November Conference Explores Human Destiny

We invite one and all to attend our annual London, Ontario Regional Conference. The topic that will be discussed that weekend will ask and answer the question of what happens when people die? There are three fundamental questions that plague all of us at one point in our lives. Who amI? Why am I here? Where am I going? The Bible has a great to say about all three but the main focus that weekend will on question number three, where am I going?

Those of you in the Reformed community will immediately recognize Dr. Derek Thomas from RTS as well as Dr. Joseph Pipa. Both men are emminently qualified address this all too important topic. The session titles are as follows:

1. The Historical Overview of the Millenium

2. The Doctrine of Death

3. The Doctrine of Heaven

4. The Doctrine of Hell

5. The Future State of Isreael

6. Response to Popular Eschatology

For more information or to register check our website

www.sola-scriptura.ca

Dates: November 18-19, 2005

Location: Glen Cairn Baptist Church
345 Pond Mills Road
London, Ontario
Canada

Exodus 3 and 4: Moses 3 Signs as a Paradigm for Understanding Signs and Wonders Today

Exodus chapters 3 and 4 records one of the most unique interviews ever granted to a human being. That singular interview took place between God (YHWH) and an ancient Palestinian Jew by the name of Moses. At the time of interview, Moses' life had been neatly parceled in two 40 year segments. The first forty years found him in Egypt. As the Book of Exodus records at the end of chapter 2, Moses defends one of his Jewish countrymen by murdering an Egyptian slave master. Upon discovering that his murderous act was known to the civil authorities, Moses flees Egypt to spend the second chapter of his life in quiet obscurity in the land of Midian.

In chapters 3 and 4, God summons Moses to the upper extremities of Mount Sinai. Moses alights the mountain to discover a burning bush that is in flames but is not consumed by the fire. Moses then hears God speaking through the bush. It is revealed to Moses that God has not forgotten his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as detailed in the Book of Genesis. The Abrahamic covenant promised that a day was coming in which the descendants of Abraham would be as numerous as the stars on a moonlit night. Some four hundred years after that promise was made, Moses finds himself alone on a mountaintop, in the presence of God, that the promise made is about to become the promise fulfilled. To Moses' surprise and consternation, Moses is to become the means of conveying the good news that the day of deliverance is at hand. What happens next is nothing short of remarkable.

Standing in the presence of God, Moses receives direct, audible and clear instruction of what he is to do, what he is to say and to whom he is to say it. Many of my conservative evangelical brethren struggle to understand the question of what God's will is for their lives. They rightly, pray, study Scriptures and seek to live a life of diligent obedience in compliance with God's ordinances. But frequently, there remains a subtle question mark niggling in the back of their minds as to whether or not they have correctly discerned God's will. Moses had no such excuse. God's will was as plain as the nose on Moses' face and yet rather than rejoicing in the fact that God had chosen him as the means of delivering his kinsmen, Moses instead has the pluck to tell the creator of the universe to send someone else in his place.

God then gives Moses three signs that he is to perform in the presence of his countrymen and their political oppressors. The first of the three, takes the form of Moses' shepherd rod turning into a snake and then transforming itself back into a wooden staff. The second sign, consists of Moses' hand turning leprous and restoring itself to normal. Lastly, Moses is to change water into blood. The purpose of these signs was to authenticate the message and validate the messenger. They were to be an outward and visible demonstration that God was about to break His silence;
that the promises made are about to be fulfilled; that deliverance is about to take place. In New Testament parlance it could be said that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

As history unfolds, Moses did indeed demonstrate these miraculous signs as well as others. Exodus records ten distinct episodes of miraculous demonstrations of God's power culminating with the Exodus event itself and Jewish deliverance from Egyptian bondage.

It strikes the author, that there may be a paradigm here for the New Testament Church to understand the ultimate purpose of signs and wonders. The power given by God to Moses to perform miracles was designed to validate the message the Kingdom of God was about to intrude into the affairs of humanity in a rather unique way. Pharoah needed to be convinced as well as the Israelites. Anyone can claim to have messianic status. Anyone can claim that they have a message from God. It is quite another thing to authenticate that claim with a demonstration of power. As the remainder of Exodus unfolds, we find that the need to perform the miraculous diminishes as Israel emerges from its captivity.

History also records, that after the nation emerges from Egypt, God demonstrates His sovereign rule by performing other miracles. Some examples would be creating water from a rock along with the provision of mannah and quail to name a few. However Moses no longer needs to validate God's message by turning staffs into snakes, making his hand leprous or transforming water into blood. They fulfilled their desired end and were no longer needed. No where in the Old Testament do we see Levitical priests hearkening back to and era in which the miraculous abounded. They do not seek to conjure signs and wonders from the past as a means of explaining and validating their present circumstances.

