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theBRIEFING MARCH 2006 • ISSUE 330

UK EDITION

BACK TO THE BIBLE

Searching for clarity The authoritative word The preacher’s confidence

PLUS 20 DAILY BIBLE READINGS ON GENESIS 36-50

PRODUCED BY MAT THIAS MEDIA IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE GOOD BOOK COMPANY (UK)

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MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES ST MATTHEW’S CHURCH, CHELTENHAM

YOUTH PASTOR-TEACHER Do you have a passion for reaching young people for Christ? A longing to see young people grow in their faith, reach out to their peers, and take their full place in the life of the local church? And how about living in the ‘festival capital’ of the south Midlands, full of opportunities for imaginative ministry?!

St Matthew’s, Cheltenham—a large Anglican evangelical town centre church (average congregation 350) is looking for a full time creative Youth Pastor-Teacher to develop our existing ministry with 45 young people aged between 11 and 18. Previous experience essential, training desirable.

Salary: £15K–17K, accommodation provided or negotiable. Further details and application pack from: The Rev Andrew Dow, The Rectory, Thorncliffe Drive, Cheltenham, GL51 6PY 01242 701580 andrewdow@blueyonder.co.uk www.stmattschelt.org.uk Closing date for applications: 15 April WOODLANDS EVANGELICAL CHURCH www.woodlandschurch.org.uk

APPRENTICES We are an independent evangelical church in Derby made up of two growing congregations on neighbouring estates. We are looking for two apprentices to join our staff team from September 2006 for a year with the possibility of extending the scheme to a second year.

Apprentices' time will be divided between practical service within the church, experience of gospel ministry and ministry training including attendance at the Midlands Ministry Training Course in Birmingham.

Applicants will be motivated Christians seeking ministry training and experience of bible teaching ministry in a local church, particularly amongst children, young people and students.

For more information, please contact Anthony Adams (01332 239765 / anthony.adams@woodlandschurch.org.uk) or Mike Partridge (01332 832085 / mike.partridge@woodlandschurch.org.uk)

CORNERSTONE CHURCH, NOTTINGHAM

CHILDREN’S WORKER Cornerstone is a vibrant Evangelical Church with typically 600 people meeting on a Sunday morning.

We are looking for a Children's Worker to coordinate our growing children's ministry.

THE ROLE ★ Leading, coordinating and responsible for staffing existing ministries ★ Training, resourcing and pastoring the team of children's workers ★ Pioneering new work in the community - e.g. in schools; holiday clubs PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS Candidates will be spiritually mature and have the following gifts and experience; ★ Excellent interpersonal and communication skills ★ A facilitator and mobiliser of others with ability to develop their gifts ★ Proven track record of teaching the Bible to children ★ Will have good theological understanding Details from: Spencer Hampton, Cornerstone Church, Bluecoat School, Sutton Passeys Crescent, Wollaton, Nottingham, NG8 1EA Tel; 0115-8499 299 Email; spencer@cornerstoneuk.org.uk

SOUTH SHEFFIELD EVANGELICAL CHURCH

YOUTH AND CHILDREN’S WORKER We are an independent evangelical church (FIEC affiliated) on the outskirts of Sheffield, seeking to appoint a full time staff member to: ★ Lead our discipling work with 8-16’s and grow this ministry ★ Support existing volunteers ★ Develop links with families and schools We are looking for someone with previous experience in youth and/or children’s work who has a real heart for young people, an ability to communicate Biblical truth, and the energy and vision to develop this ministry within a supportive church environment.

For further information contact: Steve Parker, 9 Reynolds Close, Dronfield, S18 1QP or the church website jobs@sseconline.com

ST EBBE’S CHURCH, OXFORD

STUDENT WORKER WITH WOMEN The ideal candidate would have: ★ some experience of student ministry, particularly with women ★ a desire to win students for Christ ★ the ability to work in a team Job starts: 1st September 2006 For a job description and application form contact: Sharon Peters (Administrator), St Ebbe's Church, 2 Roger Bacon Lane, Oxford, OX1 1QE. Tel: 01865 240438.

Email: sharon.peters@stebbes.org.uk.

Closing date for applications: 30 April 2006 Appointment will be subject to an enhanced CRB disclosure.

MORE MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES ON PAGES 3, 4, 8, 13, 31

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IN THIS ISSUE COULDN’T HELP NOTICING 5 • Go to church, win a house • The new morality • Brokeback Mountain • In decline • Breaking the Happy News • Working class gatekeepers

BACK TO THE BIBLE 9 Searching for clarity Mark Thompson

14 The authoritative word Lionel Windsor

18 Is God doing a new thing?

Jeremy Leffler

PASTOR’S BRIEF 20 The preacher’s confidence Tony Payne

23 Should we teach the Bible the way we teach other things?

Colin Foster

BIBLE BRIEF 25 Daily readings from Genesis 36-50 Jason Ramsay

BRIEFING COMMUNITY 30 Interchange web

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EXTRA

THIS MONTH

In this month’s web extra, we feature what many long-time Briefing subscribers regard as our finest articles ever: the three-part ‘God of Word’ series

by John Woodhouse, published way back in Briefings 10, 11 and 12.

Go online to read them, or download all three articles as an ‘e-book’.

Back to the Bible

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here’s an old Bible that has been hanging around in our office for a while now. I’m not entirely sure how we acquired it. It’s one of those massive old ‘family Bibles’, published somewhere around the turn of the last century, with gold corner pieces and clasps, a thick ornately embossed cover, and containing not only the commentaries of Scott and Henry, but also “Many Thousand Critical and Explanatory Notes, selected from the Great Standard Authors of Europe and America”.

It’s a bit of a relic now. The front cover is nearly off; the pages are brown with age. It’s a charming object from another era that sits on a bottom shelf and gathers dust. We don’t read it much, but it’s nice having it there.

Which makes it, of course, a rather fitting symbol for the place of the Bible in many churches today. We’re fond of the Bible, and we can’t imagine life without it. But it’s hardly our focus or driving force. It is, after all, a bit ancient. And the world has changed.

In this Briefing, we go back to the Bible to reinvigorate our confidence in its clarity and power. Mark Thompson writes about whether the Bible really is clear in what it says; Lionel Windsor reviews a new book by N. T. Wright on the authority of Scripture; and Jeremy Leffler takes a look at how biblical authority is really the issue behind the current controversy over homosexuality. Plus we have some encouragement for pastors to maintain their confidence in the authoritative Word of Christ, and to keep working at how they can teach that word most effectively. TP Looking for a place to serve?

COME TO CHRIST CHURCH, BRIGHTON! We're a small, gospel-centred group of Anglican evangelicals with a heart and the will to take the gospel to those who don't know Jesus.

We invite you to take up your cross and follow Jesus in this vibrant, pluralistic city (described by some as a cross between “Athens” and “Corinth”).

Come and find out more on our open day on Saturday 18 March - more info on www.ChristChurchBrighton.org We welcome people looking to serve as an apprentice, as well as those looking to be part of a gospel fellowship while working elsewhere full time.

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CHILDREN’S WORKER A growing independent evangelical church, with around 200 under 18’s, is seeking to recruit a Children’s worker to head up the under 11’s work. This new post will provide an exciting and challenging opportunity for an experienced Children’s worker to develop and encourage children’s learning & discipling.

The successful applicant will be an enthusiastic, energetic and creative person able to help develop, implement & sustain a growing children’s work. They will support both the existing activities within the Church as well as pioneering new initiatives in both the church, local schools & the community.

Experience of working with children &/or youth is essential, as are good communication skills, team working but above all a personal commitment to the Christian faith & a desire to share that faith.

Preference will be given to applicants with a teaching qualification.

For a job description, information pack and application form please contact: Rosemary Butler: rose@butleronline.co.uk For a discussion regarding the role call Steve Warner (Youth Minister) on 07789 486 729 Closing date for applications: 14th April 2006

www.christchurchharpenden.org.uk

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The world and the Christian mind

COULDN’T HELP NOTICING A monthly survey of issues, events and ideas

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Go to church, win a house

Want to boost attendance at church?

Maybe you should point out to your church council the latest churchgrowth technique from America.

A church in Texas offered raffle tickets to those who attended their New Year’s Eve services. What was the prize for the winner of the raffle? Free resources at their bookshop? Ten new Bibles for the winner’s home group?

A quilt made by the ladies’ group?

Those answers are off by about £69,980; instead, the church gave away a new house, worth £70,000.

A member of the congregation (who is a contractor) offered to build the house for the cost of materials only, paid for by the church. The only catch was that the winner had to be in attendance to claim the prize.

In a television interview, the pastor said that it was a way of reaching out to new people. When asked by the reporter why the church didn’t give the house away to a needy family, the pastor said that he had hoped that the person who won the house would be a “person of need”.

The news report also showed video

clips from the service, which resembled a game show. The ten finalists were called up to the stage and given a key.

Only one of the keys would open the mock front door of the house. So, oneby-one, the ‘contestants’ tried his/her key in the lock. Finally, a middle-aged mother of two unlocked the door to win the house.

This is just another way churches are pushing the envelope to attract new people. Of course, the motivation is not wrong. However, as usual, it is the method that falls woefully short of faithful Biblical Christianity.

I wonder how a church plans to handle those people who are attracted to its services only by the potential prize and the game show atmosphere?

How do you help the transition for someone who comes one week for the emotional thrill of possibly winning a house to the next week where they have to sit through a 30 minute sermon on Romans?

I am reminded of 2 Timothy 4:3-4 where Paul exhorts Timothy to preach the gospel because a “time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth …”.

While preaching the gospel seems outdated and ineffective in a materialistic culture, it is still the “power of God for salvation.” Not even the gratitude that comes from receiving a free residence has the ability to turn someone’s heart from idols to the true

and living God. Only the power of the gospel can accomplish such a monumental feat. MS CHN

The new morality

What a curious morality music videos on TV convey to our teenagers.

Many of the young divas (and even the not so young, like Mariah Carey) are astonishingly brazen in their use of explicit sexuality to sell their music.

It’s basically soft porn—lingerie-clad nymphettes, touching their bodies suggestively with their hands as they ‘dance’, and embracing attractive men in ways that, to this old fuddy-duddydaddy at least, look remarkably like televised foreplay.

Interestingly, it has reached the stage where even some non-Christians are questioning the message that is being conveyed to our young girls (see the link below for just one example).

And yet, in a remarkable twist of moral uprightness, at the end of a new video clip by ‘The Veronicas’, one of the artists ... how do I put this ... “gives the camera the bird”, I think is how they say it these days. That is, she makes an obscene gesture with her middle finger. The surprising thing was that they pixellated the gesture so as to partially obscure it.

What a curious blend of moralities.

