Developing a Christian Worldview

Ronald Nash • Time stealers • Rings: A Christian masterpiece • Charles Colson

f ebruar y 2004

Developing a Christian Worldview

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WORLDVIEW

Thought-provoking: Ronald Nash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

A capital idea: John Arton-Powell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Train a child: Conrad Nixon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

BIBLE STUDY

From the beginning

20 studies on Genesis 1-11: Bruce Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

NEWS

Across Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Around the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

On the Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

REFLECTION

In the wasteland: Douglas Kelly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

CULTURE WATCH

Ringing endorsement: Albert Mohler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

An ecumenical Luther: Sarah Hinlicky Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

CHRISTIAN LIFE

Stolen moments: Suzanne Eller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

PRAYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

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BACK PAGE

Postmodern crack-up: Charles Colson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

A U S T R A L I A N P R E S B Y T E R I A N • 3

February 2004No. 556

Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer blamed the West’sgrowing irreligion and lawlessness on the Church’sfailure to apply its worldview to every aspect of mod-ern life. “The basic problem of Christians in the last 80

years or so,” he said, “is that we have seen things in bits andpieces instead of totals.”

While Christians have warred on single-issue fronts suchas pornography and abortion, Schaeffer claims that we have“failed to see that all of this has come about because of a shiftin the worldview – that is, through a fundamental change inthe overall way people think and view the world as a whole”.In short, Christians, like an army in full retreat, have surren-dered vast tracts of intellectual territory to their opponents.

However, “surrender” is not a word that should exist inany Christian’s vocabulary. Abraham Kuyper, the 19th cen-tury Dutch theologian, put it well when he said: “There is notan inch of the entire domain of our human life of whichChrist, who is sovereign of all, does not proclaim, ‘Mine!’”

Kuyper’s claims of the intellectual superiority ofChristianity were rooted in the teaching that God was theCreator and universal Lord. The fact that God created theheavens and the earth demonstrated that all knowledge origi-nated in God and found its ultimate meaning in Him. Further,God’s exhaustive revelation of Himself in Christ underscoredthe relevance of Christianity to every sphere of knowledge.

In philosophy, literature and language studies, for example,Christ is the eternal Logos (Word) (Jn 1:1). In biology, He is“before all things and in Him all things hold together” (Col.1:17) and in economics, Christ is the Proprietor of all things(1 Cor. 10:26). This means, as Carl Henry reminds us, “thatthe Christian belief-system is relevant to all of life”. Our taskas Christians is to “take every thought captive and make itobedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

How? We need to cultivate a Christian mind and preparefuture generations to do so. The Church has a vital role toplay in education by showing that Christ is Lord over allthings. It is part of our Presbyterian heritage to recognise theimportance of Christian schooling and higher education. Wehope this issue advances that cause.

Peter Hastie ap

THE AUSTRALIAN PRESBYTERIAN (ABN 81 498 399 755): The national magazine of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. Editorial committee: Peter Hastie (NSW) Themes Editor;Barney Zwartz (Victoria) Production; Stuart Bonnington (Victoria) News Editor; Tracy Gordon (NSW), World News Editor. Graphic Design: Sandra Joynt for A&J Moody Design:www.ajmd.com.au. Advertising and subscription inquiries: Walter Bruining, PO Box 375, Kilsyth 3137; Phone: (03) 9723 9684. Subscription: $35.20 a year inc. GST; bulk (etc)$31.90 each inc. GST. Office: PO Box 375, Kilsyth 3137. Phone: (03) 9723 9684. Fax: (03) 9723 9685. Email: [email protected] Printed: PostScript Printing, Eltham Vic.(03) 9431 3414. Published: Monthly except January by the National Journal Committee of the Presbyterian Church of Australia; Convener Peter Hastie. Opinions expressed are thoseof the contributor and not necessarily those of the PCA, the editor or the committee. Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement. Contributions: Submitted articles are welcome. The deadline is the first of the previous month. Donations are always welcome. Print Post approved 34918100384. www.ap.presbyterian.org.au

editorial

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D r Ronald H Nash is a professorof philosophy and theology atSouthern Baptist TheologicalSeminary, Louisville, Kentucky.

He was formerly a professor of philoso-phy at Western Kentucky University andat the Reformed Theological Seminary,Orlando, Florida.

Dr Nash holds a PhD in philosophyfrom Syracuse University, New York. Hetaught his first philosophy class in 1957and, in a teaching career that spans 45years, has been able to make philosophy“come alive” for the lay person. He is aprolific author who has written or editednearly 30 books, many of which are still inprint, including The Concept of God, Faithand Reason, Is Jesus The Only Saviour?,Life’s Ultimate Questions, When A BabyDies, The Meaning of History andWorldviews in Conflict. He also has aseries of audio lectures of four of his sem-inary courses, free of charge, fromwww.biblicaltraining.org. He is glad tocorrespond with readers [email protected].

Dr Nash lives with his wife and chil-dren in Florida and commutes to

Louisville each fortnight to fulfil his lec-turing obligations at SBTS. He is passion-ate about preaching the Gospel and wasone of the most popular speakers at arecent National Apologetics Conferencein Charlotte, North Carolina, which iswhere Peter Hastie caught up with himfor this interview.

Dr Nash, you’ve devoted a lot of yourteaching as a philosopher and theolo-gian to the notion of worldview. Whythis area?

Early in my teaching career, I learnedhow important worldview thinking is.Everyone has a worldview that influ-ences everything we do and think.Wrong worldviews often function asobstacles to people hearing and believingthe Christian message. When webecome Christians, we are supposed notonly to behave like Christians but also to

think like Christians, both of whichrequire knowledge of the Christianworldview. Knowledge of worldviews isessential to evangelism and discipleship.I first wrote about this in my book Faithand Reason.

But something very important hap-pened in the early 1990s. I was invited togo to the Soviet Union to give a series oflectures to teachers on the differencesbetween the Marxist and Christian world-views. This was a marvelous opportunityto put my worldview message into a pack-age that I would share on a more popularlevel. I saw amazing things happen. I real-ized that worldview thinking could be aneffective tool in missionary and evangelis-tic work that eventually reached severalthousand Russian intellectuals.

At the end of the lectures, large num-bers of people in my audiences came upand told me that before that day, they hadno idea what a worldview is; they had noawareness of the implications of the athe-istic, naturalistic worldview they had beenindoctrinated in and, before that day, theyhad no idea how superior the Christianworldview is.

W O R L D V I E W

Thought-provokingYour worldview governs how you live. Analyse it.

Ronald Nashtalks toPeter Hastie



Why does the Bible teach that whatwe believe about God is the mostimportant thing about us?

Every sensible person knows thatwithin his or her total belief system, somebeliefs are more important than others.Well, the most important of all the signif-icant beliefs in any human’s life concernwhat he believes about God. These beliefsnot only affect your eternal destiny, theyaffect whether your life will achieve thepossibilities that God created you for.The organisation known as CampusCrusade for Christ encapsulates this in ashort but powerful message: “God lovesyou and has a wonderful plan for yourlife”. When you get your thinking straightabout God, you suddenly realise what itmeans to be a creature related to God.You realise that you have life-changingduties to God and to other human beings.You come to understand that God is onyour side in the battles of life.

Let me come back to the question ofwhy worldview thinking is impor-tant.

I define a “worldview” as the sum-totalof answers that a person gives to life’smost important questions. A worldviewcan have either a powerful, positive influ-ence on us or a negative one. A worldview,even when it is functioning subcon-sciously, shapes, determines, and influ-ences the way we think and act. So ifthere’s something like this going on insideof me, I need to know about it.

One of the reasons why many peoplearen’t serious about the Christian faith isthat they have not grasped the total, com-prehensive view of life and the world con-tained in the Christian worldview. ManyChristians tend to think that the majorteachings of their faith are somehow dis-connected from the rest of reality. But alltruth is God’s truth. We need to makesure that what we believe about psychol-ogy and history and the nature of the uni-verse fits together in a logically coherentpackage. We cannot hold mutually contra-dictory beliefs and still claim to be rationalin our thinking. All of the things that wethink we know must end up being consis-tent. If my understanding of humannature conflicts logically with my under-standing about ethics, I’m not going to bea very good parent, or a very good scholar,or teacher, or human being. And this truthalso applies to my children.

Is it important to understand why webelieve things?

It certainly is. Obviously, when a child

is very young her ability to understandthings is rather limited. There are timeswhen it is difficult to reason with a child.But as children grow and mature, theyincreasingly want reasons and we shoulddo our best to provide answers that fit thecircumstances. Parents have to get readyfor the day when their children will eitherget the answers from them or from thewrong people.

Christian parents do their children adisservice if they don’t give them goodreasons for their beliefs. The first daythose kids enter the wrong secondaryschool or college, other people will befeeding themfalse beliefs andbad reasons.Consistent withour children’slevel of matu-rity, we need toground them inthe Christianworldview.

C h r i s t i a nkids should geta good intellec-tual training athome so whenthey go to college, their faith is not up forgrabs. Every summer, I teach thousandsof high school and college students at ayouth ministry in America called SummitMinistry (www.Summit.org). Last month,David Noebel, the leader of the Summit,met people in New Zealand to discussstarting Kiwi sessions of the Summit.Perhaps the greatest reward from the off-campus parts of the ministry is to run intoyoungsters years later who thank me forteaching them how to think, how toground their thinking on the Bible and theChristian worldview.

Why are most people unaware oftheir worldview and the patterns ofthought that shape their identities?

There are lots of things that contributeto their lack of intellectual self-awareness.Some of the more obvious factors are sin,laziness, and emotionalism. We need toremember that feelings are usually morepowerful than the mind for most people.

I am not suggesting that people shoulddenigrate their feelings and emotions.That would not be helpful. It is alsoimpossible. But Christians certainly needto recognise that living primarily at thelevel of our emotions is not biblical. Godhas made us thinking beings. We’re calledto develop our intellects, acquire informa-tion, learn how to use it, and master logic.

We need to study theology and philoso-phy just as we need to know music, art,and the sciences. I hope this is not a sur-prise for Presbyterians. Remember thatJesus tells us that the first and greatestcommandment is to love the Lord ourGod with all our heart and soul and mind.Christians must not forget the mind! Oneof the horrible things that is happening inAmerican government schools at themoment is the almost constant attack onthe minds and hearts of our children.

How do our built-in conceptual gridsact as filters that process the informa-tion that we gather?

First of all, your question recognisesthat all of us are subject to internal mentalgrids which act as filters. That is true.Sadly, this sometimes means that the truthdoesn’t get through. It’s blocked out.What many people don’t realise is that weactually have two kinds of grids. The firstis a kind of intellectual or cognitive grid,which is linked to our underlying world-view. This means that if you come upagainst a hard-core atheist he is usuallynot going to be open to any argument forGod’s existence. He has a series of built-in assumptions which make it very diffi-cult for any evidence about God’s exis-tence to even get on the table. But peoplehave another grid too. This grid is a non-cognitive one. It’s affective. It has to dowith feelings. A good example would beprejudice against people because of theirethnic, racial or religious background. InAmerica, this plays out in the form of big-otry against evangelical Christians.

What all this means is that we have towork on two levels. We have to look fornon-cognitive or non-intellectual consid-erations in a person’s make-up that canprevent the truth from being understood.But we must also remember that cognitivefactors can equally prejudice our recep-tion of the truth. A bad worldview or falseinformation can leave us intellectuallycrippled too. For instance, some peoplemay be impressed by as little as oneunsound argument against God’s exis-tence. On the basis of that limited infor-mation they mistakenly decide that themany other sound arguments for God’sexistence have no merit.

Clearly some pieces of informationthat form part of our thinking are notcrucial to our approach to life. Whatare the most important elements inour thinking that shape our convic-tions, attitudes and behaviour?

There is no one answer to this ques-

We need tostudy theologyand philosophyjust as we needto know music,art, and the sciences. I hopethis is not asurprise forPresbyterians.

tion. Many events and experiences havebrought each of us to our current situa-tion in life. Francis Schaeffer talked aboutsomething he called “pre-evangelism”.Before we can get very far doing evange-lism or discipleship, we need to know asmuch as possible about the present con-tent of the person’s worldview: how he orshe got here, what good and bad influ-ences have operated in the past, what mis-conceptions the person might have aboutthe Bible and Christian doctrine, whathang-ups the person has, and so on. Ourtask as witnesses is to seek out the realreasons, known and unknown, why thisperson in front of me does not knowChrist as Saviour.

Do people who share the same world-view have to agree on every issue?

Of course not. I wouldn’t want to givethe impression that people who hold tothe same general worldview will necessar-ily agree on everything. Even Christianswho should share common beliefs onsuch essential issues as the Trinity, thetruth and ultimate authority of the Bibleas the Word of God, and justification byfaith, often disagree on other importantmatters. For instance, they may under-stand the relationship between the sover-eignty of God and human freedom in dif-ferent ways. They may disagree over howsome revealed law of God applies in spe-cific situations. We often find thatChristians argue passionately for oppos-ing viewpoints on complex issues like thewar in Iraq, national defence, the deathpenalty, capitalism and the welfare state,to say nothing about the issues that divideChristendom into different denomina-tions. I have written about how we shouldhandle our differences in my book GreatDivides: Ten Issues That Come BetweenChristians.

On what major issues must there beagreement between people who sharethe same worldview?

Well, I’ve just said that the most impor-tant part of a person’s worldview consistsof what they believe about God.Obviously there’s no room for compro-mise in this area. If you want to call your-self a Christian, you had better be in linewith the historic creeds of the church.Although theological liberals claim thatthey are Christians, they actually fall out-side this camp. When they deny the his-toric Christian position on the Trinity, theincarnation, the inspiration and authorityof Scripture, miracles, human depravityand salvation by grace, they indicate that

they have departed from a Christianworldview. In that sense they are nolonger entitled to describe themselves asChristians. They have become propo-nents of a different religion.

We come next to issues of metaphysics.In this area we deal with questions such asthe relationship of God to the universe. Isthe universe eternal? Or did an eternal,personal, and all-powerful God create theworld? What must Christians agree uponhere? I think that Christians must agreethat the universe had a beginning in timeand that its beginning is directly related tothe sovereign choice of the sovereign Godto create the world out of nothing. Wemay have our disagreements over the ageof the earth, but we cannot disagree with

the doctrine that God directly created theworld ex nihilo.

It might help a lot of people to knowthat 30 years ago, I woke up one morningand decided I was a theistic evolutionist.This is the theory that God used evolu-tion to bring living creatures to what theyare today. I often read evolutionists talk-ing as though evolution were some kindof intelligent force guiding the process.One day I stopped, looked at all theempty holes in the evolutionist scenario,and asked myself what I was doing, whatreasons had I ever found to be a theisticevolutionist. I discovered I had none. Itwas just pure intellectual laziness. I reallydidn’t want to study the evidence. It was alot easier to say “well, this is just the wayGod did it”. Finally, after years of study, Iabandoned my evolutionary views. Givenall the tremendous amount of informa-tion now flowing out of the intelligentdesign movement, that was clearly thesmart thing to do. I have tried to sum-marise how each new discovery from theintelligent design movement reveals theemptiness of the pseudo-science of evolu-tionary theory in Life’s UltimateQuestions.

I want to make one final point on thisquestion. I think one of the more distress-

ing things taking place in AmericanChristendom today is that people withinthe wider evangelical community are hav-ing difficulty deciding what is central andwhat is peripheral in our faith.

There was a time in my life when Ithought that the Calvinism/Arminianismdebate was peripheral to Christianity. Ofcourse, every properly educated Calvinistknows better. It is now clear to me thatmany of the bad things going on inAmerican theology are the logical conse-quences of Arminian theology cominghome to roost. The issues relating toGod’s knowledge of the future (open the-ism) and whether people need to believein Christ to be saved (theinclusivism/exclusivism debate) are goodexamples of this. While I don’t want to beunkind to my Arminian friends, they needto realise that Arminianism and Calvinismare two different worldviews. They areessentially two different views of God andof salvation. This is foundational material.

How crucial is worldview thinking tothe clash of civilisations taking placeat the moment?

That’s a complex question. Clearly, Ithink it’s possible to argue that the rise inIslamic terrorism has occurred becausemany Muslims believe that jihad (striv-ing/holy war) forms a core belief withinthe Islamic worldview. While there are dif-ferent interpretations of jihad withinIslamic tradition, there is no doubt that asignificant number of Muslims believethat it calls for armed struggle against theWest. Hence we are facing a clash of civil-isations.

Recently I have taken a closer look atthe Koran. A friend warned me that mostcopies of the Koran available in the Westhave been heavily edited in ways that elim-inate most of the references to violenceagainst non-Muslims. To see this, it is nec-essary to read an unabridged copy of theKoran. When we read more deeply in theKoran, we also find a competing view ofGod. As you know, it is inexcusable todeny the many differences between Allahand the God and Father of our Lord andSaviour Jesus Christ. We are talking aboutradically different views of God and radi-cally different worldviews. I think theterm “clash of civilisations” seems a rea-sonable description of what is going on atthe level of worldviews in the Bible and inIslam.

Obviously I hope the terror stops. Ipray that people who are moderateMuslims and respect the right of otherpeople to disagree with Islam will gain the


W O R L D V I E W

Before we canget very far

doing evange-lism or disci-

pleship, weneed to know

as much aspossible about

the person’sworldview.


ascendancy over the terrorists. But I’malso a realist. I’m not sure that’s going tohappen. Unfortunately, I cannot yet seeany genuine attempt among Islamicscholars and ideologues to evaluate theirworldview using some of the standardtests that we apply to the Christian world-view in the West. If they were genuinelyseeking after truth they would do it.

