A talk by Dr Andy Bannister
Filmed at Westminster Central Hall, London
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What Makes the Perfect Gift? | Andy Bannister
One of the biggest pressures at Christmas can be finding the perfect present for a loved one. In this special Christmas episode of SHORT ANSWERS, Andy Bannister discovers the key to the perfect gift—and shows how the gift of Jesus that first Christmas meets every criteria. Happy Christmas from all of us at the Solas Centre for Public Christianity!
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Engaging with Pullman, Part Five: Pullman on Alienation and the Argument from Desire
Recently I was listening to a piece of music (“Jesu Joy Of Man’s Desiring”) composed by J.S. Bach and performed by The Celtic Women. It caused my heart to soar and my body to move along with the melodies. I wanted to reach out my hands as if to touch the music. It left me thinking for days: I 
wish I could play the violin, so that I could experience playing that beautiful piece of music. I felt envious of the talented musicians who (after sacrificing much time and energy to master an instrument) where so much closer to getting inside and becoming one with the music than me. Suddenly the spectacle of people playing “air guitar” made sense – they want to become one with the music by imitating the actions necessary to create it. Let me assure you that these were not ordinary thoughts for me!
However, it got me thinking about the fact that there are many experiences of beauty in the world around us which draw out the desires of our hearts. We wish we could become one with the music; we wish we could bath in the light of a rainbow; we wish we could capture the beauty of the distant hills in a painting. However, these beauties remain elusive and our desires remain unfulfilled. Why is that?
It seems that the human experience is one marked by a sense of alienation. This is not a material alienation, like the one espoused in Marxism which makes the human problem about the alienation of the worker from the means of production. Nor is it merely a social alienation, marked by the rise of individualism and the decline of community life. Rather it is an existential alienation – we inhabit this world but feel shut out from some deeper, fuller reality. Our artists, poets and song writers are often the ones who give voice to this sense of alienation. Not long ago I heard on the radio the Kaiser Chiefs singing: “There’s a hole in my soul, that a galaxy could fit through…”. In their lyrics I could hear the echoes of Blaise Pascal reflecting centuries ago: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator” (In his work, “Pensées”).
I’m intrigued that Philip Pullman also feels this alienation. In the previous article in this series we considered his significant spiritual experience in 1969 when he felt a sudden sense of connection to the world – everything and everyone around him was suffused with a new sense of meaning. That probably prompted him to write in his short story “Lyra’s Oxford” (which fills the gap between His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust): “Everything has a meaning; if only we could read it”.
Pullman was even more candid about his sense of alienation and quest for finding meaningful connection in this interview:
“The kingdom of heaven promised us certain things: it promised us happiness and a sense of purpose and a sense of having a place in the universe, of having a role and a destiny that were noble and splendid; and so we were connected to things. We were not alienated. But now that, for me anyway, the King is dead, I find that I still need these things that heaven promised, and I’m not willing to live without them.”
Earlier in this series we have reflected on how Pullman is (consciously or unconsciously) the anti-C.S. Lewis storyteller. However, when it comes to this experience of alienation Pullman and Lewis are fellow travellers – although in different directions. Lewis was not just a great intellectual apologist, but a romantic artist. Both of those streams meet in his Argument From Desire, which I believe is one of his most important contributions for our work of apologetics today.
Let’s survey some of what Lewis wrote about this existential sense of alienation and his argument from desire.
In his famous sermon “The Weight of Glory”, Lewis articulated the haunting experience of alienation in this way:
“At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”
Earlier in the sermon he reflected on some dead ends in the quest for something to fulfil these longings and desires
“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited…”
In the preface to his first novel “The Pilgrim’s Regress”, Lewis gave some extended reflections on the elusive nature of beauty and desire:
“There is a peculiar mystery about the object of this Desire… Thus if it comes to a child while he is looking at a far off hillside he at once thinks ‘if only I were there’; if it comes when he is remembering some event in the past, he thinks ‘if only I could go back to those days’. If it comes (a little later) while he is reading a ‘romantic’ tale or poem of ‘perilous seas and faerie lands forlorn’, he thinks he is wishing that such places really existed and that he could reach them. … Every one of these supposed objects for the Desire is inadequate to it. An easy experiment will show that by going to the far hillside you will get either nothing, or else a recurrence of the same desire which sent you thither. A rather more difficult, but still possible, study of your own memories, will prove that by returning to the past you could not find, as a possession, that ecstasy which some sudden reminder of the past now moves you to desire. Those remembered moments were either quite commonplace at the time (and owe all their enchantment to memory) or else were themselves moments of desiring”
The story is about the journey of a man (retracing Lewis’ rational and romantic journey to faith) searching for the Island of Desire, only to discover it is merely a reflection of the reality of Heaven.
Then in his final novel “Til We Have Faces”, Lewis put into the mouth of story’s heroine these words, which express the story of his own life:
“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born.
The story retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche, literally a story about the ecstatic union of the God of Love and the Soul of Man!
Finally, and perhaps most memorably, Lewis articulated the Argument From Desire in “Mere Christianity”:
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find until after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same.”
I love how Lewis articulates the deepest cries of the human heart and helps us to see that they are not merely natural instincts, but a spiritual homing beacon for God our Creator.
