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- Fifteen minute čitties 23/07/2024
- Providence meticulous, mysterious and momentous 16/07/2024
- The deep roots of Englishness 13/07/2024
- Peace, peace – but there is no peace 10/07/2024
- Intelligence test 07/07/2024
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Category Archives: History
Fifteen minute čitties
My basic mental schema for the industrial revolution has been that it eventually brought great benefits, but only at the initial cost of millions of working people (including my Garvey ancestors) living in squalid and unhealthy conditions in city slums. Oliver Twist and all that. But I’m having to revise my ideas.
Posted in History, Prometheus, Theology
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Providence meticulous, mysterious and momentous
I’ve just re-read Luther’s classic The Bondage of the Will, in which he refutes the ubiquitous belief that the (fallen) human will is balanced between good and evil, able to choose either. I’ve only just got it back after an Arminian friend borrowed it to refute it twenty-two years ago, seeking to achieve against Luther what Erasmus failed to do, and not succeeding, kept it on his shelf.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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The deep roots of Englishness
I’ve recently re-read Beowulf, which has been described as the foundation of English literature. And that’s partly true, but partly also it’s a record of what the English abandoned in order to become a nation worth celebrating.
Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Theology
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Peace, peace – but there is no peace
If there’s one well-circumscribed subject that demonstrates the utter depravity into which our national life has sunk, it’s the treatment of Tommy Robinson, a dogged working-class fighter for truth who, if you’ve not done any research, you’ll only know as a far-right fascist. The following long-form interview with Jordan Peterson will disabuse you of the last impression.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology
11 Comments
Intelligence test
The case for the UK’s suddenly catastrophic COVID response being led by the intelligence services (in cahoots with industry/NGOs) is well made here. To my mind, a perfect fit for what we know, which dovetails into pretty well every other mystery of those, and these, times.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Science
4 Comments
Teach your children well
I’ve been considering another unhealthy feature of Charismatic theology, but realised that it largely arises from a wider modern misunderstanding of the whole human condition. And that feature is the prioritisation of unrealistic supernatural expectations in children. In particular, I’m remembering how our kids were taught at a Well Known Bible Week held in Spring. Our bad for acquiescing in it.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology, Uncategorized
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Tell me the old, old story
If I look back over the thirteen years of this blog, its various preoccupations might be summed up in the idea of “threats to the Christian faith.” Being a Christian, I might also interpret that as “threats to the human soul” or even as “threats to the well-being of mankind.” Even Richard Dawkins seems to be on board with that last conclusion now!
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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Exactly why did the gift of languages cease?
More to the point, why did it start? After all, there is no Old Testament precedent for the gift of tongues, and (unlike the ecstatic glossolalia shared by many groups) it is not a common feature of religion like prophecy, divine healing,or exorcism.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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Trump and the antichrist (sounding the last trump?)
When I wrote my e-book Seeing Through Smoke in 2019, it was because I saw the increasing waves of deception in public life, and the role of propaganda in effecting them. Seeking to tie this into a Christian worldview, I mused (without pretending to be prophetic) that the final deception foretold both by Jesus in the Olivet discourse, and by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2, could only realistically envelop the world now that the tools of mass-manipulation have been perfected, and the Internet and social media have made instant communication possible around the globe. At that time, I counted as factors against our days being this climax of history (a) … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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The neglected member of the Trinity – because of Pentecostalism
One of the commonplace messages of the “Charismatic Renewal” was that the Church had neglected the Spirit – the third Person of the Trinity – since sub-apostolic times, and that it was high time his role was acknowledged. It seems to me this history is very far from true. In fact it is the Charismatic/Pentecostal teaching that has severely restricted the role of the Spirit to a purveyor of power encounters and spiritual gifts. In some cases, like Jenn Johnson’s (worship leader of Bethel’s) comparison of the Spirit of Holiness to “a sneaky, blue genie-of-the-lamp,” it even blasphemes him.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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