The Christian approach to other religions

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I.  The Challenge of Religious Pluralism

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.…

On reading the Bible

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Some basic hints:-

1.  Meet the Author.  J.I. Packer has written, ‘The joy of Bible study is not the fun of collecting esoteric titbits about Gog and Magog, Tubal-Cain and Methuselah, Bible numerics and the beast, and so on; nor is it the pleasure, intense for the tidy-minded, of analysing our translated text into preacher’s pretty patterns, with neatly numbered headings held together by apt alliteration’s artful aid.  Rather, it is the deep contentment that comes of communing with the living Lord into whose presence the Bible takes us – a joy which only his own true disciples know.’…

Why preach doctrine?

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In many evangelical churches, the primary commitment is to expository preaching.  And rightly so, because such preaching teaches God’s word in its original setting and within the context of the Bible’s own plot-line.  However, I would like to argue that there is a place for preaching which gives more than usual attention to what the Bible as a whole teaches; that is to say, to doctrine.

(a) It might be argued that doctrine is unbiblical. …

What is preaching?

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Here are three approaches, each of which I find helpful in its way.

Austin Phelps

For the first, we go back to Austin Phelps (1820-1890).  A sermon, he says, is

  1. an oral address.  It follows, or should follow, the rules of spoken, not of written communication.
  2. an oral address to the popular mind.  It is distinct from, say, a scientific lecture, from a judicial oration, and from a harangue to a rabble.  It is addressed to the many, not to the few; to ordinary people, not to specialists. 
…

Logical Laws

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Time for another smile.  Everyone’s heard of ‘Murphy’s Law’.  Not everyone realises that there’s a whole family of them.  Here are a few members of the family:-…

The difficult doctrine of the love of God

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It might seem strange to describe the doctrine of the love of God as ‘difficult’.  But it is, and D.A. Carson explains why.

1. Because if people today believe in God at all, then they are almost certain to believe that he is a God of love, and yet the very concept of love is likely to be shaped by the surrounding culture rather than by Scripture. For example, in Jodie Foster’s Contact the unexplained intelligence is ‘suffused with love, wisely provident, gently awesome’.…

The unsearchable riches of Christ

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Here’s a summary of J.C. Ryle’s teaching on this great subject, based on Eph 3:8 – ‘Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.’

1.  What Paul says about himself

Here is a man of great gifts and achievements, yet he calls himself, ‘less than the least of all God’s people.’  See Phil 3:12; 1 Cor 15:9; 1 Tim 1:15; Rom 7:24. …

What Jesus did for children

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In many cultures, children are not really recognised as persons in their own right.  In Western society, it took authors such as Lewis Carroll to begin portray children as creative and playful.

In New Testament times, children were seen as relatively insignificant and unimportant.  This is hinted at in the Gospels, where Jesus as a child is rarely mentioned by name (Matthew refers to his as ‘the child’ eight times, and Luke does the same for both John and Jesus – see Lk 1:76; 2:48).…

Friendship

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I read somewhere of a man who was working in the garden of his new home, when his lawnmower had broken down.  He tried fruitlessly for two hours trying to get it going again.  Suddenly, one of his neighbours appeared with a handful of tools.  “Can I help?” he asked.  In twenty minutes he had the mower working beautifully. “Thanks a lot,” the newcomer said.  “And may I ask you, what do you make with such a fine set of tools?”…

Honesty

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‘Honesty’ covers a family of virtues of truthfulness.  These include:-…