Author Archives: admin

Signs and wonders today?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Does God grant signs and wonders in response to the prayers of Christians today?  Some very readily answer, ‘No’, and every scrap of interest or belief in contemporary miracles is dismissed as ‘strange fire’.  Others reply with a simple, ‘Yes!’, regarding any doubt of qualification as a quenching of the Holy Spirit.

I like John Piper‘s candour, when he tells us how much he has struggled over the question of whether we should pray, as the early Christians prayed (Acts 4:29-30), for such miracles today. …

Miracles: sixteen theses

Walking With Giants Posted on by

After all these years, my thoughts and feelings about miracles are still a bit of a jumble.  I offer the following as an attempt to ‘nail my colours to the fence’ (as it were).  These are pretty much bare propositions; elaboration by way of argument or evidence may be found elsewhere:-

  1. A miracle is an extraordinary event in the natural world, prompting people to respond, “This is the Lord’s doing, it is wonderful in our eyes.” 
…

Scripture: three steps forward, two steps back?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

No thoughtful reader of the Bible will deny that there is progression and development as God’s revelation unfolds.  Sometimes, this means that the old has become redundant, in the light of the new.  The good becomes the better, and the better becomes the best.  Read the book of Hebrews if you have any doubt about this.

But this is a far cry from the teaching of Richard Rohr, who says:-

‘Scripture is a polyphonic symphony, a conversation with itself, where it plays melodies and dissonance— three steps forward, two steps back.

…

Jesus’ view of the Old Testament

Walking With Giants Posted on by

See also: Christ and the Bible (John Wenham), chapter 1, the substance of which is available in the form of this article.
There is overwhelming evidence that Jesus regarded the Old Testament scriptures in an entirely positive light in respect of their inspiration and authority.  The following summary of this evidence comes from The Topical Analysis of the Bible (ed. Elwell).

1. Christ Affirmed the OT’s Historicity

a) The Historicity of OT Persons

(1) Abel, Matt.…

Gambling

Walking With Giants Posted on by

“I was very sorry to hear, some days ago, that a member of the Church had won a prize in the State Lottery. Gambling is a great social evil, and when a thing like this happens I think that it is my duty to say something about it.…

“Money is the most inclusive sign of the material aspect of human life. It represents the results of man’s labour made available for use of others. We accept it as a gift from God, and we offer a part of it in worship as the token of our gratitude to Him.…

Christian witness

Walking With Giants Posted on by

An outline of a talk by John Stott:-

I. Doctrinal Aspect
“Witness” q.v.

II. Practical Aspect
A testimony is NOT (necessarily) a biography, i.e., sketch of circumstances of one’s conversion, BUT a recommendation of Christ. A testimony is a testimonial—recommending Christ from personal experience.
Its purpose is to advertise or uplift Christ as:

• Savior who found and forgave us
• Keeper who is holding us fast and leading us on
• Master who is teaching us His will
• Guide who is revealing His plan
• Friend who never leaves us

Therefore—

(i) Be humble.…

Discussion starters, Ruth

Walking With Giants Posted on by

(a) This has been described as one of the most beautiful books ever written.  Do you agree?  What makes it so beautiful?

(b) What do you think God wants us to learn from this book about love and loyalty?

(c) Look at what Boaz says to Ruth about her reputation (Ruth 2:11).  What would a honest person say about your reputation?

(d) What does this book teach us about ‘learning to trust God in the dark’?…

Discussion starters, Acts 3 – 4:31

Walking With Giants Posted on by

(a) What, according to this passage (see especially Acts 3:13-26; 4:10-12), were the main things that the early Christians stressed when they spoke about Jesus?

(b) Can you think of any recent occasion when a celebrity has confessed publicly to some wrongdoing?  How similar, or different, is the ‘repentance’ that Peter talks about in Acts 3:19?

(c) Do you think that Christians in our own country can expect more, or less, opposition to their faith in the future? …

Discussion starters, Acts 3:1-10

Walking With Giants Posted on by

(a) What hints are there in this passage that we are looking at real event, rather than ‘pious fiction’?

(b) If you could sit down today with the man who had been healed, what questions would you ask him?

(c) If you glance at the whole passage, from Acts 3:1 to Acts 4:31, you will see that ‘one thing leads to another’: what starts as an innocent healing leads to an opportunity for evangelism, which in turn leads to bitter opposition.…

Owen, Scripture, and definite atonement

Walking With Giants Posted on by

According to John Owen (The Death of Death in the Death of Christ), a number of Bible passages ‘clearly and distinctly in themselves’ teach definite atonement (i.e. that Christ died for the elect and not for the everyone).  Following is Naselli’s summary:-

(1) Gen 3:15. “Christ died for no more than God promised unto him that he should die for. But God did not promise to him all,” but only the woman’s seed, namely, the elect.…