"Nominal"

 "You, with your peace-loving theology... you don't care about truth".

Martin Luther to Erasmus.

"I think that if there's any escapism involved, it's in being able to survey danger and evil (when we read) without any disturbance to our spiritual equilibrium... The company who get worked up incorrectly about people really escaping (from real trials) are jailers!".

JRR Tolkien.

If I was to put you on the spot and ask you tell me right now what truths encapsulate genuine, biblical Christianity - what is the 'hub' you cannot do without in your faith, what would you say? What destination, as it were, to quote Dorothy Sayers, provides the drama from the dogma?

Would you, perhaps, take out a copy of the Apostles Creed, and begin to recite this as the 'essentials'? Would you refer me to the statements of a particular council or confession or a set of articles of belief?  Or would you just tell me to see your church at service on a Sunday?

If you were to seek to concentrate the truth to one particular statement, what would this be? What makes your Christianity truly tick?

I wonder if any of you thought of or turned to Romans chapter three.

No?

If you count yourself to be a Protestant, Evangelical believer, then I have to ask...

Why not?

The church is awash with "theology" of every manner of persuasion on every subject -  it is drowning in 'more politics and pragmatism than serious theological reflection' (Mike Horton - A Better Way), but 500 years ago, it became vitally apparent that there was only ONE truth by which the church would continually stand or fall.

Listen to the Apostle Paul spell it out to us:

"But NOW the Righteousness of God is revealed, apart from the Law, though the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction - all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and (can only) be justified by His Grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus - God has set Him before us as the  propitiation, by His blood, to be received by faith. This shows us God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He has passed over our former sins. All of this was to show His righteousness in this time, so He may be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:21-26).

In summation, Paul is stating that God justifies the ungodly (4:5).

Round up a plethora of Evangelicals and ask them what is needed to renew, revive or reform the church, and they'll give you numerous differing answers, but the vital reality is that there's only ONE message that, when re-discovered, turned the world upside down (or the right way up!), and it was the one Paul spells out right here.

We can busy ourselves, tinkering with all manner of secondary issues, but when this astonishing good news apprehends us and becomes the engine that drives us forward as those seeking to hold out the Word of Life, then our own lives, our gatherings, our evangelism, can become truly refreshed by the marvel and splendour of what God has done to deliver us.

The message of such justification grounds us in our faith. It continually 'speaks' out that we contribute only one thing to our salvation, as Luther noted - our hostility - everything else is gifted entirely and abundantly by God's mercy and goodness. This underlines the amazing wonder of His nature and makes us those who know, that purely because of this, we can indeed approach the throne ( a seat of grace) in our times of need, and be restored by that unfathomable love.

It is the source of our worship, the motivation for our witness, the truth in the fellowship that binds us together, the 'leaven' the enriches all of our lives and allows all, from the mundane to the exquisite, to become seasoned with the fragrance of eternal life.

In the Cross, the evil of our hostility is quenched, the grave of sin and death are vanquished, and we are clothed only in a righteousness that is not our own - a declaration of pardon we could never deserve.

There is simply no other truth that can match this!

Oh, to be a people that rejoice in this beauty.

Can our day, our gathering, be marked by this splendour?

Where we need to be.

 We're all living on the edge of something so much bigger than ourselves.

What we need is a dose of brutal honesty.

Star Trek Christianity

"Wouldn't it be something - to see it happen all over again".

Captain James T Kirk - Bread and Circuses.

 I am a massive classic Sci-Fi fan. I love the epic stories of the golden age of the genre from the likes of Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Herbert, Smith and others, and I equally love the first visual ventures from those times, be it the Outer Limits or the Twilight Zone or movies like Forbidden Planet or The Day the Earth Stood Still, but first amongst all my loves of the genre for over forty years now has been the joy I have, and continue, to derive from the classic original series of Star Trek.

There are, simply, some unforgettable moments in many of the episodes, and like every good story, they say so much about the human condition and our aspiration to go beyond those abundantly clear traits that mark us all. Science Fiction, like any other genre of art, is at its very best when it's seeking to tell us something vitally true about our world and our relationship to this.

There are those, of course, who would seek to say that none of this has anything to do with a metaphysical/spiritual narrative - that these tales seek to show us a world 'beyond' such concerns, but as David wood unpacks in this excellent examination of a superb episode of the show, that isn't the case at all.

Sit back, click the link, and enjoy a superb analysis of what really matters amongst the worlds and adventures of the crew of the USS Enterprise.

Heart and Soul

 "Nether the less ... we endure everything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the Gospel of Christ". 1 Corinthians 9:12.

Life is worthwhile when it is filled with something substantial, so even when we're amidst the 'ho-hum' of daily routines our imperative is to 'look up', to press in, to reach further than the present narrative will take us. We know there's more.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians to say what happens in their fellowship together (1 Corinthians 10,11,12,13 and 14) impacts directly upon how they then live in the day to day (chapters 3-8), he was seeking to convey something that clearly motivated his own passion to live for the truth.

The Apostle understood that the gospel had truly made him free, but that freedom required something vital - eternal in consequence. So he married himself to the task of recovering those beyond his own culture, beyond his natural home, to the freedom he knew in Jesus Christ. His faith was no longer about what he deemed essential (1 Corinthians 9:5) or good, however legitimate such claims were. Paul made his peace with suffering for God's church so no one could bring accusations of his only 'behaving' well for his own profit.

It's all too easy for us, like the Corinthians, to be all about our wants and needs, but Paul raises this example to state that often God's call upon us may take us beyond what we deem to be reasonable or fair. Our faith may include living at times without what is reasonable to underline the genuine nature of a real liberty.

