Personal Perspectives – Page 2

Prophecy and control

Posted on 28th July, 202528th July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Prophetic words and revelation that communicate can make an amazing difference to a life or a situation and probably in the next post will develop that side. However… and sadly I also have to touch on the levels of control that I have confronted – blatantly in the numerous years when I travelled to Brazil and perhaps not so blatant in other places.

I still respond to requests from certain situations to bring some prophetic revelation and always make sure that the person on the receiving end knows they are the ‘boss’. They have every right to reject what is being brought, and they are not about to receive something that is controlling or manipulative. Paul describes one of the ‘works of the flesh’ as witchcraft and anything that seeks to control, manipulate or dictate in the context of interpersonal relationships is indeed a work of the flesh. It might come in the form of a charismatic gift… in the form of prophecy, but nevertheless it is ‘false prophecy’. False prophecy is not that which is wrong, it is a spirit. If someone consistently gets it ‘wrong’ then they need help and probably need to take a step back for a season – but that in itself is not false prophecy.

[An aside: one of the theological errors I believe, and something that has been popularised in many charismatic / third wave circles is that the prophets of the Old Testament spoke the very words of God, and the apostles of the New Testament did likewise, whereas the New Testament prophets spoke relatively. This does not stand up to biblical examination and I am sure the original proponent of this was operating from a presupposition concerning the inerrancy of Scripture – similar to one of my earlier posts about my days in New Testament introduction classes and the ever-present drive to prove that each and every NT book was ‘apostolic’. The Bible does not need our help!!!]

‘We had a person through who to each person he gave out their social security number and then what followed was a prophetic word, but each word was manipulative – even some at the level of threat’… ‘if you do not receive this word then this will happen…’

The above was reported to me. Perhaps the person received the numbers from heaven (I question that) but irrespective of the source the response was not one of faith and freedom but bondage. In Brazil I always held one session on false prophecy and at the close always held a response time seeking to insist that if they had been subject to such an experience that we would pray. I tried to make the response very tight so excluded where they had received something that was not accurate, or they knew that whatever they had received did not have a hold on them. On average 25-35% of those present would respond. The biggest battle was getting people to the place where they verbally rejected what had been given as they had to confront the fear of ‘but if I reject this what will happen’. Following the renunciation I would always call for healing – and sometimes as many as 50-100 people would testify to healing – such as being able to move their arm, leg or body in a free way for the first time in a decade or more.

Prophecy is never about the person giving the ‘word’. As soon as that becomes the case a door is open to all sorts of problems. Peter was asked to ‘feed my sheep’. The ministry platform has opened up the reverse of that… those listening, listen with awe and are impressed (‘duped’) and the person (ego) being fed is the platform person.

I believe in prophetic gifts. We are in a new time, a new situation, and this requires new protocols and also (re-)new(ed) people. Being impressed by the superstar is not what will bring the kingdom of heaven into reach but will only serve to keep the body immature and the remainder of society bereft of heaven’s perspective.

July 29 2004 – Feb 14 2025

Posted on 25th July, 202522nd July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Dates. July 29th, 2004 the diagnosis for Sue is that she had cancer in her body. She is 49, her dad having died at age 50 from cancer. In her journal on 28th July she wrote – I do not want to face my worst fear. On 29th she wrote – I have faced my worst fear and it is not as bad as I thought. The diagnosis was given – I was devastated, she not. The first ‘major’ (excuse the inadequate adjective) healing I saw was of a Philipino woman in Tooting, London, who was in the final stages of cancer. She was present with family members who had come over for her final weeks. I prayed for her and the colour of her skin changed. Next day she drove her husband’s BMW car that he had bought while she was ill and had never been able to drive. She drove to a Catholic church to pray and give thanks. The priest asked her what was going on – he did not know how to respond! But now this was Sue.

In the fall a friend from Argentina came to me and said he had been praying for Sue and had seen the following. She was in a small private meeting in which there were words spoken that entered into the pit of her stomach and rose up into her chest area and exited at the top of her back just below the neck. He said that he and his wife, Sylvia, would come and pray if 1) she confirmed that happened exactly as he described and 2) that as soon as I shared this with her that her fist words would be ‘I will tell you exactly when that was’. I thought well there are no secrets so no chance and then when I repeated what Victor had said, so that he could check I had it accurately, I pointed to my chest area and was maybe 2 centimetres to the left of where he had indicated. He replied with if she says it was where you pointed then I am wrong and will not come to pray. I thought now double no chance!

[An aside – maybe we have witnessed (I overstate) where someone declares there is a man with a torn tendon in his right elbow… eventually a women with a dislocated left knee is healed!]

I went back home and Sue sat on one settee. I shared. Her first words were ‘I will tell you exactly when that was’. OOOOF.

Victor and Sylvia came and prayed. The improvement was incredible. In December we had the second scan and waited in the waiting room, and waited… They came eventually and explained the delay. They said they had received the results but knew that the results could not be from the woman they were looking at who looked as well as you or I. They said that the technicians had made a mistake and sent it back for another response. But that they said that in spite of treatment the situation was worse than before.

I learnt so much in those months. Worst time of my life – maybe also the best. Encounters with God in abundance. I remember unloading the dishwasher. Only I was in the house and as I bent down this hand came on my back – so strongly I jumped up, instantly without fear or concern. I knew somehow this was an angelic visitation. This strength flooded into my body. I walked to the hospice about 1km away with literal physical strength flowing through my body. I reached the hospice (Sue was by now in a coma) and there was an open Bible with a note that the person left saying ‘I read this for you today’.

Then this humanlike figure touched me again and gave me strength. He said, ‘Don’t be afraid, friend. Peace. Everything is going to be all right. Take courage. Be strong.’ (Dan 10:18-19).

OOOOFFFF.

Two days later (Feb 14th – the only Valentine card she never opened on the side) Sue was breathing with her lungs clearly filled with liquid so the breathing was heavily laboured. I said to her if you want me to I will release you (first time I ever said that or had contemplated saying that). And as clear as any voice could be immediately I heard,

No not now and if you ask I will send an angel to cleanse her lungs for you.’

