prophecy

Affirmations #3: World Winning

/ Andrew Clark / Leave a comment


3. I believe that we should (and can) win the world

Again, this is a topic that has been repeatedly accented on this blog over its however many years now. We realise that the bottom line is that its either Jesus or hell…salvation is in him alone. We don’t hide that, we declare in in out doctrine and everything about us. You may or may not have heard the prophecy given by Catherine Booth along the lines that she believed that The Army would be highly significant in winning the world for Jesus, in facilitating the ‘big push’ for world evangelisation and actually, at 118 countries invaded so far, we’re not doing too badly!

But we don’t just rest on the call of the Booths or the Railtons or even the Cliftons or Gowanses for they are simply emphasising the words of Jesus himself who called us to go into all nations and to make disciples of them. Preaching the Kingdom, demonstrating the Kingdom.

Is it possible? Well, everything is possible with God. However, doubt has crept in about our purpose as an Army. It is interesting that when we talked up winning the world for Jesus, people were actually bold enough to have a go! We were zealous for the Lord in this, absolutely. We know the task remains the same, so whats changed?

a) the task? – nah, the great commission still calls us.

b) culture? – we know the world has changed, church has changed, people’s views of Christianity have changed. However, this is inevitable. Culture is always changing. What often doesn’t change is our mindset or our methods. Commissioner Joe Noland has a little formula:

attack + adapt + attract = some (I Cor 9:22)

The key I want to bring out is adapt. We were very adaptive in our early days, we took leafs from anyones book and had a jolly good go…seeking to grab the attention of our culture. We must do the same today. The message is the same, the method, howver, will be creative as always. Have we lost our creative spark? Have we lost our innovation as a movement? Nah….its there, lets just unearth it!

c) the Army? – its my long held and annoyingly vocal opinion (to some) that the Army has been guilty in some quarters of losing its focus as a permanant mission to the unconverted. We’ve drifted into thinking we’re a church, which is a grave error. Sure, we are the church (the church is the people/body of Jesus, yes?), but we are a mission. Our soldiers are missioners. But its not terminology thats the problem, lets not fall into that one. The problem is where we set our eyes!

If you set your eyes inwards, you become a people obsessed with the ‘inwards’ of the organisation. You become too focussed on yourself, trapped in unhealthy introspection at the cost of all else. Our frame of reference is how to survive and how to keep us all happy.

If we set our eyes outwards, we become obsessed with reaching the last, the lost and the least and transformation happens in the life of people. It also shapes us because we’ve looked at the call of Jesus, applied it as the priority for our existance.

With a nod to Steve Chalke, we must be careful to let our vision of Jesus and his mission to shape our mission so that we can best win the lost by all means possible. It is that vision of Jesus and mission that then shapes our ecclesiology (how we organise ourselves and what we think we are). We get it the wrong way…we let how we see ourselves as Army shape our mission, which then affects what we say and how we present Jesus. Lets turn that on its head.

The chart flows like this:

Vision of Jesus and his call to us -> How we do mission -> Shape of Church

Not this:

How we do ‘church’ -> how we do mission -> what we say about Jesus

Is the world not too big? No….not if you start where you are. You see, if we all do that, we’ll have the world won by Tuesday (which even gives time for training and equipping!)

Here is a definition of salvationism you may or may not have come across: “The Salvation Army is a revolutionary movement of covenanted warriors exercising holy passion to win the world for Jesus.” Chew on that.

I believe that the world mus be won, that we must lift our eyes up from ourselves and look to the harvest field which is ripe and awaiting labourers. Get yer boots on.

Holy Spirit

/ Andrew Clark / 3 Comments


God is just so incredibly faithful. Half the time I’m not anywhere near to understanding Him, but He is faithful. In the times where there are questions floating around He comes with his confirmation, speaks a word here and a word there to give you the understanding that He is indeed trustworthy. More than that, He is thoroughly committed to communicating to us, His people, His children, if we develop ears to hear. Our lives, if we chose to place them there, are in God’s hands. We are His for Him to bless, break, send and invest wherever He pleases.

This evening God made himself tangibly present. I was in a worship meeting at the end of an evening’s worth of training tonight at a local church and as we continued in worship I start to feel the right side of my face tingle and go numb. It began to twitch uncontrollably and tight/powerless muscles began to relax and do things they haven’t done for a while.

