Did Emergent Church start in C of E, Sheffield?!

The Nine O'Clock Service was a youth-oriented alternative Christian worship service conceived in the wake of a 1985 John Wimber Signs and Wonders conference in Sheffield, in 1986. At St Thomas' Church in Crookes, Sheffield, United Kingdom  a group of Christian musicians and artists wanted to "do something different," and experimented with light, sound and projections to ambient music. The service, and the group associated with it, grew to national prominence, but was shut down in 1995 following allegations of running a cult within the established church and sexual and emotional abuse. How could a respectable and established institution like the Church of England, have become embroiled in a sex scandal, a destructive cult and virtually invent what we would today call, "The Emergent Church?"

Beginning as a simple alternative format service under the leadership of Chris Brain, the group responsible for it developed a leadership structure that was endorsed by St Thomas' church leadership. The average age of the members was 24 for much of NOS's life. The membership was significantly from non-church backgrounds.

Starting with about 10 people who worked on designing and creating the services, the congregation grew to almost 600 members while resident at St Thomas' Church. Main themes included care for the planet and concern about its abuse, simple lifestyle and development of relationships with non-churched people.

By 1988 the Bishop of Sheffield sanctioned the moving of the Nine O'Clock Service to a new site at Ponds Forge Rotunda in the centre of Sheffield. At the same time Chris Brain underwent training to become a Church of England priest. The Planetary Mass at Pond's Forge was marked by both bold liturgical experimentation and naive hopefulness. The suspended Roman Catholic priest and American Dominican theologian Matthew Fox was consulted. Fox visited the NOS team and was so impressed, that he took many of these ideas back to the States, where he further developed them in the mid 1990s.

The number of community members stopped growing and service attendance plateaued at about 300. A significant practical weakness in terms of duty of care was the lack of accountability for NOS and its absence from diocesan accountability. This was allowed because of its perceived international significance, which in the end came to nothing. Plans for communities elsewhere were in talks.

In 1995 a number of complaints began to surface of sexual abuse by Chris Brain on women in the group. After an investigation by the Diocese of Sheffield the group was shut down in August 1995. The Bishop of Sheffield demanded Brain's resignation after he confessed to having sexual relationships with young women in the congregation. There were also calls from former members of the congregation that he be defrocked. The Archbishop of York banned Brain from acting as an ordained priest. Initially refusing to step down, Brain eventually resigned in November 1995, the week before a documentary on the abuse scandal was aired. He then checked himself into a psychiatric hospital. The Diocese of Sheffield, through a seconded pastoral team led by Rachel Ross, the Reverend Andrew Teal and the Reverend Peter Craig-Wild, attempted to manage the pastoral care both of Brain and members of the community wounded by the scandal. A remnant of the community continued to meet, under different leadership, for some years afterwards in Sheffield.

What lessons can be learned from such a disaster? Primarily, for any church leadership, it should be that simply filling church buildings, regardless of the methodology we use, is a very dangerous route to take. Embracing modern culture and recklessly abandoning Biblical means for evangelism may fill a church building, but at what cost?



 

                                                                                                                                      

Teaching and Apologetics in Stockport

 

 

We have been blessed this year as a fellowship, at our monthly Teaching and Apologetics evenings. We have covered a wide range of subjects so far, from "Biblical Evangelism" to "Understanding Atheism." We have also enjoyed the expertise of gifted teachers like...

 

 

Bobby Gilpin, UK Partnerships for Christ.



 

 

 Bobby Gilpin, Director of UK Partnerships for Christ,  and an expert in Mormon History, Theology and practice. Also...

 

Pastor Ian Moulton.





 

Pastor Ian Moulton, from Chapel House Christian Fellowship in Chorley.  Ian has been a Pastor for about twenty years and has led his fellowship to be a traditional, independent Bible-believing church, in the face of much ecumenical pressure. He gave an introduction to the heresies of the Word of Faith Movement.

