Welcome to Secular Scotland – A Nation where Religion is in Retreat
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The following fascinating article from Judith Duffy appeared in this week’s Sunday Herald. It is a generally accurate and through portrayal of what is going on in Scotland today. One of the most interesting points is that the Humanists, Secularists and the Church of Scotland are agreed. They think that the churches are failing to keep up with the spirit of the times and that is why they are declining. The only slight flaw in that argument is that it is the Church of Scotland, which is going along with the spirit of the times, which is in freefall – whereas the Catholics and the Free Church are growing! The fantasy of the secularists is that they think we can have the fruits of Christianity without the roots, the fantasy of the liberal Christians is that they think they can have Christianity without Christ and his Word. Both are illusions which will disappear like mist in the night. But there is another more biblical (and therefore more realistic) dream.
I conducted this interview during the Free Church General Assembly where two new churches were welcomed into the church and where there was generally encouraging news of growth and development (as well as the usual problems). This past weekend Charlotte Chapel had their first service in their new/renewed £3.5 million building in the heart of Edinburgh where over 750 gathered.
[…] I had a fascinating conversation with a man looking at the possibility of new churches throughout the Tayside area. We are not thinking of retrenchment or even maintenance, we are looking for gospel growth. ‘Religion’ of the nominal, liberal and idolatrous kind may well be in ‘retreat’ – to which I say a loud Hallelujah! But the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. The Gospel marches on. The Word of God will achieve that for which it was sent. It will produce fruit and grow. We are advancing, not retreating.
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