Monthly Archives: January 2024

On misusing the Bible to deny the divinity of Christ

Posted on 30/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

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

Posted on 27/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

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

Posted on 22/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

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

Posted on 20/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

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

Posted on 18/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

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?

Posted on 15/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

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

Posted on 13/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

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

Subliminal BBC indoctrination

Posted on 07/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

Here’s an example of why it’s getting harder to sit through mainstream media programmes without either being indoctrinated into woke ideology, or if one has the slightest insight into the ideology, being exasperated to the point of switching off.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology | 7 Comments

What if the Bible isn’t a fairy-tale?

Posted on 05/01/2024 by Jon Garvey

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.

Posted in History, Science, Theology | Leave a comment