Sunday 27 December 2020

The Reformation...

The Reformation comes to us from the past. It can lead us on into God’s future. The Reformers called on their generation to get ‘back to the Bible.’ We still need to hear that message today. For many people in today’s world, the Bible is a closed book - often owned, rarely read. The Reformers call us to take the Bible seriously. We’re not only to read the parts that we like. Blessing may come to us from unexpected places. The Reformers encourage us to ‘search the Scriptures.’ They believed that God had something to say to them. It was something that they could not keep to themselves. They needed courage. They were given courage. They have set for us a great example - asking the question, ‘Is there a word from the Lord?’ and giving the answer, ‘Yes. There is a word from the Lord.’ The Reformers directed attention away from themselves to Jesus Christ. This is what we must do. The Reformers were whole-hearted in their commitment to Christ. They were God’s faithful servants. They teach us to say, ‘Serving the Lord - this must be the great priority of my life, the most important thing.’ The Reformation was a time of great change. It was more than social and political change. It was spiritual change. Listening to God led to speaking for him. Speaking to him led to living for him. Real change - this is what we need.

Friday 18 December 2020

Christmas is a time for celebrating.

Christmas is a time for celebrating - giving thanks for the love of Jesus, but it's not the only time for celebrating. Any day, we can thank Him for His love. Every day, we can come to Him, and say, "Thank You, Jesus, for loving me." Before Christmas, begin to thank Him. After Christmas, keep on thanking Him.

Christmas Message

Let’s think about the meaning of Christmas. What does it mean in the countdown to Christmas Day? What will it mean for us when we’re in the middle of January? What will it mean six months from now? Christmas is coming. Jesus is coming. Christmas comes. Christmas goes. Jesus comes. Jesus stays. When Christmas comes to an end, Jesus doesn’t leave us. When Boxing Day begins, Jesus is still with us.

Christmas is about Jesus. Jesus is more than Christmas. If Christmas was all that we had, would we really be saying, “I wish it could be Christmas every day”? Wouldn’t we be asking, “When does everything get back to normal”? Normal? What is normal? Normal seems so unexciting. Normal is this – Jesus is with us. He’s with us every day. Our ordinary days are very different from Christmas Day. Can we ever say, “This is just an ordinary day” – when Jesus is with us every day?

Soon, Christmas 2020 will be behind us. The old year will come to an end. We’ll be into the New Year. The years come. The years go. Jesus remains the same. He’s our ‘Forever Friend’ – our faithful Saviour. He’s “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). When Christmas 2020 has been forgotten, Jesus will still remember us. When New Year Resolutions have been abandoned, He will still be our Friend and our Saviour. We forget. Jesus remembers. There’s never any problem with His memory. There is, however, one thing that He does forget. He forgets our sins! - “I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 10:17).

How does Jesus forget our sins? - He could remember them. There’s no problem with His memory. He chooses to forget them. There’s no problem with His love! “I will remember their sins no more.” – That’s not a bad memory. That’s love. It’s great love. It’s the greatest love of all. It’s the love of Jesus - our great Saviour.

When Christmas comes, let Jesus come to you. He won’t come and go. He comes to stay. Here’s a prayer you can pray. It’s not just a prayer for Christmas Day. It’s a prayer you can pray right now. “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today. Come in to stay. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.” This is the true meaning of Christmas. It’s more than that. It’s what life is all about. “If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart.”

We wish you happiness - at Christmas and in the New Year. We wish you more than that. We wish you a happy life. “Happiness is to know the Saviour, Living a life within His favour, Having a change in my behaviour, Happiness is the Lord.” When Christmas is over and the New Year has begun, may each of us join, with Paul, in saying, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). 

God bless you at Christmas, in the New Year and every day - “May God’s blessing surround you each day, as you trust Him and walk in His way. May His presence within guard and keep you from sin, go in peace, go in joy, go in love.”                                                                                                                          

Whatever you may think of Christmas ...

Whatever you may think of Christmas - in our modern world, you will not be disappointed with Jesus. He comes to us from the past - and He leads us on into the future. We're no sooner past Christmas, and we start thinking about the New Year. We wonder what the New Year will bring. Will you go into 2021 on your own - or with Jesus as your Saviour?

What's Christmas all about?

What's Christmas all about? Is it about coming to church, coming to a service? No. There's more to it than that. It's about coming to Christ, coming to the Saviour. What a welcome you will get when you come to Jesus. Whatever this year's been like, you can end the year on a high note by coming to Jesus - opening your heart to Him, giving your life to Him.

Saturday 24 October 2020

 2 Chronicles 16:1-18:27; 1 Corinthians 15:1-34; Psalm 102:1-11

The people of God are to be “armed for battle” (2 Chronicles 17:18). The battle is spiritual. It can only be won through the power of the risen Christ. His purpose is the destruction of “the last enemy … death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). This has been accomplished, in principle, through Christ’s resurrection. The full reality of His victory will be seen at His return. With such a strong and victorious Lord on our side, we are encouraged to pray to the Lord, fully expecting  to receive help from Him – “Hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry for help come to You … “ (Psalm 102:1-2).

From my One Year Bible

Thursday 22 October 2020

Couldn't care less! Can't be bothered! ...

Couldn’t care less! Can’t be bothered!
Many people have this attitude toward Jesus Christ and His Church.
Perhaps, it’s your attitude right now as you begin to read this invitation.
God’s attitude to you is exactly the opposite.
He cares for you! He is bothered with you!
God’s care! God’s “being bothered”!
Doesn’t that make you think, “What right have I to say to God, “Couldn’t care less! Can’t be bothered!
Take time to read this invitation carefully.
It may change your life.
 * Perhaps, you’re thinking, 'Why should God care about me?'
There is no answer to this question apart from the love of God.
Look at yourself honestly. God should really have given up on all of us a long time ago – but He hasn’t!
God sent His Son – Jesus Christ – to seek and to save the lost. God patiently waits for those who have lost their way in life (that’s all of us!) to come back to Him through trusting Jesus Christ as Saviour.
 * Perhaps, you’re wondering, 'How do I know that God cares about me?'
There is no answer to this question apart from the death of Christ.
Look at Jesus Christ honestly. He is so unlike us. He did everything God wanted Him to do. He didn’t deserve to die a criminal’s death – but He did: death on a cross.
Why did He die in this way? – “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
It should have been me! It should have been you!
Jesus Christ suffered “capital punishment” for us!
The cross of Christ turns our questions around – “How can we doubt that God cares for us?”
 * Perhaps, you’re asking, 'Can I – a ‘couldn’t care less, can’t be bothered’ type of person – be changed?'
There is no answer to this question apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s be honest. The story of your life and mine is a story of failure. Don’t let failure hold you back from coming in faith to Jesus Christ.
Do you think that God will turn you away? – He sent His Son to save failures.
Do you think that Christ will look down His nose at you? – He died on the cross for failures.
Why do you say, “I can’t become a Christian. I’d be a failure”? 
A Christian is simply a failure who has received from God – through faith in Christ – forgiveness for the past, strength for the present and hope for the future.
Why don’t you receive this great gift – a new beginning with God – by receiving Jesus Christ as your Saviour?
Don’t wait till tomorrow! Don’t wait till Sunday! Trust Christ right now!
We look forward to meeting you at Church this Sunday, as we thank God for Jesus!

