Category Archives: People

I can – in Christ

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We hear much these days about self-image, self-esteem and self-confidence.  Much of this talk promotes idolatry of the self: ‘believe in yourself’, proclaim the self-help gurus.

As Christians, we have a vastly richer, stronger, and enduring basis for our confidence, although it is one that goes largely unnoticed and untapped.

Our confidence is in Christ, and it is based on our union with him.

Gospel proclamation itself requires confidence: confidence that we have something to say and confidence to say it. …

Why do we see so few miracles today?

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Miracles: the Bible seems full of them, and yet we see so few today.  How do we account for this?

That question was recently put to John Piper, and here’s the substance of his reply.

1. There were fewer miracles in the Bible than we probably think

See Psalm 77:11 ‘I will remember the works of the Lord. Yes, I will remember the amazing things you did long ago!’

Even in OT times God’s people saw miracles as predominating in days past – especially the days of Moses and Elijah. …

Where is God?

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So Richard Dawkins is out on a lecture tour, promoting his new book, Science in the Soul.  Rory Shiner writes about attending the Dawkins event in Perth, Australia.

Dawkins treated his audience to a passage from the book, in which he substitutes belief in God for belief in Thor, thus demonstrating (to his own satisfaction) the absurdity of the claims of theologians and believers.

Of course, humankind has had its gods for millennia: Thor, Zeus, Baal, Marduk, Ra, Mars, Jupiter, and so on. …

Christ, or the Bible?

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Let’s be clear: we worship Christ, and not the Bible.  But to slide from that position to one which says that ‘infallibility lies with Christ, and not the Bible’, or, ‘the word of God is to be identified with Christ, and not the Bible’, is to get stuck in a quagmire of confusion.  It is to set aside the testimony of Christ himself to the Bible, and also to place in serious jeopardy the Bible’s witness to Christ.…

Signs and wonders today?

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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. …

Scripture: three steps forward, two steps back?

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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.

…

What’s wrong with Rohr?

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Some months ago, I was asked by a Christian friend to read, and comment on, ‘The Divine Dance: The Trinity And Your Transformation’ by Richard Rohr (SPCK, 2016).  We met, prayed together, discussed the book, and parted without really achieving a meeting of minds about whether this book is a reliable guide to a trinitarian spirituality, or is deeply flawed.

It gives me no pleasure to find fault with an affable Christian teacher, or to contradict a Christian friend who, along with many others, says that he has found Rohr’s teaching profoundly helpful.…

Preaching assessment criteria

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Ian Paul offers the following assessment criteria.

The are based on significant experience both of preaching and of training others in preaching.

Now, I have great respect for Ian Paul.  But I hope it will not seem too cheeky if I make a couple of comments that are not wholly complimentary.

First, in the accompanying article, he suggests that the characteristics of a ‘good sermon’ transcend ‘the specific details of theological commitments on the part of both preachers and listeners’. …

Carson on the extent of the atonement

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In his book The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (pp73-78), D.A. Carson argues as follows.

Carson begins by noting that the term ‘limited atonement’ is unfortunate.  For one this, ‘it is a defensive, restrictive expression’, and for another thing, it obscures that fact that all non-universalists ‘limits’ the atonement in some way: the Arminian, by regarding it as potentially for all, but certainly effective for none; the particularist, by teaching that Christ died only for the elect.…

J.C. Ryle – an appreciation

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[The following is the substance of a lecture given at the Old Meeting House, Norwich, as one in a series of talks entitled ‘Light From Old Paths’.  I am grateful to Dr John Clements for the invitation.]

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)

‘For my part, I am quite willing to be eaten of dogs for the next fifty years; but the more distant future shall vindicate me.’

Those words were spoken, not by the subject of my talk tonight, J.C.…