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Contents
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CONFRONTATION AND THE PRAISE OF CHRIST
NEW BATTLES FOR THE HONOUR OF THE LORD,
WHO IS THE TRUTH
THE VICTORY IS THE LORD'S - THE FIFTH DELIVERANCE
CARMEL 2,
The Woeful but Triumphant Affair of Wellington
It is now time to come to the New Zealand encounter and labour.
Not long after I arrived, the nation was rocked by a movement away from the Rock of the resurrected Christ to a din from the Principal of their only Seminary, who publicly and sensationalistically would have the dust of Christ somewhere in or about Palestine. The affair went to the General Assembly. The bodily resurrection of Christ was not to be found in the armoury of whatever kind of a faith was in his heart. The national press was aflame, since the Presbyterian Church in NZ is, or was both large and influential.
There was one voice in the disastrous N.Z. Presbyterian Assembly of 1966, which demanded acknowledgment of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, registering formal dissent from the Assembly's caving in to apostasy and weakness unspeakable, while offering to the people the Biblical option (see our second item, 2) to follow). It came in the form of an Overture from the Session of the church where I was placed, one to which I had gone on express condition that each elder would affirm his belief that the Bible was the infallible record of the word of God Himself.
Thus, since I was authorised to present this Overture to the Assembly in the Session's name, the Lord did not lack a witness and a testimony, robustly given to that derelict body, as it proved itself to be. If he had to suffer for its part in meeting robustly and in total confrontation, the denial of the very heart of the Christian faith, what of that ? Are soldiers to be excused from fighting lest they grow callouses on their hands in the effort to deliver their families and the weak from the ravages of misplaced power! (See The Site of the Silent Sermon, No.1.)
How good it was that the time came for me, at last, formally to challenge, to be able to proclaim there in that august but fallen body, the truth concerning Jesus Christ. It was perhaps the most negative assembly of all time, in that land. Yes and it was necessary to condemn in the name of Jesus Christ, its subversion to its face, in 1966. This was done with a will, a witness and a formal presentation. The Overture was overtured, the challenge was made, the evidence was put.
This was done both orally and in writing, with vigour and with a written record of the Overture to support the voice that presented the case. It was then supported further by dissent as an Assembly member from the godless Resurrection Statement, fallen to allow body or not at your pleasure to be resurrected, the 'resolution' which that treacherous group consigned to the Press. This formal dissent gave formal ground for presenting the grounds, which my written attestation in due course thus produced. Praise the Lord for that!
Consider then the wonder of the situation. Thank the Lord that He brought me there in timely fashion just months before, to challenge, expose and condemn this apostasy. It later enabled me to offer the people of the pastorate the Biblical option (see our second item, 2) to follow). The Lord did not lack a witness and a testimony, robustly given to that derelict body, as it proved itself to be, suffering for its part the denial of the very heart of the Christian faith. (See The Site of the Silent Sermon, No.1.) How good it was for me formally to challenge, even in their very midst, with an Overture from our Session, and to be able to proclaim there the truth in perhaps the most negative assembly of all time, in that land. Yes and it was necessary to condemn in the name of Jesus Christ, its subversion to its face, in 1966. It was apt in the end to shake off the dust of my feet, as biblically provided, as a cover up was made by some, even of what had just happened.
For all time and places,
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their Resurrection
Statement, |
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which disavowed the
necessity of believing and proclaiming the body of Christ as not rotting,
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was exposed and
condemned before hundreds of Assembly members, |
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via formal Overture and
its due presentation, |
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the full report and presentation at considerable length also sent into the hands of the Clerk afterwards. |
Thus publicly and
ecclesiastically was their Resurrection Statement at length exposed as
anti-biblical, anti-Christian, thrusting against the reality of Christ, a denial
of the faith.
The devil is a liar, but he cannot in the end suppress the truth, any more than he could confine Christ to barracks, in the tomb. The powers that be wanted Him out, but in the tomb; the Lord came out, but from the tomb, and try as they might, they could not substantiate their claim of fraud, of falsity in Christ, as if His call on His Father were in vain, for the simple fact which was, and will forever remain was this: the body did not stay (cf. SMR Ch. 6).
