Implications of New Testament teaching (Part 2)

"I will pour out my Spirit"

Deception in the house of God.

“Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sending. You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:4-6)

Jeremiah’s whole life was spent coping with opposition. From the time of his call to ministry, when he was probably still in his late teens, he was warned by God of the problems ahead: “They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord” (Jer 1:19).

Cost of Faithfulness

He was born into a family of priests in the rural area of Anathoth and his family were regarded as much lower down the scale of public esteem than the priests who lived in Jerusalem and were responsible for the Temple.

To have a prophet as outspoken as Jeremiah in a family of priests was a tragedy! No doubt when they came into Jerusalem to take their turn of serving in the Temple, his brothers and other family members would have been greatly embarrassed to hear what the Temple priests were saying of their relative. But Jeremiah did not soften his words to please his family or to spare their discomfort; he declared the word of the Lord fearlessly.

But there was a cost and many times he feared for his own life – even on one occasion at the hands of his own brothers, who were plotting against him saying, “Let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.” Jeremiah describes himself as “like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter” (Jer 11:19). He says in today’s reading, “Do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver”. Probably he had been invited to some family gathering but God had warned him not to go by revealing their plot to deceive him.

Jeremiah did not soften his words to please his family or to spare their discomfort; he declared the word of the Lord fearlessly.

Idolatry in the Temple

Jeremiah’s main target was not the ordinary people, nor the political leaders – it was the religious leaders, the priests and prophets who were the great deceivers of the nation. They were the educated elite who were able to read the Hebrew scrolls and to know the teaching of the Lord that was given to Moses. There was no excuse for them. The ordinary people did not know the requirements of the Lord, but the priests and prophets had full access to the word of God. They were the arch-deceivers because they misused this power and authority: “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority” (Jer 5:31).

As we have said before in this series, the most serious act of deception by the Royal Temple priesthood was that they perpetuated the myth of the Temple’s inviolability, saying that God would never allow any enemy to destroy it and therefore Jerusalem was safe from attack, because God would always defend the city. Jeremiah knew this to be a terrible lie because God is a God of righteousness who demands faithfulness and loyalty from his people.

Yet the people of Jerusalem were worshipping other gods – especially Astarte, the goddess of the Babylonians, who they thought might help them by keeping the Babylonians away from the land of Judah. Once again, it was not only the people who were practising idolatry; there were even secret altars to foreign gods in the Temple itself. “Prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, Peace’, they say, when there is no peace” (Jer 6:13-4).

It was not only the people who were practising idolatry; there were even secret altars to foreign gods in the Temple itself.

Deceiving in God’s Name

God hates deception, especially in spiritual matters. When people declare something in the name of God that deceives others – that is particularly abhorrent! But that is what the prophets were doing in Jeremiah’s lifetime: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you”, he said. “They fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says you will have peace’” (Jer 23:16-17).

These were wicked lies and deception that would have disastrous consequences because the people did not change their ways. They carried on in idolatry and God eventually removed his cover of protection from over Jerusalem, allowing the Babylonians to destroy the city.

In Western nations today, we are surrounded by deception in the media, in politics and in the world of commerce and advertising. But the most dangerous deception by far is coming from the Church. When the word of God is not faithfully taught and prophetically declared by the religious leaders of a nation, God holds those leaders responsible for the fate of that nation.

This is a sobering biblical truth that ought to be constantly in the minds of church leaders today – even if it means they have to pay the price that Jeremiah had to pay.

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here to read previous instalments.

When religious leaders re-interpret Scripture to suit themselves.

How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?...From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 8:8-11)

In this passage, Jeremiah continues his accusation that the people did not know the requirements of the Lord. But it was the Temple priesthood who were really in Jeremiah’s sights. They claimed to be the educated elite of the nation, saying; “We are wise, for we have the Torah to guide us.”

This provoked the most serious charge of actually tampering with the historic teaching given by God to Moses. It was the role of the scribes within the Temple community to copy the scrolls and to ensure the accuracy of every letter and its pointing. If their work could not be trusted because they were changing the meaning of words to suit their own interpretation, the authority of the word of God was undermined.

