the Brussels church as my home church now, where everyone knows and loves each other. Various meetings, barbecues, walks, even marathons are often organised, which help to make friends and bring together the church members.

Looking back now, I can clearly see God’s providence and care in all of this. By his grace, I found an apartment and a job. By establishing a routine, I can live in a way that helps me feel useful in this city.

In difficult moments God sent the right people to support me. And even if in the future he calls me to another place, my trust in his presence will now be even stronger.

By Orysya Melnyk, (Translated from Ukrainian by Uliana King.)

Sharing Christ in a post-Christian land: The work of Outreach UK

As Christians, we possess the only hope for a broken and increasingly fearful world. It is essential for the church in every generation to do two things: hold tenaciously to the truth entrusted to us and present the truth in a way that’s relevant to the needs of the present generation.

In light of this, and for the past 149 years, Outreach UK has sought to spread the gospel faithfully and effectively, primarily on a one-to-one basis.

Spurgeon link

Charles Spurgeon founded The Metropolitan Tabernacle Colportage Association in 1866, and it always received his special care. At the close of 1891, some 96 colporteurs (from a French word meaning ‘one who carried something around his neck’, suggesting a peddler or street hawker) were employed, and nearly twelve million visits had been paid to the homes of the people.

God was meeting the need for the increasingly unchurched population to receive the good news, and in 1874 the Christian Colportage Association (CCA) was born.

There were two major events around this time: the Moody and Sankey campaigns (where the CCA had bookstalls at all the London meetings and sold large numbers of Bibles and books); and the Keswick Convention (founded in 1875), where the CCA bookstalls were a regular feature.

The name of the mission has been updated over the years, from Christian Colportage Association to Home Evangelism to what it is today: Outreach UK.

Recent encouragements

Although the mission has an illustrious past, this is of no help when faced with the current challenges of making Christ known in a post- and increasingly anti-Christian environment.

However, in recent years Outreach UK has received much encouragement. We now have over 70 Associate Evangelists spread around the country, and many report a growing interest not only among unchurched people wanting to hear the gospel, but also among believers wanting to share their faith more.

For example, Duncan Hunter, OUK Area Field Officer for the North, reports tremendous encouragements churches recently have found through the use of book tables in their local high street: ‘The number of people visiting tables to request literature and wanting to talk about spiritual things has increased dramatically,’ he says. ‘I’m really excited by such openness and receptivity which I haven’t witnessed in over 25 years of evangelism.’

What has caused this surge in interest? Perhaps recent global events have brought about an increased sense of need: covid, the war in Ukraine, climate issues. Whatever it is that’s spiked interest, it’s vital that believers are available and visible at this time.

Certainly, book tables are a good way of achieving this. Duncan continues, ‘Some people spoken to at the table have come into church services on a Sunday or have joined a Zoom Christianity Explored course.’

It is interesting to note the effect which getting involved in gospel work has upon those who put their head above the parapet in this way. Fears are allayed, confidence is gained, and joy is experienced.

Uniqueness of ‘one to one’

From its inception, the Mission has majored on sharing the gospel ‘one to one’. D. L. Moody said, ‘The best sermons are where one person is the preacher and one person the congregation.’ This is not to diminish the priority and function of the preached word in any way. We hold a firm conviction regarding the primacy of preaching.

But it is in one-to-one conversations that you get to understand just where a person stands, and how to duly apply the gospel more uniquely and intimately.

Listening is a vital element in personal evangelism. Besides showing we are polite and genuinely interested, it gives people confidence to open up and reveal what is in their heart.

Although we have a message of utmost importance to share, we must avoid the temptation to talk too much and make it a one-way street, conversation-wise.

Listening is an art and a discipline we need to be continually working on. A love for those we seek to reach will be our best aide here. Conversion is our aim, of course, but patience is essential and we must be sensitive. ‘He who wins souls is wise’ (Proverbs 11:30)

‘One to one’ must surely be the most effective form of evangelism as any and all can be involved. ‘The best fruit is hand-picked,’ said Spurgeon. And the more people involved in the ‘picking’, the greater the chance of fruit.

Evangelism training

The vision of Outreach UK is not simply to ‘do the work’, but to encourage and equip all Christians (at the invitation of the church leadership) to share their faith personally – and in any setting.

When asked why training Christians to share the gospel was so needed, Trevor Dickerson, OUK National Director, responded: ‘So often evangelism has been seen as the domain and priority of the few who are called as evangelists – or for those who seem to have a special gift or certain personality for spreading the gospel. But this is a task in which every single believer needs to be involved, and we have a deep desire to be a support to the local church in order that every Christian can be confident, motivated, and engaged in the glorious task of spreading the good news of the gospel message.’

By Mike Mellor, Outreach UK Council member and elder of Hope Church, Ferndown, Dorset.

Catechising our children

The task of catechising is perhaps not something that all Christian parents are keen to adopt for their family. After all, we lead busy lives and if we have daily family worship and go through the Bible stories, should we not leave the teaching of the Bible for Sundays and weeknight Bible studies? Years ago, however, catechising the young would be part of family and church life.

Basis

Catechism is the practice of explaining the teachings of the Bible through a series of questions and answers. A catechism covers the summary of the Christian faith and gives the child a ‘compass’ to help navigate the Bible.

The basis of this practice stems from Galatians 6:6, ‘Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.’ References in this verse to the one ‘taught’ and the one who ‘teaches’ translate Greek words from which we get ‘catechise’.

Elsewhere in the Bible, the use of some form of catechism among converts was suggested by the Apostle Paul. He spoke of those who were given a ‘form of knowledge’ (Roman 2:20) and those who ‘obeyed from the heart… the form of doctrine which was delivered you’ (Romans 6:17).

Paul instructed Timothy to ‘Hold fast the form of sound words’ (2 Timothy 1:13). What is this ‘form of knowledge’, ‘form of doctrine’, or ‘form of sound words’? This is unlikely to be the entire Bible as it then stood, but a discrete, limited set of lessons.

This practice continued in the early church, who, in seeking to evangelise the Jews and heathen, set aside a ‘catechist’ to instruct the ‘catechumen’ (one receiving instruction) the first principles of the Christian faith.

Protestantism

The Reformers and the Puritans continued the tradition of using catechisms to impart Bible doctrine to the young.

Richard Baxter and his elders in Kidderminster catechised daily the entire (then) village, as did Joseph Alleine for Taunton. The Erskine brothers also catechised every child in the parish they were serving. They wrote their own catechisms and tested the children’s knowledge of the Bible, sermons preached, and catechisms.

Use of catechisms was popular among Baptists. Charles Spurgeon republished the Baptist Catechism for use in New Park Street Chapel. ‘I am persuaded,’ he wrote, ‘that the use of a good catechism in all our families will be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times, and therefore I have compiled this little manual from the Westminster Assembly’s and Baptist Catechisms, for the use of my own church and congregation. Those who use it in their families or classes must labour to explain the sense; but the words should be carefully learned by heart, for they will be understood better as years pass.’

Those who adopted catechisms in their churches and communities believed that the use of catechisms supplemented (not replaced) the use of Scripture, preaching, and the sacraments.

Furthermore, catechising children is a form of evangelism. The gospel is embedded in a good catechism; it can be the seeds which the Holy Spirit uses to cultivate spiritual life.

Giving a generation of young people a suitable grounding in the Christian faith also helps equip them to defend Christianity against error. Indeed, it can address the questions that most curious children eventually ask of their own accord.

What catechism is not

It is important to emphasise that knowing catechisms is neither the same nor as critical as knowing the Bible.

A catechism is similar to a university lecture: it is an outline of a whole corpus of information. Students are expected to acquire the relevant textbooks and read the relevant chapters in order to supplement what is taught during the lecture.

Suggestions for catechisms

Thanks to the internet, it is easy to obtain suitable catechisms. For very young children, common examples include the Children’s Catechism (also known as the Catechism for Young Children) [Paedobaptistic]) or A Catechism for Boys and Girls (Baptistic).

For slightly older children, the famous Westminster Shorter Catechism (Paedobaptistic) or Spurgeon’s Catechism (Baptistic) are easily available online.

The Heidelberg Catechism is another historic example in the Dutch Reformed (Paedobaptistic) tradition. It is warmer and more devotional than the Westminster or Spurgeon versions.

A wonderful, all-in-one resource is Terry Johnson’s The Family Worship Book. It contains both the Catechism for Young Children and the Shorter Catechism, as well as a host of other helps for family worship.

My wife and I taught our children using the Catechism for Young Children. They memorised 1 or 2 questions and answers through the week before we reviewed their progress on Sunday afternoons. They are now going through the WSC, following the same process.

One issue we noticed about catechisms is that while our children knew the words to the catechism, they sometimes struggle with the concepts. Commentaries explaining the WSC can help in this area. Notable examples include those by Roderick Lawson and Murdo A. N. Macleod.

As concerned Christian parents, we recognise that memorising the catechism is not to be confused with genuine Christian conversion, so during discussions with our children we try to present the gospel regularly, impressing upon them their need to have personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The use of catechisms is a time-honoured practice of feeding the people of God the kernel of the Christian faith. It has its foundations in the Bible, and we trust and pray that this practice will continue for generations to come.

By Jenson Lim, Elder at Dunblane Free Church and lecturer in Cell Biology at Stirling University.

COMMENT: Multi-faith coronation row should come as no surprise

The coronation of King Charles III takes place after this edition of ET is published. No doubt it will be a grand occasion. The colourful pageantry and nostalgic traditions of the once-in-a-generation event can sometimes overpower our senses, making us misty eyed and sentimental for ‘Christian’ Britain.

Christians have, of course, long argued over whether there should be formal links between church and state. Ever since this newspaper was founded in 1967 it has been firmly in the non-conformist camp. No earthly king should govern over the churches. But, even among evangelicals outside the Church of England, there are various views about whether we should have a ‘Christian’ coronation. Those debates will go on, no doubt.

However, we should not be surprised about the reports that King Charles is pushing for a multi-faith service. When Charles was Prince of Wales he famously declared he wanted to be ‘defender of faith’ rather than ‘defender of the faith’. He backtracked on that some years later, but the direction of his thinking was clear.

Speaking in Parliament last year, Sir Edward Leigh MP said the coronation should not ‘degenerate into a kind of dumbed down woke-fest celebration of so-called modern Britain’. Sir Edward is a Roman Catholic who has never been one to mince his words. Many readers of ET may echo his general concerns, even if they would not use his boisterous turn of phrase.

It’s not just the King’s actions which shouldn’t surprise us. The sheer inconsistency of the Church of England is also depressingly predictable. The things it will permit, and the things it won’t, are incredible. It recently allowed the blessing of same sex couples. In the 1990s it permitted the ordination of women. For many years it has allowed liberals who don’t really believe in God or the Bible to be promoted to senior roles of authority.

