On revivals, quiet and loud

In his poem Dover Beach published in 1867, Matthew Arnold pictured the tide going out on the sea of faith with a “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar”. In some ways Arnold’s poem was quite prophetic. Church attendance figures have plummeted since the 1860s. For the first time on record the 2011 UK Census revealed that people who identify as Christian are now a minority in our country. 'New Atheists' such as Richard Dawkins confidently claimed that further religious decline was inevitable. Secular reason would soon obliterate the last vestiges of faith.

Not so fast. Newspapers are reporting an uptick in churchgoing among young adults. They are calling it “the quiet revival”. Some suggest that a newfound interest in faith is because the secular world is failing on its own terms. The up-and-coming generation were promised a more prosperous future. If only they knuckled down at school and went to Uni, the world would be their oyster. But having done all that, many now find that they can’t get a decent job. Owning their own home is a distant dream. Well, that could be part of the reason why people are exploring what the Christian faith is all about.  

But perhaps there's more to it than that. Even in our secular age people long for something beyond the delights and disappointments of this present world. A transcendent realm beckons. The sense of communal connection at the summer’s Oasis concerts was described in almost religious terms in some write ups. Hard bitten rock critics described the ecstatic crowds belting out, “you and I are gonna live forever” as if they were worshippers singing a hymn. Although fans should take note of Noel Gallagher’s caution in Don’t Look Back in Anger, 

Please don’t put your life in the hands
Of a Rock ‘n’ Roll band
Who’ll throw it all away. 

Maybe its not the case that, "I all I need are cigarettes and alcohol", after all? Writing in The Times, James Marriott reports that young people are looking for a “full fat faith”, with a focus on encountering God in worship and clear Bible teaching.  As yet, this “quiet revival” is rather patchy, with a focus on larger city churches. That said, stirrings are evident here and there in some Wiltshire fellowships. All this is welcome, at least to a Christian observer. However, a return to faith in Christ is not widespread in society at large, where apathy often reigns. 

For that to change a considerably louder revival is needed. The last large-scale Christian awakening in Britain was the 1904/05 Revival, which was especially evident in Wales, although other parts of the UK were also affected. In that short period, it is said that over 100,000 new converts were added to the membership of churches in Wales alone.

'Revival' means bringing back to life something that was either dead or dying. As the writer G. K. Chesterton explained, “Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” What Arnold failed to realise when on Dover Beach was that while the tide may go out on the sea of faith, it can always come back in again. 

* For various local rags & mags 

'God Without Passions' by Samuel D. Renihan

God without Passions: The Majesty of God's Unshakeable Perfection,

by Samuel D. Renihan, Broken Wharfe, 2024, 86pp

Throwing in 'I am passionate about...' has become a hackneyed phrase in Uni personal statements, CVs and job interviews. Beyond the worlds of study and work, someone might say, their real passion in life is for hang gliding, foreign travel, or whatever. In other words, we consider 'passion' to be a highly commendable thing. Someone who professed to lack any sort of driving passion would strike us as rather dull. Depressed, even. 

A book with the title God Without Passions might sound rather off-putting, then. Who'd be interested in a remote, passionless deity? But passions weren't always viewed quite so positively. That struck me only recently when reading John Aaron's Thomas Charles of Bala (Banner of Truth Trust, 2022). Charles lived from 1755-1814. In his day passions tended to be viewed with some suspicion. You wouldn't necessarily admit to harbouring them in a job application.  

Chapter 4 of Aaron's  biography details the preacher's pursuit of and eventual marriage to Sally Jones. When a young man Charles was based in Milbourne Port, Somerset and his beloved Sally in Bala, North Wales. Their long distance courtship was largely conducted by letter. In their correspondence Sally played hard to get and was forever second guessing the purity of her own and Charles's motivation for getting married. What if their budding romance were simply a matter of blind passion, she wondered?  In one of his letters Charles acknowledged, "Passions are unsteady things; they are no sooner excited but they subdue again, and cannot be depended upon." (p. 61). 