It went. That is what God said would happen (Psalm 16,22). As usual, in such a case, it is what in its time, occurred, and none could stop it. He would not stop, and so they were stopped. His power in practical cases was always effective; that is why they 'had to' kill Him, since otherwise as Caiaphas the priest was told, all the world would follow Him. In this case, COULD they by barbaric horror, stop Him. Would the 'experiment' still work, in Christ versus the entire religious establishment backed by Roman power, when they killed Him ? Would this break His supernatural posture, stature and power, which it evidently was ?
No, in short, for the 'experiment' proceeded as usual. The predicted 3 days after death, so often foretold when He was with them, duly passed and He passed from the tomb. As usual, what He said would happen, did so. Death did not destroy His authoritative authenticity. His enemies were not given further opportunity to operate, but His friends were given further instruction as you see in Luke 24, as He built them up in this powerful experiment, this prophetic marvel, this supra-Lazarus arising, this teaching mission, before leaving this world for the time, to the operation of the Gospel which Isaiah predicted would be the case (Isaiah 53-55), and the power of His Spirit whom He would send (John 15:26, Luke 24).
His return from being glorified, this would be dramatic enough, as was His life (Zechariah 14, II Thessalonians 1), and He who bought the Church, would remove it altogether before the dénouement that would give yet one more attestation of divine power, when mercy for millenia despised, truth would prevail, as always, but now pervasively.
Oblivious of the vital reality of the bodily resurrection, however, the NZ Presbyterian Assembly of 1966 paraded their ignorance and faithlessness to the Press. Their failure was critical. It was as if Christ when answering a challenge to His pardoning a paralysed sinner BEFORE healing Him (Mark 2), had declared, as He did, that He would raise him up to verify the truth, and then palpably failed. What if the man had stayed steadfastly on the bed of a paralytic! There would then be no Christianity, the religion of verification and validity, of test and more test.
His claim to pardon him - which admittedly only God could do, could be assessed better when He used the very power of God, working with and through Him in His earthly setting, to raise up the paralytic physically.
While then the Assembly lost its head, and revealed for the time at least, its heart, one thing God secured. The condemnation had been uttered by myself as a member of that Assembly, and the formal dissent required them to receive my protracted rebuttal. This would mean that in writing that corrupt communication and the will behind it, would be consigned to the flames. God is not without His witness; it is great to have someone there. Elijah was one; and one to one is not necessary with men, for if God be for you, who shall be against you! Suffering is not the point; fidelity is, and the results of it are to strengthen faith, and call to spiritual arms, those who wander.
The words of that Overture itself, duly presented to the Assembly while it was sitting as part of its work load, were strong and keen. We did not care what any philosopher, prince or pundit thought, for if the resurrection of Jesus Christ were in view, it was historic, factual and basic to the Church which used His name; and it was crucial that this Assembly expose the heretical dogma which had been propounded by its Principal of its seminary, so that order and truth might return to the Church. Such was the Overture from the Session of St Ninian's PC, in Blenheim NZ, in 1966, to the national Presbyterian Assembly, presented by its Minister, Rev. Robert Donaldson. If this was an un-Presbyterian action, so be it; it was a Christian one.
For interest, the BULLETIN which was printed at the Minister's expense, outlining the position before his eventual departure from that Church, is provided as given, in Appendix II.
It would flow readily if now we added some more detail on the historic and devastating New Zealand coup. Let us trace it in order.
DELIVERANCE, PAST,
PRESENT AND TO COME;
A DIVINE SPECIALTY FOR HIS CHILDREN
THE NEW ZEALAND ERUPTION
Again, we come
to something that actually happened.
Always it is
fascinating, that IT HAPPENED!
You may think of Ministers of the faith as rather formal non-combatants in life. The truth is often far from this. We are invited to engage, all who are Christians (Ephesians 6) in what is no less than a spiritual warfare. In the heart is peace and love, but in the feet there may have to be agile movement, as the King commands His battalions, directed to enabling many to hear the Gospel and find a better life than that of turmoiled self-interest and international clash: more, to find God who made them, through Jesus Christ His express Saviour.
