2010 Banner Conference Report #1

What's the Banner conference all about? The clue is in the little logo of George Whitefield that adorns the cover of many Banner titles. The Banner Ministers' Conference is all about preaching Christ by the power of the Spirit to the glory of God. Preachers need to sit under preaching, preaching that will move us to worship out triune God and stir us to serve him with ever greater zeal and effectiveness. It is also good to have fellowship with men who are engaged in the great work of gospel ministry.

I travelled up with Paul Oliver and his father Robert. We chatted for most of the way, talking about music, books, putting the Evangelical world to rights and stuff. The Protestant Truth Society had a stand at the conference, which was manned by myself and fellow worker Stephen Holland. Jeremy Brooks, our Director of Ministries attended the conference on Tuesday. Here is the first part of my conference report:

The Gospel

In a succinct and engaging  message, Wyn Hughes drew our attention to Romans 1:16, encouraging us to be thrilled afresh with the Gospel because: 1) It is about salvation. 2) It is the power of God unto salvation. 3) It is for everyone who believes.

The Throne

Liam Goligher gave three addresses on Revelation 4 & 5. In the first he focused on the throne of God as depicted in Revelation 4. It was a powerful message, informed by insightful exegesis, and delivered with passion and authority. We were confronted with the sovereign majesty of the God whom we serve. Next Goligher considered the "book of destiny" of Revelation 5, which Jesus alone was worthy to open and so bring to pass God's purposes of judgement and salvation. Finally the preacher attempted to apply some of the teaching of these chapters in terms of "Knowing God as Creator and Redeemer", "Worshipping God as Creator and Redeemer" and "Serving God as Creator and Redeemer". It has to be said that Goligher was stronger on exegesis and theology than application, which tended to be rather generalised and lacked bite. Also some unwise unscripted remarks detracted from what he had to say. Preachers with an "unusual sense of humour" take note. His suggestion that Reformed Baptists ain't really Reformed didn't exactly endear Goligher to that fraternity. How to make friends and influence people? Not.  

The Mission

Veteran missionary and theological educator O Palmer-Robertson commended Matthew Henry's Method of Prayer. The famous Bible commentator devised a method of prayer using Scripture language, which OPR is in the process of updating. The avuncular and genial preacher led us in prayer after Henry's biblically enriched method. A booklet of updated excperts from Henry's work, prepared by OPR was made avaliable. I plan on using it in my own prayer times.

I had never heard of William Hoppe Murray (born 1866) and judging from the lack of response from the conference when OPR asked if anyone knew of the pioneer missionary, hardly anyone else has either. The missionary-theologian made good this lacuna with a stirring talk on Being a Missionary in Out Times: William Hoppe Murray's Tenfold Challenge. The Scotsman served in Malawi. He was:

1) A pioneer, spending 43 years in lion and leopard infested Malawi.

2) A preacher, who trained indigenous believers to preach to their own people.

3) An educator, teaching evangelism, nursing, preaching and founding schools for children.

4) An administrator. He led his missionary society for 38 years, he was a hospital director and founder of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. In 1912 there were only 4,000 believers in Malawi, by the time Hoppe Murray finished his work there were 60,000. The CCAP was a disciplined grouping, with 1/50 church members under discipline.

5) An author, writing five books and contributing to a magazine.

6) A farmer.

7) A diplomat, negotiating with the UK government. His diplomatic bent made him a little undiscerning on theological matters as with his involvement in the 1928 World Council of Churches Missionary Meeting.

8) A medical doctor.

9) An evangelist. Today there are 800,000 Malawian Christians.

10) A Bible translator, exclusively dedicating four years of his life to the task of making the Word of God available in the native language.

The "tenfold challenge" was can we be doing more for the Lord, engaging in multifaceted ministry at home or on the mission field?

