Monthly Archives: February 2009

Inalienable Rights

Posted on by
Reply

Protection of human rights has been a popular theme in western countries. Activists agitate for the protection of their privacy. Legislators discuss how to craft appropriate documents enshrining human rights. The UN Charter and various pieces of legislation the world over give various forms to the discussion of rights.

Our human rights have been described in some quarters as “inalienable”.

Thomas Jefferson and Inalienable Rights

Thomas Jefferson’s 1776 Declaration of Independence describes human rights as “inalienable“. Jefferson claimed there that inalienable rights were the foundation of all government. Since the Declaration of Independence was, in and of itself, a declaration of defiance against British Rule over the colonies, Jefferson appealed to the existence of inalienable rights as the basis on which the American colonies could resist the British claim to authority over them.

Jefferson argued that a person’s rights are intrinsic in the individual and only have to be “declared” to be effective.

Most people today do not understand Jefferson’s view of rights nor do they really understand what is “inalienable” about their rights. People in authority like to have those under their control thinking that rights are granted to them by some human authority. That way the subjects are kept under the power of those who have denied them the full use of their rights.

Rights Explored

What made the rights declared by Thomas Jefferson to be ‘inalienable’? By what authority are any rights able to be asserted or possessed? Are they inalienable because nature has bestowed them upon us? Are they inalienable because they make sense in some special way? Are they inalienable because the body of citizens deem them so to be?

The answer to these questions significantly impacts the type of rights you have and how secure you and your children can be in those rights.

Natural Rights

If rights come from nature, then is it not reasonable that anyone with superiority of nature, such as strength or cunning, has an equally implicit right to abuse all others? If nature is our final court of appeal then those who are best endowed by nature have no recourse for their use of that advantage.

The Theory of Evolution, with its “survival of the fittest“, taught that we are all just the product of nature and that some are more evolved than others. On that basis Australian aborigines and natives across the globe were killed as if they were animals. Their bones and skulls were sent to museums in England and America as specimens. I have heard testimony of Australians who shot Aborigines without any sense of remorse, seeing them as much like a kangaroo or other animal.

If nature gives us our rights then it follows that people who are better endowed by nature have power over the less endowed. Evolution thus means that the more evolved creatures have an automatic right to dominate, use and destroy those who are less evolved.

Since those earlier days of the slaughter of natives we have been able to prove by genetic research that the Theory of Evolution is wrong. Natives in “primitive” lifestyles are not less evolved, but have just as much natural endowment as educated westerners. They had been reduced to primitive technology, but they are not primitive creatures biologically.

Hitler and Natural Rights

Hitler asserted that the Aryans were a superior race and so they had the right to assert themselves over other races of people. He was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution and found it to be a friend to his ideas of domination.

So, natural rights is not a good place to anchor our inalienable rights. We could argue that everyone who is disabled, blind, or physically limited can be abused and dominated by all those who can exercise power over them.

The resultant battle would reduce society to a jungle of competing predators. Survival of the fittest is the prescription for anarchy, warfare, fear and terror. Praise God our rights come from a higher source than nature.

Nature is not the source of our inalienable rights, since nature does not bestow equally upon all the same potential to enjoy equal experience of life.

Logical Rights

Are human rights inalienable because they make sense in some special way? If that is the case, then anyone without sufficient sense to appreciate them or with superior sense, so as to be able to see past them, can abuse those rights with impunity.

If rights are based on human sense and logic then anyone who can beguile, confuse or out argue others can assert themselves over others. Simple people can be exploited. Those who have been educated to think that their rights are subject to their university professor, their government or their place in society’s caste system, will be talked out of their rights.

Logic is not the source of our inalienable rights. Logic has been used to justify the abuse of those rights, applying such theories as the Theory of Evolution as justification for abuse, cruelty and murder.

Social Rights

Are rights inalienable because the body of citizens deem them so to be? If that is the case then any other body of citizens can then contest them, if they so wish, and violate them, if their society sees that a different set of rights should apply.

If society is the basis for our rights, then what happens when some new pop-culture idea invades our society and causes people to change their idea of human rights? Societies change and through history many societies have become unhappy places to live. Women have been abused in societies. Life is cheap in some societies. The poor have been treated shamefully in some societies. Disabled or unproductive people have suffered greatly in some societies. Cruelty, superstition, slavery, warfare, domination and the like are clear elements of different societies through human history.

