Three cheers for Penrith Episcopalian Church (Sydney Diocese) who I understand hosted Biblical Creationist ministry today.
Word has reached me to say the good folk up there dedicated the five services normally held on Sundays to hearing the message of how the Word of God can be trusted entirely and, specifically for today, the Word of God recorded in Genesis Chs. 1-11. Such an uncommon event for Episcopalian churches. Well blow me down!
I have to go on second hand reporting but I understand the message was well received with no dissensions, the resident priest fully on side, helpful questions in Q&A (one saying "I had these questions all my Christian life which no-one could answer but they have been answered today!") and much interest in resources available to help Christians defend the faith in which they believe.
This all presents as a blessing. May it be that seeds were sown for Biblical Creationist ministry to come to the aid of believers in other Sydney Episcopalian Churches in Sydney Diocese.
Sam Drucker
Showing posts with label Sydney Anglicans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sydney Anglicans. Show all posts
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sydney Episcopalian Mission Impossible
The cruise liner Costa Concordia running aground in the past couple of days brings to mind a recurring feature of ships sinking - there is a lot of movement on deck.
Depending on the urgency of the situation the pace of movement varies but there is always movement as passengers and crew seek a place offering the best opportunity for preservation of life.
That scene has its parallel in the Church and never was it more evident in the so-called evangelical church in the latter half of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century. Traditional denominational barriers have collapsed in that period as Christians seek safe haven from the onset of liberalism and consequent departure from recognising Scripture as the inspired Word of God.
While churches which brought on the slide bemoan their falling numbers and rising financial concerns those churches which gained from the transfer growth have been prone to erroneously believing they "have it all together".
Just as a sinking ship has no place affording long term survival so a church compromising at one level or another on the Word of God can offer no long term benefit to Christians.
Deuteronomy 32:36 has application here:
"The Lord will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free."
As suggested in recent days by John in his blog, much of the evangelical church, including the Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney, espouses faith in and upholding of the Word of God but, in reality, they do not trust the Word implicitly. Their failing is at one or more points but it can all be put down to two key themes - they have diluted the Gospel by turning it into a man-centred message and they have ceased to make the Word of God the rule of all practice.
With respect to many co-called evangelical churches and most of the Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney the thoughts of man override all past interpretation of Genesis 1 to the extent of ruling out having the Word of God the rule of practice. It is no longer what Scripture clearly says but what man says it ought to be saying.
This is a recipe for failure and it is being worked out in practice. The mission of the Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney to get 10% of the population of Sydney into Bible based churches by this year (although former Bishop Piper said it was to be year 2010) shows no valid sign of being fulfilled. Part of the strategy - Connect '09 - could not possibly be seen as giving the impetus for mission success. The smoothing words and celebrated 'pockets' of encouragement are a long way from the fervent activity one would expect to be seeing if the mission was on track.
Further, the Archbishop's production of figures suggesting a 5% increase in Sydney Episcopalian church attendance for year 2010 fails to identify transfer growth from denominations which have have made greater steps of departure from the Word of God than the Sydney Diocese. Transfer growth as part of only a 5% increase in Episcopalian pewsitting is a far cry from 10% of the population of Sydney being in Bible based churches.
Sydney Diocese, if you persist in trusting the word of man over the Word of God and acting in your own strength instead of God's strength you will run head first into the conviction of Deuteronomy 32:36.
Sam Drucker
Depending on the urgency of the situation the pace of movement varies but there is always movement as passengers and crew seek a place offering the best opportunity for preservation of life.
That scene has its parallel in the Church and never was it more evident in the so-called evangelical church in the latter half of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century. Traditional denominational barriers have collapsed in that period as Christians seek safe haven from the onset of liberalism and consequent departure from recognising Scripture as the inspired Word of God.
While churches which brought on the slide bemoan their falling numbers and rising financial concerns those churches which gained from the transfer growth have been prone to erroneously believing they "have it all together".
