The influence of the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon on the church today should not be understated. He was, perhaps, the most remarkable man of the past two-hundred years (and that is an impressive claim, to be sure). Tuesday the 31st of January marked the one-hundred and twentieth anniversary of Spurgeon's death. A life defined by the words of Isaiah: "Look to Me, and be saved all you ends of the earth!" (Isaiah 45:22).
So what makes Charles Spurgeon so remarkable? After all, he lived one-and-a-half centuries ago and even among believers he is a name that may be recognised but his significance cannot be stated. Perhaps one could point to the unbelievable pace that he consumed books. It is said that he studied a book a day. Such a claim seems likely because of his own written output. If one was to peruse their local Word/Koorong they would see Spurgeon occupying approximately 30-50% of the Classics section. His works number into the many thousands. His own library consisted of 5,103 books, which would have taken approximately 14 years to read, if Spurgeon's suggested pace was accurate.
Yet Spurgeon is not remembered, primarily, as an intellectual giant. He is described as the Prince of Preachers and is estimated to have preached to over 20 million people in his lifetime. Factoring in a world population in the mid-1800s of about 1.4 billion such figures of people sitting in the pulpits of Spurgeon's church is highly impressive. However, Spurgeon did not receive such praise merely for the amount of people who heard him preach but for the quality of his preaching and his staunch defence of biblical truths stood him very much apart from the preachers of his time.
It is here that Spurgeon's legacy turns from remarkable to something else entirely. In 1887 Spurgeon had been preaching for thirty-six of his fifty-three years. His church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, was part of the Baptist Union, and had a site to cater for over six-thousand people at one time. At this time there arose an ongoing friction between Spurgeon and the Baptist Union described as the Down Grade Controversy. Essentially the church in Britain was undergoing theological decline where "some Baptists downgraded the place of the Bible in the church by subscribing to the idea that the Pentateuch was not written by one person, and by entertaining Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, among other things" (The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon, pg 11).
Certainly the chief battlefield revolved around the infallibility of Scripture. That is, that Scripture is God-breathed and not subject to human reinterpretation. Click here to read Spurgeon's extensive sermon on this. There were many pastors in the Baptist Union who preached a compromised message and this had been brought to the attention of Spurgeon. In 1887 Spurgeon faced the might of the Baptist Union head on when he wrote several scathing articles in his monthly journal The Sword and Trowel (these can be read on spurgeon.org). His criticisms were deadly and some of what he wrote deserves citation here:
"Look at the church of the present day - the advanced school, I mean, In its midst we see preachers who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. They talk of the Lord Jesus, but they deny His Godhead, that is, His power. They speak of the Holy Spirit but deny His personality, wherein lies His very existence. They take away the substance and power from all the doctrines of revelation, though they pretend still to believe them. They talk of redemption, but they deny substitution, which is the essence of it.
They extol the scriptures but deny their infallibility, wherein lies their value. They use the phrases of orthodoxy and believe nothing in common with the orthodox. I know not which to loathe more, their teachings or their spirit. Surely they are worthy of each other. They burn the kernel and preserve the husk. They kill the truth and then pretend to reverence its sepulcher. "They say they are Jews and are not, but lie" (Rev. 3:9).
This is horrible, but the evil is widely spread, and in the presence of it the children of God are framing compromises, selling their Lord, and becoming partakers with the despisers of His truth. "Having a form of godliness but denying its power" is the sin of the age, the sin that is ruining the churches of our land."
In his comments Charles Spurgeon stood virtually alone. The Baptist Union dismissed him and refused to alter their statement of faith so Spurgeon withdrew his church from the Union on October 28, 1887. The criticism he faced for his stance was extreme, yet Spurgeon stood firm. "Whether it be the Baptist Church, or the Episcopalian, or the Presbyterian Church which errs from Christ's way, it is nothing to any one of us which it may be; it is Christ we are to care for, and Christ's truth, and this we are to follow over all the hedges and ditches of men's making" (http://www.tecmalta.org/tft351.htm) were Spurgeon's words regarding his decision to make his church independent. Spurgeon revised a new statement of faith:
"We, the undersigned, banded together in Fraternal Union, observing with growing pain and sorrow the loosening hold of many upon the Truths of Revelation, are constrained to avow our firmest belief in the Verbal Inspiration of all Holy Scripture as originally given. To us, the Bible does not merely contain the Word of god, but is the Word of God. From beginning to end, we accept it, believe it, and continue to preach it. To us, the Old Testament is no less inspired than the New. The Book is an organic whole. Reverence for the New Testament accompanied by skepticism as to the Old appears to us to absurd. The two must stand or fall together. We accept Christ's own verdict concerning "Moses and all the prophets" in preference to any of the supposed discover-ies of so-called higher criticism. We hold and maintain the truths generally known as "the doctrines of grace". The Electing Love of God the Father, the Propitiatory and Substitutionary Sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ, Regeneration by the Holy Ghost, the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness, the Justification of the sinner (once for all) by faith, his walk in the newness of life and growth in grace by the active indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and the Priestly Intercession of our Lord Jesus, as also the hopeless perdition of all who reject the Savior, according to the words of the Lord in Matt. xxv. 46, "These shall go away into eternal punishment," -are, in our judgment, revealed fundamental truth. Our Hope is the personal Pre-millennial Return of the Lord Jesus in glory."
