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Welcome to this first of three seminars, the general title of which is advertised as A Christian Response to Pagan Philosophies. In between that information and the vagaries of my brain, the two words were added to the title, and it now reads A Christian Response to Pagan Philosophies and Religions. Because in the ancient world, as in the modern, it is not always easy to distinguish with knife-edge clarity a difference between a philosophy on the one hand and a religion on the other. A preliminary notice, the notes that you have so beautifully prepared are, through my very grievous fault, uh, they contain a misprint on what in my set of notes is page eight, but I think in your set of notes is page seven. If you care to turn to that, uh, page seven in your notes to correct a misprint. Page seven, number three, the title, the subtitle being to explain the deeper cause of the death of Jesus Christ. Section little A. The Jewish leaders in the crowd were, it reads, unwilling. It shouldn't read unwilling, it should read unwitting. Unwitting. They alas were far from unwilling, but as the apostles later a- allowed, they did what they did in ignorance. They were unwitting agents in carrying out God's purpose. But that suffice for the misprints I have so far discovered. These three seminars will deal with four topics. They are syncretism, pluralism, postmodernism, and he- ugly sounding words, I think you will agree, like most isms are. A kind of these four things, a deadly virus. It's one of them that not only confuses the minds of unbelievers when they start thinking about the Christian gospel, but are liable sometimes to confuse the minds and practices even of believers. So there these are ugly things, spiritual viruses, yet we do well to consider them seriously. You may tell me, and I do believe it already, that according to John the Apostle, we each one of us have an unction from the Holy One and know all things, so that you have in one sense no need that one teach you. When it comes to the great fundamental things that spell out our relationship with God our Redeemer, there is an instinct in the heart of true believers born of the Holy Spirit, an unction that very often they can sense instinctively something that is derogatory to Christ, even if they could not explain it intellectually. On the other hand, it is evident from the New Testament itself that these things, some of them at least, can for a while mislead true believers, so that we as believers need to think about these things from time to time intelligently. And then, as I say, our other motivation is that in our outreach to the world at large, we should be aware that our modern world, like the ancient world, is in many parts deeply confused by these isms and a thousand and one more isms. So that while they listen to us speaking the words of truth in the words that are so familiar to us, they may not be hearing what we say because the words that we use mean something different to them. So we're saying one thing, they are understanding quite another, and therefore we need to understand the confusions that have been wrought about the Christianity in general and the gospel in particular in the minds of the general public outside, so that we can, by God's grace, remove those difficulties. Removing the difficulties will not necessarily bring them immediate regeneration, but it is a very good and pos- prof- profitable thing to move the obstacles out of the way, so that then people may come the more readily to Christ and be saved. After all, that is what John the Baptist said in his loud way. He called upon people to prepare the way of the Lord, to, uh, smooth out the rough road, to take the boulders out of the way, where there were deep dips to raise them up, and where there were difficult mountains to lower them down, you'll see. As one would put it, to leave all the downhills, uh, to put the uphill downhills and leave the downhills as they were before. But, uh, you'll see, eh, the job of the apologist is to remove the difficulties out of the way, so that people then may come the more confidently to listen to the blessed Lord himself. One theme will run through these three seminars, and that is that these isms which may appeal to us as being very modern are in fact very ancient. There is scarce a heresy or an ism today that is brought against the gospel, but what is hoary with old age, Satan simply recycles his, uh, opposition, uh, down through the centuries. So now we begin with syncretism. I have listed some notes thereon. I shall not necessarily expound all the notes in detail. I leave a lot of them for your further study. Syncretism is the term we use to mean a combination of elements, beliefs, and practices from differing systems of religion and or... So that doctrines and practices and beliefs from one religion or philosophy are mixed into and become a or philosophy. It is a very ancient phenomenon. I quote simply one passage in the Old Testament talks about book of second Kings seventeen and thirty three— When Syrians moved the Israelites, uh, transported them to Babylon, uh, to Nineveh, and then brought a lot of the Nineveh people back to Palestine. Then the new Palestine, their own gods with them. And then some of the priests of Israel began to teach them, and before they knew where they were, there was an unholy mixture, which the historian here describes in these terms. They feared the Lord and served their own gods, an unholy mixture. That is in Old Testament days. But my next example, number two on the sheet, reminds us that the believers at Colossae were more than a little influenced by a kind of syncretism, or at least in danger of being influenced by it. Their first danger was that they should add pagan philosophy, theosophies to Christian faith. And of course, when they began to do it, they didn't see either its wrongness or its danger. To many of them, it was very appealing. The idea came across in this fashion. You are a believer in the... Oh, congratulations. You'll say that's a marvelous beginning. Would you like further and develop the spiritual life? Of course you would, wouldn't you? Well, now, if you really want to go further, faith in Christ is a good place to start. But now we could give you a recipe for the development of your spiritual life, you see. I mean, do you know about all the principalities and the powers, uh, and the, uh, angels and whatnot, and the demigods and the demiurge? You say, no, what on earth are they? Ah, well, that's what you'll need to know, you see. If you will rise to God himself, there are many agents that God has created, urge and demigods and demi-semi-gods and demi-semi-quavers, um, all the way up, you see, and uh, we can tell you about them and how the nice ones can help you and the nasty ones, how you can avoid them, you see, if you let us be your spiritual advisor. The believers thought this was wonderful. I mean, what believer doesn't want to increase in holiness and in the experience and knowledge of God? But just there was a satanic danger. Theosophy, as we now know in this modern world, was a lot of piffle and nonsense. Anyway, seemed very impressive, and some of the believers were falling for it. Not philosophy in the logical sense, but what we nowadays would call theosophy. I'm not going to take the trouble to expound it to you. You must read about it in Colossians if you're interested, and elsewhere. My point is simply that the believers in Colossae were in danger of into syncretism. One, through theosophies added on to Christianity. Two, to the ritualism of Judaism, new moons and Sabbaths added onto Christianity. To desire for ecstatic vision. There were people who could tell you what the technique was. Do you want to have a direct vision of angels? Wouldn't that be marvelous? I mean, far better than boring text of the Bible, if you could bypass the Bible and have a direct experience of angels. Marvelous that would be, wouldn't it? Now, if you want that, we can tell you the technique how to get there, you'll see. Ecstatic vision. And others of a different mood were falling for what is called asceticism. Uh, you know, being hard on the body, sleeping or put hard bo- hard peas without being boiled in your shoes, and using the discipline back with to help to subdue the flesh, they hoped, in order to bring you nearer to God in spirit. And of course, these things stem from either Old Testament or new. They were from the religions and philosophies of men. And Paul has to write his letter urgently to get them to discern what is happening, to discern the nature of this stuff that's being added to Christianity and to reject it and to stand fast in Christ in who was treasures of wisdom and... Number three on my list is just a way of reminding you how ancient ceremonies have perpetrated the so-called Christian calendar. All Souls Day, for instance, and Halloween. I don't suppose you begin to observe those things in America, so I shan't talk much about them. But if I had have been talking about them, you'll see, I would have said as follows, that, uh, in the northeast of England, where once I used to live, come, I don't know what the date is now, end of October, beginning of November, I think, the dear believers used to have parties, and the beautiful parties they were, good food. Then some of them would get an old turnip, a big one, or a melon or something, and gouge out the insides, you'll see, and make two holes in it and then a gash, you'll see. And they put a candle inside the thing and hang it outside the window. Oh, what fun, they said, and that marvelous party. Not a clue what it meant. That was the survival of paganism, pure and simple. For widespread throughout the world is the pagan custom common to many religions, that at a certain time of the year, uh, the spirits of the departed ancestors should be brought back and be given a decent food to see, a decent meal, and talked to nicely, uh, and then after a day or two of, uh, rich eating and being talked to nicely, they should then be conducted cemetery and persuaded to remain there, uh, for the rest of the year. You don't want your granny always haunting the place, do you, after all? Prefer she stay back where where you put her when you buried the dear soul, you'll see. But there's fear of the spirits that's led to a widespread ceremony. You'll find it in the, uh, old Greeks, you'll say they had the sycagogia, the leading of souls. You went out and got the souls or the spirits, the Greeks call them souls, from the cemetery and brought them back home and entertained them, and then you took them back. Some children, in their way of expressing things, would get the he- he- a big cabbage and kick that along the street at that time of year, not knowing what they did. Cabbage was meant to re- represent Uncle George's head. You see, uh, there it was. You'll find it in Japan, you'll find it all over the place. Uh, you'll see the, what the m- uh, the they call in Malaysia the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts. When Christianity, so-called, first came to Britain, they brought a doctrine of purgatory and the idea that you had to pray for the souls of the dead, that they might be delivered from their torments, you see. So the missionaries, if that's what they were, thought it would be a very good thing to celebrate all, uh, All Souls Day, that is the souls of the departed, and have a day of prayer that the departed souls might be released out of purgatory, and attach it to this feast of the, uh, uh, the feast of the hungry ghosts, the bringing back the spirits from the cemetery, and so on and so forth. Do you see? It has led down the centuries to endless confusion. Of course, nowadays evangelicals can be found, uh, uh, celebrating Halloween and things of that order, for they simply, simply don't know what it means and are not concerned about it anyway. In Spain, under Franco, when public preaching of the gospel, uh, wasn't allowed, the believers used to take advantage of what we call Halloween, because then in that country everybody went to the cemetery, you see, to pray around the graves of their loved ones and to chant a few, uh, prayers and things that their loved ones might be, uh, released out of purgatory. So the believers used to go. The government couldn't stop that, and they would go around the graves of their relatives and preach the gospel to anybody who liked to listen, you'll see. There's more than one way of killing a cat, isn't there? You'll see. We should be aware, however, how these superstitions come, and for many folks it is an integral part of Christianity that they're praying for the departed in purgatory, that they may be released from their torments, do you see? And if you try to tell people like that, but there be any purgatory, and you think you're doing them a good favor, many of them will be, uh, sorely, uh, uh, uh, put out because they're hoping for purgatory. If you're asking me, you ready to go to heaven, you sure would be in heaven. Of course not. Not even the Pope is. Um, so, so you're not good enough to go to heaven. Well, do you expect to be there? Well, we hope to be there one day. Well, if you're not good enough to get there when you die, what then? Well, there's a safety net, of course. If you're not good enough when you die, you can go to purgatory so long as you're not tremendously bad. And uh, then after you've been there suffering what you have to suffer for who knows how long, you will get into heaven. If only you can get into purgatory, you see, then you're guaranteed getting into heaven eventually. So for them, a marvelous place, marvelous safety net, you see. If you try to prove of, uh, uh, it doesn't exist, you really got them worried. They don't want to hear that. It's their hope of heaven. Knowing how they think, therefore, and knowing how the old pagan ideas intertwine themselves into the whole thing will help us understand where the people sit, to be able to deliver them by the grace and power of the gospel from these frightful superstitions. In number four, I have, uh, uh, listed something that in its way is even more serious. I wouldn't bother you with this, eh, that I have listed in number four were it not for the fact that I hear increasing rumors, you can tell me afterwards if they are true, that many evangelicals in America are going over and becoming members of the Orthodox Church. And some notable evangelical leaders have in recent years gone over to the Orthodox Church. And perhaps from one point of view, it is, uh, understandable sometimes when people have found evangelicalism to be rather shallow and glitzy, more like a performance and an entertainment than anything to do with God and his holiness. To such people, the ceremonies and the liturgy of the Orthodox Church can be exceeding attractive. The Church of the Great Councils. People feel now at last the evangelicals don't know much about church history. Here's a church that knows all about church history, knows about the great councils that talked about and decided the doctrines of the Trinity and how we should understand the relation of the Father to the Son. Aren't we here getting back to original Christianity, do you see? And then the solemnity of the services and the marvelous music, not to talk about the incense, eh, do you see? These they find very attractive, do you see? And they're going over to it. So the Frankie Schaeffer's son is in print as saying that if you want to get to heaven, the blood of Christ is not enough, you will need more than that. It's therefore, uh, uh, uh, not all of us will come across that type of thing, some of us may. It