With that in mind it is little wonder that the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689 states, 'God is... a most pure spirit,  invisible, without body, parts, or passions' (Chapter 2:1). The Particular Baptists were not being idiosyncratic on this point. They were simply echoing the theological consensus of Reformed Catholic theology. That consensus is beginning to break down in the world of contemporary Evangelicalism (see here). In fact the doctrine of divine impassibility has become the subject of passionately argued debate. 

Renihan doesn't approach the impassibility of God with theological daggers drawn. His approach is irenic, lucid and pastorally motivated. The writer accepts that Scripture itself often speaks of God in terms of a human seeming emotions. In Genesis it is said that prior to the Flood 'the Lord was sorry that he had made man... and it grieved him to his heart' (Genesis 6:6).  In Ezekiel 6:9 the Lord complains about Israel, 'I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me'. 

What are we to make of such language? For a start it is qualified in the pages of Scripture itself. The Lord's statement, 'I regret I have made Saul king' (1 Samuel 15:11) should not be taken at face value. Why? Because of the words we find in the very same chapter, 'the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.' (1 Samuel 15:29). How may we reconcile these two sayings of the Lord? Well, we need to recognise that in the Scriptures God speaks of himself in accommodated language that is accessible to us, given our human limitations. We often have regrets about decisions we made and opt for a different course of action when things don't work out as we planned. God's plans always work out, including the raising up and removal of Saul. Divine 'regrets', then are merely apparent, signalling the outworking of his eternal decree in this world of time. 

When we confess that God is 'without passions' one thing we are saying is that he is not affected by anything that happens outside of his own being. Nothing can therefore upset God's eternal blessedness or disturb his peace. Human beings are not like that. As Renihan points out, we are creatures of affections and passions. In our affections we are attracted by what we consider good and repelled by what we see as bad. We may be cheered by the kind words of a friend. We may be hurt by the cruel barbs of an enemy. Passions may be defined as twisted affections. They are characterised by undue intensity, or even irrationality. Taken in that sense says Renihan, 'to love is an affection, to lust is a passion; to be angry is an affection, but to rage is a passion'. (p. 21). 

You can see why Sally Jones and Thomas Charles wanted to avoid being motivated to marry merely by blind passion. And clearly, passions so defined cannot be attributed to an eternal and unchanging God. Neither can affections for that matter, for as we have said God is not affected by anything outside of himself. But does that mean when the Bible speaks of the love of God, or the wrath of God, that the Scriptures are merely playing with words? Certainly not. God loves and we love, but while love in humans may be analogous to the  love of God, we don't love as God loves. God is love in the fulness of his infinite, eternal and unchanging being. Similarly with the wrath of God. Unlike us, he isn't provoked into fits of raging fury. Divine anger is the expression of God's unalterable justice when faced with sin.

God's love, justice and faithfulness and so on are not passions or affections, then. They are divine perfections, of which our human equivalents are a shadowy likeness. But in the incarnate Son of God we have one who was both impassible according to his divine nature and who possessed a full range of human feelings, yet without sin. While the Son could not suffer and die as God, he did suffer and die in our place as Man. Because the two natures are united in the person of Christ, we do not say that his human nature was given as a sacrifice for sin. Rather we confess with Paul, 'the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me' (Galatians 2:20). 

Confessing that God is 'without passions' is of great pastoral worth. If the love of God was an affection like ours, his affection might change if the object of his affections changed. But God does not love as we do, because he was attracted to what was good in us. Neither is his love a flash in the pan passion. God loves us with an everlasting love that flows to us from the depths of his being. He loves us even as sinners, which is why he sent his Son to save us by his blood. He loves us as his children, wayward and fickle though we are. It is precisely because God is impassible that Paul can assure suffering saints, 'nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord'. (Romans 8:39). 

We can therefore trust God to keep his promises and rest in his faithfulness, 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23). 

Samuel Renihan has produced a most helpful introduction to the doctrine of divine impassibility. He wrestles with the biblical text sensitively and draws upon the theological wisdom of the past to illuminate his accessible study. The publisher Broken Wharfe is to be congratulated for making this handsome volume available. Now going for only £4.50.  

