12.06.09
The Deceitfulness of Sin
The following is taken from John Angell James ‘Christian Father’s Present to his Children’ and the chapter on the Deceitfulness of the Heart. He is dealing with the gradual and almost insensible manner in which men are led on in sin.
‘No man becomes wicked all at once…. the heart does not offend and shock judgement all at once by asking for too much at first; it conceals the end of the career, and lets only so much be seen as is required for the immediate occasion. When the prophet of the Lord disclosed to Hazael his future enormities he exclaimed ‘Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this?’ The exclamation was perfectly honest… Little by little he was led forward in the course of iniquity, and, at length, exceeded by his wickedness the prophet’s prediction.’
He quotes from Jeremy Taylor’s Sermons ‘Vice at first is pleasing – then grows easy – then it is delightful – then it is frequent – then habitual – then confirmed – then the man is independent – then he is obstinate – then he resolves never to repent – then he dies – then he is damned.’
At the end of the section he counsels on the Deceitfulness of sin ‘Meditate, tremble and pray. Be alarmed at little sins, for they lead to great ones; at acts of sin for they tend to habits; at common ones, for they issue in those that are uncommon…. Sin is like a fire which should be extinguished in the first spark, for if it be left to itself, it will soon rage like a conflagration.’
G.B.
09.12.09
Making the Gospel Relevant!
This term immediately makes the conservative suspicious and the liberal excited. It is resisted as an innovation by one and taken as a mandate to innovate by the other. In a quest to make the Gospel relevant to the culture we live in, biblical principles of worship have been set aside and, in total contradiction to the intended goal, the Gospel has been emptied of its content and therefore of its power.
This is not to say we must not still strive to make the Gospel relevant to the culture we live in. We need to study to understand society so as to address the needs of the people we seek to witness to. If a missionary is sent to labour in a foreign land a huge emphasis is placed upon their coming to understand the customs, beliefs and worldview of the people they seek to reach. But something has happened in our conservative reformed Churches in the last century; and that is we have not come to grips with the cultural drift in our own societies. We preach to a neo-pagan culture as if it were still Christian. In terms of the evangelism of the New Testament Church in the book of Acts – we preach to Greeks as though they had all the categories of the Jews.
In our evangelism then it is imperative that we study the particular needs of our society and address them without compromising in any way the inviolable principles and doctrines of the Word of God. Gordon Keddie when examining Paul’s method of evangelism in Athens writes ‘If we merely trot out our canned Gospel message or moral outrage, without identifying the sinners specific need, we shall only be talking to ourselves. Paul never preached the Gospel in the abstract, he scratched were people itched.’
G.B.
09.03.09
Musing and Amusing are Opposites.
Neil Postman is well known for his cultural commentary ‘Amusing ourselves to Death.’ Gresham Machen beat him to it however, and that from a Christian perspective, writing in 1934. I think it will help you to stop clicking the internet icon on your computer as often as you do in those silent, quiet moments. It could be you have become dependent on your 10 minute internet fix, and if the bell does not chirp frequently enough to let you know something has landed in your inbox – you check and check and check again. Here’s Machen then, followed by Asaph and David.
‘I think the man who above all should be pitied is the man who has never learned to amuse himself without mechanical assistance when he is alone. Even babies are sometimes taught to amuse themselves. I remember when I was at Princeton I used to watch the baby of one of the professors on the Seminary campus. That self-reliant little mite of humanity would spend the entire morning in the middle of that great lesson how to use his lesuire time. He did not need to have anybody else rattle his rattle for him. Thankyou, if he needed a rattle at all, he could rattle his own rattle for himself. He was getting a good preparation for life. A person who can rattle his own rattle when he is a baby is very apt to be able to paddle his own canoe when he becomes a man.
‘The average American, however, remains a baby all his life. He is unable to rattle his own rattle. He has to have somebody else amuse him all the time. Leave him alone for five minutes, and he has to turn on his radio. It seems to make very little difference to him what the radio gives forth. All he wants is that some kind of physical impact shall be made on his eardrums – and incidently on everybody else’s eardrums – just to keep him from having one moment to himself. Turn off his radio even for a moment and the appalling emptiness of his life is at once revealed.’
Compare this with Asaph in Ps 77 ‘I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search’ v6. ‘I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of all thy doings.’ v10-11.
