Contents

FEATURES

The unity of the human race

Why I no longer use transgender pronouns, and why you shouldn’t either

Chatting with the computer: Is artificial intelligence a machine we have begotten in our own likeness?

Gospel essence

Toxic

COMMENT: ‘Nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them’

GUEST COLUMN: How perfectionism makes

you a spiritual quitter

Crunch Points: Encouraging your pastor

THINKING IT THROUGH: Late for church. Does it matter?

A WALK WITH MR O: A purifying buzz

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

NEWS

News in brief

Health concerns over three-parent baby born in UK

Draft bill is expected to criminalise conversion practices

Christian mayor candidate wins payout after being sacked for her manifesto commitment to marriage

Soul Survivor leader faces allegations of misconduct

Christian teacher sues school for unfair dismissal after she was sacked for questioning the ‘gender transition’ of a pupil aged 8

NHS children’s transgender clinic facing court action over alleged ‘missing’ emails

The Church of England is urged by evangelicals to ‘step back from the brink’ over same-sex blessings row

Youth conference held in Edinburgh looks at ‘saving the future’

Obituary: Frances Mary Fountain (1930–2023)

‘Sweet concord’ – Confessional Association of Baptist Churches founded with inaugural meeting

Yorkshire children’s camp celebrates 10 years

Obituary: Javed Bhatti (c. 1951–2023)

Republic of Ireland: Concerns grow over ‘hate bill’ which could criminalise beliefs

Cameroon/Chad: Aid arrives for 6,000 Christian families hit by severe flooding

Turkey: Christian couple banned from entering the country take case to court

Netherlands: Euthanasia law expands to include children as young as one

Germany: Christian school takes legal action to challenge state’s failure to give it accreditation

US: Abortion numbers decline overall, as North Dakota passes a new ‘heartbeat’ law to protect unborn babies

REVIEWS

Preparations for Sufferings

Background to the Bible

Has Science Made God Unnecessary?

FEATURES

The unity of the human race

In 2020, a Nevada schoolteacher informed her class that they had to declare their various identities and characteristics, which were then scored according to their ‘privilege’ or ‘oppression’.

To identify as either white or Christian was defined as oppressive. Students were asked to ‘undo and unlearn’ their ‘beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours that stem from oppression’.

One student, William Clark, knew that something was wrong with being told to ‘unlearn’ Christianity. But he was threatened with a failing grade and non-graduation if he failed to comply.

Critical race theory

That classroom activity was one practical application of critical race theory, which is one of the most contentious issues in society and in the church today.

In the name of ‘antiracism’, many schoolchildren are being encouraged to see everything in racial categories. Asking children to see themselves and others as either guilty of privilege or victims of oppression is divisive in the extreme.

The Bible shines a bright light onto this divisive ideology. Scripture teaches the unity of the human race (Genesis 1:26; 7:21; 10:32; Matthew 19:4; Acts 17:26; Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:21-28, 45-49). We are all more related to one another than most people imagine.

There are no absolute identities of ‘black’ or ‘white’. Yet acknowledging our essential unity as humans does not mean that variety in ethnicity and culture cannot also be respected. God is glorified as the diversity of peoples come together to honour him (Revelation 5:9).

In a fallen world, injustice, abuse, and exploitation are ugly realities (Ecclesiastes 4:1; Romans 3:9-19). The sense that this is wrong is God-given. Our just and righteous Creator has placed his moral law on our hearts (Romans 1:18-32; 2:14-16). Our desire for justice attests that we have been created in his image.

Biblical foundations

Often, Christians have been in the forefront of insisting that all should be educated, since all should have access to the Word of God. The biblical conviction that every human being is to be treated with respect lay behind efforts to abolish slavery. The liberties and rights that we value in free societies are based on the conviction that all humans, made in God’s image, are equal in dignity.

Despite all this, many today regard Christianity as oppressive. In its place, critical race theory is inculcated by means of sensitivity training, unconscious bias training, and diversity, equity, and inclusivity programs. But seeking justice on the basis of a worldview that has rejected God only ever makes things worse.

Critical theory

Critical race theory is an offshoot of critical theory, a school of thought that set out to destroy all claims to transcendent truth. Hostility to biblical Christianity was, and is, part of its DNA.

Traditional disciplines (science, history, etc.) have sought to understand the world as it is. But critical theory is about how to change the world to achieve equity (i.e., equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities).

Critical theory is about destabilising society by persuading people to view all authority as oppressive, all truth claims as suspicious, and all words as ultimately meaningless.

Critical theory holds that universal explanations, moral codes, religion, and even legal codes, reason, logic, and science are just the means by which the privileged protect their position and keep the oppressed down.

Arms race for victimhood

This destructive project began in the universities, but it has captured all the major institutions of the West. Society is fractured into groups as people are pitted against each other in an arms race for victimhood.

Individual moral responsibility is downplayed as guilt is seen in collective terms. Privilege is regarded as a sin that can never finally be expunged. Humanity is divided between some who have access to certain experiences and others who don’t and therefore can’t understand the experiences of the other group.

This denies our capacity to engage with others. It shuts off our God-given ability to communicate with and trust our fellow human beings. This is a wretched restriction on social interactions. It’s also an outcome of denying God as the source of external and universally available truth.

The Bible teaches us that God is the giver of life, that every human is created in his image, and that when we neglect or despise our fellow human beings, we insult their Maker (Proverbs 14:31; 17:5).

The only certain guarantee of human freedom and dignity is belief in our creation by God. Evolutionary ideas lie directly behind the flawed ‘science’ of eugenics, which in turn feed into the evil idea of racial supremacy.

Respecting individuals

To view people primarily according to the groups to which they belong reduces the likelihood of respecting them for who they are. The universal respect due to all humans is lost.

The particular respect due to individuals because of their own character, virtue, or achievement is lost as well. The biblical truths of creation and redemption point to the essential unity of the human race and to the respect to be afforded to each individual.

The Bible teaches us that we are all sinners; we are all morally responsible; we can all be forgiven. When we have acknowledged our own sinfulness and experienced God’s forgiveness, we are empowered to forgive others. At a time of polarisation and social division, the capacity to demonstrate humility and forgiveness is countercultural and beautiful.

It is right to seek justice and oppose racism. But the biblical worldview is the only firm foundation for the defence of human dignity and societal harmony. To compromise with an ideology that sets out to destroy transcendent truth claims is catastrophic.

We rejoice to proclaim that our triune God is the ground of truth, justice, and morality. He is worthy of the praise of everyone in every nation and in every age (Psalm 72:8-11).

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. I

By Dr Sharon James, Social Policy Analyst for the Christian Institute.

Why I no longer use transgender pronouns, and why you shouldn’t either

A civil war has erupted within broad evangelicalism, and the idol of LGBTQ+ is dividing the house. This issue is personal, political, and spiritual for me.

In 1998, I became one of the first crop of so-called ‘tenured radicals’ in American universities, proudly touting my lesbian street cred. In 1999, Christ called me to repentance and belief, and I became a despised defector from the LGBTQ+ movement.

But progressive sanctification came slowly, and I have failed many times during these past decades. After I have learned lessons, I have earnestly tried to course-correct. And that’s the problem. My use of transgendered pronouns was not a mistake; it was sin.

Public sin requires public repentance, not course correction. I have publicly sinned on the issue of transgender pronouns, which I have carelessly used in books and articles. I have publicly sinned by advocating for the use of transgender pronouns in interviews and public Q&As.

Why did I do this? I have a bunch of lame excuses. Here are a few. It was a carry-over from my gay activist days. I wanted to meet everyone where they were and do nothing to provoke insult.

When the Supreme Court decided in favour of gay marriage, the danger of my position started to come into focus. The codification of gay marriage and LGBTQ+ civil rights launched a collision course between LGBTQ+ and the Christian faith.

The LGBTQ+ movement’s understanding of itself as ontological and morally good conflicts with the biblical account in Genesis 1:27. Which is it? Which side was I on?

Is LGBTQ+ a normal option in the ever-expanding menu of sexual orientation and gender identity, needing a little Jesus to aid human flourishing? Or does LGBTQ+ come from Satan as a reflection of the world, the flesh, and the devil?

Is it part of God’s creational design or rebellion against the creation ordinance? It’s one or the other because the Christian faith is inherently binary, not non-binary. And getting this wrong is not a matter of personal liberty.

How is using transgender pronouns sinful, you might ask? Using transgendered pronouns is a sin against the ninth commandment and encourages people to sin against the tenth commandment. Using transgendered pronouns is a sin against the creation ordinance. Using transgendered pronouns is a sin against image-bearing.

Using transgendered pronouns discourages a believer’s progressive sanctification and falsifies the gospel. Using transgendered pronouns cheapens redemption, and it tramples on the blood of Christ. Using transgendered pronouns fails to love my neighbour as myself.

Using transgendered pronouns fails to offer genuine Christian hospitality and instead yields the definition of hospitality to liberal communitarianism, identity politics, and ‘human flourishing’.

Using transgendered pronouns isn’t a sin JUST because the times have changed; and therefore, using transgendered pronouns can’t be sinful today but morally acceptable in 2012. Sin is sin.

The Bible defines this as sin. Sin does not lose its evil because of our good intentions or the personal sensibilities of others. Changing cultural forces can bring sin into fresh light (as the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision did for me). But a renewed focus is no excuse for sin and no dodge for repentance, not for a real Christian. I repent.

The broad evangelical church disagrees with how I paint this picture. Psychologist Mark Yarhouse and author Preston Sprinkle summarise the Christian case for transgender pronouns. They believe using transgender pronouns is respectful of someone’s chosen identity; it’s kind and courteous and necessary for continuing a relationship with a transgender person.

I once sinfully said all these things, too. But this position makes no Christian sense. Does any real Christian believe crafting a relationship on falsehood will give the gospel a better hearing? And is that how people are converted? By meeting God on sin’s terms and hearing nice things about themselves?

Christian author and counsellor Laura Perry Smalts offers a different perspective. In her past, she lived as a ‘transgendered man’ and called herself ‘Jake’. Laura pumped testosterone and engaged in mutilating ‘gender-affirming’ surgeries. And God saved, redeemed, and transformed her into a beautiful trophy of his grace.

She has recounted in countless interviews and her book Transgender to Transformed (Oklahoma: Genesis Publishing Group, 2019) the opposite approach to Sprinkle and Yarhouse and the old Rosaria.

For Laura, when the Lord enlivened her heart and mind with the gospel, she returned to the church of her youth and her conservative Christian parents. Her church and parents had refused to use her preferred pronouns throughout all the years she lived in the false identity of transgenderism.

Why did she return to them? Their refusal to lie compelled her trust. Today, Laura is among the most beautiful, godly, and feminine women I know.

Transgender pronouns are one of the Achans in the camp of broad evangelicalism. But it shouldn’t be an Achan in the camp of the confessionally Reformed. Preston Sprinkle, Mark Yarhouse, David French, Revoice, Side B Christianity, and any parachurch ministry that elevates ‘being winsome’ as the endgame provide useful examples to defy.

They nod in the direction of traditional values but then swap biblical clarity for postmodern pluralism, thus burning to the ground any legitimate theological bridge to gospel grace. Transgenderism is satanic. We who once promoted ‘pronoun hospitality’ lent false credibility to a wolfish theology that fails to protect the sheep. Instead, it eats them alive.

