Why I’m Complementarian
“None of us are called to be ‘complementarian’, but we are called to live in response to God’s freeing word as the person that we are, and we are called to be a Christian man or a Christian woman. Because each calling is shaped by the other, then we end up being what is so suitably described as ‘complementarian’…”
– Jane Tooher, Director of The Priscilla and Aquila Centre at Moore College, shares why she finds ‘complementarian’ the best term to describe the relationships between men and women in Christ. She writes at Thinking of God.
Why ‘No Creed but the Bible’ is a lousy creed
“First, it’s impossible not to be confessional. Everyone is confessional; now, whether it’s written and whether it’s biblical is another matter. And everyone is a theologian…
It’s always better when we’re clear on our theology, and for that nothing beats writing it down on paper. Writing does not guarantee infallibility, of course, but it does make it easier to determine whether the doctrine we’re confessing aligns with Scripture.
Second, the point of a confession of faith isn’t to put something above Scripture. The point of a confession is to ensure the public teaching of the church is as close to the teaching of Scripture as possible. When we don’t write down our theology and confess it publicly as a church, it leads not to healthy freedom but to unhealthy restriction.”
– Is it biblical for the church to use confessions of faith? How should a confession be used? What makes a good confession of faith?
At The Gospel Coalition, Jeff Robinson put these and other questions to Ligon Duncan, Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary.
Sadly, many churches seem to think creeds are outdated. It’s not too late to repent – check out:
Creeds and other affirmations of faith – from the Diocese of Sydney’s Better Gatherings.
The Athanasian Creed – from Church Society’s An English Prayer Book.
For the Bible tells me so: Biblical authority denied … again
“‘Jesus loves me — this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’ This is a childish error
Evangelical Christianity has a big problem, says Andy Stanley, and that problem is a reliance on the Bible that is both unwarranted and unhelpful. In a recent message delivered at North Point Community Church and posted online, Stanley identifies the evangelical impulse to turn to the Bible in our defense and presentation of Christianity as a huge blunder that must be corrected.”
– Albert Mohler warns against diluting Biblical authority in an attempt to connect with our culture.
The good God who speaks
“It is a sad feature of our moment in time that Christians are ridiculed for their confidence in the Bible as the word of God and that this ridicule has an edge of suspicion about it. Our appeal to the Bible is understood by some as a personal power-play. We are simply trying to impose our own opinion or our own religious preferences.
Others suggest even darker motives. Five decades ago a visiting American evangelist could repeat ‘the Bible says …’ and Sydney took notice. Hundreds of thousands wanted to know what the Bible says, what God says. What he has to say changes everything for good. Today, however, the response is more often ‘How do you know?’ or ‘Why should I listen to your inhumane religious bigotry?’…”
– Posted back in 2014, Moore College Principal Mark Thompson writes with a reminder that genuine Christian discipleship involves a serious commitment to the Bible as the word of God.
Related:
A Small Alteration, A Significant Statement – Change To Ordination Vows – Gary Ware on a proposal to change the ordination vows of Ministers and Elders in the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
Moore College School of Theology 2016
This year’s Moore College School of Theology is planned for Thursday 15th September.
“Come with us on a journey from sin and death to redemption and new life, in a series of master classes on the value of theology for the life of the church at the 2016 Moore College School of Theology.”
Leon Morris: ‘The New Testament Scholar from Down Under’
At The Gospel Coalition, Thomas Schreiner introduces a new generation to Leon Morris, with reference to a biography published earlier this year by The Rev. Neil Bach.
“Leon Lamb Morris (1914–2006) stood out in his generation as one of the great evangelical scholars. He wrote 50 books and traveled extensively, speaking all around the world. His book The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, which has sold more than 50,000 copies, was his signature achievement. …”
Related:
Leon Morris and the Cross of Christ: Celebrating the Centenary of Australia’s Foremost Biblical Scholar – Lecture by Neil Bach at Ridley College, March 2014.
Remembering Leon Morris on the Centenary of his birth – links to several articles.
Thinking about The End — Preaching Matters
In the latest Preaching Matters from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, William Taylor discusses what 2 Peter 3, and other passages, teach about The End.
How does our understanding of The End influence the way we live today?
What does the New Testament’s teaching about The End say to us about where our affections should lie and where we should invest ourselves?
The church and its mission: visible and invisible
“What is the church for?
In chapter three of his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul reveals his understanding of the purpose of the Church. He doesn’t look at this in sociological terms, from a human perspective, but from a supernatural, spiritual viewpoint.
The primary purpose of the church is to be like a ‘broadcasting tower’, a means of making known to invisible spiritual powers the wisdom of God – wisdom which is described in most familiar translations as ‘manifold’ but which literally means something like ‘multi-faceted’ or ‘variegated’ (Ephesians 3:10).
Ephesians is a contextual theology, explaining the Gospel to people living in a culture very aware of, even fearful of and obsessed by, spiritual powers. Paul, following the rest of the teaching of the Bible and the life of Jesus himself, recognises the existence of these invisible forces, which include angels and demonic spirits…
So it’s not just the church’s traditional position on sexuality which looks totally “weird and odd” (to use Archbishop Justin’s language). The whole project of the Christian faith and the Church is defined in the Bible in ways that are unintelligible to those on the outside, especially with a secular worldview. …”
– At Anglican Mainstream, Andrew Symes reminds us why the church is here.
What is distinctive about Preaching?
“People read their Bibles at home. People go to Bible studies. Children and young people are taught the Bible. So members of churches are hearing the words of God all the time. What is different about the Sunday sermon? What is distinctive about the Sunday sermon is that is addressed to the church?
It is the one time in the week when…
- God’s people hear God’s words collectively, as a body.
- God addresses the corporate life, the shared common life, of his people.
- The people of God gather around the word of God, and
- God is present among his people to speak to them about their common life.
The Sunday sermon is therefore the moment in the week when the people of God together meet the word of God and and so the role of preachers of God’s word to God’s people is one of immense worth and unique importance. In our weekly sermon God’s people gather around God and hear him speak to them through his Spirit-inspired Scriptures. …”
– At The Gospel Coalition Australia, Dr. Peter Adam asks, “What is distinctive about preaching, and how does it differ from other ministries of the Word?”
Read Part 1 and Part 2. (Image via St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)
Homesick for heaven?
At The Next Level conference in Sydney, two weeks ago, Professor D A Carson spoke on Revelation 7:9-17 and the need to be ‘homesick for heaven’.
Sober, Christ-honouring, and very encouraging.
From the Archives: Evangelical Religion — by Bishop J.C. Ryle
“Since many religious disputes have arisen solely because there has been a lack of accurate definition, I am beginning this paper by explaining exactly what I mean by ‘Evangelical Religion’.
I want to consider that religion which is peculiar to those within the Church of England who are normally called “the Evangelical Party”. Whether we like it, or not; whether it is right or not, it must be agreed that there are varying schools of thought within the Church of England, with many divisions and shades of opinion even within the various parties. Here I am concerned with the unmistakable and undeniable tenets of the Evangelical school which, I maintain, are worth contending for…”
Bishop Ryle wrote these words in the 1870s, but they could just as well have been written yesterday.
His main headings:
WHAT EVANGELICAL RELIGION IS
WHAT EVANGELICAL RELIGION IS NOT
WHAT MAKES MUCH RELIGION APPEAR TO US NOT EVANGELICAL?
THE PRESENT DUTIES OF EVANGELICALS.
Read it in our Resources section.
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.)
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
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
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…