Vol. 57 No. 10 | October 2023

£2.00

By Mike Judge, Editor

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been warned not to dictate to churches how they may pray for LGBT people, as he considers passing a law banning conversion practices.

A similar law has already been passed in the Australian state of Victoria, and public officials there have released guidance telling churches how they should and shouldn’t pray.

Under that guidance, even saying the Lord’s Prayer with an LGBT person may be enough to fall foul of the law. The guidance also outlines state-approved language for the pastoral care of LGBT individuals.

Here in the UK, The Christian Institute has written to the Prime Minister warning him about the dangers of following Australia’s lead.

But LGBT activists are pushing hard for Rishi Sunak’s government to copy the wide-ranging law from Victoria, Australia.

Simon Calvert, a Deputy Director at The Christian Institute, explained the dangers of copying Australia’s mistakes in the UK.

He said, ‘Religious believers could undoubtedly experience

the worst effects of this sort of law.

‘As we have seen in Victoria, it won’t take long for state bodies to feel they have the right to dictate to churches what they can and cannot teach and precisely how to pray.

‘Those who refuse to ditch the teaching of the Bible could soon find themselves at the mercy of the criminal justice system.’

The state of Victoria imposed a broad law to tackle ‘conversion therapy’ which took effect one year ago.

Under the guidance, religious leaders are carrying out an illegal act if they tell people ‘that their gender identity is not real’, if they say prayers that ‘ask for a person to not act on their attractions’ or ‘talk about a person’s brokenness or need to repent’.

Simon Calvert said, ‘A whole plethora of Christian creeds and teachings would be found wanting when compared to the guidance. Because right at the heart of the Christian Gospel is a message that all people are sinners who need to repent and be forgiven, and that we all need to seek God’s help in avoiding all sorts of temptation.’

Comment, p.10

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (Credit: Number 10)

Source: Adobe Stock

2 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

National News

A doctor who received a complaint after he prayed with a patient has been found not guilty of serious misconduct at a medical tribunal.

The tribunal ruled that Dr Richard Scott, from Margate in Kent, may have ‘overstepped the boundaries’, but it didn’t amount to serious misconduct.

A fitness to practise tribunal of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) accepted that the patient did give his consent to the religious discussion.

The patient, a 19-year-old man with a history of ADHD, was suffering with poor mental health when he went to see Dr Scott on 25 August last year.

Dr Scott told the tribunal that he declined the use of antidepressants for his patient, discussed counselling, then asked permission to ‘tackle his issues from a third, spiritual, angle’.

When the patient agreed, Dr Richard Scott began discussing religion, including talking about

his own faith, before praying with the patient.

Dr Scott, who ran two mission hospitals in Tanzania before becoming a GP, also gave the patient a Bible on leaving the practice, the Bethesda Medical Centre in Margate, Kent.

Dr Scott told the tribunal that he does not pressurise anyone into a spiritual discussion, but rather ‘offers and encourages’. However, two weeks later, the teenager’s mother made a complaint to NHS England.

The teenager told the tribunal he was ‘taken aback’ when the doctor began talking about Christianity, which made him feel ‘uneasy’, and claimed the GP told him he needed to ‘reconnect’ with God.

The tribunal found that although the patient did consent to undertake a spiritual discussion, Dr Scott ‘then overstepped the boundaries’.

He should have checked the teenager was ‘comfortable’ with engaging in such a discussion

and did not feel under pressure to continue it, the tribunal ruled.

General Medical Council (GMC) guidance states doctors may practise medicine in accordance with their beliefs provided they do not cause distress to patients.

They must not impose or express personal beliefs or values, including political, religious, and moral beliefs, to patients in ways that exploit their vulnerability or are likely to cause them distress.

The tribunal will now consider if Dr Scott should be given a warning letter. This is not the first time Dr Scott has been on the receiving end of complaints.

In June 2019, the National Secular Society (NSS) raised another complaint with the General Medical Council after Dr Scott gave an interview with BBC Radio 4 about faith in the workplace.

The GMC investigated him a further two times, but was he exonerated on both occasions. He was supported by the Christian Legal Centre.

Dr Richard Scott (Credit: Christian Legal Centre)

A Conservative Party councillor has been arrested by police under ‘hate crime’ laws for defending Christians on social media.

Cllr Anthony Stevens, 50, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, told The Telegraph he was arrested at his home in August.

He had reposted a video criticising the police for arresting a Christian street preacher who was falsely accused of Islamophobia.

And Cllr Stevens had posted his support for fellow Northamptonshire councillor Cllr King Lawal, who has been ‘cancelled’ for talking about his Christian beliefs concerning LGBT issues.

In July, Cllr Stevens retweeted a petition asking for Cllr Lawal’s party positions to be reinstated, with the message, ‘If you value free speech please sign and share.’

After his arrest, Cllr Stevens was taken to a police station and questioned about his social media postings. He later said he understood that a local Labour Party member had reported him to the police.

The police questioned Cllr Stevens about a social media post from May which included a video showing how officers had handled the arrest of Christian preacher

Oluwole Ilisanmi in Southgate, London, in 2019.

On that occasion, the police officer took away Mr Ilisanmi’s Bible after the preacher was falsely accused of being Islamophobic. Mr Ilisanmi later received £2,500 for wrongful arrest.

The police also wanted to know why he posted his support for Cllr Lawal, who had been cancelled by various organisations

because of his religious beliefs against LGBT pride.

Cllr Stevens said he replied that he is a ‘free speech absolutist’ and that he believes people have a right to express their beliefs, even if he does not share their opinions.

A statement released on behalf of Cllr Stevens by the Christian Legal Centre said he felt accusations of stirring up hatred were ‘ridiculous and insulting’.

Others also criticised the arrest. In response, Northamptonshire Police Chief Constable Nick Adderley said he had ‘commissioned a review into the circumstances and facts’.

A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman said, ‘On 2 August, Northamptonshire Police received a report of a hate crime regarding posts made on social media.

‘In response, a 50-year-old man was arrested on the morning of 8 August on suspicion of distributing written material to stir up racial hatred.

‘He has been released on bail pending further inquiries. As this is a live investigation, the force is unable to comment further.’

The Free Speech Union said, ‘This episode highlights the need for the police to receive proper free speech training.’

Cllr Anthony Stevens

(Credit: Anthony Stevens / Christian Legal Centre)

Petition for

Cllr Lawal

A petition has been created on CitizenGo in support of former Conservative Part councillor King Lawal, who has faced damaging repercussions for expressing his views on the word ‘pride’ on social media. The petition to The Rt Hon. Mr Greg Hands has so far received over 27,000 signatories.

Franklin

tours UK

Franklin Graham is set to speak at two of the venues which previously shut down his evangelistic rallies. As reported in 2020, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association took legal action against five venues for breach of contract and discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, after its gospel events fell victim to cancel culture.

Fundraiser

for prayer

Army veteran Adam Smith-Connor, who was charged for silently praying in a ‘buffer zone’ near an abortion centre, is due to face trial on 16 November. As reported by Evangelical Times in September, he is being supported by ADF International, which has set up a donations page for him on its website.

Pro-life rally

in London

At least 7,000 people marched through London to Parliament Square in September, calling for an end to abortion. Bearing the banner ‘Abortion destroys the freedom to live’, this was the ninth annual UK March for Life rally. Latest figures for England and Wales show there were 123,219 abortions between January and June 2022.

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 3

National News

The Home Secretary Suella Braverman has written to police forces reminding them that silent prayer is not, in itself, a crime.

She also said painting police cars in LGBT rainbow colours, or questioning people who express disagreement with transgenderism, makes the police look biased.

She has, therefore, commissioned a review into activism and impartiality in the police.

In a letter to all police chiefs in England and Wales she praised officers for their bravery and dedication.

But she said public confidence in the police is shaken when

officers appear to take sides in the culture wars.

Her letter reminded police forces that ‘silent prayer, in itself, it not unlawful’. There have been several recent cases of police arresting people for praying silently near abortion clinics.

Her letter also said public confidence in the police is damaged when officers take action against members of the public who express disagreement with transgender ideology.

Other examples given by the Home Secretary include ‘waving the progress flag (which symbolises highly contested ideologies) or painting police cars in its colours’.

She wrote, ‘officers should not be wearing or waving badges or

flags that undermine their oath of impartiality or which may lead members of the public to question their impartiality.’

The Home Secretary has commissioned His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to undertake a review into political activism within the police.

The review will examine the extent to which involvement in such activities may be impacting on the effectiveness, efficiency, and legitimacy of operational policing in England and Wales by influencing policing policy, priorities and practice.

She said, ‘The British people expect their police to focus on

Home Secretary Suella Braverman (Credit: UK Government)

cutting crime and protecting communities – political activism does not keep people safe, solve crimes or support victims, but can damage public confidence.

‘The review I’ve commissioned will explore whether the police getting involved in politically-contentious matters is having a detrimental impact on policing. I will leave no stone unturned in ensuring policing acts for the benefit of the British public.’

The Home Secretary has requested that the report is published by the end of March 2024; it is part of her drive for more common - sense policing that will see police spending their time wisely and getting the basics right.

Internationally-acclaimed children’s hospital Great Ormond Street (GOSH) has been pushed to enforce gender- neutral language amid claims there are ‘over 150 genders’.

According to a report in The Times, transgender lobby group Global Butterflies spoke to staff on radical gender ideology in 2022.

The hospital is set to become one part of two regional hubs when the controversial Tavistock clinic, which was found to be unsafe, is closed.

It will operate under interim guidance informed by findings from the Cass Review on the Gender Identity Development Service’s clinical practice.

Reports claim that Global Butterflies’ guidance has told GOSH staff that ‘people can self-identify themselves in over 150 ways and increasing’.

The guidance also, according to reports, promoted the discredited ‘Genderbread Person’ graphic, which

claims there are an infinite number of gender identity options.

The organisation’s suggested resources sheet has described the scandal-hit group Mermaids as ‘a great UK charity’, while another document advised staff to drop sex-specific language such as ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’.

This comes as a long-serving Labour MP has warned that the ‘trans ideology movement’ is shutting down legitimate political debate.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Graham Stringer, the MP for Blackley and Broughton, referred to a recent report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), in which political transgenderism had been denounced as ‘an ideological assault’ against liberal democracy.

He wrote, ‘Even stating a scientific truth can be so controversial as to lead to your cancellation.’

The 24-page IEA report, ‘Transgender Ideology: A new threat to liberal values’, authored by Marc Glendening, is available on the think-tank’s website.

Source: Shutterstock

A survey which claimed to show most Church of England clergy no longer think Britain is a Christian country has been criticised as unreliable.

The survey, commissioned by The Times, made headlines in August with the newspaper urging the C of E to embrace liberal sexual attitudes or face extinction.

But the survey has been attacked as a ‘con’ by Ian Paul, an Anglican clergyman who studied pure mathematics at St John’s College, Oxford.

On his blog he wrote, ‘The whole basis of the survey, and the confident claims it makes, it [sic] based on a con.

‘The article (and news coverage in different media) claimed that The Times had undertaken a survey “of 1,200 clergy”. But it had done no such thing.

‘It sent out 5,000 invitations, and then used the results of 1,200 who responded. The one thing we can report

with confidence, then, is “76% of C of E clergy have better things to do in August than complete a survey.”

‘And you don’t have to think too hard to work out some of the selective factors motivating you to complete this or ignore it.’

He added, ‘The surveys offers us little more than the views of those who selected themselves by responding.

‘This really is the worst way to conduct an opinion poll or survey.’

He continued, ‘There is ignorance of the fate of the Western churches which have changed their doctrine of marriage – which have all, without exception, seen accelerating decline almost to the point of oblivion.

‘And there is complete ignorance of the theological position of those other churches which are growing – the vast majority of which uphold the historic, consensus position which remains the C of E’s doctrine.’

Revd Dr Ian Paul (Credit: psephizo.com)

4 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 5

By Laura Sharpe

In July, Forest Fold Baptist Church held its annual youth group for people aged 14–19. This year we spent a week in Worcester. As well as talks about Jesus and the Christian life, we engaged in activities including kayaking, shooting, a trip to a theme park, and more.

Talks during camp focused on God’s salvation plan. We began looking at how we are created in God’s image, and how this is foundational to our identity. We are created for a relationship with him.

We were also reminded that this image has been marred by sin, and that we are fallen. This is something we struggle to accept but cannot hide. We saw how the solution is Jesus: he took the guilt and the punishment that we deserve for our sins.

Church News

Another challenge from the talks concerned our direction in life as young people – where are we going, and do we cling to in this world? We were reminded that Jesus is greater than anything the world offers.

How we can serve Jesus came up in the teaching. We explored what the Bible says about serving, and we could see living examples in the way the leaders gave up so much of their time in running camp and teaching us.

Two leaders shared their testimonies during the week. It was particularly helpful as they were quite honest about the hardships as well as the highs of the Christian walk.

Once again, Forest Fold camp was a real blessing; we saw God provide for us and answer prayer day after day.

By Averil Elizabeth Hodgson & David Marshall

Early in 2023, Wesley Brewer, Cumbria’s local representative for the Faith Mission, approached Silloth Evangelical Church in west Cumbria about missionary weekend.

We are an elderly membership and felt apprehensive, but we’re also passionate to see souls converted to Christ. In short, we agreed to the plan!

For three months in advance of the event in July, we engaged in prayer and more prayer. As it happened, the dates for the mission coincided with the 95th anniversary of the foundation of Silloth Evangelical Free Church.

For two weeks before the event, Wesley and a few friends did door-to-door visitation, distributing event leaflets at the same time.

The services were well attended every night, with close to 50 at each. A delicious

finger buffet was also available and enjoyed by all.

On Friday evening we had an interview on ‘What is the good life – a farmer’s story’, given by Matthew Fawcett. Wesley also preached powerfully on ‘Cleansing the Leper’ from Mark 1:40-45.

On Saturday evening we had another interview with a man called Charlie called, ‘Is there life after death? A close call with death.’ Matthew preached on the conversion of the Philippian jailer from Acts 16.

On Sunday morning Charlie Preece preached on the demon-possessed man in Mark 5. In the evening, Wesley preached from 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Since that weekend we’ve had three unsaved men come to the evening services. We also heard that, as a result of the mission, other friends in a church some miles away have been inspired to start having a Bible study/prayer meeting.

By Ken Brownell

It was my privilege to have known Jeremy Marshall ever since, some 37 years ago, I became associate minister at East London Tabernacle Baptist Church (ELT), which Jeremy attended.

During his time at ELT, Jeremy met and married his wife Jeanette, with whom he would have three children: Naomi, Nat, and Sam.

Sadly, Jeremy’s life was cut short after the long and gruelling treatment for his cancer. Over the years we kept up the friendship and ended up working together as trustees of several Christian charities.

Jeremy was greatly gifted by God. He was a fine preacher, but although many thought he could have been a gospel minister, he chose to stay in so-called secular work. Jeremy worked in banking, eventually becoming CEO of Hoare’s Bank in London.

Among other ministries, Jeremy supported London Seminary, Christianity Explored, Kingdom Bank, and Equipping Pastors Worldwide (formerly Christian Books Worldwide and Pastor Training International).

In all his relationships and ventures, Jeremy kept the gospel central. He was supremely gifted in sharing the good news with almost everyone he met.

Jeremy was brought up in a godly Christian family. His father, John Marshall, was a conservative Congregational minister whom Jeremy adored, and from whom he inherited a big gospel-heartedness.

The Marshall family would travel far into Eastern Europe with Bibles to visit pastors long before the fall of

Communism. Later, Jeremy continued to support gospel work in Serbia.

Other circumstances could be mentioned, but perhaps it was Jeremy’s cancer that he used most effectively for the gospel. As summed up in his book Beyond the Big ‘C’, Jeremy spoke publicly and privately in the last few years of how, as a Christian, he was dealing with this affliction.

With others whose lives he touched, I can truly say that there are few people I have known who have lived as all-out for Christ as Jeremy Marshall. Only heaven will tell what blessing his life has brought.

This tribute first appeared at fiec.org.uk

6 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Church News

By David Kay

This year’s Tabernacle Cardiff Summer Conference was blessed with both searching preaching and rich fellowship among those who came.

The two principal preachers were Pastors Bob Dickie and Malcolm Watts.

Bob Dickie is the Senior Pastor at Berean Baptist Church in Michigan, and a friend of many in the UK during his visits to churches and conferences.

Malcolm Watts has ministered in Salisbury since 1970 and is respected and loved by many in this country and abroad.

Bob Dickie spoke movingly on the question, ‘What think ye of Christ?’ In so doing he opened up the gospel emphasis of looking to Christ and considering him.

In another address, Bob looked back to the sad downgrade of Christian

spirituality and churchmanship, particularly in the United States over the past 50 years. He drew parallels with the state of evangelicalism in the UK also.

Bob’s third address was deeply moving as he issued a ‘solemn warning’, searchingly identifying five types of professing Christian: invisible, worldly, carnal, lukewarm, and hypocritical.

In his final sermon, Bob led us to Christ from a text in the

Song of Solomon, pointing to our Saviour as the ‘One who is altogether lovely’.

Also during the week, Pastor Pooyan Mehrshahi from Cheltenham addressed a gathering of Farsi speakers who live in Cardiff.

Pastor Martin Williams from Tenby also preached in Welsh from Malachi 4 of ‘The coming of the Day of the Lord’.

Malcolm Watts began the conference with a challenge

to the soul that lives ‘without Christ’. Next, he preached on union and communion in the life of the believer, followed by a message from Colossians 3:11 on ‘Life with Christ’, which warmed our souls and directed us to our Lord and Saviour.

Malcolm also spoke of the ‘great change’ that comes to the believer in light of Romans 14:8 (whether we live or die, it is unto the Lord). He focused on the current mantra of our worldly society that puts self at the centre of everything. ‘Me, myself, and I’ has become the foundational subject of the modern godless religion in the country.

Those who came to the conference were blessed by these timely and moving addresses. The centrality of Christ and his love for sinners gave great heart and encouragement to all. We look forward to the same event, God willing, next year.

By Revd George Cringles

In the ten years since the first Argyll Convention was held in Oban, much in our world has changed. But the marine and rural landscape of Argyll is still as beautiful and restful as ever – a wonderful base for a holiday or for onward travel to the islands and the opening up of the rest of Scotland to people from across the world.