Do you love your neighbour? Do you love your Lord? Do you believe that Jesus alone is ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6)? Does Jesus save us from our sins, or do we delegate this task to the priests of our day – the therapists?

Do you know the difference between making false friends (‘frenemies’) and loving your enemies? Yes, Jesus was a friend of sinners, which means that by his precious blood, he ransoms all who repent, believe, and put their trust in him. He makes former enemies into his friends through his blood.

The blood of Christ does not create an ‘ally’ with the sin it crushes on the cross, for that stands in opposition to gospel hope. The world, the flesh, and the devil are not Christ’s friends.

Trans identity and Jesus are not coterminous. It’s one or the other. Christians need to learn how to love their enemies, not pretend their enemies are their friends.

Christians who use the moral lens of LGBTQ+ personhood are not merely a ‘soft presence’ in the enemy camp. Their malleability makes them pudding in the enemy’s hand. They make false converts to a counterfeit gospel that bends the knee to the fictional identity of LGBTQ+.

This wolfish theology cedes the moral language to the left by using transgendered pronouns as a moral lens (‘respect, courtesy, hospitality’). They reject the clarity of the Word of God and replace it with garbage.

By doing so, they have rejected the gospel truth that Jesus is the only way to salvation. Heidelberg Question 30 puts it like this: ‘for though they boast of him in words, yet in deeds, they deny Jesus as the only deliverer and Saviour.’

Heidelberg Question 30 has an ominous report for the pronoun hospitality camp. We who have promoted this sin need to stand up and repent. I’ll start. I repent. May God forgive me. Would anyone like to join me?

This article was first published on reformation21.org, a website of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Republished with permission.

By Rosaria Butterfield, former professor of English and women’s studies at Syracuse University, converted to Christ in 1999 in what she describes as a train wreck. Her memoir, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, chronicles that difficult journey. Rosaria is married to Kent Butterfield, a Reformed Presbyterian pastor in North Carolina, and is a homeschooling mother, author, and speaker.

Chatting with the computer: Is artificial intelligence a machine we have begotten in our own likeness?

Let’s play a word game. Finish the sentence: ‘The cat is sitting on the ___.’ I imagine you had various options but the strongest contender was probably ‘mat’. However, if I add an earlier sentence that might change. So what word comes to mind if I write ‘Whiskers is in the front room, again. The cat is sitting on the ___.’ Maybe ‘settee’ is now your most likely answer, although there are other possibilities.

Human beings are good at these games. But can we program our computers to play them? It turns out that we can and amazingly so. You may already know this from your phone trying to guess what word you want next when writing a message (to save you typing it).

However, we have now gone far beyond those simple systems with the development of ‘Large Language Models’ such as Chat-GPT and Bard. Give them some words and they will estimate the most likely word to come next, and then keep repeating that process with the result that you appear to get a complete reply from them.

So you type ‘Where is the cat sitting?’ and then wait for the machine to fill in the next mostly likely word. It estimates that word should be ‘The’ followed by ‘cat’ followed by ‘is’ followed by… well, you get the idea.

How does artificial intelligence work?

So how does it work? There’s not space here properly to explain, even if I had the ability to do so – good explanations are available elsewhere. But let’s attempt to grasp a tiny gist of what’s happening.

Maybe we imagine the computer works out all the possible options for what could come next based on the rules and use of English, ranks them by how likely they are, and picks the top one, or maybe one of the top ones at random, to put on the screen.

However, while that might be feasible for guessing one word based just on the previous one – like your phone – it quickly becomes impossible once you want the computer to write phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or even longer responses.

That’s because language has so many possibilities that the options would fast overwhelm even the most powerful machine’s capabilities and resources.

How, then, have we done it? Cleverly, by building systems which model, in a very limited way, the workings of the human brain. These models have a huge number of ‘dials’ built in (sadly not actual physical ones) which can be adjusted. We then just have to keep playing around to find the right settings for all those dials so that when we send words to the model, it sends back a stream of words which are as close as possible to what a human might say next.

So when we type in ‘Where is the cat sitting?’ the model first comes up with the word ‘The’. Then based on our words and its first word it comes up secondly with ‘cat’, and this process repeats until ‘The cat is sitting on the mat’ has appeared.

But how do you set the dials to do this? You give the system a massive number of examples of English writing to learn from. In the light of them, it keeps tweaking its dials to improve its guesses until it reaches a point where the model is deemed pretty good by its inventors. And then they start work on the next version, to make it even better and give it new features.

Now, let’s not mistake what is happening here. The system doesn’t know what it’s talking about. It’s just very good at guessing the next words to display based on all the previous ones in the conversation (and because that’s what it’s doing it can come up with some unusual responses at times).

But even so, the ability is a surprisingly useful tool when linked to all the information out there on the internet, since it can often respond to our questions, queries, and comments in a way which makes it sound human because it’s drawing down on tons of human conversations to give its reply – it’s summarising human wisdom for us.

Have we begotten a machine in our own likeness?

Maybe we could even put it this way: we have begotten a machine in our likeness, bearing the verbal image of the human race. And its first words are making us smile.

Of course, Genesis reminds us that we have been able to create image-bearers of ourselves for a very long time: ‘When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth’ (Genesis 5:1-3).

Those image-bearers – our children – are remarkable creations, multi-talented in their abilities. They may not have the breadth of information or vocabulary of our artificial intelligent chat systems, but some of the things they can do, even from a very young age, far surpass the abilities of our mightiest computers.

But Genesis then also reminds us that humanity is not the original. In fact, we are just models based on the true original: models made to imitate God in little ways, having been trained by him to do so. At least, that’s how it should have worked until we got carried away with ourselves and took the training into our own hands by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

From that point on, the system no longer functioned reliably or safely, as the history of human sin testifies to so loudly. We can still hear, and see, beautiful echoes of our creator in one another and in humanity together, but the model has been viciously vandalised.

Has it already become unsafe?

So will our AI systems also become unreliable, unsafe? Too late; they already are. Why? Because they are trained on human speech. They are our image bearers. They reflect what we are, and we are sinful. The seeds of corruption are built into them from the start, even as they are with our children: ‘Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me’ (Psalm 51:5).

You don’t need to search on the internet for long to discover examples of people having unhealthy conversations with the current generation of chat bots or being advised by them how to do wicked or perverse things or being given made up facts (like the reporter who discovered from ChatGPT that he was dead and had an obituary).

Our technological children are far from perfect and have some foul tastes and peculiar biases, just like their ‘parents’. Listening to them, our smiles can quickly turn to frowns and we fear they may be going out of control.

Christians are not alone in noticing this. Some of the industry’s leaders have warned against unleashing artificial intelligence on the world too quickly. They say it needs more time in the lab, more time working out how to give the systems appropriate ethics before they overpower us. But when there is money to be made and big companies in rivalry with one another, these things get rushed to the market place with an excited cry of, ‘Look what we can do!’

Of course, once the technology is out there, criminal minds are also quick to exploit it. They find ways to take the computer where its builders didn’t want or expect it to go. And even when they don’t do that, artificial intelligence as it is just provides so many opportunities to fool the unwary and gullible into doing something to their detriment.

AI can readily create words, voices, images, and videos which realistically pretend to be someone else – like a family member in crisis and needing money. The devil is a great technology user, as we’ve already seen in the terrible impact of the smartphone, pornography, and social media upon those whose childhood was filled with it.

It has all been tried before, long ago

However, as the book of Ecclesiastes shows us so powerfully, even the best of human wisdom will not solve our problems. The ethics departments in our governments and companies may form committees of experts to come up with a series of guidelines to restrain the rise of the systems, but they will fall short.

You see it’s all been tried before, long ago. In his day, Solomon listened to the wisest voices of the world, sucking into Jerusalem the brilliance of humanity, creating a summary point of it. It was amazing, for human beings had learned so much about this world. Yet when all had been heard it was realised that, though impressive in its appearance and useful in many ways, the combined wisdom of the human race proved ultimately to be unreliable, unsafe, and, also, simply dissatisfying.

That’s because human wisdom always falls short in the end, detached as it is from the original, the truly wise one, the one in whom is all the knowledge of good and evil. Solomon himself sadly became the living proof of that as he turned from the Lord to the world and became only a shadowy image of his father David of whom it was said: ‘The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14)

We have to listen to the Lord speaking first and train ourselves in his words before we are sufficiently mature really to understand the world and understand ourselves. We need to bear his image. Until his Word shapes us in depth and breadth, our intelligence will be artificial, it will be seemingly wise but actually frustratingly foolish.

As was once written: ‘Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man’ (Ecclesiastes 12:12-13).

By David Last, Pastor of Forest Baptist Church, Leytonstone, London.

Gospel essence

Among evangelicals – churches, pastors, even theologians – we’ve focused on the salvation of the soul to the exclusion of other parts I now consider to be part of the Good News.’

These are the words of an American pastor, quoted in a major evangelical periodical, as he discussed his commitment to ‘Creation Care’, the belief that Christians should be environmentally friendly.

‘Creation Care’ advocates are working to reduce electricity and natural gas use by churches, partly by pursuing initiatives such as the installation of solar panels on the roofs of church buildings.

What is wrong with such a movement? By itself, nothing. Inventions like solar panels may indeed preserve the environment and save money.

But look again at the pastor’s quote. He considers ‘Creation Care’ to be ‘part of the Good News’.

What is the problem with this statement? I believe this pastor fails to distinguish between the essence of the gospel and the effects of the gospel.

Here is one way Paul expressed the essence: ‘Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved… For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received; that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

The essence of the gospel is that Jesus has lived without sin, died for the sins of sinners, risen from the dead to defeat sin and death, and now reigns until his return in glory.

The salvation of the soul is the most important question we will ever face, and Jesus has decisively answered the question for all who entrust their lives and eternities to him.

Is this the end of the matter? Of course not. The essence of the gospel will lead to effects in our lives. Among those effects will be a renewed understanding of the importance of caring for creation.

It is good for believers in Jesus to be wise stewards of the resources God has provided, including the earth we inhabit. We glorify God when we live responsibly for him.

Why may this pastor’s statement be dangerous? For two reasons.

First, if we add to the essence of the gospel, we may fail in exalting Christ. Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection are the apex of the human story. When we add other elements to what we consider to be ‘part of the Good News’, those other elements have a way of crowding out the truths the New Testament emphasises, and which God’s people have always employed to exalt his name.

Second, if we add to the essence of the gospel, we may succeed in exalting ourselves.

When we characterise our good works as part of the essence of the gospel, we draw less attention to what Jesus has done and more attention to what we have done.

It is a short step to a certain amount of self-righteousness (where we count ourselves better than others) or even a subtle movement to works righteousness (where we believe our deeds contribute to our salvation).

This is a vital issue for evangelical and Reformed churches these days.

We hear much about the church’s responsibility to work in particular areas – especially with issues like economic equity, racial reconciliation, and environmental protection. Faith without works is dead. Believers should pursue wise initiatives for the glory of God and the good of our neighbours.

But if we should learn anything from the last two centuries of church history, it should be that when we confuse the essence and effects of the gospel, the essence of the gospel tends to disappear.

Reproduced from Banner of Truth Magazine with permission.

By Tom Stein, Associate pastor of Chapel Presbyterian Church, Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Toxic

It’s a word that’s invaded Christian speech, but could I suggest a moratorium on this adjective, please? It’s for two reasons.

