William Wilberforce is famous not only for his persistent efforts to see the slave trade abolished in England, but as the author of Real Christianity,¹ in which he makes the radical distinction between nominal and real Christians.

Less well-known is the fact that Wilberforce regularly heard this distinction made in the sermons of his pastor and colleague, John Venn, rector of the Clapham Church and Chaplain of the so-called Clapham Sect.

In this excerpt from one of John Venn’s sermons, real Christianity is distinguished from nominal Christianity in vivid terms:

Religion is not merely an act of homage paid upon our bended knees to God; it is not confined to the closet and the church, nor is it restrained to the hours of the sabbath; it is a general principle extending to a man’s whole conduct in every transaction and in every place. I know no mistake which is more dangerous than that which lays down devotional feelings alone as the test of true religion . . . Let us be convinced that all prayer, all preaching, all knowledge, are but means to attain a superior end; and that end the sanctification of the heart and of all the principles on which we are daily acting. Till our Christianity appears in our conversation, in our business, in our pleasures, in the aims and objects of our life, we have not attained a conformity to the image of our Saviour, nor have we learned His Gospel aright.²

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Marriage Rates at Historical Low, but More Weddings Predicted (USA Today)

News Coverage Favors Gay “Marriage” Fans over Opponents by 5-to-1: Pew Study (The Washington Times)

Government Makes Gender Change Effortless, On Paper (World Magazine)

ARTICLE: How to Help a Troubled Marriage (Crosswalk)

Iran: Six Christian Converts Convicted While Attention Was on Presidential Election (Assist News Story)

Philippines: Christians Forced to Flee Homes (Religion Today)

Unborn Pain Bill Slated for Vote Tuesday (Baptist Press)

INTERVIEW: Hobby Lobby President on Birth Control Mandate Lawsuit, Religious Freedom, and New Bible Museum (The Christian Post)

John Piper Steps Away for a Year of Writing & Reflection; Shares His Thoughts on Fatherhood (Knoxville News Sentinel)

Children to Be Allowed Right to Die If Belgium Legislation Passes (The Christian Post)

Beware of “Comfort Care” (World Magazine)

Hard-line Egypt Cleric Sentenced for Burning Bible (The Seattle Times)

EDITORIAL: The Declining Demand for Husbands (The New York Times)

ARTICLE: Living out the Gospel in a “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” World (The Layman Online)

ARTICLE: Choosing Marriage Over the Mission Field (Christianity Today)

ARTICLE: Why Boldness Matters Now (Desiring God)

Muslim Persecution of Christians: The Spring Offensive (AINA)

Insider Movements – Gutting the Bible (Reformation 21)

Church Founded by Former Slaves Celebrates 150 Years (MPR News)

Christian College in Omaha Expels Lesbian (USA Today)

Should American Foreign Policy Project Christian Values or Protect Christian Lives? (The Gospel Coalition)

Manhattan Thug Robs Elderly Man of Leather-Bound Bible (The Washington Times)

Euthanizing Sick Babies to Spare Parents’ Suffering (World Magazine)

5 Facts about Fatherhood in The United States for Father’s Day (Acton Institute)

ARTICLE: I Do Not Want to Honor My Father (The Gospel Coalition)

QUOTE: Good Advice for Father’s Day from J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) (The BibleMesh Blog)

*News stories and editorials on this page do not necessarily represent the views of the BibleMesh editorial board.  BibleMesh cannot control objectionable advertising on news sites.

. . . [W]e are always influencing those around us, in one way or another, either for good or for evil, either for God or for sin.—They see our ways, they mark our conduct, they observe our behaviour, and what they see us practise, that they may fairly suppose we think right. And never, I believe, does example tell so powerfully as it does in the case of parents and children . . .[i] ¹

Be an example of reverence for the Word of God, reverence in prayer, reverence for means of grace, reverence for the Lord’s Day.—Be an example in words, in temper, in diligence, in temperance, in faith, in charity, in kindness, in humility. Think not your children will practise what they do not see you do . . .

Children are very quick observers; very quick in seeing through some kinds of hypocrisy, very quick in finding out what you really think and feel, very quick in adopting all your ways and opinions. You will often find as the father is, so is the son . . .

