http://adfontesback2thesources.blogspot.com/

Ad Fontes will have a broader focus than Three Streams; which mainly drew from Reformed, Evangelical and  Charismatic perspectives. Ad Fontes was a phrase used by the reformers, it simply meant: back to the sources or literally back to the fountain. The reformers attempted to do this by linking their teaching both to scripture and to the writings of the Early Church Fathers. Following in this tradition Ad Fontes will also engage with the writings of the Early Church Fathers as well as other leaders and teachers from various eras including modern times; whose teachings, this blogger thinks, reflects a faithful representation of Apostolic Christianity.

Another key difference that you may notice about Ad Fontes is that it will represent a more Arminian perspective than Three Streams. This is reflective of my own journey. As I began to engage with some of the earliest Christian writings, I became increasingly aware of the lack of “Reformed” doctrines among the Fathers. In fact, many of the Early Fathers directly oppose some Reformed or Calvinistic notions; such as the idea that a true believer can never commit apostasy and eventually perish. This accompanied by my reading of Scripture has forced me to think differently on certain aspects of Reformation Theology.

Having said that, Ad Fontes will continually be unashamedly evangelical and will continue to appreciate the good that is to be found within Reformed Theology.

Thanks to all who contributed to the discussion at Three Streams. A big thanks to Gordon Rouse for setting up the website and providing technical support.

Blessings

John

I stumbled upon a small book in a second hand book shop on the Isle of Skye just over a year ago which was a collection of the Letters of William Still. I sensed there was something to be found in this book and upon both reading it and finding out more about the man behind the letters, my instincts were proven right.

Rev William Still was minister of Gilcomston South Church of Scotland in Aberdeen from 1945-1997. Still was a tremendous evangelist, preacher and expounder of the Word of God. One of my own convictions is the need within the church for both the Spirit of God and the true preaching of the Word of God. Here are some nuggets from one of William Still’s letters on the subject of Word and Spirit.

“ The one without the other, the Word without the Spirit, or the Spirit without the Word, is useless. But bring the two together: no mere sound orthodoxy, sound asleep or stone dead, and no mere pentecostal ecstasy flying kites high in the wind of but a few scattered, hag-ridden texts, but the ‘Word of God which liveth and abideth forever’ in its fulness, having become in God’s man crucified, pouring itself forth from anointed lips in burning consecrated power, and we may yet see in our beloved land a movement which will make the ‘fifty nine revival’ look pale, and which may bring in a day of sober revival and intoxicated persecution to make the angels in heaven marvel, and the Father-heart of God rejoice for the sufferings of His Son, and the glory of His name. “

William Still

Taken from the letter Rebuild the Church! November 1960

“The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna.”

“Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ.”

“Whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ.”

“What good does it do to speak learnedly about  the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity?”

“Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone.”

“Every man naturally desires knowledge; but what good is knowledge without fear of God?”

“Indeed a humble countryman who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars.”

“If I knew all things in the world and had not charity, what would it profit me before God Who will judge me by my deeds?”

“Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.”

“Wherefore, if you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you will remain in state of grace. All men are frail, but you must admit that none is more frail than yourself.”

      The universal Church is the body of Christ, the bride of the Lamb, the habitation of God through the Spirit, the pillar and ground of the truth. The local church is a community of ransomed men, a minority group, a colony of heavenly souls dwelling apart on the earth, a division of soldiers on a foreign soil, a band of reapers, working under the direction of the Lord of the harvest, a flock of sheep following the Good Shepherd, a brotherhood of like-minded men, a visible representative of the Invisible God. It is most undesirable to conceive of our churches as Works, or Projects. If such words must be used, then let them be understood as referring to the earthly and legal aspect of things only. A true church is something supernatural and divine, and is in direct lineal descent from that first church at Jerusalem. Insofar as it is a church it is spiritual; its social aspect is secondary and may be imitated by any group regardless of its religious qualities or lack of them. The spiritual essence of a true church cannot be reproduced anywhere but in a company of renewed and inwardly united believers.

In spite of en masse spiritual, moral and doctrinal indiferance within the churches of God, scripture looks forward to a time when the Lord will raise up his house in far greater glory.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Isaiah 2:2

As I read this scripture a few weeks ago, I immediatly asked myself- when will this take place?

I was deeply encouraged, and surprised, when I later found within the pages of Jonathan Edward’s Religious Affections the same way of thinking. It seems that Edwards believed that scripture foresaw an increasingly purified and glorified church in the last days.

“Though there never will, in this world, be an entire purity, either in particular saints, by a perfect freedom from mixture of corruption; or in the church of God, without any mixture of hypocrites with saints-or counterfeit religion and false appearances of grace with true religion and real holiness-yet, it is evident, there will come a time of much greater purity in the church, than has been in ages past. ⁴¹⁵⁴¹⁵    This appears plain by these texts of Scripture, Isa. lii. 1 Ezek. xliv. 6,7,9 Joel iii. 17 Zech. xiv. 21 Psal. lxix. 32,35,36 Isa. xxxv. 8,10 iv. 3,4 Ezek. xx. 38 Psal. xxxvii. 9,10,11,29 And one great reason of it will be, that at that time, God will give much greater light to his people, to distinguish between true religion and counterfeits; Mal. iii. 3. “And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” With Mal. iii. 18.which is a continuation of the prophecy of the same happy times, “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.”

What amazing insight, and what amazing scriptural references!

It is interesting that one of the marks of this process of purification is discernment.

I wonder if we are on the threshold of God’s plans and purposes in relation to his end time church? I wonder if the present shaking- and extreme mixtures of discernment and blindness within the body of Christ today are the signs that this may be the season that we are about to head in to?

I’ve recently began to read Wayne Grudem’s The Gift of Prophesy and so far I have found it an excellent explanation of the gift of Prophesy. The book, so far, explores prophets in the O.T, Apostles and Revelation and the gift of Prophesy within the N.T churches.

This book is a must for charismatics and non charismatics alike. It is a number of years old now however it still speaks powerfully into today’s church context. Churches with an emphasis on the ‘prophetic’ could benefit greatly from this book as could churches who emphasise ’sola scriptura’ but who deny the existence of the gift of prophesy today. For those who deny the gift of prophesy Grudem demonstrates scripturally the place of prophesy within the church today. For those who emphasise prophesy almost to the detriment of the canon of scripture, Grudem brings a healthy corrective. In other words, charismatics need to learn to differentiate between ‘prophesy’ (Something God brings to mind but communicated in human words and therefore not without flaw) and God’s Word (God’s very own words revealed through scripture which are of course without flaw or error. Confusing the two leads to serious confusion and harm within the body of Christ.

The teaching of the Old and New testamants should have a far greater place in our churches than the gift of prophesy- but the gift of prophesy should not be despised since God has given it to the church for edification.

I think this quote from Spurgeon is very appropriate for today. These are not days in which whole hearted commitment to the scriptures are encouraged. Many evangelicals think they want revival but very few are willing to pay the price for true revival.

“We admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago . . . but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. Yet imagine that in those ages past, Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, and their compeers had said, ‘The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.’ Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on….

It is today as it was in the Reformers’ days. Decision is needed. Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it, but inwardly abhor every line of it . . . Look you, sirs, there are ages yet to come. If the Lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to His truth today. We have come to a turning-point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.”

 (C. H. S., Sermons, 1888, 83-84; cited in Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, 192).

In our evangelical churches, are we truly hearing, understanding, living, experiencing, proclaiming and guarding the everlasting gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? Or have we exchanged the true gospel for the idols of ‘relevance’ and ’success’?

This Christmas period has felt very ‘traditional’ in so many ways. Firstly we had one of the first ‘white Christmas’ that we have had for many years. Also it was Ethan’s first ‘real’ Christmas in that he is 14 months old and therefore he had a greater awareness and a lot of what was happening was focused around him. Christmas morning saw loads of pressies under the trees which later resulted in a mass of Christmas wrapping, toys and boxes. This reminded me of Christmas as a kid. Thirdly we attended a carol service on Christmas eve in a Church of Scotland. I have to say, I actually loved it. I loved the traditional building, the traditional songs and the traditional service.

Of course, Christmas for almost everyone is a time of tradition, it that time in the year when we exchange gifts and celebrate. Whether we celebrate the birth of Christ, or ‘winter festival’, or only see it in humanistic or consumerist terms, the underlying factor for all of us that it is a time of tradition. It is time of year when decorations are put up, food is bought and prepared and gifts are sought out for loved ones. For most people it is a time of fun, family, friendship and feasting.

It struck me recently, that many assumptions are made about ‘traditions’ particularly in the church world. Most of my Christian life has been spent within the pentecostal and charismatic movements, and this movement has revelled, in many ways, in the abandoning of traditions. The underlying assumption, of many modern church movements is that 1) people in the world do not go to church because it is traditional, 2) Because church is traditional it is dull and unappealing 3) If we make church non traditional people will see ‘life’ and come and join us. This philosophy has led many churches down a path of ever seeking the latest thing.

