William Wilberforce 1797 book condensed: Ch IV Sect I (B)

Chapter IV

On the prevailing inadequate conceptions concerning the nature and the strictness of practical Christianity

Sect. I (B)

“It is the grand essential practical characteristic of true Christians, that relying on the promises to repenting sinners of acceptance through the Redeemer, they have renounced and abjured all other masters, and have fervently and unreservedly devoted themselves to God. … Christians are become the sworn enemies of sin; they will henceforth hold no parley with it, they will allow it in no shape, they will admit it in no composition; the war they have denounced against it is fervent, universal, irreconcilable.”

Christians give themselves without reserve to please Christ: they are not their own; all they are and all they have now belong to Jesus. None of this is now for their own gratification. Everything – abilities, skills, money, time, authority, influence – all is now consecrated to the honour of God and dedicated to the service of God.

Their minds belong to Christ: “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”

Their lives: “He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who dies for them and was raised again”

True in this life for all our efforts we fail to live up to this. But it remains our fixed desire to daily improve in all holiness. We know that: “without holiness no one will see the Lord” This is the description of true Christian: “We are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

It is not just about fear of misery or desire for happiness. These do have their place – but a lower one: the main thing is a passionate desire to please God. As a creature to please its Creator certainly, but more than that: Love. “We love God because he first loved us”. We love God because we have glimpsed the infinite beauty of his nature. We love God as “Our Father”.

“This is the Christian love of God! A love compounded of admiration, of preference, of hope, of trust, of joy; chastised by reverential awe, and wakeful with continual gratitude.”

I don't want to wound any weak but sincere believer. You may not exactly fit this pattern. We are all different and different aspects of what I described may come to the fore in different people. The bottom line is this: a) determination to serve God, b) desire for growth in holiness, c) confessing how unworthy and how fallible we are.

Now my objector may say: “Very good, but you are describing “Super Christian”! Ordinary Christians don't need to aim that high!”

Yes, they do! The Bible casts its precepts in the broadest and most general terms. It never suggests anyone is “above the law”. Think about it. You wouldn't get far with that plea in a human court: why do you think God would fall for such a weak excuse.

Look at the uncompromising language of the Bible; “You are not your own, you were bought at a price”. We are commanded to do the most difficult things “That you may be children of you Father who is in heaven”. Which can only be achieved by complete transformation: “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” … “you must be born again.”

There is plenty more in the Bible: Everywhere Christians are described as children and servants of God with the requirement of obedient service that those close relationships entail.

Look at the well known passage: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength.” No amount of fast talking can make that sound as though ordinary Christians only have to meet some mediocre standard!

Idolatry. It is the number one sin in the Old Testament. The sin that really got up God's nose and the one his people were most prone to. They always tried to have God and their idols. God said firmly and repeatedly: “No way!” God won't have anything in our lives compete with wholehearted devotion to him. We are not just talking figurines of wood stone and metal here: we are talking whatever in our minds and hearts competes with God. All those self-centred desires we nurture and feed have to go. Even proper duties and affections have to come second to God: “Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me”.

God will have nothing less than wholehearted zeal: “because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth”

“It is not in bowing the knee to idols that idolatry consists so much as as in the internal homage of the heart – as in the feeling towards them any of that supreme love, or reverence, or gratitude which God preserves to himself as his own exclusive prerogative. On the same principle, whatever draws off the heart from him, engrosses our prime regard, and holds chief place in our esteem and affections, that … is no less an idol to us than an image of wood or stone would be before which we should fall down and worship.”

So: stop trying to water down what God requires! Nothing less than fervent unreserved devotion to him and to serving his glory will do!

William Wilberforce: 1797 Book condensed: Ch IV Sect I (A)

Chapter IV

On the prevailing inadequate conceptions concerning the nature and the strictness of practical Christianity

Sect. I (A)

Strictness? That may surprise you. I emphasised that our salvation is “by grace alone” through Jesus' death. Does that mean I am soft on “works”? Not at all. And the people I criticised for having a scheme of salvation that rested chiefly on their own exertions and performance for acceptance with God – are they much more strict? Surprising as it may seem – No. Quite the opposite.

It is a Truth or Error thing. Those who believe the true Gospel of salvation through Christ also believe the rest of the Gospel – dying to sin and living for Christ alone. Those who are in error about the Author of our salvation go on into further error. They start by believing that we can somehow earn our way into heaven and they end up by setting the requirement low enough that anyone can do it. This means they water the moral demands of Christ down to almost nothing.