In 1966, one Minister, a Presbyterian of Australian citizenship, was in New Zealand. Two beautiful churches were to be the base, in Christ. An agreement was hammered out with the elders, as a condition of coming as pastor, that the Bible as defined in the Westminster Confession, would be in authority and rule. It is defined as "infallible truth" and "immediately inspired of God".
Time moved, as
it has a habit of doing. Circumstances growled. A Professor in the Presbyterian
Seminary had denied the power of God expressed categorically and essentially (I
Corinthians 15, Luke 24:26-27,38-43, John
To deny this
categorical Biblical truth is to invent a false Christ (II Cor. 11); for a
Christian assembly to say, in effect, believe this or not as you please, is to
disaffirm it as authoritative, God-given truth. Hence it is to reject the
apostolic testimony (I Cor. 15 esp. vv.1-3, Romans 10:9, Acts 2:22-32), to
contradict the doctrine given through them (Romans 16:17), and hence to become
in this respect, parasitic (cf. Jeremiah 7:8-11), living on the name of Christ,
contrary to specifications and permission, in violation of truth, in opposition
to the master builders of the church (I Cor.3:10, Eph. 2:20ff.): in novelty and
powerlessness, depriving the people of God of their heritage, and insulting the
Lord.
Quite simply,
making possible only what God makes certain, it is to dethrone God from
His word; and in the end, agreeing that this acceptance of mere
possibility is the doctrine of the church, is in line to reject the word of God
as simply and clearly as the Jewish nation did when He proclaimed against
them (Isaiah 30:8, cf. 8:20):
It is not a
pleasant prospect, but for all that, some seem to prefer it to 'division' (cf.
Matthew 10:33-37). Nevertheless, that prospect has worse in store, for those
ashamed of Him, He notes in this very passage, of them He too will be ashamed.
He is what He is and in no uncertain way did He correct Thomas' slowness (John
20:26-30 cf. 12:48-50).
What then was the result of this tension, this provocation, this innovation, this assault on the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3) ? It was myself who was that Presbyterian Minister. What transpired ?
The people
split, the nation split, but most moved to be on the side decidedly not of the
angels. Anti-faith roared. The Assembly took note, and the Session where I was
occupied, took a stand: NOT this new philosophy, but the grand established creed
of the church, of the Bible! That was the declaration, the challenge made. We did not, the Pastor with that 1966 Overture, declared, care for the words of
prince or philosopher who knew not and did not obey the word of God.
No! Not that. NOT what you think, NOT what the Bible has, retorted the mood of the Assembly, but what we say... and that! It is that the body part doesn't matter. Believe, in this contest, whichever way you like! That certainly made being eaten by lions seem a little unnecessary, for early Christians. It was indeed a new way!
However, in the midst of seething Assembly and a ruling official’s rumbling challenge, 'Presbytery will deal with you!', which seemed to have rather a Mafia feeling at the time, I refused to agree, and when the crucial vote on whether or no the bodily resurrection would be adhered to (as if any Church assembly could change that! you might as well legislate the sun out of existence, a verbal folly), this Australian Minister in New Zealand now is writing to you, ordained indeed in that land, voted against the betrayal, and for the bodily resurrection.
In fact, I gave an immediate, public, formal protest, duly registered by name in the Assembly; to which was to be added a written and extensive condemnation of the Assembly's betrayal of Jesus Christ, the Bible and the Church that is His. This was given to the powers that be, in the Church.
The newspaper, however, could not be made to include this fact, that just one Minister had formally at this vote, opposed the Assembly, REGISTERING HIS DISSENT BY NAME! ONE HAD CERTIFIABLY CONDEMNED ON THE FLOOR OF THE ASSEMBLY, THE POSITION IT HAD TAKEN, THE DENIAL OF THE BODILY RESURRECTION AS INTEGRAL TO CHRISTIANITY. The much touted Resurrection Statement of the Assembly had been not only rejected, but rigorously so, to the point that this dissent from the ruling of the Assembly was 'recorded' that for all time the fact that it was not unanimous but strongly contested and condemned, might appear to all honest men.
