Planted by Water

I’ve just finished reading The Contemporary Christian by John Stott, and thought I’d share some of the thoughts it provoked in me.

In fact, the book is no longer very contemporary as it was written in the early nineties. I had hoped to get more out of it for my own writing on issues in our world, but actually there’s not much on specific world issues. It is Stott’s attempt to say what he considers the most important things about thinking and living as a Christian in the contemporary world; he covers the essentials of Christian faith and practice from the perspective of a mainstream, Anglican, conservative evangelical living in the world of the 1990s.

I like John Stott and have been helped by his writings over the years. There is his very helpful little book on ‘Understanding the Bible;’ his seminal book on why Christians should be involved in social and political action - ‘Issues Facing Christians Today,’ and his excellent book on ‘The Cross of Christ,’ which, given recent controversies and confusion in the evangelical world, some could do with reading again. He deserves honouring for being, for over 50 years,  at the forefront, of defending biblical, evangelical faith against the onslaught of liberalism. And I believe God used him to restore, to the church as a whole, the need for social action alongside evangelism. I like his clear thinking and writing style, that makes it easy to read, and there are, in this book, some good insights into our society and some excellent chapters on world mission. But overall, I come away disappointed. 

The reason for my dissatisfaction is that Stott is so typical of the evangelical mainstrean; his is the typically ‘balanced’, sober and safe outlook. He is clear and solid generally in his beliefs, (though how he can defend an Anglican ecclesiology I just don’t know) but I never get the sense that here is a man who has peered into heavenly realities and is bringing spiritual revelation in the power of the Holy Spirit. I have found that you usually have to turn away from the mainstream in order to find writers like this: I would go to people like T.Austin Sparks or Ern Baxter or even E.W.Kenyon (you have to be careful as he has some heretical notions but he also has some terrific insights; you do at least feel that he is a man who is seeking greater revelation of the mysteies of God). I have also benefited from A.W.Tozer, Andrew Murray and Watchman Nee. With the exception of Tozer, these writers don’t seem to have much appeal to the evangelical mainstream. I feel sure Stott would not approve.

Insight is given, in the last chapter of this book, into why Stott plays it so safe, He gives an excellent little summary of the ‘now and not yet’ truth about the Kingdom of God. But he then he uses this as a basis for an appeal to unity centered around the idea of balanced Christianity. For example, in relation to sanctification, he suggests that the now and the not yet means that we have to put up with both defeat and victory. I would rather say that it means we are certainly still in a battle - but not that we have to continually suffer defeat. By the Spirit, who is the inner deposit of the age to come, the not yet of the Kingdom already with us, we can overcome temptation in a fallen world. In the area of healing, for Stott it means that we have to put up with sickness whilst praying for healing. Surely a better way of looking at it is to say that we live in expectation of healing and health and that we seek God for greater experiences of miracle. I don’t think we are suffering from too many miracles in the West, are we? The not yet of the Kingdom doesn’t mean, in the name of ‘balance’, we put up with and resign ourselves to the status quo; the now and the not yet of he Kingdom is not a static condition, but a dynamic one, that calls to us to keep reaching for more of God - bringing heaven down to earth!

This brings me on to my feelings about mainstrean Christianity anyway - it is far too balanced and safe and unsatisfying. I heard a line from a film the other day - "What lies at the bottom of the mainstream? - medioctriy." And I remember reading some months ago that "the mainstream is called a stream because it is so shallow." I’m afraid that this is what much that is mainstream leaves me feeling. It is not deep calling unto deep! This doesn’t mean that I think we should try to be controversial and different from our fellow-Christians just for the sake of it, nor that we go and flirt at the edges of heresy (which some writers do) but rather that we should not feel that we can fit God and his revelation into a nice little safe, middle-class, middle of the road, rationalist, ‘English’ box - sorry, John. We shoud not be content with arid orthodoxy but seek God for vital, spiritual revelation. We should aim to hear from men of God who truly have ‘living words to pass on,’ who have a revelation from heaven, not just a safe exposition from the concordance and Bible dictionaries. Such will be apostles and prophets, who are stewards of the mysteries of God. They will not depart from the plain truth of the Word of God but they will bring out from it living revelation that imparts more of Christ and gives us deeper insight into his purposes and his Kingdom.

In this country, we do not just need more teachers and writers of orthodoxy; we need men with a message from heaven!

Some Quotes:

Christianity presents itself  not as a religion, let alone as one religion among many, but as God’s good news for the world.  (31)

But because argument is insuffiicient, it does not follow that it is unnecessary. What the Holy Spirit does in the new birth is not to make a person a Christian regardless of the evidence, but on the contrary to clear away the mists from his eyes and enable him to attend to the evidence.  (quoting J.Gresham Machen on p.59)

What people want is an easygoing syncretism, a truce in inter-religious competition, a mishmash of the best from all religions.  (on pluralism, p.64)

Only the person who folllows the command of Jesus without reserve and submits unresistingly to his yoke, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, ununtterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy and the burden is light.  (quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p.91)

There is not one inch in the entire area of human life about which Christ, who is Sovereign of all, does not cry out "Mine!"  (quoting Abraham Kuyper, p.95)

"Deep theology is the best fuel for devotion; it readily catches fire, and once kindled it burns long  (quoting F.W. Faber, p.127)

No book, not even by Marx and his followers, is more scathing of empty religion than the Bible. (228)

Morality cannot be legislated, but behaviour can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrict the heartless….The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the colour of my skin  (quoting Martin Luther King, p.351)