The Bible tells us that the human race is truly suffering from alienation. We suffer alienation from God our Creator, alienation within ourselves (the gulf between our ideals and our actual selves), alienation from others around us (which identity politics is only making worse today), and alienation from creation (which no amount of environmental policy can overcome). The book of Romans tells us the root of this alienation:
“1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened… 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”
However, the gospel announces that God has not left us alone in this state of alienation. Just as the problem was caused by an exchange (our choosing the Creation over the Creator, the Gift over the Giver), so also the solution involved a great exchange: Jesus bearing the alienation and condemnation our sin deserves, so instead we might enjoy reconciliation with God and fullness of life in union with Him. Having the gulf of alienation bridged by the Cross of Jesus, the Christian can now sing: “This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres … This is my Father’s world, He shines in all that’s fair, in the rustling grass, I hear Him pass; He speaks to me everywhere”
That is why the gospel of Jesus – the King of Heaven – is the better story, than the Republic of Heaven that Pullman’s story is all about!
To reach people who are sensitive to this sense of alienation I don’t think we need more arguments, but instead we need more artists who can speak to these existential and aesthetic longings in the human soul – and like Lewis show that beauty is a signpost that points to the Beautiful One!
David Nixon is a pastor who lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two small children.
This article is final part of a series, the previous articles are;
Part One: Why I’ll be watching ‘His Dark Materials’ and so should you.
Part Two: Philip Pullman and the power of stories.
Part Three: Pullman on God and The Church
Part Four: Pullman Dust and the signals of transcendence
Solas & Church Based Ministry
One of the things we sometimes do at Solas (although it’s not the thing we are primarily about), is to speak to churches and church groups around the country. We tend to two things when we do that, we either go and teach Christians how they can share their faith more effectively in our secular age – or we like to take topics that are more directly evangelistic, and pitch on the assumption that there will be people in the audience who are not Christians. In the last month, Andy Bannister has spoken at Tayside Christian Fellowship in Perth (Scotland!), one of the Filling Stations, near Aberdeen, and Perth Baptist Church, while Gavin Matthews was at Harvest Church in Hamilton. (read more about Solas and the Filling Station here).
Andy has been speaking on some really key ideas in the Christian faith such as The Uniqueness of Jesus in a World of Competing Faiths, and why that matters. Of course, it isn’t the church who says that Jesus is utterly unique, it’s actually Jesus himself who makes the amazing claim, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me” in John 14. Andy explored ways of proclaiming the uniqueness of Jesus without getting dismissed as bigoted, or intolerant.
Meanwhile Gavin Matthews, who is part of the Solas team, had the privilege of speaking at Harvest Church in Hamilton. Harvest is a lively, growing church with a real heart for mission who are in the process of moving out of their rented space in a community centre and into their own building. Their worship leader is Mark Hinde, a great friend of Solas, who spoke on behalf of Open Doors at our Confident Christianity conference in Perth recently. Gavin spoke from the story of the feeding of the 5000+ about not being daunted by the scale and difficulty of the task of evangelism today, but offering what we have to Jesus. The message was that evangelism is for ordinary Christians, not just exceptionally gifted ones like Billy Graham, John Wesley or George Whitfield! Most of us feel about as inadequate as 5 loaves and 2 small fish to feed a multitude, but yet we can be used by Jesus.
Then, more recently, Andy Bannister had the opportunity to speak at Perth Baptist Church on the subject of meaning in life, which Google ranked as the hardest possible question to answer. Andy went to Jesus’ parable of the 2 Sons, and showed that the younger ‘prodigal’ son sought to carve out his own meaning in life in rebellion against his Father; yet the older son was equally far from his Father, lost in his own self-righteousness and pride. The point is that real meaning and purpose in life isn’t found in rebellion or legalism, but by our relationship to God our Father being restored when we respond to His grace , pictured so beautifully in the story as a Father’s embrace.
It’s part of our mission at Solas to equip and teach the church. So when we’re invited we go we love doing that. Whether it’s in our conferences, training events, Sunday services or in evangelistic outreach events; we are always in partnership with local churches. One of the things that make that a real joy is that in doing so we don’t just forge useful working arrangements; but also make great friends.
PEP Talk Podcast With Joel Turner
Do you have to be a master of improvisation to be an effective evangelist? Or is it better to master a 16-step gospel presentation written by an expert? This time on PEP Talk, we speak to former comedian and travelling evangelist Joel Turner about following the Spirit and looking to the Bible for new opportunities in sharing the gospel.
With Joel Turner – PEP Talk
Our Guest
Joel Turner fully surrendered his life to Christ while operating a comedy club in Western Canada. He is currently the Lead Pastor/Evangelist at Mountain Springs Calvary Chapel, Calgary, a church he planted over 10 years ago. Across Canada, the U.S. and overseas, Joel’s teaching work includes his association with Creationfest, Calvary Chapel International, Fred Stoeker (Every Man’s Battle) and Gravity Canada.
Engaging with Pullman, Part Four: Dust and the Signals of Transcendence
One of the things I find most intriguing about Philip Pullman is that, despite the negativity towards God and the Church expressed in “His Dark Materials”, he remains a surprisingly spiritual person.
For example in the book of essays, “Daemon Voices”, Pullman relates a significant event in his life as he walked down Charring Cross Road in 1969. Suddenly he became conscious of connections between everyone and everything around him:
“I thought it was a true picture of what the universe was like: a place not of isolated units of indifference, empty of meaning, but a place where everything was connected by similarities and correspondences and echoes… What I think now is that my consciousness was temporarily altered (certainly not by drugs, but maybe by poetry) so that I was able to see things that are normally beyond the range of visible light, or routine everyday perception.”
This transcendent experience resulted in his conviction that the universe is “alive, conscious and full of purpose”. He reflected later: “Everything I’ve written, even the shortest and simplest things, has been an attempt to bear witness to the truth of that statement”. Apologist Os Guinness would label Pullman’s experience an encounter with the “signals of transcendence” (in “Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion”) – an experience that signposts that there is must be something more to reality. Guinness suggests that in order to engage with secular people who appear to be apathetic and disinterested in spiritual things that we need to “trigger the signals” and encourage people to pursue them to their conclusion. Because as the theologian N.T. Wright has said, these signals of transcendence are really the “echoes of a voice” – the voice of Jesus inviting us into His new creation.