His point here raises something vital. True despair would mark him, he says, if he wasn't about the business of proclaiming the good news (verse 16). He knows he has been entrusted with something essentially precious in the world - so genuine and all-encompassing that to be a person required to share such a treasure is, in fact, an extraordinary reward in itself (Verse 17). The Gospel is entirely about bringing each one a total and complete freedom that is unique in this world - peace with God by the liberation achieved in His begotten Son - so Paul wants to echo that splendour in the way he himself conveys such truth, without any 'requirements' imposed upon others by himself.

Paul's insight into full servanthood takes us to what truly counts - being able to come alongside another amidst their need to, in effect, say 'I'm like you - broken, either by the law you're trying to keep, or the pretence of freedom you're trying to parade, but there's a greater 'law', greater truth than either of these situations, and that's what we really need to be about'.

In any valuable pursuit, there is always something we're aiming for - that's the 'prize' that truly makes all the endurance and arduous 'going for it' worthwhile - it brings real satisfaction. The faith we've been given and made home wants that to be true of us - we don't act aimlessly - but we give of ourselves to allow something far more glorious to become evident.

That is where we're heading.

Piercing the Void

 "For God, the Incarnation cannot possibly have been an afterthought (in respect to creation and redemption) - he always thought of both... The witness of passages that deal with what is usually called the 'cosmic' rather than simply the 'time-bound' nature of Christ - Christ the rock that followed the Israelites in the wilderness, Christ seen as the Lamb slain from the very foundation of the world.

Jesus, then, is neither other than nor a reversal of what The Word does at all times throughout the fabric of creation".

Divine Complicity - Robert Farrar Capon.

From the moment we're told that the Lord 'walks' in the garden in the suburbs of Eden, presumably in continuing delight in His handiwork, we are introduced to a narrative which underwrites the entirety of the existence of all that is made.

Creation itself is displayed as beginning with forces which are untouchable in respect to any normative process of change to them. Void, formless chaos, darkness and vast unbound expanses of water are the very means God will 'settle' amongst and there begin to speak in such a fashion that they must yield their inherent resistant nature to His nurturing of them to bring an explosion of purposeful light - the initial forging of the heavens and the earth. The 'Word' literally becomes evidenced in what it makes appear and change into stars cascading in their billions - an initial fanfare to announce a greater glory to come.

'Below' those primal waters, our own world would have at that moment seemed very empty, devoid of any of the majesty that was to come, as the one who walked the depths of creation's foundations began to 'breathe' His word into it, but in that initial opening act, we evidence what will now arise - a clothing of a world with life that the excellence of God's greatest revelation may be made evident.

Life is 'seeded' in a fashion which underlines  its entire dependance upon sources beyond itself to allow it to begin, grow and thrive - something we ourselves are meant to reflect - that we cannot remain whole unless this is the very centre of our being.

From the moment the second chapter of Genesis commences to unfold the intimate intent of this grand work, it is evident that there is a vital reciprocity between the one who forms and matures the new world through His direct inter-actions with this (notice the way in which He takes clay and forms man) and the race He brings about to 'subdue' this realm. This is shattered in the moment we decline such communion in favour for reliance wholly upon ourselves, but even as this living vision breaks and shatters, it becomes clear that we will not be left beyond help - the God who made us will remain amidst our tortuous decline into the murder of what is good, and raise us, like those elemental forces, to again know the blessing of His remarkable, saving work.

In his peek into a typical late evening meeting of the Inklings, Humphrey Carter allows us to listen-in on one of their conversations about the genuine 'magic' of stories - their seeming to be there, notes Lewis, as if they are just waiting to be written down. As the conversation unfolds and they begin to examine the undeniable gravitas of a good story, Tolkien notes the following about the threads in his own work:

"(in all my work), both old and new, the main concern are themes of fall, morality and what I term 'the machine'. The fall is the inevitable subject in any story about people; morality in that the consciousness of this (condition) effects anyone who has creative desires and aspirations that are left unsatisfied by the plain 'flatness' of purely biological life, and by the machine I mean the use of all external plans or devices (to a particular end...) powers corrupted by the motive of cruelly dominating, bullying the world and coercing wills". He also notes that genuine artistry conveys and is born from an inherent need of connection to something far greater than ourselves.(The Inklings).

Truth pierces the crippling drudgery of being us without all that comes from the majesty we taste in eternal truth and in our inmost, original longings - the hunger within our deepest desires which only God can fill.

We must live beyond the mundane, the utilitarian, the modernal, because we see, hear, breathe a reality that stings us every time we allow more than just a superficial connection to reality to shock and jolt us (which speaks volumes about how much of the present is given over to 'the machine' and not the eternity in our hearts). When we touch, taste and handle the unmistakeable nature of the real world, then we see clearly that the fingerprints of the Divine are everywhere (Psalm 19:1).

Which brings us to God, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. As Christian theologian and pastor Chad Bird notes: "(in that other 'Eden'), the Lord causes a 'deep sleep' to fall upon Him - of death itself. From His wounded side... a new ishshah (Eve) is born, participating in the waters of baptism and the blood of the lamb (John 19:34). Like the first Eve, she has been made flesh and bone of Him, because of that shed blood".

The Lamb slain from the first has hung and suffered to birth us into eternal union. Let this be the source of all our joy and life.

Angelic Shift?

 "Conduct yourselves wisely...making good use of the times".

Colossians 4:5.

There's a cost to engaging with genuine mystery.

Just take a few moments to peek at the testimony of Job to see what it's really like to become entangled in all that's 'above and beyond' our smaller moments here. I often wonder if that's why the majority of modernists actively choose to evade the genuinely sublime and settle on the muddle that is 'contemporary culture'... Anything to drown out the 'dislocating' of the unpredictable.