My reply – if that is on offer I am asking.

Bizarrely I thought the liquid in the lungs would somehow be syphoned out and would enter the catheter bag (I am no medic!). I looked for the bag but as she had had received no liquid in days the bag was not hanging on the side of the bed but tucked under her thigh. I took it and hung it on the side of the bed, and 90 minutes later it was full. I called a nurse who looked at me sceptically but then quickly removed the bag and replaced it with another one. I called her again maybe another 90 minutes later and as she took at away in the corridor the nurse was asked by another nurse – where has that come from? When she said Sue Scott a discussion ensued as this was not considered possible.

Sue’s breathing was now perfect.

From July 29th to Feb 14th had been a long journey, but at last we were there. At 17:10 my phone went with a text message from someone with credible status. It read, ‘Last night I dreamt and Sue was present in a room and giving thanks to all those present from around the world who had been praying for her.’ I knew we were there – the timing was amazing. 12 minutes later she breathed her last breath.

Months later I realised that the Holy Spirit had said ‘cleanse her lungs for you‘. Not for Sue, for where she was headed she did not need lungs related to this earthly age to be cleansed – it was for me.

On that last morning a young woman who lived about an hour away woke and came downstairs to say that she had woken to Sue Scott’s voice (she had never met Sue) who said – My Jesus I am coming to you, tell my family I was not afraid, look after my family.

In the months before Sue died there was an evening when those somewhat younger than us came to pray for her. She said, ‘before you pray I do not want anyone to pray to stop me dying’ (I am somewhat shocked to hear this). She continued, ‘We are all dying. You are here to pray that I live. If you discern that I have purpose to live then you can pray’.

I thought about Moses’ words:

I set before you life and death, choose life so that you may live.

He did not say avoid death and you will live. Avoiding death is not living… becoming increasingly a life giving spirit is to live.

To say that I learnt so much would be an understatement.

Do I understand all that took place. No, but am forever grateful to God for the deep intimate companionship along the way.

Could the outcome have been different? Perhaps, but the ‘coulds and shoulds’ of life can stop us moving forward. Never easy but the companionship of heaven is deeply more life-giving than the understanding of all things.

In a personal post like this it would not be possible to thank everyone for the practical and prayerful support during and after those months. I am eternally grateful to the scores of people.

In Jesus’ name

Posted on 23rd July, 202521st July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I had a phase when I focused a lot on praying for those who were sick. I initially asked the Lord for one person per week and after a few weeks someone would come to my door, then I upped the request to 3 a week and the same began to happen, and then…

I still have a simplicity about healing… how would the historical Jesus of Nazareth respond to a request for healing – the one who is the same yesterday, today and will be consistently the same tomorrow. There might be many reasons why a person is not healed but I do not think it is a good idea to start with that!

I could recount many stories but – hopefully not being foolish but helping to raise realistic expectations – will throw in two here.

Back in the day of ‘healing meetings’… and in this new setting, a setting of life, we have to find a new way, but back in the day as these posts are reflections that maybe I can pull together the threads in days to come. Edith, in her early 60s came in sitting in a wheelchair and I immediately turned to my colleague and said – that woman will walk tonight. The story was written up in a national newspaper (The Daily Mail – not a paper I would recommend!). I later found out that for 19 years she had never walked unaided, 16 in a wheelchair and living in a home for those severely physically challenged. By the time I prayed for her she was in advanced stage of Multiple Sclerosis. Her eye sight had virtually all gone, her vocal cords destroyed. She walked and returned to ‘normal’ life, she soon left the care home and lived some 15 kilometres from where I lived. She had to be medically examined to have her driving license restored and the report was – other than your medical records we have to say there is no trace of any symptom in her body, no residual evidence that she had ever had MS!

I got to know her some and found out that she had been prayed for on numerous occasions over the previous decades with seemingly no result. Two options… someone comes along who knows what others before did not know, or (the reality) one more prayer tipped the scales. There the challenge remains. Persistence and certainly no hollow promises, and no action as if we know everything.

A mother brought her 8 year old daughter to me. I sat with them in an office. She had a rare disease and at its worst she had to be carried in a duvet from one place to another such was the pain to even touch her. I simply said – if Jesus were here physically, but it is me who is here so let’s see. I simply prayed ‘Lord Jesus it would be great if you touched this young girl today’… I held her hand and after a minute or so said, ‘many times when one is being healed there is a sensation that is experienced in the body – often heat or tingling or something similar’. The girl replied with – I have felt something happen in all my joints. My reply – you never know, let’s see.

I had a letter from the mother a few days later. When we left your office my daughter said she had never let this well in a long time. Next day she cycled 800 metres, not having been able to cycle in weeks. Then later she communicated that the clinic that she was under communicated that they could not explain the shift, but that their conclusion was that the cumulative effect of the different drugs they had prescribed had overnight somehow catalysed the healing. Maybe… probably not!

I could recount hundreds of similar situations, and maybe one last one in this post. In Brazil at the back to the auditorium there was a major commotion with people gathered all around. I said go find out what has happened. A woman born without fingerprints had received finger prints! Necessary? Probably not – but what a testimony to the restoration of identity.

I don’t know too much, have also prayed with people who have had no improvement; sadly lost Sue when she was only 50. But I remain a convinced charismatic, that there are gifts that God releases.

I doubt if I will know a lot more once I travel beyond the 70 mark, and I hope in recounting just 3 stories that I will not come out the other side to be more foolish than I am. My motivation – God is not one of us, but breaks in to our world over and over again. We rejoice with every testimony, we weep with those who do not experience something amazing (Heb. 11) knowing that as we walk together and make room for God there are all kinds of possibilities… ‘What if?’ possibilities.

Charismatic Gifts

Posted on 21st July, 202519th July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Not ‘charismatic’ in the sense of larger than life personality, but charis-matic: charis being the word for grace, and Paul in Galatians expresses an expectation of the norm among them in a letter that is strong about ‘grace’:

Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard? (Gal. 3:5).

