The Green Captivity of the Church
Most heresies are not outright negations of the truth – they tend to be subtle distortions of it. The Bible does teach us that we are to be stewards of the planet and that we are to care for it. It does tell us that we are to care for the poor and that we are to seek justice. The Bible is not anti-science; indeed modern Western science was largely founded upon a biblical worldview. Therefore, when we are told that ‘The Science’ is settled – that the world is doomed; it’s only ‘one minute to midnight’; Cop26 was the most important meeting in human history; it is the poor who suffer most from climate change; and God commands us to save the planet. Who would not want to get involved? Surely the Christian response is obvious. Indeed, it is because some Christians believe this so fundamentally that I received demands that the heretic should be silenced. To question any of this is deemed to be blasphemy.
Even as I pressed the send button I knew it was a risky moment. And so it proved to be. As soon as the article was published on a Christian website, there were cries of ‘heretic’, ‘he should lose his job’, ‘how unloving and unChristlike’, ‘cancel him’!? What was the crime? What heresy was I expounding? I had dared to suggest that perhaps the Climate Change debate was not over, and there were lots of questions that still had to be answered, and that we should approach the subject with a great deal more humility.
Now please don’t get me wrong. I am not a ‘denier’ and as far as I can see there has been a degree of warming throughout the world and some of that is due to human activity. My concern was just simply to ask three questions: How much? What can realistically be done about it? And why has this been turned into a new doctrine that Christians must accept or be excommunicated from polite Christian society? The purpose of this article is not to put the pros and cons of the scientific, political and social debates. But rather to suggest that the Green movement is in danger of being a Trojan horse to bring in anti-Christian teachings in to the Christian church.
The response to my article confirmed to me something that I have feared for some time – that there is a new doomsday cult in town – the Climate Change cult. I wrote about this a year ago – https://www.christiantoday.com/article/is.there.a.climate.change.cult/134046.htm
But over the past year it has become clear to me that this is not just a cult on the fringes inhabited by a few eccentrics and a host of frightened, indoctrinated young people. This cult has morphed into a fully-fledged religion – complete with its own high priests, child prophets, demands of sacrifice, unquestionable doctrines, and its apocalyptic end times predictions. What is worse is how this particular false religion is capturing, not just the liberal Church (whose normal methodology is just to baptise whatever progressive/regressive ideology is in fashion), but also a great section of the evangelical church. People are writing about their ‘conversion’ to the cause of climate change. There are few evangelical organisations and publishing houses who would dare to question, at least publicly, the current accepted narrative.
You can see why. Most heresies are not outright negations of the truth – they tend to be subtle distortions of it. The Bible does teach us that we are to be stewards of the planet and that we are to care for it. It does tell us that we are to care for the poor and that we are to seek justice. The Bible is not anti-science; indeed modern Western science was largely founded upon a biblical worldview. Therefore, when we are told that ‘The Science’ is settled – that the world is doomed; it’s only ‘one minute to midnight’; Cop26 was the most important meeting in human history; it is the poor who suffer most from climate change; and God commands us to save the planet. Who would not want to get involved? Surely the Christian response is obvious. Indeed, it is because some Christians believe this so fundamentally that I received demands that the heretic should be silenced. To question any of this is deemed to be blasphemy.
There are so many examples as to how much this new religion has become part of the liturgy and doctrine of the church. For example, the Archbishop of Canterbury was forced to apologise last week for suggesting that those who failed to act to limit climate change at Cop26 could be worse than the leaders who ignored the threat of the Nazis in the 1930’s. Hymns are being rewritten to accommodate the new religion. This example by Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gilette from the PCUSA is one of the worst.
ST. DENIO 11.11.11.11 (“Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”)
The climate is changing! Creation cries out!
Your people face flooding and fire and drought.
We see the great heat waves and storms at their worst.
We pray for the poor, Lord — for they suffer first.
We thank you, for leaders, courageous and brave,
who know that the Earth is worth fighting to save,
who care about justice and what they should do,
who listen to science and work hard for you.
