at 8 A.M. on a Sunday a line of people outside of St. Eugene de Maxenod Oblate Primary School in Kowloon City snaked past apartment buildings, breakfast shops and real estate offices. White-haired grandmothers in wheelchairs, young people staring at their cell phones, and parents holding tight to wriggly children waited for an hour to vote fro their local district councilor.
for a few days before the Nov. 24 election, Hong Kong enjoyed a rare reprieve from the often-violent protests that have characterize the city in recent months. the election was the firs since the pro-democracy protests began in the former British colony in June 2nd (?) activists took a break from demonstrations in order to ensure nothing interfered with the vote. they hoped Hong Kongers would turn out in high numbers and elect pro democracy candidates , proving voters wee sympathetic to the protesters' cause.
meanwhile, in mainland China, media referred to a 'silent majority' in Hong Hong who opposed the protesters and would surely vote for pro-Bejing candidates willing to reestablish order. according to Foreign Policy, state-run Chinese media had prepared prewritten articles lauding a win for the establishment.
when Nov. 24 arrived, polling stations around Hong Kong ... enormous turnouts: By the time they closed at 1030 p.m., a record-breaking 71% of registered voters had cast a ballot , up from 47% in 2015.
the results were even more astonishing: Pro-democracy candidates gained control of 17 of the 18 districts, winning nearly 90% of district council seats...
the results were so shocking that mainland Chinese media didn't know how to respond d, some outlets didn't mention the election results. others returned to oft-used scripts, accusing the West of swaying the election. ...communist worried that Hong Kong's democracy movement could spread elsewhere in China...
Hong Kong's democracy movement dates back in the 11980s when the city was still under British rule. before the handover in 1997, Hong Kong Gov. David Wilson introduced the first direct elections in 1991, with Hong Kong residents electing a third of their legislature. The sino-British Joint declaration promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy that would allow democracy to blossom in the city, giving the people a chance to elect their chief executive.
yet election after election China thwarted democracy's progress. in 2014, Hong Kongers grew frustrated after Beijing announced they could vote for the chief executive only if Beijing chose the candidates, leading to the 79-day Umbrella Movement. frustrations against the Beijing-backed Hong Kong government increased as it disqualified elected pro-democracy lawmakers and proposed the extradition bill that set off the current protests.
police brutality against young protesters this year, along with the Hong Kong leadership's refusal to listen to most protester demands, has brought more demonstrators into the streets and provoked more violenc3 from front-line protesters. police have arrested nearly 6,000 people.
but in the mainland, Chinese citizens hear a different narrative: Hong Kong protesters are a small, violent group seeking independence from China -= their true grievance is sky-high rent prices and a lack of affordable housing - police are the true heroes in Hong Kong, especially the officer nicknamed 'Bald Lau Sir', who became famous after pointing a shotgun at protesters.
Chinese state media paint a conspiracy of a US backed 'color' revolution meant to topple the
Chinese government. as proof, they point to meetings between Hong Kong democratic leaders and US officials, as well as to Hong Kong protesters ho wave American flags and sing the American national anthem during demonstrations.
after President Donald Trump signed the H K Human Rights and Democract Ac on Nov 27, the Chines government claimed the United states had 'clearly interfered' with the city's internal affairs. the act requires the U.S. State Department annually to assess if H K is autonomous enough to continue receiving preferential trade benefits and also requires sanctions on officials responsible for suppressing the city's freedoms.
while H K residents see the protest movement as a fight to maintain promised freedoms and to vote for their leaders, mainland Chinese instead see an anti-China movement ..protesters have violently attacked pro-Beijing supporters, including one man who protesters set on fire. images of protesters burning Chinese flags or ... flags into the harbor are also widely shared and condemned in the mainland...Yu a 38 year old banker in H K from ..China, said that Chinese censors delete from social media sites post and articles containing facts about police violence or protester motivations. but posts that focus on protester violence remain untouched. as a result, most of his friends in the mainland have bought into china's propaganda. Yu (name changed) said he was in second grade in 1989 when tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square to quash China's democracy movement. afterward, he and his classmates were forced to attend a class on sat afternoons about how China had been humiliated by the West and Japan and only the Chinese
Communist party was able to save China.
'that message is taught throughout your education, even when you are getting your master's degree', Yu said. 'even if you didn't want to believe it, eventually you will.
when the internet first became available ... Yu remembers having access to a wide range of information and public intellectuals often wrote freely on the web. but the Chinese govt began developing the 'Great Rirewall' in the late 1990s and now China's internet is closely censored and controlled. ..
since the protests began, state-owned H K newspapers Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po have criticized not only protesters but groups supporting them. one target: Protestant and Catholic churches have opened up their facilities to provide sanctuary for protesters.
with protests spreading to different neighborhoods in H K, churches have invited...
...former Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun has long been out spokenly supportive of democracy in HK and critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Now 87 he co-founded the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund...pays for bail, legal fees...medical aid for protesters arrested or hurt by police...Zen criticizes the Holy See's silence about the ...in Hong Kong and interprets it as an effort to appease the Chinese government. the Vatican has long sought to restore diplomatic relations with Beijing (cut off since 1951). In 2018 the Vatican and Beijing reached an agreement join how to select bishops...the goal of the deal is to bring the underground church out of hiding and unite the Catholic Church in China...Zen said, 'Thy sold our church and gained nothing in return...Pope Francis..'I respect peace...' ..but Zen dismissed such neutrality: 'In this moment, there are the persecutor and the persecuted, the strong oppressors and the weak, suffering people...we have to be on the side of the weak...
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Thursday, December 26, 2019
12.26.2019 FRONT LINE CRISIS, With U.S. troops in retreat in Syria, American aid groups step into the gap, Mindy Belz in Tel Tamer, Syria
At the 2 am. watch,gunshots aren't far away. automatic rifles trade fire in rounds that echo across the old buildings of Tel Tamer. at a compound adjoining the hospital, two watchmen with Free Burma Rangers stand guard, their faces framed between a glow of red lights coming from the emergency room and green lights of a minaret from the mosque across the way.
Unable o sleep,I join them and as whether this much shooting is normal.
'as long as the bread factory is going, we know we're OK'.
warm light and malty aromas emanate from the three story factory. the gunfire makes it impossible to forget this town of Christians, Arabs and Kurds is the front line for an ongoing assault by Turkey.
as the United States began its retreat from northeast Syria in October, these Americans moved in. Free Burma Rangers, led by Dave Eubank, is a Christian-based volunteer medic corps. in 27 days serving alongside Kurdish-led forces Northeast Syria, its team members evacuated 149 wounded and 83 dead. one of their own also was killed.Burmese medic u sen came under Turkish fire while the tea treated the wounded in November. an Iraqi translator working with the group was wounded in the same attack.
fighting in northeast Syria has fallen from headlines but hardly slowed. Turkey continues to violate terms of a cease-fire.it also breaks a separate agreement reached Oct. 22, confining military operations to a mapped buffer zone extending 1 miles into Syria from the Turkish border.
Tel Tamer sits outside that buffer zone but last month became the focus f attacks by Turkish artillery, airstrikes, and armed drones - all in airspace that remains under US control. the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic forces (SDF) has pulled back from the buffer zone but vows to fight Turkey outside it.
Tel Tamer's hospital November counted 170 dead and 600 wounded, most of them civilians. hospital director Hassa Ami said he's ever see these kids of casualties. most are wounded by airstrikes and rockets, arriving without limbs or with parts of their torsos missing.
standing by the hospital with the thud of mortar rounds in the distance, I saw 6 wounded individuals arrive by ambulance. overhead came the whine of a circling drone, unfazed by enormous plumes rising from tires set on fire to create a smokescreen.
Eubank has been making daily and nightly patrols with his team to rescue the wounded, often alongside the Kurdish Red Crescent and other overworked ambulances. overhead came the whine of a circling drone, unfazed by enormous plumes rising from tires set on fire to create a smokescreen.
Eubank has been making daily and nightly patrols with his team to rescue the wounded, often alongside the Kurdish Red Crescent and other overworked ambulances. the team has repeatedly come under fire, including from Turkish tanks. despite the effort, they've watched a humanitarian crisis grow with little outside help.
local officials say at least 150,000 people - and perhaps as many as 300,000 - have fled their homes since October. Turkish assaults on the border towns of Fas al-Ayn and Tal Abyad forced residents out and emptied surrounding villages. the locals report atrocities by forces Turkey launched into Syria starting Oct. 9, chiefly the Free Syrian Army (of Syrian National Army), an opposition force now made up of Islamic militants that fought under al-Quaeda and ISIS.
Pharmacist Rashid Sheikh Sulemon saw people burned and beheaded in Ras al-Ayn before he was forced to leave with his family. the Turkish-backed forces led men into the street, he said, tied their hands behind their backs and tortured and killed them.he volunteered for days as a medic until it became too dangerous. members of the Free Syrian Army bombed his car and set his house on fire.
'Executing individuals, pillaging property , and blocking displaced people from returning to their homes is damning evidence of why Turkey's proposed 'safe zones' will not be safe', said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.Turkey's proxy armies, she said, 'are themselves committing abuses against civilians and discriminating on ethnic grounds'.
as the crisis swelled and assaults increased,most large aid groups evacuated. caring for the displaced has fallen to local governing councils caught largely unprepared and to smaller groups nimble and brave enough to remain.
In Hadakah, local officials closed schools to convert them into shelters. they currently house about 25,000 people in 68 schools, according to Khalid Ibrahim, coordinator for the area's humanitarian affairs office.
families in the schools I visited had few provisions beyond thin mattresses and blankets. at Ibn Atheer school, a mother - afraid to give her name because her father remained in Turkish-held territory - told me her family had gone 20 days without bathing and her children had lice. a man from her village who tried to go back said the houses had been burned and pillaged. 'We have nothing to go back to, she said.
Michigan-based partners Relief and Development is working with 270 local volunteers to set up kitchen serving 2 meals per day in the schools. since October the group has prepared nearly 3 million meals. the need is 'overwhelming', said Partners President Steve Gumaer. 'We are the biggest organization here, but we are not a big organization. already we're working above capacity'.
Partners also contracted with a local factory to outfit sleeping bags with pads and water-resistant covers for those sleeping in camps.
one Iraq-based Barzani Charity Foundation, Mercy Corps and others have trucked in water and other supplies. Church officials told me that Open Doors and operation Mobilization had contributed to their efforts to care for displaced Christians. The International Red Cross and the
*43 Syrian Red Crescent distributed bedding and water to make-shift shelters. (see 'Questionable Aid' at wng.org for more on the challenges for aid groups and donors in northeast Syria).
Euband also has taken time from the front lines to make food and water distributions. displacement will continue, he said, as fighting persists and control of the region is uncertain. 'The armies are all here, he said, 'we've got Syrians, Russians, Iranians, Turks, ISIS, You name it'.
while the final fallout of Turkey's advance remains unclear, Eubank says tow decades of work in Burma prepared him for Middle East chaos. 'there, we are in a war zone on the losing side, airplanes against us, tanks against us, greatly outnumbered and with no outside help'.
The same code FREE BURMA RANGERS adoped in southeast Asia applies here:
'PRAY,
TRUST GOD,
LISTEN TO THE LOCALS
PUT YOURSELF UNDER THEIR AUTHORITY,
TELL THEM THE TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING,
HIDE NOTHING,
BE WILLING TO RISK EVERYTHING and
TELL THEM EVERY ASSET WE HAVE IS THEIRS'
Eubanks, 59, founded Free Burma Rangers with his wife Karen in 1997 out of backpack medical work among ethnic groups battling for survival against the military regime that renamed their country Myanmar.
the Eubanks reared 3 children-now 19, 17 and 14 years old -hiking mountains, enduring shootouts, beating tropical diseases and sleeping in bamboo huts (see 'Jungle Cowboys', March 19, 2016). the jungles of Burma defeated many a soldier in world War II, but Eubank's rangers today operate more than 90 medic teams there.
the son of American missionaries in Thailand, Eubank learned Thai before English. his mother gave up a stint on Broadway, including with Julie Andrews, to join her husband, who celebrates 60 years on the field in Thailand - and his 90th birthday - this month. Eubank served for a decade with US special operations forces and earned a theology degree from Fuller Seminary in California before launching his own organization.
Eubank says he had zero desire to work in the Middle East, but on a hike in Burma he received a text from a friend challenging him to put to work the rangers' skills in the fight against ISIS.
the group worked alongside Iraqqui Kurds in Sinjar fighting to dislodge ISIS starting in 2015 before hooking up with Iraq army units in Mosul in 2017. in northeast Syria they firs joined Kurdish-led forces outside Kobani and earlier this year at Baghuz the work included treating the enemy - ISIS fighters and their families who surrendered.
Burmese team members labor alongside retired Delta Force and other former U. S. soldiers. they raise their own support, but hardly fit the idea of a mission organization. Eubank wants to rekindle what Red Cross teams and chaplains once did in wartime. 'Our role is to be in the humanitarian gap at the front line. and right now people don't go to the humanitarian gap'.
during the battle of Mosul, Eubank said,
'We got involved because nobody could take food in.
'You'd get shot', I'd hear, and I couldn't believe it.
these families there, they're all getting shot.
Just try not to get shot'.
Eubank himself was wounded in Mosul rescuing an injured Iraqi girl. in Tel Tamer he's had narrow escapes. team members use armored vehicles and many carry weapons.
Eubank is unapologetic about bringing his family.
Syrian families face life-and-death risks all the time, he said.
Karen and their children arrived in Tel Tamer 5 weeks into the mission, helping to deliver aid kits to displaced peopled as they do everywhere they go, they hosted 'Good Live Clubs' with games and Bible stories
Inside the compound, the kids do school projects at a table where the team also eats meals and plans missions. they collect pets wherever they go, here giving a stray dog and a baby hedgehog Kurdish names.
Any Swiss Family Robinson comparisons break down, though. Eubank is a steely tactician and earns respect for his readiness to go where others refuse to. seasoned war journalists stopped in at the Tel Tamer compound for updates from Eubank, who stood before a whiteboard chronicling 6 weeks of heavy fighting. when he interrupted his own rapid-fire storytelling with spontaneous prayer, no one seemed to mind.
one of his roles in Syria, he believes, is to document what's happened since Trump launched a sudden U.S. pullout and made statements supporting the Turkish advance.
in November the rangers captured on video an attack at Ain Issa, a town also outside the buffer zone. with air-strikes and gunfire pounding the area, Eubank and his ambulance crew helped to rescue some of the 22 wounded and 5 killed, taking them to a hospital in Kobani. Eubank left to take a break from the front lines shortly after, leaving a small team of medics in place.
I was with Eubank in Tel Tamer the day President Donald Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House. Trump told reporters, 'The cease fire is holding very well'. Eubank was away from the front line,supervising the medic Au Seng's cremation.
'Is this your most dangerous mission? I asked.
Yes, he said.
Then what made you come?
'It's an injury to my soul what America has done, he said, suddenly stifling emotion.
'It's like my family has hurt this family'.
Unable o sleep,I join them and as whether this much shooting is normal.
'as long as the bread factory is going, we know we're OK'.
warm light and malty aromas emanate from the three story factory. the gunfire makes it impossible to forget this town of Christians, Arabs and Kurds is the front line for an ongoing assault by Turkey.
as the United States began its retreat from northeast Syria in October, these Americans moved in. Free Burma Rangers, led by Dave Eubank, is a Christian-based volunteer medic corps. in 27 days serving alongside Kurdish-led forces Northeast Syria, its team members evacuated 149 wounded and 83 dead. one of their own also was killed.Burmese medic u sen came under Turkish fire while the tea treated the wounded in November. an Iraqi translator working with the group was wounded in the same attack.
fighting in northeast Syria has fallen from headlines but hardly slowed. Turkey continues to violate terms of a cease-fire.it also breaks a separate agreement reached Oct. 22, confining military operations to a mapped buffer zone extending 1 miles into Syria from the Turkish border.
Tel Tamer sits outside that buffer zone but last month became the focus f attacks by Turkish artillery, airstrikes, and armed drones - all in airspace that remains under US control. the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic forces (SDF) has pulled back from the buffer zone but vows to fight Turkey outside it.
Tel Tamer's hospital November counted 170 dead and 600 wounded, most of them civilians. hospital director Hassa Ami said he's ever see these kids of casualties. most are wounded by airstrikes and rockets, arriving without limbs or with parts of their torsos missing.
standing by the hospital with the thud of mortar rounds in the distance, I saw 6 wounded individuals arrive by ambulance. overhead came the whine of a circling drone, unfazed by enormous plumes rising from tires set on fire to create a smokescreen.
Eubank has been making daily and nightly patrols with his team to rescue the wounded, often alongside the Kurdish Red Crescent and other overworked ambulances. overhead came the whine of a circling drone, unfazed by enormous plumes rising from tires set on fire to create a smokescreen.
