Premier Christian Radio in London have a programme on Saturday afternoons where an atheist and a Christian talk about a matter of faith. This week I am the Christian, discussing with Stephen Cave his new book ‘Immortality.’ You can listen in London or on UK Digital Radio at 2.30pm and thereafter on the web: http://www.premierradio.org.uk/unbelievable Comments welcome.
Immortality: The Radio Discussion
June 1, 2012Singing Hades: 9 May
May 9, 2012Welcome to readers from Brazil, Gabon, Greece, Indonesia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Taiwan and the United States. I’ve recently discovered where WordPress tell me where readers are. There are not many of you, but you are very welcome indeed.
On Easter Sunday I not only preached on Hades but also introduced a new song on Hades:
Led into death by love
Alongside souls in the grave
Waiting in hope for Father God
Life now lives with the dead!
Into the town, into Zion, into the lair of power gone mad
Into the court, into the lies, out to the whips
Up to the hill, up to the cross, up the jeers and smears and taunts
Here dies the man who has faith still on his lips.
Into the fight, into the pain, into the place of those now dead
Into the dark, into the rock, through to the end.
Into the depths, into the guilt, into the waiting to be judged
Comes in the one who now longs to be their friend.
Led into death by love
Alongside souls in the grave
Waiting in hope for Father God
Life now lives with the dead!
Out from the depths, out from the rock, out from the dungeon dark and dense
Out in new force, out in new strength, out in new life
Out in new bones, out in new flesh, out to His Father’s great delight
Here lives the man who has faith proved to be right.
Out as the first, out as the last, out as the one who holds the keys
Out for the saints, out for the lost, out for the world.
Out for the Jews, out for the rest, out for all who will welcome Him
Comes out the one who will live for evermore.
Led into death by love
Alongside souls in the grave
Waiting in hope for Father God
Life now lives with the dead!
Led into death by love
Releasing souls from the grave
Freed by the love of Father God
Life triumphs over death!
As with the Christmas Carol which came to me last summer (see entry for Sept 22), this song began with me praying in tongues, on January 4. I was relaxing after Christmas and my mind was on completing The Lie of Hell. Composing another song was not on my agenda. But a new tune came and, when I asked what it was, I was told it was the chorus of a new Easter song, connected with the new book. It was partly this that pointed me to preach on Hades on Easter Sunday. I would need to explain the song.
More praying in tongues, weeks later, brought the tune of the verse. It was a march, quite fast. It seemed it would be quite difficult to write words to accompany it, restricted, as I probably was, to short words. With a great deal of reassurance and help from Jesus, and Easter now coming soon, the words came. In the end the need to write in short words was an advantage. If you would like a copy of the tune, please email me at admin@laddermedia.co.uk
Roger Harper
Preaching Hades: April 18
April 18, 2012‘.. and I have the keys of death and Hades,’ proclaimed Jesus to John at the beginning of Revelation..
The Lie of Hell almost had a subtitle ‘The Truth of Hades and Gehenna’ but I wanted to keep it simple. The subtitle was kept for the ‘Biblical Conclusions’ chapter.
This Easter I preached about Hades, the New Testament place of the dead, called Sheol in the Old Testament. On Good Friday, I spoke about Jesus with us in pain, in guilt, in death which is in Hades, so that there is a way out. I read out the crucifixion from Matthew’s Gospel. After I had spoken the verse ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’ a thought came into my mind: ‘Read the rest of Psalm 22.’ The cry to the forsaking God is the first verse of this Psalm.
The thought felt like a Jesus thought. It was gentle, bright, inviting, one of His thoughts. After a long time ignoring such thoughts and then regretting my cowardice, I am learning to go with what comes. I carried on with my talk and, at the same time, leafed through the Bible. I glance-read Psalm 22, talking all the time. At the end of the Psalm comes:
To him indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
The place of those who sleep in the earth, who go down to the dust, is called Sheol / Hades. On the cross Jesus was referring to deliverance for these people, in that place. I had not seen this connection before and was delighted to tell people about it.
I wasn’t brave enough to explain the process by which this came to me. I could have invited the congregation to join me in the journey of reading Psalm 22, instead of leaving them wondering why I suddenly became half distracted. Or was it lack of faith that there would anything relevant in this Psalm? Or pride in wanting any insights appear to come from me?
On Easter Sunday, praying first thing, I asked Jesus if there was anything else for the morning service, especially for the sermon which I had prepared on Jesus having, and using, the keys of Hades.
‘Look up the alternative collect,’ came to me as I prayed. The collect is the Church of England prayer for each Sunday. Each week there is a longer more traditional collect and a snappier more modern one. The longer one had been printed out to be used. I had not thought of looking at the shorter alternative one.
