Repackaging Christianity by Andrew Atherstone

This is a very thorough write up of the whole Alpha story and its various twists and turns. It is good to have it all written down in black and white. Atherstone tries to be balanced, reporting various criticisms at times and seeking to be candid. It is very useful therefore although it does tend to toe the party line rather insted of being more critical.

A number of things struck me. John Wimber, who died in 1997, had quite an influence on the whole HTB/Alpha world. Atherstone describes a meeting at HTB where Wimber claimed a word of knowledge that revealed that ten people in the room had athletes foot! Nine stood but Nicky Gumbel resisted at first, rather embarrassed. It is an amusing story in some ways yet for HTB's John Collins it was as though for an hour or two they were back in New Testament days seeing the disciples at work. This is utter nonsense. How the devils must be laughing to know this story.

More seriously still, there are claims of miraculous healing in the book. Most of it is the relief of aches and pains and unverifiable. But then there is a claim that someone was healed from blindness! A woman called Jean Smith from Cwmbran (where I am from) was the person supposedly healed in 1997. So I looked this up and saw that Dr Peter May mentions the case in a paper on the subject. He points out that this claimed healing was never validated by an ophthalmologist. And so it is mere hearsay. For Andrew Atherstone to repeat it in this unqualified way is irresponsible.

Another sad thing that is part of the story is the way that although Alpha originally had a good statement on the priesthood of all believers and the fact that sacrificing priests are not needed today. French RC bishops objected, however, when Catholic version so Alpha were made and so Gumbel deleted such statement from his Questions of Life.

It is not difficult to see good in the Alpha story but again and again there are things that are very unhelpful and so it still has to be avoided by right thinking Christians.

Neo-Pentecostalism

Let me give you a piece from a recent newspaper review

 

... quoting Biblical-sounding verse and promising to change our lives, awaken our inner powers, heal ourselves.

With a hot light shining on us, eyes still closed, we are ordered to banish our pain and ailments. To feel them leaving our bodies. And then sit back down again.

Next, he asks if anyone feels different, feels ‘cured’, feels released from their pain. And, amazingly, people really seem to.

Five minutes later we watch slack-jawed as a lady with rheumatoid arthritis can move her hands and feet freely and without pain for the first time in five years. And a bearded chap called Jack with a titanium plate in his skull feels the pressure in his head ease for once.

Suddenly, a pretty girl called Emily with glasses doesn’t need them. Eleven years of chronic neck pain floats into the ether from a stocky rugby player. An Aussie girl with a frozen shoulder regains full movement.

We clap and cheer and whoop — cynics included — as he yells: ‘Praise the Lord!’ ... Even I start wondering if my sore knee is cured. It isn’t.

As Brown shouts ‘We thank you, Father, we thank you. We are surrounded by a golden light!’ volunteers are hypnotised and knocked out in seconds, lowered gently to the floor. One man levitates — I’ve no idea how.

... At one stage, more than 30 people are queueing patiently in the stalls to be ‘healed’. They volunteer themselves, but of course he already knows their names, their ailments, their brothers’ names, their mum’s back problems. Afterwards, they skip back to their seats, beaming and golden from his touch.

 

It's not Benny Hinn or anyone like that. No, it's Derren Brown. As the reviewer (Jane Fryer) concludes

 

The point, of course, is to prove Brown’s belief that faith healing and miracles are all in the mind — and the work of clever showmen like him, rather than God.

You may or may not agree, but the show (or the second half, anyway) was gripping, utterly inexplicable — however much we all picked over it afterwards — and, for a while, it really felt miraculous. And that’s not even revealing the brilliant twist at the end.

So I take it all back. No one could fail to be impressed. Other than a genuine charlatan Christian faith healer.

And, perhaps, Emily, who ten minutes later had her specs back on again.

 

Derren Brown is an atheist and a profane man but his desire to expose the charlatanism of so-called evangelicalism is perhaps something to be thankful for.

 

The review is here.