  

 

Vince McCann, A.K.A "Shazoolo."

 

We can also give advance notice of a very special night of teaching and testimony on the 6th July, 6:30pm, by Vince (Shazoolo) McCann. Vince is the Director of "Spotlight Ministries," and has produced many videos dealing with general apologetics, the cults and Witchcraft. He will be doing some teaching on the Occult and Paganism. He has an incredible testimony involving supernatural encounters with evil spirits, so I am sure he will be sharing some of that too. Because of this potentially disturbing content, we are restricting this particular Teaching and Apologetics night to over 16s only.

Understanding Atheism

 

What is Atheism? A simple enough question you might think, but even word itself is in the process of undergoing a redefinition. There are people that are trying to expand the word to incorporate different views, like Verificationism and Agnosticism. It is important that we start with this issue and by defining our terms, as this blurring of the lines is significant and may go in part to show why Atheism appears to be on the rise.

So, what is the correct way to define Atheism? Put simply, an Atheist is one who does not believe in the existence of God, or gods. We reach that definition by simply following the rules of plain English. We can explain it like this: A capital “A” is symmetrical, but a capital “E” is asymmetrical, that is it is the opposite of symmetrical. A person who believes in the existence of God, or gods is a Theist; a person who does NOT believe in the existence of God, or gods is an Atheist. That is the meaning of those words. However, Atheists have long been pushing to revise this definition. Atheist Stephen Roberts (speaking of monotheists in general) said, “I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer gods than you do.” This is a telling statement and it lifts the lid on the Atheist worldview for a number of reasons.

·        It shows that Roberts has no appreciation of the difference between the gods of ancient mythology; who were sometimes created beings, often limited to appearing in one place at one time, imperfect in knowledge, localised in power; and the God of Christianity: Creator of everything, God of everything, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, spaceless, timeless and immaterial. 

·        It also shows that Roberts views the history of religion as an evolutionary process; finally resulting in the highest evolutionary state, the abandonment of all gods, in other words, Atheism. This is an argument we will look at in more detail, later on.

Evolution

 

The Ascent of Man.

 

In order to understand Atheism, we have to have to comprehend, not only how the Atheist sees the world, but also, how intertwined with the Theory of Evolution it is. To an Atheist, Evolution is not just a theory of biological Science; in fact I’ve never met an Atheist that thinks it is a theory! Evolution, to an atheist, is scientific fact. It is also the Psychological and Philosophical framework through which he views the world. That being the case, the Atheist sees him, or herself as being superior, in an evolutionary sense, to those who hold to traditional, religious views of the world. They see an evolutionary parallel to religion, that given enough time the majority of reasonable, intelligent people will dispense with belief in the one God, just as they dispensed with a belief in “the gods,” and ultimately accept that there is no God. Throughout this presentation I will repudiate that delusion.

But how “evolved” is Atheism? Has man truly arrived at this position after years of critical thinking? Has the history of religion been progressing towards Atheism and has the abandonment of religious belief been happening chronologically? These are questions that are actually quite easy to answer, in light of historical evidence. I once asked an Atheist if he was aware that all the founding members of The Royal Society (one of the oldest Scientific Academies) were all Bible believing Christians. His response was, “well, they would have been at THAT time.” His assumption being, that at one time everybody in England was a Bible believing Christian. Again, historically, it is quite easy to refute such a statement, which I will do as we go on.

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV)

As we will see, Atheism is far from new.

A Brief History of Atheistic Thought

·         At about 570-270 B.C. Greek philosophers like Xenophanes, Epicurus and Lucretius start to expound, what today might be regarded as atheistic ideas.

·          By 106 B.C. a man called Marcus Tullius Cicero was born. He believed that there was no need for man to be controlled by gods and designed his own moral framework.

·        Then, just as Humanistic Philosophy is becoming more widespread, more popular, we encounter someone called Jesus of Nazareth!

