I may say that for 40 years, as at the University of Oxford I carried out my duties as professor of Sanskrit, I devoted as much time to the study of the holy books of the East as any other human being in the world. And I ventured to tell this gathering what I have found to be the basic note, the one single chord, or all these holy books- be it the Veda of the Brahmans, the Putans of Siwa and Vishnu, the Qu’ran of the Muslims, the Sendavesta of the Paris etc-the one basic note or chord that runs through all of them is salvation by works. They all teach that salvation must be bought and that your own works and merits must be the purchase price. Our own Bible, our sacred book from the East, is from start to finish a protest against this doctrine. True, good works are also required from this holy book from the East, but the works referred to are the outflow of a grateful heart.  They are the thank offerings, only the fruits of our faith. They are never the ransom of the true disciples of Christ. Let us not close our eyes to whatever is noble and true and pleasing in these holy books. But let us teach Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims that there is only one book from the East that can be their comfort in that solemn hour when they must pass, entirely alone, into the invisible world. It is that holy book which contains the message- a message which is surely true and worthy of full acceptance, and concerns all humans, men, women and children- that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Max Muller, from a speech delivered before the British and Foreign Bible Society 1901, as cited by Dr Daniel Strange, ‘For Their Rock Is Not as Our Rock’ an evangelical theology of religions.

Steven Lawson-Holiness part 2

Woops, found this in drafts:

At the Scottish Reformed Conference on the 12th of May Steven Lawson took us through Holiness in the Old Testament in the morning and in the New Testament in the afternoon. 

He started with a quote from Thomas Watson's A Body of Divinity 'The holiness of God is the brightest jewel in the crown of God'. God's holiness is as the centre of all His attributes, His righteousness is Holy righteousness, His wrath is holy wrath, His mercy is Holy mercy, everything about Him is holy. His word is holy. 

In the sermon on the Mount Jesus says we are called to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. It's a restatement of Leviticus, 'Be Holy because I am Holy' Perfect is a synonym of holiness.

All God's ways are perfect, perfection is the standard He has set for all of us. And He will not drop the standard one iota. He doesn't grade on the curve- we are not measured against each other but against Him and His perfection.

Matt 6.9- Our Father in Heaven, though He is Father He is in Heaven, high and lifted up, His name is hallowed that is Holy.

Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit, is Holy, the seed born is Holy, produces the Holy child, the God-man, Holy Deity added to Holy humanity. Gabriel comes from the Most High, another name for Holy- (High and lifted up again). See this one who is Holy, separate and different, He enters into our world, becoming our Saviour, no wonder the Shepherds are able to worship, not out of intellectual vacuum or anti theological way but because of Who He is. He is perfect in all His ways. The one who is separate is OUR Saviour.

In the temptation Christ makes His stand on the word,, not to show that He didn't sin, But that He cannot sin! Holy humanity and deity, he was incapable of sinning

We have several unlikely testimonies to the holiness of God.

A demon:
Luke 4:34. The unclean spirit calls out after Jesus, 'we know who you are the Holy One of God' Dr Lawson said the demon has a better testimony of than Professors of liberal theology.

A fisher man

So does Peter (Luke 5:8) he realises that he is the presence of Holy God and knows himself to be a sinner, he is undone, the light exposes those things that are contrary to God.  We sin less (though we are not sinless). However you are aware, painfully aware of the holiness of God and your moral failures.

