THIS IS MY STORY
A spiritual pilgrimage...

PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS

Where to begin when seeking to recall one’s own origins? My mother, Myfanwy, nee Roberts, as many will guess from the name, was from a Welsh family. Grandfather James Roberts was from Ruthin, grandmother or ‘Nanny’ Anne Roberts came from a family native to the Isle of Anglesey. Grandfather was a saddler who travelled from farm to farm across North Wales repairing saddles and harness. On such a journey he met my grandmother and they settled in Llangefni on Anglesey. From Bibles in my possession, it is clear that they attended Peniel Chapel, where once the revivalist Welsh preacher, Christmas Evans, was the minister. In fact, they lived on the same street as their place of worship for a while.

The increasing mechanisation of farming at the end of the previous century saw the call for granddad Robert’s skills diminish early in the twentieth century. The family moved to Liverpool where they hoped for a better life. They found accommodation in the Jewish part of the city. From all accounts they only just about scraped together a living. Nanny Roberts took in washing, but they were always desperately poor. It is really difficult to imagine the beggarly existence of those times.  Help came from an unexpected quarter. The family experienced much generosity from their Jewish neighbours. Relations between Christians and Jews were always good, reaching back to the time of John Wesley who noted this in his Journal (entry 14th April, 1755). Being such an important port, many European Jews passed through Liverpool on their way to North America at the turn of the century, as did many Mennonites. Whilst in Liverpool, my grandmother experienced the great revivalist meetings of Torrey and Alexander and she told me of the great excitement they caused in the city. As a member of the Welsh Chapel, along with ladies from other Churches, she and others were responsible for refreshments.

Not having been able to make their way in the north, the family moved south to Birmingham to live in a house attached to the Welsh Chapel in Wheeler Street. The Roberts were employed by the Chapel as caretaker-cleaners. It was here that my mother first saw the light of day. It was still difficult for grandad Roberts to find work. With the growth of the motor car industry, my uncle Idwal,  ‘Eddie’, and grandfather both found work at the Sunbeam car factory in neighbouring Wolverhampton. Grandad used his skills as a saddler to sew the leather seats. Being of an obstinate turn of mind, in the end he was dissmissed for not sewing seats in the precise way the company wanted it done. The good times ended with the onset of the great depression of the 1930s. Men lost their jobs and there was no work to be found. These were hard times again for the family. The failure of General Strike of 1926 led to a 1927 Act of Parliament that introduced further wage cuts. At this time, a million people were unemployed and the figure rose rapidly to three million. Deprivations of the day can be read about in George Orwell’s ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ or Walter Greenwood’s ‘Love on the Dole’.

Sunbeam factory, Wolverhampton, in the late 1920s

My mother at this time had found some poorly paid work in a shop and was the only family member earning any money. It is their two up and two down terraced house in Johnson Street that I remember so well. Tales of shipwrecks and smuggling off the Anglesey coast at Red Wharf Bay from my all-too-ready-to-talk Nanny Roberts enthralled me as a lad. Despite having lost several of her children, despite having gone through such terrible hardships, never once did I hear a sentence of complaint from her lips and smiling, she was always smiling. Things did eventually improve for the family and mother found a better paid job in the Courtaulds rayon spinning factory in the town.

The story on my father’s side is somewhat different. Dad’s father, Frederick William Norris, came from a Methodist family with their origins in the small market town of Tring, Hertfordshire. From all accounts, he worked first as a teacher or monitor in a school. Subsequent to this, he found employment as a bookkeeper at one of the many furniture manufacturers in the Wycombe area, North & Sons. His bookkeeper’s ruler is in my possession to this day. His time at the company was crowned by his marriage to the owner’s daughter, Serena, or Rene as she was known. There was quite a disparity in their ages. The North family was far from poor and provided much of the wood furnishing for the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Wycombe, still standing today. By this time the Wesleyans had moved from being a largely working-class movement to attracting large numbers of well-placed middle-class families, many of whom had become wealthy through their own diligence and hard work.

From all accounts, Frederick’s father, was a very different man and with some difficulty I have been able to trace some of his movements. He too was a Methodist and a devout one at that. He was a man who knew much about suffering, losing two wives. His was a humble occupation that of a gardener, albeit a very good one. Eventually, he rose to become head gardener at Lindley Hall, Higham on the Hill, Leicestershire, where he remained until his death in 1921. The Hall was demolished in 1925. Lindley Lodge survives. How often have driven along the A5 and passed by Higham, quite unaware that one of my ancestors was buried nearby!  I rectified this and found it odd to find my own name on the tombstone, David Norris. He is not buried in the Church graveyard, but outside, for being a non-conformist this was not permitted.

Frederick William felt a desire to enter the Methodist ministry. He was, for some reason I have as yet been unable to establish, turned down by the Wesleyans. He turned instead to the more enthusiastic ‘Prims’, Primitive Methodists, established by Staffordshire’s Hugh Bourne. Serena died in 1907. He was ordained and was minister at a number of different Chapels. Eventually, whilst minister in Tipton he met his second wife, Kate Mason. Frederick died in 1916, leaving Kate as a widow to bring up six children, three from the first marriage and three of her own.

Grandma Kate, as I remember her, was a veritable Edwardian lady, always prim and proper, but always very kind to me. She came from Tipton in the Black Country - and in those days it was very black! Her father was a manager or overseer in a foundry. Her sisters, Emmie and Anne, were well-to-do enough each to run their own small corner shop. Grandma Norris possessed a profound interest in overseas missionary work as a message of hers in my hands delivered in Northallerton to a Ladies Missionary Group demonstrates. After the death of her husband, she showed indefatigability beyond the normal. She was a qualified men’s tailor and worked hard to provide for her children, even buying her own house with a private mortgage. She found places for her own two older children at a very well-respected orphanage, now the Royal Wolverhampton Schools. My father, Aubrey Mason, she kept at home.

Nineteen-thirties Britain was turbulent in many different ways, economically and politically, breaking out eventually into yet another world war so soon after the last. Yet in that period, the Church of England still had within its ranks clergy standing in the tradition of Bishop J. C. Ryle and others like him. The influence of German higher criticism and the ritualism of the Anglo-Catholic parties had done their worst, so that even at the beginning of the century, the numbers of evangelical parsons were already declining.

In this pre-war period, the town of Wolverhampton was blessed with several churches that stood firmly in the historic evangelical wing of the Anglican communion. Among them was St Luke’s, Blakenhall, which was within easy walking distance of my mother’s home in Johnson Street and father’s in Wanderers’ Avenue. The clergy were both Oxbridge educated like Ryle and like the good bishop they preached an accessible message of faith and forgiveness in Christ. Well-attended services on Sunday, there were also prayer meetings and Bible study groups in the week, one for young men considering entering the ministry, which my father attended, hence his good understanding of Bible doctrine and somewhat sketchy knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. There was a fervent interest in overseas missions, one member of the Church, Dora Hand, going forth to serve the Lord in Burma. There were also open-air services conducted around the district. The vicar, Rev. James Boultbee, was a self-effacing and a kind man. It was my privilege to make his acquaintance, printing his leaflet of advice to preachers in the open-air, and I once heard him preach on a return visit to his old parish.

Born in 1875 at Doncaster, James Boultbee came from a family of clergymen, which included his father. He saw heavy fighting in France in World War I and returned to complete his studies at Oxford in 1919. He trained for the ministry at Wycliffe Hall which was evangelically inclined, being ordained in 1920. His first curacy was at St Clement, Toxteth, Liverpool at a time when Dr Francis Chavasse, Ryle’s successor, was still bishop there. In Liverpool he met and married Winifred Warne in 1924, a gifted artist and illustrator of the Beatrix Potter books. They had two children. He arrived in Wolverhampton and was installed as vicar in 1927 where he remained until 1938. He died in Bridport in 1987. He had an enormous influence over my mother in particular and she attributed her conversion to Christ specifically to his ministry.

