David Pawson
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J. David Pawson (born 1930) is a prominent contemporary Bible teacher based in Great Britain. He is known for his firm belief in the infallibility and inerrancy of the text of the Bible as the authoritative word of God, while explaining its meaning and context. He has a reputation of following the teaching of Scripture even when it clashes with church tradition, and also often deals with 'hot topics' about which Christians have a wide range of views. He is therefore frequently controversial, although he is generally respected by Christians of differing views for his human sensitivity and concern for truth.
Since his ancestor John Pawson preached with John Wesley in the 18th century, the Pawsons have been farmers, (Methodist) preachers or both; his father, Professor Cecil Pawson, was involved with both. From his childhood in the north of England David Pawson had wanted to be a farmer, but by the time he had completed his studies for a BSc in Agriculture at Durham University, he was sure that God was calling him into fulltime Christian ministry.
Studying by arrangement with the Methodist church for his M.A. degree in theology at Cambridge University, under the influence of liberal teaching and liberal lecturers, Pawson lost his trust in the Bible and very nearly his faith in God. After a short spell in ministry for the Methodist church, including evangelisation and the pastoring of churches in the Shetland Islands, he regained his trust in the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible while a chaplain in the Royal Air Force of Great Britain. Pawson had been appointed chaplain for servicemen who did not designate themselves as Anglican or Roman Catholic. These included committed free-church Christians and servicemen who designated themselves atheist or agnostic.
During this period he stopped delivering primarily thematic sermons, and decided instead to preach the Bible systematically from start to finish. The results among the servicemen surprised both him and them, and confirmed to him Scripture's inspiration. Since then, his preaching has either been Bible study or topical studies based on detailed contextual examination of what the Bible says.
From his study of the Bible, Pawson had reached the conclusion that the New Testament acknowledged only one type of baptism, believer's baptism. On his return to Britain from air bases in Aden, he felt unable to continue to perform baby baptism (as practised in Methodism and many other denominations). After appearing before a doctrinal committee of the Methodist church, Pawson was expected to leave the denomination, and did so - facing the loss of his home and livelihood. Within 24 hours, however, he received an invitation from Gold Hill Baptist Church in Buckinghamshire to become their pastor, which he took up.
Later, as pastor of Guildford Baptist Church (the Millmead Centre, which he designed), David Pawson established a reputation among both evangelicals and charismatics as an effective and balanced expositor of the Bible. From here his teaching tapes - originally made for the church's sick and elderly members - became popular worldwide.
Behind the communist Iron Curtain these tapes struck a chord with the persecuted church. Missionaries and spiritual leaders in far-off corners of the world, without the opportunity to sit under a regular teaching ministry, also became a significant audience for Pawson's preaching.
Under Pawson's ministry, Millmead became the largest Baptist church in Britain. The church was unusual in that attendance was double the membership number; people regularly came from London to hear Pawson preach. Cliff Richard, who had been baptised by Pawson, was a regular worshipper.
Pawson left Millmead in 1979 and engaged in an itinerant worldwide Bible teaching ministry, which has been his main work to the present. During this time he has written a number of books (detailed below). He is a frequent speaker in the UK, and his speaking engagements have taken him to many other parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, The Netherlands, Israel, Southeast Asia and the United States.
David Pawson lives near Basingstoke, Hampshire in southern England with his wife Enid. In his 70s he remains busy with speaking engagements and has annual speaking appointments in Europe and at the Festival of Tabernacles in Israel, which he was a pioneer in encouraging Christians to attend.
The popularity of Pawson's books is outstripped by his video and audio teaching messages. He also appears regularly on various Christian radio and television broadcasting networks. In particular, his Unlocking The Bible DVD series is used among housegroups worldwide.
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[edit] Teachings
In The Normal Christian Birth, Pawson argued that a biblical initiation into Christianity should involve more than a simple 'prayer of repentance'. Whilst accepting the fundamental basis of salvation by faith, he argued that the Biblical model of a person's "birth" into God's kingdom included aspects which are frequently ignored or forgotten today. He proposed four principal steps: repentance towards God; believing in Jesus, baptism in water and receiving the Holy Spirit. This, according to Pawson, is the biblical pattern for a "normal Christian birth". According to the book itself, "David Pawson advocates a synthesis of the 'liberal' emphasis on repentance, the 'evangelical' on faith, the 'sacramental' on baptism and the 'pentecostal' on the Spirit." This work of Pawson has been influential and is taught at a number of theological seminaries and mission stations.
In Leadership is Male, he teaches that leadership is a role given by God to men. In so doing, he criticises men for not taking proper responsibility in important aspects of family and church life. He argues that modern men too often neglect their social obligations and should return to the Biblical model of manhood. This book's foreword was written by a woman, Elisabeth Elliot.
In The Road to Hell, Pawson is critical of Annihilationism, the teaching that the punishment of hell is not eternal. He teaches that people who go to hell experience eternal suffering. According to the book itself, by "challenging the modern alternatives of liberal 'universalism' and evangelical 'annihilationism', David Pawson presents the traditional concept of endless torment as soundly biblical."
In Unlocking the Bible, Pawson presents a book by book study of the whole Bible. The book is based on Pawson's belief that the Bible should be studied, as it was written, "a book at a time" (certainly not a verse, or even a chapter at a time); and that each book is best understood by uncovering why and for whom it was written. It is based on an arranged series of talks in which he set out the background, purpose, meaning and relevance of each book of the Bible, and was transformed into written form by Andy Peck. The groundwork for this study was laid in the 1960s and '70s, when Pawson took his congregation through nearly half of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament line by line (recordings of those studies are still distributed).
