Thread by @SandmanGrant

#gafcon23 Day 3 started with one of the great hymns, and here’s a sample… I reckon we sung the chorus another dozen times too. How Great Thou Art, God, How Great Thou Art!

Today’s keynote sermon - Colossians 1:28-2:23 - is delivered by James Wong, Archbishop of the Indian Ocean, on the 40th anniversary - to the day - of his ordination.

Archbishop Wong notes that the Colossians church was struggling with some kind of gnostic thinking - asserting possession of secret knowledge hidden from ordinary Christians and question deity of Christ. He sees parallels in those who question whether the Bible is fully divine.

But in Christ, we have all we need - he is fully divine as well as fully human.

And similarly, the Archbishop notes, but contrary to those who no longer call it the holy word of God, the Scriptures are fully divine.

Archbishop Wong also underlines the need for unity as orthodox Anglicans as we face challenges in the fully sufficient truth of Jesus. I think he was especially alluding to these verses…

Rather than hollow & deceptive philosophy (v8), we must stick with Jesus (vv6-7): “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Archbishop Wong stresses that the word “receive” in this verse refers to something delivered by fixed tradition… In this case the true word of the gospel that they received from Epaphras.

And that although “rooted”and “established” mixed metaphors of agriculture and construction, the meaning was clear: we must established in the faith of that word - Jesus as Lord - and keep growing in it.

Thanks Archbishop Wong!

The next session features Rico Tice of @CE_Ministries and Richard Bourgonon of @theword121…

Who does the work of evangelism? 1. Satan works against it. 2. We work as servants. 3. But God actually opens blind eyes.

And how? Renouncing distortion (so don’t avoid wrath and repentance), by open statement of truth (2 Cor 2:2). With prayer and patience - since people are blinded and only God can open their eyes (v3, v6). As servants - we are not the message or the heroes (v5)!

Lovely to see Rico - as the author of a great course ‘Christianity Explored’ - commending ‘The Word 1-1’ - another’s resource - even more highly, as a very up-to-date and accessible resource for ordinary people to be involved in sharing our faith…

theword121.com

Post pandemic, people are more open than we realise, and the 1-1 approach can also be used online, and God’s Word, in this case, John’s Gospel, is powerful. And the method can be taken realistically into every day life.

Here’s the app version to help get the word of God into the hand of ordinary people to get them and their friends focussing on the word and not on our experiences…

https://twitter.com/theword121/status/1641406193464668167

Richard says some people say he could talk competitively for England, but he shares encouraging stories of the Word 1-1 being simple enough for 13 year olds and 90 year olds, and even archbishops to use!

Rico gets his chance to talk about Christianity Explored based on Mark’s Gospel answering three questions… 1 Who is Jesus? 2. Why did he come? 3. What does it mean to follow him? Identity, mission and call!

My seminar was by @SamAllberry - ‘Glorify God with your body’… a common thread in many modern controversies impacting the church is the lack of a theology of the body and its place, meaning, and significance.

Sam ranges across the Scriptures but indicates 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 is foundational. And the essence of his talk: The body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body!

The body is a gift, Psalm 139:13-14… knitting >>> hand-crafted, not mass produced, let alone an accident.

So human life has great worth and dignity. Hence Christians are opposed to abortion, abuse, domestic violence, human trafficking, language that demeans, and euthanasia. And we love healing the sick, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, because physical life is precious.

And Genesis 1:26-27 indicates the body is sexual - created male & female. So your body determines your sexual identity. Gender is embodied, not psychologically determined. And gender is twofold. Jesus affirms this in the post-fall world, Matthew 19:3-12, even with its complexity.

The most loving man who ever walked the earth expressed this view of marriage as for one man and one woman for life. For those who disagree, the problem is not with the church or Christians but with Jesus. To change our mind on marriage, you’d have to change our mind on Jesus.

