Ephesians 4:14

…Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves…

Archive for January, 2006

Response to “To be continued?” #1

Jan 10

Posted by Mark Barnes in Book Reviews | 6 Comments

I’ve finally taken delivery of Sam Waldon’s To Be Continued?. My first thoughts about the book (in this order) were:

  • It’s expensive! £9.95 for 116 pages
  • It’s well written: To be fair, Waldron has condensed a lot into the book. It’s very well structured, and exceptionally clear. A few diagrams help, but even without them, the text is very readable and easily understood.

Rather than post one long response, I’ll post some initial thoughts now, and probably have two more posts later. In this post I want to concentrate solely on the Introduction to the book where Waldron states his case in outline, before going on to give us the detail.

Waldron’s basic premise is that 1) The gift of apostleship was foundational and has ceased, 2) NT Prophecy is like OT prophecy, and therefore that has ceased, 3) Tongue-speaking is equivalent to prophecy, so that has ceased, 4) Miracle-working was to validate apostles and prophets, so that has ceased too.
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Looking forward to Jesus’ return

Jan 10

Posted by Mark Barnes in Articles, Reflections | 1 Comment

Tragically, there has been a lot of nonsense written and spoken about the return of Christ. For example, in 1988 Edgar Whisenant published a wildly popular book (which sold around 4 million copies), entitled 88 Reasons why the Rapture will be in 1988. It wasn’t, of course, but undaunted Whisenant wrote a sequel the following year. In a rare moment of common sense the publishers decided not to call it 89 Reasons why the Rapture will be in 1989. Instead it was titled The Final Shout – Rapture Report 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993. I suppose that’s what’s called hedging your bets.

But don’t let the nonsense put you off. The return of Christ is glorious and well worth dwelling on.

Why is Jesus coming back?

Of all the questions we could consider when looking at the return of Christ, the most important is probably Why is Jesus coming back? It is rarely answered. Whenever your thoughts wander to Christ’s return, let them dwell on this question before you ever start thinking about dates and signs and millennial views.

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Co-operating with other evangelicals

Jan 5

Posted by Mark Barnes in Reflections | 3 Comments

I came across this broadcast from 9Marks Ministries this morning. It’s a a recording of a discussion made up of Ligon Duncan (Presbyterian), Al Mohler (Southern Baptist) and C J Mahaney (Sovereign Grace [charismatic]). It’s a wonderful conversation: thoughtful and challenging yet always good-humoured and sometimes actually hilarious. You can download it for free on the 9marks site, but as it is a 30meg download, I thought I’d give you a little one minute sample, which will download in a snap. The first voice you’ll hear is C J Mahaney, the rest is from the chairman, Mark Dever.

I particularly appreciated the celebration of strong convictions (something usually not heard in discussions on unity and co-operation), and the frank and very helpful discussion on why a man could preach in a church, but not be a member of it.

I preached on Ephesians 4 at the start of New Year, and verses 13-16 make it clear that true unity always goes together with maturity. Listen to this broadcast, and you’ll see why.

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