OPR concluded with some remarks on Hoppe Murray's character. He showed perseverance in his 43 years as a missionary. He was brave, once confronting armed slave traders with a gun in order to recover the kidnapped daughter of Christian friends. The missionary had a keen sense of humour. A colleague fell off his donkey, ending up all covered with mud. Hoppe Murray quipped, "Tell us you're not hurt so we can laugh." He was a man of prayer who sought God's blessing on all his endeavors and stressed that prayer is the most important part of the work. The pioneer was a humble man who wanted no public recognition for all his labours, exemplifying John 12:24.

In his final address OPR preached on Matthew 24:14, "The Gospel for All Nations".

1) What is the mystery of the Gospel?

In biblical terms a "mystery" is a truth that was once concealed and is now revealed. At the heart of the mystery of the gospel is the message concerning Jesus the promised Messiah who redeemed Jew and Gentile who trust in him by his death and resurrection. Part of the mystery is how people from all round the world came to follow Jesus, the Jewish Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. In Jesus' parables the Kingdom of God is described as growing from small beginnings, eg. Matthew 13:13-32 cf. Daniel 4:20-22, Ezekiel 31:1-6, where Gentile kingdoms are depicted in similar language and Ezekiel 17:22-24 for Israel. Paul never got over the mystery of the inclusion of the Gentiles in the Kingdom of God on equal terms as the Jews, Ephesians 3:1-6. Peter too came to see this, Acts 10 & 11.  In Christ salvation is by grace not race.

2) The gospel promises fulfilled

The gospel of Christ for all nations fulfils the promises made to Abraham, Genesis 12:1-3, 22:18. All of God's promised made to Abraham  belong to all of God's children whether Jew or Gentile. The blessing of land and seed are ours, Romans 4:11-12 & 13. But the "land" promise is now the new creation, not Canaan. All believers are Abraham's "seed" in Christ, Galatians 3:29. Note that in Galatians one is made a "seed" of Abraham through faith in Christ, so contrary to what OPR gently implied, proof for paedobaptism can't be found here. More helpfully the preacher took a forthright stand against premillennialist Zionism saying that if Romans 9-11 had been better understood, then 9/11 might not have happened. The preacher condemned the unjust treatment of Palestinians by the State of Israel, singling out the "security wall" for special criticism. The "middle wall of partition" between Jew and Gentile has been torn down in the gospel and they are putting it back up! Premil-inspired US foreign policy has been disastrous for the Middle East.

3) How shall the gospel spread?

The gospel shall be preached!

It was a real joy to sit under the challenging and invigorating ministry of OPR. I can't remember him being as good as he was this year when I last heard him preaching some time ago on Joel at Banner. Like a good wine he has improved with age. Living proof of Psalm 92:12-15.

I'll break off the report at this point. Watch this space for more thoughts on this year's Banner conference. 

Themelios April 2010 out now

Check out the new edition of Themelios. Some very helpful articles on Colossians, which I'm currently preaching through on Sunday evenings. Typically thought provoking stuff from Don Carson on "Perfectionisms" and interestingly for a theological journal, Carl Trueman urges the "Importance of Not Studying Theology". With a generous crop of book reviews added to the mix, what more could you want? And all for free too, courtesy of The Gospel Coalition. 

From the Resurrection to His Return by Don Carson

From the Resurrection to His Return: Living  Faithfully in the Last Days,

by Don Carson, Christian Focus, 2010, 48pp.

How should Christians live in the last days? As Carson points out by "last days" the Bible does not  simply mean the period immediately before the Second Coming, but the whole epoch between the resurrection of Christ and his return. In other words the question is, how should Christians live now in the time between the  accomplishment of salvation and its full consummation? Thankfully, the Bible does not keep us guessing on this point. The apostle Paul addresses it directly in 2 Timothy 3:1-4:8. And it is to this portion of Scripture that Carson directs our attention in this little book. 