Society is not the source of our inalienable rights. Society does not have the moral anchor to make anything consistent and unchangeable.

Bequeathed Rights

The only way we can have ‘inalienable’ rights is if they are bequeathed upon us by a superior force to which we owe some moral obligation. God, as separate from creation and ruling over it as its creator and owner, is perfectly able to grant us ‘inalienable’ rights. Outside of His presence and role in the process it is hard to conceive of any real validity for Jefferson’s assertion of inalienable rights.

Moral Rights or Declared Rights

Jefferson’s assertion that rights only have to be ‘declared’ to be effective is interesting. He places great stock in the sovereignty of each citizen to arbitrate his or her own entitlements. He presents a type of natural law, that people have, by virtue of their existence, a right to assert their own personal validity, and to claim rights attendant to that existence.

How does Jefferson expect that the individual assertion of personal rights will be upheld, especially if all others deny that asserting individual the rights to which they lay claim?

Fighting For Rights

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence led to war. The American War of Independence was not a matter of a declaration of rights, but a battle to repel another who declared their right to control the American Colonies.

Here we see the natural struggle of existing entities, each asserting their place, but having to accept the place which they can successfully claim in practice. The assertion is of little real worth, except to focus the resolve of the person making it. In practice, the self-asserted rights can only exist with the cooperation of all others in the society, who agree to approve the rights in a social contract of mutual benefit.

The only social order that can be achieved by man is so achieved only by subjugation of some, or cooperation of the many.

Moral Rights

Moral Rights, on the other hand, do not come from subjugation of others, nor from the cooperation of others. They are not based on democracy, western culture, education, literacy, economic prosperity, industrialisation, globalisation, assertiveness training, power of self-defence, elitism, force or any other human endeavour.

Moral Rights spring from God as our moral creator, who placed us, as moral beings, into His moral universe. He then, as Almighty God, has the power to grant us what we cannot get for ourselves. He also has the power to defend us against those who have greater might than we do.

The inalienable rights which we have are the gift of Almighty God to each of us.

Professor James Stalker the Famous Scottish Preacher

Posted on by
Reply

James Stalker was born on February 21, in 1848.

This Scottish pulpit giant was ordained by the United Free Church, later becoming Professor of Church History in their college in Aberdeen.

The 1873, when Stalker was 25, the Moody and Sankey mission to Scotland impacted him deeply and played a major role in his evangelistic outlook – and “the evangelical glow of those early days remained with Stalker ever after”. Though Moody was a poorly educated shoe salesman his preaching resonated in the heart of the educated theologian.

During Staker’s lifetime he became more widely known in America than any other Scottish preacher.

His books, Life of Christ, and Life of Paul, made his name famous. Dr Bob Jones Jnr named the book, The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ, by James Stalker as one of the books which most influenced him.

Get a Free Church History Post every day by Subscribing at http://chrisfieldblog.com

Stalker spent 20 years in the latter part of his life as a Professor in Aberdeen, having declined an invitation to become Principal of the college. But he is best remembered for his preaching prowess. He occupied two pulpits in his ministry, St. Brycedale, Kirkcaldy, and St. Matthew’s, Glasgow.

Stalker was resolute and aggressive in manner. His voice had a commanding bark, which could even be disconcerting to those hearing him for the first time. He carried the zeal of an evangelist and keenly approved of all who embarked on daring ventures for the Kingdom of God.

With a lucid and steady flow of thought, constructing his case clearly and driving each point with measured force, he unpacked the truths he needed to impart to his hearers. He was a commanding preacher with eloquence and substance, and the ability to stir vast audiences with the insights and observations he bestowed. Rather than preach from extensive notes he kept a short list of headings, pausing from time to time to pick up the paper and check what his next point was to be.

One story concerning Professor Stalker (often repeated in books of illustrations!) comes from his ministry at St Matthew’s, Glasgow. It was his invariable custom to begin the service with a prayer of Thanksgiving. But this particular day was ‘wet and foggy, Glasgow at its worst!’ Everyone in the congregation was feeling miserable … and wondered what he would do to be thankful that morning. Stalker, we are told, mounted the pulpit stairs and prayed – “in his quick, abrupt way: ‘We thank Thee, O Lord, that every day is not like this…’”

Professor Stalker died in 1927, at the age of 79.

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

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

Helen Amelia Sunday Woos and Survives Billy Sunday

Posted on by
Reply

Helen Amelia (Thompson) Sunday died on February 20, in 1957.