St Luke’s Church proved to be much more attractive place to both my parents than the Methodist Church which both families attended, although the latter was only a few yards from mother’s home. Mother had a friend, Gwen Phillips, and the two were inseparable. Father’s brother and sister were also part of the young people’s group at the Church, although not necessarily as equally committed. His brother Leonard met his wife, Iris, at Church. My father told me many years later as I was about to marry my wife, Valerie, how he became interested in mother. He also told me of the opposition this aroused in his family both from his mother and sister, both of who were irreconcilably opposed to the courtship and eventual marriage, an enmity that was felt to the end of her life. Grandma Norris even threatened to stay away from the wedding only relenting at the last minute. Class consciousness was a powerful force in those days, even more so than today. The desire to ‘make good’ in the world was an all-pervading incentive from which Methodists were not immune. My mother came from a quite poor family, added to which her sister, Blodwen, had recently given birth to an illegitimate daughter. As I recall, our cousin, Janet, was actually a lovely person. Although much of the care for her fell upon Nanny Roberts, mother and father also kept an eye on her so that our contact with her was frequent.

When my parents married on 24th February, 1940. World War 2 was underway, but my father was not called up into the forces and I have never really been able to discover the reason. He was employed at the time at Rubery Owen in Darlaston, near Walsall, and it could be that he was in a ‘reserved occupation’ and thus exempted. He was, however, obliged to join the National Fire Service as a driver, various badges from which remain in my possession – not that he was ever called out to anything more serious than a chimney fire that was out by the time he arrived. The most likely explanation is that he was a pacifist. Mom and Dad would not allow any kind of guns or war toys into the house – and how I longed for an air rifle such as one of my friends possessed! Dad once told me how he had read Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and the profound effect it had upon him. Having taught it to my A-level German class, I know the book shows graphically the utter futility, contradiction and stupidity of armed conflict. It was banned by Hitler, but it is not overtly pacifist. Lewis Milestone’s film of the book shot in 1930 is stark. I abhor all war and especially the non-defensive uncalled-for aggression such as is today so common. However, I am far from following my father into unreserved pacifism.

EARLY YEARS

The house in which we lived in Bentley was owned by Rubery Owen, the company for whom my father worked. These houses were built for employees at a time when finding somewhere to live was quite difficult. The owner, A G. B. Owen, was an evangelical Christian and in general terms he was good to his employees and would have done more had this been permitted by the political powers of the time. For me these were happy times. We were largely untouched by the war. Mom was once scared rigid by a stray German plane flying overhead – she could see the pilot! The bridge over the canal at the top of the street was destroyed by a bomb; presumably it was intended for one of the factories a couple of miles down the road. Other towns suffered greatly, the glow of fires from the Coventry bombings thirty or so miles away could be seen from the rear upstairs windows of our house. I was born in March 1941, my three brothers much later, all while we were living in Bentley.

Mom’s friend, Gwen, married Gordon Roberts another member of the St Luke’s group, who entered the Christian ministry under the auspices of the Free Church of England. He and my father played a central role in the establishment of their Church in Bentley. Apart from the spiritual foundation, Dad also set to in digging the physical foundations of the first temporary building. It was a privilege for me to preach in the Church, albeit in a new building, many years later. I was baptised as an infant in the Free Church of England, by ‘mistake’ my father maintained as he had taken on Baptist convictions. Dad began to attend a Baptist Church in Willenhall, not one where my parents were particularly happy it not being evangelical.

Difficulties began to arise in the family with the birth of two twin boys so soon after Mom’s second child. I remember the twins being brought home from the nursing home by my father in the back of his sports car - a Standard Avon for car buffs. One had a pink ribbon round his wrist the other a blue one so that they could be recognised apart. Three small children all still in nappies and two of them screaming their heads off in competition during the night was clearly too much for Mom to manage. Dad was very good and helpful as one would have expected of him, but even he was falling asleep at work on the drawing board then coming home to wash nappies by hand. Mother was a small person physically and far from strong. How she managed, I cannot imagine.

Over the years, I discovered there had also been serious difficulties between my parents. Mother had fully expected Dad to enter the Christian ministry as their friend Gordon Roberts had done and there was an unspoken promise to that effect before their marriage, perhaps even a written one. She never really came to terms with the fact that despite this understanding, my father had no intention of doing so or had changed his mind. This led to bitter recriminations, ones she held throughout her life. Whether Dad was suited to such an office, I doubt very much. The reasons my father did not enter the ministry were probably financial considerations. The death of his own father in 1916 had left his mother virtually penniless with no one to help and with six children to care for, four of whom were not her own, but those of her husband’s first marriage to Serena North. The shattered expectations and the pressure of dealing with four growing boys, the eldest of which was now becoming increasingly unruly, was unbearable and resulted in what we would now call a mental breakdown for mother. My own recollections of life at home well into my teenage years and the various stories that have reached me from time to time make this a very credible assumption. From now on life became for me generally fairly miserable, punctuated only by occasional happy moments and occasions, birthdays, Christmas, summer holidays.

Dad was concerned to improve his job prospects as the war had intervened significantly in any possible studies. In 1948 we moved from Bentley to Oxley on the north side of Wolverhampton where he had taken employment with the Goodyear Tyre company. Grandma Norris lent Dad the money for a deposit on the small house. Alongside this, he also embarked on a course in electrical engineering three nights a week at Wolverhampton Technical College, now the University. He was certainly capable of much more than he had achieved thus far. He did well and it was even suggested to him that he take up teaching the subject at the College when he finally finished, at which I have little doubt he would have done well as he was very good at explaining complicated problems in simple terms and finding solutions. He also changed his car from a sports model to a 1938 Morris 8 saloon for his growing boys. I can even remember the registration number: AFD 447! Eventually, when it was clearly held together more with rust than solid metal it went to the scrap yard.

I have the most vivid recollections of initial contacts with the Christian faith. For as long as the car was on the road, we were able to travel across town to Blakenhall to St Luke’s. Dad would leave me and my younger brother at the excellent Sunday School. The twins would accompany him to his mother’s house. I have affectionate memories of my teacher who was a family friend, Margaret Hughes. I also remember a kind old gentleman, Mr Powis, who gave me strong peppermints to suck. Mom, however, always remained at home. She did not want to visit a place where she felt rejected and unwanted. In fact, she now rarely left home even to go shopping only in exceptional cases. She was clearly in a poor state. The return trips home were exciting to me and I remember urging Dad to put his foot down to travel at fifty miles per hour in a thirty zone!

These weekly journeys could not continue and once the car gave up the ghost, they became impossible. Although public transport in the town was good, the trip would have involved two separate bus rides. Dad had begun attending a local Baptist Church in the neighbouring district of Fordhouses. The minister, Rev. David Smith, was something of an anomaly. He was an excellent man preaching a plain and simple Gospel message to a congregation, many of whom were antagonistic to him. A redeeming feature of the place was the amazing congregational singing of the hymns with all four part harmony. Dad was immediately attracted and began attending the Sunday services and then the weeknight prayer meeting. Eventually, he played a significant role in the life of the Church and was made a deacon. Mom was reluctant and initially did not attend. A lady, whom I now recognise as being very kind to my mother, a deaconess in the Church and retired headmistress, Margaret Marsh, took Mom under her wing. She could see the distress from which mother was suffering. In the end, Mom began to venture out of the home, slowly at first but then attending the services and also the weekly women’s meeting. She did in time become a speaker much in demand at such gatherings, representing the Bible Society.

Another positive thing about the people of the Church was that they were all kind and cared for each other. Mom was rushed suddenly into hospital for an operation. I was sent off to stay with Grandma Norris. The Church immediately rallied round and my three brothers were lodged variously with members of the Church.

MY CONVERSION TO CHRIST

By the time I reached my early teens, I was becoming increasingly rebellious and the cause of much grief to my parents. I shall not here recount what I managed to do, it would be unhelpful and inappropriate to delve deeper. Needless to say, had I continued on this pathway, there is little doubt I would have soon come into conflict with the law and thoroughly disgraced my family. I was still under the influence of the Gospel, attending the morning and evening services and listening the preaching of David Smith. I was being pulled two directions, that of the Gospel and that of yet further rebellion. It was weighing me down so much so that I remember someone at the Church saying that I looked as though I had the troubles of the world on my shoulders. Little did she know. Rather, just like Christian in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, it was the burden of sin on my back that weighed me down. I remember this went on for months and no one could speak to me without I would snap their head off.