Tampering with Scripture

Jeremiah’s charge was that the whole priestly community was corrupt; they had very little respect for the integrity of the word of God, which they actually changed to suit their own purposes. He says that they had rejected the wisdom of God and substituted their own worldly wisdom. Sadly, this has been a predilection of theologians down the ages. They have always injected their own interpretations into Scripture.

No doubt this has often been well-meant, in order to make the teaching more understandable for readers. But this is the reason why we have so many different versions of the Bible and it is very difficult to know what the original scrolls actually said. Clearly, this is not a modern practise. Jeremiah was aware of the same activity by the scribes in Jerusalem more than 2,500 years ago.

Jeremiah’s charge was that the priests did not respect the integrity of the word of God, which they actually changed to suit their own purposes.

What is the spirit behind these practices? It is surely one of pride: that we think that our human wisdom is superior to God’s! The Apostle Paul dealt with a similar situation among the educated elite in Corinth. He said: “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Cor 1:20).

At root, it is the desire for power that drives human beings to want to take control away from God and to exercise it ourselves. But Jeremiah points to the foolishness of this because once human beings reject the word of the Lord, they are left with only the limited ability of human minds to foresee the outcome of decisions, or the direction in which they are leading. It was the wisdom of God that revealed to Jeremiah what was going to happen to Jerusalem and the Temple if King Zedekiah revolted against Babylon, as the Temple priests and politicians were advising.

Abuses of Power

The priests were convinced that the presence of the Temple ensured the safety of the city, because God would never allow his holy place to be desecrated by foreigners. Jeremiah knew this was a lie, because righteousness and justice were part of the very nature of God. The priests were ignoring the part of the Torah that declared, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deut 5:7). The people did not ‘know requirements of the Lord’ and indulged in many kinds of idolatry which were deeply offensive to God.

The most serious consequence of all this was that the Temple authorities themselves spread the false belief, “Peace, Peace”, when there was no peace. This promise of peace and prosperity was deception: in fact, it was a dangerous deception because it covered up the deep theological sickness in the royal Temple community, who were mis-handling the Torah. The leaders of the nation were all part of a small elite who were “greedy for gain”. They were full of self-indulgence and were misusing their power for their own selfish ambitions.

Ezekiel spelt out the penalties against the leaders of the nation who misused their power: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves” (Ezek 34:10).

The promise of peace and prosperity was a dangerous deception which covered up the deep theological sickness in the royal Temple community.

Deception Close to Truth

Jeremiah’s great concern was that he could foresee the terrible consequences of the deception that was consuming the whole nation. The people, who were unable to read the Torah for themselves, were easily deceived by a popular message that allowed them to do as they pleased.

Deception, of course, has to be very close to the truth, otherwise it would fool no-one. The lie that the Temple priests were spreading was close to the truth, because God would undoubtedly have protected the City of Jerusalem if the leaders and the people had put their trust fully in him and were obedient to the terms of the covenant. As Jeremiah said in his famous Temple Sermon, God did not simply give commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices (ritualistic religious practices) - he said, “Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people” (Jer 7:23).

The same requirements of trust and obedience apply today if we as individuals, and as a nation, are to enjoy the peace and prosperity of being in a right relationship with God.

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

Who does God hold responsible for the state of the nation?

“The house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord. “They have lied about the Lord; they said, ‘He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine.’ The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them.” (Jeremiah 5:11-13)

This word is in the context of the instruction to Jeremiah to go up and down the streets of Jerusalem to see if he could find anyone who was behaving honestly and seeking the truth. He had listened to the ordinary people and he had gone to the political and religious leaders but found none of them were obeying the teaching of Yahweh – they had “broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds” of the God of Israel (Jer 5:5).

When Jeremiah reported his findings, the response he heard was, “Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not gods” (5:7). Idolatry had spread rapidly since the death of King Josiah and there were altars to foreign gods on the streets of Jerusalem. The people were doing their business deals in the market and actually swearing by these idols. The righteous indignation of God can be seen in his words: “‘I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes…Should I not punish them for this?’ declares the Lord” (Jer 5:7-9).