Or With David in Ps 143:5 ‘I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the works of thy hands.’
Ultimately Musing and Amusing (or being amused) are opposites!
G.B.
09.01.09
Covenant Children – What’s the difference anyway?
When I have in the past attempted to explain to non-paedobaptists the significance of seeing our children as in the Covenant of Grace, I have learned that they often see little difference in practice between how they view their children and how many paedo-baptists view their children. I can understand this because many paedo-baptists simply baptise their children and then do not view their children any differently in practice than Baptists. Both groups confine their view of the child as being privileged to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and as more ‘privileged’ than the children of unbelievers only in so far as they are exposed to the means of grace and a Christian home. However the doctrine of children in the covenant is more than this.
Recently I have been reading ‘Foundations of Christian Education’ by Van-Til and Berkhof and in Berkhof’s chapter on Education and the Covenant of Grace he deals wonderfully with the issues we address above.
On the Promises of the Covenant he says ‘There are promises for the present and for the future, promises for days of prosperity and for seasons of adversity, promises for the living and they dying. There are promises of renewed strength for those whose strength seems to fail, promises of courage for the faint hearted and of rest for the weary. There are promises of guidance through life and of deliverance out of temptations, promises of the support of the everlasting arms and of the good cheer for the afflicted and the discouraged, promises of security for storm tossed souls, promises too of an everlasting home for weary pilgrims…. And the promises – all the promises, as many promises as there are and that are yea and amen in Christ Jesus – are for us and for our children.’
Then he deals with the Requirements of the Covenant, introducing the concept of CONDITIONALITY. We must believe in the mediator of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only by saving faith that we become conscious partakers of the covenant life. This faith is wrought by the Spirit of God and of itself merits nothing. It is at this point that Berkhof deals with the issue of Covenant Children.
‘It is in this connection it is highly necessary to bear in mind that living in the covenant relationship is something more than living under the gospel, under the free offer of salvation. There is here something more than an offer, something more than a promise [made to all in that offer G.B]; there is an agreement. The covenant is an established covenant, a covenant agreeed to, agreed to by parents also for their children…. This means that, for the children of the covenant, the covenant is not merely an offer which they can accept or reject, but an agreement which they have entered; and that, if they do not live up to the terms of the agreeement, they are covenant breakers.’
Parents make the promise on their children’s behalf that they will be the Lord’s. In one sense they promise more than they can accomplish because they cannot give new life to their children, yet their promise is to devote their seed to God and to train them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord within the pale of the covenant. They make this promise entirely on the strength of the promises of the Lord and fulfil their obligation in trustful reliance on the Lord to give them a new heart and faith in Christ. Training their children in the way they should go, they look with expectancy that when those children are old they will not depart from this way.
G.B.
07.03.09
‘To You and Your Children’
Gavin’s essay on infant baptism entitled To You and Your Children has just been published by Reformed Worldview Publications. The booklet provides a concise and robust defence of covenantal infant baptism, encouraging us to rejoice in the promises of God and treat our children as he has commanded.
G.M.
06.23.09
Police Examine a Church’s Invitation Leaflet
Instances like this are evidence that things are getting worse in the U.K.
G.B.
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06.11.09
What the Bible says about Homosexuality (2)
Having introduced the subject in our first post we wish to move through some key passages of Scripture to establish what the bible says about homosexuality. As we proceed we will interact with arguments that are put forth by churchmen/women who attempt to defend homosexuality on biblical grounds, but we are persuaded come the end of our study what the Bible says will be clear to any honest mind.
1. The Created Order – Gen 1-2
Gen 1:27-28 ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image og God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.’
Gen 2:18, 20, 23-24 provide more detail concerning the creation of woman & the coming together of man and woman in marriage.
v18 ‘It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make an help meet for him.
v20 ‘And Adam gave names… but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.’
Adam had no companion in all of creation. So God created woman & brought them together v23-24.
‘And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.’
Its put forward by those in favour of Homosexuality that these verses are silent on the issue of homosexuality and therefore laregelly irrelevant to the debate, however there is an obvious significance in this silence.
(i) The Creation Order. God created man male & female.
When Adam had no helpmeet, God created a woman who was different to him physically, emotionally and sexually yet at the same time physically, emotionally & sexually COMPATIBLE to him.
