Vol. 57 No. 12 | December 2023

£2.00

By Mike Judge, Editor

There was no announcement of legislation to ban conversion practices in the King’s Speech delivered in Parliament on 7 November, but a draft bill is nevertheless expected to be published by the government.

A ban could limit the right of churches to preach, pray, and pastor people in line with biblical teaching on sexual ethics, and it could also catch conversations between parents and their children relating to matters of sexuality.

The King’s Speech – his first since becoming monarch – was delivered at the State Opening of Parliament. It is written by the government and contains an outline of its policies and proposed legislation for the new parliamentary session.

A ban on conversion practices was mentioned in the two previous Queen’s Speeches, so its omission this time could be an indication of resistance from some MPs who have objections.

However, the government could yet introduce a draft bill with pre-legislative scrutiny, which would mean a parliamentary select committee taking evidence and looking closely at the details.

No mention of a

ban on conversion

practices in King’s

Speech, but a draft

bill is still expected

A full bill is unlikely to have enough time to pass all its parliamentary stages, and therefore there is little chance of it becoming law before the next general election.

In the meantime, a private members bill has been introduced in the House of Lords by Baroness Burt to ban conversion practices.

Her bill may go through the Lord’s stages, but it is not likely to progress any further unless the government gives it time in the House of Commons. There is also the possibility that an MP may table a ‘conversion practices’ amendment to one of the justice bills.

There is speculation of a fierce debate within government over the issue of a ban on conversion practices. Some are ideologically committed to a ban, others are open to a ban but don’t want to limit the rights of parents and the ordinary work of churches, while others oppose a ban altogether.

Labour, however, have vowed to introduce a ‘no loopholes’ conversion practices ban which covers transgender issues. A separate ban is proposed in Scotland.

Comment, p.6

King Charles delivers the speech (Credit: House of Lords)

Councillor

is reinstated

after ‘pride is

sin’ comment

A Christian man has been reinstated to his role as a local councillor after he was suspended when he wrote ‘pride is a sin not a virtue’ on social media.

King Lawal, 31, has been supported by the Christian Legal Centre and was considering legal action to defend his right to free speech and religious liberty.

But at the end of October the leader of North Northamptonshire Unitary Council, Jason Smithers, reinstated Cllr Lawal.

Welcoming the news, Cllr Lawal said, ‘What has happened to me has been appalling but I am encouraged and grateful to the local group for reinstating me.

‘Any Christian, especially those holding public positions, should be concerned by what has happened and anyone who cares about free speech in the UK.

‘It is now almost impossible to say something biblically truthful on sexual ethics in UK society without being cancelled and having your life ruined.’

Cllr Lawal has yet to be reinstated to other roles from which he was suspended or forced to resign, and is still fighting to regain those positions.

Andrea Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre, said, ‘We will continue to stand with Cllr Lawal until his reputation and all his public positions are fully restored.’

16-page evangelistic

supplement inside

Packed with testimonies and gospel articles

2 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

Colin Hart (Credit: Christian Institute)

National News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Calls to broaden the definition of ‘extremism’

could erode the religious liberty of Christians

Sainsbury’s

sacking case

A churchgoer claims she has been sacked by Sainsbury’s after 20 years because she refused demands to work every Sunday morning. Jacqueline Rendell, from Herne Bay, worked at the Whitstable store until her contract was terminated following a row over shift patterns. An employment tribunal has heard her case, and will publish its judgment in due course.

Bid to change

abortion laws

An MP has said she will hijack the upcoming Criminal Justice Bill in bid to decriminalise abortions in England and Wales. Stella Creasy MP said it’s time to push for decriminalisation because she claimed women are ‘being prosecuted everyday under outdated abortion offences’. Campaigners want to allow abortion for any reason right up to birth.

Trans guidance

ready soon

The government’s trans guidance for schools is expected to be released by Christmas. The Department for Education is predicted to clarify that schools should not treat gender-confused children as if they were the opposite sex. However, there have been several false dawns over the publication date of the long-awaited guidance.

Council gets

rid of mums

Somerset council has removed any reference to women or mothers from its local council documents on pregnancy and maternity. In the name of ‘inclusivity’, Somerset Council has ditched feminine nouns and pronouns for gender-neutral terms throughout its New and Expectant Parents Policy.

2 | Evangelical Times, December 2023

A Christian care home provider has spoken out against the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, calling it ‘ageist’ and ‘utterly disgraceful’.

Louise Morse, from care home provider Pilgrims’ Friends Society (PFS), told Premier Christian News that elderly folk were terrified during the pandemic.

She criticised the policy of discharging elderly patients from hospital and sending them to care homes without testing for covid.

‘To my mind, still, that was a very ageist move,’ she said. ‘That was saying, “Elderly patients, we’re moving you out, they have to cope with you, whatever, because we want these spaces for younger people.” I thought that was and I still think that that was utterly disgraceful.’

An independent public inquiry has been holding hearings to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the covid pandemic, and learn lessons for the future. The Inquiry is Chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, a former Court of Appeal judge.

Pilgrims’ Friends Society

speaks out against ‘utterly disgraceful’ covid policy

Louise Morse (Credit: Pilgrim Friends)

Christian MP Dr Lisa Cameron has said she felt unwanted in the Scottish National Party (SNP) because of her faith.

The MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow said her Christianity had been ‘frowned upon’ by some within the Party.

A member of the Free Church of Scotland, she said she experienced similar difficulties to former SNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes.

Dr Cameron has now defected to the Conservatives and told the BBC, ‘I didn’t feel particularly wanted as a Christian in the SNP.’

She said. ‘You were made to feel like you’re a Christian but just don’t raise it very much, certainly don’t vote in line with your beliefs.

‘I had voted against abortion regulation previously in the Parliament and that had been another issue with the SNP.’

Following her decision to resign from the SNP and join the Tories, Dr Cameron said she and her family were forced to leave their home due to threats.

Dr Lisa Cameron

(Credit: UK Parliament)

MP says she wasn’t welcome in the Scottish National Party because of her Christian faith

Calls to introduce broader laws against ‘extremism’ could catch ordinary Christian beliefs, says Colin Hart of The Christian Institute.

The issue has come to the fore after a rise in antisemitic attacks in the UK linked to the conflict between Israel and Gaza.

The government wants to give police more powers to clamp down on such ‘extremism’, but The Christian Institute’s Colin Hart is worried about the unintended consequences of a broader definition.

He said, ‘In recent weeks we’ve seen anti-Semitic incidents across the UK that many, including Christians, believe have no place in our society. Hamas’s terrorist atrocities were celebrated on our streets within hours.

‘There are understandable calls for the police to take more action, with new powers given to them if necessary – though the government is right to say that existing powers must be fully used.’

‘But,’ he continued, ‘Christians need to be wary. Because we’ve been here before. All too often, new laws supposed to be aimed at terrorism or extremism end up threatening rather than protecting religious freedom.’

Colin Hart pointed to the way rules about ‘British values’ in education have been used by Ofsted to target faith schools which hold to orthodox religious beliefs.

He said, ‘For some years, British values became a woke crusade. None of this was intended, but it was the result.’

He also pointed to previous plans to outlaw ‘incitement to religious hatred’ which, without appropriate free speech protections, would have criminalised Christians for proclaiming salvation by Christ alone.

The Institute, together with others, successfully campaigned for a robust freedom of expression amendment to protect religious liberty.

Other similar proposals likewise had the capacity to cause mischief for Christian freedoms, before they were eventually dropped by officials.

Some years ago, Ofsted wanted to regulate ‘out of school settings’. They were most likely aiming at Islamic madrassas but their plans would have caught Sunday schools and Christian camps too.

There were also plans to introduce ‘Extremism Disruption Orders’ but no one quite knew what the limits would be, and the plans were dropped after vigorous objections.

Colin Hart said, ‘So when we hear that a new definition of extremism is being developed that will “go further than the current definition”, alarm bells should be sounding.’

He concluded by saying any new laws ‘must not inhibit freedom to declare the Gospel, which carries its own unique offence. That is the freedom we are currently privileged to enjoy and must be vigilant to defend.’

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 3

Church News

Evangelical Times, December 2023 | 3

By Ryan Clarke

The third annual Fellowship Conference UK was held this year in September, hosted by Watchorn Church, Alfreton (Derbyshire).

Over 200 people came to the conference, representing churches from across the UK and beyond. All in attendance were blessed and challenged; some even stayed until the Sunday to attend services at Watchorn Church before journeying home.

The conference had its providential beginnings after the government prohibited churches from opening during the covid pandemic.

At this time a group of pastors started meeting weekly via Zoom to pray, seek God, and enjoy fellowship. The idea of holding a conference was also birthed.

The first was held in 2021 in Wokington; the second in Manchester in 2022; this year it was the turn of the church which I pastor to host the conference.

Over two days attendees enjoyed solid, biblical preaching from Jeremy Walker, Tim Conway, Mack Tomlinson, Geoff Thomas, and Ryan Clarke.

Mack Tomlinson, pastor of Providence Chapel (Denton, Texas), opened the conference with a message from Psalm 123. Tomlinson encouraged the people of God to keep their eyes on Christ. I spoke on Psalm 13: ‘How long, O Lord?’ was the cry.

The first day concluded with an interview with Geoff Thomas. Attendees heard sweet stories from Geoff’s long and experienced Christian walk.

Tim Conway opened proceedings on day two. He delivered another challenging message to the church from Numbers 12. ‘There will be giants in the land,’ Tim told us, ‘but God is not disadvantaged by them!’

Jeremy Walker followed with a fresh message from Romans 1:16-17, exhorting his hearers not to be ashamed of the gospel.

The conference concluded with a Q&A session, in which all five men answered questions sent in advance by text message.

Third annual Fellowship Conference attracts 200 in

Alfreton, Derbyshire, to hear ‘solid biblical preaching’

All sessions can be found on the Watchorn Church YouTube channel. God willing, we look forward to another conference next year!

L-R: Jeremy Walker, Tim Conway, Mack Tomlinson, Ryan Clarke, Geoff Thomas

Christians from across the North West of England gathered in Warrington in October for the annual ‘God’s Glory Our Joy’ conference.

The aim of the conference is to build biblical churches by stimulating thought, prayer, and discussion, and to promote true godliness according to biblical patterns.

This year’s conference theme was ‘The cross of Christ’. David Campbell (pastor of North Preston Evangelical Church) delivered two addresses.

His first address looked at ‘The Cross and Reconciliation’. He asked three questions. For whom did Christ die? How did he come to be suffering for the sins of others? What can we say about the suffering itself?

His second address looked at the ‘The Cross and Propitiation’. Again, he had three points: What forsaken doesn’t mean; what

does it mean for Jesus to be ‘forsaken’ by God?; and how should we view Christ in the light of these things?

David Last (pastor of Forest Baptist Church, Leytonstone) gave an address on ‘The Cross and God’s Plan’, looking at the doctrine of ‘limited atonement’, also sometimes known as ‘particular redemption’.

There was a question and answer session, which gave an opportunity for those attending the conference to raise points for discussion.

The conference closed with a sermon warmly preached by Tim Mills (pastor of Christchurch, Bradford). A few days after the conference, a separate event was held for church leaders to follow up and discuss issues raised at the conference.

Recordings of the three conference addresses and the closing sermon are available from the God’s Glory Our Joy website, ggoj.org.uk.

The cross of Christ was the theme of this year’s ‘God’s Glory Our Joy’ conference

L-R: Tim Mills, David Campbell, David Last

How should we respect conscience and deal with different political opinions within our churches, and how can churches engage positively with the media while also avoiding the pitfalls?

Those were some of the issues addressed at the Association Day Conference and AGM of the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (South East) held in Homerton, East London, in October.

Jonathan Leeman (editorial director for 9Marks, Washington, D.C.) spoke about politics, conscience, and the church.

He began by setting out a number of reasons why Christians find it hard to disagree about political issues. He said all Christians should care about truth and justice, but judgments require wisdom.

He then went on to discuss a number of ways that Christians can hold firmly to their personal political opinions while still respecting others who may disagree.

In his second session, Jonathan spoke about ‘meaningful church membership’ and he outlined the biblical privileges and responsibilities which belong to members of a local church.

Mike Judge (pastor of Chorlton Evangelical Church in Manchester and editor of this newspaper) spoke about churches and the media.

He began with his own early experiences training as a journalist, and his dealings with the media when he worked for The Christian Institute (1999–2013).

Mike then outlined some ways in which churches could positively engage with local media organisations, before addressing some of the pitfalls to avoid.

About 260 people attended the Association Day Conference and AGM, which also included a report session from some churches in the Association. Luke Jenner (pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Halifax) preached the closing sermon.

Politics, media, and church

membership discussed at

AGBC(SE) event in London

L: Jonathan Leeman, R: Mike Judge

4 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

4 | Evangelical Times, December 2023

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 5

International News

Evangelical Times, December 2023 | 5

Euthanasia is not a medical service and there is no legal right to buy compounds for suicide, a German court has ruled.

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has issued its landmark ruling, saying the free availability of lethal compounds is not compatible with the state’s duty to protect the general public.

The official press release of the court said that medical care includes ‘the use of an anaesthetic to cure or alleviate illness or pathological complaints’, adding, ‘in principle, ending one’s own life does not have such a therapeutic purpose.’

The court also stated that the ‘design of the protection framework to prevent misuse and abuse’ of lethal substances plays an important role.

The decision was welcomed by pro-life groups, including ADF International. Dr Felix Böllmann is a German lawyer and head of the European activities for ADF International.

He said, ‘We welcome the ruling of the Federal Administrative Court. The

court makes a clear distinction between medical means of healing, alleviation, and health promotion and the demand for killing.

‘Suicide is not a health service. The task of doctors and medical professionals is to save lives and provide support instead of killing.’

He continued, ‘The current legal situation remains unsatisfactory since the German Constitutional Court made a dramatic shift, leaving the most vulnerable people in society unprotected from the dangers of assisted dying while allowing commercial and ideological interests to dominate the scene.

