(Part of an address given by C.D. Alexander of Liverpool to a young man entering his first pastor charge in 1965)

This is a solemn time for a man to be set apart for the Ministry of the Word; and be very sure that you ARE set apart.

You are called upon, sir, to be faithful to Christ, and that means faithfulness to His Word. Nothing is known of Christ in this wide world but what we have in the Scared Volume, therefore your first duty is to be faithful to this Word which we declare (and which you accept) as divinely and verbally inspired, the only rule of faith and conduct; the Bible, all the Bible, and nothing but the Bible. You will perhaps be mixing at times with men who don't speak that language, who may be charming in their attitude to a young man like yourself, but who secretly in their hearts despise your naïve faith and your so-called Bibliolatry. Don't commit yourself to them. Don't be patronised by them. Don't be a lick-spittle to their false and infidel theology. Don't try to commend yourself to them. Let them know right away there is a Declaration of War between you and all the sort of them. They are doing the devil's work and are the devil's dupes and agents, who deny one phrase or sentence of this Holy Book. They are destroyers of faith and of mankind who destroy faith in this Book.

You are already on treacherous and forbidden ground, young man, the very instant you make the slightest concession to their errors. You owe more to the souls given to your charge than you do to the pretensions of such men. The last battle is on, sir. Don't compromise. The Judge is at the gate. Don't seek to please men. Be a marked man for Christ. Let them say of you, "That man is dangerous - watch him. That man is a trouble maker - get rid of him." Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for so they said of the prophets which went before you.

Make this Book your constant companion. Never harbour a doubt that it was not only divinely sent from heaven in all its parts, but likewise divinely preserved and transmitted so that nothing has been lost, nothing altered, and nothing added.

It is a solemn and serious time because the devil is a reality. In every field of human experience today there is a conspiracy of hell to destroy the truth, and in its place to exalt sin, vice and violence. You are up against all the power of hell itself, and there is only one weapon which the devil respects, and that if the truth. When we say "the truth" we mean the Bible and the right understanding and propagation of it. For the first time in human history the atheistic spirit has moved into the Church visible and grins and shouts from thousands of pulpits that the Bible is out. That is how serious it is today. There is no other weapon with which to strike down the devil.

When that moment of completeness comes, and God's task or redemption is ended; when every last one given to Christ before the foundation of the earth, is safely in, and the uttermost has been done to bring to Christ His crowning glory, then something more than a fatal thrombosis will seize upon universal nature. The fire of God's judgment will consume all the works of man. The vast constellations of heaven will be shaken down and vanish away. Time will recede, the veil will be drawn aside, and we shall see the King in His beauty. There shall no longer be incompleteness, tears, pain or dying. Parting will be no more, and the wicked will cease from troubling.

The Bible critics want to take this away. They say this is folly, but it isn't. It is hope. Only with the final dismissal of time, and the rolling up of the sky, can that chapter be ended which has filled all creation with groaning and tears.

The Bible is the only Book which gives us any assurance on this point, and YOU of all people don't need me to tell you that no volume is better attested by evidence human and divine; the facts of the Word of God are beyond dispute, and he who would be wise had better just bow his head before these sacred oracles and pray that in the face of all this blinding light, his soul might become as a weaned child.

You must not only KNOW all this and be firmly and unshakeably rooted therein, but you must make yourself competent to assert, defend and preach it in any company.

You must be fearless in the proclamation of this Word. You must be uncompromising with error, and you must not accommodate yourself to men of doubt.

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Councel for Young Pastors (Internet edition 28) "Wicket Gate" Magazine
Magazine of the Reformed Baptist Church, Inverness Scotland
Church Contact is Cliff Westcombe - click here to send an e-mail
http://www.wicketgate.co.uk