A Troublesome Gospel: the Back Story
An online showing of a challenging address has prompted a 400-year background to video.
17th – 19th Century Scotland
BACK in 1697, and for the last time, a man was executed in Scotland for "blaspheming". Thomas Aikenhead, a 20-year-old Edinburgh student of divinity, had joked about the Christian faith while out with friends and challenged the authenticity of the miracles recorded in the Bible. His university friends testified against him in court and, facing the most senior lawyer in Scotland as prosecutor, Aikenhead could not afford a legal defense and represented himself—unsuccessfully.
Then in 1843 a bookseller by the name of Thomas Paterson was tried at the Edinburgh High Court and sentenced to fifteen months’ imprisonment for selling profane/blasphemous placards and related material, and the prosecution cited a notice in his window
"that the Bible and other obscene works not sold at this shop”.
The case sits within a final cluster of Scottish blasphemy trials between 1819 and 1844, targeting sellers and publishers of “infidel” or anti‑Christian literature; after these, no further blasphemy cases were heard in the High Court. But the protection it has come under attack.
400 years on..
In 2018, the Scottish Nationalist Party launched a public ‘hate poster’ campaign in 2018. The language was clearly aimed at Christians:
“Dear BIGOTS, you can’t spread your religious hate here. End of Sermon.” This political attack on freedom of expression in general and Christianity in particular resulted in the aforementioned blasphemy law being repealed, only to be soon after replaced by legislation which, rather than protecting the Christian message, sought to silence it.
Prompted by these developments, the Editor of Christians Together unearthed the recording of an earlier address in 2008. The speaker, Jonathan Stephen, preached a very powerful message to those who were gathered in that fishing town of Buckie on Scotland’s NE coast. His address was based on the apostle Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica and the serious public opposition he encountered there; attacked as he was be a riotous mob.
The video, entitled
'A Troublesome Gospel' has been enhanced to include more recent video clips, images and text; including also a clip from a sermon given by an Edinburgh pastor in 2019.
The axe falls in 2024
In the event, The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland Bill) was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2021 and implemented on 1 April, 2024. The legislation makes it almost impossible to critique other religions and present a both a very serious impediment and threat to proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In that year the Editor produced ‘
credit-card-sized’ outreach tracts and made these available to all site members for use in personal outreach.
Now in August 2026
A showing of the above-mentioned video to an online group of believers has elicited several comments, commendations and requests. Accordingly the following information and offers are now being made as outlined below.
Meanwhile, as we see the escalating pace current events in the manner of birth pains, the call of our Saviour, Jesus Christ reverberates in our troubled world.
Then Jesus came to them and said,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20)
Notes:
1. Access to both the trailer and the full video of
‘The Troublesome Gospel’ can be had
here and on YouTube
here.
2. The Editor remains open to future requests for online 'group' showings to CT site members, and/or networks of personal friends of site members.
3. The Editor can provide on request, copies a
‘credit-card-sized’ outreach tract produced in 2024 for personal outreach purposes.
04/08/2026