Category Archives: Theology

Divided we stand

I’ve not written much about the Israel-Gaza conflict, my excuse being that it’s a complicated matter. But that is really an excuse – the real reason is that unlike most of the other components of the Omnicrisis, this issue has divided people along rather different fault-lines, and it has been confusing to see people whose opinions one generally trusts taking diametrically opposite tacks from each other. I find this uniqueness significant.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 7 Comments

All flesh is grass

Yesterday a (highly) local landmark met its end, succumbing to a relatively moderate windy night as winter merges into spring. I’ve come to know the ancient ash tree – I suppose 150 years old or more – as “the jackdaw tree” since we moved here fifteen years ago.

Posted in Creation, Theology, Theology of nature | 3 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.

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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.

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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.

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What if the Bible isn’t a fairy-tale?

The brief answer to the title above is that two hundred years of sometimes savage critical examination have proved that it isn’t, but old habits of hyper-scepticism die hard, and are reinforced by deliberate deception, as I’ll briefly outline towards the end of this piece.

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Did Jesus catch colds?

Here’s an exploration of a theological conundrum that will have occurred to some people (after all, it occurred to me) and perhaps troubled them. If Jesus is truly human, having taken on the “very nature” [morphe] of man (Philippians 2:7), is “like his brothers in every way” (Hebrews 2:17), and was “tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), did he not inherit original sin, and hence incur the penalty of death?

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