These words are reminiscent of those given to Hosea in the northern state of Israel: “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me” (Hos 13:6). Both Hosea and Jeremiah were astonished at the ingratitude and stupidity of those who were so blind that they did not recognise all the blessings that God had bestowed upon them. They still turned away and worshipped bits of wood and stone.

Both Hosea and Jeremiah were astonished at the ingratitude and stupidity of the people, who did not recognise all the blessings that God had bestowed upon them.

Will He Do Nothing?

Jeremiah recognised that God’s anger was not so much against the ordinary people but against their spiritual leaders – the priests and prophets who had no excuse. They knew the word of the Lord. They had rediscovered a Torah scroll during the repairs to the Temple ordered by King Josiah, who had re-affirmed the covenant with God. But the terms of this covenant were now being ignored by those who had responsibility for the spiritual life of the nation. They were not teaching the word of God to the people: “The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them!”

This was a devastating condemnation of the Temple priesthood, their preachers and teachers of the Torah. They had the scrolls containing parts of what we now know as Deuteronomy. There was no excuse for ignorance of the word of God. But the preachers actually undermined the faith of the people. Jeremiah declares this in 6:13: “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, Peace,’ they say when there is no peace.”

The Temple priests and prophets had actually dared to say “He will do nothing!” Their teaching was that God was no longer active. They may have still acknowledged God as the Creator and that he had given the Torah to Moses, but they no longer believed he was active in his Creation. God had just dropped into the background (which is the view of many preachers today). He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and he had done things for Israel in the past; but that was history. There was no need to worry about any misdemeanours in the nation because God was no longer doing anything! He was a god of the past, not of the present.

Proud and Haughty Leaders

The priests and prophets were part of a small elite under royal patronage at the Temple, enjoying a privileged lifestyle. They were practising mutual self-interest: the priests gave religious legitimacy to King Jehoiakim despite his licentious behaviour, and he gave Royal approval to the Temple hierarchy, who were greedy, self-indulgent and faithless men. They were far worse than the ordinary people because they were the official representatives of God.

Jeremiah recognised that God’s anger was not so much against the ordinary people but against their spiritual leaders – the priests and prophets who had no excuse.

They were a professional elite who did not have to earn their living by the work of their hands. It was their responsibility to teach the people the word of God, helping them to understand the requirements of the Lord and the terms of the covenant. They not only failed to do this, but by their false teaching and immorality, Jeremiah said, “They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness” (Jer 23:14).

This was a terrible condemnation. It meant that the priests and prophets were actually responsible for the state of the nation – for the idolatry and unbelief among the people as well as for the immorality and sexual perversion everywhere in Jerusalem. “They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man’s wife” (Jer 5:8). This is a highly significant analogy. Throughout the Old Testament, ‘horses’ were linked with the rich and powerful. Their owners were proud and haughty like kings. And this statement, in the context of the faithlessness of the nation, shows that the priests and prophets were anathema to God. The word of God was not in them.

Unbelief in the Pulpit

The most serious implication of these statements is that God was holding the religious leaders responsible for the fate of the nation. He was removing his cover of protection and giving the enemy permission to bring divine judgment upon Judah: “Go through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not destroy them completely” (Jer 5:10).

If we apply this teaching to our situation today in the Western nations that have turned their backs upon God, we have to conclude that God is holding the Church and its leaders – its priests and prophets – responsible for the state of the nation. They are not only held responsible for the moral and spiritual condition of the people, but also for the social and political corruption of the leaders who do not know the word of the Lord.

This is why the Bible says that judgment begins at the house of the Lord; because unbelief begins in the pulpit before spreading to the pew!

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of Jeremiah. Click here to read previous instalments.

God’s call to intercession.

The Feast of Purim was celebrated in Jewish congregations last week. The Feast recalls the deliverance of the Jews at the time of Esther. Esther is often used as an inspiration for intercessory prayer. She was called, prepared and dared to go into the presence of the King to intercede for her people who were facing destruction under the hand of Haman.

How appropriate it is, therefore, to consider our own call at this time. The people of the UK are seeking deliverance from the EU, and we are also entering a time in the entire world when the rise of anti-Christian powers are threatening the survival of both Christians and Jews. This, then, is a time when many of us will receive the call to draw near to God.