In the "last days" Christians have to live in a world that has been corrupted by sin. We will face false teachers who will endeavour to dupe the faithful. Let us be under no illusions, believers can expect persecution and opposition from the world. In such an environment Christians need to choose good spiritual mentors who will model what it means to follow Jesus authentically and with godly integrity. We need to hold fast to the Scriptures that will point us to Jesus and show us how to live out the gospel. In addition we have been called to live contagious Christian lives, holding out the Bible's message of salvation to lost men and women, boys and girls. 

With great clarity and simplicity Carson explains, illustrates and applies the lessons of this key passage of Scripture on living faithfully in the last days. An ideal book for Christian young people as they seek to  live for Jesus in today's world. More mature believers will also find food for thought here. If young believers need mentors, it is for us to be able say,  "Imitate me as I also imitate Christ". (1 Corinthians 11:1). Now there's a challenge.

Special Offer

Our friends at 10ofthose.com  have a  great offer specially for Exiled Preacher readers. Quote "Exiled Carson" when emailing your order to sales@10ofthose.com and you can get this excellent little title for just £2.80 a copy (inc. p&p) or £20 for a pack of 10 (inc. p&p). Go on, you know it make sense. 

Off to the Banner Conference

Later this morning I'll be heading to Leicester for this year's Banner Conference. I'm very much looking forward to the ministry and fellowship. I don't have a laptop, so I won't be live blogging the event. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't bother anyway. I shall leave the instant reporting to Gary Brady. Items that magically pop up here while I'm away were pre-scheduled for this week. I'll try and post some thoughts when I get back home to my wife, kids and trusty PC. I must try not to leave anything behind this time. Last year, feeling a little conference fatigued I forgot to pack up all my stuff. 

Faith & Politics

I know that with a General Election campaign in full swing that you might well have had your fill of politics. But I'm not going to get into party political point scoring in this article. Neither do I propose to give you the benefit of my opinion on how we might reduce the national debt while continuing to fund essential public services or anything like that. Such matters are best left to the supposed experts.

However, this might be a good time to reflect on the role of faith-inspired values in public life. I sent a questionnaire to each of the main candidates for the South West Wiltshire constituency. The first question was, "Do you believe that Christian values have a beneficial role to play in contemporary society?" With varying degrees of equivocation, the candidates agreed that Christian values still have a place our society.

But some would say that faith-based values should be excluded from the public square. They want Britain to be a more secular country where faith has little impact on the life of our nation. That would be a great shame as many of the great moral and social advances in our land were inspired by Christians who were active in the world of politics. Britain led the world in abolishing the slave trade largely due to the efforts of William Wilberforce. Lord Shafesbury worked tirelessly to improve the working conditions of the masses who toiled away in the "dark Satanic mills" of the Industrial Revolution. Today Christians speak in favour of marriage as the bedrock of society. We insist that human life should be valued and respected from womb to tomb. Believers have been vocal in support of a fair deal for the poor and underprivileged. Faith-based values still have an important role to play in public life.

Whoever wins the General Election will have a huge job on their hands in attempting to fix broken Britain. And let's be fair, politicians can only do so much. Politics is simply "the art of the possible". God alone can change the human heart so that we turn away from the selfishness destructiveness of sin and embrace the way of goodness and truth. As Jesus said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26).  

By the way, the Christian Institute's excellent Election briefing paper is now available for download here. 

* Written for News & Views, West Lavingon parish magazine. 

Freedom to Believe by Patrick Sookhdeo

Freedom to Believe: Challenging Islam’s Apostasy Law,

Patrick Sookhdeo, Isaac Publishing, 2009, 179pp. 

Article 18 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights commits subscribing nations to uphold freedom of religion, including the freedom to change one’s religion. While such a freedom is not recognised under the Old Testament, where apostasy attracts the death penalty, the Christian faith recognises that people should be free to choose their religion and even change their faith without compulsion or fear of intimidation.  The only weapon that the Church of Jesus Christ possesses to spread and maintain the Christian faith is the message of the gospel.

