Author Archives: admin

Has worship music lost its soul?

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Writing in a recent issue of Christianity magazine, Andy Walton asks if some of our modern worship songs so lack freshness, creativity and effort, that they could easily have been written by a blindfolded monkey.

I must admit to having some sympathy with this position, even though I certainly don’t want to seem ungrateful for all the skill, effort and commitment that musicians put into our worship ‘experience’.

I’m not going to comment on the musical quality of today’s worship songs, not because it’s unimportant, but because its importance is secondary.  …

Miracles yesterday and today

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Many Christians must have wondered: If so many miracles are recorded in the pages of the New Testament, why are few (if any) witnessed today?  For sceptics, the answer is that the New Testament accounts of miracles cannot be believed.  For some believers, the answer is that although the New Testament accounts can be believed, the gift of miracles ceased when the canon of Scripture was completed.

New Testament scholar Craig Keener has recently published a work that bids fair to blow both the sceptical and the ultra-conservative views right out of the water. …

Never, ever, speak to an ill friend

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When Deborah Orr was diagnosed with cancer, she learned that there are ten things you should never, ever say to someone when they’re sick:-

1. “I feel so sorry for you.”  Don’t say it with words.  Don’t even say it with your eyes.  Or with your hand (by patting the patient on the thigh).  Who wants to be made to feel like an object of pity; a helpless victim?  What you must say is, “”I so wish you didn’t have to go through this ghastly time.”…

Taking it to extremes

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My eye was caught by a review, in the latest (Summer 2012) number of The Reader, of a recent book by Marcus J. Borg.

Marcus Borg is well-known as a radical New Testament scholar.  He is a member of the notorious Jesus Seminar and is deeply sceptical about the historicity of the biblical record of Jesus of Nazareth.

What particularly struck me in Derek Wood’s review of Speaking Christian were the following words:-

Borg sees a twin-track Christianity, travelled by those who see the Bible as a literal and inerrant source of truth, and those who follow what he calls the historical metaphorical approach, understanding the culture from which the Bible books were written and looking for the meaning behind the text.

…

Same-sex marriage: not near so much like a ball

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“I should like balls infinitely better… if they were carried on in a different manner… It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing were made the order of the day.”

“Much more rational, my dear Caroline, I dare say, but it would not be near so much like a ball.”

(Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)

Peter Tatchell and Peter D Williams recently discussed the question of same-sex marriage.  Tatchell is, of course, a well-known human rights activist and supports same-sex marriage. …

What would you pray for?

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“Irrespective of whether you currently pray or not, if you were to pray for something at the moment, what would it be for?”

This was the intriguing question posed in a recent online survey, conducted by ICM Research, of 2,000 adults in England, Scotland and Wales.

The most popular answers were:-

  • A family member
  • Peace for the world
  • Healing for another
  • Less stress in my life
  • An end to world poverty
  • Guidance
  • Thankfulness
  • My partner
  • Prosperity
  • A friend
  • Healing for myself
  • Marriage or relationship
  • Forgiveness
  • Work
  • My spiritual life
  • My church

Just 15% said that they would not ever pray for anything.…

The Lewis ‘Trilemma’ revisited

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What possible answers could be given to the question, “Who was Jesus?”

C.S. Lewis famously wrote:-

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.…

‘Already…not yet’

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According to Fee & Stuart,

‘The early Christians came to realize that Jesus had not come to usher in the “final” end but the “beginning” of the end, as it were. Thus they came to see that with Jesus’ death and resurrection, and with the coming of the Spirit, the blessings and benefits of the future had already come. In a sense, therefore, the end had already come. But in another sense the end had not yet fully come.…

The Sceptic’s Annotated Bible

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The Sceptic’s Annotated Bible (SAB) is a god-send for Christians.  If you want a convenient summary of the many and various objections that might be raised against the Bible, the SAB is just the thing.

There’s nothing new about it, of course.  Over a century ago two ‘freethinkers’ rejoicing in the names of Foote and Ball (I tell you no lie) produced their innocently-named Bible Handbook, which attempted much the same job.  I have previously written about this:-

‘Far from being an informative guide to the Bible it turned out to be a compilation of supposed errors and contradictions as uncovered by two ‘freethinkers’. 

…

Ten reasons not to legalise same-sex marriage

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Writing for the Christian Medical Fellowship, Dr Peter Saunders comments that there is increasing pressure in Britain to permit same-sex marriage.  The question for many has become how (not if) the law should be changed.

Dr Saunders gives ten reasons why the law should not be changed:-

1. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman

Throughout  history in virtually all cultures and faiths throughout the world,  marriage has been held to be the union of one man and one woman. …