That is not to say that God does not work miracles today. Plainly He does. However, the New Testament paradigm seems to follow the pattern first displayed at Sinai. Jesus message was that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The long awaited Messiah has finally come. The promise made is now the promise fulfilled. With the advent of the New Testament era, signs and wonders were granted to early followers of Jesus as a way to demonstrate that the Kingdom of God had not merely come by word, but with power as well. What is also clear is that as the New Testament draws to a close the proliferation of signs and wonders that so marked the early teaching of Peter and Paul seems to be waning as well.

When it comes to sincere Christians seeking after the outward, flamboyant and demonstrable signs of God's presence, perhaps we can take a cue from the Levites and the Aaronic priesthood in this regard. Pentecost has come. The Kingdom of God is growing. With the closure of the Canon, and the historical attestation of the risen Jesus, do we really need to seek after bursts of power to explain who we are and why we exist?

Soli Deo Gloria

Heinz & Cynthia Mourn the Passing of Their Daughter

This past Saturday, October 15, 2005, marked the long awaited day in which my wife and I could bring closure to the passing of our dear daughter, Claire. Earlier this year, January 22 to be precise, at the 9th week of my wife's pregnancy, we lost our long awaited third child in a tragic miscarriage. As a husband, I was not fully prepared for the degree of grief that would surround our home for the next several months, particularly as it pertained to my wife, Cynthia.

It is a matter of fact that men and women handle loss differently. For myself, it meant the loss of dreams, the loss of first events and typical childhood milestones, the loss of daddy daughter moments that would never be fulfilled in this lifetime. For Cynthia, it meant the violent and sudden removal of a life that was intimately attached to her body and soul. There was a real person growing inside her, feeding from her, fully depending upon her. I cannot even begin to understand the depth of the connection between mother and child and therefore I cannot begin to imagine the magnitude of the loss which comes from such a deprivation. I reassured her that I can only share in the grief to a certain point. Despite my best attempts, I could never place myself in her shoes and understand the loss as only a mother could. But know this, however long it takes and whatever you need to do, I will support you in your grief no matter what anyone else says or does. You have my full blessing to grief in whatever manner you choose so long as you follow the admonition of the Apostle Paul in the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, not to grieve as one who has no hope.

What we did not anticipate was the silence from our local congregation. There were a few concerned souls that made reasonable attempts at comfort and consolation and for them we are extremely grateful for their love and sympathy. However, from the leaders at large, the wall of silence was deafening. We found this to be maddening and confusing. As conservative, Bible believing Christians we fully believe that life begins at conception; we believe in the full personhood and dignity of the person no matter the stage of development; we believe that as citizens and residents of Canada we need to remind our political leaders that they have an obligation to protect the weakest members of society who have no political voice for themselves (if only the unborn could vote, how would that change political policy). Yet, when it comes to the loss of one who is at earliest stages of life, our leaders said little if anything.

The result of this neglect was the development of www.clairesfriends.org.

The first order of business was to educate our elders and leaders of the degree to which early infant loss affects families. My wife and I prepared a package for our pastoral team to bring them up to speed. Thankfully, the need was recognized and the material accepted. I am happy to report that our pastoral team will be more attuned when this sort of loss occurrs again within our congregation.

The second order of business was to distill what we gleaned into a short hand book that contains our story, Bible verses, the path of grief and other resources available for grieving families. In addition to the booklet, familes can order a memorial bracelet as a token of remembrance of their lost child. One of the issues we recognized in early infant loss, is that was nothing that belonged to the child, by which we could remember her save for an empty womb. My wife created one for Claire and for a few other friends as well. The next thing we knew these bracelets were being advertised on our website.

The website was launched on Mothers Day, May 8, 2005. Since then, we have received over 50,000 hits and 300 requests for information and bracelets.

The third order of business, was to have a memorial service not only for Claire but for other families that also lost children during the early or late stages of pregnancy. This took place on October 15 of this year. I am happy to report that at least 10 families participated in this event. It was a thrill and an honor to assist others to bring comfort, closure and recognition that the loss was not the mere expulsion of inanimate biological tissue. They lost a family member and it is ok to mourn their passing.

What does the future hold for us? Well, we are expecting our 4th child in Janury. So far, all seems to be well.

Soli Deo Gloria