Worlds Apart

Fellow Labourers-

As I read this article I call to mind the recent message by Rev. Anglin. Those of us who were present can recall that he spoke about the discussion that lasted for over one hour on whether it should be problems or challenges. So, even today we argue if it should be toilet or rest-room, die or pass away, old or elderly, generation gap or information gap and the list goes on. We have become a culture of euphemisms and that may be a part of our problem. We try to 'soften' the event with new terminologies and in so doing we are addressing symptoms and not causes in most instances. Could this be why we seem to be worlds apart?

Since this article highlighted Augustine I would recommend we all get to know the man. It is said in some circles that between the close of the New Testament Canon and the Protestant Reformation no greater person lived in the Christian church than Augustine of Hippo. It is said that with all his brilliance this man used to live an immoral and dissolute life. But one day he heard a voice of a child saying, 'Tolle, lege' ("Take up and read, take up and read"). He opened his Bible to the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans: "Not in rioting and drunkeness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh." When he read this, the truth of God's word flashed upon him and he accepted Christ and became a voice for the Church. We might not agree with all of his theology, we may be worlds apart, but we can be thankful that the church was saved from the Pelagian heresy by Augustine who demolished that teaching by simply expounding the Epistle to the Romans. I recommend a study of the Epistle to the Romans. This book has had significant impact on Martin Luther, John Bunyan, John Wesley, Robert and James Alexander Haldane, Merle d'Aubigne, John Chrysostom of Constantinople among others. Let us diligently go back to this Epistle and we may find that we are not that too far apart.

Pax Vobiscum,

Robert A. Stewart