Christian Hope

Horoscopes are on the news!

/ MurrayCampbell

Since when does superstition qualify as news?

Look no further, astrology is coming to a news channel near you. Channel 7 has announced that their nightly news will have a new and regular segment on the stars to inform viewers on what Sagittarius and Capricorn are up to today. 

Laugh not; the producers are quite serious. 

It’s been reported, 

“Channel 7 has defended a new daily astrology segment to be introduced as part of its evening news bulletin.

The network has confirmed it will be bringing in the new segment featuring an astrology report from Natasha Weber, also known as ‘Astro Tash’.

Ms Weber’s new segment will be about 20 seconds and will be aired after the weather forecast.  

New Director of News and Current Affairs Anthony De Ceglie said it was part of “exploring new ideas and concepts”

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com

Channel 7s entertainment reporter, Peter Ford, explains that the decision is motivated by shrinking audiences on commercial television,

“the EPs of the news services in Melbourne and Sydney are under a lot more pressure than in Perth, because the competition is much, much tighter. So this is a response to that.”

He also admits that Natasha Weber is a real believer in horoscopes, 

“She’s deadset serious about it all.”

What a juxtaposition, following the daily meteorological report will be a report on the stars. It’s science versus superstition. Horoscopes now equals journalism!

This shift is less surprising than we might think. Sure, it feels like desperation, but I reckon the Seven News boss Anthony De Ceglie knows something, and that is, belief in alternate spiritualities is on the rise in Australia. 

In one sense, this isn’t new, but it has been suppressed by the weight of hubristic rationalism and the ride taken by the new atheists.

When we remove God from the picture,  we must find an alternative to create meaning and fill life. The new atheists put up an effort for 20 years, but their ‘godless’ alternative leans either toward a moral and spiritual vacuum or a gladiatorial arena where power wins and the weak are trodden. A world without God is brittle; no wonder issues of identity and self worth are paralysing a young generation.

The Gospel Coalition have reported how in the United States, astrology and horoscopes are finding popularity primarily among millennials. It’s not sceptical Generation X or the latter-day baby boomers, but teenagers and young 20-somethings who are grasping for meaning and hope.

Why is this the case? Hard-core materialism doesn’t work. Millennials are smart enough to see through that crusty materials don’t satisfy and they have been sufficiently indoctrinated to assume organised religions, especially Christianity, can’t be trusted. So where we do go? Like swings and roundabouts, let’s revisit pagan Europe and source wisdom from the gods of Greece and Babylon. Let’s turn our gaze again to the stars as though they offer droplets of guidance and words of hope.

For all the talk about science, human beings are a suspicious lot. For all our reasoning and cognitive faculties, our society is replacing empiricism with emotion,  and truth with neo-paganism. Part of the reason is the emptiness offered by secular humanism and the new atheism. Another reason is a biblical one: God has wired us for eternity.

‘He has also set eternity in the human heart’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11) 

We are made to worship. At our core, human beings are worshippers, seeking Divine purpose and design. 

Don’t misunderstand, the Bible isn’t anti-science. Far from it; it is the biblical worldview that can gave rise to much modern science and intellectual growth. I’m simply affirming the BIble’s thesis, that the default setting in our heads and hearts knows there is a God and spiritual realities that govern and interact, subject and even save. 

For example, the former juggernaut of the new atheists, Ayaan Hirsi Ali,  is now a professing Christian and follower of Jesus! She speaks of her mental agony and former belief that ‘she can do all things by self’ but with ‘humility’, she has experienced a ‘spiritual awakening…my life has changed, it’s been transformed’.

Ali has found that the alternative to crippling unbelief isn’t to believe in anything and everything but to grasp a concrete hope in a real God.

It seems that Channel 7 news will be following the weather by reporting a very human imprint on celestial gaze. But it’s not news and it’s certainly not journalism. It’s old fashion suspicion and gaslighting. 

Will I fall in love?

Should I buy that house?

How can I find meaning?

 Does life have real purpose?

Don’t worship the stars. Worship the God who made the stars.

Psalm 8 puts it like this, 

“Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.

Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?”

Last year at church, a woman was baptised after becoming a Christian. For many years she immersed herself in alternate spiritualities, what we often call ‘new age’. While her attention didn’t lay with horoscopes, she tapped into almost everything else. This is some of what she had to say, 

“My New Age practices were strengthening as I became focused on positivity and not allowing negative energy to flow into my life. I’m not going to lie, it was exhausting. Having routines and rituals, having crystals, stones, special essential oils, cleansing spaces, clearing your mind and meditating. The New Age practises which are supposed to be to clear your mind so you can just ‘be’ involved doing the exact opposite. They involve work, concentration, work and more work on your part and if you get it wrong, you’re the one to blame.”

Then she read the Bible and in those words, she met Jesus and like an exploding star, she found peace, for God had found her. She continued,

“After becoming a Christian it’s been amazing to see how God has opened my eyes to so many things. From that moment onwards my life was different. God had given me new eyes. Everything I once saw in the New Age and believed to be good I realised had come from darkness. I also had a sudden awareness of my sin, things I had done and how I had fallen from God. 

Since becoming a Christian I wake every day with a sense of peace. Peace about why we are here on earth, our purpose, which of course is to glorify God. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t thank God for sending Jesus to die for my sins. For those of you who see me here, I often hide in the back, primarily because even now, 3 years on I still get so emotional and teary singing in church about God’s grace and the grace he has shown in saving me. I often think people must look and think ‘who is that crazy girl crying at the back’. 

Since becoming a Christian, going to church and attending growth groups here at Mentone I have been blown away by the impact God has had in my life. The first and biggest change is the sense of peace I have in my heart. Whilst there are the obvious happy and sad events that take place in life… put those aside and I now live in a place of contentment. There is absolutely nothing anyone could give me or take away from me to take that. No money, no person, no material object can bring me and more joy or peace. I already have all the peace I need inside me from Jesus. He is my peace.”

Don’t listen to the horoscope, listen to Jesus. 

Brian Cox is angry at the Bible

/ MurrayCampbell

“The Future Is Real. The Past Is All Made Up.” (Logan Roy)

“Let God be true, and every human being a liar.” (The Apostle Paul,  Romans 3:4)

Brian Cox is a brilliant actor, but I suspect he needs some direction when it comes to understanding the Bible. He is angry at the Bible. Cox is raging against the Bible. In a recent interview, he let loose his fury as though gathering up Logan Roy, Agamemnon, and Ward Abbott into a single character, and creating a whirlwind of resentment. 

To say Brian Cox is not a fan of the Bible is an understatement. 

“The Bible is one of the worst books ever, for me, from my point of view. Because it starts with the idea that out of Adam’s rib, this woman was created, and [people will] believe it cause they’re stupid enough.”

“They’re not dealing with who we are. We’re dealing with, ‘Oh if God says this and God does that,’ and you go, ‘Well what is God?’ We’ve created that idea of God, and we’ve created it as a control issue, and it’s also a patriarchal issue.”

“We have to honor [women], and we have to give them their place and we’re resistant to that because it’s Adam and Eve. I mean, the propaganda goes right way back.”

It’s hard to argue against this cogent line of thought. Stupid people! Yes. all these Bible-believing people are idiotic, intellectual shrimps. What on earth was Augustine ever thinking? It’s all become clear, Aquinas, Isaac Watts, Medal, Faraday, and Calvin aren’t intellectual giants from the past, but shrivelling stupids whose ideas should be ditched.  Let’s also add C.S Lewis to the rolls of stupids, and J.S Bach, Wilberforce and more. When I think of the Bible, my mind naturally turns to all those dull-witted Christians in my church with a PhD and even who dare lecture students in our universities: science, law, and philosophy. What about those poor sick people in our cities who are attended to by medical doctors, who give the impression of medical expertise but are secretly carrying a Bible app on their phone?! 

Brian Cox, obviously you have a gripe against the Bible, and against God, but calling people stupid on account of their positive view of the Bible is akin to claiming Shakespeare is a third-rate literary hack.

Leaving aside Cox’s erudite assault on Bible-believing men and women, in his performative speech act, the Scottish actor failed to mention several salient points. Or rather, perhaps he is unaware he is plagiarising the words of another. 

Let me explain,.