Entitled

Who would be a politician, especially today? Our political leaders are forever trying to balance the competing demands of different sectors of society. If they tax the mega-rich to boost the public purse, the wealthy up-sticks and head for low tax regimes like Monaco. An estimated 16,500 dollar millionaires are expected to do exactly that this year. Meanwhile, eight million people are claiming universal credit benefits, with almost half the claimants not even required to look for work. It doesn’t add up, which is why the national debt is skyrocketing. 

Writing in The Times, columnist Matthew Syed argues that a sense of entitlement is holding our country back. It's not just about disappearing millionaires and the ever-growing number of  benefit claimants. As Syed points out, we all know that more new homes need to be built so young adults can get on the property ladder. However,  nimbies are quick to protest if their view of green fields and rolling hills is threatened by a new housing estate. Syed’s prescription for the ‘entitlement epidemic’ is a healthy dose of patriotism. But I wonder whether love for good old Blighty is a strong enough force to make a difference.

In his Letter to the Philippians the apostle Paul urged his readers, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Very fine principle. But a sense of entitlement is hard to shift. People are often quicker to demand their rights than fulfil their responsibilities to others. If ever anyone was entitled to anything it was Jesus. Paul describes him as ‘being in the form of God’, resplendent with divine majesty. Yet he was willing to stoop from the heights of heavenly glory to ‘take the form of a servant’, coming into the world as man. More than that, Jesus came to suffer and die on the cross to save his people from sin.

Those who believe in Jesus are called to imitate his attitude by giving due consideration to the interests of others. That applies to the way Christians relate to society, as well as their fellow believers. We should not only insist on our own right to freedom of speech, but also the right of those who may disagree with us. If we can work, we must work and pay our taxes so that decent public services may be provided for the benefit of all. The Christian vision of life helps us move the dial from self-interested entitlement to a pursuit of the common good.

* For various local magazines 

Won’t Get Fooled Again

 

The Chapel I attended as a teenager in Rhiwderin near Newport, South Wales boasted a rather fascinating member of the congregation. His name was Bert Entwistle. Bert had a wonderful baritone voice and sang in local choirs. But that wasn’t the thing that made him such an intriguing figure to my teenage friends and me. It was his son we were especially interested in. For John Entwistle was bass guitar player with The Who. Bert kindly arranged for us to have a signed photo of the bassist. The band have just announced their farewell tour, some sixty years since forming in the mid-1960s. Although only singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townsend are still in the land of the living.

One of The Who’s best known songs is ‘Won't Get Fooled Again’, released in 1971. The air was full of revolution in the previous decade. Young people were busy throwing off the old order of deference and restraint. They demanded a less inhibited and more equal society. ‘Free love’ and all that. The heady idealism of that time had begun to peter out in 70s. In ‘Wont Won't Get Fooled Again’, Daltrey belts out Townsend’s disillusioned commentary, ‘Things look just the same, and history ain’t changed’. At the climax of the song he roars, ‘Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.’

That’s the trouble with revolutions. The old order may be overthrown, but the new lot aren’t necessarily a whole lot better. Which is the basic lesson of George Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and 1984. Orwell had Soviet Russia firmly in his sights. The October Revolution may have got rid of the Tsar’s corrupt regime, but you’d hardly call Stalin’s Russia a bastion of justice, equality and freedom. Similarly with the so-called ‘Woke Revolution’. The intention may have been good, to champion the cause of the oppressed and marginalised. But once the Woke Revolutionaries gained cultural power and influence, they soon became dab hands at doing a bit of oppressing themselves.  In a now notorious case, Kathleen Stock was hounded out of her professorship at the University of Sussex for daring to insist that being a woman has something to do with biology. 

Well, earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled that for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 the terms ‘man’ and ‘woman’ refer to biological sex, not gender identity. Even senior politicians who seemed a tad confused about the details of male and female anatomy now accept this common-sense judgement.

