Repentance
In December 2023, John Stevens, National Director of The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), wrote an article in the publication, Premier Christianity, on the Church of England General Synod’s decision to allow a trial of prayers to “bless” same-sex relationships. In the article he said, “It is important to be clear that it is not sexual sin that disqualifies people from the kingdom of God, but the failure to repent and to receive the forgiveness Christ offers. To continue to live in sin, proudly refusing to repent, is a sure sign that a person is not in the kingdom. This is true not just for sexual sin, but other sins which are equally contrary to the clearly revealed will of God.” He added, “To allow people to think that they can enjoy forgiveness and the gift of eternal life while continuing in sexual sin is not loving”.
In a follow-up article for Premier Christianity, Jayne Ozanne, Director of the Ozanne Foundation (which supports LGBTQ+ organisations) and a former member of the Church of England Synod, who describes herself as a “gay evangelical”, took exception to Mr Stevens’ suggestion that repentance was necessary for salvation, saying she wanted to share the “good news” that repentance is not “central to our salvation”. She argues that the thief on the cross did not repent; he acknowledged that he had done wrong, recognised who Jesus was and asked to be with Him. But according to her, he did not repent, and this is an example of the unconditional love of Jesus.
She goes on to say, “Discerning whether or not something is a sin that needs repenting of is a different matter. The key thing, though, is that if repentance is not a salvation matter, Christians can agree to disagree on what is or is not sinful without it causing such huge ruptures in the Church. A prime example of this relates to the question of sex between two loving adults of the same sex who are in a committed relationship. I personally believe this is something God wants to bless and celebrate; others don’t. We are never likely to agree on this, but if it is not a salvation issue, we should be able to agree to disagree and move forward.”
So there we have it; according to people like Miss Ozanne, we are at liberty to agree among ourselves about what is sinful, and therefore there is no need for upheavals in the Church of Christ. The law of God is to be regarded as flexible, to be disregarded or interpreted as we wish, because the love of Christ is without conditions. According to Ozanne’s version of the gospel, there is no need for repentance even if Christ loves us savingly, a version very attractive and appealing to the natural heart.
However, “what saith the Scripture”? “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye
repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Lk 13:5). “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in [Christ’s] name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Lk 24:47). Repentance does not save one, faith in Christ does, but none are saved who do not have repentance. It has been said that the sorrow of repentance and the joy of remission of sins are inseparable twins until the day of death. Hebrews 6:1 speaks of “the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God”. The message that Christ came with was: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). We can leave it at that, but there are many more Scripture examples of the call to, and the necessity of, repentance.
The advocates of the LGBTQ+ cause may re-interpret the Word of God in whatever way they wish, in an endeavour to neutralise what the Lord calls sin, but God will have the last word, and He “commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). FRD
Education’s Necessary Relationship to God and the Bible
Education in the schools, colleges and universities of the United Kingdom is, for the most part, no longer Christian. This is also true of education at every level in much of the world.
Many Christians would agree that education should ideally be distinctively Christian. However, they are concerned lest that might mean their children would receive a sub-standard education. Others would argue that all education should be unashamedly Christian and biblically-based but with standards of education that are at least on a level with the best of other academic institutions. There would be but few seriously minded Christians who would doubt the need for Christian Education: the difficulty lies with the many significant and practical problems associated with providing Christian Education in our day.
Recognition should be made of the Christian teachers and others who have done their utmost to ensure that biblical standards have been maintained as far as possible, notwithstanding the significant opposition many have encountered: they are to be complimented for their sterling endeavours, as should be the endeavours in this connection being made by our Church.
Arguments for Christian education today would be akin to those propounded by our godly forebears during the Protestant Reformation and the following centuries. They appreciated the need for youth to be educated, and educated correctly in the fear of God. Accordingly, they established schools and other institutions of learning and provided teachers to give instruction based on the Bible and the Church’s confessional standards.
Like us, they believed that the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word are to be
demonstrably central in every area of life. Everything that relates to man and his life here in this world is to be viewed directly and indirectly in its relationship to Almighty God and the complete revelation He has given of Himself in His Word, the Holy Bible. This is our God’s clear mandate, which the Church of God is required to proclaim and advocate vigorously to all peoples worldwide in every generation. There is no room for compromise or to question such an essential foundation as the Holy Bible.