What follows, however, when we lift the lid on all those moments when the threshold is well and truly crossed and the greater is allowed to address the smaller - when what Paul says is 'the mystery of the ages' crosses into our lives, embodied and shockingly 'made flesh' in numerous ways, but principally in the revelation of Jesus Christ?

If you've ever found yourself in a circumstance where you're facing someone or something you have been dreading... totally stuck because you know there's no way you can avoid what's about to unfold, then that's what happens when a person can no longer evade giving weight to the epiphany evidenced in the person of Jesus.

In his address to the Colossians, Paul conveys the fact that when we meet this living truth, we find a person in whom 'are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Colossians 2:3). Paul tells us that he says this to make clear what counts, because the 'get-out' clause our de-fault smallness will be clamouring to employ here is what it defines as the "plausible" refutation of such a person. Yes, when confronted with truth, we will seek to take flight beneath the delusion that we really don't have to deal with this (2:4).

Christianity grew, thankfully, and continues because the reception of what counts provides a 'rooting' and establishing in the Creator and Redeemer of all that is visible and invisible, but we'd be mistaken to think that's the end of the value or the danger of handling such a far-reaching intervention in the 'norm'.

A very different 'captivity' lies in wait for those who wish to seek to codify the ramifications of this arrival, not on its own terms, but by those that we think are appropriate to our own definitions of what counts (even though, Paul warns, they drip with an 'empty deceit' (2:8).

The reason the Reformers of the 16th century set-out the "Solas" was because they were all too familiar with how 'philosophy' could and would rapidly overtake spirituality.

We readily tap-in to what Paul refers to as 'human tradition' to give a road-map to our encountering the eternal. 'Elemental' beguiling - what seems best to us - can readily replace the stark and over-whelming nature of God's supreme revelation in Christ by our devising of a 'window' where we can 'adjust' (distance) God to being someone not so close to who we are.

Paul tells us to stop right there - to see what has actually happened (2:9) -  that's the truth that now fills us (for it fills creation), severing us from 'natural' toning-down and taking us right in amongst the 'dead, yet raised' company set in place firmly by Christ's singular work in the death and the life evidenced at the Cross (2:11-15).

So, he says, the negation to a 'spirituality' of dos and don'ts, embroiled in externals (food, festivals and the like) cannot and must become the bench-mark that defines what is necessary, because they're brief illusions at best of the substance - the unchangeable, tangible depths that have been so richly bestowed by Christ.

The way of erroneous 'godliness' is to exclude on the basis of these impoverished shadows - a contrivance that delivers only an elite asceticism (separation) on the grounds of external requirements. Nothing, notes the Apostle,  could be further from the truth, even when our supposed 'better angels' whisper such aspirations.

The church which takes the route of such 'wholeness' has become diseased with a form of reason which centres upon the supposed piety of the present and thereby is no longer actually feeding on the actual truth - upon Christ Himself.

Christ executes us to such 'do not' folly because in the Cross, He shows all such elemental thinking, behaviour and adornment will perish, and that they thereby merely leave us floundering amidst the cycle of the here and now.

The believer is someone raised in the glorious renewal of God's beloved so that a new perspective can be discovered, sourced from the splendour of being 'hedged' around by Christ's full and complete redemption, leading to a fullness far beyond this present trouble. That's why we look beyond the poverty of abusive use of God's good work and desire for the image of the creator to renew us, lead us, deeper into such astonishing goodness.

In that place, notes Paul, we cannot help but praise in word and song, because the indwelling word brings a treasure we are just beginning to comprehend.

The Essentials

 "And they devoted themselves to the Apostles doctrine and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer...attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, receiving food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved". Acts 2:42, 46 and 47.

I had an opportunity this week to meet with a local minister to talk about some of the major setbacks that we have all faced this year, and it gave us a brief opportunity to touch on some of these in a sobering and essential fashion.

My friend asked me as we parted if I could seek to clarify the issues and needs that this harsh period has brought about further, so, aside from pointing you to some of my other posts (especially those composed and placed here in this last month), let me use the passage above as the rough guide to where we went wrong and, consequently, what we need to do to move back into a role where we are truly serving each other faithfully once again.

These are just my thoughts, so please feel free to add to these yourself, and I'd be more than happy to hear from you on this so we can help and encourage each other in what truly matters as fellow workers for the Gospel.

1.Fellowship.

The glue to our being the congregation of God's people... is to be a congregation, so it's vital that we actually assemble together (Hebrews 10:25). Attending a meeting via Zoom because you have no choice is a temporary solution at best in most cases - it's clear from the pattern we have from Acts 2 onwards that we're meant to grow as part of one another, and you simply cannot do that 'at arms length' (1 John 1:7).

This year has seen this invaluable part of our life torn away for many if not most of us to be replaced by something far less than what it should be. Yes, many churches have tried to continue in some form under the requirements that have been imposed, but this has been far from the blessed and rich manner of being together that should be evidenced and encouraged amongst us - you cannot bind with people in the manner described in the verse above when you're being told not to spend any time with them.

In his work, Life Together (which is a must read), Dietrich Bonhoeffer begins by speaking about the essential nature of the faith being identified as community, where brotherly love is so richly encountered in our lives together. That is what has been severed, and it is imperative that this is renewed vibrantly amongst us if we are to see health return.

2.Worship.

When God is amongst us, working through the truths of those teachings laid down by the Apostles, being evidenced in our 'breaking bread' (sharing the Lord's table and life together), then the natural response and outcome of that will be God's people singing and praying. This manner of worship is as vital as breath to our bodies, and to behave in a fashion in which we exclude this from our times together is to foster ill health amongst us and leave us stunted and crippled in our role as servants of the Lord. Praise and worship is a genuine and acceptable sacrifice to the Lord, whether it be in psalms of hymns or spiritual songs - it conveys the splendour of being children of the most high.