Is it possible for Christian apologiststo try to connect with people whohold different worldviews? How canit be done?

Oh, yes, it’s certainly possible. I thinkthe first thing you have to do is test theirsincerity. Are they open to believing in theGospel? There are people who say “proveto me that God exists!” In this case, agood first response is to say: “Tell me,what sort of proof would you accept?”Their answer to this question will show ifany of your arguments will work.Obviously, if you are dealing with aninsincere person who is not interested inlistening to any of your arguments, thisquestion will flush him out. To offer argu-ments to such a person is a waste of time.It would be better to explain worldviewthinking to him and begin a dialogue thatmight open some doors in the future.

However, sometimes you will find thatyou are in the presence of a genuineseeker, someone who doesn’t believe inthe existence of God but appears to begenuinely open. Effective Christian wit-nessing to such a person might mark thebeginning of a long journey.

I was greatly influenced a number ofyears ago by a book, Belief in God, byGeorge Mavrodes. George is a Christianphilosopher who taught at the Universityof Michigan. He advises Christians toview their arguments for God’s existenceas tools. If you have to pound a nail into apiece of wood, you don’t want to use aputty knife. So try to figure out whichtool, which kind of argument, wouldwork best with a particular person. If youtry it and it doesn’t work, don’t lose con-fidence in it and throw it away. It mightwork for somebody else. Just go to theshelf and find another tool that might dothe job.

As a philosopher/theologian I’m abeliever in what’s called ReformedEpistemology. I know it’s a big-soundingterm but essentially what it means is thatGod has implanted in every human beingthe implicit belief that He exists.Therefore my task as an apologist is not tofill up an empty head and heart with infor-mation, but to find a trigger, something

that will kick-start that innate belief thatGod exists in every human being. Myaccount of this material can be found inmy book Faith and Reason. Now I’m alsoa Calvinist, and I recognise that if an argu-ment works to lead someone from unbe-lief to faith in Christ, it is because ofGod’s election and the work of the HolySpirit. My arguments are just the tool orinstrument that the Holy Spirit uses.

How do we evaluate a worldview?What are some of the tests that youapply?

First, it is very important for us torealise that worldviews must be tested. Ifwe don’t test belief-systems, then we’reignoring Scripture which commands us to“test the spirits”. I recommend four tests.The first of these is the test of logic. I’ll bethe first to admit that logic by itself is nota sufficient condition to know the truth,but it certainly isa necessary con-dition. That is,the mere factthat severalbeliefs are logi-cally consistentdoes not provethey are true, Butpresence of a log-ical contradictionin your beliefsystem is proofthat there is anerror somewhere. A system should belogically consistent.

Second, there is the test of outer expe-rience. Our worldviews should fit theworld outside of us. We have a right toexpect that worldviews touch base withour personal experience of the real world.For instance, take a look at the worldviewof the American cult known as ChristianScience. It asks us to believe that there isno death, pain or suffering. People whobelieve this way are clearly at odds withthe real world.

The third test is the test of inner expe-rience. Worldviews also need to fit whatwe know about ourselves. Examples ofthis kind of information include the fol-lowing: I am a being who loves, thinks,reasons and believes. I have a conscious-ness of moral right and wrong and a senseof guilt for failing to do what is right. Iknow that someday I will die but I havefaith I will survive my death.

Carl Sagan was probably the mostfamous naturalist of my generation. AsSagan lay on his death bed, he called hisyoung son over to his bed, rested his hand

on the boy’s head, and said, “I love you,son.” That simple sentence was actuallylogically incompatible with Sagan’s world-view. Since Sagan’s worldview denied theexistence of God and any transcendentvalues, the kind of transcendent love hehad in mind when saying goodbye to hisson does not exist in Sagan’s cosmos. In amaterialistic-naturalistic world, things likeconsciousness, conscience, guilt, duty,obligation and agape love do not exist.This is part of what I mean by the test ofinternal experience.

Finally, we have the test of practice. Isyour worldview something that you canlive consistently? Does it work in the lab-oratory of life? Or does it fail dismally?Several of my books argue that as non-Christians seek to live out their world-view, they cheat. They sneak in assump-tions stolen from the Christian world-view, such as Carl Sagan’s notion of tran-scendent love. So there are four tests of aworldview. Whatever a person’s world-view, it should meet all these tests beforeyou embrace it.

When people adopt illogical orpoorly-grounded worldviews, howlong does it take before they realisethat their view of life is defective?

In the case of many people, it neverhappens. Many people die before theyever realise how inadequate their world-view is. And the eternal consequences ofthat are not pleasant. Something has tohappen in order for people to wake up. Inthe first chapter of Life’s UltimateQuestions, I relate the true story of a ladywho had abandoned the Christian faith ofher parents for a version of radical femi-nism. Years later, she began to test herpagan feminist worldview in light of thefour tests I mentioned a short while ago.For example, she applied the test of outerexperience to her feminist belief that allmen are evil. The three men she knew bestin the world – her father, brother, and hus-band were good, not evil. One pillar ofher anti-Christian worldview collapsedimmediately. Then she turned to the testof logic. Employees at the women’s shel-ter where she worked were cheating intheir use of mathematics and statistics inorder to justify dishonest billings.Eventually, after her pagan worldviewfailed other tests, she know that she hadto find another worldview. She turnedaway from her anti-Christian feminismand returned to the Christian faith.

When we consider a worldview issuethat’s related to salvation and spiritualmatters, it’s got to be the Lord who brings

If we don’t testbelief-systems,then we’reignoringScripturewhich com-mands us to“test the spirits”.

about the change in worldviews. He mayuse human beings, but in the case of thisdear lady, there appears to have been nohuman agent involved. She just came to anawareness that her pagan feminist world-view was intellectually bankrupt.

I met another lady recently who hadbeen deeply involved in the New Age,astrology and witchcraft. Then she beganto get impressions that the New Ageworldview was wrong, that she shouldabandon it, and that she should go tochurch. She did and had a marvelous con-version. After hearing her testimony, Iasked her: “Did you recognise that it wasthe Holy Spirit who was leading you awayfrom your New Age beliefs? Could youtell the difference between the evil influ-ences you had been following and theleading of the Holy Spirit?”

Interestingly she said, “I know it’s hardto explain but I knew which spirit was thegood one and which one was bad. BeforeI became a Christian I had a spirit-guide.And the day I went forward and made apublic commitment to Christ, the guidewas in my room and he was mad.” And Isaid: “You might as well know it. I havegiven my life to Jesus. So I want you to getout of my life.” And he left. Marcia’sexperience is a reminder that God canbring things about without any apparenthuman intervention.

Is it hard for people to undergo dra-matic worldview changes?

Not when God is in it. The book ofActs tells us about one of the toughestcases, Saul of Tarsus. What was his great-

est ambition? He was dedicated to eradi-cating Christianity. Then, suddenly, hemet the risen, living Christ and his world-view changed. For some people there is along struggle. Others people have a sud-den, dramatic conversion similar to Paul.

In my own case, I was just a fairly typ-ical, unbelieving teenager. I wasn’t anatheist. My problem was that I had neverheard the Gospel. I remember one daythat I began to get impressions that Ishould be going to church and I told mymother. I was just 13 or 14 at the time. She

asked me if I wasill, if I had a fever– just because Iwas going to goto church.Because I knewnothing aboutChristianity, Iended up goingto a liberal churchwhere I suspectthat the gospel

had not been preached for 50 years.Immediately, I sensed something waswrong.

Then a couple of weeks later I went toa church that believed and preached thegospel. For the first time in my life I hearda preacher explain John 3:7: “You must beborn again.” I can remember thinking atthe time “where has that been all my life?”In my case, the conversion to Christ camefirst; grasping the importance and contentof the Christian worldview took muchlonger. C.S. Lewis went also through twoconversions. The first was a worldview

conversion. He abandoned his naturalisticworldview for the Christian worldview,but he wasn’t a Christian at that stage. Healso had to have a religious conversion.

What is your great concern aboutparents sending off young people toChristian colleges?

This is a major burden of my life. As aChristian professor I feel a real sense ofresponsibility in directing people to edu-cational institutions where they will betrained in rigorous Christian thinking anddiscipleship. That means that sometimes Ihave to warn people to stay away fromsome professed Christian colleges.Because these colleges are businesses andsometimes think of students more interms of the money they bring with them,they often try hard to hide their liberal-ism.

The sad fact is that many so-calledChristian colleges in America do notdeserve our trust because they are con-trolled by administrators and faculty whoare ignorant of the war that is taking placefor people’s minds or who themselves arein the process of going liberal. Sometimesthere are members of faculty who areplaying around with worldview issueswhich are contrary to their school’s doc-trinal statements. Carl Henry, the greatAmerican theologian who died last year,once said “there ought to be a way to suesome so-called Christian colleges for falseadvertising”.

When I pick up a Christian magazineand I see college advertisements saying“your child is safe with us”, and I knowwhat’s really happening in that school, Iget angry about the dishonesty. So I pub-lished a couple of books about how tochoose a college. I have also been involvedlecturing pre-college kids in Coloradothrough Summit ministry. It’s somethingAustralians really ought to look into. It’slike a two-week boot camp that groundsyoung people in worldview thinking thatgets them ready for college.

If a student stays awake and is abeliever, I think he or she can go to anycollege or university in America and comeout a stronger Christian than when theywent in. They are ready to debate theirposition. They often know more thantheir professors know. Christian parentshave got to stop being passive withrespect to their children’s education. Theyhave to recognise that adolescence is thetime when parents have to get them readyfor the challenges of college or they riskseeing their children wander away fromthe Christian faith. ap

W O R L D V I E W


ST ANDREWS CHRISTIAN COLLEGEENROL NOW FOR 2004, PREP –YEAR 10Are you looking for a school that will support you in your God given duty as a par-ent? Our ethos is to support parents by offering a sound, traditional, academiceducation within a Christian framework. At St Andrews Christian College we want to grow God’s kids, God’s way!If you are looking for a Christian education for your children, come along and seeSt Andrews Christian College — Melbourne’s best kept secret! Our aim is to pro-vide a traditional, academic education within a Christian framework. Find out about our special Primary/Secondary transition programme in the MiddleSchool, the new computing laboratory, Accelerated Reading Programme and ourLEM phonics scheme.For further information, application forms or an appointment with the Principal,Mr. Bob Speck, please telephone (03) 9808 9911.

SPECIAL BENEFITS OF ST ANDREWSComprehensive curriculum & consistently excellent academic resultsJunior and Middle School organizationStrong Creative Arts programmeParental involvement program that ensures a working partnership between staff, stu-dents & parents.Before and After School CareEasy access via public transport

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Christian parents have

got to stopbeing passive

with respect totheir children’s

education.

In the 2003/04 Budget the FederalGovernment said they would spend$75 billion on social security, $31 bil-lion on health, $13.2 on education

and $14 billion on defence over the nextfiscal year. In recent times they have alsoflagged their intention to reform the wel-fare system, dilute unfair dismissal laws,lower the minimum wage and reformMedicare.

These decisions reveal the economicproblem the government faces – they havelimited resources and must decide howbest to use them to ensure their re-elec-tion later this year. The question we needto ask is whether the government’s eco-nomic decisions are guided by a biblicalview of economics, or are they motivatedby self-interest and the desire for stayingin power?

Indeed, what constitutes a Christianworldview of economics, and where doesone exist?

The study of economics involvesassessing the actions and choices of anassumed “rational man” in an environ-ment where man’s wants and needs areinfinite, and resources available to meetthese demands are limited and unequallydistributed. Where most people cannotget access to everything that they mightdesire, they are forced to make choicesabout what they will consume now andwhat they will leave for another day.

Generally, the choices we make will bedetermined by the utility or satisfactionwe get from consuming a particular goodat a given time.

In his book Poverty and Wealth: TheChristian Debate Over Capitalism

(1987), Ronald Nash argues that thechoices man makes as an individual arereflected by the “subjective scale of val-ues” of each individual, and that our dailychoices are those we rank most highly atthe time of consumption. The collectivechoices made by a society will thereforedetermine the total demand for any par-ticular good or service which flows on tostimulate economic activity within aneconomy.

Naturally, there are many issues facingeconomists. For example, they will arguehow the market (where buyers and sellers

meet) should best operate and what rolethe government should have in providinga legal framework for market operationsand manipulation to occur. Economistsalso examine whether it is better for pri-vate individuals or the government toown, process and redistribute resourcesthroughout the economy, and this will bedriven by their socio-economic-politicalworldview.

The worldview of economists willtherefore determine their calls for theextension of Marxist/socialist, mixedmarket/interven-tionist or capital-ist economicideals. The indi-vidual’s world-view will alsoinfluence otherissues, such ashow he/sheexplains the bestuse of resources,why povertyexists and how itcan be eliminated, how we should respondto the call for ecologically sustainablegrowth, and how to respond to the needfor greater inter-generational equity inusing our resources.

For the Christian, there are differingopinions and interpretations as to whatactually constitutes a “Christian world-view of economics” as no such officialview exists in practice. Debate continuesto rage over which existing economic sys-tem best identifies with biblical standards.Some Christians are passionate in theircalling for a greater global shift towardsthe adoption of Marxist/socialist princi-ples, while others are just as vocal in call-ing for an extension of the true capitalistdoctrine to economic policy.

Globally, there is no true capitalist sys-tem for us to examine. Rather, we can onlyexamine and assess varieties of mixed mar-ket/interventionist systems and centrallyplanned Marxist/socialist economic orders.

Most nations have economies that aremixed market/interventionist in naturewith differing degrees of governmentinterventionist policies. Within thesepolitical and economic structuresresources are owned by both the privateand public sectors that will determinewhat, where and how production occurs,and how goods and services are redistrib-uted throughout the economy.

In the centrally planned (socialist)order, the government owns all theresources and makes all economic deci-sions concerning production and distribu-tion. In a capitalist economy the privatesector would own resources, and withminimal government intervention(mainly to protect the consumer) themarket would determine what/how andwhere production occurs. From a purelyeconomic perspective the mixedmarket/interventionist andMarxist/socialist systems do not lead toan efficient use of resources. Within theinterventionist order, capitalists are able toinfluence government to stifle competi-tion and ensure products are more expen-sive to the consumer than they should be.In a Marxist/socialist economy the truecost of production is never determinedand it consequently leads to market failureand the mismanagement of resources.

Both Ronald Nash and E. CalvinBeisner – Christian Economics: A

System Whose Time Has Come (1989) –claim that differences of opinion amongChristians regarding the Christian eco-nomic worldview stems from the fact thatthe Bible is not really an economic manualwhich can be consulted on every eco-nomic issue. Consequently, argues Nash,this has led Christian scholars to adopt a“deductive approach” to economic analy-sis (where scholars have tried to balanceeconomic principles with biblical truth)which has often resulted in many adopt-ing an unchristian basis for their eco-nomic worldview.

Both Beisner and Nash believe thateconomic analysis is a division of ethics.They say a Christian economic theory andworldview involves five basic principlesaccording to which our economic viewsshould:


A capital ideaThere is no “Christian” economic system. But one comes closer.

John Arton-Powell

W O R L D V I E W

Debate continues torage overwhich eco-nomic systembest identifieswith biblicalstandards.

Appeal to Scripture as the supremeethical standard,• Not embrace policies that run contrary

to biblical standards,• Be based on biblical teaching concern-

ing the nature of God and the sinful-ness of man,

• Adhere to the biblical notion of limitedcivil government, and

• Respect the history of Christianthought in ethics.One major issue Christian economists

face in formulating a Christian economicworldview is the state’s (government) rolein the economy. Marxists and socialistscall for increased government control in anation’s economic agenda. TrueCapitalists call for less government inter-vention. Nash provides the example ofSaul (1 Kings 8) to show what transpireswhen government (or an individual withinit) has too much power in controllingresources and enforces a political and eco-nomic agenda on a people. He also citesActs 5:29, 1 Corinthians 6:2 andRevelation 13:3,4,16,17 in support of thebiblical notion of limited government. Hemaintains that economic systems shouldnot be manipulated by powerful politicalforces and argues that government shouldlegislate to ensure “exchange occurs freelywith no coercion, no lying, no fraud, nostealing and no violation of contract”.Outside these parameters, government’srole should be limited.

Beisner argues that when judging orformulating an economic agenda

from a Christian perspective it is neces-sary to examine the issues from the ethicalperspectives of justice, love, liberty, prop-erty and incentives.

The Bible is clear in its call for justice.Exodus 23:3-12 and James 2:1-10 forbidpartiality. This means that every Christianeconomic order must enshrine the notion

of “justice”. The question we need to askis: what is justice?

Nash believes that the redistributiveagenda of those who call for “social jus-tice” within the community has no basisin Scripture. He argues that the OldTestament idea of justice is “righteous-ness” – with the example of Noah beingprovided as a “just” man, one not involvedin “dishonesty, fraud, theft, bribery, andexploitation of the weak, poor and power-less”. He stipulates that the formal princi-ple of justice (dating back to Aristotle)demands that one “treat equals equally,and unequals unequally”.

Many Christians who are sympatheticto a Marxist/socialist agenda have a dis-torted view of the concept and believethat “justice” involves treating all equally –something that cannot be achieved. Nashhighlights the contradiction of the “socialjustice” protagonists in Western MixedMarket economies. In their attempt topromote an egalitarian society, liberals

continually call for more government-funded programs (with little accountabil-ity) to be provided for the disadvantaged.

