Moore College to celebrate 500 years of the Reformation
Moore College will be celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation with some key events.
It’s time to mark your diary!
Details at the College website.
Simon Manchester on Preparing to Preach
In the latest Preaching Matters from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, North Sydney’s Simon Manchester speaks about Preparing to Preach.
“What are the priorities we need to have in good preaching?
Preaching Matters welcomes Simon Manchester this month, asks him what his sermon preparation looks like, and he gives us some examples of why handling the text rightly is so crucial for good preaching. Simon talks to us about being sailors and divers, and preaching Jesus not just the Bible.”
Watch it here. Most encouraging.
A Sovereign Protector I have
“The book of Esther is another reminder that God is in control of all things, not just some things. God is well able to use peoples’ evil intentions to bring about His good purpose.
Joseph’s brothers; the evil Prime Minister of Persia, Haman; the weak Roman Governor of Palestine, Pontius Pilate; the able Jewish lobbyists, who demanded the death sentence for Jesus; and later the deacon Stephen, are all examples that the Sovereign Lord ‘rules the peoples justly and guides the nations of the earth’ (Psalm 67:4).”
– in his latest message, Presbyterian Moderator-General David Cook calls believers to remember who is in control – the One to whom every knee will bow.
(Image: St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)
Dick Lucas on What makes an excellent Bible teacher
Earlier this year, Nancy Guthrie spent an hour with Dick Lucas in London for her ‘Help me teach the Bible’ series.
She asks Dick about the early days of his ministry at St. Helen’s, about the Proclamation Trust, and then turns to the character of a Bible teacher, and the way Dick approaches a passage for preaching.
Strong encouragement for preachers, and for congregations.
Listen to the 56 minute conversation at The Gospel Coalition. (54MB mp3 file.)
(Photo: from a St. Helen’s Bishopsgate video.)
Is Same Sex Marriage a “Human Right”?
“The question posed by the title of this post is simply this: is it a denial of a fundamental human right, for a legal system not to extend the category of marriage to include marriage between parties of the same sex?
The question was posed in a stark way by recent reported comments of the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Prof Gillian Triggs. …”
– Neil Foster’s latest post at Law and Religion Australia, asks if there is an internationally recognised ‘human right’ to same-sex marriage.
Churches recommit to prayer on Moore College Sunday
Today around Sydney, churches are taking the time to pray for Moore Theological College.
See the MCS website – and watch the video.
EMA 2016 talks available
Audio and video files from Proclamation Trust’s EMA 2016 are available for your edification. Thanks to Proc Trust for this wonderful resource.
GAFCON Statement on Proposed Primates’ Meeting 2017
Just released:
“In the last week, there has been news of a potential Primates’ Meeting scheduled to begin October 2, 2017. Consequently, we have received a number of inquiries, both from the media and our membership, asking the question of whether or not the Gafcon Primates will attend.
For all who had hoped that attendance at the January 2016 Primates’ Gathering might restore godly order to the Communion, the results were clearly discouraging. Gafcon is fully committed to guarding the unchanging truth of the Gospel, and restoring the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion. In due course, the Gafcon Primates will take counsel and together make a decision about the wisdom of attending future meetings.
The next meeting of the Gafcon Primates’ Council is in April of 2017. We give thanks for the courage that is being shown by our members across the globe, as they share God’s Word both ‘in season and out of season’. Please continue to pray for the continued growth of this reformation movement.”
Tim Challies on ‘Heaven is for Real’ and other ‘heaven tourism’
“In March 2003, young Colton Burpo was in serious distress.
Doctors did not yet know it, but his appendix had burst and his life was in grave danger. When doctors at one hospital were unable to diagnose him, his parents raced him to a new hospital where he was rushed into surgery, the doctor warning ominously that their son was in grave danger.
Colton survived his surgery and emerged from it telling a strange story…”
– In his series on bestselling ‘Christian’ books, Tim Challies revisits the genre of ‘Heaven Tourism’, and republishes an infographic he created in 2015.
Is the Pope a Catholic? Understanding the Catholic Church
By Mark Gilbert, Certainty for Eternity
In Australia we have a saying we use when someone asks you something blindingly obvious. We reply, “Is the Pope a Catholic?” The assumption being, of course, that he is!
On 31 October this year Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) will take part in in an ecumenical service with the World Federation of Lutheran Churches to mark a year of celebrations to commemorate 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the castle church at Wittenberg. When commenting about this event, Pope Francis said this to reporters:
“And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification.”
When he makes comments like this he is showing himself to be entirely Catholic—which is after all what you would expect.
Let me explain what I mean. The word Catholic comes from a Greek word which means “according to the whole”. In short, the Catholic Church means the unified church. Unity is the most important thing for the Catholic church because it is Catholic.
Which brings us to the important question: How does the Catholic church understand unity?
