November 2002
The End of Another Year

BTM News 24

 The end of another year! Every ministry sends out an end-of-year summary, usually full of news about its many successes, much like political parties who, after losing dramatically at the polls, say they had a ‘victory’!!

Can we give you great news? Hm. To tell the truth, the last year has been a struggle. And I don’t mean the small income we received. I mean in terms of what we have achieved and continue to do.

I’d love to tell you we have had magnificent successes, but we simply haven’t. Just a few days ago we talked with our computer expert co-workers and the developments we need will take a while to execute.

The web site continues, though, to draw a lot of readers, many of whom never contact us personally of course. Those who do, fall into three main categories – those who wish only to be spiteful and vicious, those who only want a debate, and those who are genuine. Last year I spent a lot of time in discussion with Roman Catholic seminarians or priests. A large number of Roman Catholics threw everything at us, but we got through that okay.

Thankfully, most contacts are positive and not a few thank us for giving them insight into what scripture truly says. As a result, most of them came over to the glorious truth of predestination, election and grace-alone, saying that their new theology has revolutionised their lives…I only wish many Calvinists would see it that way instead of doggedly sticking to Calvinism instead of scripture!

Over the year I have read extensively into Roman Catholicism, using Romanist writings rather than Protestant literature. The task has been illuminating, for I am gaining a better grasp of what Romanism is really all about.

Recently, I have studied the history of the Council of Trent, written by a Cardinal. Without doubt, he clearly depicts the ground on which Rome stands – Arminian and non-scriptural. Its fight against Christians is fought on matters of dogma and not doctrine. But, more of that when I write a study article on it.

I have also nearly completed my doctorate, looking into a ‘theology of disfellowship’. This was prompted by the wickedness displayed by charismatic pastors who threw Christians out of their churches because they refused to recognize the Toronto Blessing as a work of God. Of great help to me was the First Book of Corinthians. This is not the usual book to look at in connection with the subject, but it contains a beautifully Biblical approach to discipline, combining love with rigour. When the thesis is completed I hope to get it published. If not, it will be published by BTM.

James Waddell has worked tirelessly on BTM projects and continues to support and maintain the original website. Both of us continue to support the ministry financially and both of us are still in our full-time jobs.

We have noted how BTM’s co-workers have been attacked by the accuser of the people of God, so we ask you to pray for their protection. Also, some ministries have literally been closed down mysteriously, or are losing financial aid. As we have said before, we would not be surprised if we were closed down, too. So, again, please pray for our work.

My full-time job has become even more full-time as I have to cover more shifts. This is not only very tiring (out of the house at 6.30am and back home by 9 at night), it is also a very tense job for many reasons, and it takes me from my main aim of providing material for the ministry.

However, God knows and he will deal with this matter when He sees fit…bearing in kind that the work will move forward only when God prompts Believers to give us the fullest support. (It always interests me that those who give the most are also the least able to afford it).

Need for Prayer

Both my wife and I seem to have been working ‘under-par’ over the past few months, mostly because of our heavy full-time work-load. It is the kind of job where lives are at stake, that we cannot simply cut back on. That is why I ask God to show me another way, for otherwise my ministerial input will be drastically cut. As I say, we need your prayers on this.

I regularly get ‘advice’ from Christians who appear to know better than I do when it comes to my ministry! They can tell me exactly where I am wrong and what I must do to put it right. All without knowing anything about me, or what I really do.

They glean their superior knowledge from reading the Beacon, even though the newsletter is but a very small part of my total ministry! Only those who themselves publish such a newsletter can tell you what it involves, and the continuous searching of the soul that accompanies it.

My work is not, then, confined to the newsletter. Every week I complete a full Bible study, which is used as a basis for our Sunday meetings. These studies, plus others, are sent to readers who need them, by email or by post, one of them being in the USA.

There is also the PhD work and a continuous upgrading of our few courses, plus communications with a variety of organizations. On top of that I deal with email enquiries and comments daily, and letters weekly. These can take a very long time to reply to.

So, perhaps my armchair critics can remember all this before striding in with their heavy boots of opinion.

