Friday 28 November 2014

My Adventures with God : 28. Rebellion

Ch 28: Rebellion!

It started in Koo-wee-rup. It started with two women.

First Yvonne attacked Sue. “She started this Bible study group, and now she leaves us to run it on our own!” Proclaimed Yvonne far and wide. Sue as you recall had pulled out of most of her ministry roles due to severe and crippling post-natal depression.

Then Robyn stirred up disaffection and malice against me. Robyn was the classic case of “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” (No, no, not scorned by me: scorned by her husband!). He was a churchwarden and wealthy land owner from an old family, and as a couple they had been the glamorous leaders of the 'younger' set in the Koo-wee-rup church. Suddenly George left Robyn and their three grown up children and ran off with his farm-hand’s wife.

I was advocating team and “all member” ministry, so once I had seen that Robyn was receiving good pastoral care from Ross's sister-in-law who was her own age and social status, and from Ross and others at Bayles where she now worshiped, I kept out of it. In regards to George, although he met with some of the men from Koo-wee-rup, I had no way of contacting him.

However I was in touch with the local Catholic priest regarding the situation and so was the one to bring the news to Robyn that this priest had prevailed upon the other woman to give up George and be reconciled to her husband and that they were about to leave the district. So George returned to Robyn, but not by choice. Robyn's fury needed some outlet. If she wanted to keep George it could not be him; so like the old fashioned idea of the “whipping boy” who took the flogging for the favored son who could not be punished; I became the object of Robyn's wrath.

Influential men who were members of the local Masonic Lodge were however the ones who fired the bullets these women made.

Doug, a churchwarden at Koo-wee-rup, and at that time I think the third highest ranking Mason in the entire state told me: “I've got rid of more ministers that you've had hot dinners and you are next!” The shire president at that time was also a Freemason and a parishioner and joined the fray.

Comment: I have generally taken care neither to encourage nor to antagonize the Freemasons, but some time after these events I did learn something interesting which I will pass on. I was studying sociology to try to answer the question of why I could so easily bring people to Jesus, but could not bring them to church. One book I read was a detailed sociological study of a small farming town just out of Washington DC. The sociologists just observed, and recorded what they saw. One thing they observed was that in every church in the town there was at least one high placed member from the Masonic Lodge whose apparent purpose was to control the minister.

So these men went to the bishop and demanded my head on a platter. The bishop announced he was coming to the parish to chair a special meeting of Parish Council to hear the complaints. As you can imagine this was all rather traumatic particularly with everything else that was happening. So you will understand when I say that my recollection of it all is a bit fuzzy.

But I do recall that I was depending on God. Totally! I also recall that we deliberately did not allow our supporters to come out openly on our side: Shepherds should protect their sheep, not the other way round!

The meeting was I think pretty inconclusive, nevertheless a day or two later the bishop phoned and said: “If people had said about me the things that Doug said about you I would have done the honorable thing and resigned on the spot!” As it happened once the bishop had left Doug had let forth on what a miserable specimen he thought the bishop was. So I replied “Well that man did say those sort of things about you too”.

After praying about it I felt God was saying to be bold and call their bluff.

I rang the bishop and told him to get himself down here for another meeting. I chaired this meeting. I told them all they had been behaving badly and gave them two choices: They could quit whining and agree work with me; or I would call a public meeting and denounce their behavior – they all knew that Sue and I had a great deal of public support outside the church. They crumbled. Yvonne broke ranks and said she would work with me (and was as good as her word). The leading men could not afford to lose face in public and followed suit. Being honorable men of standing they also were as good as their word. The bishop made some pious platitudes and went home.

Victory? As Wellington said after defeating Napoleon at Waterloo: “Nothing save a battle lost, is so terrible as a battle won.” It had exhausted what little energy we had left and I next had to face a spiritual wolf coming among the flock at Bayles.


Tuesday 25 November 2014

William Wilberforce 179 book condensed: Sec II : Evil Spirit - Natural State of Man

Section II : Evil Spirit – Natural State of Man

Human nature is only part of our problem. The Bible teaches that as well as our natural depravity there is in addition the Devil who rules in the hearts of the wicked. His rule is so general that the Bible calls him “the prince of this world”. But this very question of the existence of the Devil highlights the difference between the religion of the Bible and the nominal Christianity in our country today. The Bible is plain about the reality of the Devil but Popular Christianity laughs at the idea and says that in our enlightened age it cannot be believed.

