The Evangelical Presbyterian - January-February 2015

The Evangelical Presbyterian JAN-FEB 2015

W.P. Nicholson,God’sRough

Diamond


IN THIS ISSUE....

WebsiteFor more information on the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, including details of our various congregations, please visit our denominational website at www.epcni.org.uk

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Strapline‘Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est’ –the Reformed Church is always reforming

Editor

Gareth Burke 33, Onslow Gardens, BELFAST, BT6 0AQ

Phone: 07803 282489 Email: [email protected]

No secrets................................................

BBC Radio Ulster Broadcast..................

Natural Selection & Evolution................

Opening the archive................................

How can I pray for my church?..............

God’s rough diamond.............................

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Book Reviews

Colin Campbell Manager The Evangelical Book Shop BELFAST BT1 6DD

Phone 028 9032 0529 Email: [email protected] Website: www.evangelicalbookshop.co.uk

The Evangelical Presbyterian is published bimonthly by the Presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

The Evangelical Presbyterian JAN-FEB 2015 3

Youth Committee is seeking to appoint a

Voluntary Youth AdministratorAs directed by and in conjunction with the Youth Committee the Youth Administrator will have responsibility for the planning, preparation, organisation, delivery and evaluation of all areas of camp administration for both EPC summer camps and re-unions along with the administration for overseas outreach teams.

Please respond to Rev Robert Johnston at [email protected] by 28.02.2015For full job description visit www.epcni.org.uk/YAjobdescription.pdf

No Secrets!

Recently there has been a great deal of discussion taking place regarding our MLAs and the whole issue of expenses. Two BBC Spotlight programmes examined the expenses claims of numerous assembly members and declared that there were some dubious things happening at Stormont. Now, it’s not for me to comment on whether I think these allegations are correct or not, especially in the light of the fact that the police have now got involved in investigating the whole situation. However, the whole debate does raise an interesting issue – scrutiny. Would you like your life to be scrutinized? Would you like an investigator to look into your life and to examine how you have conducted yourself financially or otherwise? Have you any secrets that you would prefer others didn’t hear about?

Some years ago there was a popular TV programme entitled ‘This is your Life’. On the programme the lives of celebrities were revealed to all except that, from recollection, most of the lives were somewhat edited. Just the good bits were on display. Most of us could cope with that kind of presentation. However, a ‘warts and all’ presentation of who we are is something we would probably shrinkaway from.

The solemn thing is that the Bible tells us that on the day when Jesus comes again our lives are going to be laid bare in His presence and our words, actions and deeds fully revealed to others.In 1 Corinthians 4:5 we are told:

‘Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.’

As I consider that day – the day of Jesus’ return – I am immediately troubled. The pictures given to us in the Bible of what the Day will be like are simply frightening. However, that initial fear subsides when I remember that Jesus Christ, the Judge of all the earth, is my Saviour. I can contemplate the great Day of Judgement knowing that the One who will sit upon the throne on that day is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who in His life and death has dealt with all my sin. This comfort can also be yours if, by faith, you trust in Him as your Saviour.

F1RST WORD


The following sermon was preached by Rev. Gareth Burke during a BBC Radio Ulster broadcast service from Stranmillis church on Sunday 23rd November 2014.

Bible Passage: Matthew 13 v 24 – 30 and v 36 – 43

So – what were you doing yesterday afternoon? Often we have a Saturday afternoon routine. Something that we do every Saturday. Maybe you faithfully go to Solitude or Windsor Park or somewhere else - the Irish league is your thing on a Saturday. Perhaps you do some other sport like rugby or hockey. Or maybe you’re an armchair supporter and look forward to slumping onto the settee and watching one of the Premiership greats on the TV. Of course for those of us who support Leeds United such a luxury is not possible at present - well not until we return to the Premiership. Soon.Maybe shopping is your thing. Every Saturday you head to the shops with your mummy, your auntie or your friends and engage in some retail therapy. Got to confess that I’ve never found it very therapeutic but if it does it for you – fi ne.Others love the garden. They get a real buzz of getting out there for a couple of hours and have a great sense of satisfaction when they arrive in the house at tea time all caked in mud. I can’t see it myself. Now my father liked the gardening. He was into it. All year round. Roses and chrysanthemums were his speciality until he got his greenhouse and then the tomatoes took over.I don’t know what happened but I didn’t get the gardening gene. To me some of the things people get up to in the garden are just baffl ing. Take weeding. Whatever would possess you to go out and spend a good Saturday afternoon weeding? Now I have tried it. Like many things in life it’s a lot harder than it looks. I was plucking up all sorts of straggly green things which defi nitely looked like weeds, only to be told that they were plants that should not have been so prematurely uprooted. That was the end of the weeding.

In our Bible passage this morning - Matthew 13 – Jesus is speaking about weeding. That’s one of the great things about the sermons of Jesus – his illustrations are so down to earth. So ordinary. So normal.

Weeding - that’s his theme in Matthew 13. It’s a parable. One of those stories that Jesus told which we sometimes say are ‘earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.’ He tells a story but it’s more than a story. Jesus is teaching us something deep and important in the parables. That’s how it is with this parable - The parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.

Well, how will we unpack this story this morning?

Let’s go for a threefold approach.

1. Let’s consider the story – just take a look at the story itself.2. Let’s consider the question the disciples asked - they wanted to know what the story meant.3. Lets’ consider its relevance for us - that’s the amazing thing. It’s not just a great story which Jesus explained to his disciples a long time ago. But it’s for me and for you this morning. Jesus is speaking to us today.

1. THE STORY

There’s a farmer and he has a big farm. We know that he’s into farming in a big way because he has servants – farm workers - working with him on his farm. It’s time to sow some grain in his fi elds so out he goes and sows some wheat. All seems to be going well until one day his workers come in to see him and they are very agitated. They’ve been out to inspect the crop and it’s not looking good. No. In the fi eld they can see not only wheat growing up but also weeds.

The wheat and the weeds are growing up together. It’s not a good look. The fi eld should be full of ripening wheat but instead there are weeds everywhere.