Moreover, God’s faithfulness is unchanged. We believe that he richly blessed all those who came along this year to the Argyll Bible Convention, as well as all those who contributed in any way.

This year we were delighted to welcome visitors ‘just passing through’ the town, who happened to see a flyer in their hotel, or the banners in the street, or caught up with posts on Facebook.

Some planned their holiday in the area, spending time at one or more of the sessions.

Many friends came from local churches, often for the first time, and enjoyed the contrasting styles of Tim Chester (Crosslands Training) and

Andy Bannister (SOLAS) – two lively and engaging apologists for Christianity, whose very accessible books were on display at the well-stocked bookstall run by Faith Mission.

Tim’s addresses focused on ‘Christ is Risen – to give us life; to end our fear; to receive our worship’. He also led a workshop on ‘Meeting Christ round his table’.

Andy shared his wide experience of evangelism, and his latest book How to share your faith without looking like an idiot was published during the convention and enthusiastically snapped up.

A total of 493 attendances were recorded at the 9 sessions, some attending all, some attending one or more. Innovations this year, as a result of feedback received last year, were the lunchtime workshops, which were attended by about 40 people. They were attracted, it seems, by the snappy titles, the Q&A format, and the informal style.

Brave local Christians overcame their nerves to offer a prayer or read the Bible, and

stimulating and challenging talks were given by representatives of Faith Mission in Scotland, HOPE kitchen (a local charity), and Mission Aviation Fellowship. Information stands were also provided by Mission

International, Mary’s Meals, MAF, and Prospects across Scotland.

God willing, our Convention in 2024 will be held 6–8 August. For further details, visit www.argyllconvention.com.

In July, over 30 people gathered for an event in Gloucester marking 40 years of open-air ministry in the city by Roland Parsons. At the meeting, thanks were given for Roland’s service, and guest speakers addressed the gathering on the subject of open-air evangelism. A meal was later shared by those present at Gloucester’s New Inn Hotel.

In July, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak personally thanked EMF for the Christian charity’s fundraising efforts: ‘I want to commend the European Mission Fellowship,’ he wrote ‘for raising over £1.5 million to support the Ukrainian people.’ The PM also lauded the ‘tangible impact’ that EMF’s work was having upon those suffering in Ukraine.

The Free Church of Scotland’s Mission Board has gifted 25 copies of the Psalms for use by prisoners at HMP Shotts, North Lanarkshire. A Reformed Worship Service is held at the prison, and Lead Chaplain Revd John Caldwell said the new books would be very helpful: ‘The psalms are incredibly relevant for men in a prison context.’

A film addressing the history of the church and revival in Wales has been released. Welsh Awakenings is a two-hour documentary including interviews and location footage presented by Jonathan Thomas (Cornerstone Church, Abergavenny). Dan Pugh produced the film and told ET, ‘I’m excited to bring the story of God’s work in Wales to a new generation.’

Andrew Bannister (Credit: Wycliffe College)

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 7

By Kevin Bidwell

There was much joy at Sheffield Presbyterian Church on Friday 4 August as three men were ordained to ministry.

Many friends and family members gathered for the event, and, as well as the Sheffield congregation, members from Lincoln Presbyterian Church had travelled to witness the service. LPC began five years ago, and was a plant from SPC.

Dr Aliyuda Ali and Mr Agrippa Mtukwa were ordained as ruling elders, and Mr Adam Moore was ordained as a deacon. Aliyuda has been an elder before in the Gombe region of Nigeria. Agrippa also has experience in pastoral ministry. Adam is a graduate

By Josh Smith

Another year, another amazing edition of Compass Camps: a youth camp based in the Lake District.

32 young people aged 11–17 met in Windermere for a week of fun, outdoor activities, and Bible teaching during August.

This year’s theme was ‘books and literature’. Each day, a new title or genre was in focus, with everything from Dr Seuss to the Narnia Chronicles. ‘Tolkien Day’ was a favourite, with second breakfast, elevenses, and afternoon tea being served!

Alongside the camp theme, a new Bible topic is taught each year. This year, we considered some biblical names of God, from Elohim to El-Roi and many others. We are grateful as ever to Ole Kristian Hunt (Grace Baptist Ulverston) for planning all the teaching sessions.

Church News

Campers were challenged as always. One parent provided feedback that Camp this year ‘really cemented [my daughter’s] desire to read her Bible, which is so encouraging!’ One camper said the teaching was ‘really clear and helpful’. Praise God for his Word!

Speaking of which, following Compass Camps 2022, we were unsure about the future of camp due to our venue in Coniston being unable to host us in 2023. Furthermore, one or two leaders had to pull out at the last minute for personal reasons.

But our ‘Jehovah-Jireh’ is indeed a providing God – we found a perfect replacement venue in Windermere along with some gifted and helpful new leaders.

We’re so grateful to God for all he’s done for Compass Camps over the years, and for all the lives he’s helped us to touch.

in Chemical Engineering from Sheffield University.

Through the shouts of joy that were heard during the service, to the praises sung, to the ministering of the Word of God, one can only conclude that God was in that place during the ordination.

Revd Norman Green delivered a timely and outstanding sermon from Nehemiah 7 and 8. He spoke of the need for reformation in the church – in leadership, in membership, in guardianship, in stewardship, and in worship.

The ordination service was closed with Charles Wesley’s great hymn, ‘And can it be’. In keeping with the joy of the occasion, the singing was among the best I have heard in a Christian meeting for several years.

By Paul Davies

Trevor Baker, Church Liaison Officer for Albanian Evangelical Mission, has died aged 72.

Trevor served with AEM for 25 years, ostensibly as CLO, but truly he did so much more. The importance of his ministry is recognised to best effect in the love and respect of the many who came to know him as a dear friend, pastor (in the broadest sense), and mentor.

Lenci Mene shared the following thoughts of Trevor at his funeral: ‘An Albanian friend recently remarked, “We won’t encounter another Trevor in our lifetime.” It takes a unique person to earn this level of respect in an Albanian’s mind, but it’s a sentiment shared by many Albanian friends who knew him.

‘Trevor showed genuine respect to all those he met in Albania, regardless of their level of education or income. He was very generous, never hesitating to help his Albanian friends in times of need.

‘Most importantly, Trevor did something that I have often heard from pulpits, but rarely witnessed in real life: he tried, as he put it, to “err on the side of grace”.

‘Trevor lived life to the full, in spite of his haemophilia and, in his later years, his battle with cancer. He was peaceful and content to the end because he was convinced that life was a gift from God, and therefore was to be enjoyed and cherished.

‘More importantly, he knew that when Christ returns, he would live a life that never ends.’

Lenci’s comments give a good sense of Trevor and his delight in the grace he discovered afresh daily. While this truly reflects how he was regarded in Albania, it’s also true for those he visited in the UK.

We always say it and we’re rarely careful enough about, it but for Trevor, it really was enough to preach Christ and proclaim his unconditional love for sinners.

8 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

China has implemented new rules that will further control religious groups and limit their freedom.

The new rules, announced by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, came into effect in September and are intended to limit all religious activities to official venues only and prevent the display of religious symbols outdoors.

As of 1 September, all religious activity must be supervised by the state to make sure churches and places of worship support the leadership of China’s Communist Party.

The rules will also restrict setting up new state-controlled churches and further regulate the way churches are managed.

Churches and places of worship must not have biblical or Christian-sounding names. The content of Christian sermons must reflect China’s politics and the core values advocated by Chairman Xi Jinping, rather than religious doctrines.

Called ‘the Measures on the Administration of Religious Activity Venues’, the new rules demand that all religious activity must uphold the leadership of the communist party, the socialist system, and adhere to China’s policy of Sinicization.

The aim of Sinicization is to make China more Chinese in the eyes of the Communist Party, by removing symbols of religion including Christianity.

According to Chinese partners of UK-based advocacy organisation Release

International, the government is working to bring all aspects of religion under the control of the Party, which is officially atheist.

They have warned that the measures ‘amount to a complete ban on religious activities’ and an attempt to ‘suffocate’ the burgeoning unofficial church, which is made up of Christians who have been driven underground to seek freedom of worship.

Evangelical Times has reported often on the worsening anti-Christian sentiment on mainland China, with stories of church demolitions, arrests, and removals of religious symbols from buildings.

But Paul Robinson, chief executive of Release International, said this latest

crackdown was clearly a move to ‘eliminate’ the presence of Christianity in the Communist country.

He said, ‘China is one of the worst oppressors of Christianity in the world and has just announced a tightening of the screws designed to eliminate the visible presence of Christianity in China.’

Release International partner Bob Fu, President of ChinaAid, said: ‘I don’t think I’ve seen the Chinese Communist Party as bold as they’ve been this summer in playing God and twisting how the gospel is taught.

‘The only correct perspective in the eyes of the communist government is worship of the state.’

International News

OM has launched a challenge for 2024, whereby people with a heart for mission can travel across Europe within one or two months. After training, successful applicants will interrail across Europe, sharing the good news about Jesus and getting involved in ministry with the OM teams in various cities.

Christians in Pakistan are facing heightened fear and concern following incidents of intimidating graffiti. On 20 August, images depicting Quranic verses written on the walls of Central Brooks Church in Saddar, Karachi, went viral on social media. According to reports, the inscriptions suggest a coordinated effort rather than isolated incidents.

Samaritan’s Purse sent a cargo jet with a volunteer team and 17 tonnes of relief supplies to Maui, Hawaii, in August. Among many other items onboard were solar lights, cooking kits, hygiene kits, and plastic tarp to provide immediate relief to survivors of the deadly wildfires. But the work of recovery and rebuilding to help homeowners has only just begun in earnest.

The Garda’s Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly has warned the Irish Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use that decriminalising drugs would have serious social consequences. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, he cautioned the Assembly against recommending to the Oireachtas that drug laws be liberalised.

The State is always watching (Credit: Andrew Boyd/Release International)

A couple in the US state of Massachusetts have been rejected as suitable foster parents because of their belief in marriage and the reality of biological sex.

Mike and Kitty Burke, who are Roman Catholic, have launched legal action against the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF), claiming religious discrimination.

The DCF openly told the couple they could not foster because they ‘would not be affirming to a child who identified as LGBTQIA’.

Papers lodged at the court show that during the application process the Burkes shared their beliefs ‘that marriage is between a woman and a man and that sexual relations are to be kept within the bounds of such a marriage’.

They said they told the assessor representing the DCF, who interviewed them in their

own home, that due to their ‘religious beliefs, they would not assist a medical gender transition for a hypothetical future child’.

Following this, in a report of the interviews, the assessor expressed concern about the Burkes’ beliefs on gender and sex and believed that neither they, nor their faith, would be ‘supportive of LGBTQIA+ youth’.

As a result, their application was rejected by the DCF, ‘based on the couple’s statements/

responses regarding placement of children who identified as LGBTQIA’.

Religious liberty specialists Becket Law, the firm representing the Burkes, said, ‘Massachusetts cannot exclude religious couples like the Burkes from fostering because they are religious, nor can they punish qualified families for their deeply held religious beliefs.’

In a statement, Becket Law said, ‘Federal law protects the ability of religious people and organisations to foster children in need without having to forfeit their beliefs.

‘Because Massachusetts was unwilling

to uphold laws, including in its own Foster Parent Bill of Rights, Becket is going to court to enforce them.’

The couple are said to be ‘absolutely devastated’ not to be allowed to ‘welcome children in need’ into their home.

This is not the first time Christians have come up against opposition for expressing their religious convictions.

Earlier this year, Christian adoption agency New Hope Family Services won a second legal victory against New York State after officials with another state agency attempted to punish the adoption agency for adhering to its religious convictions.

The New York Division of Human Rights threatened to investigate and penalise the Christian nonprofit because it places infants with a mother and father committed to each other in marriage.

The Burkes (Credit: becketlaw.org)

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 9

International News

A Canadian official has said teachers must obtain parental consent for name or pronoun changes of students.

Dustin Duncan, the education minister for the province of Saskatchewan, said children under 16 may want to change their names or pronouns, but teachers must work with parents, not against them.

This means teachers who do not receive consent from parents are not allowed to use a student’s preferred pronoun or name. Instead, they must continue to use the child’s birth name.

According to reports in Canada’s Toronto Star newspaper, Duncan said the province wanted to standardise pronoun and naming policies, as they ‘varied’ from one school division to another.

He also said some parents and teachers had complained about the lack of proper policies.

Responding to criticisms from some human rights groups over protections for children, Duncan said the Saskatchewan Party government’s policy had provisions in place to protect vulnerable children.

He said the government would work with school divisions, adding, ‘If we are requiring school divisions to get parental consent to a half-day field trip to the science centre, I think we need to be treating this issue with the same amount of seriousness.’

However, Harini Sivalingam, director of the equality programme at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said the change could result in outing transgender kids to parents who do not accept them.

In a statement, Sivalingam said, ‘Shredding the rights of students is repulsive. Implementing policy that could result in increased harm to vulnerable youth is disgraceful.’

The association also said it would take legal measures against the province,

echoing opposition to New Brunswick’s Policy 713 on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

In August, New Brunswick’s Education Minister Bill Hogan responded to criticisms over Policy 713, saying it would bring more clarity to

teachers and parents, but the main thrust of the policy stays the same.

The policy says students under 16 who are questioning their gender identity must get their parents’ consent before teachers can use their preferred first names or pronouns at school.

Dustin Duncan (Source: saskatchewan.ca)

Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen’s second trial at the Helsinki Court of Appeal has ended, in what a senior human rights advocate has called a ‘canary in the coalmine’ example of how hate speech laws can undermine democracy.

Räsänen, a former minister of the interior and medical doctor, had used social media to question her church denomination’s official sponsorship of the Helsinki LGBTQ Pride Event in 2019.

What followed was a police investigation that also uncovered a pamphlet she had co-authored in 2004 for her church, called ‘As Man and Woman He Created Them’.

Finnish police interrogated her for the ‘crime’ of tweeting her biblical worldview and charged her as a criminal, alongside a pastor who distributed the pamphlet.

But after receiving a unanimous acquittal at the District Court of Helsinki in 2022, as reported at the time by Evangelical Times, and earlier this year winning re-election to the Finnish Parliament, prosecutors appealed the District Court’s decision.

According to ADF International, since the Prosecutor General levied three criminal ‘hate speech’ charges against Räsänen, she has endured over 13 hours of interrogation, months of waiting for court procedures, an onerous trial, and countless lies spread by the media.

Speaking after the second trial, Paul Coleman, executive director of ADF International, said the case should serve as a warning to other countries seeking to impose strict interpretations of ‘Hate Speech’ laws.

He said, ‘Few would have expected that in a Western democracy, in 2023, a public figure would be dragged before the courts simply for expressing her belief in the Bible.

‘Many have expressed shock and disapproval at the way the Finnish State has treated Päivi Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola because of their faith.

‘Yet, this case is a canary in the coalmine for what happens when we roll out laws which ban the vague and nebulous concept of “hate speech”, which can be interpreted as a right to censor any thought or opinion which lies outside of state approval.’

Päivi Räsänen (Credit: ADF International)

A pro-family leader in Mexico has been fined by a court and ordered to apologise every day for 30 days for ‘misgendering’ a politician.

Rodrigo Iván Cortés has been ordered to publish the court-written apology, along with the court ruling, on Twitter and Facebook daily for 30 days.

He has also been ordered to undertake a course on ‘gender-based political violence’ and to register on the National Registry of Persons Sanctioned in Political Matters against Women.

The dispute began when Cortés posted material on Twitter and Facebook referring to transgender-identifying Mexican Congressional representative Salma Luévano as a ‘man who self-ascribes as a woman’.

But a court later ruled that Cortés was guilty of ‘gender-based political violence’,

‘digital violence’, ‘symbolic violence’, ‘psychological violence’, and ‘sexual violence’ for his social media expression.

He was fined $19,244.00 MXN and he was directed to publish the court ruling and an apology drafted by the court on Twitter and Facebook daily for 30 days.

Cortés is head of advocacy group Frente Nacional por la Familia (FNF) – which is translated, ‘National Front for the Family’.

Rodrigo Iván Cortés (Credit: ADF International)

An 18-year-old Christian convert in Nigeria has successfully secured a court order protecting her from members of her family who threatened to kill her for converting from Islam.

Her mother smuggled her to safety in a Christian community after her father and brothers threatened to kill her for her converting.

The teenager and her mother sought a restraining order, and a high court in northern Nigeria handed down an order of perpetual injunction against her father and brothers.

The order states, ‘the defendants are hereby restrained from threat and attempt on the life of the applicant following her decision to change from the practice of Islam to Christianity.’

10 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Comment

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Troubling guidance from down under

Secular public officials in the Australian state of Victoria have written guidance for state-approved language to be used in church prayers and the pastoral care of LGBT people. And if churches don’t follow that prescribed language, they run the risk of being charged with a crime. It’s all the result of the state passing a law banning so-called ‘conversion therapy’. The governments of Westminster and Holyrood are planning similar laws for England, Wales, and Scotland. And LGBT activists want them to copy the laws from Victoria.

Victoria, Australia, has a history of prosecuting Christians. More than 20 years ago in 2002, the Equal Opportunities Commission of Victoria sent some Muslim converts undercover to a Christian meeting. It appears they had the express intention of finding something to be offended by. As a result, Christian Pastor Daniel Scot was charged under newly introduced ‘religious vilification’ laws. His crime? He had criticised Islam. The fact that his criticisms were calm, reasonable and based on his vast experience of Islam made no difference. He was still dragged off to court.

It’s not just these types of laws themselves which are the problem, bad though they may be. The real trouble is often caused by the taxpayer-funded ‘equality bureaucrats’ who seem determined to push these unnecessary laws as far as they can, even to the extent of sending undercover agents to catch you out. Remember, it was the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland which chased Ashers Bakery all the way through the courts over their refusal to bake a cake with the slogan, ‘support gay marriage’.

So Christians are right to be alarmed by what is happening on the other side of the world in Australia. And Christians are right to warn the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about dabbling in this highly controversial area of legislation. In past centuries, Christians – especially we non-conformist Christians – have known what it is like for the state to dictate what we can and cannot pray, what we can and cannot teach. We didn’t stand for it then, and we shouldn’t stand for it now.

In April 2023, the largest teaching union in the UK voted in favour of inviting drag queens to speak in schools. This, it was claimed, would help to challenge the ‘heteronormative culture and curriculum that dominates education’.

