A selection of books to see you through August.

In case you are going to be relaxing poolside this August or just enjoying some extra spare time, here are a few recommended books to keep you company. Please see the base of each review for purchasing details.

‘Praying Like the Jew, Jesus: Recovering the Ancient Roots of New Testament Prayer’ by Timothy P Jones (Lederer Books, 2005)

In this delightful book, author, professor and pastor Timothy Jones opens our eyes to the Jewish background of the prayers of Jesus. Jones, author of many textbooks, professor of biblical languages and senior pastor of a Baptist church in Oklahoma, is well-qualified to explain the customs and traditions behind our Lord’s prayers and uncover the beauty and power of his prayer life.

This is a book that will inspire you to pray but also help you understand the true nature of prayer and of God himself.

With the help of historical vignettes and careful research, we are transported back to the historical Jewish world of Jesus, so that we gain wonderful insights into that world by studying his prayers (or, in the case of the first two chapters, the prayers of others around him ahead of his birth and during his early life).

Each of the ten chapters follows a similar structural pattern so you know what to expect and so the book could easily be taken a chapter at a time. Each begins with an imaginative re-telling of an event from Jesus’ life, weaving the original context of his prayers into the biblical stories in order to help you not only study the prayers but also experience their fuller meaning.

At the end of each chapter there is a meditation for readers to apply the lessons to their own lives, considering how God hears and relates to us. The endnotes are excellent and there is a usual glossary for the reader unfamiliar with the Jewish terms Jones uses.

If prayer is like breathing, then this book is “designed to help readers ‘breathe deeply’ as they enter into prayer” (Foreword, p.vi). Do read this book – it will inspire, bless and challenge you.

Maureen Trowbridge and Paul Luckraft

‘Praying Like the Jew, Jesus’ (122pp) is available very cheaply on Amazon. Kindle version is £5.86.

‘The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti-Semitism’ by Dave Rich (Biteback Publishing, 2016, revised 2018)

If you are looking for a highly topical book that will help you understand a central crisis in modern British politics, we highly recommend Dave Rich’s exploration of left-wing Jew-hatred. Associate Research Fellow at the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism, Birkbeck College (University of London), Rich works for the Community Security Trust, briefing MPs, civil servants and police officers about anti-Semitism. Though he is not a believer, his insights into this phenomenon are well worth reading.

Beginning with a brief history of how the Labour Party transformed from the party of the working class to a mainly middle-class party championing identity politics, Rich demonstrates how Labour totally reversed its position on Israel in the space of a decade or two, from steadfast support to outright loathing.

Subsequent chapters trace this transformation through to the present day, including more recent alliances between the left-wing and Islam (much as Melanie Phillips does in her book ‘The World Turned Upside-Down’). Rich also exposes how the ideological left has adopted a radically wrong view of the Holocaust.

His research, originally a PhD project begun in 2011, is here brought further up-to-date and made suitable for a general readership. A 2018 update is promised in September covering the many high-profile developments that have taken place since the book was first published.

If the presence of virulent anti-Semitism within a so-called ‘anti-racist’ Party has taken you by surprise, or if you are aware that Corbyn is simply a symptom of a much longer-standing problem but are unsure why, this book is for you.

Paul Luckraft and Frances Rabbitts

The 2016 version of ‘The Left’s Jewish Problem’ (352pp) is available from the publisher for £12.99 (paperback) or from Amazon Kindle for £8.54. Read an interview with the author here.

The 2018 version is available for pre-order for £12.99 (paperback) or £10 (Kindle) – to be released in early September.

‘Left to Their Own Devices: Confident Parenting in a World of Screens’ by Katharine Hill (Muddy Pearl, 2017). With Foreword by Rob Parsons OBE.

In this clever, refreshing book, lawyer, writer and present Director of Care for the Family UK Katharine Hill explores the impact of a decade of the digital world on the younger generation.

Member of the Board of the International Commission for Couples and Family Matters, Hill is married with grown-up children and is also a well-known public speaker and columnist for a local newspaper.

In 15 chapters and a poignant epilogue, she “skilfully and sensitively tackles a thorny subject with razor sharp insight and unremitting authenticity” (Dr Samantha Callum, family policy expert), aiming her writing particularly at those involved in parenting, teaching and youth work. Practical advice is given on issues like screen time, social media and consumer culture, as well as more serious issues like cyber-bullying, grooming and pornography, making this an invaluable handbook for parents who not only want to ‘cope’ with today’s digital challenges but face them confidently. Over 20 cartoons provide a gestalt complement. For those wishing to explore these ‘thorny issues’ further, a helpful index is provided.

I recommend this important, timely book without reservation, as being of exceptional value.

M. Paul Rogoff

‘Left to Their Own Devices’ (143pp, paperback) is available from the publisher for £9.99. Also available from Care for the Family and Amazon. Watch an interview with the author here.

‘The Bible’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by David Hamshire (Faithbuilders Christian Books, 2018)

This short booklet (40 pages in length) follows on from two others by the same author, whose themes are all linked to the number seven: ‘Seven Days of Creation’ and ‘Seven Feasts of the Lord’. Whilst these previous two studies are on central and accepted themes, the exploration of how the number seven relates to wisdom (using Proverbs 9:1-6) breaks new ground.

The number seven binds much of Scripture together so, on the one hand, it is likely to have significance in ways yet to be found. However, on the other hand, the concept can be forced too far and become speculative. For this reason, I approached this particular study with caution. I did, nevertheless, find it well-written and thought-provoking.

I am not yet unconvinced that it leans more towards the speculative than the authoritative, but I can nevertheless recommend it as a good stimulus for study, especially in small interactive groups.

Clifford Denton

‘The Bible’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ is available from Christian Publications International for £9 inc. P&P, where you can also find more information and an extract from the Foreword.

‘More Drops: Mystery, Mercy, Messiology’ by George Verwer (CWR, 2015)

George Verwer met the Lord in 1955 in Madison Square Gardens, New York listening to Billy Graham, and started a life dedicated to evangelism. At the Moody Bible Institute, he learned that every student has to be an evangelist - for him, first in Mexico, where he married, and then in over 90 nations.

In 1962, Verwer formed Operation Mobilisation (OM), one of the most impactful mission agencies of the last half-century, known for its unrelenting preaching of the Gospel and its social action in Gospel-resistant countries like India, Nepal and the UK. From the 1970s, he obtained a series of ships named Logos to bring the Gospel to millions in coastal regions of the world.

