Watch the Annual Moore College Lecture livestream tonight
If you couldn’t get to Moore College for the first evening of this year’s Annual Moore College Lectures, you can watch it from 8:00pm via the college’s livestream.
“Dr Paul Williamson is our speaker for this year’s Moore College Lectures on the topic of Death and the Life Heareafter. Join us to think through the big questions of death, heaven and hell, beginning with a public lecture on the evening of Friday 19 August, and continuing with 5 morning lectures from Monday 22 to Friday 26 August. This is a free event with no registration required.”
Deuteronomy: One Nation under God by George Athas
Here’s a new book to be released on 30th September 2016 by CEP, under their Aquila Press imprint –
“Deuteronomy is a daunting book for many readers of the Bible, yet it is arguably the ‘theological backbone’ of the Old Testament.
In this clear and insightful commentary, George Athas brings Deuteronomy to life for contemporary readers, and looks at how the ancient context helps us to better understand this book. He also explains the meaning of Deuteronomy for its original readers, traces the significance of the promises in Deuteronomy through Israel’s history to their ultimate fulfilment in Christ, and considers the enduring message of this extraordinary book for Christians today.”
If you’re keen, you can pre-order the book now!
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
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 21st 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.
“God made me for China” — Eric Liddell beyond Olympic glory
“Those who have seen Chariots of Fire well remember how it ends, with the magnificent and sentimental music of Sir Hubert Parry’s anthem ‘Jerusalem’ and William Blake’s famous words: ‘Bring me my Bow of burning gold; Bring me my Arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire!’
Then the screen fills with these words in text:
‘Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All of Scotland mourned.’
The end.
But in those few words was the real story of Eric Liddell…”
– Have your heart warmed to the true story of Eric Liddell – in this new post from Albert Mohler. (Photo: Wikipedia.)
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.
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.
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
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…