Dr Lloyd-Jones - a Personal Appreciation

On the occasion of the passing of Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones into glory, I draw to your attention this book that I wrote which is my personal appreciation of the life and ministry of this great servant of Christ and the Gospel.  Please click here to find out the influence he had on me and on my ministry.

The Saviour of the World

Jn.4:42.

In this verse, we have another universal statement as to the identity and Person of the Saviour.  The context is Jesus’ conversation with the woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria, and the statement is that of those Samaritans who believed in Christ, not just because of the testimony of the woman, but because they had heard Him for themselves during one interview with Him.  As Jews had no dealings[1] with the Samaritans,[2] it is quite amazing that these ‘unclean’ humans were enabled by God’s Spirit to see the truth about Jesus.  Many had believed because of the woman’s testimony and besought Him to remain with them, and Jesus stayed a further two days in that vicinity.[3]  The effectiveness and authenticity of her testimony brought these men not only to where Jesus was, but right into a new saving relationship with Him.  This spiritual re-awakening amongst the Samaritans indicated that Jesus was not only the Saviour for the Jewish people, but also for the Samaritans.  God’s salvation was not confined to any one nation or people, but was sent into the entire world.  Brown is correct when he avers that Christ’s two day stay not only brings over many more to the same faith in Him, but raises that faith to a conviction – never reached by the Jews, and hardly as yet attained by His own disciples – that as the Christ, he was “the Saviour of the world.’”[4]

As “Saviour of the world,” He was to bring “deliverance ... from serious danger.”[5]  What more serious danger is there than to be under the divine wrath on account of our sin; and from this we need deliverance.  This implies that Jesus is more than a perfect example for us to follow.  He is the One Who saves.  The general term “Saviour” is sometimes applied to the Father[6] and also to the Son[7] but is found nowhere else in the New Testament.  To the word “Saviour” John, adds a qualifier, “of the world,” which has the impact of enlarging His role and work.  He is the “Saviour of the world.”  Morris comments that this

elevates the title to one of infinite grandeur.  Jesus is not concerned simply with petty, minor issues.  Nor is He the Saviour of few unimportant individuals.  He is the Saviour of the world.[8]

Calvin comments,

Again, when they proclaim that Jesus is the Saviour of the world and the Christ, they have undoubtedly learned this from hearing Him ... And He declared that the salvation He had brought was common to the whole world, so that they should understand more easily that it belonged to them also. [9]

All exclusivity is hereby ruled out by our Lord.  The salvation that He came to bring transcends all geographical and ethnic barriers.  It is for all men because all are sinners.  God’s love is for “the whole world” because then salvation His Son brought is common to all.[10]

Ryle contends, with Calvin and contra Owen and Hendriksen,[11] that “the singular fullness of the confession” that the Samaritan believers made is significant because it provides the fullest declaration of the Saviour’s office as “the Saviour of the world” that is unequalled in the Gospels.[12] He raises the interesting point as to whether the Samaritans really understood the significance of the term “Saviour” as applied to Jesus was fully understood, and Ryle suggests that it was not.  However, he affirms that whatever deficiencies existed in their understanding of that term, there were none regarding their grasp of the universal scope of what He came to do.  To them, He was the world’s Saviour, not just the Saviour of the Jews.  In Ryle’s language, He came to be “a Redeemer for all mankind.”[13]  The religious Jews did not see this truth despite His being with them for upwards of three years, but these people of mixed race and of semi-heather origin who had only had Jesus with them for two days, grasped the true identity of this Preacher, and affirmed His universal and crucial role for mankind.     

DML-J preached, as he was bringing his sermon on Ac.5:1-13, and upbraided the church for her cowardice.  “The church must stop apologising, stop accommodating, stop taking bits out of the Bible.  We must face the world and proclaim Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Saviour of mankind.”[14]  He was already retired from the active Christian ministry for five years by this time, and his universal Gospel preaching was still uppermost in his emphasis.  Regularly, he referred to Jesus Christ as “Son of God, Saviour of the world.”[15]  In answering the question as to the reason for the incarnation, he said, “Why does he do that?  There is only one answer: he has come into the world to save the world.”[16]  When seeking to expound why some men hold tenaciously to the truth of the Gospel, he said, “Here were men who would sooner die than refrain from preaching the glory of the Son of God as the only Saviour of the world.”[17]  That Christ was and is the only truly cosmic Saviour there is, was an emphasis in his preaching that none can gainsay.  He died as the Saviour of the world, which implies that He died for all men without exception.  His death was as much for the unbeliever as it was for the believer.  When sinners reject the only Saviour of mankind, they are rejecting a Saviour Who suits their case perfectly.  Listen to DML-J as he describes those leaders who “[reject] of the Saviour of the world.”[18]  Little did they know but the One they were rejecting was “God’s only begotten Son, Jesus of Nazareth, ... the Saviour of the world.”[19] It was He Who died on the Cross, and the only way sinners have of being reconciled to Him is by believing in and surrendering to, the Saviour of the world.[20]

An examination of these expository comment by the Doctor will confirm that he is well suited to the company of men like Calvin, Baxter, Davenant, Wesley, Ryle, Morris, etc.  His expositions do not fit nearly as well with those of Owen and Hendriksen whose confessionalism determines the meaning of Scripture.

---

[1]    The Geneva Bible 1599 translates this word as “meddle.”  The Geneva Bible notes add, “There is no

         familiarity nor friendship” between these groupings.

[2]    Jn 4:9.

[3]    Jn 4:40, 43.

[4]    Brown, 1684/1969:375.

[5]    Morris, 1972:284.  Brown cites the Greek as “the Saviour of the world, the Christ (p.374).  Cf also Ryle,

         1869/1987:251.

[6]    Lk. 1:47; 1 Tim.1:1; etc.  The LXX uses this term for the Father, and secular Greek writers uses it of a

         multitude of deities.

[7]    1 Jn 4:14

[8]    Morris, 1972:285.

[9]    Comment on Jn 4:42.

[10]    Calvin, comm.. on Jn 4:42.

[11]    Hendriksen, 1954:176.

[12]    Ryle, 1869/1987:251.  He points out that the conversion of these Samaritans can be attributed solely

         to the grace of God, and that while the Jews were hardened under Christ’s preaching, miracles and

         wonderful works, the Samaritans were softened and believed.

[13]    Ibid.

[14]    Selection #358.

[15]    Selection #357.

[16]    Selection #327.

[17]    Selection #236.

[18]    Selection #232.

[19]    Selection #100.

[20]    Selection #99.

The Iniquity of us all.

Isa.53:6.

This verse is quoted very frequently by DML-J in his evangelistic preaching.  What is the context of this verse and what does it mean?  The context is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah and this individual is identified with Christ in His death by Calvin in his sermons on this passage.[1]  The Geneva Bible notes state that the punishment of the iniquity of us all was laid on Him.  Hyper-Calvinist, Dr. John Gill, in his exposition of this phrase, states quite categorically, “he has laid on Christ, his own Son, the sins of all his elect ones.”  Continuing, he adds, “[God the Father] ... laid on Christ, and were bore by him, even all the sins of all God’s elect...”  Further, Gill teaches,

The words may be rendered, "he made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all"; the elect of God, as they live in every part of the world, their sins are represented as coming from all quarters, east, west, north, and south; and as meeting in Christ, as they did, when he suffered as their representative on the cross ...  

Gill in his interpretation is clearly limiting the teaching of this verse and restricting it to the elect only and universally, but unlike Calvin does not see it as applying to the whole world of men.  Yet, Gill quotes R. Cohana (favourably) when he says,

“...as the ass bears burdens, and the garments of travellers, so the King Messiah will bear upon him the sins of the whole world; as it is said, "the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”[2]  

This appears just a tad inconsistent with his stated position, yet he included it in his comment on this verse.

Gill’s interpretation contrasts with that of Calvin who preaches (in his sermon on Isa.53:4-6): “...took Him as being there in the place of all sinners.  So we see that Jesus Christ was laden with all our sins and iniquities...”[3]  Calvin’s oft-repeated phrase “the death and passion of Christ” is used to point to what He has done for all men, all sinners.  Indeed, Calvin preaches that Isaiah includes the word “all” to “exclude all exceptions.”[4]  “For our Lord Jesus has enough to satisfy us all...”[5]  Or again, “Let us then come boldly to our Lord Jesus Christ, and He will suffice for all...”[6]  Further, Calvin preaches, “for God was not satisfied with sending his Son once for all ... He will be sufficient to give us such a remedy that we can conclude that we are received and acknowledged by God as His own children, and that He will look upon us as righteous and perfect and instead of abominable before Him.”[7]  Calvin’s inclusivity with respect to Christ’s work of redemption is set out his exposition of Isa.53:6.  In fact, he contends that this entire passage (Isa.53) is exclusively about the death and passion of Christ. 

Linking this verse with 2 Cor.5:21, a (unnamed) commentator stated,

He was not merely a sin offering (which would destroy the antithesis to “righteousness”), but “sin for us”; sin itself vicariously; the representative of the aggregate sin of all mankind; not sins in the plural, for the “sin” of the world is one (Romans 5:16 Romans 5:17 );[8]

This is again in agreement with Calvin; the iniquity that was laid on Christ was that of all mankind, the normal meaning of the words used.

Puritan commentator, Matthew Henry, wrote on this verse:

For whom this atonement was to be made. It was the iniquity of us all that was laid on Christ; for in Christ there is a sufficiency of merit for the salvation of all, and a serious offer made of that salvation to all, which excludes none that do not exclude themselves. It intimates that this is the one only way of salvation. All that are justified are justified by having their sins laid on Jesus Christ, and, though they were ever so many, he is able to bear the weight of them all.

His exegesis is abundantly clear.  He does not qualify “of us all” but takes the words in their normal meaning.  Introducing the “sufficiency of merit in Christ for the salvation of all,” which includes “a serious offer made of that salvation to all,” an offer that “excludes none that do not exclude themselves,” Henry is true to the clear teaching of Scripture.  Because God laid on Christ the penalty of sin for us all, there is universal provision in the atonement made by the Saviour.

Wesley’s notes on the Old Testament give a similarly clear interpretation:

That which was due for all the sins of all mankind, which must needs be so heavy a load, that if he had not been God as well as man, he must have sunk under the burden.[9]

The Methodist preacher demonstrates his closeness to Calvin in his understanding of the universal terms used by Isaiah, and highlights the distance he was from Gill. 

When expounding the phrase “of us all,” Rawlinson explains the universality of the atonement in these terms:  “The redemption is as universal as the sin, at any rate, potentially.”  Christ on the cross made “a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice ... for the sins of the whole world.”[10]  The text of Scripture is taken in its natural, common-sense, meaning.  There is provision in the atonement for all, therefore none need die without an available and sufficient Saviour.  Calvin agrees: there is enough in Jesus Christ to satisfy us all.  “Let us then come boldly to our Lord Jesus Christ, and He will suffice for all.”[11]  Calvin’s “alls” display the inclusiveness of the atonement without limitation. 

Albert Barnes, commenting in this verse, states:

This language is that which naturally expresses the idea that he suffered for all people. It is universal in its nature, and naturally conveys the idea that there was no limitation in respect to the number of those for whom he died.[12]

Clearly, the universal aspect is to the fore in Barnes’ exegesis, and concurs with that of other careful exegetes, such as Calvin.  

Alec Motyer in his commentary on the prophecy of Isaiah writes,

We all and each expresses both common culpability and individual responsibility ... Over against the common herd, and matching the individual need, there stands him on whom our iniquity has been laid.  By the divine act, the Servant was the meeting point for the iniquity of us all.[13]

Motyer accepts the exposition that “each sin of every sinner would be like a separate wound in the heat of this man of sorrows.” Inclusivity is innate to what Isaiah says, and Motyer brings this out very clearly.  He continues,

The Servant is not ... one moved by personal compassion and voluntariness; he is the provision and plan of God, who himself superintends the priestly task (Lev.16:21) of transferring the guilt of the guilty to the head of the Servant, giving notice that this is indeed his considered and acceptable satisfaction for sin.[14]

The guilty are all those deemed to be so by the law of God, namely, every son of Adam.  The whole world is accountable to, guilty before, God,[15] so it was the whole world’s guilt that was transferred to the head of the Servant/Saviour.[16]

DML-J was with Calvin, Wesley, Barnes and Motyer on this point when he preached

In view of the fact that salvation is of God and therefore supernatural, although we cannot understand it, it holds out a hope for all. … There is literally hope for all.  ...It is God’s work, and because it is God’s work, it is possible for all and can be offered to all.  ...There is literally hope for all.”[17] 

Or again,

“It is God who sent his Son into the world, it is God who sent him to the cross, it is God who ‘laid on him the iniquities of us all,’ Isa.53:6.  It is God who has taken your sins and put them on him and punished them in him and is offering you a free pardon; it is God who has done it.”[18] 

 “Here is ‘the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world’ Jn.1:29.  Here is the one who has never sinned; here is one who is spotless; here is one who has never broken a commandment, never defied his father.  He has pleased his Father in all things and in all ways.  And, ‘God has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ Isa.53:6.”[19]

“He sent his only Son into this world ‘for the suffering of death … that he by the grace of God should, taste death for every man’ Heb.2:9.  God’s Son took our sins upon himself: ‘He hath laid on him the iniquity of us all’ Isa.53:6.’”[20]

From these four quotations from DML-J’s sermons, it is clear that his interpretation of Isa.53:6 followed Calvin, Wesley, Henry, Barnes, and Motyer rather than Gill, or even Owen for that matter.  Owen states, with reference to both Isa.53:6 and Jn 3:16, “God of his free grace, has prepared a way to redeem and save his elect.”[21]  Owen is interpretatively particularistic when dealing with the Bible’s own universalistic statements.[22]  But for the Doctor, hope is held out for all because it is offered to all without exception.  Because God has sent His Son to Calvary to have the sins of all punished in Him, a free pardon can now be offered to all.  If He, the pure and spotless One, had not taken the sins of all upon His Body on the Cross, and died for them, how then could a free and utterly sincere offer of salvation be made to them?  In His death, God’s Son, “tasted death for every man.”  Hyper Calvinists such as John Gill state, correctly, that ‘man’ is added by the translators to help to give the sense of the verse, and suggest that what should be added is son, or one of the brethren, not man.  The reason for this is not given which begs the question, why son or brethren, and not man?   

It was “the sin of the world” that God laid on Him, “the iniquity of us all.”  DML-J clearly did not subscribe to the restricted view of the atonement as espoused by Gill and Owen.  Such a view would have hampered his evangelistic preaching, leaving him with nothing to offer the lost.  The biblical view handed him something real to offer to real sinners – a real salvation which would become theirs on condition of faith in Christ. 

Davenant reinforces this important Gospel point in Isa.53:6 by reference to the Church Fathers, quoting them as saying, “The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ransom of the whole world...”[23]  Quoting from David Paræus (in a judgement which he transmitted to the Synod of Dordt) the following words, “The cause and matter of the passion of Christ was the sense and sustaining of the anger of God excited against the sin, not of some men, but of the whole human race.”[24]

One looks in vain for any treatment of this verse in Smeaton when he refers to Isa 53.  He references vvs. 3, 7, 12, but makes no reference to 53:6.[25]

It is clear from these quotations that there is a division between those who embrace the scholastic doctrine of limited atonement and those who follow the Scriptures, taking them in their natural meaning.  It is also clear which interpretation DML-J prefers, and it is not that of Gill and Owen.

---

[1]   Parker, 1976.

[2]   Apud Galatin. de Cathol. Ver. I. 10. c. 6. p. 663, and Siphre in ib. l. 8. c. 20. p. 599.

[3]    Calvin, 1956:70.

[4]    Calvin, 1956:78.

[5]    Calvin, 1956:81.

[6]    Ibid.

[7]    Calvin, 1956:82.

[8]    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. (n.d., n.p.).  I have also retained the

         Formatting of the original quotation to keep the author’s emphases.

[9]    Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on Isa.53:6.

[10]    Rawlinson, 1906:296.

[11]    Calvin, 1956:81.  In his commentary on Isa.53:6, he writes, “Our sins overwhelm us: but they are laid

         on Christ, by whom we are unburdened. Therefore, when we were perishing, and, alienated from God,

         were hastening to hell, Christ took upon Himself the filthy depths (colluviem) of our sins, to rescue us

         from eternal destruction ...” (p.67).

[12]    Barnes commentary on Isaiah, p.???

[13]    Motyer, 1993:431.  Formatting preserved to bring out the author’s original emphases.

[14]    Ibid.

[15]    Rom.3:19.

[16]    Cf. 1 Jn 5:19 and Rom.3:19.

[17]    DML-J, selection #49. 

[18]    DML-J, selection #183.

[19]    DML-J, selection #188.

[20]    DML-J, selection #208.

[21]    http://www.apuritansmind.com/arminianism/an-exegetical-look-at-john-316-by-dr-c-matthew-        mcmahon/ 

        Accessed 09/01/2013.

[22]   I am reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty, who said scornfully, "When I use a word ... it means

        just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."  Alice (in Wonderland) then asks "whether you

        can make words mean so many different things."  "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to

        be master— that's all."  He believed that he could impart meanings to words that suited his purpose.

[23]    Davenant, 1832/2006/33.

[24]    Davenant, 1832/2006:35. 

[25]    Smeaton, 1871/1991:81, cf. 497.

An awful premonition - C. H. Spurgeon

‘Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.’ Matthew 16:28
Suggested Further Reading: Hebrews 2:6–15

This tasting of death here may be explained, and I believe it is to be explained, by a reference to the second death, which men will not taste of till the Lord comes. And what a dreadful sentence that was, when the Saviour said, perhaps singling out Judas as he spoke; ‘Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, who shall never know what that dreadful word ‘death’ means, till the Lord shall come.’ You think that if you save your lives, you escape from death. The demise of the body is but a prelude to the perdition of the soul. The grave is but the porch of death; you will never understand the meaning of that terrible word till the Lord comes. This can have no reference to the saints, because in John 8:51–52 you find this passage:—‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.’ No righteous man, therefore, can ever ‘taste of death.’ He will fall into that deep oblivious sleep in which the body sees corruption; but that is another and a very different thing from the bitter cup referred to as tasting of death. When the Holy Spirit wanted an expression to set forth that which was the equivalent for the divine wrath, what expression was used (in Hebrews 2:9)? Christ ‘by the grace of God should taste death for every man.’ The expression ‘to taste of death,’ means the reception of that true and essential death, which kills both the body and the soul in hell for ever.