·         Christ and the early church have an enormous impact on the Middle-East and Europe. God’s timing is perfect, since Greek, the language of the New Testament is spoken throughout the near Middle-Eastern regions at this time, enabling the message of salvation to spread very quickly. Yet following this, we start to see a resurgence of Greek philosophical thought; particularly Plato and Aristotle and this has quite an influence on people like Thomas Aquinas a Roman Catholic Theologian and philosopher in the 13^th Century.

·        The church starts to move away from Biblical foundations and incorporate more humanistic thought, as a result, it becomes weaker. The Renaissance, although not an atheistic movement, introduced doubt about absolute truth, just like the serpent in the garden of Eden,”Yea, hath God said?”

·        Skepticism and unbelief begin to spread across Europe with the help of people like Niccolo Machiavelli, who inspires the synonym “Old Nick,” as a term for the devil.

·        In fact Hugh Latimer, a well-known Christian reformer and subsequent Protestant martyr in the 1500s warns King Edward VI that many Englishmen have stopped believing in the existence of heaven and hell.

·        We have an evangelical revival taking place in the 1700s  with people like Jonathan Edwards going back to Bible basics, thousands getting saved and yet John Wesley remarks, that there had never been “a more wicked and godless generation than this.”

·        In the 1800s Charles Darwin questions the Biblical account of creation and Freidrich Nietsche announces that “God is dead.”Yet, we also see, again, thousands coming to Christ through the preaching of D.L. Moody, William Booth and others.

So it can be seen that far from being something new, or something that has evolved, something that has been the result of progressive thinking; Atheism has always been around. Even before the birth of Christ and has been accepted by some and rejected by others.  

Intelligence

Job, in chapter 42:3 of the book that bears his name says to God,”… Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.”

 

 

There is no room in Atheism for things that men “know not.” There is an expectation that man may (eventually) will know ALL things. This is part of the conflict that it has with Christianity. The Atheist sees himself as knowledgeable, intelligent, well informed, wise; whereas the Bible simply calls him “the fool.”

One of the selling points of Atheism is that it is for the intelligentsia, the educated, the discerning and prudent; certainly not for “the fool.” There are high profile atheist personalities like Professor Richard Dawkins; Scientists, Philosophers, Academics and so on. But the majority of Atheists are not Scientists, they are not Philosophers; they are Shop Assistants, Bus Drivers, Plumbers, Nurses; they are Mr and Mrs Average: Average education, average knowledge about the world around them. They are more likely to have watched a David Attenborough programme on Evolution, than to have actually read a book like Darwin’s “Origin of Species.”  Is it intelligent and prudent to risk the whole of one’s eternity on a book that one has never read? In fact when it comes to Eternal things, Atheists are generally ignorant. Now I don’t mean that as a term of abuse, I am not name calling, or suggesting that Christians have a higher level of IQ than atheists, but what I am saying is that Atheism thrives on ignorance: Ignorance of the Bible, ignorance of Christian Theology, ignorance of Church History, ignorance of World History.  Books like Christopher Hitchens’ “God is not great” and Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” work by lumping all Christian denominations and sects, however disparate together; all monotheistic religions, suggesting that they are all basically the same. Catholics and Protestants simply become “Christians.” This is so that Christianity as a whole, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Calvinists, Arminians etc. can be found guilty of perpetrating “religious” atrocities like the Crusades. This position is intellectually and historically dishonest. It ignores the historical fact that the Roman Catholic church, in the time of Henry VIII and Mary I, martyred as many, if not more, Bible believing Christians than anybody else in the world. It is a position that refuses to recognize that Islam and Christianity are mutually exclusive and therefore fundamentally incompatible. To suggest that the three that I have just mentioned are in some way on the same side is wilful ignorance, or worse, it is deliberate falsehood!

 

 

These books are not intellectual, or academic books. They are often rhetorical, and gung-ho! Sometimes resorting to prose, they are aimed at the emotions, rather than the head.

