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There is much in
the news, and about the world that we live in, to cause the Christian to feel
despondent. Crimes and evils are constantly brought before us and the shift in
our society to an utterly godless outlook and the behaviours that spring from
this can easily seem to overwhelm us. Christian periodicals sometimes seem to
dwell overmuch on the gloom of the present day and even prayer meetings can be
burden rather than an inspiration when there is too much bemoaning of the state
of our country. For this reason I have it in mind, when I next preach, to take
as my text John 16:33: ‘These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may
have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I
have overcome the world’. Peace and good cheer through Christ and his work –
that’s more like it!
In November’s Grace magazine the – alas – contentious
subject of the Lord’s Day is dealt with from several different viewpoints. What
surprises me is that no-one seems to realise that the fourth commandment
arising from the divine creation pattern of Genesis 1 to 2:3 is the only basis
that there is for a seven-day week. Ancient societies had a variety of ‘weeks’
and the anti-Christian revolutionaries in France and Russia both attempted to
do away with the seven day week, though neither alternative lasted long. It is
baffling to me that some evangelical Christians – of all people – are now
effectively doing the same thing, though I don’t think they realise it. Surely
God’s creative pattern should apply to the whole created earth and not just to1400
years or so of Israel’s
history. With the spread of the Christian faith the seven-day week also spread
far and wide, with all the benefits it brings when it is appreciated and kept
appropriately.
I have been reading
‘Engaging with Keller’ (EP), as I have to review it. At first I found the last
chapter ‘Looking for communion in all the wrong places: Keller and the doctrine
of the church’ of little interest or significance to an Independent like me.
And then I began to think of developments in this country like the rise of
Gospel Partnerships, the promotion of ‘missional churches’, and all the
confusion which comes from churches of this, that and the other flavour being
planted here, there and everywhere without any thought of other churches that
might already exist. I suddenly realised that it is actually raises one of the
most urgent issues of our day.
