Σωσθένης Ὁἀδελφὸς – Sosthenes the Brother

sosthenes@adoss.co.uk – 

ADOSS Newsletter – February 2014

 

Dear Christian Friends

Another month gone by – another month nearer to the Lord’s return – and we are still here!  Our times are in our Father’s hands.

What to do next

I have finished the summaries of both ‘Faith once Delivered to the Saints’ and the ‘Present Hope of the Church’.  I am now counting on what to do next.  The summaries need to be checked – by me, and at least three others (Offers of help required!), and then I want to move to publication, see below.

But then what?  I would welcome suggestions for the next series of Darby Simplified.  I do not have anything planned at the moment, and am waiting on God for guidance.

 

Publication of Darby Simplified

When the two series have been thoroughly checked I want to move to publication – first electronic, and then hardcopy.  A couple of my dear Christian friends have publishing facilities, and have indicated their willingness to help when the books are ready.

I have already made ‘Present Hope of the Church’ into an eBook, and it can be downloaded in .pdf, Apple (.epub), and Kindle (.mobi) formats.  This is currently a draft and not ready for widespread distribution, so I would like to know who has received it, not least so that I can send him/her the final version when available.

As I have said, any help in going though the summaries with a critical, and spiritual eye would be much appreciated.  Any who wish to help should e-mail me and I will send a ‘parallel version’ in Word format with both the JND original and the summary.

The Sad State of the Church

What a mess the Church is in!  I don’t want to down any sect – not even the Roman Catholics.  Indeed I have been in correspondence with an old colleague of my wife’s, who resigned his vicarship over the question of women priests, became a Catholic.  We had plenty of areas of disagreement – but two things we were in agreement on – the saving grace of our God and the efficacy of the blood of our Lord Jesus.

There are problems everywhere, and the more I think of it, the more we have to be humble about.  This side of the glory there will not be any group who is not affected by wrong judgments, worldliness, legality and the desire of people to promote themselves and their own ideas.

By faith we have to lay hold of the truth of the One Body.  There is no breakdown in the bride of Christ.

Pre-Trib

I am pleased to make contact with many who, like me, acknowledge that the only scriptural outlook is that the church will be raptured, then there will be tribulation on earth, and then the Lord will return to take up His rights in the place where He was rejected.

Of course JND’s writings were very influential in the 1800’s and the effect of them is still recognised.  So, I would be glad if you could tell others with this sure and glorious outlook about ADOSS.  I would be glad to hear from them

May you be blessed, awaiting our Lord’s near return!

Your brother

Sosthenes

PS – Thanks to many prayers my shoulder is progressing well.

 

 

 

The Church is under Attack!

Satan knows his days are short.  Every true Christian company is under attack.  We read of our brethren suffering for the Lord’s Name in the Middle East, North Korea and elsewhere.  Islam hates true Christianity.  It can work with Christendom – and we will see things moving together.  Not fully – the Lord will have come first.

But there is a more insidious movement.  Paul said “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 11:3) .  The enemy gets in through wrong doctrine, through the ambitions of an able leader, human organisation, excitement – all well intentioned but not of God – and not guided by the Holy Spirit.  True ministry leads to Christ – that is the test.

The genuinely no-name group of Christians I break bread with (no-name as the PBCC has taken the Plymouth Brethren name – which we should not have accepted anyway) is not immune.  A few brethren, concerned about an issue, act independently, separate from their own and there are some siding with one and some with the other.  It is sad.  We need to pray for one another.

When Paul said “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians 4:13) – who are the ‘we all’?

The Hope of the Church

5 down, 6 to go in my Darby Simplified series.

I have just completed lecture 5 – The Progress of Evil on the Earth and its Judgment.  These are good papers – looking at the Lord’s return, and our outlook in this world racing on to apostasy.  I am reminded of Daniel Otsing’s (who ended up I believe in Siberia)  delightful hymn.

O Lord, with our Ears and Hearts Open,
Awaiting Thy shout would we be,
The summons that calls us to heaven,
Forever to be, Lord, with Thee

With the Lord’s help I will try to finish them in the next few weeks.  Is there any demand for producing them, and the Faith once Delivered series in pamphlet form? I am having interesting correspondence, and there is genuine interest in the truth.  I commit the whole exercise to God.

JND’s Advice for when Things get Difficult amongst Brethren

I am grateful to our brother Ben in Bristol for drawing this letter of JN Darby to my attention.  It was current in 1881; maybe it is current in 2014!