Homosexuality lacks this compatibility and involves the use of body parts for purposes totally alien to what they are designed for and yet the great pretence of our society is that somehow this is natural. In reality this is a rejection of the obvious and a denial of what is self evident.
(ii) The Creation Mandate – to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth.
Homosexuality cannot fulfil this. The command can only be fulfilled by this designed sexual compatibility by which a man and a woman together have the potential to reproduce and procreate the race. Are we to believe that this command of God to precreate life, as given to our first parents, has homosexuality in view which of necessity is a culture of death.
(iii) The Creation Ordinance – Marriage as defined by Gen 2:23-24.
What God says here sets the legitimate parameters for all human sexual relations. One man and one woman joined together in marriage become ‘one flesh’ which includes physical intercourse. This excludes all pre-marital sexual promiscuity; adultery, polygamy and Homosexuality. The consistent and uncontradicted teaching of Scripture when it comes to human sexuality is that there are only two legitimate options – heterosexual marriage or celibacy.
The points made above are what we will be referring to as the ‘natural order’ or the ‘created order.’ It has become common to define what is natural in the realm of sexuality by our sinful tendencies after the Fall whereby we have perverted sexuality in a whole host of ways. But what God established in the beginning for man is what we are to regard as natural.
G.B.
05.30.09
What the Bible says about Homosexuality (1)
One of the legacies left to Western Nations from the sexual revolution of the 1960’s has been the increasing incidence, influence and tolerance of Homosexuality in society. Now some forty years on and Homosexuality has become one of the Crises of our time.
Since the turn of the century we (in the U.K.) have witnessed.
1. The introduction of Civil Partnership Legislation to legitimatise same sex relationships.
2. The Legalisation of adoption for same sex couples.
3. The teaching of the validity of Homosexual relationships to children as young as 6 in schools.
4. The increased manipulation of society by minority pressure groups and the media to promote the homosexual agenda.
5. The persecution as ‘homophobic’ of those who would question or oppose homosexuality.
An example of this from the U.S. would be the reaction to the comments of Miss California who had the audacity to say she believed that marriage should be between one man and one woman. There are many advocates of ‘tolerance’ who will not tolerate such a conviction.
Society has largely succumbed to the pressure but as with most things, sooner or later they begin to have an impact on the Church.
1. In 2003 Gene Robinson was appointed a Bishop in New Hampshire (USA). He was joined in civil union to his partner in 2008 & the controversy almost rent the Anglican Communion.
2. Closer to home (Scotland) last Saturday evening the Church of Scotland voted by a majority to induct an openly practicing homosexual minister, Scott Rennie, to the Queen’s Cross congregation in Aberdeen where he will live in the manse with his male partner.
How can this happen? How can something that has been condemned by the Church in both Testaments and in all ages as sinful, suddenly become acceptable? How can a Church that is supposed to follow the religion revealed in the Bible induct a practising Homosexual to the ministry of Word & Sacrament. Even to many irreligious people in the world this beggars belief.
The Answer is that the Church has rejected the Bible. Some Churchmen might boldly confess this. Others will be more subtle, they might say we need to adapt the Bible to the society we live in. We need to change. Others will say that they do believe the Bible and that (no matter about 2000 yrs of teaching) it does not condemn Homosexuality.
Despite all of the above it is our contention that the Bible is clear on the issue of Homosexuality – It is Sin. What has occurred in the Church of Scotland is a disgrace to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Church of God & it is because of this, and with a heavy heart we take up this issue.
G.B.
10.09.08
Voddie Baucham – Palin & the Pulpit
Truth must shape culture rather than culture shaping the truth.
(see the debate after the headlines in the following clip.)
G.B.
08.08.08
Deferred Adulthood
I have been reading the book ‘America Alone’ recently, by neo-con columist and commentator Mark Steyn. It is an interesting critique of the demise of Western Culture, particularly in Europe, due to the decline in birth-rate, dominance of socialism and the increase of Islamic Immigration. His assessment of where we are this side of the pond is acurate from where I am looking and he notes one of the specific symptoms of cultural breakdown here and in the US is “deferred adulthood.” Now before you read the following quote, I in no way, nor does this website condone nightclub dating! But the dating is not really the point as you will understand.
