The gospel according to Woody Allen • A public faith ... · The gospel according to Woody Allen...

The gospel according to Woody Allen • A public faith • Panic stations

apr i l 2001

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EDITORIAL

Pointing to glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

We only get one sign, and it’s more than enough.

EASTER

Tortured for us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Murray Adamthwaite investigates the barbaric, brutal and humiliat-

ing execution that was crucifixion.

The defence rests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Noted theologian William Lane Craig tells Peter Hastie why the case

against the resurrection is weak.

A reasonable faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Only a bodily resurrection fits the facts, argues Peter Barnes – and

history agrees.

NEWS

Home Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Across Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

World News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Richard Wurmbrand obituary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

CULTURE

Culture Watch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Movie Watch: Traffic

The gospel according to Woody Allen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Woody Allen is scared God exists, and scared he doesn’t. David

Mishkin reports.

FAMOUS CONVERSIONS

Charles Spurgeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Snowbound, a simple sermon, and salvation.

DEVOTION

Resurrection reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Ruth Rosen doesn’t let her flaws bother her.

TOUGH QUESTIONS

Christians and psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

David Powlison has considerable reservations.

MISSIONS

Panic stations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Sudan or bust: it may be mission impossible, but Paul and Carol

Lukins will get there.

PRAYER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

BOOKS

Out of Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

You Sank My Boat!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

The Christian’s High Calling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

ESSAY

A public faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Religion is on the way back in American public life, and Chuck

Colson is pleased.

A U S T R A L I A N P R E S B Y T E R I A N • 3

April 2001No. 525

THE AUSTRALIAN PRESBYTERIAN (ABN 81 498 399 755): The national magazine of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. Acting editor-in-chief: Robert Benn. Editorial committee:Robert Benn (NSW), Stuart Bonnington (WA), Peter Hastie (NSW), Guido Kettniss (Queensland), Barney Zwartz (Victoria). Graphic Design: Sandra Joynt for A&J Moody Design. Advertisingand subscription inquiries: Walter Bruining, PO Box 375, Kilsyth 3137; Phone: (03) 9723 9684. Subscription: $32 a year + GST; bulk (minimum of five copies to one address) $29each + GST. Overseas: $A43. Office: PO Box 375, Kilsyth 3137. Phone: (03) 9723 9684. Fax: (03) 9723 9685. Email: [email protected] Printed: Newsprinters Pty Ltd,Melbourne Road, Shepparton 3060. Published: Monthly except January by the National Journal Committee of the Presbyterian Church of Australia; Convener Robert Benn. Opinionsexpressed are those of the contributor and not necessarily those of the PCA, the editor or the committee. Acceptance of advertising does not imply endorsement. Contributions: Submittedarticles are welcome. The deadline is the first of the previous month. Donations are always welcome. Print Post approved 34918100384. www.presbyterian.org.au

The richest man in Australia, mediamagnate Kerry Packer, hasbecome somewhat of a specialistin metaphysics since he nearly

died several years ago at a polo match atWarwick Farm. After his near-fatal heartattack, he was asked by a news reporterwhether he was afraid of death. “Nah,mate,” he drawled, “I’ve been on the otherside of death and there’s nothing there.”

While Mr Packer may be supremelyconfident that death spells the end of per-sonal existence, his own family is not sosure. Judging from the inscription ontheir family vault at South HeadCemetery, Vaucluse, they’re hedging theirbets. Over the doors of the mausoleumwhere his father and mother, Sir Frankand Lady Gretel Packer lie buried, arethese words from the apocrypha: “Untilthe day break, and the shadows flee away.”

It seems that on the question ofimmortality the Packer house is divided.One generation ago they looked forwardto a future life, but now Kerry Packer’sbrush with death has convinced him thatthere’s nothing beyond the grave.

Many Australians share his view.Indeed, any visit to an historic cemeteryreminds us that since the early 19th cen-tury there has been a steady erosion ofEaster faith in Australia. Graveyards aredotted with broken columns, young menhold lowered torches and headstones areoften silent about a future life. TheChristian idea of resurrection struggles tofind a place in the modern world.

Interestingly, Kerry Packer regards hisnear-death experience as a sign that con-firms his view that there’s no such thing asa future life. However, if we were to judgefrom the differing opinions of people whohave passed through a similar experience,Mr Packer is on rather unsafe ground.Plenty of people are sure that they haveheard voices from the other side. So anear-death experience is a little bit like theUS Navy in its guarded approach as towhether nuclear weapons are on its ships:it neither confirms nor denies their pres-ence.

So where do we turn to find any assur-ance about life-after-death? Is there a signthat provides conclusive proof?

The search for such a sign is hardly a

modern phenomenon. In Jesus’ own day,there was a compulsive interest in signswhich makes his remarks about them allthe more significant. Jesus’ reflections onthis subject occurred in the face of wide-spread rejection of his ministry. Peoplerefused to believe his messianic claims. Sohe put his credibility on the line with justone sign – the resurrection. Jesus said: “Awicked and adulterous generation asks fora miraculous sign! But none will be givenit except the sign of the prophet Jonah.For as Jonah was three days and threenights in the belly of the whale, so the Sonof Man will be three days and three nightsin the heart of the earth” (Mt. 12:39-40).

It’s certainly a good thing – and a par-ticularly convenient thing – that the cruxof Christianity boils down to the oneissue of the resurrection. It simplifies mat-ters considerably for any who are uncer-tain about where to start in their searchfor truth. Jesus invites seekers to submithis claims to deity and messiahship to asimple historical enquiry that focuses onhis resurrection.

This makes Christianity unique amongthe other great religions because Jesuschallenges his hearers to verify his truth-claims by investigating the historical evi-dence for it. Anyone who wishes to assessthe truth of Christian claims must turn tothe resurrection.

Not surprisingly, we discover thatJesus’ earliest followers adopted the samestrategy in focusing on the resurrection.For instance, the apostle Paul, when pre-senting his case to the Athenian academy,said that the resurrection of Jesus was an

irrefutable argument in favour of thecoming judgment and a future life. Hesaid: “God has fixed a day on which hewill judge the world ... and he has givenproof of this to all men by raising himfrom the dead” (Acts 17:31). Thus theresurrection becomes the linchpin inPaul’s argument. Jesus’ radical claims ofdivine Sonship rest upon this event.Indeed, he was “declared with power to beSon of God by his resurrection from thedead” (Rom. 1:4). In Paul’s mind at least,the resurrection of Jesus was an authenti-cated historical event that has life-and-death consequences “for all people every-where” (Acts 17:30).

It has implications for the uninformed– those, like the Athenians, who havenever investigated the matter before.Likewise, it addresses the sceptics – thosewho want strong, palpable evidence thatChristian belief has more substance than ablind Nietzschean type-of-faith which isprepared to recklessly sail one’s ship intouncharted waters or foolishly build one’shouse on the side of Mt Vesuvius. On thecontrary, Christian faith is reasonablefaith based on solid historical enquiry.

And this is the secret of its power.Because it’s true, it has profound conse-quences. It shows us which religion is thetrue one; it reminds us that death is notthe end; it assures us that our sins are for-given and that we can experience a newmoral power. This Easter, we invite you toreconsider the one sign that will solve ourproblems: the resurrection.

Peter Hastie.__________________________________

From the Convener

Woody Allen sayshe’s not afraid to die.He just doesn’t wantto be there when ithappens. With witand despair, Allenencapsulates mod-ern doubt: he’s afraid God exists, and he’safraid he doesn’t. See page 20.

Robert Benn, Convener,

National Journal Committee ap

Roadsign for heavenA wicked generation seeks a sign – and has one.

E D I T O R I A L


After death... what next?

The cross as a Christian symbol hasbeen so sanitised and bathed insoporific haze that the ordinaryBible reader finds it hard to com-

prehend how barbaric, humiliating, andbrutal this form of execution was to thosewho regularly witnessed it. While in antiq-uity its pre-eminent practitioners were ofcourse the Romans, they were far fromoriginal in adopting the cross as a penalty,at least for political crimes. It seems tohave originated with the Persians, thoughthe Phoenicians also practised it.

The Greek historian Herodotus (4thcentury BC), in describing his travels inPersia, records several instances of cruci-fixion – even how Persian dignitaries suf-fered the penalty – but for them it appearsnot to have been so much part of theirjurisprudence as the whim of the Persianmonarch.

Also at that time the cross was as muchfor an intimidating public display of acorpse as actual execution, thus

Herodotus uses the Greek term staurosfor this display, while his term for a crossas an instrument of execution is skolops.After his time, however, the distinctiondisappeared, and stauros is the regularterm in the New Testament.

When Alexander the Great subduedTyre in 332 BC, in revenge for the longsiege he crucified 2000 of the inhabitants,arranging their crosses along the seashorefor maximum effect. The Phoenician set-tlement at Carthage had early institution-alised the practice; from them the

Romans exploited the method, especiallyto subdue rebellion. Remember thefamous example of the 6000 slaves cruci-fied along the Appian Way after the defeatof the Spartacus rebellion in 71 BC. Themovie depicted the horror of that dreadfulspectacle.

Deterrence remained a prime motivefor crucifixion of criminals and seditiouspersons: Quintilian, the Roman educa-tional theorist (1st century AD), advo-cated the erection of crosses at the busiestintersections as a deterrent to crime.

Josephus, the Jewish historian, refersconstantly to the excessive Roman use ofcrucifixion to “pacify” conquered terri-tory, in particular Judea. In 7 AD theRoman Legate of Syria, Quintilius Varus,quelled a revolt by crucifying 2000 Jews inJerusalem.

Rome reserved crucifixion with fewexceptions for slaves, brigands, rebels andvile criminals, and perfected it as aninstrument of slow death by the maxi-


The cross:execution by torture

Barbaric, brutal, humiliating – and for us.

E A S T E R

Murray Adamthwaite

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mum of pain. Cicero referred to it as theslaves’ punishment: “Let the very name ofthe cross be far away not only from thebody of a Roman citizen, but even fromhis thoughts, his eyes, his ears!”

Because of this distinction the notionof a “crucified god” in pagan parlance wasan offensive, self-contradictory affront torespectable religion. Likewise, the crossalso offended Jewish sensitivities: accord-ing to Jewish law a crucified man wasaccursed by God (Deut. 21:23); thereforeJesus could not be Messiah. Paul beforehis conversion had baulked over this con-tradiction: only the realisation that hebecame a curse for us enabled him to sur-mount the offence which the cross consti-tuted (Gal. 3:13).

Until 1968 scholars had to rely on classi-cal sources for accounts of crucifixion, butthen the Israeli archaeologist VassiliosTzaferis discovered the actual remains of acrucified victim from about the time ofChrist in a burial chamber at Giv’at ha-Mivtar, north-east of Jerusalem. In what iscalled an ossuary, a stone chest used forsecondary burial (i.e. after the flesh haddecayed the bones were gathered into thischest), were found the remains of a cer-tain Jehohanan who had been nailed to across by his arms and ankles.

Taking the arms first, a small scratch onthe radius bone just above the wrist of theright forearm revealed that the victim hadbeen nailed to the horizontal bar or pati-bulum. To produce this mark the nailwould have repeatedly rubbed against theradius in what would have been excruciat-ing pain.

This aspect of the discovery helps tospecify our understanding of Christ’s cru-

cifixion wounds. You will remember howThomas demanded to examine thewounds in His “hands” (Greek cheir),John 20:25. So much Christian art depictsthe nail as piercing through the palm, butthis is impossible: the nail would tearthrough the flesh under the body’sweight. Roman executioners knew thiswell: hence they drove the nails throughthe lower forearms, just behind the wrists.The Greek word easily accommodatesthis extended meaning.

The other and most interesting aspectof Jehohanan concerns the 17cm nailthrough his ankle bones. There are twointerpretations of this. The more plausibleone is that the legs were folded in anunnatural position which left the bodycontorted, then a single nail was driventhrough both ankles and into the uprightof the cross.

Most likely, as in many cases, a smallwooden “seat” (sedile) was also attachedto the upright to provide partial supportfor the left buttock. This sounds like mit-igation of the agony, but the Romans didthis deliberately to prolong it.Furthermore, to ensure that the manwould not pull himself free from the nail asmall wooden plate was inserted betweenthe nail head and the feet.

However, in this case the nail pointapparently struck a knot in the olive-wood upright and bent around, henceafter the man’s death the whole assem-blage was pulled free, leaving the nail inplace through the ankle bones.

The victim’s right tibia or shinbonehad been brutally fractured by a singleblow into several large and sharp slivers.This strikingly confirms the Palestinianvariation on normal Roman crucifixion,attested in John 19:31-33. Because Jewishlaw required that a body be buried beforenightfall (Deut. 21:23) they introducedthe barbarous practice whereby to endthe agony more quickly a soldier in theexecution squad smashed the victim’slegs with an iron bar. With his means ofsupport gone the hapless victim quicklyexpired from asphyxiation. PoorJehohanan obviously suffered this fate toaccelerate his death and enable a same-day burial.

An alternative view proposes that thelegs were spread apart, and a nail driventhrough each ankle into the respectivesides of the upright. While this remains atenable interpretation of the available evi-dence, the above explanation is preferable.The discovery indeed casts light on thisancient practice, but several questionsremain unanswered.

From classical sources we know thebasic procedure of crucifixion from trialto death. Outside Italy, a court whichimposed the death penalty could onlycarry it out with the consent of the procu-rator, who in our Lord’s case was Pilate.While governors were expected to decidewith strict justice, as often as not theybowed to popular pressure, as also in thecase of Christ.

Once convicted, the victim was tied toa post and flogged savagely, though notquite fatally, with the flagellum, similar tothe old cat-o’-nine-tails of the convict erabut with bone fragments inserted. Afterthis the execution squad placed the heavycrossbar (patibulum) over the back of thecondemned man’s neck and to it theybound his arms.

Then began the procession to the exe-cution site. In front a soldier carried theinscription or titulus, indicating the nameof the condemned and his crime. ForChrist the two floggings, one to placatethe Jews (John 19:1), the other the normaland harsher pre-execution flogging (Mark15:15), were altogether too much, causinghim to collapse under the burden.Thereafter a passer-by, Simon, carried thepatibulum.

