http://www.cofec.org/sermons/7825
John Stott’s New Evangelicalism and the Assault of Islam
The article appeared August 12th in "English Churchman"
“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” 1 Corinthians 14:8.
While there is no doubt that Rev Dr John Stott achieved a tremendous amount during his long career at All Souls, Langham Place, London, the tribute given by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams reveals much, “Without ever compromising his firm evangelical faith, he showed himself willing to challenge some of the ways in which that faith had become conventional or inward-looking. . . It is not too much to say that he helped change the face of evangelicalism internationally . . .”
In a future edition we will, if the Lord wills, critically examine some of these changes. Here however we shall consider just one. We seek to show just one of the very serious consequences of John Stott’s changes of policy. Rather than being like 19th Century Bishop JC Ryle, leading an evangelical army into spiritual warfare against the liberal and ritualist hierarchy of the Church of England, John Stott took the unprecedented step of calling evangelicals to work alongside these non-evangelicals. This represented the beginning of what has become known as New Evangelicalism. There are certain Bible verses that have an application far wider than their context. One such is: “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Corinthians 14:8).
With its heady mix of liberal, ritual, ecstatic and evangelical the Church of England gives such an uncertain sound. Consequently, while some congregations have grown, the Church of England attendance has fallen by more than 50% in the 30 years since 1980.
Churches today are desperately trying to attract the young by including as many childfriendly activities as possible. Some of these methods, such as the use of pop music, are frankly puerile. The replacement of reverence with informality is rooted in heresy if not outright blasphemy. One regrettable change is evident in prayers which drop any reference to the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, simply fizzling out at the end, perhaps with a muffled Amen as an afterthought. Such prayers may even be eloquent but they are more acceptable to unbelievers than to Christians. Surely it cannot be that ministers are ashamed that prayer can only be offered in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and not by the world at large?
Such trends have taken away the serious tone of the church as, without good examples to follow, the badly taught youth of one generation become the leaders of the next. And we have not yet mentioned the devastating fruits of the liberal hierarchy of the Church of England! First let us make a comparison with Islam.
In stark contrast to a sloppy church British Muslims are on a mission. Despite Government efforts to ‘integrate’ them they are certainly not hearing a trumpet with an uncertain sound from their mosques! A recent edition of Channel 4's Dispatches demonstrated that British-born Islamic youth are generally much more Islamically zealous or radical than their parents. There has been no dumbing down of seriousness in the mosques and yet the young Muslims love it! While British Christians, young and old, complain about the difficultly of understanding “Thee” in our Authorised Version Bible, British Muslims are busily learning the Koran in Arabic. They may not understand it and, as was shown by another Dispatches programme, they may be beaten and kicked into doing it, but once they have learnt it they do not complain but are proud.
Of course we rightly find the idea of kicking our children abhorrent, but what has gone wrong with the church in comparison? Is it just that Christian parents do not teach their children the faith? One friend recently expressed it simply like this, things started going wrong when church leaders stopped believing the truth, the Bible. Bishops and clergymen at their ordination have solemnly vowed to hold to a biblical understanding of Christianity, the 39 Articles of Religion, and to do so vigorously, “to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s word”. Some may have done so ignorantly but many must have deliberately and wickedly broken these vows and embraced false teaching. No doubt they were never converted in the proper evangelical sense. Maybe, as some like William Haslam and Samuel Walker of Cornwall testified when they were converted while already clergymen, they only went into the ministry for an easy life, a large house and a pension. Others entered the ministry to spread their own unbiblical ideas of love by trying to be nice and to make the world a better place without understanding the need for themselves and their followers to first receive the grace of God through faith in Christ. While some swore falsely or ignorantly when they made their vows, others were once sincere but have since backslidden and fallen from the faith. They should have become social workers or politicians, but never clergymen. They should certainly now resign. Yet the Church of England refuses to administer proper discipline.
The plague has now spread. Bishops used to keep their liberal unbelief private but since the terrible confession of atheism, “Honest to God”by the Bishop of Woolwich, John A.T. Robinson in 1963, they now rather boast of it. This provides a license for the whole nation to be atheists. “If a Bishop can be an atheist what hold can the church have upon me?” they cry as they metaphorically burn their Bibles. This struck a chord with us. When the things preached by the church are seen by onlookers to be uncertain, the moral high ground is taken away from the church and it has lost its authority and the power to preach. Without peaching it has no Gospel to offer and is, more or less, irrelevant.
A nation that used to believe that there was a God to whom we must give an account is now not even sure about that. It is all the more tragic because while all peoples of the world have some concept of having to please God, Britain also had a good grasp of the Gospel, the means of securing the love of that God without which it is impossible to please Him. Now, through the unbelief of its leading clergymen, it does not know where to turn. It certainly will not turn to an uncertain church.
“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Corinthians 14:8).
Those of us seeking to preach the Gospel to the lost are now fighting an even tougher uphill battle as we do not even have the consensus of public opinion in our favour with a common sense morality and fear of God to support us. In fact we are thought to be part of the problem. Of course it is not so. The Biblical churches are the only ones with the answer but our nation has believed a lie and is in a very dangerous position with the multi-faith confusion caused by acceptance of contradicting and false ideologies such as atheism, Islam and sodomy, all competing to be the leading ideology.