Firstly, ‘toxic’ is a lazy image. It’s like the word ‘nice’. I know it attempts to describe a situation as ‘dangerous’ in an invisible way, but it leaves the nature of that danger unclear. All it really tells me is that you didn’t like a situation. People might say that a particular church is ‘toxic’, or that a person was ‘toxic’, or that a marriage was ‘toxic’.

Doesn’t the Bible give us a bigger vocabulary for sin? Paul has various lists in which he catalogues different species of sin. Why not use them more? Why not say: ‘Those church leaders were domineering and bullying?’ Or ‘He failed to forgive’, or ‘She’s a gossip’?

Calling a situation ‘toxic’ tends to shut down analysis; it obscures the specific form sin has taken. The saying goes that if all you have is a hammer, everything will look like a nail. The Bible offers greater moral clarification of sin than simply my strong dislike of a situation.

Secondly, labelling people or churches as ‘toxic’ can short-circuit the gospel. Note what the image serves to do – it often functions as a relationship-stopper. It’s used to justify why I headed for the exit in a situation; it explains why I no longer have anything to do with such-and-such a person; e.g., ‘I had to get out of that toxic relationship.’

To be sure, sin is toxic. While the Old Testament prophets don’t use that precise term, they use plenty of vivid, shocking images for sin – a putrid sore (Isaiah 1:6), a dirty menstrual cloth (Isaiah 64:6), a clutch of adders’ eggs (Isaiah 64:5).

If Isaiah had more experience of chemistry, I can well imagine him describing sin’s ‘toxicity’. But why does the Bible use these vivid images for sin? It’s not to end relationships, but to heal them, by calling sinners to repentance. Sin’s toxicity is described in order that its damaging pollution might be forgiven. Jesus Christ has come to heal our poisonous behaviour. No one is too ‘toxic’ for Christ.

Yes, the Bible does recognise certain situations where the godly thing to do is extract yourself from a relationship or to sever ties with a sinful person. Jesus says not to cast pearls before swine. Referring to any individual who dissents from apostolic teaching, Paul counsels the Thessalonian church to ‘have nothing to do with him’ (2 Thessalonians 3:14).

I recall a number of times where I’ve judged this to be the right thing to do pastorally. We have to shake the dust off our feet (Acts 13:51).

When used carefully, I think this is the issue Christians are trying to verbalise when they use the word ‘toxic’. But importantly, this ‘toxic’ character is revealed at the end of a process where Jesus’s good news of repentance has first been announced.

The trouble with describing a person or group as ‘toxic’ is that it easily skips over this critical step in which someone’s sin is directly challenged by the rule of Christ. It can fail to apply the gospel of Christ to a situation. It can hide a distrust in Jesus Christ to deal with sin’s ‘toxicity’.

So, next time you want to reach for this adjective, pause. Ask yourself: is there a more biblical way I can describe the sin I’m talking about? Am I using this language to excuse running from a situation into which I haven’t yet faithfully spoken Christ’s gospel of repentance? Have I headed for the escape hatch, when Jesus is calling me to lovingly persist in faithfully calling a person or group to recognise his lordship?

By Simon Arscott, Simon has been sent by the International Presbyterian Church to lead All Nations Church, Ilford.

COMMENT: ‘Nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them’

News that genetically modified three-parent babies have been born in the UK is a reminder of how advanced human science has become. Put this together with progress in artificial intelligence (see p.17) and one wonders where it will all end.

There are disturbing echoes of the biblical account of the Tower of Babel, when the whole earth gathered to build a mighty city and a great tower. The Genesis account tells us that the people wanted to make a name for themselves and to reach all the way to heaven through their own technological ingenuity.

Upon seeing it, God said, ‘this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them’ (Genesis 11:6, NKJV). In other words, left unchecked, there’s no telling what wickedness people are capable of. Therefore, God restrained them by introducing confusion in their language and scattering them across the face of the earth.

This is not to say that scientific progress is wrong of itself. God commanded us to subdue the earth, and that includes making discoveries that help the human race. The intention behind three-parent babies – the avoidance of mitochondrial diseases – may well be laudable. But the history of the world shows us that unrestrained scientific and technological advances can bring unintended misery and darkness.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is the UK watchdog tasked with being a regulator of that industry. But it is more of a lapdog than a watchdog. Whatever the industry wants, the HFEA tends to allow. One ethical line after another has been crossed over the years, and countless human embryos have been destroyed along the way.

Human beings – including embryos – are made in God’s image, procreated by one father and one mother, with inherent dignity, worth, and a right to life. They are not merely building blocks in a Tower-of-Babel-like attempt to make a name for ourselves and to reach heaven without God.

GUEST COLUMN: How perfectionism makes you a spiritual quitter

People who know me well would laugh to hear me say that I’m a perfectionist. After all, I’ve never been accused of being a neatnik. My cabinets aren’t neatly organised, and I struggle to keep up with things like important pieces of paper.

More than once I’ve sent a frantic text to a fellow dance mum or a dear teacher to try and retrieve the information that I probably accidentally threw away about the day’s recital or assignment. My closet is what you might call tornadic.

Still, there is an interesting side of me that longs for perfection, especially in the area of spiritual discipline. I can’t tell you how many times I have begun a study, a prayer journal, a book, a plan for regular evangelism, a daily prayer time, a Bible reading plan.

Each time I begin I have huge goals. I dream up all sorts of restraints and strict schedules for myself, and usually I start strong for a few days. But then life happens, and I miss a day of my journaling, my prayer time, my Bible reading, my book studying.

That’s all it takes, really, and I am ready to give up. I feel like a failure, like I will never achieve true discipline, and I quit altogether. In my mind, if I can’t execute the plan perfectly, I may as well forget about trying it at all.

Instead, I fall into a period of spiritual water-treading. I’m not drowning, but not going anywhere either, just keeping my head above water and wondering when I will ever figure out how to do this properly.

It has taken me 45 years to begin to learn that there is a happy, spiritually-nourishing medium between praying for an hour a day and not praying at all; between reading five chapters in my Bible and not reading a single word.

Spiritual disciplines don’t have to be feast or famine, and they shouldn’t be. I don’t have to perfectly execute a plan in order to be growing in Christ, learning from his Word, communing with him daily, learning more about who he is and who he wants me to be. Rigidness and perfectionism are enemies of spiritual formation.

We spiritual perfectionists tend to think it’s not worth doing if we don’t do it the ‘right’ way, but in the end that thinking usually leads to exactly what it sounds like it would: we don’t do it at all.

The sad result of that line of thinking is that we settle for nothing. We wallow in a constant state of failure, and nothing about it seems perfect or even remotely good.

We have to set smaller goals. Reading Scripture for ten minutes a day is better than reading nothing at all. We have to let go of the arbitrary numbers that we assign to ‘real’ spiritual disciplines. We need to start smaller and let God begin to mould us through ten minutes of meditation on his Word a day. Missing a day should not spell the end of our studying.

Missing a whole week shouldn’t either. In a year, we can read the Bible for 60 hours just by reading for ten minutes a day. Say we miss a whole month’s worth of reading – we would still read 55 hours’ worth of Scripture in a year, and that’s a whole lot better than the zero hours we will read if we let perfectionism force us to quit altogether.

Jesus said that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. ‘Come to me,’ he said, ‘all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’

He didn’t say he’d give an ability to achieve Olympic-sized spiritual goals every single day. He said rest. We have to stop making knowing Christ seem so hard. He is near. He is knowable. He is perfect, and we are not. He wants us in all of our messy closets and messy minds and messy hearts. In all of our imperfection.

Start small, my fellow perfectionists. Let’s go forth and rest in who Christ is, not in our always-faltering ‘perfection’. He will meet us where we are.

By Melissa Edgington, Blogger at yourmomhasablog.com

Crunch Points: Encouraging your pastor

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

I heard someone say that we should not encourage our pastors, lest they be puffed up with pride. Is that true?

I am encouraged that you are asking, but I am afraid that is a nonsense close to a wickedness, a most un-Christlike attitude!

In fairness, perhaps that person is thinking of men who crave and even demand human approval, who feed off applause, who lap up adulation. Perhaps he has seen fawning and flattery of men in the pulpit and is rightly fearful of it.

But all that has nothing to do with true encouragement and exhortation – properly speaking, to impart comfort, consolation, and confidence in the face of trials and troubles.

Remember how the apostle Paul, for example, engages in, expects, and appreciates genuine encouragement. He is an envoy from Jerusalem to Antioch with encouragement (Acts 15:30-31).

He encourages Christians and expects reports on them to encourage him (Acts 14:22; 15:41; 16:40; 20:2; Philippians 2:19; 1 Thessalonians 3:2). He encourages his fellow travellers by his own faith (Acts 27:36).

He takes courage from the Roman believers who make an effort to see him (Acts 28:15), and desires mutual encouragement from them (Romans 1:12). Barnabas was not criticised for being a ‘son of encouragement’ – his labours are celebrated (Acts 4:36; 11:23).

Have we begun to consider the assurances, helps, reminders, and commendations that Christ offers and promises to his disciples, both during his humiliation and in his exaltation – to them and to us all? Should pastors and preachers be exempt from all this? They should be exemplary in demonstrating it, and are themselves entitled to it.

First, they need the same encouragement as all God’s people. They are sheep before they are shepherds, disciples before they are disciplers, men before they are ministers. In common with all the saints, they need and value genuine encouragements, or you dehumanise them.

Second, they might value particular encouragement in terms of their own calling and labour. They are to be exemplary followers of Christ, and their character and calling will expose them to particular challenges and distresses. Let me assure you that few people need or value encouragement as much as faithful under-shepherds of the flock.

Perhaps you have no idea how many concerns, complaints, and criticisms a typical pastor hears, and how they can crush him, how often he wilts under accusations from the angry, aggressive, and arrogant. Bear in mind that elders are to be marked by humility, and will have plenty of opportunities to learn it without God’s people making a deliberate effort to impose it!

They are no more prone to encouragements feeding the pride-monster than others; hopefully less so. Indeed, if you cannot encourage your pastor without him becoming ‘lifted up’ in the wrong way, perhaps he is not qualified for ministry.

So, no, they don’t need human approval, applause, and adulation. They don’t need fawning and flattery from the fanboys.

They do properly value genuine testimony as to how the Lord has used them. That is what does their hearts good and helps them to serve more effectively – thoughtful, specific, sincere, and warm testimonies to the fact that God has made them a blessing, despite themselves – or even just positive engagement with what is taught and preached!

Trust me, such words will not lift a good man up, but rather sink him down in grateful praise.

I recently met a brother who I knew had been instrumental in the conversion of someone in the church which I serve. With genuine delight, I was able to tell him how the Lord had used him to bless this soul.

His face lit up, not least because he had been suffering a testing season, which I did not know. He went on his way rejoicing.

Do you think that honoured God? Do you think he thanked his Lord? Do you think that encouragement did him harm or good? What about, by extension, the flock under his care? I hope my answer encourages you to go and do likewise!

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: Late for church. Does it matter?

Why are people late for church?

I think of a family that I knew well when I was growing up. Every Sunday morning that family would arrive late for church. They would arrive after the first hymn had been sung and the minister was leading in prayer. They would wait in the foyer for the prayer to end. As the pianist struck the opening notes of the second hymn, they would shuffle in and look around for a place to sit.

Sometimes, if the building was full, the family had to split up and sit apart. One of the children might have to push his way along a row of people to claim a free seat. Another might wander up and down the aisle until everyone in a row had shifted their possessions and moved along to make room. By the time the hymn was ended, the family was usually all seated, one perhaps squeezed in uncomfortably behind a pillar, another on the pulpit steps. And then, come the evening, the performance was repeated again.

