Thanksgiving Wisdom: 2. Scripture and Knowledge

The coronavirus virus has done strange things to people's view of science.  People have disregarded it and depended upon it all at once.  Not two groups of people, one disregarding, the other depending, but a kind of overlapping internal confusion.  

Christians have struggled with this too:  praying for a cure from science and from God and not sure if God likes science.  Praying to God about the worrying data and fearful modelling while wanting to ignore the fear and trust 'the promises'.

John Robinson offered this wisdom to his people: 

When we avow the Scriptures perfection, we do not exclude from men common sense and the light of nature.  Yea, we ... beg of God as necessary for their fruitful understanding the light of His Holy Spirit.

Or to put it another way. the Scriptures teach us that God is the giver of all good gifts, so the benefits of science are from Him.  The work of scientists using the light of nature and common sense is no less from God than the Biblical promises they (maybe unwittingly) fulfil by supplying us with more safety. 

A (Short) Text for Blue Monday

It's Blue Monday again - the (allegedly) worst day of the year.  The festivities have gone, the winter hasn't and the New Year resolutions are unresolved.

Many people who have been taught the Bible as children have also been wedged full of statistics and verse numbers, books with the most chapters, middle verses and the like. 

Outstanding in this series of not-very-useful information (for none of it is any use at all when trying to help someone understand God's word for them) is the shortest Bible verse.  It is so short and memorable it has become a kind of moderate English expletive:

JESUS WEPT.

Perhaps it's the text for Blue Monday?

Just as well, then, that this is not the shortest verse in the Bible at all.  Only in the English Bible.  Originally written in Greek, the shortest verse in the New Testament is found in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians: just fourteen Greek letters:

Translation : BE JOYFUL ALWAYS. 1 Thessalonians 5:16

It's also just the antidote for Blue Monday.

Unknown

These moving Bible words are found on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, just inside Westminster Abbey,

THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE
HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD HIS HOUSE

It was the first such tomb in the world, though many nations have since followed suit. The soldier's corpse within was chosen by a series of randomisations to make sure he was absolutely unknown. The Tomb says so much about the impersonality of War and its random destructiveness of young and other lives.

It is an extraordinary place, and deeply moving.

Strangely, it is also one of the most astonishing misuses of the Bible to be found anywhere. For the text is adapted from the Chronicler's statement at the end of the life of a priest named Jehoiada who was responsible for God's temple in the days of King Joash. Sure, he was buried among the kings but once you get past that observation the text is vexingly inappropriate. For a start, he was not unknown.

Not only that, he was a man who spent his life in Temple service (while Joash went around killing people as a soldier-king). Jehoiada was the very opposite of a soldier.

Perhaps the weirdest thing of all is that Jehoiada lived to 130 years old - in the words of the text he died 'full of years' - which is the exact opposite of what makes the young soldier in that Abbey tomb a reason for poignant remembrance.

Indeed, the more I think about it the more I struggle to imagine a more inappropriate epitaph. It is as if someone selected words from the Bible in as random a way as they selected the corpse to bury. Which is sad because the Bible has plenty of poignant and meaningful things to say for such a place and for such a day as today when we remember the waste of human life.

For example, how about the following which combines both the meaning of the tomb and the meaning of the Abbey:

Gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.

World Cup Blogs 10: England

Let FIFA,the governing body of the World Cup,  tell the story . . .

The contemporary history of the world's favourite game spans more than 100 years. It all began in 1863 in England, when rugby football and association football branched off on their different courses and the Football Association in England was formed - becoming the sport's first governing body

So there we have it.  England are not only at the World Cup - England is the origin of the sport that the World Cup is about.

Though England is not the largest or most populous of nations it has been the place where many benefits to humankind have begun apart from sports like football, rugby and cricket.

Only this week I was reading about the start of the (now worldwide) Hospice Movement - in England.  Penicillin was a great discovery that certainly delays many of our admissions to hospices and the like.  Viagra (no further comment).