 

 

 

Let me give you an example of what I mean. This is a quote from a book called “In Defence of Atheism” by Michael Onfray, published in 2006. Chapter 5 entitled (ironically enough) On Christian Ignorance, page 52. “…believers and churchgoers, often undereducated, informed only by the crumbs of information they are fed by the Clergy. Sunday Mass has never glittered as a place of reflection…” he says.

There is so much wrong with this short quote that it is hard to know where to start. “Often undereducated” how does he know? Has he spoken to the multitudes of people that attend church in the western hemisphere? Does he have the details of their academic qualifications in front of him? “Often undereducated” how often? What are the figures? Who did the survey? When was he privy to this information? It is clearly an embarrassing, prejudiced and  ludicrous generalisation! “Informed only by the crumbs of information they are fed by the Clergy.” Well, is Michael Onfray not aware that there are congregations, like the Brethren, that do not even have a Clergy?  Once again, how does he know that this is the only information they “are fed?” They may read books, surf the internet, visit libraries, learn informally from Christian friends, learn from relatives,  Christian work colleagues, they may listen to Podcasts, watch  DVDs,  read Christian magazines, go to conferences,  sign up for distance learning from Theological Bible Colleges, read commentaries,  or study the Bible itself! How is Michael Onfray able to speak so knowingly about things that are unknown? Did you notice, by the way, how “Christian Ignorance,” suddenly became Roman Catholic Ignorance, as he shifts focus to the “Sunday Mass?” The very concept of the mass is an offence to Protestants, but this does not discourage Michael Onfray from planting them in the same bed, covering them over so you cannot see whether they are apples or oranges!

 He claims that the Mass is, apparently, somewhere that “has never glittered as a place for reflection.” Once again, how does he know? Is he some kind of modern-day Gnostic? How does Michael Onfray know what people are reflecting on, or not reflecting on, in the Mass? Martin Luther reflected enough during the Mass to examine the true meaning of righteousness, a reflection that ultimately changed the church and the world, through the Reformation. That’s some reflection?

Argumentation

We live in an age where many young people are becoming atheists and are convinced of their intellectual superiority over Christians. To quote an internet atheist, T.J. Kirk “You are stupid!” he says. Fortunately, bold assertion is not the end of the argument. It is after this, that many young Atheists start to struggle. They are not conversant with Biblical theology, even a basic Sunday school level of understanding is a rare thing as society becomes more secularized. I remember an American Evangelist friend, saying that he had just witnessed to a college student who thought the Bible was written by King James!

Dr William Lane Craig, a respected Christian debater and Research Professor at Talbot School of Theology, has received many emails and messages from Richard Dawkins’ fans. When asked to characterize them generally, he described them as “unsophisticated, inept, sophomoric; they cannot think logically, uninformed, silly, ignorant and the result of an education system that has been dumbed-down.” These are not simply insults; they are conclusions that we can provide evidence for by examining the more popular forms of Atheist argumentation.

 

The inability to think logically is manifest from one of the more widely used Atheist arguments against the existence of God. It is known as The Genetic Argument and goes something like this:

The Genetic Argument

“The only reason you are a Christian is because you were born in the west, in a (quote) “Christian country.” If you had been born in Saudi Arabia, you would have been a Muslim, if you had been born in Scandinavia at the time of the Vikings, you would have believed in Thor, if you had lived in Ancient Greece you would have believed in Zeus and Apollo etc.”

This is what is known in philosophical circles as a Genetic Fallacy. The fact that someone may become a Christian because of cultural, geographical or social influences, in no way disproves the existence of God! People become Christians for all different reasons. People change their religion, people brought up in a religious family, may become Atheists, people brought up in an Atheist family may become Christians; none of this has any bearing on whether God exists.