Helen Amelia Thompson had been born 88 years previous, on June 25, 1868. She grew up in Chicago, gave her heart to Christ at the age of 12, and went on to become leader of a Christian Endeavour Society in the local Presbyterian Church.

At a Christian Endeavour social she met Billy Sunday – she was 17 at the time, and he was six years older. Two years later, during which time Billy also was converted – they were married; Billy having proposed to Helen on December 31, 1887. And in 47 years of marriage she followed her husband, as he stormed across America leading multitudes to Christ.

The couple had four children; Helen, George, William and Paul. When the children were young Helen and the little ones missed Billy as he made his extensive preaching forays. From 1907 Helen (known also as “Nell”) travelled with her celebrity husband.

Get a Free Church History Post every day by Subscribing at http://chrisfieldblog.com

“And Mrs Billy Sunday became “Ma” Sunday to the nation. “Ma” ran the gamut of usefulness during the ever expanding and ever increasing evangelistic campaigns,” says her biographer. “She looked after many of the details so essential to the handling of great crowds. When the meetings were held under canvas, even the strength of the supporting ropes bore the scrutiny of her watchful eyes” (Remarkable ‘Ma’ Sunday, by O. Overmyer, page 13).

An unsympathetic writer concerning these halcyon days confesses: “Mrs Sunday was hard-headed and hard-working, and she demanded as much from every member of the team as she gave herself. She could always be counted on to help out in any task … they were all glad she kept a more business-like eye on the complex enterprise than her husband” (Billy Sunday Was His Real Name, by W. McCloughlin, pages 77-78).

Life was not without incident. In 1920 Helen survived a very serious car accident. In 1932 their daughter, Helen, died of pneumonia. In 1933 Billy collapsed while preaching in Iowa and that same year their son, George, committed suicide. Then, on November 6, 1935, Billy Sunday died of a heart attack. In 1938 Helen’s son, William, died in a car accident. Following the death of her son, Paul, in 1944, Helen had outlived her husband and all of her four children.

After her husband’s death in 1935, she found a fruitful ministry still awaited her. Invitations poured in for her to speak, and this 67 year-old widow set off on what would eventually be a million miles of speaking for the Lord. In her 84th year she shared in the 25th anniversary celebration of HCJB radio ministry, “The Voice of the Andes”. In 1955 Youth for Christ International observed a special “Ma Sunday Day” where she had the opportunity to address some 5000 young people.

Until her death in 1957, “and in a more subdued manner, ‘Ma’ Sunday carried on from where her bounding, founding Billy left off… (Remarkable ‘Ma’ Sunday, page 4).

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

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

How To Find The Right Spouse Part 2

Posted on by
1

In the first instalment of this post (How to Find the Right Spouse Part 1) I introduced you to several people who had different reason for taking interest in the person who became their spouse.

The point is to look behind the process to see the essential elements involved. I want to draw out a key element from what I have already said, adding insights gained from the process of an arranged marriage.

In Review

Dawn chose to pursue her Mr Wright, because he had wealth and charm, and promised her a life above her current situation.

A Swedish woman determined who had won her heart by considering if she was prepared to darn the man’s socks for him, which is a process she detested.

An Indian couple suggested the Cheese Test, to find an economical bride for sons.

And Pastor Richard Holland chose to marry his wife, Garry, because she had great looking legs.

Now let’s look at what happens in an arranged marriage situation.

A Family Ordeal

My Greek neighbours were married through a family arrangement. The parents scouted around for eligible marriage partners, talked with the other family and then set up a big family get-together. This way the couple could meet and size each other up.

Both Don and Kaliope had been presented with several prospective spouses over a period of several years. Each time they advised their parents that they did not think they could marry the person in question. Or the other person did not wish to follow up with them. Then, when they were introduced to each other and found that they were open to the possibility of marriage they were escorted though the courtship process, on the journey to the altar.

They did not really get to know each other until after they were married.

Common Elements

Note that in each of these cases the end result was a decision about proceeding or not. Whether a couple married through personal choice or family selection the matter of the marriage was their willingness to go ahead.

So, whether you are attracted to someone because of their looks, their station in life, their personal qualities or your family’s recommendation, the final element will be your decision to marry that person.

Impossible Find

The Bible suggests that it is not really possible to find a virtuous wife. And that could well be presented in the inverse, that it is not really possible to find a worthy husband.