Of less life-saving significance the textile industry spawned many inventions including the sewing machine and polyester.  Then there's pencils, bone china, typewriters, radio, the world-wide web, carbon fibre, tin cans for food, light switches, stainless steel, the tuning fork, DNA sequencing, the seismograph, seat belts and toy building bricks (Lego later obtained the patent and the rest is history).  Yet this list is but a tiny sample.

Of more direct interest to this blog are those Christian ministries which started in England.  The Salvation Army, the Baptist Missionary Society (followed by very many others),  Methodism, the Quakers, the King James Version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer.   These spiritual gifts to God's world are much disregarded today and are quite similar to football (and Lego bricks) for though beginning in England many of the blessings from God are today valued more and used to far greater effect by other peoples of the world.

Losing what you launched is a nuisance for football and toy bricks but in things spiritual it is catastrophic - so here's (part of) the dying prayer of one of the great shapers of England, Oliver Cromwell:

Lord, though I am a miserable and wretched creature, I am in covenant with Thee through grace. And if I may, I will come to Thee for Thy people.
Thou hast made me, though very unworthy, a mean instrument to do them some good…and many of them have set too high a value upon me, while others wish me dead and would be glad of my death.
Lord, no matter how thou dispose of me, continue to do them good….Forgive their sins and do not forsake them, but love and bless them ...
Teach those that look too much on Thy instruments to look more upon Thyself. And pardon ....the folly of this short prayer and give me rest for Jesus Christ’s sake, to whom, with Thee and Thy Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, for now and forever, Amen

Concerning Donkeys

If God rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) – if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.  This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord. But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed – an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.  But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey – an animal without speech – who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

I was reading an article by a (Baptist as it happens) Christian who referenced the thoughtlessness of people who believe too easily - say in (to use his words) talking donkeys.  It was an interesting thought to publish, especially as the article had an overall heading containing two New Testament verses.  

This is why it is interesting:

1.  It is not wise in the same article to claim the authority of the Bible by text headings and undermine it by throwaway insults aimed at the same source.  And this is an abiding problem in the church.  Most unbelievers I meet don't really believe the Bible is true but explicitly or implicitly seem to grasp that if they did believe it they would believe just about all of it.  Christians, on the other hand, notably as they get older (when they rather need the Bible to be largely simply true you might think given their shortening days), jettison bits and pieces unaware that they really have nothing left to meaningfully believe. The ageing article writer suffers this curse I think.

2.  It is not wise to ridicule what the apostles and post-apostolic era church straightforwardly believed and recorded.  They are the source of what has been handed down to us, not least about our Lord.

3. The plural in the writer's article is interesting and a device that is frequently misused by peddlers of falsehood.  There are not talking donkeys.  There was ONE donkey that talked, and it not as a rule! Specifically 2 Peter references what we know by broad experience - donkeys don't talk. Balaam was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey – an animal without speech – who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.  The donkey that carried our Lord into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday said nothing (well, quite a lot - but not verbally). But once . . .  Similarly you do not make light appear by speaking.  But once . . .  Similarly, you do not leave an exit for corpses to leave the tomb.  But once . . .

4.  Where is the madness in the Peter reference?  Not the donkey; not the people who believe that the Creator of donkeys can utilise one to speak; the madness is that of a prophet who will not take God's side.  And in 2 Peter, the main danger for religious teachers, preachers and article writers does not appear to be animals that are momentarily like humans but humans who traverse the other way: Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord. But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

Sunday in Aberfan

This morning at Church we thought about what it must have meant to the Christians in Aberfan when, on this day (Sunday October 23rd) in 1966 they gathered for worship after a generation of the village's children had been buried in the catastrophe that was marked in its anniversary on Friday.

Who can imagine what that felt like?  We can't.

But we thought about a man who did - Kenneth Hayes, the Baptist pastor of its Chapel.  One of his two sons had died that awful morning and he led his remaining congrtegation on that shocking Sunday.