IC Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/ opinion/teenage-girls-trapped-in-a-web-ofmixed-messages/2006/01/04/ 1136050492115.html

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Brokeback Mountain

The recently released film Brokeback Mountain looks set to be influential in changing attitudes towards homosexuality. Already I am hearing the sort of glowing reviews and tributes that have come to signal danger for Christians. In this case, the danger for Christians is in their stand against same sex marriage and the acceptance of homosexuality as a valid lifestyle choice deserving of full support from our society. (Is it any coincidence that such a film is being released now?)

One review describes the film as “the rape of the Marlboro man”, suggesting that the marketing success of this new film will be even more profound than the success the Marlboro man campaign achieved for a tobacco company 50 years ago: [The Marlboro man campaign] was all part of the modern marketing revolution, which meant that, instead of touting a product’s actual benefits, marketers instead would psychologically manipulate the public by associating their product with the fulfillment of people’s deepest, unconscious needs and desires …

The ‘Marlboro Man’ campaign launched 50 years ago. Today, the powerful cowboy image is being used to sell us on another self-destructive product: homosexual sex and ‘gay’ marriage.

It is a strong and challenging review,

and, whilst I don’t necessarily agree with the views expressed in it about our “God-given consciences” that supposedly know intuitively that homosexuality is wrong, it is worth a read for its analysis of how the story and the manipulative cinematic techniques can so powerfully change people’s attitudes. IC Source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48076

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In decline

The mainstream media, and especially the broadsheet newspapers, are never shy of publishing the latest ‘church in decline’ story, especially figures relating to falling attendances. They are somewhat less forthcoming in reporting their own decline. Newspapermen all over the world are nervously watching their circulations and profits fall, especially among younger readers.

According to Joseph Epstein, writing in January’s Commentary magazine, in the decade 1990-2000 daily newspaper readership in American fell from 52.6% of the adult population to 37.5%. Among those aged 18-34 the figure was down to 19%.

This sort of decline is evident in Australia and the UK as well, and papers have rushed to slow the decline through new features, layout changes, giveaways, and the like.

Like most commentators, Epstein

laments the slow and seemingly irreversible decline of newspapers, but he also thinks that many of the mainstream papers deserve to be taken less and less seriously and read by fewer and fewer people. He says: The self-proclaimed goal of newsmen used to be to report, in a clear and factual way, on the important events of the day, on subjects of greater or lesser parochialism. It is no longer so. Here is [American news-anchor] Dan Rather, quoting with approval someone he does not name who defines news as ‘what somebody doesn’t want you to know. All the rest is advertising.’

‘What somebody doesn’t want you to know’—it would be hard to come up with a more concise definition of the target of the ‘investigative journalism’ that has been the pride of the nation’s newspapers for the past three decades.

Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Seymour Hersh, and many others have built their reputations on telling us things that Presidents and Senators and generals and CEO’s have not wanted us to know.

Besides making for a strictly adversarial relationship between government and the press, there is no denying that investigative journalism, whatever (very mixed) accomplishments it can claim to its credit, has put in place among us a tone and temper of agitation and paranoia. Every day, we are asked to regard the people we elect to office as, essentially, our enemies— thieves, thugs, and megalomaniacs whose vicious secret deeds it is the chief function of the press to uncover and whose persons to bring down in a glare of publicity.

All this might have been to the good if what the journalists discovered were invariably true—and if the nature and the implications of that truth were left for others to puzzle out. Frequently, neither has been the case.

Epstein goes on to show how the culture of the modern newsroom, built as it is on leaks and ‘sources’ which cannot be cross-examined or checked, and driven by the agenda of the journalists themselves, has led not only to the politicization of ‘news’ and

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COULDN’T HELP NOTICING 7 the polarization of public opinion, but also to reputable newspapers losing whatever reputation they once had.

Journalists are “more and more regarded as unnaccountable kibitzers [meddlers] whose self-appointed job is to spread dissension, increase pressure on everyone, make trouble—and preach the gospel of present-day liberalism”.

All of which rings fairly true to the mainstream press in my part of the world as well. Interestingly, and ironically, it’s the big mainstream, liberal denominations that are in decline with Christendom; it seems that their natural counterparts in the newspaper business are suffering the same fate. TP

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Breaking Happy News

There’s nothing I need to tell you that www.happynews.com doesn’t say.

If you’ve ever thought you’d prefer your newspapers or news sites without those stories on death, terror and corruption that might put a damper on your day, HappyNews is for you.

Or, as their title tagline puts it: ‘All The News That’s Fun To Print’.

Their ‘credo’ goes further: ‘Real News, Compelling Stories, Always Positive’ is what you’ll find on HappyNews.com. We believe virtue, goodwill and heroism are hot news.

That’s why we bring you up-to-theminute news, geared to lift spirits and inspire lives.

Some sample headlines on the day I visited read: ‘Connecticut to launch eHealth program’; ‘Congo president holds first peace meeting’; ‘New Year brings new homes to families in Sri Lanka’. All are worthwhile news stories about events that we should be thankful for. But a look at CNN on the same day lists none of the above, those stories presumably buried by issues such as the difficult political situation in Iran, a workplace shooting, and a nightclub fire.

However there’s something that makes me uneasy with the idea that someone might choose to only read Happy News. It’s not that anything in their intent or purpose is erroneous, but the error they make (purposefully, they would probably argue) is the error of omission. And it’s an error that serves as a good warning to what we do in church and how we live as Christians.

Are we as God’s people too focused on the kingdom of darkness that the world still lives in, to be able to focus on the salvation at hand? Or are we the other way round, too focused on the salvation that we have now to realize the continued sinfulness of nonChristians, and to examine the ways we rebel against God in our own lives?

In the same way that always wearing rose-coloured glasses will lead to accidents at traffic lights, we need to get our vision right. We must remember the ‘now’ as well as the ‘not yet’ of the kingdom. I’m thankful that I stumbled upon happynews.com. It pointed out an imbalance in my own outlook on current affairs and spiritual affairs, and made me even more thankful for The Good News that changed my life. GU

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Working class gatekeepers

I’ve often heard people speak about the importance of getting Christians into professions like journalism and teaching. The argument goes that the people in these positions are ‘gatekeepers’—they control the information that is allowed through the gate to the general public. Because of this, it’s important to have Christians in these positions so that a fair and accurate picture of Christianity reaches the eyes and ears of the wider public.

There’s great truth in this, and it’s truth that should continue to be explained and practised. However, to me this focus also seems more than a little middle class. Most people would be happy to be doing a respectable degree

and graduating ‘for the gospel’. Most parents would be more than happy to see their children working as a journalist with a national newspaper.

But if the above argument is true, what about the more informal ‘gatekeepers’ who may have a similar strategic role, even though they may lack that ring of respectability and professionalism? Do we shy away from promoting these as important ministries because they have more to do with the working class?

Taxi drivers and hairdressers are two great examples, although I’m sure there are others. In both of these professions there is a license, even an expectation, that they should talk to the people they’re serving—and talk to them about things above and beyond the job at hand and the weather outside. Taxi drivers and hairdressers are expected to be chatty—to discuss world events, perspectives on the news, what you’re up to in life—for the full amount of time they’re serving you.

What a good opportunity for gospel conversations! Yet I don’t hear much encouragement for Christians to go into these professions. If someone says they’re going to be a journalist, we’re all smiles. But if they say they’re becoming a hairdresser...

It’s too easy to view occupations like this with a worldly snobbishness that ignores the value of all work, and the opportunities that exist in these vocations for evangelism.

All work is valuable in God’s sight and if there are opportunities for evangelism in occupations not stamped with the ‘professional’ seal, we should be encouraging people to take advantage of them. Sure, it may mean not receiving a university degree or not as much pride for the parents, but that doesn’t matter much compared to helping gifted Christians minister in ‘gatekeeping’ roles where a Christian voice needs to be heard. BW Contributors: Ian Carmichael, Gordon Cheng, Tony Payne, Marty Sweeney, Guan Un, Benny Walter.

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BACK TO THE BIBLE

Searching for clarity LOOKING AGAIN AT SCRIPTURE AS THE CLEAR WORD OF GOD AUTHOR

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We have all had times when we find it difficult to work out what the Bible is saying. But does that mean that Scripture itself is unclear? Some argue that it is, and that we should be looking outside of Scripture to help us understand it.

Mark Thompson shows us why we should not, and why we have every reason to be confident in God’s word.

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heologians all over the world claim to take the Bible seriously. It’s an unarguable sentiment; you can’t really expect a hearing from converted men and women unless you use the language of biblical authority. Of course, some still try to mount a frontal assault upon the authority of Scripture. They dismiss the Bible as a prisoner of its own historical and cultural location. While they honour it as a reflection of the faith of the very first Christians, they don’t expect for a moment that it should direct the approach we take to living as redeemed people in the twenty-first century. They speak of it as the beginning of a conversation, the starting point of a great cosmic drama. Their point is that others have entered the conversation since those first exchanges, and that the language and content of the conversation have changed dramatically. We know much more than our first conversation partners could ever have known. Or, to put it another way, the drama has moved on. It is not merely a continuous replay of its earliest scenes.

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Christians are rightly suspicious that those who speak and write like that are in fact guided by another agenda, most often one dictated by a confidence in themselves as arbiters of truth and error, of what is enduring and what is simply for then and there, of what is enlightened and what is, well, primitive. Christians all over the world insist that the teaching of Scripture is so much more than an opening gambit, the background for a series of new insights which really are the significant message for our age. This is the written word of the eternal God who is never taken by surprise by the developments of future ages. Postmodern philosophy and literary theory do not cause him to think again about the appropriateness of language as a medium of his self-revelation. Advances in genetic research do not bring him any embarrassment at all. He is not held in awe by our technological sophistication. His word can withstand the most rigorous interrogation and testing. As Jesus himself put it when speaking about his own teaching on the things to come, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matt 24:35 and parallels; emphasis mine). There is no need to be defensive, as if some of the punches thrown by sceptics, critics and their postmodern heirs might prove to be fatal. We need not fear the big questions or investigation of the detail. We remain confident that the Bible is the kind gift of a good God to the people he loves beyond measure.

I remember Broughton Knox once commenting—typically, in passing conversation at a wedding—that the rock on which so much contemporary writing about the Bible is shattered is the attitude of Jesus himself to the Scriptures of his day, our Old Testament. Our Lord took the text of the Old Testament with the utmost seriousness. If the Scriptures

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have spoken, the issue is settled.1 Time and again, he exposed the superficial approach of his contemporaries to the teaching of the Scriptures and called on his own disciples to engage far more deeply with the actual words written by Moses and the prophets. His acceptance of the authority of the Bible was genuine and profound. “[A]ll this has taken place”, he told his disciples, “that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled” (Matt 26:56). Jesus did not overturn, transform, add or subtract from the authority of Scripture. What is more, he set the ground for understanding the writings of the apostolic band—what would later become the New Testament—as the work of the same Spirit who had inspired the Old. The Spirit would come and remind them of all that he had said to them (John 14:26).