People often dismiss the existence of evil spirits on the flimsy excuse that once ghost stories were believed but now we see through them as superstitious tales. But taking that argument we would end up denying the existence of any spiritual beings. As to temptation: we cannot see evil spirits but we do see some human beings who are clearly enemies of God and all that is good who try to get others to join them in perpetrating evil. So why should there not be spiritual beings who are likewise enemies of God and all that is good who try to tempt humans to perpetrate evil? It is inconsistent to admit that humans can tempt other humans to do evil but refuse to admit that spiritual beings can also tempt humans.

If the Bible is true, we face a grim reality: we are attacked from within by our corrupt nature and from without by the Devil's temptations. So how do we face the prospect of the coming Judgement? If we look at the qualities and character of the Judge and the rule he will employ our fears only get bigger.

As to his qualities: He has absolute power and knows everything we have ever done and our every secret thought. Nothing is hidden fro him.

As to his character: “God is a consuming fire” his “eyes are too pure to look on evil”.

As to the rule he will use: “the one who sins is the one who shall die” and “sin pays a wage: death”. If we don't think God means what he says just look at history. Look at what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah, what he ordered Israel to do to the idolatrous Canaanite nations. Look at Tyre, Babylon, Nineveh: God said through his prophets he would wreak judgement on them – and he did! How can people be so silly as to fool themselves that God will somehow let them off because 'it was just human nature'! True – along with the threats the Bible holds out the wonderful promise of forgiveness to those who repent. But the key is when they repent. “But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord.” One cannot seriously read the Bible without realising the dreadful judgement that awaits people who refuse to heed God. Even in this world we see hints of God's judgement in the inbuilt 'cause and effect' nature of the world.

But praise be to God! He has not left us without hope in the face of awful judgement. Jesus came “to proclaim good news to the poor … freedom for the prisoners … sight for the blind … to let the oppressed go free.” People who realise their desperate need jump at the freedom Jesus offers them! But in order for people to realise their great need we must talk about human corruption. But no one wants to talk about it because it offends our human pride. So we see today much religion lacking solid foundations where no one is convicted to “flee from the wrath to come” and we do not “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”.

We must shake off this lethargy. A practical realisation of our natural depravity and weakness will help us here. Just as understanding this made us realise our need of God, so reminding ourselves of it will keep us depending on Him. Only obstinate stupidity can say that humans are basically good in the face of all the evidence around us and the voice of scripture. Don't be stupid - be wise.

We need to make this doctrine our habitual feeling. When we see acts of folly and vice we must always remind ourselves that we also share the same human nature which produced these bad things. Like one disease sufferer seeing another's symptoms we should pity the offender and be vigilant against the fault in our own hearts.



Friday 21 November 2014

My Adventures with God Ch 27. Problems at Bayles

Ch 27: Problems at Bayles.

The Bible study group which met each Tuesday night at Ross and Robyn's home was the core group of the Bayles fellowship. Problems started to develop.

Sue and I had been influenced by David Watson who was a leader of the Charismatic movement (but we were not card carrying members of that or any church faction). So I was not unduly alarmed at Bayles becoming more overtly Charismatic. I had even taken Ross and one of the Koo-wee-rup churchwardens up to Sydney to a pentecostal conference on church growth where Paul Yonggi Cho – then pastor of the world's largest church – was the main speaker.

Video players had just become popular and Ross got one so that they could play tapes of Christian speakers. Unfortunately the type of speaker utilising this new technology tended to be radical pentecostals and avaricious tele-evangelists. So Ross and some of the others began a gradual slide into un-Biblical forms of pentecostalism.

This took place very gradually. At first the tele-evangelists – although not my cup of tea because of their cavalier attitude to scripture – seemed harmless. Also I was crippled by Sue's catastrophic post-natal depression and my slide into a sympathetic depression.

One other factor I will mention because it is an important warning to young pastors.
Sue was not involved in Bayles. This is really important! Sue and I acted as a social unit in all our other ministries. New converts like Rosalie knew us as a couple, even though Rosalie and I worked closely together in teaching RE in the schools. And the bonds of friendship and loyalty were to us as a couple. When there was a crisis we had bonds of personal loyalty (strongest in the new converts) and denominational loyalty (strongest in the old parishioners). Loyalties that held even if all else failed. At Bayles when push came to shove I had nothing to fall back on !

