Are you a Cultural Christian?

The phrase ‘Cultural Christian’ is a fairly new kid on the block. What does it mean?

It may be surprising to learn that atheist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, now describes himself as a Cultural Christian.

In fact, according to Justin Brierley (author of The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God) many of the former members of New Atheism as championed by biologist Dawkins, philosopher Daniel C. Dennet, neuroscientist Sam Harris, and journalist Christopher Hitchens, in abandoning the New Atheism movement, have reassessed their antagonism towards Christianity and its positive historical influence in forming Western societies.

Decline of New Atheism

Like Dawkins, historian Tom Holland has acknowledged that the message of Christianity has shaped our thinking, values, and ethics over many centuries ‘I began to realize that actually, in almost every way, I am Christian’.

Equally, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who had rejected her Islamic faith and embraced atheism now says:

‘Tom Holland has shown in his marvellous book Dominion, all sorts of apparently secular freedoms — of the market, of conscience and of the press — find their roots in Christianity. And so I have come to realise that Russell and my atheist friends failed to see the wood for the trees. The wood is the civilisation built on the Judeo-Christian tradition; it is the story of the West, warts and all.’

Follow the link if you would like to see a debate between Richard Dawkins and Ayaan Ali (31) Richard Dawkins vs Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The God Debate - YouTube

By describing himself as a Cultural Christian has Dawkins rejected his atheism?

No. He is not claiming to be a Christian believer. But he is willing to acknowledge that a significant influence on his values, sense of right and wrong, morals, and ethics are derived, not from scientific atheism or his independent powers of reason but inherited from the impact of being marinaded in the New Testament gospels and epistles in England and elsewhere for many centuries.

Whereas Tom Holland’s re-evaluation of Christianity has led him back to actual faith in Christ, not so with Richard Dawkins:

‘Presumably what happened to Jesus was what happens to all of us when we die. We decompose. Accounts of Jesus's resurrection and ascension are about as well-documented as Jack and the Beanstalk’

(This, of course, would have been my own position before I examined the evidence that Dawkins distances himself from, claiming it doesn’t exist).

The question that emerges from the ‘splintering’ of the new atheists and the acceptance of the label ‘Cultural Christianity’ from various commentators like Dawkins, is ‘What is the difference between a Cultural Christian and a Christian believer?

For evangelical Christians, the answer may be as straightforward as differentiating between Jupiter and Mars, Sibelius and Sinatra, or cats and dogs. In evangelical terms unless and until someone has made a conscious decision to ‘leave their nets to follow Christ’ (whatever that might look like for each individual) and profess their faith in Jesus risen from the dead, they are not ‘born again’, not ‘saved’, not part of the church, and therefore, not a Christian.

For those who have a more sacramental view, the grace of God is at work in someone’s life by participating in rituals such as infant baptism or communion/Mass, whether or not they have a ‘conversion’ experience dividing their non-Christian past from their Christian future.

Let us consider these words of Jesus:

‘He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me…and whoever gives one of these little ones a glass of water… will not lose his reward’ Matt 10v40, 42

Am I blurring the lines?

I think I am, but only because of Jesus’s words in this verse and similar verses. The bible asserts that God looks on the heart. If so, only God can know what ‘receiving Christ’ looks like in each individual. And only God can truly know if a human heart is set in stone against His Son, Jesus Christ, and will not submit to His Lordship.

I have asked groups of Christians how many had a ‘conversion experience’ and can pinpoint the place and the time when they left their nets to follow Christ, and how many had more of a dimmer-switch experience and cannot pinpoint a moment of decision, but the reality of Christ dawned on them over time. The ratio has always been 50:50.

My own experience is that I can pinpoint the moment. It was as I opened my mouth to say the Creed during an otherwise unremarkable CoE Series 3 Communion service, at All Saints, Whitstable on Sunday 11th January 1976. And, because the liturgy is so precise, that must have been at approximately 10.50 in the morning!

On reflection though, can I really say that this moment divides time into two halves? The first time I can remember wanting to follow Christ was in 1964, twelve years before…aged 6…during a school assembly when the gospel story of the disciples leaving their nets to follow Christ. In my 6-year-old self, I was ready to do just that!

What is the difference between a Cultural Christian and a Christian believer?

In the intervening years, I absorbed the commonly held agnosticism of the times, but what I knew of the New Testament was still creating questions that I only found answers to many years later.

So I cannot tell you, from Christ’s perspective, when He captured me and won my heart and allegiance; maybe it was long before I capitulated consciously to Him.

Possibly the most dramatic conversion story still known as a Damascus road conversion (or Damascene conversion as some say it) – is of the Pharisee Saul - later known as St Paul. Surely this is evidence enough that life can be divided into two halves? But note carefully what Jesus said to Paul:

‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads’ Acts 9v5

Despite his implacable opposition to the gospel, and believers his opposition was hurting him; he was ‘kicking against the goads’. Each campaign, each arrest, or murder was like kicking a cactus thorn. A process was going on in his deepest being, possibly unknown to Saul, certainly resisted by him. Eventually, though, it was decision time. Over the following days, blinded in his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, and in a terrible state staying in Damascus, and with Ananias preaching to him, Saul came to a moment of decision. This is what the New Testament records:

‘He arose and was baptised’ Acts 9v18

Later he would testify that God had called him from the womb to be an apostle. When he looked back, he saw how God had been at work in his life bringing him to the point of decision and baptism.

In conclusion, we can be certain about two things:

• We cannot see what is going on in the hearts of those around us with respect to their relationship to Christ

• Whether someone calls themselves a cultural Christian or not, at the point of decision, no one can remain on the fence…for long.

The phrase ‘Cultural Christian’ is a fairly new catchphrase that many others apart from Professor Dawkins may start to use. But it can only be a holding position. Eventually, Cultural Christians will have to make up their minds about the resurrection; and ‘leave everything to follow Him’ and confess that Jesus is Lord, or take the awesome decision to refuse Christ.

Caught Unawares

Everything was in the right place:

That morning blind routine

Requiring minimal conscious thought

I mean, the toothbrush and paste

We’re waiting, parked neatly - check

Second finger found the kettle switch – no problem

Fridge door opens, chilly jam and marmalade jars

Casually thrown up with right hand and caught in the left

No milk, no matter

Shoes on, front door unlocked

It’s a two minute walk shuffling through the autumnal leaf shower

A comforting orange red stillness

So quiet as if the pavements have stopped breathing

Or the trees have witnessed a rapture

I press on, disregarding the silence

There’s the shop, lights on

Checking my jacket pocket for the wallet I occasionally forget

I extend my hand to the door

It doesn’t open

It is difficult to convey just how deep

Is the shockwave that is travelling

In and out of my mind, my grip on normality,

Like some untold tide

For twenty years, maybe twice a week

The door, often left slightly open, yielded

But not this early unassuming Friday morning

I push again, my brain and my sense disconnecting

Cleaving into non-identical twins: wisdom and will

The one locked into a fierce debate with the other

One, calm, the other incapable of reading the runes

As ever committed to hopeless causes trying the handle once more

It is then that I’m shaken awake

The lesson once again makes me laugh quietly

As I turn, no milk in hand

And kick the leaves into another random pattern

Knowing again there is no right place

For things to be held

Like time itself, caught unawares

In it own spider’s web

Awaiting an unknowable fate:

The order of things is to be shaken

Before the final things to come

Yes, it’s good to be reminded

And walk back to where the cup of black tea

Is calling forlornly for what is missing

Mid-Life Crisis?

If one of those warning lights starts blinking red on your car dashboard – what do you do? No, no, you misunderstand me, what DO you do?

Tiddly squat.

Your brain goes into impressive overdrive (note the continued metaphor) and creates several alternative explanations for the flashing light or strategies to deal with it. Number One is to lean slightly to the right to obscure the light – best not to be distracted whilst driving. Number Two is to congratulate the car in its old age, at least something is still working and drive on. Number three is an unconvincing risk assessment – ‘I’ll deal with it if it doesn’t sort itself out by next Thursday’.

Wisdom is silenced in favour of procrastination and procrastination is the infant born from a life organised around certain priorities that have erected a No Entry sign to any uninvited interruptions – including illness, burst water pipes, redundancy, marital problems, or…lack of oil and impending disaster: RAC tow to the nearest garage, overnight hotel, a big dent in bank balance, the wrath of boss, wife/husband, and child who needed a lift to the school concert, and the time-wasting frustration of appealing against the yellow parking ticket affixed to the windscreen.

Following in its wake is a diet of humble pie, three per day for at least a fortnight until some hidden timetable of shame and defeat has done its work and you are helpless with laughter at the ridiculousness of life…and you realise, again, that it’s back to the drawing board. A personal MOT is overdue.

Of course, there are deeper mid-life crises that pay a visit. Ones that threaten to crush its victim beyond repair and others that make long-Covid appear to be a walk in the park.

Back to the question – what DO you do?

Other reactions that do lean towards wisdom rather than outright foolishness include taking a surreptitious peak at self-help articles online or in ‘that section’ in Waterstones. Or, maybe, you will take up that offer from your boss for a well-being introductory day with work-based counselling as a further option.

Somewhere in the back of your brain is not even a memory, more an impression that, in the past, you might have talked things over with a Vicar or Priest. And what does that word ‘spiritual’ really mean anyway? All you know is that the panic attacks at 3am are highly unpleasant, recurring nightmares are increasing in frequency, you’re intimidated by even the thought of doing a presentation at work, and you can barely look at the ones you love in the eye because you fear choking on tears for no apparent reason. And you feel guilty about several recent decisions you’ve taken that fell below the moral standards that you hold others to. Nothing major, but you’ve taken your eye off the ball, ignored your conscience, and taken some shortcuts…your moral compass hasn’t pointed north for some time, so you’ve tidied it away. It’s the flashing warning light all over again. What do you do?

taking a surreptitious peak at self-help articles online or in ‘that section’ in Waterstones

You can fool most of the people most of the time but someone you’ve known, not one of your inner circle of friends, has come up to you recently and asked with a piercing but understanding look: ‘Are you OK, Geoff?’ or ‘Are you OK, Hannah?’ and your hesitation says more than whatever words tumble forth from your lips.

Why am I writing this?

You might surmise that this is autobiographical. Not quite, although I do have this t-shirt. Nor is this article one of those ‘anti-psychobabble’ critiques of counselling – I’m currently about 12 counselling sessions into meeting with a therapist. No. This line of thought was set off by reading about two kings in the bible – namely Hezekiah and Josiah.

Let’s get to it. And, maybe along the way, we might figure out what the word ‘spiritual’ means. Maybe.

King Hezekiah

b. 741BC – ascended to the throne aged 25 in 716BC and died aged 54 in 687BC having reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years.

The account of his political and military exploits is written in 2 Kings chapters 18-20 and 2 Chronicles 29-32. During his reign, Isaiah and Micah prophesied to the Kingdom of Judah.

For us, the important point in Hezekiah’s life came 14 years into his reign when he was 39, a good age for a mid-life crisis.

Despite his great success in pushing through fundamental spiritual reforms, removing idol worship, and returning Israel to the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he has fallen gravely ill. So ill that Isaiah the prophet tells him to put his house in order and prepare to die.

Hezekiah’s response to this mid-life crisis was to pray. As a result of his pleading. God sends Isaiah back to announce that his life would be extended by 15 years. He had reigned for fourteen years, and now his life would be extended by fifteen…you can’t get much more ‘mid’ than that.

Not all mid-life crises have a happy ending; this one included. Initially, you might imagine that Hezekiah, brought so low by his illness, was taken spiritually to ground zero. His own powerlessness was evident to him, and the source of all his help, past, present, and future, lay beyond his human abilities, wealth, or political clout, it lay in God. There was nowhere else to turn. The doctors had failed, his counsellors’ advice could not touch his personal crisis, and even the prophet Isaiah had said ‘time’s up’.