First up, Brian Cox wants to blame the Bible for certain views about men and women, in particular where women are viewed as lesser than men.   To be sure, there have been some pretty horrific attitudes toward women in history,  including by many of the characters Cox has played over the years. Agamemnon is hardly a model for positive masculinity! While he is letting loose on the Bible, perhaps Cox would like to share what he thinks about how women are treated in Islamic countries or the Hindi practice of Sati? 

No sensible person (Christian or not) denies that women haven’t always been given the respect and dignity deserved, even under the guise of Christianity. It is also undeniable that the very notion of female equality and worth is deeply rooted in the Bible, and yes, from its earliest pages in Genesis chs.1 and 2. The very notion of gender equality comes from the Biblical idea of the image dei. 

The great egalitarian project is a direct product of the Bible’s anthological vision. As the Apostle Paul wrote almost 2000 years ago, 

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

It is this thoroughly Judeo-Christian notion, exemplified in the life of Jesus, that shocked the Roman world and with time, transformed attitudes toward women, the young, the elderly and the most marginalised in society. Historian Tom Holland, explains

‘Christianity gave women a dignity that no previous sexual dispensation had offered’

Instead of men using their ‘power’ to subject women and use them for sexual gratification, Christianity taught that sex should be reserved for marriage and that a husband is to follow Christ’s example and lay down his life for his wife. Christianity drew boundaries which began to dismantle mysogeny, 

“over the course of the first centuries of Christianity, this understanding of sex eats like a kind of acid through the understanding that the Romans previously had of how sex operates. And over the course of Christian history, the church imposes on believing Christians this sense that being a powerful male does not license you to have multiple wives and concubines. You have to focus on one.”

Sexual restraint was an anti-roman view of the world,  and it’s one Tom Holland notes is alive today and whose pushback is anonymously Christian, 

But it turns out, as we see now in America, that this idea that free love is a great thing, have sex any way you want, actually turns out to be better for men than for women, because essentially, it’s licences for men to sexually harass their social inferiors. And that’s what the Harvey Weinstein Me Too thing is all about. And, and, in a way, the perfect illustration of this paradox, a kind of moral Mobius Strip, is that when women go on their marches to protest against sexual harassment, many of them will wear red robes and white bonnets.

This is the uniform that they’ve taken from The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by Margaret Atwood, which then became a TV series: a dystopian satire set in a future America that’s become basically fundamentalist Christian. And it’s drawing on the model of Puritan New England. But what is it that these women are demanding? They’re demanding that men become Puritan.”

So Brian Cox is irritated by the Bible even though it is the Bible that gave birth to the glory and value of womanhood.

The irony of Cox’s confessions continues. As I listened to Brian Cox’s rage against the Bible, it’s hard not to notice that he is being incredibly biblical. He’s playing a character from inside the pages of the Scriptures. Even his unbelief is a product of the Bible. Whether it’s Pharaoh or Herod, Cox’s words conform to the pattern of Biblical unbelief. As in the case of Pharaoh, Pharaonic hubris and obstinacy against the God who speaks did little except reinforce what God had spoken. 

Cox is also angry about the role religion plays in global violence and unrest. Preach it, Brian! As a Christian, I also find it distressing. Indeed, take a look at the Bible and we’ll find more than a few verses that express God’s anger at human conflict. For a moment, let’s play along Cox’s script and close the Bible for good, as though that were actually possible. Let’s now imagine how peace-loving and egalitarian our world would be…or should tell someone tell him about all those atheistic peace-loving regimes who created utopia for their people: Lenin, Stalin Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot.  And let’s not forget that bastian of Freedom, North Korea.

Brian, you may well believe everything you have said about the Bible, and if you want to be consistent, then you really ought to reject the very ideas and values that originate in the Bible. I suspect you are not keen to return to the days of ancient Rome or the times of the Trojan War and validate the Agamemnon’s, the Paris’, and Andrew Tate’s of the world?

Religion is problematic and so is its removal. And this is where, Brian Cox, you have greatly misunderstood the Bible.

One of the brilliant things about the Bible is how it does not fit neatly inside any single culture or time. The Bible confronts and comforts, the words on the page astonish and shake, they subvert and heal.

Regardless of how we feel about the Bible, this book is the most extraordinary volume ever written and the work that has had greater influence upon our world today than any other. We might respond with anger, but we cannot ignore it.

I guess I could write a version of the Bible that conforms with every idea and attitude I want validated. It might possible to write a story of the world where I get to define righteousness and truth. But then the Bible would lose its independence, authority, and power. It would turn into one of Logan Roy’s lackeys, rather than the words of a loving Father appealing for reconciliation and offering grace.

The God of the Bible couldn’t be further from the vindictive, spiteful, and manipulative Logan Roy and power abusive Agamemnon. To be sure, the God of the Bible believes in big T truth and a big R righteousness. Do we really want to live in a world without ultimate truth and justice? Accompanying these epistemological and moral necessities is the Bible’s central theme: grace. 

I’m preaching this Sunday on a portion of the Bible from the book of Hebrews and there in chapter 9 we come across the idea of inheritance. Receiving the father’s inheritance is not performative or about power, aka Succession, but grace. We might suffer siblings from rivalry, and plot the Father’s downfall as though God’s name is Logan Roy. But the God of grace longs to extend grace and offer as a gift, an inheritance that will never spoil fade or disappoint. 

You see, the Bible is about Jesus. Act 1 of the Bible is preparing for and pointing to the coming of God’s only Son.  Act 2 reveals the Son. The Bible is about Jesus, and he gets to tell us what God is like.

You may not like the Bible, but at least understand the Bible’s message and how many of our greatest needs, hopes and values, depend upon the promise of these very Scriptures. 

A suburb called Mentone

/ MurrayCampbell

The Age has tonight published a little write-up about my suburb, Mentone. 

I don’t know the author, Sofia Dedes, but let me say,  ‘hi neighbour’!

Sofia notes the eclectic nature of Mentone. There is little to resemble its namesake found along the French Riviera, other than a splash of seawater along the edge. 

Melbourne is famed for sport, food, coffee and street art. Mentone’s reputation doesn’t quite include any of these. Mentone doesn’t represent cool or vintage, ostentatious wealth or extreme poverty. Mentone isn’t the most multiethnic part of Melbourne, although this is slowly changing. The streets don’t boast stunning architecture or botanical gardens. And yet to thousands of people, this is home, and a great home it is.

I have lived and worked in the area for 19 years now, and my wife and I have raised our 3 children here, and life here counts as a blessing. From kindergarten in Acacia Avenue to Mentone Primary School, from Little Athletics at Dolamore Oval, to playing cricket at almost every ground in the area, we sometimes feel as much part of the local environment.

 

Sofia correctly alludes to the huge gaping divide that appears like a seismic crack – the Nepean Hwy. I’m accustomed to traversing the barrier almost every day, along with a tangle of busy roads that crisscross Mentone, including Warrigal Rd and Lower Dandenong Rd. Together they chop the suburb into quarters, like a charcoal chicken readied for lunch.  

Yes, there is the beach (which we seldom visit) and a forgettable train station. Sofia  Dedes is right, Mentone is a suburb with potential, but with few to cast a vision for what can be. 

Our streets witness happiness and sadness, success and tragedy. It is a place of fond memories and nightmares.

Some things have changed. Mentone is no longer an affordable suburb, although where in Melbourne is today? The price reached the ‘magical’ median price of $1 million some years ago and has steadily moved northward since. Moving into the area requires money, and this sadly squeezes out many. And yet like our multi-sided suburban sprawl, local schools are growing if not booming, as is the traffic!

Mentone’s future includes a younger population with money to invest, an unused cavity in the middle of the shopping strip, and a beach where pollution sometimes conquers the waters. 

Is there more? Sofia Dedes have offered the rest of Melbourne an impression of Mentone, but something was missing in her picture.

If anyone is interested to gaze into the future and see what Mentone could become, there is a little ‘secret’ in our community. Okay, it’s not exactly a secret but it is often overlooked as people walk by and cars drive along Warrigal Rd each day. The building, like the area, is eclectic. There is a red brick hall attached to what can only be described as a retro-styled ‘I want to be funky and never will be’ auditorium. The yellow and orange stained glass windows are the same vintage as John Lennon’s coloured sunglasses, but without the cool factor. 