There would be those in the future who would “believe in me through their word” (John 17:20). So Paul expected his letters to be read and obeyed. Peter was willing to speak of Paul’s writings and “the other Scriptures” in the same breath (2 Pet 3:16). That same recognition of the final authority of Scripture is to be found in the early church fathers and the Reformation confessions. You are simply out of step with the genuine apostolic Christianity of the last 2000 years if you deny the authority of Scripture.

Which is why, in the end, so very few actually deny it, at least explicitly and directly.

Nevertheless, as every student of church history soon learns, there is more than one way to avoid a doctrine you consider to be ‘inconvenient’. A full-on attack on biblical authority might not win you many friends. It may have little chance of success, given the importance of the Bible to ordinary Christian discipleship, both individual and corporate.

But isn’t there another question that needs to be asked? Can we really be sure what this authoritative word is in fact saying? Are we in a position to be confident about the teaching of this Scripture which we must all take so seriously? Are we not all caught up in the horrors of hermeneutics? Did God really say …?

A new battleground has emerged in the past twenty years, yet it is one that has been visited repeatedly in the centuries before us. One archbishop ridicules another’s appeal to the plain teaching of the Bible as naïve and simplistic. A contributor to theological journals wonders whether such an appeal might not turn out to be just another exercise in intellectual ‘bullying’ and the quest for personal power. A controversialist insists the text of Scripture is unclear

and so we must decide about the big questions of the moment on other grounds. Of course people still debate the inspiration, inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture. Yet increasingly the focus has become the clarity of Scripture.

Does it make sense to speak about the clarity of Scripture in the face of so many different opinions and a history of one controversy after another? Isn’t it time we grew up, left the security of the shallows where everything seems sure, and venture out into the deep water where certainty is much more illusive and life must be lived without assurances?

The Bible is not out of reach.

It is not too hard for the ploughboy while, at the same time, it is profound enough to keep the scholar busy for a lifetime.

These questions are remarkably like those raised centuries ago. The great theologians of the early Christian centuries spoke about the difficulties of Scripture, the licence these seemed to give to the heretics, and the confidence Christians can have that God’s truth won’t be lost in the confusion. Martin Luther celebrated the clarity of Scripture in his debate with the great Dutch humanist scholar, Desiderius Erasmus, while acknowledging that we don’t know everything and that some bits of the Bible are, quite frankly, difficult to understand. Erasmus had previously complained that Luther presumed too much. Decades later Anglicans and Puritans made common cause against the doubts on this subject raised by the Jesuit, Roberto Bellarmino. At each point the questions were answered.

There was no need to abandon the clarity of Scripture. The Bible is not out of reach. It is not too hard for the ploughboy while, at the same time, it is profound enough to keep the scholar busy for a lifetime.

What we need at the moment is a recovery of confidence in the clarity of Scripture. The proper anchor for this can only be the person and character of God as shown decisively in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, if we abandon the clarity of Scripture, our understanding of God as sovereign over all, thoroughly committed to our welfare, begins to unravel. Is God incapable of clear communication, given the fragility of human language? Or does God tease us with a word forever beyond our reach? Doesn’t he want to be clear?

The power of God in the midst of human weakness, a power which guarantees that God’s purposes will be fulfilled, is in full view when Jesus bled and died and rose victorious from the grave. The love of God—his determination to rescue us, to wipe away our condemnation, corruption and captivity to

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BACK TO THE BIBLE 11 sin—is on display there too. And both his power and his love can be seen in the Scriptures he has given us and which are “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16).

God wants men and women to know him. In fact, Jesus spoke about life as it was meant to be in precisely these terms: to “know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). God’s great activity throughout the Old Testament and the New is focused in this direction—on the gathering of a people to himself who are his very own, who know him, hear his voice and trust his word. Nothing stands in the way of God making himself known to those he has chosen for himself. Human language is no insuperable barrier. After all, it is his creation, his gift to the man and woman in the Garden (Gen 1:28).

He speaks to them. Even after Babel (Gen 11), God is able to call people to himself using human words with no hint of difficulty. What is more, the complexities of written communication—the tortured histories of texts, the complications of collection, editing and translation—none of these are too much for him either. Jesus’ appeal to the Scripture of his day makes that much clear.

The God of the gospel is so irreversibly committed to the welfare of his people—he is so determined to bring them to maturity in the likeness of his Son—no room is left for the idea that the Bible is too hard for all but the experts.

He wants us to know his will. He wants to warn us about the danger of unbelief and persistence in sinful behaviour.

He wants us to hear his promises and rejoice in the hope they produce in us. God does not tease us with an impossible word—impossible to understand, impossible to live by. As Moses told the people of Israel on the borders of the Promised Land, it is “not too hard for you, neither is it far off” (Deut 30:11-14).

Nothing stands in the way of God making himself known to those he has chosen for himself. Human language is no insuperable barrier.

Of course, clarity is not the same thing as simplicity.

Some parts of the Bible are easier to understand than others. There is room for study and growth in understanding. We can and should applaud the concern for the responsible (and moral) use of texts, which is one of the best features of modern hermeneutics. It is amazing how many ‘difficulties’ are solved by reading texts in their context. The ancient principle of letting the simpler texts guide our reading of the more difficult texts is also very valuable.

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A growing knowledge of the languages in which the Bible was originally written and the historical background of its parts can help us to see things we might otherwise have missed. What is more, other students of the Bible (from our own time and over the centuries) are able to help us as we work at understanding what God has said and is saying to us. God has provided us with these resources and it would be churlish to ignore them. Yet none of them should be elevated to such a place that they compromise the essential clarity of Scripture. Bible reading is something we should approach with confidence, not with a dread that, if we do not get all the procedures and principles in place, we won’t understand a word.

God himself is the ultimate resource when it comes to the reading of his word.

What is more, it is always possible that, at those points at which we find the Bible unclear, the real problem is with us and not with the text of Scripture. Our ignorance, our vested interests, our laziness, our own sinfulness—all of these have a powerful capacity for obscuring God’s clear word. We sinful men and women seem to have an almost inexhaustible capacity for finding our own ideas and pref-

erences endorsed by some word, phrase, or sentence in the Bible. Yet even here we find the power and love of God at work. God is always present with us as his word is read (something that marks this text out as different from all other texts). The Spirit of God who inspired these words can wipe away ignorance and sin, and enable us to understand and believe. God himself is the ultimate resource when it comes to the reading of his word. The Bible itself provides many examples of believers praying that God would help them to understand his word (e.g. Ps 119:18).

The clarity of Scripture is not something we should ever isolate from God’s active involvement with his people. We can speak about Scripture being clear precisely because God is making himself known in these words and God is a very good communicator. That is why Christians everywhere are able to declare that what Scripture teaches, God teaches. We can take these words seriously because they are God’s words, and through them he means to bring his great purposes to their completion.

Mark Thompson is Academic Dean and Senior Lecturer in Theology at Moore College. His book on the clarity of Scripture, A Clear and Present Word, based on the Moore College Lectures for 2005, will be published by IVP later this year.

Endnote 1. For those who like them, there is even a Latin tag for this truth: sacra scriptura locuta, res decisa est.

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MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES ST MICHAEL’S CHURCH HIGHGATE

YOUTH/CHILDREN’S WORKER MINISTRY APPRENTICE Opportunities for sacrificial gospel ministry St Michael’s Church, Highgate, London (www.stmichaels.org) is seeking to appoint a Youth & Children’s Worker to head up its growing ministry with 0-18-year-olds.

St Michael’s is a traditional Anglican church but during the past few years has established an integrated biblical ministry for children, teenagers and young families.

The successful candidate will lead Bible study groups and organise evangelistic events for teenagers, and be responsible for overseeing the children’s ministry. He or she will also assist the Associate Vicar at the church’s new plant service in the local primary school. Salary c.£15,000. Accommodation/allowance provided. Training and/or experience in youth work is desirable but not essential.

St. Michael’s can also offer a wide range of experience & training for a Ministry Apprentice who will particularly focus on evangelism & ELEVENSES, our new church/congregation plant.

For more information please contact Anna Price, church administrator, on 02083407279 or anna.price@stmichaelshighgate.org.

ROYAL BOROUGH OF KINGSTON UPON THAMES SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITY CHRISTIAN WORKER TRUST

Secondary Schools Worker The Trust, owned by 13 local evangelical churches of various denominations, is looking to appoint a new Schools Worker from September 2006 to continue a ministry to the local schools established 18 years ago. The ministry requires a Christian with Qualified Teacher status and with the ability to present Biblical truth in the classroom setting as well as support Christian teachers and train CU leaders in discipleship and evangelism in a challenging environment.

The Secondary Worker will be part of a team with a Primary Worker and a Student Worker employed by the Trust who are aided by church youth workers and apprentices. The Schools Workers relate to Scripture Union as Associates but are accountable to the Trust Management Committee and will need to liaise with the sponsoring churches to encourage their partnership.

Initial 3 year contract with attractive salary package

ST.MARY'S, HAILSHAM, EAST SUSSEX

DIRECTOR OF MUSIC We are looking for someone to join us to share in a new gospel ministry in the Sussex market town of Hailsham. We aim to develop the musical life of the church in support of our priorities of Bible teaching and evangelism.

We would wish to develop both traditional and contemporary styles and are looking for someone to lead and train both our music group and choir and ideally also to play the three manual pipe organ.

This post could either be part-time, one or two services each Sunday plus a midweek evening practice, or it could be full time combined with an apprenticeship.

Salary/conditions negotiable. Our priority is to welcome someone who will share our vision for a growing, Bible-teaching church at the heart of this Sussex town.

For more information please contact Revd David Bourne, The Vicarage, Vicarage Road, Hailsham, East Sussex, BN27 1BL. Tel: 01323 842381; djbourne@fish.co.uk

Closing date for applications: Friday 31st March 2006.

Interviews held w/c 2nd April 2006.

Application form and information pack from: Trevor Archer (Daytime): 020 8397 0741 or Andrew Griffiths (Evening) 020 8399 6055 or E Mail: andrew.griffiths10@btinternet.com

APPRENTICES Are you eager to:

PASTORAL WORKER

★ have an opportunity to serve full-time in a local church for a year? ★ learn how to correctly handle and communicate God’s Word?

A growing independent evangelical church, with a commitment to teaching the bible at all levels is seeking to appoint a new pastoral worker. Core responsibilities will include:

★ develop Christian character?

★ Discipling and encouraging church members to grow and serve in their faith. ★ Supporting the needs of the congregation through pastoral care, and by developing a pastoral team. ★ Leadership in areas of the church according to gifting, and if appropriate, that might include: home group oversight, welcome team, parenting and marriage courses, men’s breakfast, women’s outreach event, leading or teaching at some services.