Eubank has been making daily and nightly patrols with his team to rescue the wounded, often alongside the Kurdish Red Crescent and other overworked ambulances. the team has repeatedly come under fire, including from Turkish tanks. despite the effort, they've watched a humanitarian crisis grow with little outside help.
local officials say at least 150,000 people - and perhaps as many as 300,000 - have fled their homes since October. Turkish assaults on the border towns of Fas al-Ayn and Tal Abyad forced residents out and emptied surrounding villages. the locals report atrocities by forces Turkey launched into Syria starting Oct. 9, chiefly the Free Syrian Army (of Syrian National Army), an opposition force now made up of Islamic militants that fought under al-Quaeda and ISIS.
Pharmacist Rashid Sheikh Sulemon saw people burned and beheaded in Ras al-Ayn before he was forced to leave with his family. the Turkish-backed forces led men into the street, he said, tied their hands behind their backs and tortured and killed them.he volunteered for days as a medic until it became too dangerous. members of the Free Syrian Army bombed his car and set his house on fire.
'Executing individuals, pillaging property , and blocking displaced people from returning to their homes is damning evidence of why Turkey's proposed 'safe zones' will not be safe', said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.Turkey's proxy armies, she said, 'are themselves committing abuses against civilians and discriminating on ethnic grounds'.
as the crisis swelled and assaults increased,most large aid groups evacuated. caring for the displaced has fallen to local governing councils caught largely unprepared and to smaller groups nimble and brave enough to remain.
In Hadakah, local officials closed schools to convert them into shelters. they currently house about 25,000 people in 68 schools, according to Khalid Ibrahim, coordinator for the area's humanitarian affairs office.
families in the schools I visited had few provisions beyond thin mattresses and blankets. at Ibn Atheer school, a mother - afraid to give her name because her father remained in Turkish-held territory - told me her family had gone 20 days without bathing and her children had lice. a man from her village who tried to go back said the houses had been burned and pillaged. 'We have nothing to go back to, she said.
Michigan-based partners Relief and Development is working with 270 local volunteers to set up kitchen serving 2 meals per day in the schools. since October the group has prepared nearly 3 million meals. the need is 'overwhelming', said Partners President Steve Gumaer. 'We are the biggest organization here, but we are not a big organization. already we're working above capacity'.
Partners also contracted with a local factory to outfit sleeping bags with pads and water-resistant covers for those sleeping in camps.
one Iraq-based Barzani Charity Foundation, Mercy Corps and others have trucked in water and other supplies. Church officials told me that Open Doors and operation Mobilization had contributed to their efforts to care for displaced Christians. The International Red Cross and the
*43 Syrian Red Crescent distributed bedding and water to make-shift shelters. (see 'Questionable Aid' at wng.org for more on the challenges for aid groups and donors in northeast Syria).
Euband also has taken time from the front lines to make food and water distributions. displacement will continue, he said, as fighting persists and control of the region is uncertain. 'The armies are all here, he said, 'we've got Syrians, Russians, Iranians, Turks, ISIS, You name it'.
while the final fallout of Turkey's advance remains unclear, Eubank says tow decades of work in Burma prepared him for Middle East chaos. 'there, we are in a war zone on the losing side, airplanes against us, tanks against us, greatly outnumbered and with no outside help'.
The same code FREE BURMA RANGERS adoped in southeast Asia applies here:
'PRAY,
TRUST GOD,
LISTEN TO THE LOCALS
PUT YOURSELF UNDER THEIR AUTHORITY,
TELL THEM THE TRUTH ABOUT EVERYTHING,
HIDE NOTHING,
BE WILLING TO RISK EVERYTHING and
TELL THEM EVERY ASSET WE HAVE IS THEIRS'
Eubanks, 59, founded Free Burma Rangers with his wife Karen in 1997 out of backpack medical work among ethnic groups battling for survival against the military regime that renamed their country Myanmar.
the Eubanks reared 3 children-now 19, 17 and 14 years old -hiking mountains, enduring shootouts, beating tropical diseases and sleeping in bamboo huts (see 'Jungle Cowboys', March 19, 2016). the jungles of Burma defeated many a soldier in world War II, but Eubank's rangers today operate more than 90 medic teams there.
the son of American missionaries in Thailand, Eubank learned Thai before English. his mother gave up a stint on Broadway, including with Julie Andrews, to join her husband, who celebrates 60 years on the field in Thailand - and his 90th birthday - this month. Eubank served for a decade with US special operations forces and earned a theology degree from Fuller Seminary in California before launching his own organization.
Eubank says he had zero desire to work in the Middle East, but on a hike in Burma he received a text from a friend challenging him to put to work the rangers' skills in the fight against ISIS.
the group worked alongside Iraqqui Kurds in Sinjar fighting to dislodge ISIS starting in 2015 before hooking up with Iraq army units in Mosul in 2017. in northeast Syria they firs joined Kurdish-led forces outside Kobani and earlier this year at Baghuz the work included treating the enemy - ISIS fighters and their families who surrendered.
Burmese team members labor alongside retired Delta Force and other former U. S. soldiers. they raise their own support, but hardly fit the idea of a mission organization. Eubank wants to rekindle what Red Cross teams and chaplains once did in wartime. 'Our role is to be in the humanitarian gap at the front line. and right now people don't go to the humanitarian gap'.
during the battle of Mosul, Eubank said,
'We got involved because nobody could take food in.
'You'd get shot', I'd hear, and I couldn't believe it.
these families there, they're all getting shot.
Just try not to get shot'.
Eubank himself was wounded in Mosul rescuing an injured Iraqi girl. in Tel Tamer he's had narrow escapes. team members use armored vehicles and many carry weapons.
Eubank is unapologetic about bringing his family.
Syrian families face life-and-death risks all the time, he said.
Karen and their children arrived in Tel Tamer 5 weeks into the mission, helping to deliver aid kits to displaced peopled as they do everywhere they go, they hosted 'Good Live Clubs' with games and Bible stories
Inside the compound, the kids do school projects at a table where the team also eats meals and plans missions. they collect pets wherever they go, here giving a stray dog and a baby hedgehog Kurdish names.
Any Swiss Family Robinson comparisons break down, though. Eubank is a steely tactician and earns respect for his readiness to go where others refuse to. seasoned war journalists stopped in at the Tel Tamer compound for updates from Eubank, who stood before a whiteboard chronicling 6 weeks of heavy fighting. when he interrupted his own rapid-fire storytelling with spontaneous prayer, no one seemed to mind.
one of his roles in Syria, he believes, is to document what's happened since Trump launched a sudden U.S. pullout and made statements supporting the Turkish advance.
in November the rangers captured on video an attack at Ain Issa, a town also outside the buffer zone. with air-strikes and gunfire pounding the area, Eubank and his ambulance crew helped to rescue some of the 22 wounded and 5 killed, taking them to a hospital in Kobani. Eubank left to take a break from the front lines shortly after, leaving a small team of medics in place.
I was with Eubank in Tel Tamer the day President Donald Trump met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House. Trump told reporters, 'The cease fire is holding very well'. Eubank was away from the front line,supervising the medic Au Seng's cremation.
'Is this your most dangerous mission? I asked.
Yes, he said.
Then what made you come?
'It's an injury to my soul what America has done, he said, suddenly stifling emotion.
'It's like my family has hurt this family'.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
9.14.2019 Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray
1 BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
the words from which I wish to speak are well know:
you will find them in Acts 2.4,
'They were all filled with the Holy Ghost'
and in Ephesians 5.18,
'Be filled with the Spirit'.
the one text is a narrative; it tells us what actually happened.
the other text is a command; it tells us what we ought to be.
in case there should be any doubt in our minds about it being actually a command, we find it linked to another command,
'Be not drunk with wine, but Be Filled With The Spirit.
now, I am sure there is not one here who, if I asked him, Do you try to obey that command, 'Be not drunk with wine'? would not answer at once, 'Of course, as a Christian, I obey that command'.
but now, as to the other - Be filled with the Spirit', have you obeyed that command?Is that the life you are living? if not, the question comes at once, Why not?
and then comes another question, ,
Are you willing to take up that command tonight and to say:
by God's help I am going to obey.
I will not give myself any rest until I have obeyed that command,
until I am filled with the Spirit.
I want at the very commencement to say that it is here a simple question of listening to a command
*2 of God's Holy Spirit, in His Word...
we want to begin at once by saying God has this message to every Christian in this place:
My child , I want you to be filled with the Spirit.
let your answer be: Father, I want it too;
I am ready,
i yield myself to obey my God;
let me be filled with Thy Spirit tonight.
and lest anyone should have a wrong impression as to what it is to be filled with the Spirit, just let me say that it does not mean a state of high excitement, or of absolute perfection, or a state in which thee will be no growth. No.
being filled with the Spirit is simply this - having my whole nature yielded to His power.
when the whole soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God Himself will fill it.
now the question I want to ask is, What Is Needed In Order To Be Filled With The Spirit?
the question is of the utmost importance, and if we try to find the answers that have to be given, it may help to search us.
we prayed, in the hymn we have just sung, that God might Search us and those answers will help each of us to look into our heart and life and say: Am I in that condition in which God can fill me with the Spirit? I think the answers we shall find may also help to encourage us. there may be souls here who may say honestly, as we go on step by step:
Thank God , I am ready for that; and they may perhaps see that they are kept back from this full blessing just by
*3 some ignorance or prejudice or unbelief or wrong thoughts of what the blessing is.
Now, I do not see how we can better find the answer to our question that by looking at the way in which Christ prepared the disciples for the Day of Pentecost. you know what is done in heathen countries where the missionary preaches. converts come to him and he forms a baptismal class and there are cases in which he keeps these young converts for a year, or longer at times, in the baptismal class, to educate and train and test them and to prepare them for the Christian life. and, brethren, Jesus had His disciples 3 years in His baptismal class and they had to go through a time of training and preparation. it was not a magic thing , an arbitrary thing, the Holy Spirit coming down upon them. they were prepared for it. John the Baptist told them what was to come. he not only preached the Lamb of God who was to shed His blood, but he preached - and he tells us that it was by special revelation from God - that He on whom he saw the Holy Spirit descend would baptize with the Holy Ghost.
and now, wherein consisted the training of those disciples? wherein consisted their preparation for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
I ask you, first, to remember that They Were Men Who Had Forsaken All To Follow Jesus. you know the Lord Jesus went to one and said, Forsake your net; and to another , Leave that place in the receipt of custom and come and follow me. and they did it and they could afterwards
the words from which I wish to speak are well know:
you will find them in Acts 2.4,
'They were all filled with the Holy Ghost'
and in Ephesians 5.18,
'Be filled with the Spirit'.
the one text is a narrative; it tells us what actually happened.
the other text is a command; it tells us what we ought to be.
in case there should be any doubt in our minds about it being actually a command, we find it linked to another command,
'Be not drunk with wine, but Be Filled With The Spirit.
now, I am sure there is not one here who, if I asked him, Do you try to obey that command, 'Be not drunk with wine'? would not answer at once, 'Of course, as a Christian, I obey that command'.
but now, as to the other - Be filled with the Spirit', have you obeyed that command?Is that the life you are living? if not, the question comes at once, Why not?
and then comes another question, ,
Are you willing to take up that command tonight and to say:
by God's help I am going to obey.
I will not give myself any rest until I have obeyed that command,
until I am filled with the Spirit.
I want at the very commencement to say that it is here a simple question of listening to a command
*2 of God's Holy Spirit, in His Word...
we want to begin at once by saying God has this message to every Christian in this place:
My child , I want you to be filled with the Spirit.
let your answer be: Father, I want it too;
I am ready,
i yield myself to obey my God;
let me be filled with Thy Spirit tonight.
and lest anyone should have a wrong impression as to what it is to be filled with the Spirit, just let me say that it does not mean a state of high excitement, or of absolute perfection, or a state in which thee will be no growth. No.
being filled with the Spirit is simply this - having my whole nature yielded to His power.
when the whole soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God Himself will fill it.
now the question I want to ask is, What Is Needed In Order To Be Filled With The Spirit?
the question is of the utmost importance, and if we try to find the answers that have to be given, it may help to search us.
we prayed, in the hymn we have just sung, that God might Search us and those answers will help each of us to look into our heart and life and say: Am I in that condition in which God can fill me with the Spirit? I think the answers we shall find may also help to encourage us. there may be souls here who may say honestly, as we go on step by step:
Thank God , I am ready for that; and they may perhaps see that they are kept back from this full blessing just by
*3 some ignorance or prejudice or unbelief or wrong thoughts of what the blessing is.
Now, I do not see how we can better find the answer to our question that by looking at the way in which Christ prepared the disciples for the Day of Pentecost. you know what is done in heathen countries where the missionary preaches. converts come to him and he forms a baptismal class and there are cases in which he keeps these young converts for a year, or longer at times, in the baptismal class, to educate and train and test them and to prepare them for the Christian life. and, brethren, Jesus had His disciples 3 years in His baptismal class and they had to go through a time of training and preparation. it was not a magic thing , an arbitrary thing, the Holy Spirit coming down upon them. they were prepared for it. John the Baptist told them what was to come. he not only preached the Lamb of God who was to shed His blood, but he preached - and he tells us that it was by special revelation from God - that He on whom he saw the Holy Spirit descend would baptize with the Holy Ghost.
and now, wherein consisted the training of those disciples? wherein consisted their preparation for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
I ask you, first, to remember that They Were Men Who Had Forsaken All To Follow Jesus. you know the Lord Jesus went to one and said, Forsake your net; and to another , Leave that place in the receipt of custom and come and follow me. and they did it and they could afterwards
Friday, September 13, 2019
9.12.19 MUST SAY NO - Joshua Steely on When Christians Can't Compromise Touchstone Magazine
compromise is often a good thing. relationships involve a lot of compromise and it is especially justified when dealing with matters that are not of great significance. in such cases, compromise is generally a good thing.
but when it comes to important, foundational matters, such as those concerning doctrine and morals, compromise on something when you shouldn't, you yourself become compromised. you will then have to compromise more and more and in the end you'll find that you've been compromised all the way over to the other side (or very nearly).
this happens, in part, because a compromise involves some degree of moral equivocation. when you compromise on something, you implicitly concede that the other position is justified, at least to some extent. that's why we compromise on things that are inconsequential or unclear, or where both sides have a valid claim and why we don't compromise on murder or theft. if we started compromising on the latter, our whole justice system would become compromised.
A PRAGMATIC COMPROMISE
Observations in this area are relevant to the various efforts being made by churches, denominations and other Christian bodies to compromise with the sexual
24 revolution. one contemporary example is the 'Fairness for All' (FFA) compromise being promoted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) in this case, a compromise is being pursued that is, I think, shortsighted at best.
the FFA is a motion supporting the inclusion of 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' as protected categories in anti-discrimination law as long as compliance carve-outs are made to protect religious liberty. the problem with the NAE and CCCU endorsing the motion is not that they are Deliberately acquiescing to the sexual revolution, but that the form of resistance they are advocating with this document effectively amounts to such. as reported by J.C. Derrick in World magazine online ('Boards Back SOGI Compromise', Dec. 12, 2018. one of the supporters of the motion, Shirley Mullen, described the goal in these terms: 'as Christian higher educators, we are increasingly persuaded that the most viable political strategy is for comprehensive religious freedom protections t be combined with explicit support for basic human rights for members of the LGBT community'.
of course, that way of putting it doesn't quite capture the reality. basic human rights for all people are derived on the basis of being human, not on the basis of membership in some identity group or other. the question is not whether everyone should enjoy Basic human rights, but whether Special rights and protections should be granted to people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. nevertheless, the NAE and CCCU, well-meaning Evangelicals with the goal of securing religious liberty, are proposing to accept the codification of gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes in non-discrimination law as long as religious exemptions from compliance with such laws are allowed. t;hey are not altering their theological beliefs about human nature and sexuality; they are merely making a pragmatic, not a theological, compromise.
COMPROMISED WITNESS
but such a pragmatic compromise would compromise the Church's witness to the truth in a confused culture. by supporting the addition of 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' (SOGI) to anti-discrimination laws, Christians would be implying that these are legitimate categories, that they are valid markers of human identity in the same way that race and sex are. but that is precisely what orthodox Christianity Disputes and it is precisely why we refuse to uphold such categories in our churches, schools and other organizations.
in other words, orthodox Christianity denies the charge of bigotry in, for example, the refusal of a Christian school to hire homosexual teachers. such a refusal is not bigotry because 'sexual orientation' is not a valid category of human identity. it is a moral category, not an anthropological category. refusing to h;ire someone based on SOGI is not analogous to refusing to hire someone based on race or sex; it is analogous to refusing to hire someone based on some other kind of sexually immoral behavior such as polygamy or promiscuity.
but if Christians support adding SOGI categories to human rights legislation, they will be implicitly agreeing that these are legitimate categories of human identity. then a defense of the right to discriminate on these bases does become a defense of bigotry. in trading SOGI acceptance for religious protection, Evangelical leaders are trading away the theological anthropology that underpins their contention that the LGBT agenda is wrong about humanity and wrong for humanity.
such a trade will prove to be a bad deal in the long run. American law is not written in stone and the events of recent years have made it abundantly clear that LGBT advocates are not content simply to win the freedom to do as they please and let Christians (and others) opt out of participating. they may accept FFA as a nice First Step from the Evangelicals, but will expect it to be followed up with more compromises in their favor.
what of the Evangelicals who believe they are making this trade in order to establish firm boundaries and safeguard religious freedom? having compromised on the philosophical basis for opposing the LGBT agenda, they will find themselves continually pressed to act in a manner supportive of it: 'You've admitted that Trans Rights Are Human Rights;
how can you then deny these people their human rights?