Dave Brennan wrote a perceptive and disturbing article about the ‘Gaia’ exhibition currently touring the UK. https://www.christiantoday.com/article/what.is.a.pagan.goddess.doing.in.a.place.of.christian.worship/137680.htm
As he points out this is pagan, godless worship, and it is being imported into churches, all in the name of climate change. There was a time when evangelicals viewed the culture through the eyes of Scripture, now there is an increasing tendency to do the opposite.
But rather than look at things in general let me offer you some examples as a warning from the old Jerusalem of Presbyterianism – my native Scotland.
The Church of Scotland is in freefall – in fact along with the Methodists it is the fastest declining church in the UK.
-
Why was there Darkness Before Jesus Died?
Like in Exodus, Jesus’ death is the place where his people can be saved, knowing that One is sacrificed in their place. Like in Amos, Jesus’ death is where God’s judgement is centred; our sins are poured out on Jesus instead of us. God is the same God in the Old Testament and the New. A God who saves his people who don’t deserve it, and who requires all sin to be paid for.
A series of very strange things happened around the time of the death of Jesus on the cross. While he was hanging on the cross, it became dark like night-time in the middle of the day, from around midday to 3 p.m. (Matt 27:45). That would be incredibly creepy. At the time when the light was usually the brightest, it was darkness instead.
Many have approached this event by trying to work out the way that it could have happened. Maybe it was an eclipse? Well, no. This happened at Passover time, which meant a full moon, so an eclipse was impossible. In any case, a solar eclipse doesn’t lead to darkness for three hours. We’re not told the mechanism that God used to do this. Obviously this doesn’t usually happen and cannot easily be explained, yet we believe that God controls all things and can most certainly do something like this.
The real question to ask is what it means. Why would God do something so odd? Matthew doesn’t stop to explain it; he only reports it. As readers of the gospel, we should be asking if there is anywhere in the Old Testament that might help us understand this. And there is; in fact, with this event, there are two important places to look.The ninth plague in Egypt.
When God was about to save his people from slavery in Egypt, he sent a series of ten plagues on the Egyptians.
Read More
Related Posts: -
Jesus and the Jews – Part I
Until we accept that human free will does not determine who is saved, we will still remain confused about the place of Israel (Romans 9:14-29). More examples follow as Paul cites Law and Prophets – a most basic fact about the God of Sinai is that He was just and right to raise-up and reprobate Pharaoh in order to display His power & glory. His will alone fixes who is mercifully softened and who is justly hardened. Equally, we must embrace the truth that creatures never have any claim or leverage on the Creator.
Interpretation
The proper procedure, in settling this question, is to read obscure OT prophecies in light of clear NT texts of Romans 9-12. What is God’s role for Paul’s genetic kin?
Procedure
What I want to do, in this first blog on the subject, without claiming to be an expert, is to lay down some principles to help find answers to this question.
Principle 1 – We will only find right answers if we have the mind of Christ and unceasing anguish in our heart (Romans 9:1-3).
While the language sounds extreme, Paul didn’t fake or lie – in union with Christ, by the Holy Spirit, he acknowledged his debt to his religious heritage & wished he could be crucified to save His fellow countrymen. In our heart, if we care little for Jews or Greeks, it is highly unlikely we will gain insight into this truth. Confess all indifference to perishing fellow countrymen, disregard for Gospel heritage, and sinful antisemitic views.
Principle 2 – We will only grasp the place of the Jews in the plan of God to the extent we understand the Old Testament history of Israel is part of the unfolding Gospel (Romans 9:4-5)
The call of Abram, election of Israel, Red Sea Crossing, Lawgiving at Mount Sinai, Shekinah Presence, Noah-to-David Covenants, trace the progress of God’s eternal, sovereign, gracious, purpose to save a people for Himself. At no point was this purpose jettisoned or blocked. With every step, the relentless will of God advanced with a momentous, messianic, march to the time of Jesus’ birth.