Over the years you have read of the state of our roof. Well, 96 mph gales sorted that one out! The smaller roof became so dangerous I had to call in the roofers, especially as parts fell down into my neighbour’s side, smashing some of her window. Our fences were torn away from their posts – one whole panel was stopped from driving itself through our bathroom window by the clothes line! The other panels tore away from brick walls, looking like sails in the wind, bringing rows of bricks with them, together with supporting pillars. This all forced me to borrow the money to do the work, which is being completed as I write.

The Future?

At the time of the Toronto Blessing, I was given a very clear vision of the future and presented it to readers at the time. That vision has not changed. If anything, it has been given impetus by the activities in more recent years of EU promoters.

Since the work of BTM started, I have warned that our Christian freedoms are going to come to an end swiftly. But, the swiftness has taken even me by surprise! Do not be deceived friends. I also warned that to vote the UK Labour Party into government would be the ‘nail in the coffin’. I think maybe these words have been more than verified! Labour is getting rid of every vestige of decency and morality, even changing words so as to lull the public into thinking good of evil.

The Party has also been voracious in pushing the UK headlong even deeper into the Romanist-governed EU, with its humanistic and Arminian laws and rules, designed to remove true human freedom. Whilst giving every freedom to those who are wicked.

The churches have not learned from the onslaught of the Toronto Blessing. This, too, was predicted by ourselves. True churches simply battened-down the hatches, thinking that the Toronto affair was only a storm that would pass. Well, instead, it entrenched itself into the whole church system, even affecting the churches that remained loyal to God.

Worse than that a totally false evangelism system has arisen, again warned-about by us…the Alpha course. It has claimed over 8 million ‘victims’ thus far and promises to gain even more momentum in the future. It is not merely an ordinary system…do you remember me saying at the time of the ‘Blessing’ that it would seek to ‘theologise’ its position, to make it acceptable to many more churches?Well, that is the task of Alpha. It began as an evangelism tool but is fast becoming the ‘proof’ of Christianity and its underpinning theology.

Alpha has not been content with just evangelizing. It is developing many more courses that will provide a whole new thinking pattern for those caught in its original web of ‘conversion’. Alpha is endorsed by Rome and there is extensive ‘cross-over’ between Protestant and Roman camps, to such an extent that the border is almost eradicated.

Rome fully intends to absorb Protestantism, and the process is increasing fast. Read the Catholic press to see the proof!

Alpha is one of the common grounds on which Rome and so-called ‘Protestant’ churches meet. This will continue to join the two heresies together in the very near future. Those who oppose the union will be castigated and punished – initially by shunning and scorn, but later by law. This, too, was predicted…no prophesied…a few years ago. But, who listens?

Genuine churches are going to be hit hard by doubts and deception, very soon. Genuine believers are already shunning fellow believers, because they do not accept the ‘system’. Small groups of true Believers, who prefer scripture alone to human reasoning, are breaking away from the ‘system’ and are thereby becoming targets for abuse and shunning.

This will increase, as ‘reformed’ churches continue to oppose Christians who hunger after truth and nothing else. No need to watch for it – it is already happening.

There is a great need now to define what being a Christian really is. We need to accompany that with definitions of scriptural truths. In other words, proper and genuine doctrine, as opposed to dogma and tradition, both of which dominate our churches today.

At BTM we continue to believe that our ministry is vital – one day we may be shut-down by official groups, so grab true teaching when you can. It will not be around for much longer. Sadly, too many Christians wish to buy wells for Africa, than to support vital ministries. But, what worth are wells of water when wells of God’s word dry up before our eyes?

Our ministry is getting tougher by the day and it takes massive work and commitment. Support us as and when you can! Pray for us, if called to do so.

We are watchmen, and many foes want nothing better than to poke out our eyes! They think we see far too much. Satan is deploying his envoys at a rapid rate. Will you stand with us, or sit back comfortably and accept what is coming into our lives? With Joshua, and said before – “as for us, we will follow God”. Will you?      

Where We Are Coming From …

The lead article in November’s Beacon is about reformation and the need to continue reforming. I had intended leaving this BTM Newsletter at two sides, but it occurred to me that as some readers are not fully aware of our stance on the matter, perhaps I ought to extend this newsletter to include a summary…

Many readers of our website assume that I was brought up on reading Calvin, and was therefore a Calvinist. In truth, though I attended a Calvinistic church for some time, I never once read anything by Calvin!!