Once at the designated site, the victimwas usually thrown to the ground, hisoutstretched arms then spiked by thewrists to the crossbar with large nailsabout 17 cm long (sometimes they werebound). Then he was hoisted up to thealready erected vertical post, while his feetwere either bound, or spiked with anothernail to the upright.

The executioners then attached thetitle to the cross above his head. Often

E A S T E R


Jehohanan on his cross as discernedfrom his remains

Roman nail, and its placement into thewrist of the victim. Note the position ofthe median nerve.


they added the wooden mini-seat orsedile, usually pointed, to add to the painand lengthen the death struggle. Ancientwriters record many instances of victimsstaying alive on crosses for two to threedays. Josephus records how he personallyintervened for three acquaintances cruci-fied along with other Jews. Titus had themtaken down: two subsequently died whilethe other recovered.

For crucified victims the causes ofdeath were manifold. The nails wouldeither damage or sever the median nerves,which produced searing pain, especiallywhen the victim flexed his arms in aneffort to breathe. In addition, mortifica-tion of the wounds would make themgangrenous as blood progressively failedto reach the extremities and septicaemictoxins proliferated.

Shallow breathing was, however, themajor factor: the weight of the body onthe outstretched arms made it increas-ingly difficult to exhale. In the end hewould die of muscular spasms andasphyxia as breathing became ever moredifficult. In addition, failure of blood andfluid flow would result in severe loss ofblood pressure (hypovolemic shock).

Towards the end a combination ofexhaustion, delirium, and weakenedbreathing functions would intensify. Onlytwo factors helped to mitigate this tor-ture: the pre-execution scourging wouldhasten death somewhat, while in Judea aladies’ aid agency gave the victim a drug-ging potion mixed from cheap wine andmyrrh, a known narcotic. When this wasoffered to our Lord he refused it (Mark15:23). When we observe therefore therevolting cruelties he suffered in our place,we can appreciate in greater depth how he“bore our sins in his own body on thetree” (1 Pet. 2:24).

The reference to “blood and water” inJohn 19:34 has fascinated many throughthe years, and has also provoked theoriesof the immediate cause of our Lord’sdeath. One popular theory proposes thatthe blood came from a ruptured heart, andthe spear thrust into the chest cavity thenreleased the blood mixed with the watery

fluid of the pericardial sac around theheart. Hence Christ died literally of a bro-ken heart.

Despite the edifying appeal of this the-ory we must make several important qual-ifications. First, not all Christian medicalauthorities are convinced, and haveoffered counter-explanations.

Second, whatever view we adopt here,we must insist that Christ gave his life vol-untarily (John 10:18; Luke 23:46) – thephysical agonies did not overwhelm him.Third, the spear thrust was not to “finishhim off”, but to ascertain whether he wasreally dead. It was by being “lifted up” onthe cross that he was to die (John 12:33),not by a thrust from a lance.

For all this, we can nevertheless givequalified approval to the “broken heart”theory. As Dr. Stuart Bergsma in an articlein 1948 pointed out, anything less than aruptured heart would result in a minorflow of blood, a hardly noticeable trickle.However, a significant flow of blood wasimportant for John’s purpose, to refutethe then current view that Jesus was amere phantom who only seemed to have abody.

More recently, three authors in theJournal of the American MedicalAssociation (1986) have given qualifiedsupport to this conclusion, even if it is nottheir preferred one. They write: “Ruptureof the left ventricular wall may occur,though uncommonly, in the first fewhours after infarction.”

While we do not know from whichside the spear thrust came (often assumedto have been the right), ultimately it doesnot matter: blood and serum would havefilled the chest cavity which then flowedout through the wound.

Apart from this theory, we must alsostress that Jesus actually died. The Romanexecutioners knew well their macabrebusiness, and by law they could notrelease a body until they were quite surethat he was in fact dead (cf. Mark 15:44-5). To ensure this they made the custom-ary spear thrust. Regrettably, variations ofthe hoary old swoon theory (“he didn’treally die but swooned and later revived”)not only persist, but also flourish, so this

point needs to be insisted.

While a discussion of crucifixion shouldand probably does fill us with horror, andcontemplation of the tortures our Lord’sendured should provoke a deep senseboth of our sinfulness and the love ofGod, yet we should remember that theNew Testament does not dwell on thosephysical sufferings. That the cross was forhim the “death of deaths”, that heendured the wrath of God, divine aban-donment and curse, being “made sin” andthe like, is the all-important dimension.

The theology of the cross is the focus,since he suffered all this for our sins. Fromthis perspective the crucifix sends entirelythe wrong message: it would have us focuson and sentimentalise over Christ’s physi-cal agonies when that focus should be else-where; also it proclaims ultimately that“Jesus is dead”, whereas he is gloriouslyalive. Let us therefore meditate on thecross as the New Testament presents it.

(I wish to thank my wife, Corrie, for assis-tance on the medical aspects of this article.)

Murray R. Adamthwaite lectures in AncientNear Eastern History, and holds a PhD inAncient Near Eastern Studies from theUniversity of Melbourne. ap

Victim hanging on a cross. Chest dia-gram shows a fixed inhalation state.

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Why is the issue of Jesus’ resurrectionso important?

There are a number of significant rea-sons. For one thing, it completes thework of the cross. Paul says Jesus Christwas “put to death for our trespasses andraised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).So there is an intimate union between thedeath and the resurrection of Christ andhis achieving victory over sin, death andhell. In Paul’s mind, the resurrectioncompletes and ratifies the work of thecross.

Second, I think the resurrection isGod’s vindication of Jesus’ radical claimsfor which he was executed. Jesus claimedto be equal to God the Father. He puthimself in the place of God. He claimedan authority to speak on matters properlybelonging to God. And it was these radi-cal claims that ultimately led to his cruci-fixion on the charge of blasphemy. But ifthe God of Israel has raised Jesus from thedead, then that means that the God whowas allegedly blasphemed by Jesus has infact vindicated those radical claims. So theresurrection shows us that Jesus wasindeed who he claimed to be.

Third, the resurrection is the harbingerand foretaste of our own resurrectionfrom the dead. It gives us hope forimmortality and life beyond the grave.Therefore, the resurrection supplies thekey to the human predicament of deaththat seems to make finite life meaninglessand pointless. If everything is doomedsimply to end in the grave, then it seemsto make no difference how you live. Butthe resurrection provides hope for eternallife and shows that the lives that we do livenow are imbued with significance of aneternal nature.

Finally, I believe that the resurrection issignificant because it provides hope forultimate physical and psychological heal-ing. In this life we are broken people, notonly in physical terms by virtue of our dis-abilities and diseases, but also psychologi-cally. All of us are broken psychologicallythrough the effects of sin on ourselves,our families or through poor up-bringing.The resurrection provides hope of asupernatural existence involving completehealing of body and mind and the full

integration of the human personality – ina physical, mental and spiritual sense. Sothe resurrection provides us with tremen-dous hope to look forward to somethingbetter.

Some say that the important thingabout the resurrection is the theolog-ical truths it expresses, not whether itactually happened.

I don’t think there’s any merit in thisclaim at all. I believe that people whothink like this have constructed a falsedichotomy. Of course, the resurrectionexpresses important theological truths, asI’ve already indicated. But, it expressesthose truths precisely because it did hap-pen. If it didn’t happen, then it’s simplymythology. And a mythological symbolcan’t provide us with any real hope forphysical and psychological healing. Norcan it provide us with any real grounds forjustification from sin and the possibilityof change inherent in the idea of sanctifi-cation. Further, it can’t provide a real con-firmation of Jesus’ radical claims forwhich he was crucified. Without a physi-cal resurrection, Jesus was just another ofthe failed messianic pretenders who werea dime a dozen in the first century.

So, the fact is that if you deny the his-toric reality of the resurrection, I thinkthat you evacuate it of any theological sig-nificance that it might contain.

British philosopher Anthony Flewsays there’s just not enough historicalevidence to prove the resurrection.What would be sufficient evidence?

I don’t agree with Flew at all. I thinkthat this argument, which stems from thesceptic David Hume, is an unsound argu-ment. Indeed, it’s recognized by themajority of scholars who have written onthe problem of miracles to be an unsoundargument. All that Hume shows, at thevery most, is that a resurrection from thedead is impossible in a natural sense. Thatis to say, it cannot happen given the nat-ural causal factors which operate in theworld. But of course the Christian agreeswith that. We recognise that a resurrec-tion from the dead such as Jesus experi-enced is naturally impossible. However,

that says absolutely nothing aboutwhether such an event is really possible ornot. And that depends upon the priorquestion of whether God exists.

If God exists, then miracles are reallypossible and the evidence may well indi-cate that a naturally impossible event hasoccurred. So you simply have to look atthe facts to see if there is sufficient evi-dence that a naturally impossible eventhas in fact occurred.

How might that be done? Well, itseems to me that what you would do is tryto show that the evidence is best explainedby the resurrection of Jesus in contrast toany other purported explanation of thatevidence.

You don’t even need to show that theresurrection of Jesus is more probablethan not. All you have to do is show thatthe resurrection of Jesus is more probablethan any other single alternative such asthe conspiracy theory – that is, the ideathat the disciples conspired to steal Jesus’body; or the apparent death theory –namely, that Jesus wasn’t really dead whenthey took down his body from the cross;or the wrong tomb theory – that some-how the women got confused and visitedthe wrong tomb. So long as the resurrec-tion is a more plausible explanation of theevidence than any of the other single com-petitors, it is the preferred explanation.And that’s the standard procedure used inevaluating any sort of historical hypothe-sis.

Flew also claims that there’s notenough evidence in the newTestament to treat it as serious his-tory. Is the new Testament largely leg-end and myth, as the critics contend?

No. I don’t think so. I know criticsoften say things like “All events in the pastmust be of the same kind as the eventsthat we see in the present”. This is one ofthe presuppositions of many modernNew Testament critics.

But that seems to me to be quite wrongand mistaken. It would force the past intothe grid of the present. It would meanthat we could never discover anythingradically new if everything has to conformto the present. So, in fact, the approach of

E A S T E R


The defence restsThe case against the resurrection is weak, William Lane Craig tells Peter Hastie.


these critics is a very unscientific methodof procedure.

Rather, when we evaluate things likemyths or legends as unhistorical, we do sonot because they fail to conform to thepattern of the present, but rather becausethey conform to certain patterns in thepresent that have no objective counter-part in the real world. For example, weknow stories that are legends and we’refamiliar with fairy-tales, and if it could beshown that the New Testament docu-ments conformed to that style of writing,then we would regard them as unhistori-cal. But the New Testament does notconform to that style.

Those who doubt the resurrectionsuggest the apostles pinned all theirhopes on Jesus as Messiah, that theirlongings, fuelled by Messianicprophecy, have coloured their inter-pretation of what happened afterJesus died.

Well, I agree that the apostles pinned alltheir hopes on Jesus as Messiah. Indeed,they also pinned them on his resurrectionfrom the dead. This is a point that actu-ally supports the historicity of the resur-rection. Many people fail to rememberthat without the resurrection, it wouldhave been impossible for the apostles tobelieve that Jesus was the Messiah.Ancient Judaism did not expect a Messiahwho would be vanquished and humiliat-ingly executed. Judaism’s Messiah wassupposed to conquer Israel’s enemies andrestore the throne of David. The idea of aMessiah who would be executed andkilled by his enemies was utterlyunknown in Judaism. Much less the ideathat he would then be raised from thedead!

This means that faced with Jesus’ cru-cifixion and death, the disciples couldn’thave entertained any reasonable hopesthat this man would have been theMessiah. His death would have shatteredany messianic hopes that they might havehad of Jesus. Therefore, we need to havea credible explanation for how in the faceof his crucifixion and death, the Jesus-movement managed to survive and pro-mote its belief in Jesus as Messiah.

It seems to me that the best explana-tion for this is that the disciples came tobelieve that God had reversed the cata-strophe of the crucifixion by raising Jesusfrom the dead. And so the issue for usnow is: how did they come up with thebelief that Jesus was raised from the dead?This belief ran counter to Jewish expecta-tion. For an ancient Jew, the resurrection

was an event that always occurred afterthe end of the world at the judgment day.And it involved all the people, not just anisolated individual. Faced with Jesus’ cru-cifixion and death, the disciples could atmost have preserved Jesus’ tomb as ashrine where his bones would reside untilthe resurrection on the judgment day.Then they and their master would bereunited in the kingdom of God with allthe righteous dead of Israel. However, itwould have been outrageous and un-Jewish to believe that somehow Jesus hadrisen from the dead before the day ofjudgement.

Is it possible that so much timeelapsed between Jesus resurrectionand the writing of the gospels thatthe forces which corrupt testimonyhave damaged the resurrection narra-tives? Can we rely on the accounts?

Yes, most definitely. Between the cru-cifixion and the time of the Gospels’ com-position there was simply insufficienttime for legendary tendencies to accumu-late to such a degree that they would wipeout the historical reminiscence of whatactually happened.

This point has been made very well bythe Greco-Roman historian A.N.Sherwin-White, in his book RomanSociety and Roman Law in the NewTestament. He points out that the sourcesfor Greco-Roman history that he workswith are usually biased and often removedcenturies from the events that theyrecord. And yet, he says, historiansreconstruct ancient history from thesesources with confidence. For example,the earliest accounts we have of the life ofAlexander the Great come from Plutarchand Arrian nearly 300 years afterAlexander’s death. Nevertheless, histori-ans regard these documents as fundamen-

tal reliable accounts of the life ofAlexander. The fabulous legends aboutAlexander the Great did not arise untilcenturies after these authors had writtentheir accounts.

So when Professor Sherwin-Whiteturns to the Gospels, he says that if thesewere legendary in their core, the rate oflegendary accumulation would have to beunbelievable.

Indeed, he claims that many more gen-erations would have been needed for leg-endary tendencies to have developed.Even two generations are too short atime-span to have allowed these tenden-cies to have prevailed over the hard his-toric core of oral tradition.

And when we realize that all theGospels were written down and circulatedduring the life-time of the eye-witnesses,then we can see that it would be highlyimplausible to think that these narrativeswere legendary at their core.

Do you agree with J.A.T. Robinsonthat most of the new Testament waswritten before the destruction ofJerusalem in 70AD?