Some of you will know that a few years ago I lost control of the muscles in the right side of my face due to a condition called Bells Palsy. I got Bells Palsy when I was in training college during a time when I was actively sharing some pretty spiritually potent stuff in bible study with a few cadets. The enemy tried to shut me up. He did it physically for a while at least. I could hardly speak for weeks. I had still been having pain from this although the muscled had greatly improved.

The healing in this area has been gradual over a period of several years. You will have no idea what Holy Spirit communicated through touching my face like that tonight though. Whether I actually eventually see a marked physical change as a result of this Holy Spirit tingling is not as important in a sense what Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. He was communicating something in the way He touched my face.

The content of that is between me and Holy Spirit, but just be encouraged that He is incredibly faithful….’and He will do it!’

Words from the Lord

/ Andrew Clark / Leave a comment

It is a blessing when the Lord speaks. I’ve had the privelege in recent years to be allowed by the Holy Spirit to develop spiritual ears…you see, I’m convinced the Lord speaks and I want to hear him, so I ask him to speak. His response to that prayer request is always ‘well listen then.’

Last night as I was nodding off to sleep the Lord woke me with an audible voice. Sometimes when he speaks its a long paragraph or something, but last night it was just a sentence.

He said “I’m sending a north wind out of season.”

That might seem strange to you, but to me I know exactly what it means. The north wind, in the days of the Bible, was a symbol of the fact that the harvest had to be harvested. As soon as the farmer felt the north wind, it was the time to reap his crops. The Lord is saying, even although you may not perceive it to be the season for reaping, I’m asking to reap out of season.

You see, the Lord “reaps where he has not sown and takes out where he has not put in” (Luke 19:21-22). He is a soverign Lord and does things at his own will. But then, look at John 4: 35- 37 :-

35Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.

What is this but a poignant reminder that the reaper must reap in AND out of season because the harvest is ripe. Can you feel the north wind blowing though your spirit? Listen to what God is saying to you today. Be the answer to your prayer to the Lord of the Harvest and ask him to send you out reaping..then the sower and the reaper will rejoice together.

Revival Prophecy for Scotland

/ Andrew Clark / 1 Comment

Friends, please forgive a lengthy blog, but I discovered this prophecy last night by a woman called Jean Darnall. This is simply a short extract. I’ve never heard of this women, but seems like most of the Christians “in the know” do. I am just struck by the things that she says in that the Lord has been saying the same to me. I’ve posted a few things I feel the Lord has been saying to me in the last month or so a few blogs down. Meanwhile, have a read, praise the Lord, and pray that God will honour his word and that his people will heed his call. More Lord! Oh I wish you could feel the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through my body right now! Read this and let the spirit within you be quickened by the Spirit.

—————————-
And what I saw was the British Isles, as in a bird’s eye view. A kind of haze was over the whole, like a green fog. And then little pinpricks of light began to appear from the top of Scotland to Land’s End. Then the Lord seemed to draw me closer to these lights, and I saw that they were fires that were burning. They were multiplying from the top of Scotland to Land’s End. Then I saw lightening come and strike those fires, the brightest spots particularly, and there was a kind of explosion, and rivers of fire flowed down. Again, the sense of direction was from the top of Scotland to Land’s End. But some of those rivers of fire didn’t stop there. They went right across the Channel and didn’t stop there. They went right across the Channel and spread out into the Continent.

Scotland. I knew what it meant. I knew that He wanted me to come up here, and I knew that he wanted me to come up with a special message. That message is to say to as many people as I can, in as many places as I can, that the second part of that vision is right at hand. It’s here, folks, that spiritual awakening: it’s starting; the very first signs of it are already upon us. Your generation are going to see a harvest of souls in this land such as you have never seen before. And it’s going to have a tremendous effect not only upon this nation and the British Isles, but upon many other nations.

The first sign: Men at Prayer

There are three things that the Lord has asked me to share about this vision everywhere I go: three signs of this awakening. The first is that the Lord is sending a strong call to prayer among men. Early Morning Prayer meetings will start all over the land as men desire to pray, and they will start asking their pastors and leaders, ‘Can we meet together before work and pray?’ In those prayer meetings there will come strong intercession and an increased faith and vision in these men’s souls for the nation. They will not only pray in their own churches, but soon they will start combining together in other churches, with other church groups. And in some places these prayer meetings will grow too big for the building, and they will come out in the open and pray in the parks or in front of town halls.

