Madrid, October 29th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
The FEREDE (Federation of Evangelical Organisations in Spain) says it has made no secret pact with the government, following questions from several people who suspect that its silence over unethical legislation, and its public satisfaction at potential handouts and the financial status quo regarding the Catholic Church, are the result of an agreement reached with the ruling Socialist Party.

“For now there is dialogue, which is not to be sniffed at”, says the FEREDE website, in response to the fact that “several people have asked if there have been secret meetings and pacts with the current government.” The FEREDE is clearly upset at what it calls “gratuitous, tendentious and malicious comments” suggesting that they had come to a secret arrangement with the government whereby they kept quiet on certain issues such as homosexual marriage legislation, and the money would follow. The FEREDE states categorically that no such pact, nor any other kind, exists.

The organisation says it has kept everyone informed of any meetings it has held with government representatives, and that should an agreement be suggested, then they would take the matter to a Plenary Session of the Federation. The note on the website concludes by saying: “we cannot avoid this kind of erroneous or twisted information which proceeds from respectable people or organisations. We have not got the means nor the desire to respond nor enter into debate (with those who speak) about the Federation of Evangelical Churches, but we are open to those who want an explanation regarding our activities.”

Madrid, October 29th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
The Spanish Bible Society is cutting back in an effort to rationalise its activities and maximise the use of its limited resources. Two Bible centres are to close, in Barcelona and Algeciras.

Bible Society sources thanked God for the 12 years of service in Barcelona, and for the work carried on in Algeciras, the main port of transit for North Africa where thousands of Scripture portions and other Christian literature have been distributed to passing Muslims and other travellers. The slimmed-down Bible Society retains its Madrid headquarters and a Bible centre in the North African enclave of Ceuta, mainly for work with the Scriptures in Arabic.

The aim of this rationalisation is to spend less on infrastructure, and more on the mission of getting the Bible out “so that more people may have the Word of God in their hands and come to have salvation in Christ.” A helpline and a website for purchasing Bible Society products are two other innovations. Pastors and theological students can gain access to the Bible text in other languages and translations at www.biblija.net

Barcelona, October 29th, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
A second youth prayer rally has been held in Catalonia with the idea of bringing together young people from all different denominations. Almost 250 people were present at the event organised by ‘Your Kingdom Come’, and supported by the Evangelical Alliance.

Four months on from the first such event, the meeting followed a simple pattern. A short presentation, a message and a substantial time for prayer ­ both individual and in groups. Finally, the rally ended with a time of praise in song, especially a chorus which looks set to become the motto: ‘Unite us, Lord.’ Youngsters from all kinds of church backgrounds prayed for the unity of God’s people, rejecting the barriers which prevent greater cooperation and understanding.

The desire is to see God’s work go forward in Spain, Europe and the rest of the world: “Without unity there is no revival, because there is no witness to the world of the Truth”, said one of the organisers. Many people asked for revival and spiritual resurgence in Spain. Another organiser observed: “there will not be a collective revival until first there is a personal revival in one’s personal relationship with God.” There were also prayers for churches, their leaders and the ‘lost’ generations.

The predominant tone of the rally was respect and Christian love for each other, and there were hugs and tears at the end, as well as the inevitable exchange of addresses and phone numbers among the youngsters.

Barcelona, October 31st, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
Time for the oldest inter-denominational organisation in Spain to enter the modern age. The Spanish Evangelical Alliance, 127 years old, has a completely new website up and, virtually, running.

The webmaster is Jonathan Gelabert, and he has completely renewed the site. It includes an institutional section including information about the Alliance’s history and aims, as well as a section including articles from the latest issues of the Alliance’s two magazines ­ Idea and Aletheia. There is also a new project called ‘Imagine’, a Spanish version of an English idea which has proved revolutionary in England. Full details will appear next week but if you want to sneak a preview, just go the site www.aee.net and find out what it is all about.

Madrid, October 31st, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
Paul’ injunction in his letter to the Romans for everyone to be persuaded in their own minds which festivals to celebrate and which not could not be apter in these days. However, a novel accusation has been laid at Christians’ feet by an evangelical journalism student, Luis Marián, who says that by attacking its occultic nature, they are drawing people’s attention to something of which they were probably unaware.

Luis Marián works in a university archive in Madrid and also coordinates the Protestant Library in Madrid. In a controversial article in ProtestanteDigital, he accuses Christians of making such a fuss about Halloween that they are bringing the ‘devilish aspect’ to the attention of thousands of others who otherwise might have let it slip by unnoticed. So people who simply saw Halloween as an opportunity to dress up, are now able to discover the dark forces who are at their disposition. “Thanks to the publicity which Christians give to the Satanic facets of this festival, many youngsters who were unaware of the dark power of the All Saints’ Day celebration are now encouraged to seek it out.”

In English, a clever play on words can turn ‘Halloween’ ­ which comes from ‘Hallowed Eve’, the day before All Saints’ Day ­ into ‘Hello Wind’, an oblique reference to the Holy Spirit. Some Christians have found profitable ways to use Halloween as an evangelistic opportunity, and explain who really holds the power of the universe. Marian seems to mix the fear caused by the forces of evil represented at Halloween with that of those who pray for the departed loved ones the day afterwards. Yet blaming Christians for that combination seems highly inappropriate, especially when we are called to denounce sin in all its forms. Another argument would be, of course, whether or not Halloween really does have much to do with the ‘dark forces.’