But, apparently, multi-faith prayers at the King’s coronation are where the senior bishops draw the line. Why are they putting up a fight about this, when they have been happy to celebrate so much other doctrinal error and immorality? Is it because they realise if they allow multi-faith prayers at the King’s coronation, they will have finally admitted the national church is wrong in principle and wrong in practice?

GUEST COLUMN: True beauty for ordinary women

It was a long day. By the time I finally cruised into the pound shop to buy cat food late that night, I’m sure I looked as tired as I felt. I practically zombie walked to the aisle I needed and then went straight to the counter to pay.

At the till stood a young girl. Her hair was pulled back, but long blonde ringlets framed her face. Who knows how many hours she had been on her feet in that store, but she still smiled and asked how my night was going. And then, while I fished for my purse, she told me that I look pretty tonight.

Just like that. She handed me that grace – that generous gift to a tired mother who almost certainly doesn’t look pretty tonight.

I was surprised by how shocked I was. I was blindsided by my utter disbelief that my version of forty years old is pretty, especially at the end of a very long day in the middle of a small town pound shop.

But the word hung there between us, and all I could do was tell her thank you, genuinely grateful for the tender mercy of that phrase falling from a stranger’s mouth: you look pretty.

It’s getting harder and harder to feel pretty in our world. Pornography has changed our standards. Photoshop has created unattainable idols. The ordinary women of the world are left stranded in the wreckage, searching for some way to feel like we measure up, waiting for some sign that we are worthy to be wanted by anyone.

So many lies are shoved into our faces every day: dishonest images from industries who care nothing for our hearts or souls. And we believe them. We look at our own stretch-marked, acne-scarred, wrinkled selves, and we despair.

Every lie informs the way we feel about these bodies that God designed, and when someone finally speaks the truth to us – when they see a beauty in us and say so, we simply don’t believe it.

A magazine cover of impossible proportions, yes, but a sincere comment from a sweet stranger in a pound shop someplace, no. ‘Can’t you see these bags under my eyes?’ we wonder. ‘Don’t you realise that my belly is too soft? No falsehoods in this face or body. I am an ordinary, aging woman.’

This is real. The lines around my eyes that reveal how often I’ve laughed. The round belly that cradled three babies while God knit them together. The freckles that are like a scrapbook of all the days I’ve played under the summer sun. The extra weight that I picked up over a million meals with the love of my life. The non-manicured hands that have washed dishes and babies and dogs, that have held tiny hands in the backseat, that have picked up lost blankies and matched up lost socks and wiped away thousands of little kid tears.

There is no perfection here, but there is most certainly beauty.

I wish now that I had told that young cashier at the dollar store how striking she looked standing there, with her blonde ringlets.

I wish I would have told her what that moment really meant to me, an exhausted mother with a bag of Meow Mix cradled like a baby in her arms.

I wish I would have told her how most of the messages of this world are soul-crushing lies, but that we can’t believe them, we ordinary women who were intricately designed in the image of the one true God.

I left the pound shop and absentmindedly fed the hungry cat. She ate until her belly was round, and then she dropped at my feet in that carefree way that cats lounge.

I thought of my own sandy-haired daughters and how hard they will try one day to meet impossible standards of beauty. I thought about how they will soon learn the heart-wrenching truth that there is no way to airbrush real life. And I prayed that they will grow into ordinary women who look in the mirror and see God’s hand.

By Melissa Edgington, Blogger at yourmomhasablog.com

Crunch Points: Respecting sinful authorities

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.

How do we respect those in authority (Romans 13) when they blatantly engage in unbiblical and dishonouring behaviour, such as lies, false promises, hypocrisy?

The modern tendency to separate public and private life is profoundly unhelpful. The suggestion that a man can lie, cheat, steal, indulge, and be unfaithful in his private life, but we expect him to be honest, pure, self-controlled, and loyal in public (and in office) is foolish.

A sense of being in the public eye may restrain certain excesses, mercifully, and there will be occasions on which, by God’s common grace, he behaves better than he is, but the same heart beats in his breast wherever he goes and whatever he does. As Christians, we should not make a false distinction here.

That said, proper respect must be given to those in office regardless of character. God himself has put them in their place: ‘Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God’ (Romans 13:1).

Notice the command resting on that reality: be subject to the governing authorities. Paul spoke of Nero Caesar, one of several godless tyrants who sat on the imperial throne, and for whom he makes no exception. It is not mere respect, but subjection, submission – a readiness and willingness to obey orders.

So, how do we do that? Let me offer some very brief suggestions. First, make requests: pray for them, that we might be able to live peaceably and quietly under their authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Second, render to them what is theirs: obedience in all legitimate things, paying your taxes responsibly and righteously.

Third, represent God’s truth to them. In many societies, especially liberal democracies, we enjoy the unusual privilege of being able to make plain to civil authorities what the Scriptures teach, and to call them to account (and hold them to account democratically).

Fourth, if necessary and appropriate, rebuke them. I confess to a certain weariness with preaching, praying, and pontificating about ‘speaking truth to power’, usually safe in the knowledge that we will never have the need or opportunity to do so. However, there may be times when we can make clear that the civil authorities are acting unrighteously and ought to repent, recalling that we are not Old Testament prophets rebuking the people of God.

Should we, fifth, refuse? Paul says that ‘Whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves’ (Romans 13:2). Perhaps that rather assumes that the rulers are a terror to the wicked and a shield to the righteous, but it shows how careful we must be in standing against God-appointed rulers (some of whom our societies tragically deserve – see Proverbs 28 or Isaiah 3:12).

Recall Christ’s spirit toward Pontius Pilate, or Paul’s prayer for the persecuted Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12). Just like the apostles, or Daniel and his friends in Babylon, we should be ready to obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29), while making plain that we do so with reluctance rather than relish – how politely Daniel’s friends told Nebuchadnezzar that they would not bow to false gods even if he exercised his royal right to execute them! When the civil authorities require what God forbids or forbid what God requires, then we may refuse, but always with a respectful demeanour.

We do not expect the ungodly to act in a godly way. We anticipate that godless rulers will do what the rich and powerful typically do, and forget God. Blatant sin is typical of blatant sinners! We should grieve over it and speak against it, being ourselves salt and light, shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Philippians 2:15).

Remember Christ’s principle: ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ Our home and hope is not here, and so we should live as sojourners even, perhaps especially, in this age, remembering always the eternal King whom we serve and the kingdom to which we belong. May God give us wisdom in working that out!

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

By Jeremy Walker, Pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley.

THINKING IT THROUGH: All creatures great and small: Christians and their pets

I keep a photo on the mantelpiece in our living room. It’s the only photo from my childhood that’s on display. Myself three or four years old, my sister a couple of years older, sitting in a field, and lying down between us, bigger than either of us, our Alsatian, Lassie.

Lassie lived with us only three or four years. But she’s woven into all my memories of those years. Winter evenings in front of the fire, birthday parties, visits from relatives, outings, holidays: I can’t think about any of them without seeing her. She was our friend, our protector, our playmate. And I cried when she fell ill and had to be put down.

We never had another dog during our childhood years. Nor did I get one when I had a home of my own. But after I got married, it wasn’t long before my wife and I agreed to get a dog. I suspect that in part, that was a nostalgic desire to recreate my own childhood. Maybe I wanted my children’s childhood to echo mine.

There were practical reasons too. I wanted to take more exercise. A man walking on his own round the local park may draw some very odd looks. But if he’s walking the dog, it’s seen as legit. I wanted Anne, too, to be able to walk round our fairly rough neighbourhood and feel safe. I wanted a guard dog to scare off thieves.

A liability

I don’t think either of us had realised what a liability a dog could be. Griff was a rescue dog, collected from a local refuge. He was a long-haired mongrel, part Alsatian, part who-knows-what? He’d never been trained properly, didn’t know what it meant to walk on a lead, and treated all other dogs as enemies. He came to us full-grown: bad habits were already ingrained into him. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks...

I shudder still as I remember some of the disasters we had with Griff. The time when we were staying with friends and he satisfied his thirst by drinking stagnant water from their garden pond. He was violently sick (and worse) in the middle of the night. We spent two hours that night cleaning the foulest of foul messes from our hosts’ new carpet. It never looked new again.

There was another time when we were camping: he nosed his way into the tent and again was violently sick. There were the two occasions when he chewed his way through a seatbelt in the car – each cost a small fortune to replace. There was the time when we went away on holiday and left him with friends. He viciously attacked another dog, nearly killed it, and ruined their reputation throughout the local dog-owning community.

He stole food from the kitchen, vandalised our back door in his determination to get into the house, kept our neighbours awake with his howling, covered our carpets with mud and dropped hair, killed a friend’s beloved budgie. Time and again we resolved to get rid of him, and found we couldn’t do it – gave him one more chance. When finally we had to have him put him down, it was a wrench, but I have to confess also a sense of relief.

A gentle dog

A few years later, we acquired another dog. Again, a rescue dog, this time a long-legged collie. We were told that Hunter was an ‘Irish cattle dog’. He was gentle, affectionate, and was happy to run for hours if we threw a ball or a stick for him. When I went out with others from the church to share the gospel with youngsters in the local park, he would always accompany me. He allowed himself to be petted by all and sundry and won the hearts of many.

He lived with us to a good age but finally, infirm, hardly able to drag his hind legs around, he too had to be put down.

Those are the three dogs that have been part of my life. And I miss them all. Yes, even Griff with all his faults. Along with the disasters, I remember the good times. Early morning walks when no other dogs or owners were around and I could let him off the lead. I would watch him rocket off and then I’d hide behind a bush or a tree. He would look back, realise I had vanished and chase back frantically to search for me, slobbering all over me when at last he found me.

I remember late night walks on the beach when we were away on holiday. I’d walk him down to the sea and he’d hurl himself into the water, only to emerge ten minutes later and shake himself all over me. Or winter evenings when I would sit on the floor in front of the fire with a book and he would snuggle up beside me with his head on my lap.

Griff was utterly loyal, and fiercely protective. We knew that if ever we were threatened, he would defend us with his life.

Why consider pets?

We’ve had other pets besides our dogs. Cagebirds, fish, rabbits. Would we have another dog? Our children haven’t given up hope. They send us pictures of adorable dogs they’ve found on the internet. And we can’t bring ourselves to say a final no. We can only say, ‘Maybe – when we’re certain that the time is right.’

But why even consider it? Why think of taking on again the responsibility, the expense, the trouble of looking after a dog? For that matter, why take on the burden of looking after any pets? Why do we feel that our lives are not complete unless we share them with animals?

Answer: because we’re human. And God created human beings to relate to animals. ‘God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”’ (Genesis 1:26).