Further, there came a demand that this Statement of Assembly be read in all churches. This I also refused. To read that to our church, a Church belonging to Jesus Christ, to present the Assembly's commanded new screed, would be betrayal of Christ. This outraged the Assembly official to whom it was told during Assembly's continuing time. In condemning this STATEMENT AS SUCH, I had condemned all uses of it in the Church. If you condemn arsenic, you condemn it here and there and anywhere. Such was the case.
The newspapers however breached the truth, ignoring the dramatic rejection and record of the negation of the Resurrection Statement, one which applied wherever the statement was to be considered. Repetition was not necessary. The issue had been categorically resolved: the statement concerning the resurrection of Christ which in the Assembly had been made, had one on the floor of the Assembly which condemned it in the most vigorous possible terms, and had his dissent recorded, this same Rev. Robert Donaldson, of their own number, ordained in their own land. Thus, for all time, this was his avowal, this his despatch of that abomination, whatever any at any time might wish to do with it. Alone his dissent had been recorded. Always that will remain. Never can truth deny it. The dust of one's feet was cast off on this body in this act.
Thus this was both formal and it to be confirmed by writing to come. To present this as unanimous agreement was a folly of the newspapers, and they would not be corrected. To deny that it occurred is to ignore Session's action, the Overture and the fact, the highly charged dissent in the erupting Assembly, and to give yet more folly place.
That was real action. It was as if the antichrist were here already; but in practice, it was only a trial run for his 'best', macabre presentation. TRUTH in a 'Christian' country ! or one of some Christian past, not even allowed to be printed in the papers! Was this New Zealand ? It seemed at least like the worst of Russia, or some other Communist country, in political reconstruction of facts. Later a Christian magazine, called 'Challenge', did publish the facts and recount the dissent. Even if Churchill, I there indicated, might agree with the USSR, or other incredible combination, yet I never would just as I never did subscribe to this folly.
The results of these facts did not by any means please all. I had been threatened with the Presbytery in Wellington, that it would 'deal with you', and this duly came to pass. Dissenters are not desired. The antichrist desires rule. Many antichrists, said John are about and this whole matter was in this vein.
Thus the Presbytery DID indeed then come, and it DID seek to condemn and remove the Minister, but since the elders who were still a majority, the Session appealed to the 1967 Assembly (since they met in two halves, each annually), while the Minister warned the people of the appalling horror committed by their Assembly.
(For more on these events, in NZ, see Joy Comes in the Morning Ch. 9 and The Desire of the Nations ... Ch. 5 as marked, and Appendix.)
Then one elder, appalled at a Presbyter who indicated that they would run by the Rule Book, and not by the Bible, as he understood the claim, decided it was time to leave so antichristian a situation as he deemed it. Indeed, to say it was unbiblical would be British understatement. With his departure, there went the majority of elders. It was by this lost; so this Minister, Robert Donaldson, having offered to the people a church without buildings, without success, was left to the operation of those gracious hands which were pierced by nails around A.D.30. Jesus Christ on whose name we call and have called, for whose sake all this was done, is not only alive but lively; and He acts for those who wait for Him. What then? He acted for this Minister.
THE VICTORY IS THE LORD'S - THE SIXTH DELIVERANCE
The 3-Day Way from NZ to USA
Ordination Intact
THIS! This is what happened. Within 3 days of departure, he was entered as an ordained Minister in another Presbyterian denomination in the United States, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. In view of the bodily resurrection in THREE DAYS, which Jesus repeatedly stressed in foretelling His movements, this was both ironic and triumphant.
It happened. I know that it happened, because I was that pastor, that Minister: it happened to me. These things I have seen and heard, and lived.
There was indeed a certain irony in this as well as a grand deliverance. In my deliverance, 3 days figured. In Christ's resurrection, 3 days figured. In the assault on the New Testament, irrationally perpetrated (when challenged, no rational answer was received from the Dunedin Professor responsible), the 3 days were philosophically dismissed. What God allegedly COULD not do, then, in the way of prediction - as if to mock the scornful and reject the rebellious, according to the unbelief pattern, He DID do now. I was delivered once again from an erring church body. The power of the resurrected Christ did indeed work, as time moved on towards the era of His return.