This watering down of the Gospel seems now (in 1797) to be the commonly received opinion.

If you doubt this, just ask a nominal Christian in what way they would act differently if you could prove to them that Christianity was a fraud.

Actually you don't even need to do that. Just look at how these so called “Christians” live. Are their lives much different to the professed non-believers they live amongst? No. Not really.

Is that the Christianity of the early disciples? Is that the faith they suffered hardship persecution and martyrdom for? I think not!

You may say I am wrong here. You may claim that in our Christian civilisation the moral tone has been so raised by generations of Christians that now even unbelievers act better – in fact they copy Christians in their moral behaviour so much that there is no discernible difference.

Nice try! But are you seriously claiming that the motivation required to live as a Christian is so small that someone who doesn't believe it at all can live as good a Christian life as someone who does believe?

“but let it then be asked, are the motives of Christianity so little necessary to the practice of it, its principles to its conclusions, that the one may be spared yet the other remain in undiminished force? Still then, its doctrines are no more than a barren and inapplicable or at least unnecessary theory, the place of which, it may perhaps be added, would be well supplied by a more simple and less costly scheme.

But can it be? Is Christianity then reduced to a mere creed? Is its practical influence bounded within a few external plausibilities? Does its essence consist only of a few speculative opinions, and a few useless and unprofitable tenets?”

As If! Could anything that weak warrant what Scripture says is the difference between believing and rejecting it? “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them” No indeed. Christianity is no mere creed!

The morality of the Gospel is strong stuff too! “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” “be holy for God is holy” “Be perfect therefore as your Heavenly Father is perfect”

No one who takes these seriously can be satisfied by low attainments! This is why the Bible describes becoming a real Christian as needing a radical change. “All who have this hope purify themselves even as he is pure” True Christians are said to be created anew in the image of God, to be “temples of the Holy Spirit” the effects of which must appear “in all goodness righteousness and truth”.

These verses - and the Bible has many more like them - vindicate the strictness of the Christian morality. I will say more later when discussing the Christian character.

William Wilberforce 1779 Book condensed: Ch III Sect III

Chapter III Section III

Why it is reasonable to direct these emotions to an unseen God.

Our objector, even when forced to admit that it is reasonable to feel love, gratitude, joy, hope and trust towards Jesus falls back on the claim that it is still not reasonable to feel these for a God we cannot see.

The objector will say things like: “seeing is believing”. But that does not mean we cannot believe without seeing, just that seeing is a powerful thing. Our human minds are more complex than that.

For instance, “Reason” does not control our feelings. Now the proper objects of various feelings are as follows: excellence of love, expectation of good for hope, apprehended evil of fear, other people's misfortune and suffering of pity. Are these emotions controlled by our reason weighing up the object? No! For example take pity. A moving novel, even when we know it is fiction can arouse more feeling in us than a dry account of a real battle. Again we react more to one murder nearby than to a massacre of thousands in a distant country. So our objector is on shaky ground the moment they try to equate rational thinking and emotions.

Again “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. We know that when a person we love is removed from sight, we do not cease to love them, quite the reverse. Lots more examples could be cited, but the principle is that we can feel emotions about beings we cannot see.

To turn the tables on the objector, what factors do strengthen our emotional attachment? Knowing about them, certainly, but even more knowing them. I mean if someone says how wonderful a person is who we have barely met we may be impressed but we do not become as attached to them as we do to a maybe less “wonderful” person that we have come to know really well.

So what does all this say about God and us? It says that people who make the effort to know about God from the Scriptures and to know God personally in their daily lives can feel love, gratitude, joy hope and trust in a way that the objector who has not bothered to try either of these things cannot understand. So the message to the objector is: “taste and see that the Lord is good”.

“But let us turn our eyes to Christians of a higher order, to those who have actually proved the truth of our reasonings; who have not only assumed the name, but who have possessed the substance, and felt the power of Christianity: who though often foiled by their remaining corruption, and shamed and cast down under a sense of their many imperfections, have known in their better seasons, what it is to experience its firm hope, its dignified joy, its unshaken trust, its more than human consolations. In their hearts, love also towards their Redeemer has glowed; not a superficial and unmeaning (think not that this could be the subject of our praise) but constant and rational, resulting from a strong impression of the worth of its object, and heightened by an abiding sense of great, unmerited and continually accumulating obligations; ever manifesting itself in acts of diligent obedience, or patient suffering. Such was the religion of the holy martyrs ...”