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.” Proverbs 31:10

The point of the question is not that virtuous women do not exist. Nor is it that you should give up hope and take whatever comes along. The point is that you should not rely on your own abilities in order to find an ideal spouse.

What you should do, to find the right spouse, is ask God to find that person for you.

Wild Card Selection

Everyone is a potential “wild card”. By that I mean that everyone has unknown qualities and can produce unexpected developments over time.

I recently heard a pastor’s wife, in tears, ask for prayer that her daughter would marry a man who proved to be good value in the long term.

Many a fine young man has proven to be less than fine. And many a lovely young lady has proven to be less than lovely. Some young wives have found themselves married to a drunkard, abuser or irresponsible husband. Some young men have found themselves married to an argumentative, controlling or emotionally unstable woman.

Then there’s the issue of the bumps along life’s journey. Some people who seemed to have it all together came unravelled when they faced a death in the family or similar traumatic event. Post natal depression, economic hardship, injury and loss can turn a person’s personality in an unexpected direction.

So, even if you take the greatest possible care in selecting a spouse, you cannot control the ‘wild card’ factor. Once again, you really should be trusting God.

Trusting God

God wants you to be blessed. And God knows far more about you and all the people around you than you could ever imagine. Trusting Him to lead, protect and bless you is the smartest thing you can do for any and all aspects of your life.

So, how do you find the right spouse? You get God involved in the process and you let Him lead you to the right person who will deliver into your life the blessings which God has for you.

But, remember, God won’t give you what you don’t deserve. If you are selfish, demanding, proud, arrogant, irresponsible, intolerant, jealous, greedy or the like, you can’t expect God to place a precious jewel into your hands, since you will only abuse that precious blessing.

God will probably match you up with someone whose own personal problems are a good match for yours. Then, as you humble yourself before God and find His grace, that grace will work in you both and you will rise out of your mess together.

You can trust God to rescue you. And which ever way you look at it, Trusting God is the smartest thing you can do.

Charles Clermont-Ganneau and the Moabite Stone

Posted on by
Reply

Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau was born in France, on February 19, 1846 and became a member of the French Diplomatic Corps.

A skilled translator, Clermont-Ganneau became Professor of Oriental Languages including Hebrew and ancient Aramaic. He took specific interest in the archaeological evidence for Bible history. In 1873-74 he engaged in archaeological investigations in Palestine, especially around Jerusalem. He sought to link the names of Arab villages with the Bible names of towns. He also excavated tombs, studying ossuaries (burial coffins) used from the time of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. He found many New Testament names and also the symbol of the cross on some ossuaries.

Clermont-Ganneau is best remembered, however, for his translation of the Moabite Stone. That story commences in 1868 when a German medical missionary named Klein discovered an inscribed stone “four feet high, two feet wide and 14 inches thick” in the village of Dhibon (This is the Bible town of Dibon cited in Joshua 13:9), in Moab. Recognising the value of this Mesha Stele, although unable to decipher the writing, Klein offered to purchase the stone. But the German Consul also heard of the find and wanted to buy it.

Get a Free Church History Post every day by Subscribing at http://chrisfieldblog.com

Then the young Frenchman, Charles Clermont-Gammeau, hired a local Arab to go and examine the stone. The poor copy of the inscription this fellow brought back was enough to convince Clermont-Gammeau of the stone’s historical value. Next he sent Ya’qub Karavaca, an Arab, and two companions to make a ‘squeeze’ of the inscription, by pressing wet paper on the stone and peeling it off when it was dry.

But the Bedouins who owned the stone caused trouble. A fight broke out.

“One of Karavaca’s companions was speared in the leg, but the other, as he fled, snatched the still wet squeeze off the stone and stuffed it inside his tunic…” (Diggings, January, 1995).

Suffice to say it is to Clermont-Gammeau we are indebted for the ‘Moabite Stone’, which is dated from about 850BC and now in the Louvre Museum in Paris –and the translation that speaks of Mesha, king of Moab rebelling against Omri, King of Israel … just as the Bible says it did! (II Kings 3:4-5).

Once again the spade had vindicated the Book of books.

Clermont-Gammeau continued to have a significant role in archaeological investigation, including the ossuaries mentioned earlier. He also functioned as the most reliable authority on antiquities following the discovery of the Moabite Stone.

A Jerusalem antiquities dealer, Moses Shapira, tried to cash in on the Moabite excitement, producing a multitude of fake Moabite artefacts including clay figurines, large human heads and clay vessels. He had them inscribed with texts copied from the Mesha Stele. The Germans, stung by missing out on the Moabite Stone, bought 1700 of Shapira’s artefacts for the Berlin Museum.