is good to know how, uh, therefore, what orthodoxy stands for. It is, of course, a tremendous mixture. Thank God for the great councils and creeds of the church. We owe a great deal to them, don't we? And in our thinking of the deity of Christ and what we should say about him and his relationship with the Father and what we should not say about him. We often use language that, whether we know it or not, goes back to the Greek fathers who joined in solemn councils and came out with the creeds, do you see? That is good. Uh, there are two very serious things wrong. If you go into any Orthodox church, you will see the church is divided into two parts by a wall right from one side to the other. In it are three doors. The central door is called the door of the king, composed of a door and a veil, a curtain. The whole wall is called the iconostasis. I shall not attempt to explain to you the origin of this. It was never invented to be a veil in, uh, our modern sense, but that is what it has become in the liturgy. During the service, the door in the central door can be opened, but nobody is allowed inside, except the priest and his assistants. The people are never allowed in there. That is the holiest of all. In there is the altar, where, according to Orthodox belief, the bread and the wine are turned into the real body and blood of Christ. No access there for the people, only for the priests. All sorts of superstitions grow up with that, don't they? I remember being in the fair city of Vancouver, and I was interested because my host and hostess, they had a business friend, and he was a Greek, a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, and invited my friends to the wedding of his daughter. And they went along, and they pointed this church out. Since shortly after that to Russia, I wondered if I could find out what modern Orthodox Church was like, as distinct from the ancient sorts. So I was allowed to go in, and uh, the priest graciously showed me round. And, uh, I looked at the beautifully painted walls and ceilings. They love images of saints and icons and things. And knowing an odd word or two of Greek, I said, is that Saint so and so? And he said, yes. And I said, who was that there? I was so- saying somebody else. Yes, that was he. And there, of course, was the iconostasis, as they call it in Greek, wall across, and the door happened to be open. So I eventually s- am I what's oh, oh, he said, that's a special, he said, that's the holiest of all, said he. Uh, loud in there except me and my assistant. Anybody goes in there, uh, gets trapped. He said it's like they had it in the Old Testament. I said, well, now you mention it, so it is. Yes, I think I remember that. Well, yeah. Well, I said, how extraordinary. I mean, how fancy. I said, well, what do you think of the fact that when our Lord died, the veil in the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom, you see? And the writer to the he- uh, through the veil into the holiest of all. His face clouded. He said, that's how they had it in the Old Testament, and we don't have it now. End of conversation. That, my dear brothers, is a denial of outright. Is the addition to Christ- served its purpose as a, a, a illus- wasted. But now, Christ, that veil has been done away. You think of the effect made on generations of people as they come down for three hours to hear the liturgy said and the mass offered, of seeing the open door, told, no, you can't go through. All my... these syncretized things, even when it come... born and, uh, things from Judaism put aside, added on to a Christianity when they never ought to have been added on. In all, and that concerns its spirituality. This is not an exaggeration to say, is based on pagan Greek philosophy, pure and simple. I shall have to briefly tell you about a pagan Greek philosopher. He was a Neoplatonist, we call him. Eh, his name was Plotinus. He believed that there is, he would not necessarily have called him God, his phrase was the one. Behind all the multitude of differences in the universe and the detail, there is, so the Greek philosophers held, the one. The question arose of what is the the One like, do you see? Uh-huh. Um, and they pondered that. How would you f- find out? They eventually developed what they called the negative f- uh, philosophy, you'll see. And that was, now, is the Great One, is he like a stone? Well, no, no, not really. Well, come up a bit higher. Is he like an elephant, perhaps? Well, no, not really. Well, like man? Well, perhaps. And so they worked themselves up and up and up and up and up until they anything about God whatsoever. You couldn't tell a thing. You couldn't even say that God existed. Why not? Well, because to a Greek mind, if you say something exists, you are silently implying the possibility of non-existence. And that would make two things, existence and non-existence. Uh, so you couldn't even say God existed, because that implied a duality of non-existence. So they decided that you couldn't say anything about God whatsoever, except perhaps that he was there. You'll see. Don't complain at me that this thing gets rather complicated. I didn't invent the the the thing. Yeah. You'll see. But, uh, anyway, then they said to