Do you feel a bit like the American sailor who heard the Ten Commandments being recited? As he listened to all this stuff about adultery, lying, coveting, and so on, he began to feel more and more uncomfortable. But as he reviewed the whole list in his mind he turned to his neighbour, and said, “Well, at least I’ve never made a graven image.”
So, can we relax on this one and just worry about the other nine? …
Last autumn, The Times reported on the results of a poll that found that 42% of Britons think that religion has a harmful effect. Read the article here. Broadcaster and writer John Humphys, who commissioned the poll, suggests that ‘one reason might be the publicity attracted by a handful of mad mullahs and their hate-filled rhetoric.’ Two caveats are therefore in order.
First, the fact that many people think that religion is harmful does not mean that is necessarily is.…
The 20th century was marked by the emergence of a cluster of renewal movements, including the Pentecostal movement, the neo-Pentecostal (charismatic) movement, and the restorationist (‘house-church’) movement. There is no denying the vitality and appeal of these developments. But an important question presents itself to the student of revivals. It is this: To what extent, if at all, do these movements represent genuine revivals?
A number of popular writers on revival stride unswervingly through this issue by including accounts of such-like movements among their descriptions of revival, without pausing to consider whether this is a proper thing to do. …
Many people know that Albert Einstein said that ‘science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.’ They have rushed from this to enrol the great physicist on the side of theism, as against atheism. However, Einstein had little time for the God of the Bible. Indeed, he once said, ‘I don’t try to imagine a personal God; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it.’…
The term ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is used by Pentecostalists and some charismatics to refer to a ‘second blessing’ of the Christian subsequent to the experience of conversion. It is seen as a full reception of, or release by, the Holy Spirit, issuing in the exercise of any of a number of ‘spiritual gifts’ including, for many, the gift of tongues.
This understanding is attended by a number of problems.
1. The expression ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ (or something similar) occurs some seven times in the New Testament. …
1. Only a generation ago, the following lines would have been sung enthusiastically in Christian gatherings, especially when thoughts were focussed on the theme of world missions:-
Let the song go round the earth,
Lands where Islam’s sway
Darkly broods o’er home and hearth,
Cast their bonds away.
Nowadays, however, the invitation to sing such lines would lead to puzzlement, embarrassment, or even anger. The sentiment contained in this hymn seems patronising, arrogant, and just plain mistaken.…
The word ‘fundamentalism’ has gone through several metamorphoses in the course of its 100-year history. Originally, it attached itself to the sentiments of a set of articles entitled, The Fundamentals: a Testimony to the Truth, which sought to affirm, in the light of ‘attacks’ from liberals and modernists, what were regarded as essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Latterly, of course, the word has often been used to refer to militant extremists of any religious background. …