The Evolution of Religion Argument

The Evolution of Religion Argument, which we touched on earlier, is a mantra we will encounter again and again in Atheism. It would go something like this: Mankind used to believe in a pantheon of Gods, then that belief evolved into Monotheism and soon it will become a belief in no gods… But wait a moment. Is that really true? Did everyone used to believe in a pantheon of gods? The ancient Hebrew Shema says,”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” Conversely, Mormonism, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, came out of a culture of American Evangelical Christian Monotheism and devolved into the most pantheistic religion (and in fact one of the fastest growing) in the world! In fact it is the Bible that presents the truth about religious history.

“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man (as we see in Greek and Roman mythology), and to birds, and fourfooted beasts (as we see in African and Native American Indian Mythology), and creeping things, (as we see in elements of Egyptian Mythology.)” Romans 1:22-23 (KJV)

 

The truth is that man began with a belief in one God and because of sin, that belief has degenerated at various times and in various places into a belief in many gods and eventually, when all godly wisdom is abandoned and the heart hardened against the conscience, the result is a belief in no God.

Also, if religion is evolving, why do pantheistic religions and monotheistic religions exist simultaneously, alongside Atheism? On closer inspection, many of these arguments simply do not bare intelligent scrutiny.

Scientism and the “Chance of the Gaps” argument.

Atheists often find fault with the argumentation of Christians, by asserting that when Christians can’t find evidence for something, or an explanation that is based on material evidence, they just say,”God did it!” This is the so-called “God of the Gaps” Argument.  Yet, Atheists maybe guilty of hypocrisy if they apply this criticism.  If when they are challenged by the mysteries of creation they say “it happened by chance” are they not saying “chance did it!” They are guilty of a “Chance of the Gaps Argument.”

To believe that Science has all the answers, even when there is no physical evidence to support the hypothesis, is nothing less than the exercising of faith, not in God but in Science – hence we get the word “Scientism.”

 The term scientism is used to:

Indicate the improper usage of science or scientific claims. Using Science in contexts where science might not apply, such as when the topic is perceived to be beyond the scope of scientific inquiry. It would also include an excessive deference to claims made by scientists, or an uncritical eagerness to accept any result described as scientific.  

The Evidence of Absence Argument

Some Atheists have stated that one cannot prove the non-existence of a thing. Yet, this is a logically incorrect statement. We can prove that there are no square circles, no married bachelors, no Theist Atheists. As Christian Cosmologist Martin Rees put it, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” No Atheist has ever been able to prove that God does not exist. 

Factual Demographics

 The idea that the world is becoming Atheist and leaving behind a belief in God is certainly not supported by the demographics. So let’s talk facts:

UK

In the 2011 Census, 14.1 million people, about a quarter of the entire population (25%) of England and Wales, said they had no religion. This was after a strenuous campaign by The British Humanist Society to get people to tick the “No Religion” box. So that still leaves three-quarters of the population who are not ready to rule out the existence of God.

USA

According to a 2011 Gallup poll, more than 9 out of 10 Americans said "yes" when asked the basic question "Do you believe in God?"

World

According to The World Factbook in 2010,”atheists comprise an estimated 2.01%... of the world population. In fact there has been an increase in people defining themselves as having a belief in God, particularly in Eastern European countries, due to the collapse of Communism. There is a growing freedom of expression and belief that shows that people, even people brought up in a mandatory atheistic political system, are still searching for God.

Conclusion

If Atheism is not the choice of the majority of people across the globe (and clearly, and demographically, it is not), if Atheism has not proved that God does not exist, if the conclusion of Atheism is not based on irrefutable evidence, then what is it based on? In a word, it is based on faith. It is based on a belief system that sees the world in a particular way. It is evangelistic in its approach to those who do not share that belief system; in short it is a religion, or at the very least, a kind of cult. The object of its worship just happens to be man.

Now, perhaps you think I have gone too far in saying that? Think again.

 In January 2013, Stand-up comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans started the first “Sunday Assembly” in North London as they "both wanted to do something like church but without God."