It is worth considering, therefore, what such a statement would stand against today. "During the years of the Down Grade Controversy Spurgeon repeatedly warned of six areas of "down grade" in evangelical doctrine.
• The denial of the verbal inspiration (that is, inerrancy) of Scripture.
• The denial of eternal punishment and the affirmation of universalism.
• The denial of the Trinity, mainly in terms of the rejection of the personality of the Holy Spirit.
• The movement towards Socinianism or the denial of the deity of Christ and origi-nal sin.
• The denial of the creation account in Genesis in favor of evolution.
• The unhealthy influence of Higher Criticism on Biblical scholarship, particularly as it related to the Old Testament."
It is worth noting that we are seeing significant examples of "down grading" in evangelical doctrine. We are seeing universalism (of some form) making a come-back:
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There is a denial of inerrancy of Scripture:
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There is a denial of the creation account in Genesis:
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There is a belief in theistic evolution:
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As Spurgeon would put it, "we are going down hill at breakneck speed" (http://www.spurgeon.org/downgrd.htm). Something serious is required to fight against the crushing weight of biblical uncertainty. Spurgeon fought for the inerrancy of Scriptures until his death on 31st January 1892. He stood true as he suffered from rheumatism, gout, and Bright's disease. Now it is our turn to fight for the truth, to stand against compromise and to "[l]ook at the church of the present day". It is a crumbling shell of compromise by outside influences. It is apt to finish with Spurgeon's words on Scripture:
"Brethren, we have not followed cunningly devised fables.
We are not wanton boys that swim on floats that will soon burst under us.
It is appropriate for me to write a short follow up to my, rather lengthy, piece on Jeff Bethke's video. I was not the only one to write a critique of his video. In fact, Kevin DeYoung article surpasses the length of my own. He looks at each individual verse and sets straight what was left ambiguous. His concluding comments are:
"I know I've typed a bunch of words about a You Tube video that no one may be talking about in a month. But, as I said at the beginning, there is so much helpful in this poem mixed with so much unhelpful-and all of it so common-that I felt it worth the effort to examine the theology in detail.
The strengths in this poem are the strengths I see in many young Christians-a passionate faith, a focus on Jesus, a love for grace, and a hatred for anything phony or self-righteous. The weaknesses here can be the weaknesses of my generation (and younger)-not enough talk of repentance and sanctification, a tendency to underestimate the importance of obedience in the Christian life, a one-dimensional view of grace, little awareness that our heavenly Father might ever discipline his children or be grieved by their continued transgression, and a penchant for sloganeering instead of careful nuance....."
This carefully written article compliments the one I wrote a handful of days ago. It is highly illuminating and worth the ten or so minutes it takes to read. Of interest is the correspondence that has now occurred between DeYoung and Bethke. Jeff Bethke responded to Kevin DeYoung's article in this way:
"I just wanted to say I really appreciate your article man. It hit me hard. I'll even be honest and say I agree 100%. God has been working with me in the last 6 months on loving Jesus AND loving his church. For the first few years of walking with Jesus (started in '08) I had a warped/poor paradigm of the church and it didn't build up, unify, or glorify His wife (the Bride). If I can be brutally honest I didn't think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe, and because of that, my points/theology wasn't as air-tight as I would've liked. If I redid the video tomorrow, I'd keep the overall message, but would articulate, elaborate, and expand on the parts where my words and delivery were chosen poorly... My prayer is my generation would represent Christ faithfully and not swing to the other spectrum....thankful for your words and more importantly thankful for your tone and fatherly like grace on me as my elder. Humbled. Blessed. Thankful for painful growth. Blessings.