True, in church at Lang Lang and Koo-wee-rup I was the priest and in that respect functioned on my own, but in every social interaction Sue was there. Sue had been a doctor in both Lang Lang and Koo-wee-rup and ran Sunday School in Lang Lang and the ladies Bible study in Koo-wee-rup in that sense on her own, but we were still socially interacting with all the people as a couple.

The Youth Bible study was something I was involved in but not Sue (that was a matter of sheer practicality!) Bayles Fellowship was something I was involved in but not Sue. So socially the people in these interacted with me but not Sue: they had no bond to us as a couple. Ross and I worked very closely together but Sue and Robyn did not. The young people of the Bible study, and the people of Bayles had developed their social interactions with Ross and Robyn as the ministry couple.


Back to the story: Unsound teaching started to trickle in. They became hooked on the pentecostal idea that the test of whether a person had the Holy Spirit was if they 'spoke in tongues'. Then came faith healing. I sfor instance one night Ross confessed his “weakness” to the group. He told how he had suffered a painful tooth abscess for three days – praying for God to miraculously heal it. Then the pain grew too much and his faith “failed” and he went to the dentist and had the tooth pulled.

Biblical teaching (which I had also seen borne out by experience) is that God can heal anything. God does still work miracles in our day. But God does not heal everything.

At Koo-wee-rup one of the churchwardens who was also a Bayles attender became more and more pentecostal. He demanded I cut the “Prayer of Humble Access” from the liturgy because it implied we were unworthy – we shouldn't be humble he said: we should be bold! We should not ask God what he wanted us to do: we should command God what we wanted him to do! (I go through this heresy in detail in my book Colostrum as an example of wrong use of scriptures. You can read the section in http://lifeuniversegod.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/3-things-every-christian-needs-pt-2.html .)

I remember one Sunday after church standing outside, Bible in hand actually showing him the verses that directly contradicted what he was saying. His reply was: “But you only have a small parish ministry, X (the source of this heresy) has a multi-million dollar TV ministry, so I must believe him rather than you.”

A great Reformation catch cry was “The meanest peasant with the Bible is greater than the greatest pope with out it” The Tele-evangelists had turned the clock back to pre-reformation error!

Truth is truth no matter who tells it.

One 13 year old girl who came to Bayles with her mother was using a “King James” translation of the Bible. She was barely literate in modern English! So the obsolescent language of the KJV would have been incomprehensible to her. Of course that is one reason it is favoured by a certain sort of tele-evangelist. Like the medieval church having the scriptures in Latin – it means that people are utterly dependant on the “priestly caste” to tell them what it means. Once again this was something the Reformation tried to remedy. Anyway, I tried to persuade Renee to try a modern English version. She looked at me as though I had spoken blasphemy and replied: “The King James is good enough for Kenneth Copeland (her favourite tele-evangelist) so its good enough for me!”

The crunch was that these little sheep were out of control and unprotected. Enticed by modern day equivalents of the “super apostles” that opposed St. Paul, they were deaf to God's voice through the scriptures and they were deaf to the voice of reason (and hopefully God) through me as His under shepherd. Then along came a real spiritual wolf.
Next week: Rebellion at Koo-wee-rup


Tuesday 18 November 2014

William Wilberforce 1779: Ch. II Sect. I

Ch. II Corruption of Human Nature.

Sect. I : Inadequate conceptions of the corruption of human nature

We have looked at the defective notions people have about the importance of Christianity. To understand Christianity, first of all we need to understand the corruption of human nature.

As I see it, most people in the upper classes who say they are Christians either overlook, deny or make excuses for human nature. Though to be fair they do admit two important things: a) that there are and always have been a lot of bad things happening in the world; b) that education does not make people good: even when people know the good they do not do it.

These two points are both so clearly true and obvious that one should accept the quote: “the majority are wicked”.

The problem is that this is not traced to its true source.

People who call themselves Christians use weasel words to hide the evil in human nature. They pretend people are really good: they pretend evil comes from outside, not inside the human mind.

Real Christianity says: We are fallen creatures; We are now biased against good and towards evil; We are sinners to the core.

Someone on another planet who simply read a list of human abilities would think that with such intelligent, creative and skillful inhabitants earth must be the ideal world.

What a shock they would get when they saw what we humans have really done – all the war, violence, oppression, injustice and every other kind of evil.

