Deep Creek Anglican Church Blog

Over at Parchment & Pen (a blog that often has thought-provoking and informative posts), a recent post comments on hearing the voice of God and specifically Jack Deere’s book of the mid 90s, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit.

I read this book many years ago and have returned to it from time to time.  I have found Deere’s own ‘journey’ somewhat analogous to my own and the book very helpful.

The blog contributor contends:

In that 1996 article, John spoke about the primacy of Scripture, and the principle of semper reformanda:

“The hallmark of an authentic evangelicalism is not the uncritical repetition of old traditions but the willingness to submit every tradition, however ancient, to fresh biblical scrutiny and, if necessary, reform.”

That’s a call that needs to be even more heeded within evangelicalism, 16 years on.

In the same interview, John Stott was asked about biblical preaching having fallen on hard times in many places:

“…the Word of God comes to the people of God mainly, though not exclusively, through preaching. I often envisage on a Sunday morning the amazing spectacle of the people of God converging on their places of worship all over the world. They’re going to medieval cathedrals, to house churches, to the open air. They know that in the course of the worship service there will be a sermon, and it should be a biblical sermon, so that through the Word of God they may grow.

When I enter the pulpit with the Bible in my hands and in my heart, my blood begins to flow and my eyes to sparkle for the sheer glory of having God’s Word to expound. We need to emphasize the glory, the privilege, of sharing God’s truth with people.”

Chapter Five: God’s Written Whispers

We return to Bill Hybels’ The Power of a Whisper after a very busy time at church and some serious family health issues.  Bill begins with a lovely personal story about the Lord speaking into his life from Prov 3:5-6, a passage that I preached on today.

I love the simplicity and clarity of Bill’s advice on reading the Bible:

“The most predictable way to hear from heaven is to read and apply God’s Word.  When you increase your biblical engagement, you increase the odds that you’ll hear from God – that’s as complicated as it gets.”

In this chapter, the reader is taken through some of Bill’s favourite memory verses, arranged topically.  We are given personal illustrations of how many of these verse have been used by the Lord to whisper into Bill’s life.  What stands out is that we must have the truth of God in our hearts and minds and then summons it!  Here is some helpful advice:

“You and I must be so saturated with the Word of God that when we’re caught off-gurd by life’s circumstances, we reflexively hear His wisdom, His nudges, His whispers through His wirds that dwell within us.”

Bill shares about his “saturation reflection” approach to Scripture – for example immersing in Romans 12 for 12 months.  Our author’s advice is to slow down the pace of our Bible reading and listen for God’s voice.  God’s Word will instruct us about God, His character and the life He is calling us to live.

This is an encouraging and motivating chapter on living our lives, listening to the whispers of God through His Word.

Chapter Three: Evidence from Everywhere

Chapter Four: How to Know When You’re Hearing from God

Bill Hybels has challenged Willow Creek’s congregation, over the years, to “live in every circumstance of life with one ear toward heaven.”  And in chapter three of The Power of a Whisper, Bill shares some of those whispers received by his people.  They are catalogued under whispers of assurance, admonition and action.  They are very encouraging stories.  But not simply in a sentimental sense.  But encouraging in the sense of God’s active, present involvement in the lives of His children and His speaking into our lives.

The aim of this third chapter is the “hope that reading these firsthand tales will inspire you to start living “wide open” to God in all areas of your life.”  That’s a worthy aim – get the book and see if you are inspired as well.

But of course when we are dealing with ‘whispers from God’, discernment is essential;.  Bill begins the fourth chapter with a critical question:

“Can divine direction be misunderstood or lost in translation as it makes its way from heaven down to earth?…can human beings make it up or mess it  up once it arrives?”

And from my own experience, the answer is, “Sure can!”  Just like Bill, I am capable of hearing what I wish God were saying rather than what He is actually telling me.  In exploring ‘How to know when you’re hearing from God, our author looks at the account of the sending out of Barnabas and Saul from the church at Antioch (Acts 13:1-3).  Here are some questions that were prompted in my mind:

• Is there too much ambient “noise” in my life, drowning out the whisper of God?
• Am I devoted to hearing from God, and consequently disciplined in creating a space where God’s whispers can be heard?
• How do we carefully test every impression in our minds, to be sure it is from God and aligned with His purposes?

It is responding to this last question that takes up the remainder of the chapter and indeed Appendix 2 of the book: five filters to test every whisper we receive:

1. Is the Prompting Truly from God? ie. is it aligned with God’s character?
2. Is It Scriptural? ie. messages that contradict Scripture are not from God.
3. Is It Wise? Scripture calls us to be wise in all our ways.  We are exploring that in our current Sunday series, Living Wisely.
4. Is It in Tune with Your Own Character? Don’t run headlong into something totally different without a series of whispers, that are well tested.
5. What Do the People You Most Trust Think about It? ie. subject every prompting to the godly counsel test.

Chapter Three is encouraging.  Chapter Four is insightful and wise.  I have sort over the years to apply ‘filters’ so that my discernment of God’s whispers into my life keeps improving.  I found it really helpful to have these five filters clearly presented.