William Wilberforce 1779 Book condensed: Section II

Sect. II On the Admission of the Passions into Religion (Part A)

Question: If we express our love for Jesus are we replacing reason with emotionalism?

Reason is indeed important, but Love is not in itself against Reason and in Christianity Jesus would be the proper object of love. So the real question is: “Does a religion that honours reason exclude expressions of love?”

Popular opinion does seem to be that affection is out of place in religion. People see that various extremists exhibit this kind of behaviour so to 'spike their guns' they say “Religion must be cold and cerebral” but really this is like chopping off someone's head to cure their toothache.

Surely humans possess the capacity for passion for a good reason. Certainly in us sinful humans our passions need to be controlled by reason and conscience, but that does not mean passions should be completely erased - That is barbaric. Christianity can do better. Christianity aims to bring all our human faculties into balance and control, to bring our whole person into wholeness in Christ.

The Bible is clear that God values all our affections – Love; Zeal; Gratitude; Joy; Hope; Trust. Offering all these to God is commended as our acceptable worship.

Just as the Bible praises offering these passions to God it condemns having a cold hard unfeeling heart towards God as criminal. It even says if we are only lukewarm towards God it make him want to vomit and that God wants to take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts that feel.

Paul longed for converts to “abound more and more in love”. Worship that stirs the feelings, especially using music and singing is set forth in the scriptures. For passion take Paul – this zealous persecutor when confronted by Christ became more, not less zealous, but now for Christ instead of against.

“Finally – the worship and service of the glorified spirits in heaven, is not represented to us a cold intellectual investigation, but as the worship and service of gratitude and love. And surely it will not be disputed, that it should be even here the humble endeavour of those, who are promised while on earth “to be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” to bring their hearts into a capacity for joining in those everlasting praises.”

William Wilberforce 1779 : Ch III Sect I cont.

Objection!

Objectors will reply that it is unfair to say they love so little it is obvious that they believe little.

They will say that they are just not hypocrites like those who put on an extravagant show of religious fervour. Objectors will say that these people are being over emotional. They may also say that different people express their religion differently.

They will also object that they don't want to be like the “Holy Spirit People” either the absolute fanatics of the past or the ones today who are less dangerous only because they are less successful.

“Just look” I almost hear objectors say “how their leaders use all the old tricks of deception to make money out of the gullible”. “Just look at how they peddle the Holy Spirit as an easy path to being 'healthy, wealthy and wise'. We on the other hand are not shirking doing the hard yards to remove evil from our lives and grow in virtue.”

“And talking about zeal”, the objector will say: “what about all the wars and persecutions that have come from religious zeal – is that the sort of behaviour you want!”

Objection Discussed

“That the sacred name of Religion has been too often prostituted to the most detestable purposes; that the furious bigots and bloody persecutors and self-interested hypocrites of all qualities and dimensions ... have falsely called themselves Christians … none will more readily admit than they who best understand the nature and are most concerned for the honour of Christianity. We are ready to acknowledge also without dispute, that the religious affections, and the doctrine of divine assistances, have at all times been more or less disgraced by the false pretences and extravagant conduct of wild fanatics and brain-sick enthusiasts. All this however, is only as it happens in other instances, wherein the depravity of man perverts the bounty of God. Why is it only here to be made an argument … ? ”

As the saying goes: “The best things when corrupted become the worst”. Even science has been used for evil, do we then throw out all scientific achievement?

Look again at the French Revolution: they did throw out religion on these grounds. Look what they got instead: terrible crimes all in the name of “Liberty”. So do we ban liberty next? Then we will have to ban “patriotism” too because of the crimes done in its name. Then reason, speech and every other human faculty will have to be banned: they have all been put to evil use at some time.

Many bad people have pretended to be wise and /or honest. Do we then say there is no such thing as a wise or honest person? No. So why let the objector get away with claiming that because there are evil people who pretend be Christians that there is no such thing as a Christian? Remember what Jesus said in his parable of the weeds: “ 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field, where did the weeds come from?' 'An enemy did this' he replied”.