In so doing, we will become intercessors on behalf of our people and become available to hear the prophetic word of understanding that can be shared with others.

God Looks at the Heart

This is a ministry that requires deep commitment and purity of lifestyle. The character of those whom God calls can be found in the scriptures. For example, in Isaiah 66:2, “on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.” Such character is not made in a moment, but is often the result of a lifetime’s walk with God.

It is a costly walk which results in a broken heart for others, such as when Jeremiah wept at what was to befall his own people. The Jews were about to go into Babylonian captivity – “Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jer 9:1).

This character in us reflects the character of the Lord Jesus, who wept over Jerusalem because of what was coming upon it, and of whom it was said that “in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and was heard because of his godly fear…he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 5:7, 7:25).

We live in a time when many of us will receive the call to draw near to God in intercession.

The Ministry of Intercession

The ministry of intercession was given to the Priests of the Old Covenant, who were called into the Holy Place of the Tabernacle and Temple to make intercession for the people, to hear from God and to go out to teach the people what God was saying. At the time of Ezekiel their ministry was corrupted (Ezek 22:26-31) and this had kindled God’s wrath. Regarding their role of intercession, God said, “I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it, but found no-one.”

This is how important the ministry of intercession is. It is a priestly calling that God expects to be taken up. For us, it is not the Levitical priesthood, but the priesthood of all believers (1 Pet 2:9). Jesus is our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. As we read in Hebrews 7:1-4, this means that Jesus the Messiah, like the Priest Melchizedek in Genesis 14, was appointed by God directly and did not inherit his ministry by being from the Tribe of Levi, as with all the Priests of the Old Covenant.

It was Jesus who answered the deepest call to be intercessor for his people: “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his own arm brought salvation for him; and his own righteousness, it sustained him” (Isa 59:15-17).

Called into God’s Presence

His call is now for us to join him in his intercessions for the people of this world. John 15:1-8 is a key passage, where we are called to abide in Jesus. Or, using another metaphor, just as Jesus clothed himself in his own salvation and righteousness, so we are to put on the full armour of Ephesians 6 and so put on Jesus (Rom 13:14). In this place of abiding in him or wearing him, we receive the inspiration of God so that our prayers can be in accord with Jesus’ own intercessions (verse 7).

It is in this place of inspired prayer that we can be sure that our prayers will be answered, not according to our human logic but according to the prompting of his Spirit. As such, our prayers are prophetic in nature. In the place of inspired and answered prayer, we will find the prompting of the Holy Spirit as to how to pray, sometimes in “groans that cannot be uttered” (Rom 8:26-27).

What a privilege to be called into the very heart of God to fulfil this calling so utterly needful in the world that is shaking about us more and more every day. Like Esther, we must prepare ourselves to enter into the King’s presence and so fulfil our priestly calling on behalf of our people.

You may also be interested in: Prophets as Intercessors and Purim.

 Jeremiah's call to ministry.

“The word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’” (Jer 1:4).

This was Jeremiah’s personal testimony which laid the foundation for his life’s work. His ministry was not a personal career choice; it was a response to the compulsion to declare the word of God, similar to that which Paul felt when he declared “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).

The phrase “The word of the Lord came to me” means ‘came into being’ or was ‘birthed’ within him. This birthing actually took place in the womb, where the Spirit of God began forming the word of God in the unborn child from the moment of conception. Before the tiny body of Jeremiah began to take shape within the womb of his mother, God was planning to use him as a prophet to the nation.

From the moment of conception, God was moulding the character of the man he was preparing for the most difficult and exacting ministry of any of the biblical prophets. Before he was born, Jeremiah was set apart for this special task of conveying the word of the Lord to the nation in the most critical period of its history since its formation in the wilderness, under the prophetic leadership of Moses.

A Prophet in a Priestly Family

Like the Prophet Samuel, whose mother gave him to the Lord while he was still in her womb, Jeremiah must also have had a special mother – a woman of prayer and faith. We know nothing about her except that she was the wife of a priest, a descendant of Zadok and Abiathar, whose heritage went back to the time of Eli and Samuel.