We are a new church plant in Leicester (from Knighton Evangelical Free Church). From September 2006, we are offering a 1 or 2 year apprenticeship scheme designed to prepare people for ministry.

The main ministry opportunities are in the areas of children’s and youth work, student work (including international students) and discipleship. Places are limited and some funding is available.

The post is open to men and women, or a married couple. We expect the successful applicant to have clear relational skills, with an ability to work alongside other members of the leadership team. They will be expected to exercise a significant word ministry among the church family.

Further information about the post is available from The Church Administrator, Sarah Vickers, 1 Orchard Avenue, Harpenden, Herts AL5 2DW or call Rev Gareth Lewis on 01582 463260

For more information about the church, please see our website www.avenuecommunitychurch.org.uk.

To chat informally about the scheme and for an application pack, please contact Graham Beynon on 0116 2128815 or graham@avenuecommunitychurch.org.uk.

Closing date for applications 20th May 2006

We look forward to hearing from you.

The job responsibilities stated are at the core of the post and the gifting and experience of the successful applicant will be taken into account in drawing up the final job description

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The authoritative word REVIEWER

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LIONEL WINDSOR

What is the authority of the Bible? How does the Bible’s authority affect our lives as God’s people who recognise the lordship of Christ? Lionel Windsor has a look at how N.T. Wright attempts to answer these questions.

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would hazard a guess that if I collected a moderately-sized bunch of self-professing Christians of various persuasions in a single room and asked, “Hands up who believes in the authority of the Bible?”, a fair majority of the crowd would put their arms in the air. But if I then inquired of each individual hand-raiser exactly what he or she understood by the phrase, ‘the authority of the Bible’, I suspect I’d receive a wide variety of opinions, ranging from a strict belief in the eternal applicability of every sentence, to a vague feeling that the Bible sometimes has helpful things to say.

What is ‘the authority of the Bible’?

How does the Bible actually have authority in the day-to-day life of ordinary Christians? In an attempt to answer these questions, N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of Britain’s most influential biblical scholars, has written his book, Scripture and the Authority of God. The book is the result of Wright’s own wrestling with the issue of biblical authority in two very specific contexts: the International Anglican Doctrinal and Theological Commission (still ongoing) and the Lambeth Commission which produced The Windsor Report (no relation!) in October 2004.1 Yet the book is not limited to the issues raised in these commissions. It is designed to address a wide variety of modern contexts and current debates. It is clear,

friendly and accessible, yet it also exhibits the care and precision of a world-renowned scholar.

Reading a book by N. T. Wright is a bit like taking an exhilarating guided coach tour of your own home town, with Wright pointing out all sorts of fascinating things about the landscape, and offering helpful insights into familiar territory with thoughtful cogency and often unsurpassed clarity that makes you genuinely grateful for the tour. However, after a while, you catch glimpses of Wright’s final destination and you really start to wonder whether or not you want to end up there.

I’ll deal with Wright’s destination— his ‘big picture’—presently. But first, let me mention a few of the helpful things about the book.

Wright’s initial aim is commendable: he wants to understand the Bible’s authority in its own terms, rather than imposing an alien view of ‘authority’ upon it. What does the Bible say about its own authority?

Firstly, Wright helpfully points out that the Bible’s authority is not independent; it is

derived from its principal subject—God. The phrase “authority of scripture” can only make Christian sense if it is a shorthand for “the authority of the triune God, exercised somehow through Scripture”. (p. 17)

That is, Scripture only has the authority that the supremely sovereign God invests in it as his written word.

Secondly, the Bible’s authority is a narrative authority, for the Bible itself is essentially a (true!) story (pp. 18-19), rather than a set of universal maxims or commands (even though there are maxims and commands within the story). Thirdly, Wright identifies a word that the Bible itself uses to fill out the idea of authority, the word ‘kingdom’, which is not an abstract philosophical category. Rather, ‘the kingdom’ is the concrete action of the sovereign creator

Scripture and the Authority of God N. T. Wright SPCK, London, 2005, 107pp.

ISBN: 0281057222 Price: £7.99

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BACK TO THE BIBLE 15 God, putting the world to rights, judging evil and bringing forgiveness and new life.

Picturing ‘authority’ in terms of God, narrative and kingdom allows Wright to argue that Scripture doesn’t just provide information about God and/or his purposes, it is actively used

by God to achieve his purposes (pp. 2223). The authority of the Bible, therefore, lies not merely in its usefulness as a resource for information or devotion.

Rather, in modern parlance, God performs ‘speech-acts’ through Scripture to authoritatively reorder, judge and redeem his world (cf. Isa 55:10-13). This insistence—that the Bible’s authority is the authority of God who acts through his word to bring about his kingdom— is returned to again and again throughout the book, and is probably its greatest strength. For example, in speaking of the relationship between Israel and the Old Testament, Wright says: Scripture did not just reflect the experience, religious awareness, social and cultural turmoils and so forth of God’s people, though of course it did all that as well. Again and again the point of scripture was that it addressed a fresh, prophetic word to Israel in the midst of its often very ambiguous “experience”, breaking in to Israel’s own world of muddle and mistakes— doing, in fact, in verbal form what God himself was doing. (p. 27)

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authority over God’s people and God’s world. He critiques the Enlightenment for substituting an alien concept of autonomous human reason for the Bible’s authority. His proposals for ‘getting back on track’ are largely helpful, clear and passionately argued, for

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ethnic and geopolitical entity that God used to further his purposes of creation, judgement and renewal for the world. But, according to Wright, Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection has turned Israel into ‘the church’. Jesus has reconstituted God’s people from

The death and resurrection of Jesus was the climactic ‘turning point’ in the story of God’s people.

Jesus was Act IV in a cosmic five-act play.

And of the New Testament, he writes: The written word, expressing and embodying the living word of the primitive gospel, was the Spirit empowered agent through which the one creator God was reclaiming the cosmos. (p. 43)

With this view of authority in mind, Wright traces the ‘story’ of how the Bible’s authority has been viewed from ancient Israel, through Jesus and the apostles, to the present-day church. He traces both the impressive historical continuity in (as well as the lamentable deviations from) the belief in Scripture’s dynamic, kingdom-creating

example: reintegrate a proper view of the Bible’s authority with a properlychastened view of tradition, reason and experience; make sure that the Bible (both Testaments) is central in all church meetings; call all church leaders to be Spirit-empowered Bible teachers rather than administrators.

But behind all of these helpful observations and appeals there is a ‘big picture’ that keeps asserting itself as the backbone to the book’s argument.

This big picture is Wright’s particular view of the relationship between Israel, Jesus Christ and the church.2 Israel was God’s ‘old covenant people’, an

being an ethnic enclave to being a global and expansive (but nevertheless earthly and political) concern. Hence, for Wright, the church is “the new covenant people, the restored Israel-forthe-world” (p. 36).3 In Jesus, “God’s call to Israel [is] now transmuted into God’s call to his renewed people” (p. 37).

So according to Wright, God is currently acting to renew the world through the church, just as he once was (in a different mode) through Israel.

The death and resurrection of Jesus was the climactic ‘turning point’ in the story of God’s people. Jesus was Act IV in a cosmic five-act play. The previous

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three acts in this play were creation, fall and Israel; we (the church) are Act V (see especially pp. 89-93). So Wright speaks of “God’s project of new covenant and new creation” having “begun” in Jesus, “necessarily taking a new mode” (pp. 41-42). But the story is unfinished. It is our role, as the church, to complete the story—to become actors in God’s unfinished story—to improvise the rest of the story without forgetting our basic theme that stems from its beginnings in Israel and Jesus Christ.

What effect does this have on Wright’s construal of the Bible’s authority? Simply put, the Bible’s authority becomes subservient to a

focused. According to the New Testament, Jesus Christ is not merely the ‘turning point’ in the story of God’s purposes in the cosmos, or the vital lynch-pin between Israel and the church. Rather, in many very significant ways, Jesus’ death and resurrection are the end, the fulfilment, the goal and the completion of God’s purposes in the cosmos (e.g. John 12:31-33; 2 Cor 6:2; Col 1:13-23; Heb 1:1-3, 9:25-28), as well as in the ‘story’ of Israel (e.g. Rom 10:4, 1 Cor 10:11, 1 Thess 2:14-16). God’s authoritative kingdom action is not primarily demonstrated through the ongoing actions of the church; it is demonstrated in that already completed

The Bible’s authority becomes subservient to a much grander theme for Wright: the ongoing mission of the (earthly) church. much grander theme for Wright: the ongoing mission of the (earthly) church.

For Wright, the Bible is first and foremost God’s instrument to guide his earthly church through uncharted waters, to judge and forgive and renew his cosmos through this ‘new covenant people’. So, according to Wright, our view of the authority of Scripture needs to keep as its central focus the goal of God’s kingdom, inaugurated by Jesus on earth as in heaven and one day to be completed under that same rubric. (p. 84, emphasis mine)

According to Wright, the New Testament is for us what the Old Testament was for Israel: [T]he New Testament understands itself as the new covenant charter, the book that forms the basis for the new telling of the story through which Christians are formed, reformed and transformed so as to be God’s people for God’s world. (p. 44)

The problem with this view is that it isn’t properly and biblically Christ-

action of death and resurrection which Christ has achieved. We as the church are simply called to trust and obey him.

Certainly, Christians are to be active in God’s world, and we should expect God to work in our world through our individual and corporate obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. However, in doing this we are not taking part in a grand ‘unfinished story’ in the same way that Israel was before Christ. Rather, we are proclaiming and living out the consequences of God’s finished story in Jesus Christ, and we await his return when the implications of what he has done will be obvious to all. In terms of the ‘story’ of the Bible, the New Testament does not merely continue the Old Testament; it completes it.

In the end, despite a promising start, Wright’s vision of the Bible’s authority is too open-ended, too ambiguous, and too intertwined with the vagaries of whatever we might want to identify as ‘the church’ on earth or ‘the people of God’ to be of proper help.

Indeed, the arguments in Scripture and the Authority of God could quite logi-

cally be used to claim that even the highly ambiguous Windsor Report is part of the narrative of the ‘new covenant people’ through which God is authoritatively guiding the creation towards its final destination, as the accredited leaders of the church listen to the ‘unfinished story’ of Scripture and then have a go at improvising on the basic theme (see pp. 100-104). This view would only add more confusion to already troubled waters.

The attempt to articulate a proper Christian view of the authority of Scripture is an important task. We desperately need a clear and passionate articulation of the Bible’s authority that can account for how God brings about his kingdom purposes through his authoritative word, the Holy Scriptures.

Yet it must also account for the place of the contemporary church in that story.

Wright’s attempt is valiant but ultimately fails to come to grips with the unique position of the Lord Jesus Christ in the biblical narrative as both the fulfiller and the goal of all history.

