“Our People Die Well” — John Wesley
Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Hebrews 13:7
“Who are your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you? Most of us have many. In our childhood we may have been privileged to have parents who taught us God’s word, or there were Sunday school teachers or youth fellowship leaders at our church, or ISCF/Crusader teachers at school. For many it has been the pastor of our church, or the Bible study leader. During the lifetime of a Christian we usually have a range of leaders, who teach us God’s word. There are some people whose leadership stretches well beyond personal ministry to affect whole communities with their teaching of God’s word.
They speak at conventions, write books and articles, and travel to speak at evangelistic gatherings and church conferences. They become well known to the community as a whole, as they influence the culture of church life. And as we consider the outcome of the lives of those who lead us personally, we also remember and consider the lives of these more public leaders.
Recently I have been caused to remember and consider two such men, as they came to the end of their earthly life to be welcomed into the presence of the Lord of eternity …”
– Phillip Jensen reflects on the ‘outcome of the way of life’ of Geoff Fletcher and Dudley Foord, as models for all who hope in Christ.
An Overview of the Anglican Communion Today – From Communion to Coalition
A presentation by Vinay Samuel, last Monday 16th September, at St. Mark’s Battersea Rise in London, to a pre-GAFCON 2 meeting –
“The Anglican Communion as it exists today is not a single communion – it is more a collection of coalitions.
The centre (Lambeth) has no meaning in defining the Communion. Archbishop Justin Welby has inherited a broken communion he cannot heal. The role of Lambeth has enormously diminished. The instruments of communion as the governing centre are irrelevant for dealing with communion matters. People will not accept a communion that promotes things that are heretical. Instead of Lambeth legitimation we need mutual legitimation. This leads to coalitions. …”
– Read it all at Anglican Mainstream. More on the meeting from Andrew Symes.
Can Evangelical Chaplains serve God and Country? — The Crisis Arrives
“The repeal of the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, coupled with the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, set the stage for this crisis. The full normalization of same-sex relationships within the U.S. military is part of the unprecedented moral revolution that is now reshaping American culture at virtually every level.
The crisis in the chaplaincy arrived with these developments. The presenting issue is clear: Can a chaplain committed to historic biblical Christianity remain in military service? Does the normalization of homosexuality require that all members of the military, including chaplains, join the moral revolution, even if doing so requires them to abandon their biblical convictions? …”
– Albert Mohler looks at an issue which will not stay confined to the US military chaplaincy.
Related: ‘Gay head priest shows how far Canadian military has come’
Bad news and Good news in the Church of England
“First, the bad news. There are more examples of heresy in the hierarchy…”
– Andrew Symes of Anglican Mainstream writes for the American Anglican Council’s International Update.
Ten ways Gay activists shifted culture
“Whether you are a proponent of same-sex marriage, homosexuality or not, you have to respect the way gay activists have fundamentally transformed American society in one generation.
The plans and strategies of gay activism and how they went from being an oppressed minority to an elite protected status in mainstream culture is written in a book called After the Ball [published in 1990]…”
– from Charisma News.
What a Muslim teaches us
“Back in 1981, Christian hearts thrilled to see a mainstream popular film treat Christian conscience positively. The film was Chariots of Fire and the Christian conscience was that of Eric Liddell, the man who refused to run in the Olympics on a Sunday. It was just so different to see a man of genuine faith presented in a film as a hero instead of a moral failure or a narrow-minded hypocrite. …”
– Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column “From the Dean”.
Religious freedom in America today — Bp David Anderson
“Sometimes, the battle you or I or some other Christian might face touches directly on our freedom of religion, and attempts to infringe or deny that to us because the exercise of our religion somehow offends someone else. At other times our freedom of speech is infringed or denied when what we say from a Biblical perspective is prohibited, punished or marginalized with the label of ‘hate speech.’ …”
– Bishop David Anderson, President of the American Anglican Council, takes a quick survey of recent challenges to religious freedom in the USA.
‘Kevin — Good Heavens!’
