Author Archives: admin

The cross is our theology

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“The criterion of what is Christian and what is not is the cross of Jesus Christ, the crucial enigma which distinguishes the peculiarly Christian way of looking at human existence and experience from all other viewpoints” (p. 18).

For the Christian, “the cross alone is our theology.”—Luther (p. 26)

“The Christian tradition, following in the paths indicated by Paul, has identified the cross, interpreted in the light of the resurrection, as the final, decisive and normative locus of the revelation of God” (p.…

Meditating on Christ’s sufferings

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Given the reticence and reserve with which the NT dwells on the physical aspects of Christ’s sufferings, it is certainly possible for Christians themselves to dwell too much on them.

F.F. Bruce comments on this subject in his fascinating book, Answers To Questions (p249f).

He contrasts this, by Charles Wesley…

1. O Love divine, what has thou done!
The immortal God hath died for me!
The Father’s coeternal Son
bore all my sins upon the tree.…

Laughter: the best change agent?

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Much has been written about the power of story, of narrative, to change attitudes and behaviours.

But I would like to put it to you, ladies and gentlemen, that humour can be just as powerful an agent for change.  This is so with regard to topical satirical shows such as Have I Got News For You (BBC).  And it is doubly so, of course, when humour is employed at part of (maybe the main part) of story-telling.…

‘A better story’ – 5

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The narrative of the sexual revolution, writes Glyn Harrison, goes something like this:-

For centuries, traditional morality had us – all of us – in its suffocating grip. Year after year the same old rules, chained to the past, heaped shame on ordinary men and women (and boys and girls) whose only crime was being different. Enemies of the human spirit, these bankrupt ideologies befriended bigots and encouraged the spiteful. They nurtured a seedbed of hypocrisy and offered safe havens to perpetrators of abuse.…

Occupations in heaven

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Some notes based on (and quoting from) a sermon by Glenn Pease:-

There once was a woman who always was tired
She lived in a house where no help was hired.
On her death bed she said, dear friends I am goin
Where washing aint done nor cookin nor sewin,
And everything there will be just to my wishes,
For where they don’t eat there’s no washin of dishes.
Don’t mourn for me now, don’t mourn for me ever,
For I’m goin to do nothin, forever and ever.…

‘A better story’ – 4

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Everyone loves a good story.  Not surprising, then, that storytelling has been at the heart of the sexual revolution.  Storytelling seems to fit the shape of the human mind, and to reach places that other forms of communication cannot reach.

The entertainment industry understands this, and has exercised its talents in taking complicated ideas and melding them into powerful, attention-grabbing, and persuasive narratives:-

‘And so with riveting narratives about hypocritical politicians and fossilized bishops, pitted against outsiders and the oppressed, brave men and women finding the courage to be ‘who they really are’, they appealed to the moral instincts of ordinary, decent people.’…

Ten reasons we need the Old Testament

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Summarising this post by Jason De Rouchie:-

  1. The Old Testament (OT) was the Bible of Jesus and the apostles, Mt 5:17; Lk 24:44; Acts 24:14; 2 Tim 3:15.
  2. The OT shapes our understanding of key biblical truths.  It includes many promises whose fulfilment is recorded in the New Testament (NT).  It is key to our understanding of, for example, creation (Gen 1:1-2:3) and of substitutionary atonement (Isa 53).  The NT repeatedly explains itself by means of references to the OT.
…

‘A better story’ – 3

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Although the sexual revolution has been driven by powerful ideas, we should not underestimate the power of emotions – of gut feelings – in changing attitudes and behaviours.

Nor should be assume that the sexual revolution has entailed an abandonment of morality.  Rather, it has entailed a change in how we thing and feel about morality.

Jonathan Haidt has pictured the relationship between feeling and thought as that between an elephant and its rider.  If this analogy holds, then we need to appeal to the emotional elephant as well as to the intellectual rider.…

Sexual orientation and gender identity

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This recent post by Ian Paul has prompted me to return to the subject of statistics on sexual identity.

According to the Office for National Statistics:-

  • In 2016, just over 1 million (2.0%) of the UK population aged 16 and over identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB).
  • The population aged 16 to 24 were the age group most likely to identify as LGB in 2016 (4.1%).
  • More males (2.3%) than females (1.6%) identified themselves as LGB in 2016.
…

Why not change your name, gender AND age?

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So a 69-year-old Dutch man wants to reduce his age by 20 years.  Emile Ratelband has launched a legal battle to change his birthday from 11 March 1949 to 11 March 1969.

I guess that most people would greet this news with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders. After all, “there’s nowt as strange as folk”.

But look at Ratelband’s reasoning:- “We live in a time when you can change your name and change your gender.…