Grace and Peace,
Jeff"
It is encouraging to see that Jeff is mature and humble enough to be challenged and learn from Kevin DeYoung's article. We must all be ready to accept reproof when it is deserved. I am sure Jeff will take this onboard in future projects.
Tim Tebow's team the Denver Bronco's may be out of the running for this year's Superbowl but he's still in the news. The Punch reporter Anthony Sharwood expressed his disgust with Tebow's blatant Christianity:
"The fact is, there is something vulgar about wearing your religiousness on your sleeve. It's like rooting in public. It's not right. Get a room. Or more to the point, get a church...."
Well that's a classy comment. Thankfully there is a balance of public opinion. Janet Albrechtsen writing for The Australian had this to say:
"Just by being a nice, clean-living guy who walks the Christian talk with his missionary and charity work Tebow is one heck of a weapon against secularists who wouldn't dream of ridiculing any religion except Christianity."
There's also a great introduction to Tim Tebow's history over on Lifesitenews that expresses how Tim almost didn't make it into the world and the perils that his mother went to in order that he be born:
"When she conceived, she went to see the local doctor, who told her "it wasn't a baby at all; it was a mass of fetal tissue, and I needed to abort him immediately if I were going to save my life... Said it was a tumor."....
It is also a powerful testimony to what the world loses when a woman aborts her baby. No one - not even most pro-lifers - would have blamed Mrs. Tebow for saving her own life. But she believed her baby would live - in fact, she bet her life on it - and he did live, in a big way....."
If only we all were grateful for our existence. Tim Tebow continues to defy both critics and physicians. His story is a strong testament of God's purposes coming to fruition.
It is a curious thing watching the view counter on a youtube video. Only two weeks ago a girl from Sydney posted a video of her performing eyebrow dance. As of today the video has over 22 million views. That's right, since December 29th the amount of people viewing this thirty-six second video has almost equalled the population of Australia. It is quite obvious, then, that youtube has become an unbelievably powerful platform.
One user, Jeff Bethke, is using this platform to promote his message:
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So far his attempt looks great. It's talking about Jesus and the hit counter is 3 million and climbing. Surely this is encouraging for Christians everywhere. Well, I must confess that I hold some serious reservations about his message. The title of this video is Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus. Jeff is certainly not the first Christian to define his view in this way. David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons attempted a similar sort of thing in their book unChristian. This book was overwhelmingly successful for these two authors but did nothing to promote a biblical Christianity.
This leads me back to the above video. It is hard, in parts, to understand just what Jeff is saying because he groups so much under what he would call unhealthy religiousity. For instance, here is part of the poem he reads:
What if I told you, Jesus came to abolish religion?
What if I told you getting you to vote republican, really wasn't his mission?
Because republican doesn't automatically mean Christian,
And just because you call some people blind, doesn't automatically give you vision.
If religion is so great, why has it started so many wars?
Why does it build huge churches, but fails to feed the poor?
Tells single moms God doesn't love them if they've ever been divorced.
This is only in the initial part of his message but it packs so many ideas into these few lines. Jeff says that Jesus came to abolish religion, yet this needs to be shown from scripture. We do have some comments from Jesus that sound vagualy similar, however:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 5:17-20 (ESV)
What we get from Jesus comments in His intentions to fulfil the perfect religion. Not a man-made imperfect one. Not a satanic belief but one that brings hope to the world. That is why I'm happy to stand as a Christian in a religious sense. Because I know that Christianity differentiates itself from all other religions because it is the only one pertaining to the truth.
Jeff is correct in stating that "republican doesn't automatically mean Christian". For us here in Australia republican usually equals conservative. In fact, at the moment it looks like the Republican candidate for the White House will be a Mormon and not a Christian. Whilst, on the other side, the Democratic candidate Barack Obama is a professing Christian. It is interesting that, despite my unenthuisiasm regarding Mitt Romney's candidature I believe that Obama has displayed an unwillingness to let the Bible influence any of his decisions while he has been President.
I guess this is the point of difference between me and Jeff. While I am not exclusively conservative in the way I vote I am exclusively biblical. The Bible has a lot to say about governance and to dismiss involvement in politics as a religious thing is a dangerous, and incorrect, presupposition. This may not be what Jeff is intending to say but it seems to be what he is alluding to. From this point Jeff asks the question "[i]f religion is so great, why has it started so many wars?". To my eyes this looks earily similar to the problem posed by atheists to theists. To be sure there have been an uncountable number of wars started regarding religion. I am not going to bother defending any other religion starting a war nor am I even going to defend Christianity because I believe that sometimes there exists such a circumstance where war is justified. When evil is triumphing then the people of God should stand against it. Jeff's tone seems to be suggesting that all wars and all conflict is evil.
