Extra-terrestrial life: theological perspective

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Earlier in the year, Professor Paul Davies was interviewed for the Guardian’s Science Weekly podcast.

Professor Davies is committed to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.  He thinks, however that rather than earthlings receiving intelligible radio messages from aliens, still less being actually visited by beings from elsewhere in our galaxy, it is more likely that we will one day detect some kind of ‘beacon’, which we will infer could only have been caused by intelligent life. …

Puritan preaching priorities

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In a recent article reprinted in The Banner of Truth, Johann Odendaal sets out some of the principle priorities of Puritan preaching.  These help to explain why these men should be regarded as ‘God’s giants’:-

1. Good preaching to them was the primary means of God’s grace to man. It was the highlight of public worship. Through the preaching the Holy Spirit would apply the Word in power to save people from their sins. It is primarily through the preaching of the Word that believers are built up in their faith.…

Faith and assurance

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In his celebrated book Holiness, J.C. Ryle writes:-

Bare simple faith in Christ shall save a man, though he may never attain to assurance; but will it bring him to heaven with strong and abounding consolations? I will concede that it shall land him safe in harbor; but I will not concede that he will enter that harbor in full sail, confident and rejoicing. I would not be surprised if he reaches his desired haven weather-beaten and tempest-tossed, scarcely realizing his own safety, till he opens his eyes in glory.…

Eph 4:1-6 – Christian unity: God’s part and ours – sermon notes

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We have reached the half-way stage in our exploration of this letter of Paul to the Ephesians. And as we pass from the first into the second half of this great epistle, we immediately notice a change of scenery.  There is a shift from

  • Principles to practice
  • Belief to behaviour
  • Doctrine to duty
  • Exposition to exhortation
  • Credenda to agenda
  • Indicative to imperative
  • What God has done to what we must do

And yet the two halves of this letter are inseparably connected.…

The teacher

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When, recently, I was asked to give a very short account of the role of the teacher of the word of God, this was the outline I came up with:-

  1. The teacher’s conviction – 2 Tim 3:16 ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.’
  2. The teacher’s vocation – Eph 4:11 ‘It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.’
…

Eph 3:1-13 – The unsearchable riches of Christ – sermon notes

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The letter to the Ephesians has been called the ‘Switzerland’ of the New Testament. And with good reason, because here we are among the loftiest peaks and most stunning landscapes of Christian faith and experience.

A map of Switzerland might recommend certain towns and landscapes as being ‘worth a detour’.  And here, in chapter 3:1-13 we accompany Paul on a short but thrillingly worthwhile detour.

Our passage begins with the words, ‘For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles…’.…

Stephen Hawking and the God of the Gaps

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It is not only theists who commit God-of-the-gaps fallacies (“I can’t explain it, therefore God must have done it”).

Stephen Hawking, in his new book ‘The Grand Design’ claims that there is no need to postulate a god who lit the blue touch paper and set off the Big Bang:-

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.

…

Was that an apology?

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Those who are in the public eye often find it difficult to back down, to admit that they were wrong, to apologise.

The recent furore involving Pakistan Cricket chief Ijaz Butt is a case in point.

With members of his own team under investigation for allegedly fixing certain on-field events in order to defraud bookies, he declared, in an interview, that talk was rife that England players had been up to the same kinds of tricks. …

Some Roman Catholic proof texts

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A recent edition of Premier Christian Radio’s ‘Unbelievable’ show featured a lively discussion between William Johnstone, a spokesperson for ‘Catholic Voices’ and Duncan Boyd, of the Protestant Truth Society.

The topic for debate was, ‘Is the Papacy Biblical?’ – very topical, in view of the fact that the Pope was in the UK on an official state visit at the time.

In the event, the debate ranged more broadly than the question of the papacy. It was, I suppose, helpful that each protagonist was both clear and convinced about his own position.…

Five Points – of Arminianism and of Calvinism

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It is often assumed that the so-called ‘five points of Calvinism’ provide an adequate summary of reformed (that is to say, Calvinistic) doctrine. It is not really so. They were formulated (in 1618, at the Synod of Dort) as a response to a five-point Remonstrance put out by certain Belgian theologians a little earlier in the same century.

The theology of the Remonstrance, which came to be known as Arminianism, was based on the belief that faith is a free and responsible human act which is exercised independently of God, and that since the Bible commands all to believe, all must be able to believe. …