Yesterday I also witnessed what I can only describe as a sad day in the history of the church in my home-nation of Scotland. I watched and listened, from beginning to end, to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland’s debate on same-sex relationships as that relates to leadership in the church.
As a young Christian, my thinking and understanding of the Christian life and the Bible was inextricably shaped by the great Church of Scotland preacher, James Philip. Sitting under that godly minister’s exposition of Scripture, I learnt a basic principle of theology that I have never departed from to this day. That is, I learnt to submit myself to the revelation of God that is found in and through the vast complexity of the books of the Bible, the Word of God. I learnt to enjoy having my developing yet defective theological formations knocked down, shattered and again rebuilt in the light of God’s revelation. I learnt to value the complexity and truths of Scripture above my own simple, sinful prejudices and perspectives. And I learnt to see that there was no contradiction between the rich revelation of God’s Word in the Holy Scriptures and the full revelation of Who God is in and through Jesus Christ.
This is why, to this day, I exhort men looking to a ministry of teaching from the Bible to learn both Hebrew and Greek. And, strange and sad as it was at the time, this is why I felt I had to leave the Church of Scotland twenty four years ago, when I came to see truths in Scripture that challenge a restrictive and narrow interpretation of baptismal practice.
Yet still I have a love of that great Scottish institution, and for that reason listened and watched close to tears at times, to comments sometimes being made that gave the impression that there was a conflict or even a contradiction between the revelation of Scripture and the revelation that is Jesus Christ. I can only say that, after 37 years of continuous, rigorous study of the Bible and deepening theological study, I can only explain such comments as being based at best on ignorance of Scripture and, at worst, on prejudices and life-preferences that have little or nothing to do with the Christian life that God calls us to.
So let me be honest and clear. As a Baptist pastor, I deeply feel for people who express their struggles in many areas of life to me. I seek to walk in the knowledge of God’s overwhelming love, mercy, compassion and grace; and also His judgement, wrath and condemnation of human rebellion and sin. As a Baptist scholar, I can only observe that I continue to find consistency throughout the Bible, both New and Old Testaments, on the subject of same-sex relationships. God in Christ neither encourages nor condones them. Same sex relationships are seen and recognised in the Bible to be a blatant manifestation of human sin and rebellion against God.
But please don’t mistake me. I know deeply that am a sinner, a man who makes many mistakes, saved for eternity only by the grace of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. But I also am called by the Holy Spirit to seek to live a life that is being restructured. A life constantly being renewed in its understanding under the authority of the Bible, a life that is being painfully reshaped and rebuilt through the working of the Holy Spirit to be like Jesus Christ.
I discover who I am only by denying myself and seeking to follow Jesus. And I am so, so sorry that so many are being led and taught to approach the Christian life in a contrary way.
Yesterday was a sad day for many in the Church of Scotland. Those of us who are in other traditions, claiming to have a faith based both on the Bible and on living experience of God, should carefully and prayerfully watch, learn and discern the signs.