The servants come up with an idea. They suggest that they will go weeding. They volunteer to weed! The idea is good and the motive excellent. It demonstrates that an obviously good relationship exists between the farmer and his workers.However the farmer isn’t for it. He reckons that if they go out and start weeding they’re going to do some damage. They’ll end up pulling up the wheat along with the weeds – the good crop will get destroyed in the process. This is good advice, for weed experts tell us that the particular weed that Jesus is speaking about here – the tare – had a tendency to go down quite deep into the soil and entwine itself fi rmly around the roots of other plants.

No, they must wait until the day of harvest. At harvest time they can go out and cut down everything. The weeds can be put into bundles and thrown into the fi re. The wheat can also be bundled and then stored away in the barn.

Now there is a slightly sinister element to this story that Jesus told. For the farmer explains that the reason all these weeds are found in the fi eld is simply because he has an enemy who has gone out at night time equipped with a wee bag of weed seed and he has deliberately scattered the weeds among the wheat. How shabby is that! Yet to my amazement, in reading up on this passage, I have discovered that such things still happen today. It seems that in rural parts if you’re niffed with your neighbour you might just head down to his fi eld and sow some weed seed on his land.

Well, that’s the story Jesus told.

But notice the question his disciples asked.

2. THE QUESTION

In verse 36 we read that “Jesus sent the multitudes away and went into the house. And his disciples came to Him, saying’ ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the fi eld.’”The disciples wanted to know what this was all about. They wanted an explanation. They wanted to clearly understand the spiritual signifi cance of what he is saying.

A FARMER SOWING

The farmer says Jesus is Me, the Son of Man. Jesus has come from heaven to earth and he’s out there sowing the good seed of the gospel. Now although Jesus is no longer with us on earth that good seed of the gospel is still being sown by those who are Christians. We are to take the good seed - the good news that Jesus saves - and to make it known to others.

Please remember the fi eld. Jesus said ‘the fi eld is the world’. We are to sow the good seed throughout the world. It’s a picture for us of the church, the people of God, following Jesus and reaching out with the gospel throughout the world.There’s nothing parochial about Jesus. So often we who live in Northern Ireland can be so turned in upon ourselves. Now don’t misunderstand me. I love this country. But let’s not forget that there’s a world out there. A world that needs you and me, if we are Christians, to go out with the good seed of the gospel.

“All very well,” you say. “But what does this mean in real terms?” You know, that’s a lovely expression – ‘go forth into the world with the good seed of the gospel’. But what exactly are you talking about? What does that mean in real terms?


Well, what I’m doing now – preaching – that’s sowing the good seed. As you pass on Christian literature to your friends and family - that’s sowing the good seed. As you speak to others about Jesus – that’s sowing the good seed.A farmer sowing.

But also notice here there’s wheat and weeds.

WHEAT and WEEDS

Interestingly there’s only wheat and weeds. There’s only the two things mentioned. Jesus is wonderfully black and white. In another place he speaks about sheep and goats. Sometimes he talks about the godly and the ungodly or the righteous and the unrighteous. He’s wonderfully black and white. What Jesus is saying is basically, when you boil it all down, that there’s only two types of people in the world. Those who have faith in him – the wheat - or those who do not – the weeds. Pretty solemn stuff. Wheat or weeds.

THE ENEMY

Then of course there’s the enemy. ‘The enemy’, says Jesus, ‘is the devil.’ Now, you might be amazed to hear that I believe in the devil But I do. Yes, I believe that those who are Christians are often troubled by the enemy – the devil. He’s real and he’s out there. I know that it’s not popular in 2014 to believe in Satan, the enemy of God’s people, but Jesus believed in him and taught us about him Indeed in Matthew chapter 4 we are told about Jesus in an eyeball to eyeball encounter with the devil in the wilderness. Make no mistake – he’s for real!

THE HARVEST

The harvest is when the wheat and the weeds are going to be separated into bundles and then stored in the barn or burned in the fi re. It’s a picture of the day of Christ’s return. On that great day when Jesus comes in his power and glory he’s going to separate all mankind into two groups – the wheat or the weeds. Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush here. Listen please, not to me, but to Jesus. He said, concerning his Second Coming:

‘ The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fi re. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.’

Of course that’s not all that he said.

For the wheat is bundled and brought into the barn – it’s a picture of you and me, if we have faith in Jesus, being gathered up on the day when he comes and Jesus bringing us into the glory of heaven. Moreover not only will we be brought into the glory of heaven but we’ll be given a new body to go with it.

Jesus again –

‘Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.’So there it is – the story and the question.But what does all this mean to you and me?

3. THE RELEVANCE

Allow me to ask three questions as we draw to a closethis morning

1. Are you sowing?

If you are a genuine Christian, if you’ve turned from your sin and you’re trusting in Jesus by faith then you’ve a responsibility to sow the good seed. You’ve got to take the good news of the gospel – the good news that Jesus saves – and share it with others. Jesus did it and he expects us to follow him. Don’t hold back. Get sowing. Speak to those around you – text, tweet – do whatever you do.Sow the good news.

Are you sowing?

2. Are you going?

Remember the fi eld. The fi eld represents the world. Jesus wants us to get out there – to go into all the world.

I’ve been greatly struck in recent times by the ministry of some folks who have taken early retirement and have gone out there to serve the Lord in mission situations. Maybe it’s something you’re thinking about doing – maybe you’re considering it even today.

Or perhaps retirement isn’t on your mind. You’re young – you’re in the fi nal year of your course at uni and you’re praying about the future. As you pray and seek counsel and look out into the future you are becoming increasingly convinced that the Lord wants you to serve Him overseas. You’re thinking of going. Well, don’t hold back - go - and may the Lord go with you.

Are you going?

3. Are you ready?

The harvest approaches. Jesus is coming. Now it mightn’t feel like that. Many days are humdrum and ordinary. One week gives way to the next. Nothing really seems to change. Yet the Bible is clear that one day, suddenly, the humdrum of life will end and Jesus will come. The harvest approaches.