God rules over all his creatures. He is a kindly Sovereign with willing subjects. And Man was created to mirror that. We are to be God’s image-bearers. So God has commissioned us as human beings to rule on his behalf over the whole creation. We manifest God’s image when we bring fish and birds and beasts and creeping things under our dominion. We mirror God when we act as kindly rulers over creatures who willingly submit to us.

God’s blessing on man

More than that, dominion over the animals is a manifestation of God’s blessing on Man. ‘And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth”’ (Genesis 1:28). Man can only be fully blessed when he’s interacting with the beasts.

When I made a reluctant Griff walk behind me on the lead, I was acting as an image-bearer of God. I was exercising the dominion that is part of that image-bearing. When my children stroke our rabbit, they are experiencing something of the blessing God pronounced on Adam and Eve.

And when Griff ran to find me or when our budgies flew to sit on my shoulder, our pets were fulfilling the destiny for which they were created. ‘Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name’ (Genesis 2:19). For Adam, every creature was his subject, his servant, his dependent, his friend. They came willingly to him; he gave each one its name, its identity.

That’s the way human beings were intended to live – ruling over the beasts, relating to them, building relationships with them. To be complete human beings, true image-bearers of God, truly blessed, we need to be in contact with animals.

Spoiled by sin

Now of course, our relationship with the animals, like everything else, has been spoiled by sin. When Adam rebelled against God, every part of human life was damaged – including our capacity to rule the beasts. Most animals will not now willingly submit to human rule, though James in his letter (James 3:7) reminds us that ‘every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind’.

Nor can most animals safely be treated as our friends. At best we never establish a complete and perfect dominion over the beasts. Every dog-owner knows that there are situations in which we cannot trust our pets to give perfect obedience!

Only at special points in history has Man’s full dominion over all the creatures been restored. The beasts of Noah’s day had become uncontrollably violent (Genesis 6:12,13,19). Yet we’re told that every sort came willingly to Noah and lived under his dominion in the ark. He took them all under his protection and provided for them all (Genesis 6:21). For a little while Noah was able to relate to all the animals as Adam had done before the Fall.

Solomon, the Messianic king of his day, again played the role of Adam for a little while. Like Adam he had knowledge of every tree – and he could give names to all the creatures. ‘He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish’ (1 Kings 4:33).

And what of the Lord Jesus? We read in Mark 1:13 that he was ‘with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him’ in the wilderness. Jesus, the last Adam, could relate even to the wild beasts – not beasts as they were before the fall but beasts that roamed the cursed wilderness. For a little while, the perfect Man lived as human beings were intended to live, ruling the beasts, served by the angels.

Caring for animals is the ‘norm’

These were special and temporary circumstances. We cannot expect in this fallen world to exercise dominion as Noah did in the ark or as Jesus did in the wilderness. But we must still recognise that ‘normal’ human existence (i.e., what was intended to be the norm for us) still involves ruling animals and caring for them. We are not living a fully human life if we miss out on that dimension.

For most people in Bible times, interaction with animals could be taken for granted. Most people in Israel worked on the land. They and their children were in contact with animals all the time. Cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, camels, dogs shared the lives of their masters and were treated with loving care. Much of the legislation given through Moses was about the care of the animals.

Animals were never to be thought of as mere commodities to be treated ruthlessly. They could be made to work, they could be killed for food, their lives could be offered in sacrifice. But they must still be treated with kindness. An ox must not be muzzled as he treads out the grain! (Deuteronomy 25:4) ‘Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast’ (Proverbs 12:10). Each Israelite, working his farm, was fulfilling the mandate given to Adam. He was acting as God’s image-bearer, ruling the creatures.

This is why pets are so important

But we are not ancient Israelites. Many of us (the majority) are no longer in their position. I and my family live in a built-up town. We are not farmers. If it weren’t for our dogs, our rabbits, our goldfish, my children would have grown up without any close contact with any animal. They would never have given an animal a name, never trained it in obedience, never taken responsibility for its care. They would never have had the opportunity to act as God’s image-bearers in that way, or to experience that blessing from God.

That’s why our pets are so important. For many of us today they are the only way we can have regular interaction with animals.

Even in Bible times, it’s clear that there were people who kept animals not for their work or for the material benefits they provided but as pets. Nathan the prophet told the story of a poor man who ‘had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him’ (2 Samuel 12:3). The Lord, speaking to Job, asked whether Job could play with Leviathan ‘as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls’ (Job 41:5). Solomon arranged for apes and peacocks to be imported into his kingdom at regular intervals (1 Kings 10:22).

Jesus and pets

The Lord Jesus believed that pets had a role in family life. He agreed with a woman’s argument that there was a place for puppies under the table, eating the crumbs that the children dropped (Mark 7:28-29). And all through history, God’s people have found comfort and normality in caring for pets of different kinds.

William Cowper was given a young hare (the first of three) in 1774 as he emerged from eighteen months of insanity: his pet became the means by which God preserved him from slipping back into mania. Cowper wrote, that he was ‘glad of any thing that would engage my attention without fatiguing it ... in the management of such an animal, and in the attempt to tame it, I should find just that sort of employment which my case required’. When one of his hares died he wrote its epitaph:

A Turkey carpet was his lawn,

Whereon he lov’d to bound,

To skip and gambol like a fawn,

And swing his rump around.

His frisking was at evening hours,

For then he lost his fear;

But most before approaching show’rs,

Or when a storm drew near.

Eight years and five round-rolling moons

He thus saw steal away,

Dozing out his idle noons,

And ev’ry night at play.

I kept him for his humour’s sake,

For he would oft beguile

My heart of thoughts that made it ache,

And force me to a smile.

Spurgeon’s dog, Punch

C. H. Spurgeon’s wife Susannah asked for a piping bullfinch and God gave her one by a strange chain of providences. ‘Bully’ became Susie’s comfort through many hours of illness and loneliness when Charles was away from home (The Full Harvest, pp. 177–178).

Spurgeon himself kept a dog called Punch and mentioned him often in his letters: ‘Punchie sending me his love pleased me very much. Poor doggie, pat him for me, and give him a tit-bit for my sake... I dreamed of old Punch; I hope the poor dog is better... Kind memories to all, including Punch. How is he getting on?... Tell Punchie, “Master is coming!”’ (The Full Harvest, p.304).

Wesley with his horses; Luther with his dogs (‘The dog is the most faithful of animals and would be much esteemed were it not so common. Our Lord God has made His greatest gifts the commonest’); B. B. Warfield with his short-horned cattle: all of them found that they were not complete without animals in their lives.

Not every Christian need keep pets

Should every Christian keep pets? No, of course not. Some can’t afford to. Some haven’t the time to care for them. Some are living in accommodation where it’s not practical. But every Christian should care about animals and try to find ways of interacting with them. If you can’t keep a pet, perhaps you need to visit the zoo from time to time!

And every Christian should look forward to the new world that’s coming – the new heavens and new earth. One of the lovely things about that world is that there at last we will be in happy relationship with all the beasts again. Man’s dominion will be fully restored.

It will be a world where ‘the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain...’ (Isaiah 11:6-9).

The last Adam will rule from the holy mountain. A greater than Solomon will head up the Messianic kingdom. The Son of Man will transform the wilderness into Eden and the animals will come gladly to his call.

A restored creation

David looked forward joyfully to the day when the Son of Man would rule over a restored creation: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you care for him... You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas...’ (Psalm 8:5-8).

And the letter to the Hebrews assures us that that dominion, already granted to Jesus, will be fulfilled for all his brothers, the elect humanity (Hebrews 2:5ff).

Paul too assures us that the whole creation will share the joy of the sons of God on the day when they are revealed: ‘the creation will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now...’ (Romans 8:19-22).

Could the ‘whole creation’ be complete without birds, fish, beasts, creeping things? Could our redemption be complete if we never regained the dominion that was promised at the beginning?

Will my pets be in heaven?

And what about the 64 thousand dollar question... will Lassie be there in that new world? Or Griff, or Hunter? It’s one thing to say that there will be wolves, lambs, leopards, goats, lions, cobras. It’s another to say that any particular creature I’ve loved here in this world will be resurrected to share my joy.

I can’t find a clear answer in the Bible. I’m not prepared to say dogmatically that it could not happen. Nor am I prepared to say that I believe it.

C. S. Lewis, for one, believed that some beloved pets may be raised with their masters into immortality. ‘...it will be seen that, in as far as the tame animal has a real self or personality, it owes this almost entirely to its master... I am going to suggest... that there may be a sense... in which these beasts that attain a real self are in their masters... And in this way it seems to me possible that certain animals may have an immortality, not in themselves but in the immortality of their masters (The Problem of Pain, ch. 9: ‘Animal Pain’).

And if you’ve read his The Great Divorce, you’ll never forget his picture of the glorified spirit of Sarah Smith of Golders Green, accompanied by her dogs, cats, birds, horses: ‘Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of the life she has in Christ flows over into them...’

I don’t know if Lewis is right. But I’m sure that the world to come will be more wonderful than anything we can now imagine. And I remember what my mother said when we finally had Lassie put down and I asked whether we’d ever see her again. ‘If you go to heaven, and if you need Lassie there to be happy, she’ll be there.’ I think that was a good answer. Nothing that Christ’s people need in order to be happy will be missing there.

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

This article has been adapted from material first published in the monthly bulletin of Grace Baptist Church, Stockport.

By Stephen Rees, Pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Stockport.

A WALK WITH MR O: As few regrets as possible

Mr O, you seem to have a had a very productive life. Can you tell me how you did it?

Believe me, things aren’t what they seem. I’m in my senior years and I carry with me a thousand regrets. Many of those regrets are to do with poor stewardship of time and wasted opportunities. For these I must answer at the judgment seat of Christ. If it were not for his cross, where all my sins have been forgiven, I would be in total despair.

I don’t know what to say, Mr O, except that I want to go through life with as few regrets as possible. Surely you can pass on to me a few bits of advice.

Well, there are three or four lessons that come to mind. These are things that I have had to learn the hard way. If I had learned them earlier I could perhaps have avoided many of my mistakes.

And now I’m all ears!

The first thing I would say is slow down. The world is in a hurry. God is not. Be like him. Always. Yes, the Christian life is a race, but it is a race for the slow. The prize is not for the fastest runner, but for all who finish the course. Scripture tells us to walk, not run. That applies to every area of life.

But the Lord tells us that he wants us to ‘bear much fruit’. We’ve only got a short time on this earth. How we can we bear much fruit if we don’t get a move on? We’ve got to do as much good as we can, haven’t we?

Apples and pears don’t appear on a tree overnight. They take time to grow. Hurried fruit has no flavour. It’s good for nothing – as are hurried prayers, hurried studies, hurried relationships, hurried actions, hurried conversations, hurried decisions, and hurried everything else. Go at God’s speed, not the world’s. What is not slow is not godly.

