Christianity: boring, untrue, irrelevant?
“I was brought up in a Christian home….” I wonder how many times I’ve heard those words from people who have some kind of Christian background, some awareness of Jesus, yet for whom, perhaps for many years, Christianity seemed a dull and lifeless thing. If you’re admitted to hospital, it seems you’re expected to be able to state your religion, and ‘C of E‘ will do as well as any other.…
Yes! There are some perils in reading the Bible. However, the most common dangers are also the most elementary, and with a little thought can readily be recognized and guarded against.
1. The peril of coming to the Bible with a mind already made up
No doubt we are all guilty at times of reading into the Bible our own favourite opinions and prejudices, rather than letting God’s word speak for itself. An early edition of the Living Bible (a modern paraphrase) gave Acts 13: 48 as follows: “—as many as wanted eternal life, believed.”…
A subject difficult to understand: ‘The subject is one of which the wisest man can only take in a little. We have no eyes to see it fully, no line to fathom it, no mind to grasp it; and yet we must not refuse to consider it…There are heights and depths about the subject of eternity which mortal man can never comprehend; but God has spoken of it, and we have no right to turn away from it altogether.’…
Summarising ch. 8 of John Flavel, The Method of Grace.
Psa 45:7 ‘Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.’
This psalm prefigures the espousal of Christ and the church. Here we have,
By ‘the oil of gladness’ we understand, the Spirit of holiness, Acts 10:36. This oil makes them beautiful; it makes them shine with glory; it equips them for every good work.…
Summarising ch 1 of The Jesus Hope, by Stephen Travis (1974)
Visions of the future
Most twentieth century prophets are prophets of doom, not of hope – we need think only of George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, and Neville Shute’s On the Beach.’
‘People have been lamenting man’s decline for a long time.
It was Aristotle, before 300 B.C., who is supposed to have said, “When I look at the younger generation, I despair of the future of civilization.”…
A summary of ch. 16 of Practical Religion, by J. C. Ryle
Rom 8: 14-17
The Apostle is speaking to the richest people on earth. The inheritance of which he speaks:-
Here’s an essay I wrote back in 2000 as a basis for discussion amongs the preachers and worship leaders at my church, Holy Trinity Norwich.
1. Starting-Point: Scripture or Tradition?
Our starting-point should not be, ‘Where can we find scriptural warrant for our current practice’; but rather, ‘What form of public meeting might be suggested if we went back to Scripture and ignored, for a moment, what we have become used to?’
2. Scriptural Basis: Old Testament or New Testament?…
Current interest in this topic takes me back to a lucid and insightful article by Donald MacLeod in The Monthly Record, Feb. 1981.
Current publicity probably gives an exaggerated impression of the pro-euthanasia lobby. But the subject cannot be dismissed lightly: ‘respect for human life derives ultimately from the fear of God and that is becoming an increasingly rare commodity.’ Danger highlighted in the Voluntary Euthanasia Bill of Lord Raglan in 1969. The provisions of this were:
These are notes of a sermon preached many years ago (possibly 1994 or 1995) at Holy Trinity Norwich.
Text: 1 Cor 13:4 – ‘Love is not envious’
Envy is a member of a nasty little family of vices that also includes greed, covetousness and jealousy. As a public service, I have conducted some practical research over the past week, by trying out each of them in turn.
On Monday, at tea-time, there were four currant buns, and four of us sitting round the table.…
Summarising ch. 17 of God’s Words, by J.I. Packer
Death as an uninvited intruder, evoking panic. “He passed, however, a not unsuccessful life in his profession, and the only Intruder he found himself unable to deal with was death.” (Charles Williams)
Fear of death universal. Heb 2:15 ‘through fear of death were subject to life-long bondage.’ Job 18:14 ‘the king of terrors’. “Nineteen times the Bible calls the prospect of death its ‘shadow’.”
Some ‘shrug it off’ – ‘morbid’. …
