Monthly Archives: December 2008

The Galley Slave Analogy

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Follow me in this analogy and see if it helps you catch fresh insight into some Bible truth. I find that different ways of explaining things suit different people, so the use of analogy often helps open up a truth to people in a fresh way.

The Galley Slave

Imagine that you are a slave on board an ancient black ship, and you are among a group of slaves who must row the boat. That is what a galley slave is, and you are one of them, for the purposes of this analogy.

Imagine, further, that there is a sea battle, and your ship is being attacked. While the enemy attacking your ship has no particular dislike for you, you are nonetheless under attack because the ship you are in is under attack.

You row as hard as you can and you hope with all you have that your ship survives the battle. If your ship is sunk you will sink with it, since you are chained to your seat. Remember, you are a slave on this ship.

The Back Story

For the purposes of this analogy we need to consider how you came to be a galley slave on that particular ship. This is what the movie-makers call the back story, filling the viewer in on what led up to the present predicament.

It turns out that there are only two options for people in your world. Both options involve being a galley slave. The choice is which ship to row for. There are the Black ships and the White ships, which are at war with each other.

As a child you have opportunity to consider which ship you will row for. But most people do not make the decision consciously. They are tricked into their choice by actions which they think are innocent.

A child may be playing with friends or exploring the market or just walking down the street, but end up being tricked into slavery. They are given a choice to make, which seems quite innocent, such as stealing a small piece of fruit, or telling a lie. When they make that choice the choice of ship has been made for them, by their actions.

At some point you were dragged off to the Black ship and chained in place. You did not remember choosing to row for the Black ships, but you discover that your selfish choices at a younger age were unwittingly your choice to row for the Black ship.

The Ugly Facts

Once you became a galley slave for the Black ships you learned some ugly facts. The Black ships are deemed to be pirate ships and are pursued and frequently sunk at sea by the White ships. You didn’t want to be a pirate or to suffer the punishment of a pirate, but now you are a galley slave on a pirate ship.

You cannot jump ship and you cannot change your choice. You are now forever in fear and forever tormented by the possibility of being pursued and sunk at sea.

These ugly facts make you desperately sorry for your careless actions as a child. You rebuke yourself for not realising what was going on and for allowing yourself to fall into the trap of your own selfishness.

The Escape

One of the galley slaves rowing near you tells you that he heard of a galley slave on a Black ship who cried out for mercy during a battle. He was rescued from the Black ship and set free from all his past wrong choices.

Inspired by this story you wait for the time when your ship is under attack and you too begin to cry out loud for mercy. Those around you treat you with scorn and taunt and mock you, but you are determined to be saved and so you keep calling out despite their rebukes and physical blows.

Suddenly your ship is broken open by the bow of a White ship and someone jumps down and pulls you free as your Black ship sinks.

Freedom

As you stand, saved, on the deck of a White ship you swear your allegiance to the white fleet and breathe the fresh air of freedom. You are now no longer linked to the pirate fleet and you will now not live under the constant fear of death.

You are then escorted to the galley of the White ship where you are given a place to sit and row. This time you are not chained to your seat, so you can stand and move around. You could even abandon ship if you wished to. You now have the privilege of service to the White fleet, as a voluntary slave, in gratitude for your freedom.

Jumping Ship

Some time later you feel a compelling urge to be free of the oars completely. You feel a powerful urge to be free of all slavery and free of all responsibility. You feel a strong urge to jump ship and achieve a new level of freedom that does not include the responsibility to serve on the White fleet.

When the ship is in dock one day you quietly slip over the side and sneak away on your own. When you are clear you run as fast and far as you can to get away from the coast and all ships.

You finally collapse and sleep, dreaming of your new-found freedom from all slavery and responsibility.

Back to the Black

When you wake you find that you have been caught, not by the White fleet which you abandoned, but by the Black ship again. Your rejection of the White ship responsibilities turns out to be a choice which makes you a Black ship slave again.

You struggle and protest. You did what you did to be completely free of slavery, not to be dragged back into it. But once again you have been ignorant of reality. Everyone is a slave. The choice is not between slavery and freedom, but to which fleet you will be enslaved.

The White fleet saved you from the pirate fleet and its fearful fugitive existence. But in the White fleet you were still a slave, a love slave dedicated to serve as an act of your free will. When you rejected that responsibility you gave in to selfishness again and that action brought you under slavery to the Black fleet all over again.