‘Heavenly Father, praise You for Your love in sending the Lord Jesus to die and rise again for this world, including me.  Thank You Lord that in Your love, You continue to speak into my life, directing me, challenging me, comforting me and inspiring me to become more like Jesus and share the Good News with those You bring into the orbit of my life.  Amen.’

Sometimes as I’m reading an article I find myself saying to myself, “Yep, agree with that.  Yep, that too.  Yep….  Wow, how did [xyz] come up with so many wise insights (joke!)?”

That was my experience today as I was reading Deconstructing “evangelicalism” by Roger Olson.  Here are some of the points made by Olson that yielded ‘Yeps’:

• On Sola Scriptura: “evangelicals have always valued the Scripture principle stemming from the Reformation (sola scriptura).  They have interpreted it in many different ways, but it stands at the center of the movement (which is a centered set but not a bounded set).  Yet, many of those promoting this new, narrow, almost idolatrous notion of evangelicalism seem to violate sola scriptura even as they identify it as a boundary of the movement.  They violate it by solidifying tradition and raising it to a level of authority functionally equal with Scripture.”  That gets a big ‘Yep!’
• On Semper Reformanda: “Real affirmation of the Scripture principle manifests in openness to correction of all systems and traditions from Scripture itself.  Where that openness is missing sola scriptura is receiving only lip service at best.“
• On theological boxes: “The great German pietist Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf often said that whoever puts Christianity into a system kills it.  He didn’t mean, of course, that doctrine is bad.  He was a great defender of basic Protestant orthodoxy, but he recognized the grave danger of giving too much importance and power to human systems of thought that imprison the Spirit of God who always transcends our humanly constructed houses of authority.“

Very thought provoking.

If you’ve been following the posts on John Armstrong’s book, your church is too small, it might be helpful to pause for a moment and check our bearings.

Our author began with ‘The Biblical and historical Basis for Christian Unity’ and concluded this opening section with a consideration of the marks of the church (chapter seven).

In the second main part of the book, John focusses on ‘Restoring Unity in the Church Today.’  In so doing, he exposes the unity-destroying disease of sectarianism.  And now we come to the last chapter of this middle section:

Chapter Thirteen: What Place Should We Give to Tradition?

John doesn’t pussy foot around as he begins:

“…unless we retore serious respect for Christian tradition, we are doomed to repeat the myriad of mistakes we have made with regard to unity and mission.”

He notes the disdain that evangelicals often voice for ‘tradition’ (because they pit the spiritual against the historical).  But as John rightly states, “those who dispense with tradition always create new traditions.”  And how right that is!!  I grow up in Christian Brethren assemblies (whose leaders often commented that, ‘We’re not a denomination.  We simply meet together like the first Christians.  We’re not into church traditions.’).  But long before your 10th birthday, and long, long before even knowing the definition of ‘tradition’, you saw its evidence every Sunday at the Breaking of the Bread.  Very precise protocols (words and actions) for ‘open worship’ and the Lord’s Supper.

John notes all three expressions of Christianity rely on tradition.  He notes that the Protestant Reformers “argued that final authority was found in the Scripture, but they lived in profound historical continuity with the apostles, prophets and early church fathers.”

The comments on Scripture and tradition in the chapter are worth much consideration.  Our author strongly affirms that Scripture plays the major role in the faith and practice of vital Christianity.  However some approaches to exegesis (with its “right rules of grammar and logic”) become a new ‘religious order’ and in fact feed sectarianism.

John appeals for the Church to listen more  to the ancient church (“the early church writers were closer to the apostles and the development of the New Testament than we are“).  He approvingly cites Thomas Oden  who has “underscored our need for a postdenominational, flexible, and deeply rooted ancient faith…“.

Our author concludes with a challenge to evangelicals – don’t see tradition as the enemy.  Indeed an antitradition perspective encourages schism, leading to a “small view of the church and a big view of our own importance.”

Does our writer see any light?  Certainly.

“Thankfully, many are waking up to the tragedy of this false individualism and are wisely looking for help from the three great classical traditions and the scores of ancient writers who feed their hunger.”

“Jesus Christ is the gravitational pull that brings everything together and gives it meaning.  Without Him, all things lose their value.”

That’s how our Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola begin Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ.  We’re going to journey with them in their exploration of one Person – Jesus Christ.

Listen to the goal of Jesus Manifesto:

“We hope to present our Lord to you in such a way that you cannot help but love Him, that you cannot help but fall at His feet and give Him your undying devotion – not out of guilt, duty, obligation, or fear, but because your heart has been captured by a glimpse of the greatest person this world has ever known, Jesus Christ.  Out of such love flows everything else.”

Chapter One: The Occupation of All Things

This is a power packed opening chapter.  My posts are to encourage you to read Jesus Manifesto – not to be a substitute.