Pilate: 'I find no guilt in Him'
the thief on the cross 'this man has done nothing wrong;
the centurion observes 'surely this is the Son of God'

The Power of The Word

I read recently the biography of William Carey, Missionary to India, written by his great grandson, S. Pearce Carey. In it he tells a story of how William Ward, Carey's fellow missionary and printer of the Bengali Bible. Ward left one of the copies behind in a village some distance from Serampore, completely by mistake. It was found by a high caste Hindu, he read it and then he re read it, then he read it to others. Over time he made his way to Serampore, a converted man seeking baptism. He was not alone he came with other converts seeking to be baptised and they kept coming.
I found this story encouraging and then a few days later I went to the store and saw this:

This was in Tescos Inverness, without doubt the best thing I've ever seen for sale in a Supermarket, and it was free. The reason it's the best thing is it's the only thing that can bring you to the God who transforms lives. If God can take the Bible translated into Bengali and use it on it's own to convert some High Caste Hindu who had never met a Christian before, God can take these Bibles translated into England and use it to bring people to Himself. Especially as the Western world and the moment is in lock down due to a virus. Spurgeon said, 'The veil between life and eternity is thin when death walks the street.'

Who knows what God will do by His word even this day?

Shalom

Stephen <><

Truth and Nothing but the Truth

I recently watched the movie Small Foot with my young family. The movie was fun, the animation was excellent, however there was a worldview presented that made me feel uncomfortable. At the centre of the Big Foot community which is where the movie began was a community holding on to "truth" the truth was kept on stones which didn't lie. It told that there world was an Island floating on the back of a giant Turtle(?) or something like that. One line from the community leader who wore the stones was nobody should question the "truth". I told my girls right away that you should always question truth claims, I think that would surprise the writers, that I a Christian would say this, but I will always say it, truth can and should be investigated, if it doesn't stand up to that investigation then it isn't true. Migo the big foot protagonist began to call the truth into question when he found a small foot, a man. The Stones said small foot didn't exist and you cannot question the Stones.  This leads him to say,  "truth is in the eye of the beholder". Again as soon as we came out I told my daughters that that isn't correct, truth is never just in the eye of the behold, truth is truth whether you believe it or not. When I was younger I studied Sociology and there were various schools of thought pushing their views, it was interesting to learn about these various competing theories but truth isn't like sociology, truth is more like mathematics, in maths 2 + 2 is always 4. I thought about 10 years ago that Postmodernism had collapsed without taking off, clearly the way western societies are moving the last few years have changed that as we ditch long held truths, like gender for a postmodern world.

We may have moved away from modernity which was summed up in the popular 90s show, the X Files, 'The Truth is out there' it's worth seeking out, for Jesus said the truth will set you free. 

Truth is not relative, truth is not in the eye of the beholder, truth is definitive. You can see this in faith, there are not multiple truths, there is just one truth.  Truth is eternal. truth is found in a person the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I am the Truth,  (not a truth) He also said, the Truth shall set you free.  

May you know the truth and may it set you free.

Stephen Barton <><

A War of Love- Regeneration,Revelation and the Church.

I recently read David Bennett's book A War of Love, it is David's testimony of how he ceased to be an Atheist and a Gay Activist.  I like much of what I read in this book and agree with him that the church has made homosexuality the unpardonable sin and that we have made the Gospel more offensive that it actually is.  I also agree with his more mature conclusion that God calls same sex attracted people to celibacy or "mixed orientation" marriages.

David nowhere in his book claims to have become an evangelical but he does claim to have been converted. I read the early part of his book where he outlines this and I must say it doesn't follow the Biblical picture of conversion. A lady asked if she could pray for him and he said yes, then she prayed and he felt an overwhelming sense of peace and he heard a voice inside say, 'do you want me' repeatedly. Later that night he woke up when he was "praying in tongues" he shouted out, "I've joined a cult" His mom came rushing in and from her charismatic understand explained tongues from Paul's letters and David revolted by this 'threw her Bible across the room' as he hated the God presented in there. Now as a read I knew for sure that the Holy Spirit wouldn't be working in a person's life, speaking to them, speaking through them and for that same person to be revolted by the words authored by that same Holy Spirit.

In his conversion there was not even a hint of a sense of sin- and we are all sinners, there was nothing of repentance and no display of Christ and His cross just a needy, 'do you want me', like some creepy guy who had been dismissed by his former girlfriend who is no longer a waitress in a cocktail bar.  All David had to do was yes to this needy request.