Yes, there is very persuasive evidencethat the Gospels were written before thedestruction of Jerusalem. I am convinced,for example, that the book of Acts waswritten prior to AD 62. It doesn’t relateany of the significant events in the 60s likethe siege of Jerusalem, the persecution byNero, or the martyrdom of James. At theend of the book of Acts, Paul is still aliveunder house-arrest in Rome and awaitinghis trial. Further, the theology of thebook of Acts is still very primitive and intouch with the early controversiesbetween Jewish and Gentile Christians.For all of these reasons therefore, themost plausible date for the book of Acts isprior to AD 62.

And since the Gospel of Luke waswritten before Acts, it was probably writ-ten in the late 50s. Of course, if Lukeknew Matthew, and he certainly knewMark, then that could push these Gospelsback in to the early 50s, or even the 40s.That’s just a decade or so after the deathof Jesus.

So this would narrow the window ofopportunity for legendary accumulationeven further. In fact, it almost closes thewindow entirely.

We have very little evidence about theauthors and the dates of the fourGospels. Doesn’t this undermine thecredibility of the resurrection whenthere seem to be inconsistencies and

improbabilities about the way inwhich it is reported?

Personally, I don’t think anythinghangs on either the authorship or even theexact dates of the four Gospels. Theimportant thing, it seems to me, is that weaccept the fact that they were written dur-ing the first generation.

As far as the authorship is concerned, itreally doesn’t affect anything. What NewTestament scholars are after are the under-lying traditions and sources behind theGospels and Paul’s writings, regardless ofwho wrote these. What scholars want todo is apply certain objective criteria tothese traditions and narratives to bringout their historical quality.

For example, one of the most import-ant tests that we can apply to the Gospelaccounts of the resurrection would bemultiple independent attestation. If a say-ing or an event of the life of Jesus has anearly source, and it is independentlyattested by another source, then it’sunlikely to have been made up.Therefore, it is more likely to havebelonged to the historical Jesus.

So I think you can see that by applyingcriteria of that sort, the matters of author-ship and date are only matters of sec-ondary importance. What would beimportant would be whether we havemultiple independent attestations of theresurrection appearances of Jesus or of theempty tomb. And the answer to thatquestion is: “Yes, we do.” So, these eventspass the most important test for historic-ity. And that’s the issue.

But what are we supposed to do withsome of the apparent inconsistenciesin the resurrection accounts?

These inconsistencies seem to befound in what I regard as the “secondary”or “circumstantial” aspects of the narra-tive, and not in the core. And, it is thecore of the narrative that is at the heart ofthe debate over the historicity of the res-urrection.

For example, with respect to the emptytomb, I want to argue that it’s historicallyprobable that the tomb of Jesus was foundempty by a group of his women followerson the Sunday morning after the crucifix-ion. That’s the core of the “empty tomb”story. Whether there was an earthquake;whether there were one or two angels;whether there was a guard at the tomb, allthese things are secondary or circumstan-tial details that do not affect the historicalcore of the narrative. Of course, they’reimportant for our understanding of theinspiration and authority of the Bible, but

they don’t affect the essential facts of theresurrection which the critics challenge.

And so, I think I would argue that thecore of historical events provides adequategrounds for inferring the resurrection ofJesus. And I would argue this way regard-less of whether people believe there areinconsistencies in the secondary details ofthe narrative. My approach is to lay thesethings to the side. Let’s focus on the fun-damentals.

Some recent authors like BishopSpong and Dr Barbara Thiering havesaid that the resurrection narrativesin the Gospel are really a form ofJewish midrash and are not meant tobe taken literally. Do these claimshave any substance?

I don’t think these claims have anysubstance at all. When you look at theGospels, the genre of ancient literature towhich they are closest is the genre ofancient biography, the so-called ‘Lives’ ofancient figures and heroes. Therefore, Ithink that the episodes that we read in theGospels are meant to be understood asevents which actually happened. Forexample, the empty tomb is somethingthat would have been known in Jerusalem.It would have probably been visited bypeople who came to Jerusalem. This wasn’t meant to be some sort of symbol.It would have been impossible for beliefto have flourished in Jerusalem if, in fact,Jesus’ body was still interred in the tomb.Even if the disciples had ignored it, theJewish authorities would not have ignoredit. They would have pointed to the occu-pied grave as the quickest and surestrebuttal to the proclamation of the earlyChurch that Jesus had been raised fromthe dead.

Yet, the Jews did not do so. Instead,

the Jewish authorities entangled them-selves in a hopeless set of absurdities try-ing to explain how the body was missing.For instance, they claimed that it had beenstolen by the disciples and so forth. Soclearly, it was taken to be a literal eventthat had, or had not, actually happened. Itwas never taken to be a figurative type ofevent. And on this rock, the attempts byBishop Spong and others to suggest that itwas symbolic Jewish midrash, simplyfounder.

The Jesus Seminar has launched freshattacks on the historicity of the resur-rection in recent times. JohnDominic Crossan, for example, saysthat the whole story is completelyunhistorical. There was no tomb,Jesus was buried in a shallow grave.His body wasn’t raised; it was eaten bydogs. Does he have any grounds forthese claims?

When I first heard that Crossan wasmaking these claims, I thought: “This isremarkable because the vast majority ofNew Testament scholars believe that Jesuswas entombed by Joseph of Arimathea,and that he received an honourable bur-ial.” When I read his work I was shockedto discover that he had no grounds at allfor these speculations. Rather, his ideaswere based upon the fact that, in general,people who were crucified were throwninto shallow dirt graves reserved for crim-inals. That was the normal way that theywere despatched.

But, of course, that sort of general pre-supposition doesn’t do anything to dealwith the specific evidence that we have inJesus’ case. In this instance, we know thatJoseph of Arimathea took the body ofJesus and gave it an honourable burial. Wehave good specific evidence that whatgenerally happened with crucified crimi-nals didn’t happen in Jesus’ case.

Why do you think that so manyscholars and churchmen have diffi-culty in believing that Jesus wasraised from the dead?

Such people have a diminished view ofGod. If we believe in a God who createdthe universe out of nothing, who broughtthe Big Bang into existence – all matterand energy as well as space and time –then it would be child’s play for such aDeity to raise Jesus of Nazareth from thedead. So, if you have an adequate concep-tion of God, I don’t see what the problemis.

What will William Lane Craig’s resur-

E A S T E R

A U S T R A L I A N P R E S B Y T E R I A N • 1 0


rection body be like? Are you look-ing forward to it?

Yes, I really am. I have a neuromuscu-lar disease which I inherited from mymother. It’s caused a degree of muscularatrophy in my hands and legs. It’s pro-gressive in its development. Fortunately, Ihave a relatively light case of it, but manypeople who suffer from this syndromehave to wear metal braces on their legs.Some become terribly withered and atro-phied.

So, I can honestly say that I’m reallylooking forward to my resurrection body.Only then will I be completely freed fromall my disabilities. But I guess there’sanother reason too. Earlier, I mentionedthat the resurrection is my hope that I’llbe relieved from all my psychologicalstruggles as well. I’ve been impressed inrecent years how all of us are in some waybroken psychologically. Each of us carriescomplexes, difficulties and burdens thatonly the resurrection will remove. So theresurrection is not simply the promise ofphysical healing. It also gives us hope forcomplete spiritual and psychological heal-ing as well.

What happens to Christians if theydie before Christ’s return?

I believe that Paul teaches in 2Corinthians 5:1-10 that if the body dies,the believer’s soul goes to be with Christin a disembodied state. This is actuallyless than a fully human state because fullhumanity requires a physical body for thesoul to express itself. But nevertheless,this will be a conscious, blissful state ofcloser communion with Christ.

However, at the resurrection at theend of the world, those who have died inChrist will be reunited with their resur-rection bodies. For those who are stillalive at the time of Christ’s return, theywill experience a similar and immediatetransformation into their resurrectionbodies. Then, we shall all be fit to inhabitthe new heavens and the new earth tocome.

How should we treat the bodies ofbelievers who have died? The NewTestament says the body will beraised. Are there any implicationshere for organ donation or burialpractice?

That’s a very, very difficult question. Idon’t think there would be any problemwith organ donation, at least none that Ican see immediately. We can do withoutsome of our organs.

But as far as burial practice is con-

cerned, that’s a bit more problematic. TheJewish funerary practice was to preservethe bones of the dead. They didn’t cre-mate or destroy the bones. On the con-trary, they preserved the bones in ossuar-ies because the bones were thought to bethe principal object of the resurrection ofthe dead. We have a picture of that inEzekiel 37 where the dry bones of God’speople are clothed with flesh and comeback to life again. And Jesus also said thatwhen he came again, “The dead in thetombs will hear the voice of the Son ofGod and come forth.”

So I am inclined to think that perhapswe ought to not cremate and scatter theremains of the dead as is being increas-ingly done today. However, even if a per-son is cremated, their remains should insome way be preserved. The reason forthis is that the doctrine of resurrection isthat it will be the remains of the dead thatwill be the object of the resurrection,whatever these remains might be. TheJews thought that the remains were pri-marily the bones. But, whatever theremains, it will be these that will be theprincipal object of the resurrection. Thesoul continues to live beyond the death ofthe body. So it’s not going to require res-urrection. However, it is the remains ofthe dead that will be raised. I supposethat’s why I’m inclined to the view that weought to have some means by which weshould preserve the remains of the dead.

How would you sum up the evidencefor the resurrection? Is it com-pelling?

I’m glad you asked that. Let me just

summarise the evidence for the resurrec-tion of Jesus. I’d like to do that underfour headings that are very convenient toremember.

First, Jesus’ honourable burial byJoseph of Arimathea in a tomb.

Second, the discovery of the emptytomb by some of the women followers onthe Sunday morning following the cruci-fixion.

Third, the appearances of Jesus afterhis death on multiple occasions to variousindividuals and groups of people under avariety of different circumstances.

And fourth, the very origin of the dis-ciples’ belief that God had raised Jesusfrom the dead. Don’t forget that thisbelief was completely contrary to whatJudaism expected or what the disciplesanticipated.

All four of these points represent theview of the majority of scholars today.And I am not talking only about conserv-atives or evangelical scholars here. I amreferring to the broad spectrum of con-temporary New Testament scholars.

Dr. William Lane Craig is one of the fore-most authorities today on the resurrection ofJesus Christ. He holds a PhD in Philosophyfrom the University of Birmingham and theD.Theol from Universistat Munchen. Hehas served as Professor of Philosophy ofReligion at Trinity Evangelical DivinitySchool and is currently Research Professor atTalbot Theological Seminary at BiolaUniversity in Los Angeles. He lives inAtlanta, Georgia.

Peter Hastie is issues editor of AP. ap

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Unbelievers, whether religious orirreligious, tend to portray theChristian faith as an assault onreason. Shelley, for example,

declared that: “All religious notions arefounded solely on authority; all the reli-gions of the world forbid examination anddo not want one to reason.” Phillip Adams– who really should be more sceptical abouthis scepticism – bleats the same tune. Faith,he says, is “a pot of gold at the end of therainbow” and “the ultimate fantasy”. Notthat he has listened to many, but he claimsthat sermons are delivered in church alongthe lines of “believe, despite all the evidenceto the contrary”.

When it comes to the central tenet ofthe resurrection of Christ from the dead,Bishop Spong and John Dominic Crossanboth claim that the resurrection storieswere legends which simply grew. BarbaraThiering believes that Jesus never died on

the cross, so, of course, there is no place fora resurrection. Sometimes one is eventreated to an exercise in logic: “All men aremortal. Jesus is a man. Therefore Jesus ismortal.”

This kind of thing is meant to leaveorthodox Christians floundering in thewake of the advance of scientific thinking.Actually, the problem today is increasinglynot so much that the evidence has beenexamined and found wanting, but that ithas not been examined in the first place.One could only wish there was more hardthinking, not less. J. B. Phillips was right tocomplain that “the most important Eventin human history is politely and quietly by-passed”.

How, then, do we tackle the hard factsof the claim that in 30AD a man, Jesus,died on a Roman cross, but within threedays rose from the dead, never to dieagain? The first thing to say is that the doc-uments which make this claim are consis-tent with themselves. This is not to saythat there are not a few difficulties. Forexample, all four Gospels tell us that it wasthe women who first made their way toJesus’ tomb on that fateful Sunday, butLuke mentions five women (Lk 24:10),Mark three (Mk 16:1), Matthew two (Mt.28:1), while John only mentions MaryMagdalene (Jn 20:1). This could use anexplanation, but it hardly represents aninternal contradiction. After all, if therewere five, there was also one; and if therewas one, there could also have been five.John, for instance, does not say that therewas only one.

One should also point out that the res-urrection of Jesus was not somethingwhich took place in a corner. All in all,there were probably 12 resurrectionappearances over a 40-day period. This

means that well over 500 men, not count-ing the women, saw Jesus after he rosefrom the dead (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3-8). Scripturerequires two or more witnesses to record aconviction in law (Deut. 19:15). The resur-rection of Jesus thus amply fulfils thisrequirement!

The Old Testament itself had prophe-sied that the suffering servant would bevindicated (Is. 53:1-9,10-12) and that theone forsaken by God (Ps. 22:1-21) wouldrule to the ends of the earth (Ps. 22:21-31;see Ps. 16:8-11). Jesus too prophesied notonly his death but his resurrection from thedead (Mt. 16:21; 17:9, 22-23; 20:18-19).

Jesus never presented himself as simplya mortal man, even an extraordinary mortalman. Consistently he portrayed himself asthe Lord from heaven, the eternal Son ofthe eternal Father, who brings somethingof the glory of heaven to earth, veiledthough it was in some respects. JesusChrist is indeed the resurrection and thelife (John 11:25).

The bigoted unbeliever needs to explainsome hard facts. Why could nobody pro-duce the dead body? The authorities hadevery reason to produce it if they could, forChristianity could have been strangled inits infancy by the public display of Jesus’corpse. However, the authorities were notable to come up with the necessary body.The tomb was empty.