They will seldom learn habits which they see you despise, or walk in paths in which you do not walk yourself. He that preaches to his children what he does not practise, is working a work that never goes forward. It is like the fabled web of Penelope of old, who wove all day, and unwove all night. Even so, the parent who tries to train without setting a good example is building with one hand, and pulling down with the other.[ii]

Rand Paul: U.S. Is Funding a “War Against Christianity” (The Washington Post)

Christians Face Being Driven from the Middle East (The Toronto Sun)

Medieval Skeletons Give Clues to Leprosy Origins (BBC)

U.S. Supreme Court Rules Human Genes Cannot Be Patented (The Guardian)

Man Turns “Largest Abortion Facility in Western Michigan” Into Pro-Life Headquarters
(The Washington Times)

Authorities Raid Florida Abortion Center (World Magazine)

Irish Abortion Law Bill Published (The Guardian)

Patriots Owner: I Like Tebow’s Spirituality (News Max)

Matt Chandler on Beating Indifference with Bible Study (Crosswalk)

ARTICLE: Men in Black Robes: Revolutionary Preaching (The Christian Post)

ARTICLE: God Rules the Mundane  (The Gospel Coalition)

QUICK-TAKE VIDEO: Dr. Paul House on “The Ten Commandments” (BibleMesh)

*News stories and editorials on this page do not necessarily represent the views of the BibleMesh editorial board.  BibleMesh cannot control objectionable advertising on news sites.

But what of the deeper issue, whether God could be the author of killer storms? If so, why would He visit so much grief on a people? Queen Anne had an answer when a horrific storm hit southern England in 1703, killing 8,000 of her subjects. Her official proclamation read,

Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God to afflict our kingdom by terrible Storms of Wind … many ships were sunk … great numbers have perished … houses and buildings demolished … corn and hay scattered abroad … very great damage and impoverishment … it loudly calls for the deepest and most solemn humiliation … we humbly acknowledge it to be a token of Divine displeasure … through God’s infinite mercy we were not wholly destroyed … we have resolved and do hereby command that a General Public Fast be observed.[ii]

Her quote enjoys the patina of royal venerability, but similar, current voices are usually less well received. For instance, when Austrian bishop Gerhard Maria Wagner deemed Hurricane Katrina “divine retribution” for New Orleans’ decadence, he stirred up a host of critics. By his castigated account, the city’s “conditions of immorality” were “indescribable,” and it was “no coincidence that in New Orleans all five abortion clinics as well as night clubs were destroyed.”[iii]

Of course, Christians are not the only ones offering spiritual takes on natural disasters. Voltaire took advantage of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which took 100,000 lives, to mock those who claimed that God was blamelessly sovereign over the world.[iv]

So what is the Christian to make of these things? First, Scripture is clear that God can and does use the weather for His purposes. As it says in Job 37:13, “He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth and show his love.” For instance, in Exodus 9, God followed through on His promise to Pharaoh through Moses to hit Egypt with a great hailstorm. And in order to turn the wayward Jonah back toward Nineveh, “the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up” (Jonah 1:4). Nevertheless, the Bible discourages speculation on particular reasons for specific tragedies, as when Jesus embarrassed his disciples in John 9:9, where they asked whether a man’s blindness was his fault or his father’s.

Of course, there are many other biblical examples and precepts that speak to this issue, but the basic principles stand out, that one must be very careful both about ruling out divine action through disasters and about proclaiming which of His purposes are in play in their occurrence.

What is a Bible reader to make of this potentially confusing arrangement of books? First, don’t panic. In large part, the Bible is organized chronologically. Reading the Old Testament straight through from Genesis to Nehemiah will provide you with a generally chronological account of human history from creation through the Jewish return from exile.

Second, departures from a chronological presentation often are obvious even to novice Bible readers. Second Kings, for example, ends with a description of the deportation to Babylon, and the narrative portion of the next book, 1 Chronicles, begins with King Saul. Most will easily recognize this as a jump back in time. And though Mark, Luke, and John each restart the narrative at the beginning of Jesus’ life and ministry, this is hardly confusing.

But if the order of the Bible’s books still seems puzzling, keep in mind why our Bible is arranged the way it is. The order of our Old Testament books is based on the order of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. It divides the books into three sections based on their literary style. First are the narrative books (Genesis through Esther), then the wisdom books (Job through Song of Solomon), then the prophets (Isaiah through Malachi). The New Testament similarly is arranged in three sections with the books sorted according to their literary style. First are the narrative books (Matthew through Acts), then the Epistles (or letters to early Christians), then Revelation (a book in the apocalyptic genre and unlike any other New Testament writings).