I still wonder why it was like that – not occasionally but every week. Presumably they knew how long it took to get to church. They knew what time they needed to set out in order to get there on time. They knew what had to be done before they left the house. And yet week after week they arrived seven or eight minutes late. Why didn’t they start their preparations nine (or even ten) minutes earlier? I don’t know, but it didn’t happen.

When the clocks were put forward in the spring, they must have left their house an hour earlier than they had the previous week. Because they didn’t arrive an hour and seven minutes late; they arrived late by the same seven or eight minutes as the week before. And when the clocks were turned back in autumn, that didn’t mean that at last they could get there on time. No, they were still late by exactly the same margin.

I went to the same school as some of the children from that family. Most mornings they got to school on time. Some of them were in sports teams. They got to matches on time. The father of the family was himself a teacher. Presumably he arrived at his classes on time. I imagine that when the members of the family had an appointment with the doctor or the dentist, they arrived on time. But when it came to church...?

What’s the problem?

That family is far from unique. Okay, there may not be many folk who are quite as consistent in their lateness. But over the years the church I pastor has certainly had a number of people who turned up late with baffling regularity. I suspect such people are to be found in most churches.

With some habitual latecomers, I have tried to probe a little. ‘I’ve noticed that you’ve been arriving late quite a lot recently. Is there a problem?’ After all, there may be a perfectly legitimate reason why these folk are so often late. Perhaps the first bus doesn’t run on Sunday mornings until 10:15. Perhaps grandma has to take her medicine at exactly 10:20 every morning – just when the family should be leaving the house.

But no, no explanations. Just a sheepish, ‘Um… um… um – well, I’ve never been very good at getting up in the morning.’ Or a tetchy, ‘Well, children can be difficult to organise, you know.’ Which doesn’t explain why Jack can get up on time every other day in the week, or how Mary manages to get the Jones children to school on time Monday to Friday.

The fact is that in most cases, if Christians are regularly late arriving at church, it’s because they’re not making the effort to get there on time. And the reason for that is that they don’t think it’s important. Surely, it’s more important to be punctual when it comes to the meetings of the church than for anything else. Let me give you some reasons why I say that.

1. If you arrive late for church, you miss part of the service.

Can you afford to do that? We believe – don’t we? – that God uses the praying and singing and the reading of the Scriptures to feed our souls. That opening reading from God’s Book isn’t just a ritual. We really expect God to speak to us through it. And if you aren’t there, you won’t hear what he says.

When we sing that first hymn, we sing it to God but we also sing it to ourselves and to one another – ‘singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, teaching and exhorting one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs...’ If you’re not there, you won’t hear your fellow-believers singing to you. You won’t share in that experience of melody in the heart. While others are being enriched, you’ll be missing out.

Not just that, but you won’t get the benefit you should, even from the part of the service that you do attend. Every meeting of the church is – or should be – an ordered whole. Each part is planned to fit in with all the other parts.

Lord’s Day services in the church I pastor usually begin with a reading from Scripture. It’s selected to throw light on the passage or the subject that the preacher will be expounding later. If I’m expecting to preach primarily from the Old Testament, the first reading will be from the New Testament. And vice-versa. The hymns we sing in the first part of the meeting are chosen likewise to prepare us the for chief themes of the sermon. The prayers at the beginning of the service and before the sermon reflect the concerns that the preacher has felt as he’s prepared the message.

Folk who have missed those readings, hymns, or prayers won’t be equipped to grasp the overall thrust of the service. They’ll be like someone going to the pictures to watch a thriller, arriving twenty minutes late and trying to make sense of the plot.

2. If you arrive late for church, you have no time to prepare yourself.

Why do we go to church? In order to encounter God, to hear his voice speaking to us through the readings and the hymns and the preaching, to respond to him in prayer and praise and devotion. It’s an awesome and wonderful privilege. And it needs preparation.

The minutes before the service begins are vital. How do you spend them? You greet anyone you need to speak to. You make sure the children have been to the toilet. You settle them down and make sure they’ve got a hymnbook and Bible. And now you’ve a few moments to remind yourself of why you’re here. And to remind yourself that he’s here – that he’s promised to be here. To remind yourself of the bloody sacrifice that’s made it possible for a holy God to have fellowship with sinful human beings. A moment to pray – to ask forgiveness for sins, to ask for the help of the Spirit. A moment to glance through the words of the opening hymn so that when you sing it you’re singing words that you’ve already made your own. A moment of silent worship.

The writer to the Hebrews exhorts us to ‘offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire’ (Hebrews 12:28). Who is more likely to find that spirit of true worship? A believer who prepares himself in the way we’ve described? Or a believer who arrives five minutes late, flustered and embarrassed, fumbling to find a hymn number, searching his pockets and then realising he’s left his glasses in the car? Who is more likely to benefit from the service?

3. If you arrive late for church, you are likely to distract others.

Isn’t that obvious? How can people concentrate on what they’re hearing or what they’re singing if they’re conscious of doors banging, late-comers arriving, chairs being moved around, parents telling children where to sit, children protesting?

If you attend a concert at the Royal Festival Hall or the Bridgewater, you’ll find that the doors are shut five minutes before the performance begins. Latecomers aren’t allowed to distract others from listening. I wouldn’t want church to be like that. But which is more serious – to distract people who are trying to listen to Mahler, or to distract people who are aiming to worship God?

In the end, it comes down to this: do we love our fellow-believers? Paul writes, ‘let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others’ (Philippians 2:4). ‘Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, to build him up...’ (Romans 15:2). A believer who takes such commands seriously will be very careful to help and not to hinder his fellow-worshippers. And that means he’ll work at getting to church on time.

4. If you arrive late for church, you’ll make things harder for the preacher.

Every preacher has had the experience of standing at the front and wondering whether to start the service at the appointed time. Half the seats are still empty. Does he wait while the people who have arrived on time look at their watches and the children become restless? Or does he start the service only to be interrupted by a trail of people coming in at two minute intervals?

Maybe, he decides to start, opens his mouth to pray, and then realises that half a dozen latecomers are just coming in. He pauses while they get to their seats and starts again, only to be interrupted after the first few sentences by the next clutch of late arrivals. He loses his train of thought, struggles to finish the prayer, gives up in despair, and says a hasty Amen.

He announces the reading and begins to read. But just as he comes to the most solemn and moving verse in the passage, two women wearing high heels come in. They clatter their way down the aisle, find their seats, turn over the pages of their Bibles noisily, lean across to their neighbours to ask for the reference. As he glances at them, he loses his place in the passage and finishes up tripping over the words.

He has an important announcement to make, but realises that there’s a string of people who still haven’t arrived. Should he alter his order of service and make the announcement when everyone’s finally arrived? Or should he make it as planned and then after the service go round all the people who missed it, to tell them individually?

Should a preacher be capable of handling all these distractions? Yes, of course he should. Paul preached in the market-places with hostile listeners interrupting him and stones flying. He preached while angry crowds howled for his blood, and while kings and governors sneered at him. I’m sure he could have coped with a few latecomers in a church service.

But why make things difficult for preachers who are ‘keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning...’ (Hebrews 13:17). Every preacher is commanded to speak ‘as one who speaks oracles of God’ (1 Peter 4:11). Isn’t it the job of every Christian to help him do it?

5. If you arrive late for church, you’re making a public statement about the God we worship.

What are you saying? You’re telling your family, your fellow-worshippers, visitors to the church, the watching world, that he’s not that important.

The more important somebody is, the more careful you are to keep your appointments with him or her. If your boss tells you to be in his office for 9 a.m., you’re there. If you’re invited to Buckingham Palace to meet the King, you make sure you’re not late.

We keep appointments when we think it’s important. What could be more important than this: to keep the appointments we’ve made with the King of kings and Lord of lords? Jesus Christ has promised that when his people meet, he will be there to meet with them. He’s made a solemn appointment with us. And he never fails to keep it. He’s there week by week punctually to meet with us. How sad if some of us aren’t there to meet with him at the appointed time.

These are all practical reasons why it’s important to arrive punctually at church. But I should add that there’s a more fundamental reason too.

6. If you arrive late for church, you’re failing to reflect the character of God.

Human beings are intended to be God’s image-bearers (Genesis 1:26-27). We are supposed to reflect God’s attributes. Well, God is punctual. He plans ahead and he carries out his plans, precisely, punctually. Before he created the universe he had planned the whole course of history to the last detail. He had decided the precise time at which each event would happen. And he has never deviated from the timetable.

That is a fundamental element in God’s trustworthiness. Think about prophecy. God many times gave the prophets advance notice of what he was planning to do – and in many cases, when.

‘Know for certain that your offspring will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions’ (Genesis 15:13-14).

‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place’ (Jeremiah 29:10).

And the prophets knew that God could be trusted to carry through his plans, exactly how and when he had promised.

Think about God’s punctuality in the way he directs the created order. Is the sun ever late in rising or setting? Is midsummer day ever delayed by a week? No. God sticks precisely to his timetable. Eclipses can be predicted thousands of years ahead. Comets appear to schedule.

Now of course we cannot guarantee that we will be punctual as God is. We are not omniscient. We are not infallible. All our planning can be disrupted and overruled by God’s providence. Children trip over as you leave the house and cut their knees. Cars refuse to start. Buses are late. You sleep through the alarm after working a night shift. These things can happen in the best-organised and most careful household.

But that shouldn’t stop us from aiming to imitate God’s punctuality. ‘...put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life... put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Ephesians 4:22-24); ‘You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48).

So it’s important to mirror God’s punctuality in every area of life – in your workplace, in the arrangements you make with friends, in getting the children to school. But if there’s one context where it’s supremely important that you should be mirroring God, it’s in the meetings of the church. Why do we have church meetings at all? Answer: so that together we can consider him, worship him, and be restored to his likeness.

Winning the battle

Final thought. Personalities differ. Some people will find it harder than others to be punctual. That may be in part the result of genetic inheritance, but very often it’s down to our upbringing.

Folk who have grown up in an orderly and well-managed home may find punctuality natural and straightforward. They may struggle in other areas of self-discipline but have no problem in keeping to time-tables. Meanwhile, people who grew up in a chaotic environment may find punctuality a lifelong challenge.

Few people in our society believe in the God of the Bible: the God who is consistent, trustworthy, punctual. So it’s natural that those qualities are so little valued. We live in a society which is less and less committed to ideals of order and self-discipline. None of us are surprised when builders fail to arrive to start work at the day and time that they’ve agreed. Or when the goods that were guaranteed to arrive by the weekend don’t turn up.

The fact is that many households have no fixed meal-times, bed-times, or getting up times. Mum is too engrossed in a movie to prepare tea and orders a pizza online when it ends at 10 p.m. Youngsters stay up half the night chatting on social media and then are too tired to get up for school in the morning. The idea of planning ahead and sticking to plans is unknown in many families. It’s a completely different culture.

Well, we rejoice when people from such backgrounds are brought to faith and become members of our churches. But it’s unlikely that they will learn regularity and punctuality overnight. Established Christians who have been practising punctuality for many years may well find it frustrating when newcomers disturb the orderliness of our meetings. If that’s you, be patient.

As our new brothers and sisters learn more about the God of the Bible, and as they learn to imitate him, they will change. But it may be a long and slow process. Remember how long it’s taken you to learn some lessons. They need encouragement, not disapproving looks.