Present tense and ongoing without Paul (an apostle) being present. I am an unrepentant ‘charismatic’ with a belief and desire to see the norm, but also acknowledge the abuse that has at times accompanied that which is popularly called ‘the supernatural’. And in these next few posts there is a backdrop that supernatural signs do not attest to the character of the person or any particular practice. There can be many theological debates about Scripture, but ortho-praxy is as high – at times higher – than orthodoxy.

I have hesitated about writing these particular posts and they will be highly selective as to what content they carry. I decided to write with regard to what is commonly termed ‘the supernatural’ as it part of my journey and I am and remain a convinced ‘charismatic’ with a passion to see the authentic miraculous increase.

Acts begins with – ‘of all that Jesus began to do and to teach’ which I consider is the straightforward and best translation, hence Acts is a record of Jesus continuing to do and to teach. The context moves from the Jewish world to the Graeco-Roman but the ‘doing’ continues while the ‘teaching’ finds a new context.

My hesitation in writing? There are clear records in Scripture of the miraculous but Paul felt forced to defend himself when he shared his journey to the third heaven and I think a fair reading of the passage is that he was still not convinced he did the right thing in sharing what he shared. It is too easy to get the ‘wow’ response. Also the testimony books gather together the stories and leave out the stories that don’t fit, leaving the author as the hero and the rest of us with false aspirations. So it is tricky to put this post together – but I will have a go with the hope it will provoke, and perhaps stir faith also.

Let me start by recounting with a question I asked Michael Kolisang (he was the first person that Reinhard Bonnke saw come to Christ when he came to Africa, and then Michael became the co-evangelist for some 18 years, and during those years he was the one who prayed for healings). Actually I will respond with two questions I asked him on two different occasions. First one I thought was superfluous – are healings ‘easier’ in Africa or in the UK? His response surprised me – I don’t know, he said, no-one has asked me to push night after night, only then could I tell as breaktrhoughs don’t come instantly. I think this bears with the historical records from people like George Jeffries – night after night and then… (Of course there is a further challenge for us, Michael’s context was meeting after meeting… ours has shifted.)

The second question was – in all your experience if you were to reduce it down to one piece of advice for those who wished to pray for those who were sick what would that be? He explained it this way:

Every time I lay my hands on someone I think – if God does not touch them they will not be healed but what if God were to touch them when I lay hands on them? Every time I lay my hands on them there is an amazing possibility that was not there before.

What if… that is something we need to live with in every situation. There is always a God opportunity in every situation.

The Sunday after I arrived home having asked him that question a woman came to me to ask if I would pray that she might conceive. I said sure… then she said you do need to know that I have had surgery and no longer have functioning reproductive organs. Instantly I remembered what Michael had said a few days earlier… ‘what if God were to touch you when I pray for you?’ Just under a year later she returned with photo of baby which I still have.

Another time Michael gave me another key. He explained it by overstating his experience. In a crusade, he said, we would hear a person shout out ‘I was blind and I have my sight back’ so we would pray for those who were confined to wheelchairs… none were healed. Next crusade someone would spontaneously walk, so we would pray for those who were blind… none were healed. Michael said never focus on what you consider God is not doing, focus on what God is doing and where he is involved, follow the finger of God.

Theology gets us so far. ‘What if’ gets us a lot further!

I will follow this post with another one on the same theme and hope not to be more foolish than I normally am!

What keeps me up at night?

Posted on 19th July, 202517th July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I am not a depressive kind of person, and neither do I see myself as a ‘glass half-full person’ but as a ‘it is only half-full, now what do we need to do to get it fuller’. The ‘restoration / New Church movement’ fitted that well – get the church right and the world will change; the ‘sowing seeds or revival’ phase (more on that in a later post) fitted it well for the united church in prayer will see the cities transformed. And now? My aspirations have not changed but we are in serious trouble globally.

I will (I hope) still keep kicking to my last day – and I will post on why Spain for Gayle and me… and what might be the next step at some point in these rambles – but if one really understood what we are facing globally I am not sure one could be as optimistic as I am. (I honour Anne who often comments on my posts who knows more about the state of play than anyone else I know but is still sowing into the future.)

2020 saw a major global scene – COVID. It was meant to call for us to wake up and realise there has to be a global reset. Did we wake up? I see the years running up to 2040 as ever so key. After that? Will there be an after that? Well one day I saw a MAJOR decline in the global population, and for sure we cannot continue for ever on this trajectory.

Global warming. Climate imbalance, the Mediterranean hotter than ever; the oceans more acidic than ever due to the CO2 levels. Migrations due to war, poverty, and famine. The rich ever richer (and economic oppression was aligned in the OT prophets with blood-shed that polluted the land)… Yes I do despair and my last prayers of the day are normally for Gaza (if we can hold the Palestinian situation and not excuse genocide under some Zionist theology we can hope to see a new economic situation arise) and for Ukraine. And did I mention that the whole banking system is sustained through ‘money is debt’ (at a simple level just for a minute work out how much money is in your local bank, how many employees, and then work out how that is sustainable!, then go the global scene and realise how much debt is held by the big economic cultures). The current economic situation is aligned to Moloch – sacrifice the future (the first-born) to get a harvest today; Scripture endorses ‘seedtime and harvest’. Sow now for the future (Bible); not raid (rape) the future for now (Western dominant economic system).

More than enough to depress. If one has a hope for some to come to faith; even if one has the hope that the more to faith the more might happen there is no need for any depression.

So what about donkos like me?

I believe, against all the odds that the cross was the open display of all hostile powers to the kingdom of God and that a new way was opened up. In my life-time – probably not, but when I pass from this life I would like to see the Lord with my eyes open and amidst the wonderful assessment of ‘Martin, all the big things you did were not so big’ that at least I can offer a defence of ‘I did all I did with a passion and a belief and hope of sowing into the future of your world’. Of course it might not help my case!!

