John J. Murray
73 pages
The recovery of the rich Reformed and Puritan heritage in the middle years of the twentieth century was encouraging and had worldwide impact. The expectation in the 1960s was of attaining to the seventeenth-century Puritan ideal, defined by Dr J.I. Packer as: 'to serve God in a reformed Church, that would be instrumental in reforming the nation'. In terms of the Solemn League and Covenant, the hoped-for reformation was to be 'in doctrine, worship, discipline and government, according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches'.
But viewing the situation in the UK after seventy years, we see that, in spite of all the Reformed teaching and publication, the spiritual condition of the Church has gone backwards rather than forward. The mainline Churches are now scarcely recognisable as branches of the true Church of Jesus Christ. While welcoming the positive achievements of former years, we are forced to think of the Church today in terms of the analogy of the human body. Where there are dangerous symptoms, there must be a proper diagnosis so that the correct remedy can be applied. This book attempts to analyse some of the ills of the Church and to propose the cure required.