The Problem: Once children pass the Sunday school age of about twelve, little by little they trickle away from the church. Pressures from the world mount up, including tuition classes to excel in studies and night courses to move up in the career ladder and financial income.

How can we build up the church, the Body of Christ?  That is somewhat  like asking, “How do we, as individuals, grow in Christ?” If you read an old enough book, you’ll hear about “using the means of grace,” about reading the Bible, praying and going to church.

In recent days, a great deal has been said, in both the secular and the Christian press, about the controversy at Wheaton College (in Illinois, USA) over the comments made by a Faculty member at Wheaton to the effect that Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

Visible hatred of the world against the Jews is once more on the rise.  Seventy years after humanity vowed “Never again!”, two generations after the full horrors of the Holocaust were laid bare, it is surging.  Most of us became aware of it when Muslim terrorists struck Jewish businesses in Paris late last year, but it has been growing over recent months.

Islam poses several challenges to today’s world. There are the popular uprisings against political leaders in many Muslim-majority countries, the Arab Spring, for example. There is the mass-migration of Muslims to Europe, Germany in particular.

Apostasy is a nuclear bomb word.  For those who are not conversant with the ecclesiastical language of the Christian faith, it describes a wholesale and fundamental departure from the faith, so egregious that it places the offenders beyond the boundaries of what defines a Christian. 

SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE: In response to the question “what advice would you offer to theological students and young theologians as they face a lifetime of theological work?”, John Frame gives the following 30 (!) point answer:

As Christian believers we share together the one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit’s ministry in bringing Jesus into our lives today—but where each one of us is in life very different. We have differing challenges, many so deep that we have to rethink and re-evaluate just what our faith means to us now. Unity with diversity, that’s more than a philosophical or social concern, that’s where we are in our Christian faith.

As we start off the new year, there are many things we might have on our minds. Where is our nation headed? What kind of person will run it? What historical events will take place compared to last year? Then there are the personal resolutions that we all say we’ll do, and for the most part; never keep. But one thought that needs to be looked at is theology.

“Why are the nations in an uproar?”  The psalmist asked this question three thousand years ago. (Psalm 2:1)  At the dawn of 2016, it continues to be a most relevant thought to ponder.  Saudi Arabia and Iran glare at each other with clenched fists and burning rage across the Persian Gulf.  A few days ago Saudi Arabia, which is a Sunni Muslim nation executed a leading Shiite cleric, Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, on charges of inciting terrorism and threatening the security of the Saudi kingdom.

 It is always challenging to approach a new year and to realize again and afresh that our days upon this earth are so rapidly passing. Here is the full text of Dr. Buys' 2016 New Year's sermon:

Dr. Ebenezer discusses how the Christian Church has handled persecution through the centuries. This is the pdf version of Dr. Ebenezer's paper on "Persecution and the Church."