Inside these forgettable buildings is something quite special. So ordinary, but also quite remarkable. Meeting regularly is a growing community of men, women, and children, from all kinds of backgrounds. There are doctors and lawyers, factory workers and students, teachers and architects. More exciting than this, the people come from all quarters of the earth, from China and Colombia, Uganda and Ukraine, India, England and more. 

It’s not little old Mrs Smith with her pet cat playing the organ to empty pews, but a place that regularly creates more noise than the Mentone Tigers winning a home game.

This community is Mentone Baptist Church: plain, ordinary and spectacular. The message that forms and brings together such diversity is an ancient one, and one that continues to give hope and meaning to people across the suburbs and streets of Melbourne. We can’t agree on which footy team to support, but we agree on life’s biggest questions.

At Mentone Baptist Church the people may have little in common, and yet in Jesus, we have everything together. That’s one of the exciting fruits of Christianity. Church is a visual display of what can be, where encountering the living God changes lives with the kind of generosity and gentleness, love and selflessness, that every community desperately needs. As our Church sign famously ascribes, ‘Jesus Saves’ and ‘Christ our Hope’.

When all is said and done, we are made for more than material security. Mentone offers schools, beautiful homes, sporting clubs,  and a 2-minute drive to one of Melbourne’s best coffee roasters (albeit in Cheltenham), but these good things don’t satisfy the soul. They don’t last forever and they can’t take away the burdens and guilts that we all carry.

Many residents of Mentone have tried religion. Many others are convinced there’s no point looking. Others again are enjoying the demands and opportunities afforded us to live in our ordinary yet affable suburb. And yet, the nagging sensation, is there God and what he is like?’ remains. 

Something is going on in that awkward-looking church building along Warrigal Rd: a belief that a dead man is now alive and he is God and has the power and love to forgive and reconcile. I get it, it sounds kinda weird if not old school; it’s certainly different to the slogans splashed on the billboards along Nepean Hwy. After 2000 years of history there remains nothing like this ancient message of Jesus. In our suburb divided by roads, the good news of Jesus is bringing together people from all manner of life, and I think that says something pretty special.

As Jesus once said to a friend who was grieving

 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Next time you’re driving past the ‘church with the sign’, pull over and visit us one Sunday. We’d love to see you. 

“I’m a cultural Christian”, says Richard Dawkins

/ MurrayCampbell

“When you give up Christian faith, you pull the rug out from under your right to Christian morality as well. This is anything but obvious: you have to keep driving this point home, English idiots to the contrary.” (Nietzsche)

Richard Dawkins is now a self professing, “cultural Christian”.

Richard Dawkins is probably the most famous atheist of my lifetime. He is a noted scientist, author of the best-selling book, The God Delusion, and fanboy for many an ardent God nonbeliever. For more than 20 years, Richard Dawkins has provided millions with reason not to believe, and with an ammunition dump of rhetorical flares for dismissing theism, and especially Christianity.

“You know I love hymns and Christmas Carols. I feel at home in the Christian ethos. I feel that we are a Christian country in that sense”.

The new atheism, like earlier thought movements and ones yet to come, arrived on the scene, peaked, and is now crumbling. There will be devotees who will hold onto splintered rocks as they come hurtling down. Dawkins, however, seems to have jumped.

Okay, ‘jumped’ is an overstatement, but Dawkins’ version of atheism seems to have changed tack, and in a positive way (or at least in this interview). He has left behind the stinging attacks and is gently embracing the world that Christianity has provided.

To some, Dawkins must have suffered a brain aneurysm. 

Aaron Bastoni tweeted,

“Bizarre from Dawkins, who wrote a book called ‘The God Delusion’ claiming religion was a deeply malevolent, dividing force in the world. 

Now he’s calling himself a ‘cultural Christian’? Find it odd to use religion to extend your secular political points.”

In comes Tom Holland, the super historian to the scene of the crime. 

“Not really, because secularism & Dawkins’ own brand of evangelical atheism are both expressions of a specifically Christian culture – as Dawkins himself, sitting on the branch he’s been sawing through and gazing nervously at the ground far below, seems to have begun to realise.”

Holland is spot on. My initial response was this,

“Richard Dawkins wants to keep the fruit of Christianity while rejecting the beliefs of Christianity. 

Of course that’s not logical or desirable. Nonetheless, is Richard Dawkins moving away from his past rhetoric and a priori assumptions?”

The fruit of Christianity, the ethics and architecture, the music and its role in shaping political theory and the marketplace, all have an origin story in the Bible and especially in the God-Man Jesus Christ. The fruit comes from somewhere and that somewhere is more audacious and stunning than 21st Century observers realise.

The claim of Christianity is that there is a God behind all the fruit we taste and eat and enjoy. He is not an error or grumpy old jack-in-the-box who loves to surprise us with horrible things. 

Dawkins admits that the social good has an origins story and it is integrally tied to the Christian faith, although he is still unwilling to believe in the Divine.

“There is a difference between being a believing Christian and a cultural Christian”.

Yes,  there is one who enjoys the fruit and gives thanks to the giver, and those who eat and have their fill while not giving thanks to the provider.

Dawkin’s admission is an intellectually and morally honest one. Read Holland’s, ‘Dominion’; or Glen Scrivener’s ‘The Air We Breathe’.  For those who wish to press more eagerly into the bedrock that gives our culture form and substance, read Dr Christopher Watkin’s masterpiece, ‘Biblical Critical Theory’. 

The beautiful and the good, the necessary and the true, haven’t altogether disappeared from our culture. And while these depend upon a God of such quality, excising God has not yet fully removed them from the scene. Chris Watkin notes, 

“religious and theological ideas have not been threshed away from society, nor have they been abandoned in a general disenchantment. They have merely migrated within society, moving away from God and attaching themselves to other ideas and institutions (primarily the nation state) where their influence is still profound. “

Watkin develops what he calls, the ‘migration thesis’, 

“For the migration thesis, secular late modernity relates to Christianity neither as an antithesis nor as a carbon copy but as a parody: “The city is a poor imitation of heavenly community; the modern state, a deformed version of the ecclesia; the market, a distortion of consummation; modern entertainment, a caricature of joy; schooling, a misrepresentation of true formation; liberalism, a crass simulacrum of freedom; and the sovereignty we accord to the self, a parody of God himself.

What all these instances of migration share is a desire to appropriate the goods and benefits of God while ignoring and excluding God himself, a move I have elsewhere called “imitative atheism.””

In other words, Richard Dawkins is admiring and eating the fruit of Christianity. He is happily tasting the sweetness and embracing the aromas and feeling the textures of the fruit, but he still denies the reality of the living tree from which the fruit has grown. The tree is no more dead or invisible than is the fruit we eat.

If you are looking for a ‘right now’ example of where both the root and the fruit of Christianity have been severed, look no further than Matthew Parris and his Easter edict in The Times. In ‘We can’t afford a taboo on assisted dying’, Parris says the unspeakable, euthanasia should not be limited to those with terminal and imminent death, but open to all who are a ‘burden’ on society. 

“Let’s acknowledge and confront the strongest argument against assisted dying. As (objectors say) the practice spreads, social and cultural pressure will grow on the terminally ill to hasten their own deaths so as “not to be a burden” on others or themselves.I believe this will indeed come to pass. And I would welcome it.”

The elderly, the mentally unwell, the sick, and the poor, should all have death presented to them as a viable option, to stop their lives from being a burden to others.

“Often not for the final years of these extended retirements, often characterised by immobility, ill-health and dementia: and typically wildly expensive, cornering resources to fund our health and social care sectors. This imbalance helps explain governments’ desperate reliance on immigration — to the rage of electorates who won’t face the fundamental question: how are our economies going to pay for the ruinously expensive overhang that dare not speak its name: old age and infirmity?”

Parris is willing to throw away both the fruit and the tree. What remains? It’s every man for themselves. It is self-interest and self-preservation. He isn’t utilising the more carefully constructed argument of how euthanasia is an act of love for the sufferer. No, he preaches that those who weigh down society with cost and time and energy, are a problem to him and his own flourishing.

For all the double-speak about equality and human rights, the logical endpoint of secular humanism is mass selective death: death of the vulnerable, the aged and infirmed, for the sake of the fit and strong. 

