I am very grateful for the many interesting comments from readers following the article I wrote last week entitled ‘Savage Christians’. My objective is to stimulate discussion because I believe we are at a crucial point in world history, and it is essential that Christians understand what is happening today in the context of biblical truth so that we can stand firm in the coming storm. Hence, I was trying to stir up discussion on some of the central tenets of our faith.

Of course, I have not in any way abandoned my evangelical faith and I was hoping that my many years of ministry would have been sufficient at least for readers to grant me the honour of listening to the things that I have been studying for many decades. Many of you have done just that and I am truly grateful – in fact, I really offer humble thanks to the Lord for the gracious way many of you have reacted and offered profound thinking of the central concepts of our Christian faith.

God was suffering

I admit that I was clumsy in what I said but the thing I was trying to say in ‘Savage Christians’ was that, although I believe that in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus our sins are forgiven and we are restored to a right relationship with God, I do not believe that Jesus the Son of God was paying a price to God the Father in order to secure our forgiveness. That would create a division in the godhead between Father and Son. I know that is a crude interpretation but that is how it would come across to many worshippers singing the song 'In Christ Alone'¹, and not having a strong biblical and theological background.

I believe what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:19, “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself”. In other words, God himself was suffering at the hands of wicked humanity and bearing the worst cruelty and injustice that human beings could inflict, and that through the resurrection, God conquered sin and death: and through faith in Jesus, we share in that victory.

In other words, God himself was suffering at the hands of wicked humanity and bearing the worst cruelty and injustice that human beings could inflict.

We have to be careful how we represent God in the challenging circumstances of a post-Covid world that is about to enter the most incredible time in the history of humanity, when God is going to shake all the human institutions of our civilisation. We have to present to the world a true representation of the God of Creation who is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we dearly love.

Historical context

I was ordained on 4 October 1952 – 70 years ago last month, and the whole of my pastoral ministry has been in tough inner-city areas of London where I have survived street riots, gang warfare, personal attacks and threats to my family as well as physical hardship. In the face of every trial the Lord has been faithful, and I can truly say that, like St Paul, I have found that I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

In Tottenham and in the East End of London where my wife and I served for many years, churches were closing at an alarming rate. I wanted to discover why the gospel appealed to working people in the Early Church but not today. So, in the 1960s, in the midst of demanding ministry, I did a doctorate on the Early Church.

Challenging the teachings of the Western Church

I have never published my findings, but I have been revisiting that study in recent years and I think the time has come to challenge some of the teachings of the Western institutional churches that I believe are responsible for some of the enormous problems we are facing today and the incredible silence from church leaders in these days when the authority of the word of God is desperately needed. O for men or women like Amos or Isaiah or Jeremiah with the power of God to declare his word to the world!!

I think the time has come to challenge some of the teachings of the Western institutional churches that I believe are responsible for the enormous problems we are facing today and the incredible silence from church leaders in these days when the authority of the word of God is desperately needed.

I was the editor of Prophecy Today from its foundation in 1985 for twenty years and then again when it became an online magazine until 2020. I have asked the present editors to allow me to publish a few essays in preparation for a book that I’m writing on a study of the Early Church and the Hebraic gospel that it declared, but I must stress that what I’m writing has not been discussed with the editorial board and is entirely my own thinking.

The book I’m writing shows how far the Western churches have departed from the simple gospel proclaimed by the apostles. The Church was predominantly pacifist for the first 300 years based on the teaching of Jesus  “You have heard it said eye for eye tooth for tooth, but I say unto you…” If a soldier became a Christian, he was not admitted to communion unless he renounced ‘the sword’. He could remain in the Roman army and be a Christian only if he took an administrative post and renounced fighting.

The church was entirely pacifist for the first 300 years based on the teaching of Jesus, “You have heard it said eye for eye tooth for tooth, but I say unto you…”

A trumpet of warning

The Western churches have been involved in crusades and wars for hundreds of years and have produced a civilisation that is monstrously at variance with the gospel as taught by the apostles. This was the motivation for my writing the piece on ‘Savage Christians’. Today, I foresee the direction that the world is heading and I want to blow a trumpet of warning – this is why I wanted to stir up a conversation among the faithful remnant of Bible believing Christians.

I am most grateful to the editors for allowing me the space to share my thoughts, and I welcome the discussion with readers which I hope will be really profitable for us all in grappling with the great issues that face us today.

Meantime, for my specific responses to readers’ emails and comments on my controversial article in last week’s edition, click here.

Endnotes
1 Not from the NAR stable as I presumed.