Genesis, John & Governance

This week has been a real mix:

First, I've been studying Genesis, and I've been amazed at how skilfully it's put together, with themes interwoven, developed and only concluded in the New Testament. For example, in chapter 19, the destruction of Sodom, there are many allusions to Noah and the flood.

Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday, I was at an Oak Hill College Council meeting. It's always encouraging to be in a place where young men & women are being trained for a life-long ministry of making disciples. The headaches of difficult governance issues are put into perspective and shown to be really important.

Now today (Friday), I've been preparing some material on John's Gospel for the Diocesan training course for Readers (preachers) and Pastoral Assistants.

Not, perhaps, as varied as a normal week for a vicar, but it's good to be able to spend more time on a few things rather than rushing from one to another.

You Can Change

This is a great book! I've mentioned it in previous postings, but now I've finished it, I'm happy to recommend it to you.

It's subtitled, 'God's transforming power for our sinful behaviour and negative emotions'. Now if a book has the word, 'power' in the title, I'll normally give it a wide berth because it's probably promising something that God himself doesn't promise. But this book is different.

Some books I've read about holiness have talked about severe discipline - like getting up early to read the Bible and pray for 3 hours - and I don't have that sort of discipline. Others have given anecdotes of people who have suddenly been freed from sin and now live a life of permanent holiness, joy and perfection. But I've never met anyone like that, and it's not what the Bible teaches.

This book is realistic. Realistic about the reality and persistence of sin, and realistic about the reality and persistence of grace. It shows how the Bible teaches us that change is possible, and how change is possible. No quick or cheap fixes, but a healthy dose of biblical realism.

One warning. The opening paragraph is really quite surprising - shocking for some. I've emailed the publishers, and they're planning to change it in the next edition.

Tim Chester, 'You can Change' (IVP 2008)

Available from Tonbridge Christian Book Centre and Amazon

Welcome

Welcoming people properly to church is so very important.

Sarah and I went off to and Anglican church in a different town today, and although there were people at the church gate and the door who said hello, we didn't really feel welcomed. It's OK just to give regular church members a cheery 'good morning', but newcomers need to be spotted and not only greeted, but given confidence to know that they're going to sit in the right place, and are genuinely welcome to be there. Having said that, at teh beginning of the service, the vicar spotted that we were visitors, and gave us a broad smile as he welcomed everyone.

After the service, refreshments were served, but weren't told where, and it wasn't obvious, so we wouldn't have stayed had we been newcomers rather than visitors.

Having said all that, the music was excellent, and the preaching sound and helpful. One interesting point was that there was no specific time of prayer, but rather prayers were said at appropriate points during the service, which gave the impression that prayer was something that Christians do naturally - we don't have to have a formal 'time of prayer', we pray as and when it seems appropriate. There was no confession, which rather surprised me, and no creed (but it was billed as an informal service, a more formal service having taken place earlier).

So, as ever, there were things I liked and may copy at St Peter's, and things I didn't like and won't do. All this goes to show just how important welcoming is, and I pray that the recent course will help St Peter's to excel in this ministry.

Icons, images & idols

One of the things I love about the St Peter's building is that there are no icons or images - not even a cross.

But why is that good? First, because God told us not to make images. but there are other reasons: as Tim Chester says,

We were made to be God's image on earth [Genesis 1:26-27]... We're not to make images of the living God precisely because we are his image. We're God's representatives on earth. We're God's glory, displaying his likeness. [You Can Change, pp14f].

The implications of this are far-reaching. If we want to see something of the reflected glory of God, we don't look to a stained glass window, or a painting, or a crucifix, but to the person sitting next to us in church! Rather than revering a shrine or an icon, we respect people as made in the image of God. In my experience, the more a congregation reveres its buildings and images, the less they respect each other...

