The Watershed. Part Three: Down the Mountain the rivers flow..

So where do we go if we move away from the Biblical basis for our faith? Below I am simply listing the trends that are emerging and which I understand to be particularly important.

* Faith based on subjective feelings rather than objective truth.
* Putting man first rather than God.
* Not understanding that God exists outside of His creation.
* Not recognising the gravity of sin and man's hopeless state outside of the Gospel.
* The belief that there is something of God in everyone that can be stimulated by spiritual exercises.
* Setting of God's love over and against His other attributes.
* The erosion of the substitutionary nature of the Atonement.
* The unique nature of Christ and salvation in His name alone is denied.
* Syncretism.
* Universalism.

Personal footnote: I am writing as one who has had a radical conversion experience (37 years ago) as a result of reading the Bible for literary purposes. I have been involved in a wide range of ministry from Aberdeen to Weymouth in just about every sort of church you can think of. In my early days I had to take big decisions because of my experience of the Holy Spirit. For the past five years I have been involved in setting up and running the London Jesus Centre which has caused me to consider many current social issues in the light of communicating  the Gospel and, has brought me into contact with many people and organisations including a wide range of faith based ones.
I have read widely across the range of theological thought seeking to find balance. I have seriously explored the Roman Catholic Church seeing that, if the doctrinal differences have been resolved, there is really no further ground for division. So, here I am still convinced of the historic Christian faith that sustained the martyrs, motivated the Reformers and inspired missionaries-I can do no other!

The Watershed. Part Two: the Ridge.

The vital issue facing believers in these days is to discern what constitutes the ridge. Christians are called to move in unity but, that can never justify compromising truth. However, the zeal for truth in essentials must be tempered by charity in those things that are not certain. Even when we are convinced that an individual or party are mistaken we should not descend into vituperation and ad hominem attacks, which has been a regrettable tendency throughout Church history, but we should assume the good will and sincerity of others while recognising that being sincere does not guarantee being right. (I fully appreciate that concepts such as 'truth' and 'right and wrong' are currently unfashionable: it is but a passing fashion.)
I see the ridge as being essentially on the line of our understanding of what the Bible is. Is the Bible in its entirety the inspired Word of God containing the complete revelation of what the Church needs to know? Or is it a basically human document that might here and there contain useful insights into God and His dealings with humanity? I am convinced that the first is the only consistent and tenable one. We must be clear that this is no simplistic literalism but it demands intelligent study dependant on the Holy Spirit, with an understanding of literary forms, context and honest scholarship. There is a vast resource of Biblical study that confirms the integrity of the Scriptures: which can robustly withstand the unbelief of the past 200 years that basically is a new re-statement of the age old question:'Has God said?'

The Watershed-a parable from nature. Part One.

The writer and teacher Francis Schaeffer lived in Switzerland for a large part of his life and in one of his books (I did have a bargain set of his complete works, but they have gone in one of my periodic clear outs so I cannot check the reference) he gives a compelling illustration. Near where he lived there was a sharply defined ridge; through the winter it was covered in snow and had a uniform appearance - one blanket of snow. In the spring, though, as the thaw came the snow melted and what been one became two along the line of the ridge. The melted waters on one side joined stream that entered the river Rhone that flows into the Mediterranean. The waters on the other side followed their course to the Rhine ending up in the North Sea.
The picture is clear showing how things that are apparently unified and, indeed are impossible to differentiate at one stage, can end up in very different destinations. At this time of massive rapid change in the world in every sphere of life, I believe it is a watershed moment. In Christianity and Christendom where we can all be using the same words and seem to have the same aims and purposes we can start to see on what side of the ridge things are and where they lead to.