Like the Prophet Samuel, whose mother gave him to the Lord while he was still in her womb, Jeremiah must also have had a special mother – a woman of prayer and faith.

Abiathar had been King David’s chief priest. He was dismissed by Solomon in an effort to prevent opposition to his taking the throne from his older brother Adonijah who he murdered (1 Kings 2:25-27). Abiathar and his descendants were exiled from living in Jerusalem to live in the village of Anathoth. Although only two miles distant, it was a million miles away in terms of social influence. Jeremiah was raised far away from the aristocratic priestly families of the Temple.

Jeremiah’s family must have suffered from a strong sense of social inferiority which made them incredibly sensitive to having a pariah amongst them. The priest’s role was to maintain the religious traditions of the nation and to oppose any changes, whereas the role of the prophet was to challenge the status quo in the name of God. To have a prophet in a priest’s family would have been seen as a tragedy, and as Jeremiah notes, even his own family sought to take his life, but God revealed their plot to him (Jer 11:18-23). As Dean Inge once said, a priest is never so happy as when he has a prophet to stone!

God’s Creation from Conception

Jeremiah’s testimony that the word of the Lord was birthed in him from the time of conception is a recognition that the pre-birth period in the womb is of great importance for character formation. Yet in contemporary Britain, 8.7 million babies have been destroyed since the legalisation of abortion in 1967. We are a nation steeped in the blood of the innocent – throwing away as unwanted, unloved and uncared for, the most precious gift of life that only God can give.

The record of Jeremiah’s birth shows that God knows each one of those whom he creates in his own image from the moment of conception. At the end of every working day in our hospitals, a black bag full of babies is taken out of the back door and thrown into the incinerator. What is God saying to the men and women who care so little for the gift of each tiny life? How many great men and women who could have served the nation have been burnt in the fire – who could have discovered a cure for cancer, become a great preacher or a righteous Prime Minister? What if Jeremiah’s mother had aborted him?

The record of Jeremiah’s birth shows that God knows each one of those whom he creates in his own image from the moment of conception.

Jeremiah speaks of God’s horror at the detestable practices of burning babies in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom outside Jerusalem. He links this directly with God’s judgment coming upon the nation (Jer 7:30-34). This is a sobering thought for us today.

Only a Child

When the call of God came to Jeremiah, his response was “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” But the Lord said “’Do not say, “I am only a child”. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you’, declares the Lord” (Jer 1:7-8).

Jeremiah was probably still in his teens when this message came to him and he protested at his youthfulness and his inability to undertake such an enormous task. Yet, as the son of a priest he would have been schooled for the priesthood; an important part of which would have been learning the Torah – the teaching that God gave to Moses. He would also have been taught the history of the nation and would have learnt to understand God’s dealings with his covenant people.

Jeremiah’s training for the priesthood was part of God’s intended preparation for his prophetic ministry, despite the fact that his family did not know that they were training a prophet – not a priest! It was probably at this point, as a teenager, that Jeremiah began refusing to undertake the duties of a priest. The word of the Lord was already stirring within him, alerting him that he would not be taking his turn as a minor priest on duty in the Temple. He was destined to preach outside the Temple, not inside its precincts!

If this was the first time that Jeremiah had distinctly heard the Lord speaking directly to him, it was right that his reaction was that he was unfit for such a task. Like Isaiah of Jerusalem some 200 years earlier, who had felt his own inadequacy and cried out “For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips”, Jeremiah also recoiled from the awesome task of taking the word of God to the nation. But immediately the word came “Do not say, ‘I am only a child’. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.”

Jeremiah’s training for the priesthood was part of God’s intended preparation for his prophetic ministry

Trusting the Promise of God

Then came the promise in which Jeremiah was to trust for the rest of his life; “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you”.

The very fact that he was going to need divine power to rescue him must have been a daunting experience for the young man. Certainly, that promise would be put to the test as Jeremiah later faced angry mobs, or outraged priests, or a cruel king. But the God who had watched over Jeremiah’s earliest character formation in the womb was a God who keeps his word and never forgets his promises.

