A great controversy has broken out over a photography exhibition featuring a series of naked and semi-naked adolescents—some in sexually suggestive poses—photographed by artist Bill Henson. As Wikipedia summarizes:

On the 22 May 2008, the opening night of Bill Henson's 2007-2008 exhibition at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, depicting nude children, was canceled after Hetty Johnston, a child protection campaigner, lodged a complaint about the exhibition with the New South Wales police.

The furore from commentators of the left and right has been intense. Elizabeth Farrelly, repeating a common argument, says:

It's like that joke. A man on the psychiatrist's couch sees, in ink blot after ink blot, nothing but sexual imagery. A butterfly shape looks like testicles, a hilly mountain-scape like a rollicking bedroom scene, and so on. But when the shrink delivers his verdict—you, sir, are a sex fiend—the man is indignant. “What?” he huffs. “But you're the one drawing the dirty pictures!”

This underpins the Henson case. Who's drawing the dirty pictures here?

To which right-wing satirist Tim Blair retorts, “Nobody. Henson is taking photographs of naked 13-year-olds.”

Indeed. Christians who have in the past been the brunt of taunts about prudishness and wowserism will be somewhat surprised, if pleased, to discover that a boundary line in public opinion has suddenly been reached. There really is a limit to what society will tolerate in the name of art. It's a pity that the issue has to be so extreme, but it's surely better than no limit existing at all.

This debate will continue to play out, and rightly so. Christian teaching about the power of sex to damage when misused is (sadly) going to be confirmed again and again. But for those interested in seeing the utter vacuity of secular thinking about morality, this will be worth paying attention to.

Here's just one example. People defending immorality have often used the argument that peoples' personal sexual preferences and behaviour are their own business; we have no business prying into individuals' private bedroom behaviour. Now, astonishingly, some of the defenders of these near-pedophilic pictures are arguing that they are legitimate because they are not private. So Elizabeth Farrelly, in the opinion piece linked above, mocks her opponents with these words:

As though a latent pedophile might enact his fantasies only after popping into a Paddington art show for inspiration ... We know that pedophilia thrives less on public erotica, offensive as such advertising is, than on secrecy masked as decency. We know it exploits children's innocence, not their sexuality, and that it flourishes in the very vestries, boudoirs and private offices of the respectable.

So there we are. Danger now lies with privacy. If we happen to discover that the obscene images are out in public view, we can relax!

Keep a watch on this issue; there will (unfortunately) be plenty of material here for the Christian apologist to use in talking about the nature of sin and our blindness to it.

PS. Soon-to-be-sola-panellist Paul Grimmond sent in this short, sharp comment:

What is art?

Last night I had a nightmare. They'd caught a priest with photos of naked 12-year-old girls on his hard drive. Cate Blanchett was saying how terrible it was that the church had abused its position of trust. Then I woke up. How relieved I was to find that it was all just a dream. And I thanked God that we have ‘art’ to ‘enrich’ our lives.

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Today we interview Sola Panellist Gavin Perkins.

Gavin, how did you come to Christ?

From my point of view, although I attended Sunday school as a kid, by the middle of high school I had managed to wangle my way out of that. At the age of about 14, a group of my surfing friends were slowly infiltrated by people who not only went to church but actually seemed to believe that Jesus was alive and that he mattered. Slowly that group of friends—including me—came to believe the same thing.

From God's point of view, my Christian grandparents had been praying for me since before I was born.

How do you occupy your time?

Apart from being the husband of Amy and the father of three pre-school children, with all the rest of my time I am part of the ministry team at Christ Church St Ives Anglican in Sydney. I have two main roles on the staff: I planted and now pastor St Ives Family Church, a family congregation that meets in a local primary school hall, and I also oversee the recruitment and training of ministry apprentices at Christ Church.

What about your other interests?

I love playing and watching sport. I played rugby until my mid-20s, but have now switched to the more leisurely pursuit of bowling gentle off-spinners on the cricket field. I grew up near the beach and spent way too much time in the water. However, for honesty's sake, my wife now insists that I call myself a surfer in the past tense.

What are you reading now?

• David Wells, The Courage to be Protestant
• James Gilmore & David Pine, Authenticity
• DA Carson, Christ and Culture
• Brian Rosner (ed.), The Consolations of Theology
• Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

What are five books that really helped you grow as a Christian?