I am deeply distressed that on my watch there are those dying in the Mediterranean; that injustices do not seem to be decreasing but increasing. I do wake up at night… but (maybe naively) think we can make a difference. Waking up but not depressed. The cross stood in the first century as a sign to Rome and still stands as a sign to all manifestations of Babylon in our day.

Second generation

Posted on 17th July, 202517th July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I am deeply grateful for those who, as a generation above me, pioneered many aspects that I have benefited from, and not only me but the wider church. All that is required of us is to be faithful (as we understand it) within our own context and generation. I am often asked to pray for individuals that are unknown to me and bring them anything I consider to be prophetic. This I do in a team of two and afterwards find out who they are and what they do. I am always amazed at what has been given as once I find out who they are I might not have been so positive! I assume most of my readers would not believe that Peter was the first pope and that consequently the Catholic structure is exactly what Jesus had in mind! However, let me also assume that one day there is the opportunity to pray over the pope who showed up incognito. I doubt the Lord would say ‘you are missing it totally, abandon your robes and…’ I assume he is following the Lord in the path that he believed was right for him. That is true for all of us, and although I am not from an institutional church background I am deeply appreciative of those who have taken that route.

Just before we moved to Spain (2009, Jan. 1st) I had breakfast twice with a first-generational apostolic leader. His secretary called me to ask for a breakfast and we worked out dates. I was somewhat guarded as I was no longer working inside a new church network. My guard quickly came down when he explained how he had moved house from what was somewhat detached and private into a neighbourhood and a regular ‘street’. He had made friends on the street many of whom referred to him as the priest. Then he went on to say that the church that he started (large and successful) was really good for those who were already part of it, but should any of his neighbours come to faith it would not work for them and he would not be bringing them to the church he had started and grown.

I was deeply impressed. We fool ourselves if we think we have the pattern (there is a small denomination in the UK called the ‘Bible-pattern church’… and there are many others who believe the name would be more applicable to them than to that denomination!!!). One size does not fit all, and if I push it further I am not sure that the structure and form of church disturbs Jesus very much. Attitudes and behaviour are discipleship issues – and it is important that we make the core issues the core issues! I am unlikely to swing incense (apologies for the unfair caricature) – why? I might think it is because of the question of ‘where is that in Scripture?’… but the main reason is my personality.

Unity as in one defined united body of believers? Don’t think that is a ‘goal’. But recognisable allegiance to Jesus and love for one another… and love for those who object to our existence – absolutely.

A while back I felt two phrases pop into my head:

The multiplicity of the small, and
the richness of diversity.

How small? Well I do read that Jesus seemed to favour the term ‘two or three’! Those two numbers are interesting for they can never become four, in the sense that 2+1 = 3; 3+1 = 2 groups of 2 that can in turn become a 3 but never a four. Those two ‘favourite’ numbers are the ones that grow through multiplication. I am not suggesting that the numbers are literal (we also read of 12, 70/72 (I prefer the latter MS) 120 etc..) but there is something about smallness where I am an important part and of a dynamism.

In my breakfast meetings the ‘first generation’ person also said that he took responsibility for his street, so much so that a neighbour phoned him while he was away on vacation to say they had received some bad news. The neighbour’s wife was diagnosed with serious cancer. My breakfast colleague said ‘I am cancelling the vacation, coming home, this is not to happen on my watch’. Thank God for someone who was not too big to be known and not too important to be inconvenienced, and someone connected enough to be called on. Small… there is such a hope for something big – the thousands flocking in. I suspect Jesus is looking for something small that is multiplied – Martin on his street taking responsibility for the well-being of his neighbours.

Multiply it – I was going to write ‘multiply it, Jesus’, but I think maybe Jesus is saying ‘how about you guys stop waiting for the big and look at where you are situated and bear my name there’… I’m sold on that as the future.

And then the second part where I think it cuts across our fantasy that one size, one shape can represent God… the richness that comes through diversity. Again the future and something to work toward.

Second generation – that is what I was and have to find my own way. And for many I am now first generation – I owe them something. I owe them my faithfulness and the willingness to still be flexible and allow them to do things differently to me.

Thank you for the breakfasts, DB.

Off to London

Posted on 14th July, 202512th July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I often meet people who regret the path they have travelled and I can understand that, and the majority of people would not repeat the past if they could have their life over again. The latter part of the above two perspectives I am sure I would relate to if I took enough time to reflect, but the former I find harder to resonate with. I am philosophically simple – I am where I am because of the journey I have taken so try to make the most of today, and I believe in a God who maximises every opportunity, a God who works in everything – including mistakes, wrong turns and what is simply wrong!

Anyway my journey took me off to London Bible College (now London School of Theology) in 1973. I had been strongly touched by the Holy Spirit when I was 16 and had a straight forward Pentecostal understanding of al things biblical!

I don’t remember every aspect of my travels but probably flew a small plane to Aberdeen or Edinburgh and than took the train to London the next day. I do remember being asked in Aberdeen / Edinburgh as to what station I would arrive at in London. I looked at them as if they were stupid – London station I replied! I had no idea that there were multiple stations in London and finally when I did get there had no understanding that I would have to catch a train that ran underground. (At least I came from Orkney where the nearest train station is in the norht of Scotland… if I was born in Shetland the nearest train station is Bergen, Norway.)

My room mate upon meeting asked me a question I did not understand how to answer. ‘How was your journey?’ I did understand the words, but the question… I had never encountered a question like that in my life. One, coming from an island such a question at a literal level would not mean very much – a journey of more than 5 minutes would be impossible and it took me months to work out that the question was not a question literally about my journey but a polite conversation opener. Cultural differences are subtle, but that interchange (or lack of cos I did not know how to reply) has helped me cross cultures.

Three years later I left with a degree and less than a year later married fellow-student, Sue Middlemiss. Immediately following LBC I joined YWAM (youth without any money?) for the Toronto Olympics outreach and then travelled across the USA. I am sure I wonderfully displayed all my lack of understanding in that period of four months, but very glad for the experience.