Just as a sinking ship has no place affording long term survival so a church compromising at one level or another on the Word of God can offer no long term benefit to Christians.
Deuteronomy 32:36 has application here:
"The Lord will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free."
As suggested in recent days by John in his blog, much of the evangelical church, including the Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney, espouses faith in and upholding of the Word of God but, in reality, they do not trust the Word implicitly. Their failing is at one or more points but it can all be put down to two key themes - they have diluted the Gospel by turning it into a man-centred message and they have ceased to make the Word of God the rule of all practice.
With respect to many co-called evangelical churches and most of the Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney the thoughts of man override all past interpretation of Genesis 1 to the extent of ruling out having the Word of God the rule of practice. It is no longer what Scripture clearly says but what man says it ought to be saying.
This is a recipe for failure and it is being worked out in practice. The mission of the Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney to get 10% of the population of Sydney into Bible based churches by this year (although former Bishop Piper said it was to be year 2010) shows no valid sign of being fulfilled. Part of the strategy - Connect '09 - could not possibly be seen as giving the impetus for mission success. The smoothing words and celebrated 'pockets' of encouragement are a long way from the fervent activity one would expect to be seeing if the mission was on track.
Further, the Archbishop's production of figures suggesting a 5% increase in Sydney Episcopalian church attendance for year 2010 fails to identify transfer growth from denominations which have have made greater steps of departure from the Word of God than the Sydney Diocese. Transfer growth as part of only a 5% increase in Episcopalian pewsitting is a far cry from 10% of the population of Sydney being in Bible based churches.
Sydney Diocese, if you persist in trusting the word of man over the Word of God and acting in your own strength instead of God's strength you will run head first into the conviction of Deuteronomy 32:36.
Sam Drucker
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
HOW LOW CAN SYDNEY EPISCOPALIANS STOOP?
Recent disappointments with a Sydney Episcopalian blogger are a miniature of the bigger problem within the Diocese. It is said that pride goes before a fall but in many instances there is a blow that brings the fall. Nevertheless, that blow can be avoided and the problem of pride rightly addressed.
John F. Brencher became aware of this as did some other notables of the past. Consider the following extract of an essay of John F. Brencher on the matter:
"Dr [Benjamin] Franklin of America related a lesson he had learnt from Cotton Mather in 1724. 'On taking my leave, he showed me a shorter way out of the house, through a narrow passage, which was crossed by a beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turning towards him: when he said hastily - "Stoop - Stoop!" I did not understand him till I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man who never missed an occasion for giving instruction, and upon this he said to me - "You are young, and have the world before you: Stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps." This advice, thus beat into my heart, has frequently been of use to me: and I often think of it when I see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon people, by their carrying their heads too high.'
There is a general shallowness with respect to our conception of the Person of God and the nature of His providential works. Glibness of speech in spiritual matters is invariably the product of shallow thinking, feeling and understanding in the things of God. There is therefore nothing more contributory to the holy art of stooping than a good grasp of true theology in all the fulness of its biblical extensiveness. Yet today, there is a treatment of Scripture characterized by a picking and choosing which deprives people of the splendour of an expansive sweep of revelation, and consequently gives them a distorted and restricted view of revelation, and consequently gives them a distorted and restricted view of God. If people were not so obsessed by that well-meant but prohibitive cliché the 'simple Gospel', doubtless our churches would greatly benefit from preachers who unleashed all of His dynamic Word and not merely favourite parts. Considering the type of preaching which has been so prevalent it is no wonder that modern Christians have often such a poor conception of the immeasurable greatness of Almighty God! Of course not all people have got the time to examine the Scriptures and their original languages as they would like to do, and because of this full attention should be given to the public exposition of the Word and other allied means of grace. Let all the attributes of our triune God be vigorously evidenced in our thinking and prayers, and let the comprehensive workings of His gracious will be known among His people that we may be increasingly brought into conformity with His image by Christ Jesus. Such a goal will leave no room for shallowness and it will certainly encourage a bowing down of the entire personality."
The Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney prides itself on its theological seminary and its own self as being a bastion of evangelical conservatism in the worldwide Episcopalian church. All along it is flirting too much with the world.
To maintain such a position it engages in an exercise of "picking and choosing [Scripture] which deprives people of the splendour of an expansive sweep of revelation, and consequently gives them a distorted and restricted view of revelation, and consequently gives them a distorted and restricted view of God."
Within the Diocese emphasis is placed on Jesus Christ being the Son of God, Priest and Redeemer but His office as Creator is constrained to being fed through the filter of the world's view on Origins so that a distorted view (if anything) of Him as Creator is presented to the pewsitter and the world.
The Diocese needs to stoop. To stoop in prayer, in repentance, in submission to the clear utterances of God. A 'simple Gospel' is no match for the full revelation of Jesus Christ in all His majesty.
Sam Drucker
John F. Brencher became aware of this as did some other notables of the past. Consider the following extract of an essay of John F. Brencher on the matter:
"Dr [Benjamin] Franklin of America related a lesson he had learnt from Cotton Mather in 1724. 'On taking my leave, he showed me a shorter way out of the house, through a narrow passage, which was crossed by a beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turning towards him: when he said hastily - "Stoop - Stoop!" I did not understand him till I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man who never missed an occasion for giving instruction, and upon this he said to me - "You are young, and have the world before you: Stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps." This advice, thus beat into my heart, has frequently been of use to me: and I often think of it when I see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon people, by their carrying their heads too high.'
There is a general shallowness with respect to our conception of the Person of God and the nature of His providential works. Glibness of speech in spiritual matters is invariably the product of shallow thinking, feeling and understanding in the things of God. There is therefore nothing more contributory to the holy art of stooping than a good grasp of true theology in all the fulness of its biblical extensiveness. Yet today, there is a treatment of Scripture characterized by a picking and choosing which deprives people of the splendour of an expansive sweep of revelation, and consequently gives them a distorted and restricted view of revelation, and consequently gives them a distorted and restricted view of God. If people were not so obsessed by that well-meant but prohibitive cliché the 'simple Gospel', doubtless our churches would greatly benefit from preachers who unleashed all of His dynamic Word and not merely favourite parts. Considering the type of preaching which has been so prevalent it is no wonder that modern Christians have often such a poor conception of the immeasurable greatness of Almighty God! Of course not all people have got the time to examine the Scriptures and their original languages as they would like to do, and because of this full attention should be given to the public exposition of the Word and other allied means of grace. Let all the attributes of our triune God be vigorously evidenced in our thinking and prayers, and let the comprehensive workings of His gracious will be known among His people that we may be increasingly brought into conformity with His image by Christ Jesus. Such a goal will leave no room for shallowness and it will certainly encourage a bowing down of the entire personality."
The Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney prides itself on its theological seminary and its own self as being a bastion of evangelical conservatism in the worldwide Episcopalian church. All along it is flirting too much with the world.
To maintain such a position it engages in an exercise of "picking and choosing [Scripture] which deprives people of the splendour of an expansive sweep of revelation, and consequently gives them a distorted and restricted view of revelation, and consequently gives them a distorted and restricted view of God."
Within the Diocese emphasis is placed on Jesus Christ being the Son of God, Priest and Redeemer but His office as Creator is constrained to being fed through the filter of the world's view on Origins so that a distorted view (if anything) of Him as Creator is presented to the pewsitter and the world.
The Diocese needs to stoop. To stoop in prayer, in repentance, in submission to the clear utterances of God. A 'simple Gospel' is no match for the full revelation of Jesus Christ in all His majesty.
Sam Drucker
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Smiling Assassins of Dialogue
It is so sad, it is just so sad. More than that is is also frustrating in the extreme.
Time and time again, any attempt to engage in conversation, to open dialogue with Sydney Episcopalians on their reading of the biblical creation account ends in early closure - a prompt shut-down of the subject.
More than that, they shut you down with a cool, precise, we-are-nicer-than-you way but the effect is still the same slamming of the door in you face as if they had raged at you before doing so.