The mistake of many who consider these things is that they drive a wedge and create a disconnect between Abraham and Noah, Moses and Abraham, and David and Moses – a wedge is inserted which (in their minds) dams up the stream of Gospel grace of God. Light will start to shine to the degree that we observe that, form beginning to end, the Bible is One Book with a single, unified, message from start to finish: Divine Revelation in Redemptive History is a progressive, historical, organic, unfolding of the “Seed Promise of Eden” that was given to Adam (Genesis 3:15), which will only be complete when we eat of the fruit of Revelation’s Tree of Life.
Read More
Related Posts: -
Who is Permitted to Read the Word Publicly to the Congregation in the PCA?
The public reading of Scripture is not a light thing, but a grave exercise of Christ’s authority. Those who read Scripture publicly function as God’s very voice, directly addressing his people through his Word. To say that the reading of Scriptures is not an exercise of the church’s authority would be to suggest that worshipers in the congregation do not need to submit to the Word of God when it is read.
Within the PCA, there is a broad range of practices regarding who is permitted to read Scripture publicly within a worship service.[1] Some PCA churches restrict the public reading of the Word to the minister alone while others permit Christian men to read the Word. Still others allow even women and children to conduct the public reading of Scripture.
The causes for such diverse practices and opinions are not difficult to understand. The indirect answer in WLC #156 (“all are not permitted to read the Word publicly to the congregation”), and the non-binding, unclear statement of BCO 50-2 (“The reading of the Holy Scriptures in the congregation…should be done by the minister or some other person”), have opened the door to wide divergences in the PCA.[2] It is a mistake, however, to act as though Larger Catechism #156 and BCO 50-2 are the only relevant sections for giving our congregations direction about who may read the Word publicly.
In this article, then, I want to plead with fellow presbyters in the PCA to reclaim the biblical and historically Presbyterian understanding that the public reading of Scripture is an exercise of church authority. Accordingly, I will argue that the Scriptures and our constitution give us sufficient clarity about who is, and who is not, permitted to read the Word publicly.
Is the Public Reading of Scripture an Exercise of Authority?
Thankfully, the disagreement in the PCA about reading the Word publicly is not about whether women may exercise authority in the church (1 Tim. 2:12). Instead, the disagreement is about whether we should understand the reading of Scripture as an exercise of church authority. So, the Sessions who authorize women to read the Scriptures publicly may justify their actions by stating that simply to read the Bible publicly is not authoritative in the way that preaching is.
It is somewhat surprising, though, that we often do not consider this question of the public reading of Scripture in the light of a wider understanding of the biblical nature of authority in the church, as set down in the Preliminary Principles of the BCO. Preliminary Principle #7 is especially clarifying: “All church power…is only ministerial and declarative.” That is, within the church, there are only two lawful ways to exercise authority: (1) by ministering God’s word, or (2) by declaring God’s word.
Regarding the declarative aspect of church authority, we believe that the authority of the church does not consist in the power to legislate a new word from the Lord, but that we exercise authority whenever we declare the (old) word of God, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (WSC #2). According to this definition, is the public reading of Scriptures an authoritative declaration of God’s word?
The answer to this question must be a resounding yes. Any time someone reads the Word of God publicly, that person is declaring, “Thus saith the Lord.” Indeed, we should notice the often overlooked (and, to my knowledge, uncontroversial) explanation of the nature of the public reading of Scripture in BCO 50-1: “Through [the public reading of the Holy Scriptures] God speaks most directly to the congregation, even more directly than through the sermon.” To read the Scriptures is to stand as God’s authoritative herald, declaring the word of God—even more directly than during the sermon.
So, Paul exhorts Timothy to devote himself to exhortation and teaching, and also “to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim. 4:13). Then, Paul explains that these things (including the public reading of Scripture) were entrusted to him as a gift at his ordination, “when the council of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Tim. 4:14). Ordination is therefore a conferring of authority for a man to read the Scriptures publicly, among his other duties.
Our authority, then, is only a stewardship of God’s authority, in his Word.
Read More
Related Posts:
