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January, 1957. Austin-Sparks.Net - AWAT Volume 35 - Searchable Austin-Sparks.Net - AWAT Volume 35 - Searchable January, 1957. Austin-Sparks.Net - AWAT Volume 35 - Searchable THIS MINISTRY THE OBJECT OF THE MINISTRY of this little paper, issued bi-monthly, is to contribute to the Divine end which is presented in the words of Ephesians iv. 13—".. till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge (literally —full knowledge) of the Son of God, unto a full- grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we be no longer children..." It is not connected with any ' Movement ' Organization', ' Mission * or separate body of Christians, but is just a ministry to " all saints Its going forth is with the prayer and hope that it will so result in a fuller measure of Christ, a richer and higher level of spiritual life, that, while bringing the Church of God into a growing approximation to His revealed will as to its ' attainment', it may be better qualified to be used of Him in testimony in the nations, and to the completing of its own number by the salvation of those yet to be added by the Lord. This ministry is maintained by the Lord through the stewardship of those who value it There is no ' subscription', bat gifts can be sent to the Editor, 'A Witness and A Testimony', 13, Honor Oak Road, Forest Hill, London, S. E. 23, England. All cheques should be made payable to ' Witness and Testimony A/c\ The paper is sent only to those who personally desire it, and we count on friends to advise us if this is no longer the case, or if they change their address. 'Personal' letters should be addressed to Mr. T. AUSTIN-SPARKS. Austin-Sparks.Net - AWAT Volume 35 - Searchable JANUARY —FEBRUARY, 1957. Vol. 35. No. 1. CONTENTS EDITORIAL 1 THE BED OF THE MAN OF GOD 12 THE JOY OF THE LORD THE ISRAEL OF GOD (i) 15 IS YOUR STRENGTH 4 FAITH UNTO ENLARGEMENT THROUGH FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 19 ADVERSITY (IV) 7 A MESSAGE FOR THE HOUR 21 A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF A SHORT LIFE 23 EDITORIAL ONE of the greatest needs of our time is to One of these is a wholly objective approach to plough our way down through the heavy and Christian truth. tangled growth of Christian doctrines to the virgin There are two aspects of this. soil of spiritual life and reality. A master-stroke of the great subverter, in his purpose to neutralise (a) The exhausting of truth as such, so that a spiritual effectiveness against his kingdom, has state of saturation and finality is reached, and the been the resolving of Christianity into an endless whole matter is reduced to the best text-book, system or series of doctrines, most of them in con• manual, ' authority' or ' classic ' on the subject. flict with each other. By these Christianity has been Book succeeds book, and the matter is covered, crippled and frustrated, turned in on itself, and a embodied and compassed in a library. state of civil (or uncivil) war has been created. Do you want to know what is the fullest pre• The Church cannot move, as an integrated and sentation of any given ' truth'? So-and-so and single-fronted body, against a very powerful and such-and-such is the answer. It is in book form. wily foe, because it does not believe together; That is ' the last word '. If someone has something its mind is divided into so many conflicting ' fresh ' or ' original' or a bit off the beaten and interpretations. well-worn track, he is either suspect or creates a This means that authority has almost entirely vogue which obtains for a time and then falls into disappeared. Men have repeatedly tried to correct line or passes out. Generally, that sort of thing is this by forming creeds, confessions of faith, princi• just not allowed. ples and practice, etc., but these only serve to form (b) But an even deeper and more serious aspect groups, widen breaches, harden antagonisms, of this objective approach is the immense cleavage create superiorities, and foster complacencies; between the verbal statement of truth and the in• they never solve the problem of spiritual divided- ward illumination. ness. They engender suspicion, breathe an atmo• Here traditional, spiritual Christianity is in sphere of fear, and stimulate a mentality of heresy. violent dividedness, bitter conflict, and complete All this is due to certain fundamental weak• confusion. In this dividedness an extreme position nesses and defectivenesses in Christian life. is taken by one side. The Bible says so-and-so. It 1 Austin-Sparks.Net - AWAT Volume 35 - Searchable A WITNESS AND A TESTIMONY just says that, in actual words. Unless it is obvious• the case, it would be hard to believe that many ly and unmistakably parable, simile, symbol, alle• Christians, and