Hezekiah, however, humbled himself, and called out to God. It saved his life and proved to be such a turning point. The biblical account sheds light on Hezekiah’s state of mind:

‘..his heart was lifted up…made for himself treasuries of gold…’ 2 Chron 32 v 25, 27

‘Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart…’ 2 Chron 32v26

Despite this experience of humility, being blessed, and having his life extended by God, in his heart he turned it around so that it became a boast. He made the fatal mistake of showing ‘his’ riches to the Babylonian envoys and failed to acknowledge the Lord as the source of his blessing and riches.

During the latter half of Hezekiah’s reign, his son Manasseh was born who witnessed his father’s spiritual decline and how his pride and love of riches had consumed him. Perhaps it was the effect of the spiritual tide retreating in his father that bred in him a desire to lead Israel differently, away from the Lord, and to commit idolatry? Hezekiah started well but finished poorly, Manasseh started badly but repented and finished well (2 Chron 33 v 1-20)

King Josiah

‘b. 648BC – ascended the throne aged 8 in 640BC and died aged 39 in 609BC having reigned in Jerusalem for 31 years.

The account of his political and military exploits is written in 2 Kings chapters 22-23 and in 2 Chronicles 34-35. During his reign, Zephaniah and Jeremiah prophesied to the Kingdom of Judah.

For us, the mid-reign crisis in Hezekiah’s life came after 18 years into his reign when he was 26 after which he would reign for a further 13 years.

Josiah’s personal history and his spirituality are very different from his great-grandfather, Hezekiah’s, whom he had never met having been born nearly 40 years after Hezekiah died. From the outset, aged 8, his reign was saturated in doing right and reintroducing the worship of the Lord to Israel:

‘In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David…’ 2 Chron 34 v 3.

He was sixteen years old.

‘In the eighteenth year of his reign…he sent Shaphan to repair the house of the Lord…’ 2Chron 34 v 8

He is now 26. The crisis comes when Hilkiah finds the Book of the Law in the temple and hands it to Shaphan who takes it to the King:

‘And Shaphan read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the Law he tore his clothes’ v19

He is crushed by a sense of fear and grief. He realises, not only that Israel has often disobeyed the Lord who brought them out of Egypt, gave them the Law, and promised to be their God, but that the penalty for disobedience would be the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and exile…the wrath of the Lord.

What does he do?

‘Then the king commanded Hilkiah…(and)…Shaphan’ v 21 to enquire of the Lord. They find a prophetess, Huldah who reveals the will of the Lord:

‘Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself…your eyes will not see the calamity I will bring on this place’ v 27,28

In the space of one year following this crisis and the word of the Lord, Josiah instituted a complete overhaul of Israel’s worship and reintroduced Passover v19.

So much good came out of this period and yet, like Hezekiah, it can be argued that the final 13 years of his reign were spent in spiritual decline culminating in disobeying the word of the Lord through Necho the commander of the Egyptian army, entering the battle, and suffering fatal injuries.

His son, Jehoahaz, was 23 when his father died. He was born when Josiah had begun to seek the Lord aged 16 and grew up witnessing his father’s reforming zeal. But his reign was short-lived, lasting all but three months before Necho replaced him with Jehoiakim, his brother.

What can we learn from these two mid-life crisis experiences?

1. Seemingly, crises arise out of the blue and impending disaster looms large

2. We are forced to realise that many things are beyond our strength to put right

3. In our humiliation we may have to face the truth of our complicity in their arrival

4. Hezekiah and Josiah did what a lot of people do…they cried out to God, they prayed

5. In both cases, God responded to their prayers, their prayers and petitions were heard

6. Spiritual turnarounds, however, can be repackaged. True statements such as ‘this happened when I prayed’ shifts the emphasis towards the pray-er rather than the Lord who answered the prayer. That is spiritual pride.

I may be wrong about Josiah’s final 13 years, the second half of his reign. I hope so. As noted previously, the biblical account records the Lord saying:

‘Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself…’

During a crisis, once we’ve poured out our turmoil, complaints, grief, anger, and our pleading to God we must arrive at a place of peace, and exhaustion, and make sure our heart is ‘tender’.

This is exactly what happened to the Prodigal son (Luke 15)

In a foreign land far away from home his moment of crisis arrives. In the mind of the prodigal, it’s financial; he’s run out of money and cannot support his lavish lifestyle. In addition, his fiscal downturn coincides with a country-wide famine. His only option is to become a slave to a pig farmer whose priority, under pressure himself due to the famine, is to feed the pigs, not his slaves.

So, like Hezekiah and Josiah, he cries out. It is a parable, by the way, not history. It’s easy to forget. In the parable he ‘comes to his senses’. Somehow, in the middle of this disorientating period of his life, he manages to clear his head. Without that, we are lost, doomed to become victims, powerless in the face of events that threaten to overwhelm us.

From this point on the road to recovery is sweet.

But, like all good storytellers, Jesus leaves the story unfinished…on a cliff edge. The party’s over, the initial rush of emotion, of lavish forgiveness, has subsided. The servants have gone to bed nursing hangovers and the father who has overeaten for joy, falls asleep. At 3am, we can only imagine where the older son has taken himself, to some sleazy bar downtown, rehearsing his bitterness and wondering where it all went wrong.

The point of the mid-life crisis story is the necessity to cultivate a tender heart, not harbour resentment, selfishness, or pride.

How does the parable continue? The father: did he keep his heart tender? Or did the bitterness of his eldest son infect him and pollute his joy over the one who was lost and is found, was dead and is alive? Did the prodigal maintain his tender heart towards his father – and his brother? And what of the older brother? Now in a mid-life crisis of his own making. Will he in his rage come to his senses and find a way to revisit all the wrong-thinking that had spoiled his relationship with his father over many years?

As a Christian, at this point, it is tempting to say what we should do in a mid-life crisis is turn to God. I do believe this is ultimately what we have to do, face to face with no other alternative than relying solely upon ourselves, but that’s not quite the message of this discussion.

I may be wrong about Josiah’s final 13 years, the second half of his reign. I hope so.

The main message is that maintaining a tender heart is the key to recovery. To forgive others, and to forgive yourself. To thaw whatever is frozen. To melt, to soften anything that has become hard and inflexible. To rediscover what it is to be a child with no power to provide for him or herself and yet trust that love cannot be destroyed. If we can do these things, no one needs to preach the gospel, or advertise God, He has already made Himself known to you.

You now understand how Jesus on the cross was able to say: ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do’.

If it is true what Jesus said about himself, ‘I have the power to lay down my life and to take it up again’, all the more remarkable it is that he did not exercise that power but made himself powerless, submitting himself to the ignominy of a false trial, a near-fatal flogging, the king of kings made to wear of crown of thorns, and then to be crucified outside the city he had wept over.

Suffering injustice and rejection, somehow, he maintained a tender heart: ‘Father forgive them, they know not what they do’. Arriving at this point we understand that God hears the cries of our hearts and that our cries are mingled in with Jesus’ final prayer. We have found that the source of our forgiveness is not out of reach.

And, if so, you know the true meaning of the word spiritual.

And you found out because you didn’t or couldn’t ignore the red flashing warning lights any longer.

Book Review: Phoebe – A Story, Paula Gooder, Hodder & Stoughton

‘One day, Quintus, a cousin of Titus arrived at the house…Titus was attractive in a kind, homely way…Quintus was devastatingly handsome…’

In Paula’s fictional account of life in the church in Rome during the New Testament era, we are introduced to well-known characters from the pages of Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s letters such as Priscilla (shortened to Prisca) and Aquila, Junia and Andronicus, Titus, Phobe herself, and Peter. And others.

Phoebe – A Story is based on three speculative interpretations from Paul’s letter to Romans:

• Paul had commissioned Phoebe (Rom 16v1) to carry his letter to Rome, explain its meaning to the believers there, and prepare for Paul’s hoped-for mission to Spain.

• Junia (female) and Andronicus (male) were apostles

• The evident tension between Jewish believers and their Gentile brothers and sisters in Rome had more to do with Jewish covenantal status than the Law – a nod to New Perspective theology

Whilst the heart of Phoebe is, as its sub-title, A Story, suggests, a story and reads as an engaging imaginative description of life in Rome and is very ably enhanced by the historical research of first-century Roman society, the above three assumptions form the guiding principles that govern the arc of the story.

It is, therefore, a feminist historical fiction, not only weaving a story around hermeneutical interpretations of New Testament literature but also promoting well-argued feminist contentions that all offices and ministries in the church should be occupied equally by men and women.

Phoebe herself turns out to be a far more complex character – with slavery, a dangerous romance, and tragedy all thrown in

Leaving issues of biblical interpretation on one side, the personalities of the principal characters are well-described and engaging. Phoebe herself turns out to be a far more complex character – with slavery, a dangerous romance, and tragedy all thrown in - than the one verse in Paul’s letter has the scope to describe. Paula does this very well and the various tensions that ensue give the book its very readable momentum.

So…if you want to let yourself be absorbed in the simplicity of life in first-century Rome just before Nero’s reign, this is an excellent starting point.

And, if you’re after a book to fire your imagination, dulled after years of over-familiarity with the New Testament, Paula Gooder’s Phoebe will do just that.

Did Paul arrive in Rome? What happened to the trip to Spain? You may find the answers lying within Phoebe – A Story.

PS

Part 2 of the book contains 80 pages of helpful notes on each chapter giving more historical and biblical background

A Tale of Two Pubs

These two pubs, unpaired
Not by compass and meridians
But by a subterranean,
Inexpressible knowing,
Where words are crude
Instruments failing to
Distinguish differing
Smiles of satisfaction

On a Saturday, for lunch,
Lynch and I and others
Traipse through slate-grey
Winter wind and drizzle
Like intent pilgrims
Discomforts disdained
To the Ruby Lounge
A meeting place for toothless old men

The real Ruby Lounge was far rougher and more dilapidated

And us, barely shaving
But young and old shuffle their way
Across the sawdust-strewn floor
To an altar rail, for communion
The priest, taking our offerings
Clasped with tattooed hands the tap
And poured forth the weekly libation
A pint of Youngs

Eyes meet, publican priest
With his latest converts,
Silenced initiates,
Their inexperienced hands
Still tracing the bevels
Of their fathers’ jugs
Embarrassed to show
Too much satisfaction

Smiles concealed,
We return,
Across the sawdust
To the wobbly table
Sticky with yesterday’s beer
And spoil the moment with
Mundane talk of Monty Python
And Parmesan cheese on toast

Maybe a bath and some spray later
And a trench coat if cold and dark
A collection of poorly paid pilgrims
Stomping their feet against the cold
Nudge away from minor village roads
To find the path across fields
Illuminated by a watching moon
Towards the waiting lights

Sadly, the Share & Coulter in no more…this pub has a similar feel if a bit busier

The Share and Coulter
There, eight animated souls,
Bums on wooden seats
With tied-on cushions,
A polished table and dry beer mats,
And a roaring fire just beyond…
Clueless to how daringly close
To heaven they’ve come, huddle

Pictures of long-dead Shires
And their barrelled drays
Looking on from the walls
Witness my blaspheming
And Christ’s secret agent asking
‘Why did you say that?’
Unseen angels lean in
Licking their lips

The Moon is Watching

This last week
The Moon has perched herself
Above the fir tree opposite
Tapping me on the shoulder
Each morning
So I don’t forget
To say Good Morning

The moon perched above the fir tree opposite

Normally the Moon stays hidden
And like some nocturnal beast
Shyly puts on her cloak
Of misty white light
Before perching -
Up there

But this Moon
Maybe a different one
Is a breakfast feast
A pre-running sight
Been waiting
With some impatience
For someone to see her
Importance, significance

Like the Christmas story
But unlike the Magi
With their Eastern wisdom
My mind is blank…
If there is a baby in the fir tree
It would seem untimely
Unlikely…

As if she hears my absence
She turns, flees, and fades
But has one last trick
As she sinks and sinks
What was a bright sixpence in the sky
Is now a translucent sovereign
Her reign extending ever larger
Just beyond the horizon

Objection 3: Hypocrisy, irrelevance, immorality within the church Objection 4: Impossible to be good enough

Objection 3: Hypocrisy

When I began to read the bible, I was astonished to find that virtually all its heroes were visibly flawed.