Ironically, Christians have a much better reason for celebrating October 31st, as it was on that very day ­ long before the commercialisation of Halloween ­ in 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses against indulgences on the church door in Wittemberg, an act which led in the providence of God to the Protestant Reformation and the Christian Church as we know it today. Indeed, it led to a worldwide move of the Holy Spirit which continues now, and will continue until Christ comes again. May that ‘holy wind’ blow strongly and effectively across our world.

Madrid, October 31st, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
A Spanish historian, Mario Escobar, claims that it is obvious that Protestantism improves one’s standard of living.

The sobriety of the converted, their harmony and family stability, their support of their co-religionists, their valuing of effort and work all tend to improve their economic and social situation within a generation, according to Escobar. On the other hand, he says that Catholic societies tended to separate the spiritual from the material, sanctifying the priesthood and giving little value to manual work. They identified the physical and material as bad, and the spiritual as good, as seen in Spanish and Italian mysticism.

Protestant societies sought to de-consecrate the state, encourage the priesthood of all believers, increase literacy so that people could read the Holy Scriptures themselves, develop a quasi-democratic process in churches and value work as service to God. This was a definitive break with the layered and static Catholic culture. Max Weber in his famous book, ‘The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism’, highlighted the link between Protestant, especially Calvinist, belief and economic development. The Protestant nobility got involved in commercial investment and sought profit, linking prosperity with divine blessing. However, Weber’s theories do not apply to all Protestant societies. Scotland turned to Calvinism but its capitalist development was very small, nor did Czech or Hungarian Protestants stand out for their capitalist instincts. Indeed, some Protestant denominations could be said to be decidedly anti-capitalist.

Yet Escobar concludes by saying that Protestantism usually improves the standard of living of its followers. When people are converted, if they put into practice the Christian ethic, then the above improvements can normally be seen within a generation.

Madrid, October 31st, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
The novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’, by Dan Brown, has been selling at 2,000 copies a day just in Spain. Yet the undeniable commerical success of the book cannot hide the fact that it is, historically speaking, “a mishmash of absurdities and, theologically, a load of nonsense.”

So says the first Protestant reply to the novel to be published in Spanish. ‘The Da Vinci Code’ has led to dozens of other books seconding some of his ideas, so one which challenges them is much to be welcomed. César Vidal, who has written the Prologue to the Spanish edition of the reply, written by Ben Witherington III, says: “Witherington’s book seems to me particularly timely, replying to (Brown’s) basic theses.” Witherington has not set out to refute Brown’s historical errors one by one, but focuses on three essential aspects: the historical reliability of the Gospels and their transmission, the truth about Mary Magdalene, and the Gnostic background behind Brown’s novel.

Witherington dismantles Brown’s idea that the Church rejected various Gospels with the support of the Emperor Constantine in order to hide the true Jesus and sell posterity the idea of Jesus as the Son of God. He shows that the canonical Gospels are the oldest biographical material which exists about Jesus. Whereas the Gnostic gospels lack historicity, and only serve to show the kind of heresies floating about in the third and fourth centuries. What’s more, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John “did not become canonical because Constantine decided they should ­ what a preposterous notion! ­ but they were recognised by the Church centuries earlier because they came from apostles who had known Jesus, or from disciples of those apostles.”

Witherington also demonstrates that the truth about Mary Magdalene is to be found in the Gospels, and that there is nothing to indicate she was either the lover or the wife of Jesus, as Brown suggests.

Ben Witherington unravels the tortuous but clear link between the Gnostics of the first century and current New Age ideas to show where the book’s theories come from, and goes on to show they have no base in history. The Jesus of Dan Brown never existed nor can he do anything for us. The Jesus of the Bible is, not just was, real and has power to change our lives radically.

Madrid, October 31st, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
A series of events have commemorated one of Spain’s lesser known Protestant martyrs, Constantino Ponce, who was one of Charles I’s preachers, as well as a writer who embraced the Reformation, and who died for his faith in Jesus Christ at the hands of the Inquisition.

He was born in San Clemente, in the province of Cuenca in central Spain. This year he has been remembered through a series of meetings organised by the cultural Aguamiel Association, which put together several talks under the general heading: ‘Illustrious Children of San Clemente at the time of Cervantes’.

Kenneth Brown, Head of Spanish at Calgary University in Canada, spoke on ‘Lope de Vega and Alarcón’ (Life and death in San Clemente and Valladolid). On October 30th, Salvador Fernández Cava, a secondary school teacher and writer, gave a biographical sketch of Constantino Ponce. Then on October 31st, the date beloved among Protestants as Reformation Day, Gabino Fernández ­ Director of the Spanish Reformation Studies Centre ­ gave a talk about the literary work of the Spanish martyr. The regional authority for Castile-La Mancha supported the celebration, as well as the local authorities in Cuenca and San Clemente, as well as the Commission for the 400th Anniversary of Don Quijote.

Madrid, October 31st, 2004 (ACPress.net). 
In conjunction with Reformation Day, October 31st, Spanish television broadcast a documentary looking at architecture from the Counter-Reformation period in Spain, whose script was written by Gabino Fernández, an evangelical historian and Director of the Spanish Reformation Study Centre.

The TV team visited various Protestant churches and buildings in Madrid, as well as the Palace of the Inquisition, also situated in the Spanish capital. Fernández explained how evangelicals suffered under intolerant, Catholic regimes, mentioning congregations such as the English-speaking Anglican Church in Madrid, the German-speaking Lutheran Church, and the Cathedral of the Episcopal Church (Anglican) whose services are held in Spanish. He also mentioned the architectural damage done to ‘El Porvenir’, a Protestant school and Trust founded by German missionaries in the 19th century, which still flourishes today.