Interpretation

I trust that I don’t have to unpack this analogy for you. I hope its significance is clear. However I will take the time in a future post to unpack the Galley Slave Analogy for you, and to remind you of the points I have sought to make in this little story.

John Wycliffe Gives England the Bible

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John Wycliffe died on December 31, 1384.

He was born of sturdy Saxon stock in Ipreswell, Yorkshire, England, somewhere around the year 1320 (the date range is from 1320-1330, but 1324 is the date often chosen). It was in an age of spiritual darkness – and 200 years before Luther would shake the church with his reforms.

But Wycliffe saw the apostasy into which the Church of Rome had fallen. “The Church,” he said, “should return to the poverty and simplicity of apostolic times.” The Pope he called “the Anti-Christ, the proud, worldly priest of Rome!” (Church in History, by B. Kuiper, page 143).

He occupies a distinguished place in the history of the Christian Church, first as a scholar and champion of theological reform, but primarily for his translation of the Scripture into the English language. His followers, known as the Lollards, went out two by two, covering England with Protestant teaching. Many of them met fiery deaths.

Wycliffe was a scholar and theologian with a teaching position at Oxford, from which he was ultimately expelled. His Lollardy movement, sending itinerant preachers across the countryside, was also ultimately stamped out.

From his position at Oxford, Wycliffe first saw himself as a reformer, expecting to encourage the church back to its Biblical simplicity. He was first concerned that ecclesiastical leaders (popes, cardinals, church councils, etc) exerted authority over kings and civil governments. He saw this as abuse of power and argued that civil government should be performed by God’s appointed civil leaders in accordance with Biblical instructions. At the time Popes were dictating to kings how they should prosecute people who the church disapproved of.

Wycliffe also opposed the holding of lordly positions by church leaders and the holding of property by church organisations, such as monastic orders. He believed that Christianity was most pure when its servants were poor and simple, not living luxuriously or holding large properties.

He asserted that Christ was the head of the Church and that people did not need a pope or papal appointee to administer their faith. He declared that “Our Pope is Christ”.

He feared that some people appointed as popes and cardinals were not even true members of the Church of Jesus Christ. He had high hopes for Pope Urban VI as a “true” pope, but was ultimately disappointed in him.

As the Church of Rome grew in opposition to him, Wycliffe hardened his position on the Pope and the organised church, ultimately identifying the Pope as the Anti-Christ.

He was motivated to create an English Bible for the common people by his belief that they could establish a strong personal faith through nothing more than the Word of God. His army of Lollard priests fulfilled his vision of poor men whose only interest was the truth delivered to people’s hearts. Thus these Wycliffeites were called “Bible men”.

Wycliffe’s position was complicated by the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, for which he was blamed. This was an uprising against the oppressive nobility, particularly the ecclesiastical nobility. On November 18, 1382 Wycliffe was called to defend himself, but he was weakened by the first of several strokes, which ultimately claimed his life.

Note that Wycliffe’s translation was hand-written. Assistants and the Lollards copied his translation by hand. Thus hundreds of copies of the scripture were made. 150 manuscripts or fragments remain from Wycliffe’s landmark work.

Note also that Wycliffe had to work from the Latin Vulgate version, since that was the only version available to him. So he translated the English from Latin.

Schaff comments: “It becomes evident that in almost every doctrinal particular did this man anticipate the reformers.” History refers to him as the “Morning Star of the Reformation”.

On December 28, 1384 Wycliffe suffered another stroke and died on the last day of the year, 1384. He was buried in the church graveyard at Lutterworth.

Thirty years after his death, May 4, 1415, the Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic, decreeing that his books be burned and his remains be exhumed. In 1428 his body was exhumed and burnt, and the ashes thrown into the nearby Swift River.

This act of desecration, as viewed by the Roman Catholic Church who instigated it, is seen in a different light by many Protestants. To them it was prophetic. For as the river took Wycliffe’s ashes to the sea, so his message spread from shore to shore until the Protestant Faith was firmly established around the world.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Rudyard Kipling Pens Lest We Forget

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Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, on December 30, 1865, and many of the stories for which he later became famous bear the marks of that Indian background.

His father was a teacher of arts and crafts and Rudyard was raised by a maid who taught him Hindustani as his first language. However, at age six he was taken to and left in Swansea, England for five years at a foster home. There he confronted English discipline, including beatings, for which he was ill prepared.