There would be many times when Jeremiah’s faith would be severely tested, but the strength of the Lord was always sufficient for him, even when he was in the stocks being pelted by a mob, or dropped down a well to sink in the mud. God never deserted him and always enabled him to bring the word of the Lord to a generation who had ears to hear but never heard, and who had eyes to see but never saw.

They had minds to understand, but were never able to interpret what they saw or heard because they rejected the word of God through his chosen one. This would eventually bring tragedy upon the nation.

What is happening today when God is clearly shaking the nations and the whole natural Creation? Will the prophetic word of God be heard in the land and heeded by men and women in time to prevent tragedy? Or, will our generation, like that of Jeremiah, live to see the warnings of God ignored and tragedy unfold?

This article is part of a series. Click here to read other instalments.

How Britain began to unite into one nation, under God.

Last week, Clifford Denton reminded us that God blessed Britain very early on with the arrival of the Gospel to our shores perhaps not a century after Jesus walked the earth.

Thanks particularly to Roman Christians who travelled here as part of Rome’s settlement of the island (AD 43-410),¹ the Gospel began its work of conversion amongst the pagan Celtic tribes. But Britain remained a patchwork of warring tribes and religions, with no central government. Then, c.410, the Romans abandoned the island.

This week, we fast-forward through faithful persons in our island’s history who, overseen by divine grace, together established Britain as one nation, united under the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Early Missions

After the Romans abandoned ‘Britannia’, British Christianity did not die out, but spread independently and developed its own distinctive flavour. But the soon arrival of Anglo-Saxon invaders pushed the fledgling Church to the western fringes of the island complex – to Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

A depiction of Augustine of Canterbury preaching to Æthelberht of Kent. JWE Doyle, 1864.

While the Gospel continued to spread here thanks to the efforts of devoted missionaries like Patrick (who was converted at 16 through dreams and visions from the Lord), Columba and Aidan, England was subsumed under Germanic pagan rule until the late 6^th Century. But God did not forget England nor its history of faith.

In 597, at the direction of Pope Gregory I,² a troop of 40 intrepid monks led by a prior called Augustine arrived on the shores of Kent. These missionaries reportedly almost bottled out on their way from Italy, halting in Germany and nearly turning back but for further encouragement from Rome. Mercifully, they found the courage to continue to Britain, where they were received favourably by Anglo-Saxon King Æthelberht, himself a pagan, but influenced by his Frankish Christian wife Bertha. This oft-forgotten duo, moved by the Father’s hand, opened the gate for the Gospel to be brought back to England, permitting preaching and funding the building of churches.

Anglo-Saxon King Æthelberht and his Christian wife Bertha, moved by the Father’s hand, opened the gate for the Gospel to be brought back to England.

What followed was the remarkable conversion of almost the entirety of Anglo-Saxon England – still then split into warring tribes – within the space of a generation. Britain saw pagan kings as well as thousands upon thousands of ordinary people converted and baptised, with no force or bloodshed. The genuineness of these conversions may have varied, but certainly biblical living and thinking came to define the tribal monarchies of Britain in extraordinary ways.

This was particularly the case for the kings of Wessex, such as Ine and Alfred, who started to integrate inspiration from Scripture into codes of laws from the late 7^th Century onwards. Alfred the Great’s legal code was prefixed with the Ten Commandments and it was Alfred who really laid the foundation for state laws grounded in Christian ethics, applied evenly to rich and poor and even to relationships with enemies (he famously baptised the invading Vikings rather than slaughtering them).

By the Lord’s direction, it was the house of Wessex which eventually prevailed across the land and united England from regional tribal kingdoms into one nation, under God.³

The ‘Dark Ages’

It is from these centuries that we derive our historic close relationship between Church and state, which can be dated right back to the early discipleships established between the Gregorian missionaries and the Anglo-Saxon kings. But for God’s unfathomable grace, those missionaries might have stopped in Germany, or the kings may not have welcomed them, or the Viking invaders may have triumphed, and things would have turned out very differently.