Clermont-Gammeau was convinced the pieces were forgeries and was able to expose the modern manufacture of the pieces.

Then in 1883 Shapira presented fragments of supposedly ancient parchment claimed to come from near the Dead Sea. Clermont-Gammeau not only suspected forgery but was able to show how Shapira had taken the fake strips from a Deuteronomy scroll he had previously sold to the British Museum. Shapira’s attempted sale for a million pounds fell through and he later shot himself.

Clermont-Gammeau died on February 15, 1923, just days before his 77th birthday.

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

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

Henry Martyn the Translator

Posted on by
Reply

Henry Martyn was born on February 18, in Cornwall, England in 1781.

In 1791 he started at St John’s College, Cambridge. He was saved in 1800. In 1801 he was the top Mathematics student in his year (called Senior Wrangler) and he also won a Latin prize. He was gifted in languages, as was later revealed in his successful translation work.

When Martyn tackled his translation work on the mission field he mentioned in a letter that he was drawing from grammar books in Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Hebrew, Rabbinical Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Ethiopic, Samaritan, Arabic, Persian, Sanscrit, Bengalee and Hindoostanee and wanted a Celtic grammar as well.

Yet at the end of his studies, all of Martyn’s academic achievements left him wanting. He noted, “I obtained my highest wishes but was surprised to find I had grasped a shadow”. This recognition of the emptiness of human achievement, despite his own excellence, must have undergirded his willingness to serve the Lord sacrificially. He not only gave up his homeland and career opportunities for mission service, he also left behind the one love of his life.

Get a Free Church History Post every day by Subscribing at http://chrisfieldblog.com

After theological studies at Cambridge, Martyn was appointed curate at Holy Trinity to the godly Charles Simeon who was thus his spiritual father or mentor. And from thence he sailed forth to India as chaplain to the East India Company (1805).

He left his heart with Lydia Grenfell in his native Cornwall. She did not follow him to India and he never made it home to see her again.

Henry Martyn made several major contributions through his life of missionary service. His translation work gave the scriptures to the Indian and Persian people. Also his life of personal sacrifice for missions has shone as an example to many. He also promoted ideas about missions which helped to formulate the vision and activities of future mission endeavours.

Within five years in India he had completed his translation of the New Testament in Urdu (known then as Hindoostani). His journal tells of the joy he found in this work – “What a source of perpetual delight have I in the precious Book of God! Oh, that my heart were more spiritual, to keep pace with my understanding…” (Memoirs of H. Martin, compiled by J. Sargent, 1848, page 241).

One of the challenges of these early translators is that many Bible concepts are not readily translatable into cultures where the concepts are not known. Such Bible truths as grace, redemption and hope are not readily known in other tongues and cultures.

CF Note: I once heard a Christian minister tell of a Moslem woman who asked him to help her convert to Christianity. When he asked why she wanted to make this change she told him that the Christian concept of ‘forgiveness’ was not part of Islam. Similarly I learned that some Australian Aboriginal tribes do not have a mechanism to restore people back into their community once they have been banished for bad behaviour. Cultural challenges such as these confronted Henry Martyn’s translation work.

Martyn’s diary notes also make reference to his “beloved Lydia”… although historian Sargent actually suppressed her name in the first edition of his best-seller biography of Henry Martyn, cited earlier. The call of God upon his life meant that he must say “Farewell” to the one he had hoped to wed.

Martyn’s diary also refers to the fellowship he enjoyed with William Carey and Anglican clergyman David Brown (of Jamieson, Fawcett and Brown Commentary fame … and with whom Carey did not enjoy sweet fellowship!) (Carey, by S. Pearce Carey, page 145).

Martyn was an intelligent and sensitive man, who respected the cultures to which he went. Rather than adopting the cultural arrogance which some other missionaries displayed, Martyn wrote, “I learnt that the power of gentleness is irresistible and also that these men are not fools. Clearness of reasoning is not confined to Europe”.

After a decade of evangelical ministry in various parts of India, Henry Martyn proceeded to Persia and there took up the task of translation anew. He also supervised translation of the New Testament into Arabic. By 1812 his Persian New Testament was ready for the printers. But our missionary did not live to see his work in print. On October 16, 1812, in Tokat, Armenia, Asia Minor, on his way home with high hopes of meeting again his Lydia, Henry Martyn died, at the age of 31.