Also the objector to religious “enthusiasm” is often just being xenophobic – poking fun at people who speak with a particular religious jargon that sounds strange, or poking fun at their different or working class culture. Be careful of intellectual or social pride! Remember Jesus talked about his truth being hid from the wise and revealed to the simple. These people who are so easy to poke fun at because they are of a different social class or sub-culture in our society may be living more moral and godly lives than the objector. The objectors need to grow up and learn to see past cultural and class appearances to what lies beneath.

William Wilberforce 1779: Chapter III Section I

Chapter III : Inadequate Popular Christianity

Sect I : Scripture Doctrines

That: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

That: our blessed Lord willingly left the glory of the Father, and was made man.

That: “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain.”

That: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.”

That: “The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

That: “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.”

That: “Jesus Christ who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and also interceding for us”

That: “being reconciled to God by the death of his Son” “we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need .”

That: “(our) Father in Heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

That: “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.”

That: “(we) are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” & “the trumpet will sound (and) the dead will be raised imperishable.”

These are the leading doctrines concerning our Saviour and the Holy Spirit that are taught in the Holy Scripture. They are repeated in our liturgy. Surely everyone has heard them. If only people took them to heart and learned their power in their lives!

Most people who call themselves “Christians” have a defective faith. Surely anyone who really feels the weight of their sins jumps for joy at Jesus' invitation “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”. But most people think their sins are so trivial that they set a low value on what Jesus offers. It is amazing how different the strong language of the Scripture the creeds and our articles of religion is from the wishy-washy sentiments of many so-called Christians.

You may object: “The general population yes, but not the church-people surely.” I say: “yes even them”. You may reply: “How do you know – you can't read their minds.” Jesus said: “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” So the test is: how do church people talk when we lead the conversation to Jesus' life and teachings – if you can actually get them to talk about it? I'll tell you: they fluff around so much that it is obvious they are not accustomed to thinking about it at all. They show no passion about the fact that he did all this for us. No loving wonder at him who “loved us and gave himself for us” and who “was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification.”

But these great truths – even though preachers so often neglect them – shine out of our liturgy. Despite this, people hear them and even repeat them in the liturgy just as though they were only old fashioned fairy tales! Once church is over they are dismissed from thought. How can this be! What Jesus did for us – delivery from eternal misery and the gift of eternal joy and a crown that never fades – this should make anyone who receives it absolutely bursting with love and gratitude. They shouldn't be able to stop talking about it. It should be a delight to tell of his kindness. It should be a joy to worship him. Caring for others he loves should be our natural disposition.

So what does this tell us about the inner faith of most church goers?

They love little that we can say they believe equally little.

The doctrines of the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer's life they treat even worse. They don't seem to even believe in the Holy Spirit. They also seem to think that sanctification is so easy that they don't need any help from God.

Next: Objection Discussed & Answered

William Wilberforce 1779: Chapter II Sect III

Section III Corruption of Human Nature - Objection

But we still have this huge problem:

“The pride of man is loath to be humbled. Forced to abandon the plea of innocence, and pressed so closely that it can no longer escape from the conclusion to which we would drive him, some more bold objector faces about and stands at bay, endeavouring to justify what he can no longer deny, “Whatever I am” he contends “I am what my creator made me. I inherited a nature, you yourself confess, depraved and prone to evil: how then can I withstand the temptations to sin by which I am environed?” ...”

“A just God cannot blame me!” Says the objector.

Philosophical questions of the origin of evil or why God allows its existence and punishes evil doers are too deep for this discussion, but since the above abjection is heard even from professed Christians we must at least answer that.

If the objection were made by an avowed sceptic, we could argue the case but we wouldn't. I mean we could prove his ideas wrong, but might still fail to convince him that we were right. It would be like talking to someone who had never even been to school and launching straight into a proof that Copernicus was right, instead of starting with simple things and working up to complicated ones. In that case the person would get confused, annoyed and reject all we had to say. The sceptic would likely react in the same way if we launched into proving the justice of God. So for the avowed sceptic I would start with the simple truths of Christianity!

However if the objector professes to be a Christian, then they must accept the authority of scripture. I can show from the Bible that a) God is just and good, b) mankind has a depraved nature and c) that this depraved nature is never allowed as an excuse for sin. Jesus said: “...those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” and “The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace” yes, Jesus the messenger of peace and goodwill towards mankind made warnings like this over and over again.