Embrace equality!
Hire them!
Affirm their lifestyle!
Bet on the right side of history!
I'm afraid that if the FFA compromise is made, it will only be the first such compromise the NAE and CCCU find themselves making - not the last.
it will not solidify the right to religious freedom, but endanger it.
THE MORE FAITHFUL OPTION
there is an alternative, a less pragmatic and more courageous option.
American law may not be written in stone, but God's law is the 10 Commandments quite literally. the first of these calls us to have no other gods but God alone.
we may say to an increasingly pagan culture, 'No; God is God and he has told us what is right about humanity and right for humanity.
we will not sign on to these new categories of humanity you have created, which simply codify sexual immorality'.
we may suffer for saying that.
we may miss the window of compromise and find ourselves facing an implacable foe.
that foe may defeat us and take away our religious freedom.
but at least we will not have given it away.
but when it comes to important, foundational matters, such as those concerning doctrine and morals, compromise on something when you shouldn't, you yourself become compromised. you will then have to compromise more and more and in the end you'll find that you've been compromised all the way over to the other side (or very nearly).
this happens, in part, because a compromise involves some degree of moral equivocation. when you compromise on something, you implicitly concede that the other position is justified, at least to some extent. that's why we compromise on things that are inconsequential or unclear, or where both sides have a valid claim and why we don't compromise on murder or theft. if we started compromising on the latter, our whole justice system would become compromised.
A PRAGMATIC COMPROMISE
Observations in this area are relevant to the various efforts being made by churches, denominations and other Christian bodies to compromise with the sexual
24 revolution. one contemporary example is the 'Fairness for All' (FFA) compromise being promoted by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) in this case, a compromise is being pursued that is, I think, shortsighted at best.
the FFA is a motion supporting the inclusion of 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' as protected categories in anti-discrimination law as long as compliance carve-outs are made to protect religious liberty. the problem with the NAE and CCCU endorsing the motion is not that they are Deliberately acquiescing to the sexual revolution, but that the form of resistance they are advocating with this document effectively amounts to such. as reported by J.C. Derrick in World magazine online ('Boards Back SOGI Compromise', Dec. 12, 2018. one of the supporters of the motion, Shirley Mullen, described the goal in these terms: 'as Christian higher educators, we are increasingly persuaded that the most viable political strategy is for comprehensive religious freedom protections t be combined with explicit support for basic human rights for members of the LGBT community'.
of course, that way of putting it doesn't quite capture the reality. basic human rights for all people are derived on the basis of being human, not on the basis of membership in some identity group or other. the question is not whether everyone should enjoy Basic human rights, but whether Special rights and protections should be granted to people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. nevertheless, the NAE and CCCU, well-meaning Evangelicals with the goal of securing religious liberty, are proposing to accept the codification of gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes in non-discrimination law as long as religious exemptions from compliance with such laws are allowed. t;hey are not altering their theological beliefs about human nature and sexuality; they are merely making a pragmatic, not a theological, compromise.
COMPROMISED WITNESS
but such a pragmatic compromise would compromise the Church's witness to the truth in a confused culture. by supporting the addition of 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' (SOGI) to anti-discrimination laws, Christians would be implying that these are legitimate categories, that they are valid markers of human identity in the same way that race and sex are. but that is precisely what orthodox Christianity Disputes and it is precisely why we refuse to uphold such categories in our churches, schools and other organizations.
in other words, orthodox Christianity denies the charge of bigotry in, for example, the refusal of a Christian school to hire homosexual teachers. such a refusal is not bigotry because 'sexual orientation' is not a valid category of human identity. it is a moral category, not an anthropological category. refusing to h;ire someone based on SOGI is not analogous to refusing to hire someone based on race or sex; it is analogous to refusing to hire someone based on some other kind of sexually immoral behavior such as polygamy or promiscuity.
but if Christians support adding SOGI categories to human rights legislation, they will be implicitly agreeing that these are legitimate categories of human identity. then a defense of the right to discriminate on these bases does become a defense of bigotry. in trading SOGI acceptance for religious protection, Evangelical leaders are trading away the theological anthropology that underpins their contention that the LGBT agenda is wrong about humanity and wrong for humanity.
such a trade will prove to be a bad deal in the long run. American law is not written in stone and the events of recent years have made it abundantly clear that LGBT advocates are not content simply to win the freedom to do as they please and let Christians (and others) opt out of participating. they may accept FFA as a nice First Step from the Evangelicals, but will expect it to be followed up with more compromises in their favor.
what of the Evangelicals who believe they are making this trade in order to establish firm boundaries and safeguard religious freedom? having compromised on the philosophical basis for opposing the LGBT agenda, they will find themselves continually pressed to act in a manner supportive of it: 'You've admitted that Trans Rights Are Human Rights;
how can you then deny these people their human rights?
Embrace equality!
Hire them!
Affirm their lifestyle!
Bet on the right side of history!
I'm afraid that if the FFA compromise is made, it will only be the first such compromise the NAE and CCCU find themselves making - not the last.
it will not solidify the right to religious freedom, but endanger it.
THE MORE FAITHFUL OPTION
there is an alternative, a less pragmatic and more courageous option.
American law may not be written in stone, but God's law is the 10 Commandments quite literally. the first of these calls us to have no other gods but God alone.
we may say to an increasingly pagan culture, 'No; God is God and he has told us what is right about humanity and right for humanity.
we will not sign on to these new categories of humanity you have created, which simply codify sexual immorality'.
we may suffer for saying that.
we may miss the window of compromise and find ourselves facing an implacable foe.
that foe may defeat us and take away our religious freedom.
but at least we will not have given it away.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
9.11.2019 The Academy's Blond Spot (Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard on 'The limits of 'Post-Colonialism' in Touchstone - A Journal of Mere Christianity
19 the attacks this past Easter against Christians in Sri Lanka were horrific in themselves, but the horror deepens when we realize that they fit a broader pattern of global persecution. unfortunately, in the West, certain sensibilities and assumptions hinder us from perceiving the magnitude of the problem. for this reason, several months ago, the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, made know an independent review into how the British government responds to worldwide persecution. a feeling of post-colonial guilt, he assayed, has hindered people's ability to grasp the enormous scale of the issue, as Christianity is often associated with 'white privilege' and missionaries are regarded contemptuously as agents of imperialism.
Hunt is on to something. but the problem is not confined to British society. the Western academy at large in North America and Europe, in its thralldom to 'post-colonial theory', has some answering to do.
Since Edward Said's landmark Orientalism ( 1978), study after 'post -colonialist' study has produced a rigid orthodoxy. Colonizers lorded it over the colonized,
20 exploiting them economically, socially and culturally. the 'White Man's Burden', Europe's mission civilisatrice, was a sanctimonious justification for the ruthless suppression of indigenous peoples in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. integral to this outlook is the assumption that Christina missionaries were dupes of colonial power 'imperialism at prayer', according to one scholar. in the 'presuppositions of a Saidian master narrative,' Jeffrey Cox has summed up, missionaries are 'simply, imperialists; if different from other imperialists, it is because they were marginal, or because they were worse'. frequently assigned books such as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart of Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, both scathingly critical of Western missions, enforce to unwitting under-graduates the general consensus.
to be sure, this outlook contains considerable truth. colonialism could be a cruel force and missionaries sometimes abetted it. the historical record on this is quite clear. but sweeping theories bout the past usually err not in being wholly wrong, but in reaching farther than their grasp allows. in this case, the role of missionaries and their global legacy today are far more complex than post-colonialist theorists have recognized. what is more, uncritical adherence to the post-colonialist narrative blinds one to the vastly under-reported humanitarian crisis of
Christian persecution, especially of lower-class and minority groups drawn to Christianity during colonial times. the post-colonialist outlook also leaves one at a loss to fathom the post-Western flowering of Christianity taking place today in the erstwhile colonized world.
fortunately in recent years, the academy has also produced several studies that controvert reductive versions of the post-colonialist perspective. these studies deserve a much wider hearing than they currently have.
The Conversionary Protestant Missions
the first is by Robert D. Woodberry of Baylor University, author of 'The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy', published in the American Political Science Review (2012), among the most highly awarded articles in this prestigious journal's history. setting his sights on those who would ignore or contemn missionaries, Woodberry argues that the global activity of 'conversionary Protestants' (CPs) from the late 18th to the early 20th century is a leading cause of the global spread of liberal democracy over against various forms of tyranny and oppression. 'CPs', he argues 'where a crucial catalyst initiating the development and spread of religious liberty;, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations.
*21 most major colonial reforms and the codification of legal protections for nonwhites'. these innovations in myriad global mission sites studied by Woodberry in turn 'fostered conditions that made stable representative democracy more likely'.
Woodberry stresses the Protestant emphasis on sola scriptura. unlie some past missions that focused on elites, he claims, Protestant ones emphasized popular literacy and education, two key ingredients of civil society and the emergence of liberal democracy;. what is more, in their search for converts, Protestant missionaries regularly reached out to lower-class individuals and despise minorities, such as Dalits ('untouchables') and tribal classes in India. in this respect. writes Woodberry, CPs 'influence class structure by dispersing education to women and the poor, making texts widely available, spawning civil society among non-elites and moderating abuses of power - with demonstrable political consequences'.
for their part, minorities and lower-class individuals were disproportionately attracted to Christian notions of human dignity (imago Dei) and the gospel's emphasis on spiritual equality. as the Apostle Paul put it in Galatians: 'There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus'. Gal. 3.28 as was often true ;in the Roman Empire, conversion to Christianity frequently came to the downtrodden as liberation from age-old structures of ostracism and indignity.
Woodberry's thesis is nuanced. (def - subtle difference or distinction) he is aware that European state churches were often part of the problem. he therefore emphasizes that he is particularly concerned with Conversionary Protestants - the ones the British have tagged as 'Nonconformists'. collectively, they amounted to so many gnats in the face of Empire, as well as being disrupters of indigenous forms of complacency toward the poor and the marginalized. 'In trying to spread their faith, Woodberry summarizes his argument, 'CPs expanded religious liberty, overcame resistance to mass education and printing, fostered civil society, moderated colonial abuses, and dissipated elite power. these conditions laid a foundation for democracy'.
Putting Flesh on Persecution StatisticsProcesses of decolonization after World War II, of course, opened new chapters in the history of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. the withdrawal of colonial powers produced a flurry of new political regimes, subscribing to various forms of self-determination. but in the process, non-elite and minority groups who had converted under colonialism often came to be seen as pariahs, 'contaminated' by past Western influence and hence especially vulnerable to discrimination. this is a significant claim of a more recent study, Under Caesar's Sword: How Christians respond to Persecution (Cambridge University Press, 2018), edited by Daniel Philpott of the University of Notre Dame and Timothy Samuel Shah of Georgetown University.
Under Caesar's Sword recognizes and rues the many forms of global religious persecution that exist today, including those more recently in the news: Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Uighurs in China.
but a focus on these truly heart-wrenching cases, coupled with the post-colonialist assumption that Christianity is largely an oppressive force in history, obscures the true global reality today. according to Open Doors USA, 211.5 million Christinas (one out of every 12) experience h;high, very high or extreme persecution, with hundreds of deaths each month. the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary puts the figure much higher. in 2009, the International Society for Human Rights, a secular NGO based in Frankfurt, Germany, estimated that 80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world were directed at Christians. other monitoring groups corroborate these findings; the most conservative figure is 60%. a report of the U. S. State Department shows that Christians face persecution in over 60 countries, while reports from the non-partisan Pew research Center have consistently shown the preponderance of persecution directed against Christians. although a few scholars and journalists have documented the phenomenon, it is not a burning cause for the mainstream media, most human rights organizations, and, not least, the academy, which otherwise bristles with global 'social justice' causes.
Under Caesar's Sword adds flesh and bone to the raw-statistics. Christians in India and Sri Lanka, for example, are perceived as 'foreign' elements in their won countries. they are reminders of colonialism, who compromise the political agendas of Hindu nationalists in India and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists in Sri Lanka. something similar holds for the Hmong minority in Vietnam and Laos, and for the Kachin people in northern Myanmar, who now face a 'slow genocide', according to a recent article in The Guardian. the difficulties that Christians face in China and
*22 especially in North Korea have been well established, as has the resistance that non-Orthodox Christians face in former Soviet countries.
In Iraq and Syria, Christians are 'on the brink of extinction', according to Kent R. hill, as they are in many places throughout the Middle East. 'The global reputation of Islam is at stake, he pleads - a situation that 'provides incentive for both Muslims and Christians to work together for a ...more peaceful future'. in 1900, Christians made up an estimated 14% of the population in the Middle East; today it is 4%. the spread of militant Islam is also a major problem in post-Soviet central Asia, Indonesia and many African counties - to say nothing of the well-documented Coptic Christians' agonizing plight in Egypt, where church bombings on major Christian holidays have become routine.
Under Caesar's Sword echoes and adds scholarly heft to the findings of 2 other recent books: John R Allen Jr's The Global War on Christians and Paul A. Marshall, Lela Gilbert and Nina Shea's persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians, both published in 2013. given the scale of violence taking place, these authors, too, are at a lost to explain the relative inattention the topic receives in the Western media and academy, although Allen helpfully explains that anti-Christian persecution falls into an unfortunate liminal (def - of, pertaining to situated at the limen (threshold) ) or realm: the topic is 'too Christian' to excite the left and 'too foreign' to excite the right - and simply too many dots need connecting to grasp the scope of the problem.
sadly, even Western Christians regularly miss the big picture. for many, the persecution of Christians is simply too far away and they are consumed by domestic political issues, their own internecine battles and self-inflicted wounds. additionally, for many liberal churches, Allen notes, complaining about the persecution of christians runs against' interfaith correctness'. Liberals do not want to be accused of special pleading and too many embrace the post-colonialist narrative in toto. worries about being regarded as Islamophobic, moreover, stifle those who would soberly point out the appalling record of religious freedom in many Muslim-majority countries.
Focusing on Reception over Transmission
If Edward Said and His sympathizers were correct about missionaries,one would think that decolonization would have coincided with massive, voluntary de-Christianization. of course, this has not happened - just the opposite in fact. Christianity is growing in the 'Global South', as scholars such as Philip Jenkins, Peter Berger, Dana Robert, Todd Johnson and Lamin Sanneh have long shown. the share of Christians worldwide who live in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase dramatically between now and 2060, from 26% to 42%, due to high fertility in the region. in sheer numerical terms, Africa has already nearly eclipsed Latin America as the global region with the most Christians. China and India are poised, too, to witness significant growth in their Christian populations in the coming decades.
except for isolated pockets, the Western academy has not seriously reckoned with the changes afoot. Yale Divinity School's (late)Lamin Sanneh helpfully explains that European and American scholars too often focus on the agents of imperialism, including missionaries. in this 'elite discourse', one finds much that corroborates Said's outlook. but if the focus shifts to how non-Western peoples Received the Christian message and Translated it into their own cultural realities, a very different picture emerges.
these facts, observes Sanneh, have 'all but slipped from scholarly consciousness, in large part because attention was directed to the priority of foreign transmission rather than local reception; since transmission focused on organizing the missionary effort in Europe and North America, attention shifted there rather than to the local setting'. such a focus, he continues, enforces the image of missionaries as 'the earnest journeymen of imperialism'. but eh reality is far more complicated. Sanneh again on the academy's blind spot:
Missions cultivated local sensibility and that greatly complicated the language of colonial control. instead of welcoming this complexity as a boon for scholarship, scholars of missions demurred, reluctant to abandon the claim of foreign mischief and eager to retain their reputation as progressive champions of victims and oppressed groups.
