You
could be forgiven in thinking that because it is a new year that I have changed
direction, or even flipped by introducing this months subject from the
standpoint of a TV Reviewer, but here we go!
From
Christmas day on, the BBC have excelled in broadcasting three programmes (one
in two parts) that have a Biblical content and presented by three
well-qualified presenters. The first one was the Queen giving her Christmas
message on Christmas afternoon. The second was Joanna Lumley in her ‘Search for
the Ark’, and thirdly David Suchet, and his two excellent programmes ‘In the
Footsteps of St. Paul.
In 1992 the Queen declared in her Christmas message that her year had
been Annus Horribilis. Three of her four children had failed marriages and
Windsor Castle had a fire and was seriously damaged. Hearing her 2012 message
one could say that the year was Annus Mirabilis, which means, ‘Wonderful Year’.
She commented upon the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the Thames boat
pageant, which was resplendent. Then she reflected upon the London Olympic
Games and a Nation in unity of sporting achievements. Then she focussed upon
the true purpose and celebration of Christmas. Of the coming into the world of
the Son of God, she said, “God sent His only Son to serve and not be served”
using His example to encourage us to serve one another. From Christina
Rossetti’s Carol ‘In the Bleak Mid-winter’ she quoted the last verse, ‘What
can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I
were a Wise Man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart’.
By that quotation she was exhorting the nation to give their hearts to Christ.
When she had finished one of my family asked, “Do you think that the Queen is a
born again believer?”
Joanna
Lumley visited many places in her Search of the Ark programme and she consulted
many academics and theologians about the man Noah, his Ark and the Flood. She
went to Turkey taking the lead from Genesis 8:4 “And
the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon
the mountains of Ararat.”
In consulting the varied
views of Judaism, the Quran, Hinduism and the British Museum’s Cuneiform
Tablets, the waters became somewhat muddied. She asked, “Where did it all
happen? If it did happen?” Pushing her into an agnostic view of things.
David Suchet began his two
programmes stating that the subject of the Footsteps of St. Paul had interested
him for twenty-five years, ever since he had first read the Epistle to the
Romans in a hotel room. Was it a Bible that had been placed in the bedroom by
the Gideon Society? Reading a copy of the scriptures placed in a prison, hotel,
school, etc has led to many a person’s salvation. David Suchet said that when
learning to act the part of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, he had to learn
the walk. Travelling the Roman roads in Philippi Greece and Rome he learned to
walk how Paul walked. He estimated that Paul had walked 10,000 miles in his
ministry of preaching the gospel. When he was at Ephesus he saw what Paul had
to contend with in relation to that city being the centre of idolatry, the
worship of Artemas a multi-breasted image. An uproar was caused when the crowd
responded to Demetrius the silversmith’s oration against Paul and the gospel,
with their repeated shouting of “Great
is Diana of the Ephesians”. Then when he was
at Philippi he saw where Paul preached by the riverside, and at Athens where
Paul preached at Mars Hill, at Corinth and Cenchrae too. Each place a historic
testimony to the fact that Paul preached that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of
the World. Paul wrote in 1Corinthians, ch.15 the importance of the resurrection
of Christ and the fundamental truth, which is the bedrock of the Christian
faith. David Suchet read this passage with conviction; he was not acting a
part.
A
few days before Jesus went to the cross He gathered His disciples in an upper
room in Jerusalem. He said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in
God, believe also in me. In my Father's
house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye
know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can
we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” The Lord Jesus Christ
began by explaining the difference of believing and believing, He said firstly,
“Ye believe in God”, which was the essence of Judaism, they
believed in Jehovah of the Old Testament.
Each one of the
three dignitaries involved in the TV programmes above would unquestionably say
that they believe in God. The God who created all things. Then Jesus said, “Believe
also in me”. This is believing and believing for it is not sufficient
to believe only in God, James 2:19 says, “Thou believest that there is
one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” and the
devils do not possess salvation. Believing in Christ is the difference between
Judaism and Christianity, Jews believe in God but do not believe that Jesus is
God the Son, Christians believe both, they believe that Jesus of the New
Testament is Jehovah of the Old Testament. Paul said to Timothy, “And
without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the
flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, received up into glory.” That is believing
and believing!
God bless and a Happy
New Year to you all.
Written by Stan Burdit for FTMP.blogspot.com
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