Australia’s Peter Singer has been singing this tune for decades, following his mate Nietzsche. He has been lauded in the halls of our ABC and presented as a voice to listen to. Universities pine for opportunities to hear him espouse his liberation to death sequence of ethics. And now, voices like Matthew Harris are deemed important enough to have their vision of death published in the United Kingdom’s most famed newspaper. 

The irony of the timing. Easter has been and gone, but the reality of the Easter event remains constant and ever relevant. 

God hates death and so should we. His Son endured death on our behalf. The resurrection of Jesus says that every human life has value. Death is a great enemy. How different is the Apostolic testimony to Matthew Parris. Which resonates more? You are a burden, so die! Or the words of the Apostle Paul,

“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

 “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?

 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (1 Corinthians 15:50-57)

Going back to Dr Dawkins, perhaps we have entered a ‘watch this space’ moment. 

We can only eat the fruit of Christianity for so long before the season runs out. Then, we will either go hungry and starve, or we will repent and return to the source and cry out to God for food to eat and enjoy.

Is Christianity ‘plummeting’ around Australia?

/ MurrayCampbell

Yesterday at church we enjoyed our biggest Good Friday service yet. That’s not a message for boasting, but rather one of thankfulness. Other churches are reporting similarly.

Over this Easter weekend, our friends at The Age newspaper decided on taking a different angle. They want readers to feel a disenchantment over Christianity and the merit of alternative faiths.

One of Australia’s worst-kept secrets is how nominal Christianity is declining. Naturally. Even the Bible speaks of the inevitable slow death of empty religion. The story is not new so why is it a feature story over the Easter weekend?

Society is at pains to honour and respect the sacred days of various world religions. Football Clubs produce special messages. Politicians offer the now obligatory salutations, often accompanied by a visit to the local Temple or Mosque, with a news camera or six! I’m knocking not them, but simply observing. We ought to respect our neighbours (even when we disagree with them) and be thankful for the religious toleration that still exists in our country.

The Age has chosen to commemorate Christianity’s most ‘holy’ days with 2 articles speaking of the rise of world religions in Australia and of Christianity ‘plummeting’.

“Meanwhile, Christianity has plummeted by more than 26 per cent during the same period, and once grand houses of worship are battling a mass exodus and shrinking congregations.”

Whether this is designed to be a kick in the gut or they naively thought that this is a suitable way for the newspaper to celebrate Easter, I can’t help but see a parallel with the first Easter. Of course, the two are dissimilar in very big ways, but nonetheless, the jab in the side is noticeable.

Don’t get me wrong, sociological studies exploring the beliefs of Australians is an interesting and important task, and worthy of media reporting. I am simply noting that the data is not new, the research isn’t recent. I have engaged in conferences and conversations about the waves and currents of religion in Australia for many years. The timing for The Age’s expose is ironic to say the least. Like a Pharisaical jibe at Jesus as he hung on the cross, it’s open season for slamming Christianity.

In our reading at church yesterday,

“they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.”

And this,

“Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

Like a gambling addict, these sceptics were far too quick to claim Jesus had failed. Two days later, the earth erupted when Jesus physically rose from the dead. The world has never been the same. And even if Western nations like Australia convince ourselves that Christianity is on the way out, Christianity worldwide has never been bigger. Praise God! It is we who are missing out.

Unlike Jesus, Christians sometimes react to social movements with the angry rant of an American President or the rage of the latest mob blocking traffic in the city. Christians respond to negativity with hateful words need to be called out.

Like Jesus, Christians can respond to critics with kindness and grace. He didn’t retaliate. He didn’t hate on them. He absorbed the wrath of God in their place.

The Age expose includes this observation about the chessboard of Australian religious affiliation,

“Andrew Singleton, associate professor of sociology and social research at Deakin University, says the growth of religious minorities is tied to migration trends in Australia.”

I am a big supporter of migration. Our nation is largely built on the blood and sweat of millions of migrants. Come along to Mentone Baptist one day and you see the nations represented in just one small Church; it’s fantastic.

This is one major difference between Christianity and world religions. Christianity grows by conversion. Yes, I know ‘conversion’ is an ugly word in Victoria, even an illegal one, but if Jesus and the Apostles preached for conversion, so do we.

Conversion isn’t our society’s great sin; it is the great moment of liberation: God in Christ brings forgiveness. He justifies and reconciles. The Good news of Easter isn’t religions offer of enlightenment to those who work hard enough and who acquire sufficient levels of holiness, far from it. The good news of Easter is a gift; God’s loving gift of redemption. Jesus isn’t about merit, he is mercy.

We are seeing a plethora of reports tabled by Government and legislations produced, designed to further limit religious freedom. Hardline secularism opposes healthy pluralism, which values freedom to preach and persuade and engage. Christianity grows via conversion and conversion is about reasoning and persuading and people coming to believe the gospel for themselves. How different is the approach of authoritarian secularists who create laws to force-convert what Christians may and may not teach and practice. It is as though they googled Emperor Domitian or Communist China’s Sinicization program and concluded, that’s what we need here.

Of course, such opposition to the Christian faith is doing little more than reinforcing the Bible’s anthropology and the significance of the cross. Those who mock the cross are not undoing Christianity but simply exposing the human condition and thus our desperate need for divine mercy.

Unfortunately,  I don’t think Australia has yet reached peak secularism; the reigns of power are rarely loosened without struggle. We are however beginning to see cracks appear and falling through these holes are real people whose lives have been promised much by life without God, and the results are often catastrophic: Not peace, but narcissism. Not freedom but bondage to self-realisation.

The one fact that The Age hasn’t explored is why and how classical evangelical churches are growing. I’m not referring to the super cool tribe who have the resources to stage a concert every Sunday, but churches who believe, open and teach the Bible, who preach about Christ crucified, who love to sing and praise God, and who are actively loving and serving the other.

It is important to differentiate between churches that hold to orthodox Christian beliefs, and those who don’t. I suspect the major fault line between churches that decline and those that grow is this one. Yes, there are other factors, changing demographics and sociological phenomena, and individual preferences that play into service styles. But there are too many ordinary churches where music is possible and the preaching okay, but who experience a work of God and more people becoming Christians.

Whereas, the churches that face most decline are those that move away from classical Christianity. Churches that embrace each latest iteration of sexology, who erase the Bible’s tricky bits, who explain away the resurrection, who argue against the penal aspect of the atonement, these are churches who race their congregations off a precipice and into a spiritual grave.

As Tom Holland famously quipped, 

“I see no point in bishops or preachers or Christian evangelists just recycling the kind of stuff you can get from any kind of soft left liberal because everyone is giving that…if they’ve got views on original sin I would be very interested to hear that”.”

So thank you to The Age for interesting and poorly timed articles. And next time, dig a little deeper and you’ll notice the stronger currents that are at work in Christianity around Australia today. 

Cate Blanchett, Easter is for you

/ MurrayCampbell

I appreciate that the title may sound a little presumptuous, but hear me out.

Cate Blanchett is one of the world’s finest actors…and she hails from Melbourne!

The first movie I recall watching that starred Cate Blanchett was Elizabeth. My wife and I were living in London at the time, the very city where Queen Elizabeth 1 had lived, reigned and died. I already loved historical movies, but watching the film while immersed in Elizabeth’s city brought about a visceral connection. It’s a great movie.

As we enjoyed Elizabeth, Susan commented, ‘Murray, I went to school with Cate.’

I looked at Susan, and with my eyes pressed for more information. 

Susan, typically downplaying such things, added only a few words,

“We weren’t friends. Cate was a few years ahead of me.” 

That was it. That’s all Susan said. I suspect there was a little more to it, after all, Susan had clear memories of Cate being at the same school with her. But today I learnt something new about Cate Blanchett, albeit from the newspaper and it’s about those school years.

At the age of 10, Cate’s father suffered a heart attack and died. To lose a parent at any age is difficult, but at such a young age, one can only imagine the pain, grief, and disorientation created by such a sudden loss. 

Speaking with a journalist while filming a new movie near her old suburban home and school, Cate reflected on how her Dad’s death caused her to turn away from both Church and God.

 “As a child I wanted a religion. I wanted the strong hand of God to put a hand on my childish shoulders to say, ‘Your father is with me. He’s having fun. You’ll see him in 60 years. 

“But that didn’t happen. And so as a ten-year-old I fled from the church and moved down to the river and spent my childhood propelled into nature”. 

