Perhaps you’ve heard of the recent kerfuffle in the Anglican Church. Bishops of Anglican Churches in Africa and elsewhere have rebuked the bishops and archbishops of the Anglican Church in England for moving away from God’s word and teaching an empty washed out, white anted Christian message. The missionary child is now holding the wayward parent to account. 

 Not only that, but here in our large slab of land the quiet and calm Anglicans have been in an uproar. There have been mutinies on the good ship Anglican. A whole new diocese has started – the Diocese of the Southern Cross - and Anglican churches have jumped ship into this new diocese. 

From the outside, it seems a strange act. Why would the calm and orderly Anglicans do such a thing? 

On Friday 1st September, ABC Drive journalist Steve Austin interviewed Jeremy Greaves. He is the new Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Queensland. He leads the Anglican Church in Queensland and Northern Territory. This interview indicates why such seismic shifts are taking place and are necessary. 

Steve Austin’s questions are in italics. Jeremy Greaves answers are shown with JG. The whole interview can be downloaded below. I’ve skipped the questions about the role of an Archbishop and focused on those in the last third of the interview about what Jeremy Greaves believes.

SA: What will you die in the ditch for? What is fundamentally important?

JG: At the heart of the Christian faith is a really life-changing message about love and hope and justice.

(interruption) 

SA: How is that different from a political ideology? That sounds like Marxism. They want love, hope and justice? What’s the difference?

 JG: In the person of Jesus Christ, we have a model of what that looks like when it’s lived fully and unconditionally in the world. And I think in the life, ministry, and teaching of Jesus Christ, we would say, we get the best indication of what God must be like.

 The stories of the faith explore that in all sorts of different ways. And have changed peoples’ lives for centuries. And I think it’s the message of hope that the world needs more than ever now.

SA: Who is Jesus to you then?

JG: Jesus is not just a good example of a good person who lived 2,000 years ago. But he does give us the best understanding of the nature of God.

And his care for the marginalised and the outsider, his message of love, and hope and forgiveness really give us an indication of what Christians understand God might be like. 

 SA: Are you expecting him to return, i.e. The second coming of Christ?

JG: At the heart of our liturgy, we celebrate the Eucharist. And Anglicans would believe that whenever two or three are gathered together around the table, there is Christ in their midst. And so, for me, Christ comes again and again and again. Not in some dramatic future time. 

SA: You’re not expecting him to physically turn up, though?

JG: It might sort out a lot of problems for us. I don’t expect it, but the Scriptures say we don’t know the hour or the day. And so, I think, at the heart of my faith is a determination to get on with the business of here and now for we don’t even know what will happen tomorrow. 

 

Compare these answers to the Bible

Perhaps his answers seem okay to you. But their vagueness & emptiness is exposed when we consider the answers the New Testament gives to these questions.

What will you die in a ditch for?

Christians are to be willing to die for Christ as their Lord. Most of the Apostles did and untold thousands have done so in the last two thousand years.  Philippians 1v21, Mark 8:35-39, Hebrews 11:32-38, Revelation 6:9-11

How is Christianity different from a political ideology offering mercy, justice, and love? 

Christianity isn’t about a political ideology but about a person – Jesus Christ. He is fully God who died on the cross to enable us to be forgiven for sin.

Bowing the knee to Christ as your Lord and Saviour is how someone receives the mercy, justice, and love of God. Trusting Jesus as Lord and Saviour is also the source and power of the changed life.

Acts 2:32-38, Colossians 1:14-19, Colossians 2:8-9 cf 3:1-6, Philippians 2:5-11 compared to 12-13, Romans 3:21-26

Who is Jesus?

Jesus reveals God the Father so that we might know God. In Jesus, the unknown God has become known. All that we need to know about God is revealed by Jesus. He is the final word from God. He is God the Son, second person of the Trinity.

 Right now, he is ruling from heaven for all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him.

 John 1:1-3, Hebrew 1:1-3. Colossians 1:14-20, Ephesians 1:10, Acts 1:9 cf Acts 2:32-40

 

Are you expecting him to return i.e. The second coming of Christ?

Jesus Christ will come again, a second time, physically, to bring judgment and salvation. 

Christians are to live lives filled with hope and watchful expectation because Jesus is returning, though no one knows when.

Hebrews 9:28, 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10, Mark 13:32-37, Acts 1:9, Revelation (all over the place!)

Ironically, the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper according to the New Testament is not how Christ comes again and again. Rather it is a proclamation of his Jesus’ saving death until he returns (1 Corinthians 11:25).

Christianity declining in the West

Early in the short interview Steve Austin points out that Christianity is declining in Western nations but booming in other parts of the world. 

Jeremy Greaves’ answer, in summary, is that Christianity is declining because life is ‘pretty good in the west’ unlike in other countries where people are ‘facing life and death.’ 

 No doubt, there is some truth to this. But given Jeremy’s answers, doesn’t the interview reveal that the church in the West is dying because it is riddled with teaching and leadership that no longer holds to God’s word, the Scriptures?

 Consider part of  the 6th Article of the Anglican Church’s 39 articles. (The english is a little old!)

Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.

Holy Scriptures contains all things necessary to salvation. These are the very Scriptures, the Bible, that Jeremy Greaves doesn’t seem to trust or believe. No wonder some parts of the Anglican church are dying. No wonder a new diocese is needed.

Related

Churches that are part of the new diocese - Diocese of the Southern Cross