An Obadiah Slope Column
Good job: A headline, “Bishops welcome minimum wage increase,” is on the Catholic Weekly site. Would one find it on an Anglican site? If not, why not, Obadiah asks. The Catholic Weekly story reveals that, acting togther the Catholic Bishops had called for a 5 per cent increase to the national minimum wage in a submission to the Fair Work Commission. People on the minimum wage actually get 6 per cent from July 1.
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That word:
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A FB comment that Obadiah thinks deserves wide circulation
“Every few years, a strange idea resurfaces in Australian Christian circles: that Pedro Fernández de Quirós, the Spanish navigator who landed in Vanuatu in 1606, somehow “prophesied” a divine destiny for Australia and that this supposedly connects to a 19th century Smith Wigglesworth prophecy about a great revival. None of this holds up historically or biblically.
[For some readers, an explanation might be needed: Smith Wigglesworth was an internationally famous Pentecostal evangelist who toured Australia and gathered crowds, especially in Melbourne, boosting the ministry of early Pentecostal churches such as Sarah Jane Lancaster’s Good News Hall. This article by Barry Chant examines Pentecostal records and finds a lack of evidence for the prophecy. Chant concludes, “Perhaps we should be seeking more to discern what was spoken to us by the Son of God than what was allegedly uttered by a son of man—even such a great son of man as Smith Wigglesworth. It is in the name of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit that revival comes (Acts 4:30-31; 1
Corinthians 6:11). I have a sneaking suspicion that Wigglesworth himself would have agreed with that.”]
De Quirós wasn’t a prophet. He was a Catholic imperial explorer acting under the Spanish Crown. When he landed in Vanuatu (not Australia):
1. he killed a local chief during the conflict
2. declared the land “New Jerusalem,”
3. claimed it for Spain
4. believed he was expanding Christendom through colonisation.
This wasn’t a prophetic act. It was imperialism mixed with medieval eschatology and political ambition. There is no biblical basis for treating his declaration as a divine promise.
The so-called Wigglesworth prophecy about Australia is also unreliable. It isn’t recorded in his writings, isn’t documented by eyewitnesses, only appears decades after his death, and is often misquoted or embellished online by Danny Nalliah, Nathan Fawcett, Col Stringer, Wayne Alcorn and others. Trying to link Wigglesworth to De Quirós is like trying to connect fan fiction to a conspiracy theory. It’s not history, it’s wishful myth‑making.
Christians don’t need national destiny myths, colonial declarations, unverifiable prophecies, or romanticised revival legends. These things distract from the actual mission Jesus gave the church. The New Testament never tells us to find mystical destinies for nations or attach ourselves to explorers. But it does tell us to make disciples, love our neighbours, do justice, love mercy, walk humbly, preach Christ crucified, and live holy, generous, Spirit-filled lives.
If we want renewal in Australia, Scripture gives us the roadmap:
1. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
2. Love one another as Christ has loved us
3. Go and make disciples of all nations
4. Let our light shine before others and be filled with the Spirit.
(Posted by the Hillsong Accountability site, folks that Obadiah sometimes agrees with, sometimes not)
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Knocking on doors not knocked out: Door-to-door evangelism is part of religious freedom, according to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. “On June 9, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Bulgaria violated freedom protections after authorities used an overly broad and vaguely-worded ban on “religious propaganda” to prevent Jehovahʼs Witnesses from engaging in door-to-door evangelisation,” EWTN, a catholic Media company reports “Such religious outreach was banned while other forms of canvassing were permitted.
“The case was brought by members of the group, who argued that local authorities had unlawfully prevented them from carrying out their missionary work.
“Judges found that regulations adopted by the city of Shumen unlawfully restricted religious activity and failed to clearly define what constituted prohibited religious propaganda. The ruling concluded that the ban violated Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
“Nicolas Bauer, a doctor of law and advocacy director at the European Centre for Law and Justice, which intervened in the case as a third party, said the judgment reaffirms a fundamental principle of religious liberty.
“’Evangelizing is often viewed with suspicion in a secularized Europe,” Bauer told EWTN News. “The ECHR ruling reaffirms a basic requirement of religious freedom for believers: the right to the same freedom of expression as everyone else.’”
Obadiah regularly sees ECHR rulings that take religious freedom seriously. Would their model of rights work down under?
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Church plants get potted: Church plants gifted church buildings by churches that are going out of business are a thing, according to a US piece by Jeff Warden, “Kingdom Outposts’ Gifted to Anglicans”.
“Lynchburg, Virginia. The Anglican church first planted in 2011, that met across 15 years in homes and modest storefronts in the central Virginia city now worships under the tallest spire downtown, in what the Virginia Department of Historic Resources describes as ‘perhaps Virginia’s best representative of the High Victorian Gothic style.’ (Pictured)
“Most remarkable was the purchase price: when the deed was transferred from First Baptist Church to Church of the Good Shepherd in the fall of 2024, it was given free of charge.”
Obadiah wishes that, in this instance, Aussies should imitate Americans! He recalls when Wesley Mission CEO Stu Cameron called on his Uniting Church decision-makers to pass on empty churches to new church planters.
“Here’s my very practical suggestion. Property Trusts should NOT sell any redundant congregational asset unless a new missional initiative (in or outside the geographic area) is identified that can be directly linked to the property proceeds for the sale. If that condition cannot be met, we should invite churches, in particular church plants, OUTSIDE our denomination (Baptist, ACC, Churches of Christ etc) to express interest in its use on a long-term basis for a peppercorn lease of $1 per year, plus ongoing maintenance costs.
“All our property is held in a legally established Trust. AND there is a spiritual trust attached to the property we have been blessed with.”
Local examples in Obadiah’s region on the West Side of town are the FIEC’s Southwest Evangelical Church, planted in a vacant Anglican building at Kingsgrove, and the Pentecostal Embassy Church at Belmore, replanted in the Punchbowl Anglican site.
Readers: Are there others you can tell us about?
Well said, or written, John