However, using the socialists’ defini-tion of justice, a question that must beanswered is, is universal justice beingserved within a community when onegroup continually receives more assis-tance at the expense of another?Christians should not be against govern-ment funded programmes; however, itcould be argued that the material princi-ples of justice which determine criteria forredistribution within an economy shouldexamine more than the assumed “need”factor of man – other factors couldinclude the effort, achievement and meritof the recipients and the presence ofaccountability measures in the program(do the recipients begin to help them-selves?). A Marxist and socialist approachwill not, and cannot, bring justice into anyeconomic system.

A Christian economic worldview mustalso give expression to the notion of love.Christians are instructed to love others

and to give generously (2 Corinthians8:7). Can a coercive government’s actionsbe motivated by “love”? Both Beisner andNash argue that governments cannot actout of Christian love. Both concur thatlove is a fruit of the Spirit, which is per-sonal and free. Such qualities are not asso-ciated with non-Christian institutionswhose ultimate sanction is force. Nashstates emphatically that “where force(government action) is present love mustleave”. Beisner goes further arguing that“any economic system that attempts toforce acts of love, such as charitable living,violates the true nature of love” and istherefore not Christian in its ethos.

In the Australian Government’s2003/04 Budget $75 billion, or 42 per

cent, of its spending has been pledged tosocial security programmes. Christianswith socialist sympathies argue that this isinsufficient. However, it is difficult to jus-tify increased expenditures on welfare byappealing to the Christian notion of love,since its application to the state isextremely tenuous. Further, excessivespending on welfare also ensures there isless available to be spent elsewhere (ineducation and health for example) with-out the government going into debt. Inmany instances, the welfare state doesn’tencourage people to help themselves, andit has led to moral disintegration withinsociety. Consequently an in-depth appli-cation and extension of the welfare statein both mixed market and centrallyplanned economies makes no moral oreconomic sense.

In promoting liberty as a Christianideal for an economic system, one doesnot have to advocate a total freedom thatwill lead to anarchy and disorder. Beisnersuggests that any Christian economicorder should provide liberty for individu-als to behave “within the bounds of God’slaw” in their economic decision-making.Nash says that socialist and Marxist eco-nomic systems cannot provide this ideal.He argues that in these systems there isno individual freedom for individuals tomake rational economic decisions forthemselves. In Marxist regimes the stateowns the means of production and deter-mines what, where, how and for whom toproduce. With individuals having limitedchoice in what they can own, produce andconsume, there is limited liberty.

Nash advocates what he calls “true cap-italism”. He argues that a true capitalistsystem provides a “system of voluntaryrelations within which people exchangefreely within a framework of laws that

A U S T R A L I A N P R E S B Y T E R I A N • 1 0

W O R L D V I E W

Nash statesemphaticallythat “where

force (govern-ment action)

is present lovemust leave”.

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prohibit acts of force, fraud, theft, andviolations of contract”. He believes thatminimal state involvement provides theliberty people need to make their owneconomic decisions within a Christianeconomic order.

The issue of private property owner-ship is also central to any study of aChristian economic worldview. ManyChristian socialists have stated that theconcept of private property leads to thedevelopment of an unjust society that isunchristian in nature. They cite Leviticus25 (Jubilee Year concept) as evidence ofthe unbiblical practice of private propertyownership.

Nash counters this claim by pointingout that the Jubilee Year principle neverapplied to property within the walls of acity, and nor did it apply to capital ven-tures (fishing vessels, restaurants, hotels).Instead, he argues that the Bible promotesthe idea of private property ownership,which we see in Abraham’s purchase ofland (Genesis 23) – an “exchange whichoccurred freely with no coercion, nolying, no fraud, no stealing and no viola-tion of contract”. There is no questionthat in owning property and other factorsof production, there is a responsibility onthe capitalist to treat employees fairly andjustly (James 5:1-6). There is also a needfor those who profess faith in Christ toregard themselves as stewards who areaccountable to God for the resources Hehas given them (Luke 16).

Seeing ourselves as stewards also raisesthe long-term consequences (for man andthe environment) of economic action.Keynesian economic thought and prac-tice, which was at the forefront of manyinternational mixed market governmentpolicies for much of the 20th century,encouraged continual government spend-ing to stimulate economic growth. Theresult has been the accumulation of publicand private debt that future generationswill inherit and have to pay – “spend upbig and let the kids pay for it”. This ishardly a biblical ideal.

Further, in using resources Beisnerargues that “man was created to rule

over the earth, not to be its slave, and aneconomic system that puts nature abovehumanity – as do some modern environ-mentalist movements – is therefore sub-biblical”.

Finally, any Christian economic systemmust consider the issue of incentives – ofhow to get people to respond to the pro-vision of goods or services that are beingmarketed. Within a true capitalist “free

market” economy where minimal govern-ment interventionist policies are thenorm, Nash argues that capitalists willprovide incentives in order to convinceconsumers to purchase their product.Within this structure, capitalists will alsobe required to behave with integrity andaccountability – lest they lose marketshare or are pun-ished for hurtingothers.

There is alsoevidence to showthat where incen-tives exist forpeople to work,they will do so.Scripture is clearthat those whocan should work(2 Thessalonians3:7-13). Conversely, in many cases the welfarestate provides people with little incentiveto work and to achieve self-sufficiency.Certainly, when people begin to rely com-pletely on the state for continued, unac-countable support, they will assume thereis no cost for their actions as others areproviding for them. This creates a self-perpetuating culture of dependence.

Amongst the present economic sys-

tems that we see in the world, it is appar-ent that there is no definite Christian one.However, based on the criteria of justice,love, liberty, property ownership andincentives, the free-market capitalisteconomy is more “consistent with biblicalethics than a controlled economy”(Beisner), or indeed a mixedmarket/interventionist economy. Nash isquite clear that he believes capitalism to be“the superior economic system…and thatmore have benefited from the capitalistapproach even within mixedmarket/interventionist nations, than any-one ever did under Socialism”.

The reality is that all current economicsystems fall short of God’s standard for amoral and practically efficient outcome inthe way in which we use the resources wehave been given for the benefit of all.Until larger numbers of decision-makersaround the world adopt a Christianworldview, little will change in the practi-cal outworking of today’s economic sys-tems.

John Arton-Powell is director of activities atTrinity Grammar School, Sydney where heteaches Christian education, economics andbusiness studies. He worships at AshfieldPresbyterian Church, Sydney, where he isan elder. ap

An economicsystem thatputs natureabove human-ity – environ-mentalistmovements –is thereforesub-biblical.

Steve Chalke tells of a woman whowas travelling on the LondonUnderground. She was intrigued bythe behaviour of a businessman

who spent the whole journey studying amap in his diary and comparing the placeson the map with the names on the stationplatforms. Eventually it became clear thatthis man was hopelessly lost and so shemoved next to him and offered her assis-tance.

It was now obvious why this man washaving such difficulty. Not only did hehave very little grasp of the English lan-guage, but he had never previously beenoutside Germany, his diary was Frenchand the map to which he was referringwas of the Paris Metro!

This is God’s world, and nothing willmake much sense if we leave Him out ofthe picture. Without the right worldview,we will always struggle to understand theworld and our place in it, let alone negotiatethe correct path as we journey through it.

So what are the implications for theeducation of children within the schoolcontext? It ought to be said at the outsetthat there is sometimes a tendency to seeeducation within the school as a reli-giously “neutral” activity and to assumetherefore that schools can be left to

deliver the basic facts, while the familyand the church can take responsibility forthe spiritual or moral explanation andinterpretation of such facts. There areproblems with this view of schools.

Firstly, a person’s perception of realitywill always be shaped by the beliefs that

person has aboutthe world at large,and so it is notpossible forschools to teachmere “facts” inisolation fromvalues and atti-tudes. These val-ues will form thecontext in whichsuch facts are

intended to be understood. Therefore, a fundamental question that

ought to be asked is whether such valuesare based upon the premise that humanbeings are autonomous or insteadaccountable to an “outside” authority. Ifone adopts the former premise, then onewill regard that which is right and true asbeing determined by the individual. Thiswould make as much sense as an approachto cricket that required batsman andbowler to come to an agreement as to theworthiness of an appeal, rather thanaccept the umpire’s decision. In a perfectworld, it might be workable. Based on myyears of watching cricket, I wouldn’t re-commend it.

AChristian worldview appreciates firstthat we are not autonomous but

rather accountable to God, and secondthat we have a nature that has been sodrastically affected by sin that we needGod Himself to reveal to us the correctpath to follow, and this He has donethrough the Bible.

Second, the place that is given to Godand the Bible within a school conveys amessage which is anything but neutral. It

might be suggested that provided God isnot being mentioned within school, thenthis represents a position of religious neu-trality. But surely one of the most effec-tive ways of communicating the idea thatGod is irrelevant is simply to leave Himout! By not talking about God in theclassroom, we constantly reinforce theidea that God is of no importance in ourworld. If I turn up at a party and the hostdoes not welcome me, the other guests donot acknowledge me, and I am simplyallowed to remain in the corner withoutanyone bothering me or showing anyinterest in me, I am unlikely to go homesinging the praises of all those people whomaintained a “neutral” attitude towardme.

A common view of Christianity is thatit is, at best, a private spiritual matter of norelevance to what goes on in the realworld. Therefore it has no place in theclassroom. It may be of importance tosome people in their search for personalmeaning, but it has nothing to say aboutpolitics, economics, social justice or pub-lic morality. Two things ought to be clearto us: the Bible is relevant to these and allareas of life, and no school can ever in real-ity be “value-neutral” when it comes tothese or any other areas of life.

With these things in mind, the impor-tance of establishing a Christian

worldview within schools becomes moreevident. Colossians 2:3 makes it clear thatGod ought to be central in the process ofeducation, since it is in Him that all thetreasures of wisdom and knowledge are tobe found. Ultimately, it is neither the stu-dent nor the content of school educationthat ought to be regarded as central to theprocess of teaching and learning, butrather God Himself. The danger with anyother approach is in failing to understandcreation properly and making it the objectof our worship rather than the Creator.

The Scriptures teach that it is God whobrought all things into existence and whosustains all things. All things are subject toHim and find meaning in Him (Jn 1:1-4;Col. 1:16, 17). Therefore, whatever thetopic of study, it will not be fully under-stood unless seen within the context ofthis relationship between Creator and cre-


Train a childThere is no “value-neutral” education, so make it Christian.

ConradNixon

W O R L D V I E W

One of themost effectiveways of com-

municating theidea that Godis irrelevant is

simply to leaveHim out.

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ation. Psalm 8 expresses this perfectly.When the Psalmist contemplated thebeauty, order and vastness of the universe,he marvelled at God! The purpose and theend point of our learning is God Himself.Furthermore, it was within the context ofthis relationship that the psalmist prop-erly understood his own nature and pur-pose and that of the world in which helived.

This same principle applies to allspheres of life and learning. It is within thecontext of this relationship betweenCreator and creation that we properlyunderstand and appreciate the naturallaws which God has devised for properorder, the moral laws that He has inventedfor our own good, our responsibilities toone another as social beings, our obliga-tions – as managers and not owners –regarding the environment, and thebeauty and wonder that surrounds us atevery point. Every area of learning fallswithin the realm of God’s creation and istherefore properly undertaken by appreci-ating His purposes and letting them shapethe manner in which we live.

Passages such as Colossians 1:16, 17demonstrate that understanding Christ’srelationship to his world is foundationalto a proper understanding of the world.Therefore, a Christian worldview is foun-dational to every area of living and learn-ing. Such a perspective will enable us tomake sense of the world and to live appro-priately within it: to understand not onlythe natural but also the moral laws thatGod has instituted and to use them as thebasis for our lives. Furthermore, such aview will enable us to clarify our under-standing and defend Christian truth in theface of a multitude of challenges anddivergent views.

I vividly remember visiting for the firsttime the Taj Mahal in India. I marvelled

at the majesty of this structure – it wasvast, ornate and filled with precious gemstones. I went away most impressed.

During a later tour of the city of AgraI came once again to the Taj Mahal. Butthis time it was different. I was accompa-nied by a guide who explained the originsof this building, how it had been designedby one of the Mogul emperors as a tomband tribute to his wife. Such was his lovefor her, and his grief at her death, that henamed this building “eternal tear drop”.

The guide walked me through parts ofthe building that I had previously seen butnot fully appreciated. So it was that,within the context of an Emperor and hislove for his wife, I finally began to under-

stand the design and purpose of the build-ing and not just its beauty. Furthermore, Iwent away still amazed at the building, butnow curious to find out more about itsdesigner. The problem with educationthat leaves God out is that while we willperhaps be impressed by human beingsand the world in which they live, we arefailing to acknowledge the designer andHis purposes for His creation.

So how will a Christian worldview bereflected in schools? In many ways: it willbe reflected in the lives of Christian teach-ers, who will demonstrate Christianbehaviour to the students and perhapshave opportunities to speak to studentsabout the Gospel. It will be reflected intimes of worship

in chapel services and assemblies and inthose lessons specifically devoted to Bibleteaching, and in meetings of groups ofstaff and students for times of prayer andBible study. It will be reflected in the lead-ership and governance of the school andin school policies and procedures that areframed in Christian terms and developedaccording to Christian principles.

These characteristics are generally

common to church schools and some ofthese things take place in state schools.What is far less common is the perme-ation of a Christian worldview through-out school curricula, and it is at this levelthat there remains a great deal of work tobe done.

Why is this work so necessary? If theday to day curriculum is taught and

studied as though God does not exist or isnot important, then there is the dangerthat what is said in chapel will be seen ashaving no relevance to the “real world”studied in the classroom. It is thereforeimportant that in all their curricula, as wellas other areas of their life, schools affirmthat this is God’s world and it can only bereally understood when studied in thecontext of that relationship and in thelight of His revelation. To do otherwise isto portray faith as some kind of an “add-on”, of use in only a limited and privatemanner, and to essentially maintain a sec-ular classroom, with the Bible andChristian faith being confined to just asmall corner of school life. Such anapproach treats faith as an important partof life, rather than something that informsand transforms every area of life.

So what does it mean to have a whole-school curriculum that reflects a Christianworldview? It does not mean that the class-room becomes a centre for Bible exegesisor that the school is transformed into achurch. Nor does it mean using everyopportunity to introduce Bible passagesinto geography lessons or using an Englishnovel as some kind of a parable. To do thatis to diminish both the subject under exam-ination and perceptions of the Bible itself.

Faith changesnot only ourperspective ofGod, but ofthe wholeworld. Itaffects ouranalysis of theworld, as wellas of ourselves.

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Rather, we need to see, as the psalmistrecognised in Psalm 119:105, that God’sword is a light that informs and guides inevery aspect of life, so that within theschool context biblical principles need tobe applied in enabling students to learnabout God’s world and their responsibili-ties within it. Faith changes not only ourperspective of God, but of the wholeworld. It will affect our observations andour analysis of the world, as well as ourview of ourselves and how we ought tolive.

At a practical level, this will mean thatthe study of subjects like mathematics andscience will be undertaken from the per-spective that this is God’s world. Theworld has observable patterns and order,because God Himself is a God of order,and creation reflects both His characterand His ongoing sustaining of his world(Heb. 1:3). Our use of technology andthe benefits of scientific discovery mustreflect our responsibility and accountabil-ity as managers of God’s creation. Ourstudy of both science and geographyought to lead to the praise of God as welearn of the beauty, variety and complexitywithin God’s creation, but should alsochallenge us to see the ecological impactsof human rebellion against God.

The study of history provides an

opportunity to analyse the actions of indi-viduals and societies: to examine the influ-ences giving rise to such actions and toevaluate these actions in the light of theirconsequences as well as biblical standards.At a deeper level, the events of history

ought not to beviewed as ran-dom or discon-nected, but as anoutworking ofthe purposes ofGod Himself. Inthe study ofEnglish, a stu-dent is continu-ally faced withthe need toexamine themind-set, theworldview, theperspective of

the author under investigation. Here, per-haps more than elsewhere, teachers andstudents have the opportunity and theresponsibility to critique such perspec-tives in the light of their own perceptionof reality and the Bible’s description ofreality.

Rather than ignoring the Bible, orendeavouring to draw analogies betweensubject content and biblical ideas, this

approach allows biblical principles toinform and interpret all of our studies.The Bible does not become the geographytextbook; rather, students are enabled tomake better sense of geography whenthey allow biblical principles to permeatetheir study of it. Nor should schools, ofnecessity, shy away from the study of the-ories or texts that are built upon or por-tray unbiblical premises or patterns forliving. Students need to understand notonly a Christian worldview, but also thenon-Christian views of life that they willencounter and will need to be able to cri-tique.

Worldviews make a world of differ-ence. The big picture that one has of lifeand the world is what ultimately directsone’s daily decisions and actions. Within aschool setting, it will determine the man-ner in which we seek to treat people, therules that apply, what is taught and how itis taught. Any worthwhile education pro-gram will seek to address at some stagequestions to do with the emergence ofhuman societies, problems within humansocieties and the means by which suchproblems might be resolved.

Fundamentally, we are dealing herewith questions of creation, fall and

redemption and it is difficult to see howsuch questions can be adequatelyanswered without reference to a Christianworldview.

In Morocco is the ancient walled cityof Fes. It is a labyrinth of thousands oftwisting, narrow alleyways: in some placesso narrow you struggle to get out of theway of the donkeys – laden with produce– that regularly come charging along. It’sthe kind of place in which it’s hard tobelieve there’s a modern world some-where beyond the walls, and you can soeasily lose your way completely. But ifyou can find your way to the northerntower, there’s an amazing view over theold city, and from there you get a wholenew perspective.