2015 celebrated 60 years of this continuing passion. ‘More Drops’ (one of nine books by Verwer) is written in an auto-biographical style and is alive with refreshing honesty and pace, always giving God the glory through many successes and failures. Verwer’s reflection that most of what we touch includes messy situations (hence his term ‘Messiology’) - including theology, church life, leadership and people (!) – is followed up with the insight that God does wonderful things through the mess.

This is a book alive with the boldness and passion of its author, who lived to share Christ with as many people as he could. Helpfully, More Drops also recommends personal reading of nearly 50 other books, all classic works of Christian living, though Verwer always advocated getting into the word of God first and foremost, and allowing the Lord to transform your life from there.

Greg Stevenson

‘More Drops’ (136pp) is available from Amazon for £6.99 (paperback) or £6.64 (Kindle). Also available is the ‘George for Real’ DVD, a fast-moving, highly personal, encouraging and challenging story of a man on fire for the Lord and his Gospel. Highly recommended.

The resurrection of the dead. (Part 2)

Resurrection Day is the Coming Again of Jesus

The resurrection of Christians is going to take place the day that Jesus returns. As certain as his first coming to Bethlehem is the fact that he is coming a second time. This truth, like the truth of the resurrection of the dead, is a wonderful hope for the Christian. Jesus is coming again. We have his word for it. He told his disciples, “I will come again.”

It was confirmed to the disciples after they had watched Jesus ascend to Heaven:

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven’. (Acts 1:10-11)

Many Christians will be alive when Jesus comes and they will be changed immediately. No-one knows when the Lord Jesus will return, although Jesus taught his disciples about certain conditions which would be in the world at his coming. He taught that his coming would be sudden, it would be unexpected, that he would come, ‘as a thief in the night’. When he comes there will be a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. It is going to be gloriously noisy!

When Jesus was teaching this truth, he said, be watchful and be ready. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come…so you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matt 24:42-4). The best thing to do is to live and work as if Jesus was coming today. John wrote, “Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).

The best thing to do is to live and work as if Jesus was coming today.

I read of a missionary who went away for a weekend's meetings. He told his wife he would return on Monday on the one train that came each day. On Monday she spruced up her two little boys and went to the station to meet Dad. The train came, but no Dad. They came back again on Tuesday and again the boys were all cleaned up. The train came, but again, no Dad. Back they came on Wednesday, and this time Dad came. One of the little fellows said, “Dad, we’ve been waiting for you for three days.” Looking down at them, he said, “Yes, I see it’s kept you clean!” Let's be ready! Let's be clean!

Resurrection Day is Reward Day

There is a very important truth linked with the doctrine of resurrection of the dead, and that is that we are accountable. One day Jesus was teaching in the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees. He was encouraging his listeners that, when they had a feast, they should not invite people who would return their hospitality, but invite those who could not invite them back. Then he said: “And you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14).

At the resurrection we are going to be asked by the Lord to give an account of how we lived as Christians. This is an incentive to live holy lives. We are going to appear at what Paul called, ‘the judgment seat of Christ’. There are applications for this teaching, which should affect our lives in various ways:

• We should live in the fear of God: Paul wrote, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor 5:10-11).
  
• We should stop judging others: We will never be asked to give an account of how other people lived, but how we lived. “’As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘Every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom 14:11-13).
  
• We should live and work sincerely and with the right motive: “Whatever You do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col 3:23-24). This reminds us of the importance of avoiding dead works, and to live with faith toward God by the power of his Spirit, with the purpose of glorifying God.

At the resurrection we are going to be asked by the Lord to give an account of how we lived as Christians. This is an incentive to live holy lives.

The Rewards

Rewards are going to be given in that day. Paul wrote, “If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward” (1 Cor 3:14). Some of these rewards are described as ‘crowns’:

• An incorruptible crown. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Cor 9:24-25).
  
• A crown of righteousness: Towards the end of his life Paul wrote to Timothy. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Tim 4:7-8).
  
• A crown of life. There will be reward for those who have overcome temptations. James writes, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (Jam 1:12). What an encouragement to endure the trials and testings and persecutions. Resurrection day will be reward day.
  
• A crown of glory. Reward is promised to pastors and elders who properly care for his flock. “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away” (1 Pet 5:4).

We do not serve the Lord merely for a reward. The greatest privilege on earth is to live and work for him, but it is just like his loving heart to bless in that coming day. So let us live with resurrection day before us. Not only will there be rewards but there will also be loss of reward. “If [anyone’s work] is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Cor 3:15).

The teaching on the judgment seat of Christ is clearly summarised in the words of an unknown poet:

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and he shows me his plan for me,

the plan of my life as it might have been, had he had his way, and I see

how I blocked him here and checked Him there, and would not yield my will,

will there be grief in my Saviour’s eyes, grief, though he loves me still?

He would have me rich, but I stand there poor, stripped of all but his grace,

as memory runs like a haunted thing through the years I cannot retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well nigh break, with the tears that I cannot shed;

I will cover my face with my empty hands, and bow my uncrowned head.

Lord, of the years that are left to me, I yield them to thy hand,

Take me, melt me, mould me, to the pattern thou hast planned.

Resurrection day will be reward day – but there will also be loss.

Application

• Praise God for his grace that saved us.
  
• Thank God for the glorious prospect of spending eternity with him, with changed bodies, sinless bodies, healthy bodies, never-get-old bodies, a body like his glorious body.
  
• Let us realise that it is here on earth that ‘we lay up treasure in heaven’.

Questions

1. What is the significance of the resurrection of Jesus?
2. What would your answer be to a person who said that death ended everything?
3. In view of the judgment seat of Christ, would you like to finish as you are now?
4. If not, what adjustments do you think you should make? When is the best time to make these adjustments?

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.

Resurrection of the dead (Part 1).

Christians do not live merely for time but also for eternity. They have a hope for the future which is certain by receiving eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The next foundational truth assures us that there is going to be a resurrection day. Jesus said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29).

Paul boldly asserts, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless…For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either…But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:13-16, 20).

Resurrection of the Dead in the Old Testament

God’s power and ability to raise people from the dead was manifested in the Old Testament. Elijah was used of God to raise the widow of Zarephath’s son from the dead (1 Kings 17:20-22) and Elisha raised the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 4:8-37).

There was that amazing funeral recorded in 2 Kings 13, when a party of men went to bury a friend. While they were doing this they saw a party of raiders coming towards them. With no time to dig the grave, they threw the body into a nearby grave where Elisha was buried. As soon as the corpse made contact with the Prophet’s bones, he was revived, and ran and joined the burying party!!

