AMBER - BIBLE-SATURATED
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Why does AMBER exist? We exist because we long for a growing unity within our Canadian Baptist churches, in pursuit of renewal and revival - a unity that is, intentionally WORD SATURATED.
This is a tremendously exciting time to be involved in ministry. “The darker the night, the brighter shines the light.” And the ‘night’ in our present society - is quite dark, indeed.
Sitting around the dinner table, the other week, with the whole family. My youngest son’s fiancee (in her mid ‘20s) mentioned that her workmates think that having children is damaging to the environment. My instinctive response to her, ‘So, who do they think is going to support them in their old age?’
“Most of them don’t expect to live that long.” My son immediately piped up, “So many people our age don’t expect to get old … they don’t want to … they don’t see the point.”
Sad, but it fits with the statistics I’ve come across recently: CDC in the States - Fifty-seven percent of teen girls feel persistently sad and hopeless, according to a new study conducted by the CDC. That’s a rate double that of boys … and it’s an increase of almost 60 percent in just the past 10 years. It also corresponds with an equally worrisome trend of suicidal ideation among this demographic. According to this study, fully ONE THIRD of teenage girls considered killing themselves in 2021.
That’s where the Christian Church comes in - There is no message of salvation hope anywhere else: Not in environmentalism as religion, not in social justice as religion. THIS IS OUR TIME -- time for the Good News of the finished, saving work of Jesus Christ to fall like showers on parched ground.
But the effectiveness of the Gospel isn’t automatic - the 2 largest Protestant denominations in Canada are in free-fall.
According to a report by Global News, last year - In the case of one denomination (United Church) - it has been in a state of decline for decades and one of its churches is closing every week, across Canada. In thecase of the other denomination - it’s own statistics and research officer predicts that, unless something drastic happens to change the current trajectory, the denomination will run out of members completely by 2040.
I would suggest that it’s no coincidence that, in many ways, faithfulness to the Whole Counsel of God, in Scripture, is no longer the driving force in these denominations. One of the denominations has an excellent statement of faith - very strong on Scripture … but that statement clearly isn’t enough. I don’t personally know of any church that would say, ‘We don’t care about the Bible’.
The question is, ‘What does it mean to be Biblical?’ What authoritative role does the Bible play in the life of the church?’
From Satan, in the garden, beguiling Eve with the question, ‘Did God really say?’ … to Jesus, in the wilderness - all three temptations by Satan, centering on whether Christ would trust and live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God
… throughout Church history, the supreme attack of the world, the flesh and the devil against our maturity, has been an attack on the authority of God’s Word - that it’s not clear; that it’s not sufficient for my needs, today.
David Bebbington, the historian, lists 4 defining characteristics of Evangelicalism: 1) Conversionist; 2) Activist; 3) BIBLICIST - Bible-centric; and, 4) Cruci-centric (cross-centered). We, as Baptists, historically, have held Scripture as being of critical importance.
It’s no accident that the London Baptist Confession of 1689 begins with a chapter, NOT on God - that’s chapter 2. The first chapter of the confession is devoted to Scripture. Do you see why that’s significant? Because before we can study any other aspect of faith - we first need to know our authority.
That means our view of the Bible determines every part of our theology and world-view. We have to make a choice: Will we bring Scripture into our culturally-conditioned world-view and revise our faith in light of the philosophy of the day? OR, will we let the Bible be the interpretive framework - do we sit under the authority of the Bible, recognizing that it’s the very word of God … and allow God to confront and correct our worldview - our lives? The Bible’s testimony is that it is that Word from God that confronts and challenges our worldview. Just finished preaching a series of sermons through the OT book of Micah. Was struck afresh by the way the prophet of God speaks the Word of God INTO His culture - for the sake of transformation.
Michael Haykin, “When we look at revivals in the 18th century, when the Holy Spirit comes, He always comes as the Spirit of truth and there is a going back to Scripture and re-examining what we believe. There is a re-examining based on the Word of God, what we hold to be trueand invariably, times of revival are times of reformation … of doctrinal thinking on certain issues.
Haykin tells of a gathering of the history faculty at his school, where they were discussing the most significant event, that has happened, since the Reformation, to Western Christianity. He argues:
- It was the birth of the Modern Missionary movement, when 13 Baptist pastors, gathered in a small room in the fall of 1792, decided that they were going to send William Carey to India and start a Missionary Society. The most important event, since the Reformation, in Western Christianity. The forces unleashed in that decision have impacted, not only India, but the entire world and are still being felt today.
Most people are familiar with the name and reputation of William Carey … they tend to be much less familiar with the name of his friend and colleague in ministry, Andrew Fuller. That’s a shame because Fuller wasn’t just part of that original society - it’s secretary, there in that room - but he is considered to be the theological leader of the movement. In fact, he’sbeen called the greates original theologian among 18th century Baptists.
And one of THE main reasons there was a British Missionary Society is because Andrew Fuller changed his theology. He had been raised and even baptized in a hyper-Calvinist church that said, “God saves whom He will. So it isn’t proper to offer the gospel to just everyone - it’s an offer reserved for the elect.” Well, that certainly doesn’t give much of a motivation for evanglism, let alone foreign missions.
So how did Fuller change his mind? He changed his mind by his study of Scripture - comparing what he had been taught with what Scripture said and determining to allow the Word of God to confront, challenge and correct his worldview.
When the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, Baptists had been stagnant and in a state of decline in England for decades. They were dark days for the Baptists, even as the First Great Awakening had made a massive impact on England and other denominations. But it was when these men came together in Kettering, united by a commitment to the Word of God - and hearts determined to obey .... that’s when God moved.
If we are not united by the Word of God - what, really, do we have in common? What unites us?
What we are looking for is a fellowship of pastors and churches who will be united around the Scripture - who will recognize it as the very Word of God, who will sit under its authority and submit to it and live by its truth unreservedly, humbly depending on the Holy Spirit to guide