It happened one night that I was in my bedroom quite alone, whether I had retired there to be alone I cannot recall. The feeling I had was that I must trust Christ now or the opportunity would slip away for ever. I recall falling on my knees, confessing to the Lord my sin and need of Him. My heart was full and doubtless my eyes too. I arose in the confidence that my blessed Saviour had heard my prayer. Soon afterwards I bought a Bible and inscribed on the flyleaf: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings” (Psalm 40:2). The Bible is still among our possessions.

Throughout my life in good times and bad, never once have I doubted the reality of what transpired that night. My testimony is that of Christian:

Thus far did I come laden with my sin;
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither: what place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blessed cross! Blessed sepulchre! Blessed rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!
(The Pilgrim’s Progress)

If there is a single verse of Scripture that summarizes my life as a Christian believer in good and bad days, it is this: “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12) My trust is in Christ and no one or nowhere else. I left matters rest eighteen months or so before submitting to baptism as a believer and becoming a member of the Church. It seemed the right thing to do at the time.

Those who tell you that once you trust Christ life becomes wonderful and trouble free are misleading you. It was then that my troubles really began. After an interregnum of a couple of years or so, a new minister was appointed. He was in fact a friendly man, but a poor preacher. He and his wife were once keen members of an evangelical Church in Toxteth, Liverpool, he certainly had cold water poured on his fire whilst at Theological College in Manchester.

Eventually, I felt I could no longer continue in membership at the Church and left. There were three or four Church of England vicars who were soundly evangelical and looking back, I probably would have done better attaching myself to one of these than where I did go. Because at the time I was convinced of the centrality of believer’s baptism, something I no longer hold with such strong conviction, and there being no sound Baptist Church in the town, I joined the ‘Brethren’. There was an Assembly of the old school gathering in Cleveland Street, Wolverhampton. At first, I went only to the Sunday evening Gospel Meeting and the weeknight prayer meeting and Bible study. Sunday mornings I spent at home studying the Scriptures.

The elders of the assembly at the time were godly men and one, a Mr Taylor, was someone for whom I had a deep respect. A few of his books I have still in my library and they contain between their pages, notes of his messages, always biblical and spiritually edifying. At his invitation, I began to attend the Sunday morning Breaking of Bread. These men were of a different generation and mind from those who followed them. Go to their homes in the evening, they would be at the dining room table before an open Bible. Consequently, they always had something worthwhile to say at the meetings of the assembly. The lesser men who followed them would as likely as not be watching their favourite television programme should you call on them in the evening.

LOOKING TOWARDS EUROPE

From the moment of my conversion, I was keen to share my faith with those outside the influence of the Gospel, whether at work or as an outreach of the ministry of the assembly. I must have distributed thousands of tracts and booklets. On my last day before finally leaving my first place of work, I remember ensuring every work colleague had a Gospel book. I was responsible for organising a Gospel team made up of members of the young people. We spoke in Churches, at rallies, in the open air to people leaving the cinema, in the market place, anywhere where we thought people would listen. My activities were not welcomed by all. I was branded by some in the assembly as something of a fanatic. I did not mind. It was my determination to see the Gospel message go to those who needed it. Such has been my desire to this day. What I did not see then, but have seen since, is how much of this was superficial, even misleading. Such was my ignorance and inexperience. Many were declared believers on the flimsiest of evidence and have shown since that they never knew the Lord. An awareness of this was soon to dawn.

At a conference organised for Gospel teams to have fellowship and enjoy uplifting messages, I remember two speakers who made an impression on me and at that time seemed to be of the same mind as I was. One was George Verwer, who was then planning his first ‘Operation Mobilisation’ in Europe and the Rev. Robert Munn of the European Bible Institute of Lamorlaye in France. Both men spoke convincingly. This blew into a flame the embers of a fire of interest for the spread of the Gospel on the other side of the English Channel.

Through the work of Major Ian Thomas at Capernwray and a holiday at Klostermühle in Germany, I had come into contact with German young people. I liked Major Thomas and found him to be a sincere and honest man in all my contacts with him, although today I would question many aspects of his teaching. That he was a man who loved the Lord of that I have little doubt. Ian Thomas was different in many ways from most of the other evangelists and Bible teachers I had previously encountered. One thing I noted was that he disliked intensely the emotional build-up in Gospel rallies, the artificial atmosphere created to bring the audience to a decision.

It was Sunday, 13 August 1961, midway through my Klostermühle holiday, when news came through that the GDR authorities had cut off all transit routes into Berlin and were rolling out barbed wire across the city to divide the East from the West. This ought to have been anticipated as a constant stream of humanity was fleeing into the West. I was later to have some personal experience of this. During the week I had made friends with Reinhardt, he spoke excellent English and we chatted about all sorts of things. He came from Berlin and so on that fateful Sunday, he was distressed beyond belief. I tried to console him, but these matters were really quite beyond my understanding or knowledge. In Berlin he lived with his mother in cramped circumstances which were common in the city at the time. His fear was that the lines of communication would be permanently shut down, then how would he get back home? He did return home and I was able to visit him in Berlin a couple of years later. This experience was something of a wake-up call for me having lived such a protected existence in England. Then I did not know what I would encounter of this later.

George Verwer and his Operation Mobilisation is not something I could possibly stand alongside today. However, as an enthusiastic young convert to the faith, I decided I would join them in their European crusade to distribute literature across Europe in the summer of 1962. From London we travelled in highly dubious ancient furniture removal vans to Chatou, France. Such would be hardly permitted today and was frowned upon even then. The Chateau in Chatou had been the original site of the European Bible Institute. Here I became friendly with Konrad from Switzerland. We were both assigned to Italy and made the journey in a doubtful Vauxhall Victor motor car to Milan. Travelling along the southern French coast, I had never experienced such heat. As a team leader, Konrad chose me to be one of his co-workers travelling south to Sicily along with another Englishman and three Spaniards. Our distribution of Christian literature was not always well received. Youngsters threw stones at our car, priests ordered us out of town, and in Palermo we were taken off the streets by the Caribinieri. Generally though, we were well received by the Sicilians. We slept under stars, but were often given a place to sleep and food and could help ourselves to fruit growing in orchards and vineyards. Although I sometimes wonder what we achieved, I thank God for the experiences and would love to return there one of these days.

PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIAN SERVICE

After my European adventures, I enrolled at Capernway Bible School. I was not used to studying, but to my surprise came near the top of the class in the examinations at the end. Encouraged by this, I decided I would now apply to the European Bible Institute in Lamorlaye. There were students from eleven different countries, mostly Europe, but also places as far-flung as Canada and New Caledonia! I was in my element. I liked the curriculum because it was largely Bible centred and doctrine was taught. I soaked up everything. Most of what we were taught I wholeheartedly accepted, but began to have severe doubts about the dispensationalism believed by most and in which I had been brought up. This doubt grew after I left the Institute. The Institute was run by a neo-evangelical American mission. At the opening ceremony in Chatou, Billy Graham, had been the speaker. All the missionaries had to have American citizenship. This I found disturbing and smacked of a kind of spiritual imperialism; they had come to teach the Europeans their own superior version of the Christian faith. There was very little attempt to co-operate on an equal footing with other European Christian groups in the country. Nevertheless, I benefitted from my time there and look back on all those I met there with great fondness. I learnt a lot and even improved my piano playing considerably. Consideration of doctrinal matters such as evangelism and divine sovereignty sent me in a decided reformed or Calvinistic direction. I was not alone as there were students from the French Reformed Church, and at least one from a reformed Baptist Church in Northern Ireland. We had long discussions. My fellow-students elected me student president, then president of the missionary association. I was shocked and could not sleep the whole night afterwards. EBI was where we first came into contact with the growing Charismatic movement as there were numbers of students caught up in it and some who later moved across to it. I was from the outset opposed to it and said so quite openly. In our experience since, this movement has broken up Church fellowships, marriages and families, caused spiritual havoc in the lives of individuals known to us. It is guilty of utterly misrepresenting and distorting the Christian faith.

