The Time Traveller: Chapter 2

The Time Traveller

Chapter 2

If humans had no memory then we would be doomed to make the same mistakes over and over and over again. And it’s the same with Christianity, if Christians do not properly study Church history, then we will be doomed to fall into the same errors that earlier Christians fell into.

It is my hope that through this series of semi-allegorical / Historical / Eschatological sermons, that we will begin to understand where we as a Church have come from and where we might be going.

But I don’t reckon that you really want to hear me today, as I’m sure you have all probably come to hear the adventures of our time travelling missionary, John.

So here’s his story:                     

John sat himself in the “Vapour”, made himself comfortable, and said a little prayer that God would be with him. And then he pressed the big red button!

There was a flash of light, and all went dark.

These were very strange occurrences, and before today John had never thought that time travel was even a remote possibility. And so when the light flashed and all went dark, John just sat there in the ship a little bit dazed.

But after a while John thought that he ought to at least open the door to see what was actually outside.

John opened the door just a little crack, and saw that it was all dark outside. Well, it certainly wasn’t dark when he stepped into this machine, and now it is. So if this isn’t just an elaborate hoax, John’s going to have to admit that time travel is actually possible.

So John decided that this was not the time to be exploring his new surroundings, there was no telling what could be out there. So he decided to sleep in the Vapour, and check it all out tomorrow.

That night John had some really bazaar dreams, which he couldn’t quite remember when he woke up, but took it as a sign that there may be some strange things lining the path ahead of him on his new missionary journey.

That morning the sun was shining brightly, and it was very hot. It was certain that he wasn’t in England any more, as you definitely do not get that weather in England.

John decided that he ought to venture outside.

As John looked around himself, he saw that he was in the middle of a desert, and very far from home. All of a sudden, John felt a shiver run up his spine, a moment of fear when he realised that he was all alone in a strange place. But then John realised that although he was the only human within miles around, yet he was not alone. God was with him. In fact he felt closer to God here in the wilderness then he had ever felt while in the comforts of his own home in England. In a way he felt as if he were following in the Saviour’s footsteps, who too had to spend many days alone in the desert.

I won’t bore you with the tale of John travel through the desert, I’m sure you can imagine for yourself what might have happened on that solitary journey, where nothing living seemed to have ever ventured.

But finally, John found his way to greener lands. And it was here that John saw his first human being, although I’m not sure “human” is quite the right name to describe them. There was a man and a woman, butt-naked and seemingly shameless, doing abominable things out in the open countryside. John was obviously very shocked as he would never have seen anything like that in England. But, nevertheless, he pretended not to have noticed them, and walked right past.

He walked a little further and saw a man walking towards him. The man wore a long robe , the hem of which almost touched his sandals. The man was smiling. His face was as a young man’s face, very smooth, and yet there seemed in his eyes the wisdom and grace that can only be seen in very aged men in our world.

The man greeted him with a bow, and said, “Come friend, we have been waiting for you”

John looked confused and asked, “Do I know you?”

“No” the man answered, “but we be brethren nonetheless!”

By this, John inferred that the man too was a Christian.

“I’m sorry” said the man “I haven’t introduced myself yet, my name is Enoch, I am the seventh in line from the father of all, Adam. And I understand that you are a messenger from God. Don’t worry thy brother Raphael has told me of your coming, and has duly taught me your speech”

For the benefit of my readers, Raphael is an Angel of God, and although never mentioned in the bible is mentioned many times in Jewish literature, and in Enoch’s own book, which bears his name.

Enoch continued, “Please, follow me back to my earthly abode, and there you may tell me what message the Lord has put in thy mouth for my ears.”

As they were walking, they saw even more vile acts of lust, performed by the wicked people of the land.

“It has been shown me” said Enoch “that God will destroy this world, for all the ungodly deeds that the men have ungodly committed. And then there can be no salvation for this world.”