• Broughton Knox, The Everlasting God—now found in The Selected Works of Broughton Knox (Volume 1)
• JI Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
• R Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man
• Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield (SG: Note that I've linked to Crossway's paperback abridged version of this huge two volume biography)
• Henri Blocher, Evil and the Cross

What are three books you'd recommend as must-reads right now?

• DA Carson, Christ and Culture
• Tim Challies, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment
• Paul Barnett, Paul: Missionary of Jesus

What would your friends say are your hobby horses?

• The conviction that the ‘emerging church’ is simply a rebadged liberalism propagated by people with cool hair cuts.
• The conviction that if the men are discipled, then the battle is won.

What is something that makes you angry?

• The cruelty of heresy
• Christian men who fail to take responsibility

Who is someone that inspires you?

Charles H Spurgeon: “he being dead yet speaketh”.

What is your ideal day off?

Sleep in past 7.30. Have a great home-made shot of espresso. Go out with my family for brunch at somewhere like Mona Vale, Bronte or Balmoral, and get a plate of Eggs Benedict where the yolks are just perfectly runny. Sit on the sand and make sandcastles with my girls. Get the kids to help make pizza from scratch. Have nowhere in particular to be that night. Watch a movie at home with Amy, followed by cheering on Chelsea FC as they beat Manchester United 1-0 in the English Premier League. Go to bed with a smile on my face.

Give us your top five surf spots in New South Wales

1. Fairy Bower (Manly)
2. Black Rock (Jarvis Bay)
3. Copacabana Point (Central Coast)
4. Bluey's Beach (south of Forster)
5. Angourie (near Yamba on the North Coast)

Thanks Gavin!

SG: P.S. A note on links for the books mentioned in these interviews: I make the links in the following order of preference:

1. to Matthias Media's webstore, if it's published by them
2. to Moore College's bookshop Moorebooks for Christian books (if they have stock) (however readers outside Australia should generally look closer to home)
3. to Amazon (USA) for other books
4. very occasionally, to an Australian bookshop, if a title is not available via Amazon.

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How does social action relate to the Last Day and the new creation?

Following on from Part 1 (on the relationship between evangelism and social action), here are six more propositions to chew on:

1. Theologically speaking, social action is part of sanctification.

   I hinted at this in the first post of this series, but it is worth re-stating at this point. The good and loving action we take on other's behalf—whether helping our neighbour clear his drains, or helping an entire village to have any drains at all—is a fruit of the Spirit in our lives. It is part of that lifelong process of being transformed into the image of the Son, who loved others and laid down his life for them. One of the mistakes people make in this regard (it seems to me) is they attempt to relate social action to a larger, looser category called ‘mission’. I don't see this move (or this category for that matter) in the New Testament.

2. Godly social action will be recognized on the last day, along with all our godly deeds.

   Our good deeds are the fine linen we will wear on the great day of judgement. They will not earn our salvation or justification (of course!), but they are evidence of our saving faith in Christ. They will thus be a reason for commendation from our heavenly Father, even if others have not seen them (1 Cor 4:5).

3. We should engage in social action because the world is going to be destroyed.

   The approaching day of God is often seen in the New Testament as a strong motivation for godliness and holiness: Paul urges his Colossian readers, for example, to set their minds on heaven and the coming day of Christ as this is the motivation to put off the old and put on the new (Col 3:1-17). If social action is a species of good works, then it too is related to eschatology in this way.

   2 Peter 3 gives it a particular twist: the inevitable coming of the new heavens and earth, the home of righteousness, should motivate us now to godliness and holiness, even though we expect—no because we expect—a cataclysmic reconfiguring of this creation on judgement day. I am aware that there is some debate over 2 Peter 3 as to the proportion of ‘continuity’ and ‘discontinuity’ between old creation and new. Personally, I think the emphasis of the passage is very much on the discontinuity. However, it makes no difference for our purposes how much of the created order will or will not be destroyed. Read Peter's argument carefully:

   Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. (2 Pet 3:11-14)

   He does not say, “Some of the creation will be preserved into the new creation, and so it's worth improving people's social circumstances and building more just infrastructures, because these will endure in some way into the new creation”. But also notice, he does not say, “It's all going to burn anyway, so what's the use of trying to help anyone or do anything?” No, his argument is “Because of the destruction that is coming, what sort of people should you be?”

   This is the culmination of a theme which runs right through Peter's second epistle—that, in view of the coming day of judgement in which we finally enter into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we should be all the more diligent to make our calling and election sure, making every effort to supplement our faith with excellence, and excellence with knowledge, and so on, through to the crowning virtue of love (1:5-7).