God’s power and ability to raise people from the dead is manifested throughout Scripture.

One of the oldest books in the Bible is Job. Through all his troubles he also had the great hope of the resurrection day. He said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:25-26).

Resurrection in the New Testament

It is recorded that Jesus raised three people from the dead: Jairus’ daughter; the widow of Nain’s son and Lazarus (Matt 9:23-25; Luke 7:12-15; John 11). There is a remarkable story related in very few words of what happened when Jesus died and rose again:

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (Matthew 27:50-53)

What a story! What surprises in Jerusalem! What power in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus! We also read of Peter being God’s instrument to raise Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-4). A young man called Eutychus fell asleep while Paul was preaching. He fell from an upstairs window and was killed. Paul prayed for the young man and he was restored to life (Acts 20:7-12). This story is a warning not to fall asleep during the preaching! There may not be a Paul present!

I have met two people who witnessed God’s power in raising the dead, and there are accounts of this happening in times of revival.

The Future Resurrection

The Bible teaches about the certainty of future resurrections: the resurrection of the just, and the resurrection of the unjust. The terminology used is, ‘the resurrection of the just’; ‘the resurrection of life’; ‘the resurrection of the last day’; ‘the resurrection of the dead’ (Luke 14:14; John 5:29; John 11:24; Acts 23:6). Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, assured them:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)

The Bible teaches about the certainty of future resurrections: the resurrection of the just, and the resurrection of the unjust.

Believers Shall Rise Again

• First: “Blessed and holy are those who have part in this first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ” (Rev 20:6).
  
• To eternal life: “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).
  
• To be glorified with Christ: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4).
  
• With incorruptible bodies: “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42-44).
  
• With a body like Christ’s body: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:20-21).

What a glorious hope for the Christian! What comfort when Christian loved ones die knowing we will meet again! There is a resurrection day!

Resurrection - A Glorious Hope

Yes, this teaching gives wonderful hope to the child of God. Before a person becomes a Christian, they are “without hope and without God in the world”. But once we believe the situation is changed “you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:12-13).

Hope is the confident looking forward to something which is certain, with absolute assurance. When Paul was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin he said, “I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 23:6).

Don’t miss one of the important reasons for this teaching. Life is punctuated by difficult circumstances and problems but there are better things to come. Peter used this truth to encourage and to comfort persecuted saints. They were being hunted, living in caves and suffering deprivation, and to use Peter’s words, “suffering grief in all kinds of trials”. This was one of his opening statements in his letter to them:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you. (1 Peter 1:3-4)

Life is punctuated by difficult circumstances and problems but there are better things to come.

The truth of the resurrection of the dead has been the hope of millions who have been martyred down through the centuries. Jesus told his disciples, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28).

Resurrection day is going to usher God’s people into a new era. Then it is going to be ‘forever with the Lord’. It is going to be the entry into an imperishable inheritance, kept, or reserved, in Heaven for you. We are going to see what Jesus meant when he said to his disciples, “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3).

What is it going to be like? In one way it is indescribable. Paul said, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). We do not have a lot of information about Heaven, but we have enough. The Bible tells us something of what is there, and something of what is not there. The greatest thing is that HE is there. We shall see him and we shall be like him. Anne Cousin, anticipating this in the last century, wrote these words:

The Bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory
But on the King of Grace.
Not at the crown He giveth
But on His pierced hand.
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Immanuel’s land.

Next week: The return of our Lord Jesus and the judgment seat of Christ.

The laying on of hands (Part 2)

Editorial Comment: Campbell McAlpine was a good Bible teacher from solid Brethren stock. He wrote the little booklet First Principles, which we are serialising today, back in the 1960s. At that time of its publication by PWM Ministries (1992), none of the charismatic phenomena that we saw later in the 1990s had yet been experienced. Today we have a very different view on the laying on of hands. We have therefore carefully revised Campbell’s teaching in line with current biblical scholarship, so that the teaching given below represents that of Prophecy Today UK and Issachar Ministries.

***

We have already seen that the laying on of hands is a practice with significance running right through the whole of Scripture. It was not only used to set people apart for certain ministries, but often as human authority was given to them to fulfil their calling or role within an institution. In this second study, we turn to how the laying on of hands can be important (or misused) in blessing, healing, and receiving the Holy Spirit.

Laying on Hands to Bless

It is important to understand that the act of laying on hands is not a magical formula or ritual to obtain automatic blessing – indeed, it can have rather undesirable results, as we will see. It is, however, a public statement: an act of faith to which God responds when done in line with his word. It is God alone who can bless, heal and fill with the Holy Spirit – and yet, in his grace and mercy, he chooses to allow us, his children, to take part in the process of blessing others with our personal faith.

In the Old Testament we read of fathers laying hands on their sons and blessing them. In ancient times, the practice of fathers blessing sons was part of the procedure through which inheritance was formally transferred. This does not mean that they imparted God’s blessing to them – no-one can give God’s blessing to someone! It is only God who can give his blessing.

Isaac blessed his son Jacob, and he was blessed, but this was Isaac’s own personal blessing upon his son, which God then honoured. Jacob in turn blessed each of his sons, and they were blessed, but again, it was not God’s blessing: it was the personal-yet-prophetic blessing of a father to his sons, which the Lord accepted.

What we learn from these examples is that laying on hands to bless is a practice that must be done with God-given authority and in line with God’s will – but that any resultant blessing comes from God. In the same way, the Apostle Paul talks about spiritual gifts and ministries in his letters but makes it clear that it is God who gives these, not people (see Eph 4:11; 1 Cor 12:28).

Laying on hands to bless is a practice that must be done with God-given authority and in line with God’s will - and any resultant blessing comes from God.

A Word of Caution

But passing on evil spirits is another matter. Although we cannot pass on pure things like the Holy Spirit to others by laying on hands, we can pass on evil spirits. The Prophet Haggai spoke to the Temple priests about passing on things from one body to another by touch. He stated emphatically that we cannot pass on holiness to someone else but we can certainly infect them with defilement (Hag 2:10-14).

This is why we should always be careful about who we allow to lay their hands on us – and this is the sad story of the charismatic movement of the 1990s, which was marked by all sorts of spirits being passed on from one to another, with people barking, laughing uncontrollably and falling around like drunkards. This was wrongly attributed to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ Ministry of Blessing

When we read in Matthew 19 of Jesus taking little children and laying his hands on them and blessing them, we are dealing with a different dimension. One thing is sure, these children would have been truly blessed – not least because of Jesus’ direct relationship with the Father.