The Bible also warns us not to try to blame God for our sins. “When tempted no one should say “God is tempting me” for God cannot be tempted nor does he tempt anyone.” and “Do I take any pleasure at the death of the wicked? Declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?”. Almost every page of the Bible has some warning or invitation for sinners: so don't try to blame God.

The objection is not always as blatant as “God can't blame me: he made me this way”. The same idea lurks in more subtle ways. Like a noxious cloud it lowers our standard of Right and gives us false comfort for our failings. Look, the Bible is clear about our natural weakness; but it never suggests, as these objectors suppose, that this in any way lowers the demands of God's justice. Such an idea is at war with the whole notion of redemption in Christ! Yes our natural condition is depraved and weak; Yes God is infinitely holy; Yet God offers sinners pardon, grace and strength. This is so amazing that of course we can't fully comprehend it. So what! There are plenty of ordinary things around us that we can't comprehend, yet happily use. We must obey the things we can understand that are given us in scripture, and not throw them away just because there are a few things we can't understand. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

What are these objectors thinking! We have this short, uncertain time in which to make our peace with God. Then comes the Judgement. Then an eternity either in heaven or in hell. Yet here they are engrossed in vain arrogant speculations while their lives hang in the balance! It is like a traitor dragged before a fair minded king who might be ready to pardon them, where the traitor instead of asking for mercy just hurls abuse at the king. No, the objectors are worse than that: The traitor might not get pardoned, but God does promise that we will be if we ask for his forgiveness. So these people really have only themselves to blame when they end up in hell.

William Wilberforce 179 book condensed: Sec II : Evil Spirit - Natural State of Man

Section II : Evil Spirit – Natural State of Man

Human nature is only part of our problem. The Bible teaches that as well as our natural depravity there is in addition the Devil who rules in the hearts of the wicked. His rule is so general that the Bible calls him “the prince of this world”. But this very question of the existence of the Devil highlights the difference between the religion of the Bible and the nominal Christianity in our country today. The Bible is plain about the reality of the Devil but Popular Christianity laughs at the idea and says that in our enlightened age it cannot be believed.

People often dismiss the existence of evil spirits on the flimsy excuse that once ghost stories were believed but now we see through them as superstitious tales. But taking that argument we would end up denying the existence of any spiritual beings. As to temptation: we cannot see evil spirits but we do see some human beings who are clearly enemies of God and all that is good who try to get others to join them in perpetrating evil. So why should there not be spiritual beings who are likewise enemies of God and all that is good who try to tempt humans to perpetrate evil? It is inconsistent to admit that humans can tempt other humans to do evil but refuse to admit that spiritual beings can also tempt humans.

If the Bible is true, we face a grim reality: we are attacked from within by our corrupt nature and from without by the Devil's temptations. So how do we face the prospect of the coming Judgement? If we look at the qualities and character of the Judge and the rule he will employ our fears only get bigger.

As to his qualities: He has absolute power and knows everything we have ever done and our every secret thought. Nothing is hidden fro him.

As to his character: “God is a consuming fire” his “eyes are too pure to look on evil”.

As to the rule he will use: “the one who sins is the one who shall die” and “sin pays a wage: death”. If we don't think God means what he says just look at history. Look at what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah, what he ordered Israel to do to the idolatrous Canaanite nations. Look at Tyre, Babylon, Nineveh: God said through his prophets he would wreak judgement on them – and he did! How can people be so silly as to fool themselves that God will somehow let them off because 'it was just human nature'! True – along with the threats the Bible holds out the wonderful promise of forgiveness to those who repent. But the key is when they repent. “But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me, since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord.” One cannot seriously read the Bible without realising the dreadful judgement that awaits people who refuse to heed God. Even in this world we see hints of God's judgement in the inbuilt 'cause and effect' nature of the world.

But praise be to God! He has not left us without hope in the face of awful judgement. Jesus came “to proclaim good news to the poor … freedom for the prisoners … sight for the blind … to let the oppressed go free.” People who realise their desperate need jump at the freedom Jesus offers them! But in order for people to realise their great need we must talk about human corruption. But no one wants to talk about it because it offends our human pride. So we see today much religion lacking solid foundations where no one is convicted to “flee from the wrath to come” and we do not “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”.