Who is the focus of this book, this chapter, the Father and Holy Spirit, the angelic hosts, the creation, the Bible? JESUS!  Here is a sampling:

• when God expresses Himself, it is Christ
• Christ is the only thing that the Spirit reveals
• all of the holy angelic hosts live to worship and serve the Lord Jesus
• the whole created order was created by, in, through, and for Christ – and it waits for deliverance from the bondage of corruption and to be filled with Jesus’ ‘infinite sweetness’
• the Old Testament Scriptures should be understood in the light of Jesus Christ
• the New Testament writers were completely consumed with Christ.

Jesus is the God of the whole show – the centre, corners and edges.  And therefore the practical implications of His supremacy know no bounds, viz:

• we will naturally and consistently speak about Him – Jesus will be our chief occupation
• we will always show Him from the pages of Scripture
• nothing is worth pursuing outside of Christ

The concluding words of this opening presentation on the magnificence of Jesus are very challenging:

“A spellbinding apprehension of Jesus by our hearts wipes everything else off the table.  Jesus bests all things.  He dwarfs every competitor.  Concisely, a person who is fully occupied with Christ, who knows Him well, and who is in touch with Him through daily fellowship can boldly say, “Christ is all I need.  you can strip everything else away from me, and I would still be left with Christ….”

Philip Payne’s Man and Woman, One in Christ is, I believe, the most comprehensive treatment of Pauline texts in relation to men and women in the life of the church.  The reader will benefit from a steady and close reading of each of the twenty five chapters with their Bible open.  The interaction with the Greek text may be off putting for some readers, but there is ample explanation for those not acquainted with Greek grammar and differences in manuscripts.

Clearly the matter of women’s roles in the Church has become a most contentious issue, particularly in the last few decades.  In my own journey, it was my wrestling with Scripture that gradually moved me from a complementarian position (that I grew up with) to an equality of men and women, in all respects, including public ministry in the Church.

As I read and studied, pondered and prayed about ‘women’s ministry’, I:

• noted numerous instances of sloppy exegesis by proponents on both sides of the debate;
• became increasingly concerned that this matter has become, in some quarters, to be a prominent test of orthodoxy;
• reflected back on my own experience of growing up in complementarian churches, where a whole set of man-made rules, about what women could and could not do in public ministry (that bore simply zero connection with Scripture), were the accepted doctrinal infrastructure.  Interestingly, in churches that spoke loud and often about the authority of Scripture;
• recognised that in our frailty, the struggle to live out sola Scriptura and semper reformanda is very real.

Philip Payne has made an enormous contribution to this tragically contentious issue in the Church. How significant will it be in bringing greater unity on this issue?  I’m not overly confident, if the concluding words in Tom Schreiner’s review of the book in the April edition of Themelios are anything to go by:

“Most of what [Philip Payne] says is not new, and his egalitarian readings are unpersuasive. Surely he will convince some, for many in our culture today ardently desire egalitarianism to be true. But it will not hit the scholarly world like an avalanche. It is closer to being another drizzly day in Portland, Oregon.”

Wow!!  I do trust that Philip Payne finds his encouragement in Christ and not in book reviews!

The Holy Spirit speaks only truth and God does not contradict Himself.  The complementarian and egalitarian readings of Scripture cannot both be correct.  The challenge for all followers of Jesus is to roll-up our ‘Bible reading shirt sleeves’ and seek to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying, notwithstanding the baggage that we all bring to biblical interpretation.

The full list of my posts on Man and Woman, One in Christ are:

Introduction

Chapter One: Backgrounds to Paul’s Teaching Regarding Man and Woman

Chapter Two: Women Paul Names as Ministry Leaders

Chapter Three: Paul’s Theological Axioms Imply the Equality of Man and Woman

Chapter Four: Galations 3:28: Man and Woman: One in Christ

Chapter Five: 1 Corinthians 7: The Equal Rights of Man and Woman in Marriage

Chapters Six and Seven: 1 Cor 11:2-3

Chapters Eight and Nine: 1 Cor 11:4-6

Chapters Ten to Thirteen: 1 Cor 11:7-16

Chapter Fourteen: 1 Cor 14:34-35

Chapter Fifteen: Eph 5:21-33

Chapter Sixteen: 1 Tim 2:8-15 Introduction

Chapters Seventeen to Nineteen: 1 Tim 2:8-12

Chapter Twenty: 1 Tim 2:12 on ‘assume authority’

Chapter Twenty One: 1 Tim 2:13-14

Chapter Twenty Two: 1 Tim 2:15

Chapter Twenty Three: 1 Tim 2:8-15 Conclusion

Chapter Twenty Four: 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9: May Women be Overseers and Deacons?

Chapter Twenty Five: Conclusion: Paul Consistently Champions the Equality of Man and Woman in Christ

“The evangelical view of Scripture is that the sixty-six books of the Protestant Canon have been recognised to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore inerrant.  The Old and New Testaments attest to their own inspiration, and evangelicals believe the Bible’s testimony about itself to be self-authenticating.  We seek to be those whom God himself describes, “this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isa 66:2).”"

So ends Jim Hamilton is his essay, Still Sola Scriptura: An Evangelical View of Scripture in The Sacred Text, edited by Michael Bird and Michael Pahl.  Hamilton’s contribution is excellent and worth reading – even if you’re not into footnotes!