Jesus said “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”, but he also acknowledged that he could do nothing on his own initiative: he could only do what he saw the Father doing and what he heard from the Father (John 5:19, 8:28) and he always obeyed the Father’s commands (John 15:10). So a blessing from Jesus was a direct blessing from God the Father.

There is also the wonderful story in Revelation 1 where John, on the island of Patmos, had a sight of the glorified Lord Jesus. So overwhelming was that sight, that he “fell at His feet, as though dead.” Then Jesus laid his right hand on him and said, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rev 1:17-18). Immediately John was strengthened and enabled to be Jesus’ messenger to the churches in Asia.

A blessing from Jesus was a direct blessing from God the Father.

Healing and the Laying on of Hands

The scriptures give several accounts of people being healed when hands were laid on them. This was evidenced in the ministry of Jesus:

• In Nazareth: “He laid His hands on a few sick people, and healed them” (Mark 6:5).
  
• A blind man: “Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly” (Mark 8:25).
  
• A disabled woman: “When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity’. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God” (Luke 13:12-13).
  
• A paralytic man: Jesus said “Friend, your sins are forgiven”. In dealing with this man’s sins before his healing, Jesus demonstrated that he was not just a faith healer. His mission set him apart from the rest of humanity. He was “the word made flesh…who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
  
• After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the 11 disciples and commissioned them to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”, giving them this promise, “These signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:17-18).
  
• When the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta, he laid hands on the father of the chief citizen of the island who was ill with a fever, and he was healed (Acts 28:8).

The question we have to ask is whether ordinary human beings were given the power to heal by laying on their hands. There is no evidence of this in the New Testament. There are instances of the apostles laying hands upon the sick and praying for them and they were healed. But there is no evidence of healing being transmitted from the well person to the sick person through the laying on of hands. The healing was received in answer to prayer.

So again, we have the laying on of hands being an act of faith, done by those with God-given authority and in line with his word; an act to which God responds with power.

The scriptures give several accounts of people being healed when hands were laid on them.

The Holy Spirit and the Laying on of Hands

When Peter and John went down to Samaria, after hearing of the many who were being saved through the ministry of Philip, they ministered to the new converts and, “they placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17). When Paul was in Ephesus, it is recorded that after baptising some believers, he “placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:6).

These verses are often misunderstood as meaning that the Holy Spirit was somehow imparted or transferred to the believers through the laying on of hands. But the Greek does not say that. It simply records that ‘this happened, then that happened’ – without any causative interpretation.

In the teaching of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father. Jesus said “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth” (John 14:15). It is essential to understand that we cannot impart or pass on the Holy Spirit to anyone. He is entirely in God’s hands to give or to withhold as he chooses. In the Old Testament, Elisha had to learn this. He asked the dying Elijah for a double portion of his spirit - but Elijah made it clear that it was not his to give (2 Kings 2).

A particular passage that needs careful interpretation is Paul’s advice to Timothy: “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Tim 4:14). It is evident that one day while Timothy and the elders were waiting on the Lord, someone prophesied indicating the ministry the Lord desired Timothy to have. In response to this, the elders laid hands on him.

We can be certain that the elders prayed for him; but what is even more significant in the context of Paul’s words was that the elders recognised the ministry Timothy was to exercise in the ‘ekklesia’ – the scattered congregations around the Empire that made up the Church at that time. The laying on of hands was a sign of this recognition. It was not giving the Holy Spirit or any ministry gifts – Timothy had already received these. The laying on of hands was a sign of their blessing - giving Timothy the authority to go and exercise his ministry gifts amongst the various congregations.

This is what happens today in a service of ordination: the elders (or bishops) of the church lay hands on the ordinands and pray for them. Through this act they are not imparting any spiritual blessing upon him or her, but from their position of authority, they recognise the ministry to which the ordinand has been called by God. This recognition gives authority to the ordinand to exercise ministry within the organisation of the church in accordance with its rules. It does not confer blessing or spiritual gifts – it confers institutional authority.

The laying on of hands is an act of faith, to which God responds with power.

Impartation

The whole subject of ‘impartation’ has caused much division and confusion in churches in recent history. In the 1990s there were men who went around laying hands on people and causing them to behave strangely. One man even called himself a ‘Holy Spirit Bartender’ because when he touched people they behaved like drunkards. Clearly, the spirit he was passing on to others was not the Holy Spirit!

We believe that a true interpretation of biblical teaching on this subject is that we human beings can pass on evil spirits, but we cannot pass on the Holy Spirit or any of the spiritual gifts of God by laying hands on people. These gifts are entirely God’s to give.

This does not mean, however, that we shouldn’t lay on hands! It is undoubtedly a practice that God has ordained and to which he responds, when done in accordance with his word and will. As we have seen, laying on hands is an outward act of faith which can be used in certain circumstances to give a personal blessing, or as part of praying for healing or petitioning the Lord to pour out his Holy Spirit.

It is a lack of sound biblical teaching and interpretation of Scripture that has caused so much confusion about this issue in recent years. Further teaching can be found in the book ‘Blessing the Church?’ which we serialised on Prophecy Today earlier this year. The book, written in 1995, is currently out of print but may be digitalised by Issachar Ministries in the near future.

...and does it matter? Part 1 of a new mini-series on Creationism.

Editorial introduction: We are delighted to publish the first in a three-part series on scientific evidence for a Creator, written by researcher, author and lecturer Paul Garner. The relationship between science and faith is an important spiritual battle-ground in the modern world, so it behoves us all to know what we believe about Genesis.

Whether you subscribe to a ‘young Earth’ or an ‘old Earth’, a seven-day Creation or a ‘millions of years’ evolutionary model, we hope that Paul’s in-depth research and writing will provoke you to think seriously about what you believe and why – for the sake of the Gospel.

In this first part of the series, Paul lays out different possible theories about the origins of human life and asks what kind of theology each requires.

 **********

The debate about origins – the origin of the universe, of life and of human beings – rages as fiercely today as it did at the time of Charles Darwin. A central question in the debate concerns common ancestry. Are all organisms related by descent from a single, common ancestor (as evolutionary theory proposes) or were many kinds separately created in the beginning (as creation theory proposes)?

Another question concerns the age of the Earth. Is the Earth 4.6 billion years old (as conventional science suggests) or is it about 6,000 years old (as a straightforward reading of the Bible suggests)? Although these two questions are rather different, they are connected. For example, if it could be shown that the world was young, common descent would in effect be disproved.

Christians today tend to fall into one of three ‘camps’. Theistic evolutionists (sometimes referred to as ‘evolutionary creationists’) embrace common descent and an old Earth. Young-Earth creationists reject common descent and an old Earth. Many Christians seek a middle way between these positions by rejecting common descent but embracing an old Earth.

It is often difficult for ordinary Christians to navigate their way through this maze of different opinions. The issues, both theological and scientific, can seem formidably complex and many believers feel ill-equipped to evaluate them.

The debate about the origin of the universe, of life and of human beings rages as fiercely today as it did at the time of Charles Darwin.

But I think there is a way to assess these ideas that most Christians can grasp, and that is to compare the relative sequence of events given in Genesis with the relative sequence of events according to the old-Earth, evolutionary model of origins. For contrary to common opinion, it is actually the age question that has the greater theological implications (rather than the ancestry question), and that is why I am making it the focus of this short series.

In this article, I begin with an overview of Earth’s history according to an ‘old Earth’ model, and then present three ways in which this conflicts with the sequence of events described in Genesis, with more to come next week.

History According to the Old-Earth Model

The conventional scientific view is that the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old and that its geological development has been immensely long and gradual. The multi-million-year dates assigned to Earth history come from the application of radiometric dating, a set of methods that uses the decay of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes as a kind of ‘clock’ to date the rocks and minerals of the Earth’s crust. The rock layers, with their enclosed fossils, are thus said to document the history of life over long eras of time.

Figure 1: The standard geological column representing the history of life on Earth according to the old-Earth model. Fossil organisms typical of each geological era are shown (‘my’ stands for ‘millions of years ago’). After Garner, P, 2009. The New Creationism: Building Scientific Theories on a Biblical Foundation. Evangelical Press, Darlington, p195.

This understanding of Earth history can be summarised as follows (Figure 1).

• Precambrian rocks are considered to be the oldest rocks on Earth, deposited between 4,000 million and 541 million years ago. Most Precambrian fossils are micro-organisms resembling today’s bacteria and blue-green algae. Dome-shaped structures called stromatolites, thought to have formed when sediment became trapped by sticky algal mats, are abundant in Precambrian sediments. Towards the end of the Precambrian Eon, the first multi-celled organisms are thought to have appeared – represented by some strange segmented and frond-like creatures first discovered in the Ediacara Hills of South Australia.
  
• Palaeozoic (‘early life’) rocks follow the Precambrian and are said to have been deposited between 541 and 252 million years ago. The beginning of the Palaeozoic Era was marked by the sudden appearance of many hard-bodied animals including sponges, brachiopods (‘lamp shells’) and trilobites. By the middle of the Palaeozoic Era, fish had become numerous in the oceans, and plants and animals had begun to populate the land. By the end of the era, the first large reptiles and modern plants (conifers) had appeared.

Something we can all do is compare the relative sequence of events given in Genesis with the relative sequence of events according to the old-Earth, evolutionary model.

• Mesozoic (‘middle life’) rocks are thought to have been deposited between 252 and 66 million years ago. This was the ‘age of the reptiles’. Life on the land was dominated by the dinosaurs, in the skies by flying reptiles called pterosaurs, and in the oceans by aquatic reptiles such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. Ammonites (squid-like creatures in coiled shells) were also common in the warm, shallow seas. The mammals, birds and flowering plants (angiosperms) also made their first appearance during this time.
  
• Cenozoic (‘recent life’) rocks are said to have been deposited between 66 million years ago and the present day. During the Cenozoic, the flowering plants are represented by a great array of trees, shrubs and vines. This was also the era in which most of the modern groups of birds and mammals appeared, as well as the first humans.

Many Christians suppose that there are few, if any, theological consequences of embracing this standard account of Earth history, with its time-scale of hundreds of millions of years.

But in fact there are massive theological difficulties, some of which I am going to highlight in what follows. I will do this by asking the question: what theology would we have to accept as true if we did embrace the old-Earth time-scale?

1. Agony, Death and Bloodshed Before Sin

First, we would have to accept that physical agony, death and bloodshed have been around for hundreds of millions of years, long before humans appeared or sin entered the world.

It hardly needs saying that fossils are the remains of dead things and therefore provide prima facie evidence of physical death. Conventional dating places the first appearance of animals in the fossil record at least as far back as 541 million years ago, probably earlier.¹ But even if we restrict our considerations to sentient beings capable of experiencing pain, evidence of agony and death goes back a long way.

Consider mosasaurs, a group of large marine reptiles, now extinct, preserved in the Upper Cretaceous deposits of North America and Europe. Conventionally, these fossils are 92-66 million years old and long pre-date the first appearance of modern humans (Homo sapiens) around 300,000-200,000 years ago. Many mosasaur skeletons show evidence of physical trauma, including bite wounds² and bone fractures.^3,4 These injuries would have been extremely painful when they were inflicted.

What theology would we have to accept as true if we did embrace the old-Earth time-scale?

Another dramatic example is the mass-death assemblage of horses, camels and rhinos at Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska, USA, conventionally dated to about 12 million years ago. Bone lesions in these animals show that they died slow and agonizing deaths by asphyxiation as the result of inhaling volcanic dust in the aftermath of an eruption.⁵

Ashfall Fossil Beds: a Teleoceras female and her calf.But such evidence of agony and death long before there were humans runs counter to the biblical claim that death and bloodshed came into the world as a consequence of Adam’s sin (Gen 3:19; Rom 5:12; 1 Cor 15:21-22). When Adam fell, God told him he would return to the dust from which he had been taken (Gen 3:19), the ground was cursed (Gen 3:17) and Creation itself was subjected to corruption (Rom 8:20-22). And it is this causal connection between sin and physical death that explains why it was necessary for Christ to suffer and die physically to pay sin’s penalty (Matt 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 24:46).

As for the animals, they were caught up in the Fall because they were part of Adam’s dominion (Gen 1:28). When he fell, he dragged the rest of Creation down with him. The original diet of both humans and animals was vegetarian (Gen 1:29-30; cf. Isa 11:6-8, 65:25), and carnivory (meat-eating) is explicitly mentioned only after the Flood (Gen 9:3).

Indeed, the account of the Flood highlights the unnaturalness of animal violence, for we are told that the destruction of “all flesh” included the animals as well as the humans (Gen 7:15-16, 21), because both were corrupt and violent (Gen 6:11-13).

2. Disease and Sickness Before Sin

Second, we would have to accept that disease and sickness have been around for hundreds of millions of years, long before humans appeared or sin entered the world.

Clear evidence of pathology can be seen in the fossil record of many organisms, as we have already seen in the case of the animals that died of lung damage in Nebraska. In fact, the study of ancient disease is a discipline in its own right, known as palaeopathology.

Consider mosasaurs again. Many fossil specimens have pathological features of the skeleton, such as fused vertebrae,⁶ and some of these animals even show evidence of decompression sickness associated with diving.^7,8

An old-Earth model requires us to accept that pain, death, bloodshed and disease were around long before humans appeared or sin entered the world.

Bone abnormalities are common in certain types of dinosaurs, with one specimen displaying no fewer than eight maladies of its forelimb, including a permanently deformed third finger.⁹ Painful conditions such as malignant tumours, ripped tendons, broken teeth and arthritis are also known to have afflicted dinosaurs.^10,11,12 But such evidence of sickness and disease long before there were humans runs counter to the biblical claim that in the beginning God made a “very good” world that was later spoilt by Adam’s sin.

During Creation Week, God expressed his satisfaction with the things he had made by stating six times that they were “good” (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). Upon completing his work, he crowned it all with a seventh, even stronger declaration – that the finished creation was “very good” (Gen 1:31). Sorrow, suffering and death were not part of this “very good” world but came about as a consequence of Adam’s sin.

It was Christ, the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45), who came to undo what Adam did. Christ’s healing ministry (Matt 8:16-17; cf. Isa 53:5, Ps 103:2-3), culminating in his atoning death on the Cross, points forward to the day when God will wipe away every tear, and sorrow, pain and death will be no more (Rev 21:4, 22:2).

3. Natural Disasters Before Sin

Third, we would have to accept that natural disasters, such as famines, floods, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, have been around for hundreds of millions of years, long before humans appeared or sin entered the world.

Indeed, the fossil record is largely the product of such natural disasters, more being accomplished geologically during short-lived catastrophic events than in many years of quiescence.¹³ Some of these ancient natural disasters are known to have dwarfed any experienced in the present day.

The Chile earthquake of 1960 was the most powerful ever recorded on a seismograph.¹⁴ But much larger earthquakes would have accompanied the formation of large asteroid impact craters, such as the ones at Popigai in Siberia (conventionally formed 35 million years ago) or Sudbury in Ontario (conventionally formed 1.8 billion years ago).¹⁵

The most violent volcanic eruption in recent human history took place at Taupo, New Zealand, in about AD 186, and it left behind a pumice layer up to 1.8m thick with a volume of about 24 cubic kilometres.¹⁶ But much larger volcanic eruptions are known from the geological record, evidenced by deposits tens to hundreds of metres thick and with volumes exceeding 1,000 cubic kilometres.¹⁷

During Creation Week, God stated six times that what he had made was “good” and crowned it all with a seventh, even stronger declaration – that the finished creation was “very good”.

A popular Christian apologetic is to say that natural disasters such as these are a consequence of the Fall of man, and that they were not part of the world that God originally created. For example, here is what Tim Keller says in his book, The Reason for God:

Human beings are so integral to the fabric of things that when human beings turned from God the entire warp and woof of the world unravelled. Disease, genetic disorders, famine, natural disasters, ageing and death itself are as much the result of sin as are oppression, war, crime and violence.¹⁸ (my emphasis)

But this apologetic is baseless if such natural disasters were occurring long before the origin of humans or of human sin. In such a scenario, we could not say that natural disasters are consequences of living in a fallen world.¹⁹ Instead, we would have to acknowledge them as a normal part of how the world functions and that it had been this way from the beginning. This also seems to run counter to the biblical claim that the world as originally created was “very good” (Gen 1:31).

Next week: Three more theological problems presented by an ‘old-Earth’ model.

Author bio: Paul Garner is a full-time researcher and lecturer for the Biblical Creation Trust (www.biblicalcreationtrust.org). He has an MSc in Geoscience from University College London, where he specialised in palaeobiology, and is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. He has taken part in research funded by the Institute for Creation Research and has written numerous papers, popular articles and a book.

References

1 dos Reis, M, Thawornwattana, Y, Angelis, K, Telford, MJ, Donoghue, PCJ and Yang, Z, 2015. Uncertainty in the timing of origin of animals and the limits of precision in molecular timescales. Current Biology, 25:2939-2950.

2 Everhart, MJ, 2008. A bitten skull of Tylosaurus kansasensis (Squamata: Mosasauridae) and a review of mosasaur-on-mosasaur pathology in the fossil record. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 111:251-262.

3 Schulp, AS, Walenkamp, GHIM, Hofman, PAM, Rothschild, BM and JWM Jagt, 2004. Rib fracture in Prognathodon saturator (Mosasauridae, Late Cretaceous). Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw, 83:251-254.

4 Lingham-Soliar, T, 2004. Palaeopathology and injury in extinct mosasaurs (Lepidosauromorpha, Squamata) and implications for modern reptiles. Lethaia, 37:255-262.

5 Tucker, ST, Otto, RE, Joeckel, RM and Voorhies, MR, 2014. The geology and paleontology of Ashfall Fossil Beds, a late Miocene (Clarendonian) mass-death assemblage, Antelope County and adjacent Knox County, Nebraska, USA, pp1-22 in Korus, JT (ed), Geologic Field Trips along the Boundary between the Central Lowlands and Great Plains: 2014 Meeting of the GSA North-Central Section. Geological Society of America Field Guide 36.

6 Martin, JE and Bell, Jr, GL, 1995. Abnormal caudal vertebrae of Mosasauridae from Late Cretaceous marine deposits of South Dakota. Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Science, 74:23-27.

7 Rothschild, BM and Martin, L, 1987. Avascular necrosis: occurrence in diving Cretaceous mosasaurs. Science, 236:75-77.

8 Martin, LD and BM Rothschild, 1989. Paleopathology and diving mosasaurs. American Scientist, 77:460-467.

9 Senter, P and Juengst, SL, 2016. Record-breaking pain: the largest number and variety of forelimb bone maladies in a theropod dinosaur. PLoS ONE, 11(2):e0149140.

10 Rothschild, BM, Tanke, D, Hershkovitz, I and Schultz, M, 1998. Mesozoic neoplasia: origins of hemangioma in the Jurassic. Lancet, 351:1862.

11 Rothschild, BM, Witzke, BJ and Hershkovitz, I, 1999. Metastatic cancer in the Jurassic. Lancet, 354:398.

12 Rothschild, BM, 1997. Dinosaurian paleopathology, pp426-448 in Farlow, JO and Brett-Surman, MK (eds), The Complete Dinosaur. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis.