But why is it that even the most idealistic people who believe they are on the ‘right side of history’ often end up acting in a pretty brutal way? Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg put his finger on it when commenting on why the internet seems to spew out so much fake news and other vile stuff, “This is the awful truth: we like misinformation, we like lurid headlines, we like gossip, we like mischief, we like people saying critical things of each other.” Clegg added, “We are not nice. Human beings are not always nice and never ever have been.” What Clegg calls “not nice” the Bible calls “sin”. That is our wilful tendency to defy God and do damage to others.

That’s why revolutions fail, and the new bosses soon become as bad as the old ones they removed. Accepting the Bible’s realistic account of human nature will help ensure we won’t get fooled again by people who promise sweeping change. The problem of sin is one what we cannot resolve on our own. That is why God sent his Son Jesus into our broken world. He came to rescue us from sin by dying upon the cross in our place and being raised from the dead. By faith in Jesus we can be forgiven and receive power to live a new life. The 'Christian Revolution' is based not on human efforts to remodel the world, but the life-transforming grace of God: "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17) 

* For various local magazines 

Baptised with Heavenly Power, Philip H. Eveson

Baptised  with Heavenly Power:

The Holy Spirit in the Teaching and Experience

of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

by Philip H. Eveson

Mentor/Christian Focus, 2025, 421pp

Last November my wife and I visited Cardiff to watch the Wales v South Africa rugby match at the Principality Stadium. It was raining quite heavily that day, so we decided to do a bit of window shopping before the game. We wandered around various departments in the John Lewis store and then headed into St. David's centre, which was thronged with Christmas shoppers. Sarah spotted some familiar faces in the crowd. It was Philip and Jenny Eveson accompanied by one of their grandchildren. 

I first became acquainted with the author and his wife when I was a student what was then the London Theological Seminary (now simply London Seminary), from 1988-90. Mr Eveson was not only Resident Tutor at the seminary at the time, he was also pastor of Kensit Evangelical Church, of which I became a member. The seminary was founded by D.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones in 1977. His influence still loomed large when I studied there. 

We stopped to chat and Philip mentioned he had written a book that was being prepared for publication. This book. He was kind enough to have a review copy sent to me. The author was personally acquainted with Lloyd-Jones and had heard him preach on numerous occasions. I hadn't even heard of the famous preacher until after I was converted (circa 1984), and by then he had died (1981). However, I came across some his books as a young believer and read them avidly. As I recall the first Lloyd-Jones title I read was Prove All Things, followed by Joy Unspeakable. As I was beginning to feel the first stirrings of a call to pastoral ministry a lay-pastor friend lent me a copy of Preaching and Preachers. 

By the time I arrived at seminary I had read most of Lloyd-Jones's multi-volume expositions of Romans and Ephesians. Although it wasn't until later that the final volumes in the Romans series were published. What impressed me about Lloyd-Jones's writings was his strong emphasis on biblical doctrine, wedded to a deeply experiential thrust. He defined preaching as 'theology on fire', which sounded good to me. It wasn't until I arrived at the seminary that I discovered that Lloyd-Jones's teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit was the cause of some controversy. Influential leaders such as John Stott, Donald Macleod and Peter Masters were quite critical of some of Lloyd-Jones's writings. Some detractors even accused him of being a 'crypto-Pentecostal', or 'Reformed-Charismatic'. 

It seems that there are still some misgivings about aspects of Lloyd-Jones's teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit. Eveson writes in part to correct these misapprehensions, but he goes beyond answering critics to offer a constructive account of what Lloyd-Jones had to say on key elements of the Spirit's work. He does this in the opening chapters by locating the preacher in the context of the Reformed tradition, especially that of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists of the Evangelical Revival. As the label suggests leaders such as Daniel Rowland and William Williams were solidly Reformed in their doctrine, but they had also experienced an outpouring of the Spirit that enabled them to preach with great power. They urged their converts to seek full assurance of salvation through the witness of the Spirit. 