We need to be ready for that day. We need to look to Jesus now – confessing our sin – we need to cry to him for forgiveness.

If we do our future is amazing. Just amazing. Glory. Perfection. That’s what’s ahead for those Jesus brings into his heavenly barn.

That’s our future if Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our Saviour

As we close let’s listen again to Jesus as he speaks of the day of his coming. He said:

‘The righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’

Amen.


There is much confusion and at times deception about how evolution is said to occur. Often this relates to what is called natural selection and the claim that it adequately explains how evolution has brought about the many life forms that exist in the world. Jerry Coyne, evolutionary Professor at the University of Chicago, has said “There is only one going theory of evolution, and it is this: organisms evolved gradually over time and split into different species, and the main engine of evolutionary change was natural selection. Sure, some details of these processes are unsettled, but there is no argument among biologists about the main claims.” But does this statement stand close scrutiny?

Distinguishing Terms Clearly.

The term “natural selection” is used in different ways which often results in confusion. One common definition can be used as an example “Natural selection is the process in nature by which, according to Darwin’s theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive. These transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.” When winter frosts come many of our garden plants will be killed, but some which we describe as ‘frost hardy’ will survive. Nature is said to be selecting out the best plants for a cold winter environment and eliminating those which do not have the qualities to survive freezing. Described in this way it seems that Nature has the ability to make intelligent choices regarding which plants should survive frost. However this is misleading as Nature has no ability to make intelligent decisions. In reality it is the genetic constitution which determines which plant will survive frost. There are numerous examples of natural selection. These include variation in coat length in animals which are adapted to tropical or cold environments; also coat colour and markings which enables an animal to be almost invisible e.g. leopards, and disease resistance in rabbits exposed to the deadly myxomatosis virus, when a few usually survive. However natural selection is not one-directional. The trend can be reversed when climatic conditions are changed as occurs frequently with the finches on the Galapagos Islands. Evolution requires change to be in one direction only for long term progress to be made. Natural selection is not the same thing as evolution and should not be confused with it. Sometimes the misnomer “micro evolution” is used to describe the common variations we see in nature which are not evolution. This needs always to be distinguished from “macro evolution” which is theorised as an explanation for the development of higher forms of life from a simple cell. Micro evolution is common but the evidence for macro evolution is non-existent.

Darwin did not discover Natural Selection

Many people mistakenly give credit to Charles Darwin for formulating the theory of natural selection as described in his book On the Origin of Species. Few realize that Darwin only popularized the idea and actually borrowed it from several other people, especially a creationist by the name of Edward Blyth. Blyth published several articles describing the process of natural selection in Magazine of Natural History between 1835 and 1837—a full 22 years before Darwin published his book. Darwin had copies of these magazines, and parts of On The Origin of Species are copied nearly verbatim from Blyth’s articles. Blyth, however, differed from Darwin in his starting assumptions. Blyth believed in God as the Creator, rather than the blind forces of nature. He believed that God created original kinds, that all modern species descended from those kinds, and that natural selection

acted by conserving rather than originating. Blyth also believed that man was a separate creation from animals. This is especially important since humans are made in the image of God, an attribute that cannot be applied to animals (Genesis 1:27). Blyth seemed to view natural selection as a mechanism designed directly or indirectly by God to allow His creation to survive in a post-Fall, post-Flood world. This is very different from Darwin’s view. Darwin wrote, “What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature.” He was referring to natural selection through which he thought the world of nature that he knew had evolved. A process that is “red in tooth and claw”. But he was mistaken.

Selection is also part of the relationship between man and animals. Farmers carefully select the parent breeding stock of each new generation of farm animals. Dog owners over many centuries have developed hundreds of different breeds ranging from the giant Great Dane to the tiny Chihuahua. This is called artificial selection and parallels what happens in nature. In every case selection is limited to the animals which already exist. As the name selection suggests it selects but does not create anything which does not already exist. This is where the claim that evolution occurs through natural selection is patently untrue. For evolution to result in the development of new types of creatures it is necessary for the creation of new genetic constitutions from which the bodies of the new creatures will be derived.

Natural selection cannot create new genetic constitutions.

It can only select the parents of the next generation from individuals which already exist. No matter how long dog breeders continue their selection process they will never succeed in creating a cat! No dog possesses the distinctive genes of a cat and the task of evolving a cat from a dog is therefore an impossible one. The same principle holds true for every attempt to explain how any creature has evolved from a different kind of one. Natural selection, no matter how long it is continued, can never be the mechanism by which one creature evolves into another.

There are changes to the genetic constitution which occur through mistakes in copying DNA called mutations. However their low frequency and undesirable effects rule them out from being the mechanism for evolutionary genetic change. Extreme selective pressures can often be responsible for the extinction of some creatures and many animals are on endangered species lists or have already become extinct. This is the reverse of what evolutionary theory requires. It is however totally in agreement with what Genesis teaches about a created world that was originally perfect and complete but has degenerated as a result of God’s curse due to Adam’s sin.

Rev. Robert Beckett is minister of the Crosscollyer Street congregation. For many years he has been studying the whole area of Biblical Creation and has lectured extensively on this vital subject.

Natural Selection does not explain Evolution!


After the Trial the shop passed to Trustees who belonged to the Irish Evangelical Church, but by October 1928 W J Grier was still using Bible Standards League letter heading with the former title deleted!

The General Assembly referred to was that of the PCUSA, 1928, held at Tulsa, Oklahoma. The great issues before it were the reorganisation of Princeton Seminary recommended to the Assembly in 1927 and Machen’s appointment to the Chair of Apologetics to which he had been elected by the Princeton Directors in 1926. Faced with a petition signed by over 10,000 Ministers and Elders to reject the Princeton re-organisation, the Assembly postponed action on it in 1928, but proceeded with its theologically driven agenda in 1929. Machen and others resigned and formed Westminster Theological Seminary the same year.