And for those of you who are struggling to be punctual, please don’t decide to stay away. Don’t let embarrassment keep you at home. Better to arrive late and benefit from half of the meeting than not arrive at all. If you arrive in the first half of a Sunday meeting, wait for a hymn and then slip in quietly while others are singing. If you arrive during the sermon, slip in even more quietly and sit at the back.

But don’t miss the meeting. If you only catch the last five minutes, you’ve shown that you want to worship the Lord on his day. Who knows? Maybe it’s in that five minutes that the Lord will show you just how you can win in your battle to get out of bed in the mornings. It’s a battle that with his help you can win.

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.

Editor’s note: Stephen Rees will be taking a three month break from his ‘Thinking it through’ column, but it will return in the October edition.

A WALK WITH MR O: A purifying buzz

Mr O, recently I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the Second Coming. The Bible has an awful lot to say about it, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure that I would use the word ‘awful’! But, yes, the Bible constantly speaks about our Lord’s return. There are 27 books in the New Testament, and 23 of them give teaching on this subject. In fact, biblical scholars are agreed that the Bible contains over 1,800 references to the Second Coming.

Wow! My Bible has just over 1,200 pages. So the Lord’s return really is a major theme in God’s Word. And, Mr O, that’s why I want to talk to you about it.

Go on, then, tell me what’s on your mind.

Well, if the Second Coming is so important, why do we hear so little about it? It’s hardly ever mentioned in our church services. Our pastor doesn’t mention it in his prayers. He seldom, if ever, preaches on it. We don’t sing about it. And my Christian friends don’t talk about it. What’s going on? Why is there this conspiracy of silence? I don’t understand.

I fully understand your concern. As you know, I am now 80 years old. Quite a few of my friends have asked me how I feel about my approaching death. But not one of them has spoken to me about the possibility that I might not die, because the Lord might come first.

So, Mr O, how do you explain all this?

I think we must face up to the sad fact that evangelicals, generally speaking, no longer believe in the Second Coming.

And yet before I could become a church member I had to read my church’s doctrinal statement and declare that I believed it all – and what it said about the Lord’s return was biblical and very clear.

Yes, but there is a big difference between mental assent and really believing something. When you really believe something, it becomes a conviction that controls your life. People who really believe in the Second Coming wake up excitedly in the morning and say, ‘This could be the day – the day when I see my Saviour face to face; the day when I answer to him for how I live; the day when I cease sinning and become like him in body and soul; the day when I am reunited with my loved ones who died in Christ; the day when all wickedness ends and only righteousness reigns!’ But how many Christians do you know who go into their day with a purifying buzz like that?

Quite honestly, I don’t think I know any at all.

This sinful unbelief in the Lord’s return explains almost everything that is wrong with evangelicalism today. It explains why so many believers do not regularly meet the Lord in secret; why they do not love God’s law and live by it; why they are content to remain doctrinally illiterate; why they allow poor relationships with others to fester; why they are not actively engaged in any gospel work; why they are slow to stand up and speak against evil; and so much more. And all the time the Saviour is saying to them, ‘Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect him’ (Matthew 24:44).

So what can be done about it?

The first moment of the day is the one that matters. That is where the battle is won or lost. Each day, what is my very first thought? I must take steps to make sure that it is always about the Lord Jesus Christ – his person, his life, his cross, his tomb, his resurrection, his ascension, his reign, his return, his victory, his final and eternal vindication. This is why I urge and encourage every Christian to learn the Apostles’ Creed and to recite it the moment they wake up. If they do that, they will never go into a day without thinking about the Second Coming, and they will find that ‘all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure’.

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 Two)

Last month we considered the importance of truth – since God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are truth. Satan, by contrast, is the father of lies and one in whom there is no truth. From the garden of Eden to the end of this age, he operates by using lies and deceit to draw us into deeper and deeper sins. We are to imitate God by being truthful, and we are to avoid the snare of the evil one who aims to entice us into his own lifestyle of lies and deceit.

We also considered that we can fall short of truthfulness by our human errors and by our lack of faithfulness. That is, we are not truthful as God is when we speak honestly but are mistaken or speak honestly about a future commitment but then fail to honour it. Such failings occur for many reasons, and should not be thought of as lies. Why not? Because central to the lie is evil intent. What marks out lies and deceit from both truthfulness and these other aspects of our human fallibility is intention.

Intentionality is too often overlooked when considering the morality of our behaviour. In an earlier article on euthanasia (March 2021), I reflected on the importance of intention in distinguishing, when prescribing medication, between inadvertent harm and death and the intentional killing of euthanasia. We identified the biblical basis for this doctrine of double-effect: when prescribing medication such as painkillers, you can do so intending to kill in euthanasia or intending to heal.

Intentionality is important in the Bible, isn’t it? Think of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. The ambiguity in the word tempt (should it be translated test?) in this encounter is not merely semantic. It points to the key difference in intention between the devil and God. God’s aim in bringing this event about is good: he wants to test his Son so as to prove his character and demonstrate his maturity. The devil’s aim is to destroy Jesus by deceiving him into sin.

As part of this temptation, the devil makes statements which are ‘true’ – that is, when taken at face value they are factually correct: Jesus is the Son of God and could turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:3) and God does say he will protect him from harm (Matthew 4:6). The deceit, the sleight of hand, is in using them out of context; the reason for doing this is to trick Jesus into sinning.

Deception involves this evil art of partial-truth-telling, of placing statements out of context, telling only part of the story, and so on. Deception exploits the ambiguity in language to mask evil intent. It is distinguished from lying because a lie is a deliberate falsehood. With a lie, there is evil intent and also purposeful error of fact – though the terms deception and lies tend to overlap in practice.

So central to both lies and deceit is the intention of causing evil, of drawing someone into sin and harm. Like Jesus in the wilderness temptation, we may be able to discern the evil intention by a wise evaluation of the statement itself and the character of the speaker. But sometimes we fail and may be led into harm’s way (cf. 1 Kings 13:18).

But it is the opposite behaviour which we struggle to understand when reading the Bible – when someone appears to say something which is not true, but for good reasons, like the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 2 or Rahab in Joshua 2. In these two examples, the Bible makes it clear that their behaviour pleased God (Exodus 2:20-21; Hebrews 11:33; James 2:25), and ironically this is what causes problems for Bible readers.

‘How can God praise lying?’ we ask. But were they lying? The intention of these women was good: they spoke as they did to save lives, the spies in the case of Rahab and baby boys in the case of the midwives. If a ‘true’ statement can be made sinful by evil intention, then perhaps a false statement be made righteous by good intention? This ‘intention’ justification perhaps makes us feel uneasy. It seems open to abuse – and ultimately each of us will give an account to the Judge of all the earth, and he knows the intentions of our hearts.

Determining intentionality is also not the only relevant approach to understanding these texts. With the Hebrew midwives, while the text makes it clear that they intended to disobey the genocidal command of Pharaoh, the explanation they gave to him for their failure to kill the newborn appears to be a true one. They were able to take advantage of the genuine cultural differences in childbirth practices to allow the infants to be whisked to safety before they arrived, conveniently too late. Perhaps this is a good example of Jesus’s exhortation that we be as wise as serpents as well as innocent as doves when dealing with people in this world (Matthew 10:16).

In the more desperate situation of Rahab, she does appear to have simply ‘lied’, but then, as with the midwives, her rationale was good, wasn’t it? The good she intended and achieved exceeded the ‘evil’ of her ‘lie’. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment he included ‘you shall love your neighbour as yourself’ in his reply. ‘Telling the whole truth’ and being ‘completely honest’ with someone when you know the result will be the harm or even death of your neighbour would not seem to fit with this, would it? Whereas the ‘lie’ of Rahab would. Rahab knew that telling the whole truth would have brought about the death of the spies and so she spoke out of love for her neighbours.

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

NEWS

News in brief

New director for the CEEC

The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) has welcomed the Revd Canon John Dunnett as its new national director. Dunnett succeeds Bishop Keith Sinclair, whose two-year term came to an end at the end of April 2023.

Kate Forbes gets backing

Former SNP leadership hopeful Kate Forbes says she is heartened by the support she received. She was repeatedly attacked for holding Christian views. But, she said, ‘I was amazed and heartened by the backlash to the backlash. I received support from people who disagree with me on every single front.’

More support needed for RE

Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, has urged more support for religious education (RE) in schools, calling it a ‘safe space’. She was speaking at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, held in London.

Peter Kerridge has leukaemia

The CEO of Premier Christian Media, Peter Kerridge, has announced he has acute leukaemia and must undergo chemotherapy. In a statement on social media, Premier said, ‘Right now he urgently needs your prayers, his situation is very serious.’ There were no further developments at the time this edition of ET went to print.

Benedict Bird joins WPTS

Dr Benedict Bird has joined the faculty at Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Newcastle. He will teach New Testament Greek. Benedict formerly worked in the RAF and as a lawyer. He later completed the Ministry Training Course at London Seminary, where he also taught Hebrew and Greek.

Errol Hulse back in print

Publisher greatwriting.org recently reprinted several books by the South African Baptist minister Errol Hulse (1931–2017). Give Him No Rest; The Doctrine & Practice of Holiness; Who Saves, God or Me? and One In A Thousand comprise the four-volume ‘Errol Hulse Collection’. Hulse helped establish the Banner of Truth and edited Reformation Today for many years.

Graham Beynon set to join FIEC

From this September, Graham Beynon will become the FIEC’s Head of Local Ministries. His role will include overseeing pastoral care of churches and managing the FIEC’s local directors. Graham will be stepping down as pastor of Grace Church Cambridge, and also reducing his teaching commitment at Oak Hill College.

Last-minute school assembly

JP Earnest (of the Open Air Mission) received a surprise late-night invitation in April to deliver a school assembly during an Ofsted inspection. Mr Earnest is experienced in delivering Christian talks in local schools, and despite the short notice was glad to attend the following morning and lead the assembly of children and teachers – and Ofsted inspectors!

Chinese raid on churches

Chinese authorities have raided five locations of Guangzhou Bible Reformed Church. Elders, preachers, and workers were reportedly taken away. According to China Aid, police officers and other staff suddenly broke into each location, interrupting worship services. China has one of the worst records for persecuting Christians.

Violence in India

Violence has erupted in Manipur, in Northeast India, claiming 60 lives, burning and destroying 50 churches, and displacing tens of thousands of people. Most of the dead are believed to be Christians. According to Indian media, the attacks happened while a hearing at India’s Supreme Court claimed there was no persecution against Christians in the country.

Christian Aid’s Sudan warning

The crisis in Sudan could leave South Sudan ‘overwhelmed’ by the needs of refugees, Christian Aid has warned. Approximately 120,000 people could cross the border into the country, while the United Nations has predicted the number of refugees fleeing to other countries could reach more than 800,000.

Iranian court acquits couple

An appeal court in Iran has acquitted and released a Christian couple arrested in 2019. Homayoun Zhaveh and Sara Ahmadi were arrested for their membership of an Iranian ‘house church’ in June 2019. Later convicted on national security grounds, they began their prison sentences of two and eight years, respectively, in August 2022.

Health concerns over three-parent baby born in UK

A baby has been born with three genetic parents for the first time in the UK, but there are concerns about health risks involved.

The in-vitro-fertilisation technique involves most of the genetic material coming from two parents, with about 0.1 per cent coming from a third genetic donor.

