Thursday 30 October 2008
Rutherford - to those dissatisfied with what God gives
'I exhort you in the Lord to go on your journey to heaven, and to be content with such fare on the way as Christ and his followers have had before you; for they always had the wind on their faces, and the Lord has not changed the way to us, for our ease, but will have us following our sweet Guide.'
Tuesday 28 October 2008
Thank you Geraint Tudur
I've been reading Geraint Tudur's scholarly biography of Howell Harris*, one of the founding fathers of Calvinistic Methodism out of which Welsh Presbyterianism grew. I have a natural interest in this subject because that is the way I came, historically speaking.
As things turned out the parent body was greater than the child for what the Presbyterian Church of Wales seemed to gain in terms of structure, organisation, training institutions, and indeed favour with men it lost in terms of spiritual life and doctrinal soundness. The Calvinistic Methodists were well organised but also highly motivated, serious-minded, experimental Calvinists, who in the 18th & 19th centuries, together with reborn Baptists, Independents and a few good Anglicans, helped turn Wales upside down.
Harris appeared fearless in propagating the gospel but Tudur, using Harris' diary, shows that his treasure was in a genuine earthen vessel. Harris' vulnerability, which in the end, served to ensure that the excellence of the power was from God and not men, was apparent in his view of revelation, his early Arminianism and his struggle with assurance.
In regard to the first, he showed an early and abiding- predilection for personal signs & messages from heaven and also, between 1735 & 1737, an apparent disdain for the Bible. The ability to invoke divine authority for indiosyncratic ideas and behavioral abberations speak more of a strong ego than a teachable spirit and is as prevalent now as then. Some aspects of 'enthusiasm' are distinctly unrreformed and unhelpful . In Harris' case they might well have contributed to the division between him and the other Welsh Methodists. The Bible came more to the fore as a he grew in faith, but he always looked back to those early days of unrehearsed, extemporaneous exhortation as the standard for later years.
In regard to doctrine, I should have known that he shared the institutional Arminianism of the Church of England, but somehow it hadn't registered. It must surely have aggravated his lack of assurance. Like many of us, he took a while to understand more clearly the sovereignty of God, the nature of grace and the experience of new birth. However, in the words of Richard Bennett, 'there was a great difference between his theology and his faith', (understood subjectively). Later he would take a charitable stand with Calvinism against Arminianism.
As regards asurance, like many with a strong ego, he sometimes hovered between certainty and despair, even while affirming his love for Christ. The struggle, it seems, was between a works-based salvation in which 'duty' assumed great importance and full reliance on unmerited grace.
I suppose the clay feet of men like Harris, mirror not only our own feeble attempts to follow the Lamb, but also those of true 'greats', the men and women of Scripture, who in dependence on divine grace, fought the good fight and finished the course!
* HOWELL HARRIS From Conversion to Separation 1735 - 1750
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS, 2000
As things turned out the parent body was greater than the child for what the Presbyterian Church of Wales seemed to gain in terms of structure, organisation, training institutions, and indeed favour with men it lost in terms of spiritual life and doctrinal soundness. The Calvinistic Methodists were well organised but also highly motivated, serious-minded, experimental Calvinists, who in the 18th & 19th centuries, together with reborn Baptists, Independents and a few good Anglicans, helped turn Wales upside down.
Harris appeared fearless in propagating the gospel but Tudur, using Harris' diary, shows that his treasure was in a genuine earthen vessel. Harris' vulnerability, which in the end, served to ensure that the excellence of the power was from God and not men, was apparent in his view of revelation, his early Arminianism and his struggle with assurance.
In regard to the first, he showed an early and abiding- predilection for personal signs & messages from heaven and also, between 1735 & 1737, an apparent disdain for the Bible. The ability to invoke divine authority for indiosyncratic ideas and behavioral abberations speak more of a strong ego than a teachable spirit and is as prevalent now as then. Some aspects of 'enthusiasm' are distinctly unrreformed and unhelpful . In Harris' case they might well have contributed to the division between him and the other Welsh Methodists. The Bible came more to the fore as a he grew in faith, but he always looked back to those early days of unrehearsed, extemporaneous exhortation as the standard for later years.
In regard to doctrine, I should have known that he shared the institutional Arminianism of the Church of England, but somehow it hadn't registered. It must surely have aggravated his lack of assurance. Like many of us, he took a while to understand more clearly the sovereignty of God, the nature of grace and the experience of new birth. However, in the words of Richard Bennett, 'there was a great difference between his theology and his faith', (understood subjectively). Later he would take a charitable stand with Calvinism against Arminianism.
As regards asurance, like many with a strong ego, he sometimes hovered between certainty and despair, even while affirming his love for Christ. The struggle, it seems, was between a works-based salvation in which 'duty' assumed great importance and full reliance on unmerited grace.
I suppose the clay feet of men like Harris, mirror not only our own feeble attempts to follow the Lamb, but also those of true 'greats', the men and women of Scripture, who in dependence on divine grace, fought the good fight and finished the course!