It is argued that I must have read Calvin because I agree to his ‘five points’. Friends – I agreed to the five points well before I even knew of their existence in Calvin’s works! That’s because I had discovered them for myself in scripture, from my own reading.

Indeed, this is where we are coming from as a group. For many years we (those who left the ‘system’) were being disconcerted and alarmed at the countless errors being expounded from the pulpits of the churches in our city. We tried to reason with the pastors and deacons but to no avail. At our last church, the pastor humiliated one of his senior deacons publicly in a Sunday service. He stopped the singing of a hymn, pointed directly at the deacon (who was twice his age) and told him to sing or be cast out!!

The deacon was protesting silently because the pastor was taking us all down a charismatic road, but the pastor took it personally and decided to make a fool of the man. The pastor’s errors multiplied and we had no choice but to leave.

From that point onward we were on our own as a group and formed another local church, because, simply, we had nowhere else to go. It is a very sad fact that today there is nowhere in our large city, with its 400 churches, that I could happily send a convert!!

This is because we had been led by God to leave the ‘system’, to relearn His glorious truths afresh. Indeed, many of these truths came as bombshells, because we had either not heard them at all, or we had been badly taught in the first place.

Our first few years as a church were traumatic to say the least. This was partly because of a concerted effort by the other churches who elected to oppose us in their pulpits and as a closed society. Even today they treat us with great suspicion and, at times, hatred.

But why? The reason is sadness itself – we want to follow Christ alone and be taught by scripture alone. Not by me personally, but by God’s word, as it is written. Whilst virtually every Reformed preacher and pastor claims to believe the same thing and do the same thing, it is just not true! They don’t live what they preach.

There is a certain tiredness in their eyes and voices when they preach the grand truths of scripture. This is probably because what they preach has been handed down to them, but not taken into their hearts. They were taught them in colleges and by other preachers and books, but not by the Holy Spirit, Who is not shackled by tradition and third-hand information.

It was our decision when we started our church (which was after we started the BTM), to begin again. We looked hard at the things we thought we believed. Daily, we discovered that what we had been taught was but a pale reflection of what God says in His word.

Every Sunday when we met formally, we discussed scripture and what it really said about this or that truth. Often in the early days we were shocked and left reeling by the huge gap between our ‘received wisdom’ from others and the taught wisdom in scripture. In particular my mother, the oldest in the group and well-used to traditional teaching, was afraid of our position. She was scared that perhaps we were out on a limb and learning wrongly. But, as time wore on, she came to see and appreciate the truth untainted by human words and theories.

Because of this wariness in us all, I took the approach that is now standard for our group – I looked at every single word in the original language as I was preparing my Sunday meeting material. And I mean every single word, including ‘and’, ‘a’ and ‘the’!! A few years previously, I had studied koine Greek with a Bible college, the language used in the New Testament.

This involved the rote-learning of every Greek word in the New Testament, plus the usual lessons on structure and formation of the language. I therefore applied this knowledge to the texts we were then studying. I cannot say I am expert, but I know enough to get along! I had also studied the structure and form of Hebrew writing, though I did not learn Hebrew itself.

So, for the first year or two, I delivered lessons, not sermons. We went through each text carefully, as I expounded every word, singly and in their context, proving at every step what scripture actually said. You might think that this was not necessary or that it must have been very boring. No, it was fascinating and necessary, because we had all been misled by preachers before. Just as Paul had to prove himself before the churches, so I had to prove to those who saw me as their pastor, that what I was teaching them was no longer mere tradition or guesses…I had to show, beyond all doubt, that I took what I said directly from scripture.

This necessarily took us into quite complex studies of the Greek structure of texts and we often remained on just one verse for the whole meeting, hammering out what it said. Only when we knew what God said truly could I apply it to our lives in an everyday sense.

This occurred every Sunday for at least 2 to 3 years. Then, I gradually decreased this intensity, because those gathered knew I was not blinding them with science, or trying to take them along yet another path of human invention.

Nowadays, I may go into the Greek or Hebrew in a little depth, but those who are with me know I am honest to the text.

This does not mean they are passive listeners, though! Far from it! I encourage and expect to be stopped many times on a Sunday, with questions, comments and even a few odd rejections of my interpretation. I have to be very sure that I do not fail them, or myself! Every meeting is dynamic and very different to those held in ‘system’ churches. I do not vaunt myself or pretend I am superior, and we all learn from each other. Often, deep discussions develop and comments fly across the huge table we sit around, with Bibles open and used!