This barrier to engagement and the veneer of niceness has an ill effect on those who attempt to redress the error pervading the Episcopalian Diocese on the subject of origins.
It draws serious rebuke as occurred in comments of the topic "Evangelical Courage" of 14 Nov at www.markdthompson.blogspot.com/
This is all unhelpful.
For the record, Dr Thompson did not post my reponse to his irrelevant questions so I provide what I said now:
Mark, I was walking but you called to me. I will respond.
Nowhere did I say that you had denied the office of Jesus Christ as Creator nor had I said you failed to attribute to him the glory that is his due as the one for whom and by whom the universe was created.
I don't believe you have asked the appropriate question(s).
You shut down the conversation before I could make a thorough examination of your position.
Off to the CMS Summer Camp, I suppose?
Sam Drucker
Time and time again, any attempt to engage in conversation, to open dialogue with Sydney Episcopalians on their reading of the biblical creation account ends in early closure - a prompt shut-down of the subject.
More than that, they shut you down with a cool, precise, we-are-nicer-than-you way but the effect is still the same slamming of the door in you face as if they had raged at you before doing so.
This barrier to engagement and the veneer of niceness has an ill effect on those who attempt to redress the error pervading the Episcopalian Diocese on the subject of origins.
It draws serious rebuke as occurred in comments of the topic "Evangelical Courage" of 14 Nov at www.markdthompson.blogspot.com/
This is all unhelpful.
For the record, Dr Thompson did not post my reponse to his irrelevant questions so I provide what I said now:
Mark, I was walking but you called to me. I will respond.
Nowhere did I say that you had denied the office of Jesus Christ as Creator nor had I said you failed to attribute to him the glory that is his due as the one for whom and by whom the universe was created.
I don't believe you have asked the appropriate question(s).
You shut down the conversation before I could make a thorough examination of your position.
Off to the CMS Summer Camp, I suppose?
Sam Drucker
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Recipe For Comfortable Pewsitting for Sydney Anglicans
Parishioners within the Sydney Anglican Diocese looking for an easy time need only make it known to their Rector that they are a Biblical Creationist and the easy time is guaranteed.
What follows is excising from consideration for any key ministries within the parish. You will certainly not be a viable candidate for Rector's Warden or Rector's appointment to Parish Council. Only if you have sufficient support from other parishioners will you have possibility of appointment to Warden or Parish Council.
Synod representative is out due to the sudden emergence of other nominations who will attract more voting support than you.
Appointment by the Rector to lead a home group/bible study is definitely out of the question. So too is leadership of the evangelism team or perhaps even involvement in organizing evangelistic events.
Don't be seen talking at length to teenage youth group members for too long otherwise you will be thought to be polluting their mind with your creationist stuff. If you actually are a Biblical Creationist then you probably will talk about the subject at some point with the teens but this is highly dangerous. Don't do it. Teens will be quietly warned off you and you might even be discouraged from further attending that church.
Conversations with the Rector will be polite but somewhat limited to all but interpretation of Genesis 1 & 2.
So, for keeping your head down and to rest in just turning up each Sunday with no pressure make it known to the Rector you have become a Biblical Creationist and you are ready to argue the point with him any time he is ready.
Ah, Sydney Anglicanism, a rest for the weary.
Neil
What follows is excising from consideration for any key ministries within the parish. You will certainly not be a viable candidate for Rector's Warden or Rector's appointment to Parish Council. Only if you have sufficient support from other parishioners will you have possibility of appointment to Warden or Parish Council.
Synod representative is out due to the sudden emergence of other nominations who will attract more voting support than you.
Appointment by the Rector to lead a home group/bible study is definitely out of the question. So too is leadership of the evangelism team or perhaps even involvement in organizing evangelistic events.
Don't be seen talking at length to teenage youth group members for too long otherwise you will be thought to be polluting their mind with your creationist stuff. If you actually are a Biblical Creationist then you probably will talk about the subject at some point with the teens but this is highly dangerous. Don't do it. Teens will be quietly warned off you and you might even be discouraged from further attending that church.