The willingness of the authors of holy writ to report the truth, warts and all, gave me, as an agnostic, greater confidence and a new respect for the bible: Abraham pretended his wife was his sister, Moses committed murder, David – adultery and murder, Peter denied Christ, and Judas betrayed him.

And in the church era, following the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the letters of Paul, Peter, and John all tackle issues of ‘sin’ within the church, for example, sexual immorality in the church at Corinth, antisemitism in Rome, or pride, as John confronts Diotrephes: ‘Diotrephes who loves the pre-eminence’. Peter wrote

‘Laying aside all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking…’

For Peter to need to write this, these faults must have been evident in the church. It was real life. Peter was far from immune from the charge of hypocrisy; it needed Paul to call him back from differentiating too strongly between Jewish and gentile believers that he only ate with his fellow Jewish brethren.

In the past few years, news of sexual immorality amongst Christian leaders entrusted with the welfare of their congregations and followers, has surfaced once again causing hurt and sadness amongst the faithful – and further evidence for objecting to Christianity for those looking for reasons to dismiss the claims of Jesus.

But the more I investigated Christianity, the more I saw that, while coming to Christ does not make anyone instantly perfect, the overwhelming evidence from the vast majority of Christians is that conversion to Christ had been the start of a process, or discipleship, in which - despite serious setbacks at times – keeps changing the person, for the better.

The leader of the Mau Mau gang in New York, Israel Narvaez, was converted to Christ along with Nicky Cruz. Sadly, through a broken promise, Israel became disillusioned, returned to lead the Mau Mau’s, and was found guilty of committing murder. Several years later, however, he returned to follow Christ and wrote his account in Second Chance, finally leaving behind his violent lifestyle.

Jesus led a faultless life…that is why we are drawn to Him

The extraordinary eyewitness claim of the New Testament is that Jesus led a faultless life. In part, that is why we are drawn to Him. He is the light in a dark place and embodies the ideal – he really did practice what he preached. Whenever someone comes to Christ, they are very aware of their imperfections: fears, jealousies, dishonesty, misplaced anger, pride, and their need for forgiveness so that any barrier between them and Christ is dealt with.

Christ’s death on the cross was substitutionary, He died for us, in our place, taking the punishment we deserved in Himself to bring about our forgiveness so that we could be brought back into relationship with God. His final prayer on the cross was ‘Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing’.

That’s the start. Paul wrote:

‘He who began a good work in you will bring it to maturity’

At times God will reveal to us if we have strayed onto the wrong path and we need to take Peter’s instruction to ‘lay aside’ whatever it is that is wrong, however trivial or serious.

The way in which Jesus dealt with Peter’s denial of him is a masterpiece of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and kindness. Mark’s gospel records Peter’s denial:

‘…he began to curse and swear “I don’t know this man!”’

The rough fisherman, not the disciple of Christ was there for everyone to see, including Christ.

‘And the Lord turned and looked at Peter…Peter went out and wept bitterly’.

Jesus did not even mention this just after the resurrection, nor for many days after that, until, back in Galilee, Jesus appeared on the beach. Peter and some of the disciples were returning after another night’s fruitless fishing. As before there was a miraculous catch of fish. After breakfast on the beach, Jesus takes Peter to one side:

‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?’

Peter replies ‘Yes, you know I do’. But Jesus repeats this question three times, the same number of times that Peter denied Christ just weeks before. Peter replies ‘Lord, you know all things…’ and Jesus responds: ‘Feed my sheep’.

It is always like this. Jesus picks his moment. He confronts us, our conscience is troubled, we are convicted of what is wrong, and we experience Christ’s forgiveness and mercy. We find ourselves restored first to Christ and then to our calling, released once again to do whatever we are here to do.

My conclusion: I did not become a Christian by looking at the faults of believers or the church, but because I dared to look at Christ. In the end, everything is focussed on Christ and you. What will you do? Follow or turn away?

The final Objection to Christianity is linked to the issue of hypocrisy. It’s the fear ‘I won’t be able to live like Jesus, I will try but, I’m sure, won’t be able to keep it up. There’s no point. I’m sure Jesus was a great man, but it’s too much. It’s impossible to live the Christian life!’

Objection 4: Impossible to be good enough

I found out some bad news, which, paradoxically, turns out to be the best news we can ever hear.

It is true. It is impossible to be good enough or to live a Christian life, the paradox being that this is a vital clue.

Non-swimmers make a great deal of effort, arms and legs thrashing, to try and stay above the water. Those who can swim, however, seem to float effortlessly and move around at will. The truth is that the non-swimmer can swim but hasn’t learnt to trust that it is the water, not their efforts, that holds them up and gives them the buoyancy they need.

It is the same with the Christian life. If we’ve become a Christian we have to learn that it is Christ, not our efforts, who who enables his life to be reproduced in us and through us.

The great surprise to me as an enquiring agnostic was to find that Christianity does not require us to try and be like Christ but that Christ comes to live in us. God is not far away in heaven but comes to live in us.

Just prior to his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus taught his disciples: ‘…the Spirit who dwells with you will be in you…then you will know me and the Father…and we will come and make our home with you’.

After Paul’s dramatic road to Damascus conversion he wrote: ‘When it pleased God…he revealed His Son in me…’ after which he often referred to believers as being ‘in Christ’ or of ‘Christ in you’.

God is not far away in heaven but comes to live in us

We learn to trust in Him rather than relying on own abilities of rational thinking, emotional intuition, or desires, or our determination to complete whatever we are doing, our will. The Bible calls this type of living, ‘living in the flesh’ rather than being ‘led by the Spirit’. The power to live a transformed life comes from Christ Himself, not our grit and determination to put His teaching e.g. the Sermon on the Mount, into practice.

Our relationship with God is not a meritocracy where we receive blessings from God because we deserve it having worked hard, Jesus said: ‘Freely you have received, freely give’

My conclusion: learning to float and swim with less effort is a good analogy for how to live the Christian life, in fact, life itself! Paul, who previously was a law-abiding Pharisee, wrote:

‘We rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh – though I might have had. No, whatever were my advantages, I counted them as rubbish so that I might gain Christ and be found in him…’

To close, the following video covers some of the points raised in these Objections to Christianity articles

Who would base their lives on a brutal, contradictory book of fairy stories? - YouTube

Objection 2: No miracles: Science has disproved the supernatural

If this was a rally or a protest march against the claims of Christianity, each of these four Objections would be carried by vociferous protestors as banners or placards

For some, the most important doubt over Christianity might be the reliability of the source material, the New Testament. For others it might be miracles, and for others the hypocrisy of ‘the church’, or a sense of their own inability to live ‘the Christian life’.

 As an agnostic, all four played a part in constructing my objections to Christianity, however, once I had accepted the New Testament’s historicity and the New Testament writings as a genuine attempt to record what was seen and heard by eye-witnesses, I was confronted with the problem of miracles. I hadn’t witnessed a miraculous healing, nor had I heard of anyone who had. England seemed to be bereft of miracles. I had attended church through childhood and prayers were politely made for the sick of the parish but there was no expectation of miraculous intervention.

England seemed to be bereft of miracles

 The New Testament gospels, Acts, and letters to churches present a very different sense of what is ‘normal’. Angels announce Jesus’ birth and appear in a jailbreak, and at the resurrection. Miraculous healings and deliverance of evil spirits are part and parcel of Jesus’ ministry, and this power is passed on to his disciples. Normality, as far as the New Testament is concerned matches the Lord’s Prayer: ‘May Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven’. By heaven we might think more in terms of a ‘spiritual realm’. Heaven and Earth, as far as Jesus was concerned were not as disconnected as we, especially in the West since the Enlightenment, have come to believe.

 My quest to get to the truth of the matter started in an unusual setting – I was 16 and had just bought a pint in a local pub and as I walked back to where my friends were sitting (yes, we were underage), I bumped into a chair leg and spilt my dink and swore, ‘Christ!’  Once I sat down with what was left of my beer, the friend next to me said ‘Why did you say that?’

 I had run into the first of many true Christian believers that I would meet. This small incident kick-started my search for the truth, and led on to a series of further conversations, reading various books, listening to sermons at the church she attended and so on.

 I had two fundamental questions. Can we trust the New Testament as a genuine record of events? And what about miracles?

 One of the first books I read was called Run Baby Run written by Nicky Cruz. Nicky Cruz had been a gang leader in 1950s New York who, after meeting David Wilkerson, a Pentecostal preacher, eventually walked away from the gang and placed his faith in Christ. David Wilkerson recorded his version of events in The Cross and the Switchblade. In both accounts there were examples of the miraculous, drug habits broken, healing miracles, and so on – it was as if the pages of the New Testament had come alive in New York.

everything can be explained ‘naturally’ through the random movements of atoms and molecules and the unpredictable distribution of energy i.e. no need, for the supernatural or the miraculous.

 At 16 I was fascinated by Chemistry and Science in general. I was to go on to study Chemistry at University and have a career as a Chemistry teacher. I knew my way around Scientific theories and how the rise of Science from the 17th Century had convinced many that everything can be explained ‘naturally’ through the random movements of atoms and molecules and the unpredictable distribution of energy i.e. there was no room, no need, for the supernatural or the miraculous. Atheistic chemical determinism was twinned with philosophical movements such as the Marxism and existentialism championed by Jean-Paul Satre. The gulf between Satre and biblical prophets and teachers, and Jesus himself, is evident from a quote of Satre: ‘Life has no meaning, the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal’.

 But the Scientific method is predicated upon accurate observations and measurement – verified eye-witness material.

 It was the miraculous healing of David Wilkerson’s father that challenged me to reconsider.

 ‘During all my childhood my father had been a very sick man…one day I heard an ambulance tear past…I could hear my father’s screams (from the house)…’The doctor says he will live two more hours’…I ran down to the basement…and there I prayed…my voice carried up the heating pipes…my father heard me…’Strength is flowing into me’. I had witnessed a miracle.’

 The miracles that David Wilkerson witnessed throughout his ministry all stemmed from this experience.

 Since abandoning my agnosticism I have witnessed several healing miracles.

 Whilst working at Pfizers Ltd. as a lab technician, my colleague, Alan’s (not his real name) fiancée became dangerously ill with anorexia nervosa. The doctors could find no solution and the lab leader permitted Alan to use as much time as he wanted to skip his work and spend time in Pfizer’s extensive pharmaceutical library to find any alternative source of healing. During one of our regular Friday lunches as a lab group, I felt an urge to offer to pray for my Alan’s fiancée, but I was too nervous to mention it in front of the others, so I prayed and asked for a sign. Firstly, from that point on during lunch, that no one would speak to me, and, secondly, when we got returned to the lab, my colleague and I would be alone in the lab. Both of these were extremely unlikely but they happened. Nervously, heart pounding, I said to Alan ‘I believe God loves your fiancée and wants to heal her. Would you give me your permission to pray for her?’ He said yes and we got on with our work, eventually leaving for the weekend. On the Saturday morning, I was with a group of Christians, and we prayed for Alan’s fiancée. At work on Monday, Alan arrived full of the news that his fiancée had got out of bed and had started eating. I asked him what time this had occurred. It was the same time that we had prayed on the Saturday morning.

Nervously, heart pounding, I said to Alan ‘I believe God loves your fiancée and wants to heal her. Would you give me your permission to pray for her?’

 Coincidence?

 If I was to apply my scientific analysis to similar occurrences I would be forced to say that these coincidences seem to match the times when prayer was offered.