Look at the ancient world - not the barbaric nations, the classical civilisations where we applaud their achievements and their philosophy; not the lower classes but the elites. Even there their morals were absolutely disgusting. As Paul said: “Just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind”

Look somewhere else: to the new world untouched by these civilisations. Are these 'children of nature' pure and perfect. No! Accounts of the American Indians describe them as proud, indolent, cunning, selfish, horribly cruel and with a lust for vengeance of insatiable ferocity.

You may say: 'these heathens are indeed indefensible, but can we not base our view of human nature on nations which have been blessed with the light of revelation?' Here Christianity has set the moral bar far higher than ever it was in a pagan country – especially when it comes to treatment of the poor and weak. Here godly laws and customs restrain so much evil behaviour – you only have to look at the recent French Revolution to see how evil multiplies when these restraints are removed. Above all, we live under the dreadful expectation of standing before God on the Day of Judgement. Yet even with all this we experience the truth of old sayings like “power corrupts” in our society and we find that even people who talk about virtue do not practice it.

Here are some other arguments. a) Children have to be trained to be good – it does not come naturally. b) We all practice self deception. Christianity has often been disgraced by people who forget Jesus in their persecuting zeal. One can understand heathens who have such warped ideas of what God is like behaving badly, but Christians? It is a terrible thing that we who ...
enjoy the full light of revelation, to whom God has vouchsafed such clear discoveries of what it concerns us to know of his being and attributes; who profess to believe that “in him we live, move and have our being”; that to him we owe all the comforts we here enjoy and the offers of eternal glory purchased for us by the atoning blood of his own Son; (thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift) that we, thus loaded with mercies should every one of us be continually chargeable with forgetting his authority and being ungrateful for his benefits; with slighting his gracious proposals or greeting them at best but heartlessly and coldly.” (Wilberforce's text)

This is the acid test for the depravity of human nature: what have the best and finest Christians discovered about themselves? They will confirm how desperately corrupt they know their inner human nature to be.

When you compare the potential of humans with the performance of the human race, excuses like “frailty” or “occasional lapses” of human nature just will not do. Human nature is bent. Our nobler powers are corrupted, we don't even want to know about God or know or obey his laws. Evil habits have made us slaves to sin, darkened our understanding, hardened our hearts and seared our consciences until we even glory in our slavery.

Some people are better, some worse – but no one is free.

So just like Newton's Laws, this principle of evil being ingrained in human nature is a matter of scientific observation of reality.

We also have this revealed to us in Scripture. From “the imagination of the human heart is evil from youth” in Genesis through so many possible quotes to Paul's lament in Romans “What a wretched man I am. Who will deliver me from this body that is subject to death”. Other verses tell us that we need a radical change in our nature to become true Christians. Holy people give God all the credit for what they are.


Friday 14 November 2014

My Adventures with God: Year 1983

Ch 26. Year 1983

Sue and I had two boys aged nearly 5 and 2. Sue was pregnant again. I was so busy with meetings and the various things involved in running a rapidly growing ministry that I was not taking much notice, so I am describing what I came to understand later, more than what I picked up on at the time.

This pregnancy was different. Sue had always bloomed in pregnancy. Not this time. She became quieter, withdrawn and let things slip on the domestic side. As I said I didn't notice: I was too busy looking after other people to see what was happening right under my nose.

Our first daughter, Elizabeth Inez Louise, was born in March 1983. Sue discharged herself from hospital after a few days – a week was the usual stay then – so that her mother would not come down from Sydney to look after us. That should have made me think something was wrong. She went to stay with Inez and Orrie. I think for a couple of weeks. She always seemed to be in bed, she always seemed to be crying. It was the same when she finally moved home. One day coming back from wherever I had been I came in on this scene: Our two year old Timothy was crying and banging on the outside of our closed bedroom door. He held a box of tissues in hand. Most of the contents littered the floor, obviously used blowing his nose and drying his eyes. Sue was inside crying out “Go Away!” Tim had heard her crying in there and had wanted to bring her some tissues to comfort her. Still I didn't see.

One day Orrie called me over to his surgery. He told me to sit down and read an article from a medical magazine. The article was actually a story about a man whose wife had post natal depression. I can't now remember the details but as he described how the kids complained that all he ever cooked was sausages and mash it hit me. I was the man! Not long before, I couldn't think what to feed the kids one night. In desperation I made one large banana milkshake – adding raw egg for protein. Then thinking that still wasn't a proper dinner I added vitamin drops – which made it taste so bad the kids wouldn't drink it.