When a drag queen visits a school or library to deliver a Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH), a man dressed up as a woman tells children LGBT-themed stories. He may sing with them. He may dance (with varying degrees of eroticism).

What’s going on?

In 2021, an academic paper was published entitled ‘Drag Pedagogy’. One of the authors is ‘Lil Miss Hot Mess’, a drag queen and author of the sing-along children’s book The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish.

The paper explains that DQSHs encourage children to ‘live queerly’ by contributing to the ‘destigmatisation of shame’. This creates ‘a pathway into the imaginative, messy, and rule-breaking aspects of drag for children’.

‘For any child who has ever asked a parent or teacher “why?” and been unsatisfied with the answer, “because I told you so,” drag may help elucidate the arbitrariness of rules. By encouraging students to explore the boundaries of acceptability, drag offers a model for participating in a learning experience where axioms are meant to be challenged and authority is not a given.’

The point of DQSHs is to raise a generation who are committed to challenging authority and ending the structural injustices (such as ‘heteronormativity’) which supposedly riddle Western society.

The Drag Queen Story Hour movement is best understood as a lethal combination of Critical Pedagogy and Critical

Gender Theory (both offshoots of the ideology known as Critical Theory).

Critical Theory

Critical Theory was generated by a group of academics based at a study-centre established in Germany in 1923. They denied the existence of any transcendent deity, any absolute morality, or any ultimate truth.

Western society, they claimed, was riddled with inequality and injustice. It was upheld by the powerful classes, who protected their position by manipulating language, knowledge, and truth claims.

Traditional theories, they argued, had only sought to understand truth. But they framed Critical Theory as encouraging action. It’s about finding ways to end all inequalities in outcome. The only sure way to do that is to pull down the institutions of society.

That won’t happen overnight! But what if you unleash the virus of radical doubt? All fixed categories formerly assumed to be ‘common sense’ will dissolve. The foundations of societal stability will crumble.

Critical Pedagogy

A key text in academia is Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), by the Brazilian activist Paulo Freire. He insisted that those with traditional formal education (literacy, numeracy, etc.) are the privileged. They use that education to protect their status.

By contrast, ‘critical pedagogy’ focuses on ‘political literacy’ or ‘conscientisation’. Students must be awakened to structural injustice of the oppressed. They must learn how to actively work against oppression.

Critical Gender Theory

Gender Trouble (1990), by American feminist Judith Butler, argued for the abolition of any idea of ‘normal’ regarding sex and gender. There’s no God! We’re not created as male and female! Rather, we construct our own identity.

Those considered ‘normal’ (i.e. straight or ‘cis-gender’) are ‘privileged’. LGBT people are ‘oppressed’. They will only be liberated when all categories of ‘normal’ are dissolved. Our culture needs to be ‘queered’.

Let’s go back to Drag Queen Story Hours. Children are beguiled by a bright, fun, and sparkly performance. But the underlying message is that there’s no normal. Boundaries are blurred. Children are being moulded into future activists who will campaign against the ‘oppression’ of ‘heteronormativity’.

Worse, the normalising of sexualised ‘entertainment’ leaves them vulnerable to predators and abuse. Many insist that DQSHs are just a bit of fun. Really? The authors of Drag Pedagogy conclude darkly: ‘we’re leaving a trail of glitter that won’t ever come out of the carpet’. You have been warned!

For more information about Critical Theory, a new range of free downloadable resources is available at the.ci/critical-theory

By Sharon James

Policy analyst for The Christian Institute and a former teacher. Her books include The Lies We Are Told, the Truth We Must Hold: Worldviews and Their Consequences.

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 11

Letters to the Editor

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Misplaced prayer?

SIR – No one wants to be prosecuted by the state for ‘crimes of thought’, but for all to see, on the front page of the September ET, is a Christian praying on a pavement.

This should cause us to pause and think. Prohibited prayer and praying on pavements should both ring bells among those of us who know our Bibles.

Jesus teaches us that the location of our prayers is immaterial: ‘Neither in this place nor in Jerusalem…’ (John 4). There is no particular location to which we should go for personal prayer.

Prayer being made illegal is not new. Did daring Daniel go and pray in front of the palace gates? No, he prayed in his own room at home.

Jesus does not say you are a hypocrite if you pray on a street corner. But he tells you not to be like the hypocrites that do (Matthew 6). Rather, you should go into your room and pray ‘in secret’.

‘Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders,’ we are told in Colossians 4. Praying on a pavement within an ‘exclusion zone’ will be perceived as a protest by unbelievers and law-enforcers alike.

Might we be giving a terribly wrong impression of the purpose and place of prayer? Is there any specific biblical mandate for silent public prayer? Let us give careful thought to all the wisdom of Scripture that bears on this matter.

Derek Sparrow

Milton Keynes

Lucy Letby

SIR – The crimes of Lucy Letby remind us how paediatric medicine has advanced, and must also make us ask if calls for abortion decriminalisation are barbaric.

Neonates survive from around six months into pregnancy, and the NHS website’s dating scan images show how even a three-month-old unborn human is already well developed.

Was Lucy Letby bad, mad, or sad? We will possibly never fully understand her motivation, but the right response of our churches is far less mysterious.

James Hardy

Belfast

The unchanging God

SIR – I began reading Alan Thomas’s article ‘God’s emotions’ (September ET) with a sense of unease and foreboding.

To assert that emotion is a sine qua non of personhood, and that if God is personal then he must therefore be emotional, is merely circular reasoning, or begging the question.

To begin with human experience, and to deduce from that an image of what God must be like, is obviously fallacious. God, who inhabits eternity, is not like

simply ‘sits down at the table’, as it were, with all kinds of views which have merely human origins.

ET has done a great job publishing this article – thanks so much!

Paul Yeulett

Grove Chapel, Camberwell

Dr John Wyatt

SIR – Apparently a woman who will tell you her age will tell you anything, so let me just say that Dr John Wyatt’s article, ‘What are old people for?’ (September ET) caught my attention.

I remember hearing him speak at an apologetics conference in Linlithgow in 2010. ‘What keeps us human?’ was the question he explored. I took shorthand notes and transcribed them, and have benefited over the years from occasional reference to them.

Comparing them with his recent ET article, I was reminded that he said, ‘We are not self-explanatory’, and how relevant that is now that attitudes towards the elderly are deteriorating in society, while youth is being idolised. Today it’s all about self – but without reference to God, such introspection is damaging.

That’s why Dr Wyatt’s article encouraged me to reach out more to others spiritually and to pray more for them.

I now have a lot of time and experience, but must not dwell on myself. The temptation to do that is great. But for my ‘final lap’, I want to get into overdrive, spiritually speaking!

Anne Sanderson

Falkirk

man; he is not subject to change. ‘I am the Lord, I change not.’

If I were to submit to you an article claiming on the basis of many proof texts that God has arms, hands, eyes, a face, and so on and must therefore, in his divine nature, have a human body, I am sure you would waste little time in reading it.

Yet I remain concerned. Professor Thomas says nothing as far as I can see to distance himself from the heresy of patripassianism. I am sure he does not hold such a view, but readers need to be warned against it.

The ever-blessed, infinite, and eternal God cannot, in his nature, suffer. If he were to suffer then he must necessarily suffer infinitely and eternally. Such a thought is unbearable.

Ben Elford

Clutton, Bristol

Synthetic Christianity

SIR – I was very grateful for the excellent article by Dewey Roberts on ‘Synthetic Christianity’ (September ET). It gives clear expression to one of the most important insights which biblical Christians so urgently need right now.

For one thing, we need reminding that the Christian gospel can never be arrived at as result of a process of argumentation, by comparing or combining philosophical insights which ultimately derive from human, horizontal thought.

God’s saving revelation is essentially vertical, heavenly, and transcendent. It needs to be proclaimed to a lost, blind, dead world and it will be faithfully received only by the one ‘who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word’ (Isaiah 66:2). This is the spirit we desperately need, both in churches as well as out of them.

Another great danger of Hegelian thinking is that it tends towards the party politicisation of Christianity. All too easily, to be a ‘Christian’ is to adopt a specific party political position and to rush headlong into various culture wars.

While Christians need to be engaged in all kinds of important conversations, they must beware of casting pearls before swine, which is a real danger if the gospel

12 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Source: Shutterstock

By Stephen Rees

Pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Stockport.

We’re praying for conversions. We want our neighbours, our classmates, our colleagues, the people we see on the bus to be saved. In every prayer-meeting we tell the Lord how much we long for people of all sorts to come to repentance and faith in Christ.

I wonder whether we really expect God to grant our prayers. Have you ever thought about what would happen if he did? Suppose that over the next year we saw lots of local folk saved and added to the church. Have you ever considered the sort of problems that our new brothers and sisters might bring with them?

Remember, many of these folk will have lived lives that by biblical standards were plainly wicked. Paul lists out some of the people who had come to faith in Corinth and been added to the church: ‘... Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practise homsexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you’ (1 Corinthians 6:1-11). If the Lord answers our prayers, we must expect him to add such people to our number.

We mustn’t misunderstand Paul’s last sentence. Was Paul saying that these converts had left behind their previous sins completely? Clearly not. If they had, he wouldn’t have needed to give them that warning. When he tells them not to be deceived, it’s because some believed that they could return to their old sins and still inherit the kingdom of God. Paul goes on to explain that consorting

with prostitutes is unthinkable for those who are united with Christ (vv. 13–20). Why did he need to spell it out? Because some had never grasped that simple fact.

As you read through the two letters to the Corinthian church, you find that among the believers in that church, the majority of whom had been converted out of a pagan society, there were some who had sunk back into the old patterns of behaviour. Some got drunk repeatedly – even when they came together for the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20-21)! Paul feared that ‘when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier, and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practised’ (2 Corinthians 12:21).

Other churches were no different. Paul has to write such words as these to the church in Ephesus: ‘Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands…’ (Ephesians 4:28)

and ‘...do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery...’ (5:18). And to the church in Thessalonica: ‘this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality...’ (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

Drunkenness, theft, immorality: it would be lovely if all these things vanished the moment any of God’s elect come to faith. But it clearly is not so. The fact is that when people are converted out of a corrupt and decadent society, they may only recognise the evil of such sins gradually. Transformation may be a long and painful struggle. And there may be many setbacks and stumblings along the way.

Kelly: a modern woman

Take Kelly. Like all the people I mention in this article, she’s fictional, but typical. Kelly never knew her dad. She had a string of ‘uncles’ – the short-term boyfriends who shared her mum’s bed, often for a single night. Kelly’s been following her mum’s example since she was 14. To her it’s almost unimaginable that you

could have a friendship with a member of the opposite sex that doesn’t involve sex. Sex isn’t a big deal. In the world she’s grown up in, it’s just the way that a night out invariably ends.

She has no idea of how a married couple relate to each other. She’s never seen a man and a woman living together in a faithful, loving relationship. At least not close up. All she knows about relationships is what she’s learned from the decadent society around her.

But she’s been converted. And it’s real. She’s been deeply convicted of her sin against God, the fact that she’s lived all her life without him, failing to honour and love him. She’s amazed that he sent his Son to save sinners like herself. She would say that the day she was baptised was the happiest day of her life. In many ways her life has changed amazingly.

But the Holy Spirit doesn’t seem yet to have made her feel the wrongness of extra-marital sex. She doesn’t feel that there’s anything terribly wrong about a one-night stand. She doesn’t see that it harms anyone. All her life she’s been told that it’s no one’s business who you sleep with, providing that you don’t harm anyone.

Of course, the elders explained very carefully to Kelly before she came into membership that the Christian standard is either faithful marriage or complete abstinence. And maybe she said yes, she understood.

But if, three months later, we discover that she has lapsed, will we be shocked? She bumped into a male friend with whom she’d had a short-lived relationship in the past. They went for a drink together. A drink became two drinks and three. They went back to his flat. And the pattern of behaviour that was engrained into her from childhood kicked in again.

She mentions the episode to Jackie, one of her new friends in the church, almost as if she expects Jackie to be amused. That’s the way all her old friends would react to her short-lived affairs. She can’t really understand why Jackie seems horrified or why she says she’ll have to tell the elders what she knows. But she listens

Thinking it through

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 13

Thinking it through

patiently as we explain to her again what the Bible has to say about marriage and sex. We’re not sure whether she’s really taking it in, but she promises that she’ll change.

But it’s not very long until we hear a similar rumour again. What now? Is it time for formal church discipline? Public rebuke? Excommunication? One church member is very sure that Kelly must be put out of membership. ‘We’ve got to for the sake of the children. What sort of example is it to them if she’s allowed to get away with this?’ ‘But what about Kelly herself?’ asks another member. ‘If we put her out of membership, isn’t she likely just to go back into the world? Will excommunicating her really help her to come to repentance?’

What’s a church supposed to do in such a case? Are we ready for it when it happens? We tolerate other visible sins in more experienced believers. A member in one church loses his temper with his family regularly. Another spends money selfishly on all sorts of unnecessary luxuries. A third overeats grossly and passes it off with a laugh. Nobody has ever suggested that these brothers and sisters cannot be believers and should be put out of the church. But how many times can Kelly stumble before we take radical action?

Nurturing the new-born

It shouldn’t come as a surprise when we find long-established patterns of sinful behaviour reasserting themselves in newly-converted believers – especially those who have grown up in our godless and decadent society. The question is, ‘How are we going to help them to escape those engrained patterns?’ How do we make Kelly understand how wrong and damaging casual relationships are? And where is she going to observe and learn godly patterns of relationships?

And beyond that, how do we integrate Kelly into the church? Do we expect her to remain single indefinitely? (Would you be happy for her to marry your son who’s grown up in the church?) Kelly has no idea of what God-honouring courtship or marriage involves. Who’s going to be her model and mentor?

Likewise, who’s going to help Shane to escape from his addiction to internet porn, or Julie to control her tongue?

We shudder when we hear the language that trips off her tongue but she’s unaware of how ugly it is – it’s the language she’s been hearing since she was an infant.

Who’s going to help Wayne as he goes through the horrors of withdrawal from heroin addiction? Who’s going to sit with him as he sits shivering and sweating through the long hours of the night? Who’s going to be at the other end of the phone line when he’s overwhelmed with anxiety and is an inch away from picking up his habit again?

Somehow, we have to support new believers as they make the huge transition from the life they’ve lived and the world they’ve known into the new world that they’ve entered through Christ. Yes, they are new creatures in him, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We look to him to reshape them step by step. But we are the nurses he has appointed to care for these infant believers. They need feeding, they need nurturing, and sometimes, they need their nappies changing.

Tangled lives

So far we’ve only talked about sinful patterns of behaviour. But there are other issues. Many new believers bring with them all sorts of messy circumstances arising out of their old life. And we have to help them sort out the tangles.

Wayne owes the drug dealers a small fortune and they’re threatening to break his legs. Do we help him pay off what he owes them, or do we encourage him to go to the police, report them, and offer to testify against them? If he does, they may do a lot worse than they’ve

threatened. Are we prepared to take that responsibility?

When Julie was converted, she was already deep in debt because of her addiction to internet shopping. Her home could be repossessed any day. We’ve shown her from the Bible that Christians mustn’t borrow what they’ve no prospect of repaying. But what’s our responsibility to her now? Is the church going to bale her out? If she loses her home, which of us will open our home to her? And if we do get her through this crisis, who’s going to help her manage her money until she’s learned to do it herself?

Charlie’s never done any regular work since he left school. He prefers to live on the dole, claim benefits, and supplement them with occasional casual and undeclared jobs. He knows now that Christians must do ‘honest work with their own hands’, but with no training, no experience, and no references, what chance has he got of persuading an employer to take him on? What’s our responsibility? We’ll tell him we’re praying for him, but is that where it ends?

Hassan’s in this country illegally. Must he surrender himself to the authorities and face the consequences?

Sally was a habitual shoplifter. Must she go back to the shops she stole from and offer to pay for what she took? And if the answer’s yes, how are we going to support her through that?

Distorted families

It will take patience, courage, and sacrifice to unpick any of these tangled situations. But there are other situations that are more demanding still.

The breakdown of marriage in our society and the rise of alternative lifestyles has created dilemmas in which there seems no right answer.

Take a typical scenario. Jane has professed faith. Now she wants to become a member of the church and is asking for baptism. But there’s a problem. She’s been living with Nigel for the past ten years. They have three children. But they’re not married.

What should happen? Some members are clear. She must leave Nigel, take the children, and break off contact with him as far as possible. It’s unthinkable that the church should bring someone into membership who’s living in an unmarried relationship. It’s equally unthinkable that Jane as a believer should marry an unbeliever.

Others aren’t so sure. Perhaps the church should think of Nigel and Jane’s relationship as a ‘common law’ marriage and apply the principles of 1 Corinthians 7:13.

Unfortunately, Nigel himself doesn’t think of it like that. He doesn’t consider his relationship to Jane to be marriage, common-law or otherwise. He says marriage is a meaningless and outdated institution. He goes further. He says that if either partner should grow tired of the relationship, they should be free to walk away from it.

For some church members that settles it. Jane must leave Nigel. But others still disagree. They say that Jane should stay with Nigel at least for the present, for the sake of the children, but move into the spare room and tell Nigel that she will no longer sleep with him. And others still say that

it’s obvious that Jane and Nigel are committed to each other: we must simply urge them to be faithful to one another and pray that Nigel will be converted.

Who’s right? Are you sure? There’s a lot at stake: the honour of the Lord; the needs of a soul for whom Christ died; the care of a family – albeit one that doesn’t match biblical norms. And while the church members are debating all this, Jane is simply longing to be baptised and to share with her fellow-believers at the Lord’s table.

Messed-up relationships

There may be further complications. Take Lewis. He married Amelia, left her after three years, and has been living with Rhoda ever since. Lewis and Rhoda now have two children and a third on the way. They had been planning to get married as soon as Lewis’s divorce comes through. But now he’s been converted. Amelia still cares for Lewis and would be willing to forgive him and start over. But that would mean Lewis leaving Rhoda and saying goodbye to the two children – soon to be three.

Again, church members are divided. Some say that Lewis and Amelia are still married in God’s sight and that Lewis should return to her. Every day he stays with Rhoda is a day longer living in adultery. Others say that Lewis’s marriage bond was broken by his adultery. His first responsibility now is to keep the promises he’s made to Rhoda and to look after his children. He must marry Rhoda as soon as possible. Others again say that he must view both relationships as in the past and start again as a single man.