Wouldn’t that be nice, to have a prayer meeting right out here, of hundreds and hundreds of men lifting their voices in prayer for the nation? And it will be a sign in itself: these prayer meetings will be a witness to the nation, and many people will come to the Lord just by witnessing these prayer meetings, and hearing the prayers of these men.

The Second Sign: Christ Revealed to the Young.

The second thing is that the Lord is going to send a tremendous revelation of Himself to boys and girls in this country. Between the ages of nine and fifteen particularly, children will begin to have a revelation of Jesus. They will see Him, they will know Him, they will hear Him, He will speak to them. He will come to them in visions and dreams, He will reveal His word to them. They will be converted and filled with the Holy Spirit and gifted by Him. And they will start praying. They will be healed themselves, and they will start praying for each other; and there will be wonderful healings through these boys and girls.

They will not only be the children of Christian parents. The Lord is going to manifest Himself to those who are in non-Christian homes where there is no love nor real family unity, where there is no knowledge of the Lord at all: perhaps not only for one generation but for many generations no Christian person has been in that family. But Jesus is going to meet them and reveal His power and His presence to them and His love for them. When they start coming to our children and to our teachers and telling what they are seeing and hearing from the Lord, our duty will be to receive them and love them as they are- because they will be rough diamonds, and they will have rather unusual, un-churchy language. But their experiences will be real. Some of their experiences will be so unusual you may doubt them. At that point receive their testimonies at face value, give them the word of God, and teach them how to love: because these children will have ministries not only as children, but as leaders in their adult life, and they will bless your country and other countries. So receive these children, teach them. Those of you who teach Sunday school, those of you who have children in your home and neighbourhood whom you are concerned about, begin to ask the Lord to raise your level of expectation of what they can receive, because they are going to start hearing. And just like the adults, they will start hearing the word and receiving the Lord and being able to receive deep spiritual experiences in the Lord.

The Third Sign: Anointed Preachers

The third thing the Lord said He would do relates to the raising up of preachers. Although this awakening will not be characterised by great evangelists at the beginning, it will produce great preachers. You are going to hear evangelists with such fire, such powers of persuasion that they will touch thousands of people and win them to the Lord Jesus. God is giving these preachers not only to Scotland; He will send them to other parts of Britain, and many to other parts of the world, with an ever increasing ministry of winning many people to the Lord.

Grace and love like mighty rivers…..

/ Andrew Clark / 2 Comments

I really don’t know where to start with last week. I was up in Scotland marrying my sister! (to someone else!)

The wedding went really well. My wee sister looked gorgeous and she seemed really happy with her big day. Everyone was appreciative of the ceremony and there were plenty of good conversations afterwards about the gospel…everything from explaining the symbolism of the crest to discussions about broken marriages. I mentioned in the message that marriage was ‘always’ – which provoked a lot of reaction in a community and culture where marriage is only for a season.

I managed to get all my family into their taxis at the end of the evening reception without killing each other, so that was an achievement although I did have to find out where they all lived first because they’ve all got themselves divorced and live ‘in sin’ with new partners….including partners of the same sex! To see them all in the same room was, um, interesting! But I managed to keep the peace and make my sisters day special!

Anyway, a couple of days before the wedding, we went to visit a good friend, my son’s godmother, Kirsten. I had asked her in an email to fill me in on the spiritual temperature of Scotland in view of our impending return. What she told me was pretty amazing.

Firstly, she told me that there were several prophecies around about revival/renewal spreading from the north. Much of the prophetic voices are hearing this and praying it in. So, you can imagine how amazed I was to hear this when last November after our visit to Lewis, God gave me the exact same word! To find that this is the same word that is going round Scotland was amazing because I’d never heard of such a thing! Should we be amazed that God is saying the same thing?!? No, of course not. More especially, my appointment to one of the most northerly corps in the territory is not coincidental!

I recently discovered that the Army in Wick was heavily involved in the 1921 revival in North Scotland and that one of the converts of the Army in Wick went on to stablish one of the most sucessful evangelistic mission in Glasgow during the 20th century, the Tent Mission Hall.

Secondly, even more amazingly, there seems to be many prophecies floating around about….rivers. Revival is prophesied to flow like a river from the north to the south.


As Kirsten is telling me this, I’m sitting amazed and shocked at the similarities between what she is saying and all that God has been planting in my heart in these days. I’m amazed when I remember my new corps building, symbolically placed on a very northern river! Lord, let your River flow!

Again, I was reminded of how much Scotland needs the gospel. I was reminded how much the church in Scotland (and the Army) needs renewal and I was reminded again of the privilege of being called ‘For such a time as this.’