Further, what transformed the apostlesfrom the fearful band who met on theThursday night for the Last Supper to thefearless band which went out preaching therisen Christ in the hostile environment ofJerusalem? Something – or Someone – gothold of them and changed them radically.Peter had denied Christ three times (Mk14:66-72), but in Acts 2-5 risks his life todeclare that Jesus is the Christ, and thegreat proof of this is that he is risen foreverfrom the grave.

The obvious explanation is that Peter(and the others) became convinced thatJesus had risen in the body. This was cer-tainly not the result of wishful thinking. Inspite of all the prophecies, none of the dis-ciples was expecting Jesus to appear backfrom the dead (Mt. 28:17; Lk 24:11, 21, 25,37; Jn 20:15, 24-28; 21:4).


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Centenary celebrations

On 24 July 1901, the UnitedPresbyterian Church of Australiacame into being.

On July 24 2001, we will celebrate100 years of Presbyterian ministry inAustralia, and a new century ahead of usto proclaim the Kingdom of God. Ahundred years ago, the documents ofunion were signed at the Sydney TownHall, and people gathered for the firsttime as the Presbyterian Church ofAustralia. The opening night of the2001 assembly will be held at the samevenue.

Several events are planned for theevening, including a theme song createdby Bryson Smith and the Plainsongteam. Peter Barnes is helping puttogether content for a multi-media pre-sentation looking backwards and for-wards, and musicians, choristers andsingers are preparing for the night ofcelebration.

GAA centenary committee convenerRobert Benn says the church wants asmany people as possible to come. “Wewant the Town Hall filled to capacity.

home.front

It was not only a case of one “doubtingThomas”; they were all the same. MaryMagdalene, for example, saw the risen Christand thought that he was the gardener; she didnot see the gardener and think that he wasChrist risen. Those who are determined notto follow the evidence wherever it leads have ahard time of it.

H. S. Reimarus in 1778 claimed that thedisciples did not want to return to their oldjobs, so they stole Jesus’ body, waited 50days, and then proclaimed the second com-ing. One of the troubles with this conspiracytheory is that it was the disciples’ belief thatJesus had triumphed bodily over the gravethat led to the persecution of Christians.Fishing may not be everybody’s idea of theultimate thrill, but it appeals rather more thanbeing flogged, crucified, stoned, or thrown tothe beasts.

Ten men could not maintain the Watergateconspiracy for two weeks before the truthbegan to emerge. Human beings may be pre-pared to suffer for a lie which they do notknow is a lie. Hence communism has its mar-tyrs. But nobody will die for something whichhe knows is fraudulent. As for the explanationthat the women went to the wrong tomb, thatis rather like trying to explain Hiroshima bypostulating some juvenile misuse of fire-works.

What does this mean for us? We know thatwe will die. Death will strike down our lovedones, and it will strike us down too. I havewritten this, you are reading it, but your lifeand mine will end in death.

We need to be reminded, in Thomas Gray’swords, that “The paths of glory lead but to thegrave.” Many think that this only means thatwe will rot in our graves. Others hope againstall hope that we will be reincarnated in someother form. But God says that we will be res-urrected to face his judgment (Acts 17:31;Heb. 9:27). For the Christian, this is goodnews, for Christ has paid for sin and has con-quered death.

We can pretend that these things are nottrue. Eugene Christian once wrote a bookentitled How to Live to be a Hundred. Alas, hedied at 69, although that is not the greatesttragedy of his life. The Christian lives witheternity in view. In April 1945 the Lutherantheologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was led off tobe tried and executed by the Nazis. Before hewas taken away, he told one British prisoner totell his friend, Bishop George Bell ofChichester, that “for me it is the end but alsothe beginning”.

Peter Barnes is minister of RevesbyPresbyterian Church, Sydney, and AP’s bookseditor. ap


N E W S

Jack Watson, born in Waverley on 29November 1916, was one of two sonsto Thomas William Watson, a sur-veyor, and Florence Elsie May Watson(nee Hayward). He went to primaryschool in Mudgee and Forbes, and tosecondary school at Sydney BoysHigh School.

Jack joined the NSW Public Servicein the Office of the Registrar Generalin 1933, and studied law at theUniversity of Sydney, becoming anon-practising barrister at 20. He roserapidly, and in 1958 was appointedNSW Registrar General, where heserved until 1977. When theRegistration of Land Titles and associ-ated matters were moved to theDepartment of Lands in 1975, he wasgiven the additional responsibilities asUnder Secretary, Department ofLands.

Jack Watson’s service to the statewas recognised in 1973 when he wasmade a Companion of the ImperialService Order, followed in 1981 withMember of the Order of Australia(AM).

He served with the Army ServiceCorps during World War II, and was

active in the scouting movement, ris-ing from cub to assistant district com-missioner in 1941.

Jack Watson’s great love was thePresbyterian Church. He served assecretary, then chairman of the com-mittee of managers, and as elder from1969. In 1977 he was elected a mem-ber of the Presbyterian (NSW)Property Trust, where his professionalknowledge of deeds, titles and regis-tration was of tremendous value.

He rendered invaluable service onthe committee overseeing the divisionof property following Church Union,and was still a member of the assem-bly’s finance committee when he diedon 21 February. Other officesincluded membership, then chairman-ship, of the board of the ScottishHospital, chairmanship of the boardof the Presbyterian Homes for AgedPersons, Ashfield & Paddington, andclerk of the Korean CanaanPresbyterian Kirk Session.

A service of thanksgiving was heldon 26 February.

This is an edited extract of the eulogy byGregory L. Taylor.

Jack Hayward Watson1916 – 2000

We want whole congregations to come.We can start planning country and inter-state buses for transportation.”

Sydney Town Hall, 24 July 2001, 7pm.

Forster appointment

Rev. Peter Flower was appointed to theForster Presbyterian Church (HastingsPresbytery, NSW) at a commencementservice on 31 January. The moderator,Rev. John Thompson, officiated andRev. Scott Donellan preached.

First chaplain

The Reverend Charles Green hasstarted as school chaplain at PresbyterianLadies’ College, Melbourne – the first inthis distinguished institution’s 126-yearhistory.

The principal of PLC, Mrs ElizabethWard, was delighted to welcome Charles,his wife, Anne, and the youngest five oftheir eight children, to Melbourne fromQueensland, where he has spent the pastnine years as the minister of the multicul-tural Logan congregation. Earlier, he wasminister at Tenterfield in northern NewSouth Wales.

Charles has also served as a part-timearmy chaplain, on the board of the BibleSociety in Queensland, and as a maths andscience teacher in secondary schools as farapart as Bamaga, an Aboriginal andIslander community on the tip of CapeYork, Nambour on the Sunshine Coastand Coolgardie in Western Australia.

Yemen move

Matthew Byrne has been commis-sioned at Seacliff Presbyterian Church,South Australia, to go to Yemen as a

teacher of English with the Red SeaTeam. He is the first to be commissionedfor several years.

Australia Day award

Congratulations to Alison Rigby, of theGosford Presbyterian Church in NSW,who received an Australia DayCommunity Service Award from theGosford Council for her involvementwith many ministries including SundaySchool within the church, ScriptureClasses in four schools, telephone coun-sellor and her involvement with the workof World Vision.

Vandals at Manilla

St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church,Manilla, was broken into and vandalised inMarch. Intruders broke a window, thentrashed the hall. They broke other win-dows, squirted paint on walls and smasheditems of furniture and a cubby house.Nothing of value seems to have beenstolen.

Most of the damage was done toproperty and equipment used in theministry with children and young peo-ple. Police arrested three local boysaged nine and seven, who have been puton a programme repairing some of thedamage.

New PIM patrol

Owen and Sally Oakes are the newpatrol team with Presbyterian InlandMission. They began their PIM PatrolMinistry in the South WesternQueensland (Charleville) Patrol on 1February.

Owen is from NSW, and Sally was bornon the Isle of Man. They married inSydney in 1981 and have two adult sons:Shane, who is married to Sharon (they

have one son, Damon) and Simon, singleand living in Sydney.

Both graduated from the SydneyMissionary and Bible College in 1997 withDiplomas in Divinity and Mission, thenworked with Minister Kirk Patston inCharlestown/Eastlakes PresbyterianChurch.

Fury over ‘abuse TV’

Church groups are furious at the recentrash of TV programs promoting abuse inhuman relationships, according to theNSW Council of Churches president,Ray Hoekzema.

“With the new ratings period has comea spate of programs – mostly so-calledgame shows and reality TV – encouragingplayers to be deceitful and abusive of oth-ers for personal gain. Other people areseen as expendable as long as you win thegame. It’s a utilitarian view of human lifeand a poor reflection on those who pro-duce the shows.”

Mr Hoekzema listed Greed, Survivor,The Weakest Link, The Mole, Shipwrecked,and Temptation Island among thosewhich deliberately set out to capitalise onhuman vice and weakness. He said thatbig cash prizes made people behave inways which in normal circumstanceswould be considered unhealthy andsocially unacceptable.

Churches say that a “greed is good”mentality is behind these programs,and that this is contrary to a Christianworld view, where selflessness, kind-ness and respect for others are high pri-ority.

“The courts are already log-jammedwith cases where real-life people have suf-fered the effects of greed and jealousy.

acrossaustralia

N E W S


Charles Green and his family, with PLCchairman Paul Swinn (far left) andprincipal Elizabeth Ward (far right), fol-lowing his induction as the Chaplain.

Trevor Bickerton, Matthew Byrne andRST national director Wally Zurrer.


Why should television be permitted toglorify what is essentially evil and harm-ful?” Mr Hoekzema said.

Fusion relinquishes 3AK

Fusion Media Pty Ltd has soldMelbourne radio station 3AK.

Fusion Australia’s national director,Mal Garvin, said: “We were caught in thevice between our obligations to SouthernCross and the failure of our joint venturepartner to provide the money that hadbeen agreed upon.

“We would love people’s support andprayer at the moment as it seems thatthere have been some less than helpfulforces at work.”

According to Mr Garvin, one of thereal frustrations is that the station isfinally on track to achieve what Fusionhad been working towards over the pastthree years.

MAF 50th a flying success

Missionary Aviation Fellowship’s50th celebrations made a flying start on10 February, when MAF supportersgathered at Morling College in Sydneyto thank God for 50 years of opera-tional service by MAF in Papua NewGuinea.

Friends, visitors and ex-missionariescrowded into two rooms to hear presenta-tions from Ron Watts on CentralAustralia and Northern Australia, while inan adjacent room, Harold Morton spokeof the developing work in Papua NewGuinea.

Three speakers at the following din-ner told of their involvement withMAF: Arthur Kelshaw, a formerAustralian Baptist Missionary builder inthe Baiyer River area, Bruce Searle,coordinator of the MAF Aviationcourse at the Bible College of Victoria,and Kay Liddle, the chairman of NewZealand MAF.

Six score

On 20 May the Uniting Church inNerang is celebrating 120 years of wor-ship in Nerang. At first a WesleyanMethodist Church, it became aPresbyterian charge in 1898. Since 1977 ithas been a Uniting Church. The originaltimber Church was replaced by a modernbrick building in 1983.

Mrs Lyn Reeves from the Nerangchurch hopes to hear from “anyone whohas photos, memorabilia or stories to

share about our Church”. “We will alsowelcome old friends to our celebrations inMay,” she said. She can be contacted on 0755 964 333.

Clickety, click

A website that allows you to donateBibles without paying? Sounds too goodto be true? On 6 March the Bible Societyin Australia (NSW) launchedwww.bibles2theworld.com, a new websitethat does just that! At Bible House, headsof churches, the media and interestedpeople gathered to witness the first offi-cial click on the website.

Visitors to the site are met by a largebutton that says “click here to donate abook of the Bible – it’s free”, and this but-ton does not lie! When you click thisbutton you are shown a screen thatthanks you for your donation! The site’ssponsors pay the donation on yourbehalf. Every time a sponsor’s logo isviewed, they donate 2.5 cents towards thecost of producing, printing and distribut-ing a Bible overseas. So for each click,sponsors together pay for one book ofthe Bible!

So if you click daily (the software onlypermits people to click once a day), at theend of the year you will have donated 366books of the Bible at no financial cost toyou!

The Bible Society is thrilled at theresponse of individuals and sponsors.

Prayer for children

Prayer groups in Australia can join peo-ple in more than 70 countries in the sixthannual Worldwide Day of Prayer forChildren at Risk, to be held this year onSaturday 2 June.

The Worldwide Day of Prayer forChildren at Risk is an initiative of theViva Network, an Oxford-based organi-sation which connects together the manyministries reaching out to children at riskin all countries. It has a website(www.viva.org) which draws attention tothe terrible plight of millions of childrenat risk around the world because ofpoverty, war, famine, abuse, homelessnessand rejection.

A 30-page resource pack is available tohelp you plan and prepare for this day.People in the South Pacific region, whowould like to receive the pack can send $5to: Day of Prayer, Kingdom LivingMinistries, Locked Bag 10, West Ryde.NSW 2114, phone (02) 9809 0700; e-mail: [email protected]

Indonesian persecution worsens

Some 7000 to 15,000 Laskar JihadIslamic extremists are currently waging aruthless campaign against the Christianpopulation of Indonesia’s Moluccasislands. As many as 5000 Christians arebelieved to have been slaughtered and halfa million more have been made refugees.Christians have been forced to undergocircumcision and violently compelled toconvert to Islam. Laskar Jihad’s aim is tocleanse the Maluku Islands of allChristians. Particularly disturbing arereports of women forced to undergofemale genital muutilation (FGM), a bar-baric practice that has been condemnedworldwide.

VOM/Eskol Net

China fears growth

The Chinese government met in Beijingrecently to discuss what members referredto as an “alarming” growth of the under-ground church. It is estimated that asmany as 25,000 people are turning toChrist every day. Unable to understandthe spiritual dynamics involved, theCommunist Party in China views thegrowing Christian movement as a poten-tial threat to their political control overthe nation. Efforts to curb church growthare on the increase.

EHC

Indian priests abducted

In Rajasthan, India, at least two Christianpriests were abducted and seriously beatenby a group of heavily armed men, believedto be Hindu militants, on January 4,reports Compass Direct. The two priests,David Masih and Simon Sakria, wereattending a prayer meeting when about 40heavily armed men burst in. David Masihwas later admitted to a hospital in Gujaratwith broken limbs, and the whereabouts

world news

N E W S

of Simon Sakria is still unknown.Meanwhile, a prominent Indian church

leader, Joseph D’Sousa, believes that analliance of Hindu groups has been work-ing very hard to curb Christian activity.He warns of a possible bloodbath againstChristians.