Jeff's tact changes from religion in general to the churches professing to be Christian in general. He asks questions like "[w]hy does it build huge churches, but fails to feed the poor?". Importantly, Jeff's "it" must be identified. If he means religion in general then we need not concern ourselves with such a question but if he means the body of believers then we need to ask ourselves what is the mission of the church? Wayne Grudem, in his Systematic Theology (pg 867-8) book outlines four chief purposes:
Ministry to God: Worship
Ministry to Believers: Nurture
Ministry to the World: Evangelism and Mercy
Keeping these Purposes in Balance
It is important that we don't overemphasize purposes that are axillary. As specified by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert"[w]e need another speed. We need a speed that's somewhere between of the utmost importance and of no importance. Something like really really important might do the trick" (What Is The Mission Of The Church, pg 230). Without going into detail on this topic, as it demands its own article (or perhaps a book) building huge churches should certainly not be a priority but feeding the poor should not be THE priority. It is important, Churches should participate in it and Christians should help out. But it is not the essence of the Gospel. It is not THE mission of the Church.
In the middle of his poem Jeff Bethke challenges those who profess to be Christian. He says:
"Now I ain't judging I'm just saying be careful of putting on a fake look,
Because there's a problem if people only know that you're a Christian by that little section on your facebook..." and so forth.
This is exactly right. As the great Charles Spurgeon said:
"Well then, our great Master gives us, next, the glory of His own mission. "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world" (John 17:18). It is the glory of Jesus that He is the Messiah, the sent one, and now He sends all His servants to be messiahs or missionaries to mankind! Christ Jesus was sent to reveal the Father, sent to reclaim the wandering souls of men, sent to seek and to save the lost. And this is exactly what every true Christian is sent into the world to do. He is commissioned to reveal God in his every act and word. He is commissioned to win back rebellious hearts. He is commissioned to save the sons of men and bring them up out of the horrible pit into which their sins have cast them."
The Essential Works Of Charles Spurgeon, pg 660
As Christians we are not just given a badge, we are given a mission, a commission. It goes beyond Facebook, a fish sticker on our back windscreen and the cross around our neck. It is meant to permeate every part of our life. Jeff gets this part right, which is surprising because he then compares "following some rules" to slavery. It should be said that rules are not the essence of salvation. However, they do display the fruits of our faith. As Paul states:
"For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:20-23 (ESV)
Part of following Christ is behaviour modification. It is not the core of faith, but it cannot be dissociated with faith. Jeff tends to lump behaviour modification in with religion, but we must remember it is a key part of Christianity, as well. We are told to:
"Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."
Colossians 3:5-10 (ESV)
This is positive behaviour modification that is the result of being free from sin and slaves to righteousness. This does not require us to be legalistic but we are to continue to renew ourselves in the knewledge of the image of our creator. That is, strive towards righteousness, desiring to glorify God. In this context we are to be slaves, yet we should delight in this.
In many ways Jeff Bethke is doing a great service to those who see his message. Though it is unlikely that there will be many who come to Christ on his message alone, God has worked through much stranger situations. It is worth noting that our interactions with the unsaved do not happen in vaccuums. Many times we will never see the result of a discussion we've had, or a coffee we've shared. Yet, we must remain convicted to "shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15) with the knowledge that we are commissed by our Lord to act on His behalf. Therefore, internet videos and articles are great, but no substitute for personal discussions amongst friends.
Much of what I've mentioned in this article may be echoing Jeff's sentiments, however, I found that his youtube clip was too ambiguous, in parts, to be left as a standalone video. My criticisms do not stop me commending what he is doing, though I feel that defining Christianity as something other than a religion is disengenious and of no great importance. After all, the professing Christian is still left in the same position they were before this clarification. That is, demonstrating how Christ is the only path to salvation by living in a constant relationship with Him. To be honest, I don't really care if you call that religious or not.
It is an onerous task to step through time with the fathers of philosophy. It is even more difficult to ensure that any book that does so is kept at a level for the "layperson". Yet, R. C. Sproul promises to do so in the introduction of his book The Consequences Of Ideas and does so with aplomb. This book is small enough not to overwhelm any potential reader but does not substitute any historical meat while doing so.