It's clear that Christians are eager to see this amidst their times together - not in some orchestrated fashion (amongst the few churches that can) by a few 'from the front', but as an essential part of the normative service to God in their fellowship.

Gatherings and worship may have been appropriate to suspend for a few weeks at the beginning of this crisis when we didn't know what would unfold, but once that was established last April, the church (as was the case in parts os America), should have begun to move back to its usual pattern of life, making provision where necessary for those who needed to shield at home and within congregations, but allowing the general life of faith to continue.

3.Correction.

One of the key points I and others have sought to make continually for the past year is what the onus of Apostolic instruction means to us in respect to the above in our present circumstances. As my postings and discussions have stated, Paul's aim amongst the saints was often to require them to throw out the 'leaven' of beliefs or practices that had either been imposed or insidiously introduced amongst them from forces outside of the body of Christ if they wanted to return to the faith and genuinely grow as the people of God (see 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians and Colossians for very marked examples of this).

Christianity is established on certain vital imperatives that are non-negotiable, and one of the most essential of these is the freedom we are given to gather, fellowship, worship and serve one another as God's beloved. It is extremely dangerous when we begin to introduce or impose any manner of practice or belief amongst us which interferes (especially when it in realty hinders and wholly prevents) with that freedom.

Here in the UK, this freedom was not won lightly. Through the reigns of four successive monarchs in the 16th century, it took the laying down of many lives to allow the scriptures to be heard and shared freely, and for the church to be able to share in these imperatives, so it is not a freedom we can discard lightly - indeed, it is a vital and defining truth in regards to the nature of our faith, which must not be silenced at all.

This manner of direction has clearly been at best obscured this past year, if not entirely lost in many instances and must be restored to it's central role in our life together if we are to avoid such terrible errors in future.

4.Growth.

The reformation restored the essential truth of the priesthood of all believers. The scriptures make it clear that each of us has gifts and callings to fulfil in our service to God and each other, and it's imperative that part of our life together is the encouraging and facilitating of this manner of service.

This requires a deeper reception of God's work amongst us, so if difficulties and challenges arise, we should be receptive enough to listen and hear when God speaks from amongst us in respect to any necessary corrections or adjustments that are required to keep us all genuinely and faithfully fixed on Him.

We have seen an attitude in this crisis of following the requirements imposed by state without any place for full and proper discussion amongst many congregations of the ramifications of such a position. Because this has usually cut across all of the cardinal realms of living and serving together I've stated above, this has been inherently and comprehensively damaging to the church in respect to both its role and its service going forward from this point.

These are the key realms where I see there are major issues to be resolved.

How do we go about this?

1.Repentance.

There needs to be a full turning back to where we were in respect to our normative service in February 2020, and it needs to commence now. It's clear that, variants not withstanding, the virus is no longer more than a minor trouble in most places, so why isn't that being reflected in our lives together? We need to return to all that God requires and commands of us so we can grow well.

2.Realisation.

We need to see the error of what has been allowed to be treated as acceptable in this period. As stated above, it simply isn't good enough to drop vital parts of what we should be defined by as church simply because the circumstances prove difficult - the Reformers show us that it's when such trials arise that the church needs to respond to match these trials with courage and faithfulness.

3.Re-evaluation.

This year gives us an opportunity - to re-discover and understand what is crucial to our lives as believers and his this must be evidenced amongst us. In the days ahead, ministers and workers should seek to insure that the vitality of the faith is secured by requiring frameworks whereby what we need to feed well in God is continually maintained, whatever trials may befall us.

That's where we start.

Let me know if there's more to say, as we seek to move beyond our 'small corners' back into the light of God's full and amazing care.

"Blindsided"

 "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?"

1 Corinthians 5:6.

So, there you are, sitting in first century Corinth, as a member of the new assembly of those who have found faith in the Lord who has conquered death, and things are looking pretty good.

You already have oversight from two of the leading Apostles of the new church, you already are a company who have experienced some extraordinary gifts and you have some naturally gifted people amongst you. You are pretty pleased with the way things are because of these qualities and are generally enjoying the consequences of where all this places you as a company and as individuals, not beyond, in fact, feeling somewhat 'relaxed' and confident in the way all this is expressed in some of your gatherings.

So you're a little surprised at Paul's recent letter to your church, which clearly states that many of the things you viewed as some the fellowship's best features have in fact become a means for some dreadful mistakes and off the rails behaviour that really shouldn't have become 'the norm' amongst you.

The upshot of what's now been brought into the open is that in spite of all the really good things that have been invested into your being remarkably blessed, there are some gaping holes in what you're about and unless these are addressed and thoroughly corrected, the entire congregation could come to a point of total collapse because it is, in various ways, missing what it has actually been called to be and to do.

One of the biggest issues is that in spite of being called to be very different from the culture around you, it's clear that much of what passes as acceptable, even respectable in that society has seeped its way into the social undercurrents of what Christianity in Corinth has become.

Paul is making it clear that the point where Jesus made the difference in respect to being alienated from God - the Cross - should also be removing our petty differences and ending ill-informed forms of one another's specific behaviours in regards to how we live.

Christ's giving of Himself defines our lives and actions by bringing a reality where our union to what's enduring roots us with a framework that allows something more than our folly to be evidenced in what's said and done, especially, take note says Paul, when it comes to our service and our worship (chapters 10,11,12, 13 and 14). This is the source of living well before others (chapters 3-8).