Grandmothers save the faith

A key factor in the survival of theChristian faith in the former USSR hasbeen the role of grandmothers, reportInterserve staff workers. Grandmothers(babuschkas), regarded by the formerSoviet Government as relatively unimpor-tant in the political process, have never-

theless played a significant part in keepingChristianity alive.

Soviet authorities largely chose toignore the babuschkas, seeing them asharmless citizens who wouldn’t be aroundfor very long. What they failed to takeinto account is that the babuschkas wereresponsible for most of the child-care andthat they act as matriarchs in Russian fam-ily life. A staff worker comments: “WhenI speak with local people about how theyfirst heard of Christ, they invariably say itwas from their grandmothers.”

Islamic extremists attack

Islamic extremists have intensified

efforts to contain the church in CentralAsia. Sources in Turkmenistan, Tajikstanand Uzbekistan report new outbreaks ofviolence against individual congregations.

Harvest in Nigeria

In December, at least 60,000 members ofthe Nigerian Assemblies of God gatheredto celebrate the end of the “Decade ofHarvest” project and the extraordinarygrowth which the church has experienced.During the past 10 years, according to apress release, the church has not onlygained 1.2 million new members, but alsoordained 5026 new pastors and planted4044 new churches in Nigeria.

N E W S


The Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, founderof Voice of the Martyrs, passed away inhospital, aged 91 on 17 February, in theUSA. Richard will be remembered withgreat affection as an outstanding man ofGod, passionate for the cause of Christ,powerful in evangelism, persevering insuffering, for the sake of Jesus whom heloved. His wife Sabina preceded him,passing away on 11 August 2000.

Richard Wurmbrand was born in1909, in Bucharest, Romania. His par-ents died when he was young, and hespent many years adrift in society duringWorld War I. He was educated at schoolin Bucharest.

He met and then married SabinaOster in 1936, soon after which bothwere converted and baptised in theChristian faith. Richard became a minis-ter and pastored the NorwegianLutheran Mission in Bucharest.

He and his wife were arrested severaltimes by the Nazi government, and hebegan his underground ministry evange-lising Russian soldiers who were prison-ers of war. After August 1944, he con-tinued this ministry with the Russianoccupation forces. He and Sabina wereactive in working with the underground,unregistered church in Romania duringWorld War II and throughout theCommunist regime.

Richard was kidnapped by Romanianauthorities in February 1948 followingthe Congress of Cults, and imprisonedin the underground Central Interior

Ministry Building prison area in the cen-tre of Bucharest. While there he was sub-jected to brainwashing attempts, physi-cal and mental torture, and threats to hisfamily. In 1950, his wife Sabina wasimprisoned as well, forced to serve as alabourer on the Danube Canal project.She was released in 1953.

Following her release, the Romanianauthorities informed her that Richardhad died in prison. Richard was discov-ered alive in prison by a doctor mas-querading as a Communist Party mem-ber. He was released in 1956 and servedas church pastor in Orsova and with theunderground church. Rearrested in1959, he was sentenced to 25 years, butthanks to political pressure fromWestern countries, he was released in1964.

In December 1965, the NorwegianMission to the Jews and the HebrewChristian Alliance paid $10,000 in ran-som – more than five times the standardprice – to the Communist governmentto let the Wurmbrand family leaveRomania. Other Romanian under-ground church leaders convinced him toleave and become a “Voice” for theunderground church to the world.Richard, Sabina, and their son Michaelleft Romania.

After an international speaking tour,in October 1967 he published the firstissue of The Voice of the Martyrs newslet-ter, and began to establish the interna-tional offices which would assist him inefforts to inform Christians everywhereabout persecuted Christians. By themid-1980s his work was established in80 restricted nations with offices in 30countries.

In 1990 Richard and Sabina returnedto Romania after 25 years of exile. Heretired from the day to day work of TheVoice of the Martyrs in 1992, butremained as a member of the Board ofDirectors and consultant until his death.

Richard Wurmbrand wrote 18 booksin English, others in Romanian, whichhave been translated into 38 languages,the best-known being Tortured forChrist. His contribution will continuethrough his legacy of missions estab-lished around the world and the visionhe provided for their leadership.

VOM USA

Rev. Richard Wurmbrand1909 – 2000

Movie WatchTraffic Reviewed by Phil Campbell

The movie Traffic left me feeling asif I’d been run over by a truck. It’san astonishing and disturbingfilm. And in a way that’s a good

thing. Traffic is a movie with a message – amovie some reviewers claim has “created awhole new genre”. And they may be right.In short, 24 hours after the final creditsrolled, I’m still chewing over what exactlyTraffic said to me and did to me.

Traffic traces the drug trade betweenMexico and the United States. It’s raw –almost like a documentary – with grainyfootage, strange angles, and strong colourtinting that subliminally cues you to loca-tion. Action south of the border has a yel-low haze, while in the USA there’s alwaysa tinge of blue. Much of the dialogue is insubtitled Spanish. Notably, too, there’salmost no music – just an uncomfortablesilence behind the action.

In short, Traffic is not a comfortablemovie to watch... and that’s exactly howthe director wants it. In fact, there’s noth-ing comfortable about the drug war at all.

This is a movie with multiple subplots,and – in spite of the presence of bignames like Michael Douglas – no obviousstar. There’s a tension right from thebeginning that warns that the good guysand the bad guys aren’t always who theyseem. So as we follow the paths of twoMexican policemen, two Americanpolicemen, US Anti-DrugAdministration chief Michael Douglasand his drug-addicted daughter, it’s hardto put down “emotional roots”. There’salso the constant expectation of violence.In the drug war, nobody is safe. Ever.

Judge Robert Wakefield (Douglas) hasjust been appointed as chief of the WhiteHouse’s national drug control policyoffice. He’s full of big ambitions – untilhe discovers his 16-year-old daughter is ajunkie. As the movie unfolds, one strand

of the plot follows Wakefield’s battlethrough the red tape and inactivity ofWashington – complete with interestingcameo roles by real-life Senators OrrinHatch, Barbara Boxer and CharlesGrassley. Another strand of the storylinefollows daughter Caroline in herinevitable decline into theft and prostitu-tion to support her drug habit. Drug usescenes are disturbingly explicit, but cer-tainly not glamorised.

Meanwhile, Mexican policemen JavierRodriguez (award-winning Benicio DelToro) and Manolo Sanchez are hard atwork trying to stop drug runners, whilethey resist the daily bribes and threatsthat make up life in the Mexican policeforce. Recruited into Mexico’s anti-drugtask force, they soon discover that cor-ruption runs right to the top.

In San Diego, we follow two federaldrug agents, who arrest respected million-aire drug-runner Carlos Ayala. His wife,Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), makes aneasy transition from innocent societymatron to coordinator of the hit-squadtargeting the chief witness in the trialagainst her husband.

What happens? Well, in short, the goodguys don’t win. And that’s part of thepunch packed by the movie. In fact, ifthere’s one clear message Traffic leavesyou with, it’s the fact that things don’talways work out quite as neatly as they doin the movies. Life is complicated ratherthan convenient. The war against drugswon’t be won by cheery platitudes – norby government initiatives.

At the end of the movie, the only noteof victory is that the battle still rages, andthe good guys haven’t totally given up in

despair.There’s no doubt, though, that Traffic

is a movie with a strong and worthwhileanti-drug perspective.

The big question for AmericanChristians when the movie first airedthere was, is the packaging just too gritty?

“Drugs are central to this film,” saysone reviewer. “We see the abuse of mari-juana, cocaine, freebase, crack and heroin.The amount of drugs and drug use in thefilm is disturbing, but one can’t make ananti-drug film without drugs. A great filmfor youngsters, especially teens, and theirparents to see together and discuss after-wards.”

But a Focus on The Family reviewer dis-agrees. “Traffic should be viewed as theequivalent of a moral flogging, not enter-tainment” says Stephen Isaac. “I can cer-tainly understand why directorSoderbergh injected such liberal amountsof foul language, violence and drug useinto this film. But that doesn’t make itright. Imaginative editing could havetaken this R-rated indulgence and turnedit into a strong morality tale that wouldhave become mandatory viewing for everyfamily in America. As it is, the raw imagessure to be burned into young mindswould compete fiercely with any lifelessons learned. Too high a price for mostfamilies.”

My view? It’s a movie I’d hate to takemy teenage kids to. But I have a sneakingfeeling that with drugs so easily availablein most Australian school playgrounds,maybe I should.

Phil Campbell is Culture Watch editor. ap


C U L T U R E W A T C H

Catherine Zeta Jones in Traffic

Expressions of interest are being sought for the position of a

full-time

YOUTH OUTREACHWORKER

We are a Church of approx 360 members, 1/3 of whom are under 25.Launceston is a city of approx. 80,000 people.Applicants would need to be able to affirm our Reformed confessional position.

For more information, please write to:The Session Clerk

Launceston Christian Reformed ChurchPO Box 1163

LAUNCESTON TAS. 7250 (AUSTRALIA)Or e-mail: [email protected]

Ared-haired boy sits next to hismother in the psychiatrist’soffice. She is describing her son’sproblems and expressing her dis-

appointment in him. Why is he alwaysdepressed? Why can’t he be like otherboys his age? The doctor turns to the boyand asks why he is depressed. In a hope-less daze the boy replies, “The universe isexpanding, and if the universe is every-thing ... and if it’s expanding ... someday itwill break apart and that’s the end ofeverything ... what’s the point?”

His mother leans over, slaps the kidand scolds: “What is that your business!”

This scene from Annie Hall typifiesWoody Allen’s quest for understanding!Allen touches on various topics andthemes in all his cinematic works, butthree subjects continually resurface: theexistence of God, the fear of death and thenature of morality.

These are all Jewish questions, or atleast theological issues. Woody Allen is aseeker who wants answers to the UltimateQuestions. His movie characters differ,yet they are all, in some way, asking thesequestions he wants answered. They are all“Woody Allens” wrestling with the sameissues. He explains: “Maybe it’s becauseI’m depressed so often that I’m drawn towriters like Kafka, Dostoyevsky and to afilmmaker like Bergman. I think I have allthe symptoms and problems that theircharacters are occupied with: an obsessionwith death, an obsession with God or thelack of God, the question of why we arehere. Almost all of my work is autobio-graphical—exaggerated but true.”

But Woody Allen does not allow him-self to dwell too long on these universalproblems. The mother’s response to herred-haired son’s angst is typical of thecomedic lid the filmmaker presses over hisdepressing outlook to close the issue.True, Woody Allen has made his mark byasking big questions. But it is the absenceof satisfactory answers to those questionsthat causes much of the angst – andhumour – we see on the screen. Offscreen we see little difference.

Allen’s (authorised) biography, pub-lished in 1991, sheds some light on his lifeand times. Woody Allen, whose given

name was Allan Konigsberg, was born andraised in Brooklyn, New York. Allendescribes his Jewish family and neighbor-hood as being from “the heart of the oldworld, their values are God and carpet-ing”. While he did not embrace the reli-gion of his youth, his Jewishness is everpresent in his characters, plots and dia-logue. Jewish thought is intrinsic to hislife and work.

One can see this in the 1977 film AnnieHall, where Allen’s character, Alvy, is putin contrast to his Midwestern, gentile girl-friend. In one scene he is visiting Annie’sparents. Her grandmother stares at him,picturing him as a stereotypical ChasidicJew with side locks, black hat and a longcoat. The screen splits as Alvy imagineshis family on the right and hers on the left.Her parents ask what his parents will bedoing for “the holidays”:

“We fast, to atone for our sins,” hismother explains. Annie’s mother is con-fused. “What sins? I don’t understand.”Alvy’s father responds with a shrug: “Totell you the truth, neither do we.”

Allen suggests that the greatest thinkersin history died knowing no more than hedoes now. He often uses humour to pokefun at pretentious intellectuals who spouttextbook answers. In another Annie Hallscene Alvy is standing in line at a movie

theatre. The man behind him is trying toimpress his date. Alvy is annoyed, andwhen the man begins commenting on popphilosopher Marshall McLuhan, Alvyturns and informs him that he knowsnothing about McLuhan. To prove hispoint, he escorts McLuhan himself intothe scene. The philosopher deftly puts theobject of Alvy/Allen’s scorn (a ColumbiaUniversity professor of TV, media andfilm) in his place. Alvy steps out of char-acter and, as Woody Allen, he looks intothe camera and sighs: “Boy, if life wereonly like this...”

Allen’s films do not merely expose andpoke fun at pseudo-intellectuals; theypoint out that no school of humanthought can provide ultimate solutions.Allen’s lack of faith in the world’s systemsgenerates some great one-liners:

He tells how he was caught cheating ona college metaphysics exam: “I was look-ing into the soul of the boy sitting next tome.”

He also pokes fun at existentialism,commenting on a course he took in thesubject: “I didn’t know any of the answersso I left it all blank. I got a hundred.”

His first wife studied philosophy incollege: “She used to prove that I didn’texist.”

Psychology also figures into Allen’sscripts – many of his characters are seeinga therapist.

In Sleeper, Allen’s character wakes up200 years in the future, where he quicklydiscovers that the future holds the sameold problems as ever. Lamenting thewasted years, he remarks: “My analyst wasa strict Freudian. If I had been going allthis time I’d probably almost be cured bynow.”

In another film he describes the unpro-ductive nature of his own therapy: “Myanalyst got so frustrated he put in a saladbar.”

So much for faith in therapy! Andwhen it comes to science, Allen asks andanswers the questions, “Can a human soulbe glimpsed through a microscope?Maybe – but you’d definitely need one ofthose very good ones with two eye-pieces.”

The political process as a means of

C U L T U R E


Gospel according to WoodyWoody Allen is afraid God exists, and afraid he doesn’t.

David Mishkin


change is also shrugged off: “Have youever taken a serious political stand on any-thing?” he is asked. “Sure,” he responds,“for 24 hours once I refused to eatgrapes.”

It is the questions of the human soul –its mortality and morality – that seemreally to preoccupy the film maker. “Idon’t want to achieve immortalitythrough my work. I want to achieve itthrough not dying.”