As I rub shoulders with non christians, I am finding more and more that this philosophy is faulty. Many people actually appreciate tradition. In fact many people prefer it. A lot of non christians, if they ever decided to go to church, do not actually want to enter a building that resembles the night club, the rock concert or the shopping mall - in fact such marketing often appears cheap, tacky and ireverant to the minds of many non believers.

In the midst of an ever changing society, I wonder if the key to effective mission, lies not in chasing the idol of relevance in a never ending pursuit but instead lies in remaining true to and connected with what has gone before. What we do and how we look as church should have a heavy sense of tradition. We should not look like the latest thing on the market- we should look and smell 2000 years old because we are! In a world that ever changes people need constants, the church is called to be one of those constants. Our message is old in fact our message is ancient because it comes from eternity, this sense of ancient truth should be seen, tasted and felt as we gather together and seek to win others to Christ. When they meet the church, do they meet that which is ancient and eternal or do they meet with that which is new, temporary and already six months out of date by the time it has been implemented?

Back to the assumption about people not attending church because it is old, traditional and dull. The truth is, people do not go to church because they are fallen beings who have rejected God’s authority over their lives. People do not reject Christianity because it does not seem relevant or modern, they reject Christianity because that is all they can do until the Spirit of God draws them and turns their hearts towards the Father. Secondly, flashy modern churches will not draw them in either but only the faithful preaching of the gospel, the old ancient gospel.

 Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck have brought out another book, this time tackling critics of institutional church. I really enjoyed their book on the emergent church and I gave it a mostly favourable review.

I finished their second book in a matter of days and I enjoyed a lot of what was written. I agree with a lot of what was written. However, the book left me feeling uncomfortable in several areas.

1. Their are too many ‘broad strokes’ in this book. In fact it could be said that the book is one huge broad stroke. DeYoung in particular attempts to lump every critic of the church together along with every modern ecclesiologist and attempts to respond and correct to all of them. This creates the problem of not dealing with authors fairly.
2. Those who are meeting together in new ways for missiological purposes are criticised as harshly as those who are abandon church altogether. The missiological expressions of church were really not dealt with fairly. Nothing was mentioned of Mark Driscoll or the Acts 29 network who would undoubtedly share DeYoung’s theology of salvation but would differ greatly in his criticism of missiology.
3. Organic church people are slated quite heavily for their criticism of the institutional church. While some of the criticism are valid i.e their weak view of preaching, to simply regard organics as people who have commitment issues is simply unfair. In many cases those in organic churches are far more committed to each other than those who only gather a few times a week. Secondly, Deyoung only tackles Viola’s Pagan Christianity, and as a result often misrepresents Viola’s views. In order to get the full picture you would have to read Viola’s Re imagining Church and other materials. In many ways I probably agree more with Deyoung’s view of church than I do Viola’s however I have to say some of the strengths of Viola and organic church were completely overlooked and at times mocked. One chapter revealed a real lack of understanding of Viola’s teaching on ‘body participation’ and it also revealed a lack of charismatic experience in this area. In DeYoung’s church people obviously have not learned how to be led by the Holy Spirit in open and participatory meetings. This is sad as having experienced this level of fellowship and ministry myself, it is a very edifying and Christ exalting experience. If only the Reformed churches had embraced the charismatic movement!
4. There comes across a real lack of spirituality in the book. I think this perhaps comes from the fact that intellectualism can be predominant in Reformed churches and there can be a lack of emphasis on the inner spiritual life. The Christian life is not just about believing the facts of the gospel it is also about entering into the life of Christ that is now possible through the cross and resurrection.

Overall some of the dangers of the new models of church are highlighted well, particularly their abandonment of the gospel. However, the guys reminded me of a debate I once had on a reformed discussion board regarding the question ‘Did the Reformation go far enough in ecclesiology?’ You would have thought I had been promoting a real heresy by asking this question! Most of the people who responded were reformed Presbyterians who were convinced that their particular view of the church was the complete restoration of what had been corrupted through Roman Catholicism! The argument went a bit like, ‘we are happy with church as it is, we are biblical, to suggest otherwise is to depart from the bible’. I found it interesting that most of the baptists on that board were rather quiet during ecclesiological discussions. Church history shows that the church has had to continually renew itself and reform. Institutionalism can easily become an oppressive system that kills all spiritual life.

For those who want to practice new forms of church but want to abandon the gospel (or church) this book is a good corrective, however for those who who love the gospel  and care about the wellbeing and growth of the church this book will prove very frustrating at points.