But images & icons also limit our understanding of Christ. Of course, people who use them say that they're helpful (just as Israel did when it made the golden calf), but they actually restrict Christ to one particular form: a baby; crucified but not risen; welcoming children but not rebuking pharisees; cuddling lambs but not judging the world. And so on.

If we really want to engage with God, there's only one place to do that: in the Bible, God's word. It's there that we engage with God. It's there that we meet him. As Tim Ward says,

Scripture is the primary means by which God presents himself to us, in such a way as we can know him and remain in a faithful relationship with him... Scripture is God in communicative action. Therefore to encounter the words of Scripture is to encounter God in action. [Words of Life, p179].

How to read the Bible

All too often, we read the Bible in bite-size chunks, hoping that God will have a personal message for us in one of those half-dozen or so verses. There are a number of problems with this: first, it implies that God only speaks to us in some of his word, some of the time, rather than acknowledging that the whole Bible is God's message to us. Second, we fail to see the big picture, and so fail to see the big message.

Having said that, of course it's true that the big picture is made up of small parts, each of which needs to be understood - each word, each sentence, each paragraph has to be understood in order to understand the big message. But then the big message affects the meaning of the words and sentences. (If you like big words, this proces is called the 'hermeneutical circle').

But the point here is that the smaller parts cannot be properly understood without seeing the big message. And I'm not just talking about that familiar thing, 'context'. It's more than that.

Take, for example, Genesis 12-50. There you have the biographies of Abra(ha)m, Jacob and Joseph (amongst others). Have you noticed how similar things happen to each of them? They leave their homeland, quarrel with family members, go to (or towards) Egypt; Abram and Jacob meet their brides at a well, but are childless.; when they finally have a child, their wives argue; they all receive promises of blessing from God. And so on.

But that doesn't mean that it's simply one biography retold 3 times. Each is subtly (and not so subtly) different. And these similarities and differences provide clues to the meaning of Genesis - clues to God's big message for us today.

However... it's not always easy to see this big picture. We're not used to reading in this way. Fortunately there are good books to help us, and I'm now beginning to read through a number of these. It's hard to summarise these new things I'm seeing in Genesis briefly on the blog - you may have to wait for a sermon series - but I may try over the coming days...

Spotify relieves tedium!

I've been pressing on with collating the punctuation in P66 this week, and now that I've noted 520 punctuation marks in 88 pages of the manuscript, it's getting fairly tedious. Still, music streamed from Spotify helps - Eric Clapton, Elgar's cello concertos, U2, Joe Jackson, Rachmaninov, Sixpence none-the-Richer, Snow Patrol, Debussy and so on and on and on... And it's free and without limit! Marvellous!

Having found all these punctuation marks, I don't want to read or hear anyone else trotting out that old myth that the Greek Manuscripts had no punctuation!

Though the marks are inconsistent, over 95% make sense, and include midpoints, chevrons (>), apostrophes and colons. Rather than indenting a new paragraph as we sometimes do, the scribe outdented new paragraphs. But none of that is really interesting, it will need some statistical and linguistic analysis to see if there's anything of sugnificance.

Can we trust the Bible?

Do you know why you trust the New Testament to tell you the truth about Jesus?

Could you explain to your friends why the New Testament is reliable?

Could you explain how the real Gospels differ from the 'other gospels' (The Gospel of Thomas, The Shepherd of Hermas,The Gospel of Mary etc)?

If you would like answers to these questions, a day conference run by Tyndale House will give you what you need. It's on Saturday 20 June, at Westminster Chapel.

See The Bible and Church website for more details (including a video presentation).

Guidance - part 3

So, what if I make a foolish or sinful decision? Have I stepped outside God's will and plan?

To answer this we need to understand that God has two 'wills': first there's his moral will. That is, the things he decides are good or bad, right or wrong. Then, second, there's his eternal plan - what he has decided will happen.

Now, we can - and do - make morally wrong decisions. We break God's moral will, and we're responsible when we do that. But that does not mean that we step outside God's plan for our lives.