Saturday 12 September 2020

G. C. Berkouwer On "Election And The Hiddenness Of God"

In his discussion, "Election and the Hiddenness of God" in Divine Election (Chapter Four, pp.102-131), G. C. Berkouwer emphasizes that God's hiddenness is not to be set over against His salvation. He rejects a concept of God's hiddenness which "separates the God of revelation from our lives and mitigates the absolute trustworthiness of that revelation" (p. 125). Even in confessing God's salvation, faith acknowledges that it does not know everything about God (pp. 120-121, especially  the reference to Isaiah 45:15 - "Truly You are a God who has been hiding Himself, the God and Saviour of Israel."). Although our knowledge of God in Christ is confessed to be true and reliable, we must not presume upom complete knowledge (p. 124 - especially the reference to John 14:9 - "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."). The attempt to attain to complete knowledge is admonished for its spiritual pride, when Christ speaks of these things which are hidden from "the wise and learned" yet revealed "to little children" (p. 123, quoting Matthew 11:25). This Biblical passage - Matthew 11:25 - concludes Berkouwer's study of Divine Election (p. 330). He ends by emphasizing that knowledge of God is not to be sought apart from a simple faith, which looks to Christ as Saviour.

Theological Articles

The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith 
https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/evangel/11-3_066.pdf (The Building and Dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 5-8))

Quotes

Joe Boot, "A Time To Search"
"Either God exists or he does not. There is no middle ground. Both cannot be true. No amount of philosophical trickery can hide from the greatest antithesis of them all ... We cannot leave this question for the intellectuals, scientists, philosophers and theologians alone ... We must answer it for ourselves."

G C Berkouwer
"Scripture ... does not derive its authority from the fact that we use it, not even when we use Scripture in faith."

G C Berkouwer
"In Scripture the election of God ... does not come out of works but out of grace. God's electing plan prepares the way of salvation in which man learns that salvation is obtained only as a divine gift an never as an acquisiton because of good works."

G C Berkouwer
"Dilemmas always are a source of polarization. We quickly move over to simplistic either-or’s … in which the fulness of truth is torn apart. And in the atmosphere of false polarities, we often stop listening to each other’s words. With this, irritation and pique poison the theological discussion. But it is striking and, at the same time, reassuring that the clear intent of the gospel comes through even in the midst of theological polarization, especially when all the parties intend to be faithful to the gospel."

G.C. Berkouwer
"Faith is decisively determined by the object of faith, namely, God and His Word. This does not ... imply that Scripture ... derives its authority from the believer's faith: this idea is already rendered untenable by the very nature of faith, which rests on and trusts in the Word of God."

A W Tozer
"It is not enough that I hold an inspired book in my hands. I must have an inspired heart ... Revelation is the ground upon which we stand. Revelation tells us what to believe. The Bible is the book of God and I stand for it with all my heart. But before I can be saved, there must be illumination, penitence, renewal, inward deliverance."

G C Berkouwer
"The gospel does not leave unchanged the person who does not listen and remains disobedient ... unbelief can lead only to progressive hardening of the heart."

H. Bavinck
"In the cross, the Christian has seen the special Providence of God. He has,in forgiving and regenerating grace, experienced Providence in his heart. From this new,positive experience in his own life, he looks out over his entire existence and over the whole world, and sees there the leading of God’s fatherly hand."

D G Bloesch
"The great theologians from Paul and Augustine to G. C. Berkouwer and Karl Barth ... have been able to explain what the faith does not mean as well as what it means."

G C Berkouwer
"Evil in man is radical, so much so that it cannot be overcome by human power."

G C Berkouwer
"We can hardly say that the Pharisees had an accurate ‘knowledge’ of man when they pointed to the sins (the real sins) of publicans and sinners. This judgment, which separated knowledge of man from self-knowledge, was as nothing in God’s eyes. The Jew did not have a better understanding because he was able to judge the heathen. In the sphere of abstract morality this could possibly be said, but this is not Biblical morality - O man, who judgest others!"

G C Berkouwer
"Man does not have the power to begin by himself any change in spiritual things ... There is no limit or boundary within human nature beyond which we can find some last human reserve untouched by sin."

G C Berkouwer
"The jubilation of God's salvation corresponds to man's very real condition of lostness ... In Scripture, there is never any mention of a relativizing of sin since any such relativizing of sin would also automatically relativize the unspeakably wonderful nature of salvation."

G C Berkouwer
"Hardening can never be broken by man in his own power. There is no other therapy that can bring about a change except the divine healing in Christ and the superior power of the Spirit."

G C Berkouwer
"The confession of the church touching Jesus Christ can never be a knowledge such that, with it, the church can elevate itself above the world. It is precisely within the church that people will have to remind themselves that this knowledge is a gift and a miracle which did not arise out of flesh and blood."

G C Berkouwer
"It is the marvel of the work of the Holy Spirit that those who really respond to the proclamation of reconciliation claim no merit whatsoever for that response, but rather find the essence of their joy in God, who reconciled us unto himself."

G C Berkouwer
"The change which takes place when we trust Jesus Christ is not only a change in our view of Christ. Through Christ, we look differently at both God’s creation and our own circumstances."

G C Berkouwer
"Man, in and by the salvation of God, is delivered from the tenacity of the egocentric and commences to sing of the glory of God. It is this salvation that opens doors and windows toward God’s handiwork."

G C Berkouwer
"In the doctrine of Providence, we have a specific Christian confession exclusively possible through faith in Jesus Christ. This faith is no general, vague notion of Providence. It has a concrete focus: ‘If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?’ (Rom.8:31, 32)."

G C Berkouwer
"Everything is really said in an unobtrusive phrase, in Christ ...Faith is not added as a second, independent ingredient which makes its own contribution to justification in Christ... faith does nothing but accept, or come to rest in the sovereignty of His benefit ... we are not acceptable to God because of the worthiness of our faith. Grace is exclusively and totally God’s."

