The Legacy of Broughton Knox — MTC Library Day 2016

Don’t miss this special event coming up at MooreTheological College on Saturday 29th October.

David Broughton Knox (26 December 1916 – 14 January 1994) was the long serving Principal of Moore Theological College from 1959 until 1985.

DBK is considered by many to have been hugely influential, under the Lord, in the shaping of Sydney Diocese into what it is today.

The 2016 Moore College Library Day will explore Broughton’s life and theology as well as its enduring influence on Sydney diocese and beyond.

When: Saturday 29 October, 2016, 9:15 am for 9:30 am start, 3:30 pm finish

Where: Broughton Knox Teaching Centre, Moore Theological College, 15 King Street Newtown

Registration: $40 includes coffee/tea on arrival, morning tea & lunch.

Speakers include:

Mark Thompson
Robert Tong
Peter Jensen
Robert Doyle

Details and booking at Moore College.

Who was Broughton Knox? See these tributes in our Resources section.

David Broughton Knox – What we owe to him – by Archbishop Donald Robinson.
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus – tribute to Broughton Knox – by Archbishop Sir Marcus Loane.

Reformation History Tour

From Moore College:

“In 2017, the Reverend Dr Michael Jensen, Rector of Darling Point Anglican Church, will be leading a tour of the key Reformation sites of Europe. The tour will run from 26 April to 12 May and is being organised by 316 Tours Faith Travel. The group will travel from Prague, through Germany and Switzerland, finishing in England.

Moore College MA (Theol) students can participate in this study tour as a component of the Reformation History Tour unit, lectured by Dr Ed Loane (Lecturer, Theology and Church History).”

– Interested? Details here.

From the Archives: When to make a stand

From our Archives: Here’s the text of an address given by Moore College Principal Dr Mark Thompson during the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans Conference in Melbourne in March 2015.

“Three great ‘stands’ in the history of the church:

• the stand of Athanasius over the person of Christ;

• the stand of Martin Luther over the authority of Scripture and justification by faith alone;

• the stand of the GAFCON Primates over the priority of Christ and his mission, the authority of Scripture over denominational processes, revisionist theology, and ethical practice. …

Being prepared to make a stand has characterised genuine Christian leadership throughout the last two thousand years. But why? And when? And how?”

– Very helpful. Download it here as a PDF file.

(Picture: Detail from ‘Luther at the Diet of Worms’, by Anton von Werner, 1877.)

In case you missed them: Is the Pope a Catholic? and Why the Reformation is definitely not over

mark-gilbert-1 We published these two articles by Mark Gilbert two weeks ago –

Why the Reformation is Definitely Not Over

and

Is the Pope a Catholic? Understanding the Catholic Church.

And you may be interested in the conference:

Understanding Roman Catholicism in the 21^st Century and developing effective evangelistic strategies

Saturday 20th August, 10:00am – 1:00pm

Cost: Free

At Moore College, 19 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042

Register here. (Registrations close 19th August.)

Can we learn from history? — Bishop Colenso and the Lambeth Conference

“Once upon the time there was a bishop—an Anglican bishop—who decided that you couldn’t trust the Bible. He claimed that the Bible was not clear about human sexuality and he rejected the Christian doctrine of marriage between one man and one woman. He wrote that the Bible was not historically trustworthy, and that we ought to prefer our own powers of reason and conscience to know God…”

– Top article from Phil Ashey at the American Anglican Council.

Related: Kevin Kallsen of Anglican TV interviews Canon Phil Ashey.
Great background to the new role of the American Anglican Council in helping the development of churches in the ACNA and further afield.

Serving the Lord — Jane Barker

“Jane Sophia Barker (Nee Harden) was born in England in 1807. On October 15, 1840 she married Frederic Barker who, at that time, was serving as a rector in Liverpool, England.

They had no children and served in parish ministry together for 15 years until Frederick was asked to be the second Bishop of Sydney. They arrived in Sydney in May 1855 and Jane would remain in Sydney until her death 21 years later…”

– Jane Tooher opens a window into the life, and faith, of Jane Barker, wife of Bishop Frederick Barker. At SydneyAnglicans.net.

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.

Is the Pope a Catholic? Understanding the Catholic Church

By Mark Gilbert, Certainty for Eternity

mark-gilbert-1 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 21^st Century and developing effective evangelistic strategies

Saturday 20th August, 10:00am – 1:00pm

Cost: Free

Moore College, 19 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042

Register here

Why the Reformation is Definitely Not Over

By Mark Gilbert, Certainty for Eternity.

mark-gilbert-wyd08-1 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

Saturday 20th August, 10:00am – 1:00pm

Cost: Free

Moore College, 19 King Street, Newtown NSW 2042

Register here

From Here to Eternity: Giving thanks for Arthur Stace, 49 years on

Today, 30th July 2016, is the 49th anniversary of the home-calling of Arthur Stace.

Remembered today as ‘Mr. Eternity’, Arthur Stace committed his life to asking the men and women of Sydney to consider where they will spend eternity. His ‘one word sermon’ was written in yellow crayon on the streets of Sydney for three decades – until ill health prevented him.

Stace was also a keen evangelist, and was seen on Saturday nights preaching from the Open Air Campaigners van parked on the corner of George and Bathurst Streets in Sydney.

He was no eccentric, and there is no secret about his motives. He wanted men and women to place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The 50th anniversary of Stace’s death, 30th July 2017, falls on a Sunday.

This is an excellent opportunity for churches to remind the people of Sydney of his call to consider where they will spend eternity. (It is most appropriate for older Sydney-siders who remember actually seeing his work!)

The next year gives Sydney churches time to consider how they might use this anniversary for the eternal good of the people of our great city.

Top photo courtesy Ramon Williams. Read more about Mr. Eternity here.

Is the Reformation over?

“Is the Reformation over? Have the issues that divided Protestants and Catholics been sufficiently resolved that we can now pursue a return to unity? At the very end of his book Rescuing the Gospel, an account of the Protestant Reformation, Erwin Lutzer offers a compelling answer…”

– From Erwin Lutzer’s book, Tim Challies draws out why unity can only come at the expense of the gospel.

Moore’s treasures unveiled

“A campaign has begun to preserve a major collection of Australian Christian history at the library of Moore College, including two of the first books ever printed by press, the first book distributed in Australia, an ancient Hebrew parchment, a first edition of the King James Bible and rare photos of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The historic, and eclectic, group of ‘treasures’ is to be housed and exhibited in the college’s new library, due for completion in 2017, and the college is raising funds to display and preserve the irreplaceable collection.

‘Some of Australia’s priceless national heritage is found in the Moore College library – not surprising, since the college is one of the oldest tertiary educational institutions in the country and it became the repository of special books and artefacts from the earliest days,’ said Moore’s former principal Dr Peter Jensen, who is backing the effort to conserve the treasures.

One of the most historic items of Australiana is ‘Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies’ by the chaplain of the First Fleet, the Rev Richard Johnson. It was printed in England in 1794 with editing by the slave trader-turned evangelist John Newton. Johnson used it in his work in Sydney, making it the first book conceived and distributed in Australia…”

– Read the full story by Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Richard Johnson’s ‘Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies Established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island’ (with some editorial input from John Newton) was republished in PDF format for the ACL website several years ago. It is a wonderfully direct gospel tract.

Photo credit: Moore College.

Priests or Presbyters?

“The ambiguity of priest/presbyter might seem like linguistic pedantry. The poor English word ‘priest’ has to do overtime, since it translates two separate New Testament words…”