The easiest way to show how this works is to look at Genesis 12-50. People there constantly make morally wrong decisions to try to speed up the fulfilment of God's promises and plan. It's all summed up by Joseph at the end of the book. He's speaking to his brothers, but he sums up the actions of many others in the book. The brothers know they have wronged God and Joseph, and beg for mercy from Joseph. He says, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid.'

I guess many of us do get afraid when we know we've made morally dubious decisions - we fear that God can no longer use us, or that he will reject us. But, while we are morally responsible for our actions, we cannot thwart the purpose and plan of God. He uses our sin to achieve his good ends. Does that excuse sin? Certainly not! Rather, it magnifies the greatness and power of God that even our rebellion cannot thwart him!

If this little post is insufficient to satisfy your curiosity, you should have come to the Tuesday evening Bible studies, we've often talked about it there!! To catch up, you could read, or listen to, John Piper on Romans 8:28-32. He shouts a bit, but he's always worth listening to.

Guidance - part 2

Yesterday's blog was a bit negative, so let's be more positive today!

How does God guide us? Well, first and foremost, through his word, the Bible. That's where he speaks to us and tells us what he wants us to do. And more than anything, he wants us to be holy; "Be holy because I am holy" (1 Peter 3:16). Most people think that this is just a get-out when it comes to specific guidance about making decisions, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The Bible gives us clear guidance about almost every conceivable decision we have to make because every decision is a moral choice, so every decision is about whether we will be holy or unholy.

This means that for every decision we're faced with (whether about a job, or a purchase, or a relationship, or anything else), we must search our hearts, looking for the real reasons that motivate us. If you're a husband, how would your decision stack up against the command to 'love your wife as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her'? In other words, is your decision for her well-being and holiness? Or again, are there elements of greed, selfishness, lust, pride and so-on that are driving your decision?

More positively, will the decision build up you and your family in the faith of Christ? Will it help you and them to be more holy? And what about your church family? Will your decision help you to serve and build up them?

If we were to take these sorts of questions seriously, they would guide most of our decisions. But there are times (though fewer than we think) when decisions really are morally neutral, can God guide us then? Yes, I believe he can, but not perhaps in the way we might think. I may be too pragmatic, but surely, if we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, he can give us what someone once called 'sanctified common sense'. We look at the choices. Pray. And make a sensible, wise decision based on our knowledge of the Bible, and trusting in the Spirit's wisdom.

But what if I make a foolish or sinful decision? Have I stepped outside God's will and plan? The answer to that one will have to wait till after the weekend. I could get used to having weekends off!!

Guidance

Packer gives us six pitfalls and some sound guidance on the topic of guidance. This is a mix of Packer & Warren (you can probably discern which is which!).
First the pitfalls:

1. Unwillingness to think, and an over-reliance on 'inward impressions'. Over the years, I've met many people who clearly think they have a super-spiritual hotline to God who tells them the sorts of things he never tells me! In fact, it's just that these people are controlled by feelings rather than thinkings, and the Bible doesn't tell us to feel our way to knowing God's will, but to think and consider; "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways, and be wise!" (Prov. 6:6). This is a repeated theme throughout the Bible, and we ignore it at our peril.
2. Unwillingness to think ahead. I myself need to listen to this - I'm prone to act too quickly without thinking through the long-term consequences. "Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise." Which leads into no. 3...
3. Unwillingness to take advice. Other people may be able to see us with greater objectivity and realism. Our heart may be ruling our head, and we need to hear some sound, rational, biblical sense. "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice." (Prov. 12:15).
4. Unwillingness to suspect oneself. Packer writes, ' 'Feelings', with an ego-boosting, or escapist, or self-indulging, or self-aggrandising base, must be dedected and discredited, not mistaken for guidance. This is especially true of sexual, or sexually conditioned, feelings. As a biologist-theologian has written, 'The joy and general sense of well-being that often (but not always) goes with 'being in love' can easily silence conscience and inhibit critical thinking. How often people say that they feel 'led' to get married...when all they are really describing is a particularly novel state of endocrine balance which makes them feel particularly sanguine and happy'.' "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts." (Psa 139:23).
5. Unwillingness to discount personal magnetism. Just as we need to be aware of our own propensity to self-deception, so too we need to realise that others, while well-meaning, may be deceiving themselves, and others. This may be especially true in the arena of church leadership - a strong, magnetic leader can attract many blind followers. So Paul warns the Thessalonians, "Test everything; hold fast to what is good."
6. Unwillingness to wait. We are naturally impatient. But God's plans include eternity. The Thessalonians were suffering at the hands of some trouble-makers. Paul's advice is, be patient and persevere. God will judge the trouble-makers in his own time (see 1 Thes. 1).
   