Back to College days… It was not the spiritual hot-house I anticipated; lectures were not so exciting and given my difficulties with comprehension of things written preparation for seminars was somewhat limited. Most professors / lecturers were either Reformed or modertely so and I was well able to engage a few in the lectures to push and press them, such were the inconsistencies that I perceived. Of course, as per all systems, provided nothing was adjusted the system would hold, but move one aspect and the system was vulnerable.

In the New Testament introduction I never understood the great pains that were gone to to ensure that each and every book was ‘apostolic’. Impossible to prove, and of course there was an underlying aspect that was ebing defended. Presuppositions based on a prior doctrine of the Bible is what rightly leaves such an approach open to criticism. In the 70s credible evangelical scholars were just beginning to enter the wider world of academia but the theology was just too defensive for its own soul’s sake. Thankfully that has changed a lot in the last 50(!!!!!!) years.

[‘Doctrine of the Bible’ will always be problematic and is normally filled with unproveable presuppositions. There was no ‘Jewish canon’ until after the NT era, and we still have different Christian canons… Jesus probably read or had access to books such as the book of Enoch – certainly NOT written by Enoch and yet quoted within our Bible as ‘Enoch the tenth from Adam said…’. And as for ‘all Cretans are liars… and this testimony is true’ does rather condemn anyone born in Crete! All the above pushes me to a narratival approach to the text with Jesus as the hermeneutical lens, blah, blah.]

Of all the subjects I enjoyed three the most – hisotrical theology, New Testament Greek and New Testament theology.

During those three years of study I visited YWAM on numerous occasions and sat through lectures there from Gordon Olson who had the largest library in the world on Charles Finney and Oberlin College (I was later to stay with him in Chicago in 1976). He was one of the earliest people in the modern era to embrace Open Theology – now in the popular world with people like Greg Boyd and the very articulate theologian Thomas Jay Oord who is yet more adventurous and I like that he uses the phrase ‘Open and relational theology’. Gordon Olson’s material was invaluable for me and I have leaned heavily in that direction ever since those sessions.

I think the professionalism and career aspects that I witnessed in those years… as well as coming to terms with what on earth does a 21 year old know about anything meant I now had ‘training’ (not!!) under my belt but could not with any integrity look for a post to exercise it. Thank God any form of church you care to mention was spared! And thank God it ended any concept I had of a ‘career’ in church ministry.

So a few months later – January 9th, 1977 – Sue and I moved to Cobham Surrey, south of London. Gerald and Anona Coates had initiated a small (with 5 others) in their home in the late 60s and this had now grown to around 60 people by the time we joined. It was like breathing fresh air – non-relgioius and with a passion for Jesus. Genuinely relational (not perfect… and daughter always teases me with ‘we grew up in a cult’)!!!

In a later post (also known as a ramble, and perhaps sometimes a ‘confused ramble’) I will get into life in Cobham Christian Fellowship, the Pioneer network and the wider New Church scene in the UK.

Faith – when? what? and how?

Posted on 11th July, 202511th July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

My family background was that of evangelical, and am aware as the decades have passed that word can carry different meanings. It does seem to centre on two key aspects – the authority of Scripture and the meaning given to the death of Jesus. Of course how those two are understood can differ enormously. Anyway my family background was more of the stricter form of evangelicalism – Sunday as a holy day, no alcohol, no -did I mention no fun? OK sarcasm was not allowed so delete the last comment. It can be easy to find flaws in faith approaches but I am glad that there was a basic authenticity in the faith context in which I grew up, and the respect for the Bible has been something that has stayed with me ever since then – when I had a daily reading in Scripture Union notes.

Coming to faith? In that background the question would be worded – when were you converted or born again? Interestingly Jesus only used that term once – John 3 to a specific person, someone who was totally versed in the ‘Scriptures’ but needed a major transformation to ‘see’ / ‘enter’ the kingdom of God. Nicodemus needed to be born again / born from above (the Greek can be translated either way). It is used one more time in the New Testament so it is not without content beyond the Gospels, but it is probably overused as the one and only paradigm. (Maybe an underused one is ‘sell all you have and come follow me’? – again used by Jesus to one person.)

New birth… birth is a process, and some births are premature, some difficult etc. This is why defining faith can be a challenge.

I grew up always believing in God, always having a Trinitarian belief, always considering that Jesus died for my sins. I many times considered God and talked to God. So was that faith, or what might be termed ‘saving faith’?

I made some kind of personal profession at age 11, but now looking back am not sure if that crossed me over from one side of the line to the other (more on that below).

At age 16 there was something very definite that took place. Under an old paradigm I was ‘born again’ at 11 and baptised in the Spirit at 16 – with the very presence of God coming to / through me as if I were physically under a fairly hot hair dryer that literally came through my body in a tangible physical way maybe for an hour or more. I spoke in tongues and very easily the two stages of Pentecostalism explained everything.

But… complex is it all, and never too easy to squeeze Scripture into what fits our personal experience.

‘Salvation’… Let me jump forward. Reconciliation to God – never God being reconciled to us through some payment by Jesus on the cross, but God was in Christ reconciling the world to him/herself. And in the fullness of that reconciliation is that of restoring our humanity, repairing and restoring us to the image of God. Salvation that is forensic might have made sense in the Reformation era when the context was that of indulgences for sin – but would that have made sense in the NT era? I think not – it would have been seen as inadequate, even if a truth of it could have been argued for.

The root of sin (big subject) is that of failing to be truly human, thus falling short of the glory of God. The one and only truly human one – the one who was the express image of the invisible God both revealed who God is and who humanity is. Thus salvation is probably more a process than we evangelicals make it out to be – more of a healing, restorative process.

‘Salvation’ is more to do with saved for than save from. Hence I find it harder to pin down what ‘saving faith’ is. It probably differs from one context to another, and the wonderful part of ‘evangelism’ is not that of a narrow – you are bad, admit it and I will show you a path – but I think more along the lines of ‘there is good news for you and for the whole of creation… come join the movement that is centred on Jesus and find your (small) part in the transformation (reconciliation) of all things’.