The alternative is:
God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
you have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope;
for a new day has dawned
and the way to life stands open
in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
The message of the collect is that there is a way to life from death and hell. I was preaching much the same message. But I reckon the name ’hell’ is an unwarranted mingling of Hades and Gehenna and the Bible translation we use has Jesus with the keys of death and Hades rather than the keys of death and Hell. I changed hell to Hades in the collect and in the sermon..
How delightful that Jesus knows the collects of the Church of England and wanted to give me the encouragement of an official prayer that fitted in exactly with what I was saying!
More seriously, we had a man present whose daughter-in-law had committed suicide 4 days previously. She had battled bi-polar disorder for years. He found the truth that Jesus has the keys to Hades, and uses them to access people in Hades, comforting. They were surprised that I did not know about their daughter-in-law already as the sermon had been so apt.
The truth of Hades, to which Jesus has the keys, is a message people need to hear.
Roger Harper
The Lie of Hell: Published! 30 March 2012
March 30, 2012The Lie of Hell can now be bought from www.laddermedia.co.uk or throough Amazon or from the Spring Harvest bookstall – for those enjoying the sunshine at Butlins for the next couple of weeks.
The full quote from Edward Fudge reads
‘Bible-believing scholars are increasingly rejecting as unbiblical the old picture of hell as everlasting conscious torment. In its place most often they offer a biblical vision of evil made extinct, along with those people who prefer to perish with evil rather than to let it go.
Leading the way in this important work have been a cadre of British biblical scholars–F. F. Bruce, John W. Wenham, Richard Bauckham, John Stott, J. I. Marshall, Michael Green, and N. T. Wright—to name but a few.
With this book we welcome to the conversation the fresh perspective of Anglican rector Roger Harper. Utilizing what some have called “red-letter hermeneutics,” Harper begins with the teachings of Jesus himself, then he uses those teachings as a lens through which he reads biblical writers in general. The result, whether right or wrong, is a stimulating and nuanced form of conditional immortality likely to invigorate Bible students of all persuasions.’
Edward William Fudge, author of The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment (Cascade Books/Wipf and Stock, 3rd ed., 2011).
A movie, Hell and Mr. Fudge (2012), has been made of Edward’s life and work. See www.hellandmrfudge.com
Roger Harper
The Lie of Hell – almost there!
March 28, 2012The official publication date of The Lie of Hell is March 30. More info is at www.laddermedia.co.uk. You will be able to order a copy then or shortly after, through www.laddermedia.co.uk or through Amazon. A Kindle version will follow, as soon as I can sort it out.
The back cover reads:
Is hell the greatest lie in Christian history?
What can Christians say about people who have died, those of other faiths and none?
The Lie of Hell provides Biblical answers.
The Lie of Hell is pastorally helpful, scholarly and accessible. It builds on the work of others, such as John Stott, while adding a new dimension to an important and longstanding debate. Radical recommendations are made for the whole Church. Not what you might expect.
‘Roger Harper provides us here with fresh and provocative insights on the debate about hell – or what he would rightly want to distinguish as Gehenna and Hades, the words used by Jesus himself in the Gospels. You might not be convinced by all his arguments, nor support his implication that continuing talk of hell deliberately distorts the truth. But the case he makes is born of a close and passionate engagement with Scripture. It deserves serious attention and a serious response.’
David Hilborn, Principal,St John’s College,Nottingham, formerly Theological Adviser, Evangelical Alliance and Editor of the Evangelical Alliance Report The Nature of Hell (2000)
‘A fresh perspective… stimulating and nuanced… likely to invigorate Bible students of all persuasions.”
Edward William Fudge,author of The Fire That Consumes (Cascade Books 2011) subject of the movie Hell and Mr. Fudge (2012) (full quote inside)
Roger Harper is an Anglican Vicar and recent regular contributor to Christianity magazine.
God is good – All the time!
Roger
The Lie of Hell is on it’s way: 2 March
March 2, 2012The Lie of Hell. Is hell the greatest lie in Christian history? You will soon be able to read my answer to that question in a book of that title.
Much of my not-vicar time last year was spent finalising research on hell and submitting a book proposal to various publishers. The research was fascinating: reading one of the first printed Bibles from the 16th century and the latest 21st century book on hell on the same day in the Cambridge University Library.Reading a book from 1874 with uncut pages: I was the first person ever to read this copy. The proposing was depressing. The book was deemed ‘interesting,’ ‘interesting and topical,’ ‘interesting and unique’ but not worthy of publishing.