Further, the three days in which Christ's body was raised from the dead was not only as predicted, and performed, but was the very sort of thing which in the first persecution I suffered, at Ormond College, seminary in Melbourne, led to a professorial declaration that Christ in particular, and no mere man in general could know in advance such details. Only a general knowledge of God was possible (though how even this was known was not vouchsafed!).
Confronted with the fact that in that case, not only His verified prediction, but predictions of prophets such as Zechariah and others COULD not have been made, that indeed the whole revelatory thrust and precision of the Bible would have to be cancelled (although of course it had been verified - SMR Chs. 6, 8 - 9, what was predicted and what has happened being inseparable in all instances of trial), he had no rational answer, nor could there be any. I for my part, however, in similarly defending Daniel from irrational rejection by the Principal, this time, was almost at once cast out on false grounds, a not uncommon procedure. Thus the three day transfer from New Zealand to an ordained ministry in a Presbyterian denomination in the USA, was DOUBLY eloquent of the power of God in the face of inimical assault on His word, and attempted 'annulment' as far as the ministry was concerned, of His servant. It was a practical reproof both to Victorian and New Zealand assault on Christ, and action against me, simply at work as required of such, testifying biblically and evidentially.
What then ? of what does this remind us ?
It was as it is, as Paul presented it. It is not only in word, but in deed that it is crucial to contend for the faith and attest the truth of Jesus Christ, for He is of this world, the only hope, the source of truth and the experimental expression of the love of God, the redemptive reality of that love and the attestation of the power of God over all flesh, and any!
Thus we read in Philippians 3:8ff., these words.
"Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus..."
The Lord thus delivered me. How grand is His goodness and how irresistible His power.
It was quite a feat in this instance, for the organised persecution of ecclesiastical wheels, which often run like tank tracks over those who dare to be both reasonable and Biblical, did not succeed. The assault forces, first on Christ and by continuation on His servant, did succeed only in being overthrown: and that ? In 3 days. Blessed be the name of the Lord who, as Paul puts it in terms of BIBLICAL BLESSING: "delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust the He will still deliver us..." (II Corinthians 1:10).
It reminds of an equally delightful blessing in II Timothy:
" But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear.
"Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me form every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom.
"To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!" - 3:17-18.
Thus
came yet another deliverance!
PRAISE HIM
BECAUSE IT IS HIS DUE,
WHO IS WONDERFUL
In all these deliverances, we praise the name of the Lord, whose mercy prevails for ever for His people, whose reliability is matched with His passion for purity, His honour and His everlasting arms. This is told to encourage and to stimulate others: NEVER compromise with the word of the Lord, with the work of the Lord. Take diseased meat if you must; but never pollute the word of God, never disorder your relationship to it, never take your eyes off the road of your pilgrimage, and be thankful that a highway of holiness (Isaiah 35) is provided, right there, just for you!
Blessing ?
The wayfarers on THAT highway, says the Lord, will not err - not though they be fools! In other words, it is NOT dependent on your astuteness or your insight, valuable as these can be. Like birth, it is a gift, and it is to be given and received BY FAITH! What blessing is in this, that the living God who gives, has the wisdom to present the gift from the undimmed splendour of His holy presence! It is for us to receive it, again, by faith.
If you are His, then follow Him: HE is your stay, and He is your exceedingly great reward, and HE will never leave you nor forsake you. WORK for the night is coming in which no man can work; WORK because He for whom you work is incomparably glorious in praises, fearful in action, wonderful in mercy, and the most delightful personality. It is in Him that love finds its author and base (I John 4:7), its action and redemption (Romans 5:1-11).
God in the flesh, Jesus Christ is literally worth anything; but to
be permitted to
ACT (as
for example in New Zealand, Sydney, Toronto, Melbourne), in His presence, and in His company, and in His covenant and in His
power, for His sake, and with His provision: what more could you ask! except
always to honour and worship Him to whom it is due, that Holy Trinity of praise
and blazing glory.