 

 

Jim Thompson Cessationist

Over the summer I bought and later read Jim Thompson's book Healing and healers today which is an excellent enquiry into New Testament healing, overwhelmingly specious modern claims and the matter of whether we should expect miraculous healings today. This book led me to his shorter related book Prophecy Today which came out a few years ago. This well argued little book sets out the cessationist argument. I couldn't go with him on the argument from 1 Corinthians 13 in the end but that is not an essential interpretation for the cessationist case. I think every Christian, whatever view they hold to or if they are unsure, would benefit from a perusal of these two books. They are clear, through and irenic. I for one am very thankful for them. (Not sure why EP didn't come up with more uniform covers. Hope they sell out of both soon and bring out a combined version).

A few words on forewords 5

An emphasis on Calvinistic doctrine as against Pelagianism and Arminianism
This particular emphasis is more implicit rather than explicit. The very authors and subjects speak volumes – Bunyan's Holy War, the Puritans, the Geneva Bible, Whitefield, Williams, Harris, Haldane on Romans, Warfield, Hendriksen, Klaas Runia. Writing of Donald McLean he remarks

But one had not been long in his company before realising that the most important thing about him was his great concern for the Truth, and his special zeal for the propagating of the Reformed Faith. That was the great passion of his life, and in a very short time he always turned the conversation in that direction.
Above everything else, however, what was most striking about him was the way in which he combined absolute loyalty to the Truth as expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith with a marked catholicity of spirit.

That was an ideal for Lloyd-Jones “loyalty to the Truth as expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith with a marked catholicity of spirit”. He praises McLean's “truly oecumenical spirit”.

An emphasis on biblical church unity as against false ecumenism
That leads us onto the matter of biblical church unity, a well known concern of the Doctor's that surfaces at several points. In the preface to the book by Fletcher of Madeley (1968) we have an emphasis both on experience and unity. Speaking of a great communion service held in August 1769 and attended by Calvinists and Arminians, he says that what made it possible was

Their common experience of the grace of God, their doctrine of assurance, but above all their deep experimental knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what made them the men they were and gave them their evangelistic zeal; and this accounts for the authority which was such a great characteristic of their preaching. This is what brought them together, in spite of their differences.

With typical Lloyd-Jonesian hyperbole he says “Nothing is more important than this”.
His interest in church history was fuelled not only by an interest in Christian experience but also in the need to learn lessons on the matter of true Christian unity. He commends Poole-Connor's History of Evangelicalism in England (1951) as “a most timely and much needed book” saying

The so-called Ecumenical Movement will, of necessity, cause all Evangelicals to re-examine and re-consider their position more and more. It has already done so in many countries, and there is much uneasiness in many minds in this country.
Our first duty, therefore, is to make certain that we are clear as to the meaning of our terms. What do we Evangelicals represent, and how can that be determined? This book is an answer to these questions.

It was Poole-Connor's interaction with “the leading problem of our age” that he highlights in his foreword to his biography (1966) “the question of the nature of the Christian church and especially the relationship of the evangelical Christian to that problem”.
Lloyd-Jones speaks in much the same terms in his preface to Lewis Lupton's book in 1972

At a time when the nature of the church and its form of government is constantly before us because of the various ecumenical activities, it is essential that all branches of the church should be familiar with their origins and factors that determined what happened.

In 1968 he wrote a foreword to Klaas Runia's book on the subject Reformation Today. Again he writes of “the most urgent problem confronting the Christian church today” thankful for a study the ecumenical movement that was “fair, biblical, theological and historical”. He concludes

It is my prayer that it might be used to bring all evangelical people to see the tragedy, and indeed the sin, of their present divisions and fragmentation and to heed his appeal for true and visible unity among them.
I urge all who are concerned about the lamentable state of the church and the urgent need of the presentation of our glorious evangelical message to the masses throughout the world to read this scholarly, incisive and most readable book.