Remember that the sacred writings of other world religions are not presented in chronological order either. The Qur’an is divided into 114 chapters, or suras, with the longer ones generally appearing first. Similarly, the Buddhist scripture the Sutta Pitaka opens with three sections of teaching attributed to Buddha and his disciples organized by length. What’s more, the Jewish people organized their Scriptures in a manner that was partially non-chronological for centuries before Christianity came on the scene.

As adherents of varied religions have recognized, a strict timeline is not always the best way to convey theological principles. The Hebrew Scriptures, for instance, place the book of Ruth immediately following the book of Proverbs, suggesting that Ruth embodies the principles of godly womanhood described in the final chapter of Proverbs.

So take heart when Bible books seem like they’re out of order. What appears puzzling has a good explanation. Rightly understood, it can help you know God and His Word more fully.

As one of the nineteenth century’s most prolific preachers and writers, Charles H. Spurgeon was pastor for 38 years at New Part Street Chapel, London, which later became the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Spurgeon had a gift for expressing clearly biblical truth. In one of his devotional writings on Psalm 119:53 (KJV), “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law,” the Christian is admonished to sorrow for the sins of others. For by such is a Christian brought back to his need for repentance and the pursuit of holiness.

My soul, do you feel this holy trembling at the sins of others? For if you do not, you lack inward holiness. David’s cheeks were wet with rivers of waters because of prevailing unholiness. Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was deeply troubled by the conduct of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in Ezekiel’s vision were those who sighed and cried for the sins of Jerusalem. Gracious souls cannot help but be grieved to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally [experientially], and they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder because it violates a holy law that is in every man’s highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the nation. Sin in others horrifies a believer because it makes him think of the baseness of his own heart: When he sees a transgressor he is reminded of his own frailty and vulnerability: “He fell today, and I may fall tomorrow.” Sin to a believer is horrible because it crucified the Savior; he sees in every iniquity the nails and spear. How troubling it should be when the Christian learns to tolerate rather than shrink from it in disgust. Each of us must examine his heart. It is an awful thing to insult God to His face. The good God deserves better treatment; the great God claims it; the just God will have it or repay His adversary to his face. An awakened heart trembles at the audacity of sin and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How dreadful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest you begin to smile at sin itself. It is your enemy, and your Lord’s enemy: Learn to detest it and to distance yourself from it, for only then can you give evidence of the possession of holiness, without which no one can see the Lord.[i]

Over the last few decades our understanding of what is happening in the womb has been illuminated, literally, by marvelous technology. With ultrasonography and miniature cameras, what was once visible only to God is now available to expecting parents. It is clearer than ever before that a pregnant woman carries a “who,” not a “what.” God and those who know His Word knew that all along.

Jeremiah 1:4-5 reports God’s announcement of Jeremiah’s call to be a prophet. However, He actually called Jeremiah to be a prophet much earlier. The person who would be known as “the weeping prophet” was set apart for that office even before he was born. Such is the wisdom and knowledge of the sovereign God.

Though the text concerns Jeremiah specifically, some of its truths apply universally. For instance, God tells Jeremiah that He “formed” him in the womb. The Hebrew verb yatsar, translated “formed,” comes from a family of words that includes the word for “potter.” Like a skillful potter, God forms every human being in the womb. The psalmist adds to the imagery of God as skillful artisan when he says he was “being made in secret, intricately woven” (Psalm 139:15).

Also note how God tells Jeremiah that before He formed him in the womb He “knew” him. The Hebrew word for “know” can have a wide variety of meanings, from “factual knowledge” (Genesis 27:2) to “carnal knowledge” (Genesis 19:5; Judges 21:11). The Jeremiah text connotes a personal relationship between God and the nascent prophet. God knew him thoroughly and completely, just as He knows every one of His human creations in an intimate way, even as they lie in the womb.

This is one of the reasons abortion is such a heinous act—it destroys a person with whom God is in intimate relation. He has formed them skillfully. He knows them intimately. Sovereignly, He has set them apart for His own purpose. To kill an unborn human being is, therefore, not only murder, but an affront to God Himself.

The appropriate response to being formed by the divine Craftsman is thanksgiving. The clay should turn to God, the Potter who formed him, and rejoice. Moreover, Christians should work to end abortion on demand because abortion kills those crafted in His image and, thereby, insults the One who made and knows them.