Follow me – consistent in the Gospels where the controversial nature of that invitation / command should not be minimised. Follow me spoken in the Jewish context was both radical and offensive, and post the cross deeply offensive (to the Jew a ‘stumbling block’). Yet it continues and finds a central part in Revelation where there is the description of those ‘who follow the Lamb wherever he goes’. Not come worship me, come preach me, but come follow me.

Following is a process… and although the 10 words were given to Israel, the early instructions that focus on ‘God’ continue to express elements of our journey – no other ‘god’, no ‘image’ and do not carry the name of the Lord in vain. Truth be out we all create an image of God, and we all probably act / carry out actions in God’s name that are not reflective of who God truly is – OOOFFFFF; Jesus was so vital, to show us the image of God and what it was to act truly in the name of that God.

I have no idea if there is a ‘line’ or not – that is not my deal. There are followers of the Lamb, and I trust that I am one of those and I trust the mercy of God that I have been solidly included ‘in Christ’… so to jump to the big picture I have worked with this pattern for years – all who genuinely receive Christ are ‘saved’ and those who reject Christ are ‘lost’. But no line that I have drawn as a result of my reading of Scripture.

‘My’ reading – so problematic!

When did I come to faith? In stages and it continued today when I encountered the Lord.

To know God and to make God known. Am I pentecostal? No idea… Was Paul pentecstoal – no idea… but I do know that he challenged the Galatian believers as to what was happenning among them as the expectation that God would continue to do miracles among them:

Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard? (Gal. 3:5 – present (ongoing) tense).

Always today is important.

A friend who I miss (John Barr, passed away in 2001) was asked by a woman if he would pray for her as she had cancer and had been given 4 months to live. He replied with ‘the doctors have it wrong’. What then is the diagnosis and prognosis, she asked. Scripture tells me ‘you have today’… Today, choose life and thus be a life-giver. I you agree you have life today I will pray for you.

I am grateful for my background, probably no longer being recognised as someone from that background… but I hope that I am guilty as charged as being a follower of the Lamb, and continue to try and discern where that will lead to.

If someone can say ‘I was born again’ and then give a date and a place, I am delighted (though follow Nicodemus’ journey in John’s Gospel and try to find the date and place! Nicodemus’ journey is a process); I am delighted if someone says ‘I was baptised in the Spirit…’. Yes, yes and yes. But faith – it is a journey. It is an adventure. Jesus, not theology has to be central. And it is deeply personal… certainly those who are religious need to be born from above… maybe those who are centred on wealth need to sell all they have; all of us have to heed the call to follow.

Faith – when?
Today.
Faith – what?
An alive belief that there is in Jesus a ‘new creation’.
Faith – how?
Full of authentic questions.

Not 70 yet… and definitely not arrived!!

My family background was that of evangelical, and am aware as the decades have passed that word can carry different meanings. It does seem to centre on two key apsects – the authroity of Scripture and the meaning given to the death of Jesus. Of course how those two are understood can differe enormously. Anyway my famly background was more of the stricter form of evangelcialism – Sunday as a holy day, no alcohol, no -did I mention no fun? OK sarcasm was not allowed so delete the last comment. It can be easy to find flaws in faith approachesbut I am glad that there was a basic authenticity in the faith context in which I grew up, andthe respect for the Bible has been something that has stayed with me ever since then – when I had a daily reading in Scripture Union notes.

Coming to faith? In that background the question would be worded – when were you converted or born again? Interestingly Jesus only used that term once – John 3 to a specific person, someone who was totally versed in the ‘Scriptures’ but needed a major transformation to ‘see’ / ‘enter’ the kingdom of God. Nicodemus needed to be born again / born from above. It is used one more time in the New Testament so it is not without content beyond the Gospels, but it is probably overused as the one and only paradigm. (Maybe an underused one is ‘sell all you have and come follow me’? – again used by Jesus to one person.)

New birth… birth is a process, and some birhts are premature, some difficult etc. This is why defining faith can be a challenge.

I grew up always believing in God, always having a Trinitarian belief, always consdiering that Jesus died for my sins. I many times consdered God and talked to God. So was that faith, or what might be termed ‘saving faith’?

I made some kind of personal profession at age 11, but now looking back am not sure if that crossed me over from one side of the line to the other (more on that below).

At age 16 there was something very definite that took place. Under an old paradigm I was ‘born again’ at 11 and baptised in the Spirit at 16 – with the very presence of God coming to / through me as if I was under a fairly hot hair dryer that literally came through my body phayscally maybe for an hour or more. I spoke in toungues and very easily the two stages of Pentecostalism expalined everything.

But… complex is it all, and never too easy to squeeze Scripture into what fits our personal experience.

The root of sin (big subject) is that of failing to be truly human, thus falling short of the glory of God. The one and only truly human one – the one who was thee express image of the invisible God both revealed who God is and who humanity is. Thus salvation is probably more a process than we evangelicals make it out to be – more of a healing, restorative process.

‘Salvation’ is more to do with saved for than save from. Hence I find it harder to pin down what ‘saving faith’ is. It probably differs from one context to another, and the wonderful part of ‘evangelism’ is not that of a narrow – you are bad, admit it and I will sho you a path – but there is good news for you and for the whole of creation… come join the movement that is centred on Jesus and find your (small) part in the transformation (reconciliation) of all things.

Follow me – consistent in the Gospels where the controversial nature of that should not be minimised. Follow me spoken in the Jewish context was both radica and offensive, and the other side of the cross deeply offensive (to the Jew a ‘stumbling block’). Yet it continues and finds a central part in Revelation where there is the description of those ‘who follow the Lamb whereever he goes’. Not come worship me, come preach me, but come follow me.

Following is a process… and although the 10 words were given to Israel, the early instructions that focus on ‘God’ continue to express elements of our journey – no other ‘god’, no ‘image’ and do not carry the name of the Lord in vain. Truth be out we all create an image of God, and we all probably act / carry out actions in God’s name that are not refelctive of who God truly is – OOOFFFFF Jesus was so vital, to show us the image of God and what it was to act truly in the name of that God.

