Multicultural Ministry Matters

2 Cor 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! New years are a good time for big changes. Time to move house. Or look for a new job. Maybe time to start a new diet & exercise routine. But - change is difficult. That’s why new year’s resolutions are so depressing. It’s so much easier not to have any changes. It’s so much easier to just give up. This is who I am, this is what I do. I’m not gonna change. When TV ads talk about “a new year, a new you”, they mean makeup and gym classes and clothes. But it’s not actually a new us, it’s the old us, with makeup on. Or the old us, with new clothes on. That’s why the changes don’t work most of the time. It’s not actually a new us. But 2 Cor 5 tells us we can actually have a new “us”. But this passage tells us – we actually can have a new you! It’s so new, that Paul can call it a new creation. The old person’s completely gone; it’s a whole new you. And there’s three ...

Sydney Evangelicalism is known for its Biblical Theology . Biblical Theology means more than just theology that is based on the Bible - any Christian theology should do that. It means a detailed, sophisticated approach to reading the whole Bible as a single, connected narrative, which climaxes in Christ. Biblical Theology is based on three premises: 1. the whole Bible, old and new testaments, is one connected story... 2. ... which climaxes in Christ: the old testament looks forward to him, the new testament looks back to him... 3. ... and especially Christ's death and resurrection. Through the work of Graeme Goldsworthy, generations of ministers - both "professional" and laity - have been trained to think of the Bible in terms of God's people, in God's place, under God's rule. Goldsworthy's approach to Biblical Theology, indeed the whole project of a Calvinist-Reformed integrated understanding of the Bible's overarching narrative, owes a lot to one man...

A great and mighty wonder, Redemption drawing near, The virgin bears the infant, The Son of God is here. Repeat the hymn again: "To God on high be glory And peace on earth to men." The Word becomes incarnate, And yet remains on high, And angels sing their anthems, To shepherds from the sky. Repeat the hymn again: "To God on high be glory And peace on earth to men." He comes to save all people, The earth shall hear his word, The infant born in Bethl’em, Is Saviour, Lord and God. Repeat the hymn again: "To God on high be glory And peace on earth to men." All idol forms shall perish, And error be no more, For Christ shall wield His scepter, our Lord for ever more. Repeat the hymn again: "To God on high be glory And peace on earth to men." (Words originally by St. Germanus, 734AD. Slightly altered & modernised. ) * * * * * Merry Christmas, everyone!

Why do we celebrate Christmas on 25 Dec? There's at least two possible reasons: Nine months from the date when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would become pregnant (generally taken to be March 25 - but I dunno why); A Christian adaptation of the Roman, pagan celebration of the northern hemisphere winter solstice. At the winter solstice, the days stop contracting and start getting longer. So it's the sign that the world won't spiral into endless winter. Pagan, earth-worshiping religion take that a sign to celebrate the continuity of life. I don't know how reliable the dating of the annunciation is - I'll sideline that issue, if that's okay. I want to propose something. How about we deliberately ditch 25 Dec as being Christmas, and rename it "summer festival of life"? The benefits are: It's more in line with the original pagan festival - Christians can just pick a different day, some other time in the year; That's what it is for mos...

This is my last post on Calvin's political theology * * * * * I think Calvin rightly explains the breadth of Paul and Peter’s command to submit to authority. Both Rom. 13:1-7 and 1 Pet. 3:12-14 call on Christians to submit to authority. Paul says that a pagan, Roman ruler was instituted by God. Peter and Paul both assert that secular rulers do good by punishing evil and praising good. They thus evidently envisaged some duality of government, where a pagan ruler, who did not serve God in the religious sphere, and enacted evil in that realm, could still serve God and do good in the civil sphere. Similarly, Jesus’ reply to the Pharisee's famous question concerning taxation - "give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar" - implies the possibility of simultaneous loyalty to God and an ungodly civil authority – a possibility which subverts the basis for the Pharisees' trick question. In Rom 13, Paul notes that the ruler’s bear the sword because of human propensity for evil – ...