‘What is not slow is not godly.’ I can’t believe what I’m hearing! No one has ever told me anything like that before.

The second thing I would say is single task. Do one thing at a time. Give it your full attention. Do it with prayer; with the Lord and for the Lord. In this way you will do it thoroughly, which will bring him glory. Despite what they say, no one can give the whole of their mind to several things at once.

Yes, someone once told me to be like an air traffic controller – to concentrate on landing one plane at a time, and to keep all the others circling. It’s not safe to do anything else.

Thank you for that illustration! Is it all right if I use it in a sermon or an article sometime?

Yes, of course, Mr O. But what is your third piece of advice?

The third thing I would say is savour the moment. Ever since we were excluded from the Garden of Eden, our lives have been plagued by toil and difficulty. Nothing is easy anymore. But that does not mean that everything in life is a chore. Hidden away in every activity is something pleasing and fulfilling. Find it and enjoy it. Squeeze the orange until the juice comes out. Some Christians are not very happy people. They have not yet learned to find the God-given reward in every task. But it’s there! Keep sucking the bitter herb until you can taste some of its sweetness.

That’s something that I need time to think about. But I’ll do it slowly!

And to these three pieces of advice, I would add a fourth: stop in between. Never go straight from one task to another. Our God is a Sabbath-loving God. He punctuates our life with a day apart every week. He punctuated Israel’s year with feast days. So put ‘micro-sabbaths’ into your day – lots of them! – moments when you stop, lift up your heart to him, and feel him near. Then go the next task in his strength and with his blessing. You will never regret it.

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

A SHRINK THINKS... Truth and Lies (Part One)

Can lies sometimes be acceptable? Are there situations when lying can be the right thing to do? After all, there seem to be occasions in the Bible when people who seem to be lying also seem to be commended by God. The Hebrew midwives in Exodus 2 and Rahab in Joshua 2 are perhaps the most well-known examples.

Before tackling this (in the next article) we need first to think about truth. Famously, Pilate ran away from the truth. When confronted by the truth of Jesus he threw out the question, ‘What is truth?’ but immediately demonstrated, by turning away and walking out, that he didn’t want an answer.

We know the importance of truth. God is true, and his words are truth, and Jesus, in turn, is the Truth (John 14:6), and so always speaks what is true. The Spirit too is truth (John 14:17) and is the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, which are the revealed truth from God for us today (John 17:17).

God commands us in the ninth commandment: ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.’ While this refers directly to behaviour in a law court, by extension and in imitation of God we are to be truthful everywhere in all our relationships. So unlike Pilate, we want to know the answer to the question ‘what is truth?’

The essence of truth is simply factual correctness. A true statement is one which corresponds to reality and truth is used in this basic way many times in the Bible (e.g., Deuteronomy 13:14; Psalm 19:9, 119:60; Daniel 10:1,21). An honest person is one who speaks the truth – that is, he is someone who strives to be always correct in what he says. As a result, people know they can trust him, and his admirable quality of integrity helps him foster relationships and strengthen society.

A lie is an intentional departure from truthfulness. Someone lies when they deliberately and knowingly say something which is wrong. Such falsity is corrosive, isn’t it? Once someone has lied to you, it is hard to believe them in the future and you treat their every statement with suspicion.

One of the great problems we have in this world is that it is under the sway of the father of lies, one in whom there is no truth. We find ourselves surrounded by people who lie time and again. Such lies are damaging not just to our individual relationships, but to society.

We find ourselves doubting statements from government ministers or our manager. We know they have lied to us before, and so why should we believe them now? Lying breeds cynicism and undermines the kind of confident, trusting relationships we all need to thrive.

In his popular and controversial book Twelve Rules for Life, the psychologist, academic, and social commentator Jordan Peterson states as one of his rules: ‘Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie.’ He means honesty rather than truth (see below) since he doesn’t believe in absolute truth.

He exhorts his readers to be honest people, as he knows from his work and other life experiences how destructive and how common lies are. He discusses at length the damage lies do to our relationships and to the fabric of society.

By contrast, honesty fosters positive, confident, and mature relationships with corresponding wider benefits for our workplaces, homes, and society generally. His is a pragmatic approach. But we recognise the truthfulness in what he says – while knowing there are more fundamental reasons for us to be truthful, as outlined above.

But for as long as we live in this world, we inhabit a place full of lies and deceit. We find ourselves tempted to lie and sometimes do so. It is important, though, to note that there are at least two other ways in which we can fall short of truthfulness without lying or deceiving.

We make mistakes. We say something we are sure is correct, but we are wrong; we are in error. Wanting to buy a present for her, a friend at church asked someone how old her mother was and was told she was 73. But she was wrong, her mother was 76! She wasn’t lying: it was a simple mistake resulting from poor maths and memory.

The importance of truthfulness means we should make every effort to avoid such factual errors. While we may laugh at such errors, we shouldn’t treat them flippantly – but neither should we think of them as lies.

Again, we are sometimes untruthful because we are unreliable. I tell a friend that I will meet up with him for a walk at the car park on the coast at 10 a.m. on Saturday. And I forget. My statement was an honest one at the time. I meant what I said and intended to meet and really did want to enjoy a walk with him. But I wasn’t truthful because I didn’t prove dependable.

God is true not just because he speaks correctly but because he is completely reliable. What he promises, he always does. He never lets us down.

Truth and faithfulness are closely related in the Bible for this reason and they should be in us, too. Just as we shouldn’t quickly dismiss our mistakes but always strive to be factually correct in our statements, so we should also endeavour to fulfil any statements we make about the future; if we can’t trust ourselves to fulfil them, then we shouldn’t make them.

These two types of departure from truthfulness both relate to our creaturely fallibility, don’t they? We make mistakes and too often prove unfaithful, and we should be all the more grateful that we worship a God who is completely reliable and never makes mistakes. It isn’t fair to use the language of lies to describe such failings. But lies are all too common, and next time we will consider lies and deceit.

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

NEWS

News in brief

Yousaf pushes sex swap laws

Scotland’s new first minister, Humza Yousaf, says he will challenge the UK government’s decision to veto new Scottish transgender laws. The Scottish Parliament controversially passed a bill which dramatically liberalises the rules about gender recognition in Scotland. But it was blocked by Westminster.

UN to probe Archie case

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has said it will investigate a complaint against the UK relating to the Archie Battersbee case. Doctors withdrew life support treatment from 12-year-old Archie against the wishes of his parents, following a complex legal battle. Archie’s mother claims the UK broke international law.

Smacking ban slapped down

The government in Westminster has rejected calls for an outright ban on parents smacking children in England. Bans have been introduced in Scotland and Wales, but pro-family campaign group Be Reasonable says it is a ‘dangerous experiment’. In Wales alone, 55 parents were caught by the ban in the first six months.

Define sex in equality laws

‘Sex’ should be clearly defined as biological sex under the Equality Act, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has told the government. The Commission was responding to a letter from Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch sent in light of the increasing confusion caused by transgender activists over how the word ‘sex’ is understood.Carrick church 5th anniversary

NWGP has a new director

Revd Dr Rohintan Mody has been appointed Director of the North West Gospel Partnership. NWGP is an association of evangelical churches in northwest England, offering training events and conferences. Dr Mody was born in India to a Zoroastrian family, but was converted in 1989. Since 2017 he has lectured at the Evangelical Theological College of Asia in Singapore.

Induction of Chris Davies

In March, Chris Davies was inducted to the pastorate of Grace Church St Austell in Cornwall. The occasion also marked the 5th anniversary of the founding of the church. Visitors from across Cornwall attended, as Revd Steven Bowers took the service. Members expressed thanks to God for the provision of Chris, his wife Abigail, and their two children.

Baptist history illustrated talk

Stan Evers gave an illustrated talk on Particular Baptists in Bedfordshire at Homerton Grace Baptist Church in March. Mr Evers focused on three chapels: the Old Baptist Chapel in Dunstable, Southill Strict Baptist Chapel, and Clifton Strict Baptist Chapel. Attendees also heard of the historical labours at these churches of men including John Bunyan and Septimus Sears.

New chief at Daylight

Daylight Christian Prison Trust have announced that Gaius Phillingham has joined their team as Chief Executive Officer. Having previously worked in pastoral ministry, Gaius joins them with valuable experience which, under God’s hand, they trust will help Daylight’s work to continue to grow and develop to reach more prisoners with the gospel.

Troubling FBI Catholic probe

Leaked documents in America have revealed that the FBI in Richmond, Virginia, has been investigating ‘radical, traditionalist Catholics’. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) called the leaked memorandum ‘troubling and offensive’ and is glad the investigation has been rescinded. The USCCB confirmed it openly condemns all forms of extremism and racism.

Hillsong founder was drink-driving

Brian Houston, the founder of the Hillsong megachurch, has admitted he was charged with drink-driving in the US in February last year. Houston posted a statement on his personal Instagram account acknowledging the incident and calling his decision to drive under the influence ‘foolish’. He stepped down from Hillsong last year amid allegations of misconduct.

Record-breaking Bible translations

United Bible Societies (UBS) has announced that a record-breaking number of 57 new translations of the Bible or its parts were completed in 2022. Of these, 14 were full translations such as those for Nigerian or Ethiopian languages, five were for the New Testament, and 38 were for specific parts of the Bible.

Afghan Christians are flown to safety

Fifteen Christian families (60 individuals) who fled almost certain death in Afghanistan since the Taliban took back control have been flown by Barnabas Fund to Brazil to begin a new life where they can worship freely. The last of the families touched down safely on 27 March. Ten families were previously resettled in June 2022.

King Charles III at loggerheads with bishops over multi-faith coronation

King Charles III has reportedly been battling with the Church of England over the inclusion of multi-faith prayers for his coronation service.

According to the Mail on Sunday, church sources say the monarch wants a ‘diverse’ ceremony, including the reading of prayers by members of non-Christian faiths.

But the King has been told that this risks clashing with centuries-old canon law, which bars Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and other faith leaders from reading out prayers during the service.

Nearly 30 years ago, Charles famously declared his wish to be ‘Defender of Faith’, not simply ‘Defender of the Faith’ – a title that all English sovereigns since Henry VIII have held as supreme governor of the Church of England.

In 2015 Charles clarified his statement, saying it was commonly misinterpreted. He said he would not seek to change the title when he became King, but still wanted to be protector of faiths generally.

It is expected that the coronation will be more religiously and culturally diverse than the late Queen’s 1953 service.

Last year, Edward Leigh MP said the coronation should not ‘degenerate into a kind of dumbed down woke-fest celebration of so-called modern Britain’.

Gavin Ashenden, a former chaplain to the Queen, warned the King against seeking any fundamental changes to the Christian coronation.

Dr Ashenden, who has become a Roman Catholic, said, ‘This is a crisis long in the making but entirely predictable given the King’s previous declarations.’