The Princeton Review which Machen mentions as being in real straits began in 1825 as the Biblical Repertory, with Charles Hodge as Editor. When it became the Princeton Theological Review in 1903 that was its tenth title! It championed the historic, reformed faith and O T Allis and B B Warfield had been among its distinguished editors. It was discontinued after the re-organisation in 1929. Paul Woolley was a PCUSA Minister but transferred to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936 and served as Professor of Church History at Westminster 1929-1977. Correspondence between Grier and Woolley has not been preserved but Machen does refer to it. Machen’s book, The Virgin Birth, was published in 1930.

Opening the archiveWestminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, has archived 50 letters that passed between J Gresham Machen and W J Grier between August 1925 and October 1936, of which 22 were Machen’s and 28 Grier’s. They began when Grier was in Canada in the summer of 1925 and resumed when he returned to Belfast later that year. The correspondence dealt with the growing Church conflict in Ulster in 1926, the Presbyterian Bible Standards League, its Book Shop and books, James Hunter’s SOS pamphlets and related public meetings, the Heresy Trial and Machen’s 1927 and 1932 visits to Belfast. Later it moved to The Irish Evangelical, the developing Irish Evangelical Church, current ecclesiastical issues on both sides of the Atlantic and Christian books. Machen was always encouraging and supportive, but cautious over involvement in a situation outside his own domain.

The Grier letter and the Machen reply of October 1928 concluded the 1920’s correspondence. It is a significant interchange. Grier’s reference to the developing Princeton crisis in the United States revealed his ongoing interest in the clash with Liberalism which had done so much to shape his thinking while a student at Princeton, 1923-25. And it gives insights into what was uppermost in his mind in the autumn of 1928. One thing was the tangible progress of the Irish Evangelical Church, then just one year old. Another was the demands of his work as Editor of the Irish Evangelical, launched in June 1928. He was utterly self-effacing about his Editor role, but he did the job for 53 years, producing 625 issues and achieving a circulation that reached various parts of the world. He said in later life that he never expected to be Editor of a Magazine for over 50 years. Machen’s reply reveals something of the tremendous strain he was under at that time.

W J Grier’s letter heading tells a story too. The Presbyterian Bible Standards League had opened the Evangelical Book Shop in 1926 when the doctrinal controversy which led to the 1927 Heresy Trial was at its height. He was its Superintendent.

Ernest Brown of Knock is well known throughout the EPC. For many years he represented the church on the International Missions Board of the Free Church of Scotland. Ernest is also the historian of the EPC and is a recognised authority on the 1927 Heresy Trial.


In Ephesians 3:14-21 Paul prays for the church in Ephesus, and he prays for the blessing of the triune God to be known amongst them. While we must pray for one another in our physical and social struggles, Paul, in this section emphasises the need to pray for the spiritual well being of our congregation.His prayer is humble as he bows, and yet bold as he approaches almighty God as the Father of his Saviour. Paul has witnessed what God has started in Ephesus, and he prays that God will continue to work in them and build them up. He prays for the whole family of God, that they may know the LORD more fully. The Lord has already given them His name – and now Paul prays in accordance with the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Pray for spiritual strengthening by the Holy Spirit.Paul refers to himself elsewhere as both weak and sinful, but he delights in the strength and salvation of Christ. It is because he knows something of his own sinful weakness, that he prays this prayer. He knows that every believer that makes up every church needs to be strengthened, and they need to be strengthened inwardly.

Paul knows that if churches are going to be strengthened, itwon’t be by external means. It won’t be through more bodies in the pews; it won’t be through greater financial income; it won’t be through more social events or dare I say it... more people at the prayer meeting.

These things are good: they all are blessings from God that I trust we will experience in the this new year. Your congregation needs you to be at the prayer meeting! But all these things are external. Real spiritual strengthening is an inward work of the Holy Spirit. Our souls need Him! We are designed and made to live and work with the Holy Spirit. As Augustine said “Our souls are restless unless we find our rest in Thee.” We need the power of the Holy Spirit in the inner man! So Paul prays for Him!

This is something that Paul has experienced himself. He says in 2 Corinthians 4:16:“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” And again in 2 Timothy 4:17 “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me...”

Paul knows what the Spirit can do in the heart of a weak sinner! And so he prays that He will strengthen the believers in Ephesus. We too must pray for Him! For His power to be known in us and amongst us. Jesus said in Luke 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Pray for the loving presence of Jesus Christ.The Spirit testifies of Christ, and as He works in our inner being, we are directed to Christ and His amazing love. Paul prays that Christ would dwell in their hearts “through faith.” Now remember, Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus. He is writing to believers, to those who already have faith, and he prays that they might believe!

We need this! I hope you don’t ever think: “Well I do believe already. Pray for something else!” We need to pray this way for one another, that we will keep on believing. Pray for every member and adherent, and for all who already profess faith – pray that they will still believe! Jesus prays this for the church in Smyrna in Revelation 2:10 “Be faithful until death...” Keep on believing.

Believe that you are loved. The devil tries to undermine the love of God in every single temptation. If God really loved you, you wouldn’t be sick. If God really loved you, you wouldn’t be lonely. If God really loved you, you’d have more stuff. If God really loved you, He would not impose limits on you – If He really loved you, you could eat from every tree in the garden!

Christian, you must get hold of this. You must believe it above all else!! You are loved by Jesus Christ! This enables us to enjoy His presence! We are loved! He is not an angry headmaster trying to catch you out. He is not hiding in the ditch waiting for you to fall again so that He can wag His finger at you. He’s not rubbing His hands and waiting for your New Year’s resolutions to fail before the end of January. He loves you! He indwells you! He will never leave you nor forsake you!

This, I believe, is the most pressing need of every saint – to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. That’s exactly what Paul is praying for in v17 “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,”

We must be rooted. If the roots are stunted, the growth above ground will be stunted.Unless we grow down deep, we’ll not grow up or out. But Paul prays specifically that these believers will be rooted in the love of Christ. And grounded as well – a slightly different picture. We need a firm foundation if the church is to be built up and established. Such a foundation is again the love of Christ. Christ loves His people – that’s our foundation. “Call Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sins.” That’s the sure Gospel foundation we must build upon.