To help us think more about using the signals of transcendence generally and engaging with Pullman’s fascination with consciousness specifically – meet catholic philosopher Charles Taylor. In his mammoth work “A Secular Age,” he argues people in a secular society find themselves “cross-pressured” between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand there’s the “malaise of immanence” – the sense that if this material here/now world is all there is, then life suffers from “flatness”. The secular world is drained of colour, without any ultimate value, meaning, or hope – especially at significant moments like birth, marriage and death – there is a sense of something missing. On the other hand there’s a sense of being haunted by “the ghosts of transcendence” and a longing for “fullness”. Experiences like consciousness and reason, experiences of beauty, or longings for justice and love – signpost there has to be something more!
Take another example. The 20th century poet W.H. Auden encountered a signal of transcendence in a New York cinema that set him off on a journey towards the Christian faith. As a progressive socialist he had great confidence in humanity’s ability to better itself without religion and also a practising homosexual he had a bias towards moral relativism. However, when he watched a news reel that depicted the brutal Nazi invasion of Poland and as he heard the applause of the audience watching atrocities against civilians – deep within him, he experienced a moral revulsion and conviction that this was absolutely wrong. This set Auden off on a journey to discover a Moral Absolute, which did not fit within his former atheist humanistic worldview.
In the same way, Philip Pullman’s experience and realisation of the significance of human consciousness set him off on a journey to try to make sense of it. That’s why consciousness has a starring role in both trilogies (“His Dark Materials” and “The Book of Dust”) and is connected with the phenomenon of Dust. What is Dust? Just as in the real world, the Higgs Boson particle is connected with a field associated with mass; in Pullman’s fictional world, Dust particles are connected with the Rusakov field which is associated with consciousness. The Magisterium seeks to control and suppress these scientific discoveries, considering them to be heretical, because Dust proves that matter and spirit are one – that matter is conscious. Furthermore, since Dust only is attracted to humans after adolescence, the Magisterium considers Dust to be the manifestation of original sin (which in Pullman’s world is about becoming self-conscious, free-thinking, free-willing, and sexually-awakened). The abduction and ‘intercission’ of children (cutting away their daemon) in the first series is justified on the grounds of saving them from sin and keeping them in submission to The Authority.
Although Pullman has not yet come to Christian faith, he has recognised consciousness presents significant problems for the naturalistic and materialistic worldview adopted by most secular humanists. In fact, it is no coincidence that the main antagonists in his most recent book (“The Secret Commonwealth”) are two philosophers who suggest that daemons are not real – that is that consciousness is just an illusion (as suggested by atheistic materialists like Daniel Dennett).
The challenge for pure materialism is that human consciousness/mind is reduced to being physical and electrical processes within the brain. Such a worldview poses a threat to science and reason itself, since if our brains are purely the products of time, chance and unguided natural selection, they are wired for survival not necessarily for truth. That’s what C.S. Lewis once famously argued: “If minds are wholly dependent on brains, and brains on biochemistry, and biochemistry (in the long run) on the meaningless flux of the atoms, I cannot understand how the thought of those minds should have any more significance than the sound of the wind in the trees.” So why should we trust our brains at all?
Pullman seeks to avoid this problem by resisting reductionism to material causes. In an interview (intriguing titled “The Religious Atheist”) Pullman says: “I like to say I’m a complete materialist but matter is conscious. How do I know that? Because I’m matter and I’m conscious”. Pullman goes on to reject the crude reductionism that says: ‘“The world is nothing but the action of molecules” or “Love is merely the movement of electrons in the brains.” Sentences of that sort are nearly always mistaken,’ … I would prefer they were put in the form of “Love is a movement of electrons in the brain, among other things”.’ So Pullman is a secularist whose worldview has windows – he remains open to the existence of spiritual (non-material) realities like consciousness and moral responsibility.
Consciousness does not fit well within a purely materialistic and naturalistic worldview – it suggests there must be something more to reality. Put another way by Lewis (in his essay “Meditation in a Toolshed”), Pullman should follow his experience of transcendence back to its source – to not just “look at” the sunbeam of consciousness but to “look along” the experience of mind to discover the Mind of God.
However, sadly, Pullman has not yet left behind the secular worldview to discover that the Christian worldview makes better sense of consciousness. Nevertheless, there is still a glimmer of hope! In a recent public discussion in Blackwells with philosopher Philip Goff, Pullman expressed deep appreciation and agreement with his latest popular work: “Galileo’s Error: Foundations For A New Science of Consciousness”. Therein Goff explains the concept of panpsychism – that all matter experiences a basic level of consciousness (although only humans with their developed brains experience higher levels of consciousness). Although Goff remains within an atheistic worldview he attends church regularly in Durham and argues compellingly that consciousness will never be explained by science. He defines Galileo’s Error as restricting science to quantitative study using mathematics, all while removing from science the study of qualitative realities like consciousness, morality, spirituality and beauty. Although you cannot reduce the redness of red or the sweetness of sugar to an equation, they are just as real as the force of gravity. Although an MRI scan can reveal what regions of the brain are activated by such experiences, it is a worldview statement (not scientific) to say that Mind emerges from Matter or is an illusion. It is refreshing to see such reductionistic thinking being challenged, even if it doesn’t go all the way.