Lionel Windsor is an assistant minister at St Michael’s Anglican Cathedral, Wollongong.

Endnotes 1. The Windsor Report was an attempt to deal with the consequences of wildly varying views on the appropriateness of homosexual activity among members and clergy of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

2. Much of this view is filled out in more detail in Wright’s previous publications.

3. Wright does not seem to be aware of the serious problem of using the ‘covenant’ category as a basis to discuss the continuity between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament church. In the New Testament, the term ‘covenant’ is very scarce and it is never used as a designation of the corporate identity of God’s people.

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Time to take a tour...

We often describe our Interactive Bible Studies as a bit like taking a guided tour through an old city.

You get to see the highlights, learn some background information, and are given directions from an expert on what to explore in your own time. To plan your ‘itinerary’ for the rest of this year, please visit our website and see the full range of these and other informative studies.

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Is God doing a new thing?

AUTHOR

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JEREMY LEFFLER

Battles over the authority, clarity and relevance of Scripture today may be fought out in theory, but the rubber really hits the road when it comes to concrete but very controversial issues like homosexuality. Jeremy Leffler reminds us why the push for the consecration of gay bishops and gay marriage is not simply the latest part of a historic movement by the Holy Spirit.

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f you’ve been keeping up with recent church news from around the world, you’ll know that The Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA) and the Canadian Anglican Church have been asked to withdraw themselves from the councils of the worldwide Anglican Communion. They have been excluded for their unilateralism in consecrating an openly homosexual man as bishop and promoting rites of blessing for same-sex relationships, in defiance of the declared mind of the Lambeth Conference1 1998 and other declarations of the wider church.

In their defence, they say that the Holy Spirit is doing a new thing among them, that we should see God at work releasing homosexuals from centuries, nay, millennia of oppression, and that actively homosexual people can be just as much children of God as anyone else.

Have they got a point? Are they on solid ground when they propose that this ‘new thing’ is analogous, for example, to the situation that gave rise to the Council of Jerusalem?2 After all, they would say, surely we need to be aware of and open to God’s new deeds in bringing salvation to those who once were considered outside the pale of his people?

Well, let’s look at that example of The Council of Jerusalem. The Council of Jerusalem and the communiqué that issued from it arose because Gentiles

were coming to faith in Christ. This raised the question: should they submit to the Torah and become messianic Jews, or was God manifesting a new way of incorporating people within his Kingdom?

The discussion and outcome hinged on two related points. Firstly, it was observed that the fruits of salvation were evident among the Gentiles. So the apostles and elders went back to the Scriptures to find evidence that they should expect this. There they found

liberal-dominated churches (including sections of the Church of England) would say that we have long since fallen into that trap.

But there is a substantial difference between the historic issue of the assimilation of Gentiles into the early church as distinctively Gentile Christians rather than as Jewish converts, and the contemporary issue of human sexuality and Christian discipleship. For an exact parallel, we would have to see, firstly, the fruits of salvation among the group pro-

Was God manifesting a new way of incorporating people within his Kingdom? the second telling point: the Scriptures foretold the Gentiles becoming part of the people of God. Therefore the conclusion was that the Gentiles were not to be hindered from coming to the Messiah for salvation, for it was not in the Jewish Law that salvation was found: but only in Christ.

The Council of Jerusalem was necessary because people had so absorbed the Jewish culture that they couldn’t see how God could act outside that culture.

So how can we know if we are in danger of that same failing in relation to homosexuals and Christian culture?

ECUSA and the Canadian and other

posed for full inclusion in the church and then, secondly, the Scriptural indications foretelling the inclusion of that group among God’s people. The homosexual lobby claim the former, but as we go to the Scriptures, the latter is nowhere to be found. Without this Scriptural affirmation—that practising homosexuals are to be included—we must doubt whether the “fruits of salvation” are genuine.

The Gentile Christians were told that they would not be burdened with the requirements of the Jewish Law, but that they should “abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the

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BACK TO THE BIBLE 19 in the list of things still prohibited to Gentile Christians under the New Covenant shows that the prohibitions on adultery and fornication, incest, homosexuality and bestiality all remain.

The New Testament epistles offer not one whiff of positive assessment of same-sex acts, and lifestyles of settled practice at odds with Christian commitment are outlawed—with homosexual lifestyles explicitly included in the list.

Clearly both the acts and the lifestyles

another to fall into sin was so terrible that for the one guilty of such transgression, “it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea”.7 In that case, there is no way in which we conservative evangelicals can change our view on this subject and still remain faithful to God, his Word and his people—even should we be persuaded that such a change would be

We are bound by our highest allegiance to God, by his Word, and by our relationships with his people in other, non-Western nations …

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meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality [Greek: porneia]”.3 So porneia is among the list of activities that remain off-limits to Gentile Christians: whatever has been forbidden in the area of sexual conduct remains forbidden.4 The “if I can eat prawns, why is homosexuality still sinful?” jibe suggests that uncleanness has been dealt with in Christ, so an allowance should be extended to all issues of sexuality. But this passage says that although uncleanness has indeed been done away with in Christ, nonetheless the prohibition on sexual behaviour outside monogamous heterosexual marriage still stands.5 In the Law given through Moses, God regulates the less-than-perfect existing practices of sexual relationships. Polygamy and divorce are restricted, and banned in certain situations. Major restrictions are placed on those with whom sexual relations may legitimately be pursued. Sex between close relations by either blood or marriage, or with people who are themselves closely related, is outlawed, as are samesex intercourse, sex with animals and cross-dressing. The inclusion of porneia

which they define are out of order.

The only conclusion which it seems right to draw from this is that we are explicitly forbidden to relax these rules in our day (or in any day).

I wonder if it ever occurs to the homosexual activists and bigots (for such they are) that it would be easy for us, who oppose them, to fall into line and agree with them. At a stroke we would remove a great stick with which the secular western world beats the church. This is just what the liberals want us to do.

But we are bound by our highest allegiance to God, by his Word, and by our relationships with his people in other, non-Western nations, to declare that homosexual behaviour is sinful.

Furthermore, a settled lifestyle centred around and defined by such sinful sexual behaviour must be renounced, or we cannot accept as genuine the “fruits of salvation” which they suggest may be present in their lives. Remember that Satan can fake anything, even piety and goodness, so as to deceive the faithful into accepting what God condemns.6 And finally, we cannot treat pro-homosexual activists as guiltless, whether they actively engage in the behaviour or confine themselves to promoting its acceptance. Jesus said that to cause

humanly desirable. God is not doing a new thing: rather it is a novelty that is, at best, “of the flesh”, and, at worst, truly diabolical. In human terms, to stand up and be counted as those who abide by the Word of God may cost us respect, friendship, preferment or promotion; it may lead to suffering, ridicule, ostracism and even persecution. But (to borrow that famous line), “Here we stand: we can do no other”.

Jeremy Leffler is vicar of an Anglican parish in Widnes, Lancashire, and is its first evangelical minister for nearly 40 years.

Endnotes 1. The Lambeth Conference is the worldwide council of bishops of the Anglican Communion, which meets every ten years.

2. Acts 15:1-29 3. Acts 15:29 4. It is interesting to note that the activities that are proscribed all relate to the satisfaction of physical appetites. It appears that what we do with our bodies directly affects our ability to be holy, even under the new covenant.

5. We should realize that there is a significant difference between unclean and forbidden. Contact with uncleanness meant exclusion for a limited period, followed by cleansing; a forbidden act meant exclusion until repentance and sacrifice for the atonement and expiation of sin.

6. 2 Corinthians 11:12-15 7. Matthew 18:6

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Encouragement for full-time gospel workers

MARCH 2006 | ISSUE 330

The preacher’s confidence AUTHOR

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Week in, week out, it’s hard to maintain our trust in the power of biblical preaching.

Tony Payne goes in search of a confidence-boost.

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elf-doubt usually enters a preacher’s heart at some stage in the sermon process. Have I really understood the passage? Will this really connect with the people? Is it too long? Too lighton? Too heavy? Too flippant? Too boring? What would Dick Lucas do?

Perhaps the nagging thought that assails preachers most, however, is this: Will it make any difference? Will it call forth some sort of response or action or growth? Will it move the congregation to change? Will my preaching, in other words, have authority?

For that is what authority is: it’s the power to call forth action, to initiate response, to command obedience, to change behaviour.

As Oliver O’Donovan perceptively points out, there are many authorities in our world—some natural, some cultural, some institutional—and they act upon us, and call forth action from us, in different ways.1 Governments exercise the authority of military power. Their words elicit a certain amount of obedience because we know that if we disobey we stand a

reasonable chance of being forcibly arrested and locked up. There are natural authorities as well: age carries a certain power to inspire action and obedience; so does beauty, and truth. These different authorities affect us. They act upon us, and cause us to change our mind and behaviour in different ways, and to varying degrees.

As we preach, we are seeking to exercise a sort of authority. We want our words to call forth change in the minds and daily lives of our hearers. And it can be at this point that self-doubt turns into a different sort of doubt: Does the message that we are seeking to explain and expound have authority? Does God’s Word really possess the power to call forth action? Am I just kidding myself?

As I stand up there each week blathering on, trying to explain and apply a 2000-year-old document, will it make any real difference in the lives of these faces staring back at me?

The strength of this doubt can be seen in what passes for preaching in many churches today. Because many preachers have lost faith in the authority

of the Scriptures, they turn to other methods in an attempt to move their hearers and inspire action. They tell affecting stories, reproduce the wisdom of the times, play on what they think their hearers already take to be true, and so on. Or else, having abandoned the idea that a sermon really can exercise much authority, they trust in other aspects of the meeting to call forth action from the congregation—such as the powerful experience of the singing.

A loss of confidence in the power and authority of God’s Word has numerous causes, most of which are related to sin in some way or other. One obvious cause is that the very idea of ‘authority’ has been under attack in our culture since the Enlightenment. Our intellectual forebears decisively rejected the authority of tradition, the church, or any external source, to determine what is true. They insisted that human reason should be its own authority.

The Bible in particular came under attack. For most of the past 150 years, liberal critics and scholars have been chipping away at the credibility of the

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PASTOR’S BRIEF 21 Bible, such that today, unbelieving scepticism about the truth and authority of the Scriptures is now rampant (if not dominant) in mainstream Christian denominations.

Evangelicals may well deplore these developments, but we can’t help but be influenced by them. In particular, we find ourselves vulnerable to a particularly powerful and pernicious assault on Scriptural authority—the argument, often repeated in various forms, that Scripture has lost some its authority with the passing of time. It may well have been full of power and authority when it was first delivered to the saints, it is suggested, but with the passing of the centuries, and the (supposedly) massive changes in culture and human society that have ensued, the Bible no longer speaks with the same relevance and power. We have moved on; the world has changed. The Bible speaks to a different world, and so its authority in our world is much diminished. It cannot command action and obedience in quite the way it once could.