* HOWELL HARRIS From Conversion to Separation 1735 - 1750
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS, 2000
Sunday 19 October 2008
Evangelical Reformed Church in Sweden
The silver birches were a welcoming lemon-yellow as we flew into Stokholm- Skavsta at the invitation of the ERCS. They wanted help with ordaining a pastor and a ruling elder and also to see if they could become part of the EPCEW presbytery in the UK.
The work of the ERCS is confined to a single congregation of about 40 people at Tranas, about 3 hours SW of Stockholm, and a small group of serious-minded believers in Stokholm.
The work got under way with the arrival in 2,000 of Rev. Gary Johnson, a PCA missionary, and Rev. David Bergmark, the present Swedish pastor, who trained at RTS, Jackson. they hire the local Methodist church for services and have a suite of offices on a local housing estate, from which they run operations.
The Swedish state is very secularized and the indigneous Lutheran church a shadow of its former self. The group at Tranas seem to be the only one of its kind in Sweden, where prejudice against the reformed position is strong. Yet these are people with perseverance and vision. They are looking to extend east toward Linkoping, where Gary had access to the Methodist church, and Stokholm, where a group meets regularly for Bible study.
As primitive as the situation is, this group has thought things through and so far succeeded in resisting the populist tendencies often found in emerging causes wanting a quick fix. I especially liked their serious ecclesiology and approach to worship, putting God first and themselves and seekers second. They also have a small translation and publishing enterprise, with one of their latest offerings Sproul's work on the Holiness of God.
Definitely worth praying for and supporting!
The work of the ERCS is confined to a single congregation of about 40 people at Tranas, about 3 hours SW of Stockholm, and a small group of serious-minded believers in Stokholm.
The work got under way with the arrival in 2,000 of Rev. Gary Johnson, a PCA missionary, and Rev. David Bergmark, the present Swedish pastor, who trained at RTS, Jackson. they hire the local Methodist church for services and have a suite of offices on a local housing estate, from which they run operations.
The Swedish state is very secularized and the indigneous Lutheran church a shadow of its former self. The group at Tranas seem to be the only one of its kind in Sweden, where prejudice against the reformed position is strong. Yet these are people with perseverance and vision. They are looking to extend east toward Linkoping, where Gary had access to the Methodist church, and Stokholm, where a group meets regularly for Bible study.
As primitive as the situation is, this group has thought things through and so far succeeded in resisting the populist tendencies often found in emerging causes wanting a quick fix. I especially liked their serious ecclesiology and approach to worship, putting God first and themselves and seekers second. They also have a small translation and publishing enterprise, with one of their latest offerings Sproul's work on the Holiness of God.
Definitely worth praying for and supporting!
Tuesday 7 October 2008
God's Word 'then' and 'now'
I've been thinking about 'contextualization' and the merging of 'horizons of understanding'. Contextualization - relating us to the Bible and the Bible to us across history and culture. Merging of horizons of understanding - when my standpoint and perspective merges with the biblical author's and his with mine. Sounds like a spiritual mine-field but we will get through safely if Scripture inteprets me while I try to interpret it - then, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, I might begin to think his thoughts after him.
I don't like culture that much - some bits are all right - but basically it is what society is and scripture is not very complimentary about it. But interpreting Scripture requires me to take account of it - not just mine or ours, but the biblical author's. I want to bring God's word to my culture because that is how it can be saved from its fallen-ness. As somebody once said, since we cannot bring a presuppositionless mind to God's Word, a proper self-awareness, which enables us to set aside our baggage, helps in letting God speak for himself.
Yes, I want my horizon of understanding to merge with that of the biblical writer, and more than that, with the mind of the Holy Spirit, but all this stuff about horizons and contextualization is a bit daunting. Never mind, God's word is living and powerful & sharper than any two edged sword! That's the point, it is his word, not ours, with an authority neither bounded nor compromised by our experience. The danger with the contextualizing thing is not just provincialism or syncretism but the shifting of the focus from the author (God) to the reader. This, it seems, is the essence of every heresy and perversion - ancient, modern and post-modern.
I don't like culture that much - some bits are all right - but basically it is what society is and scripture is not very complimentary about it. But interpreting Scripture requires me to take account of it - not just mine or ours, but the biblical author's. I want to bring God's word to my culture because that is how it can be saved from its fallen-ness. As somebody once said, since we cannot bring a presuppositionless mind to God's Word, a proper self-awareness, which enables us to set aside our baggage, helps in letting God speak for himself.
Yes, I want my horizon of understanding to merge with that of the biblical writer, and more than that, with the mind of the Holy Spirit, but all this stuff about horizons and contextualization is a bit daunting. Never mind, God's word is living and powerful & sharper than any two edged sword! That's the point, it is his word, not ours, with an authority neither bounded nor compromised by our experience. The danger with the contextualizing thing is not just provincialism or syncretism but the shifting of the focus from the author (God) to the reader. This, it seems, is the essence of every heresy and perversion - ancient, modern and post-modern.
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