Members are arguing too about whether Lewis’s baptism should be delayed until his marital situation has been resolved one way or another. In the book of Acts, it’s clear that new believers were normally baptised the day they professed faith. Surely among them all, there must have been some in situations as messy as Lewis’s or Jane’s? But can we safely follow that precedent today?

How messy can situations get? In our present society, there seems almost no limit. The Lord may save someone who is involved simultaneously in two or more serious relationships. In some cases, there may even be two concurrent marriages. Ahmed is married to Samina officially under UK law but has a second

Source: Shutterstock

14 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

about how we should handle the different cases.

I’ve laid out some of the challenges and questions. Do I have any answers? Not many. But here are four priorities.

We must be prepared.

As we pray for people to be converted, we must also pray for the wisdom and grace we’ll need to handle all the dilemmas and complications. And we need now to be thinking through the Bible principles involved. If we leave it until we’re faced with the sorts of situations I’ve described, it will be too late.

We must be realistic.

The fact is that in many of these situations, there is no single right answer. We must accept that whatever course we (or our new brother or sister in the Lord) takes, there will be painful consequences. Often it will be a case of choosing the least worst option. If, for example, a man has made vows of faithfulness to two women, he must either break his vows to one, or both, or he must continue in a polygamous lifestyle. There is no right course of action. None of the options matches God’s will for the men and women he has created.

Thinking it through

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wife to whom he’s also married by Islamic law. He has children by both women. If he is saved (and who knows, maybe both wives will profess faith too), what do we think he should do?

What about those who are converted having embraced a homosexual lifestyle? Take Sandra and Jessica. They have been together for 15 years and are ‘married’. They have a daughter, aged eight, who was conceived in vitro from one of Sandra’s ova, inseminated with a donor’s sperm. But it was in Jessica’s womb that the fertilised egg was implanted, and it was she who gave birth.

If Jessica comes to faith, what should she do? What is her responsibility to Sandra and to the child that they (along with a nameless man) have brought into the world together? We tell her she must end the pseudo-marriage. But can she carry on living in the same house as Sandra so that they can bring up their daughter together? Or should she break off all contact with Sandra and fight for sole custody of the child?

New dilemmas

And then there are all the bizarre situations coming out of the ‘trans’ movement. If someone is converted after ‘transitioning’, do we say that they must ‘detransition’? If they went through physical surgery to match their new ‘identity’, do we insist that they now go through reverse surgery? What if they got legally married in their post-transition ‘identity’? What is the status of that marriage in our view?

Take Simon. He transitioned eight years ago and since then has been known as Simone. Simone married Thomas five years ago. Thomas had a little boy from a previous marriage. That little boy, now eight years old, thinks of ‘Simone’ as his mother – the only mother he can remember. What is Simon’s responsibility to Thomas and to that little boy?

One church member quotes from 1 Corinthians 7. Paul urges that ‘each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him... Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of his circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision,

but keeping the commandments of God. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a slave when you were called? Do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity... So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God..’ (vv. 17–24).

‘Yes, but...’ says another. ‘Circumcision counts for nothing either way. It’s not sinful to be circumcised or uncircumcised. It’s not sinful to be a slave or to be free. But every day that Simon lives as a woman, he’s perpetuating a lie. That is sinful.’

‘Yes, but...’ says a third. ‘Surely vows are sacred – even vows taken in ignorance and folly. Thomas trusted Simon on the basis of the vows Simon took. Doesn’t Simon have some responsibility now?’

However the situation is resolved, it’s going to be messy. And people are going to be hurt. Are we ready for that sort of mess?

Cases that divide churches

If the Lord saves people out of the world, we are going to be confronted by a lot of very messy situations, some that boggle the imagination. And they could very easily tear a church apart. Instead of rejoicing that the Lord is saving damaged, messed-up people, we could finish up fighting

We must be humble.

I may be very sure that I know what the best course of action is in a complex situation. But another experienced Christian may disagree with me and be equally sure that he is right. Where there is no one right course of action, things come down to personal judgment. And I have no right to assume that my judgment is better than his.

We must respect those who have special responsibility for pastoring new believers and guiding the church.

Many evangelical churches operate on congregational principles. In such churches, all the members are consulted on significant matters such as the approval of candidates for baptism or church membership. Such matters are settled by majority vote in members’ meetings.

Christians may disagree as to whether that is the biblical approach to church government. But whatever your view on that issue, it is clear that the New Testament churches had leaders and that other members were expected to respect their wisdom and judgment. ‘Overseers’ (elders, pastors) are called to manage and care for

the church as a father manages his household (1 Timothy 3:4-5). Church members are called to ‘obey your leaders and submit to them’ (Hebrews 13:17). If the members of a church ever voted to reject the considered counsel of their leaders, that would be a declaration that they do not trust their judgment or fitness to lead. It would leave the church in crisis.

Especially that is true when it comes to the sort of issues that we’ve been thinking about. Church members must trust their leaders as they deal with the complex situations that mark the lives of many new believers.

The fact is that most church members cannot know all the ins and outs of those situations. Would it be right to spread out all the sad details of every messy relationship before a church meeting? Does every member need to know the circumstances in which Len and Carrie got together and why their daughter looks like neither of them? Should they be told the embarrassing details of how Phil and Sandie managed to get themselves so deeply in debt? Must they know about every criminal offence on Calum’s record? Or about the abuse Livia suffered as a child and the way it’s affected her psychologically?

There will be cases where the elders will come to a decision about what’s best but won’t be able to explain all the reasons to the church. The church simply has to trust its leaders and listen as they explain how best church members can love, support, and welcome new believers with all the complicated issues they bring with them.

Your brother was lost and is found!

The Lord Jesus welcomed sinners; so must we. Welcoming back the younger brother from the far country and the pig-sty may be the most demanding thing we’re ever asked to do. But we must.

Let’s carry on praying for extraordinary conversions. And let’s be ready to receive all whom the Lord brings to us.

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

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

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Source: Shutterstock

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 15

Features

Source: Unsplash

I once heard a preacher rant against the historic teaching that God is ‘without passions’. He portrayed a God without fluctuating emotions as a distant monster. A God who couldn’t suffer was deemed indifferent to suffering. ‘Do you want a God like that?’ he asked.

That is a dangerous question. We must serve God as he is: fashioning a God to our inclination is idolatry. We are not called to worship the God of our emotional needs or intellectual fancies, but the God who is and has revealed himself in Holy Scripture.

A few years back I discovered that I lacked biblical clarity on God’s nature. Influenced by the groupthink of more modern commentaries, I had drifted from historic biblical teaching. I needed to adjust my understanding of the Triune God. I came to appreciate neglected attributes like impassibility, replacing 21st century Western categories with biblical ones.

It is superficially attractive to claim our emotions exist because we are made in the image of God who has emotions. But being made in God’s image means that we are analogies, reflections of God. We don’t have arms because God has an arm! God is not like us but bigger. In his being, he is altogether different. Love is a divine attribute, not an emotion that God experiences.

As finite human beings we naturally find God’s communicable attributes (those we reflect faintly) easier to grasp than the incommunicable attributes (those we do not share at all). Since we can be loving, gracious, and merciful we readily consider how God is perfectly loving, gracious, and merciful. We find the incommunicable attributes harder to grasp and

best express them by what God is not.

Malachi 3:6 states, ‘I the Lord do not change’ – he is unchangeable or immutable. Therefore, God cannot undergo emotional change – neither by his own choice nor as a response to his creatures. He is impassible: without human emotion, fluctuation, or suffering.

Impassibility aligns us with historic orthodoxy

The teaching that God is ‘without passions’ goes back to the early church fathers. Some suggest they were influenced by the impassive god of Greek philosophy and wrongly denied that God had emotions. However, they were actually distinguishing the Triune God from the emotionally volatile gods of Greek legends: the ‘I AM’ is changeless, stable, and secure. Tellingly, ‘I AM’ is simultaneously God’s covenant name: one who values relationship with his people. Augustine described God as ‘jealous without any darkening of spirit’.

The Reformers boldly rejected swaths of Roman Catholic error. But they did not alter the historic definition of God. The first sentence of the 39 Articles states that God is ‘without body, parts, and passions’. This phrase is repeated in the Westminster Confession, Savoy Declaration, and 1689 Confession. Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists stood united with the church fathers and medieval church.

Unfortunately, over the last 150 years, misunderstandings over God’s nature have crept in. Carl Trueman observed that ‘when someone starts to tinker with the doctrine of Scripture, many Christians instinctively feel that something nefarious is being done. But when someone starts to tinker with the doctrine of God, many simply assume that very clever people are engaged in improving the tradition’.

These clever theologians have often drawn on liberal theology. Evangelicals denying impassibility are influenced by Donald Macleod who quoted liberal Jurgen Moltman to erroneously suggest that the Father suffered through the cross. Macleod claims that sin ‘involves God in pain’, implying that the devil hurt God at the fall. Jonathan Edwards correctly argued that if God ‘endures truly and really, infinite grief or pain

from every sin’, this makes him ‘infinitely the most miserable of all Beings’.

Bruce Ware, teaching an emotional God, even denied immutability. Ware acknowledged his ‘indebtedness’ to the liberal (and lifelong adulterer) Karl Barth who taught that God could and did change as he related to his people.

Liberal evangelical Clark Pinnock portrayed the orthodox attributes of God as a tightly woven sweater. He saw denying impassibility as pulling on a thread which would lead to other attributes, such as immutability, unravelling too.

Impassibility helps us understand Scripture

When God revealed himself, he used pictures we can understand. This has been called divine accommodation. Deuteronomy 33:27 states, ‘the eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.’ We know God does not have arms but thank him for the picture and take the point: his eternal power makes his people totally secure.

Sometimes Scripture uses anthropomorphism (God with a human body) with an anthropopathism (God with human emotions). Genesis 6:6 says God experienced regret and was grieved to his heart. We know God has neither human heart nor human emotions but thank him for the vivid picture

and take the point – God detests sin and cannot abide his image-bearers degenerating rather than reflecting him.

1 Samuel 15 is very helpful, because it includes the same verb as Genesis 6:6 – naham (be sorry or regret) – three times. Twice God is said to regret that he made Saul king (v. 11 and v. 35). He speaks in the manner of men to show his people that he has decisively rejected Saul. The point is clear: God hates sin and disobedience.

But in between these two statements of regret (picturing God like man) the biblical author cautions against misunderstanding God. ‘He is not a man that he should have regret’ (v. 29). There is no contradiction. God is saying: don’t use divine accommodations and anthropopathisms to define my nature – they’re just pictures to make a point. God is not a man to experience regret – he never lacks foresight or makes mistakes. Thus 1 Samuel 15 teaches this principle: statements about what God is like take priority over pictures of how he deals with humanity.

Statements about God’s arm, heart, and grief are like talking about the sunrise. Strictly it is not the sun rising but the earth rotating, as we know. But in our lived experience, the sun rises and the term is very helpful to us!

At the root of impassibility is immutability: ‘I Yahweh do not change.’ God is ‘I AM’ – the

one who is. He is always being, never becoming. We are always changing. God, by his very nature, cannot change and thus cannot experience any emotional change – including suffering. To do so he would cease to be ‘I AM.’

The Scriptures present a wonderfully balanced picture of God. He is the stable rock, whose steadfast love (hesed) is unwavering, whose anger is not like human anger (Hosea 11:9). His anthropomorphisms (e.g. heart) and anthropopathisms (e.g. grief) depict a God intimately involved with men and women and in close relationship with them.

Pictures or divine accommodations don’t describe what God is, but how he relates to us. Therefore, we must resist the urge to see God as ‘like man just bigger’. This is especially important when we are talking of an incommunicable attribute like impassibility which describes how God is not like us.

Impassibility is pastorally comforting

God ‘without passions’ is a comforting doctrine.

1. God’s people are loved with an everlasting love that cannot fluctuate (Psalm 103:17 and Jeremiah 31:3).

2. The Rock to which we cling cannot change and cannot be moved (Isaiah 26:4).

3. The Lord of heaven and earth cannot be hurt by any rebellion or sin (Job 35:6).

4. God’s wrath is not who he is, nor does it fluctuate. God is love, but he is not wrath. It has been called ‘the settled opposition of his holy nature’ against everything evil (Romans 2:5 with 1 John 4:8).

5. Gloriously, Christ chose to add a passible human nature to his impassible divine nature. The eternal Son of God without emotional vulnerability was moved to tears; the one who couldn’t suffer embraced suffering (Philippians 2:7-8). Church father Gregory of Nazianzus described Christ as ‘passible in his flesh, impassible in his Godhead’.

Evangelicals have recently been rediscovering the historic doctrine of God. To dig deeper, read All That Is in God (James Dolezal) or Confessing the Impassible God (ed. Richard Barcellos).

By Paul Smith

Full-time elder of Grace Baptist Church, Broadstairs, Kent. He is also a director and the book reviews editor for ET.

16 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

DUDLEY BAPTIST CHURCH

(Priory Road)

Lord’s Day: 10.30am and 6.30pm

Prayer/Bible study: Thursday 7.45pm

Pastor: Conrad Pomeroy

Tel: 0758 3161766

E-mail: enquiries@dudleybaptist.org.uk

Priory Road, Dudley DY1 4AD

www.dudleybaptist.org.uk

www.sermonsfortoday.org

•

•

Coming to Southampton?

You are welcome to join us in Sholing at:

Spring Road Evangelical Church

Reformed Evangelistic

Non-ecumenical Non-charismatic

• Expository Ministry

Sunday services: 11.00am and 6.30pm

Pastor: Mark Stocker (023) 80432850

www.springroad.org.uk

•

•

ZION EVANGELICAL

BAPTIST CHURCH

Blossomgate, Ripon,

N. Yorks HG4 2AJ

Lord’s Day: 10.30am & 6.30pm

Prayer/Bible study:

Wednesday 7.30pm.

E-mail:jonathanandjo@hotmail.co.uk

www.zionripon.org.uk

(sermons on website)

Coming to Sussex?

Living in Brighton to Worthing area?

Southern Cross

Evangelical Church

103 Trafalgar Road, Portslade, Brighton, East Sussex BN41 1GU

Sundays: 10.30am & 6.30pm Wednes-days: Fellowship at 10.30am

Pastor: John Eaton

Website:

www.southerncross.org.uk (sermons)

Mobile: 07758 167488

E-mail: johneaton.scec@gmail.com

We would particularly like to encourage Christian families, students, young people and those with leadership skills to help

us build a strong local church with a

reformed ministry

THE OLD TEMPERANCE BOOKSHOP

Reeth, Richmond, DL11 6TE

Tel: (01748) 884185

Christian books, cards & crafts

Beside the village

green in Reeth, the

‘capital of Swaledale’, we are 50 yards up from Reeth Evangelical

Congregational Church

CLOSED on Sat. 28 and

Mon. 30 October

Opening times:

1.30 – 4.00pm Monday, Thursday, Saturday

10.30am – 4.00pm Friday (Market Day)

Heath Evangelical Church

Whitchurch Road Cardiff CF14 3LZ

T: 029 2061 7738

E: office@heath-church.org

W: www.heath-church.org

Pastor: Revd Wyn Hughes

Asst. Pastor: Revd Andy Christofides

Sunday Services: 10.45am & 6.00pm

Bible Study/Prayer Meeting:

Wed 7.30pm

one2two

Bookshop & Coffee Shop

Adjoining the church. Bookshop stocks

Reformed & Evangelical books, including

second hand. Also cards, gifts, DVDs & CDs.

Open weekdays 10.00am to 5.00pm.

Coffee Shop serves quality drinks, meals

and homemade cakes.

Open weekdays from 9.00am to 3.30pm.

Tel: 029 2062 1798

E-mail: sales@heathchristianbookshop.org

www.heathchristianbookshop.com for on-line sales

PLEASE NOTE

All advertisements must reach us by the 1st of the month

preceding the issue for which they are submitted.

Adverts should be sent to:

Evangelical Times, 3 Trinity Court, Faverdale North, Darlington, DL3 0PH

Coming to South West London? Visit us at amyand.org.uk

Amyand Park Road, Twickenham, TW1 3HY - (Near St Margaret’s Train Station)

Sunday Services 11am & 6.30pm

Prayer & Bible Study Wednesday 7.30pm

Pastor: Gerard Hemmings

AMYAND PARK CHAPEL

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 17

By Alan Thomas

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

A shrink thinks...

Last month we saw that God is a God who experiences emotions, and this is just what we expect since he is a personal God. Yet he is God and not man, and so we need to be careful to avoid thinking of God’s emotions as exactly the same as ours. He is similar, because he created us in his image to be personal creatures who therefore reflect his personal attributes, including emotions. But he is utterly different from us as our exalted Creator who is eternal and unchangeable.

God doesn’t have emotions in the same way we do. One way to help explain this is to say God’s emotions are anthropomorphic. But this is the wrong way around, isn’t it? Anthropomorphic means God is like us. But he created us in his image, and so we are like him: we are theomorphic, and so are our emotions.

He is love, he is compassionate and merciful – these original emotions are therefore in God, and our feelings of love and compassion and mercy are finite copies of his true emotions. Our theomorphic emotions reflect his true emotions. They are genuinely like his, but they are also different.

As we’ve seen, one of the ways in which God’s original perfect emotions are different from our copies is that he is unchangeable. Since his emotions are the attributes of a person, their unchangeability should be thought of in personal terms, too.

Let me illustrate. If a little girl draws a picture at school and brings it home and shows it to her mother, then her mother expresses pleasure. She happily

praises her daughter. But if the following day the same girl draws another picture and comes home and shows it to her mother, then her mother might be distracted or tired, and not respond with the same feeling of pleasure, and just say ‘yes, yes, very good’ in a matter-of-fact way. She is changeable. Her responses and associated emotions are fickle.

But God is unchangeable. In personal terms, he is faithful and true. He is consistent and reliable. His is the unchangeable reliability of a person, not the inflexibility of a rock. Every time you resist sin and obey God, he is pleased and pleased in the same way. You come day after day with the same obedience and day after day he is just as pleased. He is not subject to distractions or fatigue like that mother. He is unchangeably the same. And so are his emotions. His unchangeability is that of a personal God, not a rock-like object.