G C Berkouwer
"Faith looks away from itself to Christ ... sola fide (by faith alone) and sola gratia (by grace alone) ... mean the same thing ... let the sound of sola fide-sola gratia ring in the life of the Church. Let it be a warning against the pride of the treacherous heart."

G C Berkouwer
"In sanctification, there is never, under any circumstances, any room for self-pride or self-praise."

G C Berkouwer
"The grace of God is never the cause for glorying in one’s own power ... Perseverance is always opposed to false self-confidence."

G C Berkouwer
"Worthy partakers are those who confess their sins in self-abhorrence, humiliation, faith in God’s promises, and gratefulness of heart. This is the ‘worthiness’ that belongs to the Lord’sSupper. It is not at all meritorious in nature, but is in complete harmony with what is signified and sealed in the Lord’s Supper. It is a worthiness that coincides with a confession of‘unworthiness’ and with trust in the salvation of God."

G C Berkouwer
"When the concept of error in the sense of incorrectness is used on the same level as the concept of erring in the sense of sin and deception, we are quite far removed from the serious manner with which erring is dealt in Scripture … as a swerving from the truth and upsetting the faith (2 Tim. 2:18)."

G C Berkouwer
"Lord, will those who are saved be few?”  ... Jesus’ answer seems so noncommittal, so evasive ... Strive to enter by the narrow door (Luke 13:23f.) ... this evasiveness is only apparent ... This is the answer to this question ... this question has been answered, once for all time."

G C Berkouwer
"The Holy Spirit … does not lead us into error but into the pathways of truth … The Spirit, with this special concern, has not failed and will not fail in this mystery of God-breathed Scripture."

S H Travis
"We do not have to choose between this world and the world to come, because the purpose of God embraces both"

G C Berkouwer
"On the route of faith and action, along with hope, we see that the gospel we believe is far removed from the picture of a future without bearing on the present, a heavenly hope without concern for the neighbour and his world."

G C Berkouwer
"Grace is at work even in fallen man ... to bend partially back in the right direction those human powers and endowments which were man left to himself would be wholly perverted."

G C Berkouwer
"Common grace ... an imperfect solution ... does centre our attention on the gracious act of God in protecting man’s corrupt and apostate nature from total demonization."

G C Berkouwer
"The true nature of good works cannot be understood apart from Christ who is our ‘sanctification’ (1 Corinthians 1:30)."

G C Berkouwer"
"Sanctification is not the humanly operated successor to the divinely worked justification."

G C Berkouwer
"Genuine sanctification has a ‘continued orientation toward justification."

G C Berkouwer
"The Spirit alone could perform the miracle of making man walk on the road of sanctity without a sense of his own worth."

G C Berkouwer
"The fundamental fact about baptism will always be its involvement with the death of Christ ... The prevenient aspect of the grace of God lies ... in the temporal priority of the cross of Christ with respect to the baptized person, whether child or adult."

G C Berkouwer
"The restoration of the image of God ... the new nature, created after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness ... the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator ... the renewal of the image will throw light upon the meaning and content of the original creation of man in the image of God."

G C Berkouwer
"The history of salvation does away with any personal glory ... in Christ, we have the exclusion of all human merit."

D Bonhoeffer
"In Christ we are offered the possibility of partaking in the reality of God and in the reality of the world, but not in the one without the other. The reality of God discloses itself only by setting me entirely in the reality of the world ... I never experience the reality of God without the reality of the world or the reality of the world without the reality of God."

D Bonhoeffer
"It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe ... the relation of the Church to the world is determined entirely by the relation of God to the world ... not by the world as it understands itself."

D Bonhoeffer
"The ""heart"", in the biblical sense, is not the inward life, but the whole man in relation to God."

K Hamilton
"Bonhoeffer categorically refuses to demythologize the resurrection ... he finally walked to his execution, saying that for him it was the beginning of life."

K Hamilton
"Bonhoeffer's thought is not determined by the ultimacy of this world but by his opposition to 'the separation ... (of) the two spheres of the sacred and secular' and his insistence that 'faith is always ... an act involving the whole life."

D Bonhoeffer
"Our relation to God is not a ""religious"" relationship ... but ... a new life in ""existence for others."

G C Berkouwer
"In the Gospels, being a sinner means being lost ... There is no way for man to escape the condition of being lost ... The lost can only be sought and found."

G C Berkouwer
"Bonhoeffer's emphasis on the deep this-worldliness of Christianity does not lead to de-escahtologizing the gospel."

G C Berkouwer
"Theodicy ... what is involved is not a theoretical answer to the enigma of evil ... but an answer of faith ... the abstract questions of theodicy fall away in the shadow of the event of the cross."

Kenneth Hamilton,"Life in One's Stride
"Bonhoeffer's thought is not determined by the ultimacy of this world but by his opposition to 'the separation ... (of) the two spheres of the sacred and secular' and his insistence that 'faith is always ... an act involving the whole life"

Ronald Gregor Smith
"The Christian cannot be indifferent to this world which God made and loves. Yet how can he be other than against it in its evil and sin and hopelessness? Both positions are necessary, and both at the same time, and without reserve."

G C Berkouwer
"Faith involves a certain subjectivity, ... a subjectivity which has meaning only as it is bound to the gospel."

G C Berkouwer
"The church's ... certainty is bound to certain norms and ... a feeling of subjective certainty does not guarantee irrefutable certainty ... it is not the certainty, but the truth in the certainty that makes us free ... there is a way of understanding Holy Scripture that does not estrange us from the gospel."

G C Berkouwer
"If theology is to speak adequately of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it must be thoroughly committed to hearing ""the powerful witness of the 'tremendous' Word that always speaks against us so that we can learn to stop speaking against it."

Bruce Demarest
"Berkouwer is to be commended for his careful avoidance of ""the polarities of a mindless fideism and a faithless rationalism."

G C Berkouwer
"Authority ... cannot be a darksome power that compels us to subject ourselves without reason."

G C Berkouwer
"The authority of God is unlike what is usually meant by ""external authority"" ... The authority of God brings perspective, joy and hope."

G C Berkouwer
"We must not get caught up in an emotional reaction against such phrases as 'believing on authority' ... Everything depends on the character of the authority and the character of believing."

G C Berkouwer
"The authority of God is not ... an arbitrary, external authority, demanding blind obedience ... The authority of God is a wooing and conquering authority, the acceptance of which occurs with joy and willingness in the context of Christ's redemption."

G C Berkouwer
"In the New Testament, myth stands over against the truth of the history of Jesus Christ ... the decisive die has ... been already cast in the New Testament opposition to myth."