“If I’d stayed inside the Methodist church I’d have a lot of bad guitar playing, but instead I rode my bike, thinking I was Nancy Drew, down by the Yarra River. I remember that as profoundly as I remember the hymns”. 

She was asked whether she left religion because it didn’t give her what she wanted,

“It was not so much about what I wanted…more what I was hoping for. Also, I was ten. 

“But religion contains a sense of hope and also a sense of community. And, in a way, that desire for something greater than myself never left me”. 

First of all, I agree with Blanchett’s fears of bad guitar playing. As a former classical musician, many a time have I cringed and groaned at the sounds wafting over a congregation. But fear not, it is also possible to find excellent guitar playing in churches today.

Music aside, I am reminded of something Timothy Keller wrote years ago as he borrowed from C.S Lewis,

“Horrendous, inexplicable suffering, though it cannot disprove God, is nonetheless a problem for the believer in the Bible. However, it is perhaps an even greater problem for nonbelievers. C. S. Lewis described how he had originally rejected the idea of God because of the cruelty of life. Then he came to realize that evil was even more problematic for his new atheism. In the end, he realized that suffering provided a better argument for God’s existence than one against it…

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of “just” and “unjust”?… What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?… Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too— for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies…. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple.”

Let’s take as an example,  John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Imagine doesn’t articulate the highest intellectual efforts to sustain unbelief in God but it does represent popular sentiment. Indeed, Imagine has become something of an international anthem in recent years. For a moment, let’s play out the song’s logic of imagining a world without God, without religion, and without heaven and hell:

Imagine there is no ultimate meaning or goal toward which our lives are headed.

Imagine there is no overarching design and no inherent significance. 

Imagine if our lives were reduced to the potluck outcome of billions of years of impersonal atoms and molecules running around hitting and missing, making and destroying.

Imagine a world where the reality of conscience and moral choice has no grounding in a purpose beyond that of group survival in the evolutionary race to the top.

Imagine human affections are ultimately an illusion, a cruel joke orchestrated by the impersonal rules of physics.

Imagine all the people living for today, for tomorrow is the end.

This view offers no consolation to a gravely ill person. Nothing to help grieving families who have just witnessed a loved one being ripped from their lives.

It offers no hope to someone who is a victim of injustice, for there is no judgment and vindication to come.

In fact, the song collapses in on its own irrationality, like a sandcastle overrun by the incoming tide.  Lennon imagines ‘living life in peace’, and there being no “greed or hunger”. We affirm this sentiment but peace requires a common purpose between people and demands reason and design in the world beyond us. A universe without God does not allow for the idea of universal peace.

As Cate Blanchett shares her personal testimony from God to nonGod, she admits, 

“desire for something greater than myself never left me”.

It is as though a Divinely given conscience keeps poking and prodding at us despite our cognitive and emotional rescripting of life. 

None of us comprehend all of the events we experience or see in this life. To have that kind of knowledge is to be omniscient, and not the brightest or most prophetic have the kind of understanding. But Easter reminds us that there is One who has gone before us and for us. Hope is not defined by my ability to create or sustain it, but by trusting the one who can gift it. Even faith, fragile and compounded by tragic loss, is given assurance through the Easter event.

As a father, I appreciate the limited capacity of my children to grasp concepts both significant and small. It’s not that a child is necessarily wrong, but like adults, our beliefs and commitments are trialled and formed by many kinds of circumstances, inquiries and tests. This is one reason why the message of Easter is so compelling and continues to offer consolation. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ took place inside history and is thus subject to our scrutiny, but it also punches through time and into eternity and therefore offer timeless hope and assurance.

Last Sunday I preached on Hebrews 5:1-10. The text provides one of the wonderful explanations of why and how Jesus today serves as our faithful representative before God in heaven. There is a tangible and sustainable connection point between our world and heaven, between humanity and God; the God Man Jesus Christ. 

The text explains, 

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him”.

Never think the cross was easy for Jesus. We should never conclude that suffering didn’t impact Jesus. He is utter love and light and goodness. He did not deserve to suffer even a scratch. And yet he committed himself to his father’s will to endure the greatest evil ever perpetrated. 

No story ends before it begins. No movie is shown at the cinema before it is first written, shot, and produced. In the moment by moment, God is valuing the world and each person who lives. More than that, God didn’t press fast forward to the end of the story, but his Son pressed in every moment and every day, for it is through his suffering and atoning death that God brings about forgiveness and life. Not only does Easter declare an ultimate hope over tragedy but Easter proves that we have an empathetic High Priest in Jesus. 

Cate Blanchett’s impulse as a 10-year-old is relatable for many, and so is her constant companion who reminds her that there must be something more, something better.  Several members of my church have suffered loss in recent months, the death of a parent or child. Death is horrible. Death is, to quote the Bible, the last enemy.

Easter is for the unbeliever, it is for the doubter and for the lifelong transgressor. Easter is for those who know death and suffering.  This confidence lies outside ourselves in the only one who can claim to outdo death. As these beautiful words from Hebrews 4 tell us, 

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” 

Words matter: Responding to Pope Francis and other ecclesial doublespeak

/ MurrayCampbell

This week Christian ministers around the world are gearing up for annual Christmas services. Sermons are being written, with words chosen carefully to proclaim the wonders of the incarnation. Choirs and musicians are rehearsing, and local people are deciding whether to attend church or not. 

As a preacher, I want the words I speak to convey the meaning of the biblical text as faithfully and clearly as possible. I don’t want anyone leaving afterwards with the wrong impression of Jesus, a wrong view of God, a misunderstanding of the gospel, or a skewed view of themselves. Clarity doesn’t ignore complexity or rough ride of paradox or explain away mystery but communicates truth in love. As the Apostle Paul writes, 


“Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:2)

In the lead-up to Christmas this year, multiple Church leaders and groups are deciding on a very different approach. In their wisdom (or lack thereof) they are blasting rhetorical fog machines and passing around confusing messages.

Pope Francis for example, has just issued Fiducia Supplicans, a document which gives Papal reasoning for the blessing of same-sex couples. 

While the blessing is not to be used in conjunction with a marriage or civil ceremony, and the blessing mustn’t reproduce language that is reserved for the ‘sacrament’ of marriage, it is nonetheless applied to those who “do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit…Ultimately, a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God”.

In other words, we’re not sanctifying same-sex marriage but we’re giving God’s blessing on same-sex relations.

Despite efforts from the Vatican to downplay the significance of this change, (only 2 years ago the Vatican insisted that Rome would not bless same-sex unions), media outlets across the world are interpreting Fiducia Supplican as a significant move toward from Rome to accepting gay and lesbian relationships. 

James Martin, Jesuit priest and vocal advocate for progressive theology represents this sentiment,

“The Vatican’s new declaration “Fiducia supplicans” is major step forward in the church’s ministry to LGBTQ people and recognizes the deep desire in many Catholic same-sex couples for God’s presence in their loving relationships. It is also a marked shift from the conclusion “God does not and cannot bless sin” from just two years ago. The declaration opens the door to non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, something that had been previously off limits for bishops, priests and deacons. Along with many priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex unions.”

The Pope isn’t alone in this use of doublespeak, the Church of England beat him to the slippery slide with their ‘Prayers of Love and Faith’.

“On 12 December, the House of Bishops commended the Prayers of Love and Faith and associated pastoral guidance for use in regular public worship services with effect from Sunday, 17 December 2023.

The Prayers of Love and Faith are offered as resources in praying with and for a same-sex couple who love one another and who wish to give thanks for and mark that love in faith before God. To celebrate in God’s presence the commitment two people have made to each other is an occasion for rejoicing. The texts are offered to express thanksgiving and hope, with prayer that those who are dedicating their life together to God may grow in faith, love and service as God’s blessing rests upon them.”

Baptists in Great Britain, assuming the posture of protest are considering joining the free fall with this announcement,

“‘Sexual Misconduct which brings the church and ministry into disrepute. NB This specifically includes sexual intercourse and other genital sexual activity outside of marriage (as defined exclusively as between a man and a woman).’ 

The request is that the last section in brackets is removed, which would mean that a minister who is in a same-sex marriage would no longer be committing gross misconduct and lose their accreditation. This request was received in a letter signed by 70 people who are part of Baptists Together, the majority of whom are ministers.””