For meditation: This terrible tasting of everlasting death will be the only course available for those who have refused in this life to taste and see that the Lord is the good and gracious giver of salvation and blessings to all who trust in him (Psalm 34:8; 1 Peter 2:3).
Sermon no. 594
15 August (Undated Sermon)

The way of salvation - C H Spurgeon

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 Suggested Further Reading: Isaiah 12 What a great word that word ‘salvation’ is! It includes the cleansing of our conscience from all past guilt, the delivery of our soul from all those propensities to evil which now so strongly predominate in us; it takes in, in fact, the undoing of all that Adam did. Salvation is the total restoration of man from his fallen estate; and yet it is something more than that, for God’s salvation fixes our standing more secure than it was before we fell. It finds us broken in pieces by the sin of our first parent, defiled, stained, accursed: it first heals our wounds, it removes our diseases, it takes away our curse, it puts our feet upon the rock Christ Jesus, and having thus done, at last it lifts our heads far above all principalities and powers, to be crowned for ever with Jesus Christ, the King of heaven. Some people, when they use the word ‘salvation,’ understand nothing more by it than deliverance from hell and admittance into heaven. Now, that is not salvation: those two things are the effects of salvation. We are redeemed from hell because we are saved, and we enter heaven because we have been saved beforehand. Our everlasting state is the effect of salvation in this life. Salvation, it is true, includes all that, because salvation is the mother of it, and carries it within its bowels; but still it would be wrong for us to imagine that is the whole meaning of the word. Salvation begins with us as wandering sheep, it follows us through all our confused wanderings; it puts us on the shoulders of the shepherd; it carries us into the fold; it calls together the friends and the neighbours; it rejoices over us; it preserves us in that fold through life; and then at last it brings us to the green pastures of heaven, beside the still waters of bliss, where we lie down for ever, in the presence of the Chief Shepherd, never more to be disturbed. For meditation: Past salvation from sin’s penalty (justification): present salvation from sin’s power (sanctification): prospective salvation from sin’s presence (glorification)—what a great salvation (Hebrews 2:3). Don’t miss it. Sermon no. 209 15 August (1858)

You Become What You Read.

All writing, as Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, is really just thinking put to paper. So it turns out that what we’re reading, we’re thinking about; and what we’re thinking about is what most shapes who we are. We are (or are becoming) what we read.

Therefore it is most important that we read the best Christian books available.   Reading shapes our thoughts and gives direction to our lives.  It helps us discern the Lord's will for our lives. 

I am currently reading the first volume of "The Calvinistic Methodists of Wales" by John Morgan Jones and William Morgan (trans. by John Aaron) and published by the Banner of Truth Trust.  This book is a real inspiration to the Christian.  It lets us see the hand of God at work in what was, humanly speaking, a hopeless situation.  God worked inside the church and despite her.  He took His servants and used them mightily in the furtherance of His Kingdom.  Griffith Jones and Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris and Christmas Evans, were used by God to gather in His Kingdom.

If you are feeling a bit low at present, then dip into these excellent works and see your spirits soar in delight to God and delight with God.

By reading these volumes, you will become what you read.

Islam Promoted by London Mayoral Candidate

This email was received by me today.  It is so relevant to the Norwich situation that I considered it relevant for inclusion in this blog.  After you've read it, you can make up your mind what the issues really are.


Re: update notes from Heartcry Ministries in relation to Mayoral Candidate Ken Livingstone

  

Ken Livingstone - "I will make London a beacon of Islam"

London mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone has vowed to make the capital city a ‘beacon of Islam’.

In a speech last Friday at the North London Central Mosque, also known as the Finsbury Park Mosque, the Labour candidate said that he was determined to “educate the mass of Londoners” about Islam.

“I want to spend the next four years making sure that every non-muslim in London knows and understands [its] words and message. That will help to cement our city as a beacon that demonstrates the meaning of the words of the Prophet”, he said.

Running for mayor for the fourth time, Mr Livingstone spoke to assembled muslims at the controversial mosque and described Mohammed’s words in his last sermon as “an agenda for all humanity.”

The ex-mayor also promised that he would be making life “a bit easier financially” for the muslim population.