In his early writings, fear of death pro-vided a great platform for a punch line:“It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’twant to be there when it happens.”

“It is impossible to experience one’sown death objectively and still carry atune.”

“Death is one of the few things thatcan be done as easily lying down.”

“What is it about death that bothers meso much? Probably the hours.”

The absurdity of Allen’s humour helpsto cushion the seriousness of the subject.Could it be that his comments are soclever and funny that the laughter drownsout the genuine note of anxiety over thoseissues? In his later films Allen began deal-ing with death more realistically:

In Hannah and Her Sisters his charac-ter Mickey Sacks is tested for a seriousmedical problem. He agonises over thepossible results only to learn they are neg-ative. Mickey is elated – he leaves theoffice literally jumping for joy. Yet thenext scene shows him depressed again. Herealizes that the encouraging test resultsare but a postponement of death which isstill inevitable. In despair, he attempts sui-cide. Failing that, he goes to a movie the-atre. The Marx Brothers’ film Duck Soup,an old favorite of his, is playing. The filmprovides a temporary escape; it evencheers him. His immediate answer todepression is that one should enjoy lifewhile one can.

However, that answer apparently didnot satisfy Woody Allen, the writer, asHannah and Her Sisters is one of the fewfilms in which Allen provides a happyending. Later films raise the same con-cerns – and usually conclude on a lessoptimistic note. “To you I’m an atheist, toGod I’m the loyal opposition.”

Allen’s fear of death is inextricablylinked to his uncertainty about the exis-tence of God. He ponders in an earlyessay:

“Did matter begin with an explosion orby the word of God? And if by the latter,could he not have begun it just two weeksearlier to take advantage of some of the

warmer weather?”Again, glibness is his antidote to grap-

pling with the hard questions. The eternalis brought down to the level of the earthly,and therefore minimised.

Yet, Allen never fully embraces theposition of atheist. He ponders spiritualmatters, but a punch line always yanks thefocus to the sublime, then to the ridicu-lous. For examples: “I keep wondering ifthere is an afterlife, and if there is, willthey be able to break a twenty?” And“there is no question that there is anunseen world. The problem is, how far is

it from Midtown and how late is it open?”Woody Allen is, in the words of his

biographer, “a reluctant (he hopes there isa God) but pessimistic (he doubts thereis) agnostic who wishes he had been bornwith religious faith (not to be confusedwith sectarian belief) and who believesthat even if God is absent, it is importantto lead an honest and responsible life.”

The existence of God is an issue whichwould not only answer the questions ofdeath and an afterlife, but also the prob-lem of how we ought to live now. Two ofAllen’s films which best deal with thisissue were made 14 years apart: the 1975cinematic spoof on the Napoleonic wars

and Russian novels, Love and Death, andthe 1989 critically acclaimed piece, Crimesand Misdemeanors.

Love and Death was the last of his all-out, zany comedies and the beginning ofhis on-screen grappling with issues ofGod and morality. In it Allen plays thepart of Boris who denies the existence ofGod but would truly like to have realfaith.

“If I could only see a miracle,” Borisargues, “a burning bush, the seas part ...Uncle Sasha pick up a check.” Or, “If onlyGod would give me some sign. If hewould just speak to me once, anything,one sentence, two words. If he would justcough.”

Boris is often debating with his wifeSonia on these important issues of life.Boris: What if there is no God? ... What ifwe’re just a bunch of absurd people whoare running around with no rhyme or rea-son? Sonia: But if there is no God, thenlife has no meaning. Why go on living?Why not just commit suicide? Boris: Well,let’s not get hysterical! I could be wrong.I’d hate to blow my brains out and thenread in the papers they found something!

Later in the film Boris attempts to assas-sinate Napoleon. Standing over theFrench emperor, he prepares to shoot. Buthis conscience (not to mention his cow-ardice) prevents him from pulling the trig-ger. His previous philosophical ramblingscome to a halt when the rubber meets theroad. Boris concludes that murder ismorally wrong. There are universal stan-dards and there is even a reason to actmorally.

The film ends with Boris being exe-cuted for a crime he did not commit.Could it be that Woody Allen was pun-ishing his own character for believing,even momentarily, that there are indeedmoral standards and even accountability?

In Crimes and Misdemeanors WoodyAllen tackles the issue of morality on amuch more serious level. Wealthy oph-thalmologist Judah Rosenthal has beenhaving an extramarital affair for two years.When he attempts to end his illicit rela-tionship, his mistress threatens to tell hiswife. When backed into an impossiblecorner and offered an easy way out, Judahfinds himself thinking the unthinkable.He succumbs to the simple solution ofhiring a hit-man to murder his demandinglady in waiting. After the crime, Judahexperiences gut-wrenching guilt. JudahRosenthal finds the case for morality sostrong that after the murder he blurts out:“Without God, life is a cesspool!”

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen inAnnie Hall

His conscience pushes him to greatdespair as, again, he examines the situationfrom a past vantage point. He envisions aPassover seder from his childhood. Theconversation becomes a family debateover the importance of the celebration.Some of the relatives don’t believe in Godand consider the ritual a foolish waste oftime. The head of the extended familystoutly defends his faith, saying, “If nec-essary, I will always choose God overtruth.”

Judah almost turns himself in; how-ever, the price is too high and so hechooses denial, the most common escape.“In reality,” he says in the last scene, “werationalise, we deny or else we couldn’t goon living.”

Another character, Professor Levy,speaks on morality in one of the film’ssubplots. Levy is an aging philosophermuch admired by the character played byWoody Allen, a film maker. The filmmaker is planning a documentary basedon Levy’s life, and we first see the profes-sor on videotape, discussing the paradoxof the ancient Israelites: “They created aGod who cares but who also demandsthat you behave morally. This God asksAbraham to sacrifice his son, who isbeloved to him ... After 5000 years wehave not succeeded to create a really andentirely loving image of God.”

Levy eventually commits suicide.Despite his great learning, his final notediscloses nothing more than the obvious:“I’ve gone out the window.”

Professor Levy’s suicide leaves Allen’scharacter stunned. Still, his humour ame-liorates the situation as the filmmakerprotests, “When I grew up in Brooklyn,nobody committed suicide; everyone wastoo unhappy.”

The final comment on Levy’s suicide isa surprising departure from Allen’s secu-rity blanket of humour: “No matter howelaborate a philosophical system you

work out, in the end it’s gotta be incom-plete.”

Remember, all of the dialogue is writ-ten by Woody Allen. Though his owncharacter supplies comic relief to thisdark film, his conclusions are just asbleak. Everyone is guilty of somethingwhether it’s considered a crime or a mis-demeanor.

Yet, Allen’s theological questionsrarely address the nature of that guilt. Theword “sin” is reserved for the grossestoffences—the ones that make the eveningnews – or would, if they were discovered.Judah Rosenthal’s crime is easily recognis-able as sin, while various other infidelitiesand compromises are mere misde-meanours.

Sin against God is not something Allenappears to take seriously in any of hisfilms. In Allen’s theology, all have fallenshort to a greater or lesser degree, butironically, his view of human imperfectionnever appears in the same discussion as histhoughts about God.

He does admit to being disconnectedwith the universe: “I am two with nature.”But he doesn’t mention a connection witha personal God because he doesn’t see acorrelation between human failures andthe question of connectedness to God.

While Allen is a unique thinker, heseems to be pedestrian when it comes towrestling with problems of immoralityand even inhumanity. While he calls theexistence of God into question, he doesnot deal with our responsibility inacknowledging God if he does exist.

It is simple to analyse sin on a humanlevel. The more people get hurt, the biggerthe sin. But the biblical perspective isquite different: Any and all sin causes sep-aration from God. One cannot view sucha cosmic separation as large or small basedon degrees of sin. Ironically, one ofAllen’s short stories underscores the fool-ishness of comparison degrees of sin:“Astronomers talk of an inhabited planetnamed Quelm, so distant from earth thata man traveling at the speed of lightwould take six million years to get there,although they are planning a new expressroute that will cut two hours off the trip.”

The biblical perspective of separationfrom God is similar. Having “bettermorals” than the drug pusher, the rapistor the ax murderer makes a big difference– in our society. We should all strive to bethe best people we can be, if only toimprove the overall quality of life. But interms of a relationship with God, doingthe best one can is like being two hourscloser to Quelm. God is so removed fromany unrighteousness that the difference

between “a little unrighteous” and a lot isirrelevant.

The question his films and essays neverask is: Could being alienated from God bethe root cause of our alienation from oneanother ... and even our alienation fromour own selves?

Is film making Woody Allen’s escapefrom the world at large? His biographernotes, “He assigns himself mental tasksthroughout the day with the intent thatnot a moment will pass without his mindbeing occupied and therefore insulatedfrom the dilemma of eschatology.”

It is a continual process – writing takeshis mind off of the ultimate questions, yetthe characters he creates are alwaysobsessed with those very same questions.Allen determines their fate, occasionallyhanding out a happy ending. And heseems painfully aware that he will have lit-tle to say about the ending of his ownscript.

There is much to be appreciated andenjoyed in Woody Allen’s humour, but italso seems as if he uses jokes to avoid tak-ing the possibility of God’s existence veryseriously. Maybe Woody Allen is afraid tofind that God doesn’t exist, or on theother hand maybe he’s afraid to find thathe does. In either case, he seems to needto add a comic edge to questions aboutGod to prove that he is not wholeheartedin his hope for answers.

Will Woody Allen tackle the problemof his own halfhearted search for God in aserious way in some future film or essay?Maybe, but if the Bible can be believed,it’s an issue that God has already dealtwith. The prophet Jeremiah quotes theCreator as saying: “You will seek me andfind me when you seek me with all yourheart” (Jer. 29:13).

Reprinted with permission from Jews forJesus. ap

C U L T U R E


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In my conversion, the very point lay inmaking the discovery that I had noth-ing to do but to look to Christ, and Ishould be saved. I believe that I had

been a very good, attentive hearer; my ownimpression about myself was that nobodyever listened much better than I did.

For years, as a child, I tried to learn theway of salvation; and either I did not hearit set forth, which I think cannot quitehave been the case, or else I was spirituallyblind and deaf, and could not see it andcould not hear it; but the good news thatI was, as a sinner, to look away frommyself to Christ, as much startled me, andcame as fresh to me, as any news I everheard in my life.

Had I never read my Bible? Yes, andread it earnestly. Had I never been taughtby Christian people? Yes, I had, bymother, and father, and others. Had I notheard the gospel? Yes, I think I had; and

yet, somehow, it was like a new revelationto me that I was to “believe and live”.

I confess to have been tutored in piety,put into my cradle by prayerful hands, andlulled to sleep by songs concerning Jesus;but after having heard the gospel continu-ally, with line upon line, precept upon pre-cept, here much and there much, yet,when the Word of the Lord came to mewith power, it was as new as if I had livedamong the unvisited tribes of CentralAfrica, and had never heard the tidings ofthe cleansing fountain filled with blood,drawn from the Saviour’s veins.

I sometimes think I might have been indarkness and despair until now had it notbeen for the goodness of God in sendinga snowstorm, one Sunday morning, whileI was going to a certain place of worship.When I could go no further, I turneddown a side street, and came to a littlePrimitive Methodist Chapel.

In that chapel there may have been adozen or 15 people. I had heard of thePrimitive Methodists, how they sang soloudly that they made people’s headsache; but that did not matter to me. Iwanted to know how I might be saved,and if they could tell me that I did notcare how much they made my head ache.

The minister did not come that morn-ing; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last,a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, ortailor, or something of that sort, went upinto the pulpit to preach. Now, it is wellthat preachers should be instructed; butthis man was really stupid. He was

obliged to stick to his text, for the simplereason that he had little else to say. Thetext was “Look unto me, and be ye saved,all the ends of the earth.”

He did not even pronounce the wordsrightly, but that did not matter. There was,I thought, a glimpse of hope for me inthat text. The preacher began thus: “Mydear friends, this is a very simple textindeed. It says, ‘Look’. Now lookin’ don’ttake a deal of pains. It ain’t liftin’ yourfoot or your finger; it is just ‘Look’. Well,a man needn’t go to college to learn tolook. You may be the biggest fool, and yetyou can look. A man needn’t be worth athousand a year to be able to look.Anyone can look; even a child can look.

‘But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me.’Ay!” said he, in broad Essex, “many on yeare lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no uselookin’ there. You’ll never find any com-fort in yourselves. Some look to God theFather. No, look to Him by-and-by. JesusChrist says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some on yesay, ‘We must wait for the Spirit’sworkin’.’ You have no business with thatjust now. Look to Christ. The text says,‘Look unto Me.’”

Then the good man followed up histext in this way: “Look unto Me; I amsweatin’ great drops of blood. Look untoMe; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look untoMe; I am dead and buried. Look unto Me;I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend toHeaven. Look unto Me; I am sittin’ at theFather’s right hand. O poor sinner, lookunto Me! Look unto Me!”

When he had gone to about thatlength, and managed to spin out 10 min-

F A M O U S C O N V E R S I O N S

Charles Spurgeon

Charles H Spurgeon is rightlyregarded as one of the most influentialpreachers of the 19th century. Hebecame a pulpit phenomenon in hisown day, speaking twice a week in thehuge 6000-seat MetropolitanTabernacle in London. Even today, acentury after his death, his published ser-mons remain popular with a wide read-ership.

Spurgeon was born into a Christianhome and his childhood years werespent in Baptist circles where there wasa strong evangelical influence. He grewup in an atmosphere where the doctrinesof sin, grace, and salvation were com-monplace, and the influence of JohnBunyan was profound.

His conversion took place in his latechildhood in a little Methodist churchduring winter. It had been snowingheavily, and Spurgeon found it moreconvenient to worship with this congre-gation that his normal one. Thepreacher that Sunday was not anordained pastor. But he spoke a wordthat brought the boy under deep convic-tion. This is Spurgeon’s own story ofhow God moved his soul.