When I had read the article Orrie told me that Sue had a profound post-natal depression. Like the man in the story I had not noticed the signs. Like the man in the story I had slipped into a sympathetic depression which made me incapable of helping.

It was a devastating blow. Orrie's very authoritative manner brooked no dispute – especially when he was normally so convivial. This was the doctor speaking, not the family friend. He went on to say that he did not hold out much hope that Sue would live through the depression. (the really effective modern drugs had not been invented then) She would, he believed, certainly die if she were put in a public hospital, and we had no private health insurance. He said he and Inez would do all they could, but I must do my bit and pull back from church work to save my wife and care for my children.

Inez and Orrie were wonderful. They had unbeknowns to me already gone through our medicine cabinet and removed anything dangerous. The drugs available in those days for depression were lethal in high doses, so Orrie only handed out the tablets a few day's supply at a time. When we went on holidays he and Inez even took simultaneous holidays so that they could meet up with us halfway with the next sub-lethal quantity of Sue's medication.

I can't tell you how bad I felt, just that it was so bad that my mind has completely blocked it out. I could not bring all the details of that time to mind if I tried.

I rearranged things to spend more time at home. We had money laid by as a deposit on a house. Over the next few years we spent it on home help. Ian's wife Leon was a retired hospital cook. She came several nights a week to bath the kids and cook dinner for all of us. We hired other ladies to clean house and do the washing and ironing.

Some of the new converts were a fantastic help – possibly without realising it since Sue could not bear anyone to know about her illness.

When we had left Sydney and our families to move to Gippsland, Sue had asked God to provide substitute grandparents for the children. Now God answered that prayer. Inez and Orrie were the main ones. Elizabeth was as she grew was baby-sat by Leon and Ian who developed a special relationship to her. Tim also had a special person, Helen, who I mentioned before. She had the contract delivering mail out to the farms around Lang Lang. She took Tim out with her each day in her car, and Tim put the mail into the roadside mail boxes. It probably made her job take much longer, but Helen did it for several years with no thought of payment.

It was a terrible time, and God did not magic it away, but he provided everything we and the children needed to survive.


Next: problems at Bayles



Tuesday 11 November 2014

William Wilberforce 1779 book Chapter 1


William Wilberforce
A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, In the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity” London 1779
Condensed and in modern English by David Greentree, Melbourne 2014


Ch.1 Inadequate conceptions of the importance of Christianity

People call themselves Christians but just don't see how important Christianity is, or even what it is.
They praise ethical behaviour and complain about corruption and lack of public morals. They tolerate a bit of churchgoing, maybe they know a few of the basics but they don't have a clue what Jesus was really on about.

Look at how they raise their children. They would be embarrassed if their kids grew up not knowing the rules of football, but never teach them the facts of Christianity, or explain why it is true. It has just become an inherited bit of superstition, instead of a truth that can be explained and defended against objections. No wonder thinking young people are rejecting it for other philosophies as they grow up.

Wake up! You really won't like what this country turns into if Christianity falls. Look at the recent French revolution: If Christianity had been really alive in France, the revolution would never have happened – real Christians would have reformed corrupt church and society before then. Instead they got the Reign of Terror, the guillotine, and dictatorship. We need public discussion about Christianity in this country.

People reply: No! Religion should be private.

Well then, lets look at this “private religion” they say they have. How about their private conversations: How often is their Christian faith mentioned alongside their hopes, fears, joys sorrows. How often do they credit God with the good things they enjoy. Never! What about when they discuss great moral issues, does their Christianity show through. No! Their standards of right and wrong are not those of the Gospel. Wherever they got their moral ideas from, it was not Christianity! They might have Bibles on the shelf, but they obviously don't read them.

Most people take as morals the commonly received maxims of our “Christian” culture without realising that these are often very different from what the Bible actually teaches.

This behaviour: not teaching the great truths of Christianity to our children and not bothering to check our moral rules against what the Bible says is deliberate ignorance. Don't people who say they are Christians realise they will have to answer to God for this? Don't they realise this deliberate ignorance must look criminal to God? We are going to have to answer to God for every missed opportunity to do good. How much worse for us when God promised his Holy Spirit to lead us in our quest to know the things of God and instead we have chosen deliberate ignorance.