Bring it on Lord! Meanwhile, the battle continues on the Pill front…as well as the packing!!

Rivers Prophecy and Study

/ Andrew Clark / Leave a comment

Dream

I had a dream in which I could see a map of a land with several rivers and waterways. The rivers were covered with a sort of green thick liquid which was polluting the streams. I was scraping the green substance off of the rivers of this map. Someone came up and asked what I was doing, and I said ‘just cleaning up these rivers…do you want to help?’ The person said yes.

The Lord has instructed me to do two things. 1) study rivers in the bible. 2) invite people to offer to pray into this vision and work and live to see it happen.

Rivers in the Bible

As I’ve studied the passages concerning rivers in the scripture the Lord has reveal a few things.

a) Judgement
The Lord has, in the past, polluted rivers as a sign of judgement against the oppression of God’s people like he did with the Egyptians. The result of this is that the citizens are unable to drink, the livestock will die and be satisfied from their streams (Exodus 4:9; 7:18; Psalm 74:15).

The Lord has also dried up rivers and this is the more symbolic representation of spiritual drought. God brings judgement upon a spiritually dry church and they don’t enjoy the refreshing of the Lord or understand the hidden depths of God’s word to them. (Job 14:11; 20:17

God dries up rivers for forsaking covenant and selling our birth right and for doubt his power to rescue and deliver, and for failing to be God’s people (Isaiah 50:2) If we had followed in his ways and his commands, if we had kept our covenant, our peace would have been like a river and our righteousness like the waves of the sea. (Isaiah 48:18).

b) Repentance
We are invited to stand in the Jordan. The Jordan River is symbolic of death and moving through Jordan is a necessary spiritual process. In the New Testament, it was the place of John’s baptism of repentance.

It’s a symbol of sin becoming righteousness, it’s a symbol of death to life, captivity to freedom. The Israelites saw the Jordan separate when the Ark of the Covenant was placed with in it. We are invited again to repent of our sin, waywardness and by the strength of covenant to see the water part so that we can move to rivers of plenty. (Joshua 3:8; 4:18; Matthew 3:6)

The hearts of people should cry out to the Lord. O wall of Zion, let your tears flow like a river day and night, give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest. (Lamentations 2:18)

c) Promise
The Lord desires that we would move from polluted streams to rivers of plenty. The Scripture talks of a river of abundance. Its spiritual foundation is from the very throne of God (Revelation 22:1) and in the Old Testament, Ezekiel sees it as coming from the threshold of the temple, the place where God dwelled. This is a river from the Lord that is promised.

The Lord desires that this river should flow freely through the towns and cities of our nation, refreshing everything that comes in its path. By its sides will be an abundance of life and health, much fruit because this river flows from the very presence of God himself and this fruit will become the healing for the nations. The river is a river of justice which will never fail. (Ezekiel 47; Amos 5:24; Revelation 22:1-2).

d) invitation

We are invited, as in the days of Ezekiel, to wade into the river. These prophetic utterances have end-time connotations as well as past and current.

“3As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” “

Some are only content to get into God’s river ankle-deep…just touching the things of God, staying at the edges of all he is doing.

Some are only content to get in knee-deep, willing to get in further, bit not at the forsaking of their dignity and comfort of getting completely soaked

But the Lord’s invitation is to get in and swim about in this river, to be come immersed in it…not simply pass through it like we do if we are content with a shallow understanding of God and his word. He wants us to plunge beneath the waters and be drenched. Late your feet of the bottom at float.
This river flows from the right (the east) Who is sitting on the right side of the Altar? Who is sitting on the right side of God and who had His side opened with a spear releasing blood (still fresh) and water (still flowing) Revelation 22:1-2? Jesus.
For those who desire it, there are waters to swim in. When you swim in a river, the river has control of you. But if your feet are on the bottom of the river, you have control and not the river.

Make it your determination today to be working for the lifting of the pollution in our nation by being immersed in the water of the Spirit. Live in the awareness of the Jordan, the waters that remind you of repentance and restored covenant. Bring an end to the parched land of the church by becoming a stream in the desert. Around you and the people of God will flow abundant fruit which will bring healing to the nations.

End Note:
I close again with words of the ‘Scottish Prophecy’ that the Lord gave me several months ago:

The Lord desires to move through you like a north wind, quickening, awakening, helping the church to realise that its time to reap a harvest before the winter. Put your boots on, grab your ploughs and head to the fields for the harvest will be plentiful.