Conversations with the Rector will be polite but somewhat limited to all but interpretation of Genesis 1 & 2.
So, for keeping your head down and to rest in just turning up each Sunday with no pressure make it known to the Rector you have become a Biblical Creationist and you are ready to argue the point with him any time he is ready.
Ah, Sydney Anglicanism, a rest for the weary.
Neil
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Buffet Badge
In the Financial Review column "Pierpont's Dubious Distinction Awards" the Anglican diocese of Sydney gets a gong:
Buffet Badge for Investor of the Year
Goes to suggest that perhaps it wasn't on God's side! Just like Connect09: a work of man and not of God?
Buffet Badge for Investor of the Year
To the Anglican church for dropping $160 million on its share portfolio. Which proves that even with God on your side you couldn't beat the market in 2008-09.
Goes to suggest that perhaps it wasn't on God's side! Just like Connect09: a work of man and not of God?
Saturday, November 22, 2008
"You Foolish Anglicans"
How wonderful man is - taking just a minute glob of chemicals he has been able to create a new windpipe for a needy woman, Claudia Castillo.
Part of a windpipe had been taken from the dead body of a 51 year old woman, it was washed to remove all her own cells. At the same time stem cells were taken from Ms Castillo's own bone marrow and grown to produce about six million cartilage cells, which were grown on the scaffold that was the part of the windpipe taken from the dead woman and had been grafted into Ms Castillo.
In a short space of time, the long term bedridden and breathing afflicted Ms Castillo was able to breath normally and resume a normal life.
I repeat, how wonderful man is! This is the herald of many body part creations we will see in coming years.
Contrast this wonder of man with the stumbling, bumbling, time consuming, frustration, death, disease and mutation riddled manner used by the 'god' of the bible many Theistic Evolutionists of the the Sydney Anglican Diocese present to the world as the creator of life.
What a sham! Who in their right mind could believe in such a god when man will able to do far better in shorter time. Nothing will be beyond man as he accelerates the arranging and rearranging of globs of chemicals. Man is the master of his own destiny. He has destroyed any slender reed of credibility that had been given to metaphysical source of origins. All religions will have been consigned to the heap of invention of primitive man bereft of understanding.
As one Theistic Evolutionist once said "Jesus didn't have the scientific knowledge we now have!"
You foolish Anglicans! Who has bewitched you?
Can't you even see the true God when He has revealed so much of Himself to you? Reflect for a moment what was done to Ms Castillo to retrieve her stem cells. Doesn't it take your mind back to the Genesis 2 incident when God created woman in the first place. God put Adam to sleep and took one of his ribs. Why? Because within the marrow of Adam's rib were his XY chromosomes. All God had to do was remove the Y chromosome and what happens? The X chromosome repeats itself and there you have woman - Eve. Additionally, if God, when removing Adam's rib, 'peeled' it out of the periosteum and left the periosteum intact then Adam's rib would have regrown.
The aforesaid criticism of Theistic Evolutionism is a simplistic observation but remains the valid vacuum Theistic Evolutionists will find themselves in.
On a greater level, stem cell research and manipulation makes it abundantly clear that life is much more than a minute glob of chemicals - despite the contention of Darwinists that life arose from the latter base ingredients.
The DNA that rides on stem cells is an ordered information system - a code for life - the genetic code. A fixity of code that makes it possible for researchers to conclude prospects for success in Ms Castillo's case. Had there not been any fixity, had there only been prospects of randomness then what would be the hope of pursuing this operation? Darwinism's key foundation is randomness. The genetic code is ordered to a certain fixity - it does allow variation within a kind - and it is why women don't give birth to crocodiles or other species.
When have you ever seen a coded system (ie information system) arise without an intelligent mind behind it? eg Morse Code, Rosetta Stone, music score, language, computer software/hardware and building plans. How much more then is it necessary for a super mind to be behind the genetic code for all living things?
