Women in the Ministry Approved
The Church of Scotland General Assembly has had before it the question of admitting women to the office of the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments, again and again in recent years. The question was sent down to Presbyteries last year through the Barrier Act and the result as announced this year at the Assembly in May was, that 42 Presbyteries approved of women ministers and 17 disapproved. It is at the same time significant that as to the members of Presbyteries, 1,817 voted for approval and 1,030 voted against. As Rev. Eric Alexander, Newmilns, pointed out in moving against approval, the Church was divided. He stated that what was being decided was their attitude to the Word of God. He said: “The New Testament is crystal clear on the function of women in the Church of God. It is not the same as that of men to whom the teaching ministry belongs.” Mr Shaw, an elder, said in support of Mr Alexander that all the available Scriptural evidence was against the idea of ordaining women to the ministry.” After a debate lasting only half an hour, a decision was called for by the Moderator of Assembly. When the vote was taken by members standing, more than half the Assembly stood in favour of women ministers and few stood for outright rejection of the proposal. And so women will now be able to enter the office of the Ministry in the Church of Scotland. Without our repeating the Scriptures which clearly condemn this decision; it appears that the majority of ministers and elders in the aforesaid Assembly were not prepared to be guided by the Word of God. They declare by their action that they consider themselves wiser than the Word of God and those who have gone before them since apostolic days and times of Reformation. Of course the fact is, that many who voted in favour of women ministers were quite indifferent to divine guidance. One supporter of this unscriptural action commented that congregations had still the right to decide whether to call a woman minister or not. This was surely common knowledge to anyone come of age, interested in their congregation. And this comment was beside the point as the issue now is that congregations can call a woman minister if they so desire. And so the trend proceeds apace of Church government without regard to the teaching of the Word of God. The Moderator declared that it was an historic decision. Yes! pointing to a phase of a back-sliding Church.
France
Not long ago President De Gaulle of France thought fit to tell Britain to put her house in order economically in the context of the Common Market business. And he has also acted in several ways to indicate his desire to divest France of American influence. In all this he appeared to show the recovered greatness of France politically and economically. Thereafter, during the recent riots, strikes and industrial revolts, France was at one point thought to be on the verge of civil war. God reigns and He reigns in providence in the Kingdom of men. And He can wound the pride of self-sufficient and mighty men in their own estimation. God speaks at times to nations and rulers by dark providences and says, “Hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it.” “Be wise now therefore, O ye Kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”
Assassination of American Senator
The world knows all the details of the shooting of Senator Robert Kennedy, in a Los Angeles hotel, on 5th June, by a 23-year-old Jordanian, and of his death some hours later. This terrible act has shocked people everywhere as much as the assassination of his late brother, President John Kennedy of America. Words fail to express the enormity of this diabolical act and crime and the sympathy felt for the Kennedy family under the grief of this second calamity which has overtaken them. We wrote of violence in our last issue as a present day outstanding manifestation of the wickedness of men’s hearts in a godless generation. Murders are being committed frequently in Britain and a day or two before Senator Kennedy was shot, a man in the South of England was found in his car shot dead through the head. Why we mention the case of the man in the car, is to indicate that violence and murder are rife and deliberate forms of active wickedness. Disturbed social background and mental instability will not explain away the most of such cases today. Much is now being said in the United States and Britain regarding the need to eliminate violence and to return to the “rule of law”. The professing Christian Church exists in the United States and Britain. Is there, as we firmly believe, a deplorable lack of teaching and witness as to the divine character and claims of the moral law, the law of God, throughout the Churches? It is all very well for the Archbishop of Canterbury to deplore the death of Senator Kennedy by the murderer’s bullet; yet he supported a Bill in the House of Lords condoning immoral acts of men. We cannot expect such leaders in the Church to teach the truth as to the nature of sin as transgression of the law of God and that the wages of sin is death, even eternal death. Men outside and inside the professing Christian Church may reject the doctrine of the Word of God and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ as to the depravity and sinfulness of man’s heart; but men are demonstrating by their wilful and evil conduct that the Word of God is the truth. The United States, Britain and other nations need to be confronted with the law and the Gospel of God and a day of the power of the Holy Spirit to bring men under the searching light of the righteous law of God and the saving influence of the gospel of God’s dear Son.
Roman Catholic Advertising
The issue of the Scottish Daily Express for 4th June, 1968, carries a large advertisement, with a message for Roman Catholics. The word “Roman” is, of course, omitted in all references to that Church. It is a call to continue the work of the Apostles carried on after Pentecost. The message states that the R.C. bishops are asking Roman Catholics to accept a New Pentecost, and to devote themselves to the work of their Church, to make the voice of the Church heard clearly. The message states “We must ask for money”. The appeal is for £200,000. The full message was read by a layman in every pulpit of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. To carry on the work of the Apostles, the R.C. Church will require to see to it that the exact and full gospel which the Apostles preached, is declared to their people; that the Lord’s Supper is observed and not the superstitious Mass; that there be no Pope to dictate to the Church; that the Confessional box be done away with as the Apostles had none and that their people be exhorted to confess their sins to God Himself through Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and sinful men, and to look for forgiveness through Christ’s shed blood alone; that Cardinals, Archbishops, ‘bishops’ and Jesuits, etc., be done away with as foreign to the Apostolic Church; and that the dogma that none can be saved outside the pale of the Roman Catholic Church be blotted out, as sinners have been, and are saved through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified being applied to their souls by the power of the Holy Spirit within the realm of the Churches following faithfully in the footsteps of the Apostles and Reformers. The Pentecost that Britain needs is not the increased activities of Roman Catholic laymen, but the real Pentecost; an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all the people of our nation, and connected with the preaching of the whole counsel of God, as preached by the Apostles.