As the book goes on he has bigger and greater experiences, like clutching the hem of a glowing garment in the sky, like the woman grabbing Jesus' garment and being healed, David in this event claimed that he was healed of his attitude towards the Church for it's attitude towards people like him who are same sex orientated. And reading his story I could understand his anger towards us, yet he wasn't healed of his attitude at this point in his story in the way that he presents it.

He hears the voice of God speaking to him at various times but he doesn't have a good view of the place of Scripture, he says a couple of  times defending the conservative view on gay marriage, that those who disagree with it have not paid enough attention to 'Scripture, Reason or Tradition' as if these were equivalents. This is more Roman Catholic than Protestant which stands on the principle of Sola Scriptura, which also does away with extra revelation that is contrary to the Protestant understand of Scripture Alone.

My other concern was that David assumed that if someone goes to church be it a 'charismatic Lutheran' or a Roman Catholic church they are part of the church and that the people in there are Christian.

I feel for David because he is trying to be faithful to Scripture now in his celibacy, denying his own orientation, I can relate to that to some extent as a heterosexual as an adolescence into adulthood being chaste as I waited for my wife. I completely agree with him that the Bible demands we deny ourselves for the Gospel, I was 32 when I got married and lived denying myself too. However in the book it isn't clear if he thinks those who are seeking a same sex marriage are not Christians or if he thinks they are but 'don't have God's best for them'. As a millennial he used the phrase 'human flourishing of God's desire for us'. I wondered if he thinks that is the goal of God, rather a desire to conform us to the Image of His Son.

I can understand is lack of time for reparitive therapy but he's almost just as dismissive of the orientation change that conversion can and does bring about, The Gospel is powerful enough. I suppose actually that is where my problem with this book lies, it seems that for David the Biblical doctrine of regeneration isn't enough, faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word of God. It is enough and is it beautiful. 

There is much to commend this book, it's well written by someone who is trying to be faithful, who is articulate and trying to reach out in love- but it misses the basics of the Gospel so was sadly disappointing.

God Bless

Stephen <><

The Tender Mercy of God

My third and final contribution to our church's Advent Devotions



                                                Reading: Luke 1:67-80.

‘because of the tender mercy of our God’

The hope of Christmas isn’t found in us but in the tender mercy of God. We are broken and sinful, and we're a people in darkness deserving only judgement. Richard Sibbes the Puritan often said, ‘There is more mercy in God, than there is sin in us’ and that is the Good news of Christmas. Mark Dever said recently, ‘To understand the God of the Bible, we must have room both for His sin-hating holiness and His sinner-loving mercy.’

The tender mercy of God is where our hope lies, He whom we have offended demands a punishment but in His tender mercy this same God sent His Son, the darling of heaven, to a people in darkness, that they might see the light. He set this plan in motion right at the Fall, where we find his tender mercy promising the redeemer to Adam and Eve- Mercy preparing Christmas in advance.

May God Bless You this Christmas

God Bless

Stephen <><

John the Baptist a cause of rejoicing

 

The second of my Advent Devotions for the Christmas season.  

Reading: Luke 1:14-17.

 

'And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.'

 

John the Baptist, is rightly overshadowed by his infinitely greater relative but what an honour he had, for Gabriel tells his father, that John would be the cause of much rejoicing. Why would the Baptist be a cause of rejoicing? It is because he had the tremendous privilege of calling people to repentance. John’s ministry seemed like fire and brimstone, and it may appear there is no rejoicing in that. Yet, see the result, many within Judea were turned back to a relationship with God through John’s ministry, reconciled not only to God also but to each other.

 

The greatest privilege John had was to physically point away from himself to Jesus with those beautiful words, ‘behold the Lamb of God’. We too have that same privilege to not only behold but also to point to our Lord Jesus, who as Spurgeon said, ‘was always the sinner’s friend.’

 

Stephen <><