Emotions inherently fluctuate

A point of confusion in this sensitive area is that our emotions change. Indeed, they are constantly changing as we interact with others, experience the world around us, and inwardly think about different matters.

Is this true also of God? A difficult question to answer. From our human perspective,

he certainly appears to have such emotional change, doesn’t he? Last time we considered the Bible’s teaching about God being deeply pained or grieved, but also rejoicing. So his emotional state from our point of view in history has changed. But this doesn’t mean he has changed in himself.

Let us think this through by considering another attribute of God which is less controversial: God’s knowledge. God is omniscient, all-knowing. God knows everything, not only about creation but also about himself. His knowledge is completely comprehensive; there are no gaps.

But this doesn’t just mean that God’s knowledge is bigger than ours. And it doesn’t just mean that God’s knowledge is perfect – it has no mistakes, no errors. God’s knowledge is different from ours in its quality, because God never learns anything. His knowledge has always been the same, always larger and perfect and complete.

We learn. We study. We acquire knowledge. By our daily experiences, we increase in knowledge. But none of this is true of God’s knowledge. It is a different kind of knowledge. It has a different quality from ours, being eternally unchangeable. And so it is with his emotions. This is hard to understand, isn’t it? God is utterly different in these ways from us.

In Genesis 6 when God looks and sees the wickedness of mankind, he doesn’t learn something new, does he? And when he is deeply grieved in his heart by this experience, he is also not having a new emotion, is he? He hasn’t changed in his knowledge or his emotions. When we read the passage (at least for the first time), we learn something new and we (should) feel something of the angry grief of God.

These are new to us, new knowledge with an associated new emotion. But God already knew it, for he planned it in eternity. He therefore has a knowledge which is similar to ours (the grim fact about the spread of human wickedness over the planet), but different from ours. God’s emotion is not a response to something he didn’t know. Ours is. We learn and react to this new knowledge. But God doesn’t learn, he already knew it in eternity.

So in the same sort of way in which God already knew it in eternity, he already experienced it in eternity. When the event happened in time there was no change in God’s knowledge and no change in God’s emotion. The Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck illustrated this by stating: ‘an artist does not undergo a change when he gives expression to his conception by means of dissertation or song.’

Or think of a woman who is getting married. She looks forward to the wedding day and as she reflects on it she feels joy. On her wedding day she re-experiences this joy as she actually experiences the event itself. It is the same joy. She hasn’t changed. Of course, her ability to experience and enjoy the event ahead of time is limited, and it may all turn out differently.

But God has no such limitations, and what he plans and knows from eternity works out exactly as planned in time. And so his eternal emotions work out exactly the same, unchanged in time. This is hard to understand. Probably impossible. But even though we cannot grasp it fully, it is important to keep these two components in balance: God has emotions, but he does not change.

Source: Pixabay

18 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Features

By John-William Noble

Pastor of Grace Baptist Church Aberdeen, director of a Christian publisher called Parrēsia, and author of two books.

Melville-Knox Christian School Aberdeen (melvilleknoxaberdeen.org) officially opened in August 2023 after years of prayer, planning, and organisation. We give thanks to the Lord that we have been able to reach this significant milestone! The vision and drive to establish this school has been grounded upon scriptural conviction and the desire to establish a valid option for Christian parents in an increasingly alarming spiritual climate in our country.

The history of our nation

There are fewer than ten Christian schools in a nation with such a rich Christian heritage. Scotland has previously been described as the ‘land of the Book’, due to the courage of biblical men and women since the days of the Protestant Reformation. Consider times such as those of the Covenanters, when blood was spilled and lives were lost to uphold the cause of biblical truth and Christian liberty.

Our nation was once grounded upon the authority of God’s Word, where households served the Lord (Joshua 24:15) and children were raised in the discipline and admonition of God (Ephesians 6:4). What has happened to our nation? What has happened to the church? What has become of Christian education?

Pagan Scotland

Today, Scotland has become a pagan nation which has rejected the Word of God, leading to a rapid moral decline across our society. A careful study of previous generations shows that the established church not only failed to uphold biblical truth in the face of societal reforms that

sought to attack biblical truth, but the church increasingly became an additional voice of liberal confusion and false doctrine.

The subject of education and raising children has been systematically targeted, with parents being deemed incompetent to teach. The requirement, we’ve been led to believe, is for education professionals to do that job in a secular environment.

The church has abdicated her responsibility to teach and invest in families by raising their children biblically. This has been compounded by the effeminising of men and the notion that women should pursue a career at the expense of being a wife and a mother.

Children are increasingly seen as a hindrance to individuals and society, costing too much money and deemed a burden on young healthy adults living their lives and pursuing their careers. This ideology, which sees children as a burden and a hindrance, has also contributed greatly to a booming abortion industry.

Some Christians and churches have allowed themselves to be too influenced by this way of thinking, and this is the underlying reason why the church has effectively handed our children over to the world.

Christian families today

The average evangelical Christian family consists of a father and mother working in paid employment while ‘professionals’ indoctrinate children in state schools which deny God’s creation, promote

dangerous gender ideologies, and undermine parental authority.

The social environment for children consists of developing friendships with peers who are submerged in the same if not worse over-sexualised and godless immorality. The notion that children, who are called to be ‘trained’ by their parents (Proverbs 22:6), can actually be ‘salt and light’ as untrained, unregenerate young souls is one of the devil’s great deceptions.

As a child reaches the teenage years, parents have not won the hearts of their children (Proverbs 23:26), and any sense of Christian teaching and parental influence seems utterly disconnected and redundant. Church and Christian life become a banner of hypocrisy for many a teenager.

Therefore, by the time children have left the family home, many have abandoned church, they have started or continue to drink alcohol, they have become sexually active with their partners.

Meanwhile, the parents are still going to their church, distressed and asking that the church pray for their salvation. The sympathetic church is very sympathetic and even discusses innovative ways to reach this next generation by going to the pubs and clubs and pleading that these young people ‘give church a try’.

However, this pragmatism masquerading as evangelism does not glorify God, and many of these young adults have already left this brand of Christianity, devoid as it is of any genuine biblical substance and backbone.

A Christian school: where it began

What has happened to our nation? What has happened to the church? What has become of Christian education?

These were significant questions which led me not only to be sent to Aberdeen to begin a church plant, but also to think more deeply about my (then) 2-year-old son’s education. This initially started as a family discussion, and the conviction that we would home educate our children. I also gave more serious thought to the spiritual climate around Christian education, and the alarming direction in which state schools were moving. These were the factors that led me to begin pursuing the idea of starting a Christian school.

Theological clarity

The essential foundation for starting a school followed a similar pattern to that used when I started our church in Aberdeen: clarifying what we believe.

As a church, Grace Baptist Church Aberdeen (graceaberdeen.org) is confessionally Reformed and Baptist. The ideal situation would be that similar local churches would also begin Christian schools. However, the practical challenges of a new church plant with (then) only seven constituted members and no fixed church building would have been beyond our means.

In the months that followed, a small group of people from confessionally-Reformed churches in the city formed a school board and established a partnership with a Scottish network of schools. This network, called Melville-Knox Christian Schools, already had a statement of faith and other documents ready for Reformed Baptist and Presbyterian churches that wanted to partner together to begin new schools in Scotland, following the growing success of a school established in Glasgow.

Setbacks and determination

We reached 2020 with much progress made, including the securing of Grace Reformed Church as a likely building for the school, and the setting up of a parents’ information event to gauge interest in this proposal.

The event was scheduled for March, and we began marketing our school proposal. We then faced some inaccurate and wicked press coverage, and the event soon got cancelled due to the escalating concerns around Covid-19.

‘Christian education is something greatly needed in this nation and a big part of claiming back what churches almost willingly gave up to the state: our children.’

First day of term at Melville-Knox Christian School

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 19

A walk with Mr O

By Stuart Olyott

Retired but active, Stuart Olyott preaches widely, but especially at Caergwrle Evangelical Church.

Source: Shutterstock

Mr O, as you know, I’m the only Christian in my family. I’m also the only Christian where I work. Sometimes I feel very alone and out of things. I get horribly discouraged. Is that wrong?

I can’t enter fully into your experience. My own pathway has been rather different. However, in my teens, having been converted during the summer holidays, I do remember what it was like to go back to a school where there were no other believers.

How did you handle that?

Not well at first. But fortunately, I soon joined an inter-church youth group called ‘Young Life’ where we prayed for each other in our differing lonely situations. And in that group we were also taught what was called ‘the power of one’.

‘The power of one’? I’ve never heard of it. What is it?

Again and again, we were pointed to biblical examples where the presence of one person changed everything. The Bible contains dozens of such examples.

Can you point me to a few?

That’s not hard. For example, the swift intervention of one man (Phinehas) saved an entire nation from being destroyed by a plague. The stirring faith of one woman (Deborah) resulted in God’s people overthrowing a seemingly invincible enemy. A sentence spoken by one small girl led to the healing and salvation of a pagan general (Naaman). In similar fashion, a few words spoken by one boy (Paul’s nephew) prevented the assassination of an apostle. Big doors swing on small hinges. Sometimes everything hinges on a single individual – as the lives of Noah, Abraham, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Peter, Paul, and countless others vividly

illustrate. With God’s blessing, one person can change everything!

I think I’m a bit slow, Mr O, so how does all that apply to me?

Well, God has not given up on your family. That’s why he has put you there. Nor has he given up on your work colleagues. The proof? He has put a believer to work side-by-side with them, so that they can see close up that the Christian life works, and so that they can hear the gospel message from a friendly voice.

So you’re saying that I should start being adventurous, bold, and active, and stop whining about being alone.

I didn’t put it like that! But, yes, that’s about it. Which brings me to the other thing that we were taught about ‘the power of one’.

You mean there’s more? Please go on.

I was taught to imagine that I was the only Christian in the world. If this year I won someone to Christ, there would be two of us. If next year each of us won somebody else for Christ, there would be four of us. If we all went

on like that, after seven years there would 128 of us. After ten years, 1,024 – and after 33 years everybody in the world (yes, eight billion!) would be converted! That is ‘the power of one’.

But that’s not going to happen, is it? We know that most people are on the wide road that leads to destruction and that they’re not going to leave it. Besides, conversion is the Holy Spirit’s work, not ours.

Be careful, very careful! None of us knows how many people will come to Christ, except that the Bible tells us that there will be lots of them. And to say that ‘conversion is the Holy Spirit’s work, not ours’ is to state a half-truth.

I don’t understand. What do you mean?

Our Lord Jesus Christ is 100% God. He is also 100% man. That is a mystery – and that mystery invades everything relating to Christ. Conversion is 100% God’s work. It is also 100% our work. That is why the apostle Paul writes, ‘We persuade men.’

But Mr O, I don’t know how to do it!

And nor do I. But I do know how to pray:

Lead me to some soul today,

O teach me, Lord, just what to say;

Friends of mine are lost in sin,

And cannot find their way.

Few there are who seem to care,

And few there are who pray;

Melt my heart and fill my life,

Give me one soul today.

–Will H. Houghton

The subsequent months proved to be very quiet, but I was greatly blessed by the work of our board’s chairman, Donald McKay. He worked tirelessly in organising, planning, and pushing things forward. The strengths he brought to this project were especially helpful as he covered so many things that I would have been unable to do.

The parents’ information event finally took place at the end of 2020, and we then started to compile a list of prospective parents who expressed an interest or a definite desire to enroll their children in the school.

In the months that followed, this list continued to grow, with many parents enquiring about this school. We also formally applied to register the school with Education Scotland, and discussions were positive, pending the appointment of a teacher, which proved to be our next challenge.

During 2021 and early 2022 we received increasing numbers of emails asking about the school, mostly from prospective parents expressing an interest, willingness, and desire to enroll their children at the school.

As we moved towards the summer of 2022, we reached the stage of employing a teacher, a classroom assistant, and an administrator. We worked towards launching the school in November 2022, but only two pupils enrolled. In the period that followed, we faced several challenges which led to our school being without pupils, changes to our staff and school board, and much prayer and discussion about the way forward.

Establishing the school

We give thanks to the Lord that he has been gracious in teaching, equipping, and sustaining us to press forward with this work and to reach the stage of relaunching the school.

Our classroom teacher, Mrs Bronwyn Gers, and classroom assistant/administrator, Miss Svea Nöll, have been working tirelessly in the build-up to opening the school for the 2023-24 academic year.

We have started the school year with 14 pupils enrolled in the school and several other prospective parents contacting us regarding their interest in this work. It is likely that we may face new challenges of requiring a larger building if demand grows, and we certainly hope and pray that there will be an increase in prayerful and financial support of this work by churches and ministries in the local area and further afield.

The call to Christian parents

The current spiritual climate of our nation has enforced a great urgency in the subject of Christian education. However, the underlying fight relates to the authoritative framework of the Word of God in governing how we live in obedience to God, and this should be the foundation to produce change in this crucial area for the next generation.

In Ephesians 6:4, Paul uses the word ἐκτρέφετε (‘bring them up’), and this term literally means to ‘take out from’ in order to feed and nourish children in the ‘discipline and admonition of the Lord’. There is an emphasis in this verse that the child is to be brought up in an environment and culture that is different and set apart from this world.

This is built upon the foundation of a worldview holding to the absolute truth of the Scriptures. It is driven by a desire that children will grow up to understand that there is a perfect Creator God, that man has sinned against this God, and that our only hope is repentance from our sin and faith in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is alive and enthroned today.

The implications of such a weighty calling and responsibility of parents in a culture where the education system has abandoned and attacks the foundations of Scripture is clearly an increasingly urgent issue for all Christian parents to address.

As a Christian parent and as a pastor, I whole-heartedly support and encourage Christian parents who look to home educate in a manner that adheres to biblical values and their own convictions. I am also passionate about seeing Christian schools rising throughout our land as another valid option for Christian parents. This is why so many years of prayer, toil, and labour have gone into this work.

Despite all the challenges and current setbacks, I am still very thankful that the Lord has enabled us to get to the stage we are in. I pray that it will challenge and encourage others seeking to do likewise.

Christian education is something greatly needed in this nation and a big part of claiming back what churches almost willingly gave up to the state: our children. Our children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3), and we pray that churches, Christian schools, and crucially, Christian parents, will invest in the raising up of a generation that will be shaped and governed with a biblical worldview to the glory of God.

A walk with Mr O

The power of one

20 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Book Reviews

Jonathan Thomas

Pugh Productions

132 minutes; £16.07

This excellent documentary portrays Wales as a thirsty land that has previously drunk deeply from the rain of God’s reviving power. Those interviewed exude an enthusiasm that makes for compelling viewing. They have helpfully been chosen more for what they know than who they are. There is occasionally a hint of hyperbole, but better to be dynamic than dry. Jonathan Thomas, the author and narrator, weaves his material together well.

Dan Pugh’s previous documentary ‘Revival’ gave a broad overview, and this one provides a case study. The focus is on Wales between

1735 (Howell Harris) and 1904 (Evan Roberts). This concentration allows a fuller treatment of men like Thomas Charles and William Williams, Pantycelyn.

The rise, heyday, and fall of the Calvinistic Methodists is explained. The lesser-known 1817 Beddgelert Revival is described. Effects on literary and foreign missions are considered.

Sometimes there is more appreciation than analysis of the awakenings. However, the negative effects of Finney are identified and the complexities of Evan Roberts are discussed. Nuanced discussion of 1904 is a strength.

Three helpful emphases come through: God’s power through preaching, the

importance of prayer, and the indispensable nature of personal spiritual experience.

This film should inspire interest in revival, encouraging a positive attitude to what God can do. Biographies of men like Thomas Charles of Bala may well be read as a result. Watching a chapter or two midweek, or after a Sunday evening service, before discussing issues raised with open Bibles would be profitable.

The viewer is left with sober reality (a land in a deep, long spiritual trough) balanced with hope because that hope is not in men, nor in method, but in the Spirit. Is ‘Scottish Awakenings’ coming next?

Paul Smith

Margate

Esther Engelsma

Reformation Heritage Books

160 pages; £11.99

We all know Paul’s words: ‘Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.’ Knowing them is one thing – but doing them is another. In your free minutes, do you reach for your phone or fill your mind with thoughts about God? What do you look forward to more: reading the Bible or catching up on social media or your favourite TV show?

These are challenging questions in our internet and entertainment-saturated world. Yet, as Esther Engelsma highlights in Transformed, God’s design is for your mind to be renewed through his Word, not conformed to this world. But what steps of obedience do you need to take in order for this to happen?

Having wrestled with these issues herself, Esther Engelsma takes the reader on a tour of how their mind is influenced, both positively and negatively. She doesn’t set up a list of rules to follow, but encourages the reader to think deeply about the small choices they make each day concerning what they absorb and what they think about. It may be that what they’re taking in is morally acceptable – but how does the time they spend pondering spiritual things compare to

the time spent thinking about worldly things?

Transformed is short and readable. It is personal, but also draws on the wisdom of many Christian writers, from Puritans to the present day. It will be especially helpful to young Christians who have never known a world without the internet, but also to anyone serious about honouring God with their mind.

Jenny Knight

Bedfordshire

Nate Pickowicz

Christian Focus

152 pages; £10.99

This book is about the five foundational Protestant principles of the doctrine of salvation: the ‘solas’ or ‘alones’ of the Reformation. The author’s explanation of the origin of the Reformation seeks to bring the reader back to a time when God used his servants to break through the apparent absolute power of Roman Catholicism in Europe.

The author warns readers about the spirit of this age, spiritual ignorance, and decline, with a desire to lead them to a true understanding of the gospel, as the Reformers had.

The book is well structured, from the beginning to the appendices. The various sections made it easy for me to pick up and put down the book during a busy schedule. An unfortunate proof-reading error means John the Baptist’s name is recorded as ‘Jesus the Baptist’.

Chapter two, ‘Sola Scriptura: The Issue of Inspiration’, seeks to explain the right doctrine and correct interpretation of the Scriptures. The author correctly demonstrates that the Roman Catholic church, for example, leaves out the second commandment. However, I felt a rather general comment about ‘the content of the revelation’ still being contested in our present day created an

ambiguity when considered against the argument of what Catholics ‘add’ or ‘omit’ from the Scriptures. That said, the author brings the reader back to the point he is trying to make towards the end of the book by confirming how our unchanging God has and will always save sinners.

