Housesitter

Here is another article by my friend Dr John Dempster

Reproduced with the permission of the author.

The mid-20thcentury preacher Martyn Lloyd Jones, to whose writing I owe a great personal debt, described William Barclay as ‘the most dangerous man in Christendom.’ Barclay, who ended his career as Professor of Theology at Glasgow University, was one of the highest-profile Christians of his age.

He was born in Wick a century ago on 5th December 1907 and had family roots in Fort William, but he spent most of his life in Scotland’s Central Belt. Following a dynamic 13-year ministry at Trinity Church in Renfrew, he became a lecturer in the theology department at Glasgow University in 1946. He was best known as a prolific writer and broadcaster, sharing the Christian message with ordinary people in books, articles and TV and radio appearances, and bringing the New Testament alive in his multi-volume Daily Study Bible.

Another notable preacher, James S. Stewart didn’t share Lloyd Jones’s opinion, describing Barclay as ‘a man possessed by the Gospel and passionately eager to share it.’ But Barclay was no stranger to criticism. He tells us in his autobiography, Testament of Faith ‘I have been called a child of the devil, a destroyer of the faith, a traitor to Jesus Christ. I have been informed that I am destined for hell.’

It must bemuse folk who are not believers to see how prone we Christians are to tear one another apart. It is clear, of course, that not everyone who calls themselves ‘Christian’ is necessarily a Christian in any meaningful sense of the word. To my way of thinking, meaningful Christianity involves belief in a God who reveals himself to us; belief in Jesus as God-come-among-us, both showing us what God is like, and making it possible for us to find him; and commitment to putting Jesus’ teaching into practice with God-given help. This is the core of Christianity, and anyone who preaches a different message is grievously diluting the Gospel. But in these terms, William Barclay’s teaching was thoroughly Christian.

That’s not to say I agree with all his views. He believed, for instance, that because of the greatness of God’s love, none of us will in the end be excluded from his presence, while I can’t overlook the Bible’s emphasis on God’s gift of free choice, and its solemn warnings that if we come to the end of our lives still rejecting the light God has given us then beyond death we must face the consequences of that choice.

Barclay rejected the mainstream view that in dying on the cross Jesus was absorbing God’s judgement on the sins of humanity. He argued that this teaching set an angry, judgemental God, reluctant to forgive, against a loving Jesus, willing to be punished on our behalf.

But I believe that sins have moral consequences which can’t be overlooked and that in love God came among us in Jesus to bear himself the judgement we deserved. There’s no question of the Son being set against the Father. Rather, Father and Son worked together in a loving, agonising cooperation to set us free.

But although I disagree with some of his views, as I read his biography and some of his writings I have an inescapable sense that this man was thoroughly Christian, my brother in God’s family.

I was moved by his love of God, his zest for life, and his humanity, while noting his imperfections such as workaholic drivenness.

I was especially moved by his pain at the death of his daughter Barbara in a drowning accident in 1956, and the struggling faith with which he responded to it. He no doubt prayed in this situation as he encouraged others to pray in similar crises ‘Lord, help me to face this thing and to conquer it, and even out of the tragedy to find the glory.’

William Barclay wrote when he was old and ill ‘I love Jesus Christ and in him I have the assurance that God is my heavenly Father than that my sins are forgiven.’ This is raw, moving, authentic Christianity.

By all means let us disagree with other Christians when we believe they are getting it wrong, but let’s do so in a spirit of love, remembering the faith in Christ which unites us. We may be ever so correct theologically, but if we lack love it benefits no-one.

A dangerous man? Well, Jesus was dangerous – to those who wanted to remain unchallenged by the bigness of God, complacent in their unbelief, untroubled by their hypocrisy. In an increasingly secular society in the 1950s and 60s William Barclay encouraged people to believe in the God who is there, to put their faith in him, and to model their lives on Jesus. Today, we need dangerous people like Willie Barclay. Dangerous people like Jesus.

John A. H. Dempster
First published in Highland Group of Newspapers

__________________
Ray
Enjoy a rent free holiday with
Christian House Sitters
www.christian-housesitters.com

violet

Boanerges

Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

If one takes the love out of it he has missed the Fathers heart and has missed God completely.