10 very similar French and Welsh words

1. pont/pont Bridge
2. église/eglwys Church
3. mer/môr Sea
4. triste/trist Sad
5. fenêtre/ffenestr Window
6. terre/tir Land
7. une/un One
8. toi/ti You
9. boue/baw Mud
10. livre/llyfr Book

10 more puns for remembering Welsh words

1. Teledu - I'm watching television, tell Eddie.
2. Hedfan - He is learning to fly, the head van [driver]
3. Ty - The new house is shaped like a T
4. Canu - He can come to you to learn how to sing, can 'e?
5. Cerdd - Listen to the music. Take care th[at you do.]
6. Meddal - The flesh of this peach is so soft it could win a med(d)al.
7. Melys - He's partial to things that are sweet, Mel is.
8. Hawdd - They make it look easy. I don't know how th[ey do it.]
9. Mefus - She loves strawberries does Mavis.
10. Bread - Nothing is better than bread bar a [cake.]

A Word to the elect by Anne Brontë

I  came across this anti-Calvinist poem by Anne Brontë recently. It is worth reading and you can see her point. I particularly like the fact she knows we do not deserve salvation. That strengthens here argument. However, she starts from the wrong end. If you start with God it is not that it all becomes clear but at least you begin to see why what she offers here is a false hope.

You may rejoice to think yourselves secure;
You may be grateful for the gift divine --
That grace unsought, which made your black hearts pure,
And fits your earth-born souls in Heaven to shine.

But, is it sweet to look around, and view
Thousands excluded from that happiness,
Which they deserved, at least, as much as you, --
Their faults not greater, nor their virtues less?

And, wherefore should you love your God the more,
Because to you alone his smiles are given;
Because he chose to pass the many o'er,
And only bring the favoured few to Heaven?

And, wherefore should your hearts more grateful prove,
Because for ALL the Saviour did not die?
Is yours the God of justice and of love
And are your bosoms warm with charity?

Say, does your heart expand to all mankind?
And, would you ever to your neighbour do --
The weak, the strong, the enlightened, and the blind -­
As you would have your neighbour do to you?

And, when you, looking on your fellow-men,
Behold them doomed to endless misery,
How can you talk of joy and rapture then? --
May God withhold such cruel joy from me!

That none deserve eternal bliss I know;
Unmerited the grace in mercy given:
But, none shall sink to everlasting woe,
That have not well deserved the wrath of Heaven.

And, Oh! there lives within my heart
A hope, long nursed by me;
(And, should its cheering ray depart,
How dark my soul would be!)

That as in Adam all have died,
In Christ shall all men live;
And ever round his throne abide,
Eternal praise to give.

That even the wicked shall at last
Be fitted for the skies;
And, when their dreadful doom is past,
To life and light arise.

I ask not, how remote the day,
Nor what the sinner's woe,
Before their dross is purged away;
Enough for me, to know

That when the cup of wrath is drained,
The metal purified,
They'll cling to what they once disdained,
And live by Him that died.

More on the rapture

The Secret Rapture - its surprising orgins

I referred recently to the theory that the secret rapture is an idea that finds its orgins in the mind of a little girl in Scotland, a disicple of Edward Irving. I read that years ago in Dallimore's biography of Irving. Apprantly the origin of the theory is two books by Dave MacPherson, The Unbelievable Pre-Trib Origin (Kansas City, Heart of America Bible Society, 1973) and The Incredible Cover-Up (Medford, Oregon, Omega Publications, 1975).

I read that in an article I found here online. This is the relevant section

[J N] Darby began publishing his prophetic speculations in 1831. Coincidentally both he and Edward Irving began to postulate two stages to Christ's imminent return about the same time. First, there would be an invisible 'appearing' when Christians would meet Christ in the air and be removed from the earth, a process which came to be known as 'the rapture of the saints'. With the restraining presence of the Holy Spirit removed from the world, the Antichrist would arise and the seven year tribulation would begin. His rule would finally be crushed only by the public 'appearing' of Jesus Christ.

There is some speculation that this novel doctrine emerged as a result of the Powerscourt prophetic conference held near Dublin in 1831. 'Darby's prominence at the Powerscourt meetings has led to the supposition that he was responsible for it...' While dispensationalists have been most anxious to perpetuate this belief to ensure a measure of orthodoxy, there is much evidence to the contrary. Several have attributed the notion of a secret, pretribulational Rapture to Edward Irving. Dave MacPherson argues convincingly that the doctrine arose through a prophetic revelation given to Margaret MacDonald, one of Irvings's disciples.