All of this is conveyed for a single purpose - that this beloved company can be watchful, stand fast in truth, and, in such strength, act like men (16:13).

The goal is maturity, and it can be evidenced. This is imperative, says Paul, because of the 'testing' of our work that is coming (Chapter 3:12-15).

What becomes clear as we read through all this is that there is a major discrepancy between the way the Corinthian believers saw themselves and the very telling group of flaws that the Apostle identifies.

They thought they had a few 'small' matters to iron-out in respect to some secondary things to do with ethics or 'debatable' matters in regards to their faith - Paul exposes vast realms where the corrosion of relativism had taken them right away from what was vital in respects to what they believed and how they sought to show this.

Their culture may have revelled in "scholarship" and Greek-speaking Jews would have no doubt added the traditional "learning" of the scribe, but Paul's epistle leaves us in no doubt that neither system could provide the message of life that truly changes us - the Gospel goes way beyond intellectual content or secular satisfaction.

The Cross is a message that drills down into the enormity of our failures, fears, sufferings - our 'weakness' at comprehending what truly matters, and there, in the midst of this, brings a mercy that is entirely ridiculous to 'common sense'. It is in this form that the truth always comes undimmed by our folly.

"God is not impressed by the superficial 'advantages' we deem of merit... to believe such would be utter nonsense" ( D A Carson - The Cross and Christian Ministry).

Which brings us from the first century, to the present.

We most certainly suffer from the same manner of evaluation of what counts as the Corinthians (just think about what's really behind your sitting in a Starbucks, using an iPhone). Ours is a time when what is deemed to be the 'correct' manner of evaluation and definition regarding what is profitable is sourced from a 'wisdom' that the pagan world would have totally understood and applauded. We have 'experts' aplenty, and are drowning in a sea of those telling us what is correct, but it negates the truth found in what is evidenced in the Cross.

Like Corinth, the church now is "deeply infected with the virus of triumphalism, and the resulting illness destroys genuine humility (towards the necessity of Paul's emphatic message), minimises grace, and offers far too much homage to the money, power and intrusive influences of the wisdom of today" (Carson).

The remedy also, thankfully, remains the same.

We must return, fully, to the uncompromising requirements of "Christ Crucified" - not only in what is touched on in our liturgy or sacrament, but in the whole nature of our life together, and that requires something far more radical in this present climate than our just 'continuing' as if the world has not encroached on our vital identity - it clearly has and the damage will remain and grow unless the cruciform nature of faith is restored wholly to us all.

It's a hard lesson, but it's an absolute must for today.

Gleanings... on 'modelling'

 Also known as.... 'The "Merits" of Vanity... The Sanctifying of the Secular...

A selection of thoughts, adapted from the English Reformer William Tyndale's message, 'The Parable of the Wicked Mammon'.

Modelling has become oh so important to life this past year (just ask Imperial College, SAGE, and a certain Government advisor), but this series of insights from the man who gave us the scriptures in English is looking at the manner of all too common profiling that resides beneath the supposed 'wisdom' and confidence of the day.

As Larry Norman puts it, nothing really changes...

The malady we face is plain -

Moral justification by what is deemed virtuous (notions and endeavours presumed correct, indeed godly) that actually depart from the faith to conform to a wisdom, in truth, detached from the Gospel, is the great malady of the present. Such "philosophy" unseats the authority of what is imperative, allowing folly to be deemed correct. This violently rends and tares the authority of what God has said and done and thereby binds the scope of genuine authority to the 'necessity' of what has been deemed correct in the present cicumstances.

With such 'law' resides a terrible curse - exile and detachment... a dispensation of woe. By this manifestation we are shown to be at war with God Himself, for, in both our deeds and our very convictions, we actually reveal that we hate what has been truly required - a faith which conveys what is absolutely (not contingently) good - the full truth - amidst all immediate folly.

In ourselves, we only have power to convince that we are good and doing good when we are distant from God's true aid, for our religion, carried on in disobedience, cannot do more in respect to full remedy than leave us wretches miserably deluded, for it holds to a 'rightness' other than what has truly been provided in what is good.

What are the roots of our life before God and one another? The precious work made ours from Christ must be evidenced in our word and practice, for only by such means will the word of life brought near, and seen as living and active amongst the world.

The vital truth delivered by Paul is that what is essential cannot come to us by keeping a 'law' of external things, actually divorced from God's will in Christ. Such means will never provide what is necessary for us to be righteous. What truly matters is not within our own powers to have, or to do, though we so readily imagine and opinion-ate that we can do what is worthy and profitable. Good works must be divorced from the imaginings of our own hearts, for clearly, many will be evidenced amongst even the household of God who are entirely deluded on such vital issues (Jude 12 and 13).

Health cries out for what is wholesome and essential to our being Christ's. It loosens the heart to love and crave what is 'good for food', and brought to banquet there, readily brings about the fruit of genuine righteousness in what is expressed to others. In this, we despair of ourselves and yearn to be refreshed and nurtured in the living life and faith which is Christ's, and not invented or imagined by ourselves. This is the way which leads us through adversity and hardship into the properly rich manner of eternal life.

The greatest mercies make us those who bestow true riches to others - works which truly do us all much good.

The days now are evil, though God made them, because of great and prevalent sin, and those that occasion evil and imperil the souls of many in pursuit or riches or comfort, hence what is good is miserably tainted - strife, thievery, a lying in wait to harm, the use of flattery - all and more are employed due to our tragic unhappiness, for we so often crave "wealth" now above true riches.

There is indeed a 'wisdom' found in those who do harm to raise or keep themselves. Like the woman who adorns herself to allure those she can prey upon, such are in effect using their skills to do the very same.