Sadly in the church, we fail each other and hurt each other.At such times the devil pounces all the harder and turns friction into strife and pain. At such times we need a firm foundation,


we need deep roots; otherwise you’ll be tempted to up and leave and try somewhere else. Deep roots draw life from the love of Christ. In the times of personal hurt and pain, we need to draw upon His love.

It’s my brother I have hurt. It’s my sister who has offended me. Though they might have caused me pain – Jesus loves me, and Jesus loves them! If I only dwell upon my brother’s weakness or his sins, then I find myself on very shaky ground. But the love of Christ covers a multitude of sins. The loving presence of Christ is the essential foundation for any church. Without His love – we are nothing. So says Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:2 “...though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

His love is deep, His loves nourishes the whole life of the church. His love is our foundation, and without it we are nothing. It is so absolutely vital that the believers in Ephesus get this! Paul prays on in v18 and 19a that they “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge”

Note, the “with all the saints” – they need to grasp this as a congregation. They need to grasp the vastness of Christ’s love! And yet Paul admits that such love actually surpasses knowledge! They cannot possibly comprehend the full magnitude of Christ’s love, but they must know that it is very big!

So wide it reaches to every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation. So long that we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and such grace will never end! So deep it reaches down to the pit of hell and lifts sinners up so that they don’t ever have to cry “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” So high that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

The presence of Christ teaches us how much we are loved. And only when we grasp that – only then will we love each other, and only then will we love the lost. 1 John 4:10-11 says “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Paul prays that the presence of Christ may be known in their hearts. It is only when His great love is understood, only when the vastness of it sinks in to our own weak and sinful hearts – only then will we be rooted and grounded – a growing and stable church, filled with the love of Christ. We must pray for this!

Pray for the fullness of God with the exclusion of selfPaul prays that God will have total dominance in their lives, that they will be filled with all the fullness of God. We still use this turn of phrase – to be filled with something. If you are filled with love for your husband – you’re not comparing him to others. Your heart is filled with love for him: there’s no room for rivalry or covetousness. If you’re filled with rage – you’re not seeing

sense: you’re just seeing red. It’s a dangerous filling, there’s no room left for reason or accountability.

To be filled is always to the exclusion of other things.To be filled with the fullness of God – means to be empty of self.

Paul is praying for what Jesus talked about in Mark 8:34-35 “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

What a transformation it would bring to our lives and the life of our church if we were truly filled with the fullness of God! It’s an internal work, where the Holy Spirit takes His word and applies it to our hearts. He shows us Christ and His love. Christ comes and indwells us, and makes His home with us. And the more we believe in Him, the more we deny ourselves and follow Him, the more of His fullness we experience.

As one CEF chorus used to put it: “The more I surrender to Jesus my Lord, the more of His fullness I know...” It’s hard for Northern Ireland Christians to surrender. It’s hard for every Christian to surrender completely. But if we’re to know His fullness, then self must be crucified and Christ enthroned.

And yet, Paul doesn’t pray that these believers in Ephesus would fully surrender to the LORD. He doesn’t directly pray that they would believe in Jesus more; that their faith would increase... He doesn’t pray that they’d be strengthened as they read their Bibles and pray together... We must do these of course! But the source of Christ’s growth and strength doesn’t lie in what WE do. It doesn’t lie in our abilities...

Paul doesn’t pray that God will build them up according to their own abilities, but rather that they would be built up according to God’s ability. He prays that they’d be built up: By the power of the Holy Spirit – according to God’s riches. By the presence of Christ – according to His amazing love. By the fullness of God – according to His ability.

Paul is in no doubt of God’s ability to change people’s lives and build His church. He knows it first hand, in His own life, and in the lives of many others in the churches he has been privileged to establish and minister unto. And so he concludes in v20 and 21: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Let us have this same confidence in our triune God. And let us pray that in 2015, we will know the power of His Spirit, the love of His Son, and the fullness of our Father as He works in ways above all that that we ask or think. To Him be the glory. Amen.


In later years several of them becameoverseas missionaries.After a time the family moved from Bangor to a house in the University area of Belfast. WP received his early education at a local school connected to Fisherwick Presbyterian Church. Later he attended the Model School on theFalls Road. Mrs Nicholson seems to have been a woman of faith and every Lord’s Day she walked her large family several miles to attend both services in Albert St. Presbyterian Church, where Rev Henry Montgomery was exercising a strongly evangelistic ministry.At the age of sixteen WP went to sea as an apprentice on board the sailing ship “Galgorm Castle”. He had many adventures and on one occasion he thought that he would drown when his ship, having just rounded Cape Horn, almost sank. At this point he cried out to God for forgiveness and mercy, but when the danger was past he returned to a life of rejection of what he had been taught from childhood.As soon as the four years of his apprenticeship were up WP left the navy. He worked on a railroad construction gang in South Africa. There he kept bad company and acquired bad habits. At the age of 23 he decided to return to his family, who, by this time were again living in Bangor. On the morning of 22nd May, 1899, sitting by his mother’s fireside waiting for his breakfast he suddenly came under deep conviction of sin. “Suddenly and powerfully and consciously”, as he later recounted, “I was saved. Such a peace and freedom from fear – such a sweet and sure assurance filled my soul.I turned to my mother and said, “Mother, I am saved.” She looked at me and nearly collapsed and said, “When?” I said, “Just now.” “Where?” “Here where I am sitting.”She cried with joy unspeakable.” Some months later WP attended a conference for “the deepening of the spiritual life.” These meetings were addressed by his brother, James, and Rev Stuart Holden, and the hearers were encouraged to seek the “Second Blessing.” Although they had already come to faith in Christ for salvation they were told that they needed to seek a further experience in which they would receive a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God lifting them up to a higher spiritual plane. On receiving this blessing they would lead more sanctified lives and know greater power and effectiveness in Christian service. WP felt that this was exactly what he needed and looked upon this convention as the time when “Billy Nicholson caught the fire.” “I lost my reputation and fear of man, and I found the joy and peace of the overflowing fullness of the Spirit.”