At age thirteen he entered United Services College to prepare him for a life of military service. This ambition was thwarted by his short-sightedness. At that time his family connections with pre-Raphaelites influenced his writing.

When he returned to India in 1882 he pursued a career in journalism, to suit his bookish interests. He wrote many short stories which were well received in England where he was hailed as a literary luminary.

“Ruddy”, as he was know in younger years, glorified the English soldier in various situations and overseas duties in the British Empire, particularly India and Burma. He wrote mostly for or about military personnel.

He also wrote wonderful stories for children, including The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book.

In 1892 he married Caroline Starr Balestier, the sister of an American publisher with whom he collaborated. The marriage was apparently not an ideal one, as Caroline struggled with some of his character qualities. Kipling became a more difficult man to live with after the death of his daughter when they lived in Vermont, USA.

His son, John, who also had short-sightedness, managed to get into the military, but was killed in World War One, at the Battle of Loos, at age 18.

Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907, and was the first Englishman to receive that prestigious award.

Certainly there is no Christian message in his books, although the heroes are always men of high ideals. Nor is there any indication that Kipling was ever converted. An active Freemason, he is sometimes spoken of as the Masonic Poet. His stories express a sense of Imperialism and pride in the prominence of the British Rule, as if it were by divine mandate. He did not question the quality of that rule or its implications.

But in 1897 he wrote a hymn for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee – a hymn still to be found in most hymnals and often sung on patriotic occasions:
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line –
Beneath Whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget.

Australians will recognise the words “Lest We Forget”, since they are invoked each Anzac Day, April 25, in memory of Australian and New Zealand soldiers who died in battle. The hymn is most likely to be heard on Anzac Day. The words also adorn the Returned Soldiers’ League (RSL) buildings.

Rudyard Kipling died in London of a cerebral haemorrhage on January 18, 1936, aged 70. He was buried in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Christian Music Primer 2

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I have already opened the contentious topic of modern Christian music for your consideration and in this post I want to start building a basis for thinking through some of the divergent elements to find a means of assessing, understanding and directing what we are dealing with.

Christian Music

I pointed out previously that there are battle lines about Christian music in many churches, involving the style of music and how it is used in the church. One of the hot issues is volume, but that is only part of a rich tapestry of musical elements which work together to create a style or idiom or genre of music.

Some churches maintain ancient traditional values in their music, whether accompanied or a cappella, psalmody, chants or historic hymns. Other churches only use the latest songs from the top music houses, disposing of songs as fast as they can get new ones. Other churches have created a mix of old and new, fast and slow, based on their traditional background and the major musical influences which they have subscribed to.

Because of the wide ranging diversity and the general lack of real principle behind most church music choices there is little in the way of reference points which churches, home groups and music lovers can use in their personal and ministry related musical choices.

Back to Basics

Before we get entangled in argument about preferences, age related tastes, and so on, we are best to go back to basics and look at some of the underlying musical and spiritual considerations. Whatever you build you are wise to have a solid foundation. So let’s see if we can’t get some foundational thinking in place on which to build.

The three most basic elements of music are melody, harmony and rhythm. This is where we will start. For those who are well educated about music, please excuse my simplified descriptions of these elements. I need everyone to have a clear idea of what we are talking about so I will give a basic description of these basics, to get everyone on the same base.

Melody

The melody of a song is the series of musical notes that we sing. It is the part that identifies a song, when you hear it being whistled or you hum it to your self. The melody is the purest element of the song. It IS the song.

Many songs share the same harmony and chords and many share the same rhythm. But what identifies one song from another is its melody line. If you hear someone singing something to themself, they will almost certainly be singing the melody.

A melody can be sung slow or fast without destroying the melody itself. It can be sung or played as a tune and it can also be only partially used but still be identified as the same song. That is why I say that the melody IS the song. Just as YOU are yourself. Whether you are happy or sad, energetic or worn out, clean or smelly, healthy or sick, you are still you. The same is true for the melody. You can present it many ways, yet people readily recognise the song.

Harmony

When two or more musical notes are played together they will either blend and make a complementary sound or they will clash and spoil each other. Harmony is the mixing of multiple notes together to create a pleasing enrichment of the melody.