But I do disagree with Packer on one point. "When in doubt", he says, "do nothing, but continue to wait on the Lord." There may be times when that is sound advice. But I can't say I was certain that God wanted me to be a physio, or go to Oak Hill, nor even St Peter's! If I'd waited for certainty, I might still be bored out of my skull (earning 'loads o' money'!) at Lloyd's of London. Sometimes, we have to act on the basis of sound advice from godly people, and on the basis that nothing in scripture forbids this particular course of action.

More on the theme of guidance tomorrow.

Child of a heavenly Father

'If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity,' writes J I Packer, 'find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child, and having God as his Father.' (Knowing God, p226).

There's too much in this chapter to sum up here, but once again, Packer writes so powerfully about such great truths that it convinces me that we must have a series or two on Sunday mornings based on the themes in this book: Who is God? How can I know him, and what's the genuine experience of knowing God? What difference does knowing God make? Being a child of God. And so on.

If you've not read this book, why not give it a go? Yes, you'll need to concentrate and think hard. But if you want to know God your Father better, then get your hands on a copy. You can get it from The Good Book Company.

Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in the UK will be launched on 6 July at Westminster Central Hall in London. The FCA is aiming to unite all Anglicans who can, without reservation, affirm a truly Anglican faith, as summarised in the Jerusalem Declaration. This may seem a silly thing to have to do, but sadly, many Anglicans have turned their backs on the faith and are leading others astray especially in the USA and Cananda, though we know only too well that we have senior leaders in the Church of England who undermine the gospel. The refusal of the Archbishop of Canterbury to exercise any discipline over those who promote false teaching and immorality forced many bishops from around the world to convene the GAFCON conference as an alternative to the Lambeth Conference last year.
I'm not without reservations regarding FCA, not least because it's a fellowship of evangelicals and Anglo-catholics. But the Bible and the Anglican church teaches the sufficiency of Christ's death alone to bring us, through faith alone, life in the Kingdom of God. But the Anglo-catholics don't seem to believe this - at least that's what their use of the Mass seems to say. So I shall have to go to the launch event prepared to ask questions about this. I'm not prepared to sign up until I have a satisfactory answer.

Papyrus 66

This is the manuscript I'm working on (see here for the full size picture).
As I mentioned before, it's dated c.200, and contains most of John's gospel (some pages are missing and others are fragmentary).
It's commonly said that there's no punctuation in early Greek NT papyri, but that's untrue. Here there are single dots, colons, paragraphs and chevrons (>). In chapter 1 alone, there are 41 single dots and colons, and 27 of these coincide with verse divisions in our Bibles (there are 51 verses in John 1). This is consistent with similar manuscripts.
So when people say that verse divisions weren't put in until the 16th Century, that's only partially true - that's when the marks became numbers. (Chapter divisions were introduced by Archbishop Langton in the 13 century.)
The question now is why did the scribe included the rest of the marks? All bar a tiny minority make grammatical sense, but there are so few that it's hard to see why he chose to put them in at all.