We desperately need a perspective thatwill enable us to make sense of the world,negotiate our way through it and discoverthe God who has made it all and loves usbeyond measure. He Himself providesthis perspective in the Bible. In the realmof education, there could hardly be a moreworthwhile pursuit than the developmentand application of a Christian worldviewthat shapes every aspect of our teaching,learning and living.

Conrad Nixon is head chaplain at the ScotsCollege, Sydney. ap

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B I B L E S T U D Y

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 1:1-25THE POINT What we think about the first few chapters ofGenesis affects our whole world view. Do we treat the (oftenunproven) claims of science as fact and try to accommodate theGenesis account to them, or do we accept God’s declaration to usof what he did and why, and then bow in wonder as we see scientificdiscovery confirming his infallible Word? God uses precise languageto tell us what otherwise we can only speculate about as atheistsoffer various theories about the origin of the universe and life.

THE PARTICULARS• Light (electromagnetic energy) is the basis of all matter. WhenGod created light he brought into being substance from nothing.• The phrase “there was evening and there was morning” seems todefine the days of creation as 6 x 24-hours as we know them.• God makes it clear that our planet Earth is unique; we should notexpect to find anything like it anywhere else in his created Universe.God sees his Universe as geo-centric (earth-centred).• Everything God did was good; ie it served his ultimate purpose.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Starting with Genesis 1 as revealed truth, what exciting things hasman discovered to confirm it (eg in astronomy, genetics etc)?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 1:26-2:3THE POINT Just as God wants us to know that the Earth isunique in the Universe, so he wants us to know that we are uniqueamong all created life forms. We are neither an accident of evolu-tion, nor the (so far) most advanced development in the food chain.We were made at the very beginning as the CEOs of Earth, runningit on God’s behalf, not as robots but within his communicated cre-ative and ethical framework. We are therefore fundamentally differ-ent from the animals, in spite of the fact that we have similar bodilyfunctions because we were designed by the same Creator to live inthe same environment and eat the same food.

THE PARTICULARS• There is no difference between men and women in terms of theircreated dignity – we are all made in the image of God.• God wants us to see clearly the relevance of the Seventh Day as aspecial holy day of rest, set apart to him (cf Exodus 20:8-11).

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• How does the fact that God sent his only Son to earth to redeemit confirm that the Universe is Earth-centred and Man-centred?• How does the example of Jesus’ life help us to see more clearlywhat God intended us to be and do on earth (see John 5:30, 6:38)?

The world in which we now livehas moved right away fromthe truth God has revealed tous in His written Word, yet we

still feel reasonably secure spirituallybecause we enjoy the legacy of a societywhose rules and mores were founded onScripture. This is an extremely danger-ous position. I can think of no betterway of facing up to this danger andaddressing it than a study of the first11 chapters of Genesis, taking a freshlook at what God intended, what thecentral factors were in how we messed itall up, and how God dealt with ourrebellion. A trip back to the Beginningwill help us clear our heads and get abetter perspective.

For instance, there’s the tree of theknowledge of good and evil. The word“knowledge” comes from the same rootword used in Genesis 4:1 to describewhat Adam did to get Eve pregnant! Itwas about Adam becoming intimately,actively and determinedly involvedtowards his wife to produce offspring.The tree represented a watershed. Bychoosing to eat, Adam and Eveannounced, in effect, “We want to bein charge here.” Aren’t we doingexactly what Adam and Eve did in thegarden? Let’s see how God dealt withall this...

Bruce Christian

DAY 1 In the beginning God.... DAY 2 Man in God’s image.

20 daily Bible studies on Genesis 1-11

From thebeginning


B I B L E S T U D Y

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 2:4-14THE POINT In this second account of Creation God underlinesthe truth he has already communicated in Chapter 1 – Man has avery special place and purpose in the created order, and his home onplanet Earth is a deliberate part of this Plan at the design stage; manis as necessary to the earth as the earth is to man. But how he exe-cutes his task will be tested via a tree!

THE PARTICULARS• The interdependence between Man and the Earth is spelt out indetail to emphasise the fact that the Creation was accomplished in ashort space of time. Genesis does not acknowledge the concept of agradual creation process over millions of years.• Man as a single living entity (soul) has a spiritual dimension (Godbreathed into him the breath of life) as well as a physical dimension(he is made from the dust of the ground).• The narrative’s specific geographical locating of the Garden ofEden in Mesopotamia (“in the midst of the rivers”) identifies it ashistorical literature and not mythology or aetiology. God is reveal-ing true historical facts about actual time-space events.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• God made everything good for us to enjoy. When did you lasttake time to smell the roses? – or thank the rose-maker?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 2:15-25THE POINT God has blessed us abundantly with many goodthings to enjoy. He wants us to be contented and happy. But,unlike the animals who are bound by their God-given instincts, weare able, and in fact required, to make moral choices because we aremade in the image of God. For this to happen there must be rules.The command not to eat from one particular tree (good in itself likeall the others) was to be the grounds of the test. Ironically, the oneGod would form to be Man’s “suitable helper” would be the onewho would help him to fail the test! The misuse of good thingsbrings pain and distress instead of the happiness intended.

THE PARTICULARS• God ensured that the rules of the garden, and the consequencesof disobedience, were clear and unambiguous; to disobey would bean arrogant refusal to recognise God’s legitimate authority.• In naming them, Man was given authority over all the animals.• The Woman was God’s gift to the Man as a “suitable helper”. Shewould be to him what the animals could never be. She came fromhim and would remain part of him in an exclusive union.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Why is nakedness a problem for us today? How is this related toour tendency to misuse what God intended for good?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 3:1-7THE POINT The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was socalled because it was to be a testing device. Was the Man willing tosubmit to God’s command without trying to make his own, inde-pendent moral assessment of its “good”ness? Would he submit toGod’s definition of “good” and “evil” or would he assume he coulddefine these himself? This was the real test. He failed the testbecause he reasoned for himself that it was OK to do what God hadexpressly forbidden him to do. He was now like God: he coulddefine “good” and “evil” to suit his own purposes. Sound familiar?

THE PARTICULARS• The serpent spoke on behalf of the one who himself rebelledagainst God’s rightful authority (Isaiah 14:12-15; KJV “Lucifer”).• By twisting God’s words, and playing on the fact of Man beingmade in God’s image, he made what God called “evil” seem good.• The 3 features of the forbidden fruit that attracted the Woman toit are paralleled in the 3 devices Satan used to tempt Jesus to aban-don the Father’s assigned path to the Cross (Matt. 4:1-11).

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• What are the specific subtleties with which Satan deceived Adamand Eve? What does this teach us about the dangers of neglecting toread God’s written Word regularly and often?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 3:8-13THE POINT What a modern ring there is to these verses. Theguilty pair are well aware of the sin they have committed and theyslip into 2 forms of denial: trying to hide from theirCreator/provider/friend whose rule they had broken; and, whenfound, trying to lay the blame on someone else. Is this not exactlywhat is corroding our head-in-the-sand, litigious society today?

THE PARTICULARS• Perhaps because they had sinned, Adam and Eve were especiallysensitive to God’s presence in the garden, something they wouldhave just taken for granted up to this point.• Their attempt to hide from God was as futile as a child coveringhis eyes to avoid detection; but it is often what we do when weknow we have broken God’s laws and fail to confess our sin.• There is something inherently threatening about nakedness.• Their claim on their right to decide for themselves what is rightand wrong, using their own God-given ability to reason, was veryshort-lived; they knew at once that this claim was invalid.• He blamed her, and indirectly, God; she blamed the serpent.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Why do we need an urgent, Holy Spirit initiated revival today?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 3:14-19THE POINT A curse came upon the whole of God’s Creation asa result of Man’s sin. As T. Dudley-Smith put it (Hymn 383,Rejoice!):

In Adam’s fall falls every man, with every gift the Father gave;the crown of all Creation’s plan becomes a rebel and a slave.

Each of the participants in the act of disobedience received a specificcurse, but the ultimate catastrophe was that the principle of decayand death had now become an integral part of an otherwise perfectworld. Paul called it “the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2); scien-tists call it the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.

THE PARTICULARS• The serpent’s curse was universal humiliation and alienation.• The woman’s curse affected what should have been her greatestjoys: increased pain in childbirth and subservience in marriage.• Adam’s sin was 2-fold: failing to assert headship, and disobeyingGod’s command. The final blame rested on him. His curse affectedthe whole created order (see Romans 8:20-23).• The ultimate curse was exclusion from the Garden, from directfellowship with the Creator, the source of life (cf Romans 5:12).

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• How does Romans 5:12 help us see our shared guilt in Adam?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 3:20-24THE POINT Even as God pronounced the curses he was settingin motion the process for annulling them. Yesterday’s reading con-tained a hint of it in verse 15 – someone coming from the womanwould conquer Satan’s curse, but not without personal suffering;today we see other indicators of a hopeful future in spite of theseemingly terminal nature of the effects of Man’s rebellion. OurGod is truly by nature a God of mercy and grace.

THE PARTICULARS• In spite of the warning of death as the assured outcome of disobe-dience (2:17), Adam was allowed, after the Fall, to give his wife aname identifying her as the mother of all the living!• God took the initiative to cover the shame resulting from sin.• The banishment and the angelic guard, rather than the removal ofthe tree of life, indicate a possible future time when a saviour willremove the effects of the curse and provide access again into thegarden – by accepting the curse by dying on another “tree”?

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Does it seem to you that the Plan of Salvation was already in themind of God at the time of Creation, ie before the Fall? Is thiswhat is meant by Matthew 25:34 and Revelation 13:8/17:8?

DAY 3 Man in his environment.

DAY 4 Man in his home.

DAY 5 Man fails the test.

DAY 6 The blame game.

DAY 7 The curse....

DAY 8 ...and the cure.


B I B L E S T U D Y

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 4:1-16THE POINT Cain and Abel introduce us to some basic motifsGod will use throughout the whole of Scripture to set before us hisPlan of Salvation. One is that there are two ways to live: our ownway and God’s way. Another is that because of the effects of theFall, a person either dies, or God graciously accepts the death of asubstitute. This motif becomes like a scarlet thread runningthrough the whole of the Bible. It is the basis of the Covenant ofGrace, finding its ratification in the death of Jesus.

THE PARTICULARS• Eve acknowledged God’s help in the outworking of her role.• God must have already made clear in some way the need for ablood-sacrifice to atone for man’s sin (see verses 6-7). Cain’s offer-ing was his gift to God, an attempt to earn God’s favour. Abel’soffering pointed to God’s grace in accepting a substitute.• Cain’s sin started with jealousy which, unchecked, led to angerand then murder. Cain was aware of the wrongness of his act.• God’s promise to protect Cain was a clear act of grace and mercy.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Hebrews 12:24 compares Jesus’ blood with the blood of Abel. Inwhat way was Jesus’ death like Abel’s? How was it better?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 4:17-26THE POINT Critics have always enjoyed asking questions theBible doesn’t (can’t?) answer. Such questions usually lose theirforce when we realise the Bible is only giving us very selective his-tory, the things pertinent to God’s Plan of Salvation (eg 5:3). Adamlived 930 years (5:4), plenty of time to establish a large family treefrom which Cain could get a wife (the adverse genetic effects ofmarrying a sister were not yet developed, nor were other degenera-tive effects of the Fall, hence the longevity). With the coming ofLamech, with all his godless ways and boasting (polygamy, the abil-ity to protect himself when it was God who had graciously pledgedto protect Cain, etc), God is now finished with Cain’s line. Nowhis saving purposes will be realised through Seth.

THE PARTICULARS• Cain’s family is marked by a failure to acknowledge God at all.• Lamech totally ignored God’s blueprint for marriage (2:23-24).• Lamech boasted self-protection where Cain relied on God’s.• Seth being seen as a replacement for Abel (in spite of many othersiblings) brings us back to God’s “Covenant of Grace” motif.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Can you see evidence of God’s grace at work in your family?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 5:1-32THE POINT Of most of the 13 men whose names appear in thischapter we know nothing except that they are in Noah’s family tree.And yet, unlike the countless others who lived before the flood andwho have long since been forgotten, their names are inscribed per-manently in millions of Bibles being read in thousands of differentlanguages around the world! In his wildest dreams Mahalalel couldnot have thought we would be reading his name today, nor Enochthat he would appear in the honour list of Hebrews 11 as one who“walked with God”! But each is vitally important in God’s eternalPlan because he provides a link between Adam and Noah and there-fore in the life-line to the one who would come to crush the ser-pent’s head.

THE PARTICULARS• Some interesting deductions from the list:

– Noah’s father, Lamech, was 56 when Adam died and could havegot a first-hand account of what happened in the garden;

– Adam’s son, Seth, only missed seeing Noah by 14 years;– Methuselah died in the year of the flood, 5 years after Lamech;

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Are you content to walk humbly with God, even through per-plexing circumstances, trusting him to get the big picture right?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 6:1-8THE POINT God’s patience has run out. The ripple effect ofAdam’s rebellion in the hearts of his descendants has been operatingfor a couple of millennia and everything has gone from bad toworse. We saw in chapter 4 that Cain and Abel modelled two differ-ent ways to live, and in chapter 5 that Seth and some of his lineadopted the Abel model. The idea of a “faithful remnant” (salt andlight) in a wicked world, and the mandate for this remnant to resistpollution from the world, become a theme through all of Scripture.Reference here to the “sons of God” marrying “any” of the “daugh-ters of men” is best understood in terms of such pollution by“mixed-marriages”. God would allow 120 more years of grace torectify the situation and then remove his life-giving Spirit from theearth. Because of Man’s place at the head of the created order theanimals would have to die too. Enough is enough. Only Noah andhis immediate family would be the remnant.

THE PARTICULARS• Like longevity, large physical stature was a feature of the humanrace at the time of the flood. “Heroes” and “men of renown” couldwell be euphemisms for “bullies”, men wanting to be God.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• How are we going in terms of 1 Peter 2:11-12 and James 1:27?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 6:9-7:5THE POINT God goes to some pains to make clear that hisjudgement on the earth by means of the Flood was not arbitrary orvindictive or impulsive. It was a deliberate, purposeful and necessaryaction after a very patient and gracious appraisal of the circum-stances. Noah, along with his covenant family, stood out aloneamong the people of his generation. God would save him and hisfamily from the coming deluge. It is typical of God’s nature thatthe means by which he was to be saved would involve his obedientresponse. It was grace alone that saved him, but “faith withoutdeeds is dead” (James 2:26). It was by building the ark (a majorconstruction project in an environment that seemed to show it tobe useless!) that Noah demonstrated the reality of his faith.

THE PARTICULARS• The “ark” was a carefully dimensioned box designed to carrylarge/precious cargo and stay afloat under adverse conditions. Theword is only used of Noah’s boat and baby Moses’ basket.• Noah was careful to obey all God’s detailed instructions.• Enough animals were taken to ensure the earth’s replenishment.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• What statements in this account make clear God’s intention todestroy completely all life on earth except for those on the ark?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 7:6-24THE POINT The 600th year of Noah’s life is a beautiful displayof the close interweaving of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsi-bility. Noah worked hard for many decades to build the ark accord-ing to God’s revealed plan, and then on exactly the right day, inexactly the right combinations, the gene-bearers of the future popu-lation of the whole earth just turned up and walked onto the strangestructure “as God had commanded Noah” (9, 16)!

THE PARTICULARS• The deluge and ground-spring activity lasted only 40 days (12).From the beginning of the rain to the time the bottom of the arktouched down on Mt Ararat was 150 days or 5 months (24). Itwould be 7 more months before they could leave the ark (8:14f).• Every living thing today has an ancestor who was on the ark.• In spite of theories developed by atheistic scientists, the flood isthe best explanation we have today of the fossil record, geologicalformations, the distribution of minerals (especially Arctic oil), etc.Everything around us points to a cataclysmic disruption of theEarth’s crust in the ‘recent’ past (cf Romans 1:18-20).

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Much scientific evidence today points to the accuracy of theBiblical account of the Flood – but it requires a God who rules!

DAY 9 Two ways to live.

DAY 10 Exit Cain, enter Seth.

DAY 11 God’s “Who’s Who”.

DAY 12 Enough is enough.

DAY 13 Noah walked with God.

DAY 14 Noah worked with God.


THE PASSAGE GENESIS 8:1-22THE POINT The flood waters peaked some time between thecessation of aggressive water activity (40 days) and the resting ofthe ark on top of Mt Ararat (150 days). Once the ark came to restthe flood was officially over, but there would be another 74 days ofreceding water before any land would be visible (5), and a further146 days before it would be time to leave the ark to resume normallife on earth. God had carried out his purpose; the Judgement,though not the sin (21), was over. It was time to start again,although man’s survival would still be on the basis of God’s sover-eign grace (hence the blood sacrifices) and promises.

THE PARTICULARS• The flood isn’t properly understood unless seen as worldwide.• The raven was sent out first because it is hardier than the dove,and feeds on carrion – of which there would be ample supply!• The first thing Noah did after the flood was acknowledge God inworship by sacrificing the animals God had provided. It was anexpression of faith in God’s grace, not a “work”.• Contained in the promise of verse 22 is the implication that cli-mate etc became different after the flood (see 2 Peter 3:3-6).

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Do you live each day as a trophy of God’s mercy and grace?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 9:1-17THE POINT God was making a whole new start – new blessingsand new life rules, signs that the effects of the curse were beingdealt with. All relationships had been inverted in the Fall. Man hadlost control of the animals, but now fear instilled in them will helpman re-establish his headship. And God was prepared to give hisword, confirmed with a very visible sign, that he would not destroyman and his world that way again. Grace prevails.

