The Christian and the State in Revolutionary Times, being papers read at the Westminster Conference for 1975 — pages 110, price 70p
The Westminster Conference which met in London in December 1975 had before it a subject of particular relevance for the present day, the position of the Christian in relation to certain well defined periods of important, historic change. The papers read at the Conference are given in these six studies in this booklet.
The first paper by Graham S. Harrison on Luther and Calvin states in its opening words: “With hindsight we can see in the era of the Reformation the origins of the modern world”. Though so diverse in their characters and methods of working, it was nevertheless the great concern of Luther and Calvin to preserve the work of the Reformation. In a later paper, the just remark is made: “Luther and Calvin probably saved the Protestant Reformation”. The next paper on the Anabaptists by Alan F. Kreider considers the radical and often violent views of the Anabaptists which threatened the existing order of the Europe of the 16th century. This is followed by a careful and well informed treatment of the Scottish Covenanters by Prof. G. N. M. Collins. Puritan England is the subject of the paper by Peter Lewis, which estimates the strength and weaknesses of Puritanism in England in the 17th century. The next paper on Christian Thought and Action during the American Revolution sees the inspiration behind the American struggle for independence, as neither evangelical nor even religious, but a ‘national religion’ as a blend of unitarianism and fervid nationalism. As in past Conferences, the concluding paper on the French Revolution is given by Dr Martin Lloyd Jones and in a wide survey of that terrible catastrophe and its aftermath brings us into the modern age.
Of these Conference Papers, perhaps those of greatest interest for our readers are the papers on the Scottish Covenanters and the French Revolution. Prof. Collins recounts once again the most important events of the Covenanting struggle and shows that the contentions of these godly men and women who suffered for their faith were founded upon the absolute inerrancy of God’s Holy Word. It is refreshing to have once again the account of this important period of Scottish Church History in this concise form.
Dr Martin Lloyd Jones in his paper covers the large period from the 18th century French Revolution to the present day. “The French Revolution”, he says, “was in reality a new religion and not a political theory”. He quotes the words of Stahl: “The liberty of England and of America is permeated with the breath of the Puritans, the liberty of France is permeated with the breath of the Encyclopaedists and the Jacobins”. Not all, however, will endorse some of the views expressed in this paper. The Church-State relation, so fiercely attacked by Dr Lloyd Jones, may not have worked out well in actual practice, but is nonetheless a scriptural doctrine. The view that the coming of Christ will alone produce the perfect society needs qualifying and fuller definition. The pessimism of the concluding paragraphs, no doubt induced by the bleak prospect that faces the modern world, is however belied by the hopes held out to the believer in the predictions of the glorious millennial age of the Church which still lies in the future. Dr Martin Lloyd Jones gives a clear and most helpful estimate of the political and religious forces which are at work in Britain today which we consider the most valuable part of the whole of these conference studies. These papers are well prepared and documented, and will repay careful study.
A.F.M.