The Institute had an English and a French section. My school French was hardly good enough to join the French section, although it did improve with time. Very early on a pretty young German girl caught my eye. I liked her – she laughed at my silly jokes! Her English was rough and ready and she had a strong German-Canadian accent. Up until now I had not really thought about girlfriends. Valerie and I became good friends. As boy-girl relationships were wisely not encouraged, we kept our growing friendship strictly under wraps. We had much in common spiritually. After leaving, we married in October 1966.

Valerie had been in Canada for a couple of years and then returned to Germany where she had studied at Ian Thomas’ Bible school at Klostermühle. From there she had gone to Berlin to work with the Youth for Christ organisation as a secretary. She also helped with the follow-up and counselling of those who made a profession of faith in various meetings. Often, she would find that after a day or two they wanted only to distance themselves from the rash decision they had made. I found very much the same in that in which I had been involved. It was clear to us both that signing a bit of paper, going to the front, raising one’s hand, saying a little prayer, was not that which led to genuine conversions. Indeed, to encourage folk to think it in this way was misleading, even a deception. Those who rely on such a decision have made a grave error. We both had serious doubts about that in which we had been involved.

These doubts had begun for me a couple of years earlier as I recall at a huge rally held in Birmingham’s Bingley Hall by a British Graham imitator. Present was Robert Harkness, pianist to Charles Alexander of Torrey and Alexander fame. Alexander was married to Helen Cadbury member of the well-known Quaker and chocolate manufacturing family. The link with this kind of evangelism is thus established directly back to Dwight L. Moody and further. At the end of something of a ranted sermon, those were urged to come forward who wanted to confess their faith in Christ. Counsellors moved to the front, evidently to encourage members of the audience to do the same. There was soft singing from the choir, Just as I am without one plea… On a previous occasion, whilst the Hammond organ played its soothing sound, the evangelist bade us all bow our heads to pray for those who were to come forward. “Yes”, he said, “they are coming, down from the balcony, another one…” Now I had been one who had not closed his eyes. I looked towards the balcony, there was no one, not a soul had moved. It was a trick, a deception to get people up on their feet. After this, trickery of the kind left me cold. It was not right, it was dishonest. Seeds of doubt had been sown in my mind as to the legitimacy of these rallies and their ‘invitations’ to believe.

Valerie’s background was very different from mine. In the 18th century, Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, who was herself of German origins, invited her fellow countrymen to come and colonise some of the empty swathes of agricultural land in her vast country. On Valerie’s mother’s side the family moved to Volhynia from Swabia, on her father’s side they came from Pomerania and began farming. Between the world wars and when Valerie was born, Volhynia was governed no longer by Russia but by Poland. It became part of Ukraine after 1945 and remains so today despite Polish aspirations to have it returned to them. As Hitler’s armies crossed into western Ukraine, they moved all ethnic Germans into Poland proper expelling the native Poles from their farms. No one wanted to move from farmland that had often been in their families for generations, but penalties for resistance did not bear thinking about. The family ended up in a Polish family’s farm in the Warte district south of Warsaw.

The war raged and Valerie’s father was taken into the German army despite his age. Captured by the Red Army he was imprisoned for the rest of the war. The Red army advanced into Poland and Valerie’s mother had no intention of being caught by the Russians. Loading what they could onto a cart pulled by their two faithful horses, they set off on a long winter trek westward that lasted six months. The fatherless family were settled in Wardenburg, near Oldenburg in the north. It was not until the fifties that Valerie’s father reappeared as a result of the efforts of the Red Cross. His experiences in the Russian camps were far from pleasant and lightened only because he was a fluent Russian speaker. He had served in the Russian army in the First World War. All this provides material for another story at another time.

MARRIAGE, A MOVE TO GERMANY AND SERVICE IN AUSTRIA

After France and marriage, we settled in Wolverhampton and I took employment with a printing company. Valerie and I married in October 1966. The text we chose for our wedding was Hebrews 11:26. Looking back, it could not have been more apposite, more prophetic. "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” We had been offered a number of opportunities for Christian service, including the pastorate of Church near Wolverhampton. All were keen to take us on. We both had no conviction about any and in the case of some were extremely sceptical. Mark, our first son was born. I felt drawn towards work on the Continent of Europe so we moved to Germany where I set about learning the language. It took about six months to reach a reasonable standard that would allow me to speak in public. To further improve my German and perhaps with a view to future service in Austria, we were invited to the Brethren Bible School in Wiedenest. Missionshaus Bibelschule Wiedenest was founded in 1905 and names known beyond Germany were involved with the place at different times.  Johannes Warns is known for his book on baptism and Erich Sauer for his books on prophetic matters. We went there with some confidence, but were surprised at what we found.

Certainly, my German improved by leaps and bounds following the Goethe Institute course under the guidance of a very good teacher. Sitting in on the Bible teaching lessons, I discovered that teachers and many of the students held a neo-orthodox view of Scripture and also on other doctrines too. The Word of God is not the objective book, the words I had in front of me. As God speaks to me through the Bible, that is the word of God. It is then essentially a subjective rather than a firm and unchanging objective word in which I can always rely upon to tell me the same thing whenever I turn to it. Indeed, the Bible authors could well have made errors of history or science, this does not matter as God still speaks. This precipitated in me a struggle which ended only in strengthening my conviction that every single word of the Bible I hold in my hands was breathed out by God using human authors and is infallible and authoritative in all things of which it speaks and it speaks of all things (see 2 Timothy 3:16).

How did this come about in an institution I imagined was broadly evangelical? During the period of the Third Reich in Germany, Brethren Assemblies and Baptist Church also others were forced to register with the authorities as Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden, remembering that ‘evangelisch’ in German broadly refers to protestant churches, including reformed and Lutheran churches. Evangelical is translated as ‘evangelikal’. Some Assemblies declined and went underground and suffered harassment and persecution for their brave and bold stand. Today, under various groupings, they are largely found in the ‘Bruederbewegung’, or Brethren movement. Unlike their counterparts in the ‘open’ Brethren in the United Kingdom, most of these assemblies trace their origins to the Darby wing of the movement. The split occasioned by the days under Hitler was never entirely healed and the resentment persisted long after 1945. Those that did join with the Baptists were clearly infected by the loose doctrine that had already taken hold of the seminary in Hamburg. Today, they are thoroughly unsound and have introduced practices and teachings from which genuine believers must distance themselves.

This all ought to have been a warning to us, but in my enthusiasm to serve the Lord in Austria, I set it to one side hoping I could plough my own furrow. How wrong I was. So it was that we left for Innsbruck to work alongside a Wiedenest co-worker, supported by the British Brethren ‘Echoes of Service’ and sponsored by our home Assembly in Wolverhampton. Initially, things went well. We made many friends at the time; one friendship at least has survived to this day. The number attending the meetings increased, but disaster awaited just around the corner.

The evangelist, Billy Graham, had his imitators in Germany just as was the case in England. One of them was due to hold a series of evangelistic meetings in Innsbruck, if my memory serves me right, and Graham was to hold further meetings in Salzburg later. What I do remember clearly was that those professing faith in Christ were to be sent back into their home churches, including Roman Catholics. We were horrified. What are we doing evangelising in Austria, if folk were alright in their own Catholic Churches? Ignorance of the Gospel was widespread. Ask someone if they had ‘received Christ’, as likely as not they would imagine you were asking them whether they had been to mass recently. One who did go out to the front, joined a Bible study group in our home some years later. I explained the Gospel to him in straightforward terms. As soon as he grasped it, he said, “Herr Norris, you are tearing the skin off my back!” Going out to confess Christ had not helped him find the Lord; indeed, it was a hindrance that had given him a false sense of security.

We resigned our post much to everyone’s consternation. An attempt was made to deflect from the real reason for our departure and blame our ‘Calvinism’, which at the time was moderate to say the least. At home in England, our supporting Assembly was also not best pleased. By this time the old elders had gone to be with the Lord and a new generation with less spiritual insight had taken over, one of whom was a businessman connected with the Billy Graham Association. To say he was unsympathetic would be an understatement.