Sproul does an amazing job of making the deep questions utterly attainable and relevant for the modern person. He does not pose questions of monarchy (singular beginning) in so much as he shows us what past philosophers have dwelled upon. While doing so he doesn't belittle any ideas that we know today to be fallacious but present them in a levelled and respectful manner.
Our journey starts with Thales of Miletus. His practical accomplishments would shame any physicist or engineer today despite 2,600 years worth of developments. From Thales Sproul introduces us to the many Greek philosophers who littered the B. C. era. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all receive large amounts of attention yet it is philosophers like Pythagoras and Thrasymachus who perhaps provide the most divisive philosophy. Both had tyrannical views of the world. Pythagoras lived in the 6th century B. C. and was surrounded by an order known as the Pythagoreans. This group worshiped mathematics as holy. Thrasymachus' ideals were more sinister again. Sproul describes him as so:
"According to Thrasymachus, far from being an immoral person, the unjust person, realizing that crime does pay, is a superior person with superior intellect."
The Consequences Of Ideas, pg 28-29
From the Greek philosophers Sproul jumps us through the ages until we meet a very unique person. Thomas Aquinas is mentioned in glowing terms by Sproul:
"The angelic doctor stands as a giant in the intellectual world, and his work continues to be studied in every university, both sacred and secular. The great theologians of history display different styles and different gifts. But for sheer weight of intellect, I doubt that Thomas has had any peers...."
The Consequences Of Ideas, pg 65
In a short space Sproul outlines Aquinas' five proofs of God's existence. Despite the many centuries that have passed since Aquinas' time these proofs still stand on their own merit. From this point in time our attention is turned to philosophers of the ilk of Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant. In each chapter we are shown the historical context of these philosophical giant's works and as well as the reasons for their understanding of the universe.
Sproul illuminates the importance of ideas because "[w]e step into the game long after the game was conceived" (Introduction). As Christians we cannot merely dismiss the historical philosopher as unrecognisable because of their worldview. It is through philosophy that we can know the mind of man. What his thoughts dwells upon. Sproul offers us an excellent starting point in his book The Consequences Of Ideas. This book is perhaps too good and there are other thinkers who get scant mention, of whose ideas Sproul could have elaborated upon. This book also lacks substantive Christian content. Though one can tell that Sproul is very interested in his subject material it does differ only slightly from a small history textbook on philosophy.
Despite these drawbacks and Sproul's position on other affairs this book manages to tease the reader to desire to know more. To know why Nietzsche favoured nihilism or delve into Hegel's Dialectic or to reason with Descartes "Cogito, ergo sum". This book is a tremendous resource for those who wish to have an overview of the history of philosophy at their fingertips and see how we have reached the postmodern age.
It is a regular occurrence that we, the Spink family, gather around the television on Christmas Eve and watch the Melbourne Carols. This years festivities had me contemplating about carols and what importance we must place upon them. Songs are an integral part of worshipping. As the psalmist utters:
"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let uscome into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!"
Psalm 95:1-2 (ESV)
God is pleased with music that glorifies Him. The Psalms are full of adoring music to our creator and saviour. Many of the carols that are sung are, indeed, reflecting and discussing the absolute power and majesty of our King. Yet, I can't help feeling that there are many singers who perform items at carols all over the world who do not bend the knee to the God they sing about. This is perhaps ironic that God may, indeed, work through the non-believer to touch another.
My favourite carol is O Holy Night. This was written in 1847 and, as Wikipedia states was composed to the French poem Minuit, chrétiens. The direct translation of this poem is particularly powerful. Here is the full version:
Of course what is now sung is typically very different from this translation. Usually this song is performed by the strongest female vocal singer. Mariah Carey and Celine Dion are only two of the many artists to have bent their vocals to the skies as they battled the high notes in this song. One of the most impressive covers of this song was child prodigy Rhema Marvanne who recorded her version at the mere age of seven:
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It is hard to gauge how many people actually think about the words they are singing. There are many who would not wish to have any association with our God yet still choose to glorify Him in the carols they sing. Rhema Marvanne, in her capacity at her age, is an avid follower of Christ. Her website www.rhemamarvanne.com quotes Jeremiah 29:11 at the top of her page. Rhema is only nine now so her faith will mature and grow through the years. No doubt, as a celebrity, she will face trials and she may waver in her understanding of biblical truths (like so many others do) but at the moment she has a unique perception of the love of God. It is of this love that she sings about.