He added, ‘any attempt to alter fundamentally the nature of the Coronation – a Christian ceremony in a 1,000-year-old abbey – would be entirely wrong and misguided.’

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former founding Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, said, ‘It is appropriate the formal ritualistic prayers of the Coronation ought to be Anglican as the King is from the Anglican faith.’

Pradip Gajjar, a Hindu leader, said, ‘This is a Christian ceremony for a Christian King. I don’t see a problem with that.’

See Comment

By Mike Judge, Editor

Channel 4 TV show under fire for parading naked adults in front of children

The official broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, has received hundreds of complaints about a Channel 4 TV show which parades naked adults in front of children.

The ‘Naked Education’ programme purports to teach children a ‘body positive’ image, but there has been a furious backlash from the public.

People expressed concern about seeing a group of adults strip naked in front of teenagers, some as young as 14.

Tory MP Jonathan Gullis criticised the show and claimed adults stripping naked is ‘not how responsible sex education should happen’. He added, ‘How on earth Channel 4 believe this show to be appropriate bewilders me.’

Channel 4’s Chief Content Officer Ian Katz said, ‘Anyone who suggests that the Channel 4 show Naked Education promotes paedophilia or is abusive of children almost certainly hasn’t watched it.’

A Channel 4 spokesperson previously said all the teenagers participated with appropriate consent of their parents or guardians.

‘Excessive’ bail conditions are relaxed for woman arrested for silently praying near an abortion clinic

West Midlands Police have relaxed the ‘onerous’ bail conditions placed on Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the charity worker who has been arrested for the second time for praying silently outside an abortion facility in Birmingham.

Vaughan-Spruce, who has been a volunteer for crisis pregnancy help services for 20 years, was arrested on 6 March for praying in a so-called ‘buffer zone’ around an abortion facility on Station Road in Birmingham.

The zone is imposed by a local Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), which prohibits ‘protests’ near the abortion facility, including prayer.

Following her arrest, police imposed bail conditions that prohibited her presence in an area considerably larger than the buffer zone, including outside a local church where she wanted to lead a prayer group during Lent.

Police claimed that these extensive conditions were necessary to prevent Isabel from ‘committing an offence whilst on bail’ or from ‘interfering with witnesses or otherwise obstructing the course of justice’.

However, backed by ADF UK, Vaughan-Spruce’s legal team submitted that these conditions were ‘unlawful and effected in this case for an improper purpose’.

Given that no witnesses are known to be involved in this case, Vaughan-Spruce’s legal team submitted that the ‘interference with witnesses’ grounds for the bail conditions were ‘disingenuous’ and ‘imposed for an ulterior motive’.

The team successfully argued that banning Vaughan-Spruce beyond the buffer zone amounted to a ‘disproportionate and unnecessary’ restriction on her freedom in relation to the allegations.

Responding to the successful challenge to her bail conditions, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce said she was ‘glad to see some measure of justice restored to proceedings’.

She added, ‘By imposing such arduous and far-reaching restrictions as my bail conditions, police officers ensured that the process became my punishment, even before I have been tried following this second arrest.

‘The bail conditions had a serious negative impact on my life. The prayer group which I lead had decided to meet to pray outside of the “buffer zone” to avoid any confusion during Lent.

‘Yet even though they took this precaution, I was forbidden from joining them for our month of prayer meetings because of the restrictions of my bail conditions.’

Jeremiah Igunnubole is legal counsel for ADF UK, who are supporting Isabel’s legal defence. He said, ‘Whilst we welcome West Midlands Police’s decision to relax Isabel’s excessive bail conditions, the cavalier manner in which her basic rights were restricted is deeply concerning.’

Bible college sacks theologian and threatens to report him to counter-terrorism agency over Twitter postings

A theology lecturer at a Methodist Bible college has been sacked for a social media post saying homosexuality is ‘invading’ the church.

Dr Aaron Edwards, aged 37, says he was also threatened with referral to the government’s anti-terrorism watchdog, Prevent.

Edwards was posting on Twitter in response to the Church of England’s decision to allow the blessing of same sex couples.

On 19 February 2023, Edwards tweeted, ‘Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this b/c they’re busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true. This *is* a Gospel issue, by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour.’

The tweet provoked a wave of complaints to Cliff College from some of the most senior members of the Methodist church in Britain.

Edwards was subsequently suspended while an investigation was undertaken and, in a disciplinary hearing on March 8, it was revealed that the college was considering referring Edwards to Prevent, the government’s counter-terrorism watchdog.

Edwards has appealed the decision to a panel that has already raised complaints about his tweet.

He is considering his legal options, believing that the college has discriminated against him and breached its obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Edwards said, ‘Anyone concerned about academic freedom, Christian freedoms and free speech should be deeply concerned by what has happened to me.’

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said, ‘A Christian theologian working for a Christian Bible college tweeting about the biblical Christian teaching on human sexuality, has been sacked and labelled as a potential “terrorist”.

‘This is an intelligent, learned, respected, father of five children who has been kicked out of a Bible college for expressing views and beliefs shared by millions of Christians across the globe.

‘It is saddening and very concerning to see the Methodist Church, and a once renowned Bible college, lose its way by no longer upholding marriage as God defines it, or supporting those who express it.’

Cliff College, where Dr Edwards worked for seven years without any disciplinary issues or warnings, was founded in 1883 and describes itself as a global centre for evangelism and missiology.

On its website it says it is ‘grounded in the authority of Scripture... We proclaim the Gospel and invite everyone to experience the life-changing transformation of a relationship with Jesus Christ.’

MP shares the gospel in a passionate speech at Westminster debate

A Christian Member of Parliament has shared the gospel in an impressive speech at Westminster about the importance of Christianity to society.

Nick Fletcher, MP for Don Valley, spoke for 17 minutes about the Lord Jesus Christ, his incarnation, his sinless life, his substitutionary death, and his resurrection.

Fletcher said, ‘The foundational premise of the gospel is that we are all sinners. We do wrong. Wrong against God, and wrong against one another, and we know it. I know it. I am not proud of it, but it is true.

‘If we were all truthful with ourselves, we would all admit we are not the good people we like to think we are.

‘We might not all be out stealing and assaulting people, however, I am sure we’ve all said things we wish we hadn’t said, done things we wish we hadn’t done, been unkind instead of kind, greedy instead of generous, we’ve broken promises instead of keeping them, told lies instead of telling the truth.

‘We’ve done things as parents or partners that we know we shouldn’t have. In the Old Testament, they covered their sins with sacrifices, their prized lamb or goat sacrificed to God, but God knew we were never going to be able to meet his hopes for our lives, and this is why the events of Easter happened.’

Fletcher said, ‘On Good Friday we remember the cross where Jesus was sacrificed to cover our sins. And then on Easter Sunday we celebrate the fact that he rose from the dead to sit at the right hand side of God, defeating death for the sake of everyone who believes in him.’

He added that the Bible is ‘shockingly plain’ that no one can make themselves good enough for God, because salvation is given to us by God ‘by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone’, adding that this good news of salvation is available to everyone, everywhere.

Second panel member recused from Christian’s Employment Appeal case

A second person has been recused from an Employment Appeal Tribunal panel considering the case of a Christian mother who was sacked for questioning her children’s sex education lessons.

There were concerns that Andrew Morris may be biased because of his former role as Assistant General Secretary of National Education Union (NEU).

During his time in office the NEU consistently took a strong position in favour of making Relationships and Sex Education mandatory in primary schools.

The NEU also encouraged teaching primary school children about same-sex relationships and transgenderism.

This is significant because Kristie Higgs lost her job after she raised questions about how transgenderism and compulsory sex education was to be taught at her son’s Church of England (CofE) primary school in 2019.

She shared her concerns on a Facebook page, but was later fired from her job as a pastoral assistant at her local secondary school.

The President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Judge Eady, agreed to recuse Mr Morris and said she would have to proceed with the hearing ‘judge alone’.

The case was due to be heard by Judge Eady along with two lay people, but one lay person had previously been recused from the Higgs case.

Back in July 2022, the appeal was postponed after Judge Eady had to recuse trans activist Edward Lord from the presiding panel.

It transpired that Lord, associated with Mermaids and Stonewall, had made a series of public statements relating to key issues in Mrs Higgs’s case.

Manchester Cathedral says sorry for allowing Muslim prayer in the nave

The leadership of Manchester Cathedral has apologised for allowing the Muslim call to prayer, known as the adhan, to be made at an interfaith event.

Church of England guidance says that the adhan should not happen in a consecrated space. But on this occasion, it took place in the nave of the cathedral.

Revd Matthew Firth is a neuro-scientist and full-time stipendiary vicar and Diocesan Church Planter for the Northern Diocese of the Free Church of England.

Revd Firth complained to the cathedral, saying, ‘you allowed public Islamic prayers in Manchester Cathedral.

‘It was utterly inappropriate and was a slap in the face to Jesus, to Christians here, and to Christians around the world who are persecuted by Islam. Please repent and make a public apology.’

He added, ‘I encourage you to understand that friendship and hospitality does not require un-Christian public prayer in consecrated spaces.’

A spokesman for the cathedral said, ‘We understand that our commitment to Inter-Faith work does have its limits – hence the arrangement for Ramadan prayers to be held outside in the public square and not in the Cathedral.

‘In hindsight, we acknowledge the call to prayer should also have been issued outside the Cathedral and in future we will be mindful to offer our hospitality in a way that does not interfere with the integrity of Manchester Cathedral.

‘We apologise for this oversight. We will ensure that any call to prayer is not offered in the Cathedral at any such events in future.’

Lessons drawn from the days of Luther and Ezekiel at Free Church (Continuing) Southern Presbytery Colloquium hosted in Glasgow

The annual Colloquium of the Southern Presbytery of the Free Church (Continuing) proved yet again to be a profitable day for those attending at Knightswood, Glasgow, in February.

The aim of the Colloquium is to provide an opportunity for discussion on theological and practical issues and to be a means of providing refreshment and challenge to the ministers, elders, and others present.

Proceedings began with Revd Trevor Kirkland speaking on Martin Luther’s theology of the cross. He outlined how Luther critiqued the man-centred religion of his day (Romanism) which he described as a ‘theology of glory’.

The phrase simply refers to man’s tendency to have a theology which ultimately gives himself the glory rather than God.

Mr Kirkland’s lecture was no dry historical presentation; he showed how Luther’s concerns from 500 years ago are bang up to date. Much of modern evangelicalism makes little of sin and much of man.

Revd James Gracie spoke on Ezekiel’s theology of judgment. The prophet lived in a day when the exiled Jews could worship, although oppressed.

It was also a day when idolatry and false prophets were rife, with true believers constituting only a small remnant. We saw how Ezekiel’s day was much like ours.

Despite its historical standing with God, Jerusalem was seen not to be immune to judgment and devastation.