We stayed on in Innsbruck for a time whilst seeking some other group with whom we could work. It was not easy. We had been helped by books and booklets written by reformed pastors and preachers, who seemed to have a good grasp of the problems involved in working with these evangelists. Two I particularly recall: Co-operation in Evangelism by Professor John Murray and Billy Graham – the Pastor’s Dilemma by Errol Hulse. We were guided to Eden Chapel in Cambridge, a Strict Baptist Church, by the Strict Baptist Mission.  The pastor was yet another David Smith, a kindly man who gave us much encouragement. Whilst there we were generally well received. During our time there, I was able to find work at the Cambridge University Press. In Cambridge, Valerie gave birth to our second child, a daughter, Karin.

We did not in the end return to Austria under the auspices of the Strict Baptists. I was then, and more so now, not happy at making believer’s baptism the central doctrine around which a group of believers should gather to the exclusion of others. The Scriptures teach very clearly that we are to receive one another even as Christ has received us (see Romans 15:7). The centre of our fellowship is to be our Saviour Himself. We found a missionary fellowship that had the wider outlook with headquarters in Watford. Here our last child was born, Adrian. With the support of Eden Chapel, we left once more for Austria. We were able to gather together a small Bible Study group, mostly unbelieving Roman Catholics. I also began publishing a small magazine Das Wort (The Word), that eventually had quite a respectable number of subscribers in the German-speaking world.

We stayed in Innsbruck quite happily for a time. Innsbruck was quite an expensive place to live and the small stipend from the mission which was to cover all our expenses did not go very far. Things became almost impossible and so we were forced to move to Germany, where we lived in property owned by Valerie’s family. I began to expand the publication of Das Wort, acquiring offset equipment in order to produce it ourselves. Despite this, we found things increasingly problematic and decided to return to England.

The Church in Cambridge, apart from the pastor, took little real interest in the work and on visits back home I found the place fairly dead. A false impression was created because in term time the Church would be filled with students from the university. I preached one Sunday evening sermon there on the letter to the Laodiceans in Revelation 3. Instead of being the challenge and encouragement I had intended, it was received badly. The Church had recently revised and up-dated its Statement of Faith. At the time I thought nothing of it, but looking at it again not so long ago I realised that the doctrine of Scripture was watered down. It meant that Christians from the university who accepted a theory of theocratic evolution instead of six-day creation could easily be accommodated. When David Smith moved on to other things, the pastor who replaced him after some time was found to be a homosexual having an affair with a young man in the congregation. He ultimately abandoned his wife and children. The whole affair made headline news across the national British media. It was a scandal.

The mission with which we worked is still supporting workers preaching the Gospel across Europe, albeit they have moved from Watford and with different people in charge. We wish them God’s blessing. As I look back, there were serious problems with this fellowship into which have no intention of delving. It relied heavily on the generosity of a number of businessmen who also sat on the board and had a dominant say in what was done. This was always a questionable arrangement, I felt.

Our own exit was handled dishonestly. We gave notice that we would leave in the September of that year. We then received notice of being dismissed from the fellowship immediately, no explanation was given us, certainly we were not accused of any wrongdoing. Having done this, the general secretary and others let it be known we had been dismissed rather than resigned. This left us high and dry, with no income and three small children to look after. We were thrown very much on the goodness of God and kindness of friends. Some were wary of us after this because of the unsubstantiated gossip that surrounded our departure, but certainly not all, many of whom seemed to have a good grasp of what had happened. As I recall, we heard nothing from Eden Chapel except an acknowledgement of our withdrawal from membership.

RETURN TO ENGLAND AND A NEW START

We returned to England in 1978 and to the house where Valerie and I still live today. The story as to how we acquired the property and all that was involved would demand a volume on its own. Errol Hulse had been quite keen to sponsor our work as was later a large Church in South Wales. On arriving home, I was also asked to consider the pastorate of a local Baptist Church where I was well-known, but it was a place with developing problems from charismatic infiltration. However, especially after what we had just experienced, we really did not see it as of the Lord to take up any of these offers. I had failed on two previous occasions to recognise clear warning signs against the direction in which we were moving with disastrous consequences. If I saw them, then I had ignored them and was not about to make the same mistake again, hence the cautious approach.

The first priority was to find somewhere to live where I could perhaps continue to publish Das Wort. One offer did come our way, but the unrealistic rent and small size of the apartment made it unable for us to accept. No one else seemed to be prepared to help give us any accommodation even for a few days. Help came from an unexpected quarter. Valerie’s father said he would buy a house for us could we find somewhere suitable. Here in Hednesford we found two derelict cottages with half an acre of land. This enabled us to continue to grow our own produce and perhaps keep a few poultry as we had done in Germany. There was a lot of work and more money needed to restore the property to a liveable home.

It was a cold wet February day when I arrived here with the two boys in a 7.5t van containing most of our earthly belongings. Valerie was to follow later with our daughter. No one met us. Somehow, I managed to manhandle our furniture into the house and ‘set up camp’. We had brought with us a woodburning stove which I immediately connected temporarily to the chimney. I lit it using bits of wood gleaned from the garden. We could at least warm the house and cook. Beds were assembled upstairs and we spent our first night in our new home. It was damp, cold, but it was a roof over our heads for which we were thankful to God. Priority was rewiring at least one of the cottages and getting the gas turned on. I am surprised we did not blow ourselves up. The old lead gas pipes had been cut in places and simply hammered over. Through the years, we renovated the house in our spare time, doing what work we could ourselves. Valerie assisted me in laying concrete floors and showed herself to be a real professional at laying tiles. Today we have a comfortable but not excessive home with central heating and more than we could wish for. All has been the Lord’s provision.

Valerie and I are so thankful that God moved her father to help us. Often when we visited him in the evening, we would find him sitting before an open Bible and as we crept up the stairs, we could hear him praying. On leaving the Russian POW camp, he was thrown very much on his own resources as he tried, it seems at first in vain, to be reunited with his family. Whilst others froze to death in the bitter Siberian winter, he had the wit to sleep inside the middle of some manure heap where it was warm at night. Russians in the countryside were hardly likely to have been helpful to someone they still regarded as an old enemy. From Baptist groups, of which there are many in parts of Russia, he did find help, food and shelter that doubtless saved his life. Their love and kindnesses were never forgotten through to the end of his life. He was an amazing man for whom I had great affection.

The necessity of finding a source of income became pressing. Using the offset equipment on a commercial basis proved to be inadequate and I was far from certain that this was a direction I should pursue long term. My fluency in the German language was surely something I could use. For many years, I had wanted to pursue further studies at university. To qualify for a student grant still available at that time, I would have to have been resident in Britain for four years. In the meantime, I managed to obtain a position selling carpets. This was something that brought in more than a modest income.

UNIVERSITY

Whilst learning the German language, I acquired a real interest in German literature, history and culture as a door to understanding Germany and the way Germans think. I lacked the German A-level needed for university entrance. Taking this exam would also indicate whether I was likely to succeed at university. Having passed with the highest grade, I pressed ahead. Although I was considering a less prestigious university, Valerie, as she always does, encouraged me to aim higher. I was accepted as an undergraduate at Birmingham University. I remained for a further year to gain an M.A. Tired of the intensive studies and short of funds, I decided not to pursue a Ph.D. Subsequent to my time at university, I found work teaching German at a Birmingham college and also translating books into English. Teaching was certainly in my blood and I enjoyed it tremendously.

Here I need to pause as this time at university presented a real challenge to my faith. I was forced to defend my beliefs in a very hostile environment. In the sixties it had been a hotbed of the student unrest and rebellion. It is said that you can tell what a man is by the books in his library. One book stands out, of course, the Bible. The inspired authoritative Word of God was and is for me the last word on all matters of faith and living. This was and remains for me the measure of all things. Over the years, I had read many works of the Reformers, the Puritans and others. Luther’s Bondage of the Will is for me the very best exposition of the doctrine of justification by faith, so personal and real. The conviction that we are justified by faith alone in what Christ achieved on our behalf, quite apart from anything we have done, is at the centre of all that I believe. Of most help at the time and since have been the writings of older Dutch Reformed theologians such as Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, among others, particularly those in the tradition of the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands but also the USA and Canada. Some of their heavy tomes in Dutch load down the bookshelves of my library. My fluency in German gives me access to writings published only in Dutch, which I can read reasonably well with the assistance of a dictionary. Their writings drove me to the Scriptures and were seminal in a grounding in the faith to face the godless teachings of the writers and philosophers I was reading. I am thankful to God for His leading, guidance and blessing in this area.

