Author Archives: Jon Garvey

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About Jon Garvey

Training in medicine (which was my career), social psychology and theology. Interests in most things, but especially the science-faith interface. The rest of my time, though, is spent writing, playing and recording music.

Basic a whole science on one abstract

I eventually read Darwin’s Origin of Species only in 2011, having never before that had much interest in the history of science, but only in the application of the science. That was in the days before I understood just how much scientific “history” is in fact the hagiography of a secular religion.

Posted in Creation, Science | 8 Comments

Take me to your leader, if you know who he is

When George III went mad, his son was appointed as Prince Regent. The thing was complicated by party politics, and by the fact that George became sane again, for a while, before the relevant formalities were done. Two centuries earlier, when Edward VI was too young to rule, he too had an appointed substitute, so that whether they like or hate policies during Edward’s early reign, historians know they must look to the Duke of Somerset’s position rather than Edward’s own.

Posted in Politics and sociology | 2 Comments

The one who states his case first seems right…

…until the other asks the right questions (Proverbs 18:17) There is a furore over journalist Tucker Carlson’s as yet unaired interview with Vladimir Putin, though you may be unaware of it given its low profile on MSM. Yet social media is full of it, and the Telegraph online had a video of him filmed with a hidden camera by an obvious stooge in Moscow, Project Veritas fashion, as if there were anything secret about the trip. But Carlson expressed a wish to interview Putin back in his Fox News days, and the fact that it was blocked then is sufficient explanation for his determination to do so now he is … Continue reading

Posted in Politics and sociology | 7 Comments

On misusing the Bible to deny the divinity of Christ

Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the God of Israel (which I briefly mentioned here) is an excellent study on how the Gospels establish the deity of Jesus through the acts he did that were seen by his followers to be exclusive to the God of Israel. The New Testament recognises Jesus as divine through his identity with Yahweh.

Posted in Theology | Leave a comment

How academic groupthink always impedes progress

Gary Habermas has just published the first 1100 page volume of his magnum opus on the Resurrection of Jesus, with four more volumes to come. That may seem overkill, but in the scheme of things it is not, because without the bodily Resurrection, Christianity is just another successful world religion – but with it, Christianity is the historical foundation on which the universe is built.

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Theology | Leave a comment

An object lesson in testing the spirits

There’s a discussion on YouTube (no great benefit in linking to it) between a conservative Evangelical and a gay pastor also claiming the “Evangelical” label. As you might already have anticipated, the discussion is on the biblical basis for their opposite positions; on the one side that homosexual relationships are universally discountenanced by Scripture, and on the other that loving, monogamous homosexuality has the Bible’s blessing. Those familiar with me will know that I judge the first to be the case (and I start the pastoral aspect from there, which is a topic for another day, perhaps). I will add that what I’m about to describe has more general application … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Two words from Jesus sum up salvation history

Here is another example of Jesus’s use of apparently casual Old Testament linguistic allusions with a huge depth of meaning. Once more, a hat-tip to Peter J. Williams for recognising it.

Posted in History, Theology | 5 Comments

The pathways of meaning

Not long ago, during a conversation about young adults working from home, my wife surprised me by saying, “The trouble is today, the chaps aren’t keen.” What surprised me was not the literal meaning, but the fact that she’d tapped into a catch-phrase I have (very occasionally) used, which I sourced from my late father.

Posted in Theology | 2 Comments

Where did this man get all these things?

Here’s a plug for a book I’ve not yet read, based on this interview with the author, Peter J. Williams, by Sean McDowell.

Posted in History, Theology | Leave a comment

Wars, rumours of wars, and proxy wars

Well, the British public now knows that its latest war is against the Houthi rebels of Yemen, whom we are assisting the Neocons of the American Empire to bomb to smithereens. This confirms the principle that when our political target is weak, we bravely bomb it (Yemen, Serbia, Syria, Iraq, Somalia etc), but where it is strong we get some other suckers to bomb it and take the bloody consequences for us (eg Ukraine – quietly sidelined now we’re losing).

Posted in History, Politics and sociology | Leave a comment