Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion pt. 3

The third sign that Masters considers is that of fellowsip, something that I personally have taken for granted as perhaps a byproduct of conversion rather than a sign of it. But I am persuaded that it must be a sign, in the sense that it shows our faith in a very practical way.

3) The family bond
i In Acts 2:42 we can see that following their conversion the believers immediately drew towards one another for fellowship, creating a kinship as we see in 1 John 3:14.
ii Fellowship should be a compulsion for a believer and we should be drawn into the spiritual family of a local church.
iii If an individual shows no signs of a need for fellowship, or want to talk of the things of God it is unlikely that they are saved.
iv A believer also sees a gap emerge between themselves and non chrisitan friends, not that they love them any less but that true godly fellowship is missing.

It seems true that real faith should create a need for godly fellwoship, and that as believers we should be drawn to one another. Therefore it seems reasonable that any evidence for or against this should be considered a sign of faith.

Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion pt. 2

Today I read the second 'sign' and it certainly helped me in my broad considerations of the subject. Incidently I am also studying John Stott's 'The Cross of Christ' and chapter four helped nit together many of the ideas concerning our state of sinfulness that I mentioned yesterday.

2) Understanding Scripture
i Masters states that a new believer should have a mind that understands and loves God's Word and honour its authority in our lives.
ii Unbelievers find scripture obscure and complicated- therefore a believer must be the opposite.
iii The Holy Spirit alone can unlock Scripture in our hearts, even though we may not understand everything we should have hearts that yearn to learn from Scripture.
iv God's Word should be the authority in our lives, in all aspects. A true convert will wish to obey Scripture on all points.
v We should have a steadfast attitude to Scripture- not someting we turn to in troubled times but at all times.

Again, I believe that these are helpful pointers- Scripture is God's direct revelation to us and a true believer should hold it as the authority on all matters. If we question the authority of God through Scripture are we truely saved?

Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion

Over the next week, or possibly ten days, I intend to write a brief summary of a very helpful booklet entitled 'Seven Certain Signs of True Conversion' by Peter Masters. In the Christian walk we are often arrested by doubts over assurance and I find it helpful to consider our conversions and test them according to scripture. If anybody has any contrary opinions or helpful additions, I would be grateful to hear.

1) Conviction of sin
This section can be broken down into seven helpful points, which are as follows:
i The clear mark of grace is the conviction of sin which leads to true repentance (Acts 2:37-38) a knowledge of the burden of sin will drive us to repent.
ii We shall see that we have 'a broken and contrite heart' (Psalm 51:17) there should not be a passing acknowledgment of sin- but a devastating realisation.
iii Conviction of sin is painful, if it is not it is likely to be superficial.
iv Christ must be acknowledged as our Saviour before anything else- friend, helper, supporter.
v We must be keen to see such a conviction in ourselves, we must have shown a deep and earnest desire to receive new life.
vi Our attitudes to sin and Christ must change, we must lose our love of sin and grow in our love of Christ.
vii We must yield wholly to Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.

I think these are good principles in expecting a conviction of sin. If we do not realise our sinfulness, why would we want a Saviour? We should continually grieve our sinful attitude to God and glorify in his grace in sending his son as our dear redeemer!

When is Enough enough?

Its been a while hasn't it? The summer has gone so quickly and I seem to have filled up my time by doing... not a lot. Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about this question; in terms of our Christian Faith, when is enough enough?

I guess I'm asking this for a number of reasons. First of all I recently attended the banner of truth conference in Leicester. It was awesome. I learnt a lot and had a really good weekend. However I think its fair to say that for a lot of the time I felt out of my depth, by a long way. I was surrounded by academics who knew way more that me about everything Christianity related. This got me to tihnking that even if I devoted my whole life to the study of scripture I would probably never know or be as wise as these men. Is that OK? Should I want to? Should I just be content to not really get stuff but to understand what I need to for salvationa and try to live it out as best I can? To be a shining light to the world serving people but not really being bothered about heavy, academic theology or should we all be striving to be the next John MacArthur or Sinclair. B. Ferguson?

Secondly what exactly is required for salvation? Ye its sems a simple question doesn't it. A belief in a bibical gospel. That Jesus was the Son of God who came to earth to die for us and to take the punishment we deserve for our sin so that our relationship with God can be restored. Grace. (OK so that VERY simple but you get the idea). BUT what about things like limited atonement or the sovereignty of God? Christians believe vastly different things about these issues... for instance my views are quite different to my Dads but I don't doubt his Christianity for one second. Whats that about? What is it ESSENTIAL to believe for salvation and what are the issues that we can put to one side and say are secondary?