There are many ways to mix musical sounds and the mixture can create happy or sad feelings (major or minor), soothing or grating effect, fulfilling or plaintive emotions and so on. Therefore harmony is very powerful. Good use of harmony can give powerful charge to the melody and can particularly emphasise the message in the lyrics. A sad song will have sad and doleful harmonies. A celebration song will not have any of those harmonies in it.

Major key harmonies are brighter and more positive in the emotions they evoke. Minor key harmonies tend to be more reflective and sad.

Different harmonies can written for the same song, changing the feeling of the song. Basic harmonies using the three primary chords tend to give a song a childlike simplicity, while complex chords tend to give a song a more alluring quality.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the pace at which the song moves forward. Pace does not only refer to speed, but also to the kind of steps taken. Imagine, for example, a toddler running, compared to a professional sprinter. Their individual pace is not just the speed of their movement but how big and even the steps are.

Imagine then a horse with one lame leg, or a lame person pushing a chair forward then taking awkward steps toward it, before pausing to push the chair forward again.

All of those examples give you a sense for rhythm. And another way to get a feel for it is to speak a line of poetic verse. Say, “Pushes ev’ry purpose out of mind”. You will most likely emphasize the push / pur / and mind. Every syllable will probably be given the same amount of time, like a run of even steps. That’s rhythm at work.

Rhythm and Beat

Rhythm involves the beat of the music, but I hold off reference to beat until you have a sense of rhythm without a notion of beat. Beat has been abducted by the rock and roll phenomenon and some people are distracted by the term. Allow me now to clarify the place of beat.

While just about every word has its own natural rhythm and music reflects the rhythmic realities of nature and language, rhythm also has the quality of picking the music up and carrying it along. In the absence of a strong beat music might tend to run along happily, with rhythm undergirding the melody and harmony. But for marching music the movement of the music is meant to provide a clear beat to march to. The beat is them more pronounced, while not obliterating the melody and harmony, to give a stronger sense of momentum and regulation to the music.

In rock music, rap and modern dance music the beat has become highly pronounced to energise the dancers or to impress a listener who seeks that more strident input.

Balancing the Basics

I trust you can see already that these three key elements of music stand separate but complement each other in the building of a musical experience. We cannot do without them. They are not evil. They each have their place. They are ideally woven together in a happy balance that enhances the musical experience.

Now that we have an idea of the natural elements of music we are ready for the next consideration, which is how spiritual realities impact music and how music impacts the spirit. That will be part three in this series of the Christian Music Primer.

William Ewart Gladstone as England’s Christian Prime Minister

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William Ewart Gladstone was born “into an evangelical Liverpool (UK) family” on December 29, 1809, as the son of a prosperous merchant.

Educated at Eton and then Oxford University he was elected to Parliament in 1832. He spent his life in British politics, becoming Prime Minister of England for four terms and Chancellor of the Exchequer three times.

Starting as a Tory, in Peel’s government of 1834-35, he became a cabinet member in Peel’s 1843 Conservative government. When the Conservative Party split in 1846 Gladstone stuck with Peel, taking part in the formation of the Liberal-Conservative party.

In 1859 he changed parties again, to the Liberals, and became their leader in 1867 and Prime Minister for the first time, the following year.

In the years that followed he saw his share of political upheavals. One of his enduring political ambitions was Home Rule for Ireland. He was unsuccessful.

This “grand old man” of the House of Commons, as he was called, maintained strong Christian convictions throughout his lengthy career.

Dr John Clifford (Spurgeon’s nemesis), claims that Gladstone was “from first to last evangelical, clinging to the great realities of personal sinfulness and personal salvation through the cross of Christ” (Typical Christian Leaders, page 50).

And Dr Boreham gives us this quote from Gladstone himself: “I commend myself,” he writes in his will, “to the infinite mercies of God in the Incarnate Son as my only and sufficient hope” (Faggot of Torches, page 243).

In his 424-pages book, The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture, (1890), Gladstone defends God’s revelation to man. He locks horns with evolutionists and higher critics. True, some of his points may not suit all evangelicals today, but the book reveals one who knows and loves the Word of God.

He was a High Churchman, devout and regular in his worship. The claims of the Church of Rome he strongly denounced.

Death came on 19 May, 1898, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

Charles Hodge the Pillar of Princeton

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Charles Hodge was born in Philadelphia, USA, on December 28, 1797, as the last of five children, only two of which survived infancy.

Those who adhere to the Reformed tradition have described Hodge as “the leading American theologian of the 19th century”.

