Published Articles

The great creation debate

Over the last several years there has been quite a lot of Christian media coverage given to the evolution versus divine creation debate. The subject is not a new one, but of late the Young Earth Creationist camp has been making its views known fairly clearly and dogmatically and this has sparked responses from Christians who hold other views on creation.

I am not a trained scientist and so I am not competent to comment significantly on the scientific aspects of the debate. I also do not claim to be a theological ‘expert’ on the subject. Despite both of these limitations I do feel able to make some cautionary comments on the subject. Job 38:4 records God’s challenge when He asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” I believe this applies equally to both scientists and theologians. Human beings were not present when God created the heavens and the earth. Scientists were not present at the creation to observe and analyse. They develop their hypotheses from the geological record and logical assumptions. Theologians were not there either and we develop our doctrines from a logical understanding of the scriptures. So an essential requirement in the evolution/creation debate, on both sides, is humility.

A second preliminary consideration concerns who the parties are in the debate. On the one hand Christians are engaged with atheist or agnostic sceptics like Richard Dawkins, but it seems to me that the more heated debate is occurring between Christians. Evangelicals are taking issue with Liberals, but bible-believing Christians are also fighting with other bible-believing evangelicals. I say ‘fighting’ because some of the debate is beyond robust.

The main ‘camps’ in the Christian debate over evolution and creation are the Young Earth Creationism camp, The Progressive Creationism camp, the Intelligent Design camp, and the Theistic Evolution camp. Bruce Waltke has written a paper on ‘Barriers to accepting the possibility of creation by means of an evolutionary process’ (http://biologos.org/uploads/projects/Waltke_scholarly_essay.pdf) and as an appendix he attaches the findings of four surveys administered to Pentecostal seminary faculties between 2004 and 2009. The last of these surveys revealed that only 23% of the respondents were Young Earth Creationists and 19% were evolutionary creationists. So we need to note that neither of these positions enjoys majority support even among Pentecostals.

I recently read comments by a scientist who described himself as a Christian Theistic Evolutionist claiming that a prominent Young Earth Creationist was implying that those Christians who do not agree with his views do not therefore believe in a real Adam or an actual fall. He then points out that as a Theistic Evolutionist he does believe in a real Adam and Eve, a Garden of Eden, a real Fall, and in the authority of the Bible. So we all need to be careful how we classify and characterise other sincere Christians.

I believe that, instead of fighting each other over the ‘how’ of creation, Christian scholars with a particular interest in this area of study should engage each other in a non-confrontational way on some of the underlying issues in the debate. For instance, we need to discuss what the various views say or imply concerning the character of God, the trustworthiness of the scriptures, and key doctrines such as sin and salvation. As an example, the idea that God created the earth some 6,000 years ago with the appearance of great age says something about God’s integrity and transparency. Disbelief in an actual Adam and original sin seriously affects the evangelical understanding of salvation in and through the last Adam (1 COR 15:45), the Lord Jesus Christ, and so on. These, and other serious doctrinal and faith issues, should be resolved through considerate and careful debate. I for one would certainly appreciate more of this kind of exchange and less polemic dogmatism in Christian magazines and journals.

My appeal to both scholars and editors is to air the underlying faith issues in the debate rather than the endless ideas on how God might have created, or when He created. As a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ I am far more interested in, and impacted by, what the creation issue has to say about God’s character, the trustworthiness of the Bible, and the key doctrines of the evangelical faith.

So my appeal is that we make the subject of creation a great debate rather than a great ‘barney’.

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Truth Talks and Publications

Updated TruthTalks & Publications

TruthTalksNEW SITE CONTENT

If you have been enjoying the narrative sermon style that The Village Church has been using to go through the book of John then CLICK HERE to listen to Christopher’s sermon on John 9. You can also find lots of his other sermons to listen to HERE.

Of course if you prefer reading short articles, there are a wealth of them HERE for you to enjoy.

Do visit www.truthistheword.com and leave a comment which are always welcome. Until next time, Admin

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Sermon on A different Gospel

Some truly Good News

Why do bad things happen to good people? Shouldn’t God be stopping them?

I preached on this topic in a sermon titled ‘In the World, trials and sorrows; In Jesus, peace’ when I realised that I had been asked this question more times than I can remember and yet my response has always been the same.
John 13-16 is the last long conversation Jesus had with His disciples before His crucifixion, and  we draw from the end of chapter 16 to find His answer to the question of suffering. Listen to my sermon if you would like to know what I believe to be the answer by clicking on the play button below.

 

Sermons and Articles ImageYou will find many of the sermons I have preached along with their notes on THIS page, so listen to any you may have missed or would like to listen to again HERE. They include:

and many more.

On www.truthistheword.com you can also find many articles I have written over the years for various publications. Most are short articles sharing a specific message so they won’t take you long to read, so:

  • Are you feeling worried? Click HERE
  • Do you know what it is to be filled with the Spirit? Read about my personal experiences concerning it HERE
  • Want to live debt free? Click HERE for some tips
  • Feel like God isn’t there? It may help to read this article HERE.

Other topics which may be of interest to you include ‘Women in Ministry‘, ‘God is not a User!‘, ‘How to discern a Move of God’ and many, many more.

PLEASE NOTE with regards to the articles: Because I am still uploading many of these I can’t DATE them correctly (it’s technical), so please don’t try to find an article by how “current” it appears to be. Some of my most current articles, for example, are dated 5 years ago, so a much better way to find what you are looking for would be to use the Search button found on any of the listed article pages or simply browsing through them from here.

May God bless You!

Christopher

 

 

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Sermons and Publications

Missed Anything?