This might be a shorter newsletter than usual.  But it comes with a simple desire that we might be abounding in the work of the Lord.

Your brother

Sosthenes

 

Σωσθένης Ὁἀδελφὸς – Sosthenes the Brother

sosthenes@adoss.co.uk – 

My answer to Lord Carey – Christianity might die out this week

 

Dear Dr Carey,

May you be proved totally right!  Christianity might die out this week – We’re waing for the Lord to come.

The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. – 1 Thess 4:16

 

Adoss Newsletter November 2013

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord

 A Personal Note from Brother Sosthenes

This is a quick note.  I must offer thanks to God for His blessings so far with ‘A Day of Small Things’.  The response has been just right – enough to be able to establish a personal link with many whom I would never have known otherwise,, without being swamped.

My Answer to Dr Carey

Do you like my ‘letter’ above?  It hit me this morning  – I was going to do another ‘Hope of the Church’ article, but I am sure the Lord said ‘”Do this instead!” .  May it serve to remind people of the Lord’s soon coming and reawaken that hope in all of our hearts.

Please feel free to spread this round if you wish.  Here is the link on the ‘A Day of Small Things’ site.   If you want to do it via Twitter the link is – BroSosthenes, or for Facebook, click here.

The Hope of the Church

 I have finished the series on ‘The Faith once Delivered’ and have started on the ‘Present Hope of the Church’ – Many are confused as to prophecy thinking that we must work at building the Kingdom of God here!  Thank God that this is rubbish – Our King is on His Father’s throne, reigning in grace. His coming is imminent. Otherwise we would have to go through the tribulation.

A bit of a Selah

I have to go into hospital on Saturday for a total shoulder replacement (your prayers please!).  This means that I will be out of commission for a few weeks.  I should be able to answer e-mails with one hand.  But the site will have to wait. 

Greetings in our Lord and Saviour

Your brother Sosthenes

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord

A Personal Note from Brother Sosthenes

I started ‘A Day of Small Things’ (ADOSS) about a month ago with a view to providing my younger (and not so young) brethren in Christ with an easy-to-read summary of certain classic works (particularly to start with John Nelson Darby) which have become accepted by lovers of the Lord Jesus and His Church here, and are waiting expectantly for His soon return.   I hear comments that you need a doctorate in theology, as well as the language capabilities of the 19th century educated elite to understand JND.  I have neither.

What is needed (and I am a poor model of that) is a deep love for our Lord, for His own, a desire for the truth, and broken heart over the state of the church publicly.  Through God’s goodness I have been exposed to much good and helpful teaching in companies where there has been a general love of the Lord, the truth and where differences of opinion have been worked out in a spirit of grace and brotherly love. 

That has been mostly, not always.  When I was eight (1953) there were serious problems in the meeting.  Without disrespect to my parents, now with Christ, they were fighting worldliness and disrespect of assembly procedure.  Through outside interference they (and a few others) forced a division and broke bread separately.  What they were fighting might have been might have a bad state:  it was not evil.  What they created was confusion – which had lasting consequences – several families were scattered – and almost all in that locality were carried away by a legal sectarian system not of God 17 years later.  Clearly I regard my parents and the others’ action, however well intentioned, as wrong. Meet state with ministry of Christ.

Satan is ever trying to get saints to fall into the same trap.  May all of us use diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. (Eph 4:3).

Simplified Darby

I feel a sense of blessing from doing the first seven Simplified Darby exercises, and have received positive feedback.  I trust that in response I have been able to provide encouragement in return.  That is how the self building up of the body in love (Eph 4:16) works.  I am deeply conscious of my shortcomings in undertaking this task, and welcome comments and suggestions.  One dear brother in the Chicago area for whom I have great personal affection and whose judgment I greatly value went as far as more-or-less rewriting one article!  But that’s how we learn.

The seven papers that were published in “The Faith once delivered to the Saints” (Kingston Bible Trust) were first.  I keep re-reading and re-touching them (as well as correcting them).  Meanwhile I have started work on JND’s  eleven lectures in Geneva on the present hope of the church (L’Espoir actuel de ‘l’Eglise) .  Which reminds I have started on one article in French! – Am I mad? 

After that – we will have to count on God’s direction.

