THEWEEFLEA: DAVID ROBERTSON'S SPIRITUAL UNITY WITH ROME - BY JACK THOMSON

Contending for the Faith..

Recent conversation had aroused past memories and, thereafter, curiosity had taken me  back to the Solas website to see, perchance, if David Robertson had ever removed his controversial fleabyte No 6, but alas, it was still there, and David was still warming to Joseph Ratzinger (the then Pope) as a Christian brother while holding the pontiff’s new book ‘Jesus of Nazereth’ to camera.

 ‘Nothing too controversial in that’, some might respond.

‘Especially in this ecumenical day and age’, others might readily agree.

While a few - like me, will shake their heads in utter disbelief and thereafter seek reasonable explanation as to how and why an apparently reformed, protestant minister can relate to the Pope as his Christian brother????

But where do I, as one of the few, start to seek such explanation?

I can only look to God and continue to write - in faith that an answer will come……

I’m an intelligent person - who, by the initiative of God’s grace -and  only  by   that  divine  initiative, is a disciple of Christ, but who cannot, and never will recognise the Pope as a spiritual brother.

David Robertson on the other hand, while likewise viewing himself to be an intelligent person and a Christian, does acknowledge the Pope as his spiritual brother.

One of us is wrong - not partly wrong but completely wrong – for our attitudes towards the Pope are diametric.

If I am right then David is wrong, and if I am wrong then David is right - there is no middle ground which either of us can occupy - None.

None - but, nevertheless, we do share some commonality - because, both of us recognise that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we both desire to proclaim a ‘gospel’.

But there the concord must end because, while David thinks that he can coax, cajole, persuade and convert the lost to Christ by his intellectual prowess, cultural sensitivity and skilful apologetics, the Spirit of Truth informs me otherwise:

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2/2-5.

“Ah but”, David might counter and continue, “What about Peter’s words as recounted in 1 Peter 3/15: ‘But sanctify the Lord God  in  your  hearts,  and   always  be  ready   to  give  a   defence   to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;’  Do these words of the apostle Peter not compel us to persuade?”

To which I would respond, “And what  could that  defence be other than to give testimony to the redeeming effect of the gospel of Christ crucified in our their own lives?”

Christ crucified - Christ, who  knows that the spiritual  re-birth and subsequent sanctification of every true believer is a matter of the Father’s initiative, working through His self sacrifice at Calvary and, there from  and   thereafter, by the Holy Spirit’s work in empowering

every true believer to persevere as He works providentially in each believers life to bring about the defeat of sin by dying to the perverse will of their own natural flesh….…. Natural flesh, which according to Jesus, can only give birth to flesh:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. John 3/6-7.

And, if David does not trust the words of Christ - then let him trust the memory of His own experience - at least to confirm the first half of Christ’s statement: ‘that which is born of flesh is flesh’.

David will recall that his persuasive, intellectual ways (of the flesh) were eventually responsible for the once vaunted conversion of Richard Morgan, a retired music teacher, from Atheism (a religion of the flesh) - to his (David’s) ecumenical Christianity (a religion of the flesh) - from which, and   thereafter Richard Morgan converted to Roman Catholicism (another religion of the flesh).

Which extended conversion process proves Christ’s assertion that flesh can only give life to flesh - can only give life to flesh – can only give life flesh - in mortal perpetuity.

And here - right here, without contrivance, it would appear that I have been given a ‘rational’ explanation as to why David Robertson can view the Pope as his spiritual brother. The reason, quite simply, is that he is the Pope’s spiritual brother - he and and the Pope are both carnal Christians, that is, they are both Christians fathered by  the same self-preserving and self-promoting ‘flesh’- the   same unregenerate spirit of fallen human intellects.

Unregenerate human intellects who, in having been persuaded to ‘convert’ through the work of their own intellect working in response to someone else’s intellectual persuasion, will confidently think that they can pass that ‘conversion’ experience on to others in the same way……

And they are right - for they have succeeded in their intellectual pursuits, they have created new Christians but, There are Christians…… and then there are Christians or, There are Christians born of the flesh… and then there are Christians born of the Spirit. Which are you?

Are you, like David Robertson, the Pope’s spiritual brother or, Do you see the Pope, as I see him, as carnal and anti-Christ ? In 1 John 1/22-23 John presents an anti-Christ as one who denies that Jesus is the Christ and, furthermore, as one who also denies the Father…..

Before continuing it would be worthwhile exploring a fuller meaning of the prefix ‘anti’. ‘Anti’, as well as meaning opposed to, can also mean to compete with, and to run alongside in an attempt to supplant… And the Pope’s ‘office’ fulfils all of these definitions….

Jesus is the Rock on which any true Christians faith is built – but the Pope claims to be this ‘rock’.

Jesus is truly Emmanuel (God with us) but the Pope’s office competes with Him by claiming that   the Pope holds on earth the place of God Almighty (Pope Leo X111). Jesus is the mediator between God and men - but by being called ‘Pontiff’ which means ‘bridge builder’ - the Pope is attempting to usurp Christ’s position.

The Pope is called ‘Holy Father’ - but only God is our Holy Father……

Anyway, I could go on, and on, and on but, at the end of the day

I can only conclude that, despite all   outward appearance, David Robertson, like the Pope, is a (spiritually) dead man leading……… spiritually dead men through the cemetery of this transient life…  And the real tragedy is that very few, if any, from his church, from Solas - or indeed followers of his ‘Fleabyte’ blog seem to have had their eyes opened to this sad, salutary situation.

Are you, perchance, one of the few?

For - strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7/14.

Do you hear Christ’s voice?

.….and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. John 10/4.

And if you know His voice - are you listening?

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 6/14 – 7/1

It has given me no pleasure to write as I have done - I do not seek contention - but  before, throughout and subsequent to David Robertson’s term as Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, I have been waiting for a Spirit led church, group - or even an individual to speak out against the vile mixture which is David Robertson’s carnal gospel, but I have heard nothing - which is a very sad indictment on the spiritual state of the Free Church of Scotland - and all of those who would call David Robertson a brother in Christ.

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 1 Timothy 4/1

But, I can hear people ask, how can such a sincere, well educated man,  who has dedicated his life to Christ, and who  has been Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland - and who is Director of  Solas, the Centre for Public Christianity - and who is, judging by the title of one of his books, obsessed with Christ - how can such a person be accused of being a false disciple?

How indeed?

Well, consider Judas - one of Christ’s disciples.

He knew Jesus. He must have walked with Him and talked with Him, in short he must have known Jesus exceptionally well but, close as   his   relationship   must   have   been,   it could only have been conducted at a natural level. In other words, he was very familiar with Jesus at a human level - but not, as the other disciples had been predestined to be, at a spiritual level.