This book would be useful as a framework for a week night church Bible study tool or a family devotion.

David Blake

Bedford

Welsh Awakenings

‘This film should inspire interest in revival,

encouraging a positive attitude to what God can do.’

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 21

Book Reviews

George Smeaton (with Introduction and Biographical Sketch by John W. Keddie)

Banner of Truth

328 pages, £13

This beautifully produced book contains 13 chapters of George Smeaton’s sermons, addresses, and brief writings.

John W. Keddie provides a very helpful introduction and biographical sketch. He asserts that, along with William Cunningham, Smeaton was the outstanding Scottish Theologian of the 19th century.

Smeaton’s addresses are marked by clear doctrinal orthodoxy, deep understanding, gospel clarity, Christ-centredness, warm and earnest love to God, and judicious balance. One feels in very safe hands when reading Smeaton. He comforts us with the sufficiency of Christ while at the same time firing us to greater love to the Triune God.

The subjects covered are various: the incarnation, God’s view of backsliders, witnessing to Christ, revival, the nature of faith, and the ministry (among others). Though Smeaton is addressing a 19th century Scottish context, much of what he writes has a contemporary feel.

This is particularly the case in the 5th chapter on ‘The Real Presence of Christ in the Midst of His People’, a consideration of Christ among the churches in Revelation 2–3, to which we do well to pay attention. ‘The Necessary Harmony between Doctrine and Spiritual Life’ is another particularly outstanding chapter,

though there are purple passages in every chapter of the book.

Some readers will not agree with everything Smeaton propounds (for example, he puts forward the case for an established church), but that should certainly not stop one from buying and reading it.

This book is recommended for the well taught ordinary Christian but will also benefit ministers. It is an ideal way to be introduced to Smeaton and would hopefully whet the appetite for his more sustained and substantial works on the Holy Spirit and the atonement. It is an enriching read, well worth the money.

David Pfeiffer

Cheltenham

Jeremy Walker

Publisher: EP Books

85 pages; £8.99

This slim volume considers an area that is often overlooked. It gives good, Bible-based, practical help and advice to churches as to how appropriately to care for and remunerate those in paid ministry.

Mr Walker reminds readers that we are given much, and challenges us to consider how we can be good and faithful stewards. He stresses the need for giving to be routed to and through the local church, primarily for the support of gospel work, helpfully comparing this with other possible areas of expenditure.

He underlines: ‘the responsibility of true

churches of Jesus Christ to provide financial support for the men who faithfully watch out for their souls “as those who must give account” (Hebrews 13:17).’ Such a heavy responsibility must be acknowledged by the church, and the worker should be supported in such a way that he is able to give himself entirely to the things to which he is called.

In the chapter ‘Teaching the Truth’, it is acknowledged that it is often difficult to preach and teach in this area. However, there is helpful advice as to how this may be overcome, e.g. through a series of sermons on giving, rooted in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Some practical issues are considered, including whether to use fixed formulae for calculating a pastor’s

Brad Franklin

Grace Publications

220 pages; £14.00

This book is born out of a major family tragedy. Brad Franklin’s wife, suddenly taken ill, was at the point of death while seven months pregnant with their seventh child. This is a moving story, but much more than a story. Published four years after the event, its purpose is to help and encourage Christians to handle grief in a God-honouring way. It is a practical theology set in the context of a real-life drama.

Uninhibited about revealing his feelings, Franklin takes the reader through his own reflections as the sequence of events unfolded. Then, with reference to Scripture, he sets out an appropriate and spiritual response to each situation.

The issues dealt with are many and various. They include: steering children through family crises, allowing others to share our grief, bearing a good testimony in our grief, temptation, the sensitive issue of remarriage, and people grieving differently. One matter highlighted throughout the book is the vital role of the local church fellowship in standing with its grieving members.

While this book could be given to the bereaved, its real value is in providing help for the people of God in preparation for the time when suffering comes. Crises arrive without warning, and there is the need to have, as far as possible, a theology of suffering in place so that they

will stand firm when their faith is tested. This book will go some way to providing that help.

Regarding presentation: at times, unnecessary and distracting detail is given. The use of slang, I think, is not good practice.

It is engaging and easy to read. The provision of a Scripture index is most useful, encouraging the reader to give the message the serious thought it deserves.

Roger March

Wolverton

salary, whether government benefits should be taken into consideration, and what other allowances should be offered. The final chapter addresses how individual fellowships or groups of churches might support workers in church plants or undertaking missionary work.

This book encourages all to take a fresh look at our priorities within the church, in particular with regard to the support of our pastor(s). It would provide a very useful basis for discussion within our officers’ and members’ meetings.

David Mortimer

Chesham

‘Mr Walker reminds readers that we are given much, and challenges us to consider how we can be good and faithful stewards.’

22 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Features

By Simon Arscott

Minister of All Nations Church Ilford.

S0urce: Shutterstock

In shocking news, our reporter at the Jerusalem Telegraph can reveal that Alexander the Coppersmith has accused the apostle Paul of spiritual abuse.

Dear presbytery of Jerusalem,

I’m afraid I’m writing with with some difficult news. I need to report Paul for spiritual abuse. I’ve been reading some of the latest thinking on the subject and only now am I beginning to process my experiences with Paul properly.

For a long time, I wondered whether my falling-out with Paul was my fault. But as I’ve read the experience of other victims, what they’ve said has chimed exactly with what happened to me. I can now clearly see that I’m a victim of abuse at the hands of Paul.

In this letter, I’m using the definition of spiritual abuse as provided by Christian experts in the field to demonstrate the controlling and coercive use of power that Paul has exercised in his church circles.

Unhealthy culture

First, Paul has set up a system of highly manipulative social control. He uses this system to exclude anybody who won’t conform to his particular theological and moral outlook. His devotees call it ‘church discipline’, but it is more accurate to see it as spiritual abuse. Just ask yourself: what’s the goal of ‘church discipline’? It’s clearly to coerce and control congregational behaviour with the threat of social exclusion.

Paul uses a colourful metaphor: ‘A little leaven

leavens the whole lump’ (1 Corinthians 5:6), but underneath this apparently harmless picture lies a sinister intolerance. Paul depicts anyone who disagrees with him as an infection that needs to be flushed out of the church!

His system of church discipline publicly shames and isolates church members who won’t conform to his outlook (1 Corinthians 5:11,13). Research shows that isolating people as a means of punishment is a textbook tactic of the spiritual abuser. This process can be so humiliating that Paul, himself, admitted one victim was in danger of being ‘overwhelmed by excessive sorrow’ (2 Corinthians 2:7). That particular individual is still seeing a counsellor today!

I’ve only recently come to appreciate that this pattern of abuse is not a bug, but a feature of Paul’s ministry. It is systemic, a pattern that he deliberately develops in his churches.

First, he appoints ‘elders’ (Acts 14:23; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9), men carefully selected to be loyal to him and his particular version of the truth (2 Timothy 2:2). He then gets them to ‘silence’ alternative voices (Titus 1:11). He instructs elders not only to challenge but to ‘rebuke with all authority’ (Titus 2:15).

In other words, he places elders in a quasi-‘divine’ position, in order for them to pressurise congregations to conform to particular beliefs and behaviours. The threat of social exclusion quickly silences any potentially uncooperative members (Titus 3:10-11; 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).

Most fundamentally, Paul has learned to weaponise the text of Scripture. He’s a very skilful interpreter and communicator. But, sadly, he doesn’t just teach; he uses the divine text as a tool of control and coercion. He expects you to actually obey his reading of the text; if you disagree, you’re looked down on as second-class. He does not leave you any wiggle-room.

Many times I have felt highly pressurised listening to his preaching, as he equates what he says with what God says (1 Thessalonians 2:13)! After all, who can argue with God?! His talks are often inflammatory and have incited violence in numerous cities around the Mediterranean (Acts 15:45, 50; 16:5, 19; 17:5).

Rather than using Scripture to welcome all with God’s love, he consistently weaponises Scripture to create out-groups and in-groups.

Unhealthy personality

But it isn’t just Paul’s system of church discipline that is abusive. He’s personally abusive. For example, Paul doesn’t hesitate to publicly name and shame people who disagree with him. Hymenaeus and Alexander still can’t show their faces in Ephesus, a decade after Paul took a disliking to them (1 Timothy 1:20).

I, too, have been on the receiving end of Paul’s vicious personal attacks (2 Timothy 4:14), and I’m still dealing with the psychological scars and working through my trauma. I still regularly have flashbacks.

Paul frequently uses derogatory language towards his theological opponents. He calls them ‘the dogs’ (Philippians 3:2) and ‘wolves’ (Acts 20:29). He suggests they ‘emasculate themselves’ (Galatians 5:12) and that they are Satanic (2 Corinthians 11:13-14).

He’s tarred all Cretans with broad, unflattering brushstrokes (Titus 1:12). He has a way of blowing up small disagreements (like circumcision) into massive controversies (Acts 15:2; Galatians 5:3-4). He uses sarcasm to embarrass and belittle those who think differently from him (e.g. 1 Corinthians 4:8-13).

What’s most hurtful of all is how Paul threatens those who disagree with him with the extreme idea that they’re going to hell. I’ve personally interviewed members of Paul’s congregation in Corinth, Ephesus, and Colossae whom Paul told that if they didn’t make some changes to their private lives, they would go to hell (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:6).

Years later, my interviewees are still psychologically damaged by those threats. This kind of hurtful, extreme comment is another classic example of ‘spiritual abuse’.

Of course, Paul doesn’t appear to be a spiritual abuser. He can be very charming when it’s in his own interests. I’m sure Paul will be able to produce glowing character references from his supporters,

‛You seem only to be thinking about harm in “this age”, rather than “the age to come”; you appear to be measuring harm by your injured feelings, rather than the holy standards of God.’

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 23

Features

but the moment you cross him, that charm evaporates!

I experienced a honeymoon period with Paul, where he love-bombed me, encouraged me, and praised me. But when I disagreed with him on an area of my private life (he said I needed to ‘repent’), he decided to turn the screws.

On the one hand, he can write very eloquently about love (see 1 Corinthians 13 for a fine example), but, when it suits him, he will not hesitate to unleash damaging verbal attacks. Many of his letters contain ‘emotional hand-brake turns’, moving from strong statements of appreciation (1 Corinthians 1:4) to threats of physical violence (1 Corinthians 4:21).

Paul is clearly prepared to intimidate and bully people when necessary, all under the guise of spiritual fatherhood (1 Corinthians 4:15). I assure you that these are real, abusive patterns I’m identifying and not just isolated examples. Quite simply, Paul has used and is using his religious position to damage people emotionally and psychologically.

I urge you to speak to the many survivors. I’ve spoken to a lot of the Christians in Asia, and no one there has a good word to say about him (2 Timothy 1:15)! That amount of emotional negativity is impossible to square with healthy Christian leadership. His churches are not safe spaces, but toxic environments, where individuals are not free to be themselves.

You need to get rid of this man and stop his writings being read in your churches! Anything other than your swift denunciation and support of the victims is unthinkable.

Yours sincerely,

Alexander, the Coppersmith (2 Timothy 4:14)

The Jerusalem presbytery were contacted for comment but didn’t reply directly. Instead, they provided the following letter.

Dear Alexander,

We acknowledge receipt of your letter.

Process for handling accusations

The apostle Paul is an officer in the church of Jesus Christ. We take accusations against church officers very seriously, and invite people to bring charges against any elder, if they bring sufficient evidence (1 Timothy 5:19).

If a church officer is found guilty of a scandalous offence, we are committed to rebuking him publicly and removing him from office, rather than covering it all up (1 Timothy 5:20).

Cover-ups do not honour the church of Christ22-23, though there can be times where the publicising of sin requires discretion (for example, for the sake of those who were sinned against).

We believe light is the best disinfectant. As church officers, we want to be very clear: we do not consider ourselves six feet above contradiction and ‘untouchable’ (see Galatians 2:11).

We regularly remind ourselves that teachers in the church will receive a stricter judgment (James 3:1). Jesus taught us to expect scandalous sin in the church and reserved some of his severest warnings to those who carry it out (Matthew 18:7).

We do not expect to prevent it altogether, but we do resolve to deal with scandals when they are brought to light. Unfortunately, some scandalous sin will only be discovered in hindsight (1 Timothy 5:24).

The Lordship of Christ

But we are alarmed at a deeply unchristian note in your letter. The heart of our confession is that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9). He is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).

The good news is that he has come to rule us, by delivering us from the tyranny of our sins and the devil (Colossians 1:13-14). The freedom for which Christ has set us free is not the freedom to do whatever we want – that’s the definition of sin! – but the freedom to love and obey God.

Furthermore, we want to state unreservedly that Jesus Christ is setting up his church as a kingdom, not a democracy. He has entrusted his church with the exercise of his kingly power (‘the keys of the kingdom’ Matthew 16:19; 18:18).

So, your suggestion that a Christian minister calling you to ‘repentance’ is abusive is to call white ‘black’ and black ‘white’. It is to confuse the love of God with our own sinful lusts. That ‘pressure’ from the pulpit that you described may well be the voice of the Lord Jesus calling you to listen to his Word. Jesus isn’t calling us to choose our own spiritual adventure story. He’s calling us to listen to his divine text and the church officers he’s sent to instruct the church in it (John 20:21-23; Ephesians 4:11).

What’s more, church discipline isn’t an abusive idea invented by the apostle Paul. Rather, it’s part of Christ’s ongoing, loving, kingly rule of his church (Matthew 18:17).

He loves his church too much to leave us in our sins unchallenged. It is the Lord Jesus who commands elders to exclude the rebellious from his church. We recognise it can be a painful experience for both parties, but to characterise church discipline as inherently abusive is to challenge the lordship of Christ himself. Better to experience shame now than face the everlasting shame of that great Day (Matthew 10:33).

Reality of spiritual tyrants

Now, can church power be misused? Absolutely! We recognise and take seriously the sin of ‘domineering’ (1 Peter 5:3), and ‘lording it over people’s faith’ (2 Corinthians 1:24).

There is such a thing as spiritual tyranny – the prophet Ezekiel described it powerfully in Ezekiel 34, and our Lord experienced it at the hand of

S0urce: Adobe Stock

the Pharisees. We are under no illusion that the visible church on earth is free from such tyranny.

We are already aware of some congregations where that spiritual tyranny is at play (2 Peter 2:2; 3 John 9; Revelation 2:20). It regularly creeps into churches and threatens the gospel (Galatians 2:5).

We are also aware of many congregations where unqualified men have been appointed as elders (1 Timothy 5:22). In the rush to use ‘gifted’ men, their lack of ‘graces’ has been ignored. A pragmatic spirit has led many churches to ignore the clear commands about church leadership in the New Testament. We believe healthy church government (particularly as defined by Paul in his pastoral epistles) is very important for building healthy churches.

Furthermore, theologically untrained church officers are liable to issue arbitrary rules to bind the conscience of Christians, and to address sin in unbiblical ways – especially by ignoring it, or by majoring on minors, or minoring on majors. We encourage Christian ministers to get a thorough training (Matthew 13:52).

The effect of such tyranny on the flock makes us tremble. Victims of spiritual tyranny have our deep sympathy. We would encourage such sheep to swiftly leave those congregations and find churches that are pastored in a healthy manner, where there is order, where tough questions can be asked of church officers, and where there is a system by which bad elders can be held to account. Wherever we encounter it, we are determined to denounce it.

Sin and safety

But, Alexander, we are concerned that your definition of ‘harm’ is deeply secular. You seem only to be thinking about harm in ‘this age’, rather than ‘the age to come’; you appear to be measuring harm by your injured feelings, rather than the holy standards of God.

We are concerned that you automatically equate emotional pain with

abuse. We note that the vision of the experts is ‘a world where every child and adult can feel, and be, safe’.

We point out that that is not a Christian vision; the vision of our Lord is that we lead children and adults to a world where they can feel and be safe: it’s called the new heavens and the new earth.

We are concerned that you would consider hell to be an unjust punishment for unbelievers, when ‘the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus’ (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).

We want to be clear that a ‘healthy’ church is not a pain-free church. A ‘healthy’ church is not somewhere that everyone feels emotionally safe. A healthy church, where Jesus Christ is reigning, will be a place where there’s lots of tears, lots of repentance, lots of confession, together with lots of forgiveness, lots of joy, and lots of laughter. A healthy church, this side of glory, will be a church where false teaching still needs to be silenced and people need to be cut off from the body if they won’t repent.

The health of a church cannot be measured simply by listening to the experience of ‘survivors’. A healthy church is not a church that shies away from pain, but is a place that consistently applies the gospel to our sins. A church’s health is measured by listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through Scripture.

So if you have evidence that Paul has exercised church discipline in unjust ways, we invite you to supply it, and we will consider it. But our records show that you have been removed from the church for refusing to repent. So, therefore, we continue to exhort you to repent, Alexander. Bow to Christ and his church now. The love of Christ is too strong to ignore your sins; only in his gospel of repentance is there healing from your sins and glory for your shame.

Yours sincerely,

Elder Simeon,

Clerk of Jerusalem Presbytery.

S0urce: Shutterstock

24 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 25

Features

By Paul Garner

Speaker and researcher with Biblical Creation Trust. He is also a director of ET.

About 400 people gathered at Cedarville University in Ohio from 16–19 July for the Ninth International Conference on Creationism.

The ICC has been held every four to five years since 1986 and is the world’s premier creationist research meeting. It attracts scholars from across North America, Europe, and Australia.

There was a packed programme of research presentations, with three or four simultaneous tracks, meaning hard choices had to be made about which talks to listen to!

I can only mention a few of the highlights here, and inevitably they reflect my own choices – but hopefully this will give you a taste of the conference.

The Grand Canyon

Arizona’s Grand Canyon has been the focus of much creationist research, and for several decades geologist Steve Austin has championed the idea that the dramatic landform was carved by the catastrophic drainage of large lakes that developed in this region after Noah’s Flood.

However, a persistent criticism has been: ‘Where are the preserved lake shorelines?’ So it was exciting to hear Dr Austin and his colleagues at this year’s ICC describe how they have identified a series of former lake terraces at high elevation, using new satellite imagery and drone footage. The critics’ objection seems now to have been answered!

Fossil ‘zones’

Another ground-breaking paper was by palaeontologist Kurt Wise, who presented a remarkable analysis of a database of one and a half million fossil occurrences from all over the world.