The wind will bring floods flowing down from the mountains of the highlands into the lowlands. There will be streams of running water that will make even the cities polluted streams taste sweet. The streets of cities and villages will be blocked with streams.

Some will set barriers around the streams and mark danger, but clansmen will know no fear and follow the flow to the deep water where the invitation is to get in above the waist.

Seeing

/ Andrew Clark / Leave a comment

I sorta knew on the way down to Exeter for Youth Councils in the car today that the day was going to be an interesting one! I could feel the Holy Spirit doing what I can only describe as ‘quickening’…you know, that sort of electricity feeling that comes when God’s preparing you for a thing? This was most of the way in the car that I’m sensing him doing some sort of work…certianly reminding me he’s very much there! It was certainly all to do with asking God to help me see what he is doing more.

So, I’m still sitting here at 1:41am in a bit of quietness just sifting through stuff. For anti-insomnia purposes, I’m just going to record and number the things that God was saying!:

1) God gave me a word to share for a specific person, especially applicable to her, but to us all. God gave me a picture of this woman’s heart for her daughter, who I believe is quite far away from the Lord at the moment. God showed me how it was painful for her, but that the kind of prayer that the Lord was calling this lady to was going to be like the pains of childbirth…she was going to have to really labour in prayer, as if somehow the daughter need to come to ‘re-birth’ this way. Oh Lord will you increase our passion for the lost that we’d be willing to go to pains to see them saved. Pray for this lady and her daughter…pray also that I can find her email address to give her the details specific to her!

2) God did a few more stages of mop-up after my little struggle last autumn. This was through worship….I love to worship. It always, always, carries healing for me in so many ways and God just restored several things through the worship.

3)Strangers kept saying hello to me! 3 random strangers in the street said ‘hello.’ That doesn’t usually happen in this part of the world….I mean, walking down a street in a city and people you don’t know all decide to say hello in the same day. So, I’m guessing God is doing something here….so I asked Him. He just said he was restoring some of my confidence…last autumn people were a bit difficult to cope with to be honest. Not just those we needed to sort out/help/minister to, but just regular people in shops, the mall, wherever.

4) There were several times in the evening meeting which were quite special in a way. I could sense the Holy Spirit was doing something and I asked him to let me see. I was standing at the side of the hall (usual place for prophetic watchmen!) and can see ‘angels’ sweeping the heads of the young people with feathers. I put angels in inverted commas, because I couldn’t actually see them, just the sense of these large white feathers. It has such a calming effect on the room and there was some special soothing going in broken lives by the Holy Spirit with these feathers.

5)Jesus also reveals a bit my heart to me and he allows it to bleed a bit for a young lad I’ve especially been praying a lot for. God gives me a verse for him, I share it to let him know that God is willing to take his brokenness…in fact, he is turning useless brokeness into holy brokeness, which is, in essence, what I think holiness is. Its you becoming less, and Jesus becoming more. Its the second stage of message the Lord has given me for this young lad, but its also for me. I prayed that if there was one thing to learn about recent months is that I’d be more open with my brokeness because its in recognising brokenness that wholeness comes, fullness. Psalm 51:17.

6)Finally, God said this “yes, I’m really going to do something in these people” Thats confirmation I needed, but a way huge promise for them.

thats just a couple of things….now I’ve got all that out…to bed!

Moves

/ Andrew Clark / 7 Comments


Picture of Wick Corps Hall

Well, the Clarks are heading to Wick Corps, North Scotland. We are being succeeded by Majors Alan and Carole Young…which is a real answer to prayer for us.

As for our appointment, I leave you with my blog from the 1st Novemeber 2006:

Prophesy for Scotland

The Lord desires to move through you like a north wind, quickening, awakening, helping the church to realise that its time to reap a harvest before the winter. Put your boots on, grab your ploughs and head to the fields for the harvest will be plentiful.

The wind will bring floods flowing down from the mountains of the highlands into the lowlands. There will be streams of running water that will make even the cities polluted streams taste sweet. The streets of cities and villages will be blocked with streams.

Some will set barriers around the streams and mark danger, but clansmen will know no fear and follow the flow to the deep water where the invitation is to get in above the waist.

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!

/ Andrew Clark / Leave a comment
Came across this cracking article by Todd Frield from Wayofthemasterradio.com. A good read. Will be sure to post part two for you.