It is used in an attempt to avoid babies being born with mitochondrial disease, but it is a highly controversial issue.

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge from London’s Francis Crick Institute, queried whether the babies would actually be ‘free of mitochondrial disease, and whether there is any risk of them developing problems later in life’.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations, which allow the creation of three or four-parent children in cases involving mitochondrial disease, came into force in October 2015.

Under a Freedom of Information request, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has revealed that fewer than five such babies have been created in the UK since controversial procedures were legalised.

Regulations allowing research into mitochondrial donation techniques were backed by the House of Lords by 280 votes to 48 in February 2015. The House of Commons had already voted 382 to 128 in favour of the regulations.

The research involves the destruction of embryos, and though the stated aim is to create children free from mitochondrial diseases, it will not help women and children who already have the conditions.

‘The technique involves crossing an ethical line in the sand,’ said the Christian charity CARE.

‘It involves the manufacture of human beings, designed to have certain properties. In this instance, it means babies designed to not have mitochondrial disease. But the key question is where does this sort of editing stop?’

The Christian Institute’s Ciarán Kelly said, ‘Evidence is now emerging that babies created through mitochondrial donation still risk developing potentially fatal diseases.

‘We should be putting resources into adult stem cell treatment, which offers hope to those living with mitochondrial disease, rather than into what appears to be the genetic equivalent of Russian roulette.’

See Comment

By Mike Judge, Editor

Draft bill is expected to criminalise conversion practices

A draft bill to ban conversion practices was expected to be published in Westminster at the end of May, after this edition of ET went to print.

The publication of the bill will likely be followed by twelve weeks of pre-legislative scrutiny.

It is expected that a joint committee from the Lords and the Commons will be responsible for that scrutiny, and will issue a call for evidence.

This will give Christians and others who are concerned about the religious liberty implications of such a bill an opportunity to raise concerns before it is formally introduced to Parliament.

It is controversial, because a ban on conversion practices could limit the right of churches to preach, pray, or pastor in line with biblical teaching on human sexual ethics.

It could also catch Christian parents who seek to give their own children biblical guidance about sexuality or transgenderism.

The Westminster government says it does not want to interfere in the ordinary religious practices of churches, or the rights of parents.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, similar legislation is going ahead which could be a much greater threat to free speech.

Christian mayor candidate wins payout after being sacked for her manifesto commitment to marriage

A Christian mayoral candidate for the London borough of Lewisham has won a substantial pay-out after being sacked for expressing Christian beliefs as part of an election manifesto.

Maureen Martin was dismissed by her housing association employer, L&Q, in May 2022 for gross misconduct following three complaints for alleged ‘hate speech’.

Martin, who is president of the Christian Peoples’ Alliance (CPA), had worked for L&Q as a housing manager for 13 years with an unblemished record.

Ahead of last year’s local elections, in her manifesto, Martin had outlined her political positions on fly tipping, knife crime, and tax.

She also stated that ‘natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society, and the safest environment for raising children’.

After distributing the manifesto throughout Lewisham, Martin was hounded on social media for her beliefs.

Anonymous complaints were then made to her employer branding her beliefs as ‘hate speech’ and ‘illegal’, and there were calls for her to be disciplined and to take part in ‘anti-oppressive training’.

She was then suspended, interrogated, investigated, and in the end sacked. Martin launched legal action against L&Q on the grounds of discrimination, harassment, indirect discrimination, and unfair dismissal.

She was supported by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), who said her dismissal was in breach of her right to political speech under Articles 9 and 10 of the ECHR and that her dismissal was ‘outside the band of reasonable responses’ in all the circumstances of the case.

The settlement takes into account loss of earnings as a result of the sacking, injury to feelings in relation to ‘discriminatory dismissal’ and ‘pre-termination treatment’.

According to the CLC, the case is believed to be the first of its kind to see a political candidate sacked by their employer for their Christian beliefs.

Following her sacking, 42,000 people signed a petition calling on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to amend the Employment Rights Act 1996 to protect free speech.

Martin said, ‘As a Christian party we are not in a popularity contest, we are in a truth contest, and when it comes to truth, we always win. I will absolutely be standing again as mayoral candidate in 2024 in Lewisham.

‘My message will not have changed. You can fire me, but you cannot silence me.’

Andrea Williams, executive of the CLC, said, ‘We had never seen a case like this, which sent a crushing message to anyone who believes in Christian marriage and wishes to express those beliefs at work or in public office.’

Soul Survivor leader faces allegations of misconduct

Canon Mike Pilavachi, the charismatic Associate Pastor of the ‘Soul Survivor Watford’ church, has stepped back from his role following allegations of misconduct.

He is the founder of Soul Survivor, a popular charismatic youth festival that ran from 1993 until 2019, which attracted more than 30,000 people a year at its peak.

According to reports in The Daily Telegraph, allegations have been made againt Pilavachi relating to him engaging in full-body massages and wrestling matches with young men.

An initial response from the Soul Survivor Watford church said an independent investigation team would examine the allegations which relate to ‘non-recent’ incidents.

But they later amended their statement, removing the words ‘non-recent’, because ‘allegations about recent matters have come to light’.

A joint statement was issued on behalf of the Church of England National Safeguarding Team, the St Albans Diocese, and the Soul Survivor Watford trustees, confirming that an investigation is underway.

It said, ‘It was mutually agreed with Mike that he would step back from all ministry, while this investigation is carried out.

‘We would like to stress that the police are not involved; this is not a criminal investigation and Mike has not been suspended. It is also not currently a clergy disciplinary matter.’

A more recent statement, issued by Andy Croft of the Soul Survivor Watford church, said, ‘It’s absolutely right, when allegations have been made, that there is an independent investigation, and it’s appropriate that Mike steps back.

‘We want you to know that we are especially aware of how much those who have come forward have been affected and of how much they are suffering, as are all who are directly involved in this investigation.

‘I want to say, on behalf of the leadership of the church, how much this grieves us. I also want to acknowledge that for our church family, this is painful.

‘The trustees and the staff of the church have been cooperating fully and completely with this investigation and will continue to do so.’

Andy Croft added, ‘We cannot comment on an ongoing investigation, though we can say that more recent allegations have come to light.’

Soul Survivor Watford was planted from St Andrew’s, Chorleywood, in 1993 to be a church that specifically reached out to young people.

St Andrew’s launched the New Wine festival in 1989 and in 1993 Mike Pilavachi started the annual Soul Survivor youth festival, which closed in 2019.

Christian teacher sues school for unfair dismissal after she was sacked for questioning the ‘gender transition’ of a pupil aged 8

A Christian teacher is taking legal action against the primary school that sacked her for raising safeguarding concerns about the ‘gender transition’ of an eight-year-old child.

The teacher, who has not been named, was concerned that the school was acting upon advice from activist groups Stonewall and Mermaids, rather than relying on medical evidence.

But she was sacked and reported to various regulatory bodies after she made use of the school’s whistleblowing procedures to raise concerns.

The child, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and is known only as ‘Child X’, believed she was born in a wrong body and wanted to be treated as a boy.

Based on the advice from trans rights organisations, the council instructed all school staff always to refer to the child by male pronouns and name.

They also told staff that the female child should be allowed to use boys’ toilets, dressing rooms, and dormitories as requested.

But one teacher, known only as ‘Hannah’ (not her real name), went to court seeking a judicial review of that decision, citing medical experts who highlight the dangers of gender transitions for young children.

According to Hannah’s legal supporters, the school summarily dismissed her for divulging confidential information to her lawyers and to the court.

She is now taking the school to an employment tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal, backed by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC).

According to CLC, the school reported Hannah to the Information Commissioner for a criminal offence under the Data Protection Act.

The Information Commissioner has concluded there was no evidence of a criminal offence and decided to take no further action.

The school also reported Hannah to the professional regulator, Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA), for an alleged confidentiality breach.

The TRA is currently investigating the case. If found guilty of professional misconduct, Hannah may face a lifelong ban from the profession.

Reporting Hannah to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), the school sought to bar her from teaching.

The DBS, however, has declined to impose a ban pending further enquiries following an investigation.

After a life-long career as a professional teacher, Hannah has been forced to find a job in a sandwich bar.

She said, ‘It is because I care so much about children that I am taking this action. This isn’t about me proving that I am right, but about the safety of a seriously distressed child.’

NHS children’s transgender clinic facing court action over alleged ‘missing’ emails

The Tavistock clinic – NHS England’s gender identity service for children – has been threatened with court action over ‘missing’ emails to the pro-trans organisation Mermaids.

A concerned parent placed a Freedom of Information request asking for details of emails between Mermaids and the Tavistock clinic between 2014 and 2018, but Tavistock initially refused.

After the matter was referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust claimed that after ‘an extensive search of emails’ it ‘does not hold the requested information’.

The ICO said that ‘on the balance of probabilities’, some information is held by the Trust, and ruled it ‘must conduct fresh searches into the requested information’.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, it is a criminal offence for anyone to block or conceal any record held by a public authority which should be properly disclosed.

The parent who initiated the request told The Daily Telegraph, ‘What concerns me is the way that NHS policy making can be influenced by a special interest group.

‘There should be a clean break and the Tavistock should disclose whatever they have.

‘NHS trusts have a very powerful self-protective reflex, but the NHS has a duty of candour and that should be respected.’

Mermaids’ governance and management is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission, after revelations the group had been sending chest binders to girls as young as 13 without their parents’ knowledge.

The Church of England is urged by evangelicals to ‘step back from the brink’ over same-sex blessings row

The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) has urged the church to ‘to step back from the brink’ of division over the blessing of same-sex couples.

Earlier this year, the Church of England synod voted to endorse blessings for people in sexually active relationships outside of heterosexual marriage.

The CEEC said if such blessings go ahead, the Church of England will ‘ensure that the Anglican Communion will cease to exist in anything like its current form’.

It added, ‘CEEC therefore urges the House and College of Bishops to step back from the brink in order urgently to explore a “settlement” in England that might avoid the Church of England suffering the same internal division as the Communion has experienced in the last two decades.’

In April the GAFCON movement released its statement on the crisis. The movement is a global family of Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion.

It said in its statement, ‘Despite 25 years of persistent warnings by most Anglican Primates, repeated departures from the authority of God’s Word have torn the fabric of the Communion.

‘These warnings were blatantly and deliberately disregarded and now without repentance this tear cannot be mended.’

In February, the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) said, ‘the Church of England has departed from the historic faith passed down from the Apostles.’

They added, ‘The GSFA is no longer able to recognise the present Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Hon & Most Revd Justin Welby, as the “first among equals” Leader of the global Communion.’

Youth conference held in Edinburgh looks at ‘saving the future’

About 60 young people in their teens and twenties from 18 different churches gathered for the 24th SALT conference, held in Edinburgh in March.

The theme of the one-day conference was ‘saving the future’ with the aim of giving young people an optimistic biblical outlook amid the depressing secular news of today’s world.

Ali McLachlan (Grace Baptist Church, Edinburgh) delivered two sessions. His first session looked at ‘escaping dystopia’. Based on Psalm 96, Ali showed that despite the dystopian tendency of contemporary society, the Lord still reigns.

In his other session, entitled ‘crisis in crisis’, Ali looked at Psalm 46. He said our news media obsesses with crisis, but the psalmist says we trust in a sovereign God, so we need not fear.

Mike Judge (Chorlton Evangelical Church, Manchester) also delivered two sessions. His first session, ‘start local, think global’, emphasised the importance of commitment to a local church.