 This leaves us with two, at least two, questions:

1.        Is a philosophical reorientation required to incorporate ‘miracles’ into what we call ‘knowledge’

2.        Miracles may happen but why doesn’t a loving God always miraculously heal the sick?

To answer question 1. requires minds like mine, so focussed on the material world of atoms and energy, to be prised open, open at leat tooth possible existence of a spiritual, or supernatural, realm. As an interim step, we can recognise that ‘knowledge’ is greater in its scope than the scientific method, which regularly establishes truth through observation and repeated measurements. For example – the statement ‘I love you’ or ‘I love a beautiful sunset’ is as factual as e=mc2 , it is simply another form of knowledge no less valid than the results of a scientific experiment, yet invisible and impossible to verify through experiment. Our ability to reason is not our sole attribute, nor is it our highest faculty. The contention of Scripture is that believers in Christ are ‘led by the Spirit’ and that our spirit ‘witnesses’ with the Holy Spirit. This is another way of saying that through faith in Christ, we are brought into a real relationship with God, not ‘religion’ in its usually perceived form of moral codes, rules, and commandments. The urgent prayers of the young David Wilkerson did not find their origin in his rational mind but in faith in God.

 The questions about suffering are complex. If miracles demonstrate the love and power of almighty God, why are some prayers unanswered? Even if I had more pages, I know I would not be able to offer a neat and tidy answer. I do feel I can make an observation from experience. There have been times, like my Pfizers experience, when I have felt the presence of God before attempting to pray for someone who is sick or for some other form of divine intervention, as if the faith that is required is given first like a precious gift.

 I have included here an article about miraculous healings that were verified by a PhD student in Wales https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/god-is-working-miracles-and-healing-people-in-wales-and-ive-got-the-phd-research-to-prove-it/5591.article

 The New Testament refers to miracles as signs and wonders. A sign advertises something else, or points the way to it and a wonder is something that make us stop in our tracks however distracted we are by life. Miracles are said to be a sign that ‘the kingdom of God’ is nearer than we might think, and wonders force us to consider the possibility of a spiritual realm or heaven. It is as if God is saying ‘I am here’.

 The miracles that Jesus performed did not guarantee that those who were present became radical disciples, in fact, they stirred up as much opposition as devotion. For example, when Jesus raised Lazarus, opinion was split:

 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.  But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

My conclusion

 As an agnostic, I had to concede that miracles do occur today – and to my surprise - in England. Two of my principle objections to Christianity – the historical reliability of the New Testament and that science had disproved miracles – had been dealt with severe blows.

 The healing incident at Pfizers occurred in the first year after I had become a raw recruit of Christ just prior to/my eighteenth birthday. I think this is important to mention, miracles are not reserved for super-saints or seasoned church ministers of Christianity. They do not occur through faith in oneself but faith in God and at His command.

 Ten years after my conversion to Christ, I injured my left knee severely whilst training for the Mountain Leaders Certificate in Snowdonia, Wales. That put paid to/my dream of leading groups in the hills. I could only run for about 200m before pulling up in pain. The condition lasted for ten years. I had asked for prayer a few times but there was no miracle. I had various physiotherapy exercises and straps but nothing worked. One morning, during my normal breakfast routine of juggling tea and toast with reading a passage from the bible and praying, my prayers were interrupted. All I can say is that I heard a voice say ‘Run!’ It was like a command; it had authority, but wasn’t aggressive. It wasn’t unpleasant but neither was it rhetorical. It wasn’t an audible voice, but the ‘still small voice’ that scripture mentions. Jesus also taught that ‘My sheep know my voice’. It felt like that. I had to go to work but at the next available opportunity, I attempted to run for about half a mile. To my astonishment, there was no pain. Within a year I trained for a half-marathon and ran ten consecutive Bristol Half-Marathons from 1999 to 2009 and have continued to run since. That was a miraculous healing at God’s command, it reminded me of the incident when Jesus told the paralytic to pick up his mat and walk.

I heard a voice say ‘Run!’ It was like a command

 As Head of Science at a local comprehensive school, I was often invited to talk to RE classes as an ‘exhibit’ - a scientist who believed in God. Inevitably I had to field questions about evolution, the Crusades, contradictions in the Bible and so on – all very valid intellectual questions – but it was stories of miracles that often changed the atmosphere in the room from one of dismissive scepticism to curiosity.  

 Next?

 But what about hypocrisy within the church? Walking the walk not talking the talk? What about the reprehensible involvement of the church in the slave trade, or racism such as Apartheid? And the moral failure of Christian leaders, priests, and ministers?

Objection 1: Unreliable source material, the New Testament

One of my chief objections to Christianity was that its claims stem from the pages of the New Testament, and I had reached the conclusion that if the source material was unreliable then believing in Christ was no more than wishful thinking, on a par with believing that the Moon is made of cheese.

Reliability of Source Material – the New Testament

• Written a long time after the events, not by eye-witnesses, therefore unreliable

• Written by Jesus’s followers therefore biased and exaggerated

• Deliberate fiction – the authors invented the imaginary perfect figure of Jesus

When challenged to investigate the evidence for Christianity, however, I was surprised to find significant evidence for the historicity and reliability of the New Testament.

Evidence for the resurrection?

Charge 1: Written a long time after the events, not eye-witness accounts, unreliable

4th Century AD

Earliest complete copy of all the books of the New Testament (Codex Sinaiticus) AD 325 or shortly afterwards

2nd/3rd Centuries - summary

Papyrus P32 Titus Greek 2nd-3rd Century

Papyrus P46 Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, Hebrews Greek 2nd-early 3rd Century

Papyrus P66 Gospel of John Greek 2nd-3rd Century

Papyrus P77 Gospel of Matthew Greek 2nd-3rd Century

Papyrus P103 Gospel of Matthew Greek 2nd-3rd Century

Majuscule GA0189 Acts of the Apostles Greek 2nd-3rd Century

Earliest Fragments – 2nd Century

Matthew’s gospel (P90) and John’s gospel (P104)

Revelation (P98)

John’s gospel (P52) probably ~ AD 135

Conclusion from the New Testament copies

The above fragments or complete books have, of course, been copied from earlier versions. The level of accuracy and agreement between manuscript copies in the Koine Greek commonly used at the time is remarkable and the discrepancies when they occur are minor copying or dictation errors.

I came to the conclusion that the gospels were reliable eyewitness accounts

My conclusion as an agnostic was to acknowledge the historicity and reliability of the documents. That did not mean that I agreed with what was written, but that the various gospels and letters were not only authored by eye-witnesses or those who knew the eye-witnesses, they were alarmingly consistent with each other.

Warner Wallace, a former atheist and cold-case homicide detective, wrote: ‘In the end, I came to the conclusion that the gospels were reliable eyewitness accounts that delivered accurate information about Jesus, including His crucifixion and Resurrection’ Jesus Is Evidence That God Exists | Cold Case Christianity

Charge 2: The New Testament is written by Jesus’s followers therefore biased and exaggerated

Essentially this charge is one of dishonesty and outright hypocrisy as its authors – and Jesus himself – consistently argue that truth is to believed and spoken. If hypocrisy and dishonesty seem to be unnecessarily strong charges, then ‘hyped’ or ‘sexed up’ may be less strident? In other words, deliberately exaggerated maybe, still conveying the ‘truth’, but with some poetic license: Jesus didn’t walk on the water, he knew where a sandbar was and walked on that. It only appeared that he walked on water.

Aware of this easy criticism, the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth anchoring all his claims in unavoidable history. The New Testament is not an attempt to invent a spiritual belief detached from real events. Faith is based on history not myth.

‘Christ died…and…was buried and rose again the third day…and was seen by Peter…then by the twelve. After that he was seen by over 500 at once of whom the majority are still alive…and after that, by me’ 1 Cor 15v3-8

On the third day, according to the scriptures...

Serious historians are not as prone to dismissing the New Testament’s historicity as we might think judging from how Christianity is portrayed in many tv documentaries or in popular literature. Comparison of the literary record with other well-known figures from ancient history, is – was to me – very surprising.

Homer – The Iliad – written 900BC – earliest copy 400BC - time delay 500years

Julius Caesar - 100-44 BC – earliest copy 900 - time delay 1000 years

New Testament – AD50 - AD100 – earliest copy AD 135 - time delay less than 100 years

The number of ancient copies of the New Testament still in existence is 5800 Greek, 10,000 Latin, and 9,300 in other languages. This is considerably more than for any other ancient document:

Homer Iliad – 643

Julius Caesar - 10 copies

My conclusion: having read the New Testament I was not only surprised by the level of internal agreement between its various authors concerning historical events and doctrinal beliefs, I was genuinely surprised to find that all of is heroes (except Jesus) were deeply flawed and permitted the authors to expose their imperfections, fears, lack of faith, unloving attitudes, and cowardice to public view in the writings in the gospels and elsewhere.

I could still maintain my agnosticism. I could accept that the contents of the New Testament were genuine and accurately copied from the originals and that they represented the point of view of the various authors whether eye-witnesses or based on eye-witness reports. Accepting that the New Testament is genuine does not mean that, had you been a eye-witness to the events and teaching of Jesus that you would have been convinced by His claims.

Agnostic, I remained, if somewhat surprised by the strength of evidence for the historicity of the New Testament.

Charge 3: Deliberate fake?

J.B. Philips, a bible translator, and author of The Ring of Truth, began translating the New Testament with a fairly jaundiced point of view:

‘I confess…I had viewed the Greek of the New Testament with a rather snobbish disdain’

As he read and translated the Koine Greek – everyday rather than classical ‘posh’ Greek with which he was more accustomed, he reported:

‘As I pressed on with the task of translation I became convinced of the truth of the resurrection…I was reading the actual words of people who had seen Christ after his resurrection an had seen men an women changed by his living power’

‘There is no hysteria, no careful working for effect and no attempt at collusion. These are not embroidered tales: the material is cut to the bone…no man could have invented a character as Jesus’

The greatest problem with the suspicion and assertion that Jesus did not exist and that the New Testament is a fiction, is that, rather than being dismissed at the time as demonstrably false, the message – principally of the resurrection - took hold. Within a few decades of the events witnessed by the apostles and other early followers of Christ, the testimony of eye-witnesses was believed from Jerusalem to Rome and was on the way to Spain. Having crossed the Jewish-Gentile barrier there was no stopping of he growth and spread of Christianity or ‘The Way’ as it was nicknamed early on.

Apart from statistical evidence of the rapid growth of the faith that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, it is the character of the apostles and other eye-witnesses, all of whose lived lives of impeccable honesty with an emphasis on truth and love that cannot be dismissed. Had they been proven charlatans, unreliable characters, using their fantastical claims in order to extort the faithful, then the case against the New Testament would have been strengthened.

‘As I pressed on with the task of translation I became convinced of the truth of the resurrection…I was reading the actual words of people who had seen Christ after his resurrection an had seen men an women changed by his living power’

Further to this is the record of the sufferings of Jesus and his followers all of whom could have avoided their sufferings had they abandoned their false claims about the resurrection and the miracles. John the Baptist was beheaded, Jesus was crucified, Stephen was stoned to death, James killed, and Paul was arrested and imprisoned, whipped, suffered shipwreck.

My conclusion: the New Testament is not a fake; it is a genuine attempt of the writers to record the actual events and words of Jesus and his followers before and after the resurrection. Whilst I accepted all of this, my agnosticism remained intact. Had I been there, I may not have been as convinced as the eyewitnesses who then passed on material to be enshrined in the pages of the New Testament.

But, like JB Philips, not in translation but in reading the source material, the New Testament, I had to abandon my own ‘snobbish disdain’. I could, no longer maintain any sense of chronological snobbery. Either the claims of Jesus in the gospels and the apostles that followed the resurrection are true or not true. That is the issue, not whether the New Testament is historically reliable, or reporting genuine eye-witness accounts.

This agnostic has been made to think.