13 Ager, D, 1993. The New Catastrophism: The Importance of the Rare Event in Geological History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

14 Kanamori, H, 1977. The energy release of great earthquakes. Journal of Geophysical Research, 82:2981-2987.

15 Clube, SVM and Napier, WM, 1982. The role of episodic bombardment in geophysics. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 57:251-262.

16 Walker, GPL, 1980. The Taupo pumice: product of the most powerful known (ultraplinian) eruption? Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 8:69-94.

17 Heiken, G, 1979. Pyroclastic flow deposits. American Scientist, 67:564-571.

18 Keller, T, 2008. The Reason for God. Hodder and Stoughton, London, p170.

19 One author, understanding the force of this objection to the old-Earth chronology, has sought to explain the hundreds of millions of years of death, suffering and other ‘natural evils’ before there were humans as the effects of the curse applied retroactively! See Dembski, WA, 2009. The End of Christianity. Broadman and Holman, Nashville, Tennessee.

The laying on of hands (Part 1).

The doctrine of baptisms. (Part 1)

Faith toward God.

We now come to the second truth in the foundational series. Having turned from dead works, that is everything not initiated by God, we are called to a life which looks to God for everything - totally trusting him - for, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb 11:6).

When a person first becomes a Christian he usually has very little knowledge of God or his Son Jesus Christ. The Christian life is a continual exploration of the knowledge of God. Obviously you cannot trust anyone you do not know well, and the more you get to know God the more you can trust him.

Faith toward God develops and grows by us using the means available to us to increase in this knowledge. Daniel the Prophet wrote, “the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits, and those of the people who understand shall instruct many” (Dan 11:32-33, NKJV). Next week we will pursue the means by which we get to know God, but this week let us briefly consider the subject of faith itself.

Faith unto Salvation

In the Bible, faith is spoken of in three main ways. First, what is termed ‘saving faith’, is the initial faith which brings us into relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul puts it this way, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast” (Eph 2:2-3).

Although one can be told the Gospel message which is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16), it is not possible to explain fully what happens when a person believes. Salvation is a miracle and you cannot explain miracles because they are supernatural.

The whole Godhead is operative when a person comes to Christ:

• Father: Jesus said, “No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44).
• Son: God draws us to Christ. The Lord Jesus gives us eternal life. He said. “For you granted him [Jesus] authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him” (John 17:2).
• Holy Spirit: When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he told him that it was the Holy Spirit who brings about the new birth, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:5-6). The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and when we respond to the Gospel message he comes to dwell within us, thus giving us life.

Although we cannot explain it we know that when we responded to the conviction of sin and came to that place where we were ready to turn from sin, believing that Jesus died and rose again and willing to submit to his Lordship, God gave us the faith by which to receive his Son, Jesus. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews describes it as, ‘so great a salvation’.

The Christian life is a continual exploration of the knowledge of God.

Faith by Which to Live

Second, there is faith by which to live. We have seen that when we become a Christian the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, and the “fruit of the Spirit is faith”. Not only is there a God-given faith by which to come to the Lord Jesus, but also a God-given faith to live the Christian life: "the righteous will live by faith".

Our faith is in God, who is the Faithful One. God can be trusted because of the perfection of his character. It is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible for God ever to do one thing which is unrighteous or unfair.

Circumstances can come into our lives which we do not understand and God is not obliged to give us an explanation of everything that happens. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow the words of this law” (Deut 29:29). But even though we sometimes cannot understand, we can be totally confident in the fact that as long as we seek to live in obedience, then “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).

Jeremiah the Prophet, out of his experience of trusting God, proclaimed “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam 3:22-23).

The Bible contains a great many stories which confirm God’s reliability. A few examples are the miracle of the partings of the Red Sea and the River Jordan; the feeding of over two million people each day in a wilderness; the sun standing still in the days of Joshua; the closing of the mouths of lions in the den where Daniel was incarcerated; the miracles of Jesus; his resurrection, and so many more. God will allow or ordain circumstances in all of our lives to show us what a wonderful Father he is and how much he loves and cares for us so that we can fully trust him.

The Gift of Faith

Third, there is what is termed ‘the gift of faith’. This is included in the list Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 12 when he is leaching on the different kinds of gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of faith is a supernatural endowment of faith given by God for some specific circumstance, or need, or event.

This gift was obviously given to Peter and John while they were both going to the Temple after the day of Pentecost. There at the gate was a crippled beggar who asked them for money. Peter said to him, “Look at us…silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk” (Acts 3:11-8).

God will allow or ordain circumstances in all of our lives to show us what a wonderful Father he is and how much he loves and cares for us so that we can fully trust him.

This special gift is sometimes given to initiate some work or mission, such as the establishment of orphanages by George Muller in Bristol; the launching of the China Inland Mission by Hudson Taylor, etc. It can be given by God to remove some mountain, some obstacle. It can be given to you as he sees necessary for some specific purpose or ministry.

The next step is to explore how we can go on to know this wonderful, powerful, loving, just, and faithful God.

Next week: Exercising faith to know God better.

This article is part of a series, first published as a booklet in 1992. It has been edited for online publication. Click here for previous instalments.

Charles Gardner reviews RT Kendall’s new book.

‘Whatever happened to the Gospel?’ is a question I have been asking for some time. And it is now the title of a brilliant new book by much-loved author and preacher RT Kendall, published by Charisma House.

In a very timely expose of the superficiality and error of much of Western Christianity, RT (short for Robert Tillman) attempts to rouse the Church from its slumbers with a passionate wake-up call.

Eternity Matters

Wielding his sharp, perceptive pen with the skill of a writer very much in tune with the Bible’s Author, he shows how the fear of God has been largely lost, with heaven and hell hardly ever mentioned from the pulpit.

John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus, spoke of the “wrath to come” when people flocked from miles around to hear him.

The neglect of preaching on hell, in particular, has lulled generations of believers and would-be Christians into a false sense of security, and to a lack of urgency in proclaiming the Gospel to a dying world.

This is a timely expose of the superficiality and error of much of Western Christianity.

We are too often allowed to bask in the sunshine of our Western comfort and prosperity with teaching about making the most of life in the here-and-now, rather than urgent calls to rescue those in danger of perishing in eternal fire.

After all, RT argues, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” – the words of Jesus himself (John 3:16, my emphasis added). It’s surely a matter of everlasting life or death. The wrath of God is coming upon all ungodliness and wickedness, and the only way of escape is through the blood of Jesus. This is the Gospel – not health and wealth, prosperity, social outreach or even happiness on this earth.