The Christian finds wisdom in a single provision, and rejoices only in this. Acknowledging his bondage to the flesh, the believer turns himself to all that avails for him in the shed blood of Christ, and trusts wholly in the promises which accompany this 'once and for all' offering of God.

Against the grain

"In 1915, chemistry lost its innocence when mustard gas poisoned British troops in Ypres, Belgium. Physics lost its innocence in 1945 amongst the radioactive rubble of Hiroshima, Japan. Public health lost its innocence in March 2020 when the world adopted lockdowns as a primary tool to control the COVID-19 pandemic".

Professor Jay Bhattacharya - Professor of Medicine, Stanford University.

"The Truth shall set you free".

Jesus.

Back in the 1970s, I spent pretty much every Saturday on the streets witnessing about the Gospel. There were lots of 'weird' religions also out in those days - everything from the Unification Church to Divine Light Mission - also trying to peddle their wares upon unwitting and unaware young minds, and it was sad to see just how many were taken into the fold of such bizarre beliefs, which principally taught you could 'become' divine in some fashion if you gave yourself over to the "guidance" of their gifted leader, who, of course, was beyond question or reproach... whatever they did.

Then came Jim Jones and the people's temple, and some began to realise just how dangerous such 'alternatives' could be.

The issue at the centre of such abuse is that of two agendas. The people who often joined these cults were certainly in part gullible when it came to being duped by those 'selling' such wares, but they were often wanting even needing something more in their lives than just the everyday materialism that was the norm. The people running these groups, however, were of a very different nature - they understood what they were about and their intent was to lead and thereby manipulate others for their own particular purposes - principally power and wealth. "Fathers" like David Berg, Sun Myung Moon, Guru Mahoraj and many more proved very successful in gaining all they had been intending through such means.

It would be refreshing if I could write here about how the Christian church escaped such manipulative behaviour - that as fringe and strange groups ranted, the mainstream side of our faith carried on as normal, but tragically, that wasn't the case.

The rise of the Charismatic Movement at the end of the 70's, bringing in a whole jumble of teachings and practices, especially from America, swamped the Christian world, and quickly established forms of instruction and "ministry" that would have been far more at home in some extremist sect than in the mainstream of the faith back to the earliest days (in the rise of Dualism) of the church. The key issue wasn't, when looked upon with hindsight, whether a person could manifest a particular "gift" because they had received the 'second blessing' - it was whether they were 'under' the Apostleship of God's "anointed" shepherds in respect to being in proper submission to what they taught and required of you. If you 'sinned' (questioned) such Spirit-lead work, you were in sin, and could only become right again through repentance and usually public confession and admonition. 

Much of the "spiritual" church became a breeding ground for all manner of delusions, destructive beliefs and damaged lives, many of those casualties never returned to the fold again - the damage was too great.

When power is employed in such a ruthless and blanket manner, you can be certain that these kind of consequences will inevitably follow.

Which brings us to the present, and Professor Bhattacharya's observation concerning the abuse of power in respect to health care in this current crisis.

Is he correct?

The aim of his (actually, a number of leading scientists) new scientific analysis site* is to show how the key data gathered over the last 14 months declares this to be so - the misconduct has been comprehensive and extensive towards all parts of our society, and is thereby a very dangerous abuse of power and structures to bring about dire consequences.

So, if this case is shown, where does this leave us?

Perhaps, like those gullible people approached by a cultist on a seventies street, we're not sure to make of what we've seen and heard this year, in which case, opening up materials like those now being provided (*see the above link to the site) could help educate us in respect to what needs to be understood, and why we should engage with the issues to avoid such pitfalls occurring again.

What, however, if we have up to now, just accepted the  'message' that's been given from the media and powers around us as being perfectly correct, and just behaved and responded accordingly? What if we still think that's fine?

I'd suggest, in the light of what's now becoming apparent, that you are in very dangerous waters, because there's a bigger truth to face about many of the issues we've seen unfold in recent times. This is why Jesus taught His disciples that they should let no man deceive them (Matthew 24:4).

The time is right to ask questions, to look further and deeper than has been "allowed" (encouraged) by the media and the authorities throughout this entire crisis.

Truth is absolutely imperative to the church - we need to feed from it, share it and live by it; it's the only vehicle for genuine freedom.

If we're sincere in our wanting to conform to that, if we're hungry to live as we're intended to by God's good grace, then we will pursue this cause whatever the cost and wherever it causes us to look and see what is going on (just take a look at the example of the Prophets if you want to see this - God directs them to see and then say what isn't popular to His people continually).

Empty words, warns Paul, are the means often employed to beguile others into a web of deception which leaves them paralysed towards the truth (Ephesians 5:6). God's anger is active against such heinous disobedience, because it thwarts the truth from liberating us in respect to what is truly good and necessary in our thinking and thereby our living.

Let us truly seek to be those who are faithfully holding out the totality of God's truth - the untainted word of life - to these chaotic times.

Ploughing Sand

 "Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good".

C S Lewis - Membership (The Weight of Glory).

This past few weeks has seen the first evidence of people once more going about activities which bear a 'shadow' of normal life - shopping, having haircuts, exercising in gyms, and the like - and even a shallow echo of socialising in drinking together outdoors amidst the slightly milder spring days. It should renew the appetite for full-blown common rapport, but as I've evidenced often at my work place these past weeks, the prevalent mood is towards 'protection', often scorning those who are already stepping back into such activities.

It isn't safe, apparently, to be with others, however many masks or vaccinations you have had, because there will always be 'variables' that may bring further danger and possibly death.

This all speaks to the manner of darkness which has descended upon our realm, where we can no longer be 'safe' in being with one another because, apparently, we may unwittingly bring great harm in such a context, so the 'safe' thing to do is desist from these behaviours.