Dirt under our fingernails

This is why I believe in Jesus
Not because of carefully constructed choirs
Or the booming bass of a Pentecostal party
Or priests pressing you for pounds and pence
Or the frocks, the bishop’s staff
The dog-collars demarcating You from Me

                                                                                                               With Lazarus

No, I believe in Jesus because
He who believed in me believes in you
He who kicked a can down the road
With Lazarus, his mate, the one who died temporarily
I believe in Jesus because he wept
At the tomb - it was not all miracles – and
Over Jerusalem like our mothers’ weep over us

And because he loved Mary
Magdalene
A woman so pained,
So disfigured by her demons
In so much…poo
Then he came and wiped it away…the poo
Her sufferings, her tears
And made her love life and love again
And to linger in the garden
When Jesus outdid Lazarus

And, posing as a gardener
Gave us all
All of us with dirt under our fingernails
A taste of resurrection

Yes, I believe in Jesus

Objections to Christianity

Introduction

Growing up in a supposedly ‘Christian’ country, England, it is far too easy, oddly perhaps, to become inured against religion in general and Christianity in particular, and yet, at the same time retain immense respect for Jesus – if he existed.

Swimming against the tide? Fewer than 2% of the UK population attend church, down from approximately 20% in 1960.

For the average teenager, it is quite possible that in an average class of 30 students at school, no one attends church or in their year of 200 students only 1 attends church.

The curious aspect in all this, as stated above, public opinion about Jesus remains very positive and 48% of the population still identify as Christians and 6% consider themselves as practicing Christians.

For the average teenager, in England, it is quite possible that…only 1 student in their year attends church

According to the Evangelical Alliance survey Talking-Jesus-Report.pdf (eauk.org)

•  33% consider Jesus to be a prophet, a spiritual teacher, but not God

• 20% consider Jesus to be a normal human being

• 20% consider Jesus to be the Son of God, God in human form living in the 1st century

• 18% don’t know and 4% other

Objections

1.        Reliability of source material – the New Testament

2. Miracles don’t happen – Science has disproved the supernatural

3.        Hypocrisy, irrelevance, immorality within the church

4.        Impossible to be good enough

My story

By the time I was 15, all of the above objections had lodged very strongly in my mind. I retained a high regard for Jesus but was not convinced he had existed, doubted the New Testament was reliable, or, if historically genuine, Jesus’ fanatical followers must have woven a fanciful story surrounding a good person who they had grown to love, but, miracles could not have occurred, let alone the resurrection, therefore the New Testament was too flawed to base one’s life upon its teaching. I was an informed agnostic.

Two years later I changed my mind.

These 4 articles will show how my objections, as listed above, were dismantled and how I shifted from agnosticism to faith in Christ, believing fully in Jesus’s existence and miracles.

I hope you enjoy this short series – even if you wish to pick over the bones!

Next

Article 1: Reliability of Source Material – in the next few days

The debate between Richard Dawkins and former New Atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali

It’s quite long, philosophical, hard-hitting debate, so you’ll need some stamina and a cup of coffee & supplies. But it’s held without rancour and avoids descending into an abyss of trading cheap insults, rather it’s an exchange of diametrically opposed views with mutual respect.

Holy Fire

This year, Anna Chegwith
Took hold of organising
Lower Banford’s Guy Fawkes Night
Beyond the boundary
Opposite the oak tree
Far from the pavilion

Anna, Catholic on a Sunday,
Firefighter by Monday,
Had two loves: order and disorder
White-shirt-buttons-neat-Chegwith
And anarchic-Anna, depatterned,
Chaotic, randomly romantic, Anna

Committee-meeting-Chegwith reigned
Precise distances to the rope
Fire station - informed
Weather reports - updated
Decision timelines – strict
Traffic lights on amber

At home, Anna put the word out:
Invite the blind, the deaf, the crippled
The autistic, anosmians, dysgeusians
And ‘Primary children to bring wood’
Written on a to do list, sat on the loo
Flushed before Chegwith could find it

The parents set to compete as ever

Anna subverting Ghegwith
Chegwith suppressing Anna

November the 5th arrives
Dusk is gathering, damp air cooling
A rope is in place, a matrix of fireworks
50 yards downwind from the pyre
Its wigwam of standard tree trunks
Chegwith’s firm foundation

Pressed into the ground by odd offerings
Old tables, bookcases, broken rocking horses
Uprooted trees, an old brown piano
Rising to meet the stars, trembling and creaking.
The crowd now hushed,
Waiting for Anna to kneel, and

Lit taper in hand to ignite the bonfire
A wild conflagration feeds the night sky
Tasted in the air, its roar heard,
The heat so real it could be held
Red raging flames compensating
The disabled, first behind the rope

Guy Fawkes Night, an enhancer, for all ages
Battling with burgers and dripping ketchup.
Yes, it had a guy, a nod to Parliament
And on Sunday Anna Chegwith,
Smelling sweet from the smoke, still,
Knelt again, as we all do before holy fire

Book Review: The Wisdom of Tenderness, Brennan Manning (2002)

The Wisdom of Tenderness caught my eye as it sat on the bottom step of a friend’s staircase four days ago.

Before I had finished the first page, I knew that it had successfully jumped the queue of books lying around the house crying out to be read next.

The opening salvo isn’t bad either: ‘In the past year, I’ve grown increasingly uneasy with the state of contemporary spirituality in the Western world. It has, to put the matter bluntly, the flat flavor of old ice cream.’

Manning is in a combative mood. But what follows is not a finger-pointing tirade, a Victor Meldrew ecclesiastical rant, but, like the wounded healer that Manning became, he offers his insights, and often at his own expense:

‘In praying for chronic alcoholics, I’m frequently overcome by a surge of compassion…perhaps because of my own struggle with alcoholism…the damnable imprisonment of not being able to quit…the harrowing fear that I’ve lost God…are quickly revived when I pray for an alcoholic’

Page after page Manning dismantles our – and his - self-aggrandisements, desperate coping mechanisms, dissatisfying quests for indispensability, our fears of being found out, and tells us, using his extraordinary gift of translating the human condition into beautifully written prose, that God is tender towards our poverty-stricken spirituality. Towards us.

‘The crux of this little book can be stated briefly and succinctly. In a moment of naked honesty, ask yourself. “Do I wholeheartedly trust that God likes me?” Not loves me because theologically God can’t do otherwise.’

There is an ‘American’ dimension to this book – for example, he deals with issues of hypocrisy within the pro-life/anti-abortion movement which is more of an issue across the pond than here – but the principles easily swim across to our shores.

But, if you’re British and tempted to dismiss anything from America as shallow, brash, and over-confident, this book will be a shock to your misplaced British superiority! In fact, unless you’re willing to be knocked off your perch, not to take yourself too seriously, and hand yourself in for a spiritual MOT, this book is not for you…yet.

‘The crux of this little book can be stated briefly and succinctly. In a moment of naked honesty, ask yourself. “Do I wholeheartedly trust that God likes me?” Not loves me because theologically God can’t do otherwise.’

It is my contention, however, that The Wisdom of Tenderness is for everyone: British, American, Mongolian, Chilean, Russian, French, and all comers. It is shot through with love, tenderness, mercy, and kindness in the face of human failure and spiritual poverty.

It’s not a self-help book, but it is one for those who like John Lennon who wrote ‘Help!’ in response to his out-of-control lifestyle and fame: "I was eating and drinking like a pig, and I was…dissatisfied with myself...I was crying out for help.” I can’t comment on what John Lennon did to self-medicate, but Manning unreservedly points us to Jesus as the ultimate source of the help we all need.

The Wisdom of Tenderness is not a biography, but I add Manning’s Wikipedia page if you wish to know more about the author. He died in 2013.

Brennan Manning - Wikipedia

In Christ: Article 3: New Testament Greek: ἐν Χριστῷ translated as ‘In Christ’ Milk or meat?

‘I could not write to you as spiritually mature but as fleshly, as babes in Christ…I fed you with milk not solid food…you are still fleshly…and are behaving like mere men.’ 1 Cor 3v1-4

‘Though by this time you should be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary lessons…you need milk, not solid food…solid food belongs to the mature…let us go on to maturity’ Heb 5v12-14; 6 v1

It is late August. Apples are almost ripe. Blackberries are softening, a little sour and hard, plums are turning deep purple, and the ripe ones taste sweet.

Babies are born with perfectly formed organs. The heart beats and the kidneys are hard at work. The parents, of course, hope that, in time, the baby will learn to walk, talk, eat from a spoon, run, and become literate, numerate, and physically coordinated. Into teens, and particular abilities, personality traits, likes, and dislikes become strong features, all developing into adulthood. By the late teens and early twenties, the teenager has become an adult, able to live independently of parents.

The process is invisible. It is a mystery. All we know is, that given the right food and growing conditions, all living organisms mature. We also know that abuse, trauma, various medical conditions, and poverty can severely disrupt, halt, or prevent the process from reaching the end goal.

In the New Testament, there is a similar expectation for believers to reach spiritual maturity in Christ; and warnings that the process is not automatic and spiritual growth can be halted.

The process towards spiritual maturity may be a mystery but, just as the observable symptoms of physical, mental, and emotional immaturity are sometimes plain to see, the New Testament writers – Peter, John, and Paul – all write to churches where they have detected developmental problems.

Birth

In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, he says:

‘Unless one is born again…of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven’ John 3v1f

Jesus was repackaging the message of the New Covenant as prophesied by Jeremiah and Ezekiel that God would remove our stony hearts and replace them with new fleshy hearts, a new spirit, and His Holy Spirit.

Babies are born with perfectly formed organs. The heart beats and the kidneys are hard at work

When someone is ‘born again’ they are a babe in Christ. Everything is fully formed. The new heart and spirit are fully functioning. On day one as a believer the communion between the Holy Spirit and the person’s new spirit has begun. Radical changes can take place from day one. But moving on to maturity is another matter!

New Testament illustrations

• Discipleship – a disciple is like an apprentice, learning various skills, ways of thinking; it’s an information and formation process. The disciple becomes like the master.

• Little children, young men, fathers.

‘I have written to you, little children because your sins are forgiven…I have written to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one, I write to you fathers because you have known Him who is from the beginning’ 1 John 2v12-14

• Mere men, fleshly, spiritually mature

‘I could not write to you as spiritually mature but as fleshly, as babies in Christ…you are still fleshly…and are behaving like mere men.’ 1 Cor 3v1-4

• Foundations – ‘let us move on to maturity not laying again the foundation’ Heb 6v2

Point 1: Mere men, fleshly, spiritually mature

The apostolic letters from Peter, John, and Paul all address ongoing problems occurring in the churches. In Romans, Paul addresses the division between Gentile and Jewish believers. In both letters to the Corinthians, he highlights the factions and particular sexual sins as evidence of immaturity. In Galatians, he warns of the dire consequences of retreating from faith to legalism.

John is tackling a sensitive church issue where there has been a breakdown in the relationship between John and Diotrophes, a leader who ‘loves to have the pre-eminence’ 2 John 9 and has barred the apostle John, the close friend of Jesus, from the church!

Peter’s two epistles end with a charge to ‘grow in the grace of our Lord’

It is Paul’s response to the church in Corinth suffering with factions following certain personalities and preachers that sheds some light on spiritual maturity. The church situation is not unlike our own day with the body of Christ divided denominationally.

Mere men/Natural man – Paul is writing to believers reminding them that they are not mere men. You were, he says, but now you are ‘born again not just of water (natural birth) but of the Spirit (spiritual birth)’

Fleshly believers, babies in Christ – flesh here doesn’t refer to ‘skin’ but to human abilities intricately woven into our souls: our ability to reason, to be sensitive emotionally, and to make decisions; summarised as mind, emotions, and will. These are believers, but who have either never learnt, or forgotten, or are wilfully ignoring the Spirit, relying on their own abilities to live, love, and find liberty. Their decisions over money, sex, and associations are based on preference rather than the voice of the Spirit of Christ. Such believers are mimicking their pre-Christian state and are acting like ‘mere men’.

flesh here doesn’t refer to ‘skin’ but to human abilities intricately woven into our souls

To summarise: these believers are ‘soulish’ living from their own abilities and preferences, the symptoms are division, factions, and sexual immorality, rather than ‘spiritual’ living from the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritually mature – in the New Covenant the relationship between the believer and the living God is restored and underway from day one. Progress is entirely by grace – a free gift, freely given – and via the communion between the believer’s new spirit and the Holy Spirit.