The results of his analysis not only help us to pinpoint where the Flood begins and ends in the rock record – a matter of some contention among creationists – but also reveal several distinct fossil ‘zones’ that seem to represent the burial of different ecologies of the pre-Flood world.

These zones seem to record how the Flood overwhelmed first the creatures living in the oceans, then those living around the coastlines, and finally those living on the land, and it was striking to me to see how this pattern ‘fell out of’ the data analysis.

Humans and apes

Fossil humans and apes have been a particular research interest of biologist Todd Wood, and he and his associates gave three presentations about their latest findings.

One study was particularly impressive, representing the culmination of three years’ work, during which Dr Wood and his co-worker collected original measurements of fossil bones and skulls from the published literature, museum specimens, casts, and publicly-available 3D scans.

The results of their analysis confirmed that there is no obvious evolutionary continuum between fossil humans and apes. Rather, these groups can be consistently distinguished from one another, just as one would expect given the Bible’s account of their separate creation.

Good order

I had the honour of co-authoring a couple of research papers at

this year’s ICC. One was a study investigating how well the order of appearance of different fossil groups matches the predicted evolutionary order based on the sequence of branching in evolutionary trees.

Our research group analysed over 2,700 evolutionary trees and found strong agreement with the fossil order in only 25% of cases. That seems a significant result!

We intend to continue our study of fossil order because we think it will give us some important insights into other questions, such as the ecological structure of the pre-Flood world and the nature of created kinds.

Rocks and ages

My other paper was a collaboration with two Cedarville students, analysing a huge database of about 29,000 radiometric ages on rock units from across North America. We wanted to see how often radiometric ages on the same rocks agreed with one another.

Our preliminary analysis found that the more ages there are for any particular rock unit, the more disagreement there is. Also, the disagreements seem systematic, not random.

Certain radiometric dating methods consistently give older ages than other methods for the same rock samples. Of course, they should give the same age – assuming that the methods are accurate! Our findings may help us to understand what’s really going on.

Other highlights

Other research highlights included new work on ice age climates, speciation in cavefish, the famous fossil horse series, carbon-14 dating, the origin of limestone caves, and much more.

There was also a display of research posters, which are a way for researchers to get feedback on their work before it’s ready for publication as a full paper.

In addition, there was a series of plenary presentations by keynote speakers, summarising the state-of-the-art and future prospects in a range of disciplines from theology, palaeontology, and genetics to cosmology, archaeology, and education.

Speakers included Drs Andrew Snelling, Russ Humphreys, John Sanford, and Doug Petrovich. These evening sessions were also open to the public.

Roundtable discussions

Another feature of this year’s conference were the roundtables, addressing major topics of interest within creationism.

The first was about feathered dinosaurs and their creationist implications – and, yes, feathered dinosaurs are real, as this workshop made clear!

It was a masterclass by paleontologists Matt McLain and Marcus Ross – well informed, well presented, and persuasive.

Chad Arment’s workshop focused on how the ark animals dispersed around the world after the Flood, including how they crossed major ocean barriers. I

was one of seven speakers taking part in a panel discussion about where the Flood begins and ends in the geological record.

Pop-up planetarium

There was also a ‘pop-up’ planetarium show featuring amazing new images from the James Webb Space Telescope; a field trip to see the geology and wildflowers of nearby Massie Creek; a showing of the soon-to-be-released sequel to the hit movie, Is Genesis History?; and booths representing many creationist organisations and vendors.

Biblical Creation Trust shared a spot with our friends at Core Academy of Science, promoting our Let’s Talk Creation podcast with a fun photo booth!

We also recorded interviews with conference participants, which can be viewed in podcast episode 65 on our YouTube channel (@Let’s Talk Creation).

Cutting-edge creationism

The ICC is not your typical creationist conference with popular-level, apologetics-type talks focused on the flaws in evolutionary thinking. Instead, it’s an academic conference, featuring scholarly, peer-reviewed presentations of original research, with the emphasis on developing positive creationist models.

But it’s certainly the place to be if you want to know what’s happening at the cutting edge of creationism. The message from many attendees was that this was the best ICC yet.

For me, a particular encouragement was seeing so many students at the meeting. Several Christian colleges were represented,

and many of these students were presenting their own research papers. This is a healthy sign of vitality for the future of the creationist movement in the USA.

But it raises the question of how we, in the UK, lacking the advantages of tertiary Christian education, can train and mentor our own students to the same high level. To help address this need, Biblical Creation Trust has ambitious plans for a student research centre in Cambridge, and if you’d like to know more about that, please contact me at paul@biblicalcreationtrust.org.

Source: Dreamstime

26 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Features

‘Letby’s crimes were appalling, but she was far from being the most prolific serial killer of children in modern British history. That unholy accolade is shared by every abortion provider in the country.’

By Tim Lewis

Church Network & Theology Lead at Brephos.

On Monday 24 August, Lucy Letby became only the fourth woman in UK history to be sentenced to a whole life term, for the most appalling crimes against tiny children. As we struggle to comprehend how a healthcare professional, tasked with caring for premature infants, could be capable of such evil, it is worth posing a less widely considered question relating to Letby and the recently exonerated Carla Foster.

Why is the mainstream media happy to depict Lucy Letby as a ‘moral monster’, while Carla Foster is viewed, with equal conviction, as a victim of the system, a woman who should have never been imprisoned in the first place, unjustly sentenced – so the argument goes – under antiquated laws? To be clear, such a comparison is not based on any similarity of character; it is not really about the personalities involved at all. What is of interest is the nature of the crimes both women were accused of, and why one is now in prison and one is not.

The details of the Letby case have been scrutinised for months, and the awful reality is this: seven babies killed and six more attempted murders between June 2015 and June 2016. Her victims were premature infants, born needing extra care and support in their first weeks of life outside the womb until they developed to a stage where they could thrive independently of medical apparatus and treatment. The dependence, vulnerability, and helplessness of these babies is what made their destruction by poisons or

physical assault all the more disturbing.

The unanimous condemnation of Letby’s actions has not extended to Carla Foster’s decision to kill a child, this time her own, through the deliberate administration of poison in the form of a freely available abortifacient. Lily Foster was a minimum of 32 weeks old when she was killed – a similar age to the babies Letby killed, likely older than some of Letby’s victims. She was equally dependent and vulnerable, although well past the age of viability.

Lily Foster was a fully-formed baby who would have been born healthy just a few weeks later had not her life been cruelly curtailed. And yet what a difference in verdict! One woman’s crimes rightly elicited universal horror, while the actions of the other – resulting in an identical outcome, a child’s death – were viewed as no crime at

all. Technically, an offence had been committed, but it was really only an offence because of a legal loophole that (for now) limits the ‘right’ to destroy one’s own healthy child to 24 weeks.

The irony is as stark as it is tragic. Equally remarkable is our culture’s almost total blindness to this inconsistency, or maybe it is a single-minded determination to refuse to look. Perhaps, hidden deep down within the nation’s collective conscience, there is a recognition that what Carla Foster did is not all that different to what Lucy Letby did. But that awful thought must be suppressed at all costs. Because, if true, the implications go far beyond Carla Foster.

The only thing which made Foster’s case different to the hundreds of thousands of other women who decide to abort their child(ren), or are pressurised to do so, was the passage of some eight weeks.

But if this is the case, and this is a flimsy basis for such weighty moral judgments, then what is to stop the pro-abortion advocate pushing the argument to its logical conclusion? If one can get away with killing a child at 32 weeks (as Foster did), why not at 40 weeks – why not, in fact, once the child is born?

Yet that is precisely what Letby did, prompting universal outrage. On the other hand, if Foster’s actions were illegal (and unacceptable) because her baby was 32 weeks old, what makes them legal (and acceptable) if her baby had been 22 weeks old instead? How can it be right to kill children at any age?

Foster’s case bears an uncomfortable similarity with Letby’s, and raises the equally unpalatable question of why such arbitrary limits (being under 24 weeks old) render the destruction of a child legally acceptable. This arguably explains the lack of scrutiny around the decision to acquit Carla Foster. To understand Foster’s acquittal is to shine a light not so much on one individual, as on the whole abortion industry, and everything that supports it: tax payer finance, the NHS, and a worldview that ignores God and despises biblical ethics.

Moreover, it is to realise that the killing of children on an industrial scale is approved of, promoted, and celebrated within our society and carried out legally by medical practitioners. No hiding, even in plain sight, is necessary. Letby’s crimes were appalling, but she was far from being the most prolific serial killer of children in modern British history. That unholy accolade is shared by every abortion provider in the country. That is the reality.

People of God, you must decide: will you play your part by bringing these things to light? Will you speak the truth and bear witness to a better value system? Or will you choose to hide away, meekly silent, while a genocide against our nation’s children continues?

Join the movement to end abortion: www.cbruk.org/join

Convicted baby killer Lucy Letby (Source: Cheshire Constabulary)

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 27

Crunch Points

Why do we have two services on a Sunday? I thought it was meant to be a day of rest!

You may be confusing rest with inactivity. On this day we put aside the ordinary demands and duties of the other six days, giving ourselves to the pursuit and enjoyment of communion with God. When the Lord ceased from his work of creation, he went on sustaining and communing with his creation. Adam’s first full day was for worship and communion with his Creator.

We find our spiritual rest and refreshment not just in stopping what legitimately takes up our time and energy on the other days, but in seeking the face of God. That does not mean it is wrong to take a nap on Sunday afternoon, but think in terms of making the most of your opportunities to draw near to God. Recall that the fourth commandment begins with a positive requirement to work for six days – you have all of those for your other duties, and this one for the Lord.

So we come to the two services. Here is a blend of purpose, practicality, and pattern. The purpose would be to make the most of the day and its blessings. It is the Lord’s day – not just the Messiah’s morning, or the Almighty’s afternoon, or the hour of power. We are maximising our fellowship with God and with his saints. It is the closest we get to heaven on earth. You might want to look at a wonderful old sermon by a

Puritan called David Clarkson about the distinctive blessings of corporate worship, the promises the Lord has attached to the public gatherings over and above private devotion.

For practicality, you effectively bookend the day, bracketing it with those public ordinances of worship which help to frame the whole period for the pursuit of God, publicly, privately, and in families. It helps keep the day from meandering into formlessness by helping us structure our time.

There is also the Old Testament pattern of morning and evening sacrifices, referred to in Psalm 92, alongside the day of rest as a day for holy convocation – gathering together with God’s people, a practice heartily endorsed in the New Testament (Hebrews 10:24-25). Coming together under the Word of God is one of the distinctive demonstrations of our identity as God’s people and the very place in which we distinctly feed upon the spiritual food which he has

provided as the Word of God is preached. Here we particularly enjoy many of the ‘means of grace’ – those channels of favour appointed by God as the way in which we derive good things from him.

If you were anticipating your wedding day, but there were only one day a week on which you could spend special time with your beloved, would it be hardship to you to arrange the rest of your week around making the most of that time? If I said that you could snack for six days of the week, but feast on one, would you complain that you had to sit down twice or three times at the richly loaded table on that day? Or would you look forward to it with eagerness? Wouldn’t we actually be asking, ‘How many times can I get to the table? How long can I spend there?’

So we need to change our thinking and train our appetites. Consider the day and its activity less a burden and more of a blessing, less an onerous duty and more a sweet opportunity. Remember that your pastors have been labouring in preparation for these occasions to pour out their souls for the good of yours on the day on which Christ has patterned his presence with his people. Do all you can to make the most of it. The question should be less, ‘Why do I have to?’ and more, ‘Who’s going to stop me?!’

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.

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.

Two services on a Sunday?

Source: Shutterstock

By Burk Parsons

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

In this world, progressives always win in the end. I know that it doesn’t sound very optimistic to say this. That’s because it isn’t. My reason for saying so is that many professing conservatives often compromise their principles, little by little, over time, giving in to the agenda of progressives.

These professing conservatives do so in order to be liked by the increasingly progressive culture so that they might appear to be easy-going, loving, reasonable peacemakers. They are willing to compromise in small ways in the hopes of winning in big ways in the end.

These professing conservatives have bought into the myth of influence. They seem to think that if they compromise a little here and a little there, they will be more appealing to a broader base and will gain a larger audience so that they can finally accomplish their ultimate goals.

Though their motives might be sincere and good, what really matters is what they do and say – and what they don’t do and don’t say. They may say, ‘I’m not going to die on that hill,’ yet they never seem to fight on any hill.

While they may call themselves conservatives, they prove to be pragmatists. Through their efforts to change the culture, they end up being changed by the culture instead. Pragmatism has become the modus operandi for many professing conservatives, rather than guarding, preserving, and upholding foundational governing authorities.

Compromise rooted in the myth of influence is found in politics, in the church, in seminaries, in parachurch ministries, and in the home. Presidents, pastors, professors, and parents often feel as though they need to give in to the cries of those who want them to compromise their stated standards to be regarded as kind, loving, and understanding instead of as old-fashioned traditionalists.

We all want to be liked, particularly by those we love. People who say they don’t care if others like them are lying or crazy – and sometimes both. Yet we must risk being disliked – even despised and slandered – for the sake of those unchanging principles that preserve the core standards, doctrines, and practices of the institutions that have been entrusted to us.

In the church, we must always contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints while being eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, for only the unchanging gospel and the unchanging doctrine of the unchanging Word of God can bring about true peace and true unity so that in the end our unchanging God is glorified.

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.

S0urce: Shutterstock

28 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

THIS SPACE IS FOR YOU — send us details of your forthcoming special meetings, which we will endeavour to fit in, as space allows. Alternatively you can submit an event using the website: http://www.evangelical-times.org/events/submit.php

ALL ITEMS FOR THE EVENTS DIARY MUST BE RECEIVED BEFORE THE 1ST OF THE MONTH PRECEDING THE MONTH OF PUBLICATION. THEY WILL BE DISPLAYED IN BOTH THE NEWSPAPER AND ET WEBSITE.

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Events Diary

LONDON. Protestant Truth Society Bookshop, 184 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2HJ. PTS Bite-size School of Theology, every Tuesday lunchtime from 1.10–1.45pm. Subject: ‘Evangelism – the call to true worship’ (Jonny Dowds). All welcome; tea & coffee provided.

TOTTON: Totton Evangelical Free Church, Ringwood Rd, Totton, Southampton, SO40 8DZ. Christian Institute meeting 7:30pm. Subject: ‘Loving our neighbour’. Speakers: Christian Institute staff. Contact: tefccontact@gmail.com.

DEANSHANGER NR MILTON KEYNES: Holy Trinity Deanshanger, Wicken Rd, Deanshanger, Milton Keynes, MK19 6JP. Christian Institute meeting 7:30pm. Subject: ‘Loving our neighbour’. Speakers: Christian Institute staff. Contact: Holy Trinity Deanshanger 01908 262371.

LONDON: East London Tabernacle Baptist Church, Burdett Rd, Mile End, London, E3 4TU. Christian Institute meeting 8:00pm. Subject: ‘Loving our

neighbour’. Speakers: Christian Institute staff. Contact: Mrs Portia Omo-Bare 020 8980 6125.

CHIPPENHAM, Wiltshire. Ladyfield Church, Hungerdown Lane, SN14 0BA. Corsham & Chippenham Central Bible Study, 7.30pm. Speaker: Alan Gilmore (Gloucester). Contact: (01225) 708643. www.cccbs.org.uk

TEDDINGTON. Christ Church, Christchurch Avenue, Teddington, TW11 9AB. Teddington Conference. Subject: Protestant History. Speakers: Revd Dr Ian Densham, Rt Revd Edward Malcolm, Rt Revd Dominic Stockford, Revd Dr Geoff Thomas. For more details please visit: www.christ-church.org.uk/puritan-international-conference-2023

DUDLEY. Providence Chapel, Bell End, Rowley Regis, B65 9LU. Christian Heritage Centre Autumn Lecture at 2:00pm: ‘Gresham Machen - Standing for the Truth’ (Roland Burrows). Exhibition open from 1.30pm–4.00pm. All most welcome. Further details: tel. 01384 637314 / www.christianheritagecentre.

org.uk. The Centre can be opened for groups or parties at other times by arrangement.

CARLISLE, Cumbria. Grace Evangelical Church, Kingmoor Road, CA3 9PY. Creation Matters North West meeting, ‘The importance of a right understanding of Genesis’, 6:00pm. Speaker: Dan Peters (Newcastle). Contact: 0777 577 5224.

CHELMSFORD: Life Church Chelmsford, Hall St, Chelmsford, CM2 0HG. Christian Institute meeting 7:00pm. Subject: ‘Loving our neighbour’. Speakers: Christian Institute staff. Contact: Andrea Willis 01245 358855.

LONDON. Protestant Truth Society Bookshop, 184 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2HJ. PTS Bite-size School of Theology, every Tuesday lunchtime from 1.10–1.45pm. Subject: ‘The Five points of Calvinism – Limited Atonement’ (Oliver Rice). All welcome; tea & coffee provided.

BURY ST EDMUNDS: West Row Baptist Church, Chapel Row, West Road, Bury St Edmunds, IP28 8PA. Christian Institute meeting 7:30pm. Subject: ‘Loving our neighbour’. Speakers: Christian Institute staff. Contact: Pastor Evan King 07717 214622.

HARSTON: Harston Baptist Church, Chapel Ln, Harston, Cambridgeshire, CB22 7NG. Christian Institute meeting 7:30pm. Subject: ‘Loving our neighbour’. Speakers: Christian Institute staff. Contact: Pastor Scott Paton 01223 870434

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Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 29

CHURCHES

ENGLAND

BEDFORDSHIRE

WESTONING. Baptist Church, Greenfield Road, MK45 5JD. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm. Sunday school 9.30-10.30am. Tuesday prayer meeting/Bible study 7.15pm. Large on-site car park. Services also on Zoom, www.westoningbaptistchurch.org For further

details contact Matthew Aldridge pastor@westoningbaptistchurch.org

BRISTOL

BRISTOL. Zetland Evangelical Church, 4/6 North Road, BS6 5AE. Sunday 11.00am & 6.30pm. Contact: Eddie O’Brien. Tel: 0117 9629868. www.zetlandchurch.org.uk

YATE. Grace Church, 250 Station Road, Yate, BS37 4AF. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm. Wednesday 7.30pm. Contact: The Elders, tel: 07783 300862. www.gracechurchyate.org

CAMBRIDGESHIRE

CHATTERIS. Community Church, The King Edward Centre, King Edward Road, PE16 6NG. Sunday 10.30am. For Sunday evening and midweek meetings please phone Pastor Robert Read. Tel: 01354 694393.

