Evangelicals and child abuse (?)

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Peter Lewis writes in a recent edition of Evangelicals Now:-

A short while back, Bel Mooney interviewed Philip Pullman, author of the famous children’s books where the church is the evil power that abuses children and ‘God’ is a fake, an extremely old angel who came into existence as a throw-up of evolution, pretended to be ‘God’ and has to be preserved in a block of ice by other angels. The great deliverance is to be freed of the idea of God and then everyone is free to go on into non-existence when they die.

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“Sinners in the hands of an angry God”

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In this famous sermon – a negative icon of everything that people perceive to be wrong with Puritan evangelism – Jonathan Edwards describes the state of his hearers who are outside of Christ:-

That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

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Five things science cannot account for

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It is, perhaps, the defining characteristic of ‘scientism’ to claim that all truth is susceptible to scientific enquiry, and that only truths discovered by the scientific method are true at all.

William Lane Craig, in a 1998 debate with atheist Peter Atkins, responded to this claim by listing five types of truth that are not scientifically demonstrable:-

1. Logical and mathematical reasoning;

2. Metaphysical truths, such as the existence of other minds, or that the external world is real, or that the past did not come into being five minutes ago;

3.…

The Bible is not a book

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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.

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English Country Parsons

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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

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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.

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The Holy Spirit – before and after Pentecost

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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. 

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‘The world’

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‘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’

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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

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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.…