‘These are difficult times when there’s not that much good news. And I think this is one of those things that is universally good. No matter where you are on planet Earth, this is a universally good thing.’
Those words were delivered earlier this summer. So quick quiz (without cheating and looking down this column for answers): who said them, and about what?
‘Money can’t buy life’ (Bob Marley). ‘We are beggars – this is true’ (Martin Luther). ‘Happy…’ (Raphael). ‘Now God be with you, my dear children; I have breakfasted with you, and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ this night’ (Robert Bruce).
As the regular writer of this column, I believe that last words are important. Although I confess both a foolishness and a propensity to go over my word count, I disagree with Karl Marx, who on his deathbed apparently barked: ‘Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.’
No Evangelical worth their salt would want to argue that evangelism doesn’t matter. For a movement so closely connected with the evangel that we enshrine it in our nomenclature, it would be a surprise if we said otherwise.
Whilst Evangelicalism has been notoriously difficult to define as a term, you would be hard pressed to find any attempt to do so that doesn’t land on our activist tendency to go and share the gospel.
‘Drink silver particles in water.’ ‘Make your body more alkaline.’ ‘Drink water every 15 minutes.’ These were just three online cures which circulated at the start of the Covid-19 (C-19) pandemic.
All such claims were plainly ridiculous, but there were others that sounded more plausible, due to being wrapped up in nice ‘science-y’-sounding language.
Evangelical churches are busy places, aren’t they? There is so much to do.
There are, of course, all the usual rotas that one might be on: music, Sunday School, tea and coffee, welcome, etc. Then there are all the opportunities for mission and discipleship. Add to that the endless calls for training on every point of minutiae that ever takes place and, before long, you can find yourself swamped with stuff to do.
Most of us claim to want freedom. We don’t like being constrained. We want to do things our way, according to our pref-erences, how things suit us. We can get behind the concept of personal autonomy.
What we’re less happy about is when the autonomy granted to us is extended to others. Though we perhaps acknowledge the world would be a very boring place if we were all the same, there’s that little part of us that thinks – despite that – we’re basically right, the way we do things is best and so if everyone was a bit more like us the world would be a happier place. We are the arbiters of normal, moderate credible living and others are different shades of weird based on how closely they ape the way we do things.
I’ve been visiting Athens annually for the last eight years to speak in various Greek Evangelical churches and lecture at the Greek Bible College.
It’s always a fascinating cross-cultural experience, and it’s not unwelcome that the weather in Autumn is always much nicer there than it is in Cambridge. My last trip was the strangest yet, however, as I had also been invited to give a lecture to a large audience containing the Papal Nuncio, the Catholic Archbishop, Jesuit priests, lots of nuns, some Reformed Presbyterians, and the odd Anglican.
As we look ahead to the coming year, what may happen?
According to American pastor F. Kenton Beshore, the second coming of Jesus will be between 2018 and 2028, with the Rapture by 2021 at the latest. Well, who knows? Maybe F. (as I affectionately call him for short) will be proved right. Or maybe not. F. reckons it’s all got to kick off within a generation of the founding of modern Israel in 1948, with a generation being 70-80 years. He’s not one for vagueness, our F. He’s not Church of England.
To boldly go... to eternity and beyond?
‘These are difficult times when there’s not that much good news. And I think this is one of those things that is universally good. No matter where you are on planet Earth, this is a universally good thing.’
Those words were delivered earlier this summer. So quick quiz (without cheating and looking down this column for answers): who said them, and about what?