Christianity in the UK has lost its “default” position because the clergy have defaulted on their duty to contend for the faith. It is all the more tragic because this apostasy has not come through oppression but by simple faithlessness. It is an even greater tragedy as it is a fall from such a privileged status with that Gospel preaching duty constituted by law in the Established Church of England as part of the fabric of our land under God. How are the mighty fallen!
While some evangelical churches are large and may be growing, the overall picture is gloomy. Through wickedness at the top of the Church of England, outsiders now have all the excuses they need to avoid the claims of the Bible and to follow Mohammed or Buddha instead. Despite their rising influence the tragedy is that the Mosques and atheists do NOT have the truth but have believed a lie. Mohammed was NOT a prophet and neither was Darwin. Muslims may have better morality than godless Britain on some points, but they are not themselves acceptable to God. They are lost, like many of the Jews of St Paul’s day, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Romans 10:3,4).
The seeming superiority of Islam over an unbelieving Established Church is just one more reason why we believe it is so important to separate from the mixed churches run by unbelieving clergymen. It is a most urgent matter that the Church of England is purged of unbelieving ministers. If evangelicals in the Church of England are only trying to do that by stealth it is not good enough. It is a scandal and should be vociferously protested and fought as being such.
This is where we strongly disagree with otherwise godly men such as the late Rev Dr John R.W. Stott who died on 27th July. Stott said prior to the first National Evangelical Anglican Congress (NEAC) which met at Keele in April 1967: “. . . We (evangelicals) have acquired a reputation for narrow partisanship and obstructionism . . . We have no one but ourselves to blame. We need to repent and change.”
Ten years later in 1977 at the second NEAC at Nottingham, Stott openly expressed his belief: "The visible unity of all professing Christians should be our goal…and evangelicals should join others in the Church of England in working towards full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.”
It is this unbiblical unity with unbelieving leaders that has wreaked havoc in the church and nation. That some evangelical churches have grown through their child friendly and user friendly services can never compensate for the general trend of unbelief that has brought about the loss of authority.
Yet there is still a remnant and God’s grace is not limited by man’s sins. Neither is it limited by a seemingly small number of men in God’s service. We must look as foolish as David against Goliath! God is able to save by few or by many. Let us not be weary soldiers of our Lord Jesus Christ. We only have a short time until we are home.
“Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isaiah 59:1)
John Stott’s New Evangelicalism and the Assault of Islam
The article appeared August 12th in "English Churchman"
“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” 1 Corinthians 14:8.
While there is no doubt that Rev Dr John Stott achieved a tremendous amount during his long career at All Souls, Langham Place, London, the tribute given by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams reveals much, “Without ever compromising his firm evangelical faith, he showed himself willing to challenge some of the ways in which that faith had become conventional or inward-looking. . . It is not too much to say that he helped change the face of evangelicalism internationally . . .”
In a future edition we will, if the Lord wills, critically examine some of these changes. Here however we shall consider just one. We seek to show just one of the very serious consequences of John Stott’s changes of policy. Rather than being like 19th Century Bishop JC Ryle, leading an evangelical army into spiritual warfare against the liberal and ritualist hierarchy of the Church of England, John Stott took the unprecedented step of calling evangelicals to work alongside these non-evangelicals. This represented the beginning of what has become known as New Evangelicalism. There are certain Bible verses that have an application far wider than their context. One such is: “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Corinthians 14:8).
With its heady mix of liberal, ritual, ecstatic and evangelical the Church of England gives such an uncertain sound. Consequently, while some congregations have grown, the Church of England attendance has fallen by more than 50% in the 30 years since 1980.
Churches today are desperately trying to attract the young by including as many childfriendly activities as possible. Some of these methods, such as the use of pop music, are frankly puerile. The replacement of reverence with informality is rooted in heresy if not outright blasphemy. One regrettable change is evident in prayers which drop any reference to the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, simply fizzling out at the end, perhaps with a muffled Amen as an afterthought. Such prayers may even be eloquent but they are more acceptable to unbelievers than to Christians. Surely it cannot be that ministers are ashamed that prayer can only be offered in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and not by the world at large?
Such trends have taken away the serious tone of the church as, without good examples to follow, the badly taught youth of one generation become the leaders of the next. And we have not yet mentioned the devastating fruits of the liberal hierarchy of the Church of England! First let us make a comparison with Islam.
In stark contrast to a sloppy church British Muslims are on a mission. Despite Government efforts to ‘integrate’ them they are certainly not hearing a trumpet with an uncertain sound from their mosques! A recent edition of Channel 4's Dispatches demonstrated that British-born Islamic youth are generally much more Islamically zealous or radical than their parents. There has been no dumbing down of seriousness in the mosques and yet the young Muslims love it! While British Christians, young and old, complain about the difficultly of understanding “Thee” in our Authorised Version Bible, British Muslims are busily learning the Koran in Arabic. They may not understand it and, as was shown by another Dispatches programme, they may be beaten and kicked into doing it, but once they have learnt it they do not complain but are proud.