CORNWALL

FALMOUTH, Falmouth Evangelical Church, Killigrew Street, (by the Moor). Sundays 10.30am & 6.30pm. E-mail: mikeccoles@aim.com www.fec.org.uk

GORRAN HAVEN. Haven Church (off Church Street), PL26 6JN. Sunday 10.00am (Breaking of Bread) & 4.00pm. Wednesdays 7.30pm. Enquiries: 01726 842873. Website: www.havenchurch.co

NEWQUAY. Ebenezer Baptist Chapel, Chapel Hill, TR7 1ND. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm. Tuesday & Thursday 7.30pm. James Virgo (Elder), tel: 07780 440490. www.ebenezerbaptistchapel.co.uk

ST AUSTELL. A warm welcome to Grace Church, 2nd Scout Hall, Polmarth Close, PL25 3TW. Sundays 11.00am. Tel: 01726 457802. www.gracechurchstaustell.org.uk

CUMBRIA

KESWICK. Lake Road Chapel, CA12 5BS.

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Sundays 10.30am & 4.00pm. Thursdays 7.00pm. Enquiries: Philip Helm, 01768 88797. E-mail:philip@lakeroadchapel.net www.lakeroadchapel.net

DERBYSHIRE

CRICH. Baptist Church, Market Place. Sunday 10.45am & 6.00pm. PM/BS Tuesday 7.30pm. Pastor Chris Hand, tel: 01773 853180. E-mail: info@crichbaptist.org www.crichbaptist.org

DERBY. Castlefields Church. Sunday 10.00am & 4.30pm @ Derby Conference Centre, London Road, DE24 8UX. Wednesday 7.30pm @ Traffic Street, DE1 2NL. www.castlefieldschurch.org.uk, 01332 550879.

STANTON LEES CHAPEL (off A6 nr Darley Dale). Sunday: 8.00am prayer meeting; 2.30pm & 6.30pm services. Pastor Jonathan Bayes. Wednesday 7.30pm. Tel: 0771 2080257. www.stantonleeschapel.org.uk

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EXETER. Independent Evangelical Church, Fore Street, Heavitree, Exeter, EX1 2RR. Sunday 11.00am & 6.30pm. Thursday 7.00pm Bible study & prayer. Tel: Pastor Jonathan Munday 01647 270067 or Tom Cook 01392 811204.

GALMPTON, nr Paignton. Galmpton Independent Evangelical Church, Stoke Gabriel Road, TQ5 0NQ. Sunday mornings, 10.30am, evenings Flavel Hall, TQ5 0NJ, 6.30pm at the Roundings. Walford Catling, 01803 925583, or John Young, 07779 169750. All warmly welcome. E-mail: walfordandelaine@hotmail.com www: flavelchapel.com

HONITON. Evangelical Congregational Church, High Street. Sunday services 10.30am & 6.00pm. Tuesday 7.30pm. Contact: Secretary Karl Upchurch, 01404 41245. www.honitonecc.org

PLYMOUTH. Beacon Park Baptist Church, 11 Peverell Park Road, Plymouth, PL3 4LR. Lord’s Day services 10.30am & 6.30pm. Wednesday Bible study 7.30pm. A warm welcome awaits you. Pastor Richard Clarke, tel: 01752 227009.

SMEATHARPE nr Honiton. Newhouse Baptist Church. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm. Tuesday 7.00pm. Details: Pastor John Woollam, tel: 01404 861313. www.newhouse-baptist.org.uk

DORSET

CHRISTCHURCH. Carmel Evangelical Church (non-ecumenical) meeting at Homelands Hall, King’s Avenue, Christchurch, BH23 1NP. Sunday services 11.00am & 6.00pm. Thursday Bible study 7.30pm. Tel: Robin Lewis, 01202 475650 or Oliver Rowe, 01202 873952.

ESSEX

WICKFORD. Reformed Baptist Church. Sunday 10.30am & 6.30pm. Thursday 7.30pm. Details from secretary, tel: 01268 735127. www.WickfordReformedBaptistChurch.org.uk

GLOUCESTERSHIRE

GLOUCESTER. Trinity Baptist Church (Free Evangelical), Finlay Road. Sunday 10.30am & 6.00pm. Bible study & prayer, Thursday 7.30pm. Pastor Matt Gamston, Contact: 07835 417188. E-mail: matt@tbcgloucester.org www.tbcgloucester.org

HAMPSHIRE

ANDOVER. Koinonia Evangelical Church warmly invites you to join us in worship and fellowship. We meet at Endeavour Primary School, Kirk Campus, Dairy Road, Andover, SP11 6YG on Sunday at 10.30am & 6.30pm. Telephone Bas Jacobs on 07799 141526. www.koinonia-andover.com

Continued on page 30

30 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

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PORTSMOUTH. Grace Baptist Church, PO3 5AH. Sunday 11.00am & 6.30pm. Contact: Evan Richards, 07922 179274. Web: www.graceportsmouth.com

WINCHESTER. Hyde Street Chapel. Sunday 10.00am & 5.30pm. Thursday 7.30pm. www.hydestreetchapel.org or Pastor Richard Turner, tel: 02380 445742. Visitors warmly welcomed.

HERTFORDSHIRE

BALDOCK. Reformed Baptist Church at Community Centre, (1689 BCOF). Sunday school 9.15am. Morning service 11.00am; Evangelistic service 6.00pm. Wednesday 7.15pm. You are warmly welcome. Contact: J. E. Northern, 01462 834464. www.baldockbaptistchurch.org.uk

BOREHAMWOOD. Cowley Hill Free Church (Baptist). Sunday 11.00am & 6.30pm; Wednesday 7.30pm. Contact: Philip Hambridge, 0208 9531867.

HATFIELD. Evangelical Baptist Church, now at Eden House, School Lane, Hatfield, AL10 8AX. Sunday 11.00am. S/school 9.45am. Wednesday 7.30pm. Pastor Murray Gifkins, 01707 884534. See www.hope4hatfield.org

KENT

CHATHAM. Enon Baptist Church, Skinner Street, ME4 5RF. Sunday 11.15am and 6.30pm. Wednesday 7.30pm. Pastor: Paul Relf, tel: 01634 301499. www.enonbaptistchatham.org.uk

WHITSTABLE. Hamilton Road Evangelical Church, CT5 1JX. Sunday: 11.00am & 6.00pm; SS 11.00am; PM/BS Wednesday 7.30pm. For more details please contact our pastor Adam Laughton, e-mail: info@hamiltonroad.org.uk or tel: 01227 263614. A warm welcome to all.

LANCASHIRE

BLACKBURN Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Fecitt Brow, BB1 2AZ. Sabbath services 11.00am & 6.30pm. Minister: Revd Norman Green. Tel: 01254 260388.

BLACKPOOL. Blackpool Tabernacle Church, 2 Springfield Road, FY1 1QL. Sunday services 11.00am & 6.00pm. Wednesday meetings/Growth groups at 7.30pm. Revd V. P. Tracey & Revd J. Wilson. Website: www.blackpooltabernacle.com Mob: 07305 950615 / 07586 241919. E-mail: contact@blackpooltabernacle.com

LEICESTER CITY

LEICESTER. Melbourne Hall Evangelical

Free Church, St Peters Road. Sunday 10.45am & 6.00pm. Wednesday 7.30pm Bible study/prayer meeting. A warm welcome to everyone. Pastor: Peter Mackenzie, tel: 0116 288 8156. www.melbournehall.org

LEICESTERSHIRE

HINCKLEY. Grace Baptist Church (Independent – KJV Bible used), 216 Coventry Road, LE10 0NG. Revd Christopher Salmon. Visitors always welcome. Sunday services 10.30am & 6.00pm. Wednesday prayer & Bible study 7.00pm. All enquiries please phone 01455 612377 or church 01455 617857.

WIGSTON. Little Hill Church, Launceston Road, Wigston, SATNAV LE18 2FU. Sundays 10.30am & 5.30pm. Tel: 01162 886555. E-mail: admin@littlehill.org.uk www.littlehill.org.uk Warm welcome.

LINCOLNSHIRE

BILLINGHAY. Baptist Chapel, Church Street. Sunday 10.30am & 6.00pm. Tuesday 7.00pm. Pastor Richard Hilliard, tel: 07717 392628. www.billinghaybaptistchapel.co.uk

LINCOLN. Evangelical Church, Uffington Close, off Skellingthorpe Road, LN6 0AE. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm. Thursday 7.45pm. Pastor Andrew Thomson, 07999 250789. E-mail: a1thomson@aol.com

LOUTH. Evangelical Church, Monksdyke Road. Sunday 10.45am & 5.00pm. Wednesday 10.30am. Elder: C. Sharp, tel: 01507 339714 (01507 605353).

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

NEWCASTLE. Reformed Evangelical Church, Hoylake Avenue, Longbenton, NE7 7UN. Sunday 10.30am & 6.00pm. Wednesday Bible study, 7.30pm. Minister: Revd Dan Peters. For further details see www.nrechurch.co.uk or tel: 0191 2662422 or 0191 2859757.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

SLAPTON & WAPPENHAM Independent Evangelical Church (near Towcester). Sunday 10.30am and 5.00pm. Sunday school 10.30am, at Wappenham. Tuesday Bible Study 7.30pm. Contact Pastor Trevor Thomas for details, 07950 434258. www.towcesterevangelicalchurch.uk

NORTHUMBERLAND

LONGHORSLEY. Mission Free Church (FIEC). Sunday morning service 11.00am with creche; 5.30pm Prayer meeting; 6.00pm Evening service/Bible study. Contact: 01670 518202 or 01661 822546. www.longhorsleymission.org.uk

OXFORDSHIRE

BANBURY. Evangelical Free Church. Sundays 10.30am and 6.30pm; Wednesdays at 7.30pm. Phone: 01295 252607 or 01295 251169 or see www.befc.org.uk for venue details.

SHROPSHIRE

TELFORD. Grace Church Wellington. Sunday 11.00am in the Wellington Library at the Wellington Leisure Centre, TF1 1LX. Visitors welcome. Website: www.gcwellington.com

SUFFOLK

OTLEY. Otley Baptist Chapel, Chapel Road, Suffolk, IP6 9NU. 1st Sunday of each month, 3.00pm. Contact: Trevor Bugg. E-mail: trevor-michaelbugg@outlook.com

WALSHAM-LE-WILLOWS. Walsham-le-Willows Evangelical Congregational Church, The Street, Bury St Edmunds, IP31 3AZ. Sunday 11.00am & 6.30pm. PM/BS Thursday 7.15pm. Contact: Mr J. Landymore, 01359 258986. E-mail: j.landymore@bt

internet.com  www.walsham-le-willows.org/explore/amenities/congregational-church

WEST MIDLANDS

BIRMINGHAM. Chelmsley Wood Reformed Baptist Church meeting at Fordbridge Centre, Nineacres Drive, Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham, B37 5DD. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm. Thursday 8.00pm. Tel: Keith Wrangles, 0121 7792804. E-mail: office@cwrbc.org.uk www.cwrbc.org.uk

WORCESTERSHIRE

DROITWICH. Witton Chapel, Tagwell Road. Evangelical Reformed ministry in Worcestershire. Sunday 10.30am & 6.30pm. Thursday 7.30pm Bible study and prayer meeting. Details: (01905) 794271 or (01684) 567969. www.wittonchapel.org.uk

YORK

YORK. Evangelical Church, Millthorpe School Hall, off Philadelphia Terrace, YO23 1DH. Sunday 10.30am & 6.00pm. E-mail: info@yec.org.uk Tel: 01904 375875. www.yec.org.uk

YORKSHIRE: EAST

HULL. East Hull Presbyterian Church (Evangelical), R/O 336 Holderness Road, Hull, HU9 3DQ. Sunday 10.30am & 5.30pm. Wednesday 10.30am PM/BS. Contact: Chris Lawson, 07527 319617.E-mail: christophermlawson@hotmail.com

HULL. Kingston Evangelical Church, Park Grove off Princes Avenue, HU5 2UR. Sunday services 10.30am & 6.30pm. Wednesday 7.30pm. Bible study and prayer meeting. Enquiries, tel: 01482 844579.

CHURCHES

WALES

CARDIFF. Emmanuel Baptist Church, Gabalfa Avenue, Gabalfa, CF14 2SH. Sunday 11.00am and 6.00pm. Wednesday 7.30pm. Contact: Andrew Lansdown, secretary@emmanuelcardiff.org Tel: 07969 009310. www.emmanuelcardiff.org

HAVERFORDWEST, Pembrokeshire. Hill Park Baptist Church (Ind), SA61 2ET. Sundays 11.00am & 6.00pm. Sunday school 10.15-10.45am. Prayer meeting Wednesday 7.00pm. Contact: Revd Ian Middlemist, misty_923@hotmail.com www.hillpark.net

LAMPETER. Evangelical Church, New Church, 16 College Street. Sunday services: English 10.30am, Welsh (with translation) 5.00pm. Wednesday 7.30pm. Contact G. Jones, tel: 01570 423368. www.lampeterevangelicalchurch.org

LLANGOLLEN. Glanrafon Evangelical Church, Princess Street, LL20 8RD. Sunday 11.00am and 6.00pm. Wednesday 7.30pm. Church secretary: 07863 706666. www.glanrafon.org

LLWYNYPIA. Rhondda Evangelical Church, Salem Terrace, CF40 2JL. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm. Wednesday 7.15pm Ministry and Prayer (Zoom meeting). www.rec.wales

SWANSEA. Ebenezer Baptist Church, near High Street station. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm. Wednesday 7.30pm. Minister: Revd Graham John, tel: 07541 400559. www.ebenezer.org.uk

HOLIDAYS

ENGLAND

CORNWALL

PADSTOW. Chalet, sleeps 6. Sea glimpses. Beaches nearby. £200-£450

Evangelical Times, October 2023 | 31

Advertising

weekly (including heating). Missionary discounts. Tel: 01202 253879/382598. E-mail: paulandruthbromley@gmail.comwww.atlanticbaysholidaypark.co.uk

County Durham

STAINDROP, County Durham. Two bedroom cottage, sleeps 3. From £295 week. Discounts for Christian workers. Sorry no pets or children under 10. Brochure available. E-mail: shiloahlad@gmail.com 07913 058520.

DEVON

TOPSHAM. Two-bedroom cottage overlooking Exe estuary and hills. Shops, inns, restaurants close. Coast, moors, Exeter nearby. Tel: 02920 759314. E-mail: dee.jones@virgin.net

SUSSEX: EAST

HAILSHAM. S/c 1 bedroom stable con-version. Quiet country location. www.thestablehailsham.co.uk Tel: 01323 841227. E-mail: longleysfarmcottage@gmail.com

HOLIDAYS

OVERSEAS

GERMANY. Haus Barnabas in Black Forest. Holidays all year round. B&B or halfboard. Basel airport or railway pickups. Brochure: rosemaryedwards2009@talktalk.net Tel: 01227 363857. www. haus-barnabas-christianholidays.info

SPAIN. Altea (Costa Blanca). Two-bedroom/bathroom apartment. Pool, garden, tennis. Shops, restaurants, beach close. Warm winters. Airport transfers. Tel: 02920 759314. E-mail: dee.jones@virgin.net

SITUATIONS VACANT

I am a Christian saint seeking one of the Lord’s children to join me soon as a sister / brother on a remote small farm. This would either be in Scotland or the Pennines. Some money is provided to assist me if you want work, as I am disabled. My email is Eleunma@gmail.com.

32 | Evangelical Times, October 2023

Features

By Dr Barry York

President of Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Why is the West unravelling at the seams? Why is the social perversion of transgenderism being foisted on us with missionary zeal wherever we turn? Why is there so much division over politics, race, and morality in our land? Why is so much hatred spewed against Christianity and the church?

I believe it must be attributed in large part to the internet. Has not the internet released the inhibition

of mankind’s lust with the fiery fury of hell? The Pew Research Forum tells us that 95% of teenagers have smartphones, and that’s why we’ve become so dumb. Over half of 15–17-year-olds say they use the internet almost constantly. Clearly, these teenagers are not using it to read so much as to trawl through YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.

As a result, our land is increasingly visually-oriented and instantaneously connected. Or, in other words, insidiously idolatrous. A generation ago, Neil Postman spoke of the dangers of television in Amusing Ourselves to Death. He warned then of the danger of leaving behind a text-based reading culture for a visually-stimulating one. After all, he reminded us that ‘amusing’ literally means not thinking. If anything describes this age, surely it is that we have lost our ability to think clearly.

Such waste of mind and time completely conflicts with Scripture. Ephesians 5:15-16 reads, ‘Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.’ Wisdom sees where each step leads. Wisdom knows

that the multiplied daily decisions people make have a profound impact on their souls.

In Ephesians, Paul instructs the church on how to live out the gospel. He focuses on the steps believers are to take. First and foremost, he reminds the church that she is to walk so as to redeem each timely opportunity. Note that verse 16 says we are to walk in such a way that we are ‘making the most of our time, because the days are evil’. We may have clocks everywhere nowadays, but James Boice was right in saying, ‘Most Christians do not consider time as

important as it really is.’ We need to learn again to watch our time.

Paul reminded the Ephesians how they used to live in Ephesians 4:15-17: ‘So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.’

We must take to heart this call to make the most of time or we will fall back into those things of our former life. Paul has given us a specific manner by which to accomplish these aims. The idea of ‘time’ in Greek has two words: cronos, meaning the general passage of time; and kairos, meaning ‘a timely opportunity, a significant moment’. It is this second type of time that Paul emphasises here.

Though the internet, cell phones, social media, etc., can be wonderful tools, they can also dull us. If you are spending hours gazing at some cyber person you do not know and who does not know you, be it as pernicious as pornography or as silly as a sports star, you will lose your heart for the real flesh and blood people around you. Redeem each timely opportunity that the Lord has given you by serving others. Walk wisely by being alert and making the most of every situation the Lord brings across your path. While you go about this sacred work, remember this: Christ is watching you.

This article originally appeared on Gentle Reformation and is used with permission.

S0urce: Dreamstime