THE PARTICULARS• All life is precious to God, especially Man, made in his image.• Animals are now included in the human diet. They are there forus, but we must still treat their life-blood as important. This will bea significant aspect of sacrificial atonement for sin.• There is no Hebrew word for rainbow. The word used here is theordinary word for an archer’s bow; there is no mention of “rain”.The covenant sign for Noah represented a weapon for bloodshedpointing up to God. The uppermost colour is red!• Introduction of the bow is further evidence of major changes inatmospheric conditions and patterns after the flood. Many geologi-cal “dating” methods today ignore this fact (cf 2 Peter 3:3-6).

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• What do we learn from the flood about God’s faithfulness?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 9:18-28THE POINT When I was at primary school we had nib pens andinkwells. They were very messy to use. It was always good to“turn over a new leaf” in our copybooks, but a disaster when it got“blotted”! New work situations, new relationships, going to a newchurch, all give the opportunity for a fresh start – but we soon messthat too. That’s how it was with Noah. Again, something Godintended to be a blessing to Man, used wrongly, became a liabilityand a cause for sin, with extremely far-reaching consequences. Theresults, however, remained a vital part of God’s sovereign purposesin election and in history (cf Genesis 50:20).

THE PARTICULARS• Noah’s sin, as with many parallels among the Bible’s heroes offaith, reminds us of the need for vigilance (cf 1 Corinth. 10:12).• Ham’s sin revealed a basic mindset that was to flow on downthrough his line. The way Hebrews 12:14-17 deals with Esau couldequally be applied to Ham, Canaan and their descendants.• The curse on Ham/Canaan cannot justify the black slave trade.• Only the blessing on Shem uses the name LORD, finding its ful-filment in God’s Messianic purposes in election (cf Romans 9).

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• How does this account again remind us about sovereign grace?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 10:1-32THE POINT Not only are we all descendants of Noah, we allcome from one of Shem, Ham or Japheth. The information is toogeneral for most of us to identify which branch we are in althoughit could make for a fascinating study in the light of place names,ethnic connections, etc. What the Scriptures are interested in is theline of Shem because, as we will see in chapter 11 it is this line thatwill lead to Abraham, the Jews, and finally Jesus (see Luke 3:23-38for the whole family tree of Jesus back to Adam.). This is probablywhy Shem is left to last, and Japheth is disposed of first because hisdescendants had little to do historically with the Messianic line.Ham’s descendants had a closer, but also a more hostile, involve-ment with the descendants of Shem.

THE PARTICULARS• This list does not attempt the same numerical precision as the listsin chapters 5 and 11:10ff; it gives a more general picture of howNoah’s descendants spread out in groups after the flood.• Shem and Eber are the names from which Semitic and Hebrewcome.• Paul’s comment at Athens (Acts 17:26) is relevant and sobering.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• God’s Plan of Salvation involves an ever-narrowing selectionprocess until it gets to Jesus; then it reaches out to all people.

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 11:1-9THE POINT In the Garden of Eden, Man wasn’t content withjust being like God, he wanted to be God. Now, a flood and manygenerations later, the problem is still the same. His biggest problemis his arrogance and pride. At Babel he thought he could use hispower, skill and technology to build a man-centred, humanisticsociety and a “world tower” that would be a monument to hisgreatness. He wouldn’t need God. It all sounds depressingly famil-iar. Today we still live with all the problems caused by language dif-ferences and their influence on culture, in spite of our leap forwardin communication technology. But our biggest problem is that thelesson of Babel has been lost on us! The events of Pentecost (Acts2) show that only God can reverse what he did there, so we need toaddress first the matter of our alienation from him.

THE PARTICULARS• We are not told what the one language everyone spoke was.• The problem did not lie in using their God-given creativity tobuild, but in doing it for their own purposes, advancement andglory without reference to God – much like we mostly do today!• Man still hasn’t learnt what happens when God is excluded.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• Are you right with God? How involved is he in your plans?

THE PASSAGE GENESIS 11:10-32THE POINT God gave Man a fresh start in his world throughNoah – and he gave Noah a covenant promise and sign that hewould never destroy the world with a flood again. But after theflood mankind settled into the same pattern of disobedience andwickedness that he had before and which would continue to domi-nate his life and world. The next stage in God’s rescue plan, thePlan he had devised even at Creation (see Ephesians 1:4), wouldcentre on a particular person, Abraham, a promised land, Canaan,and a promised line of numerous descendants right down to thebirth of the one who would be the Saviour of the whole world. Thepoint of today’s passage is to link Noah to Abraham through theline of Shem, and to introduce us to two major obstacles that couldonly be overcome by God’s sovereign grace: Abraham’s father,Terah, settled in Haran instead of going to the promised land; andAbraham’s wife, Sarah, was unable to have children!

THE PARTICULARS• Man’s lifespan after the flood became progressively shorter.• All human history is in God’s sovereign hands; his Salvation his-tory is recorded in the Bible to demonstrate his faithfulness.

TO PONDER ... AND TO PRAY• How has Genesis 1-11 helped you in your journey of faith?

B I B L E S T U D Y

DAY 15 Noah worshipped God.

DAY 16 God’s covenant bow.

DAY 17 A blot on the new page.

DAY 18 Everybody’s family tree.

DAY 19 The lesson of Babel.

DAY 20 Next stop Abraham.


N E W S

Honoured doctor

A record congregation attended thePresbyterian Theological CollegeMelbourne graduation held on 28November at Canterbury congregation.Dr Allan Harman received a honorarydoctorate from the Australian College ofTheology and the guest preacher was Rev.Alan Demond of Blackburn NorthBaptist Church . Three Presbyterian can-didates graduated – Tony Archer, AndresMiranda and Michael Wishart, who havebeen appointed to Warburton, CarolineSprings (church planting with Melton)and Dromana/Mornington respectively.Andrew Bawden of Syndal BaptistChurch also graduated with a view toproceeding to ministry within the BaptistUnion of Victoria.

Ministerial movements

Rev. Richard Vaughan was ordainedand commissioned to the Norman Parkcharge in October. Rev. Bruce Lowe wasinducted into the Coorparoo charge inNovember. Rev. Roger Marsh wasordained and inducted into the SouthBurnett charge in December. Rev.Andrew Richardson was ordained andinducted into the Scots Church,Clayfield, charge also in December. Rev.Russell van Delden moved from Cairnsto Arundel last month. Rev. DonBroadwater has returned to the USAafter serving at Cairns for a number ofyears.

Rev. Laurie Peake, who recently leftthe Presbyterian Inland Mission, is serv-ing as home missionary at Wandoan(Qld). In November he did a six-daypatrol in the area west of Taroom andWandoan.

Rev. Peter Dunstan of Toukley(NSW) has accepted a call to historicAnnadale-Leichhardt charge in thePresbytery of Sydney.

Rev. Wally Johnson was commis-sioned in December by the Presbytery ofthe Murrumbidgee to Balranald in west-ern NSW.

The Ministry and MissionCommittee (NSW) has announced thefollowing placements of graduating stu-dents: Al and Naomi Burke toCoonabarabran and Luke and Hae-Ja

Yoo to Sydney Young Nak. The Presbytery of Northern Rivers

ordained and inducted Rev. Steven Northas assistant minster in the Tweed Headscharge on 24 September.

Victorian moves

The Presbytery of Benalla conducted aliecensing service for Michael Wishart on19 December at the Tatura Church. Rev.Dr Dallas Clarnette preached.

Rev. Andrew Matthews from the USAhas been appointed to St. Stephen’s,Flemington (Vic). Mr Matthews beganhis ministry at the congregation (which ispart of the Scots Church parish) at thestart of December.

Mission Possible

Rev. Stuart Bonnington of SouthYarra, Vic, was the main speaker at theannual Youth Bible Conference of theGrace Presbyterian Church of NewZealand, held near Dunedin in earlyJanuary. Mr Bonnington spoke on“Mission Possible” from Matthew 9-10.People came from all over New Zealand.

Youth camp

The Presbyterian Youth of Victoriaheld its 2003/2004 summer camp between27 December and 1 January on PhillipIsland. Rev. Peter Owen of Melton spokeon relationships.

On their way

Paul and Anthea Pearce from thePresbyterian Church of Victoria havecompleted their studies at SydneyMissionary and Bible College with theassistance of a $5000 PioneersScholarship. They report that $3000 hasgone toward college fees and the balancewas used to fund a short-term cross-cul-tural visit to a Pioneers field team. Theyhope to leave for the Middle East soon.More details of the scholarship programcan be obtained from Pioneers (03) 9879 2900, [email protected]

Holiday program

In September, Shailer Park-Cornubia(Qld) congregation took part in a verysuccessful KidsGames Holiday program.Nearly 100 children attended and, withthe help of the nearby Logan charge, 60leaders assisted. As a result Shailer Park-Cornubia now has a Kids Club of 35 chil-

dren meeting fortnightly. With a newbuilding opened in February, 2003 was anexciting year for the charge which is underthe leadership of home missionary DonKennedy and his wife Lillian.

90th birthday

Geelong West (Vic) celebrated its 90thanniversary in November. The small con-gregation is enjoying a period of steadyspiritual and numerical growth under theleadership of Dr Allan Harman (interimmoderator) and home missionary DavidAssender. A special service was held witha video presentation of the congregation’shistory, attended by 160 former and pre-sent members. State moderator Rev. PeterOrchard preached.

GAA dates

The 2004 General Assembly ofAustralia will meet in the ChinesePresbyterian Church, corner of AlbionStreet and Crown Street, Surry Hills,Sydney, from 13 to 16 September. Furtherdetails will be sent to commissionerssoon.

Forster extension

The Forster-Tuncurry (NSW) chargehas submitted to the local council plansfor a building extension to to its currentbuilding that will seat 170 people. Morespace has become a pressing necessity dueto steady growth in all departments of thechurch under the much appreciated min-istry of Rev. Peter and Stephanie Flower.

A blooming plant

Cooperative church planting workbetween the Presbyterian Church andthe Christian Reformed churches inHobart continues to develop. It is basedon The Kingston Protocol which datesfrom the time of the original organisationof the (Christian) Refomed Churches inthe early 1950s. When Dutch migrantsfirst arrived, they intended to join thePresbyterian Church but they were putoff by theological liberalism andFreemasonry they found in the denomi-nation and reluctantly decided to set uptheir separate Church. However it wasalways understood that if the PresbyterianChurch returned to its historical theolog-ical postion, the (Christian) ReformedChurch would have little justification forseparate existence.

A practical expression of the drawing

AcrossAustralia

together of the two denominations is thejoint work in southern Tasmania. Sinceleaving St John’s in Hobart, three yearsago, Rev. David Jones has been supervis-ing the Crossroads church plant. Nowapplication has been made to thePresbytery of Tasmania to appoint ahome missionary to Crossroads. In co-operation with Kingston ChristianReformed Church Crossroads hasplanted Cornerstone, which is petition-ing the Presbytery to be received as a newcongregation of the Presbyterian Church.Other church plants in progress out ofCrossroads are Hobart Central and i-church. The Christian ReformedChurch of Kingston has replanted a con-gregation at Margate and plans a newchurch in Blackman’s Bay this year.

New church building

The multi-function church building ofthe Gungahlin-North Belconnen(ACT) congregation was opened on 26October. It is the first church building tobe erected in the Gungahlin area. Theaddress is 107 Wangeneen Avenue,Ngunnnawal. The congregation is led byRev. Mark Adams and his wife Kathryn.

Evangelical appointment

Rev. John Wilson of the PTCMelbourne has been appointed chairmanof the Australian Fellowship ofEvangelical Students area committee forVictoria. AFES works in seven of theeight public universities in Victoria. AFESstaff workers, of whom there are about 10

in Victoria, work on campus through thestudent-run Christian Union groups. Thestaff workers at La Trobe, Melbourne andRMIT also have appointed teams oftrainees to work with them in this gospelmission.

Dancing pachyderms

Can the Presbyterian Church adapt tothe challenges of 21st century ministry?The Ringwood-Heathmont congrega-tion (Vic) is hosting a seminar on thistopic entitled “Who says the Elephantscan’t dance?” to be led by Rev. RichardQuadrio of Sydney’s Macquarie Chapel.The seminar, on 20 March from 9.30am to4pm, costs $10 including lunch. For moredetails, contact Rev. Andrew Venn (9870 5182, [email protected]).

Apprentice ministers

In many Tasmania congregations there issignificant interest from young people infull-time ministry, and a number arealready doing ministry apprenticeshipsbefore starting theological studies.

Apart from some 16 months under theministry of Bryan Crawford, theScottsdale/Bridport Charge had beenvacant for almost seven years, but last yearGreg Munro was appointed as supply. Heand his wife Catherine and their two chil-dren settled into the manse at the begin-ning of February. The Presbytery ofTasmania has given him a three-yearappointment.

Two assistants have been appointed tothe minister at St.Andrew’s, Launceston,

Rev. Peter Thorneycroft. Dr NathanPatrick will work part-time in the area ofpastoral care and Rev. Dr. BennoZuiddam has taken a full-time post toshare in the preaching and pastoral min-istry and in the development of someChristian training at both local and statelevels.

The home mission station ofRiverside–Glengarry–Winkleigh is nowin the care of Pastor Norman Shellard,who returned there in 2001. Winkleighhad its 116th anniversary service inNovember.

Vale

AP has been advised of the death ofFrancis Archibald Adams (1912–2003),an elder at Condobolin in NSW.

A memorial service for Mrs J. Aitkenwas held at Kilsyth, Vic, on 23 November2003. Rev. Peter Swinn led the service.Mrs Aitken was the widow of the Rev.John Aitken, who was minister of StAndrews, Bendigo, for many years.

Power of prayer

People who pray regularly live longer,are more healthy and more satisfied thanothers. More than 1200 studies world-wide have shown a correlation betweenfaith and health, according to MichaelUtsch, psychologist and officer of theProtestant Centre for the Observationof Cults and Ideologies in Berlin.

According to an American study, a 20-year-old regular worshipper can expect tolive more than six years longer than some-one who never attends church. Thosewho worship only occasionally still livefour years longer on average.

A study in Hamburg defeated the the-ory that religious people are more neu-rotic than the non-religious. Researchersfound that people with a living faith areless prone to loneliness and feel more con-tent with life.

According to Utsch, some doctorshave considered prescribing prayer as atherapy. But the idea had been abandonedbecause true religion should not be mis-used for medicinal purposes. Good healthwas only a side effect of a living faith.

Religious Liberty

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Buddhists attack Christians

Rioting marked the funeral of theVenerable Soma Thero, a Sri LankanBuddhist monk who championedBuddhist nationalism, the WorldEvangelical Alliance prayer bulletinreports. Even though the Buddhist leaderdied of a heart attack while in Russia,Buddhist monks labeled his death theresult of a Christian conspiracy, sparkinganti-Christian hostility.

On Sunday 28 December, twoChristian churches in Puvakpitiya (60kilometres east of Colombo) wereattacked as they ended morning worship.There were no immediate reports of casu-alties, but property damage was extensive.Fifteen people have been detained forquestioning and arrests are expected.Police security has been stepped uparound Christian churches, particularly invulnerable areas.

On Monday, December 29, dozens ofBuddhist monks protested “unethicalconversions” by Christians and demandedanti-conversion laws be enacted immedi-ately.

Missions Insider

Laos Christians flee

Six women and children arrived in thecity of Pakse in southern Laos after beingthreatened in their home village inAttapue province because of theirChristian faith. The village chiefs report-edly fined the Christians 150,000 kips(US$20 – about a month’s wage) forbelieving in Christ and demanded theyrenounce their Christian faith. If they didso, they could still remain in their village.Those who did not renounce their faithcould be shot. Two families decided toleave, having endured the fire of persecu-tion for many months. “The situation isgetting very unstable and dangerous,” twoof them said.

Their flight followed on the heels ofraids on Christians in at least four otherplaces in Attapue province in lateDecember. On December 27 policearrested six believers gathered for worshipin Kang village and another Christian inSomsouk village. On December 28authorities arrested three believers inDonphai village while conducting wor-ship in their homes and another believerin Sanamsai City. Their only “crime” wasbelieving in and worshiping Christ.

According to reports, the arrests wereconducted by provincial and district reli-gious affairs officials, provincial and dis-

trict police officials, and a village chief ofeach village. Bibles were also confiscatedduring the arrests.

Christian Aid

Witness in India

Aministry in the Telegu-speaking area ofIndia invited 200 non-believers to itsChristmas observance held in a tent infront of its office. Children of the womentaking sewing classes taught by theleader’s wife put on skits depicting familyproblems and how the Lord Jesus bringspeace. It was the first time most of theaudience heard the story of the birth ofChrist and the announcement by theangels of peace on earth and God’s favoron people. Then all those who came weregiven a simple meal.

“The Spirit of God moved among thepeople,” the mission leader told ChristianAid, “and many shed tears when theyheard that Jesus gives them peace and for-giveness if they can open their hearts andlet Him come in. When the people wereleaving the tent, we noticed a great peacein their hearts.”

Missionaries conducting similar pro-grams in outlying villages reported similarresults. One missionary said because ofdrought people in his area had to buydrinking water brought from the city onlyonce every ten days. Ten litres of watercosts $US1.