So it is argued, and so we are tempted to believe.

The authority of Christ To reinvigorate our confidence in God’s word and its authority, I want to take us back a step or two to the authority of Christ himself, because one leads to the other.

We all believe that Jesus is Lord, but what is the nature of his authority?

Firstly, it is historical. All authority in heaven and earth was given to Jesus Christ, at a certain point in human history.

Of course, God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—has always been king, the ruler of all things. But his rule in our world unfolded in human history through Adam, and Abraham, and Israel, and David, and finally through the promised Christ, God’s king who would rule the whole world. Jesus demonstrated his Messianic authority in his words and works, and then was established and exalted and declared to be the Messiah/Christ through his

resurrection from the dead (see Acts 2:36; Rom 1:1-4; Phil 2:9-11).

Something changed in our world when Jesus rose from the dead, and was exalted to the right hand of the Father. The lordship of Jesus is not an idea or a philosophy or an argument. It is an historical reality. His appointment as worldwide ruler and judge happened at a certain point in space and time, the proof of which is his resurrection from the dead (Acts 17:31)—unless of course we are pathetically mistaken, and he did not rise from the dead; in which

It is unique, and by its very nature universal and absolute.

And this brings us to the third aspect of Christ’s authority. Unlike other forms of power and authority—especially absolute power—Christ’s authority is not corrupt. On the contrary, the authority of Jesus Christ is good news. It is gospel, because it means the liberation of our world from all the false and evil authorities that have enslaved it. It means the defeat of sin and death and Satan.

His authority is a saving, justifying, reconciling, liberating authority, that

As we preach, we are seeking to exercise a sort of authority. We want our words to call forth change in the minds and daily lives of our hearers. case, his authority is non-existent, and we are still in our sins.

However, if this historical claim is indeed true, then it is true finally and universally, and we now live with the reality that there is a Resurrected Man in authority over this world.

The Risen Christ’s authority is historical in another sense, in that it is exercised and played out in history. It’s an historical truth with an historical end. The authoritative Christ is even now gathering his people from the four winds through the preaching of the gospel and by the work of his Spirit, and in time he will come again to his world to judge the living and the dead.

The authority of Christ is firstly historical. But if it is historical in this way, it is also unique. If he has been exalted to the highest place, above every other rule and power, then his authority is singular and supreme. Christianity is not a ‘better’ religion than Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism because its morality is more virtuous, its sayings more profound, or its lifestyle more successful. Christianity brings an historical claim which, if true, marginalizes all other religious claims. His authority is not temporary or partial.

calls forth love, peace, joy and righteousness from his people. His yoke is easy, and his burden light. He frees us to be our true selves, as we were created to be.

Our preaching and Christ’s authority ‘All authority has been given to me’, said Jesus. ‘Now go and preach it.

Preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in my name. Make disciples, and teach them to obey me and everything I have taught, until the end of the age’ (if I can run together Matt 28:18-20 and Luke 24:46-47).

This would pass for a summary of the rest of the New Testament, and indeed of faithful Christian ministry today. The authority of Jesus, the Risen Lord and Christ, is spread and exercised through people being told about it—through preaching. And that is the fundamental task of apostolic Christian ministry.

When we preach, we are always proclaiming some aspect of the authority of Christ. We are always telling people that, in fulfilment of God’s historic purposes, Jesus Christ is now Lord of all, and that the time has come for all people everywhere to repent, find salvation and forgiveness of sins in him,

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and live in faith and obedience as we await the coming Day of the judgement and glory.

This is the message of the Bible, in both Old Testament and New. The Old Testament sets out the framework and categories for understanding the coming of Christ. As Paul says, it’s like a schoolroom or tutor that leads to faith in the Son (Gal 3:23-24). It shows the holiness of the Creator God, his goodness, his ways, and the sinful rebellion of humanity and of Israel as a kind of representative humanity. It sets out the promises of how God will redeem his rebellious creation through his Son, the Christ.

The New Testament, of course, is all about Christ on every page. It proclaims and explains his marvellous person, his life, his teaching, his example, his saving death and glorious resurrection. It proclaims his lordship

authoritative Christ, and they derive their authority from his. They are authoritative both in the sense that they proclaim his authority, and that his own authority lies behind them. In his excellent but now somewhat neglected book, Christ and the Bible, John Wenham showed that: • Christ embraced and endorsed the Old Testament as God’s divine word, and saw himself as its fulfilment; • Christ taught that his own words were God’s words, that the Father was in him, speaking through him; and • Christ commissioned his apostles to teach what he had commanded, and promised that he would come to them in the person of the Spirit to teach and remind them of all that he had said, so that they could make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all his words (which is what we find in Acts and the Epistles).

The Scriptures are authoritative both in the sense that they proclaim his authority, and that his own authority lies behind them. and authority; it commands and expounds the obedience of faith to which God calls all people.

The Scriptures are all about the

PHOTO

If this Christ is not the Lord of all the earth, then the Christian Bible which is all about his lordship, and which proclaims and mediates his lordship, is just another interesting human religious document with a fatal error at its heart.

However, if he is uniquely and historically the Lord and Christ of our world, then the Christian Bible comes with all the weight of his lordship behind it. It’s not so much a book as a royal decree— the Words of the King and about the King, and it must be treated with all the awe, reverence and obedience that a king’s word commands.

Z B I G S T O C K P H O T O. C O M

The Scriptures have the authority of the King; they are the Words of his Father that he now speaks to us. They call forth action, unless we choose to defy and rebel against his authority and refuse to listen to his word.

No alternative The liberalism that chips away at, and finally ignores, the authority of the Bible is in the end a rejection of the authority of Christ himself, and thus less than Christian. Where the Scriptures are evacuated of their authority, and not preached as God’s sure, certain and powerful word, Christianity ceases to exist.

For one thing, true faith and obedience become impossible. There can be no faith in a Christ about whom and from whom there is no certain word.

How can we place all our trust in his very great and precious promises, if they are uncertain, error-prone promises contained in a culturally compromised human document? Nor can there be Christian obedience if the Christ we seek to obey has not spoken to us clearly. Obedience can only exist in the presence of authoritative command, and without the authority of Christ as we meet him in the Scriptures, there can be no authoritative command— only traditions taught by men.

The authority of Christ is proclaimed in the Scriptures, and is exercised in the hearts and lives of his people through that proclamation. That is the message we are charged to teach and preach and proclaim. Without it, Christianity, and our sermons, are gutted of meaning and significance.

With it, our feeble words are backed by all the power and authority of the Lord of the Universe himself.

Endnote 1. See his fascinating account of ‘authority’ in Resurrection and Moral Order, Apollos, Leicester, 1994. I am indebted to some of his ideas in what follows.

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PASTOR’S BRIEF 23

Should we teach the Bible the way we teach other things?

AUTHOR

|

COLIN FOSTER

Are you a good Bible teacher? Colin Foster, a professional teacher, asks some hard questions.

S

econdary school teachers like me are often called on to teach subjects that are not our speciality, encouraged by the suggestion that many teaching skills are transferable from one subject area to another.

But what about teaching the Bible?

Is teaching the Bible like teaching someone to ride a bike or bake a cake or play the piano or solve quadratic equations? Or is it a completely different business because it’s concerned with spiritual truth?

Of course, the Bible is unique. No other book is God’s word.1 The Bible is infinitely superior to any merely human book, dealing as it does with the supreme issues every man or woman faces: our relationship with our Creator, the alternative destinations of heaven and hell, the astounding message of reconciliation through the death of the Son of God on a cross.2 There is no other subject so vital or relevant as what the Bible has to say to us.

Add to this also that the Bible teacher is unlike any other teacher in having no expert status. We must teach humbly from our weakness, and every lesson we pass on to someone else is also a lesson for us.

From a Christian perspective, understanding anything is possible only through the grace of the God who made our minds and keeps them working moment by moment. This is especially so when it comes to spiritual

truth, which can only be “revealed to us through the Spirit”.3 It makes no sense to the darkened worldly mind unless God lets the light of his Spirit shine in.

Yet God commands us to teach his gospel,4 so the question remains whether it helps to approach the job with an eye to how we would go about teaching anything else. Like other areas of Christian service, God lays down the essentials in the Bible, but gives freedom in the details—much as we may wish in our laziness that he would spell it out precisely! We are to teach the pure gospel, in love, without addition or subtraction. But if a school inspector were to sit at the back of a

goes beyond getting the message off our chest: we may not shrug our shoulders at how it is received. Yes, we must pray, but we must also see whether we can do a better job.

One major difficulty facing the Bible teacher is the mixed nature of the audience. A one-size-fits-all style of teaching is unlikely to be successful because of the differences among the students. Some measure of tailoring the learning to the individual will be needed. Now some may say, “We’re not so mixed really: all Christians are in the same boat. Despite our apparent differences, all need to hear the gospel.

Old, young, academic, non-academic,

The poor preacher may well say, “I just do the best I can and trust God to apply what I say to each individual”, but we can do more than that. church meeting or Bible study, would he give a ‘satisfactory’ grade for the way the lesson was taught there?

Perhaps, though, we shouldn’t be too concerned. We trust God that his Word will do its work and not rebound to him with no effect.5 So long as we present it truthfully, surely it’s up to his Spirit as to what it achieves? This is true; but we dare not use the Holy Spirit as an excuse for poor teaching.

Our responsibility as Bible teachers

mature, immature—all need pointing to Jesus.” True, but it’s a serious matter if we make it hard for some of our brothers and sisters to learn from the Bible because we expect them to learn in the way that we find easiest.

The poor preacher may well say, “I just do the best I can and trust God to apply what I say to each individual”, but we can do more than that. After all, we don’t simply stand up and read out the words of the Bible loudly and clearly

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and then sit down! We know that teaching the Bible involves going further: explaining, linking one passage to another, relating everything to our lives today and urging us to take God’s message to heart and act on it. But how hard it is to do that even in our own personal Bible study or in one-to-one Bible study with someone we know well, let alone for a whole congregation! Simply throwing in something for everyone may mean that there is little for any particular person—or even that different applications cancel each other out.

On top of all this, a particular problem for the preacher is the difficulty many of us have with learning anything by passive listening. It is too easy to tune-out or be caught up with questions that the preacher doesn’t address.

So what can be done? A starting point is to face up to the difficulties.

Preaching can seem powerful, but the test must be whether it alters the way we think and live during the rest of the week. We may feel that a Bible study was ‘helpful’, but has it made a difference in the way we think or act?

Also, let’s recognize the advantages of well-led small group Bible study.