It is interesting to note that Martyn’s Urdu and Arabic translations were not only a help to the Christian missionaries but were well read by the Moslem leaders.

On his return journey toward England, Martyn chose to travel through Persia, Damascus and Arabia, hoping to improve his tuberculosis and find scriptural manuscripts. His friends in Calcutta tried to dissuade him but he set out in 1811. On his way to Constantinople he died, whether from his own sickness or the plague which was raging at the time we do not know.

Thus closed the book on a man who put all else aside, in order to make an investment in the Kingdom of God.

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

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

No Right To Speak

Posted on by
Reply

How do people speak when they have no right to speak into your life? Would you like to know?

The Bible reveals how people speak when they have no right to speak. Take a look at what I have to show you here, and get insight into the voices that demand your attention but which you should ignore.

I have raked over the topic of The Right To Speak in previous posts, and now I want you to see a well-known Biblical example of what it looks like when someone is speaking who has no right to do so.

A Quick Review

Not all words are equal. Some people have the right to speak while others do not. You are to obey the commands of those who have authority over you but you don’t have to obey the demands of people under your authority, or outside your whole authority structure. Advertisers don’t have authority to demand that you buy their product.

Marketers and manipulators speak to you, even though they don’t have the right to tell you what to do, in the hope they can get you to do their will. Wise people are aware of the rights held by the speaker, so they can know whether to listen or ignore the one speaking.

God has the ultimate right to speak. Those God endorses have the right to speak. Yet many people who speak into our lives do not speak with God’s authority. Some people assert their right to speak when they don’t have that right at all.

How They Speak

When a person does not have the right to speak into your life, but they wish to get you to follow their instructions, they can use several devices. They can lie, cajole, deceive, threaten and so on.

Jesus Christ faced a confrontation with someone who did not have the right to speak into his life. That person was the devil, who tempted Him when He was fasting in the wilderness. What the devil said and how he said it gives us a cameo of how people speak when they do not have the right to speak into your life.

You may recognise some of this in the way others have tried to speak into your life at times.

Jesus and the Devil

In the New Testament book of Matthew we are given an account of the devil tempting Jesus in the wilderness. This encounter involves temptation. And the first point to note is that when a person does not have the right to speak they are only able to tempt the person they are trying to influence. That’s what advertisers do. They tempt you to buy their product. They can’t make you do something, but they can tempt you to make your own choice to do it.

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:1-4

Temptation Number One

The devil’s first temptation was directed at Jesus’ physical needs. Jesus was hungry after fasting for forty days and nights. Jesus had the power to create bread. The devil simply suggested that Jesus do that.

What was wrong with this challenge was that Jesus was not to be about the devil’s business, but His Father’s business (see Luke 2:49). Just because you have ability does not mean you should use it to indulge your personal interests and needs. Jesus took His orders from God, not the devil. That is why Jesus’ reply was that He was to live by the words that God spoke.

We will each be tempted to cater for our desires, such as our comfort, hunger and so on.

Temptation Number Two

“Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, And said to him, If you be the Son of God, cast yourself down: for it is written, He will give his angels charge concerning you: and they will bear you up in their hands, lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Matthew 4:5-7

For the second temptation the devil did not play on Jesus’ bodily needs. This time he played to his mental and emotional qualities. The temptation was to make a public display of His special position of protection by God.

Note again that the devil did not have the right to tell Jesus what to do, so he tempted him, with taunts, to prompt Jesus to obey the devil by fulfilling his physical or emotional needs.

Those who do not have the right to speak into our lives will try to press our buttons to get us to react to them and thus come under the power of their words.

Jesus rightly responded that we are not to put God to the test like that.

Temptation Number Three

“Again, the devil took him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And said to him, All these things will I give you, if you fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Get out of here, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Matthew 4:8-10

The third temptation was the offer of a deal. Having taunted and suggested things, appealing to Jesus’ physical and personal interests, the devil finally came out with a proposition.

The devil also tries to make deals with us. He offers us fame, success, happiness, and personal gain if we do what he wants us to do. However, the devil’s deals are cheap, deceptive and destructive, as Eve found out when she gave in to temptation in the Garden of Eden.

Look Out

You will face temptations, suggestions, taunts, instructions and deals, from voices that do not have the right to tell you what to do. What ever the issue is, it will be about you giving up your freedom to the demands of those you should remain free from.

