Author Archives: admin

The Bible is not a book

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In his review of Melvyn Bragg’s The Book of Books: the radical impact of the King James Bible, 1611-2011, Philip Hensher writes:-

‘Considered as a book, the Bible is far too long. Its characterisation is not all it should be: its hero, God, seems totally inconsistent, varying from a prankster with a bizarre sense of humour (Job) to a sensible dispenser of advice. You can’t help feeling that it is really rather patchy in quality: some of it is wonderfully entertaining, such as the Acts of the Apostles and the two Books of Kings, but some of it doesn’t seem to be interested in entertaining the reader one bit.

…

English Country Parsons

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Bill Bryson lives in an old rectory near Wymondham, just a few miles from my own home in Norwich.

He uses his present home as the starting-point for his fascinating study of domestic life, At Home.

There are, consequently, some interesting observations on English clergy in the period leading up to and around the time the rectory was built, in 1851.

In 1851 there were 17,621 Anglican clergy.  Going into the church was one of the two default occupations for the younger sons of the well-to-do (a military career being the other). …

Jn 15:18 – 16:4 – “If the world hates you…” – sermon notes

Walking With Giants Posted on by

We are eavesdropping on a meal-time conversation. However, this is no ordinary meal, and no ordinary conversation. These are the parting counsels of a man who knows that he is about to die, to his friends who are feeling bereft and bewildered.

Jesus has just been speaking of joy and of love. But suddenly, the skies cloud over. The key changes from major to minor. In an instant, the topic switches from love to hate.

1.

…

The Holy Spirit – before and after Pentecost

Walking With Giants Posted on by

J.I. Packer writes:-

‘Prior to Pentecost…the Spirit sustained creation and natural life, renewed hearts, gave spiritual understanding, and bestowed gifts for service both in leadership and in other ways, and all this he still does.  The difference since Pentecost is that all his present ministry to Christian believers relates not to Christ who was to come, as was the case when he ministered to Old Testament sains (see, for hints of this, John 8:56-59; 1 Corinthians 10:4; Hebrews 11:26; 1 Peter 1:10); nor as it did when Simeon and Anna recognised him (Luke 2:25-38), and during his three years of public ministry; it relates now to Christ who has come and has died and risen and now reigns in glory. 

…

‘The world’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

‘The world’ usually means for us the sum total of things and people around us. The focus may be

(a) physical and geographical – this planet, with its chemistry, climate, population, raw materials;

(b) racial and anthropological – people of all nations, as when we speak of ‘world health’, ‘world peace’, or ‘world opinion’.

(c) sociological and cultural – an outlook and pattern of communal life, as in our notion of the ‘civilized world’, the ‘communist world, or on the contrast between the ‘ancient world’ and the ‘modern world’.…

‘Myths About Calvinism’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

My eye was caught by a review in Christianity Today of a recent book by Kenneth J. Stewart entitled Ten Myths About Calvinism.  Stewart writes as a Calvinist himself, but is somewhat critical of some trends and tendencies within the latest resurgence of the movement, especially as represented by the ‘young, restless and reformed’ brigade.

Here are some of the ‘myths’ about Calvinism, as identified by Stewart.  These ones, he says, are all held by Calvinists themselves.…

Jn 21:15-25 – “Do you love me?” – sermon notes

Walking With Giants Posted on by

I recently heard a true story about a bishop and a dentist. The dentist had just finished fitting the bishop out with a complete set of new teeth. As soon as the dentist had finished, the bishop went over to a mirror. And as looked at himself and inspected his mouthful of fine teeth, he said, “Jesus Christ.” And then again: “Jesus Christ.” The dentist was rather appalled when he heard such profane language coming from a man of the cloth.…

Love Your Logic

Walking With Giants Posted on by

A lot of everyday thinking, and not a little academic thinking, is riddled with logical fallacies.  It pays to know what counts as logical thinking, in order to keep one’s mind on the straight and narrow.

Here are some notes, helpfully summarised from Peter Kreeft’s book Socratic Logic by Justin Taylor:-

There are three kinds of thoughts, or three acts of the mind:

  1. Simple apprehension [understanding a simple term—e.g., “man”]
  2. Judging [relating two concepts by predicating one term of the other—e.g.,
…

Rob Bell and Brian Maclaren – Unbelievable?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

I’ve been listening to a pair of recent episodes of Premier Christian Radio’s Unbelievable show.

The first was a discussion between Rob Bell and Adrian Warnock.  Rob Bell was being quizzed about his recent book Love Wins, which, rather notoriously, appears to entertain a doctrine of universalism.  Unusually for a presenter who is usually very even-handed Justin Brierley, seemed rather keen to side with Adrian Warnock against Rob Bell.  And both of them seemed rather too keen on trying to work out whether Rob Bell is ‘in’ or ‘out’, ‘one of us’ or ‘one of them’, an ‘evangelical’ or a ‘liberal’. …

Genes: masters or slaves?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In Richard Dawkins’ celebrated book The Selfish Gene, there is a passage which (rather typically for him) smuggles non-empirical assumptions into a statement that purports to be a scientific one.

The passage reads as follows:-

[Genes] swarm in huge colonies, safe inside gigantic lumbering robots, sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control.  They are in you and me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence.

…