*23 fortunately, outliers (def - the person or thing that lies outside) exist in contemporary scholarship. Jeffrey Cox's Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818-1940 (Stanford University Press, 2002) incisively complicates the Saidian master narrative. Boston University's Dana Robert and her students have done exceptionally careful work on missions and the global indigenization of Christianity, including her own widely acclaimed Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
A Luxury We Can't Afford
several other examples could be adduced. unfortunately these are the exceptions that confirm the rule: the academy at large remains beholden to the post-colonialist master narrative.
again, the narrative is not without insight into the darker aspects of colonialism. but embracing it too sweepingly presents one with a simplistic Manichean outlook, in which Christian missionaries and their legacies, due to associations with Western colonialism, are ipso facto accomplices of evil.
over-reliance on the narrative, furthermore, prevents one from fully grasping what Sanneh calls Christianity's 'post-Western awakening', one of the most remarkable developments in modern world history. more gravely still, it fosters and unconscionable blindness to the fiery ordeal that many Christians the world over now experience.
Ignorance of these realities is a luxury that we and especially they, can no longer afford.
Hunt is on to something. but the problem is not confined to British society. the Western academy at large in North America and Europe, in its thralldom to 'post-colonial theory', has some answering to do.
Since Edward Said's landmark Orientalism ( 1978), study after 'post -colonialist' study has produced a rigid orthodoxy. Colonizers lorded it over the colonized,
20 exploiting them economically, socially and culturally. the 'White Man's Burden', Europe's mission civilisatrice, was a sanctimonious justification for the ruthless suppression of indigenous peoples in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. integral to this outlook is the assumption that Christina missionaries were dupes of colonial power 'imperialism at prayer', according to one scholar. in the 'presuppositions of a Saidian master narrative,' Jeffrey Cox has summed up, missionaries are 'simply, imperialists; if different from other imperialists, it is because they were marginal, or because they were worse'. frequently assigned books such as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart of Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, both scathingly critical of Western missions, enforce to unwitting under-graduates the general consensus.
to be sure, this outlook contains considerable truth. colonialism could be a cruel force and missionaries sometimes abetted it. the historical record on this is quite clear. but sweeping theories bout the past usually err not in being wholly wrong, but in reaching farther than their grasp allows. in this case, the role of missionaries and their global legacy today are far more complex than post-colonialist theorists have recognized. what is more, uncritical adherence to the post-colonialist narrative blinds one to the vastly under-reported humanitarian crisis of
Christian persecution, especially of lower-class and minority groups drawn to Christianity during colonial times. the post-colonialist outlook also leaves one at a loss to fathom the post-Western flowering of Christianity taking place today in the erstwhile colonized world.
fortunately in recent years, the academy has also produced several studies that controvert reductive versions of the post-colonialist perspective. these studies deserve a much wider hearing than they currently have.
The Conversionary Protestant Missions
the first is by Robert D. Woodberry of Baylor University, author of 'The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy', published in the American Political Science Review (2012), among the most highly awarded articles in this prestigious journal's history. setting his sights on those who would ignore or contemn missionaries, Woodberry argues that the global activity of 'conversionary Protestants' (CPs) from the late 18th to the early 20th century is a leading cause of the global spread of liberal democracy over against various forms of tyranny and oppression. 'CPs', he argues 'where a crucial catalyst initiating the development and spread of religious liberty;, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations.
*21 most major colonial reforms and the codification of legal protections for nonwhites'. these innovations in myriad global mission sites studied by Woodberry in turn 'fostered conditions that made stable representative democracy more likely'.
Woodberry stresses the Protestant emphasis on sola scriptura. unlie some past missions that focused on elites, he claims, Protestant ones emphasized popular literacy and education, two key ingredients of civil society and the emergence of liberal democracy;. what is more, in their search for converts, Protestant missionaries regularly reached out to lower-class individuals and despise minorities, such as Dalits ('untouchables') and tribal classes in India. in this respect. writes Woodberry, CPs 'influence class structure by dispersing education to women and the poor, making texts widely available, spawning civil society among non-elites and moderating abuses of power - with demonstrable political consequences'.
for their part, minorities and lower-class individuals were disproportionately attracted to Christian notions of human dignity (imago Dei) and the gospel's emphasis on spiritual equality. as the Apostle Paul put it in Galatians: 'There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus'. Gal. 3.28 as was often true ;in the Roman Empire, conversion to Christianity frequently came to the downtrodden as liberation from age-old structures of ostracism and indignity.
Woodberry's thesis is nuanced. (def - subtle difference or distinction) he is aware that European state churches were often part of the problem. he therefore emphasizes that he is particularly concerned with Conversionary Protestants - the ones the British have tagged as 'Nonconformists'. collectively, they amounted to so many gnats in the face of Empire, as well as being disrupters of indigenous forms of complacency toward the poor and the marginalized. 'In trying to spread their faith, Woodberry summarizes his argument, 'CPs expanded religious liberty, overcame resistance to mass education and printing, fostered civil society, moderated colonial abuses, and dissipated elite power. these conditions laid a foundation for democracy'.
Putting Flesh on Persecution StatisticsProcesses of decolonization after World War II, of course, opened new chapters in the history of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. the withdrawal of colonial powers produced a flurry of new political regimes, subscribing to various forms of self-determination. but in the process, non-elite and minority groups who had converted under colonialism often came to be seen as pariahs, 'contaminated' by past Western influence and hence especially vulnerable to discrimination. this is a significant claim of a more recent study, Under Caesar's Sword: How Christians respond to Persecution (Cambridge University Press, 2018), edited by Daniel Philpott of the University of Notre Dame and Timothy Samuel Shah of Georgetown University.
Under Caesar's Sword recognizes and rues the many forms of global religious persecution that exist today, including those more recently in the news: Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Uighurs in China.
but a focus on these truly heart-wrenching cases, coupled with the post-colonialist assumption that Christianity is largely an oppressive force in history, obscures the true global reality today. according to Open Doors USA, 211.5 million Christinas (one out of every 12) experience h;high, very high or extreme persecution, with hundreds of deaths each month. the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary puts the figure much higher. in 2009, the International Society for Human Rights, a secular NGO based in Frankfurt, Germany, estimated that 80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world were directed at Christians. other monitoring groups corroborate these findings; the most conservative figure is 60%. a report of the U. S. State Department shows that Christians face persecution in over 60 countries, while reports from the non-partisan Pew research Center have consistently shown the preponderance of persecution directed against Christians. although a few scholars and journalists have documented the phenomenon, it is not a burning cause for the mainstream media, most human rights organizations, and, not least, the academy, which otherwise bristles with global 'social justice' causes.
Under Caesar's Sword adds flesh and bone to the raw-statistics. Christians in India and Sri Lanka, for example, are perceived as 'foreign' elements in their won countries. they are reminders of colonialism, who compromise the political agendas of Hindu nationalists in India and Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists in Sri Lanka. something similar holds for the Hmong minority in Vietnam and Laos, and for the Kachin people in northern Myanmar, who now face a 'slow genocide', according to a recent article in The Guardian. the difficulties that Christians face in China and
*22 especially in North Korea have been well established, as has the resistance that non-Orthodox Christians face in former Soviet countries.
In Iraq and Syria, Christians are 'on the brink of extinction', according to Kent R. hill, as they are in many places throughout the Middle East. 'The global reputation of Islam is at stake, he pleads - a situation that 'provides incentive for both Muslims and Christians to work together for a ...more peaceful future'. in 1900, Christians made up an estimated 14% of the population in the Middle East; today it is 4%. the spread of militant Islam is also a major problem in post-Soviet central Asia, Indonesia and many African counties - to say nothing of the well-documented Coptic Christians' agonizing plight in Egypt, where church bombings on major Christian holidays have become routine.
Under Caesar's Sword echoes and adds scholarly heft to the findings of 2 other recent books: John R Allen Jr's The Global War on Christians and Paul A. Marshall, Lela Gilbert and Nina Shea's persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians, both published in 2013. given the scale of violence taking place, these authors, too, are at a lost to explain the relative inattention the topic receives in the Western media and academy, although Allen helpfully explains that anti-Christian persecution falls into an unfortunate liminal (def - of, pertaining to situated at the limen (threshold) ) or realm: the topic is 'too Christian' to excite the left and 'too foreign' to excite the right - and simply too many dots need connecting to grasp the scope of the problem.
sadly, even Western Christians regularly miss the big picture. for many, the persecution of Christians is simply too far away and they are consumed by domestic political issues, their own internecine battles and self-inflicted wounds. additionally, for many liberal churches, Allen notes, complaining about the persecution of christians runs against' interfaith correctness'. Liberals do not want to be accused of special pleading and too many embrace the post-colonialist narrative in toto. worries about being regarded as Islamophobic, moreover, stifle those who would soberly point out the appalling record of religious freedom in many Muslim-majority countries.
Focusing on Reception over Transmission
If Edward Said and His sympathizers were correct about missionaries,one would think that decolonization would have coincided with massive, voluntary de-Christianization. of course, this has not happened - just the opposite in fact. Christianity is growing in the 'Global South', as scholars such as Philip Jenkins, Peter Berger, Dana Robert, Todd Johnson and Lamin Sanneh have long shown. the share of Christians worldwide who live in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase dramatically between now and 2060, from 26% to 42%, due to high fertility in the region. in sheer numerical terms, Africa has already nearly eclipsed Latin America as the global region with the most Christians. China and India are poised, too, to witness significant growth in their Christian populations in the coming decades.
except for isolated pockets, the Western academy has not seriously reckoned with the changes afoot. Yale Divinity School's (late)Lamin Sanneh helpfully explains that European and American scholars too often focus on the agents of imperialism, including missionaries. in this 'elite discourse', one finds much that corroborates Said's outlook. but if the focus shifts to how non-Western peoples Received the Christian message and Translated it into their own cultural realities, a very different picture emerges.
these facts, observes Sanneh, have 'all but slipped from scholarly consciousness, in large part because attention was directed to the priority of foreign transmission rather than local reception; since transmission focused on organizing the missionary effort in Europe and North America, attention shifted there rather than to the local setting'. such a focus, he continues, enforces the image of missionaries as 'the earnest journeymen of imperialism'. but eh reality is far more complicated. Sanneh again on the academy's blind spot:
Missions cultivated local sensibility and that greatly complicated the language of colonial control. instead of welcoming this complexity as a boon for scholarship, scholars of missions demurred, reluctant to abandon the claim of foreign mischief and eager to retain their reputation as progressive champions of victims and oppressed groups.
*23 fortunately, outliers (def - the person or thing that lies outside) exist in contemporary scholarship. Jeffrey Cox's Imperial Fault Lines: Christianity and Colonial Power in India, 1818-1940 (Stanford University Press, 2002) incisively complicates the Saidian master narrative. Boston University's Dana Robert and her students have done exceptionally careful work on missions and the global indigenization of Christianity, including her own widely acclaimed Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
A Luxury We Can't Afford
several other examples could be adduced. unfortunately these are the exceptions that confirm the rule: the academy at large remains beholden to the post-colonialist master narrative.
again, the narrative is not without insight into the darker aspects of colonialism. but embracing it too sweepingly presents one with a simplistic Manichean outlook, in which Christian missionaries and their legacies, due to associations with Western colonialism, are ipso facto accomplices of evil.
over-reliance on the narrative, furthermore, prevents one from fully grasping what Sanneh calls Christianity's 'post-Western awakening', one of the most remarkable developments in modern world history. more gravely still, it fosters and unconscionable blindness to the fiery ordeal that many Christians the world over now experience.
Ignorance of these realities is a luxury that we and especially they, can no longer afford.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
EASY COME, EASY GO: Serve God, and don't worry about the money Andree Seu Peterson, in World magazine, 9.14.2019
in the same month of August, these 2 things happened to me:
I paid $239 to a New Jersey court for the dubious pleasure of holding my cell phone in hand while driving in plain sight of a cruiser.
Second, a Korean woman I don't even remember who knew my late husband and happened to dine with a distant acquaintance, asked said acquaintance about me and ended up writing me a check for $200.
so it was kind of a wash, financially speaking.
If you are of a mind to do any thinking about God's working in your life, what conclusion would you draw?
partly that depends on where you put the 'but' in the sentence, right?
i mean, you can say,'I got a windfall 200 smackers one day in summer - but lost it all on a traffic violation'. or you can say, 'I lost a couple hundred dollars on a traffic ticket - but lost it all on a traffic violation'.
Or you can say, 'I lost a couple hundred dollars on a traffic ticket - but got it mostly back in the form of an out-of-the-blue gift!' it's all in the way you look at things. I guess.
but the 'wash' thing keeps bugging me in some fundamental philosophical way - the way that through 6-plus decades it seems that monetary gains and losses have cancelled each other out on balance. nothing went quite the way I envisioned:
I made sizable stupid money blunders and sizeable unexpected gains. some of those losses were for innocent mistakes and almost all the augmentations were unmerited.
there has been no closely correlated one-to-one correspondence between my wits and my money. the old adage has born out: '
'Easy come, easy go'.
Ben Shapiro chides cultural snowflakes:
Facts don'[t care about your feelings'.
I propose a similar axiom: 'Cash doesn't care about your deservingness'.
Don't worry about money because money isn't worried about you.
Jesus spoke of the fickleness of Lady Lucre this way:
'moth and rust destroy...thieves break in a steal'.
My Great Depression-scarred maternal grandmother was a world-class money worrier and had amassed a fortune in nickels and dimes by her nineties, only to be pressured into handing the whole caboodle over to my father's failing furniture business, which tanked anyway.
how many needs and pleasures did she deny herself and others to make that fortune that took wind in a moment?
when I was a widow (that was a 14 year stretch), and totally unemployable except for writing, for some reason I wasn't worried about money.
and it's a good thing too, because it would have been a waste of perfectly good brain cells:
a total stranger from Texas phoned and said the Lord had put it on his heart to buy me a car. no thank you, I have a car, I said. Hmm, he said, then I'll send you a check.
the next week I got $25,000 in the mail.
I wasn't aware I would need it, but God was.
we may take these boons when Heaven grants them, and be grateful.
My brother and his wife were subsisting on bread and yogurt and faith during seminary and missionary support-raising days.
then his father-in- law uncharacteristically phoned to say he bought them a Citroen CX, which unbeknowst to my brother was in 1983 one of Citroen's most expensive models (copied by Rolls Royce).
Later, at a cafe in Ales, France, the father-in-law joked with a couple of his buddies: 'So how do you like that?
I bust my butt all year working at the restaurant, yet I drive that crummy little jalopy, whereas my son-in-law here, the prayer merchant, drives that big fancy Citroen!
there's something wrong here!'
'Not at all, said my brother. 'It's quite normal'.
'What do you mean, it's normal? the elder asked.
I reached into my handbag and pulled out my pocket Bible and turned to the book of Ecclesiastes... I read out loud:
'To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who please God'. (Ecclesiastes 2.26) (Marc Maillloux, God Still Loves the French).
Seek first the kingdom of God and He will take care of you. it's the only thing you can rely on.
I paid $239 to a New Jersey court for the dubious pleasure of holding my cell phone in hand while driving in plain sight of a cruiser.
Second, a Korean woman I don't even remember who knew my late husband and happened to dine with a distant acquaintance, asked said acquaintance about me and ended up writing me a check for $200.
so it was kind of a wash, financially speaking.
If you are of a mind to do any thinking about God's working in your life, what conclusion would you draw?
partly that depends on where you put the 'but' in the sentence, right?
i mean, you can say,'I got a windfall 200 smackers one day in summer - but lost it all on a traffic violation'. or you can say, 'I lost a couple hundred dollars on a traffic ticket - but lost it all on a traffic violation'.
Or you can say, 'I lost a couple hundred dollars on a traffic ticket - but got it mostly back in the form of an out-of-the-blue gift!' it's all in the way you look at things. I guess.
but the 'wash' thing keeps bugging me in some fundamental philosophical way - the way that through 6-plus decades it seems that monetary gains and losses have cancelled each other out on balance. nothing went quite the way I envisioned:
I made sizable stupid money blunders and sizeable unexpected gains. some of those losses were for innocent mistakes and almost all the augmentations were unmerited.
there has been no closely correlated one-to-one correspondence between my wits and my money. the old adage has born out: '
'Easy come, easy go'.
Ben Shapiro chides cultural snowflakes:
Facts don'[t care about your feelings'.
I propose a similar axiom: 'Cash doesn't care about your deservingness'.
Don't worry about money because money isn't worried about you.
Jesus spoke of the fickleness of Lady Lucre this way:
'moth and rust destroy...thieves break in a steal'.
My Great Depression-scarred maternal grandmother was a world-class money worrier and had amassed a fortune in nickels and dimes by her nineties, only to be pressured into handing the whole caboodle over to my father's failing furniture business, which tanked anyway.
how many needs and pleasures did she deny herself and others to make that fortune that took wind in a moment?
when I was a widow (that was a 14 year stretch), and totally unemployable except for writing, for some reason I wasn't worried about money.
and it's a good thing too, because it would have been a waste of perfectly good brain cells:
a total stranger from Texas phoned and said the Lord had put it on his heart to buy me a car. no thank you, I have a car, I said. Hmm, he said, then I'll send you a check.
the next week I got $25,000 in the mail.