   So the coming judgement of all things, in which the heavens and earth are “stored up for fire” (2 Pet 3:7) should by no means put a dampener on our efforts to love other people. On the contrary, says Peter. In view of its coming, we should redouble our efforts to live godly, holy lives of love.

4. Godliness is other-person-centred.

   The word ‘godliness’ sometimes has a private, inward-looking smell about it in our Christian culture, as if it consists entirely of personal Bible reading and prayer. But this is inadequate. To be like God is to give yourself for others, as Christ did. It means serving the interests of others rather than ourselves. There are a multitude of ways we can do this, small and large. (More on this in Part 3.)

5. The ultimate eschatological motive for social action (like all godly, loving action) is to glorify the God who has redeemed us.

   Here's one way in which loving social action is like evangelism. In both cases, what is required from us is not success or results, but God-glorifying action. We don't evangelize in order to save people; we evangelize to bring God glory, who does the saving. We're not in it for the results, although we rejoice when we see the results. We're in it as faithful stewards, imitating our Lord and Saviour who came to seek and to save the lost—which is why we'll keep evangelizing till kingdom come, regardless of the results. Ditto loving people and trying to help them, in all sorts of ways. We're not in it to change the world, although we rejoice when we see results. But we recognize that world changing will happen in God's time, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. We're in it to give God glory on the day he visits us (1 Pet 2:12).

6. In the meantime, this old creation remains frustrated and futile.

   The New Testament repeats the realism of Ecclesiastes (via Romans 8, for example). The world remains a fallen and frustrating field of moral action, under the power of the evil one. We are not building the new Jerusalem now, nor even laying bricks that will endure into it. We are citizens now of the new heavenly Jerusalem, but it comes down from heaven; it is not made with human hands.

   We should therefore be cautious about grand schemes. We should take action on behalf of others as we have opportunity, neither being discouraged by the inevitable disappointments and shortcomings, nor dazzled by the optimism of those who do not share our biblical perspective.

Part 3.

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There is a famous Australian television commercial which features a man in a nightclub. The punchline of the ad is “I'm so cool, I dance on the inside”. In the weeks and months following, this saying was adopted for all kinds of situations—for example, “I'm so cool, I hug on the inside”.

Why do I mention this? Well, I was listening to a sermon the other day. I was in row #4. As is my habit, when the preacher said something true, I nodded. And since the preacher was hotter than a blacksmith's bellows, there was a lot of nodding to be done.

After the sermon, I had a conversation with one of my mates. He said, “Hi, Benny! Great sermon, eh? I saw you nodding away up front. I was nodding too ...” And before he'd finished the sentence, I cut in and sort of spoke over him, saying, “Yeah, you gotta nod don't you?” He finished his sentence the same time I did: “ ... on the inside”.

It was a little awkward.

It got me thinking about the nonverbal communication we send our teachers, leaders and preachers when we sit before them. Have you ever wondered what your pastor sees as he preaches to you, the congregation? Let me tell you what he sees.

He sees a whole stack of different screen savers. A screen saver is a person's default facial expression. Let me tell you about some of the common Aussie screen savers (I'd be interested to see whether they're common in other countries):

• The ‘Shar Pei’ screen saver: Have you seen this breed of dog? They have a plethora of huge wrinkles all over their faces. They look like they're permanently angry—permanently grumpy. This is a very common screen saver.
• The ‘invisible fairy search’ screen saver: These people look everywhere except at the speaker. They're like Captain Hook looking for Tinker Bell in the old Disney classic Peter Pan. They gaze intently at each of the rafters—at the seat next to them—up the back (turning 180 degrees to do so), and sometimes they partially stand up and look under themselves. What are they looking for?
• The White Rabbit screen saver: Like the character from Alice in Wonderland, people with this screen saver are always looking at their watch. It is very disconcerting three minutes into the sermon. Sometimes they hold up their wrist and tap their watch. They put it to their ear and shake it as though it has stopped ticking. They then mouth the words “Is my watch right?” to the person next to them, all the time blissfully unaware that the speaker can lip-read just as well as their wife who is sitting next to them.
• The stunned mullet screen saver: This person resembles a mullet floating on the surface after dynamite fishing. The preacher looking out on the stunned mullet could be excused for the following kind of self-talk: “Is Barry in Pew #8 alive? Is he breathing? How can you go for 17.5 minutes without blinking and stay completely still? Something has got to be wrong. Should I stop and let his family know he's died? If I do and I'm wrong, he'll be embarrassed. If I don't, I'll be remembered as the heartless pastor who killed his people with his own preaching. Help, Lord! Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
• The dipping duck screen saver: People with this screen saver are upright at 15% consciousness but then drop their heads at the final moment of unconsciousness, only to startle themselves, wake and start the whole process again.
• The Eutychus screen saver: Let me remind you of Acts 20:9: “And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer”. Eutychus screen saver people are the ‘dipping ducks’ with the second blessing: sleep does not elude them; they fall into it deeply. Sometimes they snore! That's the Husqvarna chainsaw screen saver, but we'll talk about that another time.