Dr Sharon Dirckx was also in recent conversation with Philip Goff (on the Unbelievable programme) about her recent book “Am I Just My Brain?” – she has also spoken and written for Solas so check it out! She offers compelling argues that our intelligent minds and the intelligibility of the universe are signposts to Intelligent Mind of our Creator. The Bible explains that consciousness is not brute fact of nature but a defining feature of the gift of the image of God in humanity – given so that we might enjoy being God’s friends and wisely ruling over His creation. Consciousness is a “signal” or “ghost” of transcendence! We would do well to learn more about how to use these things in our gospel conversations with people!
David Nixon is a pastor in Edinburgh, where he lives with his wife and children.
This article is the fourth in a series, the previous articles are;
Part One: Why I’ll be watching ‘His Dark Materials’ and so should you.
Part Two: Philip Pullman and the power of stories.
Part Three: Pullman on God and The Church
11 BBC Interviews in 90 Minutes… Hope and the End of the World!
A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from our friends at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics, saying that the BBC were looking for someone to speak on all the Sunday Morning BBC local radio shows across the UK. They particularly wanted to talk about Christianity and the environment, but the starting point was “The End of the World” and the family in Holland who had been living in a cellar for seven years, afraid that the end of the world was coming. There are some Christians and other religious groups who are terrified that the world is about to end – and they go that way. But there are also groups like Extinction Rebellion who are proclaiming the imminent end of the world as we know it.
The way they set this up was that they had eleven BBC stations up and down the country, and I sat in my home recording studio (by which I mean a laptop with a microphone!), and every ten minutes another BBC station would come up on the Skype and we’d go through the questions.
So with each segment, we started with the end of the world stuff from which I segued very quickly into the environmental issue – but connected those together in terms of “Where do you find hope?” That’s the tragic thing, for those people in that basement in Holland, that what they were endorsing was not Christianity; because Christianity is full of hope. Yes – there is an “end of the word” that is coming; but that isn’t something that Christians should fear, let alone hide from, in basements. 2 Peter says, “live in such a way as to hasten” it. Christians are looking forward to God wrapping up history and that won’t mean everything being ultimately destroyed but everything being renewed and a “New Heaven and New Earth”. So it was a wonderful opportunity to talk about the Christian vision of what that looks like – and then contrast that with this terrifying lack of hope in some religious movements and certainly in the Extinction Rebellion movement where there is no real hope.
Then what was also really interesting is that they picked up in the pre-recording interview that I have a background in Islamic Studies, so each of the interviewers on the different stations asked, “So what are the differences between Christianity and Islam on this topic?” The answer is that Islam says that there is an end to the world and a judgement to come, but that there is no certainty about the result of that judgement. The emphasis now is that “here are these commands, work hard, try hard, expend enough effort, and maybe, just maybe, you might be OK in the end but that you never really know.” I talked about the fact that Mohammad, the founder of Islam, when he was asked if he was going to heaven said that he just didn’t know. I contrasted that with Christian hope – which isn’t there because we think we are clever or smart or worthy or self-righteous; in fact quite the opposite. Authentic Christian faith is grounded in the hope of what Jesus has done, not on what we are trying to be. Of course the Christian and Islamic views of heaven are themselves very different too. The Christian vision is of a new heaven and a new earth, restored as it should be; whereas the Islamic vision is of a paradise-party with rivers of wine, fruit trees, crystal clear fountains of water and young virgins for the men; but God is absent. In contrast the Christian vision is of hope, based on Christ, for a vision of life after death which is relational – walking and talking with God.
All of this went out across various parts of the country, from Cornwall to Leeds, Cumbria, Gloucester, Devon, Ulster, Norfolk, Jersey and more! Most of them went out live, and so we did the whole thing in 8mins 30 seconds – and there was very little chance to chat. However, one or two of them were pre-recorded, and that meant we got a bit deeper, and have slightly more time. But the stuff about the contrast between Islam and Christianity and the environmental stuff really intrigued lots of people. It was also a wonderful opportunity to share something of Christian faith with all kinds of people – notably people who don’t go to church but listen to Sunday morning radio.
Listen to one of the broadcasts here.
Dr Andy Bannister is the Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity in Dundee.
Why do so many people doubt that there is a God? | Andy Bannister
If God is real, why do so many people doubt his existence? In the latest episode of SHORT/ANSWERS, Andy Bannister explores doubt and scepticism, and asks whether it’s as widespread as some people assume.
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Christmas Past, Present and Future
CHRISTMAS PAST
Last Christmas I watched my 18 month old nephew open his Christmas presents via FaceTime. It was 9.30pm on Christmas Eve and I was sitting in a friend’s guest bedroom in London. My family were back home in Sydney having recently woken up to an already sweltering Christmas morning. I watched my nephew rip off the wrapping paper with ever more vigour. My mum, who was pointing the phone camera towards him, kept asking if I could see him OK. My brother in law pulled faces at me each time the camera caught him. My dad complained about how hot it already was. My sister took the phone outside to show me the expansive blue Aussie sky.
It was not only my first ever winter Christmas, but my first ever Christmas not spent celebrating with my loved ones. When I made my plans to be overseas for Christmas I knew that I would miss them. However, I’m not sure I had anticipated just how foreign it would feel to not be with them at Christmas. And so, on Christmas Day last year I found myself preoccupied with thoughts of family. Stuffed to the gills with Christmas goose (I still can’t understand how it taste like lamb and not turkey… but I digress), I found myself mulling over the connection between family and Christmas.