I wasn't aware I would need it, but God was.
we may take these boons when Heaven grants them, and be grateful.
My brother and his wife were subsisting on bread and yogurt and faith during seminary and missionary support-raising days.
then his father-in- law uncharacteristically phoned to say he bought them a Citroen CX, which unbeknowst to my brother was in 1983 one of Citroen's most expensive models (copied by Rolls Royce).
Later, at a cafe in Ales, France, the father-in-law joked with a couple of his buddies: 'So how do you like that?
I bust my butt all year working at the restaurant, yet I drive that crummy little jalopy, whereas my son-in-law here, the prayer merchant, drives that big fancy Citroen!
there's something wrong here!'
'Not at all, said my brother. 'It's quite normal'.
'What do you mean, it's normal? the elder asked.
I reached into my handbag and pulled out my pocket Bible and turned to the book of Ecclesiastes... I read out loud:
'To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who please God'. (Ecclesiastes 2.26) (Marc Maillloux, God Still Loves the French).
Seek first the kingdom of God and He will take care of you. it's the only thing you can rely on.
Friday, August 23, 2019
8.23.2019 The Coming Of The Kingdom - Herman Ridderbos (1962)
intro(11) Jesus entered upon his ministry with the preaching of the gospel of God and saying: 'The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe the gospel'. thus Mark 1.14,15 introduces the description of Jesus' coming and his activity in Galilee. Matthew and Luke have the same message in different words: Matt. 4.1723; 9.35; Luke 9.11. in Luke 4.43 we are told in Jesus' own words that the purpose of His mission was the preaching of the kingdom of God. the word of God he preached (Luke 8.11) is therefore also called, 'the word of the kingdom' (Matt. 13.19) and the gospel by which the entire New Testament kerygma is summarized (Luke 4.43; 8.1; 16.16) has the kingdom of God and its coming of its content. it may be rightly said that the whole of the preaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles is concerned with the kingdom of God, and that in Jesus Christ's proclamation of the kingdom we are face to face with the specific form of expression of the whole of his revelation of God. these preliminary remarks may show that for insight into the meaning and the character of the New Testament revelation of God. it is hardly possible to mention any other theme equal in importance to that of the kingdom of heaven.
(12) for more than 50 yhears the study of the general purport of the kingdom of heaven has been dominated by the problems posited by the so-called eschatological school. Johannes Weiss may be mentioned as the 'father' of this movement. in 1892 he published Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes, which has retained its significance to the present day. in this work Weiss attacked the use made of the concept 'kingdom of God' y the influential theologian Albrect Ritschl. Rit thought he could appeal to the preaching of Jesus in support of his own conception. he conceived of the kingdom of God as the ethical-religious community founded by Jesus and composed of all who wish to practice the evangelical law of love. it is this community which must be promoted by the church. the character of this kingdom of god is entirely immanent, because it belongs to this world and is strongly determined by the idea of development and human activity. the basic law of this kingdom is found in Jesus' commandments and lends a predominantly ethical character to the entire process of its coming and its revelation.
according to Weiss, however, Rit's conception of the
(13) kingdom of God can in no way make an appeal to the gospel. its origins are rather to be sought in Kant's view of the kingdom of virtue and in the theology of the Enlightenment. as a representative of the history of religions school. Weiss argued that Jesus' preaching of the kingdom of God can only be understood in the light of and against the background of the world of thought of his time, especially of the late Jewish apocalyptic writings. on this view, every conception of the kingdom of God as an immanent community in course of development or as an ethical ideal is consequently to be rejected; for it becomes clear that the kingdom of God is a purely future and eschatological event, presupposing the end of this world and therefore, cannot possibly reveal itself already in this world. for the kingdom of God, which Jesus proclaimed to be near at hand, is nothing but the commencement of the new world, expected in the apocalyptical literature, and which will reveal itself after the catastrophic upheaval of the present era.
it is true that there are passages in the gospel representing this kingdom as having come and consequently, as being present. according to Weiss, our first concern should be to investigate their authenticity and the extent they are derived from a later spiritualizing conception of the kingdom. to such a conception Weiss also wants to ascribe the preaching of the kingdom found in the gospel according to John, in which the eschatological viewpoint is far less dominant. still, thee remain passages in the synoptic gospels in which Jesus speaks of the kingdom as being present (the so-called Gegenwart-stellen, 'present' references, such as Matt. 12.28, and others). but according to Weiss, Jesus is here in a kind of spiritual ecstasy, in which he sees the first beginnings of the great break-through, and speaks of he coming of the kingdom in a proleptic (def- anticipation of possible objections in order to answer them in advance) sense. however, Jesus had not always lived in the spell of this high tension. rather , at first, Jesus is here in a kind of spiritual ecstasy, in which he sees the first beginnings of the great break-through, and speaks of the coming of the kingdom in a proleptic sense. however, Jesus had not always lived in the spell of this high tension. rather, at first, Jesus expected the coming of the kingdom before his death. only later, under the impact of disappointing experiences, did he postpone the time of its coming. there is, however, no question
(14) of a gradual revelation and development of this coming. the kingdom will come suddenly, owing to God's irresistible intervention and it will bring the present dispensation to a close.
the echo to this eschatological keynote is heard by Weiss especially in Jesus' commandments. they do not denote the standard of the kingdom of God in its development in this world, but are intended as conditions for the entry into the future kingdom. they not only function as conditions, but are also thoroughly eschatological in character. the radicalism of Jesus' ethics is the radicalism of those who know that the end is near, and who have therefore on principle taken leave of all earthly possessions and interests. now that the end of the world may come at any moment, there is no point in quarrelling about right or wrong. such was the sense of crisis that gave birth to Jesus' commandments. they cannot be understood as rules of conduct given for all time and acceptable at any period, but as a kind of 'exceptional legislation'. just as in time of war the normal order of things is temporarily suspended and everything is made subservient to the great cause, so in the same way Jesus' radical commandments are to be understood only from the eschatological expectation of the coming kingdom of God.
the man who has advocated this new interpretation of the gospel with the greatest energy and who may therefore be called the most typical propagandist of the eschatological conception, is Albert Schweitzer. Weiss's writings were especially devoted to Jesus' preaching, but Schweit in addition tries to prove that Weiss's insight is also the long-sought-for key for the understanding of Jesus' life. Schweit speaks of 'consistent eschatology'. if Jesus lived in the expectation that the end was near at hand, the history of his life must have been dominated by such an expectation. thus Schweit arrives at an entirely new and partly fantastic description of the life of Jesus. in his book Das Messianitas - und Leidensgeheimnis, and especially in his large volume Von Reimarus zu Wrede (published later under the title Die Geschichte der
(15) Leben-Jesu-Rorschung), Schweit give a brilliant survey of the efforts made by theology since the Enlightenment to arrive at a consistent view of the life of Jesus.
Schweit clearly shows how much the whole history of exegesis has been determined, not by historical objectivity, but rather by subjective theological prejudice. he especially criticizes the liberal picture of Jesus, so long accepted by a large number of theologians of the modern school. Schweit's teacher, H. J. Holtzmann, the great representative of the liberal school, was one of the authors of this liberal portrait. Schweit sympathizes most with such figures in the history of New Testament research as Reimarus, Strauss, and Bruno Bauer who, in his opinion, have described Jesus' life in a way that is free from all dogmatic premises. he shows that it was especially these radicals who realized that Jesus lived in the eschatalogical tension which, according to Schweit, Weiss's book on Jesus' preaching of the kingdom had indicated. therefore, in the tradition of these predecessors, Schweit tried to describe Jesus' life as a life which was wholly dominated by the eschatological dogma.
Sch's consistently eschatological reconstruction of the life of Jesus has not found much support. nevertheless, this view has remained very characteristic of the general theological position of the eschatological tendency. on the one hand, it was intended as a protest against the humanizing and ethicizing of the gospel and against the consequent distortion of the picture of Jesus found in the gospels. on the other hand, this movement fought for hat it considered a purely Historical rectification. by exclusively viewing the coming of the kingdom mentioned in the gospel as the beginning of the great final catastrophe, these writers could only assert that Jesus' preaching of the nearness of the kingdom was the effect of a delusion. they were thus compelled to base the ethical imitation of Jesus - which especially fascinated Sch who qualified it as 'the heroic surrender of life' - on something different from this eschatological expectation.
(16) this is why both Weiss and Schweitzer have recourse to the modern idealistic outlook for their own theology and view of the world. thus their work did not result in a new theology founded on the gospel. it only frustrated the efforts previously made go establish a bod between the gospel and the current theological conception.
this failure is one of the reasons why the first great representatives of the eschatological interpretation at first had so little influence. they were unable to give theological expression to the eschatological character of Jesus' preaching which they had re-discovered . the result of their activities was only that, for the time being, the eschatological character of the kingdom of God, preached by Jesus, was more and more being recognized. but this character was considered to be merely the mythical or contemporary expression of the spiritual change which takes place in man and in the world when people begin to listen to Jesus' commandments and to regulate their lives by them.
characeeristic fopr this (eschatological) for (spiritual-maral) content schema was, for example, that which another well-known representative of the history of religions school, W. Bousset, adduced to refute Johannes Weiss's book. Bousset addimtted that Jesus' preaching was entirely based on the eschatological conception. but in his opinion a sharp distinction should be made between the 'phenomenbological' and the 'intelligible' character of Jesus personality and message.
(12) for more than 50 yhears the study of the general purport of the kingdom of heaven has been dominated by the problems posited by the so-called eschatological school. Johannes Weiss may be mentioned as the 'father' of this movement. in 1892 he published Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes, which has retained its significance to the present day. in this work Weiss attacked the use made of the concept 'kingdom of God' y the influential theologian Albrect Ritschl. Rit thought he could appeal to the preaching of Jesus in support of his own conception. he conceived of the kingdom of God as the ethical-religious community founded by Jesus and composed of all who wish to practice the evangelical law of love. it is this community which must be promoted by the church. the character of this kingdom of god is entirely immanent, because it belongs to this world and is strongly determined by the idea of development and human activity. the basic law of this kingdom is found in Jesus' commandments and lends a predominantly ethical character to the entire process of its coming and its revelation.
according to Weiss, however, Rit's conception of the
(13) kingdom of God can in no way make an appeal to the gospel. its origins are rather to be sought in Kant's view of the kingdom of virtue and in the theology of the Enlightenment. as a representative of the history of religions school. Weiss argued that Jesus' preaching of the kingdom of God can only be understood in the light of and against the background of the world of thought of his time, especially of the late Jewish apocalyptic writings. on this view, every conception of the kingdom of God as an immanent community in course of development or as an ethical ideal is consequently to be rejected; for it becomes clear that the kingdom of God is a purely future and eschatological event, presupposing the end of this world and therefore, cannot possibly reveal itself already in this world. for the kingdom of God, which Jesus proclaimed to be near at hand, is nothing but the commencement of the new world, expected in the apocalyptical literature, and which will reveal itself after the catastrophic upheaval of the present era.
it is true that there are passages in the gospel representing this kingdom as having come and consequently, as being present. according to Weiss, our first concern should be to investigate their authenticity and the extent they are derived from a later spiritualizing conception of the kingdom. to such a conception Weiss also wants to ascribe the preaching of the kingdom found in the gospel according to John, in which the eschatological viewpoint is far less dominant. still, thee remain passages in the synoptic gospels in which Jesus speaks of the kingdom as being present (the so-called Gegenwart-stellen, 'present' references, such as Matt. 12.28, and others). but according to Weiss, Jesus is here in a kind of spiritual ecstasy, in which he sees the first beginnings of the great break-through, and speaks of he coming of the kingdom in a proleptic (def- anticipation of possible objections in order to answer them in advance) sense. however, Jesus had not always lived in the spell of this high tension. rather , at first, Jesus is here in a kind of spiritual ecstasy, in which he sees the first beginnings of the great break-through, and speaks of the coming of the kingdom in a proleptic sense. however, Jesus had not always lived in the spell of this high tension. rather, at first, Jesus expected the coming of the kingdom before his death. only later, under the impact of disappointing experiences, did he postpone the time of its coming. there is, however, no question
(14) of a gradual revelation and development of this coming. the kingdom will come suddenly, owing to God's irresistible intervention and it will bring the present dispensation to a close.
the echo to this eschatological keynote is heard by Weiss especially in Jesus' commandments. they do not denote the standard of the kingdom of God in its development in this world, but are intended as conditions for the entry into the future kingdom. they not only function as conditions, but are also thoroughly eschatological in character. the radicalism of Jesus' ethics is the radicalism of those who know that the end is near, and who have therefore on principle taken leave of all earthly possessions and interests. now that the end of the world may come at any moment, there is no point in quarrelling about right or wrong. such was the sense of crisis that gave birth to Jesus' commandments. they cannot be understood as rules of conduct given for all time and acceptable at any period, but as a kind of 'exceptional legislation'. just as in time of war the normal order of things is temporarily suspended and everything is made subservient to the great cause, so in the same way Jesus' radical commandments are to be understood only from the eschatological expectation of the coming kingdom of God.
the man who has advocated this new interpretation of the gospel with the greatest energy and who may therefore be called the most typical propagandist of the eschatological conception, is Albert Schweitzer. Weiss's writings were especially devoted to Jesus' preaching, but Schweit in addition tries to prove that Weiss's insight is also the long-sought-for key for the understanding of Jesus' life. Schweit speaks of 'consistent eschatology'. if Jesus lived in the expectation that the end was near at hand, the history of his life must have been dominated by such an expectation. thus Schweit arrives at an entirely new and partly fantastic description of the life of Jesus. in his book Das Messianitas - und Leidensgeheimnis, and especially in his large volume Von Reimarus zu Wrede (published later under the title Die Geschichte der
(15) Leben-Jesu-Rorschung), Schweit give a brilliant survey of the efforts made by theology since the Enlightenment to arrive at a consistent view of the life of Jesus.
Schweit clearly shows how much the whole history of exegesis has been determined, not by historical objectivity, but rather by subjective theological prejudice. he especially criticizes the liberal picture of Jesus, so long accepted by a large number of theologians of the modern school. Schweit's teacher, H. J. Holtzmann, the great representative of the liberal school, was one of the authors of this liberal portrait. Schweit sympathizes most with such figures in the history of New Testament research as Reimarus, Strauss, and Bruno Bauer who, in his opinion, have described Jesus' life in a way that is free from all dogmatic premises. he shows that it was especially these radicals who realized that Jesus lived in the eschatalogical tension which, according to Schweit, Weiss's book on Jesus' preaching of the kingdom had indicated. therefore, in the tradition of these predecessors, Schweit tried to describe Jesus' life as a life which was wholly dominated by the eschatological dogma.
Sch's consistently eschatological reconstruction of the life of Jesus has not found much support. nevertheless, this view has remained very characteristic of the general theological position of the eschatological tendency. on the one hand, it was intended as a protest against the humanizing and ethicizing of the gospel and against the consequent distortion of the picture of Jesus found in the gospels. on the other hand, this movement fought for hat it considered a purely Historical rectification. by exclusively viewing the coming of the kingdom mentioned in the gospel as the beginning of the great final catastrophe, these writers could only assert that Jesus' preaching of the nearness of the kingdom was the effect of a delusion. they were thus compelled to base the ethical imitation of Jesus - which especially fascinated Sch who qualified it as 'the heroic surrender of life' - on something different from this eschatological expectation.
(16) this is why both Weiss and Schweitzer have recourse to the modern idealistic outlook for their own theology and view of the world. thus their work did not result in a new theology founded on the gospel. it only frustrated the efforts previously made go establish a bod between the gospel and the current theological conception.
this failure is one of the reasons why the first great representatives of the eschatological interpretation at first had so little influence. they were unable to give theological expression to the eschatological character of Jesus' preaching which they had re-discovered . the result of their activities was only that, for the time being, the eschatological character of the kingdom of God, preached by Jesus, was more and more being recognized. but this character was considered to be merely the mythical or contemporary expression of the spiritual change which takes place in man and in the world when people begin to listen to Jesus' commandments and to regulate their lives by them.
characeeristic fopr this (eschatological) for (spiritual-maral) content schema was, for example, that which another well-known representative of the history of religions school, W. Bousset, adduced to refute Johannes Weiss's book. Bousset addimtted that Jesus' preaching was entirely based on the eschatological conception. but in his opinion a sharp distinction should be made between the 'phenomenbological' and the 'intelligible' character of Jesus personality and message.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
8.20.2019 The Treasury of David; Vol1: Psalms 1-26 - PSALM 11.3 - IF THE FOUNDATIONS BE DESTROYED, WHAT CAN THE RIGHTEOUS DO?
II Chronicles 7.14 says, ' If My people who are called by My name will HUMBLE THEMSELVES and PRAY and SEEK MY FACE and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, then will I HEAR FROM HEAVEN and will FORGIVE THEIR SIN and will HEAL THEIR LAND.'