Learning to ‘walk in the Spirit’ is the way ahead. Jesus likened this to a fountain: ‘If you knew the gift of God…He would have given you living water…whoever drinks of the water I give will never thirst…it will become in Him a fountain of living water…’ John 4 v 10-14

The soul may be a good servant but it’s a lousy master. Our minds, emotions, and wills, are amazing; they are not inherently evil or inferior to our spirit, nor are our bodies – but we become spiritually mature when led by the Spirit in every aspect of life, not just Christian meetings!

The church in Corinth had begun to switch from the Spirit to ‘wisdom’:

‘We speak wisdom to the mature, yet not the wisdom of this age…not in words which man teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual with spiritual but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ 1 Cor 2 whole chapter

Point 2: Not laying again the foundations

There is some humour in these illustrations!

It’s easy to forget with the seriousness of the subject matter, but the sight of a teenager or adult still suckling milk only from his or her mother’s breast is as shocking – and funny – as watching a homeowner, periodically, dismantling a perfectly good house, digging up the foundations and starting all over again. Madness! It’s the stuff of comedy.

And yet, whoever wrote the epistle to the Hebrews was saying just that! He was watching a church reexamining the foundations and never building on the foundations. The point is twofold: firstly the foundations are perfectly adequate, they don’t need digging up and relaying - but if you insist on relaying them, remember what they are.

The foundations are perfectly good – they pass the builder’s regs and the surveyor’s report. And they are ‘living foundations’ in operation 24/7 in the life of the believer. They are neither consigned to the past (e.g. conversion to Christ) nor to the future (e.g. the day of resurrection or judgement) but are eternal and, therefore, to be in operation continually.

1. Repentance from dead works and faith towards God

This is not the repentance and faith required to become a believer, it is a living word, a description of what it is like to be spiritually discerning. In this case the ability – from the Holy Spirit – to discern between dead works and living works. Dead works are not necessarily ‘sinful’ (e.g. adultery, murder, theft) but anything that your new spirit does not ‘witness’ with the Holy Spirit.

2. Doctrines of baptisms

Those in Christ should have been plunged into the Messiah (baptised into Christ), baptised in the Holy Spirit, and baptised into the body of Christ. Our water baptism symbolising these baptisms but spiritually these three baptisms are one drama being seen in three dimensions and serve as living foundations upon which to build.

The believer should be operating 24/7 out from Christ Himself, the power of the Spirit, and their living place as a living stone in the body of Christ.

3. Resurrection of the dead

Paul says of God: ‘God, who gives life to the dead’ Rom 4v17. This is a general statement but its application in this instance is the birth of Isaac, the ‘son of promise’ from Abraham and Sarah in their old age: ‘Abraham did not consider his own body, already dead as he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah’s womb…being fully convinced that God was able to perform what He had promised’ v19-21.

When Jesus spoke of the resurrection he said: ‘Truly I say to you the hour is coming and now is when the, dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live…do not be shocked, the hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation’ John 5v25-29

‘Abraham did not consider his own body, already dead as he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah’s womb…being fully convinced that God was able to perform what He had promised’

The New Testament is a radical message. It says that before we are placed ‘in Christ’ we are dead, in a grave, and unable to lift ourselves up, into life. But that, in this state, when we hear the gospel – the voice of the Son of God – if we have the same faith in the word of God as Abraham, we are raised to life. Now. It is the story of every person who finds faith in Christ.

There is also the promise of resurrection at the end, on the last day. And that Jesus’s bodily resurrection was a ‘first fruit’. That day is coming, but these foundation stones are living stones, they refer to the 24/7 experience of being led by the Spirit. In different circumstances we are faced with the voice of the Spirit saying ‘x’ whilst our mind looks at the ‘facts’ and concludes ‘x is impossible,’ Abraham looked at his impotent body and his post-menopausal wife’s body but believed the word of God even though it contradicted the facts.

4. Eternal judgement

Again it is important not to consign this foundation stone to the past ‘He who believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgement but has passed from death into life’ John 5 v 24,25 or entirely to the future day of judgement ‘the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ’ Rom 2 v 16.

This is a living word that each believer builds on – his or her ability to ‘compare spiritual with spiritual’ and to grow in the ability to live a life full of spiritual discernment in every circumstance.

Conclusions – and solid food?

None of us who are ‘in Christ’ can avoid the call to maturity. How the Holy Spirit brings about our maturity in Christ is an even deeper mystery than scientists trying to unpick the various stages of physical maturity. Spiritual maturity is an invisible process – invisible to others but known to God who looks on the heart.

There is a time element; the natural world shows us this with plants and animals reaching physical maturity along fairly predictable timelines, but mental and emotional maturity doesn’t always coincide with reaching physical maturity. Many enter adult life with a mature physical body but a sense of mental or emotional incompleteness or limitations.

Spiritually, those in Christ who have received the Holy Spirit are born into a new trajectory towards spiritual maturity. The spirit-Spirit communion with the promised ‘fountain of living water’ affects our souls and bodies and, therefore, every part of life: family, friends, work, interests, money, sex, and associations – our neighbours.

What is the ‘solid food’ that Paul and the writer of the letter to Hebrews call us to eat?

A cursory look at the letters to the churches whether written by Paul, Peter, or John can be divided into two halves.

The first half is devoted to doctrine – substitutionary and inclusive atonement for example -whereas, in the second half, the authors are usually saying, ‘OK now you know what God has done for you through the death and resurrection of Christ, now that you know that you are forgiven and a child of God, in Christ and Christ is in you, now you know that you were crucified with Christ and have been raised as a new creation in Him, now that you have received the gift of the Spirit…now that you know the A,B,C of the gospel, out you go into the world.’

What is the ‘solid food’ that Paul and the writer of the letter to Hebrews call us to eat?

The second half says: back to your families, your friends, your workplaces, your churches, and into your callings, gifts and ministries from the Spirit…overcome here, get some victories in the world under your belt as John’s ‘young men’ who overcome the evil one being strong in the word.

Then you are on the path towards being a ‘father’ who knows God who is from the beginning, living in the world with an eternal perspective, abiding in the ‘I am’, like Jesus.

The final ‘I am’ statement in John’s gospel Jesus states ‘I am the vine; you are the branches’. We’re back to the mystery of watching apples ripen on the tree, or here in John 15, to grapes maturing on the vine. As long as we as branches are in Christ, our destiny of maturity is inevitable…as long as we let the Father the gardener approach us with His two knives.

‘My father is the gardener, He cuts off every branch in Me that does not bear fruit and prunes every branch that does bear fruit so that it can bear more fruit’ John 15v1,2

The cutting out of dead branches is ‘repentance of dead works and faith towards God’ in operation: something that may have born fruit in the past is now ‘dead’ and needs to be excised; the knife is out. Similarly, if we are bearing fruit, the wisdom of the Father is to prune, to cut back fruit-bearing branches for the sake of producing better quality fruit.

Babies and infants in Christ are prone to getting very upset at this discipline of the Father just as natural small children get upset because they cannot see the bigger picture. Equally young men will fight and resist the Father as the gardener, wielding the knife. ‘Can’t you see the fruit, Father?’ or ‘With your life within me, I know this can live and bear fruit!’. But a father in Christ understands the whole picture, understands the Father’s wisdom, and has faith that, no matter how the Father wields His knife, it will be to produce more fruit.

In Christ: Article 2 New Testament Greek: ἐν Χριστῷ translated as ‘In Christ’ – ‘Christ in us’ or ‘Christ as us?’

‘I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I know live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who love men and gave His life for me’ Gal 2v20

In this verse, Paul summarises the substitutionary and the inclusive nature of the sacrifice of Christ and combines them with Christ in us.

But Christ as us?

A friend of mine, Chris Welch, has used this ‘as Christ’ variation on ἐν Χριστῷ, for some years.

My initial reaction to ‘as Christ’ was to question its basis, after all, the Greek doesn’t support the translation! Worse, it felt arrogant…a horrible feeling…particularly if you’re steeped in British culture of needing to appear modest at all costs.

On reflection though, ‘as Christ’ might not appeal to the literalist in me but it does to my poetic, interpretative side, so, in Article 2, I want to explore the doublet ‘as Christ’ and its corollary ‘Christ in our form’ without departing from the biblical text.

Point 1. Paul’s two-step revelation

Paul’s dramatic encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus is well known. What is less well appreciated, is that there is an undisclosed time delay between the risen Jesus Christ being revealed TO Paul and the later revelation of Christ IN Paul:

‘When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me…’ Galatians 1 v 16

Paul’s ministry as an apostle and his many letters refer to ‘Christ in you’ or ‘in Christ’. This revelation profoundly affected his life and sense of calling: in one letter, to the church in Ephesus, Paul writes ‘in Christ’ 35 times and in his letter to the church in Colossae, Paul writes:

‘I became a minister…to preach the word of God, the mystery…hidden for ages…but now revealed…Christ in you, the hope of glory’ Col 1v24-27

Point 3. The body of Christ

Our biological bodies are made from trillions of microscopic cells. Each one of those cells is alive and each has a different function.

My name is John Stevens. All my cells are alive with my life, all my cells are ‘in John Stevens’ and ‘John Stevens is in’ every cell. So each cell is exhibiting life as ‘as John Stevens’ i.e. the life of John Stevens in its own form, functioning according to its calling and design as a liver cell, or colour receptor cell in the retina, or a humble skin cell.

We all have our specific functions in Christ.

The life of each cell is not independent of John Stevens, but part of John Stevens. It is not the full John Stevens, but it has no other identity than John Stevens, so, to say we are in Christ, and we live ‘as Christ’ is not saying we are the Christ, that would be blasphemous, as well as ridiculous, but that, by virtue of being ‘in Christ’, we participate in and exhibit Christ’s life. We do all things ‘in His name’ just as all my cells do everything ‘in my name’.

‘…the church…is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all’ Ephesians 1v22,23

Therefore, it is perfectly correct to say that, since we are in Christ, and Christ is in me, we are ‘as Christ’ in the world; Christ is incarnated in all who are in Christ. C.T. Studd, a missionary to Africa in the late 1800s and early 1900s, famously said: ‘I want to see Jesus running about in thousands of black bodies and purified hearts.’

As a child, I learnt how to sink in water. I couldn’t swim. Much as I tried to copy the arm movements of others my body headed down not along

Christ in our form, ‘as us’ is how the New Testament sees us individually in the world and corporately in His body, the church, the body of Christ.

In the first century, not long after the resurrection, believers earned the nickname ‘Christians’ meaning ‘little Christs’; meant, at best, as a nickname and, at worse, a derogatory insult but it is a profound truth.

Point 3 Going on to maturity

As a child, I learnt how to sink in water. I couldn’t swim. Much as I tried to copy the arm movements of others my body headed down not along.

What was wrong? The water? Had I lost my buoyancy? No.

Somewhere along the line, I learnt to trust that the water would hold me up. It was a shift from fear to faith. Moving on from fear to faith in various areas of life is transforming. No more so than with Christ.

Many do not believe they can live the Christian life, riddled as we are with imperfections, weaknesses, fears, ambitions, and sin. But when we shift to ‘seeing’ that it is Christ who holds us up, and that, for His life to manifest itself in our experience, is not dependent on our efforts but His life alone, we can make progress.

Now, I can swim. If you threw me into the sea, I would not sink but float. Am I an Olympic standard swimmer? No. In fact, I am a very limited swimmer, but I can swim, and if I had lessons and practiced, I would undoubtedly improve.

It is the same in the Christian life.

We have to learn to switch from relying on our inner resources as if we can live independently of Christ and learn to ‘walk in the Spirit’ as the New Testament calls it. In other words, we live life from the starting point of communion between our new spirits and the Holy Spirit (see Article 1).