Whoever heard or saw an intelligent mind purposely order through a process of redundancies? Yet such is what Theistic Evolutionists attribute to their creator. To these I say consider what the Lord Jesus Christ was doing when turning water into good quality wine in an instant through only a thought. Consider also the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. Behold here is your Creator! In Him all things hold together (Col. 1:17).
You Theistic Evolutionists need to consider very carefully what you are doing. The creator you present to the world is not the true Creator. What you are doing is degrading Jesus Christ.
You are there among those who spat on the Lord Jesus Christ when He was under assault from the world.
Neil
Part of a windpipe had been taken from the dead body of a 51 year old woman, it was washed to remove all her own cells. At the same time stem cells were taken from Ms Castillo's own bone marrow and grown to produce about six million cartilage cells, which were grown on the scaffold that was the part of the windpipe taken from the dead woman and had been grafted into Ms Castillo.
In a short space of time, the long term bedridden and breathing afflicted Ms Castillo was able to breath normally and resume a normal life.
I repeat, how wonderful man is! This is the herald of many body part creations we will see in coming years.
Contrast this wonder of man with the stumbling, bumbling, time consuming, frustration, death, disease and mutation riddled manner used by the 'god' of the bible many Theistic Evolutionists of the the Sydney Anglican Diocese present to the world as the creator of life.
What a sham! Who in their right mind could believe in such a god when man will able to do far better in shorter time. Nothing will be beyond man as he accelerates the arranging and rearranging of globs of chemicals. Man is the master of his own destiny. He has destroyed any slender reed of credibility that had been given to metaphysical source of origins. All religions will have been consigned to the heap of invention of primitive man bereft of understanding.
As one Theistic Evolutionist once said "Jesus didn't have the scientific knowledge we now have!"
You foolish Anglicans! Who has bewitched you?
Can't you even see the true God when He has revealed so much of Himself to you? Reflect for a moment what was done to Ms Castillo to retrieve her stem cells. Doesn't it take your mind back to the Genesis 2 incident when God created woman in the first place. God put Adam to sleep and took one of his ribs. Why? Because within the marrow of Adam's rib were his XY chromosomes. All God had to do was remove the Y chromosome and what happens? The X chromosome repeats itself and there you have woman - Eve. Additionally, if God, when removing Adam's rib, 'peeled' it out of the periosteum and left the periosteum intact then Adam's rib would have regrown.
The aforesaid criticism of Theistic Evolutionism is a simplistic observation but remains the valid vacuum Theistic Evolutionists will find themselves in.
On a greater level, stem cell research and manipulation makes it abundantly clear that life is much more than a minute glob of chemicals - despite the contention of Darwinists that life arose from the latter base ingredients.
The DNA that rides on stem cells is an ordered information system - a code for life - the genetic code. A fixity of code that makes it possible for researchers to conclude prospects for success in Ms Castillo's case. Had there not been any fixity, had there only been prospects of randomness then what would be the hope of pursuing this operation? Darwinism's key foundation is randomness. The genetic code is ordered to a certain fixity - it does allow variation within a kind - and it is why women don't give birth to crocodiles or other species.
When have you ever seen a coded system (ie information system) arise without an intelligent mind behind it? eg Morse Code, Rosetta Stone, music score, language, computer software/hardware and building plans. How much more then is it necessary for a super mind to be behind the genetic code for all living things?
Whoever heard or saw an intelligent mind purposely order through a process of redundancies? Yet such is what Theistic Evolutionists attribute to their creator. To these I say consider what the Lord Jesus Christ was doing when turning water into good quality wine in an instant through only a thought. Consider also the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. Behold here is your Creator! In Him all things hold together (Col. 1:17).
You Theistic Evolutionists need to consider very carefully what you are doing. The creator you present to the world is not the true Creator. What you are doing is degrading Jesus Christ.
You are there among those who spat on the Lord Jesus Christ when He was under assault from the world.
Neil
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