It wasn't unusual for an older generation of Reformed writers to understand New Testament terms such as 'baptism with the Holy Spirit' or 'sealing of the Spirit' to denote a special empowering of the Spirit to give boldness in preaching and assurance of salvation. Lloyd-Jones drew upon this aspect of the tradition in articulating his views. In fact, his exposition of the sealing of the Spirit in Ephesians 1:13 and the witness of the Spirit in Romans 8:15-16 draws heavily on the work of the Puritan Thomas Goodwin. 

Eveson gives close attention to Lloyd-Jones's handling of the biblical materials on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Chapters are devoted to the baptism, sealing and filling of the Holy Spirit. The writer interacts with critics of Lloyd-Jones's views. He is honest enough to point out that the preacher didn't always express himself consistently. In some sermons Pentecost is seen as the 'birthday of the church' that constituted her the one body of Christ, in others he distances himself from that position. Whatever may be thought of some of the details of Lloyd-Jones's expositions, it seems evident that the New Testament holds out the promise that since Pentecost a greater fullness of the Spirit may be sought and experienced by believers. Preachers are in need of the Spirit's empowering presence in their ministries. Believers may be filled with the Spirit, granting them assurance of salvation and inexpressible joy in the Lord.  

There has been a widespread recovery of expository preaching in Evangelical Churches in the United Kingdom. That is welcome, of course, but in practice what passes for 'expository preaching' can on occasion be reduced to an explanation of the meaning of a Bible passage, with a few words of application thrown in. A sermon may even be nicely structured and well-illustrated, but the element of 'theology on fire' may be conspicuous by its absence. Eveson provides a helpful corrective to this tendency in a number of chapters devoted to Lloyd-Jones's teaching on the relationship between word and Spirit in preaching. 

Preachers must proclaim the truth of Scripture faithfully and accurately, but they also need to  experience something of the wonder of that truth in their own hearts and lives. Eveson draws upon Lloyd-Jones's testimony to his own spiritual trials and experiences of God to help explain what made his preaching ministry so compelling. While it is true that the Spirit is always at work whenever the word of God is proclaimed, the Spirit's power may be more or less evident, both upon the preacher and also in the lives of those who hear the truth. Having only just been filled with the Sprit at Pentecost, the early church prayed that the Lord would 'grant your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness' (Acts 4:29). The Lord answered their prayers by filling the people afresh with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31). The contemporary church urgently needs a fresh outpouring of the Spirit in all his fulness and Christ-exalting power. That is what will make the 'Quiet Revival' we are hearing so much about a 'Great Awakening'. 

Well, it was good to renew fellowship with the Evesons that rainy afternoon in Cardiff. I'm grateful for the review copy of Baptised with Heavenly Power. It's a powerful reminder of some vital truths. For my summer project at the seminary I wrote a essay on 'The Sealing of the Spirit'. I drew upon the writings of D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones, Thomas Goodwin and others in seeking to understand the meaning of Paul's words in Ephesians 1:13. Graham Harrison, lecturer in Christian Doctrine at the seminary oversaw my project. In his remarks on the essay, Harrison commented, 'Remember, there is always more with God'. That, in essence, is the burden of this book.

Read the world’s bestselling book

The Times newspaper recently published an in-depth survey of the attitudes and opinions of ‘Generation Z’, people born between 1997 and 2013. Interestingly, the younger generation seems to be more attuned to the spiritual side of life. According to The Times, “62 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds identified as either ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ spiritual.”

Allied to this is a new interest in the Bible among GenZers. Publishers report that between 2019-24 there was an 87 per cent increase in Bible sales. People are evidently searching for a something that will make sense of their lives and give them hope.

So, what's the Bible all about? First and foremost it's a book about God. According to the Good Book, he's a God of sovereign purpose, boundless love, awesome power and spotless purity. The one true and living God eternally exists in three glorious Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Bible teaches that human beings are made in the image of God. But sin has ruined our relationship with God. We are made for him and nothing less than knowing God can satisfy the human heart. The Son of God, Jesus Christ became man in order to die on the cross that we might be put right with God.

But Jesus did not stay dead. God raised him from the grave and exalted him to heaven. In Jesus Christ, God offers us a relationship with himself that is real and satisfying by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that one day we will all have to give an account to God for the way we have lived our lives. Jesus died in our place of so that we might not be condemned but have everlasting life.