When Hodge was six months old his father died, leaving the mother to raise the two surviving sons on her own. She was a devout Christian and taught her sons the Westminster Catechism. This produced in Charles a confidence that God cared about him and was attentive to his prayers, which he offered continually, over just about ever detail of his life.

Charles Hodge was educated at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), commencing when he was 14 years of age. When revival struck the college in 1814-15 Hodge made a public profession of faith and joined the Presbyterian Church of Princeton on January 13, 1815.

He then studied at Princeton Theological Seminary, in its fourth year. Princeton’s President, Archibald Alexander asked 22 year old Hodge if he would like to be a seminary professor. He went home to study Hebrew and followed the course set for him by Alexander.

Aware of his own shortcomings, Hodge spent two years in Europe, apart from his bride and two children, whom he left with his mother. He studied in Paris, then in Halle, Germany. During this time he met many significant people and enjoyed impressive experiences, such as seeing the Alps and being “overwhelmed” for the first time in his life.

His son, aged five when Hodge returned home, could not trace an earlier memory of his father than that joyful day of his return.

And so, in time, Hodge became a lecturer at Princeton and then Professor of Theology. He spent more than half a century instructing generations of preachers, grounding their theology, exemplifying contented Christianity and giving them a love for Biblical truth. On April 24, 1872 his fifty years of Professorship were celebrated with high praise being poured on this life of consistent and diligent commitment.

“Hodge unswervingly defended a supernaturally inspired Bible”, and this emphasis was carried through by the 3,000 students who passed under his ministry (Dictionary of the Christian Church, page 473).

His commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1835) is still regarded as a classic work, and has been reprinted by “Banner of Truth”.

In 1822 he married Sarah Bache, great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. Eight children were born, including Archibald Alexander, who likewise became a theological professor. Son Casper also taught at Princeton. Sarah died in 1849, and Hodge remarried a widow, Mary Stockton, three years later. She had been like a sister to Sarah and was much loved by the whole family.

He founded and edited the prestigious journal, The Princeton Review, in which he found time to attack the liberal German theology, and Charles Finney’s revivalism.

On the other hand he defended slavery, though not the cruelty often meted out to these poor fellow Americans.

Along with his academic duties and his pastorate Hodge found time for other ministerial appointments. In May, 1846, he was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian Church.

Hodge displayed a steady, possibly dogged commitment to routine. He sat in the same chair for his studies for forty years. He daily recorded the temperature and wind direction, and he insisted on buying his clothes from the same store, despite the change of owners through the years. He was not given to change, in practice or theology.

Professor Hodge died in Princeton, New Jersey, on 19 June, 1878.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

What is True Freedom

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Today’s Christians have lost sight of true freedom. They think that the level of survival which they have attained is the scope of their freedom. This is spiritual blindness and holds whole churches back from the freedom that is theirs in Christ.

I have discussed freedom in various ways over recent months, but a recent discussion prompted me to realise that many people are absolutely blind to the issue. And the implications are serious.

The Politician

Many years ago I met an Australian state politician who was a relatively new Christian. He was serving in the parliament and attending a big church with a well-known minister in one of the capital cities.

A friend introduced me to this older man and we enjoyed a catch up one afternoon. As we chatted privately he confided in me that he had a very real struggle in his role. He attributed the problem to the fact that he was a Christian working in a key area and thus coming under stronger spiritual attack.

His personal struggle was with immoral temptation. He found himself strongly distracted by immoral thoughts and interest in women.

Having once been addicted to immoral thoughts I knew from personal experience that it is possible to become completely free from such things. I knew the joy of freedom and the sweet simplicity of life that comes from the liberation which Christ brings.

I therefore ventured to suggest to this man that he did not have to struggle as he was. I proffered to him the suggestion that he could be completely liberated and released from the temptation.

His response was a firm and emphatic rebuttal. He assured me that there was no freedom from this pressure and he knew that for a fact. He knew it because he had gone to his own pastor, the high-profile pastor of one of the leading churches, and told him about the problem. The pastor responded by explaining that there was no release from this problem. The pastor confided that he too lived with a constant daily battle against unclean thoughts and immoral temptations.

Thus advised by his pastor, the man would not hear that there was any other freedom to be enjoyed. He deemed that his high-profile pastor had more status on this point than I did, despite my personal testimony of deliverance and freedom.

Some months later the politician vacated his position prematurely. I suspect that he could not stand the on-going personal struggle he was in.

