A review of newspaper articles on the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland makes sad reading. The opinions of religious liberals and of secularists jostle with one another, but the voice of Christ speaking in His Word is scarcely heard. The Assembly decided by 369 votes to 189 to proceed to the next step in ordaining openly-homosexual ministers. The legislation to this effect was transmitted to the Presbyteries for their approval. It is something to see such a degree of opposition, even when so many professing Evangelicals have already left the Church of Scotland.
A former moderator (male) caused a stir by reviling the congregations in
the Skye and Lochcarron Presbytery which had refused to allow last year’s Moderator (female) to visit them. Apparently only 30 parishes out of 1400 do not now have female elders, but even these few witnesses are enough to trouble the consciences of those who are going against the Bible.
The most interesting report was of a minister who was about to resign because the Church “was not following Biblical teachings”. The report condemned his lack of ability “to effectively lead, manage, and encourage” parishioners, and found that his preaching was “repetitive, negative, uninspiring, and failed to express the joy of the New Testament”. Probably it was the gospel that was actually being characterised in this way. The New Testament message which the General Assembly, and the secular journalists who commented on it, need to hear is the warning that Christ addressed to the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Mt 23:33). “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt 18:6). DWBS
The Third Way
A new website called “The Third Way” has been set up by a number of prominent scientists dissatisfied with Neo-Darwinism. The blurb states: “The vast majority of people believe that there are only two alternative ways to explain the origins of biological diversity. One way is Creationism, that depends upon supernatural intervention by a divine Creator. The other way is Neo-Darwinism, which has elevated Natural Selection into a unique creative force that solves all the difficult evolutionary problems. Both views are inconsistent with significant bodies of empirical evidence and have evolved into hard-line ideologies. There is a need for a more open ‘third way’ of discussing evolutionary change based on empirical observations.”
A pro-Evolution website comments: “The folks at The Third Way are correct that thought about evolution is in a state of high ferment. That is the great forbidden fact that popular science reporting and commentary conceal from the public. Scientists increasingly sense the inadequacy of Darwinian theory and are looking for a replacement. This ferment is by no means driven by religious fervour, but instead by the recognition of “significant bodies of empirical evidence” at odds with neo-Darwinism.”
It is interesting to see these open admissions that Neo-Darwinism is in deep trouble as a scientific theory. In its place comes this unknown “third way”, as unbelieving scientists search desperately for some alternative to the biblical teaching of Creationism. DWBS
Retirement of Free Church Minister
The Free Church website carries some reflections of Rev Alex MacDonald, Buccleuch and Greyfriars, Edinburgh, who is retiring after more than 40 years in the ministry. Mr MacDonald recalls some of the significant changes in the Church in which he has had a major hand; for example, the introduction of the NIV in meetings of the Glasgow Presbytery in the 1970s, and the introduction of hymns and musical instruments in public worship in 2010. When Mr MacDonald applied for the ministry he appeared, by his own description, as “a long-haired hippy . . . in a lime-green shirt” before a committee of “sombrely clad men”.
On several subsequent occasions he was unexpectedly shielded from criticism or discipline by conservative ministers in the Church. Such men should have been wiser, and realised the changes that men like Mr MacDonald were likely to bring in. “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” (1 Cor 5:6). DWBS
Nationalism and Faith
Political nationalism in Scotland has coincided with increasing secularisation and the legacy of the social revolutions of the 1960s. It is no surprise therefore that the independent Scotland dreamt of under the current leadership is almost uncompromisingly secularist. Yet man is a religious creature by nature and replaces belief in God with faith in something else. In the case of the independence movement there is a strong belief in national separation that often appears to reject all facts to the contrary. The case presented would seem to require a large degree of blind faith as well as emotion, simply on the basis that much of the real detail is entirely lacking or unclear.
Writers such as Tom Gallagher argue that the SNP “sees nationalism in highly emotional and messianic terms and seeks to revamp society to make it more responsive to its vision for Scotland” (The Illusion of Freedom: Scotland Under Nationalism). One only has to listen to the number of times that the SNP urge the verb believe upon us. In a recent conference speech, Nicola Sturgeon hailed with mystical awe “a common belief in independence. Not for its own sake – but because of what it will enable us to do. It is a belief founded on democracy.”
The dark side of that dream is the inevitable tension and division introduced into the social fabric of our family of nations by this aggressively secularist belief system. “A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends” (Prov 16:28). Enough has also been witnessed in recent months of Scottish politicians crusading in the redefinition of marriage with a religious zeal that would accommodate no dissent, in order to make one truly
fearful of the further outworking of the secularist dream of independence. It is a determination to ridicule and alienate those that uphold biblical morality. This is the spirit of those who wish to shape an independent Scotland for the rising generation.
