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.

A personal example of error disguised by truth

Posted on 29/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

In my reply to Steve’s comment on my most recent post, I explain why I’m concerned about the doctrinal errors of even moderate Charismatics. Essentially, my point is that Satan uses apparently small deviations to corrupt entire churches, because contrary to the Hypercharismatics’ advice to “eat the meat and spit out the bones,” discernment is a gift that many immature believers, and not a few mature ones, do not possess.

Posted in Theology | 2 Comments

And talking of le meme chose…

Posted on 27/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

Back on the Charismatic theology wagon, a podcast I did with John Collins of Leaving the Message is now out on YouTube, and seems to have mainly positive feedback so far. It’s here. I’m actually recording a follow-up in January, so we’ll see what that’s all about when we get there.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 4 Comments

C’est chaque fois la même chose

Posted on 26/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

It was a writer on COVID, which one I’ve forgotten, who recently pointed us to this 1898 book by the great Alfred Russel Wallace (co-discoverer, with Charles Darwin, if you’ve forgotten, of the theory of evolution by natural selection, though he was far better than Darwin in realising its limitations). So I’m reinforcing that modern writer’s application to the present here, rather than discovering anything new myself.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science | Leave a comment

Nativity edification

Posted on 22/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

I anticipate our church’s annual Nativity Service with the trepidation probably shared by anybody not having angelic, or at least haloed, children in the church, and undoubtedly less anxiety than those adults roped in to dress up in tea-towels for the grown-up lines. But this year’s, yesterday, was actually an uplifting surprise.

Posted in Theology | 1 Comment

One more on Whitehall carols

Posted on 20/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

The Church Times’s downbeat report of the evangelistic carol service in Whitehall last Saturday, to which I’ve addressed the last two posts, quotes “the C of E’s co-lead bishop for racial justice, suffragan Bishop of Kirkstall Arun Arora”: Referring to Mr Robinson by his real name, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Bishop Arora said that he was “delighted” that he had “recently come to faith in prison”, but suggested that “having embraced and accepted God’s welcome he can’t now restrict it from others who may be equally lost.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | Leave a comment

Post-christians and post-post-christians

Posted on 17/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

And so on my return from a family gathering last Saturday, I flicked through the YouTube footage of the Whitehall Carol Concert, as organised by Tommy Robinson, real name unknown to all but himself since his conversion in prison (see Revelation 2:17).

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Strange bedfellows

Posted on 07/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

In a comment on my most recent post reader Steve links to a reply to an open letter apparently signed by the entire religious Establishment of Britain, condemning “Christian nationalism” in the form of the spontaneous expressions of Christian faith at the Tommy Robinson rally a couple of months ago. Since my blog mentions the forthcoming mass carol concert in London, also organised by Robinson’s people, it’s worthy of further comment.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 3 Comments

The wrong kind of revival

Posted on 02/12/2025 by Jon Garvey

Twenty-two years ago I came to the conclusion that the perennial Evangelical (and Pentecostal) hunger for revival is, in effect, an attempt to put God in a box shaped like the First Great Awakening under Wesley, Whitefield and Edwards two centuries ago. In fact, in my view, this was a unique work of God for a particular time and circumstance, and not a biblical template for the renewal of Christianity. Indeed, like every work of God in history, it was in large part a psycho-social, as well as a spiritual, phenomenon, which was both a good thing and a bad thing in God’s providence.

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

Was Einstein wrong?

Posted on 30/11/2025 by Jon Garvey

Every once in a while, some sciencey YouTuber posts a video about a new scientific discovery that casts doubt on Einstein’s theory of relativity. I’ve no idea whether any of these have validity, but instead I want to ask whether scientific progress has refuted his view of God – that is to say his theology rather than his relativity.

Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology, Theology of nature | Leave a comment

Experiencing God God’s way

Posted on 28/11/2025 by Jon Garvey

In my long exploration of the Charismatic takeover of Evangelicalism, here on The Hump, I’ve come to the tentative conclusion that one core issue is that because Evangelicals lost many of the legitimate sources of knowing the emotions of joy, peace and love in Christ, it has appeared to them that the only way to know these things is through the direct, mystical, experience of God through the “Pentecostal experience.” This “blessing,” as we’ve seen, is not only absent from Scripture, but in effect deifies human passions or, worse, taps into some other spiritual source, if that’s what “kundalini energy” is. In the end it must disappoint.

Posted in History, Theology | 2 Comments