The Prophet lived 2600 years ago, the Apostle wrote letters around 60 AD, most of them preserved in what we now call the New Testament, and the Protestor is alive and well, in charge of a Christian church in East Belfast. Mysteriously they met a week or two ago, no one really knows where or when, but those close to the Protestor suggest that it could have been one of those rare occasions when in a prayer, he had briefly thought that there might be more truths in the Bible than held captive in the libraries and Lecture Halls of the ‘Whitfield College of the Bible’ where he earned his stripes.

The Protestor did most of the talking at this unusual meeting, and you couldn’t fail to notice the sadness in the faces of the Prophet and the Apostle as he laid out his beliefs about the Law of Moses and the importance of observing the ‘Lord’s Day.’

‘But you claim to base your life’s work on the teachings of the Bible,’ said the Prophet, ‘and yet there’s so much of it you seem to know nothing about!’

‘What do you mean?’ protested the Protestor.

‘Over two thousand years ago I foretold a day when the laws that are so central to your church would pass away. And yet... what were you doing outside that old building in Belfast last week?’

‘And the banner you carried,’ chipped in the Apostle, ‘it said something about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. What did you mean by that?’

‘The Fourth Commandment!’ stammered the Protestor. ‘Remember the Sabbath Day... do you want me to tear it out of my Bible?’

‘I’ve already torn it out of your Bible,’ said the Apostle hardly able to believe what he had just heard. ‘I tore it out when I wrote to the Christians in Ephesus; “...if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.”’

‘You don’t know the people in my church,’ complained the Protestor. ‘If I don’t control them they’ll run wild. There’s no telling what they’ll end up doing!’

Someone else had joined them now, some say it was Christ himself... ‘Control them?’ he said with tears in his eyes. ‘Why would you want to control people for whom I gave my life to set free? Haven’t you read what the Apostle here wrote about the Law being like a schoolmaster until I came?’

‘But... but,’ the Protestor was lost for words, for in the Whitfield College of the Bible he had been encouraged to go out and build a good, strong church that would be a bastion against the evil tide of secularism; ‘If my people think they’re free... they might not come back to church!’ and he couldn’t bear the thought.

‘The Christians in Colosse were beginning to sound like that,’ continued the Apostle. ‘They were being controlled by their leaders and I had to tell them, “Don’t let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to religious festivals or Sabbath days.” Are you telling me you haven’t read that one either?’

‘I never understood what it meant,’ admitted the Protestor now sounding a little softer. ‘We were never taught that one in college. Surely we can’t be that free, can we?’

‘My son,’ said the one who had just joined them, ‘today you have seen truths you’ve never before thought possible. From this day preach the good news of freedom, the good news that everything changed when I, the Messiah came. Tell your people that if they allow me to set them free, they will be truly free.’

But the Protestor wasn’t listening, the words of the Messiah were drowned out by the rustling of pages in a big black Bible.