Yet, it is easy to romanticise and smooth out this period of Britain’s history. Paganism still persisted, arguments erupted between the Roman missionaries and the ‘native’ Church, and undoubtedly clergy became embroiled in royal power play. Nevertheless, the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ were actually marked by an extraordinary spread of the Gospel by missionaries who were as concerned for the fate of ordinary souls as for those of kings.

In the process, the Christian faith became inseparably intertwined with the development of a new nation. Biblical beliefs and ethics clearly influenced nascent codes of law, integrating into Britain’s early political culture Judeo-Christian principles of justice and mercy. Surely Almighty God was overseeing all of this.

The so-called ‘Dark Ages’ were actually marked by an extraordinary spread of the Gospel.

Speaking Truth to Power

After 1066, when the Anglo-Saxon elites were deposed by the Norman conquest, God made sure that England’s budding legal and administrative system was not tossed aside, but kept and gradually institutionalised by royal charters.⁴ Many of our major cathedrals were built, as well as Oxford and later Cambridge (both as religious schools). But these centuries were also flavoured by a corruption of both Church and state, civil unrest at home, power struggles abroad and tension with the papacy in Rome, which by then had become supremely dominant in Europe.

Under Norman rule, the Church became sought after for its wealth and political influence. However, God did not give Britain over to corruption, but chose this time to raise up reform movements calling for justice, greater autonomy for the Church from royal influence and greater independence for England from Rome.

John Wycliffe, Washington National Cathedral. The text is a variant of 2 Timothy 2:4: "No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer." See Photo Credits.It was against this backdrop that Bishop Stephen Langton led a protest movement of local landowners to pressure King John to sign the Magna Carta, which he did in 1215. In doing so, Langton raised the ire of both King and Pope, since Magna Carta checked the powers of the monarchy and represented a rebellion against Rome. However, crucially, it established protections and liberties for the Church and for ordinary citizens, laying a firm and just foundation for English statute law and later inspiring the US Constitution. Thanks to Stephen Langton, Magna Carta not only applied biblical ethics, but also gave glory to God, proving to be a foundational document in the establishment of Britain as a truly Christian nation.

Nevertheless, while Magna Carta guaranteed important freedoms, it did not prevent the continued corruption of the Church from power and wealth. Less than a century after Magna Carta was inscribed into English statute law by Edward I (who was also, less wonderfully, responsible for expelling Britain’s Jewish population in 1290), the Lord raised up a powerful prophetic figure in the form of Yorkshire scholar and dissident John Wycliffe.

Wycliffe’s writings vociferously attacked the pomp and corruption of the clergy. His criticisms of Roman Catholicism – he has been dubbed the ‘morning star’ of the English Reformation⁵ - brought him into constant conflict with the established Church.⁶ However, Wycliffe had the support of many priests and itinerant preachers who ministered outside of the institutional Church in a sort of non-conformist exile, suffering poverty in order to preach the Gospel to ordinary people. In Wycliffe, the faithful remnant around the nation found a spokesperson raised up by God to protest the ways in which British Christianity departed from the truths of Scripture.

In Wycliffe, the faithful remnant around the nation found a spokesperson raised up by God to protest the ways in which British Christianity departed from the truths of Scripture.

In fact, convinced of the centrality of the Bible as God’s revealed truth to all men, Wycliffe set about translating it from Latin into English, completing the project in the 1380s. And so, God chose this time and this man to make his word available to the masses, who before had been beholden to priests and unable to study Scripture for themselves.

Though the death penalty was eventually levied against those found in possession of an English Bible, Wycliffe jump-started the nation’s journey towards Protestantism which, according to Professor Linda Colley, “was the foundation that made the invention of Great Britain possible”.⁷

Faithful Servants

Æthelberht, Bertha, Augustine, Patrick, Columba, Aidan, Ine, Alfred, Stephen Langton, John Wycliffe…Britain’s Christian heritage is a wonderful and complex fabric made up of the faithful service of individuals guided by the Lord’s hand. These servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, many now forgotten or side-lined in historical accounts, were used powerfully of God to bear the truths of the Gospel to this land, into its laws and culture, and into the hearts and minds of its people.