Besetting Sins

Christians use the expression ‘besetting sin’ to describe a sin that defies their efforts to overcome it. The concept is extended to suggest that every Christian has some weakness that they will never conquer and so they must continue to rely on God’s grace to carry them through an on-going, life-long battle with their besetting sin.

That idea, however, is a contradiction of what the Bible teaches about besetting sin.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1,2

In the only reference to sins which ‘beset us’ the verse tells us to lay aside those sins. They are not sins which we cannot conquer, but rather are to be disposed of. There is no Biblical doctrine teaching that sin is unable to be removed. Instead the Bible teaches that sin is able to be completely extracted from our lives.

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Romans 6:12

“For sin will not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14

Anger Management

My son, Jonathan, tells of a meeting he attended where the topic was Anger Management. The presumption was that everyone had a problem with anger and that anger had to be managed by each individual. When Jonathan advised the coordinator that he had completely resolved his anger problem by realising the forgiveness of Christ for his own sins and then by applying the same grace of forgiveness to those who wronged him, he was ignored. The leader of the discussion did not take up Jonathan’s claim, probably because they did not believe it could be true.

No Concept of Freedom

It is as if today’s generation has lost all sight and understanding of true freedom. They have no concept of freedom. Just like that high profile pastor who lived in a daily struggle and the Anger Management leader who could not relate to a testimony of freedom, those who are leading today’s world cannot bring their followers into freedom. If the leaders do not have true freedom themselves, then they cannot lead their followers into freedom.

Porn Addiction

Surveys of Christian leaders indicate that a high percentage of them have an addiction to pornography. When pastors and leaders are addicts and slaves to sin and degradation there is no way they can lead their congregations into freedom. In fact, they have no real testimony or concept of true freedom.

Jack Sonnemann, the highly effective anti-pornography campaigner in Australia, told me recently that he finds few young pastors who will welcome his anti-porn message into their churches. His American associates tell him that this must implicate those pastors as porn addicts themselves.

Whatever the case, it is yet another evidence for the absence of true freedom in the church. When leaders struggle with lust, are addicted to porn and can only restrain their anger, then they know nothing of the true freedom Christ has for them.

Freedom in Christ

Consider a few verses which announce what true freedom is like and what all Christian leaders should be living in and bringing to their congregations.

“If the Son therefore makes you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1

Freedom is what we are called for and it is given to us by Christ who sets us free and gives us true freedom. Truth is one of the power tools which Christ uses to set us free. We are to stand in that freedom and avoid being enslaved again.

It is time the people of God took hold of the true freedom which is their’s in Christ. Please do so.

Benajah Harvey Carroll Boosts the Southern Baptists

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Benajah Harvey Carroll was born on December 27, 1843, in Mississippi, USA as one of 12 children.

Even though his father was a Baptist minister, supporting his family as a farmer, young Carroll was “a dedicated infidel”.

He moved with his family to Arkansas in 1848 and Texas in 1858. He entered Baylor University at age 16 and when the American Civil War began, he joined the Texas Rangers. In 1862 he joined the Confederate for the duration of the war.

He struggled with scepticism which yielded to faith when he was 22. Some friends dared him to attend an old-fashioned Methodist camp meeting, and there it was he met the Saviour.

In November, 1866, he was ordained to preach the gospel, and that same year he married Ellen Virginia Bell who bore him nine children.

At the age of 28, in conjunction with his pastoral duties, he was lecturing theological students at a nearby Baptist University. However things were tough for young Carroll, as he had war debts to pay off and his ministry was to small churches. He spent several years as a school teacher, paying off his debts.

From 1870 to 1899 he pastored First Baptist Church, Waco, Texas, but throughout that time he was devoted to higher education. He taught theology at Baylor University and later organised the Baylor Theological Seminary (1905).

In 1899, following the death of his first wife, he married again, to Hallie Harrison, who bore him a son.

In his 60’s he founded the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1908) and became its first president, which office he held until his death.

This 6’4″ man of God, with flowing white beard and a powerful voice, was said to resemble an ancient prophet. He would read and remember 300 pages every day, and 33 volumes came from his pen.