In 1921 Ireland was partitioned, with the new six-county state of Northern Ireland being created amidst much controversy and strife. The future of this new state was uncertain, and violence and sectarian confrontation were the order of the day. Into this tense situation God sent a man, a man who was to be used mightily in the conversion of sinners. If we had had the choosing I am sure that we would have chosen some-one else. I don’t think that those of us who like to think of ourselves as adhering to the Reformed faith would have laid hands on this man. Those of refined disposition, who like things done “nicely”, would have looked elsewhere; those who detest controversy and discord within the church would not have selected this man. His name?William Patteson Nicholson. I want to consider WP (as he became commonly known) from three angles.1. A quick biographical overview.2. A consideration of his ministry focussing especially on the evangelistic campaigns which he conducted in Belfast in the early 1920s. 3. An assessment of his life and ministry.

HIS LIFE

William Patteson Nicholson was born on 3rd April, 1876 in Cottown, near Bangor, County Down. His mother, Ellen Campbell to her maiden name, was a native of Cottown. His father, John G. Nicholson, was a captain in the Merchant Navy. There were seven children in the family.

W.P. Nicholson,

God’s RoughDiamond


He told the following story about how he came to lose his fear of what others thought of him:“The Salvation Army had come to our town. The Corps consisted of two wee girls in uniform. They held open-air meetings and made a noise with their tambourines. Their first soldier was a man called Daft Jimmy. He had hardly enough brains to give him a headache, but he had sense enough to get saved. ..The very thing I dreaded most before the blessing, walking down the street with the Salvation Army , had to be faced…as I walked down the street that Saturday it seemed to me as if every friend and relative I ever had were out and about. When I came to the open-air meeting and saw the two wee Salvation Army girls singing and rattling their tambourines and poor daft Jimmy holding the flag, I nearly turned back…The crowd gathered round. I could hear their laughter and jeers…and then, to my horror, one of the wee girls said, “Brother, take the tambourine and lead the march down the street to the Barracks.” I couldn’t let a girl beat me, so I took it.That did it. My shackles fell off, and I was free. My fears were all gone.”In 1901 WP entered the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow with a view to entering some form of full-time Christian service. Among the lecturers who visited the BTI were Dr James Denney and Dr James Orr, professors of New Testament and Systematic Theology respectively at the United Free College in Glasgow, and the famous Dr Alexander Whyte, minister of Free St George’s Church in Edinburgh. In his summer holidays WP worked in the Shankhill Road mission of the Presbyterian Church, alongside his former minister, Rev Henry Montgomery, who was the superintendent of that work. On completing his studies in 1903, WP began working as an evangelist with the Lanarkshire Christian Union. The Lanarkshire Union had been created in the late 1800s following the Moody and Sankey missions in Scotland. It had as its aim the evangelism of the coal miners and steel workers of Lanarkshire. This was no easy assignment. Sometimes even gathering an audience wasa challenge: “The town hardly knew that I was there or that I was holding an evangelistic mission. I didn’t know what to do. One day I met the town-crier ringing his big bell and telling about an auction to be held. It was their way of advertising. I got an inspiration. I gave the crier two shillings and sixpence and asked him to lend me his bell…I started down the street ringing the big bell and shouting with all my might, “FIRE! FIRE!” What a commotion! Windows were flung open; doors banged. The people…thought the town was on fire. We passed the Wee Free Church. They were holding their weekly prayer meeting with about

twelve people; out they came. When I got to the bottom of the street where there was a covenanting memorial, I climbed up on it and cried out with a loud voice, “Hell fire is coming, you covenanting Presbyterians, and I am trying to keep you out of it.” I got some rubbish thrown at me, but I got a crowd and packed my hall. The minister said that any man who could do that to get people under the Gospel- he would stand by him, and he did; he came night after night to the meeting. The people said, “If he can go then we will go too.” The minister and I became and remained fast friends until he passed away. He was Rev Dr Alexander Smellie who wrote the historical classic “The Men of the Covenant”, a moving story of theScottish Covenanters.”WP laboured in Lanarkshire for five years before leaving, with his new wife, Ellison Marshall from Bellshill, for the USA in 1908 to start working with Wilbur Chapman and Charles Alexander. Chapman and Alexander were evangelists who toured the world holding evangelistic meetings. WP worked with them in America and Australia from 1908 to 1910.In 1911 the Nicholsons returned to Scotland, and WP ministered at St George’s Cross Tabernacle, Glasgow during the ill-health of the congregation’s own pastor. He stayed for a year and was invited to remain longer, but he felt that he was unsuited to a regular pastoral ministry.“I don’t believe it is ever God’s will to put a square peg into a round hole or vice-versa.He made me for an itinerant sort of life so I feel very much at home and enjoy the journeying here and there doing God’s work. To be a whole year in the one place is a queer strain on my nature and the grace of God in me.”From Glasgow WP moved back to USA, where he engaged in further evangelistic campaigns. On 15th April 1914 he was ordained by the Carlisle Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the USA. Some years later he joined the staff of Dr R A Torrey’s Bible Institute of Los Angeles in their extension and evangelism department. In 1920 WP returned to Ireland for what was intended to be a short visit. In the providence of God he was to remain in Ireland for three years, during which time he conducted many missions and knew the blessing of God in a mighty way. We will look at these missions in more detail shortly. In 1923 Mr and Mrs Nicholson went back to USA, but they returned to Ireland after a year. WP conducted a further series of missions throughout the Province from 1924 to 1926. The unity which had characterised the earlier missions was not so evident during this period, with many Presbyterians no longer showing the same enthusiasm for WP’s forthright evangelistic ministry. WP had three