Because that’s what we’re told Christmas is all about, isn’t it? Being with those we love and who love us. It’s not only the Christmas movies, and TV ads and the magazines that tell us that. It’s also what we Christians tell each other. We advertise our church Christmas services as “family services”. Christmas is the one day of the year when we feel confident in asking our non-Christian loved ones to come along to church with us “as a family”. We do our Christian duty by making it a priority to get to church on Christmas Day, before hurriedly returning home so we can prepare for the main event – Christmas lunch “with the family”.
Christmas is a time for family.
But is it? And if it is, what family is it a time for?
Those were the questions I found myself mulling over this Christmas past. As I did, I found myself thinking of Christmas future.
CHRISTMAS FUTURE
I suspect that it is not often that you read a Christmas article based on the book of Revelation! But bear with me for just a moment, because I think the vision of Christmas future helps us better understand how family fits into the purpose of Christmas present.
Christmas is the one day of the year that we Christians set aside to commemorate Christ’s coming into this world. It’s the day on which we remember the incarnation of Immanuel, literally “God with us”. Two millennia ago, Jesus was born on a specific day, in a specific place, amongst specific people. He came, and so we celebrate!
But our celebration isn’t simply an act of remembrance. It is also a celebration of promise. Though Jesus only lived amongst his people on this earth for a short time, he has promised that a day will come when he will dwell among his people once more, but for time without end. Revelation 21:3 speaks of that new day, a day in which ‘God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’. The future on heaven is one that truly belongs to Immanuel, to “God with us”
But Revelation 7:9-10 helps us understand even more about the magnificence of that day of Immanuel. It describes ‘a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’. Isn’t it a wonderful picture? A multitude beyond number, clothed in the purest of white, standing in the very presence of God and, with one voice, singing his praises.
The picture we see here in Revelation is a picture of celebration. But it is not a celebration of remembrance. After all, what would be the purpose of celebrating a mere memory when one is standing in the presence of its ultimate fulfillment? . In the new creation, God will truly dwell amongst his people. Face to face. Finally. Forever. He will be there, and so, we will celebrate!
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
And that, right there, is where we see the genuine connection between Christmas and family in the present.
You see, Christmas Day in the present is a day for remembering something glorious that happened in the past. However, it is also a day on which we look towards something that has been promised for the future… for our future. Each and every Christmas Day, that innumerable number from every nation and tribe and people and language together anticipate the future everlasting day of 
Immanuel, when God will be with us and we with him. Each and every Christmas Day that great multitude from all around the world rejoice together that the one who was born in a lowly stable is also the saviour of the world in whom we have been wonderfully united for all eternity. Each and every Christmas day those who are married join with those who are single; those with children of their own join with those without; those who enjoy strong relationships with loved ones join with those who are estranged; those who are celebrating the gift of new life join with those who are in the midst of grief; those who have been married for decades join with those whose marriages have ended by death or divorce, and together we all foreshadow that great and glorious day when we will stand shoulder to shoulder before the throne of the majesty in heaven.
Yes, there is great joy to be taken in spending Christmas day with those we love and who love us. That’s exactly why I so missed my own family last Christmas. It is also a reason why Christmas Day can be particularly painful for those who are grieving or estranged from their family.
But ultimately, the family which celebrates Christmas—the family that is celebrated at Christmas—is the family of God. At Christmas we don’t simply recognise that we have been made into a new family. We invite others to also become part of that family. At Christmas we don’t simply remember that Christ was born into an earthly family. We rejoice that, in him, we have been made into a heavenly family. At Christmas we don’t simply gather that family together. We celebrate that we have been gathered together. At Christmas we don’t simply enjoy the notion of family. We bow our knees before the Father from whom every family on heaven and earth is named (Ephesians 3:14-15)
And that is why, for God’s people, Christmas truly is a family celebration.
Dani is from Sydney, Australia. She is an Anglican deacon who is currently completing PhD research into a theology of singleness for the contemporary church through St Mark’s Theological Centre/Charles Sturt University. Dani is part of the Erskineville Village Anglican Church family, and chairs the www.singlemindedconference.com ministry. She rejoices in being an aunt to three precious little ones (one of whom is already safe with Jesus and another whom she can’t wait to meet in March) and is completely unashamed about her obsession with the musical Les Miserables.
Part of this article was drawn from a previous article Dani wrote for The Gospel Coalition Australia.
Confident Christianity conferences and the local church. Two pastors talk about their experience
Gavin Matthews spoke to Gordy Mackay, Community Pastor of Perth Baptist Church and Jim Crooks, Pastor of Tayside Christian Fellowship
Solas: Why did you decide to hold a Confident Christianity conference in Perth?
Jim Crooks – Pastor of Tayside Christian Fellowship: For me and Tayside Christian Fellowship, we were very much at the stage of asking ourselves, “how effective are we in personal evangelism?” We identified that fear was a barrier that we needed to address. Our church members are confident themselves in the scriptures, and they’re confident in the faith but maybe not confident in communicating it. So we really wanted to think about the “how-to” of communicating faith. And the necessity of being absolutely persuaded of the essential truths of Christianity. So that is why we were very interested in the Confident Christianity conference.
Gordy Mackay – Community Pastor of Perth Baptist Church: So, from Perth Baptist’s point of view, we are increasingly outward-looking, and my role in the church is engaging with the wider community. So it is something on my heart to equip people in our church to do that well. The Solas event was a really helpful opportunity for us to actually do that in a very practical way. We wanted to address the question ‘how do we share’, as people from the outside come into the church and as we as Christians make the most of the opportunities outside the church. So this is a really helpful way to give folks the practical tools to do that well.
Solas: Where did you first come across the Confident Christianity conferences?