It appears that at this time we, as a nation are about to experience or have already begun to experience the Word in Psalm 9.17 - The wicked shall be cast headlong into hell and every nation that forgets God'.
*145 Psalm 11 - Subject - Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of this psalm in the following sentences: -'The Psalms are a rich repository of experimental knowledge. David, at the different periods of his life, was placed in almost every situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be placed; in these heavenly compositions he delineates all the workings of the heart. he introduces, too, the sentiments and conduct of the various persons who were accessory either to his troubles or his joys; and thus sets before us a compendium of all that is passing in the hearts of men throughout the world. when he penned this Psalm he was under persecution from Saul, who sought his life, and hunted him 'as a partridge upon the mountains'. his timid friends were alarmed for his safety and recommended him to flee to some mountain where he had a hiding-place and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. but David, being strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting to any such pusillanimous (def -lacking courage or resolution; cowardly) expedients, and determined confidently to repose his trust in God'.
To assist us to remember this short, but sweet psalm, we will give it the name of 'The Song Of The Stedfast'.
Division - From 1 to 3, David describes the temptation with which he was assailed and from 4 to 7, the arguments by which his courage was sustained.
In the Lord put I my trust:
v1 - how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?
v2 - for, lo, the wicked bend Their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
v3 - IF THE FOUNDATIONS BE DESTROYED, WHAT CAN THE RIGHTEOUS DO?
These verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust God, with which David was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It may be, that in the days when he was in Saul's court, he was advised to flee at a time when this flight would have been charged against him as a breach of duty to the king, or a proof of personal cowardice. his case was like that of Nehemiah, when his enemies, under the garb of friendship. hoped to entrap him by advising him to escape for his life. had he done so, they could then have found a ground of accusation. Nehemiah bravely replied, 'Shall such a man as I flee?;; and David, in a like spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming, 'In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?' When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our confidence and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, He will make us like the timid bird with flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself. how forcibly the case is put! the bow is bent, the arrow is fitted to the string: 'Flee, flee, thou defenceless bird, they safety lies in flight; begone, for thine enemies will send their shafts into thy heart; haste, haste, for soon wilt thou be destroyed!' David seems to have felt the force of the advice, for it came home to His Soul' but yet he would not yield, but would rather dare the danger than exhibit a distrust in the Lord his God. doubtless, the perils which encompassed David were great and imminent; it was quite true that his enemies were Ready to Shoot Privily at him; it was equally correct that the very Foundations of law and justice were Destroyed under Saul's unrighteous government: but what were all these things to the man whose trust was in God alone? He could brave the dangers, could escape the enemies and defy the injustice which surrounded him. his answer to the question, 'what can the righteous do? would be
*146 the counter-question, 'What cannot they do?' when prayer engages God on our side and when faith secures the fulfillment of the promise, what cause can there be for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies? with a sling and a stone, David had smitten a giant before whom the whole hosts of Israel were trembling and the Lord, who delivered him from the uncircumcised Philistine, could surely deliver him from King Saul and his myrmidons. (def - one of the warlike people form ancient Thessaly who accompanied Achillies to the Trojan War.) there is no such word as 'impossibility' in the language of faith; that martial grace knows how to fight and conquer, but she knows not how to flee.
*148 Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings...
*152 vs 3 'If.' it is the only word of comfort in the text, that what is said is not positive, but suppositive; not thetical, but hypothetical. and yet this is quickly sadded with a double consideration. first, impossible suppositions produce impossible consequences, 'As is the mother, so is the daughter'. therefore, surely God's holy Spirit would not suppose such a thing but what was feasible and possible, but what either had, did, or might come to pass. Secondly, the Hebrew word is not the conditional im, si, si forte, but chi, quia, quoniam, because , and (although here it be favourably rendered if), seemeth to import, more therein, that the sad case had already happened in David's days. I see, therefore, that this if, our only hope in the text, is likely to prove with Job's friends, but a miserable comforter. well, it is good to know the worst of things, that we may provide ourselves accordingly; and therefore let us behold this doleful case, not as doubtful, but as done; not as feared, but felt; not as suspected, but at this time really come to pass. Thomas Fuller.
vs 3 -'If the foundations,' etc. the civil foundation of a nation or people, is their laws and constitutions. the order and power that's among them. that's the foundation of a people, and when once this foundation is destroyed, 'What can the righteous do? what can the best, the wisest in the world, do in such a case? what can any man do, if there be not a foundation of government left among men? there is no help nor answer in such a case but that which follows in the fourth verse of the psalm, 'The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men' as if he had said, in the midst of these confusions, when as it is said (Psalm 82.5), 'All the foundations of the earth are out of course', yet God keeps His course still, He is where He was and as He was, without variableness or shadow of turning. Joseph Caryl
vs 3 - 'The righteous'. the righteous indefinitely, equivalent to the righteous universally; not only the righteous as a single arrow, but in the whole sheaf; not only the righteous as a single arrow, but in the whole sheaf; not only the righteous in their personal, but in their diffusive (def - diffuse - tending to widely, loosely spread) capacity. were they all collected into one body, were all the righteous living in the same age wherein the Foundations Are Destroyed, summoned up and modeled into one corporation, all their joint endeavours would prove ineffectual to the re-establishing of the fallen Foundations, as not being man's work, but only god's work to perform - Thomas Fuller
vs 3 'the foundations'. Positions the things formerly fixed, placed and settled. it is not said, if the roof be ruinous, or if the side walls be shattered, but if the Foundations.
vs 3 'Foundations be destroyed'. in the plural. here I will not warrant my skill in architecture, but conceiver this may pass for an undoubted truth: it is possible that a building settled on several entire Foundations suppose them Pillars) close one to another, if one of them fall, yet the structure may still stand or rather hand (at the least for a short time) by virtue of the Complicative, which it receiveth from such foundations which still stand secure . but in case there be a total rout and an utter ruin of all the Foundations, none can fancy themselves a possibility of that building's subsistence. -Thomas Fuller
vs 3 'What CAN The Righteous?' the Can of the righteous is a limited Can, confined to the rule of God's word; they can do nothing, but what they Can lawfully do. II Cor. 13.8 'For we Dan do nothing against the truth, but for the truth' Wicked men can do anything; their conscience, which is so wide that it is none at all, will bear them out to act anything how unlawful soever, to stab, poison, massacre, by any
*154 means, at any time, in any place, whosoever standeth betwixt them and thee effecting their desires. not so the righteous; they have a rule whereby to walk which they will not, they must not, they dare not, cross. if therefore a righteous man were assured, that by the breach of one of god's commandments he might restore decayed religion and re-settle it ...his hands, head, and heart are tied up, he Can do nothing, because Their Damnation Is Just Who Say (Rom. 3.8), 'Let us do evil that good may come thereof'.
vs 3 'Do' it is not said, What can they think? it is a great blessing which God hath allowed injured people, that though otherwise oppressed and straitened, they may freely enlarge themselves in their thoughts. Thomas Fuller.
v3 sinning times have ever been the saints' praying times: this sent Ezra with a heavy heart to confess the sin of His people and to bewail their abominations before the Lord. Ezra 9. and Jeremiah tells the wicked of his degenerate age, that 'his soul should weep in secret places for their pride'. Jer 13.17. Indeed, sometimes sin comes to such a height, that this is almost all the godly can do, to get into a corner and bewail the general pollutions of the age. 'If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?' such dismal days of national confusion our eyes have seen, when foundations of government were destroyed and all hurled into military confusion. when it is thus with a people, What can the righteous do? Wes, this they may and should do, 'fast and pray'. there is yet a God, in heaven to be sought to, when a people's deliverance is thrown beyond the help of human policy or power. now is the fit time to make their appeal to God, as the words following hint: 'The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven'; in which words god is presented sitting in heaven as a temple, for their encouragement, I conceive, in such a desperate state of affairs, to direct their prayers thither for deliverance. and certainly this hath been the engine that hath been instrumental, above any, to restore this poor nation again and set it upon the foundation of that lawful government from which it had so dangerously departed - William Gurnall.
It appears that at this time we, as a nation are about to experience or have already begun to experience the Word in Psalm 9.17 - The wicked shall be cast headlong into hell and every nation that forgets God'.
*145 Psalm 11 - Subject - Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of this psalm in the following sentences: -'The Psalms are a rich repository of experimental knowledge. David, at the different periods of his life, was placed in almost every situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be placed; in these heavenly compositions he delineates all the workings of the heart. he introduces, too, the sentiments and conduct of the various persons who were accessory either to his troubles or his joys; and thus sets before us a compendium of all that is passing in the hearts of men throughout the world. when he penned this Psalm he was under persecution from Saul, who sought his life, and hunted him 'as a partridge upon the mountains'. his timid friends were alarmed for his safety and recommended him to flee to some mountain where he had a hiding-place and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. but David, being strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting to any such pusillanimous (def -lacking courage or resolution; cowardly) expedients, and determined confidently to repose his trust in God'.
To assist us to remember this short, but sweet psalm, we will give it the name of 'The Song Of The Stedfast'.
Division - From 1 to 3, David describes the temptation with which he was assailed and from 4 to 7, the arguments by which his courage was sustained.
In the Lord put I my trust:
v1 - how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?
v2 - for, lo, the wicked bend Their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
v3 - IF THE FOUNDATIONS BE DESTROYED, WHAT CAN THE RIGHTEOUS DO?
These verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust God, with which David was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It may be, that in the days when he was in Saul's court, he was advised to flee at a time when this flight would have been charged against him as a breach of duty to the king, or a proof of personal cowardice. his case was like that of Nehemiah, when his enemies, under the garb of friendship. hoped to entrap him by advising him to escape for his life. had he done so, they could then have found a ground of accusation. Nehemiah bravely replied, 'Shall such a man as I flee?;; and David, in a like spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming, 'In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?' When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our confidence and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, He will make us like the timid bird with flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself. how forcibly the case is put! the bow is bent, the arrow is fitted to the string: 'Flee, flee, thou defenceless bird, they safety lies in flight; begone, for thine enemies will send their shafts into thy heart; haste, haste, for soon wilt thou be destroyed!' David seems to have felt the force of the advice, for it came home to His Soul' but yet he would not yield, but would rather dare the danger than exhibit a distrust in the Lord his God. doubtless, the perils which encompassed David were great and imminent; it was quite true that his enemies were Ready to Shoot Privily at him; it was equally correct that the very Foundations of law and justice were Destroyed under Saul's unrighteous government: but what were all these things to the man whose trust was in God alone? He could brave the dangers, could escape the enemies and defy the injustice which surrounded him. his answer to the question, 'what can the righteous do? would be
*146 the counter-question, 'What cannot they do?' when prayer engages God on our side and when faith secures the fulfillment of the promise, what cause can there be for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies? with a sling and a stone, David had smitten a giant before whom the whole hosts of Israel were trembling and the Lord, who delivered him from the uncircumcised Philistine, could surely deliver him from King Saul and his myrmidons. (def - one of the warlike people form ancient Thessaly who accompanied Achillies to the Trojan War.) there is no such word as 'impossibility' in the language of faith; that martial grace knows how to fight and conquer, but she knows not how to flee.
*148 Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings...
*152 vs 3 'If.' it is the only word of comfort in the text, that what is said is not positive, but suppositive; not thetical, but hypothetical. and yet this is quickly sadded with a double consideration. first, impossible suppositions produce impossible consequences, 'As is the mother, so is the daughter'. therefore, surely God's holy Spirit would not suppose such a thing but what was feasible and possible, but what either had, did, or might come to pass. Secondly, the Hebrew word is not the conditional im, si, si forte, but chi, quia, quoniam, because , and (although here it be favourably rendered if), seemeth to import, more therein, that the sad case had already happened in David's days. I see, therefore, that this if, our only hope in the text, is likely to prove with Job's friends, but a miserable comforter. well, it is good to know the worst of things, that we may provide ourselves accordingly; and therefore let us behold this doleful case, not as doubtful, but as done; not as feared, but felt; not as suspected, but at this time really come to pass. Thomas Fuller.
vs 3 -'If the foundations,' etc. the civil foundation of a nation or people, is their laws and constitutions. the order and power that's among them. that's the foundation of a people, and when once this foundation is destroyed, 'What can the righteous do? what can the best, the wisest in the world, do in such a case? what can any man do, if there be not a foundation of government left among men? there is no help nor answer in such a case but that which follows in the fourth verse of the psalm, 'The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men' as if he had said, in the midst of these confusions, when as it is said (Psalm 82.5), 'All the foundations of the earth are out of course', yet God keeps His course still, He is where He was and as He was, without variableness or shadow of turning. Joseph Caryl
vs 3 - 'The righteous'. the righteous indefinitely, equivalent to the righteous universally; not only the righteous as a single arrow, but in the whole sheaf; not only the righteous as a single arrow, but in the whole sheaf; not only the righteous in their personal, but in their diffusive (def - diffuse - tending to widely, loosely spread) capacity. were they all collected into one body, were all the righteous living in the same age wherein the Foundations Are Destroyed, summoned up and modeled into one corporation, all their joint endeavours would prove ineffectual to the re-establishing of the fallen Foundations, as not being man's work, but only god's work to perform - Thomas Fuller
vs 3 'the foundations'. Positions the things formerly fixed, placed and settled. it is not said, if the roof be ruinous, or if the side walls be shattered, but if the Foundations.
vs 3 'Foundations be destroyed'. in the plural. here I will not warrant my skill in architecture, but conceiver this may pass for an undoubted truth: it is possible that a building settled on several entire Foundations suppose them Pillars) close one to another, if one of them fall, yet the structure may still stand or rather hand (at the least for a short time) by virtue of the Complicative, which it receiveth from such foundations which still stand secure . but in case there be a total rout and an utter ruin of all the Foundations, none can fancy themselves a possibility of that building's subsistence. -Thomas Fuller
vs 3 'What CAN The Righteous?' the Can of the righteous is a limited Can, confined to the rule of God's word; they can do nothing, but what they Can lawfully do. II Cor. 13.8 'For we Dan do nothing against the truth, but for the truth' Wicked men can do anything; their conscience, which is so wide that it is none at all, will bear them out to act anything how unlawful soever, to stab, poison, massacre, by any
*154 means, at any time, in any place, whosoever standeth betwixt them and thee effecting their desires. not so the righteous; they have a rule whereby to walk which they will not, they must not, they dare not, cross. if therefore a righteous man were assured, that by the breach of one of god's commandments he might restore decayed religion and re-settle it ...his hands, head, and heart are tied up, he Can do nothing, because Their Damnation Is Just Who Say (Rom. 3.8), 'Let us do evil that good may come thereof'.
vs 3 'Do' it is not said, What can they think? it is a great blessing which God hath allowed injured people, that though otherwise oppressed and straitened, they may freely enlarge themselves in their thoughts. Thomas Fuller.
v3 sinning times have ever been the saints' praying times: this sent Ezra with a heavy heart to confess the sin of His people and to bewail their abominations before the Lord. Ezra 9. and Jeremiah tells the wicked of his degenerate age, that 'his soul should weep in secret places for their pride'. Jer 13.17. Indeed, sometimes sin comes to such a height, that this is almost all the godly can do, to get into a corner and bewail the general pollutions of the age. 'If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?' such dismal days of national confusion our eyes have seen, when foundations of government were destroyed and all hurled into military confusion. when it is thus with a people, What can the righteous do? Wes, this they may and should do, 'fast and pray'. there is yet a God, in heaven to be sought to, when a people's deliverance is thrown beyond the help of human policy or power. now is the fit time to make their appeal to God, as the words following hint: 'The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven'; in which words god is presented sitting in heaven as a temple, for their encouragement, I conceive, in such a desperate state of affairs, to direct their prayers thither for deliverance. and certainly this hath been the engine that hath been instrumental, above any, to restore this poor nation again and set it upon the foundation of that lawful government from which it had so dangerously departed - William Gurnall.
Friday, August 2, 2019
8.2.2019 Letters from The Reverend John Wesley, to Various Persons
*1 To Robert Carr Brackenbury, Esq., of Raithby, Lincolnshire.
Dear Sir, Bristol, Sept. 27, 1779
I hope your stay at ----will be of use to many. but do not hurt yourself in order to help others. Mr. S--- is an upright, valuable man. His wife is a jewel indeed. I wish we had many like her. Your being at ---during this critical time is a singular providence. both parties have a regard for you and will hear you when they will not hear each other. I am glad you think of spending the winter in town and doubt not but it will be for the glory of God. Go to my house: What is mine is yours: You are my brother, my friend: Let neither life nor death divide us! Your visit to N----will, I am persuaded, be of considerable use; the more because you love and recommend discipline. but i must bet of you to spend a night or two at Y----and at L----. the sooner you come the more welcome you will be. wrap yourself up warm, particularly your head and breast.
I am
Your very affectionate friend and brother.