“When you hear this silly talk that the Bible ‘contains’ the Word of God, and is not the Word of God, you hear a fool’s talk,” he wrote. “I don’t care if he is a Doctor of Divinity, a president of a University covered with medals … it is fool talk. There can be no inspiration of the book without the words of the book” (Baptists and the Bible”, page 309). As a result of his dynamic evangelical leadership the Southern Baptist movement grew to be one of Christendom’s great soul-winning denominations.

B.H. Carroll died on 11 November, 1914.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

St Stephen’s Day is Boxing Day in Honour of Martyrs

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“Why do we call the day after Christmas Day ‘Boxing Day’?” If you’ve never been able to answer that question then this article will be helpful to you.

St Stephen’s Day is observed by some churches on December 26, and that gives rise to the title of Boxing Day – which I’ll explain later.

For the past 150 years this day has also been associated with “Good King Wenceslas” who “looked out on the Feast of Stephen”. That account of King Wenceslas comes to us from the lyrics of a Christmas carol which gives a fictitious account of an historical character.

History tells us that Wenceslas was a Bohemian king who was martyred by his pagan brother about AD 930. St Wenceslas is the patron saint of what used to be Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia – two separate countries).

The ‘Feast of Stephen’ was set aside by churches to commemorate the death of Stephen the deacon, the church’s first martyr, as recorded in Acts 7. Stephen, as a deacon, was assigned the task of caring for the needy. The Apostles did not want to become entangled in that task, but needed to concentrate on preaching and praying.

So the Feast of Stephen celebrated this first martyr and charitable care for those in need.

It was John Mason Neale, ‘the prince of hymn translators’, and an Anglican vicar of the nineteenth century, who gave us the carol “Good King Wenceslas” in 1853, to exemplify generosity. Wenceslas was a martyr, like Stephen, and he was a charitable man. Neale sought to bring these factors together in a song to celebrate the significance of St Stephen’s Day.

The song has no basis in fact, but was one of Neale’s original compositions … written 1000 years after Wenceslas lived – and who may, or may not, have looked out on the Feast of Stephen!

And because Stephen, the New Testament deacon, had been employed in caring for the poor, it became customary for the early Christians to open the church alms-boxes and distribute the benefits therein to those in need on St Stephen’s Day. Hence, this first day after Christmas Day is the day for opening the boxes and distributing charity – and is now referred to as “Boxing Day”.

This post is based on notes by my late friend Donald Prout. I have updated these historical posts with information gleaned from other sources. I am indebted to Don for awakening in me an interest in Church History. Don’s notes can be found at: www.donaldprout.com

I Was There – A Poem

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My children found a poem I had started five years ago. They were keen for me to tidy it up, so it was complete. So I’ve done that, and here it is….

I Was There. A Poem by Chris Field

It seems I was there, so the pictures declare.
Aloof among the smiles, companion through the miles.
Yet I don’t recall, being there at all.

Strange I must admit, I don’t recall a bit.
Person, place or scene, where surely I have been.
It seems that I was there, so the pictures do declare.

Unseen among the crowd, unheard by voices loud,
Standing to one side, I didn’t need to hide,
My blank, unseeing stare says I really wasn’t there.

I wonder how it went, that years of life were spent
With people all around and yet no memory found.
For truly I was there, the pictures do declare.

Unwanted and unknown, untouched by moments flown
I passed away those years, dead to hopes and fears;
Filling time and space, but never in the race.

Now what did others see when ever they saw me?
Were their eyes so blind that I never crossed their mind?
Someone should have known what the pictures now have shown.

I was there as one asleep in thoughts too dark and deep
For ever me to know how passed those years so slow.
And so I don’t recall being there at all.

Reflections…

Have you ever been in a daze, distracted by things that keep you from the present? Have you ever seen a photograph and not remembered the place or occasion? While that may happen to us all on rare occasions, there are some who go through all of life in such a mode. I have met folk like that, whose lives pass away with barely any consciousness on their part. “I Was There” focuses such an experience.

I have often wondered where ideas like this come from when I’m waxing poetic. I have come up with some fairly strange themes at times. I put it down to my fascination for the inner workings of the mind and heart, drawing me to reflections which may rarely be expressed. I find it fun to put into words some strange experience, imagining what it would be like to be in such a place or struggling with such thoughts.

When I first read this poem to my wife she asked me what period of my life I was talking about. I reminded her that I often write about things that are not my personal experience. So let me assure you too, that I am functioning as a poet, not as a patient on the therapist’s couch.

I trust you enjoy the evocative exploration of thought and feeling which this and other of my works venture into.