Other matters arose during the course of my studies with a direct bearing on my faith and my trust in the authenticity of the Scriptures. I found a study of literary theory particularly fascinating. I looked at structuralism and the semiotics of Umberto Eco, the theories of Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes. I followed the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure and generative grammar of Chomskyan linguistics. It was all essentially humanistic and I became convinced of the need for a thorough-going biblical approach to language. Some of what these scholars say may be true, whereas what God says is true so that we can only test their truthfulness and accuracy by looking at what God has declared.

It was my privilege to spend an academic year at the University of Konstanz in beautiful surroundings. The town lies at the western end of Lake Constance or Bodensee a 63km-long lake that borders Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The river Rhine flows in at the eastern end and out at the western. The main campus was opened on its present site in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The town hosted the notorious Council of Constance (1414-1418), the 16th ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church. In an attempt to bring to an end religious dissension within the Church, the Czech reformer, Jan Hus agreed to go to Constance, under a worthless promise of safe conduct. This was a deception Martin Luther was careful to avoid a century later. A sentence of condemnation was pronounced upon Hus and his writings, but refusing to recant, he was burned to death at the stake on the 6 July 1415. His ashes were thrown into the Rhine. A commemorative stone marks the spot today where he is thought to have died.

The University of Konstanz is known for the development of ‘reception aesthetics’ or ‘reception theory’ hermeneutics. Whilst there I was able to attend lectures by Wolfgang Iser, a proponent of these ideas. According those promoting this literary theory, there has been a preoccupation with the author and the text, the reader has largely been forgotten. Without the reader there can be no literary text. A literary text does not live on bookshelves in printed pages. Texts are processes of signification that materialise only in the mind of the reader by the process of reading, otherwise they remain just dots on a piece of paper. The reader is just as important in this process as the author and the meaning will vary from reader to reader. This sounded very similar to what I had heard at Wiedenest with respect to the Bible. It only becomes God’s Word to me as I read it. It is not an objective Word of God that says the same whoever reads it. Scripture too means something different, depending on who is reading it. Indeed, one day a passage may say one thing to me and on another the same text will say something entirely different.

On one occasion, I determined to study Romans 6 closely, an important passage I know very well. Our pastor in Cambridge had recommended the New International Version. As I read, I was deeply unsettled, this was not the chapter I knew so well from the Authorised Version. The ‘dynamic’ methodology used in translating the NIV breaks the text down into the smallest possible components, then rebuilds the passage into what is essentially a rewritten Bible. The use of a particular word in the original text will often determine the essential meaning of a biblical passage. Where a dynamic method of translation is used, that same word will be rendered in myriad ways rendering serious Bible study almost impossible. Even if a precisely corresponding word in the target language cannot be found, the difficulty can be overcome by consistency, by always translating the word in the same way. I decided to check out the underlying Greek text. The so-called translation was in reality an interpretation of the passage, a rendering of the translator’s own views as to how it should be understood. It differed from my own and, I would argue, the demands of the original text. But then, if you have abandoned the verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible, as most evangelicals now have done, and follow Barth, Brunner or some more recent horror, then accuracy in the text or translation is of little consequence.

As a result, Valerie and I resolved only to use and support reliable translations upon which God has set his seal. In English, Valerie and I use the Authorised Version. Much of the AV was based on Tyndale’s wonderful, but incomplete, work, a copy of which I have in my library. Living in Germany for a time, Tyndale in turn relied considerably on Luther, using many of his very inventive renderings. For example, Gnadenstuhl, a word created by Luther is translated as mercy seat in our English Bibles. In German, we both use Luther’s Bible, although some of the modern revisions have distorted it and great care is needed. We also have a reprint of Luther’s original version. I determined to set to and put down on paper what I knew and my book The Big Picture was the result. Although not generally available any more, copies are still available directly from me. Little did I imagine at the time what difficulties this would bring us both.

Of Bishop Ryle it has been said, “A man who holds strong views and convictions, especially if these run counter to the spirit of the age, takes the risk of antagonising not only his children but most others of his acquaintance as well” (in John Charles Ryle, Peter Toon and Michael Smout, p.103). How well we know this and how painful it has been with respect to our views on the Scriptures, but also in other areas such as Christian music and the charismatic movement. We have bent over backwards not to provoke unnecessarily, but have been shouted at, mocked, ostracised and slandered by pastors, relatives, former friends among others. At times we have been extremely upset and deeply hurt; we have found things very hard going. It has been difficult not to retaliate in kind on occasions, but by God’s grace we have both resisted the temptation. Rather than deter us, we have been spurred on and become yet more firmly established in what we believe is the right and biblical path to follow. Over the years, we have found so many marks of the Lord’s providential care that have exceeded all our expectations. The preciousness of our Saviour’s presence has been our strength and stay.

INCREASING OPPOSITION

Quite early on, it proved impossible to continue publishing Das Wort. There were those who for reasons best known to them, tried to obstruct us. Once we became more settled, we began publishing an occasional magazine in English, Dayspring, and continued until with this until very recently. I felt that my energies could be better channelled in other directions, although as God gives strength some publishing will continue.

Valerie and I both love music, particularly the lovely hymns that reflect our knowledge of and walk with our Saviour. The internet gives us access to many hymns not found in the hymn books. Hymnbooks can shut out a lot of hymns that have been long forgotten and ought to be better known. Many of James Montgomery’s hymns have disappeared, but ought to be revived. Sometimes, we both sit singing along to hymns on YouTube in English, German, French and even Dutch. Our hearts are joined with those who wrote these wonderful songs of praise centuries ago.

It is to be admitted that some of the tunes in our hymnbooks, beautiful as they are, raise doubts as to whether they should be there at all. A love song from Mozart’s Magic Flute and a beautiful melody from Weber’s Der Freischütz are both problematic in many ways. The former opera is a humanistic plaidoyer for freemasonry and is full of masonic imagery, the latter is full of romantic occultism. Having said that, I find contemporary Christian music to be horrendous. It shamelessly apes the godless rock scene and it is sickening to think that anyone should imagine that playing such junk in the worship of a thrice holy God is anything other than blasphemy. Clearly, many see nothing wrong and are happy to be seen at both concerts of the worldly and the ‘Christian’ kind. I cannot believe that those who profess to follow Christ can even mouth the preposterous and ungodly rubbish of rock groups. It is apparent to me that we worship a very different God and their saviour is a different ‘Jesus’ than ours. Although I have never written or said much on the subject, our views appear to be well-known and acquaintances have often taken occasion to provoke us. As I recall, it all started in a somewhat insidious way. Youngsters saw guitar twanging rock stars back in the sixties and thought that by emulating them they could lure their unconverted friends into the Church. One thing led to another and before you knew it Christian rock bands were born. I watched it happen. The line then between what was Christian and what was not became blurred, so that both then became acceptable.

Pentecostalism and proto-Pentecostalism have been with us for a very long time. I spent many heart-searching hours with the Scriptures trying to figure out the rights and wrongs of the movement. In the end I concluded from my reading of the Bible and what I observed, that this was a total misrepresentation of the Christian faith. We met with the early onset of the Charismatic movement in France and although both of us were vehemently opposed to it and said so openly, we did manage to avoid any real aggravation with others.

I remember some of the earlier pentecostalists. T. L. Osborne I remember for the buckets of cash he collected in his rallies and had transported away in an armoured security van. Kathryn Kuhlman I found inexplicably bizarre. As the Charismatic movement proper got under way, it became a matter of great sadness to me to see family and former friends becoming entangled in this apostate movement. I watched it develop with some alarm. I saw local Churches being infiltrated and broken up. I watched their gatherings grow in size and hundreds mesmerized by this pseudo-Christianity.