Tinas, when you come to absolute blank wall, you're like in a dark cell, absolutely pitch black. As far as God is concerned, you know nothing. Then you want to concentrate your mind on your desire to see the one. And if you concentrate the right way round, it is possible that as if a, a, a, a, a crack occurs in the wall of your cell, and looking through, you see this blazing light, and instinctively you know it's God, though you couldn't say for certain anything about God. He, you couldn't understand anything about him. He's incomprehensible. He is therefore also ineffable. You can't say anything about him, but you know it is God, and in the process of gazing direct on God, you are joined with God. United with. Now that was a Greek pagan philosopher. Some, who knows who, who professed to be Christian. He wrote a book, he called himself by the name of Dionysius the Areopagite. That good man in history, Dionysius the Areopagite, was a one of Paul's converts when he preached at Mars Hill. And whoever this man was, he borrowed the name as a pen name, pseudonym, and he wrote a book and professed to be a Christian. And he said, you know, there are two ways of knowing God. There is the positive way, as God declares his name to us, as he did to Abraham and to the patriarch of Yahweh, Jehovah Sidkenu, and right down to the time of Jesus, who declared the name of God to us as no other has ever declared it. You say, marvelous. But wait a minute. Then he says, but that isn't enough. There remain three Jesus. Get it. Said that one day we shall see his face. And here the good man, if he was good, uh, took over lock, stock and barrel, the old pagan philosopher, and recommended it to fellow Christians all the way around Europe, that this is a way to have a direct vision of God. You start with what is God like? Is he like mud? No. Is he like stone? No. Is he like animals? No. Is he like man? Well, far beyond it. Until you come to the point where you've decided that you don't know anything about God whatsoever. It's complete darkness. And that, in spite of what Christ has told us. You now end up into complete darkness. You know nothing. Can't say a thing about God. Then you want to take a word, says he. A short word will do, it's the best. Say God would be a very good word. And say God, God, God, God, God, God, God. I wash to see God. And presently, the darkness will part, and you'll see the blazing light. You'll know it is God, and you'll with him. This is the spirituality that the Orthodox Church recommends to its members. Mm-hmm. Be serious. And as evangelicals, we can have great sympathy, can't we, with men and women who have found sometimes we can have sympathy with them. Modern, commercialized, evangelical religion, with performances instead of worship, with experience without knowledge. You can understand how some people, becoming dissatisfied with that, think that in the ceremonies of the ancient Orthodox Church, they have found a richness and a treasure about God they never had before. Oh, but it is serious. At the popular le- level, it is a denial of the gospel. At the advanced level, it is sheer paganism. So I move to five: the use of yoga-like techniques, breathing rhythms, and concentration controls in order to produce supposedly Christian spiritual experience and growth, now adopted by some evangelicals. I was in the company of two senior believers, not so long ago, from a country that I will not name. And as they talked over the, uh, the days together, uh, telling me as we shared together our experience with the Lord, one of them said how recently a Christian advisor had come their way, who was teaching them altogether a new level of prayer. It was marvelous. And this new level of prayer was how he was teaching them to synchronize the prayer with the breathing, you'll see. I thought it very helpful. They hadn't a clue as to what its origin is and what it is in itself. The Hesic- the uh, the Byzantine Hesychasts, you won't have heard of them perhaps, you know, no need, forget them as soon as you've heard, but they were ha, enthusiastic folks for developing spirituality and the vision of God. And their technique was as follows. They took this Jesus prayer, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on me. Lovely prayer, isn't it? So why not pray it? They aim to pray it thirty five thousand times a day. And then, under the guide of a spiritual director, to phase the saying of the prayer in with their breathing, and then the deeper stage to phase it in with the pulsating of their hearts. They warned here that you need a spiritual advisor to do it because otherwise you could suffer mental damage and otherwise go barmy, but uh, uh, do you see, but you need a spiritual here, uh, do you see, and by doing this you hoped to arrive at a tremendous sense of peace and well-being and perhaps the very direct vision of God. The learner Bishop Timothy Ware, Orthodox bishop, points out how similar it is to Hindu mantra saying and Islamic dhikr, where they have similar techniques. And the learned bishop says, well, it doesn't really matter. It'd be interesting who was borrowing from whom, but in the end it doesn't really matter. It's a jolly good prayer anyway. But I say it does