Jim Crooks: Well, I first attended a Solas conference quite a number of years ago when it was in Dundee, and I was in fellowship in a church in Dundee – and also I’d got to know David Robertson on a personal basis through involvement with the European Leadership Forum (ELF) and their apologetics network, so I guess I’d been very aware of that. Then heard very good feedback from the Dundee conference in 2018 – although I personally didn’t attend that, but I was well aware of the Solas ministry.
Gordy Mackay: My knowledge came second hand, from Stewart one of the church leadership team. He’d came back from the Dundee conference, and was just beaming with enthusiasm about it. He was so enthusiastic, that I knew there was something there. Then, talking to Jim Turrent the pastor at Central Baptist Church in Dundee who had hosted that event – he was really convinced that this was a really positive thing for his church and for the city of Dundee. So trusting these folks, I knew this was something we could get involved with.
Solas: What did you hope to achieve, and how does a one-day conference relate to the ongoing work of the church?
Jim Crooks: What I was hoping we would achieve in Tayside Christian Fellowship was that people would be much more intentional in personal evangelism. That it wasn’t something that was going to ‘happen to them’ – they had to be thinking about ‘how do I communicate?’ and ‘What can I learn from other people who are doing it?’ So the Confident Christianity conference seemed like an ideal vehicle for letting people discover that for themselves. And in the event, we had significant numbers at the conference in Perth, around 30 of our members attended. That gives us a really good nucleus of people who have been exposed to “How-to” do personal evangelism just that bit better and be a little bit more confident and intentional in witnessing.
Gordy Mackay: Actually I think that “intentional” would be the key word for me. You know, equipping people to be confident and actually looking for opportunities. Again it’s been fascinating – you asked about the ongoing life of the church; in the weeks since the conference I’ve had two different people commenting on quotes from the conference. One quote was from Michael Ots who said, “Jesus didn’t call us to be hunters of men, but fishers of men”, that is throwing out little bits of bait throughout our conversations. So, someone proactively came to me and said “You know, I’ve been thinking about that ever since” and there’s been really helpful dialogue there. Then, the other one was “don’t pray for opportunities, God gives us the opportunities, rather pray for the courage to take these opportunities to speak about Him.” So these are two independent conversations I’ve had since the conference which I’ve have had the chance to follow up and say, “right, so how are you doing that?”. So for me that’s been a real excitement actually – people are talking about everyday evangelism now and there’s a real confidence.
Jim Crooks: That’s really useful, because I’ve also had conversations about those exact same throwaway remarks, which were obviously meant to get a point over and it has really captured the imagination.
Solas: For any pastors/ministers who are considering hosting a Confident Christianity conference, from your local church perspective, how was working with Solas?
Jim Crooks: Working with Solas was great, working with Solas was very easy. One because Solas are absolutely committed to working in partnership with churches. Actually, it never felt as if it was a “Solas” conference! It was a conference that was primarily led by the local churches but getting all the benefit from the Solas ministry, infrastructure and so on. It felt like a genuine partnership. It was good.
Gordy Mackay: Yes, and it was good to be able to tap into the speakers that Solas have access to. I’ve had overwhelming feedback about how good the speakers were. As local churches we couldn’t have sourced them ourselves. So actually Solas having these contacts, and putting together the right mix of speakers and subjects – and facilitating them getting to Perth was hugely beneficial.
Solas: So, what would you say to a church leader who was contemplating the idea of doing something like a Confident Christianity conference in their town?
Jim Crooks: Just do it! You’ve got to think about practicalities, obviously – but it’s well worth while. Take the plunge, you’ve got people who in Solas are very experienced in this kind of thing and it will ‘scratch where it itches’ with a lot of your serious minded church members.
Gordy Mackay: And if you can work with other local gospel-centred churches then all the better. For us, that was the beauty of it, right from the start the inter-church working was great! That’s been one of the most positive dynamics of the whole thing – bringing churches together. So, where there are other pastors and churches involved, all the better.
Jim Crooks: That was probably a highlight for me – the way that we worked together as partner-churches in genuine unity, with a clear focus about what we were hoping to achieve and a deep sense of brotherliness, in working for the kingdom. That – and to see the responses from my own brothers and sisters in Tayside Christian Fellowship. In particular, the response from one group of who were absolutely enthralled with the talks, even though it took them well out of their comfort zone. They were enthusiastically talking about it on the Sunday and since- and that has been wonderful, it’s had an impact on the church. People are discussing personal evangelism, and how to do things better. Recalling those quotes from the talks has given them something to hang their own thoughts on as well.
Gordy Makay: It was also such a joy for me to see people from so many different churches, which created a real excitement that God is at work in the city of Perth. We encouraged people to come, and they did, they responded! Good foundations were laid, and many good seeds sown and so we are excited about what God might do in the future.
PEP Talk Podcast With Sarah Yardley
When you run one of the biggest evangelistic events in the UK, can you take a holiday from sharing the gospel for the rest of the year? At Creation Fest this summer, we caught up with the woman making it all happen – Sarah Yardley – and found out that sharing the gospel, friendships and hospitality are important year-round.
With Sarah Yardley – PEP Talk
Our Guest
Sarah Yardley is a Californian based in Cornwall who loves Jesus, family, friendships, coffee, travel, and guacamole. She grew up at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, served at Reality Carpinteria, and currently lives in the UK, serving full-time with Creation Fest UK and Tubestation in Polzeath. She loves discovering what it means to follow Jesus and inviting others to know and follow Him.
Engaging with Pullman, Part Three: Pullman on God and the Church
by David Nixon
Last time we were thinking about the power of story. Whereas Richard Dawkins has written in stark prose: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully” (The God Delusion); and Christopher Hitchens has asserted: “religion poisons everything” (God Is Not Great). In “His Dark Materials”, Philip Pullman weaves these same objections and accusations against God and the Church into his grand narrative.