In his days at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Alex Salmond adorned the wall of his office with a quote from the Marxist Tom Nairn, to the effect that Scotland would only be free when the last Presbyterian minister was strangled with the last copy of the Sunday Post. For all its malicious humour, this reveals something of the “freedom” sought in the substitute-religion of the independence movement. “Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?” (Jer 8:9). MV
Islamic Sharia Law
Starting in June, the Law Society of Great Britain is running a series of training seminars in Islamic Sharia law. It has already published guidance on Sharia trusts and wills, for solicitors with Muslim clients. These trusts and wills invariably discriminate against women and certainly against non-Muslims. This new course will further inform mainstream lawyers as to how Islam legislates for its own people but also, crucially, for those who are not its people. The Society states, “Our guidance is intended to help our members better serve their clients’ lawful instructions on the distribution of assets, including those who may adopt Sharia principles as far as is allowed by the law of England and Wales”. However, in an editorial, the Telegraph newspaper warns, “Promoting Sharia is part of the radicals’ anti-integration agenda”. Is the Law Society colluding with this agenda?
Last year Prime Minister David Cameron, announced plans for Britain to become the first non-Muslim nation to offer a Sharia Law Bond. Proposals to issue the £200 million bond were set out at a World Islamic Economic forum last November. All dealings in this bond will be done in the context of Sharia law. The Prime Minister’s wants London to equal Dubai as “one of the great capitals of Islamic finance anywhere in the world”. In addition, the Treasury is putting measures in place to enable the Islamic Bank of Britain to participate in the Government’s “Help to Buy” mortgage scheme. All these measures are tending to validate Sharia law in Britain.
Concerned groups have voiced fears that this law could soon gain equal status with UK law and a group called Sharia Law – Britain’s Blind Spot warns that many senior British figures desire a full Islamic state in our country. And when we observe recent government legislation, it is clear how quickly undesirable changes can occur. Indeed Sharia law is already said to be operating unofficially in some mosques and Islamic communities. There
are 2.7 million practising Muslims in Britain and many demand the right to conduct their affairs within their own religious framework. Baroness Cox, a tireless campaigner against Sharia law, warned some two years ago that Sharia is “effectively a parallel quasi-legal system operating within some Muslim communities”. These are sobering words.
Sharia law is brutal, like the religion behind it. Persecution of Christians is inherent in its statutes as is the subjugation of women. If any man converts from Islam to Christianity he is sentenced to death. Most women suffer the same fate although some schools of Sharia law consider women to be so inferior that they are “just” to be imprisoned until they recant. In Islam a child inherits religion from its father and is registered as such at birth. A Muslim man may marry a Christian woman but their children must be Muslims. However, Sharia law forbids a Muslim woman to marry a Christian. He must first convert to Islam and their children will then be born Muslim. The system thus lends itself to the rapid growth of the Muslim population in any country. Muslim girls can be coerced into underage marriages. Evangelical Times has reported that “children as young as nine had been forced into such marriages in Islington. At least 30 such unions had taken place in 2010”. This is essentially legalising paedophilia and condemning young girls to a life of misery.
The inhumanity of Sharia law has been brought into sharp focus by the shocking treatment meted out to 27-year-old Sudanese doctor, Meriam Ibrahim. She claims that she was brought up in the Christian faith by her Ethiopian mother and never practised Islam. Her Muslim father had left home when she was six; yet the authorities insist she is Muslim. When she married a professing Christian, Daniel Wani, the Sudanese annulled the union because Sharia makes it illegal for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim. Meriam was sentenced to 100 lashes for “adultery”. When she protested that she was a Christian she was sentenced to death for apostasy.
In February she was imprisoned, with her 20-month-old son, and shackled to a filthy cell floor in a Khartoum prison. There she gave birth to a baby girl at the end of May. Her husband, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, is allowed to visit them for only 20 minutes twice a week. This Islamic state intends that, whatever happens to Meriam, her children will be brought up Muslim and their father will not get custody: such is the barbarism and bondage of Sharia law. This tragic case has provoked international outrage and numerous appeals for her release, but at the time of writing she remains in prison and her sentences still stand.
In response to understandable concerns in Parliament and elsewhere, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling seeks to assure us: “Sharia law has no jurisdiction
in England and Wales and the Government has no intention to change this position”. However, several MPs are not reassured and are pressing for an inquiry into the extent of Sharia law’s influence in this country. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair possibly came near the truth when he acknowledged that Islam “is destabilising communities and even nations. It is undermining the possibility of peaceful co-existence, in an era of globalisation. And in the face of this threat we seem curiously reluctant to acknowledge it and powerless to counter it effectively.”
Only the Lord in His great mercy can deliver our backsliding nation, and other nations, from the tyranny of false religions. Once our laws were based on the Word of God; now many are contrary to it. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day had a multiplicity of man-made laws, keeping people in bondage and away from the truth. To them and to the other Jews, the Saviour said, “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31,32). He says the same to us today.
KHM
Three Parents for a Child?
The UK is considering if it should allow the creation of babies from three people to avoid children dying from mitochondrial disease, which, in severe cases, leaves them with insufficient energy to keep the heart beating. A scientific review suggests that the form of IVF involved should be safe, and the Government backs the idea. In a very brief comment, one can only point to the creation principle quoted by the Saviour: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Gen 2:24). This is the context in which children are to be born. Not even the great sympathy we have for those whose children are so weak that death ensues can allow us to depart from Scripture principles.