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The Bulwark Magazine of the Scottish Reformation Society APRIL - JUNE 2017 // £2 April - June 2017 1 The Bulwark PROBLEMS CONFRONTING THE CHUrch Magazine of the Scottish Reformation Society The Magdalen Chapel 41 Cowgate, Edinburgh, EH1 1JR Tel: 0131 220 1450 8 Email: [email protected] www.scottishreformationsociety.org Registered charity: SC007755 Chairman Committee Members » Rev Dr S James Millar THE LOW STATE » Rev Maurice Roberts Vice-Chairman » Rev Kenneth Macdonald » Mr Allan McCulloch OF THE MINISTRY » Rev Alasdair Macleod Secretary » Rev Douglas Somerset » Mr Matthew Vogan Treasurer John J Murray » Rev Andrew Coghill This is the eighth of a series of articles by Mr Murray on the subject ‘Problems confronting the Church’. CO-OPERATION OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY In pursuance of its objects, the Society may co- (a) To propagate the evangelical Protestant faith and those principles held in common by operate with Churches and with other Societies In seeking to deal with problems confronting decadent periods and eras in the history those Churches and organisations adhering to whose objects are in harmony with its own. the Reformation; the Church today, we come to consider the of the Church have always been those low state of the ministry as it affects the periods when preaching had declined? Magazine Editor: Rev Douglas Somerset (b) To diffuse sound and Scriptural teaching on condition of the Church. What is it that always heralded the dawn All literary contributions, books for review and the distinctive tenets of Protestantism and of a Reformation or Revival? It is renewed papers, should be sent to: Roman Catholicism; I. THE CONNECTION STATED preaching. Not only a new interest in The Magdalen Chapel There is abundant evidence that the preaching, but a new kind of preaching. (c) To carry on missionary work among 41 Cowgate, Edinburgh condition of the Church in any age is related A revival of true preaching has always adherents of the latter faith with a view to EH1 1JR to the state of the Christian ministry at the heralded these great movements in the winning them to the doctrines of grace and to [email protected] the fellowship of the true Gospel; time. Richard Baxter (1615-91), whose history of the Church” (Preaching and ministry transformed the face of the town Preachers, p. 24). The views expressed in articles are those of (d) To produce and distribute evangelistic, of Kidderminster, said: “If God would but the contributor and may not necessarily reflect religious and other literature in connection with reform the ministry and set them on their II. CONFIRMED FROM HISTORY those of the Editor or the Committee of the the promotion of the Protestant religion; duties zealously and faithfully, the people Iain Murray, in his book Pentecost Today?, Society. Scriptural references are from the A.V. would certainly be reformed. All churches observes the connection between (e) To promote the associating together of men either rise or fall as the ministry doth rise preaching and revivals: “The New except where stated otherwise. and women, and especially young people, or fall, (not in riches or worldly grandeur), Testament shows that the times which for systematic Bible Study and holding of Unattributed material is by the Editor. meetings for the above specified purposes. but in knowledge, zeal and ability for their saw great ingatherings of people into the work” (The Reformed Pastor). Dr Martyn kingdom of God were always times when Lloyd-Jones made a similar observation the Word of God was being preached in DESIGNED & PRINTED BY: in his day: “Is it not clear as you take a the power of the Holy Spirit. This was the www.peppercollective.com bird’s eye view of Church history, that the pattern in Jerusalem, Samaria, Antioch, Tel:028 9851 2233 2 The Bulwark April - June 2017 3 Iconium, Thessalonica and Corinth. It of doctrine, and boldness in reproving of has been equally true in subsequent wickedness” (quoted in W.G. Blaikie, The history...when spiritual awakening came Preachers of Scotland, 2001, p. 60). It was it coincided, as in apostolic times, with a when Knox began to blow his Master’s change which was first seen in preachers” trumpet that things began to change. The (p. 80). This was evident in Baxter’s Puritan country was transformed. He was followed England. How was Puritanism, which was by ministers of immense spiritual power – nothing short of “a movement of revival”, Craig, Lawson, Rollock, Bruce, Welsh and established in that country? When attempts others. The Covenanting period produced to reform the Church of England collapsed some of the finest of preachers with spiritual in the late sixteenth century, the growth of power that Scotland has seen. spiritual life and reformed teaching came by means of an army of preachers – “the III. DECLINE IN THE MINISTRY Puritan