You can read about it here.

In this darkest of experiences the light was the great promise of God's word: 

 'What can separate us from the love of God? I am certain that nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither death nor life, neither angels or other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future..."

Baptist Assembly Lite

I haven't been to Peterborough often.  For an FA Cup game years ago, and to visit the Cathedral is about it.  I've felt a little inclined to visit Kingsgate Community Church - obviously because it's an Evangelical honeypot, but also because I've appreciated Dave Smith's biblical ministry.  It's amazing what can be achieved with the Holy Spirit, the Word of God and a heart for outreach.

I gave the Baptist Assembly a miss this year.  It occupied the Peterborough building that Dave and others minister in (though it isn't big enough for them in one sitting).  Soberingly, the Baptist Movement [note our new word] fitted in at one sitting comfortably.  I've been speaking to several friends who went to find out what (apart from gender balance - we won an award, you know) I missed.

First the good news:

1. I didn't miss any preaching and certainly not any Biblical exposition.  Squeezed down from three days to one, some things just have to go.  How about the preaching of the Bible?  I wonder if any of those responsible pondered at all about the symbolism of meeting in a Bible Church that has grown exponentially and ditching the Bible?    Click here to listen to Dave Smith preaching from the Bible for 40 minutes.

2. I did miss the opening (let the Baptist Times describe it) Ed Jones invited three Regional Ministers onto the stage and asked them to place a toilet roll on their heads - and unroll it as quickly as possible. This was to emphasise that the Assembly was intergenerational.  This defies comment.

3. I didn't miss (what I have often found the most moving of things at Assembly) the individual recognition of those who have died, and those others about to be recognised in ministry and mission.  They were, instead, made part of a wall which is a nice thought provided they are also given some individual named space too.  No time for that this year of course.

4.  I didn't miss the joy of meeting lots of people I've not met in years or ever before and spending time talking with them.  No time for that this year of course.

Now the bad news:

And lastly, I really must get to the Kingsgate Community Church some time .  It's amazing what can be achieved with the Holy Spirit, the Word of God and a heart for outreach.

Election

Last Sunday we had an Election Hustings at our Church.  We were very grateful that all the candidates were willing to turn up (which was something the BBC didn't achieve with the party leaders . . .!).

One reason why they turned up is probably connected to the work of the Churches in the community and this was referenced by several of them.  Indeed, in a manner not noticed on TV when MPs are interviewed they were almost all keen to stress some participation or support for the work of the churches.

The Bible didn't do as well.

The issue, as ever with the Bible, is the issue of authority.  No candidate is overly keen to feel bound by an old set of books.  Whilst the Churches represent something splendid in community voluntary work the Bible represents something like the Monarch's throne in parliament - a piece of history that represents an old, discredited authority.

The tour guide in the Palace of Westminster stands by this painting in St Stephen's Hall, the place where the Commons formerly met. She explains some of the momentous things that happened here in days gone by.  She cites most approvingly the efforts - at this very spot - by which William Wilberforce led the brave and challenging political fight against slavery.  She omits to mention the picture,  It is of the English people reading the Bible despite persecution.

So much of what is strong about our nation is not, historically, attributable to the Church.  It is attributable to the Bible.  This has been recognised at coronations as on the walls of parliament.  If only it were recognised in the Palace of Westminster; in this society; in the church, even.

Leadership

A Son's Tribute - Last Gasp

We chose this hymn for my Dad's service.

On my Birth Certificate he described his occupation as evangelist.

It fell to me of course to describe his occupation on his Death Certificate.  Evangelist, I said to the Registrar.

She looked at his age in his mid-eighties.  "That's retired?", she suggested.

I hesitated.  He had been in hospital only once in his life really, those last weeks.  He had told the doctor that he was not afraid to die because he was a Christian and trusting in the Lord, one of the nurses who passed his Bible over to him to read each day had been given it to read for themselves.  Perhaps he was an evangelist still.

