Worship or Entertainment?
Where will your church be five or ten years from now? With the adoption of contemporary worship, many have changed beyond recognition. This is one of the most important issues confronting churches today.
Keeping the Church Separate from the World
‘..if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?’ Our Lord demonstrates that if the sharp distinction between the church and the world is ever broken down, then the power of the church is gone.
The Cancer in all Human Relationships
The apostle’s prophetic analysis of perilous times has proved harrowingly accurate, and serves as a powerful vindication of the inspired accuracy of revelation. Nothing is happening which we have not been told to expect, because all is known to our God. The world does not understand itself, but it desperately needs the saving message of Christ.
The Battle for Souls
We are ‘saved to serve’, but that little maxim is unfashionable today. It is, however, biblical and right. We are called to the tremendous work of the great commission of Christ to his disciples in every age – the gathering in of lost souls. A believer whose mind and heart is not engaged in Christ’s cause cannot expect to make spiritual progress.
The Seven Pillars of Counselling
Over the last decades there has come in among Christians a craze for counselling borrowed from secular psychology, largely formulated by atheists opposed to biblical teaching. It is astonishing that even evangelical churches are hiring counsellors to ‘heal’ Christians who need biblical advice, not psychological therapy.
The Significance of Karl Barth
As a man, there is only one adjective for Karl Barth and that is ‘great’. Everything about him was big. He clearly had a first-class intellect. Nothing else could account for his acute criticism of theological outlooks and his own massive Church Dogmatics. He appeared to be reasserting the Calvinistic position. But alas, it was only a matter of appearance.
Sacred or Profane Worship? The Third Broken Principle
The third major departure from biblical principles of worship is the modern refusal to accept the great gulf between sacred and profane, so that the entertainment forms of the world are imported into the church for the praise of God. To be profane is to pollute sacred and biblical things with irreverence or disregard.
Rational or Ecstatic Worship? The Second Broken Principle
Ecstatic worship (the opposite to rational worship) takes place when the object of the exercise is to achieve a warm, happy feeling, perhaps great excitement, and even a sense of God’s presence through the earthly, physical aspects of worship such as music and movement.
Spiritual or Aesthetic Worship? The First Broken Principle
Aesthetic worshippers believe that genuine praise needs a ‘physical’ dimension greater than mere unison singing. It assumes that God is an ‘aesthete’ – sitting in the heavens and looking down with appreciation at the skill and beauty that we bring before Him.
Great Advances Sown by the Reformation
In various ways, the Protestant Reformation scattered good seeds of thought (the ‘Magisterial Reformation’) which in their own day were not allowed to mature and bear fruit. Thankfully a later generation would provide the necessary climate to see that fruit blossom.
Seeds of the Reformation
True though it is that God worked mightily by his Spirit in the 16th century, he did not do so in a way that bypassed the ongoing stream of history, or short-circuited human causes. What were the factors present in the late medieval world that gave birth to the Reformation?
The Merger of Calvinism with Worldliness
A new form of Calvinism took the shape of a movement around 2005, but it differed in its acceptance of ‘the world’. ‘New Calvinism’ is not a resurgence of the old but an entirely novel formula which strips the doctrine of holy conduct, and unites it with the world. But the Scriptures say that ‘the friendship of the world is enmity with God.’
Recognising and Responding to Seasons of Exceptional Apostasy
The remarkable picture of the present age given in the prophecy of Paul in 2 Timothy 3 is breathtaking both in scope and detail. It is the voice of God that speaks in this passage, providing his people living in days of apostasy with the explanations, warnings and guidance so sorely needed for their safety and survival.
The Pattern for the Church
When we speak of the sufficiency of Scripture, we mean that the Word of God provides all that we need to know in order to be saved, to be sanctified, to worship, and to organise and operate the church of God (2 Timothy 3.16-17). It clearly shows a pattern for the church.
Features of Apostate Behaviour
In Paul’s prophecy in 2 Timothy 3, he identifies nineteen prominent sins which will take over society, with the first five being about self. People will unashamedly focus their attention on themselves, being ‘lovers of their own selves’, so that self-service will become the approved goal for all people.
3. A Defence of the Authenticity of the Woman Taken in Adultery
‘..When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.’ (John 8.10-11)
2. A Defence of the Authenticity of the Traditional Ending of Mark
‘And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.’ (Mark 16:20)
1. A Defence of the Traditional Text of Scripture
Abandoning Separation from Biblical Error
For many years independent evangelicals kept apart from churches in denominations affiliated to the apostate World Council of Churches, such as Anglican, Baptist Union and Methodist churches. The British Evangelical Council (whose members included the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), Grace Baptist Churches and the Free Church of Scotland) did not admit churches that … Continued
An All-Round Ministry
The Scriptures provide comprehensive practical instruction and guidance for the carrying out of all preaching, worship and church activity, and for every instruction there is a divine promise of help and reward. Do we review adequately or often our teaching, or the work of our church?In one evening address Dr Masters presented the ‘departments’ of … Continued