When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth it had several moral faults: sexual immorality, social class distinctions, and competing factions are mentioned in his letters. In his analysis of how this could have occurred, amongst believers, he wrote:

‘I could not write to you as spiritually mature but as fleshly, as babies in Christ…you are still fleshly…and are behaving like mere men.’ 1 Cor 3v1-4

Fleshly, or carnal, as in some translations, here means they were genuine believers, but imitating ‘mere men’ i.e. those without Christ living in them; living according to their soulish abilities to think, feel, and act. He compared this to being like a baby, they hadn’t learnt to live and grow by a spirit-Spirit communion, to be led by the Holy Spirit.

To the Hebrews, the same problem is encountered:

‘Though by this time you should be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary lessons…you need milk, not solid food…solid food belongs to the mature…let us go on to maturity’ Heb 5v12-14; 6 v1

We are all disciples and learners. We all have L-plates.

Conclusion

Christ as us, Christ in our form?

Just as it requires faith in water to hold you up before you can swim, we must believe Christ is living His life in us and therefore ‘as us’.

We are all disciples and learners. We all have L-plates.

If the Apostle Paul needed time for God to reveal the mystery of ‘His Son in me’ or ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’, maybe we do? But once it has been revealed – for example take Galatians 2v20 – we can begin to ‘swim’ and become more accustomed to thinking of ourselves as ‘little Christs’ not relying on our ability to mimic Christ’s life, but for Christ Himself to live out his life as us, in our form.

Next and final Article: Milk or solid food?

In Christ: Article 1 - New Testament Greek: ἐν Χριστῷ translated as ‘In Christ’ – what does ‘in Christ’ mean?

In April 2016, you may remember, Archbishop Justin Welby, revealed that he had recently discovered that his biological father was not Gavin Welby, his mother’s husband.

In his press statement, he explained that, although the news came as a great surprise, ‘I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes.’

As I listened to his steady voice and calm manner as he read out his statement, I wondered what those listening made of the phrases ‘who I am in Jesus Christ’ and ‘my identity in him.’ Christian poetic jargon? Ecclesiastical psychobabble? An awkward way of simply saying ‘as a Christian’?

‘I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes.’

And, maybe, for those whose church-attending ears are more attuned to New Testament phraseology, ‘in Christ’ is a familiar phrase often quoted by St Paul and inferred by Jesus. ‘In Christ’ or ‘in Jesus Christ’ is mentioned over 160 times in the New Testament. But, even among churchgoers, is this simply a phrase devoid of any greater meaning than ‘a Christian believer?’

Two hymns ‘In Christ Alone’ (written in 2001) and Charles Wesley’s ‘And Can It Be?’ (1738) repeat the phrase and are popular still in churches today.

But what does the two-word phrase ‘in Christ’ mean? What picture does it paint?’

Jesus also used very similar phraseology:

‘Abide in me and I in you’ John 15v4; ‘The Spirit dwells with you, and will be in you’ John 14 v 17, ‘As You, Father, are in me, and I in you…may they be one just as we are one: I in them and You in me’ John 17 v 22,23

Paul also talks of the Israelites being ‘baptised into Moses’ (1 Cor 10v2) and of Christian believers being ‘baptised into Christ Jesus’ (Rom 6v3) and believers former state of being ‘in Adam’ (1 Cor 15v21)

To explore the phrase ‘in Christ’ I am using three pictures (i) the container (ii) the inheritor (iii) blotting paper.

Picture 1 The Container

Tools in a box, passengers on a bus, members of a team

The tools are contained in the toolbox and go where the box goes, as do the passengers and the members of the team. So, this picture ‘works’ in the sense that the Israelites, having chosen to follow Moses into the desert, or believers having chosen to follow Christ go where Moses in the Old Testament or Christ leads. Or, if a more static picture is envisaged believers in Christ are positioned where He is, spiritually speaking, contained ‘in Him’.

This picture works quite well for ‘in Christ’ but not so well for ‘Christ in you’. If Jesus is Lord then we follow, He doesn’t follow us, so ‘Christ in you’ could suggest He goes where you lead.

More doctrinally, this phrase is impossible to marry with ‘substitutionary’ atonement.

Jesus died on the cross for us, in our place. The sinless died for sinners. It was a sacrifice that cost everything, the price was paid in His blood to reconcile us to God. God’s wrath was poured out on Christ, not us. He was a substitute. A simple illustration that is often used is of a law court. The guilty person in the dock is awaiting the judge and the sentence. The sentence is the death penalty. All looks lost until we find the judge acquitting the guilty, someone else having died in their place.

Paul summarises this in Romans 5v8,9

‘God demonstrates His own love for us – while were sinners Christ died for us…and acquitted (or justified) us by His blood’

The problem with ‘substitutionary’ atonement isn’t that it is untrue. It is true. We can say that Chrost’s death and his blood atoned for our sins. Wonderfully true. Once you ‘see it’, that Christ took all our sins and died in our place, and can say ‘Christ died for me’, you know you are forgiven and have been reconciled to God. A relationship of love has begun.

The problem isn’t that it isn’t true, the problem is that it is incomplete.

The guilty defendant is released. He has no criminal record. It’s all been wiped, a clean slate. But the defendant’s nature has not changed. We are left with, as many say, ‘we are sinners saved by grace’ but how can Christ have sinners contained ‘in Hm’ and how can sinners have ‘Christ’ living in them? It doesn’t fit, it doesn’t marry.

Many square the circle by saying ‘Christ in me, the hope of glory’ (Col 1v27) gives me faith that I can be changed, transformed, sanctified, and become more like Christ. Changed from the inside-out. Or even, to quote John the Baptist, ‘I must decrease, that He may increase’.

This is the logical conclusion of the gospel being viewed through substitutionary atonement alone.

The sinner may be ‘covered over with a robe of righteousness’ (Is 61v10) so that when God looks at me, He doesn’t see me but Christ’s righteousness covering me, but the sinner is still a sinner, he or she has not had their essential sinful nature changed.

The problem with ‘substitutionary’ atonement isn’t that it is untrue. It is. But it is incomplete. It is half the story.

Lastly, the limitation of this picture, of tools in a box, is either that there is ‘Christ in me’ a small Christ, contained in a large me, or ‘in Christ’ a small me contained in a large Christ. The tool is not organically joined to the toolbox or the passengers on the bus to the bus. And yet the New Testament speaks of us ‘abiding in Christ’ or being ‘one with Christ’. This picture, therefore is of limited usefulness, it helps us in terms of destiny but not relationship.

Conclusion: Picture 1 The Container is an inadequate interpretation of being ‘in Christ’ or ‘Christ in me’ and cannot be married to substitutionary atonement’ because substitutionary atonement is an incomplete gospel.

Picture 2 The Inheritor

This, I would argue is far closer to what Jesus, Paul and other NT writers meant by the phrase ‘in Christ’ or ‘Christ in you’.

If we were ‘in Adam’, we inherit Adam’s sinful nature, we are ‘sinners’ by nature and so we sin, if the Israelites are ‘in Moses’ they inherit everything that was given by God to Moses i.e. the Law, and the spiritual food and drink referred to in 1 Cor 10. Similarly, if believers are now ‘in Christ’ they stand to inherit everything in Christ: His holiness, His righteousness, His eternal life, His limitless power over sin, His riches.

This inheritance, it can be argued, is part and parcel of the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus’ death on the cross and His blood. Another translation for ‘covenant’ is ‘testament’ as in a person’s Last Will and Testament.

After the last supper with his disciples, Jesus raised a cup and said: ‘this cup is the New Covenant in My blood, shed for you’ Luke 22v20.

To quote the last verse of Charles Wesley’s great hymn, And Can It Be:

No condemnation now I dread
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne

Conclusion: Picture 2 is an improvement on Picture 1 but ignores the underlying issue – the incomplete nature of the gospel viewed through substitutionary atonement which fails to explain how we can ‘move house’ from Adam to Christ.

Picture 3 Blotting Paper

Before we look at the blotting paper picture it is important to see how scripture solves the conundrum of moving from Adam to Christ.

This can be done in two steps. Firstly to take a look at the details of the New Covenant and find out what is promised as our inheritance once we’re in Christ. And, secondly, to complete the gospel, to go further in our appreciation of what God achieved for us through Christ’s death on the cross.

(i) The New Covenant

The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all prophesied that God would bring in a New Covenant (New Testament) to replace the Old Covenant (Old Testament). The old covenant formed by God initially with Abraham (see Genesis 12 and 15) and built on through Moses needed to be replaced:

‘See, the day is coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Judah and the house of Judah not like the covenant…which they broke even though I was like a husband to them…this is the covenant I will make…I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts…’ Jeremiah 31 v 31-34 / Hebrews 8 v 7-12

‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My ways’ Ezekiel 36 v 26-27 / Ezekiel 11v19

When Jesus took the cup and announced that the New Covenant would be inaugurated through the shedding of His blood not many hours after the Last Supper, He was referring to these prophetic announcements made hundreds of years before the events of that Passover meal with His disciples.

No longer were the people of God, Israel, bound to God through their attempt to keep the Law of Moses as inscribed on tablets of stone. Now God will come as a heart surgeon:

1. Remove our stony hearts
2. Replace our hearts with a new fleshy heart
3. Give us a new spirit
4. Come and live in us by His Spirit

And this was all to be achieved through Christ on the cross that Jesus knew lay ahead of Him not many hours after raising the cup after supper and saying: ‘this is the new covenant in My blood’.

(ii) Substitutionary and Inclusive

We have seen how Christ died for us, in our place, and taking the punishment we deserved on the cross. The debt paid at the cost of His own life, through His blood. This is substitutionary atonement.

But the New Testament goes further than this in its disclosure of what God achieved for us through the cross.

‘Do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death…knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him…now if we died with Christ we shall, also live with Him…’ Romans 6 v 3-8

‘I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I know live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who love men and gave His life for me’ Gal 2v20

‘You died and your life is hidden with Christ in God…Christ is your life’ Col 3 v 2,3

Paul makes it abundantly clear that on the cross, it wasn’t just our sins that were laid on Jesus, but us. Not just sins but sinners.

Jesus took that old Adamic you and I to the cross and nailed it there. Dead. Crucified. God achieved the death of that old Adamic nature, the old Adam, through the death of His Son.

And that through the resurrection we have been raised ‘in Him’, ‘in Christ’ with a new nature. In terms of the promised new covenant, the old Adamic stony heart is removed, replaced with a new Christ-fleshy heart, a new human spirit AND His Spirit to come and dwell in us to cause us to walk in His ways.

‘If anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’. This he said concerning the Spirit whom those believing would receive, for the Holy Spirit had not yet been given’ John 7v37-39

As Paul put it elsewhere: ‘Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come’ 2 Cor 5v17

And it is ‘of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption’ 1 Cor 1v30

So, Galatians 2v20 shows us that the death of Christ on the cross was not only ‘substitutionary’ – ‘He gave His life for me’ but ‘inclusive’ ‘I have been crucified with Christ’ - it includes you and me, we died on the cross with Christ.

Now we can begin to understand what the phrase ‘in Christ’ or ‘Christ in me’ meant to Paul and similar phrases meant to Jesus looking ahead to His relationship with us post-cross and resurrection.

What is the relationship between the new creation-I, the ‘in Christ-I-Christ-in me’ new creation and Christ Himself - and therefore with the Father and the Spirit? And what about how this affects my daily experience of life, my struggles with sin, temptation, the world and the devil – the forces arrayed against us? How does this affect my view of discipleship or spiritual growth?

Often what we need to do is remind ourselves of the terms of the new covenant. We are beneficiaries of the covenant or testament.

Under the old covenant, the Israelites and Gentiles beyond the covenants in their Adamic nature could not keep the commandments written on stone. Now, in the new covenant, His Spirit writes those laws on our new hearts. ‘True Christianity’ is a Spirit-spirit operation. It is more like an eruption than a life of self-regulation. The life of the Spirit erupts from within.