“Poor people cannot afford it,” themissionary said, “so they use any waterfrom gutters or anywhere they find fordrinking, which causes many health prob-lems. Many farmers committed suicidebecause of dry fields and inability to sup-port their families. People are runningafter any god or goddess looking forhope.” The crisis gave the missionariesopen doors to share the good news to thehungry and thirsty.

Christmas hope

Despite freezing temperatures and densefog that halted travel, a ministry in north-ern India was able to let their light shineover Christmas.

The leader of a Christian ministry saidit was able to bring the Christmas messageto more than 4000 Hindus and Sikhsthrough its school Christmas programs.The ministry operates several schools,including a school for 1800 children.About 4000 relatives and friends attendedthe program put on by the students over athree-night period.

The ministry also reached out to ahome for 116 children of leprous parents.

Despite freezing temperatures anddense fog that halted rail and air trans-portation, the team of missionaries alsowent out caroling three evenings. Theleaders said they were well received intothe mostly non-Christian homes they vis-ited and thanked God they completedtheir rounds safely.

Missions Insider

Pakistani pastor shot

Gunmen shot and killed a pastor at a rail-way station in central Pakistan on January5. Mukhtar Masih, pastor of the Churchof God in Khurrampra, had arrived at therailway station at Khanewal around 3am tocatch a train to Lahore, when he was shottwice in the chest by unidentified gunmen.At last report, there was no indication whothe killers were, but the deputy superin-tendent of police in Khanewal,Mohammed Shahzad, told Associated Pressthat it appeared to be an act of terrorism.Money and other valuables were nottaken, ruling out robbery. According tohis son, Mukhtar had previously receivedthreats from Islamic militants attemptingto close down the church. Mukhtar had sixdaughters and one son.


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Bomb hurts 15

A powerful car bomb has blown up out-side a Pakistan Bible Society centre inKarachi, wounding 15 people, damaging anearby church and destroying parked carsin the first instance of anti-Christian vio-lence in Pakistan’s largest city for morethan a year. The motive for the attack wasnot known.

Police said they received an anony-mous phone call warning that the BibleSociety would be targeted.

Shortly after officers arrived at thescene a small explosive device was lobbedat them from a passing car. Fifteen min-utes later, a bomb hidden in a nearbyparked car exploded, police said.

Among the 15 people injured were sixpolice and paramilitary officers and twoworkers at the Bible centre. The attackersescaped, police said.

Karachi has been the site of several ter-rorist attacks in recent years, as well asbouts of sectarian and political violence.

Shahbaz Bhatti, the head of the AllPakistan Minorities Alliance, said theattack had increased the sense of insecu-rity among Christians.

“We are shocked, grieved and worried,”he said. “These people are hell-bent oncreating anarchy in the country.”

Associated Press

A popular Jesus

By Mark Abley

One figure you don’t expect to find incontemporary pop culture is Jesus Christ.Or at least, you may not have expected tobump into him there in the past. But, inthe past couple of years, Jesus has beenshowing up all over the place. A few placeswhere he’s been in view: • On the big screen, in new films like TheGospel of John and Mel Gibson’s contro-versial The Passion of Christ.• In the best-selling thriller The Da VinciCode, where he appears as the secret hus-band of Mary Magdalene and the father oftheir family. • In a series of books about modern cul-ture, including The Gospel According toTolkien, (more surprisingly) The GospelAccording to the Simpsons and (most sur-prisingly of all) The Gospel According toTony Soprano. • In rock music, where Christian faithunderlies not just the great songs of thevenerable U2 but also the music of newergroups like P.O.D. (Payable on Death).Years have sped by since U2 first sangabout “looking for to fill that God-shapedhole” and “looking for the baby Jesusunder the trash”.

And whether it be gospel music or the

Chronicles of Narnia – in which the God-shaped hole is filled by a talking lion –Christianity has always maintained a pres-ence in the secular arts. So what’s newabout the phenomenon in the 21st cen-tury? The answer, paradoxically, may berooted in the shrunken importance ofChristianity and all faiths in the secularculture of our time.

A generation or two ago, NorthAmericans could take it for granted thatChristianity was the bedrock faith of soci-ety. Jews – and to a lesser extentBuddhists, Hindus, Muslims and otherfaith groups – had a place here. But inschools, courts and legislatures,Christianity was the norm. It was, if youlike, our default religion. That haschanged, partly because of the pressure ofwidespread immigration from non-Christian countries and partly because ofthe increasing lack of belief among native-born Canadians and Americans.Christianity is, in official terms, just onereligion among several.

In Europe, the pluralistic, secularisingtrend has extended even faster and fur-ther. Jeanne d’Arc and Therese de Lisieuxwere not just Catholic saints; they werealso proud Frenchwomen. Yet in theirmotherland today, practising Catholicsare outnumbered by Muslims. Across theEnglish Channel, the percentage of chil-dren attending Sunday school has fallen inless than a century to four per cent from55 per cent. As for the next head of theAnglican church (nominally, at least),Prince Charles recently declared“Nobody has a monopoly on the truth.”He meant it as an overture to Muslims.But, remembering Jesus’ words “I am theway, the truth and the life,” someChristians took it as an outrage.

Quebec, as in so many ways, follows aEuropean pattern more than an Americanone. As late as 1986, almost half of alladults in Quebec attended a religious ser-vice at least once a month. By 1998, thefigure had dropped to just 29 per cent.And a growing proportion of those wor-shippers were not Christians at all. Twoyears ago the Christian CommitmentResearch Institute, a national organiza-tion based in Ottawa, published a paperwith the provocative title “Why are fran-cophone Catholics disinclined to reli-gious involvement?” (It gave no definitiveanswer.)

Even in the US, Christianity hastaken some hard official knocks. Themost recent came, of all places, in theBible Belt heartland of Alabama, wherein November, a judicial ethics panel

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On the Agenda

The SYCCCD is an activity of the South Yarra Presbyterian Church which islocated at 621 Punt Road South Yarra in the heart of inner urban Melbourne. In2004 four Christian Growth Days are planned with guest speakers of interna-

tional standard. The CGD run from 9:30am to 2:00pm, feature a bring and sharelunch and cost $10 to attended. There is plenty of free, secure parking on site.

Saturday 13 March (OT focus)

Alistair McEwen ‘The Message of Judges – Then and Now’

Saturday 22 May (Missions focus)

(Part of the SYPC Missionary Weekend)Allan Harman ‘Covenant and Mission’

Saturday 3 July (Church History focus)

(Part of SYPC 150 Anniversary Celebrations)Peter Barnes ‘Robert McGowen’

Saturday 11 September (Ministry equipping focus)

Murray Capill ‘Using the Bible in Ministry’

The South Yarra Centre for Contemporary Christian Discipleship

For further information please contact Stuart Bonnington on 9867 4637/9874 1007 [email protected]

l

l

l

l

Tell the world your newsIf your church has a story to tell, share itwith AP readers by sending it to news editor Stuart Bonnington,621 Punt Rd, South Yarra, Vic 3141, email: [email protected].


removed the state’s chief justice fromoffice after he defied an order to movea Ten Commandments monumentfrom the Supreme Court. The result isthat even in the purpose-driven realmof George W. Bush, committedChristians may feel beleaguered. Theycan’t count any longer on enjoyingfavoured treatment from judges andschool principals.

Some blame the “liberal media” and theevil desires of the United Nations. It’s notthe UN that has been campaigning torename Christmas trees as “holiday trees”or to replace Jesus with Frosty theSnowman in school concerts. Only lastweek, a group named the Society forSecular Humanism demanded theremoval of a creche from Calgary city hall.The result of such efforts may well be aheightened determination on the part ofChristians to get their message across.Many Christians now see themselves asrebels with a cause.

Christian faith is not a requirement foranyone to take pleasure in Peter Jackson’smovie trilogy The Lord of the Rings. But if(like the novels’ author, J.R.R. Tolkien)you happen to be a committed Christian,you doubtless find extra meaning in manyof the scenes and characters. In TheReturn of the King, Theoden, the dyingking of Rohan, tells his daughter Eowyn,“I am going to my father’s, in whosemighty company I need not now feelashamed.” You don’t have to interpret theline as referring to Theoden’s heavenlyFather – but Tolkien surely meant to raisethat idea. Likewise, Gandalf ’s white-robed return from his plunge into thedarkness under Mount Moria may bringto mind the resurrection of Jesus.

Tolkien’s faith was starting to becomeunfashionable in the 1950s, when TheLord of the Rings was published; and whengroups like Led Zeppelin alluded to thetrilogy in their early songs, it wasn’t withany Christian intention. But the books,and their inner message, quietly bidedtheir time. Like his friend, C.S. Lewis,whose Narnia stories will soon follow TheLord of the Rings to the big screen, Tolkienmanaged to span the widening gulfbetween devout Christians and equally

devout non-believers. It’s a difficult trickto master, and in the world of rock musicfew except the Irish group U2 have suc-ceeded at it.

For fear of alienating fans, the Gothqueen of 2003, Amy Lee of the Arkansasband Evanescence, publicly denied thatlyrics such as “My God, my tourni-quet/Return to me, salvation” should becounted as Christian. But for all her reti-cence, Lee is no doubt aware that theAmerican market for overtly Christianmusic — in hip hop, rock, country, evenrap — has been steadily growing.

This article is reprinted from the MontrealGazette, Canada.

Spinning the web

A great deal of change took place on thePresbyterian Church of Australia web-sites last year – and much more is plannedfor the coming year. During 2003 thefinance committee of the GeneralAssembly of Australia appointed MikeWharton as the webmaster of the PCAWebsite.

His responsibilities are to develop andmaintain the national website. He is alsoavailable to help and advise any congrega-tion that wants to develop a church web-site. Several congregations have alreadytaken advantage of this service.

As well as maintaining the national siteMike has carried out work for variousnational committees that saw a need toestablish a web presence, including theAustralian Presbyterian World Mission,Australian Presbyterian, and the PublicWorship and Aids to Devotion commit-tees. These have been developed or areundergoing further development. OtherGAA committees have also beenapproached.

On average the Presbyterian Churchof Australia websites maintained by thewebmaster are accessed more than 3000times every day. To ensure that informa-tion on these websites is as up to date aspossible Mike has developed database-dri-ven websites for both the New SouthWales and Victorian churches. These state

church websites are linked to the samedata, ensuring that information is bothconsistent and easily maintained. Accessto church details – location and worshipservice times – are open to the public. Forsecurity reasons, access to personneldetails is restricted.

A link to the database can be found onthe National Website Home Page so thatpeople wishing to locate a church in theirarea can do so without the need to searchall over the web.

A new feature of the national websiteis the PCA Open Forum. This has provento be quite popular and topics of interesthave been keenly discussed. It is hopedthat this forum will become a tool thatcan be used by national and state com-mittees. Private forums can be created socommittee members can discuss mattersof interest in a closed discussion area.This should be a real cost saver – reducingexpensive phone calls or interstate travelto committee meetings. Mike would bepleased to hear from any committee orchurch group wishing to make use of thisservice.

One of the primary aims of the websiteis to provide access to useful resourcesthat can be shared for the building up ofGod’s people. There is a growing list ofresources available (and you can even addyour favourite resource to the list) atwww.pcvic.org.au/resources/index.php

The national journal has a websitewhere people from all around the worldcan access past articles and order the mag-azine online. Many national and interna-tional orders have been received in thetime that this website has been function-ing. To visit the National Journal websitego to www.ap.presbyterian.org.au.

The Public Worship and Aids toDevotion Committee is making materialavailable. The book Worship is alreadyonline and the latest (and as yet unpub-lished book) “Pray” is currently beingplaced online. To view these point yourweb browser to www.pwadt.presbyterian.org.au.

Mike would be pleased to receive anysuggestions for additions to the web-site. He can be reached at :[email protected].

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Ido not believe it would be very hardto convince most observers whetherthey were conservative, liberal ormoderate, that our society in the

West is profoundly diseased. For a correctdiagnosis, one must first be able to knowthe signs of good health, both physicaland mental. Then you can more accu-rately spot what is wrong. It is the samewith counterfeit money — banks trainpeople to spot counterfeit notes by havingthem observe closely and repeatedly truepound notes, euros or dollar bills.Similarly, in order to diagnose what iswrong, we must first ask the question,“What is the proper wholesome relation-ship of human beings with AlmightyGod?”

If we wish to summarise the entiretyof the written Word of God, surely wecould say that both the Old and NewTestaments are covenants. The two partsof this book are bound together by theconcept of God’s one covenant of gracewith sinful humanity in sovereign mercy:He plans that we should be His, allowsthe Fall, puts human beings as part of theplan, intervenes as the trinitarian God inHis redemptive mercy and ultimatelysends down the new Jerusalem where Hewill be our God and we will be his people.By His inexplicable grace He chooses tobe our God and He chooses us to be Hispeople.

The essence of the covenant of grace isthat we know God, as we see in

Jeremiah 31:31-34, taken up in Hebrews8:6-11; He is our God and we are His peo-ple and as such we know him. When theculture is rotting and breaking down, it isbecause the people do not known God.The word “know” must be given its fullbiblical sense of personal relationship,

intimate trust, deepest fidelity, tenderestcommunion.

The Authorised Version of Genesis 4:1tells us that Adam “knew” his wife andthey had offspring. The Lord Jesus says inJohn 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: thatthey may know you, the only true God,and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”Salvation and health are ultimately know-ing God. The sanctity of the human mar-

ital relationshipsis a reflection ofthis most pre-cious and crucialform of “know-ing”.

Essentially thisis the disaster ofour culture, thatinstead of know-ing God, our peo-ple know idols.We are called to

minister in a time that is characterised byidolatry more than anything else. What isidolatry? It is a vicious, heartless rejectionof the noble, generous and tender Loverto whose infinite mercy and affection theotherwise helpless beloved owesabsolutely everything. That is how Godsees idolatry. That is why He reactsagainst it so powerfully and sent a wholepeople into captivity for it.

A crucial principal about the nature ofidol worship is that persistent spiritualidolatry leads to intellectual and physicaladultery, then on to other kinds of mentaland sexual perversion. It is important to

note here that there are more kinds ofidolatry than literally bowing to images ofBaal, or taking part in orgiastic rituals inthe groves of Ashtoreth. If we do notrealise this, I think we will not be able toanalyse properly the ravaging cancer ofour times and the culture in which wehave to minister, raise our own childrenand live our own lives. Because we maynot see actual idol statues, we must neverimagine that our culture is idol-free.

Decades ago Carl Mannheim, aGerman sociologist, stated:

“Civilisation is collapsing before oureyes.” “If God is dead,” said Dostoyevsky,“everything is permitted.” I believe that alarge part of God’s judgment on our idol-atrous culture is to let it take the logicalconsequences of the horrendous choicesit has made in abandoning Him, theframework of His saving gospel, and Hisholy, secure law.

Sections of the church have played alarge part in this drift away from God.C.E.M. Joad saw that the Church ofEngland was being transformed by theprocess of accommodating the views ofnaturalism and materialism. He accused itof becoming a mere purveyor of vague,ethical, religious uplift.

The Old Testament reminds us thatwhen the prophet and priest are cor-rupted, cultural disaster cannot be farbehind. Amos says there is no famine likea “famine of hearing the words of theLord” (Amos 8:11). Yet no matter howbad our cultural collapse, God can changeit; His gospel is competent to handle it.

This extract is taken from New Life in theWasteland: 2 Corinthians on the Cost andGlory of the Christian Ministry, by DouglasKelly (CFP,2003). ap


In the wastelandCivilisation might be collapsing, but the Gospel is equal to the challenge.

DouglasKelly

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Essentially thisis the disasterof our culture,that instead ofknowing God,

our peopleknow idols.

What can explain the fact thatmillions of Westerners –grown-up Westerners – haveflocked to see a movie version

of what its own author called a fairy tale?The Return of the King remains at the topspot in box office sales, and this third andfinal entry in The Lord of the Rings trilogydeserves top billing.

Behind the movie’s success stands theenduring popularity of author J. R. R.Tolkien and his fantasy world of Middle-earth. Those who consider themselves toosophisticated for these fairy tales reveal atragic lack of moral imagination—andChristian imagination.

J. R. R. Tolkien [1892-1973] was one ofthe 20th century’s greatest scholars of lan-guage and the culture of pre-ChristianEngland. His invented worlds were drawnfrom knowledge gained during his exten-sive career teaching at the University ofLeeds and Oxford University. He was oneof the “Inklings”, a famed group of writ-ers and literary figures that included hisfriend C.S. Lewis.

I read The Lord of the Rings as an ado-lescent because I thought it was the thingto do. I read the books almost out of asense of obligation – encouraged byteenage Christian friends who claimedthat the books changed their lives. My liferemained unchanged by my obligatoryreading. I was fascinated by Tolkien’simaginative world of Middle-earth, andoften lost myself in the wonder of thework’s intricate plot structures andTolkien’s incredible power of description.Nevertheless, I was deathly afraid ofbecoming a “Hobbitologist” or Tolkienfanatic. I much preferred to read realisticnovels, historical biographies, and non-fiction. Looking back, I am now struck bywhat I failed to see.

The release of Peter Jackson’s magnifi-cent The Lord of the Rings trilogy

prompted me to rediscover Tolkien andhis greatest work. These remarkablemovies accomplish what many Tolkienfans were certain could never be done –they bring these epic tales to life and, inthe main, get the story right.

Moviegoers who have never read thebooks will find the films to be among the

most imaginative and powerful dramasever brought to the big screen. Tolkien’sfaithful readers – most are fanatics bysome definition – will find artistic depar-tures from the books to be grating, butwill revel in the battle scenes, the beautyof Jackson’s vision of Middle-earth, andthe sheer giganticism of the settings.Those Tolkien purists who despise themovies lack the capacity to allow theirreservations to take a nap while theirimaginations are taken for a ride.