 

Then again, I thought, this is a Death Certificate.  He may have been evangelising until his final breath but there was a final breath.  There are no evangelists in the presence of Jesus.  Only retired ones.  Evangelist (retired) then.

A Son's Tribute - Enduring

As my Dad lay in hospital for the last month of his life the only book he had with him was his Bible.  He was very sensible.  It was the Word that would outlast him in the most emphatic of ways - for ever.  So at his Thanksgiving Service we read . . .

 

¹Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

² Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

³ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

⁴ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

⁶ The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

⁷ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

⁸ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

 

This Old Testament reading appears, at casual reading, to be a strange combination of comfort and brutal truth.  After all, what real comfort is their that God has forgiven us (2) when we are all on the way out anyway (7)?  All that lasts is the echoing voice of the Divine (8).

 

It all hinges on what the Word of the Lord actually says.

 

If the enduring Word of the Lord had said, "Good Riddance" we could hardly blame him.  But the Word that outlasts our little earthly life-slot speaks instead of eternal salvation.  We also read . . .

 

¹And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

² And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³ And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

 

The Word that lasts is the Word that brings the greatest comfort of all.

 

 

 

 

 

Para-translation

The Paralympics are a great tribute to Great Britain which seems so much more able to celebrate diversity and integrate disability than many other cultures.  I suspect this has much more to do with its Christian Heritage than the Big Bang that the opening ceremony lauded but, hey.

Samuel Sherechewsky was also suffered from becoming largely paralysed.  He was in the process of  translating the Bible into Wenli Chinese so paralysis was apparently terminal to that task.  Yet he had a typewriter made to construct the characters necessary and with his one useful finger continued the task.

He sat for twenty years.  Of course this is not what was to be expected of the Bishop of Shanghai.  His life that had carried him to China from Lithuania via the United States had certainly not been sedentary before. "It seemed very hard at first", he reflected, "but God knew best.  He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted."

Lost Lamplighters

Four hundred years ago Thomas Helwys founded the first Baptist congregation in England.  This inspired our Baptist Assembly in London this year.  Helwys wrote of the pre-Reformation days recently past that they were the depth of all darkness, when men might not know what God speaks to them because the Bible, the Scriptures, were not read and available in the language of the common people.  He also bewailed the Established Church of his day - What does it profit the king's people to have the Word of God to hear, and read it, seeing they are debarred of the Spirit of God to understand it other than by the one interpretation by the lord bishops . . .?

Somewhat following Helwys's tolerant ethic (though in truth he was not himself very tolerant of others) the Baptist Union has a minimalistic Declaration of Principle rather than any kind of Creed.  It begins . . .

The Basis of the Baptist Union is: 1.  That our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures . . .

Having dispensed with the Pope, the lord bishops and an agreed interpretation of most things scriptural it may be thought that the Baptist Union's components have much in common with a queue of traffic in Victoria Street. A kind of intersecting without meaning.  

But no.  We gather under the headship of Jesus Christ.  And the revelation of our one, sole Authority is found in the Holy Scriptures.  The Living Word is the One that I authenticate in the Written Word.  We may differ in interpretation at times but the root of things is Scripture and there alone.

The logical outcome - whether reviewing Spitalfields in 1612, the life of Baptist Christians before or after the Union's founding or the worldwide expressions of Baptist fellowship (for the most part) - is that a Baptist Assembly will be short on heirarchy but in no imaginable circumstance will it ever, could it ever, be legitimately short on the Holy Scriptures.

Last time I was in a big meeting in London it was the Memorial Service for Anglican evangelical John Stott.  On that occasion, notwithstanding his extraordinary life, there was an exposition of the Bible (of course). Peculiarly, as we Baptists stare into a bewilderment of changing circumstances, the Holy Scriptures did not really attend the Assembly.  I defy any visiting Martian to work out that, once the new President has signed the President's Bible, it had any further centrality in the unfolding acts of programmed singing, screen presentations, dance troupes, story-telling talks, lectures and seminars on history or practice, prayers and appeals for money. We movingly 'recognised' ministers (?of the Word) - without using the Word.  We had a 'Futures' discussion. This plenary and axiomatic discussion was conducted almost in its entirety without any reference to Scripture at all.

