“First Pure, then Peaceable”

Two recent events have given me slender encouragement that creedal and confessional Christianity has not been totally overwhelmed by Post-modern relativism. The first is the publishing of  Alister McGrath’s Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth (New York: Harper One, 2009). I have not yet had an opportunity to get a copy in my hand and evaluate the book myself, but the publisher’s blurb is very heartening.

In recent years the distinction between heresy and orthodoxy has come under fire by those eager to reject the formal boundaries of sanctioned beliefs about God, Jesus, and the church. In a timely corrective to this trend, renowned church historian Alister McGrath argues that the categories of heresy and orthodoxy must be preserved.

Remaining faithful to Jesus’s mission and message is still the mandate of the church despite increasingly popular cries that traditional dogma is outdated and restricts individual freedom. Overturning misconceptions throughout the book, McGrath exposes…how many of the heretical beliefs and practices rejected by the church were actually more stringent and oppressive than rival orthodox claims.

In Heresy, McGrath explains why no heresy has ever been eradicated—rival beliefs only go underground and resurface in different forms. McGrath presents a powerful, compassionate, and deeply attractive orthodoxy that will equip the church to meet the challenge from renewed forms of heresy today.

Not so long ago the term ‘heresy’ seemed to be the almost exclusive property of a narrow, sectarian, bombastic, fringe of the evangelical world, or if it were used, it was uttered in hushed tones, as if the very word was somehow inimical to Christian vocabulary.  Well, it is to be hoped that McGrath’s book will equip those who know in their heart of hearts that defending the faith and contending for the truth is of the essence of Christian witness, but perhaps lacked the courage to do it.

The second event came from Friday’s Commission of Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Last year’s General Assembly was marked by the revolutionary decision, by a substantial majority, against the clear teaching of Scripture, to sustain the call and induction of Scott Rennie, an openly homosexual minister, to a congregation and to stifle debate by the imposition of a gagging order, balanced by a moratorium on the appointment of homosexual ministers.  In defiance of the spirit of this decision the Presbytery of Hamilton agreed to nominate an openly gay man to begin training as a minister. This was covered by both the Times and the Herald. Then on Friday, the Commission of Assembly, by a slender majority of 43 to 38, interpreted the moratorium of May 2009 as extending to applications to train for ministry, as well to ordinations and inductions. The application of homosexual students will, therefore, be sisted until May 2011.

Whilst I rejoice that this obstacle has been put in the way of homosexuals entering the ministry, to me, this success is mitigated by the very slenderness of the majority. Obviously no sea change of attitudes has taken place in the Kirk in the intervening months since the Assembly. For the Confessional Christians of Scotland, of all Presbyterian denominations, there is, therefore, everything to pray for and much work to be done before the Assembly of 2011.

With a siren cry for peace coming from the senior court of the Kirk, many may be intimidated from keeping up the struggle. To those who are, we say, that whilst it is undoubtedly true that the apostolic injunction of James 3:17 calls on us to exercise wisdom that is “peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere,”  it retains and affirms a clear moral and spiritual integrity, it is “first pure, then peaceable.”