*2 To the same.
Dear Sir, London, September 18, 1780
the Lord knoweth the way wherein you go and when you have been tried, you shall come forth as gold. it is true you have now full exercise for all your faith and patience; but by and by you will find good brought out of evil and will bless God for the severe but wholesome medicine. I had all along a persuasion that god would deliver you, although I could not see which way it would be done; as I knew it was your desire not to do your own will, but the sill of Him whose you are and whom you serve. may He still guide you in the way you should go and enable you go give Him your whole heart! you must not set the great blessing afar off, because you find much war within. perhaps this will not abate, but rather increase, till the moment your heart is set at liberty. the war will not cease before you attain, but by your attaining, the promise. and if you look for it by naked faith, why may you not receive it now? the cheerfulness of faith you should aim at in and above all things. wishing you a continual supply of righteousness, peace, and joy,
I am
Your affectionate friend and brother.
*3 To the same
Dear Sir, March 9, 1782
...on April 4, I expect to be in Manchester, in order to visit the societies in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire; and thence, if God permit, to Scotland. perhaps it would be of use if you took part of the journey with me. let me know your thoughts. it is exceeding clear to me, first, that a dispensation of the Gospel is committed to you; and, secondly, that you are peculiarly called to publish it in connexion with us. it has pleased God to give so many and so strong evidences of this, that i see not how any reasonable person can doubt it. therefore, what I have often said before i say again, and give it under my hand, that you are welcome to preach in any of our preaching-houses, in great Britain or Ireland, whenever it is convenient for you. I commend you for preaching less frequently where you find less liberty of spirit, (because no necessity is laid up You with regard to this or that particular place), and for spending most time in those places whether you find most probability of doing good. we have need to work while it is day.
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend and servant.
*4 To the same,
Dear Sir, January 4, 1783
...I should imagine the sooner you begin to preach in French the better: Surely you need to be careful about accuracy. Trust God and speak as well as you can. while those poor sheep were scattered abroad without a shepherd and without any proper connexion with each other, it is no wonder they were cold and dead. it is good that every one should know our whole plan...
To the same,
Dear Sir, January 4, 1783
...I should imagine the sooner you begin to preach in French the better; surely you need not be careful about accuracy, trust God and speak as will as you can. while those poor sheep were scattered abroad without a shepherd and without any proper connexion with each other, it is no wonder they were cold and dead. it is good that every one should know our whole plan. we do not want any man to go on blindfold. peace be with your spirit! I wish you many happy years and am,
Dear Sir,
Your very affectionate friend and servant.
To the same,
Dear Sir, January 10, 1783
... I hope to have the pleasure of spending a little time with you before I set out on my spring and summer journeys, which I shall probably continue as long as I live. and who would wish to live fro any meaner purpose than to serve God in our generation? I know my heath and strength are continued for this very thing. and if aver I should listen to that siren song, 'Spare thyself', I believe my Master would spare me no longer, but soon take me away. it pleases Him to deal with you in a different way. he frequently calls you not so much to act as to suffer. and you may well say,
'O take they way! Thy way is best;
Grant or deny me ease.
this is but tuning of my breast to make the music please'.
I am glad you are still determined to do what you can and to do it without delay. but all are not of this mind . I have just received a letter from Mr. ----, formerly one of our Travelling Preachers, informing me, whereas it has pleased God to take away his dear partner, he is resolved again to give up himself to the work, -after he has settled his worldly business, which he thinks will take but 16 or 17 months! would one think he had ever read the Epistle of St. James? or that he had heard those words, 'what is your life? it is even a vapour, which appeareth
*5 and vanisheth away'. Commending you to Him who is able to save you to the uttermost,
To Miss Bishop (p17-39) 1767
17 Dear Miss Bishop,
we have had a society in Bath for about 30years, sometimes larger and sometimes smaller. it was very small this autumn, consisting only of 11 or 12 persons, of whom Michael Hemmings was Leader. I spoke to these one by one, added 9 or 10 more, divided them into two classes and appointd half of them to meet with Joseph Harris. but if you are willing to cast in your lot with us, I had rather that the single women in both classes, who desire it, should meet with you and any others who are NOT AFRAID OF THE APPROACH OF CHRIST (note - I hope to capitalize the first of the things that would strengthen my daily faith and walk with Jesus...from now o, in this case, I will capitalize the first word...NOT in the above case) In that little tract, 'A Plain Account of the People called Methodists', you see our whole plan. we have but one point in view; to be ALTOGETHER Christians, scriptural, rational Christians. for which we well know, not only the world, but the ALMOST Christians, will never forgive us. from these, therefore, if you join
*18 heart and hand with us, you are to expect neither justice nor mercy. if you are determined, let me know. but consider what you do. CAN you give up all for Christ? the hope of improving your fortune, a fair reputation and agreeable friends? Can He make you amends for all these? IS He along a sufficient portion? I think you will find Him so...the more freely you write, the more agreeable it will be to Your affectionate brother.
My dear Sister, Nov. 22, 1769
It is exceedingly strange. I should really wonder (if I could wonder at any weakness of human nature) that so good a woman as ----, and one who particularly piques herself on her catholic spirit, should be guilty of such narrowness of spirit. let us not vary in thought or world from the Methodist principle, 'WHOSOEVER doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother'.
we have other instances of persons who now enjoy the peace of God and yet do not know the time when they received it. and God is sovereign: He may make what exceptions He pleases to his general rule. so this objection is easily set aside and so is that of your age. the Spirit of the Lord can give understanding, either in a longer or a shorter time. and I doubt not but he will give you favour in the eyes of your sisters. you have only to Go on in simplicity, DOING the will of God from the heart and trusting in the anointing of the Holy One, to teach you of all things.
I am glad you are acquainted with Miss Owens. encourage each other to be altogether Christians. DEFY fashion and custom and labour only to
Steer your useful lives below
By reason and by grace.
Let not the gentlewoman entrench upon the Christian; but be a simple follower of the Lamb.
at present you are exactly in your place and I trust no
*19 temptation, inward or outward, shall EVER induce you to depart from the work to which God has called you. you must expect to be pushed to both extremes by turns; and you need all the power of God to save you from it. and He will save you to the uttermost, provided you still retain the sense of your POVERTY and HELPLESSNESS. it is a good prayer,
'Show me, as my soul can bear,
the depth of inbred sin'.
and just so He will deal with you; for He remembers that you are but dust. but you should not wait to be thus and thus convinced, in order to be renewed in love. No; PRAY now for all the mind which was in Christ and you shall have more and more conviction, as it pleases Him...Love is all we want: Let this fill our hears and it is enough...
Nov. 5, 1770
I am glad you had such success in your labour of love: in all things you SHALL reap if you faint not. and the promise is, 'They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faith'. how does the little society prosper? Are you all United in love? and are you all aware of that bane of love, -TALE-BEARING and EVIL-SPEAKING?...Are you Going forward and have you as strong a desire as ever 'to Increase with all the increase of God?...
O Trust Him, Love Him and Praise Him!
I know not that you have Anything to do with fear. your continual prayer should be for Faith and Love. I admired a holy man in France, who, considering the state of one who was full of doubts and fears, forbad him to think of his sins...
20 Faith is sight, that is spiritual sight: and it is light and not darkness; so that that the famous Popish phrase, 'the darkness of faith', is a contradiction in terms. O beware of all who talk in that unscriptural manner,, or they will perplex, if not destroy you! I can not find in my Bible any such sin as legality. truly, we have been often afraid where no fear was. I am not half legal enough, not enough under the law of love. sometimes there is painful conviction of sin, preparatory to full sanctification; sometimes a conviction that has far more pleasure than pain, being mixed with joyful expectation. always there should be a gradual growth in grace; which need never be intermitted from the time we are justified. do not wait therefore for pain or anything else, but simply for all-conquering faith. the more freely you write, the more satisfaction you will give...
Feb. 16, 1771.
You look inward too much and upward too little.
Christ is ready to impart
Life to all, for life who sigh;
in they mouth and in they heart
The word is ever nigh. encourage yourself to trust in Him; that is your point; then He will do all things well. legality, with most who use that term, really means tenderness of conscience. there is no propriety in the word, if one would take it for seeking justification by works. considering, therefore, how hard it is to fix the meaning of that odd term, and how dreadfully it has been abused, I think it highly advisable for all the Methodists to lay it quite aside.
if Mr. S. could find any other doctrine which he thought was peculiarly mine, he would be as angry at it as he is at Christian perfection. but it is all well: we are to go forward whoever goes back or turns aside. ...the Lord is at hand. in praying with the children, you have only to ask for those things which you are sensible they want and that
*21 in the most plain, artless and simple language which you can devise...
they who feel less, certainly suffer less;
but the more we suffer, the more we may improve;
the more obedience, the more holiness,
we may learn by the things we suffer.
so that , upon the whole, I do not know if the insensible ones have the advantage over us.
If you wrote more than once in three months, it would not be amiss....
*22 Sept. 1, 1771
...certainly simple faith is the very thing you want; that faith which lives upon Christ from moment to moment. I believe that sermon, 'The Scripture Way of Salvation', might at this time be very useful to you. it is a great thing to seize and improve the very now what a blessing you may receive at this instant! Behold the Lamb of God!
what, if even before this letter comes to your hands, the Lord should come to to your heart!
Is He not nigh?
is He not now knocking at the door?
What do you say? 'Come in, my Lord, come in'.
Are you not ready?
Are you not a mere sinner and stripped of all?
therefore all is ready for you.
Fear not; only believer and enter into rest. How gracious is it in the kind Physician to humble you and prove you and show you what is in your heart!
Now let Christ and love alone be there.
that your every hour is crowded with employment, I account no common blessing. the more employment the better,
since you are not doing your own will, but the will of Him that sent you. I cannot see that it is by any means his will for you to quit your present situation.
such a degree of sickness or pain as does not affect the understanding, I have often found to be a great help. it is an admirable help against levity, as well as against foolish desires and nothing more directly tends to teach us that great lesson, to write upon our heart, 'Not as i will, but as thou will.'
Mr. Baxter well observes, 'that whoever attempt to teach children will find need of all the understanding god has given them'. but indeed natural understanding will go but a little way. it is a peculiar gift of God. I believe He has given you a measure of it already and you may ask and expect an increase of it. our dear sisters at
*23 Publow enjoy it in as high a degree as any young women I know.
It certainly must be an inordinate affection which creates so many jealousies and misunderstandings. I should think it to be absolutely needful, the very next time you observe anything of that kind, to come to a full explanation with the parties concerned; to tell them calmly and roundly, 'i must and I will choose for myself whom I will converse with and when and how and if any one of you take upon you to be offended at me on this account,you will make it necessary for me to be more shy and reserved to you than ever i was before.' if you steadily take up this cross, if you speak thus once or twice in the class, in a cool but peremptory manner, I am much inclined to think it will save both you and others a good deal of uneasiness.
when you see those ladies, (with whom I have no acquaintance) you would do well to speak exceeding plain. I am afraid they are still entire strangers to the religion of the heart.
we must build with one hand, while we fight with the other. and this is the great work, not only to bring souls to believe in Christ, but to build them up in our most holy faith. how grievously are they mistaken who imagine, that, as soon as the children are born, they need take no more care of them! we do not find it so. the chief care then begins. and if we see this in a true light, we may well cry out, even the wisest men on earth, 'who is sufficient for these things?' in 1000 circumstances, general rules avail little and our natural light is quickly at an end. so that we have nothing to depend upon but the anointing of the Holy One: and this will indeed teach us concerning all things. the same you need with regard to your little ones, that you may train them up in the way wherein they should go. and herein you have continual need of patience; for you will frequently see little fruit of all your labour. but leave that with Him. the success is His. the work only is yours. your point is this, - work your work betimes and in his time he will give you a full reward.
*24 June 12, 1773
'True simplicity , Fenelon says, is that grace whereby the ssoul is delivered from all unprofitable reflectios upon itself'. I add, 'and upon allother persons and things'. this is an unspeakable blessing. and it is the mere gift of God, not naturally annexed either to greatness or litttleness of understanding. a single eye is a great help to this. seek one thing and you will be far less troubled with unprofitable reasonings.
it has, in all ages, been allowed, that the communion of saints extends to those in paradise, as well as those upon earth; as they are all one body united under one head....but it is difficult to say, either what kind or what degree of union may be between them. it is not improbable their fellowship with us is far more sensible than ours with them. suppose any of them are present, they are hid from our eye, but we are not hid from their sight. they, no doubt, clearly discern all our words and actions, if not all our thoughts too. for it is hard to think these walls of flesh and blood can intercept the view of an angelic being. but we have, in general, only a faint and indistinct perception of their presence, unless in some peculiar instances, where it may answer some gracious ends of divine providence. then it may please God to permit that they should be perceptible, either by some of our outward senses, or by an internal sense, for which human language has not any name. but I suppose that is not a common blessing. I have known but few instances of it. to keep up constant and close communion with God is the most likely means to obtain this also.
whatever designs a man has, whatever he is proposing to do, either for himself or his friends, when his spirit goes hence all is at an end. and it is in this sense only that 'all our thoughts perish'. otherwise, all our thoughts and designs, though not carried into execution, are noted in His book who accepts us according to our willing mind and rewards intentions as well as actions. by aiming at Him
*25 in all things, by studying to please Him in all your thoughts, words and actions, you are continually sowing to the Spirit and of the Spirit you will reap life everlasting.
September 19,1773
it is certainly most profitable for us to have a variety of seasons. we could not bear either to be constantly in storms or constantly in a clam; but we are not certain, we cannot judge what proportion of one or the other is best for us . so it is well we are not left to our own wisdom, that we do not choose for ourselves. we should make strange work: but we know He that chooses for us orders all things well.
there are excellent things in most of the Mystic writers. as almost all of them lived in the Romish Church, they were lights whom the gracious providence of God raised up to shine in a dark place. but they did not give a clear, a steady, or a uniform light. that wise and good man, professor Franck, used to say of them, 'the do not describe our common Christianity, but every one has a religion of his own'. it is very true: so that if you study the Mystic writers, you will find as many religions as books; and for this plain reason, each of them makes his won experience the standard of religion.
Madom Guion was a good woman and is a fine writer, but very far from judicious. her writings will lead any one who is fond of them, into unscriptural Quietism. they strike at the root and tend to make us res contented without either faith or works.
it is certain the Scripture by 'prayer' almost always means vocal prayer. and whosoever intermits this for any time, will neither pray with the voice nor the heart. it is therefore our wisdom to force ourselves to prayer; to pray whether we can pray or not. and many times while we are so doing, the fire will fall from heaven and we shall know our labour was not in vain.
there is, upon the whole, nothing new under the sun; but the spirit which you speak of, as manifesting itself among your young people, is utterly a new thing among the
*26 Methodists; I have known nothing like it in the 3 kingdoms. and yet I do not know that they have either less sense or less grace than others of their age or sex. but this is one proof among 1000, that if God leave us for a moment to ourselves, there is no folly into which our subtle adversary may not drive the wisest of the human race. yet I do not see that you are at liberty to give up your charge on this account. it seems you should simply lay the whole affair before Messrs. Pawson and Allen. they are candid and impartial judges, prejudiced neither on one side nor the other; and I believe they will be able to judge, on any emergency, what steps are the most proper to be taken.
one reason, it may be, why this was permitted, was to confound the pride of your understanding. you had been accounted a woman of sense and commended for it. and our nature readily receives such commendation. but wee how little your sense avails! You can do no more herein, than if you were almost an idiot. 'the help that is done upon earth, He doeth it Himself', whether with or without instruments. let your whole soul be stayed upon Him, for time and eternity.
when I observe anything amiss in your temper or behaviour, I shall hardly fail to tell you of it; for I am persuaded you would not only suffer it, but profit by advice or reproof. I have been sometimes afraid you did not deal plainly enough with the young women under your care. there needs much courage and faithfulness, that you may do all that in you lies to present them faultless before the throne.
I do not know whether there is any outward employ which would be so proper for you, as that you are now engaged in . you have scope to use all the talents which God has given you and that is the most excellent way. you have likewise a most admirable exercise for your patience, either in the dullness or frowardness of your little ones. and some of these will learn from you, what is of the greatest importance , to know themselves and to know God. You must not, therefore, relinquish this station lightly; not without full and clear proof, that God calls you so to do. meantime, bear your cross and it will bear you. seek an inward, not an outward change. what you want is only inward liberty, the glorious liberty of the children of God. and how soon
*27 may
Dear Sir, Bristol, Sept. 27, 1779
I hope your stay at ----will be of use to many. but do not hurt yourself in order to help others. Mr. S--- is an upright, valuable man. His wife is a jewel indeed. I wish we had many like her. Your being at ---during this critical time is a singular providence. both parties have a regard for you and will hear you when they will not hear each other. I am glad you think of spending the winter in town and doubt not but it will be for the glory of God. Go to my house: What is mine is yours: You are my brother, my friend: Let neither life nor death divide us! Your visit to N----will, I am persuaded, be of considerable use; the more because you love and recommend discipline. but i must bet of you to spend a night or two at Y----and at L----. the sooner you come the more welcome you will be. wrap yourself up warm, particularly your head and breast.