An interest in medicine and healing
As a medical doctor Lloyd-Jones inevitably had an interest in things medical and especially faith healing, a subject into which he had looked most thoroughly.
In 1945 he wrote a foreword to a little collection of addresses by Duncan M Blair and, as mentioned, he was one of those who commended a book on medical ethics edited by Edmunds and Scorer (1958). In the first of these he makes some remarks about Blair being an anatomist and how “studies which are supposed to account for the scepticism and unbelief of so many simply went to confirm and increase his faith”. He calls the Shorter Catechism Blair's “backbone” and then uses words that are just as appropriate to the Doctor himself

That indeed was the secret of his life. He had accepted the revelation of God given in the scriptures. That led to a personal experience of Christ as His Saviour and then to an ever- increasing comprehension of the great plan of salvation. And everything he learned and discovered in his scientific work seemed to fit in with that plan and to reveal it still further.

Commending the Pastor Hsi book he says that there is a great deal to learn from it about faith healing, something believed in and practised. However, there was no flamboyance or “loose statements and exaggerated claims; indeed it is here that his his sanity and balance stand out most clearly.” He commends Hsi's willingness to use conventional medicine too and says

He was acutely aware of the dangers connected with the whole subject and always proceeded in a most cautious manner. It is particularly interesting to note how he became increasingly cautious as the years passed. The effect of all this is that one does not have the usual feeling that most of the purported results can be explained in terms of psychology. One feels rather that they are true, unmistakable cases of faith healing which can be explained in no other way.
It is exactly the same with the question of demon possession. Here again valuable evidence is provided which establishes the reality of this condition as a clinical entity and which shows that there is but one effective treatment.

The Doctor thought the best book on the subject was by Henry Frost of CIM. Commending it in 1951 he wrote

Some recent writings seem to suggest that the only problem is as to whether one believes or not that miraculous gifts ended with the apostolic age. But this is by no means the only problem. Dr Frost shows clearly that theological problems are also involved, and which we only ignore at our spiritual peril. The Bible frequently warns us against the danger of being deluded by evil powers. All ‘miracles’ and ‘wonders’ are not produced by the Holy Spirit, and we must know how to ‘test the spirits’ in this matter. Our Lord Himself has warned us that the ‘lying spirits’ are so clever and so subtle as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect (Matt 24:24).
Dr Frost’s method is particularly helpful. He starts on the practical level by citing cases and examples which prove the fact of miraculous healing. He then proceeds to deal with the difficulties, both on the practical and experimental plane, and also in the realm of correct and clear thinking.

His final sentence brings us back to his overall emphasis. “Above all” he says “he is thoroughly biblical, and not only orthodox, but truly spiritually minded. I strongly recommend this most valuable study.”

DMLJ 20 Frost on Healing

Although first appearing in 1931, Frost's book appeared in 1951 with this piece from Lloyd-Jones as a sort of foreword. Lloyd-Jones owned a small library of books on the subject and was conversant with the various issues.

Miraculous Healing Why does God heal some and not others? by Henry W Frost

ENDORSEMENT

I am truly glad that the publishers have decided to reprint this excellent volume, largely perhaps at my suggestion. Ever since I first read it, I have felt that it is easily and incomparably the best book I have ever read on this subject. It is the book, therefore, which I have always recommended to those who have been anxious for help on this matter. Many times have I been asked to write myself on this theme. I have always replied by saying that Henry W. Frost has already dealt with the matter in what I regard as a final and conclusive manner. The reappearance of this book at this present time is most opportune as there is evidently a recrudescence of interest in this subject.
Some recent writings seem to suggest that the only problem is as to whether one believes or not that miraculous gifts ended with the apostolic age. But this is by no means the only problem. Dr Frost shows clearly that theological problems are also involved, and which we only ignore at our spiritual peril. The Bible frequently warns us against the danger of being deluded by evil powers. All ‘miracles’ and ‘wonders’ are not produced by the Holy Spirit, and we must know how to ‘test the spirits’ in this matter. Our Lord Himself has warned us that the ‘lying spirits’ are so clever and so subtle as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect (Matt 24:24).
Dr Frost’s method is particularly helpful. He starts on the practical level by citing cases and examples which prove the fact of miraculous healing. He then proceeds to deal with the difficulties, both on the practical and experimental plane, and also in the realm of correct and clear thinking. Above all, he is thoroughly biblical, and not only orthodox, but truly spiritually minded. I strongly recommend this most valuable study.
D. M. Lloyd-Jones