I have no idea if there is a ‘line’ or not – that is not my deal. There are followers of the Lamb, and I trust that I am one of those and I trust the mercy of God that I have been solidy included ‘in Christ’… so to jump to the big picture I have worked with this pattern for years – all who genuinely receive Christ are ‘saved’ and those who reject Christ are ‘lost’. But no line that I have drawn as a reuslt of my reading of Scripture.

‘My’ reading – so problematic!

When did I come to faith? In stages and it continued today when I encountered the Lord.

To know God and to make God known. Am I pentecostal? No idea… Was Paul pentecstoal – no idea… but I do now that he challenged the Galatian believers as to what was happenning among them as the expectation that God would continue to do miracles among them. Always today is important.

A friend who I miss (John Barr, passed away in 2001) was asked to pray for a woman who had cancer and was given 4 months to live, and he replied with ‘the doctors have it wrong’. What then is the diagnosis and prognosis, she aksed. Scripture tells me ‘you have today’… Today, choose life and thus be a life-giver.

If someone can say ‘I was born again’ and then give a date and a place, I am delighted (though follow Nicodemus’ journey in John’s Gospel and try to find the date and place!); I am delighted if someone says ‘I was baptised in the Spirit…’. Yes, yes and yes. But faith – it is a joiurney. It is an adventure. Jesus, not theology has to be central.

Faith – when? Today.

Faith – what? An alive belief that there is in Jesus a ‘new creation’.

Faith – how? Full of authentic questions.

Way back in time

Posted on 9th July, 2025
by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Been a long time since posting, so will try and ‘correct’ that. Gayle and I are away from home for almost a month and I am replying to emails as best I can on a phone. This is the first day I have managed to hook up to a wifi signal… But been thinking over these days that this year I have a birthday coming up, and as I have not had one of them in a long time I got out the calculator in one hand and the birth certificate in the other, could not believe what it said… changed the batteries and repeated… same response. So decided I would blog away with a few posts on some reminiscences. Now that will be a challenge as it involves memory. My memory for many things is great, but I seldom look back so it means my recollection is either non-existent or probably inaccurate. Great parts of life are forgotten. The strength? Of course there is a strength! The strength is I don’t get stuck but want to move forward. And – only if I were to admit it – the weakness is I have learnt so little as attempts, mistakes, wrong turns are all part of God-given human ability to encourage us to reflect and learn. Explains a lot!!

My larger framework I am working with at the moment is that of reconciliation in four directions – to God, to others, to self and to creation. It opens up a lot of scope and I expect I will cover some of that at a personal level as I blog.

I don’t intend to cover in minute autobiographical detail, but here are some insights from way back… My dad was a farmer so growing up on a farm the outside was almost as much home as the inside. I have no idea how old I was but I do vaguely remember smashing (with a stone?) every pane of glass in a newly built chicken run. No thought at all as to what that meant, no thought that this was wrong or even naughty. No thought of consequences, no conscience. Not normal. I think I have grown beyond that – and do think (now some 6+ decades later) that there are consequences for behaviour and the world does not resolve around one’s own enjoyment.

Second memory is being put in the driving seat of the land-rover and allowed to drive. I think two elder brothers were also on board. At one point one said to me ‘can you see the pile of stones, you’re driving straight toward them?’ I think I answered ‘yes’ but truth be out I could not see them as I was always badly short-sighted. A short time later as one of them grabbed the steering wheel, but too late, as I ploughed straight into a concrete post, thus altering the contours of the land rover for ever! I pretty much think that I was 10 or 11 at the time of the accident. Driving has improved slightly since then.

Short sighted. I do remember thinking at school (in my big class of 7 kids) that I could not understand why the teacher used a blackboard and chalk. No-one could see what was being writing on it. Until I had an eye test (after 5 years of thinking the teacher was evidently stupid for using such equipment) and thus discovered everyone else could see what was written there. Painfully discovering that I was not the ‘norm’ on everything. I still am learning that – we are all different and to some extent eccentric.

And my final memory for this blog is that of buying my first laced up leather soccer ball. Bought at Leonard’s shop for the price of 21 shillings (yes I grew up under pounds, shilling and pence). A leather ball that lost its shape, weighted a ton when in the wet grass, but meant I could run and kick it around for hours on end. Rain or sun made no difference. Not sure if I have grown out of that, but having played football in the street against two young kids I did decide my call-up to the Scottish national team is not going to come any time soon.

Maybe all kids are stupid? But one of the best lessons in life I have learnt is I am not that smart. I did well at school but I think cos I had a good memory and discovered how to negotiate exams. Doing well in that way can lead to the deception of being smart. I was not and continue to be amazed how slow I am to learn. Ah well – assuming I will have as many more birthdays as I have had (!!!!) I might even become a little smarter than I am today, though probably not.

On not too smart, one thing I have realised is that I am not a good reader. I can read words but do not have a high level vocabulary nor comprehension. It is far better for me to listen to someone so as I grasp what they are communicating then later I might be able to read anything they wrote. A good lesson for me was moving to Spain and saying good-bye to a reference library of some 2000+ books. Accept your limitations.

When Sue was 40 she had a list of guests and celebrated. She asked – and you what about your 40th (7 months later). I replied with I will do nothing as I have not got to that stage where I have accomplished anything, but maybe talk to me when I am 55, maybe then I will have made enough mistakes to have matured a little. Fast forward… eve of my 55th and cycling along a wet path, a man walks out, I instinctively hit the back brake, but the back brake handle in the UK is the front brake handle in Spain. Front brake locks, I go over the top and land with the handle bar into my ribs – broken rib as a result. OUCH. Maybe I hadn’t learnt enough?

So now coming up to the 70 marker, at last the mature Martin is arriving.

Walter Brueggemann (11/03/1933 – 05/06/2025)

Posted on 11th June, 20257th June, 2025
by Chris Bourne
Posted in Personal Perspectives

A few days ago a giant passed away – Walter Brueggemann. I asked Chris Bourne who is much better qualified than me to write a post on Walter. (Above dates in European format dd/mm/yyyy.)

