The Church of God, a Symposium

David Gooding’s latest book contains 14 papers grouped into four series. Luke’s Gospel is not covered as a whole, but 14 individual topics are studied, the intention being to encourage further study of the Gospel as a whole. The approach is almost a psychological one, and quite unusual, in the sense that the inner motivations, thoughts and reasonings of the personalities involved are developed in detail. Thus the miracles, parables and historical events are clothed with living people, the Lord Himself being at the centre of each study. An excellent book to read, to study and to profit from.

The Symposium consists of ten substantial papers on the subject of “church truth”. It is good to have another eposition of these fundamental truths, and the reviewer found all ten papers extremely helpful and fresh in their approach. Photographs of the writers introduce the papers; several authors originated from the British Isles, while others (J. M. Davies, Dr. Stephen S. Short, E. W. Rogers) will be well-known to U.K. readers. Articles on Church Government, Gifts, Ministry, Ordinances, Sisters’ Ministry are both doctrinal and practical, encouraging and corrective. Christ the Centre is heart-warming, but the closing two chapters, Dangers to the Church, and The Ecumenical Church of the Last Days, constitute warnings and should indeed be read by all, even if they already adhere faithfully to all scriptural doctrine pertaining to the church.

In order to give the reader a flavour of the Symposium, we have been given permission to publish in three parts the paper in the book by J. M. Davies, “The Church: its Formation, Fellowship and Features”; the first part appears overleaf.