most interesting invitations in the year 1925. In July he was one of the speakers at the Keswick Convention. He led a mission for CICCU at Cambridge University when Rev Stuart Holden had to pull out on health grounds.Inspite of the fact that he upset many by declaring that “there are too many hypocrites in the church. Too many blue-eyed, hatchet-faced, yellow-livered hypocrites!” , one hundred students professed faith. In November he conducted a mission in the Metropolitan Hall in Dublin under the auspices of Dublin YMCA.In June 1926 WP conducted a series of meetings in Sydney, Australia. His wife took ill suddenly and died, to the great grief of the evangelist. Some time later, still in Australia, he married Fanny Elizabeth Collett and returned to his home in Los Angeles.The Nicholsons spent the years from 1928 to 1930 in UK. WP conducted missions in Ireland and Scotland. The couple returned to USA in 1930 and for the rest of his life WP engaged in an itinerant ministry, preaching all over the world – in South Africa, USA, Australia and New Zealand. He returned to conduct missions in Ireland in 1936, 1946 and 1958. In 1959 the Nicholsons set sail for Ireland on board the liner “ Mauretania” with the intention of settling in Bangor. During the voyage WP suffered a series heart attack. When the ship arrived in Cork, he was taken to the Victoria Hospital where he died two weeks later on 29th October. He was eighty-three. His funeral took place in Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, Bangor, and he was buried in the Clandeboye Cemetery.

HIS MINISTRY

I would like now to consider the ministry of this remarkable man, paying special attention to the great campaigns which he conducted in Belfast In the early 1920s. I will approach this subject in two ways. Firstly, I will consider where these campaigns were held and the effect that they had. Secondly I will try to visualise what a typical Nicholson meeting was like.In October 1920 WP held a mission in Bangor which was singularly blessed by God. He then conducted a series of meetings in Scotland, but returned to the Province to preach in many different locations between 1921 and 1923. Portadown, Newtownards, Lisburn, Lurgan, Londonderry and Ballymena were all visited by the evangelist. In all of these places the Lord worked mightily by his Spirit, but we will focus on WP’s Belfast missions.In October 1922 WP held a mission in the Albert Hall on the Shankhill Road. This mission had been organised by his old minister, Rev

Henry Montgomery, and was supported by more than twenty ministers in the Shankhill area. Thousands attended, and many hundreds professed faith in Christ. Missions followed in different parts of the city – Newington Presbyterian Church, St. Enoch’s, the Cripples’ Institute Hall, Rosemary Street Presbyterian Church – but particular attention must be given to two missions which took place in East Belfast, one in Newtownards Road Methodist Church (now East Belfast Mission) and the other in Ravenhill Presbyterian Church. Every evening thousands of men employed in the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Queen’s Island marched to these services as soon as their working day was over. On one occasion the crush to enter the Ravenhill church building was so great that the gate-post was moved off its foundations. It remained crooked for many years afterwards, and WP later referred to the incident as “the night of the great push.” Many men from the shipyard and the factories and workshops of east Belfast dated their conversions to the “men’s only” evenings which were part ofthese campaigns.Mr Herbert Ireland, General Secretary of Belfast YMCA, assessed the spiritual impact of these missions on the city in the following way:“God’s tide is rising here…we call it revival. Yes, a mighty revival. Deputations of cabmen and tramway men, gangs that lounged at street corners, groups of girls out of warehouses, smart young businessmen and women, people of leisure and wealth, students in our universities, and employers of labour rising in testimony meetings and witnessing for the Master whom they now serve…Mid-week prayer meetings not as formerly with ten or twenty…but overflowing, in instances with between 300 and 400 with warmth and fervour unbounded. Mission halls everywhere are participating in the blessing…On the streets and on the tramcars one frequently hears earnest conversation about personal religion and the atmosphere is such that it is easy to speak about spiritual things.” From 1924 to 1926 WP conducted missions in Ballynahinch, Portglenone, Donaghadee, Whitehead, Coleraine and in Ulsterville Presbyterian and Kilpatrick Memorial, both Belfast. In August 1925 there was a mission attended by thousands in the Assembly Hall, Belfast. This mission was organised by an interdenominational committee and was much blessed by the Lord.A typical Nicholson meeting would last three hours with the sermon lasting at least an hour. In his services Mr Nicholson neither desired choir or choir leader. Once he got “on the bridge” he was captain and remained there in charge, leading the praise service, preaching


and conducting the After-meeting. While he detested choirs, WP loved hearty congregational singing. One of his quaintest choruses was:“Down in the dumps I’ll never goThat’s where the devil keeps me low.So I’ll sing with all my might,And I’ll keep my armour bright, But down in the dumps I will not go.”WP’s preaching was direct and pithy.“There are those who won’t believe that their righteousnesses are filthy rags in the sight of God. My dear friends, God is no rag merchant and heaven is no rag–house. God won’t have your dirty rags in Heaven.”He spoke out against formalism withinthe church.“The Lord never says in His Word that we are bricks. No. But He does say we are stones. Man makes bricks, but never made a stone. God makes them. There are too many brick Christians in the Church today, and not enough living stones.”Many of his listeners might be regular and committed church-goers without being converted. Such people he openly condemned as “confirmed, baptised, catechised candidates for hell.”WP’s style of preaching was nothing if not graphic, as the following account illustrates:The preacher described the days going by, “Noah sawing and hammering, the neighbours mocking, and the sky brazen and blue.” Then the narration gained intensity as the listeners heard of the cloud that appeared and spread overhead. “And now the first big drops of rain had begun to fall.” So realistic was the preacher’s presentation that several people in the pews were seen to reach out and clutch their umbrellas, as if they expected any moment now to be drenched. He did not spare the feelings of his listeners.The town clerk of Lurgan was a Christian. He was entirely bald! He had not a hair on his head. He had a bad habit of coming to church late. WP did not like late comers. So one night the Presbyterian Church was packed, and here comes the bald town clerk of Lurgan. He walks into the aisle and he looks around for a seat. Nicholson stops the meeting and he says,“Hi man, it was not combing your hair that keptyou late.” He had his own way of sorting outdomestic strife:A woman came to him once and said, “Sir, my husband beats me.” He said, “I can easily remedy that. Get him to the service.” She said, “I will do my best.” He said, “The night you are in the service and he is with you, give me a nod

and I will know he is there.” And sure enough, one night the woman was there, and a man was sitting beside her. She gave the preacher a nod. He nodded back. When it came to the offering, the preacher said “I have somewhat to say. There is a man in this meeting who beats his wife. What a dirty coward and rascal he is. Then he gave this man, without mentioning him, a dreadful dressing-down. “Now I am prepared to be generous, “he said. “As the plate is passed, I will watch what that man gives and if he does not give a ten shilling note, I will name him after the offering is lifted.” That night the plates were cluttered with ten shilling notes.