The faith of a child is something to be envied. It is a pure form which is dimmed over the years by a destructive society. Jesus calls us to "receive the kingdom of God like a child" (Luke 18:17). As we grow we tend to develop into unhealthy skeptics who believe that our way is better than God's. We are fed this lie in University, in advertisements and, likely, in our work place. This is profoundly similar to the original sin that transpired when Adam and Eve bought into the lies of the serpent. Because of our disobedience we deserve the wrath of God but through Jesus we have the opportunity to be redeemed and delivered.
It is this theme that the original poem of O Holy Night immerses itself in. Listening to this song while disregarding the implications is to be wilfully ignorant to the immersive power of our creator. I am a fond listener to a great variety of music and it is the story behind a song that gives a song intensity beyond the instruments and vocals. The form of O Holy Night that is present today was developed by John Sullivan Dwight as a singing alternative and isn't it majestic? It has a musical climax to rival all other songs in history but it has a truth that is still present about the night when hope came to this world.
It was 1800 years after the historical life of Christ that the poem Minuit, chrétiens was penned. It seems ridiculous to look at the history of civilisation and the amount of events that have occurred and see Christ as the enduring influence. One man spoken of, sung about through the ages. Yet, should we expect any less? Isaiah discusses the coming of Christ over eight centuries before God entered the world in human flesh. Isaiah 53 proclaims the arrival of the one who will "bear our griefs" (Isaiah 53:4) and be "wounded for our transgressions" (Isaiah 53:5).
This brings me great joy. From the start of creation to this very day humanity sings to a magnificent creator. As He remains in our songs so does He in every facet of our world. This is part of the good news. It is part of having faith like a child to know that we are not alone. We have an ever-present and always powerful God. As we have citizenship in salvation it is our task to make our words and actions an"ardent light" that points to our redeemer. Where once we were chained by our own way our eyes have been opened to the understanding that our earth is free. We no longer have to be slaves, we can be released from captivity. Such a reality deserves the greatest of songs and the deepest reflection. As the new year is peaking over the horizon I encourage my readers to dwell upon the knowledge that "[f]or all of us He is born, He suffers and dies". Such an act has brought hope to the entire world!
So what makes Charles Spurgeon so remarkable? After all, he lived one-and-a-half centuries ago and even among believers he is a name that may be recognised but his significance cannot be stated. Perhaps one could point to the unbelievable pace that he consumed books. It is said that he studied a book a day. Such a claim seems likely because of his own written output. If one was to peruse their local Word/Koorong they would see Spurgeon occupying approximately 30-50% of the Classics section. His works number into the many thousands. His own library consisted of 5,103 books, which would have taken approximately 14 years to read, if Spurgeon's suggested pace was accurate.
In his comments Charles Spurgeon stood virtually alone. The Baptist Union dismissed him and refused to alter their statement of faith so Spurgeon withdrew his church from the Union on October 28, 1887. The criticism he faced for his stance was extreme, yet Spurgeon stood firm. "Whether it be the Baptist Church, or the Episcopalian, or the Presbyterian Church which errs from Christ's way, it is nothing to any one of us which it may be; it is Christ we are to care for, and Christ's truth, and this we are to follow over all the hedges and ditches of men's making" (
"Well then, our great Master gives us, next, the glory of His own mission. "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world" (John 17:18). It is the glory of Jesus that He is the Messiah, the sent one, and now He sends all His servants to be messiahs or missionaries to mankind! Christ Jesus was sent to reveal the Father, sent to reclaim the wandering souls of men, sent to seek and to save the lost. And this is exactly what every true Christian is sent into the world to do. He is commissioned to reveal God in his every act and word. He is commissioned to win back rebellious hearts. He is commissioned to save the sons of men and bring them up out of the horrible pit into which their sins have cast them."
Our journey starts with Thales of Miletus. His practical accomplishments would shame any physicist or engineer today despite 2,600 years worth of developments. From Thales Sproul introduces us to the many Greek philosophers who littered the B. C. era. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all receive large amounts of attention yet it is philosophers like Pythagoras and Thrasymachus who perhaps provide the most divisive philosophy. Both had tyrannical views of the world. Pythagoras lived in the 6th century B. C. and was surrounded by an order known as the Pythagoreans. This group worshiped mathematics as holy. Thrasymachus' ideals were more sinister again. Sproul describes him as so:
It is hard to gauge how many people actually think about the words they are singing. There are many who would not wish to have any association with our God yet still choose to glorify Him in the carols they sing. Rhema Marvanne, in her capacity at her age, is an avid follower of Christ. Her website