In When Jesus Returns, he critically considers in the light of scripture the major views on eschatology popular in the church today, specifically the preterist, historicist, futurist and idealist schools of interpretation of the Book of Revelation. He rejects postmillennialism in favour of a premillennial understanding of the Second Coming, so that Jesus will return bodily in power immediately before his reign over the world for a millennium from Jerusalem. He asserts that the supernatural taking up of believers alive at this time (following the 'tribulation' period of persecution), so as to join the returning Christ, fulfils the Rapture prophecies; he argues against a pre-tribulation timing of the rapture. He further argues that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is a fulfilment of scriptural prophecy, and that prophecies spoken about Israel relate specifically to Israel (not to the church), so that the outstanding prophecies about Israel will be fulfilled in the end times.
In Jesus Baptises in One Holy Spirit, Pawson discusses the evidence for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as a separate event from believing, repentance and water baptism. He argues that a believer does not receive the indwelling Holy Spirit until s/he is baptized in the Spirit, a distinct experience evidenced by charismatic gifts such as prophecy or tongues. This differs from the evangelical view that the Spirit is automatically received when a person believes, and the Pentecostal view that receiving the indwelling Spirit (at conversion) and receiving the Baptism in the Spirit are two experiences with different purposes.
In The Challenge of Islam to Christians, Pawson documents the present rapid rise of Islam in the West. He explains what Islam is, arguing that its rejection of Jesus Christ's divinity mean the two faiths cannot be reconciled, and he proposes a Christian response, based on the church purifying itself. The book details Pawson's testing of his premonition that Britain would become Islamic. In comparing the situation to that portrayed by the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk, Pawson implies that the rise of Islam could be impending judgement for the immorality into which Western secular humanist society has sunk.
In Once Saved, Always Saved?, Pawson uses scripture to question the frequent evangelical claim that someone who has once believed in Jesus Christ will end up with Christ in heaven whatever that person subsequently believes and does. (Twelve years earlier, another evangelical, RT Kendall, summed up this claim in a book having the same title without a question mark.) Pawson points to the need to persevere in faith, and to the repeated exhortations in scripture to do so.
In Word and Spirit Together: Uniting Charismatics and Evangelicals (a revision of Fourth Wave), Pawson calls for an end to the division between charismatic and Evangelical Christians over the issue of charismatic gifts. He argues that the charismatic gifts are for the church today but that their practice should be built on a solid scriptural basis. He therefore argues that the two groups should learn from each other, to the benefit of both.
[edit] Books
- Christianity Explained, 2006, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, ISBN 190194946X
- Explaining Water Baptism, 2000, David Pawson, Sovereign World Ltd, ISBN 1852400838
- Explaining the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, 2004, David Pawson, Joyce Huggett, Sovereign World, ISBN 1852403837
- Explaining the Resurrection, 2000, David Pawson, Sovereign World, Ltd, ISBN 1852400897
- Explaining the Second Coming, 2000, David Pawson, Renew, ISBN 1852401184
- Hope for the Millennium, 1999, David Pawson, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0340735597
- Head in the Clouds, 1999, David Pawson, Hodder & Stoughton Religious, ISBN 0340608129
- Is John 3:16 the Gospel?, 2007, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications International Ltd, ISBN 1901949559
- Infant Baptism Under Cross-examination, 1976, David Pawson, Colin Buchanan, Grove Books Ltd, ISBN 090171089X
- Is the Blessing Biblical?, 1996, David Pawson, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 034066147X
- Jesus Baptises in One Holy Spirit: When?, How?, Why?, Who?, 1997, David Pawson, Hodder&Stoughton Religious, ISBN 0340693983
- Jesus Baptises In One Holy Spirit, 2006, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, ISBN 1901949443
- Leadership Is Male, 1990, David Pawson, Thomas Nelson Inc, ISBN 0840790236
- Loose Leaves From My Bible, 1994, David Pawson, North Bank Graphics, ISBN 0952298503
- Not as Bad as the Truth: Memoirs of an Unorthodox Evangelical, 2006, David Pawson, Hodder Headline, ISBN 0340864273
- Once Saved, Always Saved?: A Study in Perseverance and Inheritance, David Pawson, Roger Forster, Hodder Headline, 1996, ISBN 0340610662
- Tell me the truth!, 1977, David Pawson, Harold Shaw, ISBN 087788837X
- The Road to Hell: Everlasting Torment or Annihilation? 1996, David Pawson, Hodder Headline 1996 and Terra Nova Publications International Ltd 2007, ISBN 034053964X
- The Normal Christian Birth: How to Give New Believers a Proper Start in Life, David Pawson, Hodder & Stoughton 1989 and Hodder Headline 1991, ISBN 0340489723
- The Challenge of Islam to Christians, 2003, David Pawson, Hodder Headline, ISBN 0340861894
- Unlocking the Bible Omnibus: A Unique Overview of the Whole Bible, 2003, David Pawson, HarperCollins UK, ISBN 0007166664
- When Jesus Returns, 1995, David Pawson, Hodder & Stoughton Religious, ISBN 0340612118
- Word And Spirit Together, 2007, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, ISBN 1901949532
- Where is Jesus now?, 2001, David Pawson, Kingsway Publications, ISBN 0854769307
- Why Does God Allow Natural Disasters?, 2007, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, 2007, ISBN 1901949567
- Defending Christian Zionism, 2008, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, 2008, ISBN 9781901949629
- Practising the Principles of Prayer, 2008, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, ISBN 9781901949582
- Living in Hope, 2008, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, ISBN 9781901949605
- The God and the Gospel of Righteousness, 2008, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, ISBN 9781901949599
[edit] Videos and DVDs
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[edit] External links
The following are authorised distributors of David Pawson's DVDs and CDs (as well as books):