Born March 11, 1933, in Tilden, Neb., Walter died June 5 in Travers City, Mich. He was 92. From 1961 to 1986, Brueggemann was Professor of Old Testament at Eden Theological Seminary . He then held the William Marcellus McPheeters Professorship of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur , Georgia, where he retired in 2003. Retired being a very loose term.

Nothing quite fits. That’s the problem with Walter Breuggemann. In academic terms his status as an OT scholar was settled a very long time ago, but it is not a good fit with higher criticism, not even the more amenable progressive versions, but certainly not 19C European versions. Neither is he a traditionalist in anything except the most powerful broad narrative sense. His was a uniquely literary form of criticism (but he was not a literary critic in the technical sense, go figure!). He was digging for gold, not proof.

He was never able to be anything other than a poet of the prophetic, an advocate of allusion, master of metaphor, a seeker of transferable resistance to the principles and powers of empire. From his earliest work (The Land, for example) he drew from the text rich tapestries of understanding of male domination, female agency and the lies of the Pharaohs, even Jewish Pharaohs. Understanding of the Land led to understanding of the society of the land, their leasehold upon property, sexual ethics, marriage, social justice (if only between men), agency and its absence.

He was always as uncomfortable a writer for conservatism as for the more tawdry aspects of liberalism and was not shy about saying so. The status quo, that infinitely variable source of phony comfort and private regret, does not fare well with him whether it arises in 1000BCE or 2000CE.

But it is the way his poetic reading, weaving epic hope for the poor and broken, gives basis for the sort of resistance that, even on a good day, seems very far away from us today. To the extent that I remain Christian, some credit is due to the challenge of listening to this man. He has the most appalling and frequent knack of saying the one thing that will not allow me to give up! He has no fealty to contemporary systems of power no matter their brand. But he is equally robust in his rejection of the sort of church that, like Israel, demands a king and a king’s totalizing power. Cunningham, Schaeffer, Wagner and dominion theology be blowed, along with its illegitimate offspring Project 25!

What can I say about someone who wrote more than a hundred books, and not a dud among them. I would urge everyone to read (and that means really read, as in several times) The Prophetic Imagination, and my utter favourite, Finally Comes the Poet. These are among his most accessible, profound, beautiful and brief titles. I am presently in the middle of reading A Biblical Theology of Provocation (Ice axes for frozen seas). That’s when I am not negotiating its implications and having to dry my eyes.

As with so many, I have found that a long association with any thought-leader’s work leads to areas of divergence. For one who understood so deeply the place that emancipation stories occupied for Israel, he was remarkably quiet on the lack of critique of slavery in scripture. And for his warm embrace of the marginalised and mistreated, the lack of biblical perception on women’s history is also notable. This is not to say that Walter lacked these things, but that he rarely dealt deeply with the biblical lack. And he was not being ironic, when challenged about divinely ordained violence in the Bible, when he suggested that maybe what we see is a God who is in recovery from his violence. But as I said before, he was not that sort of critic. He was not dealing with any doctrine of the Bible, he was dealing in the stories of the Bible, the way people behaved and spoke to each other, to their overlords, to their systems and their deities.

It strikes me, in a wave of imposter anxiety, that I might not be the best person to offer commentary on his work. The best person is Walter Breuggemann.

Thus every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.
Prophetic Imagination

Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness.

The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.
Prophetic Imagination

In both his teaching and his very presence, Jesus of Nazareth presented the ultimate criticism of the royal consciousness. He has, in fact, dismantled the dominant culture and nullified its claims. The way of his ultimate criticism is his decisive solidarity with marginal people and the accompanying vulnerability required by that solidarity. The only solidarity worth affirming is solidarity characterized by the same helplessness they know and experience.
Prophetic Imagination

It is astonishing that critical scholarship has asked forever about the identification of these store-house cities, but without ever asking about the skewed exploitative social relationships between owner and laborers that the project exhibits. The store-house cities are an ancient parallel to the great banks and insurance houses where surplus wealth is kept among us. That surplus wealth, produced by the cheap labor of peasants, must now be protected from the peasants by law and by military force.
Truth Speaks to Power: The Countercultural Nature of Scripture

In this interpretive tradition, Sabbath is not simply a pause. It is an occasion for reimagining all social life away from coercion and competition to compassionate solidarity. Such solidarity is imaginable and capable of performance only when the drivenness of acquisitiveness is broken. Sabbath is not simply the pause that refreshes. It is the pause that transforms. Whereas Israelites are always tempted to acquisitiveness, Sabbath is an invitation to receptivity, and acknowledgement that what is needed is given and need not be seized.
Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now

People of faith can read the Bible so that almost any perspective on a current issue will find some support in the Bible. That rich and multivoiced offering in the Bible is what makes appeals to it so tempting—and yet so tricky and hazardous, because much of our reading of the Bible turns out to be an echo of what we thought anyway. THE ISSUE OF LAND The dispute between Palestinians and Israelis is elementally about land and secondarily about security and human rights.
Chosen?: Reading the Bible Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

If you want verification that God’s promises are kept, you will not find that verification among the new atheists who have reduced everything to a tight little package of reasonableness that easily explains everything away. Nor will we find verification among the fundamentalists who have God in such a box that there can be no room for inexplicable gifts. You will find verification among the daily performances of the trusting ones who live out their trust in ways that the world terms foolish: in a church ready to be venturesome into God’s future; in a church that pays attention to those disqualified by the capitalist system; in the acceptance of those who are unacceptable; in the commitment of time to neighbors when we prefer to have that time for ourselves; in the telling of hard truth about the world, and that in a culture of denial; in the slant toward justice and peacemaking in a world that loves violence and exploitation too much; in footing the bill for neighborliness and mercy when we have many other bills to pay; in lives that give testimony before the authorities who want to silence and intimidate and render others irrelevant.
A Way other than Our Own: Devotions for Lent

I wonder, sometimes, just how far back we need to reach in order to grasp today.

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