As we look over the broad expanse of our history, whether we understand it fully or not, we witness the hand of God at work and the Spirit brooding over our nation. Surely it was not on account of our own righteousness, but on account of the Lord’s grace, that Britain was established over the centuries under the stabilising influence of the Bible, with freedom given to the sharing of the Gospel, and with faithful men and women being raised up to hold our institutions to account.

Next week: The establishing of biblical laws.

Notes

1 As well as archaeological remains of church buildings, Roman villa chapels have been uncovered, suggesting that house churches were alive and well in Roman Britain. See John Bradley’s The Mansion House of Liberty: The untold story of Christian Britain (2015, Roperpenberthy).

2 According to the Venerable Bede, Gregory had been moved by the sight of Anglo-Saxon boys being sold as slaves in the Roman marketplace, and resolved to send a mission to their place of origin. If this is true, how much we have to thank the Lord for arranging this encounter and moving the heart of the future pope.

3 This is generally attributed to Alfred’s grandson, Æthelstan, who also outlawed paganism in 927 and arranged for the Bible to be translated into Anglo-Saxon (Old English).

4 E.g. William II (1093), Henry I (1100).

5 Michael, E, 2003. John Wyclif on body and mind. Journal of the History of Ideas, p343.

6 Wycliffe distinguished between the visible, institutional Church and the true, redeemed Body of Christ, just as we would today.

7 Britons: Forging the Nation: 1707-1837. 1992, revised 2009, Yale University Press.

The laying on of hands (Part 1).

Ian Farley reviews ‘Leaven: The Hidden Power of Culture in the Church’ by David Brown (2016, RoperPenberthy).

Retired naval captain David Brown has written an alternative book to the many in the market which tell the Church, both members and ministers, what new things they ought to be doing to see their congregations grow. Of these kinds of books there is no end.

This book, however, approaches affairs from the other direction, taking the New Testament injunction to ‘throw out the old leaven’ seriously. Indeed, not to do so will leave whatever else you might do subject to corruption from the bad stuff still within.

Church in Distress

This is not a book which goes on to talk about our individual failings, as might be expected: ‘If only I were a better Christian then the Church would be a better Church’. Brown moves in bigger (and one might say, murkier) waters, outlining what he calls the “institutional distress” of the Church. He argues that the Church has allowed the culture of the world to infiltrate herself.

Particularly, he identifies four major cultural intruders: controlling power, the enchantment of historic custom, individualism and dogmatism. He outlines these in some detail in the first part of the book and argues that they all destroy relationships and are all variants of lovelessness.

The Church has allowed the culture of the world to infiltrate herself.

By contrast, of course, Jesus built the Kingdom with a focus on relationships and was personally sustained by his close intimacy with his Father, which led in his own life to an attentive, habitual discipleship.

Anglican Perspective

Brown then goes on to suggest what should be thrown out. Here readers need to be aware that, although in the advertising blurb it says this book is for all churches, Brown is an Anglican (and 12 years a lay assistant to a Bishop) and this immediately flavours his response.

Reader responses to this part of the book will, likewise, be shaped by their own denominational preference (for example, some nonconformists will no doubt rejoice over his castigation of the current role of bishops).

Most of Brown’s suggestions, however, are rightly transferable across denominations and, if heeded, would revolutionise the Church. In the example above, for instance, even churches which don't have bishops should pay careful attention to what Brown argues as he identifies what proper, biblical ministry roles and pastoral care should look like, regardless of church structure.

Most of Brown’s suggestions are transferable across denominations and, if heeded, would revolutionise the Church.

Removing the Vestiges of Pomp

The author makes deft judgments which should cause the reader to shout "hurrah, hurrah", especially in his analysis that old temple symbolism must be replaced by the teaching of the New Testament. This would necessitate the removal of all vestiges of pomp in any church and the notion of clerical Eucharistic presidency.

There are endless other suggestions that make this book a fascinating read for any Christian concerned about the cultural health of the Church. The depressing thing is that those who are in power will probably not be readers. This is depressing because, as Brown himself argues, "there is little point in adjusting my car's clutch whilst ignoring its corroded chassis. The time for ecclesiastical spanner work has passed." (p27).

Leaven (254pp) is available from the publisher for £12.99.