Today, my parents & I celebrate 21 years in Australia. We landed in Melbourne in the morning of 20 Dec 1988. Lived with my uncle (mum's brother) for three weeks, then moved to Sydney because mum had a job offer at what was then the Cumberland College of Health Sciences - which later became part of the University of Sydney - which job mum still has. Lots has happened in 21 years. Amongst other things: * Visited New Zealand, England, Belgium, France, Germany, Thailand & Canada; * Got myself 3 undergraduate degrees (Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Laws, Bachelor of Divinity); * Lived in Homebush, Parramatta, Minchinbury, Rooty Hill, Newtown & Croydon; * Changed careers from accounting to church ministry; * Became a Presbyterian; * Got 1,260 friends on Facebook - and yes, I do actually know them all, even if only remotely; * Got this blog. Wonder what the next 21 years hold - if the Lord gives me that long? Check back in 2030.

'Nother news flash. Michael Morrow's an up & coming evangelical music writer - keep an eye on him. The scores for his songs are available for free download from his website, morrowmusic . I think "I know your love" is my favorite so far. Or maybe "nothing but the blood". You can buy Michael's CD from the EMU online store .

This continues my series on Calvin's political theology * * * * * Calvin calls the people to respect and submit to the rulers that God has providentially put over them. He does not permit the people to rebel, even against bad rulers, for they too have been instituted by God. Even a tyrannical ruler enacts some aspect of good governance. The one apparent exception is if an ungodly ruler exceeds the bounds of civil authority and coercively legislates false religion. Even in this case, the disobedience must be both passive and limited, so it is not a true exception to Calvin’s general non-resistance. The people must privately refuse to participate in the particular area of false worship. They must not actively, publicly rebel against the ruler, and therefore the whole system of government which God has providentially placed over them.

New flash! Sovereign Grace ministries plan to plant a church in Sydney, probably somewhere around Hornsby. Dave Taylor, their founding pastor, explains here that one of the main reasons Sovereign Grace are coming to Sydney is because people have asked them to do so! For more info, have a look at their Sovereign Grace Oz website. And now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

This continues my series on Calvin's political theology * * * * * Calvin did NOT believe Scripture mandated a particular form of civil polity. Calvin affirmed that monarchy and democracy were legitimate, but he preferred ‘aristocracy, or a system compounded of aristocracy and democracy’, not because it was divinely mandated, but because it limited the excesses of monarchy. Calvin saw monarchy rapidly degenerating into tyranny, and democracy to anarchy. He preferred a system which contained checks and balances to power, and which reflected, at least to some extent, the consent of the people.

This continues my series on Calvin's political theology * * * * * John Calvin was no theonomist – he did not hold that the Bible prescribed precise laws which must be applied today. He, along with other magisterial reformers, followed the medieval division of old testament laws into ceremonial, civil, and moral. Ceremonial laws were specific to the old testament forms of worship and are fulfilled, therefore abrogated, in their ceremonial capacity, by Christ. Civil laws were specific to the nation of Israel, and in the internationalisation of the gospel in Christ, they too are fulfilled and abrogated. But the moral law ‘is the true and eternal rule of righteousness, prescribed for men of all nations and times, who wish to conform their lives to God’s will’. Indeed, the ceremonial and civil laws are themselves expressions of the moral law – the ceremonial pointing to the first table of the decalogue, illustrating what it means to love God, and the civil pointing to the second, as exa...

This continues my series on John Calvin's political theology * * * * * Calvin divided political order into the magistrate, who rules the people by law; the laws, by which the magistrate rules the people; and the people, ruled legally by the magistrate. When these three elements work together harmoniously, they would create a healthy civil society, where all people could flourish. This visible, peaceful civil society would be both an expression of Christian piety, and an analogical witness to the gospel’s invisible, internal peace and harmony. Contra the Anabaptists, Calvin affirmed the legitimacy of political office, going as far as to call it ‘the highest gift of his beneficence to preserve the safety of men’. God providentially raises up civil rulers as his ministers, carrying out God’s judgements. God gives this authority to the magistrates, not to feed their own lusts, but to serve him, though serving the people and enhancing the common good. While rulers are primarily account...