‘Nevertheless, it is good that the federal administrative court mentions and strengthens the state’s concept of protecting the life of every individual. Everyone has a right to life. And everyone has the right to have their life protected from and by everyone.

‘Indeed, the state has a legal obligation to systematically protect every human life. A look at other countries shows that the misuse of lethal means can never be prevented.’

Germany: Leipzig Court

rules that euthanasia is

‘not a medical service’

Dr Felix Böllmann

The rise in attacks against Christians in India is ‘deeply alarming’, says the leader of an international religious freedom charity.

UK-based Release International has reported that attacks against Christians are rising, fuelled by right-wing nationalism.

The organisation also says that growing numbers of Christians are being arrested under anti-conversion laws.

The United Christian Forum (UCF) has recorded 525 violent attacks to the end of August, more than for the entire previous year. The UCF say attacks are rising ‘not just year-on-year, but month-on-month’.

Investigations are being carried out by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the Indian government’s Minorities Commission.

In Uttar Pradesh, a pastor, his wife, and their three-year-old son were imprisoned after holding a prayer service in their home.

India: Deeply alarming rise in anti-Christian violence

Pastor Harendra Singh and his wife Priya were taken into custody charged with ‘luring innocent people to Christianity’. They had no choice but to bring their young child with them into the prison.

‘The rise in attacks against Christians in India is deeply alarming,’ says Release International CEO Paul Robinson. ‘Equally worrying is the denial in India that anti-Christian violence is indeed growing.

‘We hope these investigations and reports will be received as a clear call to both India and the international community to stop the violence.’

There are signs that the Indian authorities may be saying enough is enough.

In September, the High Court in Allahabad supported the right of Christians to share their teaching and give away Bibles, and the court granted bail to Christians accused of breaking the anti-conversion law.

Cuban authorities have arrested a pastor and his fellow worker because they were campaigning for religious freedom in the communist country.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has called for the release of pastor Alejandro Hernández Cepero and Luis Eugenio Maldonado Calvo.

The pair were reportedly targeted by Cuban authorities because of their involvement in an initiative to organise roundtables to discuss Freedom of Religion or Belief.

According to Open Doors UK, Cuba’s communist regime is not tolerant of dissenting voices or any other institutions gaining influence or power.

The church falls into both of these camps and, as a result, Christians experience persecution from the authorities.

Cuba: Pastor and religious liberty campaigner detained

Alejandro Hernández Cepero

Paul Robinson

A Christian pilot who flew for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and was wrongly arrested in Mozambique has been allowed to return to America.

Ryan Koher was detained in November 2022 along with two South African men on suspicion of supporting insurgents.

But Koher was in fact flying medicines and food supplies to an orphanage in the north of the country.

The three men were kept behind bars for months before they were released in March, but travel restrictions for the men were only lifted in October.

Koher left Mozambique with his wife Annabel and their two children, arriving at Boise airport, Idaho, to spend an extended period with friends and wider family in the US.

During his time in prison, he spoke about his faith keeping him strong, saying, ‘I need not fear in the face of suffering because I am united with Christ. It is very comforting to me because I know He will be with me and has a purpose in it all.’

Despite their recent freedom to leave Mozambique, an investigation is still ongoing, and the case is yet to be dismissed.

Mozambique: MAF pilot who was falsely arrested has been allowed to leave the country

6 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

Letters to the Editor

6 | Evangelical Times, December 2023

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Let’s not lose heart and do the activists’ work for them

The current Conservative government has struggled to bring forward a ban on conversion practices, and there was no mention of a ban in the King’s Speech. It is easy to imagine the infighting going on in the Tory Party between those who want it, those who don’t, and those seeking a middle way (whatever that may be). If Labour wins the next election, they have promised a full-strength ‘no loopholes’ ban which includes trans issues. Scotland is planning to legislate in a way that is worryingly broad.

But whatever may happen in the months and years ahead, the fact remains there is presently no ban on conversion practices in the UK. Yet some Christians are already behaving as if there is. Some Christian have become so nervous and twitchy about sharing the gospel with lost souls in the LGBT community, they are censoring themselves. ‘Thou shalt not cause any offence’ seems to be the only commandment to follow.

Perhaps this newspaper must carry some share of the blame for frightening the flock. For some time now, we have been alerting evangelical Christians to the potential impact of a new law. Yes, it does have the potential to criminalise aspects of preaching, pastoring, and praying. Even parents may be caught by the law. A similar law in the Australian State of Victoria is deeply troubling. An evangelical newspaper has a duty to report such things.

Having said that, we are perhaps guilty of not also encouraging churches to stand firm in the faith. The law still affords us many liberties that Christians in other lands could only dream of. We have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Let’s use those freedoms while we still have them. More than that, we have our Lord’s command to go and make disciples of all people (yes, including those in the LGBT communities), and our Lord’s promise that he will be with us always to the end of the age.

The activists want to silence the church. They want to shut down the gospel. They will use every tactic they can to do it. They want us to be ashamed and embarrassed of our Lord’s teaching on marriage and sexual ethics. But be encouraged. Read Rosaria Butterfield’s testimony in our Christmas Good News supplement. It shows us that the gospel still has power, that Jesus Christ still saves, and that Christ’s people are warm and hospitable. So let’s not lose heart, and let’s not do the activists’ work for them.

Est. 1967

E

T

Letters to the Editor

Please email your letters to letters@evangelical-times.org Please include your name and address.

Spiritual abuse

SIR – I want to thank you for the winsome article in October’s ET: ‘Breaking news: Spiritual abuse allegations rock the early church!’

Simon Arscott points out in a helpful (and witty!) way the dangers of a modern fad that is sweeping parts of the evangelical church: an obsession with spiritual abuse in ministry, often vaguely defined.

Important aspects of a pastor’s and a local church’s work require us to unintentionally – but certainly – upset the emotional equilibrium of the sheep we love. Admonition, rebuke, calls to repentance, and church discipline will all distress the Lord’s people.

Loving pastors are already naturally reluctant to engage in these disciplines, but this fad could make us even more reticent, to the harm of the flock. It was so helpful to see that even the apostle Paul’s ministry could be called abusive by contemporary thinking.

May godly pastors continue to love the sheep – including when it requires loving admonition.

Roy Summers

Worcester

God’s emotions

SIR – Alan Thomas, in the September & October ETs, argued that the Bible accords a closer correlation between our emotions and those that God might experience than the church has traditionally taught.

He commented, ‘We cannot simply assign novel meanings to words in the Bible because we are uncomfortable with their plain, regular meaning.’

George Caird (one-time Professor of Biblical Exegesis at Oxford University) pointed out that, ‘All, or almost all, of the language used by the Bible to refer to God is metaphor’, and that comparison ‘comprises almost all the language of theology’.

Thus, we have ‘Jesus is the Good Shepherd’ and ‘Jesus is the Son of God’. Neither statement is literally true and yet they convey a profound truth.

The Bible writer has taken ‘real’ things from the human domain and applied them to Jesus Christ. These are conceptual metaphors – and would be meaningless unless there is some transfer of understanding.

ET correspondents cited secondary literature to support the traditional view of God’s

emotions, which is mostly focused on deductive logic based on the understanding that God does not change.

Any indication otherwise is considered to be the ‘language of accommodation’. An example of this is, ‘do not let the sun go down…’ (Ephesians 4:26). Of course, we now know the sun does not ‘go down’.

In contrast, I suggest Alan Thomas is describing conceptual metaphors, where words retain their original true and ‘plain’ meaning and transfer concepts to God so as to teach a truth – a truth that might be mysterious – but nonetheless ‘real’.

Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus and also said, ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father.’ There is sometimes a disconnect with human logic when Scripture speaks about the deeper things of God. As an evangelical, I am happy to live with that.

Colin Hamer

Kirby Cross

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 7

Evangelical Times, December 2023 | 7

Book Reviews

Sinclair Ferguson

Christian Focus

104 pages; £8.99

This is a devotional book: ‘31 Devotions about Christ, the Cross and You.’ It is aimed, I would suggest, at 10–12 year olds. Every day there is a short Bible passage to read, a message and a prayer. The overarching theme of the book is Jesus’s love, and Sinclair Ferguson takes stories and passages from the whole Bible to explore this in an interesting way. This is

part of a series of devotional books. The other three are ‘31 devotions’ on ‘What Jesus Did’, ‘What Jesus Does’, and ‘How Jesus Cares’.

In places, the stories and anecdotes are a little out of touch, e.g., asking ‘do you know what a high five is?’ and a lengthy description of using a dictionary! However, my 12 year old son read ‘How Jesus Cares’ and found it helpful, especially the prayer at the end of each section, and he enjoyed Ferguson’s writing style.

I really wanted to be able to use this as a resource to give to new Christians from non-Christian backgrounds. However, it is very clearly aimed at pre-teen children with a church background, as it frequently references going to Sunday School and school. So it is a good resource to encourage a child who professes faith to begin the good routine of having a quiet time.

Ros Cox

South Wales

Beth Peltola, Tim Dieppe

Wilberforce Publications

150 pages; £10

This short and easy-to-read book lives up to its title – it contains many questions to ask Muslims, questions designed to challenge their belief in Islam and open up conversations that will bring them to the person of Jesus.

In conscious contrast to some other approaches, it encourages direct and bold engagement. It may be particularly helpful to many ordinary Christians who don’t know where to start or are too timid in the way they seek to talk to Muslims.

Some of the kinds of questions I thought could be particularly helpful were ‘How does Allah show his love for you?’ and ‘Why is Muhammad not prophesied in the Bible?’

As well as suggested questions, the book also contains a lot of polemical content against Islam, which as far as I can see is accurate and well informed, though of course heavily contested by many Muslims today.

There is some material that I thought would be very unlikely to lead to fruitful conversations with Muslims, and in fact distract from them, such as their strange claim that Isa in the Qur’an is not referring to Jesus, and a brief attempt to defend the Crusades.

More generally, I am concerned that the book arms people with very selective material without enough caution. I’d recommend anyone using the more polemical material to first question

themselves and the questions they will use, along these lines: Why am I asking this question? Am I competent to make this argument? When someone with very little – and extremely selective – knowledge of the Bible and Christianity starts an argument, how do they usually come across and how does it end? What effect are my words likely to have?

Luke Plant

Oldham

Sam Waldron

Evangelical Press

393 pages; £15.99

Some readers may have been given a Christmas hamper. When the hamper is opened you expect the usual fare of mince pies and Christmas puddings, but delving into the wood-shavings brings more and more pleasant discoveries of cake, biscuits, nuts, and chocolates. That is what you will find with How Then Should We Worship? by Sam Waldron. You will find he deals with the Regulative Principle of Worship, but then as you delve into the book you will discover a wealth of practical application and help related to the worship of God. It informs and challenges your thinking. It encourages you to worship God according to what Scripture requires.

There are two parts in the book. The first deals with the ‘Regulative Principle in Worship’ (119 pages), while the second deals with the ‘Required parts of Corporate Worship’ with practical application (204 pages). There are five appendices (52 pages) and an index (18 pages). The purpose of the book is ‘to help leaders of churches make wise scriptural decisions about worship’.

The book is readable with a reasonable writing style. There is some repetition throughout which is a little tedious. The are also some spelling mistakes and omission of words, such as a quote where the key word ‘not’ is missing. The book is directed toward pastors and church officers in confessional churches, but it would be

helpful to all who want a better grasp of the importance of worshipping God as the Scripture requires.

Should you read the book? Yes, because it will reassure you about the importance of the Regulative Principle in worship, and it addresses current trends in worship from a biblical and practical perspective.

Andrew Coats

Broadstairs

How Jesus Loves

‘A good resource to encourage a child who professes faith to begin the good routine of having a quiet time.’

Questions to Ask Your Muslim Friends: A Closer Look at Islamic Beliefs and Texts

How Then Should We Worship?

8 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

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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

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

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

Falmouth Evangelical Church

Killigrew Street, Falmouth, TR11 3PP

(by the Moor)

A warm welcome to visitors & Students

Sundays 10.30am & 6.30pm

Prayer Meeting & Bible Study

Wednesday 7.30pm

www.fec.org.uk

E-mail: mikeccoles@aim.com

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 9

FREE

Christmas

Good News

This newspaper has been distributed by

your local church:

Continued on page 2

By Captain Barry Wilmore,

former US Navy test pilot and NASA astronaut.

I was born in the city of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1962. Both my parents were Christians; they loved the Lord and meeting with God’s people at church each Sunday. All my earliest memories revolve around being there.

When my dad was a toddler, he accidentally burned his hand on a stove and scarred his palm. I can still remember tracing the outline of that scar over and over again while we sat in church.

It was a way for a mischievous young boy to pass the time while the pastor spoke up at the front. The point of course is not the scar, but that my memories of it, like numerous others, are associated with being in Christ’s church.

The wages of sin

By the age of eight, I had heard most Bible stories and could recite many from memory. Then at one Sunday evening church service a visiting pastor spoke on the truths of hell. Oh my!

Though I’d heard it before, for the first time I became truly aware in my understanding that my sin had consequences, and those consequences lead to a dreadful outcome.

The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory

of God, and that the wages of sin is death. Dread and fear enveloped me because I knew for certain that God was aware of my sin and that because of it, I stood in desperate need of cleansing. The burden was real. I knew I was a sinner, not only bound for eternal punishment, but deserving of it.

The problem was that I wasn’t fully aware how salvation could come to me. I believed in Jesus, and that he incurred the wrath of God and ultimately died for my sin. I was also aware that he rose again, defeating death and then ascending to the right hand of God the Father where he could intercede on my behalf. But how do I get him to make that all count for me?

I couldn’t figure out how I could pray well enough or change my thoughts, actions, and behaviour to the point where God would see my sincerity and forgive me. What did I need to do?

Finally, God’s Holy Spirit, working through the Bible, made it clear to me that there was nothing I could do to earn forgiveness. It would be an act of God – he alone could turn my cold, dead heart into one that was renewed and alive to him.