Jesus put it like this:

‘If anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’. This he said concerning the Spirit whom those believing would receive, for the Holy Spirit had not yet been given’ John 7v37-39

The heart of the matter is a communion, between the Holy Spirit and our new spirit.

‘The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God’ Romans 8 v 16

‘If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he is not His’ Romans 8 v 9

‘The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us’ Romans 5 v 14

‘As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God’ Romans 8 v 1

In many passages, especially in the Acts of the Apostles, we see how believers are spoken to, guided, warned, and empowered by the Spirit.

One example:

‘As they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart Barnabus and Saul to Me for the work to which I have called them’’ Acts 13v2

This is solid reality. This is the new covenant in operation. This is the relationship, the communion, of God with His new creations in Christ Jesus.

Blotting Paper?

Put blotting paper on ink or pour ink on blotting paper and the result is the same, the ink is absorbed by the paper and if you magnify the fibres of the botting paper you’ll see the ink has soaked into the fibres themselves. It is not possible to say where one starts and the other begins. They are in a state of intimate union.

But this union can only be achieved if the paper is plunged into the ink. This is the meaning of ‘baptism’ or ‘bapteizo’ in Greek. To plunge under. Clothes are dyed by plunging them under the liquid dye.

In the New Testament there are three main baptisms. None mention water. They are baptisms into a person.

Firstly, God plunges us into Christ and, as we have seen therefore into Christ’s death, then to be raised in Christ as a new creation. But first the crucifixion of the old man, and the burial.

‘Do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death…knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him…now if we died with Christ we shall, also live with Him…’ Romans 6 v 3-8

Those of us who are more church-familiar have a problem. It’s the ticking clock you cannot hear, consigned to the background. It is the same with the familiarity of biblical vocabulary. We have been plunged into Christ. This is a radical statement.

We have been plunged into Christ. This is a radical statement.

Firstly ‘Christ’ means ‘Messiah’ which in turn means ‘the anointed one’ so rewriting this we find that we – mostly Gentile believers – have been plunged into the Messiah, the one promised to the Jews. We often refer to Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, he was born a Jew. But Isaiah and other prophets were constantly reminding the Jews of their ultimate purpose ‘I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness…and as a light to the Gentiles’ Is 42v6.

There is no mention of water in this passage.

Secondly, Jesus baptises us in the Spirit. Plunges us into the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist prophesied: ‘I baptise you with water, but One mightier than I is coming…He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit’ Luke 3v16

Jesus referred to this after the resurrection when speaking to the disciples:

‘John truly baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’ Acts 1 v 5

This was fulfilled 10 days later, on the Day of Pentecost:

‘When the day of Pentecost had fully come…they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…’ Acts 2v 1-4

The New Covenant had dawned but notice that Jesus plunged them into the Holy Spirit, there is no mention of water in this passage.

Lastly, thirdly, the Holy Spirit baptises us into the body of Christ:

‘By one Spirit we were all baptised into one body…and been made to drink one Spirit…the body of Christ…’ 1 Cor 12v 12-27

Again, there is no mention of water.

The picture is now complete. There is a union between God and the believer. It turns out that we are ‘containers’ of Christ in us. But the ‘us’ has been redefined through the death and resurrection of Christ. The new ‘Christ-in-me’ creation is fused; the new spirit with the Holy Spirit. As new creations in Christ, we inherit all that God has done in and through Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification. And, lastly, we are not only fused as one with Christ but with all other believers in what the New Testament calls the body of Christ: ‘now you are the body of Christ and members individually’ 1 Cor 12 v 27. That union isn’t like two magnets joined together, distinct yet attracted. Whilst Christ has indeed ascended to glory, and we are on the earth the union is via the spirit-Spirit communion. A little like a portal, joining heaven and earth.

Now it makes sense to pray ‘thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven’ as the Spirit in communion with our spirits can reveal His will which can then be accomplished on the Earth…through us.

Two points to close. Water baptism. And spiritual growth or discipleship.

Water baptism is a necessary symbolic act. Dead bodies need to be buried. When Peter stood up to preach on the day of Pentecost, the crowd that listened while others scoffed (nothing new there!) asked:

‘What shall we do?’ Then Peter said, ‘Repent and let every one of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ…and you will receive the gift of the Spirit’…then those who gladly received his word were baptised…about three thousand’ Acts 2 v 37-41

Water baptism symbolises the above three baptisms.

Discipleship and spiritual growth in Christ is not a smooth, continually upward, glorious experience of unending joy and victory for many if not all believers.

As new creations with the Holy Spirit in communion with our new spirits and new hearts the potential is there for us to exhibit the new life, the life of Christ, in this world, in the context of our families, friends, work colleagues, many others we meet, and in the context of all the ways we have lived life before the invasion of Christ. In the West, for example, there is a greater emphasis on rational thought and establishing truth via empirical evidence than in the more spiritual East. We have to unlearn the ways of our culture and learn the new ways of the kingdom of God. During Jesus’s childhood, adolescence, and as a young man he ‘grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men’ Luke 2v52 We, now, as sons of the Father in Christ, are being called to grow in wisdom in exactly the same way. To learn to be led by the Holy Spirit not the flesh – flesh meaning our natural abilities such as our thinking, our understanding, or our emotions, or our wills, or bodily appetites. None of these things are wrong, evil, or sinful in themselves, but we have to learn who’s boss, the Holy Spirit or our flesh.

In a car, we can ignore the SatNav, but as new creations in Christ, we have to learn to hear our in-built SatNav, the voice of the Spirit, and obey His directions.

When I was 6, a friend let me borrow his bike. I didn’t have a bike and couldn’t ride one. But I was determined to learn. So, as dusk was falling, I rode his bike around and around his back garden, falling off, getting back on, falling off getting back on. By the time I had conquered it and could ride his bike, I was covered in grass stains, my legs were hurting and my wrists bruised from falling off, but I learnt.

God will never give up teaching us to live just like Jesus

God will never give up teaching us to live just like Jesus so that we, like Him, only do what we see the Father doing or speak what we hear. We may suffer all kinds of setbacks, but He is faithful. It’s all there in the New Covenant:

‘I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My ways’

End.

Next Article: ‘Christ in us’ or ‘Christ as us’?

The Emptying

At number 4, grass grew from June to August
The solid oak front door obscuring
Bills unpaid, takeaway vouchers,
And a postcard from the Sun.
The body was well-dressed and mostly absent
A monocle, a mould-infested bow tie
Dark brown shoe polish, can open,
Brush gripped tight in his bent
Rigor mortis fist, bones only.
He’d choked, it would seem

Long-distant family members
Attracted by duty and pecuniary matters
Like flies to the body
Sifted, binned, sold, and removed
Nearly a century of accumulated
Memories needed no more.
Every object passed through
Their executor-digestive system
And eliminated as is the way
Along the legal path

Across the road at number 13
The front lawn is mown regularly
And a new door affixed last week
The old one, also oak, broken up
Stored in the shed,
Ready, one day, to feed the fire-pit
Its red flame energy
To be faced one last time
Its ashes to be taken by the wind
To the wild north

To the wild north

The emptying
A peristalsis of sorrow
An unavoidable appointment
With life in its fulness
A compulsory education
One that Christ knew
Emptying Himself
Of all that got in the way
Of Him touching rotten flesh
Or healing the broken-hearted

Friday’s Irregular Poetry Corner: The Song of the Bow

I woke up this morning aware at some point that I didn’t have a poem to share for Friday’s Irregular Poetry Corner. That’s OK as it has always wanted to live up to its name – Irregular.

So, to my breakfast routine: Malted wheats + homemade muesli + cuppa tea, milk no sugar, and a bible reading. This morning’s reading was 2 Samuel chapter 1 which includes David’s lament, The Song of the Bow, a poem, a pouring out of grief over the death of King Saul and his son Jonathan in battle.

I offer selected verses from The Song of the Bow in the form of tercets. The phrase How the Mighty have Fallen is often attributed to Shakespeare or Churchill but borrowed, in fact, from David shortly before he became King David.

The battle has extraordinary resonance today. The Philistines, victorious in this battle with Israel in which their archers wounded Saul and Jonathan, occupied the same region we know today as the Gaza Strip: the ancient rivalry continues.

Maybe let this poem open our ears to hear the laments poured out by Jews and Gazans as the days of suffering continue nearly 10 months after the despicable attack against unarmed Jews by Hamas in October 2023 and the hostages taken.

The Song of the Bow

The beauty of Israel is slain on your high places
How the mighty have fallen
Tell it not in Gath

O mountains of Gilboa
Let there be no dew nor rain upon you
For the shield of the mighty is defiled

Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives
And in their death they were not divided
They were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions

O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul
Who clothed you in scarlet with luxury
Who put ornaments of gold on your apparel

How the mighty have fallen in the midst of battle
I am distressed for you, my brother, Jonathan
Your love to me…surpassing the love of women

How the mighty have fallen
And the weapons of war
Perished!

In some unknown way, a lament can do what victory and/or defeat in battle cannot. There is an unseen limit to suffering, a Stop sign, and a lament is a prelude, I suggest, to the deep cry of Enough! uttered in the final seconds before peace reigns.

Book Review: Jesus and the Powers, Tom Wright and Michael F. Bird (SPCK)

If the unenforceable pub ban on Sex, Politics, or Religion, as topics of conversation to ensure that tempers do not get too frayed, then clearly Wright and Bird are skating on thin ice in tackling two out of the three volatile subjects.

Tom Wright is well-known for an intellectual and theological approach to New Testament interpretation in its historical setting without somehow losing the common touch. It’s a skill he possesses and has brought once again to this book on Politics and Christianity.

In summary, he and Bird not only argue that for Christians to retreat from politics with either a small p or capital P is as much a terrible mistake as interpreting Christianity and the call of Christ entirely within the bounds of social reform and justice for all. I particularly like this sentence:

‘The gospel cannot be reduced to a this-world project of social betterment. But neither is the gospel an escapist drama for the soul pining for the angelic door of heaven’.

Is the book sufficiently punchy? Yes, ‘I’d say so. It’s not a ‘tome’ at 178 paperback pages. It’s more a collection of well-argued and sometimes entertaining articles stitched together culminating in defence of liberal democracy as the best, or maybe the ‘least worst’, form of government to date, better than the tyrannical reign of totalitarian regimes whether religious like the Taliban, or political like Communist, or fascist dictatorships, or kings and queens.

Is the book timely? Definitely. With Trump versus Harris, our recent electoral swing to Labour, and hotly contested social and political issues like gender fluidity, sexuality, cancel-culture, Israel and Gaza, Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan, and the worldwide trades in human trafficking and the millions on the move as refugees (almost exclusively away from totalitarian regimes to liberal democracies), this is a very timely book.

If you’ve never really stepped back as a Christian to consider issues of conscience, and where the limits of obedience to the state should lie, this is a great read. And the limits of fought-for civil liberties such as free speech, freedom of belief, association, and assembly, that we’re in danger of taking for granted, read on!

And, if you are not a Christian but find yourself living in a society shaped, at least historically, by biblical morality and the teaching of Jesus, this is a book for you, if only to consider in a fresh light how we have reached this point in our political evolution in 2024.

This is one of those Stop and Think books.

Is it light-hearted? No, but I did enjoy the authors’ brief foray into the mind and political thinking of JRR Tolkien and the Lord of The Rings and made a mental note to re-watch the DVD set when winter draws in!

This is one of those Stop and Think books

Only one thing irritated me. At first, I thought it was a typo, but as the error is repeated throughout the book, it must have been an editorial decision, an error of judgement maybe, but not a careless mistake. I’m referring to lowercase ‘h’ and ‘s’ when referring to the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. But I’ll leave that for you to judge!

I feel I haven’t done the content of the book justice, but to do so would add too many words. Best to beg, borrow, or buy a copy.