The lesson was drawn that Scotland is no different – despite a rich Christian history, the Lord is not beholden to uphold the country in any sense.

The day concluded with a paper on ‘Encouraging body ministry’ by Revd Graeme Craig. The church is pictured as a body with Christ as the head.

Each member is important, and it is our duty to value and serve one another according to the place and gifts which God has given us.

The addresses can be found on the Partick SermonAudio page. The next Colloquium is scheduled for Saturday, 27 January 2024.

By Revd Graeme Craig

Chris Hawthorne is inducted to Abbey Baptist Church, Abingdon

In February over 100 people gathered at Abbey Baptist Church in Abingdon as the church set apart Chris Hawthorne as pastor.

We praised God for his goodness and provision for us as a church since our last pastor left. The way God provided ministry, converts, new members, and finally Chris and his family was wonderful to experience.

Chris testified how God led and provided for him and his family since they left Proclamation Institute Zambia last year. Richard Underwood (elder at Christchurch Market Harborough) led the time of setting apart.

Both the church and Chris affirmed God’s calling before Richard laid a charge upon Chris to strive for the church’s holiness, to be long in prayer for God’s people, to preach the Word in all seasons, to endure hardships, and to set an example and discharge all the duties of his ministry.

Richard, the elders from Abbey, and Andrew King from AGBC(SE) then laid hands upon and prayed for Chris.

Andrew then led us in a time of praise and prayer for Chris and his family, for the leadership, for the church, and for the town of Abingdon.

Richard then spoke from Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21, challenging us to become a church family where Jesus ‘feels at home’ among us; a church who is experiencing more of the love of Christ; and a church manifesting God’s glory. Our time ended with food and fellowship.

By Dan Bryant

Lecture examined the impact of Gregory of Nazianzus (330–390), ‘The greatest preacher of his age’

The 2023 Spring Lecture at the Christian Heritage Centre in Rowley Regis was given by Tim Martin. His subject was Gregory of Nazianzus (330–390).

For many Gregory of Nazianzus is an unknown figure, but Tim, in a lucid and captivating lecture, brought his life and contribution to light.

Tim traced out the miraculous rise of Christianity up to Gregory’s day. He charted its ascent from a vulnerable and despised sect to a revered and honoured institution, noting for example that the building in which the apostle Paul was tried eventually became a church building.

Sadly, by Gregory’s day the church had become weakened by nominalism and the heresy of Arianism. Gregory followed in the steps of Athanasius, the great champion of orthodoxy.

Alongside the golden-mouthed Chrysostom, Gregory was regarded as the greatest preacher of his age. However, Gregory was not a great debater: he lacked tact and easily became overheated and bitter in his dealings with others.

Gregory was a great apologist for the Trinity and the full humanity of Christ. He emphasised the love that existed in the divine unity of the three Persons of the Godhead.

The God of Christianity is indeed not the cold, solitary being of Islam, but the God of grace and love, pardoning our sins in Christ and taking us up in the embrace of the divine love.

We are most grateful to Tim for his heart-warming words and to those who continue to support us in the work at the Christian Heritage Centre. To God be the glory.

By Roland Burrows

Cumbrian creation conference explores the wonders of hearing and migration with Professor Andy Mcintosh

Professor Andy Mcintosh is an expert in biblical creation and a highly-sought international conference speaker. It was a pleasure to hear him give two talks on ‘The wonder of hearing’ and ‘The wonder of migration’ at a short conference in west Cumbria.

Over 50 attended the event in March. It was organised by Creation Matters North West (cmnw.org.uk) and hosted by Emmanuel Church in Workington. CMNW seeks to promote belief in creationism among Cumbria’s churches by organising events such as these.

Andy’s first talk sought to explore the marvels of divine design that we all take for granted when we use our ears. Did you know that the length of the human ear canal and the cochlea are finely tuned to the frequency range of human speech?

Prof. Mcintosh spent time describing this and other wonders in both a lively and understandable way. We were reminded of the words in Proverbs, ‘The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both.’

The wonders of migration were the topic of the second talk. Andy highlighted some of the almost-miraculous feats of endurance, navigation, and efficiency utilised by migratory birds.

The Artic tern and the Bar-tailed godwit came under special attention. The Artic tern flies from its Arctic breeding grounds to the Antarctic and back again each year – some 24,000 miles!

The Bar-tailed godwit flies 7,700 miles over six days in a non-stop flight over the Pacific Ocean, traversing the distance from Alaska to New Zealand.

What is a further wonder of God’s creative design is that juvenile godwits know where they need to go and how much fuel (fat) to build up beforehand, even though they have never made the journey before.

Science is only scratching the surface of these wonders, Andy informed us. Recent studies have indicated that birds can sense magnetic fields in three dimensions (the direction of magnetic north, the tilt of the magnetic field relative to the poles, and the angular difference between the magnetic axis and geographic axis).

Andy’s reference to Job 12 was quite apt: ‘Ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?’

By Rafael Cobos

When God draws near – Wessex Conference examines various aspects of revival with speaker Jeremy Walker

The preacher for the conference at Spring Road Evangelical Church in February was Jeremy Walker (Maidenbower Baptist Church, Crawley).

The first talk was entitled ‘Revival, defined and described’. Jeremy offered a working definition of revival: ‘Times of extraordinary intensification of God’s ordinary work.’

Seasoned with verses from 1 Thessalonians 1 and 2 and spiced with accounts from revival history, he examined the men that God employs, the means that God uses, the ministry that God blesses, the might that God shows, and the mercy that God bestows.

A discussion session between the main meetings, chaired by Mark Stocker (pastor of the host church), explored and applied some of these themes.

A splendid tea preceded the evening meeting, when Jeremy spoke on ‘Revival, pursued and pleaded’, based on Psalm 85.

The second message was a closer exposition of that passage of Scripture, with a particular focus on verse 6 – ‘Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?’

Jeremy described the psalm as an ‘argumentative’ prayer, the psalmist reasoning and wrestling with God for revival blessing. It is marked by hope, faith, and love for God.

Then, after the argument, come verses 8-13. Mercy and truth met together at Calvary, and peace and assurance are found there. God has shown many times that he is good, and will do so ‘again’!

Although emphasising that this was certainly neither the heart nor the structure of Jeremy’s messages, I would particularly highlight several words of caution that came through.

We should avoid the sense that without revival the church cannot progress, as this can make us hyper-Calvinist in practice.

We should not suppose that we need great preachers, but remember that we have a great God. We must be willing for God to work upon the church first, that we would be humbled by God before he can begin a work of revival.

We must beware of both ‘revivalism’ (a belief that we can plan or manufacture revival) and ‘emotionalism’ (a priority upon expressions of feeling rather than a spiritual work).

We must not concentrate on the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit himself would have us honour the Son. Do we want revival because we’d be glad if more people came to church, or for the sake of God’s glory?

Jeremy’s powerful two messages are available on the church’s YouTube channel (SREC Live).

By Richard Patten

Youngsters memorise Matthew 6 at Essex Memory Verse Rally

The Essex Protestant Council held its annual Memory Verse Rally on 11 March at Rehoboth Strict Baptist Chapel, Sible Hedingham.

Friends from Essex, Kent, London, and Suffolk gathered, and children from fellowships in these areas recited Matthew 6:25-34 (‘Take no thought for your life…’).

Certificates and gifts were given to those who took part, and Pastor Neil Pfeiffer from Swansea spoke helpfully on the seven sayings of the Lord Jesus on the cross.

Luke and John each record three of the sayings and Matthew records a seventh. Mark does not record any additional saying, but parallels Matthew’s reference to Jesus’s cry, ‘My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?’

Pfeiffer ably showed that each of these manifested the grace of God in saving sinners, and that the Saviour’s work was that of substitution.

One particular feature noted this year was that December 2022 marked the centenary of the home-call of Mrs M. A. Chaplin. She was a Protestant poet who lived in Essex, and during her lifetime three books of her writings were published.

Some years ago, Zoar Publications republished a selection of these poems in booklet form, and they kindly let the Essex Protestant Council have the remainder of their stock at a reduced price so that it was possible to present a copy not only to each of the Memory Verse Rally participants, but to all the friends attending the meeting.

In addition, all present were able to take a copy of the December issue of the magazine, Cheering Words, which commemorated the occasion.

By Stephen Toms

Armagh conference asks, ‘Is Catholicism a thing of the past?’

In March, European Mission Fellowship held its third annual Armagh conference in Richhill Presbyterian Church.

This is the newest EMF NI conference (in addition to the longer-running Belfast and Ballymoney events) and organisers were encouraged by the attendance of some 120 people.

The theme was ‘Catholicism: a thing of the past?’ We considered what role the Roman Catholic church still plays in Europe, an increasingly secular continent.

Interspersed with reports and interviews, the day had two main sections. First was a panel, chaired by Phil Dunn, EMF’s NI representative. On the panel were Andrew Birch (EMF Mission Director), Manuel Morelli (EMF missionary in Italy), and Revd Seamus Burke (minister of 2nd and 3rd Rathfriland Presbyterian churches).

They shared from their personal experiences – Andrew and Manuel of working in Spain and Italy, and Seamus as a converted Catholic.

They agreed that while the Catholic church is in serious decline, it is good at adapting, and it would be a mistake to underestimate its power and influence.

They also spoke of how best to witness to our Catholic friends – the importance of approach, cultural understanding, and of steering them towards the Word of God, rather than towards ‘church’.

A more in-depth analysis of Catholicism was provided by Leonardo de Chirico (Director of the Reformanda Initiative) via a pre-recorded interview.

Secondly, Revd Burke opened the Scriptures, reading from 1 Peter 3:13-15 – words of encouragement to believers in a highly religious but anti-Christian world; words exhorting them to not be afraid, but to witness.

Revd Burke gave us three elements to effective witness: be a Christian; be a prepared Christian; be a gracious Christian. The conference closed with the apt words of the song ‘Hear the Call of the Kingdom’.

By Ali Woodrow

Philip Eveson retires from the London Seminary Board after fifty years

The work of London Seminary probably owes more, under God, to Philip Eveson – together with his wife, Jenny – than to any other individual.

Mr Eveson’s retirement this year from the seminary Board comes after fifty years of uninterrupted and devoted service to the life of the seminary and its forerunner, the Kensit Memorial Bible College.

It was in 1973 that Mr Eveson started at the Kensit College for the training of Wickliffe Preachers, subsequently becoming Principal.

In 1977, LTS was established and the first students were admitted with Mr Eveson as resident tutor. He became Principal of the seminary in 1997, retiring (though continuing to lecture regularly) in 2009, at which point he was appointed to the Board of the seminary.

Seminary students testify to Mr Eveson’s scholarly and passionate teaching of biblical truth and to the warmth of his pastoral care of an increasingly international student body.