matter. For these are not techniques that the Holy Spirit teaches us. If we need to know something about prayer and the Holy Spirit has not told us, that would be a very curious thing. It is he who within us groans with groanings that cannot be uttered and prays according to God and prompt us in our praying. Oh, do let us beware of these techniques that seem so wonderful and modern and new to many believers. They are as ancient as ancient can be, and they are not of God. At the more intellectual level, you may care to look at, uh, number six: The substitution of pagan Greek philosophic concepts of the impassibility of God for the true and living God revealed in the Bible and through his son. The word impassibility means incapable of suffering. And it is a fact that many centuries Christian theologians and philosophers would tell you, if you thought that deeply, that God is utterly impassible. He cannot experience any emotion. Some of them would hold he can't even think thoughts, because if you start to think a thought, your mental state has changed, hasn't it? And then you stop thinking it. So you can't begin to think anything if you're God, because he never changes. Where did they get the idea from? Well, not from the Bible, as you can see. They got it from the Greek philosophers, of course. The great, uh, Aristotle said that the one, that is God in their terminology, the one behind all the detail of the universe, the one was utter perfection. And of course, you and I will agree. Absolutely perfect. Ah yes, but Aristotle would have added, that means he cannot change. For if he changes, he will either change for the better or for the worse. If he changes for the better, he wasn't perfect before. If he changes from the worse, for the worse, he's no longer perfect. God can't change. Now, to have any of what we in our homely language call emotion, like anger, well, that's impossible with God because that implies a change in his heart. So they said God is utterly impassable. And Aristotle said, God, he is like a beautiful woman that attracts many admirers from among the gentlemen. They're very interested in her, but she has no interest in them whatsoever. That alluding to them was God. You say, how did ever such a frightful idea get in among the Christian philosophers and the theologians? Well, because all credit to the early Christians, third century onward, if acceptable, understandable to the pagan world of intellectuals. Good motive. In the process, they they borrowed some of the thought forms from the pagan philosophers. And indeed, the great councils of the church that state the of the Trinity. Mm, tremendous debt we owe. But you will the creeds, as you do frequently, uh, uh, uh, you will have noticed that the language and the terms is not ordinary everyday English. It is bot- Latin. Now, as you dis- meaning, and that's what they felt they were doing, and therefore three persons in the Trinity, biblical terms are. And, uh, means something rather different from our modern English word person. Yet evangelicals and others happily go on using the term. I mean, into Greek thought, into Christian theo- more theology, this notion that God is... How could you ever reconcile it with the Bible? Of course, God says, I, the Lord God, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. In that sense, God doesn't change. He's as solid as a rock. He is not never inconsistent. But that d- does that mean he doesn't feel any, what we call emotion? Oh, read your Old Testament. I'm weary of you, absolutely weary. I'm pressed under you, like under the staggering load, halve sheaves. Mm-hmm. Do not I hate these things, says God, talking of certain sins. In all their affliction, he was not impassable God who couldn't feel anything. He was afflicted. Tell me what God, and if I dare use the term of him feeling. You know, if we... so it's this... like? He's like Jesus Christ, that's what he's like. When you see Christ, you see that has seen me has seen the Father. Breaking his heart and weeping. For people to listen and come to him. Then Jesus' attitude is God's attitude. That's how God feels. And in all our trials and our sufferings as believers, God is involved. The blessed Lord Jesus understands, though he be God incarnate. That is a message to take to the world. If any good, when the scientists now come round, many of them, to saying that there is an intellect, an intelligence behind the universe, that's a marvelous step forward. We should cash in on that talking to scientists. We certainly should, as John Lennox was saying. Now, the scientists that I have known have said to me, yes, David, I think of one of my colleagues, yes, there must be an intelligence behind the universe, but not a personal intelligence. I said, why not personal? Well, he said, how could you account for so much suffering if it's all been created by a personal God? So I'm not talking about man's wickedness to his fellow man. That's understandable, but there's a lot of people out there hurting, and they says a God, he must be a cruel monster, but then they say it can't be personal then. It is a wonderful thing to be able to come alongside them, isn't it? And talk to them about a God, not of the old Greek philosophers