I haven't done any surveys, but I reckon about 5% of Christians give their teachers positive, nonverbal communication during talks, sermons and so on. I reckon it's 5%, despite age, life-stage, city, demographic and Christian maturity. The exception is the church camp/weekend away: if a speaker has the right tone at the beginning of the weekend, then, by talk #3 or #4 on Sunday, people are relaxed and communicative.

You might be thinking, “That's not right. I'd have a laugh if my pastor ever cracked a joke!” Would you really? Let's say 10% of the congregation laugh at Pastor Pete's joke. That's 1 in 10. Would you crack jokes again with a strike rate like that?

Let's encourage our leaders by offering some good, positive, nonverbal communication the next time we hear them share God's word with us. They work hard, so let's encourage them. Galatians 6:6 says, “One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches”. This verse isn't just talking about money; I suspect it's talking about encouragement as well. Luke 6:31 says, “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them”. What screen savers would you like to see if you were teaching God's word to a group of God's people? I suspect you'd be really encouraged by the odd nod, the smile, the laugh out loud, the inquisitive look, the tear, the giggle, and so on.

As our brother Jesus very helpfully points out, the issue here is an issue of love: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31; cf. Jas 2:8). It is loving to encourage. So let's be loving. Why don't we all nod on the outside from now on? Let's not nod off in every sense of the word.

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Judging by the site stats, which we have been keeping an eye on (but not obsessively), The Sola Panel has lots of readers from Canada and the US. Here's a deal I thought you should know about.

Marty Sweeney at Matthias Media USA is currently giving away 500 free 6-month subscriptions to our favourite evangelical magazine, The Briefing. There's no catch (apart from the fact that you need to live in North America and not already be a subscriber). Click here for all the details, and to sign up.

But you'll need to hurry. Marty is finalizing the final numbers in the next day or so.

Enjoy!

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Faith in Christ isn't easy for human beings. We can't win. When times are good, our trust in Christ can fall away, for, after all, who needs it? When times are bad, we can rage at Christ. Our faith is numbed under the sharp pang or the dull ache of our pain.

But then again, faith in Christ is not so hard for human beings. When things are easy for us, faith is easy, because all it takes is that word of thanks to the One who has been so good. When things are hard, faith is easy, because there is nowhere else we can go to find any solution, but into his arms.

Faith is both natural to us (because we trust someone or something practically every moment of the day), and unnatural to us (because trust is broken or disappointed so often, and we can grow cynical and hard and withdrawn). The gospel of God's love tells us that salvation is easy and hard: it is there for the taking (“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden”—Matt 11:28); and yet it is impossible to acquire on our own (“With man it is impossible”—Mark 10:27). Faith is easy and hard: to be saved, all we have to do is trust Christ, but, at the same time, this can only happen if God opens our eyes and quickens our hearts. Faith is ours, and yet faith is a gift.

And faith isn't even a ‘thing’. It is not a quality, or an attribute, or a characteristic, or an activity. It is an open hand. It is the grateful sense that something has been given. It is the heart that turns to the Giver in wonder at what has just been given. It is the cry of thanks when life is easy. It is the cry for help when things are hard.

It is that hard. It is that easy.

When life is hard—when life is easy—the Saviour's words remain the same: “Do not fear, only believe” (Mark 5:36).

But then faith is hard, and faith is easy—just as it was for the father who had anxiously watched his son being almost destroyed, constantly, from the day his son was born: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

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It's when all the serious hurt-mouthing of God begins. Why me? What have I ever done to him? Where was he when I really needed him? After all I have done for him, what happened? How about a break? Isn't this enough now? Just stop!

Life is tough. Suffering is real. Things aren't working out like you dreamed they would—let alone like you deserve! It makes it so hard to keep on believing that God is being good to you. Where is he? Where is his love?

And on it goes.