G C Berkouwer
"In the New Testament, the concept of myth is not simply a harmless feature of a primitive world-view, requiring only to be reinterpreted for modern man ... Myth is that which ""diminishes the truth of salvation."

G C Berkouwer
"The Church's objectivity is not subjectivized by the affirmation that the only framework in which the Church can remain the Church of the Lord is the framework of faith, prayer, obedience and subjection."

G C Berkouwer
"The character of faith resolves all tensions between objectivity and subjectivity, For faith has significance only in its orientation to its object - the grace of God."

G C Berkouwer
"The sanctification ... demanded is always an implicate of the sanctification that originates in God's mercy. Hence the sanctification of believers is never an independent area of human activity ... we can speak truly of sanctification only when we have understood the exceptionally great significance of the bond between Sola-fide and sanctification ... the Sola-fide ... a confession of 'By grace alone we are saved' ... is the only sound foundation for sanctification."

G C Berkouwer"
"The perseverance of the saints is not primarily a theoretical problem but a confession of faith ... a song of praise to God's faithfulness and grace."

G C Berkouwer
"Theology is not practised apart from faith, prayer and adoration ... The whole subject matter of Christology is most intimately related to the secret of revelation ... the enlightenment of the eyes."

G C Berkouwer
"The object of Christology is not a purely theoretical knowledge but a profitable, wholesome knowledge of the salvation of God in Jesus Christ."

G C Berkouwer"
"In the doctrine of providence we have a specific Christian confession exclusively possible through a true faith in Jesus Christ ... this faith is no general, vague notion of Providence. It has a concrete focus: 'If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?' (Rom.8:31,32) ... the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is no purer expression than this of the depth of man's faith in God's Providence."

G C Berkouwer
"The ""Nature Psalms"" ... This understanding, and seeing, and hearing, is possible only ... in the enlightening of the eyes by the salvation of God ... But this seeing and hearing is not a projection of the believing subject, but an actual finding and seeing, and hearing! Here nothing is 'read into', but is only an understanding of the reality of revelation."

G C Berkouwer
"Men have tried to construct abstract and causal answers to this question of sin's origin and ... have violated the very limits of objectivity ... Whoever reflects on the origin of cannot engage himself in a merely theoretical dispute; rather he is engaged intimately, in ... the problem of sin's guilt."

G C Berkouwer
"The authority of God's Word is not an arbitrary, external authority ... but a wooing and conquering authority ... Scripture's authority does not demand blind obedience ... rather a subjection that spells redemption ... a subjection to Christ whereby he is never out of view ... in which acceptance occurs with joy and willingness."

G C Berkouwer
"Reality and symbolism in the sacraments ... Only if we reject false dilemmas ... it will be possible to delve deeper, to discern the sovereign manner in which God stoops down to us, taking up simple earthly elements and using them for the affirmation and strengthening of our faith."

G C Berkouwer
"The authority of God's Word ... We must be aware of the dangers of an experience-theology ... We must be critical of the suggestion that all scriptural questions could possibly be solved by excluding them on the basis of a childlike faith ... We must warn against a subjectification of authority, which might only become reality through acknowledgment ... We must also speak of the unique authority which can only be acknowledged and experienced on the way."

A W Tozer
"Jesus Christ never thinks about what we have been! He always thinks about what we are going to be."

G C Berkouwer
"The hesitations and doubts that are present at many points in modern theology do not in themselves indicate a deep and final uncertainty ... an alienation from the gospel."

G C Berkouwer
"The confession of the testimony of the Spirit was not intended to give a rational and theoretical solution or explanation to the relationship between Word and Spirit ... the mystery of Word and Spirit remains unfathomable ... Every attempt to somehow clarify the mystery remains revealingly unsatisfactory ... The mystery cuts across every exclusive formulation."

G C Berkouwer
"We must warn against an incorrect conception of theology, a conception which considers it possible to discuss Holy Scripture apart from a personal relationship of belief in it, as though that alone would constitute true 'objectivity'.

G C Berkouwer
"I am of the opinion that … one can judge soundly of the scriptural doctrine of election only when one rejects this symmetry (i.e. the ‘equal ultimacy’ of election and reprobation) ... as an unbiblical distortion of the message of the Divine election."

J Arminius
"After the reading of Scripture, which I strenuously inculcate… more than any other… I recommend that the Commentaries of Calvin be read… in the interpretation of the Scriptures Calvin is incomparable… his Commentaries are more to be valued than anything that is handed down to us in the writings of the Fathers… I concede to him a certain spirit of prophecy in which he stands distinguished above others, above most, indeed, above all."

C E Braaten
"Serious reservations ... must be voiced against the dominant position of the idea of revelation in theology, with its corollary that man's essential predicament is his lack of knowledge ... if the ignorance of man stands at the center, then the fact of revelation relieves that plight; but if man's guilt is the problem, then not revelation but reconciliation must become the theological centrum."

To Understand History, We Need Revelation.

Warning against "the danger of going outside the sphere of faith into the area of observation", G. C. Berkouwer disputes the legitimacy of interpreting the ways of Providence on the basis of facts" (The Providence of God, pp. 164-165). He aims to guard against the possibility that "everyone according to his own prejudice and subjective whim (can) canonize a certain event or national rise as a special act of God in which He reveals and demonstrates His favour" (p. 164). Acutely aware that "the interpretation of an historical event as a special revelation of Providence too easily becomes a piously disguised form of self-justification" (p. 166), Berkouwer insists that "no event speaks so clearly that we may conclude from it a certain disposition of God - as long as God Himself does not reveal that His disposition comes to expression in the given event" (p. 170). Concerning events in the history of Israel, which are recorded in Scripture, Berkouwer writes, "The Divine disposition is, indeed, revealed in these events. But  it is the word of revelation which  explains them" (p. 171). Concerning the interpretation of contemporary events, he warns, "we have not been given a norm for explaining the facts of history... in the absence of a norm only an untrustworthy plausibility remains" (p. 171).  Using insightful exegesis of Scripture, Berkouwer warns against a misguided interpretation of contemporary events. Commenting on the words, "Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?" (Amos 9:7), he writes, "the fact of the exodus may not be used as basis, isolated from revelation and seen by itself  from which to draw selfish conclusions about God's dispositions... As a mere historical fact, the exodus puts Israel on the same level with other nations. But accompanied by a proper faith in God, it constitutes a challenge and, given the proper response, further blessings" (p. 176).