among them leaders, do take such gory, or figure, it must be taken just as it stands. a position. To such it is heresy to speak of fuller All that it means is on the surface of the simple light, illumination or ' revelation' as to what the verbal expression. There is no place or allowance Scriptures contain or mean. Such people forbid for any interpretation, deeper, fuller, or other any ' experience' based upon such illumination, meaning than that which is conveyed by the words but what a static and coldly legal Christian life themselves. In the realm where this is the begin• theirs must be! We do not overlook a much more ning and end of the whole matter, positively no thoroughgoing ' study' of Scripture, with ' aids ' place is allowed for any fuller light, other meaning, and comparings, but whether it be little or much, or clearer understanding. As a consequence of this the ultimate issue is the difference between an in• rigid attitude no new experience of fuller or clearer tellectual approach and Holy Spirit enlightenment. illumination is tolerated, but is at once written off Well, with the fullest recognition of the perils of as dangerous. any position carried to an extreme, one way or the We know of a ' Faith Mission' (so-called) which other, we are compelled to face some facts. These demanded the resignation of any of its missionaries lie in two directions: (a) in the Bible itself ; (b) in or staff who claimed to have any new experience the history of God's ways since. But before we do based upon a new revelation of Christian truth. In this let us say that we know how impossible it is this way it is trying to safeguard itself against for us to resolve by argument the problem with certain ' isms'. which we commenced this editorial. We shall come It is true that the Scriptures themselves forbid to the true solution presently. ' private interpretations', ' wresting the Scrip• The outstanding illustration and example of the tures ', " handling the word of God deceitfully ". defectiveness of holding the verbal presentation of It is also true that a very different and much better Scripture without spiritual illumination is surely situation would exist in Christianity if Christians Israel. took more careful note of, and gave more implicit The Hebrew Prophets are just full of this obedience to, just what the Scriptures say. We are failure ; indeed, it might be said that this is both often shocked and appalled that Christians who the heart and the sum of their ministry. This long have the Bible can so easily violate its so clearly history headed up to and became the root-cause of stated injunctions. If the Bible is read at all by the crucifying of Jesus. It was this ' blindness' vast numbers of Christians it surely is read far too that He was encountering all the days of His objectively! ministry. It is a searching and challenging state• But, given that there should be a meticulous ment, with extended significance, that— observance of the letter of the Word, is that all? " They that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, Of course we have no sympathy with any posi• because they knew . not . the voices of the tion that is above the Word. If, for instance, the prophets which are read every sabbath, fulfilled Bible says that ' if a man does not work he shall them by condemning him . and .. asked . .. of not eat', there is no spiritual getting round that by Pilate that he should be slain" (Acts xiii. 27, 28). an able-bodied person. That must be taken liter• ally ! It is dangerous and pernicious to be ' spirit• Then to take another instance. This holding of ually ' above the clear statements of God's Word, the Scriptures without inner illumination was the just as much as to ignore them. Many have their explanation of the breakdown, scattering, offence, spiritual life strangled, thwarted, arrested, limited, and disconsolateness of the disciples after the because they do not, or will not, obey the Lord in crucifixion. They had the Scriptures. Jesus did not some clear statement of His Word. give them the Bible as something of which they But when all that can be said along that line has had never heard. They knew their Bibles in an been said, is it not also a dangerous, harmful, and objective way. But it is a solemn fact that their mistaken thing to reduce the life of the child of kind of Bible knowledge did not mean anything to God to a merely mechanical, automatic,' penny-in- them in the day of the fiery ordeal. " Selah "— the-slot' kind of thing? That is, to exclude the think of that! possibility that the Scriptures—in whole or part— See the two representatives of the rest on the have a meaning which is either more or other than Emmaus road.
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