Not Ashamed

It’s a thrilling read – punchy, shocking, beautifully written, honest and full of fascinating anecdotes. The author is not afraid to tell stories against himself; he owns up to having made many mistakes but, as he says, he would stake his life on the truth expounded in this volume.

The Church urgently needs to rediscover the main thing!

I am greatly indebted to friends from London who sent me a copy, but not before travelling across the capital to get RT to sign it. Alongside his signature, he noted down the Bible reference Romans 1:16, which says: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes; first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”

‘Whatever Happened to the Gospel’ (240pp) is available on Amazon and elsewhere online, in paperback, Kindle and audio forms.

Please note that a review from Prophecy Today UK concerns the book only: in no way does it constitute support for official book endorsers such as shown on the image above.

Jews teach the Church what is really important

With anti-Semitism on the rise, and Jews under threat as never before, it is astonishing that the Government is again allowing the staging in London of Sunday’s annual Iranian-backed Al Quds parade.

What sense does it make that, in a country where ‘hate speech’ is supposedly illegal, a march fronted by the Hezbollah terrorist group – committed to the destruction of Israel – is free to spread its poison?

Among the cheerleaders, and one of the speakers down to address the rally, is Rev Stephen Sizer, who has already been severely reprimanded for his anti-Semitic views by his own Church of England.¹

The whole scenario is an absolute disgrace. And yet Israel’s greatest need is not protection! Bear with me as I will explain in due course.

Pentecost: Passé?

You will no doubt have heard talk of how we are now said to be living in a post-Christian era, with British society largely having rejected biblical values of the past. But I also detect a very worrying trend in the Western Church towards a kind of post-Pentecost line of thinking that appears to relegate its teaching as ‘passé’.

As the disciples of the Lord Jesus were empowered on the Day of Pentecost to spread the Gospel throughout the world, giving life to what is now known as the Church, does this mean that the body of Christ is now in its death-throes?

I detect a very worrying trend in the Western Church towards a kind of post-Pentecost line of thinking.

I have just reviewed the most brilliant book I have ever had the pleasure to read – RT Kendall’s Whatever Happened to the Gospel? – and hereby offer this piece as a brief postscript to the much-beloved preacher’s latest volume.

Whatever happened to Pentecost? Many British churches seem to have stopped celebrating the day, or even mentioning it, although it’s much more than a day anyway – it’s an experience. Even Pentecostals and charismatics, who supposedly base much of their theology on this vitally important feast, seem largely to have abandoned it.

The need for believers to be emboldened with power from on high, for which the resurrected Christ commanded his disciples to wait in Jerusalem, is rarely discussed. And we wonder why there is a lack of power in our witness.

The Meaning of Pentecost

The Bible feasts, which include Passover and Pentecost (also known as Shavuot), are meant to be celebrated to remind us of key truths and of God’s great bounty and deliverance. Pentecost comes 50 days (or seven weeks) after Passover, is also known as the Feast of Weeks, and is a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest – specifically wheat, the main ingredient of bread.

Jews also mark the occasion to celebrate the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai. And Jesus, the ‘bread of life’ born in Bethlehem (literally house of bread) is the fulfilment of the Law (Matt 5:17). And thus Pentecost is a fulfilment of Passover. Jesus, who died for our sins of which the Law convicts us (Rom 7:7), sends his Holy Spirit to empower us to keep a Law that is now “written on our hearts” and not just on tablets of stone (Ezek 36:26; Rom 2:15; 2 Cor 3:3), thus enabling us to witness boldly for the Gospel.

And so it was that, on the Day of Pentecost, 3,000 souls were added to the body of believers. We absolutely cannot do without Pentecost. Jesus paid a very high price for it. It cost him everything.

Jews for Jesus

Britain is proud to have produced one of the outstanding preachers of 20^th Century Pentecostalism, Smith Wigglesworth, who was illiterate prior to his conversion and subsequently only ever read the Bible. He took the message of the Gospel around the world and raised 14 people from the dead in the process – a modern-day apostle if ever there was one.

Yet today, Pentecost is largely forgotten and considered almost irrelevant; something of an embarrassment even. To their credit, the Anglicans, who in some ways are leading the march towards apostasy, still hold on to the feast.

The need for believers to be emboldened with power from on high is rarely discussed. And we wonder why there is a lack of power in our witness!

But Jewish believers are doing much more than that. No doubt partly due to their awareness of the festival’s roots going back thousands of years in their history, they are taking Jesus’ words seriously, and literally, as – empowered by the Holy Spirit – they share the good news, beginning in Jerusalem (Acts 1:8).

Jews for Jesus had specifically chosen the feast of Shavuot to preach the Gospel in the streets of Jerusalem, just as the apostles had done 2,000 years ago. And while they are not claiming that 3,000 souls responded, dozens decided to follow Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) as they learnt how he had fulfilled Messianic prophecies in the Tenach (our Old Testament). And hundreds more were willing to discuss his claims to be the Messiah of Israel.

One woman, when reminded of what happened in Jerusalem with Jesus, was shocked, and said: “I need to read those prophecies about the Messiah as soon as possible, because although I always believed in God, I did not know about them.”

The general openness was apparently profound, as I have experienced myself. David Brickner, of Jews for Jesus, wrote in their June update:

Of course, the key to success for those first disciples who began in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago was the power of the Holy Spirit. That is still true for Jews for Jesus and anyone else who wants to do God’s work in His way…I don’t know how much more time we have before the return of the Lord, but just like those first Jews for Jesus, we cannot just stand gazing up into heaven (referring to Jesus’ ascension).

Israel’s Greatest Need

Al Quds rally in Tehran, Friday 8 June. London's counterpart rally is due to be held on Sunday 10 June. See Photo Credits.

Israel is currently surrounded by implacable enemies who have vowed to bring about their annihilation. This is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the target of a recent assassination plot, is warning Theresa May and other European leaders of the danger posed by Iran.

Yet their greatest need is not defence. For God, who brought them back to the Promised Land in fulfilment of ancient prophecies, also plans to restore them to a living relationship with him. And when they are back with their Lord, the Lord will come back to the world (Zech 12:10, 14:4).

Indeed, as Israel comes to know that he (Jesus) is the Lord, the nations too will understand this truth (Ezek 36:23). And none of this would happen without Pentecost.

References

1 Anti-Israel vicar, Stephen Sizer, to speak at London’s pro-Hezbollah Al Quds rally. Christians United for Israel, 4 June 2018.