Outside the Church is the collapsing nature of society as it abandons its Christian heritage; this impacts families, the workplace, school, and the Church. At its worst is the growing antagonism to Biblical Christianity.

Inside the Church we see the fruit of theological liberalism in false teaching, decline and immorality. Ritualism is now accepted as the norm and much so-called evangelicalism now believes what liberals believed a generation ago.

In the midst of all this how can we honour Christ? …”

– David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society, writes in the Winter 2010 edition of Cross†Way. (PDF file.)

“We at Matthias Media have recently made available a free and downloadable discussion guide for Col Marshall and Tony Payne’s The Trellis and the Vine. Download it from our Australian or North American store.”

– Read more and get the links here. (Plug from Mark Dever here.)

“Even if some sins could be traced to our genetics, it would not exempt us from responsibility for such sins. The Scriptures teach that all human beings are born into this world as sons and daughters of Adam, and hence they are by nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).   They are dead in trespasses in sins (Eph. 2:1, 5), and have no inclination to seek God or to do what is good (Rom. 3:10–11). We come into the world as those who are spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12, 15), so that death reigns over the whole human race (Rom. 5:17).

Indeed, human beings are condemned by virtue of Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:16, 18). Such a radical view of sin in which we inherit a sinful nature from Adam means that sinful predispositions are part of our personalities from our inception. Hence, even if it were discovered that we are genetically predisposed to certain sinful behaviors like alcoholism or homosexuality, such discoveries would not eliminate our responsibility for our actions, nor would it suggest that such actions are no longer sinful.

The Scriptures teach that we are born as sinners in Adam, while at the same time they insist we should not sin and are responsible for the sin we commit. We enter into the world as slaves of sin (Rom. 6:6, 17), but we are still morally blameworthy for capitulating to the sin that serves as our master.”

– Read Justin’s post here, and the 2007 article from which he quotes here (PDF file).

– No surprises in this story from Episcopal Life.

From a December 5 2009 Diocese of Los Angeles press release:
“The second woman to be elected a bishop in the diocese’s 114-year history, Glasspool is also the first openly partnered lesbian to be elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church…”

In proposing one resolution, the diocese’s standing committee calls it a “Response to Ecclesiastical Intrusions by the Presiding Bishop.” That resolution refers to the diocese’s “legal and ecclesiastical authority as a sovereign diocese within the Episcopal Church,” adds that “the Presiding Bishop has no authority to retain attorneys in this Diocese that present themselves as the legal counsel for the Episcopal Church in South Carolina,” and demands that she “drop the retainer of all such legal counsel in South Carolina as has been obtained contrary to the express will of this Diocese.” …

– Full report from The Living Church.
(Photo of Bishop Mark Lawrence: Diocese of South Carolina.)

NSW Moderator of The Presbyterian Church, Chris Balzer, wrote this for the Presbyterian magazine, Pulse:

–––––

“A few months ago a friend and I ‘discovered’ the graveyard at Sofala NSW.

From my perspective, the most interesting inscription on a tombstone was this:

The dust of Vestry Walker, who slept in Jesus 28th August 1875, waits here (until) the morning of the first resurrection.

If you call yourself a Christian, would you be pleased at the thought that your relatives might use similar words on your tombstone? I would.

What theological insight those relatives of Vestry Walker had! Can you see the theology?  

1. What is in the grave? Just dust.

Vestry Walker is not there. If anyone went to the cemetery to talk to Vestry, he would not hear them. Where is he?

Remember that Jesus said to the thief on the cross: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Do you join with the Apostle Paul in saying (and meaning it): “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ , which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” (Philippians 1:23-24)

Oh that Christians in the year 2010 had the same theological understanding on this point as those in Sofala in 1875 when they commissioned Vestry Walker’s tombstone!

2. There will be a resurrection of the body.

Do you believe that? We believe this because Jesus’ body was raised. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. ….. Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” (1 Corinthians 15:20,23)

Christ is the first fruits of all his adopted brothers and sisters: he goes first, and they follow. We are to be raised bodily because Jesus first rose bodily, and all Christians are ‘in Christ’, united to Christ.

Of course, that final result of being ‘in Christ’ only happens because the Christian has always been ‘in Christ’. When you and I go to work, go home, go to bed, relate to our family, we are united to Christ. That’s why we need to be holy – because he is holy.

The same truth about the bodily resurrection of all Christians is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

We Presbyterians have a wonderful theological heritage in our Shorter Catechism. It is a beautiful and yet concise statement of Biblical theology. If only we knew and then believed the theology taught there, we’d be better Christians than we are.

Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ when they die?

A. When believers die, their souls are made perfectly holy and immediately pass into glory. Their bodies, which are still united to Christ, rest in the grave until the resurrection.

Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers, raised in glory, will be publicly recognised and declared not guilty on the day of judgment and will be made completely happy in the full enjoyment of God forever.

If we modern Christians really believed these Biblical truths, imagine what the result would be!

1. If we really believed that only those who trust in Christ for their salvation will go to be with him after they die, then we’d be more involved in missionary work abroad. More of us would go ourselves, and more of us would financially support those who do go. It was for this reason that, in the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, thousands of Europeans left the comparative comfort and safety of their homes to preach the gospel in far away places, knowing that many of them would die there and never see their loved-ones in Europe again. The men knew that many of their wives would die on the mission field. The women knew that they would bury many of their children there.

2. If we really believed that only those who trust in Christ for their salvation will go to be with him after they die, then we’d be more involved in evangelism here in Australia, both where we live and in other places in our nation.

But, I fear that most of us have been seduced by the spirit of the age in which we live, an age which either believes and teaches that all people on earth, regardless of their attitude to Jesus Christ, will go to heaven, or believes and teaches that when we die, that is the end. There is nothing more. So, we might as well eat, drink and be happy in this life – because there is no other.

3. If we really believed that when you and I go to work, go home, go to bed, relate to our family, we are united to Christ, then our lives would be holier than they are. It’s no accident that Almighty God has said to his people: “Be holy because I , the LORD your God, am holy.”(Leviticus 19:2)

So, you be the judge: Were the relatives of Vestry Walker right or wrong?”

——-

The Rev. Chris Balzer is Moderator of The Presbyterian Church of Australia in NSW.

Published in Pulse, February 2010.

– Over at SydneyAnglicans.net, Bishop Robert Forsyth has a good point – see what he has to say here. (Download the mp3 file.)
Photo: Russell Powell.

“David Mulready pulls on his purple polo shirt, adjusts his Akubra and sets off to tend to his flock in the heat and red dirt. He’s mustering, but not the Santa Gertudis and the Brahman and Black Angus cattle that abound on the vast stations of Australia’s north and west, which is his beat. It’s the people who live in this remote area that he’s off to care for.

David is an Anglican clergyman and he is the bishop of North West Australia, responsible for the world’s largest landed diocese.…”

You can download it as a 1.1MB PDF file, courtesy of Editor-in-Chief Mark Muller.

(Photo: Maureen and David Mulready and friends at Wyndham.)