God made me aware that my only hope for forgiveness and eternal hope was a substitute, that being Jesus Christ. The Bible says to Christians, ‘You he made alive, who were dead

I saw Earth from space and thought, ‘My Saviour was there’

December 2023

in trespasses and sins.’ It could only be God who saved me through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of my Lord Jesus.

As I grew older, I continued to regularly be a part of a local church and was convicted to read the Bible and try to learn and grow more and more in God’s grace.

Question time

In my mid-twenties a friend asked me a question. He too was drawn to read God’s Word, and in his reading he was having difficulty understanding the Parable of the Sower.

He asked me, of the four types of seed that were scattered, which one represented true believers possessing saving faith? It didn’t take me long to realise that I just didn’t know. I’d been a believer for well over a decade and I couldn’t answer this seemingly simple question.

A few weeks later this same friend asked if I’d ever heard of a pastor named John MacArthur. I hadn’t, so he gave me a cassette tape of teaching from Matthew 7 on the ‘wide and narrow gates’.

As I listened to the tape, I assumed he was teaching a group of seminary students in

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

Credit: NASA.gov

10 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

2 | Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023

Testimonies

a classroom. Immediately it struck me that I had never heard Bible teaching in this manner. I later learned that Pastor MacArthur was not teaching a class in a seminary, but it was a message he was teaching on a Sunday morning from the pulpit in his church.

It was over these and several other sequences of events that the Lord showed me how little I truly knew of Scripture. The main problem was that I didn’t know that I didn’t know the truths of Scripture.

I’d heard sermons preached my entire life, but I’d never

heard the Bible taught. This new-found realisation truly rocked my world. I became a voracious reader, trying to learn these biblical truths that, though they’d been there all along, I had never been aware of.

When it comes to salvation, I now realise I was not fully aware when the Lord saved me of all the things concerning repentance, the lordship of Christ, and my submission to him, or how obedience fit into my existence.

Flight

I’ve had the blessing of experiencing many wonders within the creation of our Lord from vantage points few have had the opportunity to see.

My career has been in the US Navy as a test pilot, and also as an astronaut for NASA. I was honoured to be at the controls of the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a mission to the

International Space Station in 2009.

I’ve flown combat missions over hostile territory from the decks of several aircraft carriers, and experienced countless spectacular sunrises and sunsets while flying at 35,000 feet over countries throughout the globe.

The Lord gave me the opportunity to feel the roar of rocket engines below me that hurtled the spaceships into which I was strapped to speeds exceeding 17,500 miles an hour, deep into the vacuum of space.

Oh the memory of travelling at those speeds during spacewalks! I recall looking down as we flew over the nation

of Israel during a full moon, seeing the lights below in the same area of the globe in which my Saviour lived, died, and rose again for me.

I could gaze deep out into the vacuum of space and see diverse colours of stars so numerous that no person could ever count them.

He knows the stars

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is a striking image produced by a space telescope in 2004. It is a photo of one tiny corner of the night sky; it turned out to contain some 10,000 galaxies of various sizes, shapes, and colours.

There are trillions upon trillions of stars in the galaxies depicted in this one small section of the cosmos. For someone to simply count up

What is so important about the birth of Jesus? The Bible tells us that ‘Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners’ (1 Timothy 1:15). Jesus was born to save sinners. Indeed, shortly before his birth, he was given the name ‘Jesus’ because he would ‘save his people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:21). Part of the meaning of Jesus is ‘one who saves’.

News for us all

This is truly wonderful news! But many people treat this news as irrelevant to them, saying they are not sinners and that they don’t need to be saved.

Many believe this news is really for those who do especially bad things; perhaps for those who find

themselves in the news for the wrong reasons or those whose behaviour destroys communities and causes so much hurt.

But as shocking as it may seem to people today, the Bible tells us that we are all sinners and we all need saving.

We are all sinners

The Bible tells us that ‘there is none righteous, no, not one’ (Romans 3:10). How true that is! When we compare ourselves with God’s law we have to admit that we have broken it.

When we look at the Ten Commandments (a summary of what God requires of each one of us), we have to admit that we all fall short of his standards. We have to admit that we have all sinned.

We have sinned in the things we have thought, in the things we have said, in the things we have done. And there are consequences to our sin: we have not only harmed others but we have sinned primarily against God. Ultimately, we have sinned against God and God only (Psalm 51:4).

We need to be saved from judgment

The Bible is clear that each of us will be judged by God. Some people find it unpalatable to think that God will judge us all. How can a loving God

judge us all? But if we ask this question then we have failed to understand who God is.

God is loving, but he is also righteous. God must judge sin because he is holy. Indeed, the Bible tells us that God has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31).

On that day, everyone will give an account of their life, and they will be judged by God’s law. Many will be found wanting. This is a sobering truth indeed. But there is a remedy!

Christ Jesus saves sinners

The good news is that Jesus saves sinners. How does Jesus save sinners? To answer this question we need to focus not

on his birth but primarily on his death.

In the lead up to his death, Jesus was betrayed, unjustly tried in court, and severely beaten. He was then murdered on a cross of wood. To onlookers it appeared that Jesus’s life had a tragic ending. Yet all this was part of God’s plan (Acts 2:23).

Jesus deliberately and willingly offered himself on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of his people. He was their substitute, dying in their place to satisfy divine justice. He took the punishment sinners deserved for their sins. He bore his people’s sins in his body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24).

But Jesus did not remain dead! Jesus was ‘delivered

up because of our offences, and was raised because of our justification’ (Romans 4:25). How is this possible?

The Saviour Jesus is no mere man. Jesus is fully God and fully man. As a man he offered himself on the cross in man’s place. But as God he was able to bear the wrath and punishment of God. Can you imagine if the wrath of God fell upon us? We would not be able to stand it.

But Jesus took the place of sinners on the cross and was able to bear God’s wrath. He was able to atone for our sins because he offered himself as ‘a lamb without blemish and without spot’ (1 Peter 1:19). Indeed, he is the ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29).

Are you saved?

Have you been saved from your sins? If not, then ask Jesus today to save you from your sins. Perhaps you think you are too sinful to be saved. But Jesus came to save even the chief of sinners. Jesus is able and willing to save sinners.

In the words of a well-known hymn, ‘Come, you sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore; Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love and power: he is able, he is able, he is willing, doubt no more.’

Jesus: Born to save sinners

to one trillion would take over 30,000 years!

And yet the Bible tells us how God ‘counts the number of the stars; he calls them all by name’. What a truly amazing thing to ponder!

As I close, I must again reiterate that it was because of God alone, through the work of the Holy Spirit and based on the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I know him.

He’s given me a godly wife who challenges me to be all my Lord would have me be, and has given me the truly eternal blessing of having saved my entire family.

He’s given me the blessing of understanding the purpose and importance of his church by placing me under godly pastors committed to expounding scriptural truth week after week and year after year.

For these and countless other reasons I say, all praise and glory be to God, my blessed redeemer!

By Benjamin Mitchell

Ministerial assistant at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Cardiff.

I saw Earth from space and thought, ‘My Saviour was there’

(Continued from page 3)

Source: Shutterstock

Source: Dreamstime

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 11

Testimonies

believe in God? Ken didn’t argue with my article; rather, he asked me to defend the presuppositions that undergirded it. I didn’t know how to respond to it, so I threw it away.

Later that night, I fished it out of the recycling bin and put it back on my desk, where it stared at me for a week, confronting me with the worldview divide that demanded a response. As a postmodern intellectual, I operated from a historical materialist worldview, but Christianity is a supernatural worldview. Ken’s letter punctured the integrity of my research

Friends with the enemy

With the letter, Ken initiated two years of bringing the church to me, a heathen. Oh, I had seen my share of Bible verses on placards at Gay Pride marches. That Christians who mocked me on Gay Pride Day were happy that I and everyone I loved were going to hell was clear as blue sky.

That is not what Ken did. He did not mock. He engaged. So when his letter invited me to get together for dinner, I accepted.

Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023 | 3

By Rosaria Butterfield

As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one. The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk: no matter how hard I choked, I couldn’t hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath.

As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that ‘knowing Jesus’ meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark, to end it rather than deepen it.

Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That’s what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a male model in a shampoo commercial.

As a professor of English and women’s studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality. And I probably could have stomached Jesus and his band of warriors if it weren’t for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian Right.

Pat Robertson’s quip from the 1992 Republican National Convention pushed me over the edge: ‘Feminism,’ he sneered, ‘encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.’ Indeed. The surround sound of Christian dogma co-mingling with Republican politics demanded my attention.

After my tenure book was published, I used my post to advance the understandable allegiances of a leftist lesbian professor. My life was happy, meaningful, and full. My partner and I shared many vital interests: AIDS activism, children’s health and literacy, Golden Retriever rescue, our Unitarian Universalist church – to name a few.

Even if you believed the ghost stories promulgated by Robertson and his ilk, it was hard to argue that my partner and I were anything but good citizens and caregivers. The LGBT

community values hospitality and applies it with skill, sacrifice, and integrity.

I began researching the religious right and their politics of hatred against queers like me. To do this, I would need to read the one book that had, in my estimation, gotten so many people off track: the Bible.

While on the lookout for some Bible scholar to aid me in my research, I launched my first attack on the unholy trinity of Jesus, Republican politics, and patriarchy, in the form of an article in the local newspaper about Promise Keepers. It was 1997. The article generated many rejoinders, so many that I kept a Xerox box on each side of my desk: one for hate mail, one for fan mail.

But one letter I received defied my filing system. It was from the pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter. Ken Smith encouraged me to explore the kind of questions I admire: How did you arrive at your interpretations? How do you know you are right? Do you

My train wreck conversion

‘I fought with everything I had. I did not want this. I did not ask for this. I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side of the equal sign.’

Continued on page 4

My motives at the time were straightforward: surely this will be good for my research.

Something else happened. Ken and his wife, Floy, and I became friends. They entered my world. They met my friends. We did book exchanges. We talked openly about sexuality and politics. They did not act as if such conversations were polluting them. They did not treat me like a blank slate.

When we ate together, Ken prayed in a way I had never heard before. His prayers were intimate. Vulnerable. He repented of his sin in front of me. He thanked God for all things. Ken’s God was holy and firm, yet full of mercy. And because Ken and Floy did not invite me to church, I knew it was safe to be friends.

I started reading the Bible. I read the way a glutton devours. I read it many times that first year in multiple translations. At a dinner gathering my partner and I were hosting, my transgendered friend ‘J’ cornered me in the kitchen. He put his large hand over mine. ‘This Bible reading is changing you, Rosaria,’ he warned.

With tremors, I whispered, ‘J, what if it is true? What if Jesus is a real and risen Lord? What if we are all in trouble?’

J exhaled deeply. ‘Rosaria,’ he said, ‘I was a Presbyterian minister for 15 years. I prayed that God would heal me, but he didn’t. If you want, I will pray for you.’

I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might. Then, one Sunday morning, I rose from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later sat in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Conspicuous with my butch haircut, I reminded myself that I came to meet God, not fit in. The image that came in like waves, of me and everyone I loved suffering in hell, vomited into my consciousness and gripped me in its teeth.

I fought with everything I had. I did not want this. I did not ask for this. I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side of the equal sign.

12 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

Testimonies

4 | Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023

My train wreck conversion

(Continued from page 3)

Did God really become a man and visit our planet? Christians affirm that he did because of what is written in the Bible. In 1 Timothy 3:16 we read, ‘Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion: God was manifested in the flesh.’

The stupendous fact of God becoming man – the Incarnation – takes us to the heart of Christmas. An ancient creed states that Jesus Christ ‘for us and our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man’.

Consider the wonder of it all: the Son of God became a Son of man, so that the sons of men might become the sons of God. The Bible is clear that ‘by nature’ we are ‘children of wrath’ – that is, not the children of God.

We are sinners, and sin is an affront to a holy God. Our sin alienates us from him. Yet through Jesus Christ we may be reconciled to God – adopted

into his family. There could be no higher privilege or status!

Riches and poverty

At Christmas, Christ the Son of God became poor, so that we might become truly and eternally rich. In God’s plan of salvation, Christ left the glories of the Father’s house and became poor.

He was laid in an animal feeding trough. He had no permanent home, for he said, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’

Christ eventually died on a wooden cross, and the only earthly possessions he had to bequeath were his clothes. Yet Christ’s poverty has made the believer eternally rich with the riches of eternal salvation. It is through Christ’s death on the cross that our sins are forgiven

Some wonders of Christmas

By Timothy Cross

Writer of many Christian books and articles, with an honorary doctorate from Christian Bible College, Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

and we are made right with God.

Having been adopted into God’s family through Christ’s atoning work, we are princes and princesses! We are the children of the King – ‘and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ’. Through Christ we will inherit the kingdom of heaven! In Christ, then, we are rich indeed.

Strength and weakness

At Christmas, Christ took on himself our weakness in order to strengthen us by his power. It is incredible to think that the infinite became an infant; the one whose arms uphold the universe was himself held in the arms of his earthly mother.

But it was so. He came from heaven and was born as a helpless baby, as we all once were. Eventually, ‘He

was crucified in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 13:4). Yet it is through Christ’s weakness that we are made strong in the grace of God, for the gospel of Christ is ‘the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith’ (Romans 1:16).

Immortal and mortal

At Christmas, the immortal God took upon himself our mortality so that by his grace we, the mortal ones, could know his immortality.

The immortal God cannot die. Yet Romans 6:23 tells us, ‘The wages of sin is death.’ Hence, the reason God became man was so that he could die, and in doing so, pay the wages of our sin and bestow on us the gift of eternal life.

Romans 6:23 reads, ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

But God’s promises rolled in like sets of waves into my world. One Lord’s Day, Ken preached on John 7:17, ‘If anyone wills to do [God’s] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine’ (NKJV).

This verse exposed the quicksand in which my feet were stuck. I was a thinker.