Having said that, the Church’s record on freedom of religion has been somewhat patchy. Augustine of Hippo misguidedly read Jesus’ words in the Parable of the Great Supper, “compel them to come in that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23) as a justification of the use of force in religion. Episodes such as the Spanish Inquisition and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre are a blot on the history of Christendom. While those events happened under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, Protestantism is not altogether without blame. Infamously the heretic Michael Servetus was burnt at the stake in Calvin’s Geneva. However, nowadays it is almost universally recognised that the use of force to impose the Christian faith is totally incompatible with the teaching of the New Testament. Christians therefore have no problem at all with the concept of freedom of religion. The freedom we require to practice our own faith we gladly extend to others.

Such is not the case with Islam, where apostasy, blasphemy and heresy are often punishable by death in predominantly Islamic regimes. In this book Patrick Sookhdeo, himself a Muslim convert to Christianity examines the roots of Islam’s apostasy law and reflects on current practice in the Islamic world.  The Qur’an seems to sanction the killing of apostates. The hadith makes the position clearer sometimes suggesting that the apostate should be killed instantly without even being given an opportunity to repent. The five main schools of shari’a law differ on the details, but all are agreed that sane adult males should be put to death for apostasy.

The author documents alarming instances of how the apostasy law is applied in Muslim regimes today. People who turn from Islam to other faiths and those who embrace deviant versions of Islam are subject to the deprivation of their rights, harassment and persecution. Some are even put to death. A small number of Muslim voices have called for people to have the freedom to leave Islam, but they are in the minority. Patrick Sookhdeo rightly argues for reform, urging the abolition of all penalties for apostasy in the Islamic world. The Barnabas Fund of which Dr. Sookhdeo is International Director exists to give aid and support to the persecuted church. Order from PTS Christian Bookshop. 


* An edited version of this review will appear in a future edition of Protestant Truth. 

Wheaton's Theological Dialogue with N. T. Wright now online

Lectures from the Wheaton Theology College Conference, 'Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N.T. Wright' are now online in MP3 & Flash video formats here. As yet I've only seen Kevin Vanhoozer's contribution, 'Wrighting the Wrongs of the Reformation? The State of the Union with Christ in St. Paul and in Protestant Soteriology', a spirited attempt to intergrate the classic Reformed teaching on justification with the 'new perspective' insights of N. T. Wright. Vanhoozer makes some telling critical points regarding Wright's reworking of justification. He proposes that a renewed focus on union with Christ and the doctrine of adoption might be the way forward in bringing old and new perspectives on Paul closer together. Interesting. HT Mike Bird of Euangelion.

And the mystery theologian is...

Yes,  as Tom Underhill was the first to point out, it was John Frame who said,

"To know God is to know him as Lord and therefore to pursue knowledge of him in a godly way. As we come to know God, we recognize that he initiates our knowledge, that his Word is the ultimate authority for our knowledge, and that in knowing God we come into a personal relationship with him. Theology is the application of Scripture to all areas of human life." (Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, P&R, 2006, p. 72).

Name that theologian #4

Who said this?

"To know God is to know him as Lord and therefore to pursue knowledge of him in a godly way. As we come to know God, we recognize that he initiates our knowledge, that his Word is the ultimate authority for our knowledge, and that in knowing God we come into a personal relationship with him. Theology is the application of Scripture to all areas of human life."

Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience

The Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience was issued on Easter Sunday, presciently anticipating Tuesday's announcement of the date of the General Election by Gordon Brown. The document sets out three areas of special concern for Christians, "protecting human life, protecting marriage, and protecting freedom of conscience". Key declaration signatories include various prominent Evangelical Christians and a leading Roman Catholic Cardinal. The document commits signatories to a brief Trinitarian statement of faith and details the traditional Christian teaching on human life, marriage and freedom of conscience.