According to Guinness World Records, the best-selling book of all time is the Christian Bible. The 'Good Book' has something to say to people of all generations. Why not give it a read yourself? A wide variety of English translations are available for free on BibleGateway.com, or you can get a hard copy in most bookshops. The Gospel According to John in the New Testament would be a good place to start. Attending a church where the Bible is explained and applied will also help you get to grips with the message of God's Word. 

* For various local magazines 

Artificial Intelligence

My wife, our grown-up children and I once discussed which of us would soon find ourselves out of work due to the advance of Artificial Intelligence. As a pastor I was pretty confident that no AI-enabled robot could do my job. My son promptly asked ChatGPT to write a Baptist style sermon on a passage from Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. It completed the task in seconds. The sermon took the form of a typical Baptist message and helpfully explained the text. Would have taken me hours to do that. No, I haven’t been tempted to take AI shortcuts in my sermon prep. Honest.

Apparently, many Uni students don’t have such qualms. ChatGPT and other AI platforms are being used to write essays to save budding scholars the bother. Lecturers complain that the attention span of today’s students has been addled by their use of social media. They have difficulty reading the requisite number of books and then deploy AI to write essays on A Tale of Two Cities, or whatever. The trouble is that that AI platforms sometimes make mistakes. No less a journal than the Chicago Sun-Times recently published an AI-authored summer reading list for 2025. The list helpfully included a brief blurb for each title recommended. However, alert readers quickly pointed out that some of the books were fake. Rather embarrassing for the paper.

 AI no doubt has its uses, but it can’t be left to get on with things without our involvement. Just ask the red-faced editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. There is no substitute for human ingenuity in the arts, science, and literature. We cannot delegate ethical decisions to algorithms. Besides, we will always need the human touch. Have you ever tried to sort out a customer service problem using an AI Chat facility? ‘Artificial’, certainly. ‘Intelligence’, not so much. Even exchanges with other people using texts, email, or social media can’t replicate face-to-face communication.

One of the most profound statements in the Bible is found in the opening chapter of the Gospel of John, ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’. Christians believe that in Jesus God entered our world to speak to us in person. We can read his words as recorded in the Gospel accounts of the New Testament. Jesus did more than speak to us about the love of God. He came to show us God’s love for humanity by laying down his life for our sins upon the cross. The risen Jesus in present in the lives of his people by the power of the Holy Spirit. When the Lord returns his people will see his face and share his glory.

Flaws and glitches notwithstanding, Artificial Intelligence may be able to do things that put our capabilities in the shade. But the most sophisticated computer has nothing on human beings, whom God created in his own image. Like all technological revolutions AI brings with it opportunities as well as threats. Some jobs may well be lost, but new ones will no doubt be developed. Reassuringly, members of my congregation didn't seem too enamoured at the prospect of me being replaced by a cyber-pastor. 

*For various local magazines 

On Time

 

Relax if you are given to tardiness. This isn’t a piece on the importance of punctuality. Rather, I want to reflect on our relationship to time itself. Although it has to be said that time isn’t an easy thing to define. Early Christian thinker Augustine of Hippo puzzled over the question ‘What is time?’ saying,  ‘If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks me, I do not know.’ All he could say is that some events lie behind us in the past and some lie ahead of us in the future. If nothing at all existed there would be no present.

 Augustine proposed that God did not make the universe in time, but with time. God is eternal, existing outside of time. He didn’t wait around for ages before creating the world. The clock only started ticking as it were at the beginning of creation. Modern cosmology tends to agree on that point. Anyway, the thing is that we exist in time. Our lives are constantly moving from the past, through the present and into the future.

The trouble is that these days people only seem interested in the present. The past isn’t worth thinking about. People did bad stuff back then. Slavery and that. The future will have to look after itself. In 2010 Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg dismissed the idea of building more nuclear power stations as they wouldn’t be good to go for another ten years. I mean, who cares what happens in the 2020s? Maybe it’s apt that after a career in politics Clegg went to work for Facebook/Meta.

