You may have noticed recently – and it happens with increasing frequency – that the Bible being read in church is a little different from the one that you are reading.

I explained in these columns last year that the problem is that the 1984 edition of the NIV was revised last year and there are some significant differences in the 2011 version.  The problem is that many people are not aware of this.  They need a new Bible and find an NIV at Koorong and purchase it without realising that it is not the same Bible as we have adopted for church use.

However the problem is a little more serious than just some differences in words.  Let me give you a little background and spell out the problem.

After the recent debate between George Pell and Richard Dawkins, a Q&A poll of some 20,000 people resulted in 76 percent saying that religion does not make the world a better place.

No one can deny that there have been some huge atrocities carried out in the name of religion.  Classic examples that are always quoted are The Crusades and The Spanish Inquisition.  The truth of the matter is that these were probably more about power than about religion.  Nevertheless we must accept that there have been abuses of religion.  Yet to say that religion is more of a power for evil than for good is evidence either of bias or of ignorance or of both.

Like many of you I watched last Monday’s Q&A debate between the vocal atheist, Richard Dawkins, and Roman Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal George Pell.  I figured beforehand that the program would probably leave me feeling depressed and I wasn’t wrong.

There was the codswallop dished up by this so-called scientist that before the big bang there was nothing, but that this nothing was rather complex.  And as for the apologist for the Christian faith...?  Well, there were a number of Australian Christians who would have done a far better job than Cardinal Pell.  However what left me feeling most depressed was the on-line poll run by Q&A because I never had high expectations of the speakers anyway.

Liberalism in the church was a huge problem when my parents came to Australia in 1950.  The local Presbyterian Church that we joined had a good evangelical preacher.  He was of Welsh stock and was loved as a man who faithfully preached the Word.  A year after our arrival the man left and his successor had different views.  I have childhood recollections of my father arguing with the preacher almost every Sunday.  Later I learnt that he didn’t believe in miracles.  So, no virgin birth and no resurrection either!  And the miracles of Jesus were ingeniously explained away.  What particularly made an impact on me, as a child, was that this well-attended little country church emptied overnight.

Early in my ministry I preached on a passage of Scripture that Christians from Pentecostal churches would interpret quite differently.  I felt I needed to defend our understanding of the Scriptures at this point so somewhere in my sermon I unloaded against Pentecostals and Charismatics.  I must have done that in a less than gracious way because afterwards a dear friend in the congregation said to me, “John, what you said was absolutely true.  I agreed with everything you said.  But I found it painful because you were talking about some very dear friends of mine.”  That dear sister in Christ taught me a valuable lesson.  I not only have to defend the truth, I have to defend it with as much love and grace as I can muster.

A number of years ago one of my elderly parishioners was quite distressed after speaking to her older sister in The Netherlands.  This sister was suffering from inoperable cancer and she and her doctor had agreed that her life would be terminated.  (Assisted suicide became legal in Holland in 2002.)  The only thing left to decide was the date.  Her sister had told her that it wouldn’t be this month because there was a family wedding she was still hoping to attend; then she did still want to celebrate her 84th birthday too...

One morning Bob came to see me in my study.  He had an issue with something that someone in the church had done.  His request was quite specific, “John, the elders of the church needs to talk to this man and deal with the problem.”  I asked Bob, “Have you followed the Matthew 18 principle?”  He admitted his ignorance and asked, “What’s the Matthew 18 principle?”  I reminded him of the words of Jesus, “If your brother sins against you, go show him his fault, just between the two of you.  If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.”  Only after that does Jesus set out a procedure for situations where this personal, one-on-one discussion fails to resolve a matter.  Bob phoned a few days later and commented, “The Lord’s wisdom is amazing.

One morning Bob came to see me in my study.  He had an issue with something that someone in the church had done.  His request was quite specific, “John, the elders of the church needs to talk to this man and deal with the problem.”  I asked Bob, “Have you followed the Matthew 18 principle?”  He admitted his ignorance and asked, “What’s the Matthew 18 principle?”  I reminded him of the words of Jesus, “If your brother sins against you, go show him his fault, just between the two of you.  If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.”  Only after that does Jesus set out a procedure for situations where this personal, one-on-one discussion fails to resolve a matter.  Bob phoned a few days later and commented, “The Lord’s wisdom is amazing.

While I briefly served the Christchurch congregation some years ago I was forcefully reminded of the Seven Deadly Sins.  No!  It’s not that the congregation there was very good at them.  It’s rather that New Zealand has a pizza company called “Hell”.  Yes, you read that correctly!  On one occasion I found one of their advertising brochures in the letterbox and noted that their menu is based on the Seven Deadly Sins: lust, gluttony, greet, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.

The concept of a list of key sins that alienate us from our God and that threaten our salvation is based on Scripture.  Solomon already gives a list of seven things that God hates in Proverbs 6.  Jesus gives us a list of sins that a

I recall (dimly!) the story from primary school: a Greek legend about Narcissus.  He was a rather vain young man.  One day he walked down to the stream for a drink of water.  As he bent over the water he saw his own reflection in the stream.