Corroborating evidence can be found in the division the doctrine caused among dispensationalists between pre-tribulationists and post-tribulationists at the Niagara Prophecy Conferences from about 1884.

The 'Rapture-Rupture' essentially had Robert Cameron, Nathaniel West, and later W. R. Erdman, holding for a 'Rapture' at the very end of the age. They were to be supported by W. G. Moorehead of Xenia Theological Seminary. An apparent majority of the Niagarans, including Brookes, Scofield, Gaebelein, Parson, Gordon and George Needham, were holding for what has become the traditional pretribulation view.

Gaebelein, writing some fifty years later about the Scofield Reference Bible, looked back at the Niagara Conferences and linked the controversy to Irving.

Toward the end of the Niagara meetings several of the teachers, influenced by one man, who was considered an outstanding biblical and ecclesiastical scholar (as he undoubtedly was), began to abandon this distinction and branded it as mere invention. One of them went so far as to say that the teaching that the Lord would remove His true Church before the predicted Great Tribulation judgment, and that so far as His coming for His saints is concerned that it might occur at any moment, originated in the days of Edward Irving and his spurious gift of tongues revival. And so the blessed hope of the imminent coming of the Lord was more or less charged to the influence of subtle demons.

Gaebelein may have merely been repeating the position known to be held by Darby via Scofield concerning Irving's later eccentricities. Despite the obvious influence Darby and Irving had upon one another in the early days of the Prophecy Conferences at Albury and Powerscourt, Darby eventually disassociated himself from the fanciful prophecies of the Irvingites and the Catholic Apostolic Church. Scofield himself denied that Irving was the source of this doctrine. Responding to criticisms from a former colleague at the Niagara Conference, and following its demise over infighting over the 'rapture' he wrote an anonymous editorial in Our Hope in 1902,

We cannot, however, in the interests of truth, allow the statement to stand that 'until the days of Edward Irving, who was excluded from the Presbyterian Church for heresy, no one ever heard of this 'coming for' and 'coming with his saints.'' As a matter of fact, Irving was excluded, not for heresy in doctrine, but for his view on church order... If the editor of the Watchword and Truth will turn to Zechariah 14:4,5, he will learn of a statement concerning the coming with which considerably antedates Edward Irving... And if, further, he will turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, he will find a revelation concerning the 'coming for His saints' later indeed than Zechariah by six hundred years, but still about eighteen hundred years before Edward Irving.23

As late as 1976 Walvoord was still anxious to distance the origin of the doctrine of the Rapture from Irving.

The often-repeated charge that Darby secured his pretribulationism from Edward Irving has never been actually documented. One can hardly account for the wide acceptance of pretribulationism by Plymouth Brethren, who are devoted students of the bible, to the offering of this view by a person who had no reputation for orthodoxy.

Canfield notes that Walvoord's position contradicts several British historians who were closer to the issue.

Neatby, writing in 1901, Howard Rowden in 1967, F. Roy Coad in 1968 and Iain Murray in 1971, all find direct and reasonable links between the ideas of irving and the role of J. N. Darby. The link is so evident that a denial, using semantics on Walvoord's part, does not 'wash'.

(Found here)

For more on Margaret MasDOnald adn this issue see her WIkiperdia entry here.

Bragg The Rapture

I'm a little behind at present with some things. Melvyn Bragg's In our time is up and runing again on Radio 4 and at the end of last month they had a programme on The Rapture with Crawford Gribben and two other academics. You can currently access it here. The programme was very informative, although there is one thing I must chase up that I read in Arnold Dallimore's biography of Edward Irving - that the idea of a secret rapture began with a young girl in Scotland, a disicple of Irving, who began to have ecstatic visions. It was only a45 minute programme.

