Malcolm Muggeridge

At present I am reading Richard Ingrams’ biography of Malcolm Muggeridge. One of the striking things it reveals is the antipathy to Christianity by the left-wing literary elite who were part of Muggeridge’s life. ‘… supporters of the Soviet Government welcomed its strenuous efforts to impose atheism and eradicate Christianity almost more than anything else that had been done.’ As A. J. P. Taylor wrote to Muggeridge, ‘… think of the fact that a new generation is growing up free from Christianity – that’s something worthwhile.’ It is the successors of that generation who are largely responsible for quite a measure of success in eradicating Christianity from Great Britain. One reason for our interest in Muggeridge is that we knew his eldest son Leonard well – a gentle, humble Christian man, a member of the Christian Brethren who studied at London Bible College in the early 1950’s, now into his eighties. He became a believer long before his father’s turn to Roman Catholicism.

Love me do

Yesterday the local news in the North West reminded us all that it was the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles first record, Love me do. Over 1600 hundred people gathered in Liverpool to sing the song and get their name into the Guinness book of records as the largest choir – or something like that. Whether that was quite as significant as Bill Hailey’s visit to this country or the first record by Elvis Presley is a moot point. What can’t be denied is that pop music has grown ever more important and dominated the life of teenagers – and others – at least from the Sixties onwards. I have often tried to decide what effect this has had on life in Britain, on moral standards, and on the whole culture. I have thought of preaching on the subject several times but have never been able to come to any decisive conclusion – mere condemnation does no-one any good. Yet I cannot but believe that much pop and rock music has had a seriously harmful effect on young people and so on the whole ethos and outlook of a couple of generations. Personally, I think it is also responsible for damaging Christian worship; in the first place at least, through the charismatic movement. Just when many churches were seeing the importance of reverence and seriousness in the worship of God a whole new emphasis began to be brought in and is still spreading its effects. I post these thoughts for any others who may wish to ponder the influence of the Beatles and many other popular groups before and since.

[I delayed posting this from last week for a reason but have now decided to put it on my blog.]

Same-sex Marriage

There is a very interesting, thoughtful and provocative article on Same-sex Marriage by Stephen Clark on the Affinity website under Table Talk. It can be accessed via http://www.affinity.org.uk/TableTalk.

The church mug

Yesterday, Saturday September 29^th, Mary and I went back to Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. From 1966-1994 I was the pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Hanley – the Stoke city centre. The mug in the picture – the only church mug I’ve ever seen, at least in the proper sense of the word! – shows the old church, originally Congregational, that dates back to its foundation in 1812. So yesterday there was an exhibition and lecture by Gervase Charmley, the present pastor, on the 200 years of gospel witness on the site. Going back brought back many memories, as well as the opportunity to meet many old friends. Over the years God has blessed his Word and brought many to faith in Jesus Christ. I was interested most of all to learn that in the early 1800’s three men went out to India as missionaries. In the nineteen fifties and sixties a number also went out as missionaries whom we knew well. One, David Mead, who laboured in Italy for many years, was present yesterday. We trust and pray that the church will prosper by God’s good grace.

After the Olympics

The Olympics and Paralympics are now over and many of us have enjoyed the sporting exploits that we have seen. Without wishing in any way to denigrate these events or sport itself I think there are some things that Christians ought to consider. It may be that young people will be enthused to go into sport but only a handful are ever going to take part in the Olympics, let alone win a gold medal. We need to emphasise the value of taking part and not just winning or becoming famous. Moreover, sport is not the most important thing in life; many other employments and activities are more necessary and more valuable to society as well as to the individual. I hope sport is not becoming the new religion. As far as the Paralympics are concerned while this summer may spur numbers of people with disability to take up sport, there are likely to be many disabled people who are not able to; these need to be respected and valued too. While our attitudes often do need to be examined and changed there will always be a need for thoughtful and understanding compassion. More worrying is the apparent trend to revert to a pagan approach to sport – after all that was the milieu of the original games. The Daily Telegraph spoke of the pagan style closing ceremony of the Paralympics, and the picture above is of the face of a fiery pagan god that appeared in that ceremony. The closing Olympic ceremony had a children’s choir singing Lennon’s Imagine, but maybe he wouldn’t have been too bothered about pagan religion. I look forward to hearing what fruit there has been from all the evangelistic activity that churches and Christians, especially those in the London area, were able to engage in.

'I Stand for Truth'

While preparing to write the biography of Ernest Kevan I found a reference in Ian Randall’s book on the history of London Bible College to an autobiographical book entitled ‘I Stand for Truth’ by Donald Guthrie, one of the tutors. However, I could find no mention of this book anywhere else. Just the other day I found it on the website of Ian White; www.whites.me.uk under the heading Donald Guthrie. There is also a brief description of how these chapters came to be discovered after Donald Guthrie’s death. I found it most interesting, which is why I am writing this post. At LBC I greatly appreciated Donald Guthrie both as a Christian man and a lecturer and I am very glad his book is available. Incidentally, ‘I Stand for Truth’ is the motto of the Guthrie clan.

The Self-avenger

I came across these words while reading John Owen on ‘The Glory of Christ’. They occur in a chapter in which he is contrasting seeing the glory of Christ by faith in this world and seeing it by sight in that to come. Here he is speaking about the heavenly vision: ‘The mouth of iniquity shall be stopped for ever, and the voice of the self-avenger shall be heard no more. Wherefore, the vision which we shall have in heaven of the glory of Christ is serene, - always the same, always new and indeficient, wherein nothing can disturb the mind in the most perfect operations of a blessed life.’ Although I have quoted these two sentences, to add the positive to the negative, what struck me forcibly were the words ‘the self-avenger’. Who or what is this? It can hardly be the devil, though he may involved somewhere in encouraging what the self-avenger says. It cannot surely be conscience pure and simple. Conscience, however, can be over-scrupulous; it can condemn where no condemnation is required, it can trouble where it ought to be satisfied. Conscience is affected by sin, just as every other faculty is; it is never perfect in its judgements, and while it can be too lenient and too easily quietened in some, it can also be over-zealous and trouble a believer unnecessarily. What a blessing it will be to find the self-avenger silenced for ever.