The Lord of the Rings represents one ofthe greatest literary achievements of thelast century. Tom Shippey, Tolkien’s suc-

cessor at Oxford University, namesTolkien “author of the century”, a claimthat does not sit well with the literaryestablishment. During his lifetime,Tolkien’s work was routinely disparagedby the academic establishment and the lit-erary elite. They dismissed the whole cat-egory of fantasy and fairy tales, consider-ing such works to be of interest only tochildren. Now, as then, ideologues haveattacked Tolkien’s work as anti-feminist,fascist, and escapist. Tolkien was unde-terred, and remained certain that theworld of myth and fairy stories wasabsolutely necessary for an understandingof the “real” world – a world of which hewas only too aware.

In his essay, On Fairy-Stories Tolkienargued that the association of fairy-stories

and children “is an accident of our domes-tic history”. Children, he suggested, arenot best equipped for understanding thetales and their meaning. “Fairy-storieshave in the modern lettered world beenrelegated to the ‘nursery’, as shabby orold-fashioned furniture is relegated to theplay-room, primarily because the adultsdo not want it, and do not mind if it ismisused.”

Fairy-stories are too important to berelegated to the nursery, Tolkien argued,because this form of story enables adultsto understand the very real crises of thevery real world.

Tolkien denied that reading fantasy wasa form of escapism at all. To the con-

trary, the story-teller creates a “secondaryworld” that helps to explain the “primaryworld” we know as reality. In Tolkien’sown words: “What really happens is thatthe story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-creator’. He makes a secondary worldwhich your mind can enter. Inside it, whathe relates is ‘true’: it accords with the lawsof that world. You therefore believe it,while you are, as it were, inside. Themoment disbelief arises, the spell is bro-ken; the magic, or rather art, has failed.You are out in the primary world again,looking at the little abortive secondaryworld from outside.”

Tom Shippey goes so far as to arguethat literary fantasy has been “the domi-nant literary mode of the 20th century”.He claims George Orwell, WilliamGolding, H. G. Wells, Kurt Vonnegut, andThomas Pynchon as others who wrote ina fantastic style and genre, using such sto-ries to reveal the darkness that stood atthe heart of the century’s moral crises.“Those authors of the 20th century whohave spoken most powerfully to and fortheir contemporaries have for some rea-son found it necessary to use themetaphoric mode of fantasy, to writeabout worlds and creatures which weknow do not exist, whether Tolkien’s‘Middle-earth,’ Orwell’s ‘Ingsoc,’ theremote islands of Golding and Wells, orthe Martians and Tralfamadorians whoburst into peaceful English or Americansuburbia in Wells and Vonnegut.” Seen inthis light, the enduring appeal of Tolkien’s


Ringing endorsementThe Lord of the Rings is undoubtedly a Christian masterpiece.

Albert Mohler

C U L T U R E W A T C H

Tolkien wascertain thatthe world ofmyth and fairystories wasabsolutely nec-essary for anunderstandingof the “real”world.

St Anne help us, there are so manyLuthers to choose from! One Luther isthe enlightener of the benighted MiddleAges, defender of the sovereign con-

science and originator of modern individual-ism. Another Luther is the Volk hero whoselinguistic and political achievements were usedto forge a new image for imperial Germany inthe late 19th century. Yet another Luther is thefirst great anti-Catholic, darling of partisanProtestants; on the flip side is the hereticanathematised by the Council of Trent. A fifthLuther might be the anti-Semite of the Shirermyth, lately demythologised but still blottingthe conscience of post-Holocaust Christians.And then there is the Luther of Lutherans’own table talk, all beer and bowels, profanityand profundity, known chiefly by his SmallCatechism and a great many aphorisms takenout of context.

Among these aphorisms is the infamous“Sin boldly,” and this, apparently, was the guid-ing principle of the screenwriter and directorof the recent film named for its protagonist.One could hardly do otherwise with such acolourful and controversial figure. Rather likethe New Testament scholars who – accordingto Albert Schweitzer’s famous Quest for theHistorical Jesus – find in Christ a reflection oftheir own faces, Hollywood has uncovered ausable Luther for the silver screen.

This is not, wholesale, a bad thing. DirectorEric Till has gone out of his way to tell the

story of the decadent late medieval churchwhile causing minimal offence to contempo-rary Catholics. The whole business of indul-gences (selling get-out-of-purgatory-cheaptickets) is presented more as an Italian foiblethan anything else, political rather than theo-logical, a regrettable episode in the history of alargely well-meaning church. This is an unsur-prising way to handle what otherwise countsas a grave embarrassment all around: toLutherans for having to tell it, to Catholics forhaving to remember it.

After all, the past century has been one ofunprecedented ecumenical convergence, espe-cially between the historically hostile RomanCatholic and Lutheran communions. Themost remarkable symbol of this change is theJoint Declaration on Justification which wassigned by the respective churches onReformation Day – that is, October 31, theanniversary of Luther’s posting of the 95Theses – just four years ago.

If the history of what the Joint Declarationregards as an unfortunate misunderstanding isgoing to be told at all, it can be told tactfully,can’t it? Hence the decision to conclude themovie’s narrative at a rather deceptive momentof peace with the presentation of theAugsburg Confession. The following century


works rests on the fact that he presented“a deeply serious response to what willbe seen in the end as the major issues ofhis century.”

The secondary world of Middle-earth is the setting for Tolkien’s epic ofthe Ring – a story that carries far moremoral and theological weight than mostmoviegoers will ever understand. This isan epic story of heroism and deep evil,of fellowship and betrayal, of love andhonour and war. The Lord of the Rings is,most essentially, a Christian story.

J.R.R. Tolkien was a deeply Christianman whose literary vision and fantastictales were intended to point to eternalrealities. A fervent Roman Catholic,Tolkien was influenced by John HenryCardinal Newman, in whose oratoryTolkien and his brother received earlyeducation. Like Newman, Tolkien wasdeeply suspicious of modernity. Themodern age brought technologicalprogress, but moral degeneration.

In Tolkien and the Great War, JohnGarth traced the great tragedy of WorldWar I on Tolkien and his generation.That war – a conflict that still scars theEuropean conscience – took the lives ofBritain’s young men by the millions.The war introduced gas attacks, trenchwarfare, and murderous stalemate to themodern world. Tolkien’s short service asan officer on the battlefield introducedhim to the horrors of war – and influ-enced the intense battle scenes of TheLord of the Rings. More personally, itcost Tolkien his friends. “By 1918,”Tolkien later wrote, “all but one of myclose friends were dead.”

The Lord of the Rings is not an alle-gory of the Christian Gospel as

found, for example, in the Chronicles ofNarnia written by his friend C.S. Lewis.Tolkien acknowledged his “cordial dis-like” of direct allegory, and insteadpointed more indirectly to the

Christian truth behind and beyond histales. As Ralph Wood of BaylorUniversity explains, “Tolkien’s work isall the more deeply Christian for notbeing overtly Christian. He would haveviolated the integrity of his art – andthus the faithfulness of his witness – ifhe had written a 1,200-page novel toillustrate a set of ideas that he couldhave expressed apart from the storyitself.”

Taken together with TheSilmarillion, The Lord of the Ringsincludes and illustrates the Christianthemes of truth, creation, redemption,vocation, sin, love, and longing. TheChristian Gospel is the great Fairy-story that – different from all others –is true. He coined the word eucatastro-phe to refer to the great turning pointin a story from despair to hope. Writingto his son, Christopher, Tolkienadvised that the Resurrection of Christ“was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possi-ble in the greatest Fairy-story – andproduces that essential emotion,Christian joy, which produces tearsbecause it is qualitatively so much likesorrow, because it comes from thoseplaces where Joy and Sorrow are at one,reconciled, as selfishness and altruismare lost in love”.

Tolkien took the pagan inheritanceand pointed it toward the Christianvision and reality. The Lord of the Ringsis a fundamentally Christian andinescapably theocentric classic.

“The Incarnation of God is an infi-nitely greater thing than anything Iwould dare to write,” Tolkien once con-fessed. The Christian Gospel – the truestory of Christ’s incarnation, death, andresurrection – is God’s story. As Tolkienunderstood, “To reject it leads either tosadness or to wrath.”

Millions of viewers will enjoy TheReturn of the King without ever under-standing the great story beyond thestory. To see and to understand theGospel of Jesus Christ is to experienceeucatastrophe – life out of death. Tomiss it, on the other hand, is not justtragic – it is nothing less than the cata-strophe of all catastrophes.

Albert Mohler, Jr, president of theSouthern Baptist Convention’s flagshipseminary, is one of America’s leadingconservative evangelical figures. He is afrequent guest on radio and televisionnews shows; hosts Truth on the Line, adaily radio program; and writes his ownweblog, from which this is republished.

ap

The Lord ofthe Rings

includes andillustrates the

Christianthemes oftruth, cre-

ation, redemp-tion, vocation,sin, love, and

longing.


of religious wars, resulting in the unravel-ling scepticism of modernity, hangs like acloud over the credits – unmentioned butlooming like another thunderstorm in thedistance. And this is to say nothing of theugly side of Luther that emerged with ill-ness and age, culminating in his horrifyinghostility to the Jews.

This ecumenical Luther is a greatlyappealing character, to be sure – and accu-rately depicted in that appeal. His sincerityis unwavering, his compassion is deep, hishumility quite unlike that of Protestant tri-umphalism, and much the better for it. Butscreenwriter Camille Thomasson seemsnot to have trusted Luther for being whohe was, and so introduced a few characterswho make a point rather than re-create his-tory; that is where the film goes most awry.In particular the extra-historical episodes ofa poor mother with her crippled daughterand a suicide victim try a little too hard(and a little too sentimentally) to illustratethe pastoral concerns that only over timeblossomed into outright theological criti-cisms of his church.

Overwhelmingly, though, JosephFiennes as Luther far exceeds the limita-tions of the script, brilliantly moving frombattles with the Devil to keen classroomwit to humble protests before the emperor.(The Fiennes version, we may hope, willfinally lay to rest the anemic Luther of the1953 black-and-white film which has beeninflicted on countless confirmation stu-dents over the past half century.)

If only we had a bit more of Luther thehusband; Katharina von Bora’s role is so

limited that the strong and saucy Katie ofLutheran memory is little more than a for-ward nun with no subtlety of character.

But there could hardly be more roomfor Katie, given the ambitious scope ofthis project. The movie begins in 1505with Luther’s thunderstorm vow tobecome a monk and ends two and a halfdecades later in 1530 with the AugsburgConfession at the emperor’s behest. Inbetween we have Luther’s struggles withGod, the Devil, and himself in themonastery, and his fearful first celebrationof the mass; his trip to Rome and teachingpost at Wittenberg; his challenge ofTetzel’s hellfire-and-damnation preaching

for the sale of indulgences; his growingfame through the printing press and thepatronage of Frederick the Wise (delight-fully portrayed by Sir Peter Ustinov); theelection of Leo X as Pope; discipline fromRome resulting in the Diet of Worms, cul-minating in the famous, and fittinglymodest declaration of “Here I stand”; thecapture in the forest and hiding at theWartburg Castle; Carlstadt’s iconoclasticmisunderstanding of Luther’s teaching

and the outbreak of the peasant rebellion;and the beginning of the end of a unitedWestern Christendom.

(For new Luther enthusiasts and for oldones who can never get enough – not tomention all those left bewildered by theparade of historical personages – James A.Nestingen’s short biography MartinLuther: A Life, complete with movie stills, isa lovely treatment of the reformer.)

It almost would have made more senseas a miniseries than a single film: there istoo much here to cram into two hours.But alongside this vice is also found themovie’s virtue (a proposition whichLuther himself, who coined the theologi-cal expression “simultaneously sinner andsaint”, would surely have approved): thisroller-coaster view of the man and his timegives a sense of the sweeping tide of eventsand the enormous cast of characters thatprecise book accounts simply cannotmatch.

Yet Luther’s own self-image, we’d bestnot forget, was of a maggot, a beggar, asnow-covered heap of dung, one whose

name was unworthy to be applied to thosebaptised into Christ. (European heirs of hisReformation, for instance in Germany,aptly call themselves Evangelische, of thegospel, while the English-speaking havedone the very thing their reformer hated incalling themselves Lutherans.)

The story of Luther is in fact unfaithfulto Luther if Luther is the object of

glory – however glorious and inspiring hisstory may be. For Luther, it was always andonly sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus.His conscience was captive to the Word ofGod, and on that he stood. His doctrine ofjustification meant a blessed abandonmentof sin, death, and the Devil in a joyfulexchange with Jesus Christ, whose life,love, and forgiveness became the sinner’sown. His theology of the Cross was a deathto all the glories of this world, rising to anew life in which a Christian becomes aperfectly free lord of all, subject to none,and a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subjectto all.

And remarkably, for all its flaws andfoolish dazzle, Luther the movie bears thesame witness as its hero. That is only fit-ting. If God is at work while we drink beer,as Luther said, then certainly he can also beat work while we watch (and make)movies.

Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, recently married, is adoctoral student in systematic theology atPrinceton Theological Seminary. She ownsred socks that say “Hier stehe ich. Ich kannnicht anders.” This article is reprinted fromBooks and Culture magazine. ap

Sarah Hinlicky Wilson

An ecumenical LutherThe Reformation as a movie.

C U L T U R E W A T C H

This roller-coaster view ofthe man andhis time gives asense of thesweeping tideof events.

Songs ofDeliveranceThe new CD by gifted Australian singer-songwriter Jason Coghill

formerly of Sons of Korah

Featuring new settings of 10 psalms includ-ing Ps 8, 34, 51 and 102

$29:95 including postage, [email protected], 0421 163 624,

7 Davey St, East Geelong 3219

Jason is available for ministry in churchessinging and sharing from the psalms.

Iwas restless—again. Try as I might, Ijust couldn't settle down and focuson a recent writing project. So Idecided to take my customary televi-

sion break and plopped down in front ofthe tube to watch Judge Judy and munchon kettle corn.

Half an hour later, with Judy still keep-ing me company, the discontentment I'dbeen trying to avoid lingered. It was thenthat God interrupted my vision of Judyhammering a hapless defendant and whis-pered his own verdict: You’re restlessbecause you aren’t making good use ofyour time.

I decided to take an honest look at mylife and my schedule. Having three kids incollege at the same time meant there was aream of financial-aid paperwork to com-plete each year. I travel frequently tospeak to teenagers and women. I teach adiscipleship class for teens every Sundaymorning and volunteer as a youth staffmember on Wednesday nights.

Through prayer, God helped me seethat all these activities weren’t the prob-lem. My problem was the time stealers —such as the lure of the tube — that hadcrept into my days.

When I looked closer at the flow of atypical day, I realised I operated at a spas-tic level — writing for 30 minutes, playingcomputer games for 30 minutes, starting aload of laundry, watching a half hour oftelevision, then writing for another halfhour.

When I talked with my friend JaneJarrell, a work-at-home mother of two

young children, she identified with mydilemma. She called it “hummingbirdhead” syndrome, flitting from one activityto the next but accomplishing little.

“It’s a lack of focus and it’s a huge timekiller,” she said.

After our discussion, I decided totackle this problem head on. I needed toidentify my time stealers, those thingsthat blurred my focus and robbed me ofthe time I had each day to fulfill God’s

purpose for my life. All the days I’d said,“I have no time,” I was actually squander-ing precious moments.

As I talked with other friends, Irealised this was a common challenge.Though our schedules and family situa-tions vary greatly and we’re in differentseasons of life, we all struggle with theissue of time. As we chatted, we identifiedfour culprits that regularly rob us of thevaluable moments of our day—as well assome strategies for stopping these peskytime stealers.

1. Stressed by “yes”One friend, working mom Kathryn

Lay, confesses that over-commitmentused to rob her of valuable family time. “Iused to say ‘yes’ to too many things,” shesays, “and then I decided to do somethingabout it.”

Kathryn set aside one day each monthas a family day, then planned an all-day orovernight trip that had nothing to do with

work, school, or ministry. Phone calls ande-mail were banned. Today, the Lays’monthly family day is a treasured tradi-tion. “We might visit antique shops or justenjoy nature,” she says. “Our goal is sim-ply to have fun and relax.”

Kathryn now can look through stacksof photos from her monthly family daysand see the value of the time devoted toher loved ones. For Kathryn, learning tosay no meant reclaiming precious familytime.

2. You’ve got mail!Technology, touted to make our lives

simpler, is a chief time stealer amongmany women. E-mail from friends, edi-tors, publishers, as well as industrynewsletters and forwards used to con-sume me. It wasn’t unusual for me toreceive more than 100 e-mails a day, espe-cially after a conference or ministryengagement. Any time I heard that magictone from my computer, I stopped to readand answer incoming e-mails.

Similarly, my friend Brandy Browstarted two online support groups as aministry and they quickly consumedchunks of her time. She found herselfstopping to respond to “just one more e-mail,” and before she knew it, other thingswere pushed to the side.

Brandy decided to combat this timestealer by reserving a specific time eachday to read and respond to e-mail. “SinceI’ve instituted this self-ban, my prioritieshave straightened out tremendously,” shesays.

3. Must-see TV?Louise DuMont admits that at one

time she felt as though she was stuck infront of the television every evening.After crunching numbers all day at work,when she walked through the door at5:30pm “I was bushed,” she says.