I was paid to read books and write about them. I expected that in all areas of life, understanding came before obedience. And I wanted God to show me, on my terms, why homosexuality was a sin. I wanted to be the judge, not one being judged.

But the verse promised understanding after obedience. I wrestled with the question: did I really want to understand homosexuality from God’s point

of view, or did I just want to argue with him?

I prayed that night that God would give me the willingness to obey before I understood. I prayed long into the unfolding of day. When I looked in the mirror, I looked the same. But when I looked into my heart through the lens of the Bible, I wondered, am I a lesbian, or has this all been a case of mistaken identity? If Jesus could split the world asunder, divide marrow from soul, could he make my true identity prevail? Who am I? Who will God have me to be?

Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, open-handed and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there. The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed. And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck.

I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he could make right my world. I

drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me ‘wife’ and many call me ‘mother’.

I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life. And my former life lurks in the edges of my heart, shiny and still like a knife.

This article previously appeared in the February 2013 issue of Christianity Today.

Source: Shutterstock

If we belong to Jesus, God has bestowed on us eternal life.

And if we belong to Jesus, God will yet bestow on us immortality one day. For ‘God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power’ (1 Corinthians 6:14).

Descent and ascent

At Christmas, God descended to earth that we might go at last to heaven. It was for us and for our salvation that he came down from heaven.

Heaven is the dwelling place of God. It is a place of light and joy. Our true joy is to know fellowship with God. Through Christ and all he has accomplished, we may realise our true joy and chief end. Through him our sins are wiped off the record. Through him we become the children of God. Through him we are made fit for heaven – for the nearer presence of God.

Ponder these wonders of Christmas: the Son of God became a Son of man that the sons of men might become the sons of God; Jesus became poor so that we might know the riches of God’s grace; Christ took on himself our weakness so that we might be strengthened with his salvation; he took on himself our human mortality so that we might be blessed with his divine immortality.

He came to earth that we on earth, through his atoning work and accomplished salvation, might one day ascend to heaven, eternally saved by his precious blood. Praise his name! Christmas is truly a wonder-full time!

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 13

Testimonies

Continued on page 6

Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023 | 5

By Sarah Deacon

I was born in the late 1980s in Shropshire into a loving Christian family. I was taken to church twice a week from almost the moment I was born.

Through the faithful teaching of both the church and my family I became a Christian at a very young age. I knew that I did things wrong and that Jesus had died for me. I wanted him to be king of my life.

When I was six we moved to St Albans, and during my childhood God continued to teach me more about himself, what his Son had done on the cross, and what the resurrection of Jesus meant.

I was introduced to the idea of missions very early. Each morning we faithfully prayed for missionaries during our family prayer time. I didn’t know it then, but God planted a seed that would get watered as I got older.

Baptised

As a young teenager I went through a stage that I think many children who become Christians at a young age go through. I started questioning everything. Did I really believe the gospel? Was it really my faith or that of my parents and siblings?

Through this, God showed me and reminded me of the absolute wonder of the cross and what he did for me there. I was baptised at fifteen, and although my teenage years were not easy, God upheld me through all the bullying I endured.

During this time my knowledge of the Bible and God deepened significantly due to the solid teaching and support I had in the Young People’s Fellowship at church.

Archaeology

I went to the University of Southampton to study archaeology. Although studying archaeology could have been a challenge to my faith, instead I found that it strengthened my beliefs.

After ten years studying and working in archaeology, I remain absolutely confident in the truth and accuracy of the Bible. During my time at university I got involved with

the Christian Union and worked among international students.

Over summer holidays I went on mission trips. I could see the need for people to go and tell the gospel to the world, but I felt that God was leading me to the field of archaeology.

The working life of an archaeologist is a precarious one and I had many jobs before I finally managed to settle in Swindon. It was a difficult period. I never knew when my job would end, whether I would find another one or whether I would have to move yet again.

For me it was a time of learning to depend upon God and trusting that he would

provide. While my life itself had no certainty, I knew I had certainty in God and in his goodness.

Slovenia calling

After managing to stay in Swindon for a couple of years, I went on holiday to Slovenia in January 2016. It was cold, grey, and wet but I absolutely loved it. From the moment I got back to the UK I was looking for a way to return.

I initially thought about applying to study for a PhD at the university there, but instead I was encouraged to think about short-term missions.

As I learned more about the country, I realised that it is spiritually needy. Only 0.1% of the population are evangelical Christians. That is about 2,000 people in the whole country.

I came across the mission organisation European Christian Mission (ECM) and saw a call from them for workers to go to Slovenia. I started praying to see if this was where God was leading me to go.

At church we were going through a series on the book of Acts in the New Testament, and every service and sermon I heard seemed to be speaking to me, that I should go and serve in Slovenia.

Life and death

At that point I had a dramatic week which culminated in the death of my grandad. I realised that everything that had happened to me was nothing in the face of eternity.

Telling people the gospel is literally a matter of life and death. I then started asking close friends and family to pray for me before I approached the church leadership.

I knew that it was an important decision and that I needed to trust God through the process. I could only take one step at a time and needed to keep leaning on God through all the uncertainty.

I was given a bookmark by my pastor with the words ‘The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you’. This was and is a constant reminder for me to keep my eyes firmly fixed on Jesus.

Internship

After many meetings with the church and with ECM, and after a few more trips to Slovenia, I was invited to work as a church intern at the Reformed Evangelical Church (REC) in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia.

I was initially invited for one year with a possible extension to two. I knew that I didn’t want to go long-term at that point. I still wanted to test the call, to see if that was where God truly was leading me.

With my church in Swindon and ECM, we agreed that I would go short-term with the idea that if I felt it was right, I

Knowing God’s grace from Swindon to Slovenia

‘Telling people the gospel is literally a matter of life and death. ’

14 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

Testimonies

6 | Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023

We don’t seem to wonder about anything much in the modern world. Life for many is repetitive, humdrum, and a seemingly endless number of daily horizontal comparisons.

Social media hasn’t helped in this respect as we are drawn to endless comparisons and the trivial. We think we have seen it all before. It was the Bible that said, ‘there is nothing new under the sun.’ Have we lost all sense of wonder and amazement?

Now is a good time to start to consider and wonder at the eternal Son of God and his appearance in time some 2,000 years ago. Maybe you have never stopped for long enough to think and to wonder at this time-defining, history-changing, and life-transforming truth.

To wonder means to have a feeling of amazement and admiration caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar. In the Bible, a shepherd called David was well-practised at pausing and looking upwards in wonder. He once

wrote, ‘the heavens declare the glory of God’.

There is remarkable evidence in the silent testimony of God’s handiwork all around us. Myriad wonders are there in creation. A glorious sunset speaks to us, a jagged mountain ridge humbles us, a brightly coloured butterfly rightly catches our eye, and the beauty of birdsong rings sweetly in the ear.

They are all given by God and are intended to cause wonder and amazement – to make us to ‘consider the heavens and the work of [God’s] fingers’. They should make us ask, ‘what is man, that you are mindful of him?’

The seven wonders of the ancient world, like the pyramids of Giza and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, caused wonder and amazement. There have been many attempts to draw up a modern list of the world’s wonders, with entries including the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal. There is also a list of natural wonders such as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

But there is something far more astonishing. The incarnation of Jesus Christ. He who was invisible, who made time, appeared in time as a human being. This stands as an historically indisputable and widely attested fact. The invisible and infinite God took on human flesh, but without diminishing in any way his divine nature.

The second person of the glorious Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit voluntarily allowed himself to be subject to

the limitations of being flesh and blood. For the few years of his earthly life in this sin-sick world, Jesus had a body that required sleep, grew tired, felt pain, wept, and was sorely tempted more than any person. Yet in all this he was without sin.

In the Bible, John’s Gospel says: ‘And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.’ John goes on to say: ‘we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ To behold his glory is to wonder at the incarnation. Christ was begotten because he already was the Son of God, and so was never created.

His coming was therefore an appearance of himself in the flesh. Charles Wesley, the 18th-century preacher and hymn writer, famously put it like this: ‘Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.’

Why is this fact worthy of wonder? Because in his coming,

would go to the UK for training before going back to Slovenia long term.

In May 2018 I moved to Slovenia and ended up staying

for over two years. My focus was on youth work, especially with teenage girls. It soon became clear that I was where God wanted me to be, doing the work

Covid

Towards the end of my time in Slovenia, the covid pandemic hit. Much of my work was able to continue online and fortunately that first wave did not hit Slovenia very badly.

As planned, I moved back to the UK in August 2020 to study part-time at Cornhill, and to work part-time for Swindon Evangelical Church, and to

start preparing to move back to Slovenia long term.

Moving countries during a pandemic is not easy, and yet somehow God helped me to do it twice. After a year in the UK, where I was able to re-establish relationships with people in the church and learn so much more about our great God, I was able to move back to Ljubljana in September 2021.

Since moving back to Slovenia, God has been teaching me once more about how much I need to depend on him. Things change, people change, and pandemics happen, but our God

remains the same. I have been so blessed by the way he has led me and how he has provided for me in these difficult times.

This academic year I am studying the language full-time and completing a second year of Cornhill online. I have been invited to take over the youth work in the church from September this year.

Life is not easy here, especially as we are still feeling the aftermath of covid, but I know I can trust God through it all. I may not know the future, but I do know that God has it in his hands.

Knowing God’s grace from Swindon to Slovenia

(Continued from page 5)

The wonder of the Incarnation

Ljubljana (Source: Bigstock)

By Oliver Wyncoll

Pastor of Providence Baptist Chapel, Bedford.

the infinite became finite, the immortal became mortal, the Creator became as one of his creatures. He enabled us to see his glory. Once you start to scratch the surface of this truth, you naturally will want to ask the next question: why did this happen?

The simple answer is, ‘that the world through him might be saved’ (John 3:17). He came to us because sin has separated us all from God, and through him alone we can now be reconciled to God. A Christian is someone who has truly beheld and seen Christ’s glory by faith.

Take a few moments to consider the many remarkable paradoxes of Christ’s incarnation – those seeming-contradictions of his coming. First be ‘Lost in wonder’ then ‘in love’ and then ‘in praise’ for the One who came to earth, appearing as a little child.

He came so that he could live the perfect life no one else can ever live. Then he died a perfect death, bearing the punishment for the sins of his people, all those who would repent and put their faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour. Finally, he rose triumphantly from death to prove his divinity and life-giving power.

Christ’s coming was the turning point of all history. His coming should fill us with sheer wonder and amazement. Then we should seek to know Christ as our personal Saviour from sin. Christ can be known. We can behold his glory. This is why the incarnation happened. It’s why he came to us: so we could know him, learn of him, and love him.

‘Christ’s coming was the turning point of all history. His coming should fill us with sheer wonder and amazement. ’

Source: Shutterstock

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 15

Testimonies

Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023 | 7

By David Burnett

My name is David Burnett, and I am a born again Christian. At the end of 2021 I shared my testimony on the day of my baptism before being added to membership of my local church.

However, this was not the first time I had done this. In 2010 I gave my testimony and was baptised in a church in Fraserburgh. But I now realise I wasn’t really a Christian then.

It was my best friend’s idea to be baptised and I joined him, believing my life will change for good by attending church services on a Sunday.

My main hope was to make friends. I told my parents (who are not Christians) and they were not happy. They explained to me that I was being irresponsible as I had already been ‘Christened’ as an infant. There was no clarity in what I was doing, or why.

Shallow faith

During my time in this church I didn’t read my Bible or pray. My attitude was, ‘I’m saved, and believing in Jesus is enough.’ Looking back, I realise now that I only attended in order to socialise with other youngsters who attended the same church.

A while later, I left the church, being called a ‘backslider’ by other members. This made me angry with both the church and God. As a person who was spiritually dead in sin, addiction entered my life: alcohol, lust, fornication. This filled me with emptiness.

Soon depression was entering my life as a single person reaching 30 years of age. I had previously been in a relationship, but this only led to me digging a deeper hole in my life. My partner was a woman who liked to party – drinking to excess, taking cocaine and popping pills, which then led me to take drugs.

An open door

COVID-19 came and everywhere was closing down. My partner was jobless and so we agreed to end the relationship. During the

lockdown I needed help – I felt so convicted, ashamed, a failure, and life was hopeless.

I carried the burdens of all the mistakes I had made and all the lies and pain I caused. I carried it. I prayed to God and asked him, ‘Let there be a church to reopen soon!’

At this point I was deeply broken and needed help from my sin of lust and pornography. My prayer was answered when Grace Baptist Church Aberdeen started meeting again in person.

In June 2021 a sermon was preached by a church deacon. He spoke from Romans 1:16: ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of

God for salvation to everyone who believes.’

Yes, I was ashamed of the gospel. I had previously called myself a Christian, despite thinking I could not measure up to the same standards of those attending Grace Baptist Church because of my sinful addiction.

What gave me hope in this sermon was being enabled by God to come in repentance to Jesus Christ. Repentance is a turning away from the sins in our lives – viewing them with the same disgust that God does.

The minister also spoke of believing in the power of the cross on which Jesus died – believing that Jesus bled and

No longer bound to sin

sacrificed himself by dying in that horrific manner for a disgraceful sinner like me who is deserving of hell.

Saved

I wanted to be saved, and I confess that I now know Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I thank God for how he used the time during the pandemic to end what was a bad relationship and to bring me home to God by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This has brought peace and rest as I accept and confess that I am a sinner and I can come to Jesus with my sin. As Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’

The Lord has anointed and blessed the pastor of the church I now attend in Aberdeen, who has opened my eyes and heart more clearly to God’s Word. He has shown me that I need Jesus in my life. Since I began attending the church in June 2021, my attitude has changed and I know I have found my spiritual home.

In November 2021 I was baptised, and what a glorious day that was when I shared my testimony. This time it was a testimony truly professing how God had worked in my life to save me.

We have all fallen short of God’s standards with our sin. Since I was baptised, I continue to battle physically, mentally, and spiritually. By God’s grace we will defeat our sin because we have Jesus Christ who defeated death and defeated sin, so that we no longer need be ashamed or walk alone with anxiety or temptations.

