False teaching

When we hear what sounds false we can point to certain things that do not ring true and we must expose such inconsistencies. There is also sometimes the test of time and always of eternity.

When Harold Camping in the US said that Christ would return on May 21, 2011, and the righteous would be taken up to heaven and that five months of fire and plague would follow, with millions of people dying each day, culminating on October 21, 2011 with the end of the world we were fairly sure that it was a false prophecy before May 21 but after that date it became certain. The fact that he had predicted judgement days on May 21, 1988, and September 6, 1994 also counted against him.

Just by the by I notice that they now say that he has said that his attempt to predict a date was "sinful", and that his critics had been right in pointing to the scriptural text "of that day and hour knoweth no man". He added that he was now searching the Bible "even more fervently... not to find dates, but to be more faithful in our understanding." Let's hope so.

All of life is sacred

One Monday morning I with family and friends down to the British Library. There's not that much to see but Codex Alexandrinus and the little Tyndale New Testament are always worth a look. 

Later we got a coffee and out on the concourse I placed it on a metal sculpture. It turned out to be an Antony Gormley piece so a bit irreverent, although someone who pointed out to us what we were doing thought Mr Gormley would love it. It is perhaps a good sermon illustration of how easily we are irreverend and miss the sacred right in front of us. All creation is God's creation, all that happens is God's providence. Don't forget it.

False Prophets and True

Arthur Frederics (illustrator) Jerome Klapka Jerome (author) J W Arrowsmith (publisher), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I came across this in the hiarious novella Three men and a boat by Jerome K Jerome. The narrator is talking about weather and he says

“The prophet we like is the old man who, on the particularly gloomy-looking morning of some day when we particularly want it to be fine, looks round the horizon with a particularly knowing eye, and says:

"Oh no, sir, I think it will clear up all right. It will break all right enough, sir."

"Ah, he knows", we say, as we wish him good-morning, and start off; "wonderful how these old fellows can tell!"

And we feel an affection for that man which is not at all lessened by the circumstances of its NOT clearing up, but continuing to rain steadily all day.

"Ah, well," we feel, "he did his best."

For the man that prophesies us bad weather, on the contrary, we entertain only bitter and revengeful thoughts.

"Going to clear up, d'ye think?" we shout, cheerily, as we pass.

"Well, no, sir; I'm afraid it's settled down for the day," he replies, shaking his head.

"Stupid old fool!" we mutter, "what's HE know about it?" And, if his portent proves correct, we come back feeling still more angry against him, and with a vague notion that, somehow or other, he has had something to do with it.

Thsi well illustrates our wilingness to hear the false prophet if he brings good news and to ignore the true, if he brings bad news.

Old woman Reading the Bible

Gerrit Dou, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

You see here in Luke 24:45 how Jesus not only reminds his disciples of the Scriptures, which they knew very well but also he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. They had the Scriptures but they were coming to them with closed minds. They needed illumination. And that’s what we all need. You have heard of the great painter Rembrandt. There is a painting in Amsterdam said to be of his mother reading the Bible which I always assumed was by him but I think it is by another artist called Gerrit Dou. The way he paints it the page of the Bible is lit up and it reflects in her face. Our problem is that we cannot see. We need first the spectacles of the Word. Then the reading light of the Spirit. Word and Spirit. I wonder if there’s anyone reading this in a sort of halfway position. You’ve seen that the answer is in the Bible. You need a revelation. You need to see behind the curtain. But you’re reading it and not making much progress. You are looking behind the curtain but it all still seems dark. Have you seen your need for illumination too? That’s why we usually pray before reading the Word. We need light to see the light. In your light let me see light (Psalm 36:9).

Copernicus

It is easy to think that the sun goes around the earth as the Greek philosopher Ptolemy taught but the truth is, as the Polish astronomer Copernicus discovered that the earth goes round the sun. The sun in fact is at the centre of the solar system and we need a Copernican revolution in our lives and thinking so that we see that God is at the centre of everything. He is the one to whom all the glory should be given. 

Is God great?

In 2007, the late Christopher Hitchens published a book called God is not great in which he attempts to rubbish religion. In fact, God is great. I don't know if Hitchins was responding to Chris Tomlin's 2004 song. He put it like this

The splendour of a King, clothed in majesty, Let all the Earth rejoice. All the Earth rejoice,

He wraps himself in light And darkness tries to hide And trembles at His voice, Trembles at His voice

How great is our God, sing with me, How great is our God, and all will see How great, how great is our God

Or to quote an older hymn

O Lord my God When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r throughout The universe displayed!

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee;

How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

Hitchens is wrong and Tomlin and Carl Boberg are right

The needle of faith

Freepik

If you want to sew something you can push many different sorts of thread through cloth but they all have to have a needle at the end if they are going to go through. In the same way everything needs to be headed up with faith – all your prayers, all your actions, all you do. W
ithout faith, you'll get nowhere.