10 Shortest verses in the New Testament

1. John 11:35 – “Jesus wept.” (2 words, 9 letters)
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 – “Rejoice evermore.” (2 words, 15 letters: shorter than the first in Greek)
3. Luke 17:32 – “Remember Lot’s wife.” (3 words)
4. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – “Pray without ceasing.” (3 words)
5. 1 Thessalonians 5:20 – “Despise not prophesyings.” (3 words)
6. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 – “Quench not the Spirit.” (4 words)
7. 1 Thessalonians 5:25 – “Brethren, pray for us.” (4 words)
8. Hebrews 13:1 - "Let brotherly love continue" (4 words)
9. 2 Corinthians 13:13 -  "All the saints salute you" (5 words)
10. Mark 4:14 - The sower soweth the word. (5 words)

Also John 6:48: I am that bread of life. (6 words but less letters than number ten)

Luke 20:30 - "The second" in modern versions (2 words and so actually the shortest)

Lord's Day at Pains Hill October 27 2019

I was at Pains Hill Chapel in Surrey yesterday. Numbers were just inside or outside single figures but people listened well and there were almost as many in the evening as in the morning. I preached on love and peace from 1 John 4:16 and Isaiah 26:3, 4. I had a very pleasant afternoon with one of the couples from the church and it was good to catch up with an old college friend. One wishes churches like this were growing but that is hardly the case at the moment - and not for the lack of trying. Who know what might be ahead. One can imagine a slow demise but then it is not ificult to imagine it taking off if God should come with power. Faithfulness is important.

GBM Annual Meetings 2019

It was good last Saturday to be at the GBM Annual Meetings in the Friends Meeting House once again. Things appear to be on a  better financial footing in some ways than the last time I was present thanks to some hard decisions and sacrifices. Communications man Jim Sayers leaves at the end if the year and no replacement has been found which is also a matter of concern. After the delegates meeting and some lunch I attended first a session with Theo and Sonia Donner. Theo continues to lecture at the seminary in Medellin and is currently in the process of getting a large book on hermeneutics in Spanish published. This was followed by a session with Andrzej Kampcinski who works pastoring a small church in Legionowo just outside Warsaw, Poland. This was led by Graham Field the current president.

I then attended a very full session that featured the new work the Murfitts plan to do in Madeira, the ongoing work of James Hammond in Bordeaux and the seminary in Zambia, something about the radio work and envision teams and a local church feature on giving and evangelising ethnically diverse neighbours.

By this time my brain was bursting so I decideed to skip the final session where Theo Donner was preaching and no doubt more info was shared by people from W Africa, Peru,, etc.

The sheer size and diversity of what is going on is striking. One inevitably wonders about some things but this does seem a much better way of doing mission than much that is onoffer

Great to see many familiar faces and one or two new ones.

Focus Under the Bridge

I have been to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's ground, more than once but I had not really noticed that under the East stadium near the Shed end there is a venue called Under the Bridge. Last Friday night I and a ministerial friend (who I convinced about Focus last time they were in town) were among a couple of hundred squeezed into this state of the art setting. (A light show is a rare treat at a Focus gig but appreciated - I think the visuals man must have a sense of humour as we had a picture of crocuses as we started on Hocus Pocus or as Jan Akkerman would surely have rechristiened it Focus crocus!). We caught most of Chantel McGregor's set which was of a high standard. She plays guitar and sings with a bass and drums rhythm section. Of course, once Focus stepped on stage were into a whole new zone with each member of the band making a solid contribution that was rewarded with a solo slot for for each - more in some cases. Van Leer was on form with the complete array of two kinds of flute, organ, melodica, scat, whistling, throat singing, lots of vocoder and a brief vocal on the opening song.

The set list began as usual with some very early stuff - Focus 1, a little Anonymus and House of the King. We then had a version of Eruption, good but not outstanding on this occasion I thought. We then moved on to some more recent stuff - Winnie and the simple but effective All hands on deck with the essential Sylvia in the middle.

We then had some songs rarely heard, if ever - Focus 4 (!) from Mother Focus and Focus 6 which has never appeared on a Focus album (I can only find it on a van Leer solo album. You can hear a recent live version here.). Between these we had Who's calling? originally on the Akkerman van Leer Focus collaboration of 1985 but recently revived on the Focus 11 album. Staying with 1985 material we then had a very fine version of Le Tango with melodics, whistling, etc. Before tackling that Thijs remarked on the presence in the audience of former wife Roselie Peters who wrote lyrics for  this and other songs. We then had two numbers from Hamburger Concerto regularly played back to back La Cathedrale and Harem Scarem. In the second, van Leer takes opportunity to make himself scarce. So we had solos from Menno Gootjes and Udo Pannekeet on six string bass. Van der Linden had had one in Eruption and was to get another very full one on the penultimate track.