But what are you going to do? Take the advice Job's wife gave to her husband, to curse God and die (Job 2:9)? That hardly seems sensible, and it hardly seems a step that will alleviate your suffering—especially if being right with God holds the key to eternity!

Eternity. Now there's a thought. A glory to come that is not even worth comparing to the sufferings of the moment (Rom 8:18). But can we even imagine that kind of glory? Perhaps the more we suffer, the greater the contrast, and the more our imagination is fired up—'cos what else is there? A whole new creation, new bodies, new reality, sin gone, death gone, pain gone, crying gone (Rev 21:1-4). When I feel the sufferings of this present age and hear the gospel promises, the disjunction couldn't be more enormous. It is enough to make me groan. It is enough to make me cry out, not “Why me?”, but “Remember me!”. And as I cry out, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24), it is enough to make me remember the answer to that question. Jesus' victory was mine—it was ‘for me’. And his victory makes me strain ahead to the inheritance, he has promised to share. Not even worth comparing ...

When life is hard, nothing is easy—not even faith. But, then again, perhaps when life is hard, faith becomes easy—by default. For where else are you going to go? He has the words of eternal life (John 6:68). And when life seems to squeeze the vice-grip harder, it is as if he turns our painful groans into cries of expectation. And the vice once again becomes his loving embrace.

(To be continued …)

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Sometimes a person seems to have a ‘charmed existence’. Everything (at least from the outside) seems to be just right. No real worries. Healthy, happy, wholesome. Perhaps even healthy, wealthy and wise. It seems that life, for them, is effortless and easy. It just comes their way and when it arrives, it is good.

It must (at least from the outside) be easy for such a person to have faith. God is good. Their life is good. Therefore, they believe in that good God. It is that simple. What could be easier?

But then again, if it was this easy, why did Amos have to condemn the fat cows of Bashan, whose ease and prosperity had led to their excesses (Amos 4:1)? And weren't they something of a picture for all of Israel, who grew fat on the nurture of the Lord, and then deserted him (Deut 32:15)? And what was so easy for the ‘rich young ruler’ who caused Jesus such sadness, because he chose his wealth, over gaining his own soul (Mark 10:17-30)?

There is nothing easy about faith when times are prosperous. Why do we need God when times are so good? He has given us everything already! That might almost sound like gratitude, but the next thought soon comes: Why do we need God at all? We are pretty well off, and in fact, didn't we gain this prosperity through our own efforts anyway? Why do we need to acknowledge God, or even give him thanks? (Rom. 1:21). Any name we may have made in the midst of our prosperity is the one that we made for ourselves!

It is not so easy to have faith when life's easy. It just becomes a moment to revel in the gigantic tower we have made, whose top just keeps on pushing aside heaven.

(To be continued …)

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It's a commonplace of the Roman Catholic tradition that those Christians who have died are now in heaven interceding for us. So the authoritative (for Roman Catholics) Roman Catholic Catechism asserts,

The intercession of the saints. “Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness ... They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus ... So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped.”

It's an idea that is unsupported by Scripture, but is universally used within the Roman Catholic tradition to encourage Roman Catholics to offer prayers to Mary and the Saints. In contrast, Hebrews 7 points out that it's the Lord Jesus who intercedes for us in heaven:

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb 7:23-25; emphasis mine)

Now there is a comforting thought for those who suffer in this world. Jesus is in heaven, praying for us in his capacity as heavenly high priest, making intercession for our sins. Indeed, the idea that anyone else who is not a high priest (and in the Book of Hebrews, Jesus uniquely occupies this role) might intercede on our behalf really is the most terrible blasphemy.

Even if dead Christians were capable of interceding for us in the way the Roman Catholic catechism envisages, there is no guarantee that they are able to hear us, and there is some indication in the New Testament that they can't. There is, however, a curious yet encouraging passage in Revelation 6 where we find that there are, in fact, dead saints offering prayers to God:

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Rev 6:9-11)

How literally we ought to take this image is a question for another day. There is a great deal of picture language in Revelation, and if we are committed to taking it as factually as a news report, then we may also find ourselves committed to believing that God is not Trinity, but is of one substance with the seven spirits before his throne. So I for one am not going to insist that there are dead, martyred Christians praying before the throne of God at this very moment. Revelation 6 is making a point about God's sovereignty and justice (not about human consciousness between the time of our physical death and the day of final judgement).

But even assuming that the dead, martyred saints are indeed consciously in God's presence, offering their prayers to him, we are seriously misguided if we think that they are going to focus their energy on praying for us (especially if, as Hebrews 7 has shown us already, this is a job reserved for Jesus). Revelation 6 depicts these faithful souls as praying for God's judgement and justice to be poured out, and soon.