who can't feel anything, but a God who says of his people in all their afflictions, I am afflicted. A God who was not impeccably indifferent when he gave his dear son to Calvary to die for our sins. God himself involved in the suffering of a world. I was in Moscow in June, invited to dinner by a friend of mine, was a professor and his wife. He was the head of a great psychiatric institution in that city. Uh, he's on the medical, the medical side more than psychoanalysis, though he does with both. Of course, it's a very huge institution, a very gracious man, and his wife, uh, uh, uh, uh, a microbiologist in her own right. I talked to them about the existence of God, no, they were confirmed atheists, you see. And then they said, but you see, how can you believe in God when there is so much suffering in the world? They, between them, have seen an enormous amount. It was lovely to be able to tell them the gospel of a God who cares, a God who, having made his creatures, owns moral responsibility for his creatures. A father, a man, and a wife, parents that would bring children into the world and be utterly indifferent to their fate would be immoral. God, by his very act of creation, took upon him moral responsibility. Why the suffering? I cannot discuss it at great length, or length anything at all, but we are affirmed that God who foresaw it was involved in it, in the giving of his darling Son, and has promised to those that trust him that our light affliction, which is for a moment, works for us a far more eternal, exceeding weight of glory. And we may trust the God who was involved in Calvary. And when we get home to glory, it will be the united confession of every believer. Let them have suffered how much suffered. They will all, with united voice, tell you it was worth it all, when they see the glory that God has prepared for them by that means. So then we do need to, to, to, as we begin to think, the theologians particularly, we need to purge our ideas of God from syncretism, from pagan philosophy. The pagans, the Greek pagans held, of course, some of them at any rate, that there was a supreme deity. The Greeks called him Zeus. Uh, the philosophers myth demythologized Zeus into world forces. But behind it all, in the popular mind and that of many philosophers and poets, there was an idea of a dark power called fate. That even the gods themselves were powerless against. Once fate decided that was that, and nothing could save anybody. That is a pagan notion. Alism. God. God keeps open the opportunity of salvation to all as long as he can. He's not a fatalistic God. We shall not need ourselves to be exhorted that we do not confuse our gospel with elements that are common to practically all religions. Number seven, I point to that, the gospel of meritorious works. It is common to religions that they preach the salvation by works. It is common to some forms of, of, of doctrine in Christendom, isn't it? Salvation by works. How easy the gospel slips into being, salvation by works. It is insidious. At the other extreme, you will see we should be aware of false permissiveness. It was a feature in some of the early churches. There came teachers who so expounded the doctrine of grace that if you sinned, it didn't really matter at all. And that's another insidious idea that creeps into the minds of Christians, isn't it? Well, yes, I've sinned, but well, you shouldn't sin now, you shouldn't sin. But you see, um, well, we are saved by grace anyway, aren't we? So in the end, you see, well, you've sinned a lot doesn't really make a all that much difference, does it? Or doesn't it? The second chapter of the second epistle by Peter and this epistle of Jude, let alone a score of other scriptures, are there concerned to tell us that permissiveness, to put a word on it, is not of God. It is a denial of the Christian gospel. A gospel that says it's okay for the sow to turn to her wallowing in the mire, or the dog to return to its vomit, is a gospel that's missing one great heart, chunk out of the heart of the gospel. The gospel says that you don't clean up the pig on the outside and be content with that. You put a different nature inside the pig. You just clean up the outside, the old pig will go back to its wallowing in the mire. God is concerned not to save us in the sense merely of forgiving us. God's salvation is concerned to make us holy. This is the hope of the gospel, that one day we shall be like the blessed Lord Jesus. And everyone who has really the hope in his or her heart of being like the Lord Jesus when he comes, the infallible mark that they have that hope in them is that they proceed, by God's grace, to purify themselves now. Oh yes, we all fail and fall, slip into many a puddle. Sometimes alas, enjoy it. But the mark of a true believer is they will recover out of the snare of the devil one day. Everyone that has the hope purifies himself. That is the gospel. And one, in my little experience, other great stumbling blocks, talking to, uh, Muslims in particular, I think of one of them now as I stand here i- i- i- in, uh, Irbid in Jordan. I was a very, uh, pleasant fellow, just a trifle pushy. He insisted on coming and getting me and taking me to lunch, regaled me with