The Holy Spirit in the Life of Faith (with links to audio version)

Here are two links to an audio version of a lecture given in January 1987: 

_________________________________ 

The Holy Spirit is the Breath of God. All Scripture is God-breathed. We experience the Breath of God upon our life when we listen attentively to the God-breathed Scriptures. Paul speaks, in 2 Timothy 3:15-17, of the  relationship between the Breath of God (the Holy Spirit) and the God-breathed Word (the Holy Scriptures) – ‘the Holy Scriptures … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’.
1) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to make us wise.
    The wisdom which comes from the Spirit and the Word is a special kind of wisdom. It is not the wisdom of this world. It is the wisdom which is bound up with Christ, salvation and faith. Worldly wisdom places great value on intellectual attainment. It emphasizes the importance of getting on in the world. True spiritual wisdom has quite different priorities. As we feed upon God’s Word, the Spirit imparts wisdom to us, a wisdom which the world can neither understand nor receive. This is the wisdom of which Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 2. He describes this wisdom as ‘a secret and hidden wisdom’ (v.7). This wisdom is no longer hidden from us – ‘God has revealed it to us by His Spirit’ (v.10). It is hidden only from those who refuse to read and hear with faith the ‘words … taught by the Spirit’ (v.13).
2) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to lead us to Christ.
    Jesus has given us His promise concerning the Holy Spirit: ‘He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you’ (John 16:14). If we are to honour the Holy Spirit in our preaching, we must focus on the cross of Christ’ – ‘we preach Christ crucified’, ‘I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ (1 Corinthians 1:17,23; 2:2). We must pray for ‘the Spirit’s power’ (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). How are we to preach Christ crucified? Will it mean preaching only from a select group of ‘gospel texts’ which refer explicitly to the death of Christ? Preaching Christ and Him crucified does not mean that we must narrow down the focus of our preaching. What, then, does it mean? It means that we must learn to see Christ in ‘all the Scriptures’ (Luke 24:27). At the very centre of all of our preaching from God’s Word, there must stand Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We do not read Christ into places where He is not to be found. Rather, we emphasize that Christ – ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29) – is the central Theme of the Scriptures. The Spirit of God points us to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We are to ‘keep our eyes on Jesus’ (Hebrews 12:2). As we keep our eyes on Him, we will find that the Spirit directs our attention to the cross, graciously reminding us that we have been ‘redeemed … with the precious blood of Christ’ (1 Peter 1:18-19).
3) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to bring us to salvation.
    Jesus Christ is ‘our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption’ (1 Corinthians 1:30). He is our full salvation. From beginning to end, our salvation is in Him. There is no room for boasting on our part: ‘Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 1:31). Our salvation is an ‘out of this world’ salvation. It is ‘out of this world’ in its origin. It is a salvation which has its origin in the ‘before the ages’ love of God, the eternal love of God. It is a salvation which has, as its destiny, ‘our glorification’ (1 Corinthians 2:7). When Paul speaks of this eternal salvation, this glorious salvation, he emphasizes its ‘out of this world’ character. He writes, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived … God has prepared for those who love Him’ (1 Corinthians 2:9). This salvation is not only ‘out of this world’. It has entered into our experience: ‘God has revealed (His salvation) to us through the Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 2:10). Salvation has been revealed. It has come ‘from above’. Here below, we experience salvation. Here below, we confess, with gladness of heart, that salvation has come to us. Tempted to doubt God’s salvation, we must allow the Spirit to bring to our remembrance this salvation which comes ‘from above’. Tempted to think that we ‘know it all’, we must remember that we are still here below. When we speak of God’s salvation, we  must speak with deep gratitude to God ‘for His inexpressible gift’ (2 Corinthians 9:15). Our words can never give adequate expression to God’s great salvation. Nevertheless, we must not be hesitant in preaching Christ and His salvation. As we preach the gospel of salvation, we must never lose sight of the way in which the Spirit has revealed God’s salvation to us. Salvation has not come to us from the depths of our own heart. It has not come to us from some ‘great beyond’ which makes the whole matter so private that we dare not speak of it. Salvation has come to us through ‘words … taught by the Spirit’, the words of Holy Scripture. To those who live below, salvation has come ‘from above’. When we think of God’s salvation, we will come to appreciate its greatness, as we learn to see the greatness of our sin, the greatness of our need.
    God’s salvation corresponds to our need. We have a need for forgiveness. The Gospel speaks to us of ‘peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Romans 5:1). We doubt our ability to keep going in the life of faith. God’s Word says to us, ‘Do you not know … that God’s Spirit dwells in you?’ (1 Corinthians 3:16). We wonder if there is hope. God assures us that there is hope. He does this by pouring His love ‘into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us’ (Romans 5:5). Peace with God provides us with the God-given foundation for living the life in the Spirit. Before we are called to the life of discipleship, God says to us, ‘There is … now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1). To the believer, God says, ‘You have been set free’ – set free ‘from the law of sin and death’, set free ‘for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:2). This freedom is in Christ. The Lord Jesus says to us, ‘if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed’ (John 8:36). His way of setting us free is emphasized in John 8:32 – ‘you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’. Our experience of freedom, given to us by Christ through His Word of truth, is to be an ongoing experience. This experience of freedom is described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:16-18. It begins ‘when a man turns to the Lord’ (v.16). Freedom is the gift of God. It is the gift of the Spirit: ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom’ (v.17). Our ongoing experience of freedom – freedom from sinfulness, freedom for Christlikeness – grows ‘from one degree of glory to another as we ‘behold the glory of the Lord’ (v.18).
4) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to bring us to faith.
    God’s salvation is a gracious salvation. When, however, we join in Paul’s affirmation of Ephesians 2:5 – ‘by grace you have been saved’ – , we must take care to look down to verse 8 where we find the additional words, ‘through faith’: ‘By grace you have been saved through faith’. There must be no hint of a grace which works apart from faith, a grace which makes faith redundant. That would be ‘saved by grace without faith’ which is very different from ‘saved by grace through faith’. In our preaching, we must emphasize both the absolute necessity of grace and the absolute necessity of faith. It is important for us to ask some key questions about faith.
    Our first question is this: ‘Where does faith come from?’ Is there a basic inclination in man towards believing? The parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9-14) gives us, in the proud Pharisee, a striking picture of man apart from the grace of God. We may not believe that we are absolutely perfect but we will, nonetheless, look around ourselves until we see someone to whom we can point and say, ‘Lord, I’m not as bad as him. I’m better than him’. The Holy Spirit has a very definite answer to such sinful pride – ‘you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things’ (Romans 2:1). How do we move from being the proud Pharisee, boasting of our own self-righteousness to becoming the humble publican, crying to God for His mercy? There is only one way, the way of the Gospel. It is when the ‘Gospel’ comes to us ‘not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction’ that we are brought to faith (1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2:13). Let us not imagine that we can bring others to faith without the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and through us.