I have listened to quite a lot of the preaching of many of these people. From what they are saying, one could easily imagine that their hearers are suffering from all kinds of psychological hang-ups, they have marriages on the edge of breaking down, friendships that are on the brink and what they are being offered is a kind of spiritual Valium to see them through. They appear to need a psychiatrist or psychologist rather than a Saviour from sin. They are not rousing the soldiers of the cross, but soothing sinners in remaining their lost condition.

Yet more extreme are the ‘prosperity’ preachers, but the only ones getting rich seem to be the preachers themselves. We need to expose these spiritual con-men – and women, who teach falsehoods and misrepresent the teaching of the Scriptures, invent their own doctrines and push them as the truth. Instead, we need to challenge our fellow men with the real, biblical claims of Christ upon them, call them to repentance and faith in Christ. You will never hear these words, never hear this message from these people. It is not the comfortable message that will fill the mega-Churches with followers and get them to empty their pockets so that the preachers can buy expensive cars and private jets and live in fabulous homes. It is a scandal! Will no one stand up and say so? Many of these men are multi-millionaires, are made wealthy by the mind-numbing hysteria generated in their meetings.

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST: ITS MEANING FOR US TODAY

In his exhaustive work The Theocratic Kingdom, the Lutheran pastor, George Peters writes: “A way is only known when the beginning and the terminus are considered; a human plan can only be properly appreciated when the results of it are fully weighed: so with God’s way and God’s plan, it can only be fully known when the end intended is duly regarded” (Vol 1, p.21). In other words, if we are to have any understanding of what is unfolding before our eyes, what has gone on in the past and where everything will end, then we need to have a good understanding of what the Bible teaches about the end. This was an important aspect of teaching in New Testament times and should be the same now: “…how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

I was brought up on a moderate version of dispensational eschatology and had no reason to doubt it. After all, it was assumed to be sound teaching. Valerie was subjected to no such impediment. At the Bible Institute in France, serious doubts began to arise in my mind. I was particularly unhappy at the way prophetic verses were wrenched out of their context, especially in Old Testament passages. It seemed that they were treating the text in a similar way to textual critics of the Old Testament. My doubts continued for many years until Valerie and I began to give serious consideration to the teaching of Scripture on the last things.

After I was fully persuaded that dispensationalism did not measure up to the tests of Scripture, we began to form an understanding of what the Bible did teach. Not to get involved here in a complicated discussion, we laid aside the a-millennial view and the post-millennialism of the Puritans. Several writers in addition to George Peters were helpful in our researches. David Baron, a Hebrew Christian, wrote many volumes on prophecy and his knowledge of the Scriptures with respect to the future of the Jewish people is second to none.  Nathaniel West has written a most helpful volume on the millennium. Alexander Reese’s book on the approaching advent of Christ was of inestimable value in answering the many contradictions within dispensationalism.  So it was that we came to believe what I am going to call ‘Puritan premillennialism’ as being closest to what the Bible teaches. Whilst many Puritans held post-millennial views, this was not true of all. Certainly, none would have believed in a ‘secret rapture’ as this teaching did not become widespread until the 19th century. This means that all believed that Christ would come again, some thought that there would be a great revival of religion and ushered in by the restoration of the Jewish nation beforehand, others believed this would happen at the return of the Lord. There were those who were not in agreement, a Scottish Presbyterian, Robert Baillie (1599-1662) was one, Joseph Hall (1574-1656), bishop of Norwich, another.

Leader and primary authority of the premillennial school of Puritan eschatology was Joseph Mede (1586-1638) who wrote a Study of the Apocalypse that appeared in English in 1642. Some consider him the father of premillennialism. His book is available as a pdf document for download online and has an interesting Preface by William Twisse (c.1578-1646). Twisse was prolocutor for the Westminster Assembly and a forthright premillennialist. It is a mistake to presume all Puritans held post-millennial views. There were many other Puritans holding the same or similar views as Mede and Twisse: Thomas Goodwin, John Milton, Samuel Hartlib, Jeremiah Burroughes, Nathaniel Holmes, Henry More, William Sherwin, Isaac Newton “and virtually every Independent minister in England and Wales. Not a few Presbyterians also followed Mede’s exegesis of Revelation 20” (see Puritans, the Millennium and the Future of Israel, ed. Peter Toon). According to Mede, the Jews would see Christ in a visible appearance, would be converted individually and nationally by that sight to the widespread blessing also of the Gentile nations. Quoting from Mede: “Till the calling of the Jews, the general conversion of the Gentiles is not to be expected; but the receiving of Israel shall be the riches of the world, in that by their restitution the whole world shall come unto Christ.” Premillennialism is often said to be pessimistic. This is not how it appears to me from reading Mede, rather at His appearance the Kingdom of Christ shall spread across the globe and He shall reign over all. This does not mean that we must sit on our hands until Christ returns, far from it. “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

There are those who believe that somehow the kingdoms of this world can be changed from within and they work to achieve this. There is no such expectation found anywhere in the Scriptures. Quite the opposite. In Daniel the kingdoms of this world are represented by a great image standing on fragile feet of iron and clay. Daniel explains the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful ruler of the then world, and forecasts the end of these kingdoms. “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces” (2:34). What then happens to that stone and the kingdoms? “Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (v.35). That which smote the heathen kingdoms became itself a kingdom filling the whole earth, something each one of these destroyed kingdoms aspired to, but failed to achieve completely. “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). God is not about to repair, but to replace the kingdoms of this world with that of His only begotten Son. “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (Psalm 2:6-7)

It is this prospect that motivates Valerie and me. This real hope enlivens us as we get older, the opposition, the physical suffering and the spiritual struggles, the disappointments are as nothing. We live for it: the reappearance of Christ, the total destruction of all the wickedness, despair, hopelessness, killing, blasphemy, apostasy and the entrance of a kingdom of righteousness that shall fill the earth with our blessed Saviour at the centre of all things. “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). Joint heirs with Christ in His kingdom, what, I ask, is to be compared with that? What can the kingdoms of this world offer in its place? We, see it every day in the appalling state of affairs all around us. Go friends, heap to yourself riches in this world, enjoy its pleasures for a season, yours will be eternal loss. Cheap perishable baubles! O, what we have in Christ for what can exchange it? Nothing, I tell you, nothing! Incomparable. Even creation itself groans for its liberation.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” (Romans 8:16-19)

TURNING OUR BACKS ON EVANGELICALISM

The disenchantment with our experiences of evangelicalism runs deep and we now both really feel quite out of place among these people. This runs both ways, I fear. I have already spoken of our convictions with regard to the use of modern versions. We also find the New King James Version unsatisfactory. What shocked us most was the very aggressive nature of the opposition we faced, at times vicious. We must add to this the introduction of contemporary Christian music as being totally out of place in the worship of the God of Scripture and the similar response to our opposition to it. The influence of the charismatic movement and its polluting influence, we find tragic.
Over and above this we have found an unbearable dead formality with respect to the things of God. Local fellowships seem little more then groups of people gathered around a common interest, which is something that could equally be said of a local golf club or literary society. The Christian Gospel is not at the centre radiating outwards to every aspect of life. Instead, the Christian faith is compartmentalised and separated off from everything else. This permits a materialistic approach to life to flourish, salary, employment, home, car, holidays take dominant place. They are markers by which they judge each other. 

Modern evangelicalism leaves me cold. Churches that have some remnants of orthodoxy left often have no life, no vision, no concern for the cause of Christ, no understanding of what is going on around us and where it is leading. They live only within the confines of their own circle, never move outside it, never seek to bring others to Christ. Where are those in our land like yesterday who went to the stake for the Gospel? We will not even risk a fine not to speak of prison for speaking out. Where are those willing to shout from the housetops: “Thus saith the Lord!” Hobby Christians. Sleepers not soldiers. We have more facilities today than ever before for making known the Name of Christ than ever before. Why are we not using them? Why are we wasting our resources on selfish ends?