The Catholic Church sees itself as a sacrament of unity for the world. By this they mean that they are a visible and effective sign of unity. Visible because they are seen to be at the centre of unity, and effective in that they unite various religions and philosophies with God.
In the above diagram the large blue dot represents the Catholic Church which, according to Catholic understanding, has the fullness of unity with God. They understand unity as: unity in succession from Peter and the apostles, unity in creed – the ancient Nicaean Creed, and unity in liturgy – by which they mean the Mass.
The other blue dots represent other religions and philosophies. Those closer in represent religions such as the Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Church and other Christian churches. Those further out represent other monotheistic religions like Judaism and Islam, polytheistic religions, and even atheistic beliefs and philosophies. They are all varying distances from Catholicism but are linked to Catholicism.
The arrows represent the links between different religions and Catholicism. The Catholic Church has been working very hard over the last 50 years to document what these various religions have in common with the Catholic Church. They call this process ecumenism. Notice however that there is no sense that the Catholic church will change to become closer to other religions. No, it is entirely about identifying what other religions and philosophies have in common with Roman Catholicism. This process is important for Catholics because they believe unity with the Catholic Church is the only way these religions can be united to God – because the Catholic Church is the sacrament of unity for the world.
Because these statements of unity are based on the objective of demonstrating agreement, they unfortunately tend to obscure or even avoid any differences in order to have a document that both groups can agree on. This tends to be at the cost of clarity. The 1999 Joint Declaration on Justification between the Catholics and some Lutherans is a good example of this.
The end result of this process is Francis making statements like:
“And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification.”
However, the truth is Catholics and most Protestants are in profound disagreement on the doctrine of Justification! The Reformation is definitely NOT over (see previous article).
Another example of the Catholic Church promoting their agenda of unity is the way in which they encourage the rapidly growing number of Evangelical leaders engaging in public displays of unity with the Pope.
These public displays of unity between Evangelicals and Catholics only serve to promote the Catholic agenda to be the sacrament (visible and effective sign) of unity with God for the world.
So what is wrong with this view of unity?
Unity is very important to God, but it is not the sort of “obscuring the differences” type of institutional unity the Catholic church and sadly some Protestants are promoting through documents like the Joint Declaration on Justification. True unity is unity based on truth because it is unity with God himself (John 17:11). Not a sacramental unity through an earthly institution but unity in the Spirit who knows no bounds with the Father through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:30-5:2). It is unity with God who has unity as a characteristic of his very being – Father, Son and Spirit.
If you are a Christian, you are already united to God by adoption into his family and therefore you are already united with every other Christian as their brother or sister.
Because unity with the Catholic Church is important for Catholics and unity in God is important for us, why not invite your Catholic friends and neighbours to be united to you and your church family by inviting them to belong to your church, your mother’s group, your play group, your Bible study group, your prayer group, your youth group. Here they can clearly hear from God directly through the Bible and by trusting him be truly united to Him and you for eternity.
Mark Gilbert
If you’d like to learn more about sharing this great message of certainty for eternity with Catholics, you may be interested in the conference: Understanding Roman Catholicism in the 21st Century and developing effective evangelistic strategies
Saturday 20th August, 10:00am – 1:00pm
Cost: Free
Moore College, 19 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042
How we became GAFCON — 5 minute video
Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen describes how GAFCON came about, and why it is needed, in this new video.
Pass the link around.
And here is a 60 second video from Dr Jensen on the same topic.
See also: Where are we now? The aftermath of the January meeting of the Primates – Peter Jensen.
“In January this year, the Primates of the Anglican Communion were summoned by the Archbishop of Canterbury to a meeting. So serious is the crisis in the Communion about the authority of God’s word that almost every Primate attended.
As I have said previously, the result was the mildest possible rebuke over the greatest offence for the greatest offenders, with the hope that there may be repentance.
It is now perfectly clear that the meeting failed in its intention. Far from being rebuked, the leaders of the Episcopal Church said that they intend to continue in their present course and indeed to export their ideas vigorously to the rest of the world…” (Read more.)
Canterbury is only as helpful as he is faithful
“So the Archbishop of Canterbury has called for yet another meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion for October, 2017. As if this meeting could cure the wound that has been made even more incurable by his own personal failure to uphold the recommendations of the meeting he called in January of this year—failures that I documented several weeks ago in “At this point, why should we care about the Anglican Communion?”.
When I last wrote about this, I emphasised the Archbishop’s failure to defend the special role of Bishops to guard the doctrine, discipline and order of the Church…”
– The American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey points out that the way forward is not through Canterbury.
Why the Reformation is Definitely Not Over
By Mark Gilbert, Certainty for Eternity.
On 31 October this year, Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio) will take part in an ecumenical service with the World Federation of Lutheran Churches to commence a year of celebrations to commemorate 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the castle church at Wittenberg.