Eventually one small American publisher agreed. But their terms did not look good for me as author. (They deliberately publish books which will not sell well but which have a significant message.) In the middle of October I faced the question ‘to sign or not to sign?’
The only alternative was to publish it through Ladder Media Ltd, the company a friend and I set up to publish my whodunit, A British Crash. All along I had wanted the kudos and support of a recognized publisher.
I asked Jesus what to do. (see http://www.cwgministries.org/Four-Keys-to-Hearing-Gods-Voice to learn how to do this yourself.) Jesus suggested that I ask other people to pray for me. He knows that I am reluctant to ask other people for help. He didn’t insist, but I have learnt that it is best to go with His suggestions. They are always better than my fixed ideas.
A few people received an infuriatingly brief email from me. ‘Please will you pray for me in making a decision? Please ask for a signpost for me. Some writing on the signpost would be nice.’ I thought the last sentence decidedly cheeky – wanting cake, eating it, and with extra jam on!
The following morning I received a reply from a young woman in my church. She had been baptised a few months before and was learning, very cautiously, about the Holy Spirit and how He flows in us. ‘Saw the signpost.’ she wrote, ‘It says, in capital letters, HOME.’ She stressed the capitals.
Later that day she met a friend in the same ‘Learners’ group. The friend said the same answer, ‘home’, had come to her, but she refused to tell me in case it meant I was leaving the church and the area.
Could ‘HOME’ mean that I was to work at home, publishing the book for the home market?
Over the next couple of weeks, further answers came:
A picture of the steering wheel of an old Alvis car which, uniquely, had a control in the wheel to advance and retard the spark.
Could this mean that I was to keep hold of the steering of the book, especially controlling how soon or late it was published?
‘Chose the ancient paths.’
Could this mean that I was to work like the Bible writers who had no publishers? ‘Whatever it means,’ said a friend, ‘it can’t meanAmerica.’
‘The third way.’
Could this mean that I was meant to use our Christian Equitable publishing Company, neither a shareholder company, nor a cooperative, but a third way?
None of these people had any idea what my decision was.
The Society of Authors confirmed that the contract was not good for me as author and strongly advised me to re-negotiate.
All in all, it was a strong pointer to home publishing. The publisher didn’t seem disappointed when I told them I was not signing.
Suddenly I found myself thinking of the book as publisher. As writer I had envisaged producing the book for September 2012, to be published early 2013. ‘Can’t you do it for early 2013?’ said Roger publisher. ‘It would be really good to have it out sooner to pick up the current wave of interest in hell. How about by the end of March for the Spring Harvest Christian Festival?’ (www.springharvest.org)
Roger writer agreed to try. Until writing this today I had not made the connection between that decision and ‘advancing the spark.’
Writing has gone smoothly and to plan. No late night working. Plenty of helpful coincidences. The Lie of Hell will be published at the end of this month, and will be first sold on the bookstall at Spring Harvest.
Roger Harper
Angels on the radio: February 2
February 2, 2012In case you are interested…
Yesterday I was asked to take part in a ‘studio discussion’ also yesterday for Premier Radio on angels. I wasn’t as fluent as I had hoped to be. The discussion will be broadcast on Saturday afternoon as part of the ‘Unbelievable?’ slot. See www.premierradio.org.uk
Satanic mills to Jerusalem? January 31
January 31, 2012All together now: ‘We will not rest until we have built good capitalism inEngland’s green and pleasant land.’ David Cameron gives the melody ‘I want these difficult economic times… to lead to a socially responsible and genuinely popular capitalism.’ Nick Clegg harmonises with ‘I want this to be the decade of employee ownership.’ Ed Milliband provides the robust bass line: ‘Let’s see deeds, not just hear words.’
How do you move from dark satanic mills toJerusalem? From dark satanic Stock Exchange companies, run for the benefit of those with capital, to properly equitable companies run for the benefit of investors, workers and other stake holders equally?
First, you begin by recognising the nature and scale of the problem. The fundamental structure ofUKshare-holding companies favours the rich few. The few have been joined by others, including millions of pension holders. The basic system, however, has not changed. The role of pension fund managers is still to boost the wealth of their clients, not to support good companies. Adding more employee shareholders into existing companies will not change anything lasting. Those who have provided capital for the companies will still have the upper hand.
Some years ago Barclays Uganda announced that it would share 5% of profit among staff. Their workforce responded by producing increased profits. But the Board said there were also more bad debts that year. Profit was set aside to cover loans not being repaid. The workforce continued to expect their ‘shares.’ The following year profits were again up, and, as key workers knew, some of the bad debts had been repaid. The Board looked at the 5% and decided it was too much money to ‘give away’ to employees. They allocated a smaller percentage and then scrapped the scheme.
