Category Archives: God

Is God incarnate in creation?

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Olivia Graham, recently-appointed Bishop of Reading, has given this short theological introduction about why Christians should care for the environment.

I have watched and listened to the whole thing, and agree with Ian Paul that statements such as the following make one’s ears prick up:

2.48 The incarnation isn’t a single birth, but it began 14 billion years ago with an event we call the Big Bang. At that moment, God poured Godself into the emerging universe…every particle of it charged with the incarnate presence of God.…

God’s attributes: for you, or against you?

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Without an interest in Christ, we shall have no comfort in any attribute of God. To a Christless sinner, all the attributes of God are against him; as, for instance,

(i.) God is wise: that is the worse for a wicked man; for he knows all that wickedness [which] thine own heart is privy to, (Jer. 17:10,) and much more evil by thee than thine own heart knoweth. (1 John 3:20.)

(ii.) God is holy: and therefore he must needs hate those that are filthy, being “of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.”…

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Where is God in a messed-up world? – notes of a talk

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The following forms the substance of a talk given as part of a webinar from Holy Trinity Church, Norwich.

Intro

We were being shown round the charming spa town of Great Malvern, in Worcestershire.  Our friendly guide pointed out the statue of Sir Edward Elgar, the famous composer.  We looked at the gas lamps that were probably part of the inspiration for the description of Narnia at the beginning of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. …

God: all-loving but not all-powerful?

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Shall we argue that God, although perfectly loving, lacks the power to prevent or relieve human suffering?  If we are to take the conclusion of the book of Job seriously, the answer must be, ‘No’.

Philip Yancey writes:

Much has been made about God’s magnificent speech in Job 38– 41. In a passage that could be addressed to the Sierra Club or Audubon Society, God took Job on a verbal tour of all the wonders of nature.…

What would it take to convince an atheist?

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Atheists like to claim that their views, unlike those of believers, are falsifiable.

So, given this openness to a change of mind, what might convince an atheist that God exists after all?

One blogger lists the following as her number one kind of evidence:

‘If I saw an unambiguous message from God, I would be persuaded of his existence. If I saw writing suddenly appear in the sky, in letters a hundred feet high, saying “I Am God, I Exist, Here Is What I Want You To Do” — and if that writing were seen by every human being, written in whatever language they understand, comprehended in the same way by everyone who saw it — I would be persuaded that God existed.’…

‘The heavens declare’

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Psalm 19 is the go-to passage for the witness of the heavens to the glory of God.  But, in fact, it is only one of a number of scriptures that explore what the starry skies reveal about the nature, will and purpose of God.

Power

Gen 1:2 famously says that ‘in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’  In fact, the first two chapters of Genesis witness of the creative power of God in creating the cosmos and everything in it.…

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The genealogical Adam and Eve

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Very often it’s put to us as a stark choice: either you accept the biblical account of human origins, or you accept the scientific account.  Either you believe that we are all direct descendants of Adam and Eve, or that we are all products of a long evolutionary process, stretching back a million years or more to a (non-human) common ancestor.

But can we have our cake and eat it?  Can we hold both to the essential factual historicity of the accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, and to the validity of evolutionary science?…

Do we meet God in particular places?

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Life in lockdown has, for Christians, raised questions about what it means to meet God when our places of worship (aka ‘churches’) are closed.

Old Testament

Genesis 28:10-19 records Jacob’s experience of seeing in a dream angels on a stairway that led up to heaven, and of hearing God’s promise to give his descendants the land.  Jacob concludes: “Surely the LORD is in this place, but I did not realize it!”

Specific localities are important in Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush, and in the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. …

Romans 1:18 – Wrath: personal or impersonal?

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C.H. Dodd contended that Paul speaks of ‘the wrath’ ‘in a curiously impersonal way’, Rom 2:5; 9:22; Eph 2:3.  More recently, Derek Flood (Healing the Gospel) has argued similarly.  Flood says that although Paul takes up the OT idea of the wrath of God, he can at the same time be seen to be moving away from it as being too much focused on a ‘problem’ with God (sin makes him angry) rather than with ourselves.…

The Trinity in action

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1 in Creation

God the Father spoke, Genesis 1:3 “And God said, Let there be light.”
God the Son was the Word spoken, John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word.”
God the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the waters, Genesis 1:2; Job 26:12,13.

2 in the Incarnation

God the Father gave His only Son, John 3:16.
God the Son was born into the world, Luke 2:11.
God the Spirit came upon Mary to cause conception, Luke 1:35.…