I'm a simple man. I like simple things. But, when it comes to my faith is it OK to be... simple? Thoughts anyone?

Provisions of Scritpture.

How great is the Word of God!? How often does it answer our needs?! I have been reminded again of the promises that God bestows upon his people within Sctripture after some recent events.

A friend of mine from church named Brian, 16, had a horrible accident whilst diving into a shallow river in Latvia last week and was left with a broken neck and, at the moment, paralisis from the neck down. The tragic events have some clear parallells at this point with the story of Joni Eaereckson Tada, if you are familiar with that. The last week has seen some really dark times for him, the family and the church but thankfully Brian is stable now and out of Intensive Care. However, there are a whole host of possibilities that might occue over the next few weeks but we can be comforted by the knowledge that Brian is under the care of his great God. A number of passages have stuck in my mind throughout the last week and served as promises of God's unfailing word and i'd like to share them as examples of how Scripture is unfailingly relevent.

The day before the accident the youth bible study looked at 1 John chapter 5 v14-5 which states:

14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

We know that if we pray to God seeking his will he will hear our prayers!! What a fantastic promise and real encouragment in the face of tragedy.

As a family we read a Psalm a day after tea and it so happened that on the day after the news we read Psalm 34 which says:

17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. 18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. 19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; 20 he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.

Whilst we might not know the will of God in Brian's life, or the result of this current state, we are assured of the Lord's presence and deliverence for his glory. What fantastic knowledge. Please pray for Brian and the family, our Lord hears the prayers of his people.

Edwards on Arminianism

A few years ago I decided that I needed to mature in my spiritual life and began to take a great interest in reading and understanding doctrine. One of my first areas of consideration was the doctrine of Predestination (being the wonderfully volatile subject it is) and was introduced to a wonderful book called Calvinism: Defined, Defended, Documented by Steele, Thomas and Quinn. After reading the book, and the relevant scripture that is found in abundance within, I became a fully convinced, badge wearing Five Pointer (although more of a TUPIP than a TULIP). University then held many interesting conversations amongst my Christian peers and I tried my hardest to defend Calvinism.

However, I have always struggled with the challenge of knowing how firm to hold onto the set of doctrine known as Calvinism. Should it be something that I refuse no ground to? Or should I be willing to sacrifice it in the face of Arminianistic brothers and sisters in the name of unity? Iain Murray shares some helpful thoughts from Jonathan Edwards:

"...he saw, as Owen before him, that Christianity itself could not long be upheld if concessions were made to accommodate objections to Calvinism. The danger from Arminianism lay not simply in a few particular errors but in its whole tendency. While it claimed to be based upon Scripture the popular strength of its arguments depended on the contention that Calvinistic belief is not reconcilable with human reason... This mode off argument by-passed two facts; first, that reason is 'impaired, depraved and corrupted', and second, that 'the gospel requires men to believe things above reason merely on the authority of Divine revelation.' If all the doctrines 'which have anything of spiritual mystery in them and so not absolutely reconcilable unto reason as corrupt and carnal' were judged as Arminianism judges the doctrine of sovereign grace, how much Christianity would remain?" Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography by Iain Murray (published by Banner of Truth)

Jonathan Edwards

Recently I have been reading Iain Murray's excellent biography of Jonathan Edwards published by Banner. I have taken a great interest in Edwards this year having found his abridged works (published by Grace Publications) most helpful. I was struck by Edwards' direct and unapologetic style and his scripture centred approach which both shook me and allowed me to vividly imagine his awed audience. Murray's biography tells of a highly intelligent young man who became consumed with a passion for God's word at a very young age, devoting his entire life towards the preaching of it. It saddens me that very few Pastors today seem to preach as Edwards did- the gospel is plain and simple and should be preached as so! I hope and pray that my heart will ever be changed to be like Edwards' and the Puritans- that I might be meek and humble and also full of zeal for the word of God!

Breaking and Packing

Sorry for the lack of posting recently. My computer has completely died and so i'm relying on occasionaly using Tom's Mac. I'm also packing up all my worldly belongings before moving home. Tom has no excuses, he's just lazy ;)

Also... I've still not found anything to do next year (although I have a few things in the works) so I'd really value your prayer as to the direction of my life. Also if anyone knows of anything for a 21 year old to do for a year, preferably in some kind of Christian context let me know!!

I'll try to post something on John MacArthur tomorrow.