A friend of mine worked for an international business consultancy. Under the founder, each consultant was treated as a partner, sharing some profit. The founder retired and the company was taken over by new owners who made reassurances that they would retain the ethos of the founder. The profit sharing stopped.
Tinkering with little alterations, making promises which can easily be broken with impunity, is no good. It will lead to cosmetic, token, temporary, initiatives. The problem is with the foundation of UK share-holder companies.
Second, you address the foundation. I am not sure the UK Government can do much here. They could try to enact new company law requiring each company’s Board to have equal representation from investors and workers. This would take an iron will and would be unpopular because it would be copyingGermany. They could give tax benefits to cooperatives and other more equitable companies. This would be seen to be unfair, particularly as cooperatives have not had a good track record in theUK, especially cooperatives subsidised by the Government.
What is needed are equitable companies with good track records. First we need to build ‘love your investor and you love your worker’ companies. We need to demonstrate that building on a different foundation is possible and better both ethically and economically. Once people can see the benefits of these companies, people will opt for them, governments will be able to promote them.
A few of us are already seeking to build Christian Equitable Companies, which are neither shareholder companies nor cooperatives. For more details please write to lad1@abritishcrash.co.uk
And I look forward to writing blog posts about other matters as well as economics. Unless you prefer this theme to continue? Leave a comment.
Roger Harper
PS Today I wrote a comment on a Sun newspaper rant against Arch Druid Williams and the Red Bishops. Ignoring the invective, I picked up one good idea – having ‘merchants, medics and mechanical engineers’ in the House of Lords. (See Reforming the Lords: 25 June.) http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4096015/Red-revs-out-of-touch-with-Britain-today.html
Europe and Britain’s interests: 12 December
December 12, 2011David Cameron’s UK veto of the proposed European Treaty to address the ‘financial crisis,’ is a terrible ungodly decision. Not because it isolates theUKfromEurope– geographically, historically, fundamentally, we are semi-detached. Not because it is a refusal to sign up to some sensible rules about governments borrowing money. But because it is proudly based on pursuing our own interests, and the interests of the City ofLondonin particular, without regard for the interests of others. Once again our leaders show how far we are from loving our neighbours as ourselves.
European nations have learnt that the long term interests of one are tied to the interests of others.Germanyhas been able to export so much partly because the Euro is fairly weak. The Euro is weak because other European countries are not so financially healthy asGermany,Greececriminally so. It could easily be argued that it is not inGermany’s interest to prop up much of the rest ofEurope. But German leaders understand that it is inGermany’s interest to continue as part of the fellowship, even if it means paying over the odds for a while. Germans also like to holiday in sunnier places and want to build and continue good relationships with their holiday hosts. German leaders see good sense in looking not to their own interests but to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:4)
Britain, by contrast, is still set in looking to our own interests. David Cameron was proud to state that this was what he set out to do. He also said that he is favouring the interests of the City ofLondonover the rest ofEurope. This is crazy. The French President pointed out rightly that it is the financiers, looking to their own interest and those of their wealthy clients, who put us in this mess. The City ofLondonworks for the benefit of those with capital, not for the interests of British business or British people in general. Why should we refrain from helping our partner nations and holiday hosts and help the wealthy few across the world instead? Once again we are subsidising theLondonfinancial services ‘industry’ at the cost of every other industry.
Giles Fraser, famous for resigning as Canon of St Paul’s, wrote in the Church Times this week decrying recent levels of executive pay, especially in the City ofLondon:
‘Part of this has to do with the indifference of institutional investors, and in particular those big pension funds that own the company. These are the people who ought to be hopping mad that top bankers are getting paid shed-loads of money, even when they are manifestly doing such a poor job.
Yet these big institutional investors don’t seem to care. This is because they are able to sell their shares with such ease that they have little interest in the long-term health of the companies they own…
Top executives come and go; shareholders come and go; the only people who have a long-term interest in a firm such as Barclays are those lower down the management structure, who work there for long periods of time. This is why we need more inclusive employee-representation in the boardroom, as they have inGermany. Many employees invest their lives in the long-term health of a company. They ought to have a greater stake in the decision making.’