“That is not true” said John, “there will be salvation, God will even send his son into this world and He will bear our sins and in so doing will save our souls from eternal condemnation!”

Enoch’s face began to be full of joy and said, “Brother, indeed I am very thankful that God has sent you here this day to bring me such marvellous news, I have preached against the sins of this nation for many years, and have focussed much on the wrath of God, but today I realise that God also has a greater measure of Mercy, and when I leave this earth Mercy will be my only plea, O God be merciful to me!”

After that, John heard a voice from heaven saying “IT IS TIME”. And he saw Enoch ascending into Heaven. And then there was a flash of light, and John too had disappeared!

Enoch was a very important figure in Bible times, and his book: The Book of Enoch, was often considered to be part of the Bible. It was even quoted in the Book of Jude.

I would recommend The Book of Enoch to you; it is a good read, and very influential throughout Bible times.

Well that’s all for The Time Traveller for today, but he’ll be back soon.

Michael Buckingham

The Time Traveller: Chapter 1

The Time Traveller

Chapter 1

Today we start a series of sermons about a time traveller, these sermons will mostly take the form of a fictional narrative which will contain strong historical and eschatological (The Study of End Times) facts.

So without further ado, let us begin our narrative.

 Our story begins in a little village in Oxfordshire, called South Moreton.

In South Moreton there was a Baptist Chapel, where there were many worshippers. But our narrative is only concerning one member of the congregation: John Smith. (Yeah, lousy naming right?)

John was interested in working as a missionary, and had approached a number of missionary societies for support for work in China, but had many times been rejected, because of his poor language skills.

But one day while John was sitting down to his supper, he heard the phone ringing, so he went to answer it.

He picked up the phone, and after uttering a greeting, he listened intently to what the person on the other end of the line was saying. I’m not exactly sure of the exact words but it seems that John was offered to join a missionary society as a “time travelling missionary”. And so, without much thought as to what this work might entail, John said “Yes”. So it was agreed that John should go to Reading the following day to have a looks at the “ship” and test run it.

That night John didn’t sleep too well, he was nervous, and uncertain as to whether he had made the right decision. So John decided that he must decline the offer in the morning.

So in the morning John got himself ready to go to Reading. His intention was to tell the missionary society that he felt that it was not God’s will at the present to undertake such a ministry.

So when John arrived at the mission headquarters in Reading, he was greeted by the chairman of the society, who asked him whether he was ready for the test drive. John thought it would be impolite to decline the mission before he had formally test-driven the “ship”.

So the Chairman showed John the way to the “ship” which was rather small looking and had the name “Vapour” written on the side.

The Chairman said, “Time is like a vapour, that’s where we get the name from!”

John and the Chairman stopped just in front of the door to the “Vapour”, and John asked the chairman, “Did I mishear you on the phone of something? Because I thought that you said that this is a time travelling mission, and I’m pretty certain that people can’t travel back in time.”

The Chairman replied, “O but you can travel through time. People have been doing it for centuries, it’s just been kept very hush-hush”

“Oh” replied John, “but if God is sovereign, and has already decreed all that should happen through time, how then can we go back through time and change what has already happened?”

“I too had a problem with that” The Chairman explained, “but it was discovered to me by someone else the mystery of time travel, that in God’s eyes time is happens all at once, and so now is happening parallel to the day of Christ’s birth, and it is only in our human and inferior perspective that time is linear, that one day follows another. That is why Christ’s blood atoned for David who died many years before Christ appeared in human flesh. And thus when you travel back in time you will not be changing the decree of God in time, but you will just be changing your own perspective of time.”

John pondered these thoughts for a few minutes, and then said, “I’m not sure that I really understand what you are saying.”

The Chairman replied, “It is hard for me to explain, but I trust that you will know these things by experience. You see it’s like trying to explain the atoning merits of Christ’s blood to one who has never experienced first-hand the mercies of God.”

John had nothing to reply to this, he was a young man, and the Chairman had seen many years and so he realised that there was a wisdom which cannot be gained but through years of serving our Lord.