The Bible also says, ‘The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ I was dead to sin but now I am alive with Christ. In my Christian life I now walk with a new family of brothers and sisters in Christ, with his cross before us and our former ways behind us.

‘During the lockdown I needed help – I felt so convicted, ashamed, a failure, and life was hopeless.’

16 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

8 | Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023

Testimonies

By Carole McFarlane

I started reading the Bible back in 1983. I was in Armagh Women’s Prison at the time, charged with possession of class A drugs.

Another prisoner had given me some Christian testimony books: Selected to Live by Johanna Ruth Dobschiner, The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson, and Freed for Life by Rita Nightengale.

Before I was arrested, my aunt had given me a Bible which I had kept and had with me when I was imprisoned.

Through reading the Bible I began to see how alienated I’d become from everyone. I agreed with the biblical diagnosis that my troubles were my fault.

I quit blaming others. When I did, it felt as if God and I connected for the first time. It was at this time that I was converted and became a Christian.

I prayed that God would forgive me for all I had done wrong; for living with my back turned to him.

I also began to understand how crucial Jesus Christ was to me ‘getting right’ with God. I understood that he died in my place – that he was the great substitute, being punished for my sins. Forgiveness was through trusting in him and his sacrifice for me.

I lost my appetite for rebellion against God and authority in general. I lost my desire for drugs, alcohol, and an immoral lifestyle.

I also saw Jesus’s love for sinners as a uniting power that could heal my own troubled heart and set me free from the

divisions that ruined my family and my life.

A verse that became special to me was Psalm 138:8: ‘The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.’

I first read those words in another prisoner’s cell on the morning I was due to go on trial.

My life was a disaster zone at that point, but when I read that God could make things perfect, I just knew that Jesus was the only way to true peace and inner healing. God took my scarlet sins and covered them with the snow of his mercy (Isaiah 1:18).

The testimony books I read gave me hope, and I got particularly interested in spreading the good news of the gospel with Jewish people.

Belonging

As the product of a mixed marriage between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant in Northern

Ireland, I grew up feeling that I didn’t belong to any specific community.

But the more I read my Bible, the more I started to realise that God loved me and that I mattered to him. I realised that I didn’t need to find solace in drugs and drink anymore.

When Prison Fellowship found me after I was released from prison, they introduced me to a man called Ken Newell. At that time he was the minister of Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in Belfast.

With the love and support of Fitzroy and Prison Fellowship, I turned to full-time study of Fine Art at Belfast Art College. In 1991, as I graduated with an MA in Fine Art, my husband Robert died of cirrhosis of the liver.

I lost my interest in art after Robert’s death.

The same year that Robert died, my daughter Claire turned 18. We had been estranged since she was 6 years old,

but we began to rebuild a relationship.

Mission

In 1994, I left Belfast to join London City Mission. I trained in Soho and Covent Garden and then went to Kings Cross and latterly to London’s East End.

Since the earliest days in London, I have had opportunity to reach out to a few Jewish people in each area I have worked in. The whole world is in London, so I have met people from everywhere and have seen a few become believers.

Over the years, Claire (my daughter who lives in Belfast) and I have visited each other and enjoy our times together. We have discovered many things we have in common. She is supportive of my work in London.

I’ve been kept going also thanks to support from Fitzroy and other friends in the church, but since Robert’s death, I have been battling with doubt and depression.

London has become my home over the past 28 years. Presently I am concentrating on homeless and marginalised people. I meet them in the parks and streets and cafes. There are lots of churches in Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, and Limehouse where people need to find a spiritual home without which many of them will not make it.

Some simply need a physical home, and I’m often reminded of where I’ve come from, and ‘but for the grace of God, there go I’.

Sometimes fearful things happen that cause me worry and distress, and it’s hard to overcome it, but when we see God at work in someone’s heart and mind, it’s thrilling and spurs us on again for another while. No two days are the same. Passing on the baton is what I need to be thinking about, as I am now 66 years old.

A man called Basil Norgate came from London City Mission to Fitzroy for my commissioning service in 1994. He quoted a text I have not forgotten despite everything I have experienced since then.

‘The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it’ (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

From prison to peace

‘Through reading the Bible I began to see how alienated I’d become from everyone. I agreed with the biblical diagnosis that my troubles were my fault.’

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 17

Features

Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023 | 9

The wisdom of the wise

By Jeremy Walker

Pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley.

‘Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him’ (Matthew 2:2).

These are the only recorded words we have of those usually called ‘the wise men’. They were educated men, perhaps religious men of some kind. Not all such men are wise. These men were wise not only in the world’s estimation, but in truth. This brief statement reveals much about their true wisdom.

Their certainty

There is much weight in their question: ‘Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?’ There has been no royal announcement in Jerusalem, but they are confident it has happened. It is a dangerous question to ask of bloodthirsty and suspicious Herod, a man who has been assigned that very title, and is very protective of it. But these wise men seek the one born King of the Jews.

Herod understands that there are hints of God’s promised Messiah in that title, for he wants to know from the Jewish teachers around him where the Christ was to be born (v. 4; cf. Jeremiah 23:5-6). A Deliverer has come; a King has been born. The wise men are sure of it, and they want to find him.

Their clarity

We need to admit that there is a lot they do not know. To go to Jerusalem, the city of the kings, is sensible. To seek further information is logical. Though in some respects they did not know much, they clung to what they did know: ‘We have seen his star in the East.’

We also need to admit that there is a lot we do not know! We do not know exactly what they saw, or how they knew what it

meant. We know that Jacob the patriarch had spoken of Judah’s royal reign (Genesis 49:10). We know that the pagan prophet Balaam understood that a star and sceptre would come out of Jacob (Numbers 24:17). We know that Isaiah said that the glory of the Lord would rise and that the Gentiles would come to God’s light (Isaiah 60:1-3). We know that the prophet Daniel had lived in Persia and had spoken there of God and his coming kingdom.

We do not know how they knew it was his star: something they saw in the heavens was firmly connected in their minds with the birth of the King of the Jews. They may not have known much, but there were some things that were clear to them, and they clung to those things. Nothing would shake them.

Their urgency

‘We have come.’ They were from the East. They were Gentiles, and the King they sought was the King of the Jews. They have not much information to go on. And yet they have come.

The chief priests and scribes, the men whom Herod consulted, were in many ways much closer than these wise men. They were geographically closer – they are in Jerusalem. They were nationally closer – they are Jews themselves. They were intellectually closer – they are experts in the Old Testament Scriptures. They even help the wise men with the next part of the puzzle, sending them to Bethlehem.

However, they are utterly passive and careless. By the end

of this story, they have not moved an inch, and have no intention of doing so. We can know all the Christmas stories, even point others to Jesus, and never get there ourselves.

The wise men are different. They come readily and quickly, they ask directly and plainly, and they act intently and urgently. They knew this one thing, and they acted on it. There were great risks and costs to them in seeking after the Christ, many obstacles and difficulties in finding him.

Knowing he had been born, they travelled from the East to Jerusalem. There they were sent on by apathetic intellectuals and a deceitful tyrant to Bethlehem. There they found a young child in a poor family.

These men never stopped pressing forward in the light of the knowledge that they had. They believed and acted on the truth they possessed. They did not put off their pursuit of the King of the Jews for any reason. They knew that a King had been born, and they did not stop looking until they had found him.

Their humility

In Jerusalem they said, ‘We have come to worship him.’ They followed through on that intention: ‘when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh’ (Matthew 2:11).

The Gentiles did indeed come to the Light of God (Isaiah

60:3). When the star guided them to that young child (by now, perhaps, a toddler) in that poor family in the City of David, they bowed down to worship him and gave him kingly gifts.

The Jews were not a highly regarded people in those days. These men were probably men of some standing and substance in their own country – they could cause a stir in Jerusalem and get an audience with Herod. However, they were wise enough to bow down before an infant, and to adore him as their sovereign Lord.

This child, this Jesus, had come to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Now his people start to come to him, in accordance with those Old Testament prophecies, from every kingdom, tribe, language, and nation (Isaiah 60:3; cf. Psalm 72).

The shepherds had come just after he was born, and had gone away rejoicing. The wise men now arrive, and find a little boy on his mother’s lap. They have all come in faith to worship the one who has been born the King of the Jews.

Your activity

Have you come to Jesus? This is true wisdom! Have you heard of the King who has been born? Are you seeking him urgently and humbly? This is not about coming to church, or coming to a carol concert. It is about coming to Jesus Christ.

There are lots of people who will go to church at Christmas who are like the Jewish teachers in Jerusalem: they can tell you a lot about Jesus, but they have no real appetite for humble heart worship of their Saviour and their King.

Will you come to worship him? We have so much more knowledge to work with. We know more of his names and his titles. We know the wonders of his life. We know the ransom of his death. We know the glory of his resurrection. We know the majesty of his reign. We know the prospect of his return.

Until we worship at the feet of this Jesus, we are not true Christians. The wise men bowed before the infant King and worshipped him. Will you now trust and adore the Son of God who came into the world to save sinners, the risen, reigning, returning Lord and Saviour?

‘There are lots of people who will go to church at Christmas who are like the Jewish teachers in Jerusalem: they can tell you a lot about Jesus, but they have no real appetite for humble heart worship of their Saviour and their King.’

Source: Shutterstock

18 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

claimed the life of an innocent bystander. My little world had toppled upside down, as I asked the question ‘Why?’ a hundred times over. Where was God in all of this? Why did he allow this to happen?

It was then that God stepped in and spoke to me through his Word from 2 Corinthians 6, verses 1–2: ‘We then, as workers together with him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’

In the strange providence of God, this accident was a blessing to my own soul: through death, I found life. ‘He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life’ (1 John 5:12).

Christ is all

To believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, is truly to have everything. For me, he means more than anything else in the world – yes, more than the wealth of a thousand worlds. To live without him is to be poor indeed.

Dear reader, I would plead with you not to neglect your precious, never-dying soul. It is your most valuable possession, and will live on long after you die. What you do with Christ on this side of the grave will determine your eternal destiny.

Ask him for mercy and call on him to save you: ‘For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Romans 10:13).

Testimonies

10 | Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023

By Donald Morrison

‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief’ (1 Timothy 1:15).

There was never a time in my life when I didn’t believe in the basic truths of the Bible. Attending church services and Sunday school classes made sure of that! I believed that God created everything, and also that Jesus died for sinners on a cross at Calvary.

I never doubted that there was a heaven to be won and a hell to be shunned. I knew that somehow I needed to be saved and, one day, be at peace with God. I dreaded the thought of being hopelessly lost forever in hell.

Sadly, however, I only acknowledged these truths in my head and did not truly believe them in my heart. My hopes, dreams, and enjoyments, up until I was 24, were for this world alone.

Profound words

Born and brought up on the Island of Scalpay, off Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, religion was a way of life in the community.

Looking back, various incidents were wake-up calls to my lost soul. I vividly remember a preacher one evening stating in his sermon, ‘You may be here tonight with only 18 inches between yourself and hell!’

He continued, ‘Medical experts tell us there is around 18 inches between the head and the heart. So it is with some folk who are religious and come to church. They have head-knowledge and know about what the Bible says about salvation, but it never sinks into their heart! Many can recite the words of “Amazing Grace”, but there it ends.’ These profound words struck a chord with me!

Nearly lost

Another loud knock at the door of my heart came after I slipped, one morning, into a diabetic coma – the foolish consequences of consuming too much alcohol.

Nearly lost, eternally saved

After the alarm was raised, I remember the doctor saying what a very fortunate young man I was ‘to have been caught just in the nick of time. We nearly lost you!’

I was quite overcome and numbed by what he said, ‘We nearly lost you!’ My thoughts were utterly swallowed up with the word ‘lost’. Lost in sin, lost in hell, lost for ever! Although hopelessly lost, God in his grace and mercy spared my life.

Needing mercy

Sadly, instead of surrendering to the clarion calls of the gospel, the world’s alluring calls lulled me back to sleep – I remained unconverted, although not unconcerned.

Being an insurance agent, travelling extensively near and far, I had plenty of time to listen to gospel sermon tapes in my car.

One of these sermons, from Mark 9:43, spoke powerfully to my own soul: ‘And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.’

For the first time ever, I saw myself as a sinner, in need of Christ as my Saviour. I needed mercy, so I prayed: ‘Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.’

Car accident

Days later, I was involved in a fatal car accident that

‘In the strange providence of God, this accident was a blessing to my own soul: through death, I found life.’

Source: Dreamstime

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 19

Testimonies

Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023 | 11

By Felicia Johnston

I grew up in a Christian home on the island of Trinidad and Tobago. Both of my parents became Christians a short while before I was born. I was taken to a Bible-preaching church every Sunday, and I was required to pray before going to bed.

My parents would read the Bible to me, but I remember being quite indifferent to these things early on in my life. I didn’t see the value of going to church and hearing God’s Word.

I got quite upset at times because I felt I was so different from my school friends who didn’t have to go to church on Sundays. I thought my parents were too strict and boring. These feelings of indifference to spiritual things carried on into my teenage years.

Then one day, quite randomly, my dad asked me an important question. I was about 17 years old at the time. My father asked me what I thought would happen to me if I were

to die that night. This question stopped me in my tracks.

Deep down I did believe that there was a God and that there were such things as heaven and hell. Perhaps I hadn’t paid much attention to questions such as these because I thought I was young and didn’t have to.

But I was wrong. I wasn’t too young to die (is anyone?), and if I did die that night, I had no hope of heaven, for I was a sinner. I hadn’t committed any serious crimes, but the Bible teaches that no one is good in the eyes of God. I realised that I needed help with approaching such a holy God.

From then on, I started reading my Bible and paying more attention in church. I learned more about the saving love of the Lord Jesus Christ and how he died to save me from my sins. I learned that if I believed in him, I could be saved from my sins and I could have a future in heaven.