When commenting about this event, Pope Francis said this to reporters:
“And today Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification.”
Based on this and other comments, it seems increasingly likely at this event that he will declare the Reformation to be over. Which prompts us to ask the question …
Is the Reformation really over?
Never!
“There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so surely established, which (in continuance of time) hath not been corrupted”
So said Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in the preface to his 1549 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. The church is always reforming because the church is made up of sinful people who continue to need to be reformed by the word of God.
The capital “R” Reformation describes a period of time that began in 1517 when Martin Luther, a Augustinian monk who taught the Bible in a German University in Wittenberg, struggled with the question – “How could someone be sure they were righteous before God?”
In Luther’s day the Church taught, “Do what lies within you”. In other words, the church taught that righteousness was attained by co-operating with God’s grace by developing godly habits, self-denial and participating in the Sacraments.
Luther recalls:
“I tortured myself with prayers, fasting, vigils, and freezing: the frost alone might have killed me” (LW 24:24)
and
“I almost fasted myself to death for again and again I went for three days without taking a drop of water or a morsel of food. I was very serious about it.” (LW 54:339-40)
However, despite applying these teachings vigorously he found no assurance. He describes this state as his “monstrous uncertainty” (LW 26:386)
Leading up to 1517, Luther was preparing to teach the New Testament. He was preparing classes on the Books of Romans, Hebrews, Galatians and the Psalms. By doing this he discovered that he needed to place his trust in the objective promises of God, declared in the Scriptures, not in his own religious performance.
“it [the objective promises of God] snatches us away from ourselves and places us outside ourselves, so that we do not depend on our own strength, conscience, experience, person or works but depend on that which is outside ourselves, that is on the promise and truth of God, which cannot deceive.” (LW 26:386-7)
Faith, or trust, in God’s promises rather than in his own performance freed Luther from his “monstrous uncertainty” and gave him certainty for eternity.
When Pope Francis makes statements like the following:
“And today, Lutherans and Catholics, Protestants, all of us agree on the doctrine of justification. On this point, which is very important, he [Martin Luther] did not err.”
We need to understand what he means by “justification” which is something quite different to what it meant to Martin Luther. For the Pope, “justification” actually includes receiving initial justification at Baptism plus the process of sanctification throughout life. In other words, Catholics teach that a person is righteous before God on the basis of what God does plus what they do to become more holy (see Catechism of the Catholic Church articles 1995, 2010). In the end it still leaves Catholics with a “monstrous uncertainty” because they still need to look to themselves to know if they are good enough for God and they are never completely sure…
Personally, having grown up in the Catholic Church, when I started reading the Bible with my Protestant friends at University I realised that God saves people who don’t deserve it, without their help. That means on a good day or on a bad day I still know with certainty where I stand with God because being right with God depends completely on something objective – outside myself – on the sacrificial death of Jesus alone. I was never taught this in the Catholic Church despite 1000+ religious classes at school and going to Mass every week for 20 years. However, when I realised I could be certain where I stood with God, I was able to live my life completely for Him with confidence. This has been the most important and life changing news I have ever learnt!
Despite these statements of agreement between Catholics and a small number of Protestants, which really just obscure these important differences, sadly, the issues raised at the Reformation are far from resolved.
Why not ask your Catholic friend if they are certain they are going to heaven, and if they’re not, why not share with them the solution that Martin Luther discovered and I hope you have too?
Hebrews 10:14 “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
When it comes to the question of where we stand before God we can have certainty for eternity instead of a monstrous uncertainty!
Mark Gilbert
See also: Is the Pope a Catholic? Understanding the Catholic Church.
If you’d like to learn more about sharing this great message of certainty for eternity with Catholics, you may be interested in the conference: Understanding Roman Catholicism in the 21st Century and developing effective evangelistic strategies
Saturday 20th August, 10:00am – 1:00pm
Cost: Free
Moore College, 19 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042
The evangelical predicament: What will a faithful vote look like in November?
In his latest issue of The Briefing, Albert Mohler looks at the uncertainties of the modern world – and comments on the predicament facing American evangelical Christians in the coming US election.
Hope because Hell has not yet come
“This past Sunday at our church we started a new sermon series on the book of Lamentations. The title of this series is “Hell of a subject” because Lamentations teaches us about the wrath or “fierce anger” (1:12) of God, of which an eternal hell is the ultimate expression.
We don’t often hear about the wrath or fierce anger of God, let alone about an eternal hell. Most people would say something like, “My God would never do that!” Rather than worshipping and serving the God of the Bible, most people worship and serve the God of their own making, who, not-surprisingly, has all the same opinions as themselves. Lamentations will help us. Lamentations gives us a small foretaste of the wrath of God…”
– At the REACH South Africa (formerly CESA) website, Andre Visagie shares strong observations from Lamentations.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…