 

 

“The Sunday Assembly is a godless congregation that celebrates life… Our vision: a godless congregation in every town, city and village that wants one…all the best bits of church…and awesome pop songs!”(Sunday Assembly website.)

Atheists gather together, sing songs, support charities and listen to readings and talks. In Brighton there is an Atheist who goes out Street Preaching. It is, exactly as they say, a church without God; a religion that worships man. That is idolatry and all idolaters will have their place in the lake of fire. (Revelation 21:8)

Until Christians realise that this is what Atheism is, they will waste many hours debating and arguing and trying to convince Atheists through the application of logic and reason. It won’t work. Atheism does not respond to logic and reason, that’s why the Bible calls the Atheist a fool. They protest that they do not see any evidence for the existence of God, but they do; Romans 1:19 says “that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shown it unto them.” In fact in verse 20 it says, “they are without excuse.” Any belief system that replaces God with someone, or something else is idolatrous, it is spiritual and devilish; that is the source. There is a spirit behind it that has blinded the eyes of their minds. There is a strong man as Jesus puts it in Luke 11:21-22 and the armour in which he trusts, is peoples’ scepticism, ignorance and pride. If we are to plunder and spoil his goods, then we must prayerfully approach Atheists with an understanding that what is needed is the Gospel, for it alone is “the power of God unto salvation.”

Copyright 2014 © Paul Jennings.

 

Witnessing for Christ at JWs Memorial

Jehovah's Witnesses commemorate the Lord's Evening Meal, or Memorial. They celebrate it once per year, on Nisan 14 according to the ancient Jewish luni-solar calendar.
Of those who attend the Memorial, only a small minority worldwide partake of the unleavened bread and wine. This is because Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the majority of the faithful have an earthly hope and only the 144,000 "anointed", may partake of the bread and wine.

We visited our local Kingdom Hall and preached, witnessed and tried to talk with the Witnesses about true salvation in Christ. We also tried to engage with them about the Watchtower's destructive and cruel doctrines, such as denying blood transfusions to children and shunning family members and friends who leave the Organisation.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is some video footage of the event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Spiritual Warfare

What is Spiritual Warfare? Do I have to be a charismatic to believe in it? Mainstream Christianity typically acknowledge a belief in the reality (or ontological existence) of demons, fallen angels and Satan. The question is, how does one understand such realities Biblically, rather than purely subjectively, or even sensationally?

In the early days of our church, I taught on this subject.The following videos constitute a three-part audio series that explores such questions in reasonable depth.

 

Just click on the titles below and they will take you to the relevant video.

 

Spiritual Warfare Part 1

Spiritual Warfare Part 2

 

Spiritual Warfare Part 3



Bible Archaeology

 

The Hittites

Did you know that the Bible was once mocked by historians for its references to a people called The Hittites as no other literature spoke of such a civilization? Critics used to say this was evidence that the Bible is fiction. However, archaeological excavations in the 1950's found the remains of the Hittite empire in the area where the Bible said it was (Turkey/Syria), and Carbon-14 dating tests prove that it existed at the time stated in the Bible (1375-1200 B.C.). Since then, an abundance of further evidence on the Hittites has been unearthed.

 

Sargon's Winged Bulls.



 

Sargon King of Assyria

It was once claimed there was no Assyrian king named Sargon as recorded in Isaiah 20:1, because this name was not known in any other record. Then, Sargon's palace was discovered in Dur-Sharrukin, Iraq. The very event mentioned in Isaiah 20, his capture of Ashdod, was recorded in the palace walls! Even more, fragments of a stela (a poetic eulogy) memorializing the victory were found at Ashdod itself. The palace was adorned with wall reliefs, and the gates were flanked with winged bulls shedu statues, which can now be seen in many western museums, including the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum. As Sargon was killed during a battle in 705 BC, his son and successor Sennacherib abandoned the project, and relocated the capital to Nineveh, leading to the eventual complete abandonment of Dur-Sharrukin. The site was rediscovered in 1843 by Paul-Émile Botta, the French consul at Mosul, although he believed he had found the biblical Nineveh. The artefacts from the excavations were taken to the Louvre museum in Paris.  