I do love Tony Campolo's testimonial stories (though I have heard them enough times now that they might legitimately form part of my testimony too . . .), but this is not what Helwys was fighting the king for.  Even in Helwys's day - even for that matter in pre-Reformation England - you could tell stories all day long.  It was for the Holy Scriptures and ordinary people's access to them that our earliest forebears stuck their necks out. For freedom, yes - the freedom to hear and handle the authoritative Word of God.

Reading others blogs I think I am not alone in these observations but I did not make these observations in any consultation with others - it just hit me very strikingly (perhaps the more so because I missed the Communion Service which may have been the exception to this).

I dread future discussions on contentious issues if we do not centre on Scripture far, far more than this.  I understand that at the last Baptist Union Council a creative soul draped a blue cloth down the centre as a symbol of getting in the flow.    If we don't start centering on the only authority that Baptists can legitimately claim to have - the lamp that guides us into the future -  we might find it more symbolic (and it would save money) just to turn out the lights.

John Stott

John Stott's death yesterday ends a wonderful life in this world that made the Bible live for generations of us.  As a young professional in London I can remember hearing him expounding the Word of God, in those days as Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church, Langham Place.

Expounding the Bible is not the Baptists' strongest point.  A testimony here, a thought there, a cup of coffee, a prayer meeting for revival . . . I think I would have never understood the richness of Bible exposition were it not for those days in All Souls.  My Council Estate ears struggled with his Queen's Chaplain voice but that was a small discomfort in return for understanding that the Bible speaks when the preacher allows it to do so.

Thank God that today there are others of influence, not least in North America, who are dedicated to letting Scripture speak.  Blessed indeed is the Church that, although it has different expositors, only ever has one speaker - the Word of God.  And in John Stott's ministry All Soul's was extraordinarily blessed over a generation, and so were countless others throughout the world.  I thank God for him.

Rest Home to Royalty

A day of days in our nation!

While crowds risk their lives in the political turmoil of the Arab World in this undeservedly blessed land we crowd to see a glorious celebration of human love at the centre of our national life.  We have every reason to give thanks to God as we observed the elevation of Kate Middleton to the heart of the Royal Family.

And in it all one Scripture Reading.  It was beautifully read and a majestically suitable passage for a marriage.  And a great deal else.  For just yesterday afternoon I was reading that same Scripture from Romans 12 and from my point of view it had made a journey at least as dramatic as Kate Middleton!

The setting I read it in had been a little different: the hearers were in single figures, one was in not the transcept exactly but in her bed with the door open next door, their average age at or around 90 years and more, and walking frames replaced State Coaches while a CD recording replaced the Westminster Abbey Sub-Organist, choirs, fanfare trumpeters and the English Chamber Orchestra.  Yet to these elderly saints in the rest home as we shared Communion the apostle's words were still rich and replete with meaning and significance.

I won't forget today anyway, but if I were to do so Romans 12 would always remind me of God's timeless word, a victory of faith over fashion.

Forfeit

Sword drill.  Ah, those were the days.  For my daughter, church youth is about conferences and  worship bands that imitate the third support act in a gig with Christian multi-media half-whizzy imitations of secular videospeak. 

But I had sword drills.

Perhaps it is wise that in an era when religion is the more associated with acts of violence there are no longer sword drills.  But I should point (sorry!) out that these exercises did not take place in open fields behind the church building skewering dummy infidels.  Rather it was a reference to the Bible - the Christian's sword - and a hunt for words in a given chapter.  

"1 Chronicles 6 and the word is bias".  (Difficult one that actually).  Whoever shouted out the right verse number got a point.  Such innocent, non-techy pleasures . . . .  All of which introduced me emphatically to the Bible as a weapon, the alarming results of which are visible in this photograph.