The BUOGB website sites this letter from one pastor,,

“CLT are unanimous in our absolute commitment to our unity in Christ and to holding together with the pain in the presence of the Lord.  We are also in agreement that we must not rush ahead as we seek a way forward.

‘We believe that any decision that is ultimately made must be prayerfully and carefully discerned, involving significant consultation. Much thought needs to be given to the implications of various possible options. We are acutely aware that the ‘stakes are high’.’

She asked that we ‘bear with one another in love’. 

‘I am trusting that Christlike humility, gentleness, patience, love and faith will enable us to hold fast together. As a CLT we have a deep trust in the Lord; that as we keep Jesus at the centre, and keep our eyes fixed on him,  we will be led forward even if we may not be able to imagine how that will happen.” 

I’m reminded of this timely quote by Mark Dever, “It is not humble to be hesitant where God has been clear and plain.”

Brisbane’s new Anglican Archbishop Jeremy Greaves is playing similar word games. In The Australian over the weekend, Greaves was interviewed, 

“If asked, he will allow Anglican priests in the sprawling Brisbane Diocese to perform same-sex marriage blessings and he’s in favour of ordaining gay priests. The teachings of the scriptures – including the virgin birth – are best read for their deeper meaning, not as a literal rendition of God’s word, he believes.”

“He’s adamant that he has never questioned the resurrection, as some critics claim. The cornerstone of Christian belief that Jesus rose from the grave on the third day after the crucifixion undoubtedly happened – but possibly not as described in the gospels.

“I would say it wasn’t resuscitation … so if it’s not resuscitation, what is it?” he asks. “It’s an event that is so far outside human experience that for 2000 years people have struggled to put language around it.

“And so what you find in the creeds and so many founding documents of the church is an attempt to give language to something that doesn’t have language.”

In other words, I believe in the resurrection but I don’t believe what Christians for 2000 years have believed about resurrection…or about the virgin birth…or human sexuality!

Would you trust a judge who doesn’t uphold the law? Would you entrust your children to a maths teacher who doesn’t understand basic algebra or a physics teacher who’s convinced the earth is flat? Would you visit a GP who doesn’t believe heart disease is a real illness and who suggests a warm glass of milk to cure your symptoms?

The Son of God was not born in a manger, became incarnate, suffered, and died on a cross to affirm our sins, but to save us from our sins. The cross doesn’t obscurate human proclivity to redefine sexuality (or anything for that matter), but names every sin and every sinner with the weight of a righteous God. That in itself is an act of Divine love, for God takes us seriously. When life is examined in light of the crucified Christ, we all fall short and no Papal (or Anglican or Baptist) confidence trick can undo that fact. 

What we’re seeing are ecclesial leaders playing Russian roulette with people’s lives. It is a charade that has eternal implications for those who are drawn in by this misdirection by clergy who know better. 

It’s all the more ironic and damnable because the Bible warns about teachers who compose words that deceive or mislead,

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some.” (2 Timothy 2:14-18)

People need Gospel clarity, not religious camouflage. Subterfuge doesn’t help those wrestling with life and identity. Christian ministers are designated to bring God’s truths to bear on a confused world, not adding to the disorientation. 

Jesus warns those who claim to be teachers, 

“But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.” (Matt 12:36)

And the Scriptures warn us about exposing ourselves to teachers who offer vague, contradictory, and unorthodox views of God, Christ and humanity,

“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.”

17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” (2 Peter 2:17-19)

I hope and pray lots of Aussies will celebrate Christmas by attending church services. But think again before listening to men (or women) and their God speech that sounds strangely un-Bible-like. Jesus really is good news, not because he says we’re all okay and that every inclination and decision is okay, but because we are not okay and that is when God loved us and sent his only Son as the perfect sacrifice for us. 

Top 7 stories in 2023 (from heaven’s perspective)

/ MurrayCampbell / 1 Comment

It’s the season for reflecting on the year that has been. People are compiling lists of the biggest or most momentous events of 2023. While these lists can be interesting, I want to do something a little different here. Rather than taking the usual perspective, I want to remind us that the Scriptures give us another view of reality and it’s one that we can easily miss or forget in the midst of everyday life.

Enjoy and be encouraged and a little bit challenged as well.

Photo by Sebastian Hietsch on Pexels.com

Two angels are in heaven. They are enjoying sipping ‘heaven’s nectar’ (single origin bean 2023; naturally) when they strike up a conversation.  These 2 angels, let’s call them George and Sally, have seen much in 2023. The date (on earth) is December 14.

 The universe may be cut off from heaven, but heaven knows what happens on earth. George and Sally read the New Jerusalem Gazette and learn of decisions and events as they go about serving God. 

Amidst the clamour being made by 8 billion people in every corner of the world, the annual sound of Christmas Carols crescendos.  Although most carolling fails to hit the heights of heaven, such is the powerless nature of lips singing truth from hearts that don’t believe.

George takes another sip and thinks to himself, ‘if only Melbourne knew what the greatest coffee tastes like!’

As the sweet aroma fills their angelic nostrils and swims around the palate, Sally says to George, what do think are the 7 biggest stories of 2023?

Where do the angels begin? The year has brought about eternal cheer and also much grief. On earth conversations and debates rage over a million stories and events that have influenced and shaped, bringing happiness and sadness. Which of these do angels choose?

Sally began compiling an initial list in her mind. She thought, “The Ashes were certainly memorable…maybe we won’t mention the Commonwealth Games or Rail link…And of course, there have been more than a few political elections this year but none of them make the cut…”

George observes that the 7 biggest stories in 2023 are in fact the same headlines from 2022, and pretty much every year. It’s not that each incident and event is glossed over and ignored. The angels have been around long enough to realise that the human condition remains unchanged and God’s eternal decree continues to work over and through every page of history. Sally agrees, which isn’t surprising given there is no unction for disagreement around God’s eternal home.

So here are the 7 biggest events from 2023 according to George and Sally:

7. Every act of injustice and evil in 2023.

The angels agree that number 7 isn’t on the list because of any virtue or value, but because of Divine outrage that continues against God’s world. Sally and George understand how God grieves every sin and transgression. They appreciate how much more than they, God grasps the gravity of these events that harm and offend and destroy. 

Whether the acts are carried out by terrorists in the ancient land or Governments promoting injustice, greedy corporations or the hidden sins of a billion people, God grieves. God angers. His anger thunders with a ferocity that shakes the very foundations of the cosmos. The angels witness that while the most judicious of man-made courts cannot capture every offence, in the heavenly court every perpetrator of evil will face God’s wrath and eternal judgment. 

Sally points out to George, how blinded by hubris, human beings readily believe they can circumvent Divine justice. At our worst, we even redefine righteousness and call evil good, but God isn’t fooled by our calculations. Whether it is the slaughter of civilians in Israel, the abusive parent in a suburban street in Melbourne, the academic legitimising the dehumanisation project, or the employer cheating his staff out of fair pay; God sees and condemns and guarantees justice.

Some events make the news in Sydney, New York and Colombo, while a billion go unnoticed or are wilfully ignored by friend and neighbour. There is no such overlooking by the King of Kings.

As the angels consider all the headline news, they ponder that God persists with the world; what a staggering thought. Sally then reminds, George, remember what God has said,

 “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” (2 Peter 3:9-10)

6. Christians chasing lesser things that distract from ultimate things.

George remarks, “God has given the most precious gift of all and to people who did not want or ask, his Son. And yet look at all these Christians filling up life with lesser things. 

George scratches his head, “God gave himself in Christ but these Christians still aren’t satisfied. They are working harder and earning more and playing more, and yet sacrificing the very thing that can gives them life. And see how they’re teaching their children to chase after the wind. Why are they feeding them junk food when God offers living water? Sure, who doesn’t enjoy a party and decent education or long weekends at the beach. But do they have no sense of discipline and seeking first God’s Kingdom? No wonder millennials don’t take God seriously, when their elders are teaching like this.”

5. Grief over churches abandoning the Gospel and Christians deconstructing the faith

It is another year of sadness as more churches give up Jesus for a seat at the table of respectability, success and ease. 

Sally notes a conversation she had with Thomas Cranmer and Hugh Latimer on November 16. She saw them weeping over the Church of England. To give up Divine love for the sake of a moment’s likability staggers the mind. Cranmer reflected on his own moment of weakness and then the grace that caused his repentance. Latimer remarked, that if the bishops of England snuff out the candle, then God will light it again among others. 