Jericho

 

Jericho

Is there any physical evidence for the Exodus described in the Bible? If you were to read the popular press, you would come to the conclusion that not only was there no evidence, but the evidence actually contradicted known archaeology. One such article recently appeared in Time Magazine...However, extremely strong evidence for the validity of the Exodus has been published in the scientific journals and never make it to the popular press. One of these studies examined the demise of Jericho (after the Exodus). Drs. Hendrik J. Bruins and Johannes van der Plicht reported in the prestigious British journal, Nature, that the destruction of Jericho was dated to 1580 B.C. (using 14C dating). This date is significant, since several archaeologists have insisted that Jericho was destroyed by the Egyptians between 1550 and 1300 B.C. The recent study discredits the Egyptian theory, since the date is much too old.

Third Century Roman Mosaic.

 

Jesus Worship

Dan Brown's book, and movie adaptation, The Da Vinci Code, makes the claim that Christianity as we know it today was not invented until the fourth century, after the council of Nicaea. Sceptics often claim that …the worship of Jesus was not "invented" until that time. Now, the discovery of a third century church in Megiddo, Israel discredits that claim.

While digging to expand the Israeli prison at Megiddo, Israel, prisoners found a large tile floor. Further excavation revealed the remnants of the walls of the church, within a larger Roman villa. In addition to beautiful fish mosaics, a number of inlaid inscriptions were found in the tile. The site was dated to the third century through pottery remnants (first half of the third century) and the style of Greek writing in the inscriptions. One inscription indicated that Gaianus, a Roman military officer, helped pay for the mosaic. A second inscription was in remembrance of four Christian women (maybe martyrs?) - three with Greek names, and the fourth with a Roman name. However, the most compelling inscription is the one that was a tribute to Jesus, "Akeptous, the God-loving, offered this table for (the) god Jesus Christ, as a remembrance." Obviously, the discovery of a third century inscription calling Jesus God discredits the idea that Jesus Christ was not worshipped until the fourth century. The discovery of a 3rd century Christian church at Megiddo, Israel, along with an inscription to the "god Jesus Christ" confirms that Christians worshipped Jesus Christ as God before the council of Nicaea. 

(Thanks to Vincent McCann and Rich Deem and others for much of the content.)

 

Stockport Pastor Assaulted in Broad Daylight (*some may find this disturbing.)

It seems as if I have gone over the events of that strange day many times in my mind. But perhaps it will be of benefit to others if I retell the thoughts, feelings and actions that preceded, accompanied and followed the vicious assault that occurred on that unforgettable Saturday afternoon.

It was a wet day in February 2014 when I stood waiting for two friends who were coming to support me in the preaching of the gospel. I had preached in the open-air for about four years and whilst I had received a number of threats, had things thrown at me and been punched (rather limply) in the chest, I never really suffered much more, than mildly unpleasant objections for the sake of the gospel.

As I arrived in Stockport it was raining, so I stood under a canopy near the town centre and began to hand out some tracts. As I stood there it seemed to me as if the Holy Spirit filled my heart with grace and a real sense of God's presence. A warm joy began to fill my soul, the culmination of a number of days in which I had felt extraordinarily close to the Lord. I looked up and saw my friends approaching.