We must shake off this lethargy. A practical realisation of our natural depravity and weakness will help us here. Just as understanding this made us realise our need of God, so reminding ourselves of it will keep us depending on Him. Only obstinate stupidity can say that humans are basically good in the face of all the evidence around us and the voice of scripture. Don't be stupid - be wise.

We need to make this doctrine our habitual feeling. When we see acts of folly and vice we must always remind ourselves that we also share the same human nature which produced these bad things. Like one disease sufferer seeing another's symptoms we should pity the offender and be vigilant against the fault in our own hearts.

William Wilberforce 1779: Ch. II Sect. I

Ch. II Corruption of Human Nature.

Sect. I : Inadequate conceptions of the corruption of human nature

We have looked at the defective notions people have about the importance of Christianity. To understand Christianity, first of all we need to understand the corruption of human nature.

As I see it, most people in the upper classes who say they are Christians either overlook, deny or make excuses for human nature. Though to be fair they do admit two important things: a) that there are and always have been a lot of bad things happening in the world; b) that education does not make people good: even when people know the good they do not do it.

These two points are both so clearly true and obvious that one should accept the quote: “the majority are wicked”.

The problem is that this is not traced to its true source.

People who call themselves Christians use weasel words to hide the evil in human nature. They pretend people are really good: they pretend evil comes from outside, not inside the human mind.

Real Christianity says: We are fallen creatures; We are now biased against good and towards evil; We are sinners to the core.

Someone on another planet who simply read a list of human abilities would think that with such intelligent, creative and skillful inhabitants earth must be the ideal world.

What a shock they would get when they saw what we humans have really done – all the war, violence, oppression, injustice and every other kind of evil.

Look at the ancient world - not the barbaric nations, the classical civilisations where we applaud their achievements and their philosophy; not the lower classes but the elites. Even there their morals were absolutely disgusting. As Paul said: “Just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind”

Look somewhere else: to the new world untouched by these civilisations. Are these 'children of nature' pure and perfect. No! Accounts of the American Indians describe them as proud, indolent, cunning, selfish, horribly cruel and with a lust for vengeance of insatiable ferocity.

You may say: 'these heathens are indeed indefensible, but can we not base our view of human nature on nations which have been blessed with the light of revelation?' Here Christianity has set the moral bar far higher than ever it was in a pagan country – especially when it comes to treatment of the poor and weak. Here godly laws and customs restrain so much evil behaviour – you only have to look at the recent French Revolution to see how evil multiplies when these restraints are removed. Above all, we live under the dreadful expectation of standing before God on the Day of Judgement. Yet even with all this we experience the truth of old sayings like “power corrupts” in our society and we find that even people who talk about virtue do not practice it.

Here are some other arguments. a) Children have to be trained to be good – it does not come naturally. b) We all practice self deception. Christianity has often been disgraced by people who forget Jesus in their persecuting zeal. One can understand heathens who have such warped ideas of what God is like behaving badly, but Christians? It is a terrible thing that we who ...

“enjoy the full light of revelation, to whom God has vouchsafed such clear discoveries of what it concerns us to know of his being and attributes; who profess to believe that “in him we live, move and have our being”; that to him we owe all the comforts we here enjoy and the offers of eternal glory purchased for us by the atoning blood of his own Son; (thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift) that we, thus loaded with mercies should every one of us be continually chargeable with forgetting his authority and being ungrateful for his benefits; with slighting his gracious proposals or greeting them at best but heartlessly and coldly.” (Wilberforce's text)

This is the acid test for the depravity of human nature: what have the best and finest Christians discovered about themselves? They will confirm how desperately corrupt they know their inner human nature to be.

When you compare the potential of humans with the performance of the human race, excuses like “frailty” or “occasional lapses” of human nature just will not do. Human nature is bent. Our nobler powers are corrupted, we don't even want to know about God or know or obey his laws. Evil habits have made us slaves to sin, darkened our understanding, hardened our hearts and seared our consciences until we even glory in our slavery.

Some people are better, some worse – but no one is free.

So just like Newton's Laws, this principle of evil being ingrained in human nature is a matter of scientific observation of reality.

We also have this revealed to us in Scripture. From “the imagination of the human heart is evil from youth” in Genesis through so many possible quotes to Paul's lament in Romans “What a wretched man I am. Who will deliver me from this body that is subject to death”. Other verses tell us that we need a radical change in our nature to become true Christians. Holy people give God all the credit for what they are.