When the Lord promised Abraham that his line would produce both a nation and then a seed to redeem humanity, he made it clear that such a birth would come amidst hardship and adversity (Genesis 15:13), involving a judgement on those that oppressed them (verse 14). In like manner, those who follow the 'child' which God sends to facilitate that redemption (Genesis 3:15), will find themselves driven out into the 'wilderness' of similar suffering and hardship (Revelation 12:6). Such troubles are most commonly encountered in the church in the manner in which the enemy seeks to bring teachings and practices among us which seek to sever us from Christ and thereby from each other (Colossians 2:20).

Whilst many, if not most, in the general culture are still mesmerised by the despicable notion that stepping beyond the bounds of their own front doors isn't healthy, some are quickly coming to terms with the fact that there must be a process beyond the debilitating constrictions of the past year, so engaging with what little has been permitted again grants, hopefully, a step towards this, but what must trouble us is not the limits still in place in this, but the reasons for these limits, which derive from the manner of darkness Lewis references in his statement on 'necessary evils' in his essay on membership.

This essay begins by making the point I allude to here concerning God's children - that they are called out to assemble together, and no law or requirement should work to undermine this. If this company becomes dislocated, notes Lewis, then you are merely left with the diminishing notion of private religion, emptying the faith of its vital role amidst the world.

What is essentially good in normal life reflects or echoes the nature of the life God's people share with one another. Family, friendship, socialising, even solitary times, are all meant to feed into a common wealth which makes who and what we are about valuable, and all that government is about should be to nurture and enhance the vitality of this society, but when authority begins to seek other goals, notes Lewis, it enters into actions which are 'meaningless vanity' that vexes and represses our worth and role to each other.

When we begin to prefer slavery to freedom, as the children of Israel when encountering hardship, we have slipped into a nightmare. A 'sick' society is one where continually worrying (inhabiting what is slavishly demeaned) replaces the good of living life well, where talk about issues becomes a form of cowardice, because it evades the root troubles that are causing such woes, continually deflecting to less disturbing symptoms than the actual disease.

When we reach this state, rules are enforced only to hinder what is good, so there can be no place for a people "who 'drink' what harms or handles what is deadly".

This current crisis has acted in such a way that our speaking of being 'members of one another' (Ephesians 4:25) has become emptied of its true meaning.

Being part of a family illustrates that each member of that company is distinct and has a very particular role and connection to the rest. The distinctions between each member are key, because each has a very real and vital 'office' in respect to the others, and each is essential when employed well to the good and the benefit of all.

The living community into which we are baptised shares such an identity - a living "body", where each must play its part to the good and wealth of the whole (Romans 12:4-8), so what occurs when this union, this vital dependancy upon the life God brings amongst us together, is severed or severely disrupted by agencies outside God's people imposing other requirements upon them which, in effect, atomise the church? Does 'zooming', ticketing and distancing in any fashion substitute for such sundering? Does our continuing to behave as if all were well amidst such an estate truly please our Heavenly Father, or provide the manner of nurture He authorises amongst us? If the Apostle teaches us that when a part of the body suffers in this context, then the whole suffers (1 Corinthians 12:26), how can be even attempt to behave as if all is well?

"His presence, His pleasure", notes Lewis, "must always be the over-whelmingly dominant factor in the life we lead with His body". Anything else is wrong.

Fellowship is where God strips us of disguises, where our very wickedness grants access to unmerited and unfathomable grace! We are equally sinners, that we may be equally bestowed with His adoption, and thereby fulfil the multitude of roles and offices He chooses to gift to each one. This is the only remedy for the 'fiction' of worldly power, which always corrupts because it denies our inherent wickedness.

The church is where God saves the ungodly. It is where Eden can be regained.

Our union, our fellowship, is the first-fruits, the foretaste, of the society that will clothe eternity, making us individuals who genuinely enrich each other in the life from God.

We must, as Lewis concludes, reform back to this essential condition, or wallow in the misery of a new outbreak of deadly Pelaginism, where we are locked with our own definitions of service and worship because of stubborn disobedience to the essential behaviour to which we are called.

We dare not give up the incalculable worth of our birth-right, in the midst of this adversity, for something so much less than what God has called us to.

"Obedience is the road to freedom, humility the road to pleasure, unity the road to personality".

"F e a r l e s s" ?

 "To these, we did not yield any submission, not even for a second, so that the truth of the Gospel - the freedom that is ours in Christ - might be upheld in you... For those who seemed of influence added nothing to me". Galatians 2:5 & 6.

So, the opening question this entry is, given what Paul says in this passage, how often do you think the church, when following the Gospel, handed itself over to a regime or religious body which sought to place it under a 'yoke' of requirements that were foreign or contrary to the message and faith that was vital to genuine spiritual life?

This is key right now, and here's a "nudge" in respect as to why. Taken from a piece published in a regular magazine in the UK this past week:

"Today, the world is rushing headlong into a global technocracy with universal surveillance, led by godless organisations with specious goals, such as the Chinese Communist Party, the United Nations (and its agency The World Health Organisation), the World Economic Forum, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Increasingly, we are seeing science for science’s sake, and medicine for medicine’s sake" (Mark Pickles in CW Magazine). 

How does that read to you? 

Does it appear "strong" in its claims, perhaps excessive in the view it's taking?

What if you discovered, as was the case, that there were perfectly good, Nobel-prize winning materials prior to this last year amidst generic anti-viral drugs that were more effective at dealing with Sars - type infections than the current vaccines, and that there were sure procedures for dealing with such an outbreak tested over decades, and that all such wisdom was actively suppressed in favour for the current state of affairs?