I left home when I was 21 to pursue studies in London. Having left the security of my Christian family and church,

my faith was tested, but I am thankful to God that he guarded my paths. I attended a large evangelical church in London where I met lovely Christian believers who looked out for me and helped me grow in my knowledge of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Life has since then not always been a ‘bed of roses’, as my father liked to say. I lost both of my parents in 2022. Due to the distance between us and the suddenness of their deaths, I was not able to say goodbye to them, but I have a hope that one day I will see them again because

of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the promise that he has given to us of eternal life with him in paradise.

The question that stopped me in my tracks

‘I hadn’t committed any serious crimes, but the Bible teaches that no one is good in the eyes of God. I realised that I needed help with approaching such a holy God.’

By Judith Lievesley

The Bible contains a lot of stories about God reacting in different ways to various people, starting from the beginning of time. I enjoyed reading these stories, some more than others. I had no problem with the stories being true, but I didn’t understand how these stories were relevant to me.

In my youth, these stories were general knowledge to me, and people

assumed I was a believer because my family went to church and because I could answer basic questions about the content of Bible stories.

However, outside of church and reading my Bible, I was

yearning for some attention, because this made me feel good. During my teenage years, I became addicted to it. The gratification I received when people, specifically boys, gave me attention made me feel alive.

I believed that because it made me feel good, it must be good, so I sought it more and more. It became my driving purpose, my reason for living, my source of happiness.

Around the age of 17, God opened my eyes to the destruction this addiction was creating in my life. I saw the fruit of death that this sin was bringing into my life and the lives of those I was seeking it from.

I was certainly not loving my neighbour or loving God with all my mind, body, and soul. Because I was not seeking life from the one who is himself life, I was dying. I could see that I was on a path

Craving attention left me empty

to destruction and that I was the cause of it. I couldn’t argue with God’s verdict.

But along with this conviction of sin came forgiveness. God showed me that he would be absolutely just in condemning me, but he also showed me that he was willing to die for me in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ, so that he could forgive me and bring me to heaven.

Suddenly I understood that all those Bible stories were written to show us about people who had also been convicted of their sin, and had turned to Jesus. Experiencing salvation was a wonderful, sweet feeling.

From that point forward, Jesus taught me how to see him in the Bible, how important it is to have faith in his Word, and how to love his church – that is, the people who have experienced the saving love of God just as I have done.

‘I was dying. I could see that I was on a path to destruction and that I was the cause of it. I couldn’t argue with God’s verdict.’

20 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

Features

‘What is so different about Jesus? Why do millions of people trust and serve him?’

12 | Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023

Never in history has the birth of a baby made such an impact. Over 2,000 years since he was laid in a manger in Bethlehem, the world still stops and celebrates the moment.

What is so different about Jesus? Why do millions of people trust and serve him? What makes his followers give their time and money, even their lives, to reach out in compassion and care to people across the world whose needs are greater than their own?

And why do so many governments across the world still persecute people who simply trust and worship Jesus? What is it about Jesus that makes us commemorate his birth every year?

The man of history

At the start of the New Testament, Jesus bursts onto the scene. Matthew’s Gospel begins with Jesus’s ancestry. It goes back through King David to Abraham. The list of names may appear boring, but it shows that Jesus is a man of history. He is not some fictional hero: his line could be traced through generations. Luke’s Gospel follows his genealogy from Mary right back to Adam. Jesus lived!

The man of mystery

We are told that Mary was ‘found with child’ before there had been any sexual union between her and Joseph. As the Bible puts

it, ‘before they came together’, she was pregnant. Mary herself questioned, ‘How will this be…since I am a virgin?’

Fascinatingly, the Bible is full of prophecies. Isaiah was a prophet who served in the royal household of his day. Around 700 years before the birth of Jesus, he spoke about the virgin mother giving birth: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.’ Strange as it was, God had clearly said that this would happen.

To reassure both Mary and Joseph, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’ The Holy Spirit is God himself at work in the world both then and now. Jesus was conceived of deity and humanity.

The man of prophecy

The biography of Jesus is different from any other. It was written before he was born! Prophets, writing hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth, tell us in detail about the life and work of the coming Messiah, the promised King who was going to save his people.

No one else in history has had their life story written before their birth. But God made it very clear for all who would care to see that Jesus is the One who would come as Saviour of the world.

The prophets said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and of a virgin. They said that he would come out of Egypt but live in Nazareth. The prophets foretold King Herod’s slaughtering of innocent children in Bethlehem. They told of the Messiah’s ministry in Galilee, the miracles that he would perform, his teaching in parables, and then a detailed description of his death on the cross.

Long before Jesus’s birth, and even before crucifixion had been devised as a means of capital punishment, the prophets describe in detail his death, burial, and resurrection.

The man of deity

Jesus has many names. He is called ‘Christ’, but also ‘Jesus’, as well as ‘Immanuel’, which means, ‘God with us’. The infinite God had stooped into the world he had made; the Creator became like us, his creation, as God clothed himself in humanity. God had taken on himself flesh and bones and blood and made his dwelling among us.

The infinite God had made himself weak as he came into our world. God, who is vast beyond all measure, came to earth with the purpose of rescuing the very people who had rebelled against him with our wrongdoing. Jesus is the God-man.

Again, the prophets had foretold this: ‘For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given;

and the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end…’

The Son was not born – because he had always been – he was given. Everything that God the Father is, Jesus is also. God had come into the world. The tiny baby laid in a manger, is, as the carol puts it, ‘God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.’ Another carol says, ‘Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity!’

Jesus repeatedly claimed to be God. He applied God’s name to himself. Centuries before the birth of Jesus, God had said his name was ‘I am’. So Jesus’s listeners knew exactly what he was saying about himself when he said, ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ He was saying he is God.

Jesus did what only God can do. As he raised the dead, healed the sick, fed the hungry, calmed the storm at sea, and rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion, he was showing he was God. Jesus lived a totally pure life, as only God can do. No wonder we celebrate his birth!

The man of humanity

It is clear that Jesus, though fully God, is fully human. He had a virgin conception, but a normal birth. Yet what an extraordinary man he was! The angel had said to Mary that she would give birth to a Son who should be called Jesus: ‘He will be great, and will be called the Son of the highest; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’

Jesus knew human emotions. He loved humanity, cared for the underdog, went after the despised, wept and laughed, delighted to be with others and yet was content to be alone. He cared for the very people who would crucify him.

Like any other person, Jesus experienced hunger and thirst. He could be tired and tempted. And yet he never sinned. He never experienced a guilty conscience. He never needed to apologise.

Who is this man whose birth

we celebrate?

By Roger Carswell

Roger works full-time speaking to students and adults about the believability of the Christian faith and its relevance to the modern world.

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 21

Testimonies

Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023 | 13

His enemies could not fault him. Judas, the disciple of Jesus who betrayed him, committed suicide saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ Pontius Pilate, who in an act of cowardice sentenced Jesus to death, appealed to those baying for Jesus’s crucifixion: ‘Why, what evil has he done? I have found no reason for death in him!’ The Roman soldier who oversaw the crucifixion said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’

Those closest to Jesus said that he ‘knew no sin’, ‘committed no sin’, and he was ‘without sin’ and ‘in him there is no sin’. Jesus was like us all,

except that he lived the life that we were actually made to live but have fallen short of.

The man of destiny

Have you ever wondered what Jesus’s greatest achievement was? When the angel appeared to Joseph, he said that Mary would give birth to ‘a Son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’.

Jesus was born to die. That was his greatest work. Yes, he healed the sick, and raised the dead; he lived a perfect life and gave to the world the greatest teaching, but when he died, he

was taking on himself the sin of the world.

Sin is breaking the commandments God has given us. Our sins cut us off from him. They would keep us out of heaven and condemn us to hell. Yet out of love for us, Jesus came to deal with all our wrong. The baby laid in a crib was to die on a cross. Our sin and its penalty was to be placed on Jesus. It did not contaminate him, but he carried it and paid the penalty for it.

He did so out of love for each of us. He took on himself God’s rightful anger against the sin of the world. And in doing so he was

dealing with the greatest problem that all of us face. He was providing a way of forgiveness to all who will turn from their own ways and trust him. No wonder we commemorate the birth of Jesus. What a destiny he had!

It didn’t stop with the cross. Jesus was taken and laid in a sealed tomb. But he didn’t remain there. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead. The prophets, and he himself, had said that he would do so. The body that went into the grave came out, risen and victorious. Jesus is alive.

It is the living Christ who offers to all freedom and

forgiveness; new, eternal life; and a relationship with God that lasts through life and death and into eternity. Heaven is not a reward for doing good – otherwise we would all be excluded: our sin would condemn us all to hell. Heaven is a gift, which Jesus purchased and offers to anyone who will call upon him to be their Lord and Saviour.

Will you today thank Jesus for his love in coming to the world to die for your sin? Will you ask him, by his Holy Spirit, to live in your life and make all things new? How you respond to Jesus matters for all eternity.

The Bible’s core message of the forgiveness of our sins through the life and death of Jesus Christ was known in my family for several generations. Both sets of my grandparents were believers. My paternal grandfather, Charles Evans, was a founding member of Ely Baptist Church in Cardiff.

My mum and dad both professed faith and were baptised as young people. After the war they were married and lived in Canton, in the same house my mum was born in.

They began to attend the nearby Methodist church. Sunday school and church attendance have always been part of my life. Sadly, the preaching of the gospel was not clear in this church, and my mum and dad’s attendance declined.

All of my brothers and sisters (I’m one of seven) attended the Sunday school. I also went regularly to the morning and evening services once I could go on my own, although I think I did sleep through many of the evening services!

The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible says, ‘God has put eternity in our hearts,’ and while as a young boy I engaged in all the usual activities (football, climbing trees, and even getting into fights), I always knew there was more than just life in this world. I often found myself wondering about whether I would exist after my death.

God has put ‘eternity in our hearts’

By Dave Evans

My Aunty Ivy (Dad’s sister) had a strong faith that was what we call ‘experimental’ (inwardly felt and outwardly lived each day). She was a great influence on us all. Whenever I stayed with her on a weekend, I would attend her church where the gospel was clearly preached.

However, it was not until I was a young teenager that a critical event happened. My older sister, Pat, went to a Christian youth camp at a place called Bala in North Wales. She

went away for a week and came back a different person. My mum often said we fought like cats and dogs as children, but became the best of friends as teenagers. She had been converted to Christ!

I started to go with her to a small Presbyterian Mission on the Gabalfa estate. This was run by two people called Richard and Joyce Akrill. I knew that what I was hearing was what I needed. I began diligently reading my Bible alongside a book called Search the Scriptures, but it was hard work.

After some time I began to wonder if I could keep this up for the rest of my life. My enthusiasm began to wane. As I was about to give up, I heard a midweek Bible study on Isaiah 40:28-31. In particular, these words struck me: ‘Even youths shall faint and be weary, and men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles.’

Suddenly things began to fall into place. I was trusting in myself, whereas I really needed to trust another. In the following months my understanding grew. Bala Camps, the Aberystwyth Conference, and the preaching of the Word week by week brought me to the point where, as a 15 year old, I could say I was truly a believer.

Around that time I discovered a hymn which has remained a favourite to this day:

A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing; nor fear, with your righteousness on,

my person and offering

to bring; the terrors of law and

of God with me can have nothing to do; my Saviour’s obedience and blood

hide all my transgressions from view.

At the end of the 1960s we moved, as a group, to the Heath Church in Cardiff. Then in 1971 I came to Swansea to study. I made many Christian friends in the CU and at Tabernacle, Waun Wen, who remain friends today, for which I am so grateful.

In 1977 I married Ann, and the Lord gave us three lovely daughters, followed by lots of energetic grandchildren! Over the past years it has been a great privilege to serve the Christian church in different ways.

I don’t think anyone will want to write my biography. In many ways it has been an ordinary life filled with the common joys, sorrows, and trials we all share, but becoming a Christian transforms everything. Again, as the hymnist says:

Heaven above is softer blue, earth around sweeter green; something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never

seen: birds with gladder songs

o’erflow, flowers with deeper beauties

shine, since I know, as now know,

I am his and he is mine.

‘Suddenly things began to fall into place. I was trusting in myself, whereas I really needed to trust another.’

22 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

Testimonies

I felt life had no purpose;

I was wasting away

14 | Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023

By Monika Piotrowska

My story wouldn’t be worth telling if it wasn’t for God. If I were to imagine a friend approaching me five years ago and telling me how much God would change my life, my old self would laugh in disbelief!

My name is Monika Piotrowska, and I am married to Artur Piotrowski, who is the minister of a church called Grace Baptist Maidstone in Kent.

I was born in Poland in 1988 and was raised as a ‘good’ Roman Catholic girl. However, I also saw and experienced New Age practices, as my parents were involved in both.

Struggling with sin

In my early teenage years, I struggled a lot with sin. I loved my family deeply, yet I could hurt them just as deeply too, and would end up feeling heartbroken.

Growing up, I also saw a lot of hypocrisy in the Roman Catholic church, where I was simply given a list of do’s-and-don’ts and told that I was a sinner. I never heard about the grace or mercy of God.

Meanwhile, New Age ideas suggested that I was inherently good and had a ‘divine spark’ within. I was at a loss! I was also torn over the heavy guilt I felt and my inability not to do what was wrong.

Things deteriorated to a point where I questioned whether it was worth even living. In the end I chose to sin and not feel bad about it (this does not work in practice!). I wanted to be god of my own life.

Running on empty

After graduating from university in Poland, I decided to move abroad and in 2011 I landed in Edinburgh, Scotland. While I was pursuing a career and selfish desires, God had been gradually working in my heart, though at the time I didn’t know it.

I began pondering how people can commit terrible crimes such as murder; how people can both love some people and hate others. I also thought about my own heart;

how I wasn’t so different from the people I condemned as evil. I knew that in my own heart too there was pride, jealousy, anger, and selfishness.

I convinced myself that by doing what I wanted I would get better, but in reality I was growing worse with every passing year.