William Wilberforce 1779 book Chapter 1

William Wilberforce

“A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, In the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity” London 1779

Condensed and in modern English by David Greentree, Melbourne 2014

Ch.1 Inadequate conceptions of the importance of Christianity

People call themselves Christians but just don't see how important Christianity is, or even what it is.

They praise ethical behaviour and complain about corruption and lack of public morals. They tolerate a bit of churchgoing, maybe they know a few of the basics but they don't have a clue what Jesus was really on about.

Look at how they raise their children. They would be embarrassed if their kids grew up not knowing the rules of football, but never teach them the facts of Christianity, or explain why it is true. It has just become an inherited bit of superstition, instead of a truth that can be explained and defended against objections. No wonder thinking young people are rejecting it for other philosophies as they grow up.

Wake up! You really won't like what this country turns into if Christianity falls. Look at the recent French revolution: If Christianity had been really alive in France, the revolution would never have happened – real Christians would have reformed corrupt church and society before then. Instead they got the Reign of Terror, the guillotine, and dictatorship. We need public discussion about Christianity in this country.

People reply: No! Religion should be private.

Well then, lets look at this “private religion” they say they have. How about their private conversations: How often is their Christian faith mentioned alongside their hopes, fears, joys sorrows. How often do they credit God with the good things they enjoy. Never! What about when they discuss great moral issues, does their Christianity show through. No! Their standards of right and wrong are not those of the Gospel. Wherever they got their moral ideas from, it was not Christianity! They might have Bibles on the shelf, but they obviously don't read them.

Most people take as morals the commonly received maxims of our “Christian” culture without realising that these are often very different from what the Bible actually teaches.

This behaviour: not teaching the great truths of Christianity to our children and not bothering to check our moral rules against what the Bible says is deliberate ignorance. Don't people who say they are Christians realise they will have to answer to God for this? Don't they realise this deliberate ignorance must look criminal to God? We are going to have to answer to God for every missed opportunity to do good. How much worse for us when God promised his Holy Spirit to lead us in our quest to know the things of God and instead we have chosen deliberate ignorance.

And why is it in the Christian faith alone that we think we don't need to make some effort? Nothing else in life is like that. Even if you are a gifted athlete you still have to train hard to win. The same with every other field of human endeavour. Yet people think they can be Christians without labour, study or enquiry. This is even more stupid considering that Christianity is a revelation from God not a human invention. So we certainly cannot become proficient in it if we delude ourselves that it comes naturally.

If we study the Bible seriously we might stop being deceived by appearances. We might see that this is no mere philosophy but the power of God for salvation in Christ. We would see that it calls us not just to be religious and moral, but to understand doctrines and principals and to practice the precepts of Christ.

“Christianity is always represented in scripture as the grand, the unparalleled instance of God's bounty to mankind. It was graciously held forth in the original promise to our first parents; it was predicted by a long series of prophets; the subject of their prayers, enquiries and longing expectations. In a world which opposed and persecuted them, it was their source of peace and hope and consolation. At length it approached – the desire of all nations – The long expected star announced its presence – a multitude of heavenly host hailed its introduction and proclaimed its character; “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace goodwill towards men.” It is everywhere represented in Scripture by such figures as may most deeply impress upon us a sense of its value; it is spoken of as light from darkness, as release from prison, as deliverance from captivity, as life from death.” (Wilberforce's text)

So Christian faith is a priceless treasure from heaven freely offered to us. Yet people ignore it or hold it negligently as though it had no value.

It is common sense Christians should study their Bibles: “Faith comes by hearing: Hearing by the word of God” and “Be ready to give to everyone a reason for the hope that is in you”. But “Christian” people don't read the Bible – so it is no wonder they know so little and are so full of wrong ideas about Christianity.

One reason Christians don't study their Bibles is that they seem to believe that it doesn't matter what they believe as long as they sincerely believe it. How silly is that! Jihadist terrorists sincerely believe they are serving God as they slaughter innocent civilians – do we think that makes it right? Of course not! What you believe does matter. (NB Jihadist terrorist is my updating of Wilberforce's 18^th century examples)

So, God gives you these wonderful promises and encouragements in the Bible. you are told it is a precious gift that others did not receive: “Many prophets and kings longed to hear the things you hear but did not hear them” Yet you chose to remain obstinately ignorant of the way that leads to life. How do you expect to escape punishment for this on God's day of judgement!