So after that confusing conversation, The Chairman opened the door of the Vapour and revealed inside just enough room for one man to sit on a chair.

The Chairman drew John’s attention to a big red button in from of the chair, and said, “There is only one button, so it should be easy to navigate where you want to go, the button is already programmed to go where you are most needed. Under the chair you will find a large number of Bibles, and some books on how to speak a lot of the ancient languages. So now could I ask you to get in to the seat and just press the button? And may God be with you!”

John followed his orders, still unbelieving concerning these time-travelling theories, but thought that the Chairman deserves respect, and thus John went into the Vapour, shut the door, and pressed the button.

The Vapour vanished!

Well, I must leave the story there, I know we haven’t actually done any time travelling yet, and we haven’t gone anywhere, but I intend to in the next sermon, if the Lord wills.

Now to clarify the theories of time travel: It obviously has not happened as yet, but I believe that it is possible, and that if one was able to time-travel, it would not be any kind of argument against the overruling providence of God.

So I pray that The Lord will bless His word, and this narrative, and I hope to see you next time.

Amen

The Blind Man - Audio Sermon

Joseph Hart

Joseph Hart

Joseph Hart is not so well known now as he had been in previous times and yet he is still an important part of our Church History.

Joseph Hart is best known as a Hymn writer, but that was not his only career, he was also a prominent preacher in his day, and was a teacher of literature. He also wrote a number of books.

During the course of this sermon, I will attempt to tell the story of Joseph Hart’s life. I hope you will enjoy it, and I hope that it may be profitable to someone here this day.

Joseph hart was born in London in the year 1712. Almost 300 years ago.

Hart’s parents were Christian and so from his youth he was taught to read the Bible and to pray. And so in his early days as a youth, he was kept from the worst of sins. But as we should all know, a good family and good upbringing is just not good enough.

And like everyone who has been brought up in a Christian household, and as yet not come to Jesus, Hart rebelled against his parents’ religion, and started to make worldly friends and to laugh at their rude jokes and to even go so far as to profane to most holy and worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which wickedness he, in a later date, confessed and was truly penitent of.

Soon after these events, Hart decided that he needed to become better. To do good things instead of bad things, in short he felt that he needed to do good things to get into Heaven. And I‘m sure you have all heard the preacher say that no matter how many good works you do you can never get you own way into Heaven. And I reckon that Joseph Hart had also heard similar things preached about when he was younger too. But I guess he never learned them, because here he is trying to reinvent the wheel by trying to buy his own way into Heaven.

Well, I’m just going to stop there for a minute, I am NOT saying that good works aren’t important, but if that is all you are placing your trust in, it is just not going to be good enough. We should trust completely in Christ for salvation, and then we will do good works because we know that God delights in good works, and thus we do it not as our ticket to glory, but because we love God and we want to do that which is pleasing to Him.

So, let’s get back to the story.

Joseph Hart soon realised that these good works weren’t doing him any good and he decided to go all hyper-Calvinistic. Sorry for using a long word, that just means that he decided that we didn’t need good works to get into Heaven so he figured that, he could give up good works altogether and do whatever he wanted to do, and just sin to his heart’s content.

And it was about this time that he wrote a rather nasty letter to John Wesley calling him a Legalist, and defending the doctrine of hyper-Calvinism. Later on, however, Joseph Hart apologized to Wesley.

The following is a segment that I wrote for Wikipedia a long long time ago:

“Hart later considered that there was a need both to do good works and to believe in God. But then came the uncertainty: Was he really and truly saved? He had no indication from God, no elaborate vision, telling him that he had been saved. This was a great worry to Joseph Hart. He began to pray to God that there would be some revelation granted him, or perhaps just a little sign. This tormented Hart for more than a year.

“Then, the week before Easter of the year 1757 Hart "had such an amazing view of the agony of Christ in the garden [of Gethsemane]" ^[2] showing to Hart that all Christ's sufferings were for him (along with the rest of the church).