Almighty God is infinite in all His being. He is infinite in His wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Therefore man can have no comprehension or even proper conception of any facet of wisdom, knowledge and understanding if these terms are not defined by, based upon and directly related to God and the revelation of Himself in His Word, the Holy Scriptures.
Throughout the world, there is an almost immeasurably vast array of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding on numerous subjects available to man. But even this stupendously great body of material in its totality is to be seen as comparatively nothing when contrasted with Almighty God’s complete, utterly comprehensive, infinite comprehension of all things – from all eternity! He is infinite: there is nothing that He does not know. Therefore, whatever knowledge men or women acquire, be they of the most outstanding intellect, who have spent the entirety of their lives researching their fields of expertise, they will have derived all that they profess to know about these subjects from the resources that God (their Lord and Creator) has Himself provided. Thus it will not be new knowledge, a new understanding, or new wisdom, unknown or only partially known before, but what has been, from everlasting, fully comprehended in God’s infinite knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
Sadly, in most schools, colleges, and universities in our land and overseas, the subjects on the curricula are taught and often required to be taught as though nothing in them has any direct or indirect reference to God the Creator or to the Bible. God and the Bible should therefore be completely ignored, and everything should be taught from what they call a wholly neutral perspective: with no definitive standards of truth and morality, everything can be examined neutrally. However, there is no such thing as neutrality: one cannot operate in a spiritual vacuum. Therefore pupils and students are educated without reference to the being of God and the Bible, which is a most biased perspective that leans wholly toward the humanistic antagonism that characterises atheistic rebellion.
Whilst Christian and biblical perspectives are wholly ignored, the demonic and mystical religions of Mother Earth, occultism, luck and fortune are more likely to be mentioned with favour than the one true and living God, our
Creator and Lord! Therefore the great majority of the pupils and students in our educational institutions are taught what is mainly humanistic or heathen, and indeed anti-Christian. Education needs to be accurate and balanced, and therefore it needs to be Christian and not the atheistic brainwashing that fits so well with the “woke” mentality prevalent among many engaged in the instruction of the young today. Of course, this is nothing new, but there has been an increasingly significant slide into this mischievous morass of deceptive and unscriptural teaching in recent years.
Whether professing Christianity or not, our children, grandchildren, and all the young of our lands need to be taught, to the highest standards, what is true, accurate and beneficial. Therefore, notwithstanding all the many difficulties, let us pray that as at the time of the Reformation, all that is taught in the home, church, workplace and educational institutions will be founded upon God and His Word. We are God’s creation; He is our lawgiver. He has revealed in His Word what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.
Since concluding the draft for this note, the writer has found an excellent paper on the subject, “The Myth of Religious Neutrality”, by Tim Dieppe, Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern. It may be downloaded at: https://d.pr/ALaxwi. DPR
Genetic Diseases
In recent years, an increasing number of “monogenetic” diseases have been identified. These are diseases that arise from the possession of a single abnormal gene. Depending on the circumstances, the possessor of the abnormal gene may not manifest the disease but is likely to pass it on to the next generation. Thus loving parents find that they have entailed an unpleasant health problem on their children and grandchildren; and the same disease may recur down the generations of a family.
As in so many other areas, the natural world is here providing an illustration of the spiritual world. We are all naturally under the imputed guilt of Adam’s sin (“As in Adam all die” (1 Cor 15:22)), and we all inherit Adam’s spiritually dead and corrupt nature (“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps 51:5)). Furthermore, in providence, God often deals with subsequent generations according to the conduct of their forebears: “Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them
that hate Me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments” (Deut 5:8-10).
These spiritual truths are generally denied by an ignorant world which fails to make the spiritual connection between parents and children. The genetic discoveries, however, are showing that there is a very close connection between the generations in natural diseases, and why not then in spiritual matters? God does not make a fresh biological start with each generation; neither does He make a fresh spiritual start. We have to live with the spiritual legacy of those that have gone before, and especially of Adam, and others will have to live with our spiritual legacy.
DWBS