Sydney Anglicans has a roundup of responses to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s statements this week on the Bible.
Related:
- The Prime Minister on Q&A, Monday 2nd September.
- The Prime Minister amplifies his comments, Tuesday 3rd September.
- And Sandy Grant looks at some of the responses he received to his post yesterday – at The Briefing, Thursday 5th September.
(Photo: SydneyAnglicans.net.)
Shellfish, slavery and same-sex marriage — How not to read the Bible
“This confused way of handling the Bible springs from an ignorance of the Bible’s own narrative.”
Archbishop Glenn Davies writes for the ABC’s Religion and Ethics –
“In recent days a number of strange claims have been made about slavery and shellfish in the Bible. The line normally goes something like this: although the Bible prohibits God’s people from eating shellfish and also endorses slavery, we can disregard these ethical instructions because we have come of age and can see things differently. …”
Here it is formatted as a 2 A4 page handout (330kb PDF file) suitable for copying.
‘PM misrepresents the Bible’
“Last night, on a serious Australian current affairs program, Q&A, our current serving Prime Minister, a self-professed Christian, grossly caricatured the Bible. ….”
– Sandy Grant responds to the Prime Minister’s statements on Q&A last night.
And Eternity Newspaper’s John Sandeman spoke today with the Prime Minister’s questioner, Pastor Matt Prater –
“I did get attacked a lot on social media last night. And got called a lot of nasty names. I just want to make it clear to anyone reading this that I am not a homophobe. I don’t hate homosexuals. I love everyone with the love of Jesus.”
(Images: ABC TV.)
Update:
The Prime Minister further explained his response (YouTube) in Launceston on Tuesday 3rd September.
Question lands pastor ‘in lion’s den’ – The Australian.
“The first time Pastor Matt Prater interviewed Kevin Rudd, the year was 2006 and the then opposition foreign affairs spokesman was deeply obliging. …”
And Sandy Grant reflects on the whole thing at The Briefing.
What is the Problem?
“Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, has issued his most serious and straightforward diagnosis of the crisis within the Anglican Communion.”
– The American Anglican Council’s Canon Phil Ashey thinks the Archbishop of Canterbury has made a serious misdiagnosis. Related: Tearing the Fabric. (PDF.)
Syria: Archbishop Welby’s speech in the House of Lords
“We have heard already about Lebanon and about Iran, particularly the effect that an intervention would cause on the new Government in Iran as they are humiliated by such an intervention.
However, there is a further point. I talked to a very senior Christian leader in the region yesterday and he said that intervention from abroad will declare open season on the Christian communities. They have already been devastated. There were 2 million Christians in Iraq 12 years ago; there are fewer than 500,000 today.”
– Read it here.
What the Hijabi Witnessed (and what she didn’t)
“I have had the pleasure on a couple of occasions of sitting next to a girl wearing a hijab. Typically, this has occurred in departure lounges of airports or on the platforms of railway stations. Never has it happened in a place of worship at the time of a service. Never, that is, until recently. …”
– Carl Trueman has some excellent points about what the girl next to him saw and heard. (Photo: King’s College.)
Related: Common Prayer. Better Gatherings.
How to be Polemical — without being a downright Nasty Person
“The chief advances of the Christian faith are due to those moments when leaders and laypeople saturated with Scripture rose up in defiance of the unbiblical trends of their time and place. We have the Nicene Creed, the Apostles’ Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, and the Reformation confessions and catechisms because, by God’s grace, men and women had the courage of their convictions and dared to be polemical.”
– Terrific article by Michael Horton in Modern Reformation magazine.
The Best Place for Theological Training
“Last week was Moore College Sunday. For over one hundred years our college has trained ministers of the gospel to serve in Sydney, Australia and overseas. It is a great college in which Christ is honoured by his word being faithfully taught. It lies at the very heart of our evangelical diocese.
There is no alternative to formal, academic, theological training for those who would be paid to teach God’s word…”
– Phillip Jensen writes his weekly column ‘From the Dean’. Good to read and pass on to others.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…