by Hobbes - Published: June 8th, 2008
The church’s destiny is to be a bridal community characterised by an affective, not just cognitive, knowledge of the divine lover. When the church loses her passion for the Son of God, there is lamentation in heaven. Even if the church is doing well in issues of behaviour and belief, it is already on the road to death if holy affections has become a thing of the past. Christianity, as Jonathan Edwards often used to say, is a religion of the heart. God is after our affections, not just our works. Christian revival is a divinely initiated process in which a dying church is revitalised through the power of the Holy Spirit, leading to a new love affair with Jesus Christ, which in turn transforms the community, region and even nation in which that church is situated. While revival often involves a challenge to the church’s doctrinal and behavioural impurities, it is primarily focused on whether the church is in love or not. From a loving heart there flows a living faith and a holy life.
[Mark Stibbe, in Walker and Aune (eds.), On Revival: A Critical Examination (Paternoster 2003), p28]
by Hobbes - Published: March 12th, 2008
The apostle Paul describes two categories of people who should be anathema, or “eternally accursed”, as the NIV puts it. One category we all know about: those people who preach “a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6-9) should be anathema or accursed. But, most people do not realise that there is another category. In 1 Corinthians 16:22, Paul writes:
If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed [anathema] (1 Cor. 16:22, ESV)
Bad doctrine that obscures the true gospel, and a lack of love for the Lord, are both as bad as each other. A love for the Lord, with an abandonment of the biblical gospel, means nothing. Yet, so many regard a love for Jesus as a sufficient “bottom-line” for being a Christian. It is not. A love for the Lord is only of value if the ‘Lord’ is the person described by biblical revelation, and whose works are described by biblical revelation.
On the other hand, there are those who think a mental, vigorous assent to accurate biblical doctrine is sufficient to be a Christian. It is not. If anyone (including those with accurate Scriptural understanding and assent) has no love for the Lord, let him be anathema.
True biblical christianity requires a love for the Lord and a sound understanding of the gospel. God help me if I do not have either of these, and God keep me from thinking that possessing one in abundance makes up for the lack of the other.
