Category Archives: Religion

Questioning God

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My heart goes out to Dr Muhammad Taufiq Al Sattar, whose wife and three teenage children were killed when their Leicester home was set alight two weeks ago.  As a father myself, I can only begin to imagine the grief he must be experiencing at the moment.

I also admire Dr Taufiq’s attitude at this most difficult time.  He has paid tribute to the Leicestershire Police, for their thorough investigation of the tragedy, and has expressed his ‘delight’ that community relations in Leicester have remained peaceful.…

The Parable of the Three Rings

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In his play Nathan the Wise, Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781) re-tells the ancient parable of the three rings.

The story is set in the 12th century, during the Third Crusade.  It incorporates a discussion between the Muslim Sultan, a Jewish sage, and a Christian Knight Templar.

The Muslim Sultan asks the Jewish Sage, “What theological law do you regard as the best?”

Nathan responds by telling his parable.

A man owned an opal ring of great beauty and, reputedly, of magical powers. …

Spiritual, but not religious

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According to a recent article on the BBC News Magazine website, about one fifth of the UK population would describe themselves as ‘spiritual, but not religious’.

Recent research by Prof Michael King from University College London suggests that this group may be more prone to mental health problems such as anxiety or depression, compared with the conventionally religious, or even compared with those who would describe themselves as agnostic or atheist.

‘Spiritual, but not religious’ describe, of course, a very broad church, ranging from neo-paganism to devotees of healing crystals, and much else besides. …

Is ‘Allah’ just another name for the Christian God?

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Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God, only by a different name?

Clearly, when Muslims and Christians (and Jews, Hindus and others) speak of God, they are all referring to the uncreated Creator of the universe.  Moroever, Islam embraces monotheism, and draws its teaching from many of the biblical characters (including Noah, Jacob, and Jesus).

But the fact that the God of Islam has something in common with the Christian God does not mean that they are identical.…

What is ‘spirituality’?

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Words change their meanings over time. To deny this would be silly, and to try to stop it happening would be futile.

Moreover, at any one time a word can mean different things to different people. A word can have a broader, everyday, meaning, as well as a narrower technical meaning.

But sometimes a word has its meaning changed and extended so much and so fast that it becomes difficult to pin down what it anyone means by it any more.…

What was Asia Bibi’s ‘crime’?

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Asia Bibi is a 45-year-old Christian woman who is behind bars in Pakistan, sentenced to death by hanging, having fallen foul of the blasphemy laws of that country.

What, exactly, was her ‘crime’?  She had been working in the fields when she was asked to fetch drinking water.  Some of the women she was with – all Muslims – refused to drink the water as it had been brought by a Christian and was therefore ‘unclean’. …

Why pluralism?

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How did it come to be virtually taken for granted that there are many paths to God, and that for any one of these (including Christianity) to make any claim to exclusiveness is either ignorant or arrogant?

John Stott discusses the various arguments for religious pluralism that have evolved in recent decades:-

1.  The new global consciousness.  Stimulated by threats to the environments, fears of nuclear conflict, and the continued existence of North/South economic divide. …

Machen and fundamentalism

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J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was seen as an ally by the fundamentalists, but he did not accept the term for himself. According to John Piper, Machen’s criticisms of fundamentalism were:-

  1. the absence of historical perspective;
  2. the lack of appreciation of scholarship;
  3. the substitution of brief, skeletal creeds for the historic confessions;
  4. the lack of concern with precise formulation of Christian doctrine;
  5. the pietistic, perfectionist tendencies (i.e., hang ups with smoking, etc.);
  6. one-sided other-worldliness (i.e., a lack of effort to transform culture); and
  7. a penchant for futuristic chiliasm (or: pre-millenialism).
…

Religion as ‘wish-fulfilment’

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It was Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) who first popularised the notion that religious belief is merely the projection of human longing, the objectification of a false idea that people wish to be true.  ‘God’ is, according to this view, an entirely human invention, ‘a dream of the human soul’, brought into being to give comfort along life’s difficult and dark path.

Religious people are unaware of this.  They think that the God they have imagined has some objective existence. …

“Baptism in the Holy Spirit” – a separate stage of salvation?

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A key question in debates about the ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is whether this describes a separate stage of salvation or not.

Some have argued in the affirmative.  For instance, Pentecostal leader Ralph Riggs asserted that:-

The baptism with the Spirit is a work of the Holy Spirit distinct from and subsequent and additional to His regeneration work. A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still not be baptized with the Holy Spirit.…