Reformed and Ever Reforming

Sometimes it's hard as a Christian to fall into the trap of labelling yourself (see this post as a poetic satire) and whilst I often guiltily feel that I shouldn't, I can't help but label myself as perhaps different from someone else. As a result I suppose that I would simply refer to myself as a Reformed Christian- holding to the truths and attitudes of the great reformers. But whilst I still struggle with this and attempt to understand the rights and wrongs of classification I thought it would be helpful to pass on a message from my Pastor, David Finnie, at Ebenezer Evangelical church in Bangor. This comes from the introductory message in the monthly magazine:

As indicated in the churches constitution, Ebenezer's doctrinal position is expressed in the great reformed Confessions of church history and particularly so in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646). Like those previous generations in the history of the church, we have formulated our doctrine and practise in a way that we think best reflects the teachings of Holy Scriptures. In this sense, Ebenezer can accurately be described as a Reformed church.

There is, however, a danger in classifying ourselves as a reformed church and thinking that we have arrived in terms of doctrine and practise. It is the danger of thinking that we have got it ALL right, that all the reforming has already been done and there is nothing more to do. Such a conclusion would be naive and dangerous.

If we claim to have the Word of God as "our supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct" (as in the SoF) then surely there is a need to be continually examining our position and practise in the light of God's word. There is an ongoing need to bring our inherited convictions to the bar of Holy Scripture and, if necessary, adjusting them so that they conform to the teachings of God's Word. If done in a proper spirit and with the correct motives, then examination and evaluation of this nature is not dangerous but healthy. After all it was examination and evaluation of this nature, which characterised the early Christians. Speaking about the believers from 1st Century Berea, Luke says they "examined the Scripture every day to see if what Paul said was true" (Acts 17:11)

And so, in addition to being a Reformed church, we ought to be a reforming church, a church which is willing to reform in its desire to conform more to the teachings of God's Word. As the Reformers of a bygone era used to say: "ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda"- "the church reformed and always to be reformed."

Many thanks to David for this helpful message may it be every believers attitude.

Issues in Worship (pt 1)

Throughout my Christian life I have been exposed to many different variations on worship. (To clarify when I talk about worship, in this context I will be talking about the act of singing and praising within a church service.) I have been to churches where if a song was written post 1600 it was considered to be ‘loud’ and ‘unruly’. Conversely I have attended churches where anything written pre 2000 is considered ‘out of date’ and ‘boring’. How then can we decide how we should worship? What is appropriate and what isn’t in a Bible believing church? The Bible has much to say on this topic and over the next few posts I will be considering these passages and explaining my own thoughts on the subject.

Firstly, the Bible tells us to sing praises to God, and there are plenty of examples of this happening. (2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 9:11, Jeremiah 31:7, Isaiah 12:6, James 5:13, Colossians 3:16, Revelation 5:13.) So, singing to God is good, and he can certainly be glorified by it. It is something we are commanded to do and something that should definitely be part of Christian meetings of all types.

But, does this mean that there are only certain types of songs that should be incorporated, only certain styles that should be sung? My answer would be no, and I will explain why looking at what makes a ‘song’.

Firstly we shall consider the issue of style, and by this I mean the musical style of the song. In recent years songs of a more modern style (i.e. with electric guitars and drums) have started to appear in our churches. Is this wrong? I don’t think so. Whatever song we are singing in church will obviously reflect the popular music of the time. Hymns written 100 years ago contain melodies and harmonies similar to those found in the popular music of the time. Writers are influenced by the music they hear every day. The disciples, the early church or King David would not have been singing Charles Wesley or Matt Redman songs would they? Does this mean the songs they sang were invalid? No! The songs they sang and the tunes they used would have almost certainly have influenced by the popular music of the times, as well as the instruments available. How many churches have you been to where a Harp or a Lyre was used in the music group? Not many I would suspect but the Bible clearly states that these instruments were used to Praise and Glorify God, Psalm 150:3 .To dismiss a song simply because of it’s style is wrong and to say that certain instruments should or should not be used in churches is narrow minded.

At this stage let me clarify one very important point. Just because these styles are not wrong does not mean that they will be to everyone’s taste and that is fine. We are to sing songs and worship our Lord with whatever style of music helps us best. To say that we must impose more modern styles on those in our churches who find them unhelpful is just as narrow minded as saying that we must not use this style of worship at all.