Born again Christian from UK,with wife and two sons, is seeking anemployment sponsor, pref. NSW, for

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F A M O U S C O N V E R S I O N S


utes or so, he was at the end of his tether.Then he looked at me under the gallery,and I daresay, with so few present, heknew me to be a stranger. Just fixing hiseyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, hesaid, “Young man, you look very miser-able.” Well, I did; but I had not beenaccustomed to have remarks made fromthe pulpit on my personal appearancebefore. However, it was a good blow,struck right home.

He continued, “and you always will bemiserable – miserable in life, and miserablein death, if you don’t obey my text; but ifyou obey now, this moment, you will besaved.” Then, lifting up his hands, heshouted, as only a Primitive Methodistcould do, “Young man, look to JesusChrist. Look! Look! Look! You havenothin’ to do but to look and live.”

I saw at once the way of salvation. Iknow not what else he said – I did not takemuch notice of it – I was so possessedwith that one thought. Like as when thebrazen serpent was lifted up, the peopleonly looked and were healed, so it waswith me. I had been waiting to do 50things, but when I heard that word,“Look!” what a charming word it seemedto me! Oh! I looked until I could almosthave looked my eyes away.

There and then the cloud was gone, thedarkness had rolled away, and thatmoment I saw the sun; and I could haverisen that instant, and sung with the mostenthusiastic of them, of the preciousblood of Christ, and the simple faithwhich looks alone to him. Oh, that some-body had told me this before, “TrustChrist, and you shall be saved.” . . .

It is not everyone who can rememberthe very day and hour of his deliverance;but, as Richard Knill said, “At such atime of the day, clang went every harp inHeaven, for Richard Knill was bornagain”, it was e’en so with me. The clockof mercy struck in Heaven the hour andmoment of my emancipation, for thetime had come. Between half-past teno’clock, when I entered that chapel, andhalf-past twelve o’clock, when I wasback again at home, what a change hadtaken place in me! I had passed fromdarkness into marvellous light, fromdeath to life.

This excerpt is taken from The Early Yearsby C.H. Spurgeon (Banner of Truth Trust,1976) ap

There is a kind of reverse – ormaybe I should say perverse – res-urrection whereby we sometimes“bring back” that which is better

left dead and buried: decaying desires, rot-ten self-righteousness (or its evil twin,self-loathing), resentments, all kinds ofthoughts or attitudes that we once put todeath. For whatever momentary satisfac-tion it may bring us, in times of weaknesswe indulge in thoughts that summonthese old spectres back to life. We greetthem like old friends, embrace them, andwhen the pleasure of the reunion wearsoff and we step back to look at these old“friends,” we find ourselves feeling some-what hollow, if not horrified for havingheld them.

Have you ever felt overpowered byyour own spiritual weaknesses? In fact,many of us ascribe a tremendous amountof strength to our weaknesses, as thoughthey were heavy, unbreakable chains thathold us in place. Do you see the irony?Yes, our weaknesses are real and we allhave limitations, but weakness by defini-tion is not powerful. In fact, one drop ofblood can smash all of our chains. We

don’t get that blood from beating our-selves up, either!

Jesus, the Lamb of God, shed his bloodto free us from our sins. Just as the bloodof the Passover Lamb delivered the child-ren of Israel from death and causedPharaoh to relinquish his hold on them,the blood of Jesus delivers us from deathand slavery to sin....

True, we can bring some of our old sinsback into our lives, re-live bad habits, bad

attitudes and suffer consequences forthem. But we can never give them thepower they once had over us. Jesus brokethat power at Calvary, and the proof is theempty tomb. Because he triumphed overdeath, nothing that is dirty or decayed orloathsome can ever control even a day ofour destiny. We only imagine our weak-nesses to be so terribly strong because ourvision of God’s power is so terribly weak.

God has promised that power to youand me. Yes, the dead in Christ will oneday be raised, even as Jesus, the firstfruitsof the dead, was raised. But in the mean-time, his resurrection power can breathelife into those things we may feel are goneforever. His Holy Spirit can continuallyrenew us by bringing back to life hope,love, joy, purity, a part in his plans—all thethings the devil would have us believe ourweakness has destroyed.

Why believe the lie when we can trustthe Resurrected Lamb? He is risenindeed, and his resurrection power isavailable to us every single day. Hallelujah!

This article originally appeared in the April1999 Jews for Jesus Newsletter. ap

Resurrection reflectionsWe may be flawed, but we are not bound, insists Ruth Rosen.

IN THEPRESENCE

OF GOD

D E V O T I O N

I never refer people to psychologistsor psychiatrists for counseling unlessthe person bearing the title is com-mitted to biblical counseling, in

which case the professional title is inci-dental. Many biblical counselors happento have degrees in psychology, generalmedicine, neurology, nursing, education,psychiatry, or social work. They studiedsecular counseling theories and methodsthat they have rejected in favor of biblicaltheory and practice.

Just as you don’t blindly trust the title“minister” or “pastor” without looking atwhat the person teaches, you should notnaively trust in any other title. Yourresponsibility is to refer to people whocounsel biblically.

Would I ever refer to a psychiatrist orpsychologist for other reasons? Yes. Apsychiatrist’s medical training could helpin determining whether or not neurologi-cal or other organic problems contributeto a person’s problems in living, and a psy-chologist might help by providing intelli-gence testing. But, unfortunately, psychia-trists and psychologists too often adoptthe role of a psychotherapist. They tres-pass into the domain of the Spirit, theWord, and ministry because they counselpeople in unbiblical ways.

A letter from a leading Christianorganisation contained the followingstatement:

“Psychologists do far more thanengage in the practice of psychotherapy.To whom would you take a six-year-oldboy to determine whether he was emo-tionally and physically ready to enter thefirst grade? ....To whom would you turn ifyour wife became schizophrenic and ranscreaming down the street? Would yourpastor be able to deal with that situation?What if you wished to make a careerchange in mid-life and wanted an objec-tive evaluation of your strengths andinterests? Whom could you ask to helpyou? To whom would you go to seek helpwith an adolescent who was extremelyrebellious and resentful of his father? Ineach of these instances, and in a hundredothers, you should look for a psychologistwhose first love and highest commitmentis to Jesus Christ and to the Word of God.

And how silly to say, there is no suchthing.”

Let me interact with this statementsentence by sentence.

“Psychologists do far more thanengage in the practice of psychotherapy.”Indeed they do. Of course, psychother-apy is the money-making staple for mostChristian psychologists. But such coun-seling practice is legitimated by a greatdeal of popular writing and speaking. Infact, psychologists’ biggest influence inthe Christian church at this time is notthrough psychotherapy but through

scores of conferences, video tapes, radioshows, and bestselling books.

The statement stresses the “serviceroles” psychologists have assumed. But(at least in this quote) it does not mentiontheir biggest role: teachers about humannature, about problems and solutions. Inan ominous development for the Church,psychologists claim that they are theanswer to three critical questions: 1) Whois right in their interpretation of humanbeings and their problems? 2) Who hasthe right to work with people experienc-ing problems in living? 3) Who can makeit right and solve people’s problems?

Here is the dilemma: the typicalChristian psychologist’s interpretationsof people are systematically twisted byerror. What do they teach? Diverse asthey are in the details, popular Christianpsychologists are united in teaching thatman’s fundamental problem stems fromsome lack, emptiness, unmet need,woundedness or trauma (eg “low self-esteem”, “love hunger”). In contrast, the


E V A N G E L I S M

David Powlison

T O U G H Q U E S T I O N S

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Bible teaches us that our fundamentalproblem stems from the active desires,thoughts, and intentions of the heart. Arewe basically sinful, or do we simply reactsinfully to the failings of primary care-givers to meet our needs?

The excerpt cited appeals to the defacto institutionalisation of psychologywithin contemporary secular andChristian culture as if this establishes psy-chologists’ legitimacy. Their authority ismade to appear self-evident – becausepeople go to psychologists, psychologistsare needed. However, each of the exam-ples cited above proves dubious uponinspection.

“To whom would you take a six-year-old boy to determine whether he wasemotionally and physically ready to enterthe first grade?” Take him to a medicaldoctor for the physical questions. Takehim to the principal and kindergarten andfirst grade teachers for the other ques-tions. They have dealt with hundreds ofkids over the years. Other parents are alsoa resource. Experienced people can giveyou good advice to weigh into your deter-mination of your child’s readiness.

“To whom would you turn if your wifebecame schizophrenic and ran screamingdown the street? Would your pastor beable to deal with that situation?” If yourwife’s behavior and thinking becamebizarre, between a medical doctor, thepolice, and your pastor (or other wise pas-toral counselors), you should be able todo what can be done humanly.

Psychologists’ success with so-calledschizophrenics is not noteworthy.

“What if you wished to make a careerchange in mid-life and wanted an objec-tive evaluation of your strengths andinterests? Whom could you ask to helpyou?” A career counselor could provideinterest and aptitude testing and a know-ledge of the job market. Any pastoralcounselor worthy of the name couldhelp you think through your motives forconsidering a change as well as help youwith other aspects of the decision-mak-ing process. People who know you welland people in your current and contem-plated careers could also offer practicaladvice.

“To whom would you go to seek helpwith an adolescent who was extremelyrebellious and resentful of his father?”This is bread-and-butter biblical counsel-ing. Bring both the adolescent and theparents in for counseling. Find out whyand how the child is resentful and rebel-lious and whether or not the father is pro-voking him. Help them both to make nec-essary changes, learning how to love andrespect each other.

‘In each of these instances, and in a hun-dred others, you should look for a psy-chologist whose first love and highestcommitment is to Jesus Christ and to theWord of God. And how silly to say, Thereis no such thing.” I honestly can’t think ofany instances, except perhaps intelligencetesting from a school psychologist, where

the title psychologist would be significant.Biblically wise people from many walks oflife might prove helpful in these instances.Such a person might happen to have thetitle of psychologist or psychiatrist, or thetitle Pastor, or Mom, or teacher, or MrsSmith from next door, or Officer Jonesfrom the precinct, or Doctor. Look forbiblical wisdom, not a title.

My biggest problem with the “psy-chologists whose first love and highestcommitment is to Jesus Christ and to theWord of God” is that, sadly, most of theones I have met and read deviate markedlyfrom the professed commitment in boththeir theory and practice. Verbal commit-ment to the Word of God coexists withdeviant teachings from enemies of thatWord. Christians who are psychologistsalmost have to deviate from Scripture aswell in order to define themselves as legit-imate professionals with some uniqueexpertise.

After all, the territory they are claimingis not theirs by natural right. It is the ter-ritory of parents, pastors, teachers, doc-tors, friends and a host of practical advis-ers who make no pretense to being psy-chologists. It is the territory of life’s prob-lems. And wisdom in that territory liesopen on the pages of Scripture. Thoughhard won through experience in applyingtruth to life, such wisdom is available to allwho seek it.

This article is reprinted from The Journal ofBiblical Counseling (Vol 13, No.2, 1995). ap

T O U G H Q U E S T I O N S


PrincipalThe board of Sutherland Shire Christian School is seeking expressions of interest from possible applicants to be our next school Principal.Due to illness this position is expected to become available in the near future.We will be seeking a mature Christian person of reformed persuasion with extensive experience in and vision for Christian education, including the areas of administration, curriculum, staff development, pastoral care and policy.Sutherland is a Christian parent controlled, Kindergarten to matriculation, Protestant, coeducational school with enrolment in 2001 of 770 students and a staff of over 70.Buildings and facilities are all modem and well equipped. The school is located atBarden Ridge in a delightful bush-land setting 25 km south of Sydney.For more information about the school or the role of Principal, please contact either theBusiness Manager, Bob East on 02 9543 2133 (BH) or 02 9521 4632 (AH) or the BoardPresident Greg Jones on 02 9521 3088 (BH) 02 9520 8738 (AH) or visit our web site atwww.sscs.nsw.edu.au

We see ourselves as an extension of the home, so that Christian teaching given in the home is reinforced bythe school in a non elitist caring environment. Our aim is to strive for excellence in the academic and per-sonal life of all students so that they may reach their potential to the glory of God and the enrichment of life.

Seen a whirlwind pass lately? It mayhave been the Lukins family! We’rein the final stages of leavingAustralia on 22 June this year to

work as SIM missioners in Ethiopia. Theproblem is that we have hardly startedpreparing to leave yet! We began deputa-tion several weeks ago, and now we onlyhave a few more weeks to go! Is it possi-ble for the jigsaw to come together in thattime? SIM told us that nine to 16 monthsis the usual time allocated for effectivedeputation.

Is it because we are naïve that we areleaving behind 20 years of settled countryministry at Condobolin, NSW, to sit industy cattle camps with nomadic cattleherdsmen in southern Ethiopia?

Do we really understand the gospel ofJesus and the centrality of the cross ofChrist sufficiently well to be able to standagainst a totally animistic culture? Aren’tthe needs of our small home churchimportant too? And doesn’t ruralAustralia need gospellers?

It is 14 months since we approachedSIM (Serving In Mission) with the tenta-tive suggestion that maybe they could useus to help bring God’s word to a margin-alised people group in Ethiopia called theMursi. This would be a big change forPaul after 19 years as district agronomistwith NSW Agriculture at Condobolin,working with farmers to help them growbetter crops and pastures, and for Carol,who has taught in western NSW schools,edited Sunday school and school scripturelessons, taught adult literacy at TAFE, andtaught music.

Against this picture was the otherstory: that we had been partners andyoke-fellows with the Geddes family forthe 10 years since they left Australia asyoung SIM missionaries to proclaimChrist to the unreached nomadic Mursipeople in Ethiopia; that Carol’s motherhad already spent five months in 1999home-schooling the Geddes’ children inEthiopia; that the short-term ministry oftwo ladies from nearby DubboPresbyterian church with the Geddes –Janet Riley (a vet) and Irene Floth (ateacher) – increased our awareness of theneeds there; that the old lady who had

lived with Paul in his single days (the onewho was converted at 89, then charged onuntil she was almost 105) had just died,freeing him of further responsibility.

Proclaiming the gospel overseas is nomore noble than proclaiming the gospel athome. True. The responsibility starts athome. If cultural adjustment is often hardwithin our own culture, it will be evenharder in a foreign, less sympathetic cul-ture. True.

A midlife crisis? A good question. Anescape from a testing situation atCondobolin? Another good question.