Louise would throw a load of laundryin the washer, start dinner, then crash. “AllI wanted to do was vegetate,” she admits.“Once I plopped down in front of thetelevision set, I didn’t want to budge.” Butbeneath her couch-potato tendencies, shelonged to spend her free time with familyor participate in activities that werehealthier for her.


Stolen momentsHave you fallen victim to these four time stealers?

Suzanne Eller

C H R I S T I A N L I F E

O Worship the King!

St John’sForest Street

Bendigoinvites you to worship when

visiting Victoria

The Lord’s Day10:30 am

Minister: Rev Andrew M Clarke(03) 5443 6189

Technology,touted tomake our livessimpler, is achief timestealer amongmany women.


Louise’s solution? To tape her favoriteshows. “I watch them on Saturday morn-ing,” she explains. “My children are olderand sleep in, so I get up early, take a walk,then snuggle in with a café latte and watchmy shows.” This eliminates Louise’s habitof parking in front of the tube eachevening. Also, knowing she’ll have down-time later in the week motivates Louise tospend her evening hours with her familyor doing activities she loves.

4. Games women playI feel silly admitting that playing com-

puter games was my biggest time stealer. Iloved to play Spades, and when my kidsleft for college I lost my best partners so Istarted playing online. It began as a diver-sion, but soon turned into a habit thatregularly stole at least an hour of my valu-able time each day. Not only did thesegames keep me from going to bed at adecent hour, they also lured me to remainin front of a blinking, impersonal com-puter while I neglected my live, much-loved husband.

I decided I needed to quit these gamesaltogether. Despite the fact I’d convincedmyself otherwise, computer games hadbecome addictive. I realised that the firstday! The computer seduced me like asiren, calling me to play just one game.But as I remained firm in my resolve, atthe end of the first week I realised I’dreclaimed seven hours simply by eliminat-ing one silly computer game!

I quickly learned you don’t realize howentrenched a habit has become until youtry to cut it out of your life. While manyof my friends simply eliminated timestealers, I wrestled with them. One day inutter frustration I knelt and asked God tohelp me reclaim the hours in my day.

I decided to fast. Instead of giving upfood, I eliminated my time stealers for 30days. I checked my e-mail only twice aday. Computer games were gone. I setlimits on the number of programs Iwatched and refused to turn the televisionon at all during the day. This forced me tochoose a couple of favorite shows, whichI watched in the evening with my hus-band. During the day I popped in a CDand filled my home with my favorite wor-ship music.

As the fast concluded, I looked at whatI’d gained. My life hadn’t changed, justthe management of my time. I still hadthe same 24 hours available to me eachday. I still was busy. I still had deadlines.But I’d uncovered pockets of preciousmoments that I chose to fill carefully. Ispent a portion of my morning reading

my Bible and talking with God. I tooklong walks with my husband in theevening or worked outside with ourhorses. Because my writing and tasks forthe day were complete, I could enjoythese things with a clear focus and with-out guilt. Several of these “luxuries” I’doften neglected in the past because I had“too much to do” and “not enough time”.

When the fast was over, I came to theconclusion that God had more for me –not a legalistic list of tasks to perform,but a new way of thinking. I began to seethe hours of my day as opportunities,each moment as a possibility. It’s evidentthat 19th-century pastor Nathaniel

Emmons spoke truth when he said, “Ahabit is either the best of servants or theworst of masters.” Today, I see the fruit ofmy still-evolving disciplined life.Eliminating time stealers has allowed meto concentrate on the things that reallymatter.

T. Suzanne Eller, an inspirational speakerand the author of Real Teens, Real Stories,Real Life (RiverOak), lives in Oklahomawith her husband and three children. Shecan be reached at [email protected] [email protected]. This article isreprinted from Christian Woman maga-zine. ap

Presbyterian Theological Centre

“REACHING THE BUSH”Rural Ministry Conference

March 15-16, 2004To be held at

77 Shaftesbury, Burwood.For those involved in ministry in the Country.Guest speaker: Philip HughesFor more details contact the PTC (02) 9744 [email protected]/ptcsyd

Presbyterian Theological Centre – SydneyA

Graduation Ceremonyand

Commencement ServiceTuesday 16th March 2004

at 7.30pmTo be held at

St James Presbyterian ChurchBelmore Street, Burwood

AThe Occasional Address will be given by

Rev Michael Raiter

FEBRUARY 2004

21 Presbytery of North Queensland; 8parishes and 3 home mission stationstotaling 16 congregations with 1050c&a (communicants and adherents); 3defence force chaplains, 1 retired min-ister, 1 under jurisdiction, theModerator and the new clerk.

22 Southern Cross parish, East Lismorefar north NSW (near Southern Crossuniversity); with about 185 c&a, 90 yf(younger folk – Sunday School andyouth) and 3 e (elders). Steve andRosalind Cree.

23 Clayton parish, Melbourne; with about135 c&a, 100 yf and 12 e. Michael andKerry Jensen.

24 Barbara Brown APWM / Navigatorsworker from Croydon Hills, servingamong students and business people inMelbourne.

25 Ministerial students who have com-pleted their studies and are taking uptheir first “exit” appointments includ-ing on Qld Darling Downs RogerMarsh in the South Burnett parish(Kingaroy, Goomeri and Wondai )with about 70 c&a, 20 yf and 2 e.

26 The principal, staff, council and stu-dents at Fairholme College,Toowoomba.

27 Tony and Shona Archer in his exitappointment in Upper Yarra parish,Warburton, Vic.; with about 60 c&a, 8yf. Tony previously served there ashome missionary.

28 Michael and Jennifer Wishart in hisexit appointment in Dromana –Mornington parish southernMelbourne; with about 60 c&a, 25 yfand 6 e.

29 Russell and Laurel van Delden in theearly days of their work in Arundel

parish (Qld Gold Coast); with about80 c&a, 12 yf and 1 e.

MARCH1 North Adelaide parish with about 60

c&a, 8 yf and 7 e. Graham and BethLyman.

2 Presbytery of Sydney South; 15parishes and 1 home mission stationtotaling 18 congregations with 1200c&a; 3 church department leaders, 7retired ministers, 3 under jurisdiction,4 theological candidates; Russell Starkclerk.

3 Norm and Tricia Iliss from Gladstone,Qld serving until June with RSTI (RedSea Team International) in the MiddleEast teaching computing and English.

4 Interim Moderator, preachers and thefilling of the vacancy in Gosford parishnorth of Sydney; with about 260 c&a,20 yf and 15 e.

5 Gregory and Rosemary Braid APWM/ Wycliffe workers from Ulverstone,Tas. serving in South Asia in a ministrysupport role.

6 Walter and Christine Jones previouslyof Townsville as they begin ministeringin Miles parish on the Qld DarlingDowns including Condamine andDulacca; with about 105 c&a, 50 yfand 12 e.

7 David and Lalit Clarke APWM / CMSworkers from Mt Evelyn, Melbourneserving in Cambodia as churchplanters.

8 All the staff who work in the churchoffices at Fortitude Valley, Brisbane,Chalmers St., Sydney and Collins StMelbourne.

9 APWM / MAF workers Graham andCaroline Sharp from Kogarah, Sydneyserving in aircraft maintenance at AliceSprings.

10 Craig and Sonja Bland in his exitappointment at Parkes-Forbes-PeakHill parish western NSW.

11 Paul Bloomfield as he serves in the

Rockingham W.A. parish station; andSouth West country ministries includ-ing Augusta and at Braemar homes,Fremantle.

12 Balmain parish inner Sydney; withabout 70 c&a and 6 e. Ivan and JoanRansom.

13 Presbytery of Maroondah, southernMelbourne; 8 parishes and 1 homemission station totaling 8 congrega-tions with 600 communicants andadherents; 6 retired ministers, 3 underjurisdiction; Doug Fraser clerk.

14 Andrew and Belinda Satchell in his exitappointment at Manilla with about 90c&a, 50 yf and 3 e; part of theTamworth-Manilla parish, where heserves with current NSW ModeratorStuart Andrews.

15 Cliff & Sue Letcher APWM /Australian Indigenous Ministriesworkers giving leadership at the AIMheadquarters, Winmallee NSW withthe Leggotts of the PresbyterianChurch of Eastern Australia (“freechurch”).

16 A vision in our church courts and con-gregations for church extension andchurch planting in all parts ofAustralia, particularly in your ownregion.

17 Wangaratta Regional parish Vic.including Myrtleford and Yarrawonga;with about 115 c&a, 25 yf and 5 e.Neil and Barbara Harvey.

18 Interim Moderator, preachers and thefilling of the vacancy in Taree andLower Manning parish NSW northcoast; with about 175 c&a, 15 yf and15 e.

19 The work of the Bible society in Chileincluding its internet presence and theeffort to reach the people of EasterIsland with God’s written Word.

20 Wentworthville parish western Sydneyincluding Girraween; with about 140c&a, 75 yf and 6 e. David andMargaret Griffin.

P R A Y E R

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JobPeter Bloomfield

Darlington: Evangelical Press, 2003.

Reviewed by Peter Barnes

Peter Bloomfield is the pastor of BaldHills Presbyterian church in northBrisbane, and has previously published awork on Esther in this same series, knownas The Guide, put out by EvangelicalPress. As Peter points out, Job is a bookthat has little in common with the pros-perity gospel or with the inane ditty: A lit-tle talk with Jesus makes it right, all right.

Peter sees Job as a real person, wholived in the days of the patriarchs (i.e.before the law of Moses). Not beingweighed down by the unscientific specula-tions of the evolutionary hypothesis,Peter, in his treatment of the questionsthrown up by God in Job 38-41, maintainsthat behemoth and leviathan refer todinosaurs. Indeed, the idea that behemothrefers to a hippopotamus is ludicrous – ahippo does not have a tail ‘like a cedar’.With less credibility, but with greatchivalry, Peter does what he can to defendthe spiritual integrity of Job’s wife.

Peter sees the Elihu speeches in Job 32-37 as the key to understanding Job, for“the cross of Jesus is the ultimate out-working of the message of Job”. Elihu – amysterious figure to many commentators– is, in Peter’s view, a pointer to Christ,who is the key to all of the Scriptures.Elihu’s speeches are profound, and Jobdoes not reply to them, nor does God cor-rect them. The book of Job raises andanswers – insofar as we are given answers– the biblical questions concerning themediator, resurrection and revelation. To

put things in their true perspective: “Theultimate mystery is not suffering man, butsuffering God!”

With a sure touch and a pithy style,Peter is a most helpful guide to this mostimportant book. His scholarship is pre-sent, but worn lightly. Not many Bibleguides provide good models for preach-ing, but this one does. To all Bible teach-ers out there: read, learn, and imitate.

Peter Barnes is AP books editor

Outback Heroes75 Years of the Royal FlyingDoctor Service

Kay Batstone

Lothian Books, 2003.

Reviewed by Stuart Bonnington

The appearance of Outback Heroes,another book dealing with the life, min-istry and influence of Rev. Dr John Flynn,is gratifying. While it is acknowledged asbeing dependent on earlier famous booksby W. Scott McPheat (1963) and MichaelPage (1977), nevertheless Outback Heroesgives the reader a very helpful overview ofFlynn, the Inland Mission and the RFDS.It does by presenting the story “...in fivesections, each from the perspective of themain protagonists – Flynn himself, AlfTraegar who developed the famous pedalradio, the aviators, the nurses and the doc-tors. And throughout we hear the voicesof the Inlanders, who embraced theService and who, 75 years later, continueto support it with the same passion”.

While at times there appears to be alack of detail/precision/accuracy, OutbackHeroes will be widely read and valued.

Stuart Bonnington is minister of SouthYarra Presbyterian Church, Vic.

Keith Murdoch:Founder of a Media EmpireR.M. Younger

Harper Collins, 2003.

Reviewed by Stuart Bonnington

Keith Murdoch was a contemporary ofJohn Flynn. Their lives make for an inter-esting contrast as presbyterianism ledthem to contribute to the development ofmodern Australia in a way that was clearly(in the case of Flynn) and much moreimplicitly (with Murdoch) based onChristianity.

The life of KM (as Younger refers toKeith Murdoch) followed, sadly a familarspiritual pathway for people of his gener-ation, as Christianity came under the pres-sure of rising doctrinal liberalism. “Faith”faded from being based on clearly heldbeliefs, to being a matter of a “benevo-lent” lifestyle.

KM’s daughter Anne remembers(p.177) “We occasionally visited theToorak Presbyterian Church ... but myfather was not a regular church goer, eventhough he remained true to the religiousprinciples of his upbringing.” He was theeldest son of Rev. Patrick Murdoch, thedistinguished minister (1887-1928) ofTrinity Church in Camberwell, where thecongregation included notable peoplesuch as Andrew Fisher and RobertMenzies.

A stutter kept KM from the presbyter-ian ministry and he turned to journalismunder the influence of his Uncle, WalterMurdoch. Younger’s biography gives agood case study of the “reduction” of theChristian faith to the pursuit of excellencepunctuated by good deeds, in whatbecame the first post-liberal generation.Keith Murdoch is a well written, excellentaddition to general Australian history andinadvertantly to Presbyterian history aswell.

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[email protected] (03) 5561 7899

‘LIKE A MUSTARD SEED’A history of the Presbyterian Church

in WA 1829 to 1901Stuart M. Bonnington

Forward by Dr. Malcolm Prentis 136 pp $19.95 + $9.95 postage and packaging

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Is postmodernism – the philosophythat claims there is no transcendenttruth – on life support? It may bepremature to sign the death certifi-

cate, but there are signs postmodernism islosing strength.

I spoke at my alma mater, BrownUniversity, in June, arguing that withoutacknowledging moral truth, it’s impossi-ble for colleges to teach ethics. I’ve beensaying this since the late 1980s, all overAmerica, and I’ve yet to be successfullycontradicted. Whenever someone claimshis alma mater teaches ethics, I ask him tosend me the curriculum, which invariablyturns out to be pure pragmatism, utilitari-anism, or social issues like diversity andthe environment – good things, but notethics.

At Brown – one of the most liberalcampuses in the country – I was shockedwhen the professor who introduced meacknowledged that he could no longerteach ethics, adding: “Chuck Colson willexplain why.”

In Red Wing, Minnesota – a townDemocrat Al Gore carried in 2000 – themajority of high school students considerthemselves pro-life. As one sophomoreput it, “I think it would be better to over-turn Roe v. Wade.”

According to the New York Times, kidsaren’t inheriting these attitudes from theirpro-choice (and horrified) parents. Butthey are reflecting national trends.Among the young, support for legalisedabortion dropped from 48 per cent in

1993 to 39 per cent today. Clearly, thisgeneration, witnessing the dreadful legacyof abortion, isn’t buying pro-choiceclaims.

In recent years, Americans havebecome increasingly tolerant of homosex-ual rights. But since the Supreme Court’sLawrence decision (2003), which manybelieve paves the way for gay marriage,support for gay causes dropped sharply.

Why? Becausewhile it was fash-ionable to con-sider ourselvest o l e r a n t ,Lawrence joltedus back to reality– back to anunderstanding ofhow destructive itwould be if weoverturned thedefinition of mar-riage as a union

between one man and one woman.Soccer moms – a constituency that

worried about abortion rights, goodschools, and civil liberties – are now calledsecurity moms because these days theyworry primarily about their kids’ safety.Time magazine recently quoted onemother who said she normally choosespolitical candidates who strongly supportwelfare and abortion. But since September11, she said, “All I want in a President is aperson who is strong.”

September 11, theologian MichaelNovak says, was the beginning of the endfor postmodern preeminence. People arebeginning to realize postmodern presup-positions simply don’t work.

And what are those presuppositions?Postmodernists claim we can have no“grand meta-narrative” that makes senseof reality. Since there’s no such thing astruth, all principles are merely personalpreferences. As professor Ed Veithexplains, the postmodernist claims that all

you can do is try to impose your prefer-ences on others before they impose theirson you.

But then came September 11, the dayterrorists imposed their preferences, mur-dering 3000 innocent Americans. If one’sworldview is true, it has to conform toreality – to our real-life experiences. Post-9/11, few Americans could continuebelieving that there’s no such thing asmoral truth, no such thing as good andevil.

These encouraging signs – thatAmericans are recognising the flimsinessof postmodernism’s presuppositions –afford a great opportunity. I believe peo-ple today can be attracted to a belief sys-tem that is rational and defensible. Thequestion is, who or what will fill the vac-uum if postmodernism collapses?

Christianity offers a belief system thatis, as Paul tells Festus, “true and reason-able”. I can’t think of a more critical timefor pastors, scholars, and laypeople to begrounded in a biblical worldview and todefend it clearly to those hungering fortruth.

But are we prepared for such a chal-lenge? George Barna recently completeda tour of American churches and cameback with a dismaying report that mostchurch and lay leaders – 90 per cent,according to one survey – have no under-standing of worldview. How are we goingto contend with competing philosophiesif we’re not even rooted in our own truthsystem?

Ironically, just as there seem to beencouraging signs in the culture, there

are also signs that the church is dumbingdown, moving from a Word-driven mes-sage to an image and emotion-driven mes-sage (note how many Christian radio sta-tions have recently converted from talkand preaching to all-music).

It would be the supreme irony – and aterrible tragedy – if we found ourselvesslipping into postmodernity just when thebroader culture has figured out it’s a deadend.

This article is reprinted from ChristianityToday, December 2003. ap

E S S A Y

Postmodern crack-upFrom soccer moms to college campuses, postmodernism is in trouble.

CharlesColson

Soccer momsare now calledsecurity momsbecause these

days theyworry primar-ily about their

kids’ safety.

Developing a Christian Worldview

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