I am
Your very affectionate friend and brother.
*2 To the same.
Dear Sir, London, September 18, 1780
the Lord knoweth the way wherein you go and when you have been tried, you shall come forth as gold. it is true you have now full exercise for all your faith and patience; but by and by you will find good brought out of evil and will bless God for the severe but wholesome medicine. I had all along a persuasion that god would deliver you, although I could not see which way it would be done; as I knew it was your desire not to do your own will, but the sill of Him whose you are and whom you serve. may He still guide you in the way you should go and enable you go give Him your whole heart! you must not set the great blessing afar off, because you find much war within. perhaps this will not abate, but rather increase, till the moment your heart is set at liberty. the war will not cease before you attain, but by your attaining, the promise. and if you look for it by naked faith, why may you not receive it now? the cheerfulness of faith you should aim at in and above all things. wishing you a continual supply of righteousness, peace, and joy,
I am
Your affectionate friend and brother.
*3 To the same
Dear Sir, March 9, 1782
...on April 4, I expect to be in Manchester, in order to visit the societies in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire; and thence, if God permit, to Scotland. perhaps it would be of use if you took part of the journey with me. let me know your thoughts. it is exceeding clear to me, first, that a dispensation of the Gospel is committed to you; and, secondly, that you are peculiarly called to publish it in connexion with us. it has pleased God to give so many and so strong evidences of this, that i see not how any reasonable person can doubt it. therefore, what I have often said before i say again, and give it under my hand, that you are welcome to preach in any of our preaching-houses, in great Britain or Ireland, whenever it is convenient for you. I commend you for preaching less frequently where you find less liberty of spirit, (because no necessity is laid up You with regard to this or that particular place), and for spending most time in those places whether you find most probability of doing good. we have need to work while it is day.
I am, dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend and servant.
*4 To the same,
Dear Sir, January 4, 1783
...I should imagine the sooner you begin to preach in French the better: Surely you need to be careful about accuracy. Trust God and speak as well as you can. while those poor sheep were scattered abroad without a shepherd and without any proper connexion with each other, it is no wonder they were cold and dead. it is good that every one should know our whole plan...
To the same,
Dear Sir, January 4, 1783
...I should imagine the sooner you begin to preach in French the better; surely you need not be careful about accuracy, trust God and speak as will as you can. while those poor sheep were scattered abroad without a shepherd and without any proper connexion with each other, it is no wonder they were cold and dead. it is good that every one should know our whole plan. we do not want any man to go on blindfold. peace be with your spirit! I wish you many happy years and am,
Dear Sir,
Your very affectionate friend and servant.
To the same,
Dear Sir, January 10, 1783
... I hope to have the pleasure of spending a little time with you before I set out on my spring and summer journeys, which I shall probably continue as long as I live. and who would wish to live fro any meaner purpose than to serve God in our generation? I know my heath and strength are continued for this very thing. and if aver I should listen to that siren song, 'Spare thyself', I believe my Master would spare me no longer, but soon take me away. it pleases Him to deal with you in a different way. he frequently calls you not so much to act as to suffer. and you may well say,
'O take they way! Thy way is best;
Grant or deny me ease.
this is but tuning of my breast to make the music please'.
I am glad you are still determined to do what you can and to do it without delay. but all are not of this mind . I have just received a letter from Mr. ----, formerly one of our Travelling Preachers, informing me, whereas it has pleased God to take away his dear partner, he is resolved again to give up himself to the work, -after he has settled his worldly business, which he thinks will take but 16 or 17 months! would one think he had ever read the Epistle of St. James? or that he had heard those words, 'what is your life? it is even a vapour, which appeareth
*5 and vanisheth away'. Commending you to Him who is able to save you to the uttermost,
To Miss Bishop (p17-39) 1767
17 Dear Miss Bishop,
we have had a society in Bath for about 30years, sometimes larger and sometimes smaller. it was very small this autumn, consisting only of 11 or 12 persons, of whom Michael Hemmings was Leader. I spoke to these one by one, added 9 or 10 more, divided them into two classes and appointd half of them to meet with Joseph Harris. but if you are willing to cast in your lot with us, I had rather that the single women in both classes, who desire it, should meet with you and any others who are NOT AFRAID OF THE APPROACH OF CHRIST (note - I hope to capitalize the first of the things that would strengthen my daily faith and walk with Jesus...from now o, in this case, I will capitalize the first word...NOT in the above case) In that little tract, 'A Plain Account of the People called Methodists', you see our whole plan. we have but one point in view; to be ALTOGETHER Christians, scriptural, rational Christians. for which we well know, not only the world, but the ALMOST Christians, will never forgive us. from these, therefore, if you join
*18 heart and hand with us, you are to expect neither justice nor mercy. if you are determined, let me know. but consider what you do. CAN you give up all for Christ? the hope of improving your fortune, a fair reputation and agreeable friends? Can He make you amends for all these? IS He along a sufficient portion? I think you will find Him so...the more freely you write, the more agreeable it will be to Your affectionate brother.
My dear Sister, Nov. 22, 1769
It is exceedingly strange. I should really wonder (if I could wonder at any weakness of human nature) that so good a woman as ----, and one who particularly piques herself on her catholic spirit, should be guilty of such narrowness of spirit. let us not vary in thought or world from the Methodist principle, 'WHOSOEVER doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother'.
we have other instances of persons who now enjoy the peace of God and yet do not know the time when they received it. and God is sovereign: He may make what exceptions He pleases to his general rule. so this objection is easily set aside and so is that of your age. the Spirit of the Lord can give understanding, either in a longer or a shorter time. and I doubt not but he will give you favour in the eyes of your sisters. you have only to Go on in simplicity, DOING the will of God from the heart and trusting in the anointing of the Holy One, to teach you of all things.
I am glad you are acquainted with Miss Owens. encourage each other to be altogether Christians. DEFY fashion and custom and labour only to
Steer your useful lives below
By reason and by grace.
Let not the gentlewoman entrench upon the Christian; but be a simple follower of the Lamb.
at present you are exactly in your place and I trust no
*19 temptation, inward or outward, shall EVER induce you to depart from the work to which God has called you. you must expect to be pushed to both extremes by turns; and you need all the power of God to save you from it. and He will save you to the uttermost, provided you still retain the sense of your POVERTY and HELPLESSNESS. it is a good prayer,
'Show me, as my soul can bear,
the depth of inbred sin'.
and just so He will deal with you; for He remembers that you are but dust. but you should not wait to be thus and thus convinced, in order to be renewed in love. No; PRAY now for all the mind which was in Christ and you shall have more and more conviction, as it pleases Him...Love is all we want: Let this fill our hears and it is enough...
Nov. 5, 1770
I am glad you had such success in your labour of love: in all things you SHALL reap if you faint not. and the promise is, 'They shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faith'. how does the little society prosper? Are you all United in love? and are you all aware of that bane of love, -TALE-BEARING and EVIL-SPEAKING?...Are you Going forward and have you as strong a desire as ever 'to Increase with all the increase of God?...
O Trust Him, Love Him and Praise Him!
I know not that you have Anything to do with fear. your continual prayer should be for Faith and Love. I admired a holy man in France, who, considering the state of one who was full of doubts and fears, forbad him to think of his sins...
20 Faith is sight, that is spiritual sight: and it is light and not darkness; so that that the famous Popish phrase, 'the darkness of faith', is a contradiction in terms. O beware of all who talk in that unscriptural manner,, or they will perplex, if not destroy you! I can not find in my Bible any such sin as legality. truly, we have been often afraid where no fear was. I am not half legal enough, not enough under the law of love. sometimes there is painful conviction of sin, preparatory to full sanctification; sometimes a conviction that has far more pleasure than pain, being mixed with joyful expectation. always there should be a gradual growth in grace; which need never be intermitted from the time we are justified. do not wait therefore for pain or anything else, but simply for all-conquering faith. the more freely you write, the more satisfaction you will give...
Feb. 16, 1771.
You look inward too much and upward too little.
Christ is ready to impart
Life to all, for life who sigh;
in they mouth and in they heart
The word is ever nigh. encourage yourself to trust in Him; that is your point; then He will do all things well. legality, with most who use that term, really means tenderness of conscience. there is no propriety in the word, if one would take it for seeking justification by works. considering, therefore, how hard it is to fix the meaning of that odd term, and how dreadfully it has been abused, I think it highly advisable for all the Methodists to lay it quite aside.
if Mr. S. could find any other doctrine which he thought was peculiarly mine, he would be as angry at it as he is at Christian perfection. but it is all well: we are to go forward whoever goes back or turns aside. ...the Lord is at hand. in praying with the children, you have only to ask for those things which you are sensible they want and that
*21 in the most plain, artless and simple language which you can devise...
they who feel less, certainly suffer less;
but the more we suffer, the more we may improve;
the more obedience, the more holiness,
we may learn by the things we suffer.
so that , upon the whole, I do not know if the insensible ones have the advantage over us.
If you wrote more than once in three months, it would not be amiss....
*22 Sept. 1, 1771
...certainly simple faith is the very thing you want; that faith which lives upon Christ from moment to moment. I believe that sermon, 'The Scripture Way of Salvation', might at this time be very useful to you. it is a great thing to seize and improve the very now what a blessing you may receive at this instant! Behold the Lamb of God!
what, if even before this letter comes to your hands, the Lord should come to to your heart!
Is He not nigh?
is He not now knocking at the door?
What do you say? 'Come in, my Lord, come in'.
Are you not ready?
Are you not a mere sinner and stripped of all?
therefore all is ready for you.
Fear not; only believer and enter into rest. How gracious is it in the kind Physician to humble you and prove you and show you what is in your heart!
Now let Christ and love alone be there.
that your every hour is crowded with employment, I account no common blessing. the more employment the better,
since you are not doing your own will, but the will of Him that sent you. I cannot see that it is by any means his will for you to quit your present situation.
such a degree of sickness or pain as does not affect the understanding, I have often found to be a great help. it is an admirable help against levity, as well as against foolish desires and nothing more directly tends to teach us that great lesson, to write upon our heart, 'Not as i will, but as thou will.'
Mr. Baxter well observes, 'that whoever attempt to teach children will find need of all the understanding god has given them'. but indeed natural understanding will go but a little way. it is a peculiar gift of God. I believe He has given you a measure of it already and you may ask and expect an increase of it. our dear sisters at
*23 Publow enjoy it in as high a degree as any young women I know.
It certainly must be an inordinate affection which creates so many jealousies and misunderstandings. I should think it to be absolutely needful, the very next time you observe anything of that kind, to come to a full explanation with the parties concerned; to tell them calmly and roundly, 'i must and I will choose for myself whom I will converse with and when and how and if any one of you take upon you to be offended at me on this account,you will make it necessary for me to be more shy and reserved to you than ever i was before.' if you steadily take up this cross, if you speak thus once or twice in the class, in a cool but peremptory manner, I am much inclined to think it will save both you and others a good deal of uneasiness.
when you see those ladies, (with whom I have no acquaintance) you would do well to speak exceeding plain. I am afraid they are still entire strangers to the religion of the heart.
we must build with one hand, while we fight with the other. and this is the great work, not only to bring souls to believe in Christ, but to build them up in our most holy faith. how grievously are they mistaken who imagine, that, as soon as the children are born, they need take no more care of them! we do not find it so. the chief care then begins. and if we see this in a true light, we may well cry out, even the wisest men on earth, 'who is sufficient for these things?' in 1000 circumstances, general rules avail little and our natural light is quickly at an end. so that we have nothing to depend upon but the anointing of the Holy One: and this will indeed teach us concerning all things. the same you need with regard to your little ones, that you may train them up in the way wherein they should go. and herein you have continual need of patience; for you will frequently see little fruit of all your labour. but leave that with Him. the success is His. the work only is yours. your point is this, - work your work betimes and in his time he will give you a full reward.
*24 June 12, 1773
'True simplicity , Fenelon says, is that grace whereby the ssoul is delivered from all unprofitable reflectios upon itself'. I add, 'and upon allother persons and things'. this is an unspeakable blessing. and it is the mere gift of God, not naturally annexed either to greatness or litttleness of understanding. a single eye is a great help to this. seek one thing and you will be far less troubled with unprofitable reasonings.
it has, in all ages, been allowed, that the communion of saints extends to those in paradise, as well as those upon earth; as they are all one body united under one head....but it is difficult to say, either what kind or what degree of union may be between them. it is not improbable their fellowship with us is far more sensible than ours with them. suppose any of them are present, they are hid from our eye, but we are not hid from their sight. they, no doubt, clearly discern all our words and actions, if not all our thoughts too. for it is hard to think these walls of flesh and blood can intercept the view of an angelic being. but we have, in general, only a faint and indistinct perception of their presence, unless in some peculiar instances, where it may answer some gracious ends of divine providence. then it may please God to permit that they should be perceptible, either by some of our outward senses, or by an internal sense, for which human language has not any name. but I suppose that is not a common blessing. I have known but few instances of it. to keep up constant and close communion with God is the most likely means to obtain this also.
whatever designs a man has, whatever he is proposing to do, either for himself or his friends, when his spirit goes hence all is at an end. and it is in this sense only that 'all our thoughts perish'. otherwise, all our thoughts and designs, though not carried into execution, are noted in His book who accepts us according to our willing mind and rewards intentions as well as actions. by aiming at Him
*25 in all things, by studying to please Him in all your thoughts, words and actions, you are continually sowing to the Spirit and of the Spirit you will reap life everlasting.
September 19,1773
it is certainly most profitable for us to have a variety of seasons. we could not bear either to be constantly in storms or constantly in a clam; but we are not certain, we cannot judge what proportion of one or the other is best for us . so it is well we are not left to our own wisdom, that we do not choose for ourselves. we should make strange work: but we know He that chooses for us orders all things well.
there are excellent things in most of the Mystic writers. as almost all of them lived in the Romish Church, they were lights whom the gracious providence of God raised up to shine in a dark place. but they did not give a clear, a steady, or a uniform light. that wise and good man, professor Franck, used to say of them, 'the do not describe our common Christianity, but every one has a religion of his own'. it is very true: so that if you study the Mystic writers, you will find as many religions as books; and for this plain reason, each of them makes his won experience the standard of religion.
Madom Guion was a good woman and is a fine writer, but very far from judicious. her writings will lead any one who is fond of them, into unscriptural Quietism. they strike at the root and tend to make us res contented without either faith or works.
it is certain the Scripture by 'prayer' almost always means vocal prayer. and whosoever intermits this for any time, will neither pray with the voice nor the heart. it is therefore our wisdom to force ourselves to prayer; to pray whether we can pray or not. and many times while we are so doing, the fire will fall from heaven and we shall know our labour was not in vain.
there is, upon the whole, nothing new under the sun; but the spirit which you speak of, as manifesting itself among your young people, is utterly a new thing among the
*26 Methodists; I have known nothing like it in the 3 kingdoms. and yet I do not know that they have either less sense or less grace than others of their age or sex. but this is one proof among 1000, that if God leave us for a moment to ourselves, there is no folly into which our subtle adversary may not drive the wisest of the human race. yet I do not see that you are at liberty to give up your charge on this account. it seems you should simply lay the whole affair before Messrs. Pawson and Allen. they are candid and impartial judges, prejudiced neither on one side nor the other; and I believe they will be able to judge, on any emergency, what steps are the most proper to be taken.
one reason, it may be, why this was permitted, was to confound the pride of your understanding. you had been accounted a woman of sense and commended for it. and our nature readily receives such commendation. but wee how little your sense avails! You can do no more herein, than if you were almost an idiot. 'the help that is done upon earth, He doeth it Himself', whether with or without instruments. let your whole soul be stayed upon Him, for time and eternity.
when I observe anything amiss in your temper or behaviour, I shall hardly fail to tell you of it; for I am persuaded you would not only suffer it, but profit by advice or reproof. I have been sometimes afraid you did not deal plainly enough with the young women under your care. there needs much courage and faithfulness, that you may do all that in you lies to present them faultless before the throne.
I do not know whether there is any outward employ which would be so proper for you, as that you are now engaged in . you have scope to use all the talents which God has given you and that is the most excellent way. you have likewise a most admirable exercise for your patience, either in the dullness or frowardness of your little ones. and some of these will learn from you, what is of the greatest importance , to know themselves and to know God. You must not, therefore, relinquish this station lightly; not without full and clear proof, that God calls you so to do. meantime, bear your cross and it will bear you. seek an inward, not an outward change. what you want is only inward liberty, the glorious liberty of the children of God. and how soon
*27 may
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