    When we move on to our second question, ‘What is faith?’, we find that the parable of the Pharisee and the publican provides us, in the publican, with a simple picture of faith. The contrast between the faith of the publican and the works of the Pharisee is total. The faith of the publican was not a ‘work’ by which he earned salvation. He received salvation as a gift of God’s grace. The faith of the publican points in one direction only: the mercy of God. His prayer, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner’ (v.13), points away from the sinner to the Saviour. When we observe Jesus’ use of the word, ‘justified’, in verse 14, our thoughts tend to move towards Paul and the doctrine of justification by faith. The doctrine of justification by faith was Jesus’ doctrine before it was Paul’s. What does say Paul say about justification by faith that is not already said – in essence – by Jesus in this parable? Paul contrasts grace and works in Romans 11:6 – ‘if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works’. He contrasts faith and works in Romans 9:32 where he states that Israel did not fulfil the law because ‘they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were based on works’. While Paul contrasts both grace and faith with works, he never contrasts grace and faith. They belong together. In our preaching, we must emphasize both the offer of grace and the call to faith.
    There is a third question we must ask – ‘Why is faith so important?’ Again, the parable of the Pharisee and the publican answers this question for us: ‘this man went down to his house justified rather than the other’ (v.14). It is faith which marks the difference between the man whom God has declared righteous and the man who is robed in the ‘filthy rags’ of his own religion and morality (Isaiah 64:6). The contrast between Pharisaism and saving faith is brought out well in Luke 7:36-50 where a sinful woman is forgiven as the Pharisees ‘say among themselves’, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”‘(v.49). Jesus’ words to the woman, in verses 48 and 50, consist of three very short sentences which are packed with Gospel truth. ‘Your sins are forgiven’ – these words were spoken to the woman, but not to the Pharisees. Why? The answer is found in the next sentence – ‘Your faith has saved you’. The reason that the woman, and not the Pharisees, heard the words, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, is clear. She believed. They did not believe. The Lord Jesus then said to the woman, ‘Go in peace’.
    From these words of peace, we may find our thoughts turning to the Dove of Peace, the Holy Spirit. In giving to the believer the forgiveness of sins, the Lord Jesus also gives the Holy Spirit. In grace and mercy, God gives the Holy Spirit to us: ‘regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit’, given to us by ‘the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour … poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour’ (Titus 3:4-7). The direct connection between Christ and the Holy Spirit is emphasized in John the Baptist’s prophecy: ‘He (Jesus Christ) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). In Galatians 3:14, Paul stresses that it is ‘in Christ Jesus that we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith’. He goes on to emphasize that ‘faith works by love ‘ and speaks also of ‘love’ as ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ (5:6,22-23).  Love – this is so important. Love – this is the practical context for all of our theological reflection concerning the Holy Spirit in the life of faith.
5) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God for our profit.
    At our local primary school, I began a lesson on the Old Testament prophets by asking the question, ‘What is a prophet?’ One boy gave the answer, ‘It’s when you sell something for more than you bought it for’. We profit from the Scriptures because Scripture is a word of prophecy: ‘men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God’ (2 Peter 1:21). How do we profit from the prophets? How do we profit from the Scriptures? The answer is given in 2 Timothy 3:16 – ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable’. Scripture is profitable because Scripture is God-breathed. The Bible is the Word of God. That’s why it profits us. If the Bible is not the Word of God, no amount of our saying, ‘I derive profit from reading the Bible’ will make it the Word of God. It is not our faith or lack of faith which decides whether or not the Bible is God’s Word. Our faith or lack of faith can neither add to nor take away from Paul’s great declaration, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed’. Our faith rests on a sure foundation: ‘How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!’ Despite our unbelief, ‘the Word of God is not bound’ (2 Timothy 2:9). Through His Word, God is able to lift us out of our unbelief and bring us into the assurance of faith. We profit from God’s Word when we allow the Breath of God, the Holy Spirit, to breathe His God-breathed words into our hearts and lives.
6) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to teach us.
    Jesus tells us, in John 7:17, that if we want to understand His teaching, we must commit ourselves to doing the will of God. True understanding of Christ and His Gospel goes hand in hand with a practical commitment to living as His disciple. If we are not to be ‘blown here and there by every wind of teaching’, we need to commit ourselves to being ‘doers’ of God’s Word (Ephesians 4:14; James 1:22). There are ‘some things’, in God’s Word, which are ‘hard to understand’ (2 Peter 3:16). Many demands will be placed on those who take seriously the task of ‘correctly handling the Word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15). As we wrestle with the many-sided complexities of gaining an accurate understanding of God’s Word, we must never lose sight of ‘the simplicity which is in Christ’. We must take great care to maintain our ‘sincere and pure devotion to Christ’ (2 Corinthians 11:3).
In our learning from God’s Word and in our teaching God’s Word to others, we are to honour the Holy Spirit. He is our Teacher. This is what Jesus says concerning Him – ‘the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you’ (John 14:26). As we walk with the Lord, ‘letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly’ the Holy Spirit will not fail us. He will not leave us without a word to speak for Him (Colossians 3:16; Luke 12:12). In the ministry of God’s Word, we are to say only what the Holy Spirit gives to us for the spiritual feeding of the people.
    When I was a student, this lesson was impressed upon me by my Minister, George Philip. He pointed out to me that there may be many things which will interest me in the study, but they may not be what God is wanting me to share with the people when I go to the pulpit. I have never forgotten his words. They have provided an important framework for my ministry. Our goal is not to impress people with our great learning. Rather, it is to give them a glimpse of the greatness of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jack Rogers gives us a thought-provoking account of a sermon preached by G.C. Berkouwer while he was in the U.S.A. – ‘The worshippers were disappointed by his sermon. They could understand it! They expected the great professor to be profound (i.e. abstract, dull). Instead, he preached a simple gospel sermon of pastoral comfort and affirmation’ (Confessions of a Conservative Evangelical, p.141). If our preaching is a disappointment to those who bring with them the wrong expectations, let us not be perturbed. If our preaching is a help to those who are eagerly seeking to be instructed in the Word of God, let us rejoice. We are to help our hearers to ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (2 Peter 3:18). This is ‘the work’ for which we have been ‘set apart’ by ‘the Holy Spirit’. This is ‘the work’ to which we have been ‘called’ by ‘the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 13:2).
7) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to reprove us.
    This ministry of the Spirit – His reproving ministry – is vitally related to His correcting ministry. These ministries belong together. In His reproving ministry, the Spirit is concerned with showing us where we have gone wrong. In His correcting ministry, He is concerned with bringing us back to the right way. There will be those who are reproved by the Spirit of God yet they refuse His correcting ministry. The Word of God speaks very directly of this in Proverbs 29:1 – ‘He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing’. This, however, is not the intention of the Spirit’s reproving ministry. The Holy Spirit reproves us so that He might bring us back into the way of holiness. In Hebrews 3:7, we read words which ‘the Holy Spirit’ speaks to us, ‘Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts’.
    In Paul’s letters, we have two different yet related instructions concerning obedience to the Spirit of God – ‘Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God’ (Ephesians 4:30). and ‘Do not quench the Spirit’ (1 Thessalonians 5:19). While these two instructions may be similar, there is a difference of emphasis. The warning against grieving the Spirit is more related to the Spirit’s reproving ministry while the warning against quenching the Spirit is more related to His correcting ministry. When the Spirit is reproving us for our wrong living, we must not grieve Him by continuing in the wrong way. When the Spirit is seeking to bring us back into the pathway of holiness, we must not quench Him by resisting His holy promptings within us.
    In connection with the Spirit’s reproving ministry, we must consider Christ’s warning against committing the unpardonable sin, ‘the blasphemy against the Spirit’ (Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-30; Luke 12:10). What is Jesus saying to us here? He is urging us to be responsive to the Spirit in His ministries of reproof and correction. We must not isolate this sin against the Spirit from all other sins of resisting the Spirit. Jesus is pressing home the urgent importance of not grieving the Spirit and not quenching the Spirit. In His ministries of reproof and correction, the Spirit speaks to us as the Spirit of Christ. He speaks as the One concerning whom Jesus says, ‘He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you’ (John 16:14). The Spirit convicts us of our sin with a view to bringing us to the Saviour who graciously forgives our sin.
8) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to correct us.
    The Spirit’s ministries of reproof and correction belong together. In Ephesians 4:30, we see both reproof and correction. We are warned – ‘Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God’. We must take care that we do not follow a pathway that will lead us further away from the Lord. We are encouraged – ‘in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption’. We must not lose sight of the glorious destiny towards which the Lord is leading us. In His ministries of reproof and correction, the Lord does not treat us as strangers. He treats us as children. ‘Sent into our hearts’ by ‘God’ the Father, ‘the Spirit’ enables us to call God our ‘Father’ (Galatians 4:6). In love, we are reproved – ‘ the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives’ (Hebrews 12:6). His goal is our correction. He wants to transform our life, to bring us out of a life dominated by sin and into a life filled with His blessing.
    Calling us back from a life that dishonours God – Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery’, He invites us to live a life that brings glory to God – ‘be filled with the Spirit’ (Ephesians 5:18). The Spirit corrects us as we respond, with the obedience of faith, to the Lord’s command – ‘be filled with the Spirit’. Paul does not say, ‘Fill yourselves with the Spirit’. He says, ‘let the Holy Spirit fill you’ (N.E.B.). God is calling us to ‘the life-long walk in the Spirit’ (A.W. Tozer, The Divne Conquest, p.110). He is calling us to ‘keep on being filled with the Spirit’.The Spirit-filled life is a  gift of God, a gift of grace. There can be no room for boasting of our own moral superiority. All the glory belongs to the Lord. We can only look away from ourselves to Him and say, ‘the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes’ (Psalm 118:23). Our testimony must always be this, ‘Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness’ (Psalm 115:1).
9) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to train us in righteousness.
    Whenever a preacher speaks about being baptized with the Spirit or filled with the Spirit, different hearers hear the words in different ways. An important biblical way of thinking about the baptism with the Spirit is indicated in Matthew 3:11-12 and Luke 3:16-17. The baptism with the Spirit is a baptism with ‘fire’ – ‘His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the granary, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire’. The Spirit led Jesus, after His baptism, into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-2). The Spirit leads us into the refining fire where we are trained in righteousness. Training in righteousness is not fun. Compare training in righteousness with the training of a sportsman. It is hard work. There are times when it is difficult to see the goal. When we are going through hard times, we must remember the goal – ‘praise and glory and honour at the revelation (or appearing) of Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 1:6-7).
    When we are being trained in righteousness, there will be difficulties arising from the fact that loyalty to Christ is not welcome in an unbelieving world. God’s Word tells us that ‘all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (2 Timothy 3:12). When we are being trained in righteousness, we must recognize that God’s way for us may not be the way that we would have planned for ourselves. When Paul prayed about his ‘thorn in the flesh’, his prayer was answered – but not in the way he had hoped. The weakness remained, but in it Paul experienced something greater – the grace of God. God can turn even the most unlikely circumstances into ideal situations for training in righteousness. We can be assured that God knows what He is doing. Over the whole process of training in righteousness, He writes these great words – ‘My grace is sufficient for you’ (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
10) The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to make the man of God, complete for every good work.
    ‘Man of God’ – isn’t that a wonderful expression? That’s what God calls us! We don’t deserve to be called this, but this is what God has made us in Christ. God is determined to make us worthy of this marvellous title which He has so graciously bestowed upon us! We are called to maturity. We are called to mature holiness. We are to mature in our response to God’s call to holiness, that call which is at one and the same time both a command and a promise – ‘be holy, for I am holy’, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’ (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16). God’s call to holiness is clear – ”God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness’. This call is followed by these solemn words of warning – ‘whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you’ (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8). Maturity is bound up with holiness. The nearest we have, in Scripture, to a definition of maturity is found in Hebrews 5:14 – ‘solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil’. ‘Trained by practice to distinguish good from evil’ – what a practical definition of maturity! May God grant a revival of such maturity in our day. We are being ‘equipped for every good work’ These good works are the works of faith – ‘By grace you have been saved through faith … to do good works’ (Ephesians 2:8-10). These good works are produced in us through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. As we ‘let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly’, the Spirit works in us to make us more like our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ – ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’ (Colossians 3:16; Galatians 5:22-23).