He pointed to the words of Hebrews 10:25: ‘not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.’

Mike’s second session focused on saving the world one soul at a time, expounding the great commission from Matthew 28. Mike told the conference: you have divine authority, clear instructions, and eternal strength.

In between the sessions, there was fun, games, and time for fellowship. A tasty meal was served at the close of the conference. Recordings of the sessions are available on the YouTube channel of Grace Baptist Church, Edinburgh.

Obituary: Frances Mary Fountain (1930–2023)

Frances Fountain has been taken home to be with her Lord and Saviour. She was 92. She spent almost a lifetime in Christian service at Spring Road Evangelical Church, Southampton.

Much of this was alongside her husband, David Fountain, who served as pastor.

Frances had been ill for several years with pulmonary fibrosis, but her faith was strong. She talked about Jesus with the many carers and visitors at her home in Southampton and explained how she eagerly looked forward to heaven. She was called to glory in her sleep.

Frances was born in 1930 at Elmbridge, Worcestershire. She was brought up on a farm where she learned to love God’s creation. It was during her teenage years that the words ‘You must be born again’ (John 3:3) created a hunger within her to know more.

During a holiday to Bristol, she was invited to an evangelical church for the first time – and was saved that same day.

While qualifying as an occupational therapist, Frances met David. She recognised the same passion in him to serve the Lord Jesus. They married in 1953.

David was called to the ministry at Spring Road and they served together until his retirement in 1992. He passed into glory in 2004.

Frances was a good listener, a generous host, and always looking for ways to extend God’s kingdom. In particular, she had a wonderful gift for communicating with children in imaginative ways.

She would tell Bible stories and use creative illustrations at church clubs and school assemblies. She also began writing children’s teaching materials that include Mayflower Bible Lessons, Bible Treasure, Mayflower Christian Resources, and Stepping Stones. These have been published and translated into many languages. They continue to be used around the world today.

Frances is survived by four children, nine grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren. A memorial service was held at Spring Road Evangelical Church. Videos and more about her writing can be found at francesfountain.com.

By Steve Fountain

‘Sweet concord’ – Confessional Association of Baptist Churches founded with inaugural meeting

On 7 March, nine churches met together to establish the Association of Confessional Baptist Churches in the UK. Of the nine that met, three churches officially entered the Association: Living Hope Bible Church, Lydd; Stanley Park Church, Liverpool; and Trinity Grace Church, Ramsbottom.

This new association of churches is the fruit of many years of prayer, deliberation, and discussion, and the fervent desire of our churches to see the restoration of confessional Reformed Baptist theology, piety, and practice among us.

Messengers from the three associating churches signed the constitution pledging to hold tenaciously to the inerrant and infallible Word of God and to subscribe fully to the 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith 1677/89. Member churches further commit to associate according to the agreed constitution, with prayerful and loving support.

At the inaugural meeting, Nathan Tarrant opened with an exhortation from 2 Timothy 4 to ‘preach the word’. He charged our churches to continue to remain steadfast in our ministry by preaching the whole counsel of God regardless of our circumstances.

The assembly spent significant time receiving reports from ALL nine churches, each updating on their spiritual state and how they are living out their confessional life.

In the afternoon, we discussed the practical business of the association and how we can promote the good of all our churches and cooperate in the spread of the gospel.

It was evident that our churches were united in the desire to see the Lord glorified in the building up of his people among us and to extend his kingdom through missions and church planting.

We join with our forefathers in their joy and love when they held communion together in London in 1689 and wrote of their first meeting, ‘that with no little Joy we declare unto you how good and gracious the Lord hath been to us, in uniting our Hearts together in the Spirit of Love, and sweet Concord, in our debates, consultations, and resolves.’

By Brett Shaw

Yorkshire children’s camp celebrates 10 years

It has been ten years since Yorkshire Camps was established to ‘Share Jesus Christ with children and young people’ through residential camps.

The idea was simple: invite children and young people – churched and un-churched – from schools and churches, give them a great holiday, and each day take time to read and explain truths from God’s Word.

As we do this, we help young people see Jesus and the beauty of the gospel message. This has always been an integral part of each day on camp.

Initially hiring Scout Centres and without a name, Yorkshire Camps was launched in Easter 2013 as ‘Leeds Easter Camp’.

Founder Andy Peace wasn’t sure how popular it would be, but the first one was sold out. The long-term plan was always to grow the number of camps and to have their own centre as a base, and while they waited, Yorkshire Camps continued to hire sites in West and North Yorkshire.

Eventually, Netherside Hall became available to purchase. With the help of a Trust and after much prayer and petition, it was bought for Yorkshire Camps to use from 2015.

Since then, there has been immense growth. This year, Yorkshire Camps will host 40 camps (over 1,300 campers) including five school groups, who come as part of their RE curriculum. There have been stories of campers coming to faith and many growing in their walk with God.

Nearly 50 young people aged 18–23 have joined for one year as part of the Yorkshire Camps ‘Training Team’.

As well as being a major help on each of the camps and working on the estate, they get a whole array of teaching and training, including partaking in the Northwest Gospel Partnership Bible Training Scheme each week.

Not only is this a life-changing year, but it equips them for a lifetime of service in their local churches.

The past ten years have been testament to God’s goodness and provision. Time and again Yorkshire Camps has seen God answer prayers.

The prayer for the future is that there would be more centres around the country, operating throughout the year, offering gospel centred camps, especially while freedom remains for schools to go on residentials to such places.

By Hannah Peace

Obituary: Javed Bhatti (c. 1951–2023)

I was deeply saddened at the loss of my dear friend Javed Bhatti, but my bereavement was greatly tempered by the knowledge that he had thereby passed into the presence of the Lord he had loved and served all his adult life.

Having twice been an overseas student at London Theological Seminary, Javed moved permanently to the UK in 2001, invited by the leaders and members of Dewsbury Evangelical Church to become a gospel spreader among fellow Pakistanis in the old Heavy Woollen District of West Yorkshire.

Previously, Javed had served in Abbottabad, Pakistan, for many years. He worked as both a pastor and a full-time hospital chaplain and evangelist.

Javed worked alongside me for 13 happy years as our church’s ‘outreach worker’ to the large Muslim community in Dewsbury.

For all those years he was constantly visiting and befriending those of South Asian heritage, and boldly but winsomely shared with them the gospel of his Saviour.

Throughout that time, Javed’s home, graced by his beloved wife Farhat, was open to visitors who could be assured of a warm welcome, night or day.

Javed’s unflagging zeal and deep love for people meant that he had firm friendships with many hundreds of people in the area. He spoke of the Lord to thousands more.

Javed retired in 2014, and deteriorating health began to limit his opportunities to serve and evangelise.

He deeply grieved the passing of his beloved Farhat some four years ago, and grew eager for his own heavenly rest and reward.

He was certainly focused more than ever on being with Christ during his final years, knowing it to be ‘far better’ than all the joys and blessings of his life here.

Javed leaves behind four children and eight grandchildren. He also leaves a large void not only in their hearts, but also in those of many who knew, respected and loved him.

We laid his body to rest in a local cemetery, alongside his beloved wife and close to the graves of not a few choice believers, including my late wife Sue. What a resurrection morning it will be there when the Saviour returns in glory!

In the meanwhile I remain profoundly grateful to the Lord to have been Javed’s pastor and friend for many years. It has been one of the greatest privileges of my long life.

By Graham Heaps

Republic of Ireland: Concerns grow over ‘hate bill’ which could criminalise beliefs

Citizens in the Republic of Ireland could be arrested for ‘hateful thoughts’ under Ireland’s proposed Criminal Justice Bill, according to the Christian Institute.

Paul Murphy (pictured), Teachta Dála for Dublin South-West, told fellow parliamentarians during a debate in the lower house that section 10 of the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Crime) Bill 2022 could criminalise people simply for being in possession of material deemed ‘hateful’.

In the debate, Murphy said the proposed legislation currently ‘creates the possibility of a person being criminalised, purely for having material that is hateful, without that material being communicated to the public.

‘How can we hold people responsible for actions that they have not taken? That goes against the main thrust of our criminal law, which relates to actual crimes that take place, not bad thoughts that people have, that they write down.’

He urged members of the house to consider the European Convention on Human Rights and the article pertaining to free speech, even if this is the expression of ‘information or ideas that offend, shock or disturb’.

According to the CI, Murphy is not alone in voicing such concerns, with opponents warning last year that the law – which is set to come into force in 2024 – could be used to censor less popular views.

In a report, the CI quoted a comment made in The Irish Times last November by the Department of Justice.

At the time, the Department of Justice stated, ‘With the right to freedom of expression individuals can hold and express opinions which others might find offensive or shocking…

‘The bar for criminal conviction will be set high, and criminal incitement to hatred will not be an area that anybody will stray into by accident.’

However, the CI believes this is the latest in a series of such Acts across Europe, which could be used to curtail free speech.

For example, in Scotland, the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which Holyrood passed in March 2021, makes it a criminal offence to ‘stir up hatred’ against certain groups.

Although amendments to the original bill have introduced important safeguards, the CI said, ‘concerns remain over the impact on free speech, including private conversations in the home’.

Cameroon/Chad: Aid arrives for 6,000 Christian families hit by severe flooding

More than 6,000 Christian families – equating to 29,000 individuals – have received help from Barnabas Aid after severe floods overwhelmed areas of southern Chad and north Cameroon.

The rivers Chari and Longone, which run between the two countries, had burst their banks following the heaviest rains in more than 30 years.

According to reports from mission partners on the ground, the damage caused was catastrophic.

The floods were yet another blow to Christians on both sides of the rivers.

Many of these Christians were already suffering because of repeated attacks on their communities by Islamist militants.

But thousands of these destitute Christians rejoiced to see trucks laden with essential supplies drive into the villages in which they were seeking refuge.

Turkey: Christian couple banned from entering the country take case to court

A Christian woman and her husband have taken their case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after they were banned from entering Turkey because of their faith.

The woman, who is going by the name of Rachel Zalma to protect her identity in the press, has joined a long list of Christians banned from entering the increasingly hardline country.

Turkey has been designating foreign Christians and missionaries as ‘security threats’, a designation being challenged by Zalma.

The Zalmas – a British couple – moved to Turkey in 2009 and lived there for more than 11 years until Turkish authorities imposed a security code called ‘N-82’ on her husband in 2019.

The code indicates that someone poses a ‘threat to public order and security’ and amounts to a de facto ban from the country.

Lidia Rieder, legal officer for ADF International – the organisation supporting the Zalmas – commented, ‘Everyone has the right to freely choose, live, and share their faith.

‘Regrettably, Turkish authorities continue to undermine religious freedom by deliberately attempting to stifle the spread of Christianity.

‘We are filing Rachel Zalma’s case before the ECHR to challenge Türkiye’s discriminatory treatment of Christians.’

The number of Christians in the country has diminished from 20 per cent to 0.2 per cent of the population in the past 100 years.

Netherlands: Euthanasia law expands to include children as young as one

Children across the Netherlands will be eligible for euthanasia later this year when the country broadens its law.

As reported in The Guardian, the Dutch government has agreed to revise the Euthanasia Act to include children between the ages of one and twelve.

According to a statement put out by the government, the new rules would apply to approximately five to ten children a year who suffer ‘unbearably from their disease, have no hope of improvement and for whom palliative care cannot bring relief’.

The government statement also said, ‘The end of life for this group is the only reasonable alternative to the child’s unbearable and hopeless suffering’.