And why is it in the Christian faith alone that we think we don't need to make some effort? Nothing else in life is like that. Even if you are a gifted athlete you still have to train hard to win. The same with every other field of human endeavour. Yet people think they can be Christians without labour, study or enquiry. This is even more stupid considering that Christianity is a revelation from God not a human invention. So we certainly cannot become proficient in it if we delude ourselves that it comes naturally.

If we study the Bible seriously we might stop being deceived by appearances. We might see that this is no mere philosophy but the power of God for salvation in Christ. We would see that it calls us not just to be religious and moral, but to understand doctrines and principals and to practice the precepts of Christ.

Christianity is always represented in scripture as the grand, the unparalleled instance of God's bounty to mankind. It was graciously held forth in the original promise to our first parents; it was predicted by a long series of prophets; the subject of their prayers, enquiries and longing expectations. In a world which opposed and persecuted them, it was their source of peace and hope and consolation. At length it approached – the desire of all nations – The long expected star announced its presence – a multitude of heavenly host hailed its introduction and proclaimed its character; “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace goodwill towards men.” It is everywhere represented in Scripture by such figures as may most deeply impress upon us a sense of its value; it is spoken of as light from darkness, as release from prison, as deliverance from captivity, as life from death.” (Wilberforce's text)

So Christian faith is a priceless treasure from heaven freely offered to us. Yet people ignore it or hold it negligently as though it had no value.

It is common sense Christians should study their Bibles: “Faith comes by hearing: Hearing by the word of God” and “Be ready to give to everyone a reason for the hope that is in you”. But “Christian” people don't read the Bible – so it is no wonder they know so little and are so full of wrong ideas about Christianity.

One reason Christians don't study their Bibles is that they seem to believe that it doesn't matter what they believe as long as they sincerely believe it. How silly is that! Jihadist terrorists sincerely believe they are serving God as they slaughter innocent civilians – do we think that makes it right? Of course not! What you believe does matter. (NB Jihadist terrorist is my updating of Wilberforce's 18th century examples)

So, God gives you these wonderful promises and encouragements in the Bible. you are told it is a precious gift that others did not receive: “Many prophets and kings longed to hear the things you hear but did not hear them” Yet you chose to remain obstinately ignorant of the way that leads to life. How do you expect to escape punishment for this on God's day of judgement!



Friday 7 November 2014

My Adventures with God Ch 25: The Devil Strikes Back

Revival was in full swing: then the devil struck back with a vengeance.

The attack came simultaneously from all sides. It should, and but for the grace of God would, have been totally overwhelming. I think this narrative has important lessons for anyone in Christian service, but particularly anyone whose ministry marks them out more than the usual as a target. There were three main “fronts” the devil attacked on, and they ran more or less concurrently, so I will adopt the novelists' technique of jumping from one strand to another and then moving forward in time a bit and repeating the process. As I said my story has important lessons.

But first I want to quickly run over some theory.

The books on spiritual conflict generally start with the warning that there are two dangerous errors. The first is not believing the devil is real. The second is wanting to know too much about the devil.

1. Spiritual conflict is real

Some of my children had experience in Christian mission in Japan. Many Western missionaries came to grief because they did not know how to protect themselves against spiritual attack. Japan is a country where a businessman about to go to an important meeting will unashamedly go to the temple for the express purpose of “getting a demon to help him”. They have no illusions about the reality of demonic spirits. The missionary who does not believe they really exist “in the modern world” goes down like a rabbit caught in the spotlight.

What you do not know can hurt you! In 2000 some scrap dealers in Bangkok bought a metal cylinder among other scrap from a hospital. It had a yellow label which had English writing which none of them could read. It had a funny device like a three leafed clover which conveyed nothing to them. They opened up the cylinder and admired the beautiful blue metal within. It only took a couple of days for the authorities to realise than a canister of radioactive cobalt isotope had been mistakenly sent for scrap. But for the invisible gamma rays from the harmless looking canister a couple of says were enough. Three people died and several more had terrible radiation burns. You don't have to know something exists for it to be able to hurt you!

For most people C. S. Lewis' fictional tale “the Screwtape Letters” is probably sufficient to put you onto the right track. Plus the advice: when in doubt pray for help. Remember you are God's child. Every human parent knows that a scream from their little child is all it takes to bring them running, adrenalin pumping ready to protect their baby. God is better than any human parent! A cry for help to him is all it takes!