Now there, at least, is a lesson we can learn from the dead saints. We should pray as they prayed and as Jesus taught—that God's kingdom would come, and that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Pray then, for divine judgement and justice.

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Well, my little piece on FairTrade coffee has ignited plenty of discussion and debate—not only about the pros and cons of the FairTrade movement, but about social action, doing good and political involvement more generally. It is to these latter questions of theology and principle that I now want to turn (although ‘turn’ sounds rather too grand—as if I am about to give myself to a lengthy and learned disquisition).

What I have in mind instead is three short posts that attempt to provide punchy (and doubtless limited) answers to three related questions:

1. What is the relationship between evangelism and social action?
2. How does social action relate to the Last Day and the new creation?
3. What does social action look like for the Christian?

(Incidentally, I am not using the term ‘social action’ to mean something different from ‘social involvement’ or other similar phrases—all of which refer to the good that Christians seek to do in their local communities, and in society more broadly conceived.)

Firstly, then:

Six propositions on the relationship between evangelism and social action

1. Evangelism and social action are distinct activities
   This is an obvious thing to say, but it needs to be said. Evangelism = telling weak, sinful people that they are lost and powerless, but for the amazing message of God's grace in Jesus Christ. Social action = empowering the weak, and working together with them to effect change in their temporary circumstances here and now. Evangelism and social action are both good and worthwhile things, but they are not the same thing. We should not try to justify social action by disguising it as evangelism, nor make our evangelism more acceptable to the world (and more amenable to our weak selves) by redefining it as social action.
2. Prayerful proclamation is central to the work of the Lord
   Because of the human predicament (sinners facing God's wrath), and because of the days we live in (open season on salvation as we wait for judgement day), God has given us a work to do. He has commissioned his people to an urgent task that addresses the need of the hour—that people hear the call to repent while there is time. Thus evangelism and social action are both good activities, but they are not equal in importance. There is an urgency and centrality to the gospel task.
3. Evangelism and social action are inseparable
   All the same, the language of ‘priority’ is probably not so useful (as in ‘evangelism has priority’), because it might imply that we sit down and devise our evangelistic ‘To Do’ list, and then see if there is any time left to help people (agenda items 16 through 20). In reality, the two happen side by side as we love people, live among them and seek to bring them the gospel. Proclamation may be central, but its context will be a life of love that seeks to do good to those around us. The nature of this loving social action will be largely determined by our circumstances (i.e. preaching the gospel in the slums of Calcutta will require a different form of action than if we were preaching in a leafy, materialist suburb, where the pressing need may not be material deprivation but a breakdown in relationships, marriages and family life).
4. Social action is unconditional love, not a tactic
   Godly living adorns the gospel, says Paul to Titus (2:10). But godly living is not an evangelistic tactic, and neither is social action. Good works are glorifying to God in and of themselves. They are the reason Christ gave himself for us, that he might “purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). Social action (like any form of godly action in Christ) may have the effect of impressing people deeply, and causing them to enquire after Christ. But then again, it might not. Those who campaign, for example, against the social evils of abortion or alcohol abuse are routinely despised and ridiculed in our society. In such cases, it will only be on the day of God's visitation that their revilers will glorify God (1 Pet 2:12).
5. Social action is not a magic evangelistic bullet
   Social action is not a key to unlock people's hearts—as if all we need to do is engage in more effective and visible forms of social improvement in order for people to suddenly understand the gospel and come flooding into the kingdom. It's not a means to an end, nor is it our gospel. We do not preach ourselves and our wonderful good deeds; we hold up a despised and pathetic-looking banner that says “Christ crucified”, and then pray for the Spirit to unstop the ears and open the eyes of the people we speak to (1 Cor 1:23).
6. The Great Commission is to make and to teach
   We might summarize all this by saying that the Great Commission has two interrelated facets: to make disciples and to baptize them into the teaching of Jesus. We make disciples by proclaiming the gospel prayerfully, and then we teach disciples to love others as Jesus commanded (which means serving others and doing good to them as we have opportunity—Gal 6:10).

Apart for asking about how this relates to eschatology/the new creation, and what it looks like in practice (the subjects of the next two parts), what do you think?

(Most of the points above are developed at greater length in a pair of articles I co-authored with Tim Chester for The Briefing back in 2005. I'll get these online at The Briefing site as soon as I can.)

Part 2.

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