Look out for those who come along, throwing their arm over your shoulder, trying to steer you in the path that they want you to take.

God has given you autonomy and a place of freedom under His authority. Those who do not have the right to speak are intent on making you a slave. Their words may sound like honey, but the sting of what they suggest will be bitter and deadly.

If they do not have the right to speak, then do what Jesus did. Reject what they say and stick with what God wants you to do.

Thomas Bray Impacts the New World

Posted on by
Reply

Dr Thomas Bray died, on February 17, 1730 in England.

Born 74 years before in the Welsh border district, Bray had humble beginnings, and was admitted to Oxford as a “poor student”. He became a “country parson” at Sheldon, near Birmingham for 16 years, before moving on to St Botolph’s, Aldgate, London.

Bray had a high regard for religious education as a means of elevating people. He wrote a five-volume tract on the value of teaching people the Christian catechism. “Catechetical Lectures” became a best seller. This brought him to the attention of Henry Compton, the Bishop of London, who asked him to go as his commissary (representative) to Maryland, USA.

Church of England churches in the New World were under the auspices of the Bishop of London and in those early days there were very few Church of England clergymen in America. Bray’s task was to assess the situation and see what needed to be done to attract more ministers to American parishes.

Get a Free Church History Post every day by Subscribing at http://chrisfieldblog.com

So in 1700 Thomas Bray sailed to the New World – and “sold his own dearly loved library of books in order to pay for the voyage!” (Pioneers of the Kingdom, Volume 2, page 29).

In preparation for this venture he had also founded the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, an organisation devoted to opening libraries in colonial plantations. “Thousands of volumes were contributed to parochial collections” (Dictionary of American Religious Biography, page 63).

In America he founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), which played a major role in American missions. Bray drafted a Royal Charter for this work which was signed by the King.

In Maryland Bray organised schools, gave direction to the churches and created lending libraries to provide poor clergy with access to quality reading material.

In his two months in Maryland Bray managed to get settlement status for Church of England churches from the Quakers and Roman Catholics of Maryland. He returned and managed to enlist some 29 English clergy to go to America in the following three years.

Returning to England in 1706, he ministered at St Botolph Without, London, until his death.

However he also remained active in social causes. He persuaded General Oglethorpe to found the new American colony of Georgia, for the settlement of debtors, as an alternative to debtors’ prison.

He wrote on behalf of the enslaved Africans and the Indians who had been displaced from their lands. He argued for prison reform and for preaching missions to prisoners.

The Dictionary of English Church History states that Dr Bray “was a vigorous and humorous writer and a parish priest of exemplary devotion. He deserves an honoured place in the history of the Church of England for his efforts on behalf of education and of missions” (pages 66-7).

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

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

Philip Melanchthon Anchors Reformation Theology

Posted on by
Reply

Philip Melanchthon was born February 16, 1497 in Bretten, Western Germany. His birth name was Philip Schwartzerd, meaning ‘black earth’, but he changed his surname to Melanchthon, the Greek equivalent, during his education.

He was a brilliant student who excelled in his humanist studies so well (here humanist means – non-theological) that he entered Heidelberg University at age 13 and was deemed too young to receive the B.A. degree he earned in just 2 years. He went on to earn an M.A. at Tuebingen University by age 17, whereupon he was put to lecturing to the students, much to the displeasure of his peers.

He considered humanistic learning to be a “wonderful gift of God” and went on to lecture at the new university in Wittenberg. This brought him into contact with Martin Luther.

Europe’s Renaissance humanists were offended by Luther’s suggestion that human achievement plays no part in salvation, but Melanchthon embraced both the reality of faith and the value of secular understanding.

In 1524 Melanchthon began establishing public schools, reorganising Universities, organising teacher training and writing multiple textbooks.

Both colleague and companion of the impetuous Martin Luther, the gentle and scholarly spirit of Melanchthon did much to keep the Reformation true to its theological moorings.

Get a Free Church History Post every day by Subscribing at http://chrisfieldblog.com

It was he who drew up the “Confession of Augsburg”, a modified version now being the creed of the Lutheran faith, and it was his commentary on Romans that was held in such high regard that it soon found its way onto the Romish index of banned books.

This commentary, with its ‘divisions and arrangements, became the stereo-typed method followed by all Protestant writers on doctrine’ (Cyclopaedia of Modern Religious Biographies, page 336).

One writer describes Melanchthon as being the only Reformer “who had the scraggy look of an intellectual” (Bamber Gascoigne, in The Christians, page 167).