all kinds of dainties that I had to get used to eating. Eh, do see. And when it turned on spiritual matters, you'll see, I happened to talk about sin, was this, you know, the seriousness of sin, and did sin matter? He said, no good you're talking to me about that. What about your Archbishop that has just said that when it comes to sex, he's sexually ambivalent? And your church leaders that are prepared to accept practicing homosexuals into the church. Don't you talk to me about sin as a Christian, says he. Mm-hmm. Kind of permissiveness is not the gospel, is it? We do need to be warned. We need also to be warned about substituting psychology for the gospel. Now, of course, we need the psychologists, and we need Christian psychiatrists. People, Christians sometimes will go to the doctor with they've got ulcers in the stomach. The doctor gives them medicine, they're not ashamed to go. The doctor will tell them, of course, it's the result of stress and strain, worry, and various other such mental attitudes. When you get injury, ing- injuries to the brain, you'll go to a neurologist, neurologist, wouldn't you? And if you get various kinds of phobias, you'll need some, could need some expert help. I'm no expert, not anything like it, but sometimes I get sent believers who suffer from phobias of one kind and another, and their fellow believers tell them if only had enough faith, they wouldn't have the fear. You know, people have a phobic fear of death, do you see? They've heard the preacher say, now when you become a Christian, you are a Christian, you wouldn't be afraid to die. Well, they say, I'm afraid of dying, so I can't be a Christian. Oops. Your turbine of their fear starts inside and wreaks havoc with them. I'd like to get those preachers, I think, sometimes, and put them in the middle of a twenty acre field, you know, such a sizable field, and suddenly put a raging bull two uh yards behind them, coming at full steam, and then you'll see whether the pre- preacher's afraid of death or not. He won't stop to work out the theology, all Christians to be afraid of dying in this circumstance. Nature will take over and he'll run for his very life. It's not a question afraid of dying. God has built in to our nature a fear of dying. What the Bible says is that the believers don't fear death. They can't see. Death is what happens after you die, you know. To wake up on the other side and find yourself lost for eternity. Ah, that you should fear with a very healthy fear. For a believer, that fear is gone. The absent from the body is at home with the Lord. But when the old brain box goes wrong, and the brain gets wounded, sometimes the old fear starts going and won't leave off. And then it's not a spiritual problem, it's a psychological and physical problem. And in my little experience, I found dear believers, when they come to face the fact that it is not a lack of spirituality, but a few odd wires crossed in the brain through some trauma or something, then I can often start recovering from it. We mustn't dismiss, then, the psychiatrists as though they were somehow, by definition, bad and unspiritual. God give us more Christian ones instead of Freudian. But when we said that, it would be a false thing, wouldn't it, to preach psychology instead of the gospel. God wants you to feel good, so we shan't remind you of the judgments of God, so that would make you feel bad. Do you see, we want to be user friendly at this church, so we shan't preach the judgment of God. He wants you to feel good and think a lot of yourself and build yourself. So long as you feel good, you're all right. That is the gospel. The way to get people to feel good, judgment of God. And when they see what a wreck sin has made of them, and they stand in the wreck to tell them if they're prepared to repent and own that they are a wreck and can't put themselves right, God has a savior for them there and then on the spot. And if in true repentance and faith they put their trust in Christ, then God is prepared to accept them as they are, standing in the middle of the wreck, and assure them that he has received them and will never cast them out, and then together with Christ start the work of putting the wreck right. So let's be clear in that. Don't let us confuse the gospel with my modern psychology. Good as psychology can be in its place, some of it. A lot of it's a bit of nonsense, but some of it's good, you'll see. But the gospel is not psychology, it's the gospel. It's the gospel as such, and as Christians we are to preach. And now my time is gone. You will notice I have delayed, uh, by just over ten minutes, you'll see, beyond the appointed hour. You will, I'm sure, convince, uh, uh, forgive me, for we started just a little bit late in this. Our Father, we pray now that thou will take our thinking. Help us ever to think and love thee with our minds the more clearly. Not simply for knowledge's sake, but that we may love thee, knowing thee ever more closely by thy grace. Save us, Lord, from being infected by any of these spiritual viruses, and give us such understanding of the human heart that we may be able, with sympathy, to convey thy love and thy gospel to the men and women around us, for thy name's sake. Amen.