Social media tends to make us focus on the present moment, rather than the past or the future. What’s going on now captivates out attention, no matter how trivial. This is an age of momentary celebrity and throwaway fashion. Why bother with the time-consuming process of saving for major purchases? Much easier to take out instant credit to buy on a whim something that flashed before our eyes in an online ad.

There’s no escaping time, however. We are all products of our past experiences. What we decide in the present will impact on how we fare in the future. But our history need not be our destiny. God entered our world of time and space in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to die on the cross that our past sins and failings may be forgiven. He rose from the dead that those who believe in him may have the hope of everlasting life. God gives us time to seek him while he may be found and call upon him while he is near. 

*For various local magazines 

'Time for Judgement: God’s judgement and ours in times of crisis' by Paul Yeulett

Day One Publications, 2024, 432pp, pbk

‘May you live in interesting times’, says the old Chinese curse. Well, we have certainly been living though ‘interesting times’. The coronavirus pandemic engulfed much of the world in 2020-21. Then in 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. That conflict caused a global spike in utility bills, triggering a cost-of-living crisis. Added to that is a sense that having turned its back upon the Christian faith, much of Western culture is in bondage to idolatrous forces. 

For a good part of this period the reviewer was preaching though the Book of Jeremiah. The prophet’s warning of the Lord’s judgements upon Israel and the nations seemed uncannily up-to-date. Jeremiah spoke repeatedly of, ‘pestilence, sword, famine and captivity’ (Jermiah 15:2). But is it appropriate to apply the words of Old Testament prophets to the church and wider world today?

We are certainly not in the same position as Jeremiah whose writings were inspired by Spirit. He could say, ‘Thus says the Lord… I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon.’ (Jeremiah 20:4).  We need to be a little more circumspect as we seek to pronounce on what the Lord is doing in our day. None the less, God has given us the Holy Scriptures which bear witness to the judgements of the Lord in history. Mindful of that, Paul Yeulett helps us to understand recent upheavals in the light of God’s Word.  

Like the men of Issachar, we need to be people who have ‘understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do’ (2 Chronicles 12:32). The writer’s analysis of the period through which we are living may not command the reader’s agreement in every respect, but his work helps us discern the hand of the Lord in contemporary events. He also endeavours to show how the church should respond to the challenges of the hour. In an age of ‘pestilence, sword, famine and captivity’ we are called to authentic godly living and passionate gospel preaching. 

Love so amazing

 

The crucifixion of Jesus was the supreme manifestation of human malice and hatred. Those who plotted his demise knew he hadn’t done anything to deserve being executed upon a cross. Jesus proclaimed a message of love and showed that love in action by healing the sick and feeding the hungry. The ordinary people flocked to hear Jesus’ preaching. That was the problem. The Jewish religious establishment were afraid that if this Jesus movement took off, they would lose their position in society. Innocent though he was, Jesus had to go.

 

There was only room for one king in the Roman Empire. It was on that basis the religious leaders manipulated the governor of Judea, Pontus Pilate into having Jesus put to death. “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend.” They cried, “Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” Sure enough, Pilate handed over Jesus to be crucified. It was customary to attach a charge sheet to the cross of a crucified man. Jesus’ read, ‘The King of the Jews’.

 

We could see this simply as one of countless miscarriages of justice that have happened over the course of history to this day. What makes the crucifixion of Jesus unique is that this condemned man was the Son of God. The miracles he performed were signposts to his divine power. Why did Christ not use the power by which he healed the sick and raised the dead to extricate himself from being crucified? Jesus described his God-given mission to his followers in these words: “Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

 

Jesus died for our sins that we may be forgiven and be put right with God. Yes, the cross of Jesus was an act of vile hatred on the part of his enemies. But more profoundly, it was a stunning revelation of the love of God. Paul could reflect, “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

 

Isaac Watts’s hymn When I survey the wondrous cross is often sung in church services at Eastertime. The hymn concludes on a note of wonder at the love of Jesus for his people:

 

Love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

*For Easter edition of various local parish magazines