This continues my series on John Calvin's political theology * * * * * Calvin did not hold to a two-kingdom view of church and state, properly speaking, but a two-government ( duplex regimen ) view of God’s unified kingdom. This was different from the Lutheran view, which drew a sharper antithesis between internals and externals, the world and the spirit. It was also different to the Anabaptist separation of church from state. Both these views effectively denied that the state had any useful role in establishing piety. Calvin also differed from the Zwinglian delegation of church governance to secular authorities. Calvin insisted that church officers, not secular magistrates, control spiritual matters, including the right to communicate. This insistence caused his 1538-41 exile from Geneva. To achieve their independence, Geneva had relied upon military assistance of the Swiss Protestant cities of Fribourg and Bern. In 1538, the Senate instituted a Zwinglian submission of the church...

This continues my series on Calvin's political theology * * * * * Calvin’s view on secular government intersects with his view on Christian freedom. In the first edition of Institutes , the section on freedom immediately preceded those on ecclesial and civil power. Against Rome, Calvin asserted that the Christian’s conscience was freed, through justification by faith in Christ alone, from slavery to rituals, works-righteousness, and earthly authority in this justificative sense. Christians are saved not by being rightly related to Rome through the institutional church, but by being rightly related to God, in Christ, through the Spirit. Against the Anabaptists, he asserted this freedom was not for license or insurrection, but for obedience to God’s commands, expressed in an ordered life, submissive to earthly rule.

This continues my series on Calvin's political theology * * * * * Calvin intended his Institutes to be an introduction to the study of Scripture, and thus nourish piety. It is not first of all a political manifesto. Nevertheless, it begins and ends with political statements. In the prefatory address, Calvin reminds Francis that a ‘true king’ must ‘recognize himself a minister of God in governing his kingdom’, and warns him that a king who ‘does not serve God’s glory exercises not kingly rule but brigandage’, and that a kingdom which is ‘not ruled by God’s sceptre, that is, his Holy Word’ will not prosper. The whole preface is a plea that Francis give the Protestants a fair hearing, and not associate them with Anabaptist turmoil. These themes are repeated and expanded in the Institute’s final chapter, which remained virtually unchanged from the first edition of Institutes to the last. Calvin’s Institutes is an apologia for the magisterial reformation, and therefore a highly politi...

This continues my series on Calvin's political theology * * * * * Calvin first arrived in Geneva in 1536. Geneva had recently become theologically Protestant, freeing itself from the Roman prince-bishop, who, along with the cathedral canons, had wielded political, economic and ecclesial authority. It had also recently become politically republican, freeing itself from the French Duke of Savoy – who was Catholic. Geneva’s republican form of government was expressed in its hierarchical councils, headed by the Senate of twenty-five native-born citizens, elected annually, supervised by four executives called Syndics, also elected annually. Calvin invented neither political republicanism nor ecclesial presbyterianism. Other Swiss and German cities had previously experimented with hierarchical conciliar rule since the 14th century. Calvin’s contribution was to develop and formalise them in his civil and ecclesial constitutions, the Ordinances for Offices and Officers, and the Ecclesial O...

I'm off to Canberra for AFES National Training Event (" NTE "). More than 1,000 Christian uni students from all over the country are descending on Canberra to get trained for ministry, then heading out for various mission locations. My church, Merrylands East Presbyterian Church , is hosting a mission team next week. Stay tuned for updates. Meanwhile, through the power of scheduled posts, my series on John Calvin's political theology will continue :)

Political theology is the art of analysing human government – the state, the polis – through the lens of theology. It asks: what does God say about ordered human community in this world? How, according to God, may we create societies which maximise human flourishing? Evangelical political theology finds the answers through a Christ-centred understanding of the Bible. I just handed in an essay on John Calvin's political theology, in his context in 16th century Geneva. Here's some of my thoughts. John Calvin was never a ‘politician’ in the sense of holding public office. In Geneva, he was officially Lecturer in Holy Scripture, and for his whole life he saw himself as a pastor-teacher of God’s flock. His personal impact upon Geneva, and perhaps on the whole Protestant movement, was due mainly to his preaching. Calvin preached several times a week. His preaching was clear, simple, and rhetorically powerfully. Through it, he shaped the minds of the Genovese population and the...