Book Reviews

I wrote this review article for the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology
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Holy Scripture: Revelation, Inspiration and Interpretation Donald G. Bloesch Paternoster Press, Carlisle, 1994; 384pp., £19.99; ISBN 0 85364 589 2 

Reading this book caused me to look back over my own theological journey. In this extended review, I share some of its key elements. They may help others to think about the issues involved in our approach to Scripture as well as stimulating interest in the writings of Donald G. Bloesch. I first became aware of his name when, as a divinity student in the mid-1970s, I read his book The Evangelical Renaissance. Bloesch's approach to Scripture differed from the view I had become acquainted with through reading E.J. Young's Thy Word is Truth: Some Thoughts on the Biblical Doctrine of Inspiration. Bloesch presented a perspective which aimed at being evangelical without being fundamentalist. This is the approach he now argues in much greater detail in this latest book. He distinguishes from both liberalism and fundamentalism. In The Evangelical Renaissance, Bloesch listed a number of theologians who could be associated with this position, among them, G.C. Berkouwer. My reading of Berkouwer's Holy Scripture led me into a thorough-going study of Berkouwer's writings, later published under the title, The Problem of Polarization: An Approach Based on the Writings of G. C. Berkouwer ( 1992). This concern with the problem of polarization lies at the heart of Bloesch's Holy Scripture: 'This book is designed to build bridges between various parties in the church but also to show where bridge building would be a venture to futility'. I was naturally inclined to make connections between Berkouwer's work and Bloesch's 1994 volume of the same title. Noting Bloesch's helpful combination of optimism and realism, I was reminded of Bloesch's statement in an earlier work, The Ground of Certainty: Toward an Evangelical Theology of Revelation (1971): 'The great theologians from Paul and Augustine to G.C. Berkouwer and Karl Barth ... have been able to explain what the faith does not mean as well as what it means.' This commendation can also be applied to Bloesch himself. He is a theologian who will help the reader to discover fruitful pathways while avoiding spiritual cul-de-sacs. In The Crisis of Piety (1968), Bloesch expressed his concern that there should be a healthy balance between devotion and doctrine, which is echoed in Holy Scripture, where he warns against 'reducing revelation to rational information' and 'misunderstanding revelation as an ecstatic experience devoid of cognitive content'. Seeking to maintain the proper balance between faith's rational and experiential elements, he points out that while he does 'not wish to downplay or deny the propositional element in revelation', he seeks to emphasize that 'this element is in the service of the personal'. While I was in the U.S.A. in 1978-9, we heard much about 'the battle for the Bible', revolving especially around Harold Lindsell's The Battle for the Bible (1976), and Biblical Authority (1977) edited by Jack Rogers. This debate lies in the background of Bloesch's Holy Scripture. He has listened to what various people have been saying over the course of the years. Now he makes his own significant and substantial contribution. Following my year in the U.S.A., I had an article published in Reformed Review (1980), 'The Reformation Continues: A Study in Twentieth Century Reformed Theology' (comparing Berkouwer and Louis Berkhof), alongside one by Bloesch, 'The Sword of the Spirit: The Meaning of Inspiration'. The two impressively complemented each other. Bloesch's theme emerges on the first page of his 'preface' to Holy Scripture: '[the Bible's] worthiness as a theological guide and norm does not become clear until it is acclaimed as the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6: 17), the divinely chosen instrument by which the powers of sin and death are overthrown in the lives of those who believe'. A few years later, in 1987, following some heated debate in Life and Work, my small booklet entitled The Bible laid particular emphasis on the vital connection between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures, echoing Bloesch. In discussing the difficult and controversial subject of biblical inerrancy, both of us have referred to Berkouwer. Here, under 'The Question of Inerrancy', Bloesch cites Berkouwer: 'G.C. Berkouwer rightly asks "whether the reliability of Scripture is simply identical to that reliability of which we frequently speak concerning the record of various historical events. Frequently, terms such as 'exact', 'precise', and 'accurate' are used for it.. .. Such a modern concept of reliability clearly should not be used as a yardstick for Scripture"'. Seeking to interpret the concepts of infallibility and inerrancy creatively, my booklet also quoted Berkouwer: 'The Holy Spirit in His witness to truth does not lead us into error but into pathways of truth (11 Jn.4). The Spirit, with this special concern, has not failed and will not fail in the mystery of God-breathed Scripture.' Like Berkouwer, Bloesch highlights the profound truth contained in the concepts of infallibility and in errancy. Uncomfortable with the term 'inerrancy' because of its association with 'a rationalistic, empiricistic mentality that reduces truth to facticity', Bloesch insists that he 'wish[es] to retain what is intended by this word - the abiding truthfulness and normativeness of the biblical witness', a truthfulness which is grounded in 'the Spirit who speaks in and through this witness'. In Holy Scripture, Bloesch discusses a wide range of important issues, e.g. 'Scripture and the Church', 'The Hermeneutical Problem', 'Rudolf Bultrnann: An Enduring Presence', 'The Bible and Myth'. I have highlighted his discussion of the  inerrancy debate, whose importance is emphasized by the fact that Bloesch returns to this issue in the concluding section of the book - 'The Current Controversy'. Donald Bloesch is not well known in the U.K. He is the author of over twenty other titles and this volume is the second in his comprehensive seven-volume systematic theology. The first is A Theology of Word and Spirit: Authority and Method in Theology. Holy Scripture (published in the U.S.A. by InterVarsity Press) has Name, Subject and Scripture Indexes. What does this important voice from the U.S.A. have to say to us in our situation? He is concerned about the growing polarization between liberals and Evangelicals - a matter which must surely concern us also. He seeks to be both conservative and progressive: 'I believe in forging a new statement of orthodoxy that stands in continuity with the past but addresses issues and problems in the present'. Bloesch identifies the pitfalls we must take care to avoid: 'We must be wary of a sectarianism that elevates peripherals into essentials, but we must also beware of falling into an eclecticism that draws on too many disparate sources of truth and does not adequately discriminate between truth and error'. I hope that the voice of Bloesch will be a significant one among our students and teachers of theology.
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This link will take you to a number of book reviews.
To find my review of Christopher Wright's Commentary on Deuteronomy, scroll down to near the end of the reviews.
To find my review of Frank Hasel's book, "Scripture in the Theologies of W. Pannenberg and D. G. Bloesch", keep on scrolling down past the review of Wright's book.
To find my review of Hermann Bavinck's book, "The Last Things: Hope for this World and the Next", keep on scrolling down past Hasel's book.
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This link will take you to a number of book reviews. To find my review of  the "New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology", scroll down to the second review.
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This link will take you to a number of book reviews. To find my review of Basil Meeking and John Stott (eds.), "The Evangelical-Roman Catholic Dialogue on Mission", scroll down to the fourth review.
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This link will take you to a number of reviews. To find my review of George Carey, "The Meeting of the Waters", scroll down to the third review.
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This link will take you to a number of book reviews which were published in the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology. To find my review of Elizabeth Templeton, "The Strangeness of God", scroll down to the second review.
 

Paul And James On Faith And Works

James' attack on "dead faith" (G. C. Berkouwer, Faith and Justification, 137) and his protest for faith as "a truly experienced reality" (136), which dominates the whole of life, does not conflict with Paul who speaks against the works of the law but not against the works of faith.

Links to "Evangel" Articles




Notes on the Psalms