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Purgatory

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Elgar’s ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ is a wonderful piece of music.  For me, however, its story-line requires a considerable suspension of belief.  Based on John Henry (Cardinal) Newman’s poem of the same name, it describes the journey of a Christian soul from his death-bed to Purgatory.

The Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory took shape in the Middle Ages.  The Council of Trent (1545-1563) pronounced as ‘anathema’ those who rejected it.  The doctrine states that the intermediate state for Christian believers consists not of unmixed rest, but rather of punishment for post-baptismal sins.  …

Aspects of our likeness to God

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Moral aspects

  • We are morally accountable to God.
  • We have an inner sense of right and wrong
  • We are capable of behaviour that is holy and righteous before God

Spiritual aspects

  • We have immaterial spirits
  • We have spiritual capabilities that enable us to relate to God in prayer, praise and so on
  • We have immortality

Mental aspects

  • We are capable of rational thought far in advance of any animal
  • We are capable of complex language far in advance of any animal
  • We have an awareness of the distant future; of eternity, indeed
  • We are capable of creativity in areas such as music, art, and literature
  • We are capable of rich and complex emotions

Relational aspects

  • We are capable of deep and complex relationships
  • We are capable, in marriage, of reflecting the relationship between Christ and the church
  • We have been given authority over the rest of creation, and will even judge the angels

Physical aspects

  • Our physical bodies reflect the character and purpose of God, even though he himself is immaterial
  • Our ability to produce children who are like ourselves reflects God’s ability to create human beings who are like himself

Based on Grudem, Systematic Theology

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God and his creation

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Scripture teaches that God is transcendent, and yet immanent. He is far above above creation, yet intimately involved in it, Acts 17:25,28; Eph 4:6; Col 1:17; Heb 1:3.

False views include:

  • materialism, which denies the existence of God altogether;
  • pantheism, which teaches that the whole universe is God, or an emanation from God;
  • dualism, which holds that God and the material universe have existed eternally side by side, locked in eternal conflict, with no guarantee that good will triumph;
  • deism, according to which God created the universe and then left it to run on its own.
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What we learn from creation

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Bible commentator Matthew Henry notes that in creation we observe:-

1. Great variety, several sorts of beings vastly differing in their nature and constitution from each other. Lord, how manifold are thy works, and all good!

2. Great beauty. The azure sky and verdant earth are charming to the eye of the curious spectator, much more the ornaments of both. How transcendent then must the beauty of the Creator be!

3. Great exactness and accuracy.…

Adam and the Fall

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Donald MacLeod writes:-

Do not forget that God pronounced man, the apex of his creation ‘very good’ too. Modern theories of sin, in so far as they deal with the origin of sin at all, assume that man must have been sinful from the very beginning. It is, according to such theories, ‘only natural’ to sin. Sin is inevitable; a central and unavoidable part of our nature. But Scripture does not teach this at all.

The Bible’s story of the Fall is, apart from all else, a relief from the problems inherent in such a doctrine.…

The reduced Screwtape

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In ‘The Screwtape Letters’ C. S. Lewis brilliantly conveys important truths about Christian life and experience by imagining what advice a senior ‘devil’ might offer to a junior one.

A while ago, Andy Naselli posted a one-sentence summary of each of these letters (note that the ‘patient’ becomes a Christian between letters 1 and 2:-

  1. Make him preoccupied with ordinary, “real” life—not arguments or science.
  2. Make him disillusioned with the church by highlighting people he self-righteously thinks are strange or hypocritical.
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When, and where, was Jesus born?

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How does ‘main-stream’ critical scholarship deal with the biblical narratives of the birth of Jesus?

What follows is based on this article by Helen K. Bond, senior lecturer in New Testament at the University of Aberdeen.  I also draw on her book The Historical Jesus: A Guide For the Perplexed (HJ).  A similar line is taken by Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III in this article.

First, Bond notes that only Matthew and Luke record Jesus’ birth, and their stories are quite different.  …

Signs of humility

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From Jeremy Taylor, Works, Vol 5:-

  1. The humble man trusts not so much to his own discretion in important matters, as to that of his friends and spiritual guides
  2. he does not pertinaciously follow his own will, nor murmur against commands, nor is too inquisitive into the reasons of them
  3. he lives in compliance with public customs without affectation
  4. he is meek, and patiently bears injuries
  5. is a lover of good and wise men
  6. is no censurer of others
  7. fears when he is commended
  8. gives no pert answers
  9. refuses the temptations of offices and honors
  10. amends his faults with thankfulness
  11. is ingenuous and open
  12. ready to do good offices, even to his slanderers
  13. contented to be the object of suspicion, provided he be really innocent before God.
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Satan in Paul’s epistles

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Paul told the Corinthian believers

  • to hand the incestuous person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor. 5:5)
  • that husbands and wives should not deprive one another sexually lest Satan tempt them because of their lack of self-control (1 Cor. 7:7)
  • that they should reinstate the presumably repentant offender so that Satan might not outwit us (2 Cor. 2:11)
  • that Satan masquerades as angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14)
  • and that the apostle himself was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment him so as to prevent him from becoming conceited (2 Cor.
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