‘The chief characteristic of our age is deferred adulthood. All over North America and Europe there are millions of people going to college for no good reason. Certainly, there’s no reason why the sum of knowledge the average American has accumulated by the time he’s completed a bachelor’s degree should take twenty years to inculcate. We need to redirect the system to telescope education into a much shorter period. Instead, we’ve implicitly accepted that our bodies mature much earlier than our great-grandparents’ but that our minds don’t. We enter adolesence [not convinced there is such a thing, think we just made it up in the 20th century G.B] much sooner and leave it much later – in some cases not until middle age. We’ve created a world where a thirty-one year old European male can stroll into a nightclub, tell the babes he lives at his mom and dad’s place in the same bedroom he’s slept in since he was in diapers – and he can still walk out with a hot-looking date. This guy would have been a laughingstock at any other point in human history.’ (Quoted from America Alone – The End of the World As We Know it. Regnery Publishing 2006)
This is sad but true. Sadder still that too many Christians are following suit and want to be like that guy; only instead of the nightclub it might be in the Church youth group/rally/conference…..
G.B.
07.28.08
Lamentations (3)
The third article based on This lecture.
The ABC of Sorrow.
There is a very particular alphabetic structure underlying each of these poetic laments which is hidden from the English reader. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet and each lament is built around this. Chapters 1, 2 & 4 each have 22 verses and each verse begins with the subsequent letter of the alphabet. Chapter 3 is three times longer than the other laments having 66 verses but the same pattern is followed here with groups of three verses. Chapter 5 is different. It has 22 verses (the number of letters in the alphabet) but it does not follow the alphabetic sequence as the others do.
This alphabetic structure is not specific to Lamentations. It is found elsewhere in the Bible e.g. Ps 119, and when it is used by the Spirit of God we should take note as there is a reason for it. We suggest three possible explanations for the alphabetic structure of these laments.
Conscious sorrow.
Sometimes in grief we can lose control and are not quite sure what we are saying, or how to describe our pain. Lamentations is not the product of such uncontrolled grief. Instead each lament is the product of conscious reflection not impassioned outbursts. The grief expressed is no less painful for being reasoned. That pain would rather be increased as the full extent of the city’s destruction has been considered and digested. Time has been taken to evaluate the situation fully and describe the emotions of the heart.
Comprehensive Sorrow.
Jeremiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were brought to great depths of grief. As one reads these laments a picture of comprehensive grief is also painted. The various causes of grief are described in detail together with the extent of the emotional responses provoked in the afflicted soul. In the underlying alphabetic structure of Lamentations the Holy Spirit may be suggesting that what is given here is a brief compendium of spiritual grief, an A-Z of sorrow.
Commemorative Sorrow.
The design of this alphabetic pattern is also an aid to memory. The destruction of Jerusalem was monumental in the history of the Jewish nation. They must never forget the reasons for this devastation and the consequences of it. So God gave them a book in a format that could be easily committed to memory from childhood, a book of commemorative sorrow. Although we do not benefit from these features in our English Bible, the fact that it exists in the original ought to impress upon the Church in all ages the importance of this neglected book.
Why Study Lamentations?
Because we need to be schooled in the Art of Godly Sorrow.
The contemporary Church appears not to understand the place of grief in the Christian life. What should we grieve for and how should we grieve? In Lamentations God teaches us vital lessons about the place of godly sorrow in the life of the Christian and it should be studied in preparation for when sorrow comes, and to help those who sorrow now. We also learn about the place of godly sorrow in the life of the Church. We are not just to be individualistic in our sorrow but the broader interests of the Church and our nation should be kept on our hearts.
07.21.08
Lamentations (2)
The second in a series of articles on the book of Lamentations which stem from this lecture
How did it get its Title?
The title of Lamentations in the Hebrew Scriptures is the first word ‘ekah’ which means How. This is not a question but an exclamation of astonishment ‘How doth the city sit solitary that was so full of people!’ 1:1. Chapters 2 and 4 also begin with the same exclamation. In the 3rd century BC the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek (The Septuagint) and there the title is ‘The tears of Jeremiah.’ The Latin Vulgate follows the Septuagint, calling it ‘the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet’ and it is from this tradition that we get the title in our English Authorised Version.
Who Wrote Lamentations?
Whereas other books of the Bible clearly identify their author, Lamentations remains anonymous. Traditionally Jeremiah has been recognised as the author. We traced this tradition above when dealing with the title, and learned that Jeremiah has been identified as the author from at least the 3rd century B.C. To the title in the Septuagint was added a preface which reads ‘And it came to pass, after Israel was taken captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, that Jeremiah sat weeping, and lamented with this lamentation.’