No doubt much of what Sam shared can be seen at greater length in his book “What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves” published by @crossway… crossway.org/books/what-god…

There was a poignant question asked of Sam about whether it was ever right for a wife to seek for safety if her husband was violent. Sam replied that Christ is never cruel and would never hit us and it would not be loving to submit to such treatment in which the husband sins.

I was pleased to speak to the questioner afterwards and share the @SydAnglicans Doctrine Commission paper under the name of Dr Canon Mark Thompson, Principal of @MooreCollege on “The Use and Misuse of Scripture in regard to Domestic Abuse”

sds.asn.au/sites/default/…

As we review the next draft of the #Gafcon23 statement, it’s relevant to share a comment from Frederic Barker's 1877 Presidential Address to Synod, as the second Anglican Bishop of Sydney…

Barker was an advocate of an enduring link between the Church of England in England and the C of E in Australia. But he was not unaware of the growth of ritualism in the C of E back in England, and departures from the doctrine of the Articles and the Church’s formularies…

In 1877, almost as a 'thought experiment,' he addressed the unthinkable - what if the C of E itself departed from the faith, would that be sufficient reason for the Church in Australia to assert its independence?

Barker's words are poignant and prophetic:

“I have said …that in our present relation to the Church at home I see no hindrance whatever to the progress of the Church here. There is no want of freedom of action — there is no kind of good which a man may not do and find help in doing…

“and to speak of the Church in this colony as half-masted and ready to fall, is not a true representation of our state.
It is quite true that an occasion may arise for the exercise of our liberty of action…

“If it should, I trust not to be found backward in asserting our independence of a Church which had fallen from the faith…

“but so long as the Church of England remains what she is, I know no reason why we should act otherwise than as dutiful and loving members of a true branch of the one Catholic Church…

“If she, like the Churches of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria should apostatise from the true faith, she would leave us…

“If the Ritualism which infects a portion of the Church of England became its normal condition, and that which some are striving after, to substitute the mass for the communion, was effected, and formularies and articles were so interpreted and used as to legalise false doctrine,

“it would be time to assert our independence and to allow a body deeply tainted with Romish heresy to exclude us from its communion…

“I speak then, not because I apprehend that in my day at least, a course of this kind will be necessary, but to show that while I am anxious to retain our position as an integral portion of the Church of England, …

“I am not so wedded to that idea as to be unmindful of a necessity which may at some time arise, but which may God in His mercy avert.”

Barker Synod address extract ends.

Barker’s observation almost 150 years ago that if the Church of England “should apostatise from the true faith, SHE WOULD LEAVE US” (my emphasis) is prophetic for our time at #Gafcon23!

Evening session, Bishop Francis Karemera leads a report on #GAFCON work in East Africa: Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and more… Much appreciation expressed for George Whitefield College!

Prayers…
✅for more orthodox leaders in Tanzania;
✅for peaceful elections in Zimbabwe, for their church planting efforts, for partnership with campus ministries and the recruitment of ministry apprentices;

✅for new leaders for Mozambique, trained and deeply challenged to preach the gospel;
✅for solid ministry and theological education for the new Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of Zambia!

To explain his passion for evangelism, Rico Tice recalls the mission statement he was given by Bishop Frank Retief of Cape Town: “People without Christ go to hell”.

It’s therefore grievous to see the Church of England fail to proclaim “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Carl Trueman writes relevant to #Gafcon “The issue of our day is anthropology. What does it mean to be human, if it means anything at all? Does being human mean that there is a moral framework to which I must conform, lest I dehumanize myself and others?” firstthings.com/web-exclusives…

Night 3 of #gafcon23 wraps up with a report from the Asia- Pacific and featuring new GAFCON Anglican jurisdictions:
- the Church of Confessing Anglicans - Aotearoa NZ confessinganglicans.nz and
- the Diocese of the Southern Cross - Australia scd.org.au

Well done if you’ve made it this far. Good night from Rwanda!

@threadreaderapp please unroll.