But SIM detected a kinship with us,and so we proceeded to the second roundof evaluation, to two weeks of orientation,to doctrinal assessment, extensive andprotracted medical and dental healthchecks, psychological assessment, a sec-ond interview, more trips to Sydney, tothe third round of evaluation. Plus parallelapplications to APWM, more doctrinalassessment, interviews, trips to Sydney,more late nights. If only we hadn’t beenbetween ministers at our church for over12 months – if only the bloke we calledhad accepted – there would be more timeat night and weekends to think and tounwind!!

Then the crescendo – in November

2000 both SIM and APWM accepted us asappointees! Praise God! But now thecrunch – SIM felt it would be good for usto be in Ethiopia to start learning thenational language within seven months sothat we can fit in with the SIM Ethiopianplans. Could we do it? And complete thesix-week intensive linguistics course at theSummer Institute of Linguistics,Melbourne, starting new year’s day 2001?And have our brochures printed over theChristmas holiday break to be ready tostart deputation on our way home fromMelbourne in February? And start thevaccination program to fit in betweendeputation trips away?

And we do have 4 children agedbetween two and six to consider!

Can we really learn two new languagesin two years? Will Ethiopia give us workpermits for the four-year term? And morework permits for subsequent terms?

Now, how to rationalise our affairs:Carol’s mother Betty Berry, the one whohome-schooled the Geddes children, soldher house and moved into our home ascaretaker/cook/cleaner/child carer/pray-er/confidante. How would she cope withfour empty bedrooms around her andfour more years before we would fill themagain? Should we be taking our childrenaway from their great-grandmother andthree grandparents, and from their localfamilies?

The Lord knows all things. And he stillsays “I am the Lord, the God of all flesh –is anything too hard for me?” (Jer. 32:17).

God guides his people, but it is oftennot through the big things that weexpect. Rather, it is through our everydayliving, talking, walking, and being in rela-tionship with Jesus. It’s through assur-ance of our salvation in Christ and theconviction of the necessity to begospellers wherever we are, as revealed inhis word.

Seen a whirlwind lately? Yes, it was def-initely the Lukins family! Their manage-ment of life often leaves a lot to bedesired!! But they know a truth whichsustains them: “Set your minds on thingsthat are above, not on earthly things. Foryou died, and your life is now hidden withChrist in God” (Col. 3:1). ap


E V A N G E L I S MM I S S I O N S

Panic stationsIt may be Mission Impossible, but Paul and Carol Lukins will make it.

APRIL 200121 Mowbraytown-Norman Park home

mission station Brisbane; with about30 communicants and 3 elders; vacant,Jorge Lievano moderator.

22 The Christian Education committeesof the Victorian and Tasmanian assem-blies (Conveners Allan Lendon andDonald Geddes).

23 Don and Betty Brookes (formerly ofAdelaide) at Prinsep StreetPresbyterian Church, and David andGlenda Burke (formerly of Sydney)at Orchard Rd Presbyterian Church,Singapore.

24 Burwood Chinese congregation,Sydney; the members and elders,Dennis and Dorcas Law, and the twoexit appointees – John Leung (andKiet) and Eugene Hor (and Pauline).

25 Goondiwindi-Texas-Inglewood parish,south west Qld., 3 congregations withabout 30 communicants and 6 elders;Malcolm and Leone Pierce.

26 Exit appointments to two parishes infar N.S.W.: Keith and Melissa Bouldento Byron Bay-Mullumbimby (about90 communicants and 10 elders);Philip Strong, interim moderator andPhilip and Karen Weidemann toKyogle parish (4 congregations withabout 75 communicants and 5 elders.

27 Sale home mission station Gippsland,Vic. with about 20 communicants and1 elder; vacant, Peter Swinn, moderator.

28 Ingleburn home mission stationN.S.W with about 30 communicantsand 5 elders; Janet Frost.

29 Presbytery of Wagga Wagga , N.S.W;9 parishes and 3 home mission sta-tions totalling 35 congregations with1660 communicants and adherents, 1

ministerial candidate, 3 retired minis-ters, 1 under jurisdiction, 1 deaconess;Peter Greiner, Clerk.

30 Dandenong home mission station,Vic; with about 35 communicants and1 elder; Henri Joyeaux, MichaelJensen, moderator.

MAY 20011 Robert and Laurel Benn as they move

to Springwood-Winmalee parish in theN.S.W. Blue Mountains, 2 congrega-tions with about 170 communicantsand 10 elders. Thank God for his ser-vice as A.P.W.M. Director and pray forthe appointment of a successor.

2 Pray for peace and stability in Fiji,whose 795,000 people are 48% indige-nous Fijian and 46% Indian; 38% areHindu, 8% Muslim, 9% R.C. and43% Protestant (mainly Methodist)

3 Barbara Arnold from Manly-Lota,Brisbane serving in P.N.G. since 1967;lecturer at Dauli Teachers’ College.

4 The Entrance parish north of Sydneywith about 115 communicants and 11elders; Robert and Wendy Boase, exitappointment.

5 Harold and Gladys Skinner fromWahoonga, Sydney; working in cater-ing, finance and maintenance withWycliffe Bible Translators in Darwinafter more than 30 years in PNG.

6 South Australian General Assemblymeeting at Seacliff; Rod. Waterhouse,Moderator; Rupert Hanna, Clerk andall office-bearers and members.

7 Nurmukah Regional parish, Vic; 3congregations with about 60 commu-nicants and 10 elders; John andHeather Rickard, exit appointment.

8 All staff of the Church Offices inChalmers St, Sydney, Collins St,Melbourne and Fortitude Valley,Brisbane (to move to Carina).

9 Whittlesea-Mernda home mission sta-tion Vic; with about 40 communicants

and 2 elders; vacant – Bernie and MareeThomas, Don Elliott, moderator.

10 Presbytery of Gippsland,Vic; 4parishes and 2 home mission stationstotalling 8 congregations with 920communicants and adherents, 1retired minister; Jared Hood, Clerk.

11 Leederville appointment parish,Perth;with about 25 communicants and 4elders; Andrew and KathleenRobinson, exit appointment.

12 Pray for revival of the church inGermany; of its 80 million people22% are non religious, 36% R.C. and37% Protestant, but often far fromthe message of the Reformers.

13 Matthew of Seacliff church, Adelaideas he teaches English in the MiddleEast.

14 Wingham-Upper Manning parish onthe N.S.W north coast; 2 congrega-tions with about 50 communicantsand 3 elders; vacant, John Thompson,interim moderator.

15 Tasmanian General Assembly. TheModerator; David Turner, Clerk andall officebearers and members.

16 Barbara Sayers of Cairns, Qld – Bibletranslator since 1961 (Wik Mungkanfor Aurukun N.Q.) in her advisorywork.

17 Stephen Lilley from Hurstville,Sydney, engaged in language surveywork with W.B.T. in South Asia.

18 Port Macquarie parish N.S.W. withabout 150 communicants and 10elders; Scott and Cassie Donnellan.

19 Peter and Michelle Franklin, fromDevonport, Tas; hydro engineer withInterserve in Nepal and their twoadopted Nepali children.

20 Presbytery of Wide Bay-SunshineCoast Qld.; 6 parishes and 2 homemission stations with 750 communi-cants and adherents, 5 retired minis-ters, 1 under jurisdiction; John Tucker,Clerk.

E V A N G E L I S M


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B O O K S

Out of ControlWho’s Watching our ChildProtection Agencies?Brenda Scott

Louisiana: Huntington House, 1994.

Reviewed by Peter Barnes

This is a horror story to end all horrorstories. It deals with the situation in theUnited States, but no doubt the samephilosophies and practices are evidentelsewhere. Brenda Scott’s thesis is thatchild protection agencies have ceased tobe charities and instead become lawenforcement agencies.

The charges which she aims at the childprotection agencies are not mild: thenumber of false accusations is huge, mali-cious reporting is granted immunity butthe failure to report even suspicions is not,one is treated as guilty unless one canprove one’s innocence, spanking isregarded as child abuse, and programsdesigned to help are often pornographicand harmful (ie the therapists themselvesare abusers).

Justice Louis D. Brandeis commentedthat “The greatest dangers to liberty lurkin insidious encroachment by men of zeal,well-meaning but without understand-

ing.” However, on the evidence whichBrenda Scott has presented, not all childprotection workers are well-intentioned.Many of them are simply anti-family, andthey are well aware that something asbasic as honesty could lead to budget cuts.

Ms Scott’s conclusion is damningindeed: “The system doesn’t need morefunding; it needs to be overhauled.” Thisis one of the most disturbing books I haveread in a long time.

You Sank My Boat!Jim Cromarty

Darlington: Evangelical Press, 2000.


There are not many books designed forfamily reading which deal first with thefive points of Calvinism, but here is one.Jim Cromarty is a minister in thePresbyterian Church of Eastern Australiawho has taken up a writing ministry inrecent years. His books of family readingshave proved popular, and rightly so.

The only criticism I have – apart froma reference to the Assyrians on page 145when the Babylonians are intended – isthat some of the stories are a little wordy,or there is one illustration too many. ButJim Cromarty is an accomplished storyteller and a faithful Bible teacher, and hisbooks should be widely used in the diffi-cult and sometimes apparently thanklesstask of trying to teach the next generationthe truths of the faith.

The Christian’s High CallingMaurice Roberts

Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2000.


Maurice Roberts is the editor of themonthly Banner of Truth magazine. Hiseditorials reveal him to be a man who is

gifted at tackling familiar subjects fromnot-so-familiar perspectives. We are con-stantly challenged not to be content withwhat is shallow and mundane. HenceMaurice writes on subjects such as “thedanger of becoming battle-weary”, “deal-ing with our deadness”, “why is there nowrestling?”, “feeling Christ’s love afresh”,and the last piece, “more than a dream”.

Always the subjects are tackled fromthe perspective of Christ and eternity.Characteristically, Maurice cites the say-ing of the English martyr John Bradford,who said that he made it his rule not to goaway from any duty before he had feltsomething of Christ in it. Something ofthis flavour is found in these essays too.

This is an unusual collection of articles,but they exude a sense of Christ and theprivileges of his gospel. They will surelystimulate and warm many a Christianreader. ap

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The United States is still licking itswounds from a contentious pres-idential campaign that ended inagonising deadlock. Despite the

post-election ordeal, one good thing cameout of the campaign: a resounding reaffir-mation of the role of religion in public life.Ironically, it came not from the right butfrom the left.

Campaigning in Detroit, Senator JoeLieberman declared, “We need to reaffirmour faith and renew the dedication of ournation and ourselves to God and God’spurpose.” And he argued, “We need agreater place for faith in America’s publiclife.” Some observers were scandalised(though not as scandalised as they werewhen evangelical Christian leaders PatRobertson and Jerry Falwell said the samething).

Was Lieberman right? Of course! Hewas merely echoing the words ofAmerica’s founders. John Adamsfamously said, “Our Constitution is madefor a religious people. It is wholly inade-quate for the governance of any other.”

Getting this issue into public debatemay help expose how false are the chargesagainst Christians – like the accusationthat we want to “impose” our agenda.Most Americans think, that charge wasfirst aimed at the Moral Majority. Not so.It was raised in 1860 by slave-owners whoattacked Abraham Lincoln and the aboli-tionists for wanting to “impose their reli-gious views”. Thank God they did“impose” their views!

The same accusation was made even ear-lier when William Wilberforce was fight-ing to abolish England’s slave trade. Onthe floor of Parliament, Lord Melbourne,a defender of the trade, thundered,“Things have come to a pretty pass whenreligion is allowed to invade public life.”Thank God religion invaded public lifethat time as well.

And the charge that Christians want to“impose” their views is preposterous onits face. Religiously motivated people donothing more than everyone else does –work for a majority in the democraticprocess. We have no power to “impose.”

Polls show that 58 percent of

Americans agree with Lieberman that reli-gion should play a greater role in publiclife. So the senator has done a great serviceopening a healthy dialogue in America.And he’s made possible a great apologeticopportunity for Christians to explain whyJudeo-Christian influence is so importantto America. The arguments are powerful.

First, think about ethics. Dostoyevskyasked the great question in The BrothersKaramazov, “Can man be good withoutGod?” Sure, atheists jump on handgrenades in foxholes, but can they consis-tently live a virtuous life? I would answerno. For one thing, in today’s relativisticera, they can’t decide what is right. Inaddition, every human being has an infi-nite capacity for self-rationalisation – as Idiscovered in the White House. Only acommitment to Christ transforms humanwill, as C. S. Lewis compellingly argued.

And the evidence proves an impact onsociety. Juvenile crime was lowest inEngland when Sunday school attendancewas highest. As Sunday school declined,juvenile crime increased in direct propor-tion.

Second, religion encourages goodhealth. Psychiatrist David Larson hasspent 20 years researching faith’s effecton health. He discovered Christians haveless stress, fewer heart attacks, and are lessprone to commit suicide than those with-out faith. He even found that marriedChristians have better sex lives than secu-lar couples.

Third, Christianity encourages pro-ductivity. The work ethic grew out of theProtestant Reformation. Deferred gratifi-cation, work done for God’s glory, fueledthe industrial revolution.

Fourth, the Christian faith undergirdspolitical freedom and human rights. The

whole idea of Western liberal democracyrests upon Christian premises. TheScottish cleric Samuel Rutherford pub-lished Lex Rex – “the law is king” – whichled to the Rule of Law. Support for arepublican form of government wasadvanced by the reformers, who advo-cated sphere sovereignty and limited gov-ernment. Christian commitment to“unalienable rights” is why Christiansfrom Wilberforce to the civil-rightsactivists to the anti-

Communist resistance in EasternEurope have been the most valiantdefenders of human rights.

Finally, Christianity encourages compas-sion. Historically it was Christians whobuilt hospitals and orphanages, foughtslavery, and outlawed child labor. TodayChristian compassion leads millions ofAmericans to feed the hungry, minister topregnant teens, and buy Christmas giftsfor Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree kidseach year.

A wealth of material buttresses thesearguments. Christians need to learn tomake the case – and then seize the oppor-tunity. The time is ripe: more than halfthe nation recently told pollsters thatAmerica is off-track morally.

You and I must give them the ‘answersthat they are obviously searching for.

This article is reprinted from The Magazineof Prison Fellowship Ministries, Winter2001 ap

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