Japanese companies, as well as German companies, have more employee participation as part of their structure. Perhaps the two countries have learnt that disaster comes from aggressively pursuing one’s own interests at the expense of others? British workers respond well to such participation.Toyotarecently announced its decision to make its new hatchback in Derbyshire, creating up to 1500 jobs. David Cameron said this was a ‘massive vote of confidence for British manufacturing.’ A distortion of the truth. This is a vote of confidence in British workers alone. British financiers and managers, in British shareholder companies, mishandled those companies, causing all British-owned car manufacturers to collapse. We need to learn the lesson: create companies in which investors and workers look not only to their own interests, properly loving each other as they love themselves.
Roger Harper
Protestors and Capitalism: 12 November
November 12, 2011St Paul’s Cathedral was right to pull back from evicting the protestors camping close by and to open their doors again. For a time it seemed that the Cathedral was siding firmly with The City, using the pretext of Health and Safety to exaggerate the threat from the protestors. Thank God sense and grace prevailed. As many have said, the protestors have a good point.
The City, particularly the Stock Exchange, the original target, does not work for the best interests of the majority of the people but for the best interests of the rich few. This is not acceptable. Something drastic needs to change.
The detrimental effects of the Stock Exchange are well known. A member of my church manages a medium sized firm making food supplements. A couple of years ago the company was bought by a private investor. The company has benefited hugely from having a single investor who is committed to the future of the company and who plans for the long term. The same goes for the success of JCB, the only major British engineering manufacturing company surviving and thriving today. I was told by a manager there that the chief reason for their success is that JCB are privately owned. They have nothing to do with the Stock Exchange. The Stock Exchange does not work for the best interests of British companies.
The Stock Exchange does work for the best interests of shareholders. The purpose of the Stock Exchange is to enable shareholders to sell and buy shares, thereby increasing their wealth. The ability of shareholders quickly to withdraw from a company becomes a kind of blackmail. Keeping the shareholders contented becomes the chief aim of any company quoted on the Stock Exchange. Shareholders’ contentment is understood as them becoming richer. Shareholders, encouraged by the Stock Exchange, are the first and foremost people to benefit from any profit. The best interests of the company take second place to the best interests of the shareholders. This is plain, obvious, indisputable.
The Stock Exchange, and our shareholding system, is not based on loving your neighbour as you love yourself. Can anyone argue that it is?
The problem is with the foundation of the whole system. Ken Costa, banker, Christian and prominent member of Holy Trinity, Brompton wrote in the Financial Times: ‘Worldwide there is an undirected expression of anger and deep frustration that financial markets have drifted from the ethical foundation on which they are supposed to be based.’ The Stock Market does not have an ethical foundation. It is founded to further the interests of shareholders. At its best the Stock Market operates with ethical behaviour, honesty, integrity etc. But these are not the foundation.
The Church of England Newspaper, in a front page editorial, urged the Church to ‘restore faith in the City.’ Christians can only have faith in the City when the City is built on the rock rather than the sand, the rock of hearing Jesus’ words and doing them, the rock of loving your neighbour as you love yourself. We cannot have faith in a system built on the sand.
Alternatives are available. All German companies have to have a Board of Directors with representatives equally of both investors / shareholders and workers. Decisions are taken with the interests of both investors and workers in mind. This leads to investment in securing jobs for the future, retaining manufacturing inGermany, higher levels of commitment and quality by workers – to successful companies with a prospering workforce as well as prospering investors. The success of German companies as opposed to British companies is obvious, dramatic, huge. The success is due to German companies having a different legal foundation, much closer to love your neighbour as you love yourself.
Christian Equitable Companies are a new British model built fully on investors, workers and innovators loving their neighbour as they love themselves. Some detail is at http://www.abritishcrash.co.uk/about-us/index.htm A Venture Capital CEC will be formed to start up or take over a range of CECs. Once the model has been proved to work, it will be commended widely.
There is no point in talking about alternatives to those working in the Stock Exchange. The St Paul’s Institute this week published its Report into Ethics and the City of London 25 years after the ‘Big Bang’ de-regulation. One finding is the 76% of City workers disagree, mostly strongly, that ‘The City of London needs to listen more to the guidance of the Church.’ See http://www.stpaulsinstitute.org.uk/dialogue/st-pauls-institute/article/2011/nov/07/-value-and-values-perceptions-of-ethics-in
The campaign for alternatives has to be aimed at legislators and at Christian entrepreneurs and investors. If we Christians do not build business on the foundation of love your neighbour as you love yourself, then who else will? And the legislators need more than nice ideas. They need to see good working alternatives to then support and foster through legislation. Anyone willing to join in? Please write to lad1@abritishcrash.co.uk
The protestors want ‘economic justice.’ They have little idea of exactly what this is and how to achieve it. The followers of Jesus know. Economic justice is loving your neighbour as you love yourself. It’s time we did it, at last.
Roger Harper