“But soon after this, Hart again began to be afraid of the life to come- eternity, and feared exceedingly when reading about the condemned in passages in the Bible.

“But it was on Whitsunday that Hart's true conversion came. Hart was converted under the ministry of George Whitefield, and felt blessed in his soul.

“After these times Hart still had sufferings and uncertainties as to his conversion, but he could always look back to his conversion, and believe that God saved his soul.

“Hart's motto after this time was: "Pharisaic zeal and Antinomian security are the two engines of Satan, with which he grinds the church in all ages, as betwixt [between] the upper and the nether [lower] millstone. The space between them is much narrower and harder to find than most men imagine. It is a path which the vulture's eye hath not seen; and none can show it us but the Holy Ghost."^[3]”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hart)

I have been interested in Joseph Hart for many a year now, it was soon after my baptism, in the year 2005 that I began to study the life of Joseph Hart at the Angus Library in Oxford. The intent was to write full biography, but the idea was eventually abandoned as this had already been done in the year 1910, and I had no new evidence to add to that.

This is the Joseph Hart hymn that I have often named as my favourite, and is also the hymn that I chose for my baptism:

1 A Man there is, a real Man,
With wounds still gaping wide,
From which rich streams of blood once ran,
In hands, and feet, and side.

2 'Tis no wild fancy of our brains,
No metaphor we speak;
The same dear Man in heaven now reigns,
That suffered for our sake.

3 This wondrous Man of whom we tell,
Is true Almighty God;
He bought our souls from death and hell;
The price, His own heart's blood.

4 That human heart He still retains,
Though throned in highest bliss;
And feels each tempted member's pains;
For our affliction's His.

5 Come, then, repenting sinner, come;
Approach with humble faith;
Owe what thou wilt, the total sum
Is cancelled by His death!

6 His blood can cleanse the blackest soul,
And wash our guilt away;
He will present us sound and whole
In that tremendous day.

Anyway time is getting short, and I’m sure you want to know what happened after Hart’s conversion.

Hart soon became a preacher and started his own congregation at Jewin Street in London. The building is no longer there, but it is reported that he had well over 1000 people in his congregation, and his Church building had 4 balconies.

Hart became famous for compiling Hart’s Hymns, which the well-known William Gadsby added as a supplement to his hymn book “Gadsby’s Hymns” which is still used in a lot of UK Baptist churches to this very day.

Joseph Hart was not a Baptist, but I guess we cannot all be perfect. But he has been mostly associated with Baptist churches and I feel that we still owe him quite a lot.

I think I shall leave the sermon there, and I hope that it has been profitable.

May the Lord add His blessing!

Amen.

5 Minute Sermon: A Friend

5 Minute Sermon: The Scriptures

Church History A.D. 201 – A.D. 300

Church History A.D. 201 – A.D. 300

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I’m going to use a bit of artistic license today.

So that it’s easier to get into the picture of what Christianity was like in the 3^rd century A.D, I am going to attempt to go back in time using a time machine.

I am only 22 years old so hopefully I can start at the beginning of the century and live all the way through until I’m 122 years old and the century passes away.

So here we go, I am now entering the time machine. I will see you in the 3^rd century!

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To my delight, I find myself not in rainy England, but in sunny Greece, in the city of Athens. By the looks of the clothing that the native Greeks wear, I perceive that I have been successful in making my way back in time to the 3^rd century.

I always travel with my Bible, so this was no exception. In fact, I was holding my Bible in my hand, actively declaring that I was a Christian.

Minutes after I had arrived in Athens people started to stare at me, I presumed that this was only because of my strange attire and modern clothing.

But a strong man came up to me, and tugging on my sleeve, pulled me aside, and told me to follow him. So I followed.

The man took me to his house. I don’t believe the man was much older than me, but the way that he composed himself and the way that he walked and he talked, gave the impression that he was much wiser and manly than I, or indeed any of the men seen in our day.

