Faith

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What do people mean by ‘faith’?

The word ‘faith’ is used in a bewildering variety of ways at the present day:-

  1. The sceptical view is that it is ‘blind trust’.  According to Dawkins, ‘faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.  Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence…Faith is not allowed to justify itself by argument.’
  2. The popular view is that it is ‘a certain obstinate optimism’ (Packer, God’s Words, p129). 
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Watch your mouth

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James 1:26 says, ‘If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.’

According to Prov 18:21, ‘The tongue has the power of life and death.’  It was said in time of war that ‘careless talk costs lives’.

In a courtroom situation, the spoken verdict of the judge can spell the difference between conviction or acquittal, punishment or freedom, sometimes even death or life.…

The image of God

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‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…”  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.’ (Genesis 1:26-27)

Scripture asserts (in Gen 1:26-27; Gen 5:2; Gen 9:6 and elsewhere) that God has made man in his own image.

What does this mean, and what has become of God’s image in man?  The doctrine can be unpacked in the following stages.…

Has science eliminated God?

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The best short summary and discussion that I have seen of Richard Dawkins’ view that science has ‘eliminated’ God is that of Alister McGrath in an article published the journal Science and Christian Belief.

Although published in 2005, and not interacting directly with Dawkins’ The God Delusion, the article nevertheless takes account of the opinions of Dawkins as they have developed from 1977 (The Selfish Gene) onwards.

McGrath expresses admiration for Dawkins’ scientific writing, but notes that when he touches on the subject of God, evidence-based reasoning seems to have been left behind, to be replaced by over-simplification and, not infrequently, misrepresentation.…

Do atheists exist?

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Self-confessed atheists are likely to be infuriated by the suggestion that there is really no such thing as atheism.  But the idea that everyone, at heart, believes in God is a soundly biblical one.

To be sure, we should offer unbelievers sound reasons for the existence of God.  But we should resist the idea that their professed unbelief is as deep-seated as they might have us suppose.

As has often been pointed out, the Bible never tries the prove the existence of God. …

Why they left the Episcopal Church

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When The Rev John Yates and Os Guinness (well-known Christian apologist and cultural commentator) decided back in 2007 that the time had finally come for them to sever ties with the Episcopal Church, they explained their reasons for doing so in an article in the The Washington Post.Their article provides a brief, but exceptionally clear, analysis of issues as they see them.  It might provide help to others who are trying to articulate their concerns and who are attempting to discern how much longer they can remain associated with their existing denominations.…

Problems with theistic evolution

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Although I’m sympathetic to the idea of theistic evolution, and, in any case, do not regard such theories of origins as of fundamental importance, I think it’s worth taking account of the theological objections that have been levelled against Darwinian theory.

Some of these objections were set out by Alistair Donald in this article published in Evangelicals Now in April 2010.

To summarise:-

1.  Adam formed by a distinct creative act

Although the precise genre of Genesis 1:1-2:3 is notoriously difficult to pin down, the same is not the case for Gen 2:4 onwards, which is written in standard Hebrew narrative style. …

The teleological argument

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I was prompted a recent episode of Premier Christian Radio’s ‘Unbelievable’ programme to do a little bit of reading around this subject. That episode featured an interview with noted Christian apologist William Lane Craig, who at the end of last year participated in a panel discussion which also involved Richard Dawkins.

Dawkins repeated his oft-expressed view that although the universe seems to be designed, this is illusory. Design implies purpose, and purpose implies mind. There is no mind, and therefore not purpose or design in the universe at large.…

Flavel on guidance

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John Flavel (1628-1691) offers much in very few words:-

If therefore, in doubtful cases, you would discover God’s will, govern yourselves in your search after it by these rules:

1. Get the true fear of God upon your hearts; be really afraid of offending him.

2. Study the Word more, and the concerns and interests of the world less.

3. Reduce what you know into practice, and you shall know what is your duty to practice.…

Substutionary atonement: a note to preachers

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Critics of the doctrine of penal substitution, as well as a number of its more thoughtful supporters, have commented that the illustrations of it that preachers use are often misleading or even inept.

Tom Smail, for example, says that the story of ‘the judge who pronounces sentence on the criminal and then divests himself of his robe, comes down from his judgement seat and says, “I will bear this punishment in your place” is, in terms of justice, a quite scandalous story.’…