North London Central Mosque

North London Central Mosque was once controlled by Abu Hamza, a notorious recruiter for terrorism. He was removed in 2003, although the mosque is still dogged by allegations of links to extremist groups.

The mosque is now controlled by the Muslim Association of Britain, which has previously been linked to the banned terror group Hamas. Azzam Tamimi, who has acted as spokesman for the current leadership, is on record for expressing support for suicide bombings.

One of the current directors of the mosque, Mohammed Sawalha, has supported attacks on Israel’s allies, which includes UK troops. The BBC has described him as a former senior figure of Hamas who is “said to have masterminded much of Hamas’s political and military strategy”. 

Ken Livingstone and Islam

Mr Livingstone has often been linked to fundamentalist Islam.

In 2010, he campaigned against his own party’s candidate in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and backed an independent candidate, Lutfur Rahman, who had been previously fired by the Labour party for links to the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), an extremist group.

The IFE believes in sharia law, jihad and creating an "Islamic social and political order" in Britain.

In the course of his mayoralty, Mr Livingstone gave hundreds of thousands of pounds to the East London Mosque, which is controlled by the IFE. IFE activists championed him in the 2008 mayoral election. Azad Ali, the IFE's community affairs co-ordinator, helped run “Muslims 4 Ken”, which encouraged large numbers of muslims to vote for Mr Livingstone.

It is alleged by the Daily Telegraph that, on his IFE blog, Mr Ali praised a key mentor of Osama bin Laden, described al-Qaeda as a "myth," and justified the killing of British troops in Iraq.

MY COMMENT:

If this is not a challenge to the Christian church, I do not know what is.  If such a move by a senior politician is not an attempt to destroy, not just our legal system and democracy, but the Christian church in its entirety, I don't know what is.

Mr Livingstone is promoting a false religion that is not only totally opposed to biblical Christianity but it out to destroy it.  As a false religion, it stands condemned by the truth of God's Word.  It reduces our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to the level of a man, a prophet, thus denuding Him of His Godhead.  It is a substitute religion that is on the march and, as its name, Islam, implies, is bent on bringing all non-Muslims into submission to Mohammad.  This is a religion that denies the fundamental freedoms that our forefathers won for us at incalculable cost.  The enforcement of Sharia Law will completely remove any freedom to worship and serve the Lord Christ.  Archbishop Rowan Williams recently said that he would have no problem with Sharia Law being implemented in some parts of the UK.  So a senior churchman, who is supposed to promote the Christian faith is in fact promoting its publicly recognised destroyer.  

Has anyone heard of any senior evangelicals or reformed men speaking out against this ploy by Livingstone?  Or have evangelicals again been left without spiritual leadership in face of a religion that is determined to annihilate it?  Are challenges to the biblical Gospel being ignored by today's spineless evangelical and reformed leaders?  It appears so.

No, the Gospel is not treasured in the way it ought to be in today's anaemic church.  Is Islam a true religious faith that has been given by the Lord God Almighty for the salvation of the world?  If it is, why don't liberal church men and members leave their churches and cling to Islam?  If it is not, why the deafening silence of church leaders?  Is the Gospel way of salvation the ONLY way of salvation, or are there others, and is Islam one of them?  Paul doesn't think so (Gal.1:1-10).  Does Islam make its adherents better people, or worse?  Does Islam promote peace and brotherliness?  Is Islam tolerant towards Christians in countries where Islam is in a sizable majority?  Does Islam still murder Christians, or does it love them?

I think we have to face up to these questions now and before it is too late.  Our weak and principle-less government is facilitating the onward march of Islam, despite its loud protestations to want to preserve all that's good in the British way of life.  This CANNOT be done while at the same time allowing Islam free reign in our country.  

One day we will pay a heavy price for what successive governments have knowingly done to our people.  Our Christian heritage is being undermined by dangerously silly legislation and by the tolerance of a foreign religious system that is set about destroying that same Christian heritage.  

Do you agree?