Lets not forget that the point of worship is to Glorify God. He is the one to whom we are singing our praises and we aren’t to just sing along, getting into the music of a good song and forgetting why we’re singing in the first place. (This issue will be addressed in a later post). God is Glorious beyond out imagination. We are to give him ALL the glory for He is more than deserving of it. However in terms if style I believe we may use whatever style helps us to Glorify him through song.

Banner of Truth

This is just a bridge post so that no-one can accuse me of once again walking of the 'straight and narrow blog'!! I'm hoping to, over the next few days, post my thoughts on the Banner of Truth Youth Conference that I was fortunate to attend not long ago. But whilst I collect all my notes and have a think I thought I'd briefly post on Banner in general.

I have been greatly blessed in my life to have been brought up in a God fearing home, and a doctrinally reformed one at that. Whilst the Andrews family home has been far from perfect over the last 21 years (many a time because of myself!) a Godly upbringing has been one of the reasons that I am (hopefully!) a well balanced human being and Christian. Much of what I have learnt in my Christian walk has been through the teaching of my parents and I am grateful to them for that. One of the reasons for my parents sound teaching has been their reliance on good material from writers through the ages which have mostly been published by the Banner of Truth. Whilst there are many other good Christian publishing houses, none have the reputation for consistently publishing high quality reformed books that Banner has. My dad has always encouraged me to consider Banner books and I believe that this has paid a great dividend on my life. In a Christian generation that would largely struggle to name even a single Puritan writer, for example, Banner has striven to encourage its Puritan paperbacks series to young people and I for one continue to learn so much from men such as John Owen, Thomas Brookes, Richard Baxtar, Thomas Watson and (currently) Richard Sibbes. I would like to thank the Banner of Truth for their continuing publication of high quality materials for the believer to enjoy and learn from, particularly Iain Murray who is a marvellous and Godly man. I would like to encourage anyone to read a Banner book and if you have any particular concerns or interests please contact me and I will strive to recommend a title or two!

Against Heresies

Over on Against Heresies Martin Downes has been conducting a series of highly interesting interviews that are well worth looking at. I have found the questions (or rather answers!) relating to apostasy and misleading theological movements particularly interesting and I'd encourage anyone to read them. I first heard Martin preach in my first year at University when he was the Wales Team Leader for UCCF and was greatly impressed. It came as no surprise to many people that when he finished at UCCF he received a call to the ministry and if anyone ever finds themselves in the Deeside area on a Sunday they should make it a priority to visit the church, either that or regularly read his blog!

To Persevere or Not Persevere...

During my time at University, which I can now alarmingly refer to in the past tense, one of the key issues that has constantly been raised within the Christian student community has been that of the doctrine of perseverance of the Saints.

Perhaps it is the lack of spiritual maturity that naturally occurs within young Christians, but whatever the reason, it is certain that many students believe it possible to lose ones salvation. Many talk of their own experience, or that of someone they know, of having being a Christian, lost their faith and then regained it. Whilst it is possible that this yo-yo affect may have only been prominent in my University I seriously doubt it. I am also fully aware that it is not an issue that exclusively effects students, its presence is felt widely within the church.

This post has been inspired by an article on 'Justification and Perseverance' by the Rvd Derek Thomas taken from the Banner of Truth magazine, May '07. Thomas talks about the debate over the doctrine of perseverance and draws clear rules by which it can be seen. Thomas draws a clear distinction between the visible/invisible church and shows that, although apostasy is deeply saddening, it is a reality. Carl Trueman, a co-faculty member with Derek Thomas at Westminster Seminary, has some interesting comments on apostasy here.

It is in the face of true apostasy that we must be clear in our agreement with the Westminster Confession of Faith concerning the visible church as 'all those throughout the world that profess the true religion'. Even though such members may have accepted the union of the sacraments they may sadly apostatize.

Thomas is correct in his statement that "final assurance is assured to those who are true or genuinely regenerated believers" anybody who has been elected through the grace of God will persevere into eternity, some will claim faith but will walk away without truly regenerate hearts.

In 1 John 2:19 we read "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they6 they went out, that it might become plain that they are all not of us". There are those who appear to be Christians but are not, and all those who are truly saved are assured that they will remain so.

In the article Thomas continues by addressing the fruits of perseverance; that a truly regenerate heart is manifested by good works and then points to the importance of the doctrine of justification by faith alone alongside perseverance.

It is clear that once we have become regenerate we cannot loose the salvation that we have received from our sovereign God, and it is saddening that many young Christians preach otherwise to each other. Let us glorify in the knowledge that: 'If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him' 2 Timothy 2:11-12