Spurgeon still can’t get over the joy that his old days of melancholy are over forever. He remains overjoyed knowing that all the superlatives he used in his sermons to convey the wonders of Christ, were barely a tiny impression of the true glory that is being with Christ and seeing him face to face.

As he overhears Latimer talking with Sally, he interjects with Shakespearean flourish, to describe the ongoing downgrade among Baptists as being like the melting polar ice caps. Spiritual climate change is eroding church faithfulness and vitality. Instead of displaying the glory of God in the face of Christ, churches convince themselves that they need to become more like the world to reach the world. The Gospel is melted down and replaced with mirrors to reflect the culture, thus confirming unbelievers’ assumptions about the irrelevance and idiocy of the Christian faith in 2023.

George observed the unusual number of Bibles that are never opened or read.  

“It’s like churches don’t ever open the Bible and read what God has to say to them. Don’t churches believe the Lord of the Church? Why do they pretend that the lamb’s 7 letters to the churches are always about someone else and not for them?

Mary and Martha walk past  and add, “Churches who choose between love and truth end up losing both.”

Both angels are pleased to announce that the top stories of 2023 include more encouragement and thankfulness than sadness and grief. At number 4 is…

4. Growing holiness in the face of suffering

Sally is convinced that one of the highlights for 2023 is seeing so many people becoming more like Jesus. George gives an emphatic nod of agreement. 

It’s amazing to observe the breadth of places and conditions in which people are living and the countless challenges many are facing. Instead of becoming bitter or turning to jealousy or despair, Christ’s light is shining. LED lighting might be seen from space, but the Spirit’s light in people’s lives reaches heaven. 

The encouragement and comfort of God’s words produce the perseverance of the saints, 

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9)

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming…14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” (2 Peter 3:11-12; 14)

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:5-8)

3. Thousands of churches are planted

Sally and George praise God for his faithfulness in 2023. God’s big project in the world is reconciliation and the church is the people of reconciliation.  After all, Jesus shed his blood for the church and gave his word, ‘I will build my church’.  The Lordship of Christ and the promises of God in the Gospel are intimately tied to God saving a people,

“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:22-23)

you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-21)

God is pleased and heaven is enthralled to see churches of all shapes and sizes given birth in Kenya and Cameroon, in Iran and India, in China and Argentina, and even in the great lost nations of England and Australia. People may turn their backs on God, but His Gospel is compelling and he will finish what he has started building. 

2. The salvation of millions of people

George and Sally agree that integrally tied to story no.3 is story no.2. Indeed, stories 2 and 3 are easily interchangeable, and really the same story, just from being reported from different angles.

The Church is God’s masterpiece and churches are made up of countless names and faces of the imago dei, sinful, forgiven and redeemed. Conversion may be considered a dirty and immoral word in parts of the world, but heaven rejoices.

2023 is another year of explosive Gospel growth around the world. A few of these names are recognised by society and media and their conversion stories go viral. In heaven the new birth and adoption of every person goes viral among heaven’s choir. 

What a massive year for heaven’s choirs! It’s been non-stop singing with all the millions and millions of people from every language, ethnicity and city turning to Christ and coming to know new life in his name. George exclaims, “Every time I finish the chorus we sing it again. In heaven, Taylor Swift never gets a nod, not even Bach is back. It’s constant no.1”

“Salvation belongs to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb.”

1. Welcoming home all who finish the race

Heaven loves a home coming. 

George confessed to Sally that while they enjoy a vantage point that those on earth don’t possess, God authored a word for people. It wasn’t to the angels that Scripture was given, but to people.

Sally recalls the words of Jesus, 

 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand

George adds the Apostolic voice, 

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies”

Heaven longs that people daily correct our myopic gaze. It’s not that we have lenses to see through all time and space; naturally, we are not omniscient as is God (and neither are George and Sally). We do have, because of the God of wisdom and grace, His word which reveals more to us than we deserve and can imagine. The Scriptures provide more than a detailed account of human affairs and moral statutes. God opens his Divine foreknowledge to us so that we can see beyond the immanent frame and know a tiny snapshot of what was and what will be. These words from God give great assurance and encouragement to keep going.

A great crowd this year have finished the race and received those words from God, ‘Well done good and faithful servant”. 

Sally is fascinated by the commitment people make to winning gold medals, trophies and awards. “See how they pour their lives into attaining a piece of tin or gold or something with a $ sign attached. The number 1 story of 2023 isn’t a World Cup or Grand Slam, but the crown of righteousness given to all who finish the race. In 2023 millions of people have made it home.

Thanks be to God.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

Church with the sign 

/ MurrayCampbell

Mentone Baptist Church celebrated our 70th anniversary yesterday (November 19).

It was a great morning. Our auditorium is often fairly full, but yesterday it was very full and dozens of people spilling over into the foyer and hall to be part of this thanksgiving service. It was encouraging to have former pastors and former members visiting and local MPs giving their time to celebrate with us. Many thanks.

The theme for our celebration was giving thanks for the past and looking to the future. Our Bible text was Philippians 1:3-11 (there is a link to the sermon below). 

As we live in the present to worship God, to proclaim Jesus Christ and to show our community the reality of Christ, we give thanks to God for the last 70 years and we are looking to the future. 

In recent years aspects of Melbourne’s culture have made much hay out of churches and negative press toward Christianity. Let’s be honest, sometimes Christians deserve the bad press given the awful things committed by some religious figures. At the same time, we might be forgiven for believing that Christianity in Melbourne is on the way out. To be sure, ‘progressive’ forms of Christianity are declining, but the real picture on the ground and in many local churches suggests new growth and new hope.

I want to share a brief history of Mentone Baptist Church that was presented at the anniversary service (it’s impossible to capture every story from 70 years!). There is also the link to our anniversary sermon. I hope you’re encouraged.

Mentone Baptist Church: church for the future

Beginnings

Mentone Baptist Church is known as the church with the sign: ‘Jesus Saves’ and ‘Christ our Hope’. 

The original sign was replaced in 2009, and the buildings, people, and times have changed, but our message remains the same.

Mentone Baptist Church was formally constituted as a Church on November 19th 1953, but the origins came earlier. As far back as 1945, there was a desire to start a Baptist church in the area. At that time there was no Baptist church in Melbourne south of Oakleigh.

It wasn’t until 1950 that a group of 10 people living in Mentone and Cheltenham began discussing the possibility of a church. They first met on 9 Nov 1950, in a home on Nepean Hwy. Rev. Hawley led the group which included Reg and Ruby Ward, Jim and Grace Sutherland.

9 months later this group of 10 men and women began praying and searching for a property. A site on the corner of Warrigal Rd and Harpley St was purchased in February 1952 by the Baptist Home Mission Society, although some of the land, including what is today the cark park, was purchased years later. 

Horace Jeffs commenced as the first pastor in April 1953, on a part-time basis with a stipend of 1 pound and 12 shillings per week. While waiting for the build, which is what today is known as the church hall. Mentone made news in The Age newspaper, for the novel story about a church meeting in a house and with their own organ! Sunday attendance reached 30-40 people. 

On 1 November 1953, the church building opened. But of course, church isn’t the building, it is the people, and so on November 19 with a membership of 23 people, Mentone Baptist Church was formally constituted and the first members meeting conducted. Baptist Churches highly value the priesthood of all believers and so congregational involvement and ownership matters to us. Hence, our (in)famous members meetings! 

A manse was purchased in 1955. Today this house is known as the church office, where it is used as office space, meeting rooms and children’s ministry.

Over Mentone’s first 10 years, the church grew to 60 members and always with a strong emphasis on the ministries of prayer and word. 

A season for growing

Mentone’s evangelical roots and desire to start new churches continued with a team planting Beaumaris in 1959. This has continued over our history and most recently, Mentone sent out a team under Stephen Tan to plant Regeneration Church, next to Monash University. Over the years we experienced a trickle of university students travelling to us from Monash, with many being baptised at Mentone. We however saw the need and benefit from us moving closer to the university. 6 years later, there are more than 170 students and young adults calling Regeneration Church home (and growing every year). 