The Netherlands has often been at the forefront of laws involving medical interventions, becoming the first country to legalise euthanasia in 2002 and permitting the cultivation and distribution of medical cannabis since 2003.

The country’s assisted dying laws already provided possibilities for euthanasia involving terminally ill babies until their first birthday and for children over 12, as long as it was permitted by a medical review board.

The Dutch government website states, ‘Under Dutch law, any action intended to terminate life is in principle a criminal offence.

‘The only exemption from criminal liability is where a patient is experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement and the attending physician fulfils the statutory due care criteria.’

But Professor Kevin Yuill, chief executive of Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, called the news ‘worrying’, citing latest figures showing that deaths from euthanasia rose by nearly 14 per cent in the country in 2022.

This equates to a total of 8,720 people killed last year. He said, ‘Euthanasia is increasingly seen as a solution for social rather than medical problems.

‘What we are increasingly seeing is death, ironically, as a lifestyle choice for those who are frightened of living. This is worrying to say the least.’

Germany: Christian school takes legal action to challenge state’s failure to give it accreditation

A Christian school provider in Germany has filed a case with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after its accreditation was denied.

The Association for Decentralised Learning, which is a hybrid education provider offering in-school and at-home education, originally applied for accreditation in 2014.

But despite fulfilling all the state-mandated criteria and curricula, the Laichingen-based provider was denied approval.

The Association claimed its initial application was ignored by state educational authorities for three years. Eventually, in 2017, they filed a lawsuit due to the inaction.

But the first court hearing did not take place until 2019, the appeal in 2021, and the third-instance court decision in May 2022.

The Association demanded to know why its approval was denied, considering it has been running a successful independent hybrid school for nine years.

The Association combines in-class learning with digital online lessons and independent learning at home, employs state-approved teachers, and follows a set curriculum.

It provided evidence to show that students graduate with the same examinations as those in public schools and maintain above-average grade points.

However, the Association has been denied approval to open any new schools. The administrative courts acknowledged the satisfactory level of education, but criticised the hybrid model, which means students spend little time together during breaks and between lessons.

According to the domestic courts, this is an essential part of education that hybrid schooling fails to provide.

The Association’s last domestic appeal was rejected by the German Constitutional Court in December last year.

In a statement, Jonathan Erz, head of the Association, said, ‘Children have a right to a first-class education. At our school, we can provide families with an education that meets their individual learning needs and allows students to flourish.

‘It is our great hope the Court will right this injustice and rule in favour of educational freedom, recognising that our school provides innovative and high-standard education through modern technology, individual student responsibility, and weekly attendance hours.’

Global advocacy organisation ADF International filed the case at the ECHR. After the case was filed, German lawyer Dr Felix Böllmann, director of European advocacy for ADF International, said, ‘The right to education includes the right to embrace innovative approaches like hybrid schooling.

‘By restricting this educational model, the state is violating the right of German citizens to pursue education that conforms with their convictions.’

According to Böllmann, when it comes to the requirement of physical presence, Germany has one of the ‘most restrictive educational systems in the world’.

Böllmann added, ‘The fact that an innovative school based on Christian values has been denied recognition is a serious development worthy of scrutiny by the Court.’

US: Abortion numbers decline overall, as North Dakota passes a new ‘heartbeat’ law to protect unborn babies

Pro-life campaigners have celebrated figures that show more than 32,000 babies have been saved from abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

According to the #WeCount initiative, a reporting effort that aims to capture the shifts in abortion volume by state each month, an estimated 32,260 fewer abortions took place in the six months following the judgment, which returned abortion law to state legislatures.

An interactive data map is provided by the Society of Family Planning members on its website, and is updated every month.

It found there was a significant fall in the national abortion rate, from 13.2 per 1,000 women to 12.3 per 1,000 women, when compared with its April 2022 baseline figure.

However, while the number of abortions decreased overall, the report noted that chemical abortions – where women take pills at home – increased by 137 per cent from April to December 2022.

Researchers calculated final figures based on statistics sent in by clinics responsible for approximately 83 per cent of all abortions carried out in the US.

The news came as Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota signed a bill protecting babies from being aborted beyond six weeks’ gestation – the point at which a heartbeat can be detected.

This made North Dakota the 13th state to introduce stronger safeguards protecting the unborn since the Supreme Court ruling.

But there has been increasing opposition. Pro-abortionists have recently vandalised a pro-life pregnancy centre in the US state of Ohio, spray painting on it with the words ‘fund abortion’ and ‘abort God’.

The Bowling Green Pregnancy Center (BGPC), which provides services including ultrasounds and parenting classes, was also sprayed with the name of activist group Jane’s Revenge, which has threatened ‘to take increasingly drastic measures’ against those who seek to protect the unborn.

In April, the BGPC held a charity Gala to help raise funds, taking as its motto the encouraging words of Philippians 3:12-14, which say, ‘Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.’

According to reports from the US, the vandalism against BGPC marked the 63rd attack on pro-life pregnancy centres since the US Supreme Court opinion on abortion was leaked in May 2022, ahead of Roe v. Wade being overturned on 24 June last year, as reported by Evangelical Times.

There have been reports of other incidents, such as the arson attack on Colorado’s Christian pregnancy centre Life Choices, and a pro-abortion message painted on Vermont’s State Capitol door.

REVIEWS

Preparations for Sufferings

John Flavel

Banner of Truth

176 pages; £5.50

BUY

When a time of great suffering comes, will you honour Christ faithfully, or sin against him to ease the pain? We might hope for faithfulness; but if we have not prepared ourselves, then we risk a damaging, even ruinous fall. The Puritan John Flavel writes to encourage faithfulness.

The central idea is that we are blessed if we are prepared for suffering. Flavel reasons from Paul’s readiness to be bound and die in Acts 21:13. It might have been encouraging if he had noted how Paul’s sufferings in Acts mirror Christ’s, since his sharing in Christ’s sufferings prepares him for sharing in his glory. But here nonetheless is advice dearly needed by today’s church.

Although the language can seem a little archaic, it is very readable; each chapter is short and helpfully divided. Flavel mostly describes what is necessary to be ready for suffering: saving grace, increased faith, courage, being aware of temptations during suffering, prayer, and depending on Christ. Flavel explains very practically how we can develop each aspect, to be more prepared for suffering.

Particularly pertinent is the chapter on mortifying your heart to earthly enjoyments. The world makes us cowards and spiritual softies. So, if we are to suffer well, we need to mortify our love of the world, our desire for its esteem, inordinate love of freedom and pleasure, and excessive love of life.

Flavel identifies alarmingly that the vast majority of professing believers (even in Puritan times!) are unfit for suffering, and will likely dishonour Christ or even apostasise under pressure. So he exhorts us to use a time of ease to prepare ourselves for suffering, before finally encouraging those who fear they might fall away under suffering.

I warmly commend this book; it will bring great blessing if we live it out.

Nick Fuller

Truro

Background to the Bible

Chris Sinkinson, Clive Anderson, Brian Edwards

Day One

222 pages; £25

BUY

This is a companion piece to the authors’ popular Evidence for the Bible. It is beautifully produced, with wonderful, even lavish, illustrative photography all the way through. I couldn’t put it down!

The main text covers a wide range of interesting detail, from Egyptian burial procedures, through to the development and decline of chariots, and the coins and currency of various times. Generally the articles move chronologically with insights into ancient Egyptian culture, then the period of the kings of Israel, and on into the times of the Lord Jesus and the early church.

Important archaeological issues are dealt with clearly and helpfully, and some of the photos include our authors in the field dressed in their best ‘exploration kit’. They include a fascinating appendix on ‘Pioneers of Archaeology’.

There are also special articles on a wide range of matters, including insights into the ‘Seven Herods of the New Testament’, the phenomena of letters from early heretics, and the helpfulness of early writings from the apostolic period.

The whole book encourages a strong confidence in the Bible, an insight into archaeological developments, and a fascinating ‘opening of the eyes’ into some obscure matters which may escape the Bible reader otherwise.

It would make a terrific gift, and a precious addition to anyone’s personal library.

Very warmly recommended.

Ray Evans

Bedford

Has Science Made God Unnecessary?

Ransom Poythress

Publisher

208 pages; £8.99

BUY

This book from ‘The Big Ten’ series answers the titular question with a clearly reasoned ‘No!’

Each clear and concise chapter finishes with a very helpful summary of the main points. Poythress reminds us that conflict comes because some scientists state that science has made God unnecessary, while scientists who are Christian do not agree. He also warns us against invoking a ‘god of the gaps’ to explain things that science cannot yet explain.

Looking behind the ‘curtain of science’ Poythress shows that conflict occurs when scientists make claims beyond the scope of science which, by definition, only looks at the material world. He does so effectively and without over-complicating things. Science, as currently defined, cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. Poythress shows how Christian beliefs are needed as the rational foundation to modern science and provide a logically consistent explanation for a universe that can be studied scientifically. Without a transcendent God, there would be no scientific laws and science would be impossible. The author points out that evidence must be interpreted and our beliefs have a big impact on the conclusions we reach.

Poythress also addresses the issue of miracles. God is active, both when he works through scientific laws and when a miracle occurs.

After discussing the nature of evidence, Poythress reviews some key areas such as the Big Bang, fine tuning of the universe, the origin of life, evolution and Darwinism. He shows that scientific evidence points increasingly clearly to the existence of the God of the Bible, who designed and made the universe.

This is a helpful, easy to read book that comes with a list of resources for further study.

Marc Surtees

Newtyle, Angus, Scotland

Table of Contents

FEATURES

The unity of the human race

Why I no longer use transgender pronouns, and why you shouldn’t either

Chatting with the computer: Is artificial intelligence a machine we have begotten in our own likeness?

Gospel essence

Toxic

COMMENT: ‘Nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them’

GUEST COLUMN: How perfectionism makes you a spiritual quitter

Crunch Points: Encouraging your pastor

THINKING IT THROUGH: Late for church. Does it matter?

A WALK WITH MR O: A purifying buzz

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

NEWS

News in brief

Health concerns over three-parent baby born in UK

Draft bill is expected to criminalise conversion practices

Christian mayor candidate wins payout after being sacked for her manifesto commitment to marriage

Soul Survivor leader faces allegations of misconduct

Christian teacher sues school for unfair dismissal after she was sacked for questioning the ‘gender transition’ of a pupil aged 8

NHS children’s transgender clinic facing court action over alleged ‘missing’ emails

The Church of England is urged by evangelicals to ‘step back from the brink’ over same-sex blessings row

Youth conference held in Edinburgh looks at ‘saving the future’

Obituary: Frances Mary Fountain (1930–2023)

‘Sweet concord’ – Confessional Association of Baptist Churches founded with inaugural meeting

Yorkshire children’s camp celebrates 10 years

Obituary: Javed Bhatti (c. 1951–2023)

Republic of Ireland: Concerns grow over ‘hate bill’ which could criminalise beliefs

Cameroon/Chad: Aid arrives for 6,000 Christian families hit by severe flooding

Turkey: Christian couple banned from entering the country take case to court

Netherlands: Euthanasia law expands to include children as young as one

Germany: Christian school takes legal action to challenge state’s failure to give it accreditation

US: Abortion numbers decline overall, as North Dakota passes a new ‘heartbeat’ law to protect unborn babies

REVIEWS

Preparations for Sufferings

Background to the Bible

Has Science Made God Unnecessary?