Firstline

By Terry Virgo

Distilled wisdom and appropriate urgency characterise the great interview with John Stott included in this issue of our magazine. I am delighted that Christianity Today gave us permission to reprint this recent conversation and that John Stott responded graciously with his own personal OK for its inclusion here.

A New York Times columnist wrote that if evangelicals chose a Pope they most likely would select John Stott. After his 60 years of faithful ministry, we count it a privilege to have his face on our cover and his insights in our magazine, though we are sure he has no aspirations for an evangelical papal office!

I first met the great man as a teenager when I responded to his gospel appeal at All Souls, Langham Place in London in the 60s, and thank God for his consistent commitment to the Scripture and the Lord of Scripture.

As we enter a new year we need not only to believe God for fruitfulness and growth in the churches, we must be tenacious for truth and godliness. This is no time to re-write the gospel or re-invent a message more palatable to the modern man in all his confusion (see review of The Jesus Gospel in the book review section). God will bless tenacious commitment to truth and loving proclamation of that truth to our contemporaries in spite of the widespread dismissal of our faith as an antiquated superstition with no place in the modern world.

Standing up for Jesus

It is a fact that there is a resurgence of Christian awareness that led a recent Sunday Times article to state under the banner Hallelujah, they are standing up for Jesus, ‘Reports of the death of Christianity in this country have been much exaggerated, by me among many others.’ In her article, Minette Marrin addresses the recent uproar in some British universities where Christian Unions have faced the hostility of the secular majority and been accused of being ‘too exclusive’. At Exeter University the Christian Union had the usual privileges suspended, including funding and free access to university rooms. Ms Marrin responds, ‘This terrible stupidity and hypocrisy leave one almost speechless.’ She celebrates the fact that Christians are fighting their corner and concludes, ‘We are lucky that there is new life in these Christian soldiers.’

Yes Lord

Our theme in this particular issue is that of Authority. As John Stott says in his interview, ‘For evangelical people, our authority is the God who has spoken supremely in Jesus Christ.’ That authority is to be honoured and joyfully embraced in every aspect of our Christian lives, and I am delighted that we have been able to draw teaching and testimony from writers among our Newfrontiers churches from four different continents.

The universal rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ will be increasingly manifest among the nations. As Isaiah promised, ‘There will be no end to the increase of His government’ (Isa. 9:7 NASB).

Word and Spirit

As we press forward with wholehearted commitment to both Word and Spirit, I found it fascinating to read an article in the turn of the year issue of The Economist entitled ‘Christianity Reborn’ which states, ‘A century after its birth Pentecostalism is re-drawing the religious map of the world and undermining the notion that modernity is secular.’

Commenting on the centenary of the birth of the Pentecostal Church, the article states, ‘The great secular ideologies of the 19th and early 20th centuries – from Marxism to Freudianism – have faded while Seymour’s Spirit-filled version of Christianity has flourished.’
William Seymour was pastor of the Asuza Street Mission

Although the article includes phenomenal statistics regarding the growth of such churches around the world, it is not uncritical of their frequent lack of theological content and vulnerability to mixture with such things as ancestor worship in Africa and folk healing in Brazil.

The challenge remains for us to be enthusiastic in our embracing of the activity of the Holy Spirit and to be thorough in our commitment to Biblical truth.

This particular issue of The Economist is entitled ‘Happiness (and how to measure it)’ and states, ‘Capitalism can make a society rich and keep it free. Don’t ask it to make you happy as well.’

Only Jesus offers true life. Let’s worship him and make him known at every given opportunity.

Terry Virgo

Editor and leader of Newfrontiers