It was almost universally accepted that Jeremiah was the author of Lamentations until the 18th century. Since then it has been objected that certain differences in phraseology, style and theology between the prophecy of Jeremiah and Lamentations mean that they could not both have the same author. E. J. Young critiqued a number of these objections and found the arguments offered against Jeremiah being the author to be of insufficient weight to reject the traditionally held view that Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations.
What Kind of Book is it?
It is not immediately obvious in our English Bible but Lamentations is a Poetic book. Its position in the Hebrew Bible hints at this, where it is found in the 3rd division of the scriptures known as ‘the writings’ or more generally as ‘the Psalms’ Luke 24:44.
More specifically it is a collection of Funeral Dirges or Laments. There are 5 in total and these are marked by the chapter divisions in our Bible. Together they sing of the destruction of Jerusalem as though she had died. Those of us familiar with Scots Irish culture have an illustration in the piper. He plays for the fallen in battle, you may find him at the head of a funeral procession but his strain is not a reel, it is a slow painful lament. Here are five laments for Jerusalem and to this day the Jews turn to them to read on the anniversary of a later destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
06.12.08
Welcome News From Westminster
At Last – some principle in house of Commons! David Davis the tory shadow home secretary has resigned his seat in the house of commons to force a by-election in his own constituency which he will fight on the issue of the erosion of liberties of the citizens of the UK. This follows a vote in the house of commons yesterday in which the government passed, by a majority of 9 (sadly DUP MP’s from Northern Ireland, most of whom are professing evangelical Christians), a bill to extend the length of time someone could be held without charge from 28 to 42 days.
This is a link to Mr Davis speech that he was not allowed to give in the house of commons and had to read to the media outside. He, like many has had enough, and now at last those who are so frustrated have something of a representation.
While we are thankful for this, the only way our liberties can be preserved is when our government returns to the establishment of law on the basis of the Biblical Law. We agree with Mr. Davies, but his position will prove as arbitrary as the government’s if the Word of God is not the basis for it. Either the law is king Lex Rex (as Samuel Rutherford argued) or the king/magistrate/parliament is law Rex Lex! We cannot remove God from government and then live in a legal and political vacuum – something claiming all His prerogatives will inevitably usurp His place.
G.B.
06.03.08
Lamentations (1)
It is my intention to publish a series of articles on the book of Lamentations. This stems from a lecture I gave on ‘Preaching From Lamentations’ which I was asked to adapt for our Church magazine.
Lamentations is one of those forgotten and neglected books of the Bible. Nestled as it is between the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel it is easy for us to pass over. As one of the most tragic books in the inspired record its dark themes are not naturally appealing and this may create a tendency to shy away from it both in private study and in preaching. However, Lamentations will greatly reward whoever stops to ponder its content, and that is what these articles are designed to encourage you to do.
The book was written in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BC. Following a long siege the city had been decimated. Her walls were torn down, her palaces burned and her temple plundered and destroyed. As for the inhabitants of the city, the majority had been slain or enslaved while a remnant remained struggling for existence in the face of cruel persecution and famine. The national, social, physical, psychological and spiritual devastation of Judah and Jerusalem was horrific. To the Jew the unthinkable had happened, even the impossible; Zion, the city of God had fallen!
In introducing this book Matthew Henry gives us some wise advice on its importance and the manner in which it should be approached. ‘Since what Solomon says, though contrary to the common opinion of the world, is certainly true, that sorrow is better than laughter, and it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, we should come to the reading and consideration of the melancholy chapters of this book, not only willingly, but with an expectation to edify ourselves by them; and that we may do this, we must compose ourselves to a holy sadness and resolve to weep with the weeping prophet.’
G.B.
04.04.08
Do you know an Iranian? Send them this Link.
Following from what we posted on the conversion of many to Christianity in Iran and their subsequent persecution, I am reminded of a website our brother Pooyan Mehrshahi has started.
Pooyan is the pastor in Providence Baptist Chapel, Cheltenham, England, an Iranian by birth although he was not from a Muslim family (Zoroastrian I think). The site is written in the Iranian language (Farsi) A Reformed Persian Blog.
(Pooyan is also the author of The Young Puritan blog.)
G.B