Here’s a quick walk through of the way that God (The Authority) and the Church (The Magisterium) are portrayed in the series:
In the first book, “The Northern Lights,” most of the action revolves around a branch of the church which is kidnapping children and cutting away their animal daemon’s – which in Pullman’s universe is the equivalent of stealing part of their soul! The Magisterium justifies this research by seeking to protect children from “original sin” (which it associates with Dust – more on that in the next article). However, in fact it is traumatising children and preventing them developing full self-awareness, free thinking and free will.
In the middle of the second novel “The Subtle Knife”, a witch, Ruta Skadi, reveals what she has discovered about Lord Asriel’s intentions:
“And he invited us to join him, sisters. To join his army against the Authority… He showed me that to rebel was right and just, when you considered what the agents of the authority did in His name… He opened my eyes. He showed me things I never had seen, cruelties and horrors all committed in the name of the Authority, all designed to destroy the joys and truthfulness of life… I know whom we must fight. It is the Magisterium, the Church. For all its history — and that’s not long by our lives, but it’s many of theirs — it’s tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can’t control them, it cuts them out. … Sisters, you know only the north; I have travelled in the south lands. There are churches there, believe me, that cut their children too, as the people of Bolvangar did – not in the same way, but just as horribly. They cut their sexual organs out, yes, both boys and girls; they cut them with knives so that they shan’t feel. That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if war comes, and the Church is on one side of it, we must be on the other.”
Then in the third book, “The Amber Spyglass”, we meet a rebel angel who reveals to Lord Asriel what are the diabolical plans of the Kingdom of Heaven:
“The Authority considers that conscious beings of every kind have become dangerously independent, so Metatron is going to intervene much more actively in human affairs… He wants to set up a permanent Inquisition in every world, run directly from the kingdom”
Much of the action revolves around liberating the captive souls in the World of the Dead, which the Authority has set up as a prison camp.
Then at the very end, the first rebel angel – Xaphania – summarises the indictment against God and the Church:
“All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. The rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed… and the struggle isn’t over now, though the forces of the kingdom have met a setback. They’ll regroup under a new commander and come back strongly, and we must be ready to resist”
Having heard all of that, let me suggest that while the story is new, the slander is not! Questions about the character and goodness of God go right back to the Garden of Eden. The first lie called into question God’s love and benevolent intentions towards the human race. Questions about the behaviour of the church across history and the hypocrisy of Christians have been raised for centuries – indeed, many have argued that the current hostile secularism we see in Western Europe is a backlash against the corruption and abusive authority exercised by state churches in the past.
This is why when parents rightly ask about whether they should allow their children to read Pullman’s books or watch the BBC/HBO series, I think that it would be wise (at the very least) to read/watch along with them and then talk about some of the issues raised in the story. I think it is far better for children to encounter some of the most hostile objections and honest doubts about the Christian faith in the loving environment of a Christian home, rather than to be shielded from them until they leave home only to encounter them in extremely unsympathetic sceptical environments.
If you are watching the series and talking about it with friends, these themes will emerge. So why not ask your friends about their thoughts (even their prejudices) and experiences of God and the Church. It may be helpful to equip yourself for the ensuing conversations by watching (and even sharing with your friends) some of Solas’ Short Answer videos that answer these specific questions: (this article continues below the videos…)
On the God of the Old testament and God of the New:
https://www.solas-cpc.org/shortanswers57/
On God and Hell:
https://www.solas-cpc.org/shortanswers55/
On the Church’s Bad History:
https://www.solas-cpc.org/shortanswers47/
On Religion and Hypocrisy:
https://www.solas-cpc.org/shortanswers38/
Next time we’ll be considering “Pullman on Dust and the Signals of Transcendence” – exploring how His Dark Materials not only requires a negative apologetic defence of the faith but also gives us the opportunity to make a positive apologetic. Pullman is surprisingly spiritual and recognises that there has to be something more!
David Nixon is a pastor and writer based in Edinburgh, where he lives with his wife and children.
Book: Come and Behold Him, Christmas Through Different Eyes
David J. Randall has produced a helpful little book for anyone who wants to scratch below the surface of the Christmas story. The nativity story, (baby Jesus, Mary, shepherds, wise-men, and assorted donkeys and cattle) is well-known – and will be performed in countless churches, schools, and nurseries again this year. Yet, many people who watch these charming performances will be left with little to help them understand what these events actually mean – or why this story is faithfully retold every year.
David Randall’s way into unearthing the heart of this great story is by looking at it through a series of different lenses. The Bible was written across many centuries, from a range of cultures, and presents a vast range of people – yet each of these presents us with a special perspective on the whole book’s central character, Jesus Christ. Randall takes fourteen of these and in fourteen short, easy-to-read chapters unveils different aspects of the heart of the Christmas story, which is Jesus himself.
Some of these chapters deal with Old Testament characters who look forward to the promise of the messiah. The chapter on Job, wrestling with the question of suffering – yet longing for the appearance of his redeemer, was a highlight there. Then there are a whole load of characters familiar to us from the nativity plays, Mary, Joseph and then of course Herod. The Herod chapter was especially compelling, comparing the temporary grandeur in his great palace, with the eternal glory of Christ found lying in a manger. Then the last set of chapters are based on the insights of writers such as John and Paul who looked back on the birth Jesus and reflected on its meaning and significance.