The man ushered me into his house, where was his wife and family. The man introduced himself as Leonidas.

Leonidas told me that he too was a Christian, and that he was the Archbishop of the Church there at Athens.

Leonidas also invited me to stay at his house and to worship at his church. He warned me however that it may be prudent to be a bit hush-hush about being a Christian as it is not strictly legal at that time in the Roman Empire, yet it has been overlooked in Athens to the present time.

I stayed with Leonidas for many years. I went regularly to worship at his church. The service was quite different to what I was used to and seemed somewhat more primitive, especially since they seemed to have no set canon for the New Testament, but often used apocryphal books in addition to our known New Testament. But surprisingly I found much religious nourishment from these books.

A year after I arrived in Athens (202 AD) it was told me of some travellers from the provinces of Italy, that the Emperor Severus had declare that it was illegal to convert to Christianity. After hearing this news Leonidas expressed concerns that we as a church should be careful that we do not publish our faith to strangers so much for fear that we may be reported to the Emperor himself.

It was about this time that there was talk among the Christians that there was scholar in Alexandria named Origen, who started up a religious school where he taught pupils about doctrine. I had a mind to go and see this great man, but I feared the journey.

I had the pleasure to meet a missionary, (I believe this was a few years later) who had been the England and even beyond, to Scotland which was quite wild land in those days. I told him that I had interest in the British Isles, but I couldn’t tell him that I actually came from a future England as he would think I was insane.

Also at that time it was heard of a bishop in Rome called Hippolytus who challenged the authority of the pope, and claimed that the pope had no authority to pardon certain terrible sins. But in Athens we only heard rumours of the pope and he did not have quite so much say over what happened in our church.

As time went by, I found myself falling in love with Leonidas’s daughter Persephone, and I asked Leonidas to give me his daughter’s hand in marriage. He heartily agreed and we married within the space of 3 months. I then moved into my own home, and attempted to lead my family in a biblical manner as the men of the day did.

The years rolled by, my wife bare to me 3 daughters and 2 sons, whom I loved very much.

In the year 250, my father in law Leonidas passed from this life into glory and Elder Olympius became Archbishop of Athens in his place.

Olympius was of the opinion that we ought to renew our ties with Rome, which I felt was already beginning to fall into some heresies. But I never challenged Olympius, in thinking back I wonder whether I should have done.

Later on I heard of a man named Mani who believed that he was in a line of prophets including Buddha and Jesus. He thought a bit too high of himself I think. He seemed to believe that there was no religion except that you should do good and not evil, and thus people of any religion could be saved. The man had many followers, but he died, and so did his “religion”.

Well, time goes by, and eventually the church is discovered by the Emperor, and a number of us men are taken captive and put in prison. (Myself included).

Eventually we are put on trial at Rome, and sentenced to death. We were to be burned to death at the stake.

As I was dragged to the place of the execution, I prayed that the Lord would grant me a speedy journey from time into eternity, and I thanked God that He counted me worthy to die as a martyr for His names sake.

The last thing I remember is my family watching my execution, and I exhorted them to be strong and to carry on in the faith at all costs.

And I closed my eyes on this life.

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I woke up in my bed the next morning. It seemed that my century in Athens was merely a dream, and yet so vivid.

I looked up in my history books to see whether the history of the time was correct, and it was. But I was sad to see that there was no mention of me in any accounts of the time.

I was pleased, however, to read that the church in Athens did not die under that persecution, but it still lives even to this day.

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So that’s it for today, we have very little history covering this time period, but it is certain that there were many persecutions through that time, yet the church continued to grow and to prosper.

I have dramatised this account to an extent, but the basic history is still very accurate.

In our next session we will read about how Christianity had it’s great breakthrough under Emperor Constantine, and we will hear about some great church fathers too.

I pray that the Lord will bless His word, and that He will give each and every one of us the desire to give our lives unto Him if He so desire us to.

Amen!