There, the leader can know the group members well. Members can ask questions of the leader and one another,

PHOTO

Testament worship laws in his own body.6 So perhaps our church buildings could be laid out as a combination of a lounge with comfy seats (for friendly interaction), and a classroom (for more

If a school inspector were to sit at the back of a church meeting or Bible study, would he give a ‘satisfactory’ grade for the lessons taught there? they can discuss in pairs or threes, they can write things down, talk in detail about application, pray for one another.

Where preaching and home groups work in partnership (perhaps by studying the same passage the same week), the sermon can be chewed over and misunderstandings addressed.

We are familiar with the idea that our church buildings should not follow the model of the Old Testament temple, now that Jesus has fulfilled the Old

formal learning) with tables, wall displays, drawers of paper, pots of pens, books, computers, tapes and CDs? Tables to lean on would encourage us to use pen and paper and not trust the most important learning of the week to our frail memories. We should be handing round the coffee before the sermon, to keep one another awake during the teaching time. We should be looking for ways to make our Bible teaching more involving, so that

Z I S T O C K P H O T O. C O M

learners have the opportunity to be active. A sermon need not be a monologue: the preacher can ask listeners to discuss a point in pairs and take some feedback. The congregation can work on a passage in a small group.

These are just some of the many possibilities that are open to us. We may need to move slowly with changes, but we will be serving one another and God better if we are making more of our weekly corporate study of the Bible.

Colin Foster belongs to Holy Trinity Church, Hinckley, and teaches at a local secondary school.

Endnotes 1. 2 Timothy 3:16 2. Romans 1:1-7 3. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 4. 2 Timothy 4:1-2 5. Isaiah 55:10-11 6. See, for example, Vaughan Roberts, True Worship, Authentic Lifestyle, Milton Keynes, 2002.

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BIBLE BRIEF

20 daily Bible readings

Prayer for the month

In this part of Genesis we come to one of the most well-known and popular parts of the Old Testament.

It’s been in everything, including an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical! But in the book of Genesis we are still following the story of God’s promises to Abraham (12:1-3), and that is what should be on our minds as we look at the stories of Joseph.

Heavenly Father, Thank you for the promises which you made to Abraham which find their fulfilment in Christ. Thank you for always being faithful to them. Thank you for being in control of the whole world and all that is in it.

Help us as we study your word to know you more and trust in your promises more every day.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

MAR|06

Genesis 36-50

NB: Tick in the box when you’ve completed each study.

Reading 1

Notes

Genesis 36

What did God promise Abraham in Genesis 17:4?

In Genesis (including this chapter), how many nations is Abraham shown to be the father of?

the narrative has been sweeping along, God is also fulfilling a promise to Abraham in completely ‘normal’ ways.

PONDER We often gloss over these parts of the Bible, yet God felt them important enough to include in his Word! How often do we also gloss over the way God keeps his promises to us every day? While the main (and most important) part of

PRAYER IDEAS

1.

2.

Reading 2

Genesis 37:1-11

Why do you think that Jacob favoured one son over the others, given his previous experience on the wrong end of his father’s favouritism?

2. Why did Joseph tell his brothers about his dreams?

3. Why would Jacob keep “the saying in mind” (v. 11)?

1.

PONDER

Genesis records a number of times when

Reading 3

Jacob deceived a number of people close to him in his life. What is particularly appropriate about this deception?

2. Joseph’s brothers were determined that they would never bow down to him, but what were they doing by sending him to Egypt? (See Gen 42:6.)

3. What was Jacob’s reaction to the loss of his favourite son? How do you think this was received by his other sons?

Thank God for the revelation and fulfilment of his plan to save us through the Lord Jesus.

PRAYER IDEAS

No-one comes out of this chapter looking good: not Jacob, not his sons and not even Joseph.

Yet God is still able to use them to set up the salvation of Jacob’s family.

PONDER

Pray that God would use you to do his will and that you would act in a godly way as he does so.

PRAYER IDEAS

Genesis 38

By verse 12, how many heirs did Judah have?

By verse 30, how many heirs did he have?

3. According to Jacob in Genesis 49, whose descendants will rule Israel? How did the actions of Tamar contribute to this being possible?

1.

2.

Here we have another example of God’s use of morally questionable actions to further his purpose. Judah does not emerge from this episode in a good light, but Tamar, who took the action PONDER

God revealed some part of his plan in a dream.

However now we have the much more sure revelation of God’s son Jesus Christ. We no longer need, nor should we look for, revelations of any other kind.

Genesis 37:12-36

1.

Reading 4

Think about the way God has kept his promises to you and spend some time thanking him for the way that he has preserved you physically and spiritually.

necessary to see that right was done, is commended.

It is Tamar who is (unusually) mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, as having been involved in the line of Jesus, the saviour of the world.

Thank God for sending Jesus and for the way that he is not hampered in his plans by sinful human beings. Ask that he will use you, despite what you do.

PRAYER IDEAS

This month’s Bible Brief was written by Jason Ramsay, assistant minister at St James’ Church in Croydon, Sydney, and Luke Darwall, also a member of St James’.

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Notes

Reading 5

Genesis 39

How is Joseph’s integrity displayed in this chapter?

2. How was Joseph’s behaviour different from that of his brother Judah in chapter 38?

3. What was the result of Joseph doing the right thing?

1.

Reading 6 Genesis 40 1. How does Joseph’s humility come out in this episode?

2. How does God appear to be working? How does the end of the chapter appear to dash Joseph’s hopes?

3. How is God using Joseph’s good character?

PONDER

Joseph gave credit to God for what he was

Reading 7

Joseph is now placed in charge of all Egypt.

He has spent 13 years in slavery and prison in Egypt

PONDER

Thank God for all the marvellous things he has done in your life and for what he has enabled you to do.

PRAYER IDEAS

Joseph might have been frustrated when the cupbearer forgot all about him, but he still gave glory to God at every opportunity. How can we continue to give glory to God at every opportunity?

PONDER

Pray that God’s name would be hallowed in every situation.

PRAYER IDEAS

(v. 46) but he has not stopped trusting God. God has used his hardships and his hard work and integrity to put him in a position where he will save the whole earth (v. 57). How did God use events in Jesus’ day to save the whole world (and fulfil the promise to Abraham) in a far more permanent way?

Pray that God would use you in the continuing growth of his kingdom, and so involve you in the salvation of the world.

PRAYER IDEAS

Genesis 42

Look at verse 6. Despite Joseph’s brothers’ best efforts, what has happened?

2. In the intervening period, how have his brothers come to view what they did to him (v. 21)?

3. Why is Joseph testing his brothers?

1.

While Joseph trusted God, he did not necessarily trust his brothers, and who can blame him? It would seem that the past 20 years had

PONDER

Reading 10

able to interpret. How can we give the credit to God for what he does in our life rather than taking the credit for ourselves?

Genesis 41:37-57

What did Pharaoh recognize about Joseph?

2. Read verses 50-52 again. How are God’s promises to Abraham being fulfilled here?

3. Look at the names of Joseph’s children. He realizes that God is at work, but does he fully understand what God is doing (especially in regard to Manasseh’s name)?

1.

Reading 9

Pray that God will provide you with the strength to resist temptation.

PRAYER IDEAS

Genesis 41:1-36

How do Joseph’s actions here compare with his attitude in chapter 37?

2. Who prompted the cupbearer to remember his experience in prison?

3. How can you see God at work in this section?

1.

Reading 8

What situations have you been in where it would have been easy to sin? What steps did you take to resist temptation?

PONDER

given his brothers cause to reflect on what they did, but Joseph was not sure. The rescue of Jacob’s family from Egypt would happen in God’s good time, and could not be pre-empted.

Ask God to transform you through his Word to become more humble and godly, especially as you handle the hardships of life.

PRAYER IDEAS

Genesis 43

1.

What irony is there in Judah promising to bear the blame if Benjamin does not return?

2. What do you think Jacob means in verse 14?

3. How does this chapter present Joseph’s reaction on seeing all his brothers?

superficial that sentiment of Joseph’s was. How are you going with your blood family and spiritual family? The corruption of this world may mean that things are not easy, but is there anything you can do to improve relationships there?

One of Joseph’s children (Manasseh) was so named because Joseph had forgotten his father’s family. The events of this episode show how

PRAYER IDEAS

PONDER

Thank God and pray for your families, both physical and spiritual.

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BIBLE BRIEF 27 Reading 11

What rash oath do the brothers make when Joseph’s steward comes to them?

2. How does Judah’s behaviour and speech here compare with his behaviour in chapter 37?

3. How did Judah’s confession lead to reconciliation with his brother?

1.

Joseph’s brothers are shown to be thoroughly repentant. They saw the damage they did to their father when they got rid of Joseph, and had no wish to subject Jacob to that kind of grief PONDER

Reading 12

How has God’s promise to Abraham been active through this whole episode (v. 5)?

2. How did Joseph finally react when he revealed himself to his brothers?

3. Why do you think Joseph told his brothers not to quarrel (v. 24)?

Joseph’s joy in finally talking openly to his brothers was unmitigated. He again gave the glory PONDER

Why is it important that the names of all who went to Egypt be written down?

2. What episode in Abraham’s life does this remind you of? (Hint: check out Gen 12:10-20.)

3. How many left Canaan (v. 27) and how many returned (Exod 12:37)? What does this tell us about God’s plan for the descendants of Abraham? (Check out Gen 15:12-14 as well.)

to God for saving his family (and there is no doubt that God has been totally in control). But he was still concerned that they would quarrel. How can we avoid quarrelling when we also are the beneficiaries of God’s masterful control over the world?

Thank God for his control and his plan to save us. Pray that you won’t have a quarrelsome spirit.

PRAYER IDEAS

All of the events of Genesis 36-50 were planned in God’s mind well before they happened.

While it all may have seemed quite chaotic at the time, God’s purpose in salvation and judgement was clear to those who remembered the promise to Abraham.

PONDER

Romans 8:28 tells us of God’s plan for our good. Thank him for this, and pray for a firm trust in his plan at all times.

PRAYER IDEAS

Genesis 47:1-12

What do you think Jacob meant by his words to Pharaoh?

2. How is God’s promise to Abraham that “I will bless those who bless you” fulfilled here?

1.

Reflect on Jacob’s words to Pharaoh. How reasonable do you think they are in the light of what PONDER

Reading 15

Confess your sins to God, and, where there is a need, be reconciled in your relationships with others. Most importantly, pray for opportunities to tell people of the reconciliation which God offers.

PRAYER IDEAS

Genesis 46

1.

Reading 14

again. Furthermore, they unknowingly confessed to Joseph their sin in getting rid of Joseph in the first place. The restoration of relationships is always important. How can you be involved in restoring relationships today?

Genesis 45

1.

Reading 13

Notes

Genesis 44

Jacob has done in his life? Even so, he still blessed Pharaoh, who had already benefited greatly from one of Jacob’s sons.