What good is it for a man to gain the world but forfeit his very soul?  So reads the text.  And beneath it the squashed remains of the irritating fly that made preaching a misery for the short time before it innocently landed on the page carelessly misreading a combatant preacher honed from a young age to using the Bible as a weapon.

Though as I best recall the idea was that the Bible was only a weapon when it was opened.  I can now confirm it is also a weapon when shut - rapidly.

Father

Last Weekend it was sunshine, seaside and reflecting on the Love of God.  I guess any made-for-Christian-TV commercially put-together set of Bible texts has its limitations but I think this video captures something important about the nature of God which religion often misrepresents.

Happy New Year!!

Here's a cracking topical 2011 challenge.

Click here for a whizzy  website all about the King James Version of the Bible, 400 years old in 2011.

Found the site?  Great.



Now see how long it takes you to find the following people on its pages:

1.  Queen Elizabeth II

2.  Prince Charles

3.  King James

4.  Boris Johnson

5.  Jesus of Nazareth

Hint: One of these characters is, er, devilishly hard to find . . .

Calvin

500 years ago today John Calvin was born.

His influence on the Christian church is immeasurable, remaining so today. Week by week, sometimes day by day, he mounted the pulpit steps in Geneva to deliver expositions of the Bible. Like us all, he had his faults and his foibles, but he was one of the greatest examples of a truth sometimes lost in the pulpit - that God should be given the microphone.

In other words, people do not benefit from knowing what the preacher thinks, any more than hearing what the local supermarket manager thinks. Bread for the soul is served when God's word is allowed to speak and the preacher is but the channel - God, in other words, is handed the microphone.

Sola Deo gloria - to God alone the glory.

Sweden

Someone asked me an obvious question, "Was it cold?".

Perhaps we can clear that one up with a couple of pictures;

I'm very grateful that several people helped to make my visit to Sweden worthwhile by giving me people I could visit.

Any Pastor visiting Stockholm is likely to find himself looking up the Filadelfia Church. For much of the 20th Century it was the largest Pentecostal Church in the world and although we have become accustomed to megachurches in contemporary-style buildings it is amazing to think that this cinemalike building was constructed in the 1930s. It was great to be shown a glimpse of the work of this great church.

Lewi Pethrus was Pastor for nearly half a century and was one of the instruments by which Pentecostalism became a great force in northern Scandinavia (though the original Filadelfia Church was that of T.B.Barratt in Oslo, Norway, perhaps the true Father of European Pentecostalism). Today, in this tradition, one of Europe's largest congregations gathers in the modest-size city of Uppsala at Livets Ord (Word of Life).

Lewi Pethrus began ministry in a small Baptist Church before the Swedish Baptist Union dispensed with him. Not so many kilometres from the Filadelfia Church I was shown round a more modest Baptist Church to which I had been pointed by a contact in Stockholm. The friendly man who showed me round was at pains to tell me what they weren't.

"In Sweden we are not conservative," he smiled. "I wish George Bush had never been born." (A comment that struck me as somewhat obscure to the purpose of a Swede explaining the church's work to an Englishman). And then out of the blue this classic comment,

"I've been coming to this Church for over twenty years and I've never heard hell mentioned. Not once, praise the Lord!"

So were the seats of this church in which you had a cat-in-hell's chance of hearing about hell filled with grateful, positive worshippers? You can probably guess the answer is No. "Young people round here are really sad. There have been a lot of suicides. But they never even think about Church."

A reasonable estimate of the Gospel material from the mouth of Jesus (as some miltant atheists have also pointed out) is that 10% of it is about hell, judgment and/or eternal punishment or loss. Jesus was switched on to a lost world. There is no more point in a Church in a lost society not mentioning hell than there is in an ambulance crew not wanting to upset anyone by flashing blue lights and sounding a disturbing horn.