The compelling picture of Jesus which emerges from this very short book is one which will provoke the reader to look beyond the trappings of Christmas and to embrace the heart of the matter; that Jesus the Son of God, came to save us from sin, and to bring us life, light, salvation and reconciliation with God. Randall nicely illustrates this with a quote from CS Lewis, who famously noted in Surprised by Joy, that if Hamlet and Shakespeare were to meet, it could only be at the instigation of the author who could write himself into the play. In Jesus, God the creator writes himself into our story – and calls us to respond to him.
Randall’s little book would make a nice starting point for anyone wanting to work out what the Christmas story is about. It could also be used by Sunday School teachers or pastors, to raid for a few neat ideas to use in their upcoming teaching series this advent. The little study guide at the end is worth looking at too, as it contains some useful discussion points.
Come and Behold Him is published by Christian Focus Publications (£7.99) and is available here.
David J. Randall is a retired church pastor, who ministered in Scotland for over forty years. He has written several other books some of which are available from Solas.
Can We Be Happy Without God? | Andy Bannister
Our culture encourages us to try to find ultimate happiness in things like food, sex, success, career or performance. But can those things really satisfy us? In the latest SHORT/ANSWERS, Andy Bannister explores why God is ultimately necessary for true happiness, peace and security.
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Changing work, changing times, abiding opportunities
On the 25th Anniversary of his landmark book, “Thank God it’s Monday”, (and publication of a new edition) Mark Green reflects on change in work and society, and the opportunity for mission.
Scroll back to 1994 in the UK: no iPhone, no Facebook, no Uber, no Skype, no PayPal, no delivery drones, no Strictly, and no Starbucks– what on earth did we do all day? Society has changed, work has changed.
People entering today’s job market are likely to have six, seven, eight entirely different jobs in their working life, and many of the jobs they start out doing won’t even exist in twenty, ten, five years’ time. And the number of people in the gig economy, the number of people on zero-hour contracts, the number of people working into their seventies is rising. Artificial Intelligence is humming along, reshaping working practice across pretty much every sector – from transport to law, even counselling. And the robots are coming.
The result is that there’s anxiety in the air. It has been there for most of the last 25 years, except now it feels more pervasive, cutting across social and economic strata. Employment is up but many of our jobs are less secure. We are less confident that we could easily get another one, and less sure that our pay will keep pace with the cost of living. This generation will be the first since World War II to be worse off than their parents.
Yes, things are changing. And in this context the Christian’s role in our workplaces is even more important. In a time of anxiety, we are called to model the peace that comes from the prince of peace. In a season when fear can lead to short fuses we are called to patience and compassion. In a period, when some may feel pressured to cut corners, to treat team members as rivals, we are called to integrity and generosity and compassion. And in a time when wisdom is required, we are called to seek it and find ways to offer it.
It is after all in our workplaces where many of the decisions that affect our daily lives are made. If we, as followers of Jesus, want to make our contribution to the peace and prosperity of the land that we’re in, to the way children and young adults are educated, to the kinds of housing we build, the projects that our scientists focus on, the output our media produce, the care of the old and dying, the way we treat our prisoners, the way we treat each other at work, yes, we will indeed need to pray. But, as Jeremiah 29:7 makes clear, we will also need to ‘seek’ it, to be proactive, to do our bit in the very places where the decisions that shape the way we treat one another and interact with one another are made.
Back in 1994, there wasn’t that much teaching on work at all. Far too many Christians thought that work was the thing they did to pay the bills, support the church, and try to have evangelistic conversations. But progress was made. We saw a flurry of books, a flurry of conference activity, and the emergence of a number of gifted workplace teachers and speakers. For a season, work was on the agenda of the national church.
But it didn’t stay there.
Work became a church-approved special interest, not something central to the disciple-making and missional goals of local churches. Overall, local churches focused on church-based neighbourhood and community mission – with much good fruit. Praise God for it all. But churches rarely had a vision for the 95% of time that the 98% of God’s people who aren’t ordained spent away from church activities. Yes, people might pray for each other’s work crises but not for each other’s daily mission in and through their work, not for the work itself, the bosses, the organisation’s ongoing prosperity, the salvation of individuals known by name.
In the last ten years, there’s been a shift in that. A growing number of church leaders have grasped the need for whole-life disciple-making. And more and more are seeking to offer Sunday worship and praying and preaching that integrates the opportunities of scattered Monday to Saturday life with the concerns of the gathered church community. Still, you won’t find many churches where the sixteen-year-old going for their first holiday job at the COOP is taught a theology of work. You won’t find many churches where people going to work have a biblical vision for God’s purposes for them there. Marriage prep has become a natural part of church life but preparing for the challenges and opportunities of fifty years of work hasn’t.
That’s why we’ve revised Thank God it’s Monday for a new generation. All through the last 25 years, I’ve seen its impact on individuals and, more broadly, I’ve seen the transformative impact Christians can have when they have a vision for work, when they pray into it, when others get behind them. It’s good news for the work, it’s good news for their co-workers, and it can be good news for their organisations.
Vitally, quite apart from those benefits, there’s the deep reassurance that comes when we know that we are his ambassadors in it all, that he is with us, whether our workplace is toxic or joyous. And there’s the sheer joy and sense of purposefulness that we experience when we know that this work we do, this task, is important to God, that it contributes to his purposes in time and eternity, that it can be done for his glory and in his strength, and offered to him in humility and love.
Ours is a high calling, however lowly the job.
So I’m praying that this new edition will give a new generation a fresh vision of the worker God, his purposes for them, and presence with them in whatever they do – for the blessing of millions, and the salvation of many in our needy land.
Mark Greene
is the Executive Director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, and first published this article in the Baptist Times. The 25th Anniversary edition of Thank God it’s Monday, is available from Muddy Pearl Publishing.