There were smiles, handshakes and after a brief chat we bowed our heads and prayed. Then, as I had done many, many times before, I stood on my little box and began to preach the gospel. As I started to read from Romans chapter one, I was approached by a man dressed in the unmistakable orange robes of a Hare Krishna devotee (we had spoken before.) He put his hands together and bowed, then began to engage with me with questions. He came very close to me and his questions began to be more and more insistent, although still respectful. He held up a small card with some writing about Jesus on it and said "please read this out." I declined. Again he insisted; again I declined. After this he decided to read it out loudly himself, more or less preaching in my place. I instinctively resisted this state of affairs by quoting aloud John 3:16. He was not pleased. "Is heaven full of people like you, sir," he said through teeth clenched in a smile. Before I could answer, the question came again... and again. His implication was obvious and derogatory. An an ad hominem attack is tiresome and rarely profitable for anything; I just did not appreciate how physical that attack would become.



So there I was, effectively stopped from preaching. Incapacitated: A recipient of hostile questioning, bored; trying to figure out a way of returning to the activity of evangelism, and that's when everything changed.

His expression never changed, his posture never changed, his hands may still have been clasped in prayer and yet his words suddenly became very different. Through gritted teeth and frozen smile he said "I am going to knock you off your f***ing box." So surprised was I, that I nearly fell off my box! Then everything went black; just for an instant... and I felt pain. I had been punched in the side of the head; then came another and another, my glasses flew off my head and I landed somewhere on the floor. Continuing his diatribe, he hurled my now broken spectacles at me and began to rant something that sounded like, "The demi-gods are angry, the demi-gods are angry!" as my friend attempted to stand between us. I told him to move away, as I feared that he also would be hit. Thoughts of my wife and children flashed through my mind. Less than an hour ago I had been tucking my two year old daughter up in bed for her afternoon nap, now I was picking myself up from the ground! I denounced the man's actions as sin and prayed that God would have mercy on him.

As I tried to regain some sense of reality, it seemed to me as if I was alternately experiencing a dream and then (as my ear began to throb with pain) I was thrust back into the reality of being a victim of assault in broad daylight, in a packed shopping centre, on a Saturday afternoon.

Eventually the man stormed off and as some degree of equilibrium returned. I stood up and began to preach again. In disbelief, like a recurrent nightmare, I saw that my preaching had brought the man back again. His face was still contorted and angry; he showed no remorse, no empathy and things were about to get even worse!



 I moved away from him and stood quietly around the corner and began to hand out gospel tracts. My head ached and my hands were trembling. I blinked, trying to focus without my glasses, it felt strange to be outdoors without them. He moved menacingly towards me. His words were chilling, "If you stand on that box and preach again" he said, "I will kill you!" He repeated this phrase about six times. I replied, that I was not preaching anything and was simply standing on the pavement. He smiled and his whole face seemed to me to take on an otherworldly appearance. Then he deliberately and violently thrust his head forward into my nose. My nose exploded in blood (I heard someone groan audibly) and it poured onto the pavement and onto my leaflets. I tried to stop the blood, but it just kept running down my fingers and over the sleeves of my coat. A nearby busker held his violin to his chest and looked on in horror, as if he could not take in what he had just witnessed. An Asian man ran over with a handful of kitchen-roll and one of my friends returned with tissues from the nearby "pound shop." I looked around me: No policemen, no security guards no one stopping. Sometimes preaching the gospel can feel as if one is standing alone. Yet as the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:17 "Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me..."

A little while later an elderly woman, observing my injuries, asked me, "Did you fall off your box?" I almost burst out laughing! The attack seemed to temporarily affect, confuse and accelerate my emotions.

I struggled for a few days with irritability, headaches, difficulty in concentration and other symptoms consistent with concussion. I informed the police (they gave him a caution), I dug out an old pair of spectacles and I tried to get back to the business of being a husband, father and Pastor.

I have learnt a lot from my encounter with violence; much of it about myself. I have learnt to forgive, I have learnt to conquer fear (I suffered with brief moments of irrational panic for about twenty-four hours after the assault.) I have learnt that I am not quite as indestructible as I had thought! I am more cautious about preaching on my own now and do not take the gospel out without a friend at my side, I also take care to pray considerably beforehand. Moreover, I have begun to see the truth of those familiar words in Romans 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God..."

Paul Jennings.