I started seeing how empty my life was; there was no purpose and I felt I was just wasting away. Everything felt repetitive and ultimately meaningless. The Bible says of life under the sun, ‘Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.’

Searching

The conclusion was to start looking for meaning. There must be something! Surely we cannot

be an accident! For a couple of years I was researching: archaeology, history, physics, looking at different religions, etc. There were a lot of interesting things I was finding out, but after a while, I kept coming to the same conclusion: ‘That’s not it.’

I then stumbled across some debates between Christians and atheists. To my surprise, Christians were answering a lot of questions I used to have when I was still at school that were treated as an ‘elephant in the room’.

To my even greater surprise, I found that, drop by drop, the Word of God that was quoted in the debates was trickling into me; seeds were being sown in my heart.

I heard solid answers about what the meaning of life is, why there is evil, and what happens after we die. Each answer pointed back to the Scriptures; to God.

One afternoon, I remember standing up and saying: ‘God, I know you are real, I know the Bible is your word. I may not understand it, but I know it’s true.’

Changes

This was a season of change. God gradually began to show me the sinfulness of many aspects of my life, even my own thoughts. It was as if someone had tripped a fire alarm in my brain.

I remember how one time I had a sinful thought and heard my conscience impress upon me that God sees your thoughts.

No! I thought. I wanted to resist the idea, but I knew deep down that it was true. Nothing can be hidden from God.

Spiritually I was still confused: I believed that there was a God, but I didn’t yet believe in him – I hadn’t submitted to him!

I listened to some more talks from Christians and heard it said that we are all sinners, that we all fall short of God’s glory, but that God provided a Saviour, Jesus Christ, his own Son, who lived a perfect life and who died a terrible death on a cross to pay for the sins of the world.

This man then rose up from death, ascended into heaven, and is now seated at the right hand of God. What I needed to do was repent (turn away from my sinful life) and put my faith in Jesus and his accomplished work on the cross.

At the end of the talk, those who were listening were encouraged to pray, and if they didn’t know how, they could repeat a simple prayer.

I knew that I was not reconciled with my Creator and I felt daunted by trying to pray. So one evening I decided to repeat that simple prayer that I heard.

Every word I said I believed in my heart and knew it was the truth. I finished, sat down, and felt peaceful, but not much changed!

‘ I convinced myself that by doing what I wanted I would get better, but in reality I was growing worse with every passing year.’

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 23

Features

S0urce: Shutterstock

Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023 | 15

Broken

A few days later, in the autumn of 2018 while I was sitting in my flat in the evening, something happened. The Lord broke me and opened my eyes to personally understand the great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

I was on my knees crying. The Lord brought to my remembrance many sins from my life; I felt the weight and guilt of them; God allowed me to see how I had really hated him, rebelled against him in my choices, and yet he still loved me and gave himself up for me through the person of his Son, Jesus!

I agreed with what was said in God’s Word that I deserved only hell – it was my ‘wages’ – and that God would be good and righteous in giving me that punishment. I realised that even the good things I tried to do were driven by selfish motives.

Yet God also showed me how incredible and wide his love is – that all of my debt to him, all the guilt of my sin, has already been paid on the cross. The Bible says, ‘God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’

Saved

My heart flooded with gratitude and love for my Saviour! I could say with the Old Testament character Job, ‘I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.’

Until that moment it was all in my head, but after that evening it became a reality in my heart. ‘You were washed,’ the Bible says about becoming a Christian, ‘you were sanctified… you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.’

It wasn’t my prayer that saved me, it was God. Something profound had

happened. I couldn’t explain it, but I knew God changed me. Within the first few days following, the Lord graciously took away certain sins that I couldn’t stop doing before. Bad language no longer came out of my mouth; blaspheming stopped – it wouldn’t even come up in my thoughts.

I did learn, however, that to follow the Lord there is a price to pay, and that is the giving up of our old life with all its sins. This is worth it! It is a joy to ‘gain Christ and be found in him’, as the Bible says.

I remember reading Romans 6:4-6 in the Bible

not long after God saved me, which described what had happened to me perfectly: my old sinful self had ‘died’, but there was also great rejoicing in a new life clothed in Christ’s righteousness. The darkness had gone and light had burst in!

‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Since that autumn in 2018, I have known that no matter what I was going through, God has always been with me.

One of the best-known Christmas carols is ‘Once in royal David’s city’. It was written by Cecil Frances Alexander whose husband became bishop of Derry. Mrs Alexander, as she was known, wrote 400 hymns, including ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘There is a green hill far away’. She wrote hymns for children, many of which were published in her Hymns for Little Children.

Carols explain the wonder of the Christmas story. They focus on the birth of Jesus who changed the world and the lives of countless people.

Once in royal David’s city, stood a lowly cattle shed, where a mother laid her baby, in a manger for his bed: Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ her little child. He came down to earth from

heaven, who is God and Lord of all, and his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall: with the poor and mean and lowly, lived on earth our Saviour holy.

Jesus came from heaven, where he had lived eternally with his Father. He is ‘God and Lord of all’: both truly God and truly man. He was born the child of a young virgin mother and in lowly circumstances. He came to be the Saviour of all who would put their trust in him. His father, Joseph, was told to give him the name Jesus, ‘because he will save his people from their sins’.

Once in royal David’s city

During his life, Jesus experienced the joys and sorrow of living in this world.

And through all his wondrous childhood, day by day like us he grew, he was little, weak, and helpless, tears and smiles like us he knew: and he feeleth for our sadness, and he shareth in our gladness.

When we know Jesus as our Saviour, we are greatly encouraged in knowing that he understands everything we experience in this world and can give us strength to face it. Jesus came into this world to open the way for us to go to heaven where we will see him in all his glory.

And our eyes at last shall see him through his own redeeming love, for that Child so dear and gentle, is our Lord in heaven above: and he leads his children on t..o the place where he is gone. Not in that poor lowly stable, with the oxen standing by, we shall see him: but in heaven, set at God’s right hand on high, where like stars his children crowned, all in white shall wait around.

That is the hope we all need in our sad and troubled world.

By Peter Milsom

An elder at St Mellons Baptist Church, Cardiff, and Chairman of Associating Evangelical

Churches of Wales.

‘Carols explain the wonder of the Christmas story. They focus on the birth of Jesus who changed the world and the lives of countless people.’

24 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

Testimonies

16 | Evangelical Times, Christmas Good News, December 2023

By Matthew Kuhlmann

My prayerful hope in writing this is to encourage men and women that God is faithful, sovereign over salvation, and can take the worst of men and use them for good.

Just over eight years ago I was 35 and living a wild and barbaric lifestyle. I was heathen to the core, believing in Norse gods, considering myself a modern-day Viking. I was angry, aggressive, and violent. I would carry a knife around. I was addicted to steroids, painkillers, pornography, and all forms of sexual immorality.

I was living in north Devon with my then-girlfriend, Celia. We had moved there from southwest London to escape the drug and alcohol addiction that had been consuming me.

Celia was also not a believer, but she had always loved reading about religion, either ancient or modern. She saw an article claiming that if you want to disprove Christianity, then you should read the Gospels. You’d see the inconsistencies and the whole game would be up.

Celia downloaded a Bible app, and in the dead of night while in bed, she worked her way through the four Gospels. She saw no inconsistencies in the Gospel accounts. She saw her need of the Jesus they presented to her. She believed. Round about this time I had just nearly died twice from overdosing on codeine. I was in a desperate state, and knew I needed help.

False starts

We began going to a church with parents of a friend Celia grew up with. I was captivated, and shortly after professed faith in Christ. We then discussed baptism, and the fact we were living together unmarried. We knew that this had to change. On Good Friday of that year we were both baptised and then married immediately after in bath robes.

We attended church twice on Sundays, home groups in the week, and we even started the intern program at the church. But there was one serious and

growing issue: I was guilty of gross unconfessed sin, and I was completely unrepentant.

As the months went on I began to get worse. I opened a gym, and I soon started taking steroids again, as well as painkillers. My harder image and persona came out more and more, and my addiction to porn became more overwhelming and more vile.

My place of work became a den of iniquity, and it pains me to say that this led to multiple affairs and further sexual depravity. Couple this with increasing use of steroids, even to the point of being rushed to hospital on different occasions and my wife being told that if I did not stop then I would die.

In my arrogance and pride, I ‘knew better’, and continued down this self-destructive path, still professing to believe in Jesus and be a Christian.

New birth

The problem was that the Jesus I believed in was one of my own imagination; a false idol. Celia knew in her heart what was going on, but I would deny it so convincingly and was so manipulative that she suffered terribly.

But by God’s grace she persevered in prayer. She prayed for me, praying for change and praying that God would reveal to her who her husband truly was. God heard her cry. He heard her prayers and he answered her. But the answer to prayer was devastating. After four years of living like this, throwing myself wilfully into deeper and deeper sin, Celia confronted me directly, and I began to confess.

God truly for the first time

moved in my heart by the power of his Holy Spirit, convicting me of my sin, bringing me to confession and repentance. I was born again and submitted to the lordship of Christ.

We know that birth is a traumatic ordeal, and the ‘new birth’ involved in becoming a Christian is no different. Over the course of a year I continued to face up to and confess before God one area of sin in my life after another.

God literally squeezed every drop of sinful behaviour out. He left nothing hidden and brought it all into the light. My wife heard things that no wife should ever have to hear, and God truly revealed to her who her husband really was. By God’s grace, Celia was given the strength to stay with me and help me through the process.

We became very reclusive during this year, turning to the Bible as we read and prayed together. We immersed ourselves in sound evangelical teaching for hours each day. The biggest impact on me was grasping these words of Jesus, ‘If you love me you will keep my commandments.’

God totally transformed me, renewing my mind, sanctifying me by his Word, and growing me in faith by the hearing of his Word. He also held Celia so perfectly in his hand, comforting her and growing her in faith and trust in him.

New direction

The work of the Lord in turning a man from pure wickedness to a life of devoted service has been astonishing to me. It is by his gracious will that he has chosen to now use me as an instrument for good.

The Lord has led us through such an intense period of growth and development that I feel I can benefit others who have either gone down the dark path I did, or feel tempted to do so.

We are now serving members of a small, faithful church in Cornwall, where I am blessed to have the privilege of preaching God’s Word every week. I have felt called to full-time pastoral ministry, and I now look forward to God leading me to the right situation in which I can pursue and fulfil that calling further.

Having been so broken over my sin and seeing the depths of the devastation that sexual immorality, porn, drugs, alcohol, false professions of faith, and concealing sin, I feel compelled to help others through this. I want to use my past and what God has dealt with in me to preach, teach, and disciple men who are stuck, struggling, and lost as I once was.

I knew about Jesus,

but I didn’t really know him

‘ The problem was that the Jesus I believed in was one of my own imagination; a false idol. Celia knew in her heart what was going on, but I would deny it so convincingly and was so manipulative that she suffered terribly.’

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 25

Features

Fear not, I bring you good news

It happened without warning in the middle of the night. God’s angel appeared to the shepherds as they watched their flock. If that wasn’t terrifying enough, divine glory blazed around them. This was not normal light and the men were clearly petrified. Immediately the angel reassured them with the words, ‘Fear not!’

The angel went on to announce the good news of great joy: Christ the Messiah was born at Bethlehem. Throughout Scripture the phrase ‘Fear not’ is continually used. One commentator said that it’s recorded 365 times, as though God is giving us this message every single day of the year.

Fear, of course, is an indispensable element in our lives, essential for survival. Only fools are not afraid. In the book Moby Dick, set in the old days of whale fishing, the chief mate said that he wanted no man in his boat who was not afraid of a whale. He knew that fear can focus the mind and be a powerfully creative force.

We have many examples of this. Schools spring from fear of ignorance; industry from fear of poverty; medicine from fear of disease.

However, it can also be a terribly destructive force. When it creates terror and obsessive anxiety, it rips the personality to shreds and causes great distress. And the fear that causes the greatest torment is inevitably the fear of death.

Whenever surveys are carried out, it is this dread that alarms people the most. In spite of ever-increasing advances in medical technology, no one has found

a way to lessen people’s fear of dying. But this is a condition that no believer should remain in. It’s right here that God tells us, ‘Fear not!’

During the First World War there was a French soldier called Louis Delcourt. Tired and dejected, one day he overstayed his leave and, fearing punishment, decided to desert. He persuaded his mother to hide him in the attic of their home, and there he remained for 21 years.

But in August 1937 his mother died. There was now no chance of remaining in hiding. Pale and haggard, he ventured outside for the first time in years and staggered along to the nearest police station, where he gave himself up. The police officer looked at him in astonishment and asked, ‘Where have you been? Have you not heard?’ ‘Heard what?’ asked Delcourt. ‘That a law of amnesty for all deserters was passed years ago. You are free!’

Louis Delcourt had freedom, but he hadn’t enjoyed it because he didn’t know that he had it. Sadly, the same is true with many today. They have been set free by

Christ’s victory on the cross, but have not fully grasped the enormity of that truth. There are a great many Christians who still live in continual fear of death.

Not only is this dishonouring to God, it grieves his heart. It’s not his will to have his children live in fear. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 says, ‘Do not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope.’ If we Christians believe a fraction of what we say, we believe there is little to fear over death.

That’s not to belittle the agony of the loss of a loved one, and as a father who has lost a child, I know how painful it is. It’s a dreadful time for those left behind – but not for the believer who has passed on. Longevity has its place, but the longest life is very brief.

The sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ forced open the door that had been locked since the death of the first man. All those whose faith is in Christ now share that victory over death.

Hebrews 2:14-15 says, ‘Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him

who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.’

That’s why Christ said: ‘Because I live you shall live also.’ With that knowledge Paul could say with confidence, ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where O death, is your sting?’ (1 Corinthians 15:55).

Satan has no power of death over the believer because they have already died in Christ. At conversion the believer crucifies his old nature on the cross with Christ and accepts, by faith, God’s new nature into his life. Because he has identified with Christ at the cross, he can now share in his triumph over the grave.