Of course we rightly find the idea of kicking our children abhorrent, but what has gone wrong with the church in comparison? Is it just that Christian parents do not teach their children the faith? One friend recently expressed it simply like this, things started going wrong when church leaders stopped believing the truth, the Bible. Bishops and clergymen at their ordination have solemnly vowed to hold to a biblical understanding of Christianity, the 39 Articles of Religion, and to do so vigorously, “to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s word”. Some may have done so ignorantly but many must have deliberately and wickedly broken these vows and embraced false teaching. No doubt they were never converted in the proper evangelical sense. Maybe, as some like William Haslam and Samuel Walker of Cornwall testified when they were converted while already clergymen, they only went into the ministry for an easy life, a large house and a pension. Others entered the ministry to spread their own unbiblical ideas of love by trying to be nice and to make the world a better place without understanding the need for themselves and their followers to first receive the grace of God through faith in Christ. While some swore falsely or ignorantly when they made their vows, others were once sincere but have since backslidden and fallen from the faith. They should have become social workers or politicians, but never clergymen. They should certainly now resign. Yet the Church of England refuses to administer proper discipline.
The plague has now spread. Bishops used to keep their liberal unbelief private but since the terrible confession of atheism, “Honest to God”by the Bishop of Woolwich, John A.T. Robinson in 1963, they now rather boast of it. This provides a license for the whole nation to be atheists. “If a Bishop can be an atheist what hold can the church have upon me?” they cry as they metaphorically burn their Bibles. This struck a chord with us. When the things preached by the church are seen by onlookers to be uncertain, the moral high ground is taken away from the church and it has lost its authority and the power to preach. Without peaching it has no Gospel to offer and is, more or less, irrelevant.
A nation that used to believe that there was a God to whom we must give an account is now not even sure about that. It is all the more tragic because while all peoples of the world have some concept of having to please God, Britain also had a good grasp of the Gospel, the means of securing the love of that God without which it is impossible to please Him. Now, through the unbelief of its leading clergymen, it does not know where to turn. It certainly will not turn to an uncertain church.
“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Corinthians 14:8).
Those of us seeking to preach the Gospel to the lost are now fighting an even tougher uphill battle as we do not even have the consensus of public opinion in our favour with a common sense morality and fear of God to support us. In fact we are thought to be part of the problem. Of course it is not so. The Biblical churches are the only ones with the answer but our nation has believed a lie and is in a very dangerous position with the multi-faith confusion caused by acceptance of contradicting and false ideologies such as atheism, Islam and sodomy, all competing to be the leading ideology.
Christianity in the UK has lost its “default” position because the clergy have defaulted on their duty to contend for the faith. It is all the more tragic because this apostasy has not come through oppression but by simple faithlessness. It is an even greater tragedy as it is a fall from such a privileged status with that Gospel preaching duty constituted by law in the Established Church of England as part of the fabric of our land under God. How are the mighty fallen!
While some evangelical churches are large and may be growing, the overall picture is gloomy. Through wickedness at the top of the Church of England, outsiders now have all the excuses they need to avoid the claims of the Bible and to follow Mohammed or Buddha instead. Despite their rising influence the tragedy is that the Mosques and atheists do NOT have the truth but have believed a lie. Mohammed was NOT a prophet and neither was Darwin. Muslims may have better morality than godless Britain on some points, but they are not themselves acceptable to God. They are lost, like many of the Jews of St Paul’s day, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Romans 10:3,4).
The seeming superiority of Islam over an unbelieving Established Church is just one more reason why we believe it is so important to separate from the mixed churches run by unbelieving clergymen. It is a most urgent matter that the Church of England is purged of unbelieving ministers. If evangelicals in the Church of England are only trying to do that by stealth it is not good enough. It is a scandal and should be vociferously protested and fought as being such.
This is where we strongly disagree with otherwise godly men such as the late Rev Dr John R.W. Stott who died on 27th July. Stott said prior to the first National Evangelical Anglican Congress (NEAC) which met at Keele in April 1967: “. . . We (evangelicals) have acquired a reputation for narrow partisanship and obstructionism . . . We have no one but ourselves to blame. We need to repent and change.”
Ten years later in 1977 at the second NEAC at Nottingham, Stott openly expressed his belief: "The visible unity of all professing Christians should be our goal…and evangelicals should join others in the Church of England in working towards full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.”
It is this unbiblical unity with unbelieving leaders that has wreaked havoc in the church and nation. That some evangelical churches have grown through their child friendly and user friendly services can never compensate for the general trend of unbelief that has brought about the loss of authority.
Yet there is still a remnant and God’s grace is not limited by man’s sins. Neither is it limited by a seemingly small number of men in God’s service. We must look as foolish as David against Goliath! God is able to save by few or by many. Let us not be weary soldiers of our Lord Jesus Christ. We only have a short time until we are home.
“Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isaiah 59:1)
No comments:
Post a Comment