Brotherhood”. It was the preaching Although the ministry was at a low ebb at of such men that transformed the face of different periods in Church history it is our England. Young preachers learned the concern here to examine the decline that model of ministry even before they went led to the condition that prevails in the Robert Murray M‘Cheyne Jonathan Edwards for academic training. The ministries present day. of Thomas Taylor at Reading, Richard 1. Uncalled ministers and false teachers. the “Higher Critical” movement. Equipping Greenham at Dry Drayton, and Richard This can be traced back to the second half The shift in religious belief lead to the men as preachers was set aside. In Rogers at Wethersfield, were breeding of the nineteenth century with the departure multiplication of uncalled men and false London C.H. Spurgeon set up the Pastors grounds for godly preachers. These were from belief in the infallibility of Scripture and teachers in the Church. In his day C.H. College in 1856. The prospectus bore men who lived in the presence of God and in the realities of the eternal world. The Spurgeon spoke of the fact “that hundreds these words: “Men of uncertain views whose preaching was aimed in particular at change was precipitated by the acceptance have missed their way and stumbled need not apply.” Spurgeon was filled with the conscience. of Darwin’s theory of evolution and of the against the pulpit.” It could be said of such: concern with what was happening in Higher Criticism that originated in Germany. “I have not sent these prophets, yet they theological colleges in England, but also in Special eras in Scotland have been These views cast doubt upon the Genesis ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they Scotland. Writing in 1889, he pointed to the ushered in by preaching that has affected account of creation and therefore upon the prophesied” (Jer. 23:21). “An unconverted folly of the Free Church of Scotland: “The whole communities and even the national authenticity of the Pentateuch. There was ministry”, said Jonathan Edwards, “and Church in which we all gloried, as sound in character. Before the Reformation an undermining of belief in the inerrancy unconverted membership are the devil’s the faith, and full of the martyrs’ spirit, has both Church and state were steeped and authority of Scripture. Horatius Bonar chief weapons to oppose the work of God.” entrusted the training of its future ministers in corruption. The clergy were largely (1805-1889) summed up the situation in The extent to which such men can deceive to two professors who hold other doctrines ignorant and immoral and there was 1883: “Man is now thinking out a Bible themselves and others was revealed by than that of its Confession. This is the most virtually no preaching throughout the for himself, framing a religion in harmony our Lord: “Many will say unto me in that suicidal act that a Church can commit.” land. The proverb “like priest, like people” with the development of liberal thought; day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in was abundantly verified. The Reformation constructing a worship on the principles thy name? and in thy name have cast out 3. A man-centred message. Alongside the replaced the altar with the pulpit as the of taste and culture, shaping a god to suit devils? and in thy name have done many liberalism that was affecting the Church in focal point of worship. Early preachers like the expanding aspirations of the age.” wonderful works?” (Matt. 7:21-23). general, there came in an Arminian teaching Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart were The message of Christianity came to be that shifted the emphasis of the gospel followed by the mighty John Knox, who harmonised with the religious aspirations 2. Emphasis on the latest scholarship. message from God and his glory to man was described as: “a man of God, the light of man rather than with concern for the Another factor that led to the decline in and his need. Preachers missed the great of Scotland, the comfort of the Church, the glory of God. The implications of this had ministry was the clamour for intellectual and end of the gospel which is to exalt God and mirror of godliness, and the pattern of all a gradual impact on the ministry as can be scholarly respectability. Theological colleges to humble man. Cotton Mather defined it in true ministers in purity of life, soundness seen in the trends that developed. began to embrace the latest scholarship of this way: “The great design and intention 4 The Bulwark April - June 2017 5 IV. THE RECOVERY NEEDED of Jonathan Edwards, Iain Murray observes If we wish to see a change in the condition how foolish it is to think that what we need of the Church in our day then we need today is “Edwards’ sermons in modern to ponder the words of the great Puritan, dress”.

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