The story is told of a boy and his father who were travelling in a car when a bee flew through the window. The boy was frantically jumping around trying to avoid the bee and clearly distressed. Then the father calmly reached out and grabbed it. When he opened his hand, the bee began to fly again and the boy once more became agitated. But the father said, ‘Look at my hand, it’s got the sting of the bee. He can’t use it anymore. He’s only got one sting.’

Death, too, only has one sting, and that was spent when Jesus took it on the cross. Death, though still an enemy, is now a defeated foe and can be faced with confidence. The German theologian Helmut Thielicke said the New Testament writers were so aware of this truth that they showed a near ‘contempt’ for the last enemy. They knew that death was simply the gateway to their eternal home.

Let us remember this Christmas that the purpose of Christ coming into the world was to save sinners and to crush the power of death over man. We must never think of his cradle without also thinking of his cross. That is the central theme of the Scriptures: Jesus Christ, born at Bethlehem, came by eternal plan to save all those who would repent and believe, and in so doing would remove the sting of death forever.

By Billy Hill

Member of Charminster Chapel, Bournemouth.

‘Let us remember this Christmas that the purpose of Christ coming into the world was to save sinners and to crush the power of death over man.’

S0urce: Shutterstock

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Features

Evangelical Times, December 2023 | 11

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. Buckingham Chapel, Queen’s Road, Clifton, BS8 1LQ. Sunday 11.00am & 6.00pm, Wednesday 7.30pm. Contact: Pastor Oliver Gross, tel: 0117 3368711. www.buckinghamchapel.org.uk

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

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

DERBYSHIRE

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.

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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

DEVON

BARNSTAPLE. Whiddon Valley Evangelical Church (Reformed), Stoat Park. Sundays 11.00am & 6.30pm, Thursdays 10.30am. Pastor David Kay, tel: 01271 269213. www.wvec.org.uk

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.

FALMOUTH. Carrick Free Baptist Church, Bosvale Community Centre, off Hillside Road, TR11 4HQ. Sunday 10.45am & 6.30pm. Tel: 01209 862920. E-mail: carrickfbc@gmail.com www.carrickfbc.org.uk

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

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

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

BARKING. Upney Baptist Church, 11-13 Cavendish Gdns, Barking, IG11 9DS. Sun AM service: 11am w/tea & coffee after. Tues prayer meeting / small groups: 7:30pm. Email us at upneybc@gmail.com or visit upneybaptist.org.uk for more info. Sermons available on YouTube (@upneybaptist).

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

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.

Continued on page 30

The following is an edited extract from Good tidings of great joy, published by Banner of Truth in 2023.

The Lord Jesus Christ has come in human flesh that his people might ‘receive the adoption of sons’. What does this expression mean? Why, to feel, ‘Now I am under the mastery of love, as a dear child, who is both loved and loving. I go in and out of my Father’s house, not as a casual servant,

called in to work, but as a child at home.

‘My God is my Father, and the light of his countenance makes me glad. I am not afraid of him, but I delight in him. Nothing can separate me from him. I feel towards him that perfect love which casteth out fear, and I rejoice to be owned as his child.’

Try and enter into that blessed experience if you are indeed a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, for this is why he has come in the flesh – on purpose that you, his people, may be to the full the adopted children of the Lord, receiving and enjoying all the privileges which sonship secures to you.

Then, next, exercise your heirship. One who is a son, and who knows that he is the heir of all his father’s estates, does not pine in poverty, nor act like a beggar. He looks upon everything that his father possesses as being his own; he regards his father’s wealth as making him rich. He does not feel that he is stealing if he takes what his father has made to be

his own, but he makes free with it.

I wish believers would make free with the promises and blessings of their God. Help yourselves to all that he has laid up in store for you, for no good thing will the Lord withhold from you if you walk uprightly. All things are yours – you only need to use the hand of faith, and so to take possession of

them. If you appropriate a promise of your Father’s, it will not be pilfering; you may take it boldly, and say, ‘This is mine.’

Your adoption into the family of God brings with it large rights; be not slow to claim them. Among men, sons are only heirs in anticipation so long as their fathers are alive; they only become heirs in possession when their fathers are dead. But

our Father in heaven lives, yet we have the full privileges of heirship in him even now.

The Lord Jesus Christ was made of a woman on purpose that his dear people might at once enter into their heirship. You ought to feel a sweet joy in the perpetual relationship which is now established between you and God, for Jesus is still your brother. You have been adopted by God, and he has never cancelled that adoption yet.

There is such a thing as regeneration, but there is not such a thing as the life then received dying out. If you are born unto God, you are born unto God. The stars may turn to coals, and the sun and moon may become clots of blood, but he that is born of God has a life within him which can never end; he is God’s child, and God’s child he shall be for ever.

Therefore let him walk at large like a child, an heir, a prince of the blood royal of heaven, who bears a relationship to the Lord which neither time nor eternity can ever destroy.

The Incarnation and our sonship

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Baptist pastor and author, 1834–1892.

S0urce: Shutterstock

28 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

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12 | Evangelical Times, December 2023

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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@btinternet.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

FLAMBOROUGH, Bridlington. 3 bedroom cottage, sleeps 6. Pets welcome. Beach one mile. Tel: 07804 691736. www.coblecottageflamborough.co.uk

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

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 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 conversion. Quiet country location. www.thestablehailsham.co.uk Tel: 01323 841227. E-mail: longleysfarmcottage@gmail.com

HOLIDAYS SCOTLAND

CULLEN, Scotland. Three bedroom fisherman’s cottage, ensuite bedroom downstairs. Yards from sandy beach. www.dellwoodcottage.co.uk Contact: Estelle, 07580 545109.

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

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 29

CHIPPENHAM, Wiltshire. Ladyfield Church, Hungerdown Ln, SN14 0BA. Corsham & Chippenham Central Bible Study, 7.30pm. Speaker: Andrew Stone (Westbury). Contact (01225) 708643. www.cccbs.org.uk.

Preacher: David Gayton. Contact: (01902) 673150.

RIPON. Zion Evangelical Baptist Church, Blossomgate, Ripon, HG4 2AJ. North Yorkshire Bible Rally 60th Anniversary mtg, 7:45pm. Speaker: David Campbell (North Preston). nybr.co.uk.

CHIPPENHAM, Wiltshire. Ladyfield Church, Hungerdown Ln, SN14 0BA. Corsham & Chippenham Central Bible Study, 7.30pm. Speaker: Guy Davies (Westbury). Contact (01225) 708643. www.cccbs.org.uk

CHIPPENHAM, Wiltshire. Ladyfield Church, Hungerdown Ln, SN14 0BA. Corsham & Chippenham

DEC

7

CHIPPENHAM, Wiltshire. Ladyfield Church, Hungerdown Ln, SN14 0BA. Corsham & Chippenham Central Bible Study, 7.30pm. Speaker: John Lewis (Calne). Contact (01225) 708643. www.cccbs.org.uk.

DUDLEY. Providence Chapel, Bell End, Rowley Regis B65 9LU. Last opening of the year of the Christian Heritage Centre, with large second-hand book sale, 1.30pm-4.00pm. All most welcome; suggested donation of £4.50 for tea. Further details, tel. 01384 637314 / www.christianheritagecentre.org.uk. The Centre can be opened for groups or parties at other times by arrangement.

GORNAL, W. Midlands. Gornal Bible Fellowship, Lake Street Church, Lake St, Gornal, DY3 2AU. Meeting, 7.15pm.

Events Diary

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.

Evangelical Times, December 2023 | 13

Events

DEC

1

DEC

2

Central Bible Study, 7.30pm. Speaker: Peter Cresswell (Yatton). Contact (01225) 708643. www.cccbs.org.uk

GORNAL, W. Midlands. Gornal Bible Fellowship, Lake Street Church, Lake St, Gornal, DY3 2AU. Meeting, 7.15pm. Preacher: Tom Millward. Contact: (01902) 673150.

DARLINGTON. Geneva Road Evangelical Baptist Church, Geneva Road, Darlington, DL1 4HS. North Yorkshire Bible Rally, 7.45pm. Preacher: Mick Lockwood (Haworth). www.nybr.co.uk.

CHIPPENHAM, Wiltshire. Ladyfield Church, Hungerdown Ln, SN14 0BA. Corsham & Chippenham Central Bible Study, 7.30pm. Speaker: Geoff Thomas (Aberystwyth). Contact (01225) 708643. www.cccbs.org.uk.

CHIPPENHAM, Wiltshire. Ladyfield Church, Hungerdown Ln, SN14 0BA. Corsham & Chippenham Central Bible Study, 7.30pm. Speaker: Chris Buss (Melksham). Contact (01225) 708643. www.cccbs.org.uk.

DEC

8

JAN

5

JAN

6

JAN

11

JAN

12

JAN

19

JAN

26

Falmouth Evangelical Church

Killigrew Street, Falmouth , TR11 3PP

(Opposite Expressini)

Christmas Services

Carol Services

17th @ 10.30 am & 6.30 pm

Preachers:

Steve Fountain & Ian Leedham

24th @ 10.30 am & 6.30 pm

Our Pastor preaches

Christmas Day @ 10.30 am

Our Pastor preaches

All meetings DV.

Further information: 07717845652

www.fec.org.uk

30 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

14 | Evangelical Times, December 2023

Evangelical Times, November 2023 | 31

Advertising

Evangelical Times, December 2023 | 15

Trainee Pastor

Hayes Lane Baptist Church is a busy Grace Baptist Church of around 100 members based in Bromley.

We are looking to appoint a trainee pastor to serve and gain experience in a variety of activities.

This role would provide good local church experience for a recent Seminary Graduate or for an individual looking to explore a call to ministry.

For details or to apply, contact dan.jarvis@hlbc.co.uk before 31/1/2024.

32 | Evangelical Times, November 2023

We experience the story of Jesus’s birth in a variety of ways throughout the Christmas season. The story is presented through nativity scenes, TV shows, story books, paintings, and Christmas pageants.

In fact, we encounter the Christmas story so often we’re convinced we know all the details of what happened that night. But many of the things we think we ‘know’ about the Christmas story turn out to be incorrect. Here are five common misconceptions.

There was a star the night Jesus was born

It’s difficult to find a nativity scene (or Christmas play) without a star over the manger. Indeed, this might be the quintessential symbol of the birth of Jesus. The problem is there’s no indication the star hovered over the manger on the night Jesus was born.

On the contrary, when the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds watching their flocks by night (Luke 2), they weren’t told to look for a star. They were told to look for something else: ‘And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’

The star was given not to the shepherds but to the Magi (Matthew 2), who appear to be visiting Jesus at a later time period. How much later is

unclear, but the fact that Herod commands all the babies in the region younger than two years old to be killed suggests Jesus may have been in Bethlehem for some time.

There were three wise men

Speaking of the wise men, in both art and in song (‘We Three Kings’) we get the undeniable impression there were three of them (also called ‘Magi’). The problem, however, is that this number is found nowhere in the biblical accounts.

Matthew simply tells us, ‘Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem’ (Matthew 2:1). The idea of three wise men likely came from the fact that Matthew mentions three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

There was no room for them in the inn

Another staple of modern nativity plays is the scene at the inn. Joseph and his wife Mary – who is on the verge of giving birth – are cruelly turned away by the innkeeper who shows them no compassion. Here is

another popular misconception. The Bible never mentions an innkeeper. In fact, it’s possible there was never even an ‘inn’ at all.

A recent study by Stephen Carlson makes the case (a compelling one, I think) that the Greek word normally translated as ‘inn’ (καταλύματι) in Luke 2:7 is best translated as ‘place to stay’. So the passage isn’t saying there was no room in the inn, but rather there was no room for baby Jesus in the place they stayed.

In what place were they staying? Carlson argues it was probably in the home of Joseph’s family in Bethlehem, perhaps in an adjacent guest room (which would have been small).

Jesus was born in a barn or stable

Since Joseph could find no spot in the inn, the reasoning goes, he must have been forced to stay in the stable. Indeed, every nativity scene ever created places Jesus in a barn of sorts.

But the text doesn’t say he was born in a barn. It only says Mary ‘laid him in a manger’ (Luke 2:7). Although that might seem to suggest a barn, it was common for mangers to be kept in the main room of village houses during this time period.

Why? Because the animals were often housed just a few feet away in an adjacent room.

It seems likely, then, that Mary gave birth to Jesus while they were staying at the home of Joseph’s relatives in Bethlehem. But the room in which they stayed – likely a tight guest room or hastily added chamber – couldn’t accommodate a birth. So, Mary had to give birth in the larger family room and lay Jesus in the nearby manger.

Jesus was born on 25 December

If we celebrate Jesus’s birthday on 25 December, it’s logical to think this was the day on which he was born. But the precise date of Jesus’s birth is uncertain. A variety of options have been suggested throughout church history, including 21 March, 15 April, and 20 May.

So how did 25 December become the date? It’s commonly thought Christians took over the pagan holiday of Sol Invictus (‘Unconquered Sun’), which was on 25 December. But there’s little evidence to back this up.

Instead it seems early Christians may have reasoned from the supposed date of Mary’s conception, which was thought to be 25 March – the same day Jesus was thought to be crucified. Fast forward nine months and you land on 25 December for his birth.

Real Christmas story

These five misconceptions remind us that sometimes our picture of scriptural stories is shaped more by popular perceptions and modern retellings than by the text itself.

But when we take a closer look at the biblical clues, a wonderful – and hopefully more accurate – picture emerges of what happened that night nearly 2,000 years ago.

And what happened that night still stands as one of the most monumental events in human history. God became a man and entered our dark, cold world to redeem a sinful people. And that is a story that makes Christmas worthy of being ‘Merry’.

Five popular misconceptions

about the Christmas story

Features

By Michael Kruger

President of Reformed Theological Seminary’s campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he also serves as professor of New Testament.

16 | Evangelical Times, December 2023

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‘Many of the things we think we “know” about the Christmas story turn out to be incorrect.’

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