His leadership of the seminary was self-effacing but bold, leading to the establishment of The John Owen Centre for Theological Study – now the Pastors’ Academy – and the modernisation and development of the seminary site and facilities.

His book The Great Exchange was one of the first thoroughly evangelical responses to the ideas of N. T. Wright and the New Perspective.

But Mr Eveson’s contribution to the work of the seminary over 50 years is evidenced principally in the lives and ministries of the hundreds of men who trained there.

His wisdom and experience will be greatly missed. May he and Jenny continue to know the Lord’s grace and blessing in well-earned retirement!

By Robert Strivens

US: Florida governor DeSantis signs six-week abortion ban into law, but awaits court ruling

The governor of the US state of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has signed a new law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

But the new law will not come into effect until courts have ruled on an ongoing case challenging the existing 15-week ban.

‘We are proud to support life and family in the state of Florida,’ the governor said in a statement. He said the law would ‘defend the dignity of human life and transform Florida into a pro-family state’.

The laws on abortion throughout the United States were thrown wide open last year after a landmark ruling by the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Previously, the court held there was a constitutional right to abortion throughout the US, but now the court says each individual state may decide its own laws. Many states have since introduced abortion restrictions to protect unborn children.

Florida’s new six-week ban on abortion will make exceptions for abortions in cases of rape or incest. It was passed by the state Senate on 3 April, and by Florida’s Republican-led House of Representatives on 13 April by 70 votes to 40.

However, the six-week ban will have to await the outcome of an ongoing legal action brought against the state’s current 15-week ban.

A group of abortion clinics are challenging the constitutionality of the 15-week ban, but the Florida Supreme Court has a conservative majority and it is expected to rule against them.

If that happens, the six-week ban, which has been signed by governor DeSantis, will come into force automatically.

Meanwhile, a separate legal fight has emerged over the abortion pill mifepristone. A federal judge in Texas has ordered a hold on the approval of the drug, which is used for abortions.

But a judge in Washington State issued a competing ruling, ordering that access to the drug be preserved in 17 states. The duelling court orders make it likely that the issue will escalate to the US Supreme Court.

Pro-life groups say that the drug’s safety was never properly studied, but pro-abortionists are worried because the pill is used in most abortions.

Alliance Defending Freedom, a pro-life Christian legal advocacy group that represented plaintiffs in the Texas lawsuit, called the ruling ‘a significant victory’ for women and doctors.

Jeanne Mancini, president of another pro-life group, March for Life, hailed it as ‘a major step forward for women and girls’.

Australia: New South Wales leader vows to protect prayer from a ban on so-called conversion therapy

The newly elected leader of New South Wales, Australia, has pledged not to pass a broad ‘conversion therapy’ ban on prayer, which he said would threaten the ordinary work of churches.

Responding to a question from Monica Doumit of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, Chris Minns assured churches they would not be scooped up in a general ban on prayer over conversion therapy.

Doumit had pressed the Labor leader for clarity that a ban would not ‘touch what people can pray, who they can ask to pray for them, and what can be preached’.

While Minns said he intends to ban ‘conversion therapy’, he would not do the same as neighbouring state Victoria, which brought in a law last year that criminalises prayer deemed not to affirm a person’s sexuality or gender identity.

Indeed, in Victoria, the Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission stated that it would be illegal for church leaders to encourage celibacy or warn a person they would be ‘excommunicated’ if they continued a same-sex relationship.

Minns was reported as stating, ‘Taking offence at the teachings of a religious leader will not be banned, expressing a religious belief through a sermon will not be banned, and an individual, with their own consent, seeking guidance through prayer will not be banned either.’

The comments were broadly welcomed by British advocacy group The Christian Institute, which had been following the impact of Victoria’s ban on gospel freedom.

Last year, Australian pastor Murray Campbell of Mentone Baptist Church in Melbourne, Victoria, told the Institute that he would be ‘breaking the law’ if he were to offer counselling and prayer.

At the time, he said, ‘If someone comes to me for advice and says, for example, “I’m same-sex attracted, I love Jesus, I want to follow Jesus, I want to be godly with my life, can you walk alongside me and help me and disciple me?”, and if I do so, I will be breaking the law.

‘And even in a Bible-study setting, [imagine] you’re opening the Bible with, say, eight other people, and maybe you’re working through Romans chapter one, and someone puts up their hand and says, “Actually, I now identify as gay.”

‘If we were to continue with the Bible study on Romans chapter one, we would be breaking the law, because an individual has highlighted the fact that they identify as gay.’

Campbell said that these scenarios could result in either civil complaints or criminal charges, with prison sentences ranging between five and ten years.

Russia: European Court denounces the punishment of pastor who hosted a prayer meeting, calling it a clear breach of human rights

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Russia for violating a Christian pastor’s right to carry out a prayer meeting in his own home.

It reiterated that ‘missionary work or evangelism…is protected under Article 9’ of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In a judgment issued in March, the ECHR held that a 2016 punishment levied by Russian authorities on pastor Donald Ossewaarde for organising a peaceful prayer gathering his house in Oryol, Russia, was a clear breach of human rights.

He had been arrested, taken to the police station, charged, and convicted after he invited locals to his house for worship, singing, and Bible study.

He was fined 40,000 roubles (approximately 650 euros at the time). After the sentence was upheld by Russian courts, Ossewaarde appealed to the ECHR. ADF International supported Ossewaarde in bringing the case to the Court.

Dr Felix Böllmann, director of advocacy Europe at ADF International, said, ‘Nobody should be discriminated against or persecuted for sharing their faith, regardless of their religion or denomination.

‘The ECHR has yet again affirmed that evangelisation and mission work is a key, and robustly protected, element of the freedom of religion under the ECHR.’

Since 2005, Ossewarde, originally from Michigan, had been living with his wife in Oryol, less than 200 km from the Ukrainian border. They regularly organised prayer gatherings and communal Bible reading.

On 14 August 2016, three police officers entered their home. The door was open to give anyone access who wanted to join the Sunday worship. After the service, the officers questioned the attendees. Then they ordered Ossewaarde to come to the police station for fingerprinting. The police took Ossewaarde directly from the police station to the Zheleznodorozhny District Court in Oryol, where he was convicted for carrying out missionary work.

In its judgment, the ECHR has ruled that the penalty for missionary work constitutes a violation of the right to religious freedom.

The Court confirmed that the ‘freedom to manifest one’s religion includes … the right to express one’s religious views’. Furthermore, missionary work or evangelism ‘is protected under Article 9 alongside with other acts of worship’.

Finland: Election victory for politician who was prosecuted over Bible tweet

A Finnish politician who was prosecuted last year for tweeting her Christian beliefs along with a Bible verse has won re-election to the Finnish Parliament.

Päivi Räsänen was charged with s0-called hate speech for posting a Bible verse in response to her church’s decision to sponsor a gay pride event.

She won her case in district court, with the judgment stating that ‘it is not for the district court to interpret biblical concepts’.

But Finnish prosecutors are still hounding her and have launched an appeal against her acquittal.

Nevertheless, Räsänen has been re-elected to Parliament in the national elections. Her party, the Finnish Christian Democrats, won five seats, having increased its share of the vote to four per cent.

Speaking about the prosecution’s decision to appeal against her acquittal, Räsänen said, ‘By continuing its campaign to censor peaceful beliefs the prosecution is setting a dangerous precedent of intolerance against free speech.

‘I will keep fighting for free speech because it is the cornerstone of a free and democratic society. I am hopeful the appeal court will make the same decision as the district court and acquit me again.’

Paul Coleman, author of Censored: How European Hate Speech Laws are Threatening Freedom of Speech, said, ‘When a longstanding and respected Finnish parliamentarian is put on trial twice for sharing her deeply held beliefs in a tweet four years ago, you know regard for free speech in Europe has hit a new low.

‘Everyone who cares about free speech should be outraged at the continued prosecution of Päivi Räsänen. The prosecution wants to make an example of Päivi to scare others into silence. They failed in the first trial. We hope free speech will prevail again.’

Räsänen has served as a Finnish Member of Parliament since 1995. From 2004 to 2015 she was chair of the Finnish Christian Democrats and from 2011 to 2015 she was the Finnish Minister of the Interior.

India: Celebrations held for completed Bible translations in Thadou and Simte languages

Two special thanksgiving services have been held in Manipur, northeast India, to celebrate the publication of the full Bible in the Thadou and Simte languages.

The Thadou are the largest tribe in Manipur, numbering about 300,000.

Similarly, the Simte tribe, also in Manipur, welcomed a revised Bible translation in their tongue after it was noted that the translation they had received in 1992 needed whole areas of revision.

The Trinitarian Bible Society (TBS), which undertook the works of translation, said the services marked ‘notable milestones for projects by the TBS’. These are only two of eight current TBS translation projects in Manipur, some of which are also close to completion.

Nigeria: Young boy killed in Palm Sunday church attack

A young boy has been killed and three people kidnapped in Nigeria in a suspected Fulani militant attack on Palm Sunday.

As reported by Open Doors, churches in Nigeria have increased security measures to defend themselves against rising Islamist violence.

On Palm Sunday, during an early morning prayer vigil at the church in the village of Akenawe in Benue State, Nigeria, gunmen stormed in.

According to reports from local news agency Logo LGA, the men surrounded the worshippers, killed one boy, and injured two people with a machete.

They also kidnapped three people, one of whom is said to be the pastor, Gwadue Kwaghtyo.

Open Doors said in a statement, ‘Believers in Nigeria are especially prone to violent attacks; last year, more than 5,000 Christians lost their lives for their faith – that’s more than anywhere else in the world combined.’

In a separate incident, eight students were kidnapped as they were returning home from their school in the town of Awon, Kaduna State, on 4 April.

Open Doors has put Nigeria at sixth place on its world watch list for persecution.

REVIEWS

A Biblical Case Against Theistic Evolution

Wayne Grudem (editor), John D. Currid, Guy Prentiss Waters, Gregg R. Allison, and Fred G. Zaspel

Crossway

256 pages; £xx

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This is a slimmed-down version of 2017’s Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. It reproduces six chapters – three revised – by five leading scholars, to show how theistic evolution (TE) conflicts with Christian doctrine. It provides an overview of TE’s theological implications, without 1000 pages of science attached.

Wayne Grudem states that since Genesis 1–3 provides the foundation of the whole Bible, it should be understood as historical narrative. He responds to BioLogos’s objection to the TE definition previously used – agreeing that God actively sustains the natural world, but not that God ‘did not cause any empirical detectable change in the behaviour of matter until living things had evolved by purely natural processes’. This confuses creation with providence, denying God’s direct creation of living creatures.

John Currid surveys TE’s incompatibility with the Old Testament, presenting textual evidence against popular interpretations of Genesis 1–3 (e.g., that it addresses function not origin, or is just myth). He is optimistic that traditional interpretations will prevail in the church.