AN ASSSESSMENT

I now come to the most difficult part of this paper. It is made particularly difficult because I have not been able to find an objective account of his life and ministry anywhere. Perhaps the events are still considered too recent, or perhaps it has been felt that any honest assessment would be seen as criticism, dishonouring to WP’s memory. Let me state clearly that that I have no doubt that this man was sent by God at a time of great need. He was God’s man in an hour of crisis. Hundreds of people were converted through WP’s ministry, and for the most part their profession was genuine: they went on in the faith. To quote Dr Graham Scroggie: “They may say what they like about Nicholson, but after all the test of a man’s work and words is the the goods he delivers- and he has delivered the goods.”I want nevertheless to make an attempt at an assessment of WP Nicholson.Let’s begin with his churchmanship.WP was brought up in the Irish Presbyterian Church. After his conversion he moved in evangelical circles of an interdenominational nature – the Lanarkshire Christian Union, the Chapman/ Alexander campaigns, Los Angeles Bible Institute. He was ordained by the Presbyterian Church of USA. Later he left this denomination and joined Carl McIntire’s Bible Presbyterian Church. During his ministry some pulpits were barred to him, sometimes because of his doctrine, sometimes because of his style. On one occasion an invitation was withdrawn because he could not promise to comply with the stipulation that he must use language “acceptable to man and glorifying to God.”His funeral service was held in Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church and conducted by leading members of the evangelical party withinthat denomination.Although he roundly condemned liberalism within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, WP was not a seceder. In many ways church


Anyone who found more joy in the picture-house than he did in the prayer meeting would do well to question whether or not he was truly born-again. He was outspoken against the use of alcohol, dubbing the public house “the human slaughter-house.” WP did not spare liberals or Unitarians in his sermons, but there is little to be found by way of condemnation of the Roman Catholics. Dr Austin Fulton makes the followingstaggering statement:“It is said that in these circumstances a highly placed person in the Northern Ireland government appealed to Nicholson not to acerbate the situation by inflammatory words about the Roman Catholics and their church. Nicholson is said to have assured this person that he would be careful not to do so – he would lay of the “Papishes” and instead take it out on the “Plyms.” So why did God use WP Nicholson, a man with many flaws, so mightily? Of course we can answer this simply by saying that God chose to use him. He was an instrument in the hand of God. But we must not forget the sheer godliness of this man. His power in the pulpit and his perseverance in prayer in the secret place were undoubtedly linked. Mr Lindsay Glegg wrote about him:“The secret of his power was no doubt in his prayer life. He stayed at our house for ten days during the campaign and he was up in the morning at six o’clock, but he never appeared until twelve noon. My wife would take up his breakfast and leave it outside his bedroom door, but it was rarely taken in.By his own special request he was not disturbed by telephone or visitor, no matter how urgent.” On another occasion the Cleggs discovered on WP’s departure that his bed sheets were tornto shreds.What had happened was that he unconsciously agonising in prayer ripped the sheets into strips with his strong hands. Mighty in the pulpit, but mighty also in prayer.I want to conclude by sharing a verse of Scripture. This verse speaks about John the Baptist, but it is also peculiarly applicable to the life and ministry of WP Nicholson.In fact it is engraved on his tombstone in Candeboye cemetery.

John did no miracle but all things that John spake of this man (Jesus) were true and many believed on Him there. (John 10:41&42)

affiliation was not overly important to him.His approach was pragmatic: he was willing to preach the Gospel wherever he was invitedto go.Many “Nicholson” converts adopted a certain pattern of church attendance, a pattern which Nicholson did not promote, although he did not discourage it either. They would attend the “big” church to which they traditionally belonged even though it might be spiritually dead, in the morning, but in the evening they would go along to the local mission hall where they would get spiritual help and fellowship. They would attend the mid-week meeting and send their children to the Sunday School in the “hall” and it became their spiritual home.What was the substance of WP’s preaching? He taught the need to be born again, presented faith in Christ as the only way of salvation and believed in substitutionary atonement. He was clear about the perseverance of the saints and about the eternal punishment of the unregenerate in hell.WP looked for a change in the lives of those converted through him. True repentance ought to show itself in a person’s actions. In the course of his preaching Nicholson insisted on the need for restitution when something had to be put right with another person. After one mission held in East Belfast early in 1923 many tools and pieces of equipment which had been purloined earlier were returned to the shipyard and in such quantities that an additional store had to be provided to hold them. WP was firmly convinced of the need for Christians to experience the “Second Blessing.”He preached against pride, hypocrisy, formalism, luke-warmness, cowardice and defective consecration. He regarded the Filling of the Holy Spirit as an experience separate and separable from conversion. He spoke frequently of the many sincere believers who “got stuck between Calvary and Pentecost.” To quote from his published sermon “After Pentecost – What?” , “The blessing of a personal Pentecost is always a second subsequent blessing…In regeneration there is an impartation of life and the one who recives it is saved. In the Baptism of the Holy Spirit there is an impartation of power and the one who receives it is fitted for service”. For his personal reading he used theSchofield Bible.Living a life separated from the world was another matter on which WP had deep convictions. He was strong in his condemnation of sin. There were certain practices which he frequently spoke out against and urged his converts to shun. He stated that if God had intended man to smoke he would have created him with a chimney pot on top of his head!

The Evangelical Presbyterian - January-February 2015

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Transcript of The Evangelical Presbyterian - January-February 2015