If you are a Christian leader, then the devil is probably even more intent on bringing you down. You are also by now a more mature Christian, with a more mature relationship to God. He may expect you to understand the situation better and be more specific in your prayers to him.

It is a “growing up” thing. A baby just has to cry. Its mother works out whether it is hungry; has a dirty nappy or is over tired and takes the appropriate action. As the child grows to maturity she expects it to learn to articulate its needs more precisely. Just bellowing incoherently when you want something is not generally acceptable in a 20 year old!

As a mature Christian you need to talk to God more about how he wants you to handle spiritual attack, and what he wants you to pray for and about in this regard. Of course in an emergency “Help me Lord!” always works.

You will also find that within your Christian circle God will have people who are praying for you, also people you should alert when you are under attack so they can pray for you more specifically and likely people who can teach you things you need to know about resisting spiritual attack.

Lastly there are people whom God calls to special ministry in this area. They don't chose to, God chooses them. If they are willing, then the Holy Spirit personally sees to their training and their equipping with the necessary spiritual gifts. In all probability you won't even guess who they are. But one reason the Christian West has seen so little obvious demonic activity compared to overtly pagan countries is that down the ages God has called and enabled such people to pray for the protection of their fellows. Be thankful that he has. C. S. Lewis's “That Hideous strength” includes a cameo of a fictional little cell of such people, and contrasts it with the worldly clique.


2. Don't get too interested.

This is really not a time you want to “know your enemy”! Concentrate on knowing God! All you want to know about the devil can be summed up in a few Scriptures:

Jesus said: “He (the devil) was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him, when he lies he speaks his native language, for he is liar and the father of lies” John 8:44ff.

Jesus said: “The thief comes only to kill and destroy, but I have that they may have life and have it to the full” John 10:10

That ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled down to earth and his angels with him …... and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring – those who keep God's commands and hold fast to the testimony about Jesus.” Revelation 12

NB. Rev. 12:12 “Woe to the earth and sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short”

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith ...” 1 Peter 5:8ff

Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” James 4:7

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur...” Revelation 20:10

The only spiritual being you want to spend time learning about is God, Father Son and Holy Spirit!

I say this particularly because in my brushes with more extreme Pentecostal teaching I have seen them often fall into the devil's snare by becoming too interested. Remember the devil is a liar and the father of lies, if you try to learn about him thinking that is a way to protect yourself you will inevitably be snared by his clever lies.

I have heard Christians saying such silly things as “The devil is a legalist, so we need to pray such and such” Idiots! Liar is what the devil is! And you have just swallowed his bait hook line and sinker!

It does not matter in the least whether the devil is a legalist or anything else – he is not the boss! It is God who is your Lord, God who is all-powerful, Christ who is the rightful ruler of the world and of your heart! You just need to learn what God is like, and pray to God according to his character!


The events I am about to relate involve illness, human activity by people who thought of themselves as Christians, and one person I would describe as demonic. You may say it was all coincidence. As a scientific person, when I see “coincidences” I start to look for “cause and effect” relationships.

I think that here my “the devil strikes back” theory is the most plausible explanation.

Illness? Even we dumb humans know how to use disease as a weapon – we just don't because it is evil. I have heard stories from the mission fields that make me think the devil does use illness as a weapon. However whether he did in this case or whether he merely took hold of the opportunity which presented itself I don't know. Either way he utilised the opportunity to press home a coordinated attack which brought a vigorous Christian revival to an end.

As to professing Christians being used by the devil: haven't we all been! Who has not had the experience of realising to their bitter shame and horror that they have just fallen for some temptation or some deceit or some ploy of the evil one and ended up causing harm? Tragically while some of us learn from our mistakes others go on in them. Some even let it take them over. History presents a terrible catalogue of evil done by people who thought they were serving God.




Tuesday 4 November 2014

William Wilberforce's 1779 book

New series starting next 
Yes, I am giving my morals blogs a rest for a while.

Instead I am going to post my condensed and modern language “translation” of a really great book on Christianity – which which seems to me to speak to the problem we face in Western Christianity much today as it did when it was first written in 1779.

The book is by the great anti-slavery campaigner in England from the 1770's to the 1820's: William Wilberforce.

PS If you don't know about Wilberforce you should watch a DVD of the blockbuster film “Amazing Grace”

You will guess why I am condensing his book and trying to put it into modern English (except for some short extracts) when I tell you its title:

A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, In the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity London 1779