Our country has been badly let down, even betrayed by modern evangelicalism. As our nation has slipped further and further into godlessness and rebellion, little or nothing has been heard from the Churches. It is not mixing politics with religion to speak out with a loud voice when our rulers pass laws that oppose God and would have us do that which is contrary to His Word and would haul us before the courts for disobeying. There has been no clarion call for repentance, no warnings given of judgement to come, no urging our fellow-citizens to repentance and faith in Christ for cleansing and redemption.
Instead, either they have closed their Church and Chapel doors to the outside world, pretending what is going on out there is nothing to do with them. All this despite the clear commandment from our Saviour, a commandment that is in force until the end of the age: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20) To say that this applies only to the apostles violates the whole meaning of the passage.

Others have exchanged the truth for a perversion of the Gospel, a complete misrepresentation of the Christian faith, another Gospel of lies and deception. They have offered spiritual bilge water to drink and stones in place of the bread of life. They mislead with a false Gospel to which Paul said: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).

Many are now teaching that there is more than one way to Christ. The Bible could not be clearer, so why are they preaching something else? “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) The Lord Jesus is the only way to God. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) One well-known evangelical preacher, Billy Graham, said in a television interview with respect to Jews, Muslims, they are in God’s hands ‘I don’t judge them’. Let me give you Graham’s own words so that there is no misunderstanding:
“I think there's the Body of Christ. This comes from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they're conscious of it or not, they're members of the Body of Christ. … whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don't have, and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think that they are saved, and that they're going to be with us in heaven.”

This is an outrageous distortion of the truth, serious error and apostasy coming from a man widely respected in conservative evangelical circles for many decades. Another millionaire evangelist, again speaking on television, refused to assert clearly when challenged from the Bible, that Jesus Christ is the only way to God using the same get-out, “Let God be the Judge, I am not going to say who is going to heaven and who is not.” These men are blatant liars, devoid of the truth, propagators of a false gospel. It is all very straightforward:
“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18)

The Bible is very clear as to what we must do, separate from those who distort or bring shame on the Name of Christ by what they teach and do. Only after long thought and much prayer have we made such a separation with others.
“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:   For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” (2 John 9-11)

It was not always so. Read the words of historic evangelicals and a servant of God with whom we can very much identify, the evangelical churchman and first bishop of Liverpool, Dr J. C. Ryle. Dr Ryle is, as ever, very clear in what he says and certainly a million miles away from his modern counterparts, no ambiguity. Jew, Gentile, Muslim, Roman Catholic, and anyone else must kneel before Christ Jesus and acknowledge Him and His merits alone as their only hope of salvation, trusting Him alone or they will be lost.
“Let us make sure that we rightly understand what the Apostle (Peter) means. He says of Christ, ‘Neither is there salvation in any other’. Now, what does he mean? On our clearly seeing this very much depends.
He means that no one can be saved from sin, - its guilt, its power, and its consequences, - excepting by Jesus Christ.
He means that no one can have peace with God the Father, - obtain pardon in this world, and escape wrath to come in the next, - excepting through the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ.
In Christ alone God’s rich provision of salvation for sinners is treasured up: by Christ alone God’s abundant mercies come down from heaven to earth. Christ’s blood alone can cleanse us; Christ’s righteousness alone can clothe us; Christ’s merit alone can give us title to heaven. Jews and Gentiles, learned and unlearned, kings and poor men, - all alike must either be saved by the Lord Jesus, or lost for ever.” (from Only One Way of Salvation)

FINALLY

Not that we condone everything said and done by them, both Valerie and I have been blessed so much by the writings of the Reformers. A favourite and most read by me is Martin Luther. Among the Puritans, a local man, Richard Baxter of Bridgnorth and Kidderminster is high on the list as is William Romaine. I could write at length on Baxter, but will refrain, just to say he was such a brave man. Hearing his preaching, spies sent to his Church fled in terror. A man full of love and care for his flock, he made himself poor supplying them with Bibles and spiritual literature. At my age, he was threatened by evil Judge Jeffreys, the hanging judge, with being dragged through the streets of London by a horse and cart. Who will step into their shoes today I wonder? I see no one.

I have found in the Reformers’ teaching, that of the Puritans and many later more recent reformed theologians and teachers such a blessing and help and am happy to be identified with them. They have a depth and spirituality that is lacking today. All that they have said and written I subject to the exacting scrutiny of the sacred Scriptures, so that I cannot go along with them in every detail.

They teach the sovereignty of God in a scriptural and God-honouring way, in salvation but also in His providential ordering of all things in the world He created. Our salvation is in the hands of God to be received through repentance and faith in Christ alone. The direction of history will reach its predestined end and all God’s enemies will be crushed. His purpose cannot be thwarted in the smallest detail by the will of men. This means that when I pray in faith, God is in a position to answer and fulfil all He has promised. They give to the will of man its proper place, a free agency within the overall purposes of God carrying with it the full responsibility for human actions. They give my daily tasks real meaning as I see them and all that befalls us as an integral part of what God has providentially destined for us. Above all, Christ is in God, glorified in all things. Soli Deo Gloria. They believe that the Gospel message is for all without distinction, so that whosever will believe shall be saved. It is a Gospel that impinges on every area of human life.

I do not know how many years God still will grant me or whether I shall fall to some sickness or disability, but it is my intention to live my life to the glory of my precious Lord who saved me.

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in ev'ry high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.

When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.

Edward Mote ((1797-1874)

My great fear for many I have known over the years is that their hopes lie somewhere else other than in Christ alone. They profess faith in Christ and may have confidence in some experience they have had; this they say proves they are real Christians, even superior ones than others who lack this special knowledge. They may be trusting in a creed or professed faith, a bit of paper they signed, their baptism, or a prayer they said years before. Too many have accepted the Christian faith as if it were an insurance policy for heaven. Once you have signed on the dotted line you are safe. How you live afterwards is less important, once safe then always safe. The tragedy is that on that great day of reckoning they may be found wanting. They are unapproachable; they feel it is a sin to do as the Scriptures say and examine themselves to see whether they be in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). The evidence of genuine faith is the way you live afterwards. We are to be doers of the word and not hearers only, “faith, if it hath not works, is dead” (James 2:17); it is not the faith that saves. Once signed up, they can relax or so they think. They are at liberty to live like everyone else around them. In fact they make a virtue of it – would not want to appear to be different. It is the difference that makes all the difference. My heart cries out for those living in a delusion.

The smell of death is a distinctive one that lingers in the nostrils. Once experienced, it is seldom forgotten. It is one I have met on a number of occasions. To stand beside the lifeless body of someone you have known as Valerie and I did some years ago when beside my father ought to be a sobering moment. The evening before, he had whispered Valerie’s name as she held her face close to his. He was still there, now he was gone. The empty shell was still limp, but no one was in it. Where was he, where had the man we knew gone? Certainly, he was no longer on earth. I did not cry, but stood looking at the scene before me.

There were other members of the family with us. A nurse came into the room, a Christian lady perhaps, and uttered some kind words of comfort. She was, however, rudely cut short by a member of the family. “We are all Christians,” as if there was nothing more to be said. The solemnity of the moment was destroyed and a strange shiver went down my spine. Presumptuousness is a dangerous trait. Was it fear, was it presumption or insensitivity, careless talk? Were all in that room believers, who could say? The Lord alone knows them that are His (2 Timothy 2:19) and certainly one should not speak in this way for another. Yet, we can each know the assurance of belonging to Christ. It is sometimes said and not without reason that we shall meet some in the heavenly kingdom whom we perhaps did not expect to see there and others will be sadly missing. Let us impress upon everyone the need to trust Christ alone and to trust Him now: “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

May each of us continue as shining lights until our last. When heart and flesh are failing most conspicuously, may the life of the spirit shine out with its most brilliant coruscations as light from Gideon’s broken pitchers. We are more than flesh and blood and when these are most impaired, we reach out to the realities of the eternal world. There is a sphere where the ethereal tenant of this feeble human frame reaches forth with unquenchable vigour. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)

“No one has made good progress in the school of Christ unless he anticipates with joy the day of his death and of the final resurrection.”

John Calvin, Institutes of Religion

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