Guy Waters looks at the New Testament: If Adam is not the progenitor of all humans, then Luke’s claim that Jesus’s genealogy qualifies him to be Redeemer of all is void. He critiques prominent TE advocates on Paul, describing their ideas’ impact on the gospel.

Gregg Allison shows how TE is incompatible with historical Christian doctrine long defended by the church. Early on, Christians stood against a theory that the world resulted from the accidental collision of small elements apart from God’s direction. Turretin opposed Le Peyrere’s idea that people existed before Adam.

Why was no similar help-meet found for man if myriads of women already existed? Not even B. B. Warfield embraced TE as defined here – another chapter’s subject, since TE proponents often claim him as theirs. Fred Zaspel shows Warfield was critical of evolutionary theory and endorsed a young humanity.

Finally, Grudem lists twelve TE beliefs that conflict with Genesis 1–3. He concludes that TE leads to the progressive erosion and denial of eleven key doctrines (from biblical truthfulness to God’s moral justice, human equality, and the atonement).

Given TE’s popularity, this is a timely book that’s detailed yet easy-to-read, with helpful footnotes. Its occasional repetition serves to reinforce important points and its tone towards those who differ is gracious.

However, it does not take a position on the earth’s age. Some of the problems discussed remain in an old-age scenario, such as when to place historical Adam in light of the geological record (Jesus said he was made ‘at the beginning of creation’, Mark 10:6) and what we do with the Flood and Babel accounts. Nevertheless, do read and give it to your leaders!

Matthew Pickhaver

Briston, Norfolk

Challenging Leaders

Graham Nicholls (editor)

Affinity

152 pages; £11.99

BUY

Challenging Leaders is a necessary and stimulating foray into the quagmire of ‘spiritual abuse’. The book’s strength is its clear-headed realism. Like it or not, church leaders are sinners who will sin as church leaders. Like it or not, terms that can come with unbiblical baggage like oppressor, abuser, victim, and survivor are in frequent use, especially online. The book sets out to be a ‘best-practice guide’ for this area.

First, the book sensibly highlights the challenges with terminology. It recognises that thirtyone:eight (a safeguarding charity whose statement of faith is the Apostles’ Creed) have been promoting the concept of spiritual abuse. It is ‘not a term the authors would want to endorse’ – although they do, inconsistently, also use it. The book prefers more precise categories such as ‘pastoral malpractice’ and ‘abuse of power’, while recognising that the term ‘spiritual abuse’ is being used by others.

Second, the authors recommend how to promote a church culture which is healthy, not abusive, thereby preventing pastoral malpractice. Advice on a Christian organisational culture is applied to churches.

Third, a method is outlined for handling allegations, whether they be of a safeguarding nature or not. This includes a helpful final chapter on ‘media and abuse’.

The book lists ten contributors but does not identify the major author(s) of any of the six chapters. There is clearly substantial input from Paul and Sue Harrison of Christian Safeguarding Services (a safeguarding charity whose doctrinal statement includes detail on justification, regeneration, sanctification, and the gathered church). Many evangelical churches are benefitting from their training, safeguarding policy template, and support.

One may quibble on particular details. A checklist of identifiers of a mission-centred church includes ‘diversity is celebrated’ – a phrase used by others to promote an LGBT agenda. Small churches may wonder at the seven recommended policies regarding complaints and allegations.

The book seeks to help churches act in ways ‘honouring to Christ, theologically faithful and legally compliant’. Its most significant weakness is in the second of these.

To define ‘abuse of power’ requires theological clarity on how Christ, the Head of the Church, requires his churches to be governed. What authority has Christ given church elders? How does Christ require his church to be kept pure? How far should Christ’s Scriptures be used to bind a believer’s conscience through preaching, individual biblical advice, or formal biblical counselling? A pragmatic reading of the book without working through these principles could lead to churches asking what the Charity Commission requires of them before what Christ requires of them. This may be a reason why the authors conclude that the book is in some ways ‘too short’.

Overall, the authors have done churches a service by addressing these areas. The book will be helpful for church elderships to read together. Leaders of other Christian charities will also benefit.

Paul Smith

Margate

If Christianity Is So Good, Why Are Christians So Bad?

Mark Coppenger

Christian Focus

192 pages; £8.99

BUY

It is not only unbelievers who are caused to stumble by the apparent disconnect that there sometimes is between the claims of Christianity and the lives of its followers. Christians are troubled by it too. In this accessible but thorough book, Mark Coppenger addresses this question. (The book is part of ‘The Big Ten’ series, answering critical questions in Christian apologetics.)

Coppenger begins by noting that the question itself contains the ‘complex question’ fallacy: to answer it implies an acknowledgement that its premise (Christians are ‘so bad’) is correct. Nevertheless, he makes the case that the difference between a Christian’s previous and current life should be obvious, before going on to give examples of ‘toxic Christianity’.

In addressing the question, Coppenger then notes that the Bible itself gives examples of believers behaving badly, and he explains that being born again does not imply immediate perfect sanctification. He also shows that some bad behaviour is the work of those who are not true Christians at all. In doing so he tackles very helpfully the charge of using the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy.

Coppenger further defends the Christian cause against unfair attacks from enemies, showing that the original question is indeed a loaded one that is not entirely justified. The book ends with a couple of chapters discussing the tools Christians can use to ensure that they do not give ammunition to enemies of the gospel.

Many of the illustrations and anecdotes are American, as is the spelling. The book also contains a few irritating minor errors (e.g., Augustine stole pears, not apples!) Nevertheless, the book is a stimulating read, and a useful tool for those, such as open-air preachers, who are often confronted by variations of the question which it addresses.

David Cooke

Banbury

The Heart of the Reformation

Anonymous

Ligonier

157 pages; £11

BUY

This book comprises 90 readings based on the themes: Scripture Alone, Christ Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and Glory to God Alone.

One can see at a glance that this is indeed ‘the heart of the Reformation’. The aim of the book is to encourage readers to look to Christ alone for complete salvation, and not to divide our focus; e.g., not to supplement his finished work with our own works. The preface states that ‘from God’s perspective...to not trust in Him alone was really not to trust in Him at all’.

The readings incorporate how the Reformers addressed the natural errors of taking away from Christ’s person and work – detractions from his revelation and his gift of faith by grace. The Reformers opposed any subtraction from his glory by assigning part of salvation to man. Many do not appear to see the horror of attempting this. Due to rampant man-centred theology (Arminianism) in the visible church, it is not highlighted.

These daily devotionals are well written, concise, and theologically helpful to those who desire to learn more about Christ. The content is excellent and an appendix for scriptural references would have been helpful. There is only one caveat: the Reformers would not have used the Greek text underlying the use of the ESV for proof texts.

Highly recommended.

James Clark

Harris

The Lullingstone Secret

Jill Masters

Wakeman Trust

101 pages; £5.95

BUY

This excellent historical fictional book is intended for children but an intriguing read for adults too. The Lullingstone Secret tells of the spread of Christianity around 350 AD in Roman Britain, before the arrival of Augustine of Canterbury in AD 597.

Jill Masters writes about a fictional wealthy family who move into their grandparents’ country villa in Lullingstone, in Kent, from the capital of Roman Britain, Londinium. Lydia, Balbus, and Marcus come from a family where their parents were not particularly religious but they occasionally worshipped false Roman gods and had a couple of leftover idols from a Roman general in the villa. When their eldest son, Marcus, returns from Rome converted to Christianity, other people began to become Christians and the first church meeting place is built.

Interestingly, this story is based on the real Lullingstone villa that was discovered in an archaeological excavation by Colonel Meates and his team between 1949 and 1961. This discovery was particularly important as it showed that people were Christians earlier than Augustine. The British Museum has wall pictures on display from the chapel and also the Roman busts from the villa.

The author’s style is extremely readable for children around the age of seven and above. Through the characters’ testimonies, the gospel is clearly explained. This book left me interested to learn more about the findings of the archaeologists and more about other Christians from this period.

Through the hardships and sorrows of these fictional characters, we are led to consider the troubles the real family of believers faced in Roman and Anglo Saxon times. Even when times were hard, God and his faithfulness are shown to be paramount. Highly recommended.

Sarah Woollin,

Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Table of Contents

FEATURES

Authentic discipleship

Thankful for partners: Zimbabwe Partnership Trust

Why hymnals?

Do we need some post-covid repentance?

Attacking Pearl Harbour, surrendering to Christ: The story of Mitsuo Fuchida

From Kyiv to Brussels: reflections one year after invasion

Sharing Christ in a post-Christian land: The work of Outreach UK

Catechising our children

COMMENT: Multi-faith coronation row should come as no surprise

GUEST COLUMN: True beauty for ordinary women

Crunch Points: Respecting sinful authorities

THINKING IT THROUGH: All creatures great and small: Christians and their pets

A WALK WITH MR O: As few regrets as possible

A SHRINK THINKS... Truth and Lies (Part One)

NEWS

News in brief

King Charles III at loggerheads with bishops over multi-faith coronation

Channel 4 TV show under fire for parading naked adults in front of children

‘Excessive’ bail conditions are relaxed for woman arrested for silently praying near an abortion clinic

Bible college sacks theologian and threatens to report him to counter-terrorism agency over Twitter postings

MP shares the gospel in a passionate speech at Westminster debate

Second panel member recused from Christian’s Employment Appeal case

Manchester Cathedral says sorry for allowing Muslim prayer in the nave

Lessons drawn from the days of Luther and Ezekiel at Free Church (Continuing) Southern Presbytery Colloquium hosted in Glasgow

Chris Hawthorne is inducted to Abbey Baptist Church, Abingdon

Lecture examined the impact of Gregory of Nazianzus (330–390), ‘The greatest preacher of his age’

Cumbrian creation conference explores the wonders of hearing and migration with Professor Andy Mcintosh

When God draws near – Wessex Conference examines various aspects of revival with speaker Jeremy Walker

Youngsters memorise Matthew 6 at Essex Memory Verse Rally

Armagh conference asks, ‘Is Catholicism a thing of the past?’

Philip Eveson retires from the London Seminary Board after fifty years

US: Florida governor DeSantis signs six-week abortion ban into law, but awaits court ruling

Australia: New South Wales leader vows to protect prayer from a ban on so-called conversion therapy

Russia: European Court denounces the punishment of pastor who hosted a prayer meeting, calling it a clear breach of human rights

Finland: Election victory for politician who was prosecuted over Bible tweet

India: Celebrations held for completed Bible translations in Thadou and Simte languages

Nigeria: Young boy killed in Palm Sunday church attack

REVIEWS

A Biblical Case Against Theistic Evolution

Challenging Leaders

If Christianity Is So Good, Why Are Christians So Bad?

The Heart of the Reformation

The Lullingstone Secret