Pray that you will not develop bitterness over what happens to you, but that you will continually give thanks to God in everything.

PRAYER IDEAS

Genesis 47:13-31

What do you think of Joseph’s business practices? Did he exploit the Egyptian people on behalf of Pharaoh?

2. Read verse 27 again. How is God’s promise to Abraham being fulfilled here?

1.

PONDER It becomes clear that God will use the time which Israel spends in Egypt to grow them in

number and wealth. His faithfulness to his promises is seen in so many ways!

If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himselfî (2 Tim 2:13).

Thank God for his faithfulness to you, and pray that you will remain faithful.

PRAYER IDEAS

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Notes

Reading 16

Genesis 48

Why did Jacob claim Joseph’s first two sons as his own?

2. Look at verse 21. What does Jacob still rely on?

3. What preference did Jacob make in verses 14 and 19?

How does this parallel previous episodes in Genesis?

1.

Even at the end of his life Jacob still held on to what God had promised him, and he

PONDER

Reading 17 1.

Why would Jacob think it so important to bless his sons?

2. What was so suitable (v. 28) about each blessing?

3. What do you note about Judah’s blessing in particular?

Tamar, there would be no tribe of Judah from which a ruler would emerge. Also, the role of Joseph as a saviour of his people is alluded to here as well, but it will not be from Joseph’s family that a ruler and saviour will ultimately emerge.

The blessing on Judah is particularly important. Here the events of chapter 38 are brought into sharp focus, for without the intervention of

PRAYER IDEAS

Reading 18

Where did Jacob insist that he be buried?

Why is this important?

3. What was the response of Jacob’s sons to his dying wish?

2.

Jacob still held on to God’s promise and insisted on a burial in Canaan. As Genesis draws to a close, we return to the promises of God of land

PONDER

Reading 19

Why were Joseph’s brothers scared following the death of their father?

2. How did Joseph reassure them?

3. At the conclusion of Genesis, what was the status of the promises of God to Abraham?

God’s sovereignty over all things is particularly clear here. In the words of Colin Buchanan, “Nothing takes God by surprise”. Joseph realized this and reassured his brothers that there would be no retribution. The death of Jesus, of

PONDER

In all of Joseph’s life, what was the most memorable and most important thing he did?

2. According to Hebrews 11, what was the most important thing that Joseph did? (See also Exod 13:19 and Josh 24:32) 3. According to Hebrews 12, how then should we live?

Next month’s Bible Brief will be on hospitality.

PRAYER IDEAS Thank God that your death and burial will not be the end, but that you can look forward to the resurrection of the body and eternal life.

course, is the best example of God’s control of all things to bring salvation to the whole world.

Pray that you will continue to trust in the sovereignty of God, no matter what happens.

Thank God that his control of events is most clearly seen in the death of Jesus, intended by his executioners for evil, but used by God for good.

Pray that you will continually rely on this in the face of all of life’s hardships.

PRAYER IDEAS

Hebrews 11:1-22, 12:1-3

1.

Joseph’s trust in the promises of God was rock solid. He knew that his people would return to the land promised them by God, and his faith was shown in his burial instructions. The references to his bones demonstrate how important successive generations of Israelites realized his instructions were.

PONDER

and descendants. Jacob’s family and wealth was growing and he was buried in the land promised to his grandfather.

Genesis 50:15-26

1.

Reading 20

Thank God for the ruler who finally came from the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ. Submit to his lordship in everything.

Genesis 49:29-50:14

1.

MONTH

Thank God for the promise of eternal life through Jesus our Lord. Pray that as the time draws near for your own death, you will trust in him for forgiveness and eternal life.

PRAYER IDEAS

Genesis 49:1-28

PONDER

next

reminded Joseph of it. What promises of God will you be holding on to at the end of your life?

As for the book of Genesis itself, at its conclusion we find that Abraham’s descendants have grown in number and wealth, but they are not in the land promised to Abraham. His descendants have been a blessing on the Egyptians but the question is, where to from here? That question which will have to wait for Exodus!

Thank God for his faithfulness to his promises to Abraham and for the way that the scriptures testify to their fulfilment.

Pray that you will continue to stand on the promises of Christ our saviour.

PRAYER IDEAS

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BRIEFING COMMUNIT Y

INTERCHANGE Going to heaven Christopher Ash’s article in Briefing #327 is a useful reminder that our destiny is not ethereal; that the resurrection of the body is an important doctrine; and that we will inhabit a new heaven and a new earth.

However, I feel that the author overstates his case. In particular, we end up with language that implies a destination that seems too much like our present world. Let me touch on one point, briefly.

There is, to be sure, both continuity and discontinuity between this present earth and the new heaven and new earth.

There are references to continuity (e.g.

Rom 8:19-23; Rev 5:10). However, the Bible emphasizes the element of discontinuity far more strongly than that of continuity.

The major argument of 1 Corinthians 15:35-50 is that while there is continuity (each seed has its own body, v. 38), the scale of discontinuity is so great that it is utterly beyond our comprehension. It is “foolish” even to ask “with what body do they come”, because the seed “dies”, and is replaced by something very different indeed (vv. 35-36).

No-one who has never seen a tree would ever imagine that a small conker could become a majestic horse chestnut tree.

Is the promise of a “spiritual” body (1 Cor 15:44, 46-49) simply a repetition of the point that our bodies are immortal?

Doesn’t it mean that our new bodies will be perfectly suited to a radical new world that is more real than, but indescribably different from, our present one?

Why can’t the explicit language of 2 Peter 3:10 (repeated again in v. 12) mean what it says? The language of “pass away, melt, burned up, dissolved” describes a dramatic process of destruction, in which there is the potential for some continuity (what has been melted or dissolved can be reconstituted), but where we are given no conception of what the new will be like, except that it is

Interchange

where righteousness dwells (v. 13).

Transformation of this nature is consistent with the seed/new plant language of 1 Corinthians 15.

Moreover, the first and last references to the new heaven and earth both highlight discontinuity. “The former shall not be remembered or come to mind,” (Isaiah 65:17b); and “there was no more sea” (Rev 21:1). (Note also that in Rev 20:11 “earth and heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them”.)

To focus on the phrase “reign with Christ on the earth” doesn’t do justice to this scale of discontinuity, in my view.

Peter Cordle Coventry, UK

Sinners and saints I read with interest Gavin Perkins’ article (Briefing #326) and readers’ responses. It seems to me that the issue here is eschatological: that is, to what extent are the blessings of the new covenant part of our present experience? It is pastorally devastating to claim all the blessings now, for we do still sin, and we, just as much as the early church, still know sickness and death; we must not promise blessings now that God does not promise, for people’s hope and trust in God shall be destroyed.

But it would appear that this is not our great danger in my part of the world.

Rather, from my observation, I fear we suffer from an under-realized eschatology: we expect none of the new covenant’s blessings. We risk having a view of salvation that just ‘falls over the line’. As long as I can say something about Jesus’ death getting me to heaven, I’m okay. With such a view, we will not strive to live holy lives, to put to death the deeds of the flesh, to present ourselves to God as instruments for righteousness. We shall persist in sin, and expect no different, for, after all, we are but miserable sinners, are we not?

Let us hear again the radical distinctions drawn between the pre-Christian and Christian lives. We must remember how we have been brought from death to

life; Christ’s blood sets us free from both the penalty and the power of sin; God dwells in us by his Spirit and conforms us to the likeness of his Son; we have been saved to do good works that God has prepared for us to walk in. Let us rejoice in the salvation in which we now stand.

Stuart Heath Ashfield, AUS

From plant to plant As someone who has, by the grace of God, church-planted, I would have to say a hearty “Amen” to the five reasons given to plant more churches.

It has been totally amazing to see God grow his church from a small base where we started three years ago. The five reasons you outlined have all been apparent as we have proclaimed the gospel of all grace.

Sadly, the opposition you referred to and the ‘not-in-my-backyard’ principle was also apparent from various sections of the Christian community. Yet God’s plans and purposes are not thwarted.

Through all this there has come a sixth reason and that is that church planting is such a great faith-builder for God’s people and especially this pastor! It has been a real joy to see people press on and trust God even through the little things of doing church. We have seen his provision time and time again, and this has led to much rejoicing and continued trust in the Builder of all churches.

Dom Fiocco Canberra, AUS Thanks, Gordon, for reminding us again that “the only way to tell people news is, not surprisingly, to tell them”. I must admit though, that the emphasis on planting churches tended to be a bit urbo-centric (have I just coined a word?).

In regional areas, church planting is often counter-productive. In a small community, it is a failure of Christian fellowship or faithfulness. In a larger community it is often an endeavour to implement the Homogenous Unit

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BRIEFING COMMUNIT Y 31 Principle (HUP). My problems with the HUP are: a) it is often harnessed as a rationale for the scourge of Christian consumerism; b) it is a great excuse to focus on the ‘reachable’ groups; c) the first thing the gospel does is destroy the homogenous unit. People want their friends to hear the gospel —even people who are not like them; d) It denies our eschatological vision for the church: “every nation, tribe, people and language” gathered.

Two other brief points. Are those who will never darken the door of a particular church followers of Jesus? If not, why would they want to go to church? If they are, then they will go to whichever gospel church is available. I guess I want to ensure that the ‘unity of the Spirit’ is a real visible unity, and not just a vague affirma-

tion that has no concrete expression.

David Juniper Albany, AUS Gordon Cheng responds: To be clear, I was not arguing for church planting on the basis of any sociological idea such as that of the homogenous unit, as I don’t believe there is such thing as an ‘easily reachable’ person. We all hate God equally.

Still, it is right not to ignore practical, theological concerns. The key is to keep preaching the gospel. This will inevitably result in new churches—just one new person is enough to constitute the “two or three” which makes up a church, according to Matt 18:20! But we ought to do it prayerfully, asking God to help us proceed with wisdom.

Regional Worker North England & Scotland Careforce is looking for someone with great drive, initiative and a real pastoral heart, to join the staff team in early September to sustain high-quality care to 30 cosmopolitan volunteers and their placements in this region, and to assist with the exciting growth and development within the organisation as a whole.

Call up www.careforce.co.uk to discover what we are about in the cause of the Gospel in the UK and contact Ian Prior for full details of this position at: ian@careforce.co.uk or on 020 8942 3331.

Closing date March 31st - position subject to CRB Enhanced Disclosure ALL SAINTS FORDHAM IS A CONSERVATIVE EVANGELICAL CHURCH ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF COLCHESTER We are looking for a

YOUTH AND CHILDREN'S MINISTER to oversee our growing youth and children's work with special responsibility for the 13-18s youth group A full salary package is offered For further details & application form contact Rev Mike Neville, 01206 240221 or the church office on 01206 241233, mike.neville@fordhamchurch.org.uk Applications to be returned by 24 March 2006.

This post requires a CRB Enhanced Disclosure

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