After Luther’s death, Melanchthon became the acknowledged leader of the Lutheran cause.

His workday started at 2am and continued, tirelessly until 9pm. He and his wife, Katharine, adopted the orphaned children of his sister-in-law, then later added five more children when his daughter died. Katharine died when Melanchthon was 60.

14 years after Luther’s death Melanchthon came to his end. He cut short a lecture on April 9, after staggering to the class. He then languished for another ten days and died on 19 April, 1560.

Find hundreds of succinct Church History posts at: http://chrisfieldblog.com/topics/ministry/church-history

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

Dealing With Dead Ends

Posted on by
Reply

Do you find yourself at a dead end at times? Do you find that your efforts have been wasted and your forward progress is completely blocked? If so, the wisdom in this post will be helpful.

We all want to keep on “moving forward”, yet we come up against dead-ends, road blocks and so on. You will find Trevor’s experience helpful in showing you what to do when that happens.

Trevor’s Tale

My newest brother-in-law, Trevor, shared with me recently about his own journey, in search of God’s will for his life. He used a cute description which has prompted me to share his situation with you, since I am sure that many end up where he found himself.

In summary, Trevor felt that God wanted him to do some significant things, but he couldn’t work out what they were. Prompted by his sense of destiny he began to investigate various things that captured his interest, wondering if this or that might be the thing that God was leading him to.

Of the many different things he studied, read up on, checked out or tinkered with, nothing seemed to become an open door for him. They ended up at dead ends.

Then he found himself interested in tinkering with Gematria – the study of words and numbers. He researched and explored and dedicated a lot of time in developing some new computer-based tools for exploring the whole thing.

Yet he still came to a dead end. All that he had done ended up at a stalemate, seemingly going nowhere.

Looking in the Right Place

In Victoria’s Grampian Mountains there are many pleasant bushland walks, of varying degrees of difficulty. A popular walk is the one to The Pinnacle, from which a lovely view across Halls Gap township and the large reservoir can be enjoyed. On the way the path leads up a narrow gully called “Grand Canyon“. At the end of that section you come to a place were you can go no further. The miniature canyon comes to an end with rock walls on three sides, and only the path you came up behind you.

But all is not lost, because there is a ladder leading up from there, out of the gully and onto the rock level above where you have been walking. If you are stuck at the end of the gully and do not see the ladder, there is no way to go. You have to look in the right place.

Now, that’s what Trevor had to do when he came to his dead end.

Things are Looking Up

Trevor’s situation, heading down a exploratory path, researching, tinkering and learning all about Gematria, brought him to a place where his work was done and his progress spent. There was no where else to go with his work. He had reached a dead end.

And that’s where he stayed and was stuck, until he looked in the right place. And the right place to look was “up”. Trevor puts it this way: “It was a dead end, until I looked up!”

When Trevor took his eyes off his work, and stropped struggling to find destiny in all the groundwork he had put in, he was able to look to the Lord. Instead of staring at the brick walls in front of him, struggling to see where he should go next, he simply looked up to the Lord, for the next set of instructions.

And that’s when God began to prompt him with unexpected topics to explore, using the very tools which he had developed. And that has led him on an exciting path of digging in the Word of God for lovely hidden things which bless his soul and confirm the wonder of the Bible to him over and over again.

What’s Your Dead End?

Are you at a dead end with your career? Do you feel like your marriage or family have come to a stalemate? Do you feel like you have invested years in study, ministry, people, preparation or the like, only to leave you empty? What is your dead end?

How would it be if you could find a ladder at the very spot where you are stuck, that leads you up to a completely higher plane? How would you like to be lifted out of your dead end and set on a whole new path of productivity and significance?

“Beam Me Up Scottie”

If you are feeling stuck in a dead end situation, don’t bail out, but seek to get beamed up. Look to the Lord to find His solution and His new work in your situation. If you jump ship and change career, or if you ditch your marriage or family or your faith, you will be starting all over, and have to carry failure and brokenness with you along the way.

If you look to the Lord for His will and purpose you will most likely find that He will redeem the current dead end situation and give you a harvest out of all that has gone before. He is big enough and creative enough to do that.

So, if you have come to the end, and it’s a dead end, stop staring at the brick walls. Stop kicking against them. Stop looking around you, and start looking up to the one who is above you. Look to Him and let Him lift you out of your dead end into glorious new horizons of possibility.