Personal Relationships

I have no doubt that everybody who has e-mailed me or who have posted comments on the Adoss website is a lover of our Lord Jesus sharing the same hope as myself.  We are brethren, even if sadly (in some cases) not enjoying full Christian fellowship due to the breakdown in the public church (for which all have to own our part).  On the public website anonymity is of course acceptable – but when we come to one-to-one I am open as to my identity and I feel a sense of disappointment if that confidence is not returned.  Greet the friends by name. (3 John:14)

Spreading the Word

The last that I want to do is to promote myself, or any personal position (hence the pseudonym), so I have deliberately refrained from doing any promotional activity despite having many Christian friends who I have no doubt co-operate.  God Himself will give the increase.  However if you like to circulate anything amongst those you know please feel free to so.  If you want to do this using Facebook or Twitter use

https://www.facebook.com/adayofsmallthings

https://twitter.com/BroSosthenes

May you prove God’s wonderful blessings – the Lord’s coming to rapture His own very soon!  – As Alec Craig said in an address a few years back “He’s on His way!”  Rev 22:20

Greetings in our Lord and Saviour

Your brother Sosthenes

 

2014 already!

2013 is all but over and 2014 is upon us, if the Lord does not come beforehand.  But we are waiting and these two hymns, one by JND bring out our expectation far better than I can.

And shall we see Thy face,
And hear Thy heav’nly voice,
Well known to us in present grace?
Well may our hearts rejoice!
– JN Darby (1800-82)

Tis not far off – the hour, when Christ will claim His own;
We soon shall hear that voice of power; The Lord Himself shall come!
The days are passing by, the years flow on apace;
Lord Jesus, Thy return draws nigh, we long to see Thy face.
–      Miss Hannah Kilham Burlingham (1842-1901)

Have You any Room for Jesus?

We did a little ‘Christmas message’ in the neighbourhood of our meeting room and in writing it I thought  “I don’t know when Jesus was born.  It certainly wasn’t 25^th December.  But what I do know is that there was no room for HIM – plenty of room for everything else: Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, Christmas cheer and an old man dressed in red – anything, anybody but Jesus.  Have you got any room for Him?”  To date, no evident response, but we can leave that with God.

Have you any room for Jesus,
He who bore your load of sin?
As He knocks and asks admission,
Sinner, will you let Him in?
– DW Whittle

There are Wolves about!

What a day we are in! – Satan is doing his best to divide God’s people everywhere.  “The hireling … whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.” (John 10:12) How important it is to be steeped in the truth, not just the letter, of the Nature and Unity of the Church of Christ.  Not surprisingly, this summary gets the most hits!

Our Standing before God

What pains me is that so few believers have really understood that Jesus has done EVERYTHING.  They (should I say, we – or even I?) know it as fact – but then try to live by rules – or even the accepted norm of the Christian company they meet with.  May we be “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”  (Heb 12:2).

Spreading the Message

“A Day of Small Things” is getting an increasing number of hits, and we can thank God for that.  But that number is still quite small (82 on one day but 25 an average).  God knows that, and of course the site is only about four months old.  I am dependent on others to spread the word.  Here are a few suggestions:

• If you have your own website put a link to https://adoss.co.uk
• If you have a blog or newsletter write something about the ADOSS.
• Send an e-mail to your Christian friends
• Put something on Facebook – our page is https://www.facebook.com/adayofsmallthings
• Put out a tweet – Use hash tag #jndarby and reference @BroSosthenes

Facebook and Twitter are part of Satan’s world, I know, but God has enabled the Lord’s servants to use the latest technology spread the gospel.

Acknowledgments

There are two brothers whose support I would like to acknowledge.  Firstly our dear brother Bill in Wheaton Il – who now calls himself Aquila (and his wife Doris must be Priscilla!) – and has christened my wife Dorcas!  – See picture! – His site Bibles etc.

Then specifically, I would like to mention Paul Wilkinson in Manchester.  His prayerful support, whilst laid aside due to a cycling accident has been of comfort to me (I have had a shoulder operation too).  His book “For Zion’s Sake: Christian Zionism and the Role of John Nelson Darby” – is very interesting and helpful.

Christmas Greetings

We don’t ‘keep Christmas’, but to forbid any celebration is, in my opinion, legality.  It is a time for the family.  It is also an ideal time to tell relatives, neighbours, colleagues and friends of the One who when here was “God manifest in flesh”. – died for us, was buried for us, rose again for us and is now alive for us!

May you be blessed!