The Westminster 2010 Declaration is the UK counterpart of the Manhattan Declaration, issued in the United States in November 2009. Both declarations concentrate on the same three ethical and social issues. Also, signatories of the Manhattan Declaration include leaders from Evangelical Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox groupings. The Manhattan Declaration caused some controversy amongst Evangelicals in the States as the document seemed to imply that Evangelicals, Roman Catholics and the Orthodox proclaim the same gospel, skating over important theological differences. See here for my thoughts on this. However, the UK's Westminster 2010 Declaration is less problematic in this respect. Evangelicals and Roman Catholics can happily agree on its simple confession of Trinitarian faith. But there is no suggestion that both groupings preach the same gospel, implying that doctrines such as justification by faith alone are of little consequence for the proclamation of saving truth. The statement's main focus  is an expression of shared concern on the unique value of human life, the sanctity of marriage and freedom of conscience.

I believe that more than the Manhattan Declaration, the Westminster 2010 Declaration is a clear cut case of Evangelicals acting as principled co-belligerents with Roman Catholics and others who hold to historic Christians beliefs.  In the light of the many gospel-denying errors of the Roman Catholic Church, one might question whether it is appropriate to designate all supporters as "Christians" in the full New Testament sense of the word. But in this declaration signatories from Roman Catholic and Evangelical Protestant traditions speak with one voice on some of the key issues of the day. This is the declaration in full:

Our beliefs and values

As Christians we reaffirm historic belief in God the Father (who created us and gave us the blueprint for our lives together); in God the Son Jesus Christ our Saviour (accepting his incarnation, teaching, claims, miracles, death, resurrection and return in judgment); and in God the Holy Spirit (who lives within us, guides us and gives us strength). We commit ourselves to worship, honour and obey God.

As UK citizens we affirm our Christian commitment both to exercise social responsibility in working for the common good and also to be subject to all governing authorities and obey them except when they require us to act unjustly.

Human life

We believe that being made in the image of God, all human life has intrinsic and equal dignity and worth and that it is the duty of the state to protect the vulnerable. We will support, protect, and be advocates for such people – including children born and unborn, and all those who are sick, disabled, addicted, elderly, in single parent families, poor, exploited, trafficked, appropriately seeking asylum, threatened by environmental change, or exploited by unjust trade, aid or debt policies. We pledge to work to protect the life of every human being from conception to its natural end and we refuse to comply with any directive that compels us to participate in or facilitate abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide, euthanasia, or any other act that involves intentionally taking innocent human life. We will support those who take the same stand.

Marriage

We pledge to support marriage – the lifelong covenantal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife. We believe it is divinely ordained, the only context for sexual intercourse, and the most important unit for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all. We call on government to honour, promote and protect marriage and we refuse to submit to any edict forcing us to equate any other form of sexual partnership with marriage. We commit ourselves to continue affirming what we believe as Christians about sexual morality, marriage, and the family.

Conscience

We count it a special privilege to live in a democratic society where all citizens have the right to participate in the political process. We pledge to do what we can to ensure our laws are just and fair, particularly in protecting vulnerable people. We will seek to ensure that religious liberty and freedom of conscience are unequivocally protected against interference by the state and other threats, not only to individuals but also to institutions including families, charities, schools and religious communities. We will not be intimidated by any cultural or political power into silence or acquiescence and we will reject measures that seek to over-rule our Christian consciences or to restrict our freedoms to express Christian beliefs, or to worship and obey God.

Commitment

We call upon all those in UK positions of leadership, responsibility and influence to pledge to respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold these beliefs and to act according to Christian conscience.

Visit the Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience website.

Time for Action

Why not email the candidates from the main political parties in your constituency and ask them where they stand on areas of special Christian concern like human life, marriage and freedom of conscience? Make their responses publicly available to help other Christians make an informed choice at the ballot box. I did this before I became aware of the Westminster Declaration, but my questionnaires mainly reflect the issues highlighted in the document.

Candidate Questionnaire for South West Wiltshire Constituency: Rebecca Rennison, Labour here, Trevor Carbin, Liberal Democrat here, and Andrew Murrison, Conservative MP here.