A key turning point for Mentone took place in 1961 when Alcc White accepted the invitation to become pastor. Alec White was an effective preacher and communicator. He was rightly convinced the Bible is God’s word good and sufficient word, and that Jesus Christ is the way to know God. Under his leadership, and with many folks including the Foxes, the Lees, Betty Boase, the Platts, and the LePage family, the church grew in number and maturity. The Church invested in connecting with the local community, including ministering to the sick at the Kingston Centre and providing RE classes in local schools. Boys and Girls Brigades provided opportunity for local children to enjoy mid-week activities, gain life skills and learn about God. Dorcas commenced, a women’s group providing practical help to disadvantaged people around the world. 

For 50 years Rex and Shirley Wills have been faithful members, serving in almost every part of church life. Betty Boase is our only member today who has been part of the church for 60 years.

A right emphasis on the good news of Jesus Christ raised up a generation of men and women who were trained and sent out to serve overseas on mission: Jim and Pam Sterrey, Daphne Smith, Fred Stoll, Chris and Carole Hebert, David and Sim Senator, Roger and Ruth Alder, and more. In the late 1960s, Marsali Ashley joined Mentone while studying at the Melbourne Bible Institute. Following a term in Papua New Guinea, she returned and married John Campbell at Mentone in 1972 (Murray’s parents).

Our current auditorium was built in 1968, with member Don Platt drawing the plans and his company constructing it. Originally, the seats faced north, with a stage in front of the northern window.  The space was renovated in 2013 to accommodate more seating. Internal walls were knocked down and the old parent’s room was removed, thus increasing the space from 150 to 230 seats. 

In 1981 Ross Prout was inducted as the new pastor and served here for 10 years. Under Ross’ leadership,  the church experienced significant growth, especially among young adults. He continued the church’s emphasis on Bible teaching and a  heart to see people coming to know Christ. 

With Ross and Bronwen moving to Mitcham Baptist in 1991 after 9 years of fruitful ministry, Leigh Diprose commenced his ministry here, with Helen his wife and their 4 children joining. The Church continued to support ministry in the local community and worked alongside Youth Dimension to reach teenagers. Leigh concluded in 2000 and has since served at Altona Baptist and helping rural churches with preaching. Today Leigh serving at City on a Hill at their Melbourne West Campus.

Every church experiences difficult seasons and challenges, and Mentone is no exception. At the start of the new century, a significant number of the Church moved away as housing prices squeezed out young families and the Church lost a sense of direction and what it was about.

The congregation had shrunk to a Sunday attendance of 30 people by the end of 2004.

A new chapter

In 2005 Murray and Susan joined, following 4 years studying at Moore Theological College and gaining pastoral experience at Chatswood Baptist in Sydney. After several years away from Melbourne, the Campbells were excited to return and to make Mentone Baptist Church home for their young family.

The Church started to grow and saw growth of 10-20% each year for several years to come.  In 2010, Murray suggested to the church that to help facilitate further growth, it would be advantageous to employ an associate pastor. To see whether the church could finance this, he asked if members would commit to increasing their giving.  The Church was able to employ an associate pastor full-time from the first day! The Church called Phil Ninness and he commenced in 2011. Phil is an excellent preacher, and we also began an evening congregation, which attracted university students, and saw many becoming Christians and baptised and joining the church. 

Phil and his wife Heather finished after 2 years to take on the Senior Pastoral role at a Baptist church in Tasmania. Mike Veith, who was serving as a student pastor while studying at Ridley College, became the new associate pastor.  Mike has served in this role for 10 years, with his wife Camille and daughters part of the church family. 

Over the past 18 years, the church has developed strong links with the Christian Union at Monash University. Stuart White and Dan King are both members at Mentone and they work on campus with AFES.  We might assume that in our secular society, intelligent university students are disinterested in God; the campus ministry is experiencing quite the opposite. 

The church continues to have a heart for mission both locally and overseas. In the past 6 years, several members have been sent out for church planting, pastoral ministry, and mission.  We pray that God will add to those numbers in years to come. 

The vision that began all those years ago in a Cheltenham house hasn’t been forgotten or lost but continues in 2023: ‘Christ our Hope’ and ‘Jesus Saves’. 

70 years ago a tiny church moved from meeting in a house to this property on Warrigal Road. The year 2023 may look and sound very different from 1953. The streets and suburbs look very different today. 70 years ago this area was dominated by small farms and market gardens. There were a few schools and a train line. Southland didn’t exist. There was no McDonalds or KFC! The cars and cricket bats, the coffee and fashion and phones have changed, but the underlying issues and questions and longings of the human heart remain the same. 

Our vision and prayer is to see the good news of Jesus Christ growing more and more and lives being transformed by God’s grace, love and truth. We thank God for the past and we look forward to the future and seeing how God continues his good work.

Letter from 6 former Australian Prime Ministers is historic and important

/ MurrayCampbell

We live in an odd society here in Australia. Part of us thinks that growing up means ridding ourselves of God and all those Bible verses that we find so constraining. And yet we haven’t found an alternative to provide the necessary robust foundations for moral living and a sharper and more stunning hope for ultimate peace and righteousness.

Yesterday afternoon (October 30), six former Prime Ministers of Australia released a statement. John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbot, Malcolm Turnbull, and Scott Morrison. These former national leaders represent different sides of the political spectrum. Through the years, they have expressed strong and opposing words to undermine each other and their respective Government positions. However, today, they are standing with one voice.

I do not recall another occasion where this significant number of former national leaders of Australia signed a letter with such force, unity and concern. This is a rare and historic moment and ought to cause Australians to consider the very real and dangerous and ugly antisemitism that is spilling onto streets and social media around the world, including here in Australia. 75 years ago the world declared, ‘Never again’, and yet from university campuses to political representatives and crowds, we are hearing cries for Jewish people to be destroyed.

In the midst of an Australia that is becoming more divided and fractured, these former Prime Ministers have laid aside differences and produced a timely and vital declaration that I urge Australians to read and take with the seriousness they are conveying. They express deep concern at the antisemitism on display around the world and at home. They offer clear and unapologetic condemnation of Hamas and their evil, both upon Israel and their own people in Gaza. They also call on Israel to abide by international conventions as they exercise their right to destroy the terror network.

Returning to my opening reflection, as our former Prime Ministers seek to lead by example, they turn to the Bible for example and help. They quote Psalm 34, which forms part of the Scriptures for both Jewish people and Christians. 

“Seek peace and pursue it”

I find it odd and somewhat shallow when inner suburbanites yell at Christians and tell them to keep their Bible out of public issues. They make an exemption when Christian words seem to support their progressive (or conservative) agendas, but as soon as dissonance returns, the demands for silence come back with pugnacious certainty. Of course, sometimes Christians say unhelpful things and misuse the very Scriptures that shape us. There are times when the Christian perspective is neither left or right, progressive or conservative; indeed, this is most often the case. There are times when Christian wisdom displays a properly diagonalised view, which avoids false binaries and compromises. This is why a Christian perspective is sometimes misunderstood and or unwanted. There are also occasions when not speaking is the right thing to do. I do not, however, see how we can remain silent as the noise of antisemitism grows in Melbourne, Sydney and elsewhere (the same is true when our Muslim neighbours are targeted and abused).

It is worth noting that in October 2023, as the world witnesses horrific evil and growing unrest, six former Prime Ministers lean upon the Bible for guidance and moral impulse. I am encouraged and would encourage others to also lean in.

As we do, the Scriptures push us even deeper, not letting us settle for a consolation built on myth or vapor-like hopefulness. Words are just words if they are not conveying concrete truthfulness and goodness. Like a Shakespearean Sonnet with sonorous beauty or a Hallmark Card, they form a heart without a pulse. As the Apostle Paul dares to insist, if Christ has not been raised, we are to be pitied by all men, and our faith is an exposé of ignorance.

The phrase borrowed by our former Prime Ministers, Psalm 34, has more to say that is worthy of consideration and which provides reason and guts to the search for peace. For example, the full sentence of verse 24 says this, 

“Turn from evil and do good;

    seek peace and pursue it.”

Immediately following this statement, the Psalmist provides a framework for substantiating peace,

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are attentive to their cry;

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
    to blot out their name from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

There is evil in the world. There is also sin in each one of us. Modern Australia often tries to wipe away moral absolutes and considers categories like sin and evil as the language of oppressive Christians. Yet, time and time again we fall back into biblical language and concepts to articulate what we see and feel and know intuitively. Lean more attentively.

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6)