You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!
Salvation Army President Predicts Demise of The Church

Part One

Any Fifth Street Promenade tarot card reader would be thrilled to nail a prediction as accurately as William Booth did one hundred years ago. “I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

Was the founder of the Salvation Army accurate?

>Is there religion without the Holy Ghost? With a red face I confess that we conservatives have veered from the zany antics of televangelism into a ditch with little recognition of the active work of the Holy Spirit.

>Is there Christianity without Christ? Have you been to an Episcopal church lately?

>Is there forgiveness without turning from sin? Ask Dallas Theological Seminary.

>Is there salvation without regeneration? Google “Carnal Christianity.”

>Is there politics without God? www.ACLU.com

>Is there heaven without hell? Paging Rob Bell.

How was General Booth able to make such an accurate prediction? He surveyed the doctrines that were under assault, and then forecasted where that errant theology would take us. What deficient theology did he see? He witnessed a forsaking of the preaching of the Law. While he did not know what the result would be named, he knew that anti-nomianism (no law, lots of grace) had to lead to what turned out to be watered down mainline Protestantism and the seeker sensitive movement.

Now that General Booth’s predictions have been fulfilled, we would do well to survey the latest threat. “Isn’t the seeker sensitive movement the latest threat?” you ask. I would suggest it is not.

The seeker sensitive movement is the result of the squishy, anti-nomianism that General Booth witnessed; it is not a new threat. Seeker Sensitive is the manifestation of bad theology. Seeker sensitive is merely a fad (a bad fad, but a fad, nonetheless), and it won’t be long before it is replaced by another fad that is the result of new bad theology. What is the bad theology of our day?

Redefined justification.

Nearly 500 years ago, God used Martin Luther to recapture the foundational doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. Every puritan who followed in his wake recognized that justification is the core doctrine of Protestantism.

How did they define it? Man=sin. God=holiness. Consequence=hell. But God chose to demonstrate His kindness by taking the punishment we deserve by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to live a sinless life and die on a cross, rise from the dead and defeat death. Therefore, if people will repent and trust the Savior, the righteousness of Jesus will be imputed (credited to our account) that we might be made the righteousness of God (see II Cor.5:21) so that God can be glorified for His kindness. That is justification.

But alas, today’s “progressive” theologians have decided we need to take a fresh, new look at our cherished corner stone. Emergent leader, Brian McLaren says he simply wants to have a conversation and re-think long-held evangelical assumptions.

While he acts like he is taking us on a journey whose destination is unknown, Mr. McLaren seems to know exactly where this conversation is headed: a new definition of justification. From the article “Interview with Brian McLaren about ‘A Letter to Friends of Emergent.’”

Interviewer: I think with all the other change going on, one thing we’ve got to hold firm on is the Gospel.

McLaren: What do you mean when you say “the Gospel?

Interviewer: You know, justification by grace through faith in the finished atoning work of Christ on the cross.

McLaren: Are you sure that’s the Gospel?

Interviewer: Of course. Aren’t you?

McLaren: I’m sure that’s a facet of the Gospel, and it’s the facet that modern evangelical Protestants have assumed is the whole Gospel, the heart of the Gospel. But what’s the point of that Gospel?

In part two, we will put on our General William Booth predicting hats to predict where this conversation is headed. Trust me, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Bit of Brengle

/ Andrew Clark / Leave a comment

“We must still prove our discipleship by our love one for the other. It is not enough to wear the uniform, to profess loyalty to Army leaders and principles, to give our goods to feed the poor and our bodies to be burned. We must love one another. We must make this the badge of our discipleship. We must wrestle and pray and hold fast that we do not lose this.

The Army is so thoroughly organized and disciplined, so wrought into the life of nations, so fortified with valuable properties, and on such a sound financial basis, that it is not likely to perish as an organization, but it will become a spiritually dead thing if love leaks out. Love is the life of The Army. ‘If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.’ But if love leaks out we shall lose our crown, we shall have a name to live and yet be dead. We may still house the homeless, dole out food to the hungry, punctiliously perform our routine work, but the mighty ministry of the Spirit will no longer be our glory.

Our musicians will play meticulously, our Songsters will revel in the artistry of song that tickles the ear, but leaves the heart cold and hard. Our Officers will make broad their phylacteries and hob-nob with mayors and councilmen and be greeted in the market-place, but God will not be among us. We shall still recruit our ranks and supply our Training Garrisons with Cadets from among our own Young People, but we shall cease to be saviors of the lost sheep that have no shepherd.”