If necessary I will remain on a particular text for as long as it takes. If we do not finish what I had set out to do, then so be it. Better to settle a matter there and then, than to skip over objections or queries and learn next to nothing. This makes our meetings dynamic. Some, who visited for a day, could not cope with this and did not return. Some preferred the ‘system’ way of doing things, because it was less demanding!

In such an environment true discipline is natural, or should be, because we do not hide matters from each other. If there is a problem it is dealt with at the time and not allowed to fester. After all, if Christians do not deal openly and immediately with things they believe are wrong in others, then they become bitter, tending to misinterpret what is really happening.

All of this leads us together in one direction…one mind and one heart, as required in scripture. There has been a failure or two, but we are all human! As the words of the popular song go, you “pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again!”

Our theology is the result of continuous Bible study.  Because we want God’s word only, we tend not to read the works of others to support what we believe. Rather, we read scripture alone when we want true knowledge and interpretation. It does not mean we do not listen to, or read, the work of others. It just means we do not accept the word of others unless what they say is the same as scripture.

At one time I used to use many concordances for my studies. When we left the ‘system’ I handed over my mind and heart to God and so decided not to refer to the works of other men when interpreting scripture. On rare occasions, when I felt I was stuck, I resorted to reliable men such as Poole or Henry. But, to my delight, they were stuck on the very same texts! They also ‘agreed’ with me on many things.

Thus, today, I rarely refer to the works of other men when studying scripture. In this way I have been ‘fed and watered’ by scripture alone. This means that my whole endeavour is spent on studying God’s word and not the word of others. It means that my thinking is almost wholly scriptural.

As a result, my thoughts are closer to how the Bible writers thought, than if I spent hours scanning the works of other human beings. I am not trying to be ‘holier than thou’ – I am commending scripture study as it is meant to be done…scripture interpreting scripture

I teach in the manner than I do, because I genuinely believe that this was how Jesus and His apostles spoke to men. There is evidence that when Jesus spoke, those who listened were certainly not passive. They interrupted and commented, or asked plenty of questions. This might have been because it was the way of rabbinical study, I do not know. But, at any rate, that is why I do it. Today, this is called ‘interactive’ or ‘interfacing’! I call it being natural and speaking as Jesus would have spoken.

The period known as the Reformation? At one time I took everything at face value. But, I took the trouble to study it, not just from the Protestant view, but also from the Roman view. Why? Because, often, insights can be gleaned from seeing how our opposition thinks. I do not take my teaching from Romanist thinking, though.

Now, I see the Reformation as a catalyst. It started the ball rolling and had plenty of steam left in its aims. But, sadly, Christians hijacked the period and fossilized it, fixed and unchangeable. To me, this dishonours those who died as martyrs. Did they die so that we could sit back and repeat ad nauseum what they said? I do not think so! Those men were willing to die for their newly found truths of God. Are we? No!!

That is why I believe, wholly and without doubt, in a continuance of the spirit of reformation. What others began at great cost, we must continue, daily and in every sphere of our lives. I believe this to be scriptural and true. I can no longer be content with the ‘system’ of things, which bears no resemblance at all to what scripture says and does.

If you want proof, just try finding people called ‘reverend’ in scripture. Or, find a Biblical justification for the existence of denominations. Or, find scripture that delineates pastor and elder, or pastor and bishop. Find me just one instance where churches had a hierarchy, or where deacons had spiritual oversight above that of the pastor. Or find me justification for modern ‘prayer meetings’, or for ‘services’ as we now know them.

Friends, you will find nothing of these in scripture, and yet that is what comes under the banner of ‘Reformed’ in our age! I cannot accept what God does not teach, or that which obviously is opposed by God’s word. That is why we are rejected by fellow Believers in our own city.

This is only a short description for our readers, but I hope that you can all understand why we speak as we do. We have no pleasure in, or time for, the machinations of men. Time is very short and our aim is to follow God.

That, then, is where we are coming from. We enjoy our lives and live them to the full. But we cannot and will not return to teachings and ways that are far less than the great things of God! Our ministry is to teach what we have ourselves been taught, and which we ourselves actually believe and follow. That, friends, is it.

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Bible Theology Ministries

© November 2002

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