Hi there! In case you missed any of the sermons I have preached recently I have uploaded them to The Sermons Page. Additionally, here are some more of my published articles.

Sermonstruthtalks

The whole of the Great Commission

I have summarised what this means by referencing  Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24, and John 21. Our Great Commission may seem daunting, BUT God has equipped us to join with Him in His Mission of drawing people to himself.

Signed, Sealed & Delivered

The Revelation Revisited Series is still underway, so if you have not joined with us on this exciting journey then please do so by having a look at the Summary Video on YouTube HERE, or downloading the text summary HERE.

This sermon addresses Revelation 7 and also includes a reminder of how to understand the book of Revelation.

Jesus, the Spirit & Us

Drawing from Matthew 3:13 to 4:1 I speak of baptism, both of the Spirit and in water. The bible is clear on this – just do it! If you have given your life to the Lord Jesus Christ then you MUST be baptised in water because this is what we are told to do! When Jesus was baptised by John he went humbly to him, got baptised, and then spent time in prayer with His Father and our Father.

ArticlesPublished Articles

The Rose Among the Thorns

What do we do in times of affliction? Who can we blame? God? Ourselves? Our Parents? The devil? Why do we even have to go through afflictions, and most importantly, how do we deal with them?

Prisoners of Our Past

I understand that trauma, neglect, and abuse of any kind can leave emotional scar tissue, and that even late in life these negative legacies can trigger defense mechanisms in us. This I get. What I don’t get is why anyone should believe that they are a prisoner of their past. I look at Ephesians 4:22-24 to find out how to escape from this self-made prison.

The Light of the World

‘Light’ is a common theme in the Bible, right from book 1 (Genesis) when God commanded ‘let there be light’, and in Exodus where the Israelites followed the pillar of light in the desert. In this article I look at light and it’s association with God and compare it to what we know in physics about its properties. In this article I reveal how in Jesus we see the light of God!

 

Missed Anything? Read More »

Sermons and Publications

New Sermons & Publications

Hello everybody. I have uploaded some more sermons onto THE SERMONS PAGE. These are also accompanied by the SERMON NOTES I used while preaching them for those of you who prefer to read rather than listen. The sermons are:

Sermons The Gift of Fire

 Luke 12 verses 49 and 50. What is the gift of fire exactly? Are we to embrace or resist fire? Jesus said  “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” Listen to this sermon to find out what it all means, the origins of spiritual ‘fire’ and what ‘strange fire’ is.

Grace Upon Grace

There are so many false teachings around in this day, one is based on Grace – “May the Grace of the Lord Jesus be with you”. This is a quote which comes up all over the bible. But what IS and ISN’T the grace that the bible speaks of? John 1 verses 16&17 says: ”Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Listen to the sermon to find out more.

Ask Seek Knock

Predictions and promises are not the same thing. The ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Matthew 7: 7-11 talks about asking, seeking, knocking, and of course finding. The condition of this promise of finding is that we persevere! There is no value in instant gratification! Ask and keep on asking, knock and knock some more, seek and then seek again. It is a a process. First we ask God for what we seek, clarifying what it is we are looking for. James says that we don’t have because we don’t ask, but when we ask it is for the wrong motives. Seek the correct motive and commit to it, God will give us the directions in which to seek. If we seek God’s face and His Kingdom with all of our hearts we will find what we have asked for.

Then we have some of my published articles which can be found HERE for your reading enjoyment. These include:

Our Way or God’s way

Published in 2008, this article talks about why is it that we so often find ourselves going down our own way, rather than God’s way? I don’t think it’s because we don’t want GodPublished Articles’s way, or that we don’t pray or read the Bible enough. I think the prime reason is that we just don’t understand God’s ways. His ways are so different to what we are accustomed, what we have been taught through the educational system, and what we see modeled all around us. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). But how do we do this? How do we reform our mindsets? Read this article to discover a simple 3-step process.

The Secret

Do you remember when the DVD series called “The Secret” was on everyone’s lips? Well, some people still use this as their ‘guide to life’. Based on what the author calls ‘The Law of Attraction’ (believe it and it will materialise into your life like magic) this ‘secret’ falls apart when subjected to both reason and biblical revelation. Read this article to learn more.

Interpreting the Bible

Despite the eroding influence of some aspects of post-modern thinking, most of you reading this will agree with me when I declare the Bible to be divinely inspired and authoritative. However, we may well differ in how we interpret the inspired written Word of God. This article outlines the three key interpretive principle which you can follow to arrive at a sound interpretation of the bible.

 

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About Me

My name is Christopher Peppler and I was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1947. While working in the financial sector I achieved a number of business qualifications from the Institute of Bankers, Damelin Management School, and The University of the Witwatersrand Business School. After over 20 years as a banker, I followed God’s calling and joined the ministry full time. After becoming a pastor of what is now a quite considerable church, I  earned an undergraduate theological qualification from the Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa and post-graduate degrees from two United States institutions. I was also awarded the Doctor of Theology in Systematic Theology from the University of Zululand in 2000.

Four years before that I established the South African Theological Seminary (SATS), which today is represented in over 70 countries and has more than 2 500 active students enrolled with it. I presently play an role supervising Masters and Doctoral students.

I am a passionate champion of the Christocentric or Christ-centred Principle, an approach to biblical interpretation and theological construction that emphasises the centrality of Jesus

I have been happily married to Patricia since the age of 20, have two children, Lance and Karen, a daughter-in-law Tracey, and granddaughters Jessica and Kirsten. I have now retired from both church and seminary leadership and devote my time to writing, discipling, and the classical guitar.

If you would like to read my testimony to Jesus then click HERE.