Does that begin to put the magazine quote in some perspective?

What do we then make of Paul's refutation of presumed authority?

Freedom is so precious when it becomes the first victim of such targeted oppression and unwarranted tyranny.

So, what happens when the 'sword' of the powers and authorities which surround us become a means for such explicit miss-direction and abuse?

Back to the church...

Last time, I raised the troublesome example of those in the 1500's who sought to take the freedom the Gospel brings and employ this as a means to bring all manner of chaos ("inner" leading) in respect to the structure and focus of the Christian community, but there was a 'flip side' to that excess. They were known as the Rationalists - those who believed that they could use their own mental capacities and judgement to reason and thereby determine what was worthy of adherence in respect to how they lived and what they believed. 

This would become the grounds for our culture's contemporary scepticism and secularism towards the very nature of the truth and, just like its subjective twin, it sought to de-throne the genuine nature of the message and expression of Christianity by a continuing process of questioning and refuting the 'foolishness' of scriptural truth in the light of what was determined expidient, and thereby what God requires of us - the bedrock of faith, in what we say and do, in the immovable and unchanging message of Jesus Christ.

As Luther worked to uncouple the church from both the presumed authority of state and church which refused to conform to the Gospel, he was also careful to avoid the equal dead ends of supposedly subjective and objective religion which both rejected a right and true relationship to the solas of the faith.

So, let's go back to our contemporary example. We live in a moment when there is an almost absolute trust in the ability of science to provide us with what's necessary to overcome our escaping the precipice of a "deadly" pandemic, so long as we properly adhere to what's 'required' (demanded) of everyone - any questioning (in respect to saying that there is actually another, better way) of this is viewed and reported as unacceptable.

This is an exact match, as I've noted before, to the imposition of circumcision upon gentile believers in the early church... It simply doesn't fit with the nature of the life and liberty God has given to each of us, either as creatures made in His image, or as those made afresh children of God by the redemption in His Son. That is why Paul's words quoted above should be the Christian bench mark in this particular crisis, because anything less than that is a betrayal of our faith to both subjective (what people are feeling - fear) and rationalist ("science" before faith) approaches to life, resulting in our yielding up the glorious freedom that is inherently ours in Christ.

Those are strong words, I know, but they are necessary, because we have been betrayed by the powers over us, secular and spiritual, in respect to what is good and true, and if we are ever to see a healthy condition in these spheres of life once more, there must be a reception of this admonition and an appropriate response to it to genuinely renew us in both our national and spiritual lives.

To quote from the article once again, "As the Church used to teach, and it should be teaching today, "scientia" is partial knowledge that inevitably gravitates to evil if it is detached from "sapientia" (wisdom) and "prudentia"(vision)". This is why theology, which seeks to facilitate a three-fold chord for all of these, was known as the 'Queen of sciences'.

Relate this to the present circumstances. There is a 1 in 1.8 million chance of a person under 80 dying from the virus. There is a one in 50 chance of a similar age group (under 60) suffering mortal adversity/death from the new vaccines.

So, how do we have 'ears to hear'...?

The Apostle Paul understood that the Gospel would bring down the strongholds which sought to profess certainty in any creed promising a haven contrary to the one furnished by the Cross. What is heinous about the Judaising 'rationalism' which overtakes the Galatians was the insidious injection of a system which kills the imperative - Christ alone, replacing this with a poison of confidence in the flesh.

It would be terribly wrong to view what we're dealing with right now as a cultural blip - a 'flesh wound', so nothing of enduring concern. This horror has cut into the very marrow of our common mind-set, our spiritual imperatives, and the ramifications are truly awful.

The evil we are dealing with is not going away.

The 'right-think' has now been deeply embedded - the majority believe we must conform to this 'science'. Whatever our station, our culture, we must offer of ourselves at this altar. "Freedom" will now be determined by our continuing to abide by these laws in everyday activities, including at church - that is what makes this incursion so perilous. The liberties which are gifted to us by the highest authority have been expunged and deemed "non-essential", removed by a body that supposes it has the right to continually do this, even when all of the empirical material available refutes such a dreadful edict.

Actual knowledge is no longer required when unwarranted fear murders the magnificence of unparalleled love.

So, to bring all this home to each of us, dear brother and sister...

The Christian is one called to something much more imperative than such nonsense - a vocation of renewal in thought and action that befits the nature of total redemption; a renewal in thought and action that refutes and negates the incarcerating processes of any 'system' that seeks to reduce our true nature and purpose to something imposed by men (Romans 12:2).

"Everything a man does", notes C S Lewis, "is either a lawful exercise or an abuse of authority granted exclusively by divine right".

The time has truly come upon us for more than an occasional 'expression' of concern!

The Gospel divides us from error and folly. IF our application of our faith isn't doing this, then we are already cut off from Christ! (Galatians 5:4).

People currently believe such abuse (trust in another power) is acceptable because they have been instructed this must be so for the greater good, but it is a dreadful lie.

Manacled by such "power", people will only escape the snare of foul submission when the falsehood of what is occurring here is exposed, and this 'bright appearing' needs to commence with us.

The Apostle of Jesus Christ exhorts us to NOT submit to any jurisdiction which seeks to usurp the freedom given in God's saving work. He makes clear that such workers of error are NOTHING to him, or the Kingdom of God - nothing but those who must be refuted and rejected, for they have NO PLACE or hold in the bride that is purchased by our beloved's blood.

If the current administration has acted in this fashion amongst us, then we must uphold a testimony that says WE belong to another.

If we conclude that these forces have an acceptable sway in respect to our faith and practice, then we have sorely departed from where God calls us to be.

My longing is that we come home.

Christ is calling us to return to His glorious freedom.