The set of over two amazing hours (no-one in the band showing any signs of tiring) closed with the usual Hocus Pocus and then slightly over they plumped for Focus 2 (rather than Focus 3) as the closer. Stupendous stuff.

There was an opportunity to meet the band but there was a rather long queue and so we decided to head off.

Midweek Meetings 16 and 23 October 2019

I am falling down on reporting our midweek meetings it seems. The two meetings were quite different in that the second fell in half term and so it was a different set of people at the two meetings. We were seven on the 23rd and a similar number on the 16thif I remember correctly. We follow the same format each week - a hymn, prayer and reading reading, address, prayer point gathering, time of prayer and the benediction said together. We sit in a circle. At both meetings I was speaking from Haggai. I tried to be interactive both times. In the one on the 23rd I probably should have taken a little less (I went all the way from 2:10 to the end). Nobody seemed to mind that the meeting went on a little longer. It is always good to pray.

Day off week 43 2019

I did one or two other things but the main things yesterday trying to read a new book on Athanasius by Peter Barnes (not very much progress there) and, in the evening, going to see the film about Judy Garland, Judy, with Eleri. Judy Garland is very much my mum and dad's era but her life is a real draw and this performance by Renee Zellweger was pretty amazing. The child star who lives a rotten life despite immense talent is almost a cliche but it is still moving to see just how that worked out in one tragic and all too short life. As with the recent Laurel and Hardy film the picture takes place mostly in Britain, this time in London, where Bernard Delfont  (yes, him again) has arranged for Judy to perform at the Talk of the Town, which she does for money with only one or two wobbles. The childhood info is passed on via flashbacks. Judging by the size of cinema we were in the film has been out a few weeks now but I like to avoid spoilers as I can. So suffice to say that the film end on quite an emotional high,as films ideally should. It is hard to be sure what might have been done to make poor Judy's life a better one unless she had lived a much more ordinary life.

The Warlock of Love

Desire is a strange thing. In 2 Samuel 13 we read of Amnon that first he fell in love with his half sister Tamar but that after he had raped her he hated her with intense hatred. Having given in to an inordinate desire he then feels an opposite emotion - hatred.

Normally, the desire is not so strong and so the reaction is not so strong either. When I was a student I used to see copies of Tabletalk magazine produced by Ligonier around and it seemed to me to be very desirable but when I investigated costs it was quite expensive having to come from America. As a poor student, I could not afford it. When I became a minister and was as rich as I had ever been I rather forgot about Tabletalk. Now I am sixty and Ligonier are giving us free copies. Somehow I am not that excited.

Some while ago I tracked down a copy of Archie and the Strict Baptists. I had seen a copy again as a student and tried to find one from time to time. When I eventually tracked one down at a price I was happy to pay and I enjoyed reading it again.

Last week another book from my teenage years arrived at my door. This time I had never seen a copy but was aware of it and knew it was one of the best selling poetry books of 1970. It has rarely been reprinted and so when I have looked for a copy the price has been exorbitant. This year it has been printed once again and so I bought a copy, The book is Marc Bolan's Warlock of Love. The new edition comes with a nice CD of four songs and one poem in mono. As for the poems themselves, well I might have got mildly excited years ago but not today really. So there it sits as I try and get something out of it.

The vanquished sun

Is like the withered yolk

Of a weathered egg.

Last Things First

Back up to the Pastors' Academy today for the latest meeting of the reading group. The book was J V Fesko's Last things first. The book basically says let's forget the arguments over creation (paradovically doing more to inflame them rather than dampen them down) and let's see what we can learn about exchatology and the sweep of Scripture. He looks at Man in the Image of God, the Garden-Temple of Eden (ala Greg Beale), the Covenant of Works (Which is how he understandds Adam in the Garden), shadows & types of the Second Adam, the Work of the Second Adam and the Sabbath. Seven of us were present including a lady from East London there for the first time. We weregerally happy with Fesko without accepting every jot and tittle. Keith Holmes led us. Next time we will go for Craig Carter's Interpreting Scripture with the Great Tradition: Recovering the Genius of Premodern Exegesis.

Wales reach semi-final

Despite appearances I am not unaware of Wales's porgress in the World Cup.

Sadly most of the games have been and, if successful will be, on a Sunday.

They appear to have made hard work of beating France but a win is a win.