Category Archives: Theology

A biblical view of gathered worship

Towards the end of the last of my three part critique of Charismatic theology, I sketched out the idea that the Bible teaches a fundamentally different view of Christian worship. This approach, were it better understood in Evangelicalism, would probably have prevented the disappointments of Charismatic teaching long ago. David Peterson’s Engaging with God examines this in a very thorough, and biblical, way, which I think is worth summarising here. You do, however, need to be aware that I can only hint at the extensive scriptural evidence that Peterson brings to bear, so you’ll either have to take my word for it or buy the book!

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Christian Nationalism and Colossians

Christian Nationalism is a slippery term, which seems mainly to have been coined by the progressive left to implicate Christian support for Donald Trump (both amongst Evangelicals and traditional Catholics) in imaginary attempts to impose a theocratic tyranny. Pope Francis has condemned it as a desertion of the gospel for ideology, but it would seem that his own ideology aligns pretty closely with that of the secular left, supporting multiculturalism, mass immigration and liberal re-definition of the faith itself.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 1 Comment

Sample simony

There’s a really annoying historian on the occasional archaeology TV series Digging for Britain, who, whenever there’s an item on an ecclesiastical site, manages to interview some librarian to show cynically how it was nothing but a cash-cow for money-grabbing churchmen. It happens every time he appears, it seems.

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O Absalom, my son, my son!

The result of a year long consultation by the Baptist Union came out this week, in the form of a statement by its council. It arose after a few Baptist churches lobbied for a change in the Ministerial Recognition Rules to allow ministers to be in same-sex marriages. What is noteworthy is that the Council, after deep consultation and consideration, concluded that the rules should not be changed – making British Baptists the first major denomination of which I am aware to have bucked the LGBTQ+ bandwagon.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 7 Comments

Towards critical thinking on Charismatic theology (3)

My conclusion from the thought experiment in the last post is that what we actually see in the Church nowadays is more consistent with Pentecostal/Charismatic theology being profoundly mistaken than with its being correct. I base this on the fact that after, 120 years, the churches are not settled comfortably into Charismatic doctrine and practice, but are still chasing the rainbow and wondering why they never reach its end. The extreme example of this is, of course, the Word of Faith variants promising to bring heaven down to earth in ever more dramatic ways, but instead producing a pattern of financial acquisitiveness and irregularity, spiritual and sexual abuse, blatantly false … Continue reading

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 3 Comments

Towards critical thinking on Charismatic theology (2)

If you’re a member of one of the hyper-charismatic megachurches, the very idea of applying critical thinking to the theology around spiritual gifts and related matters is anathema, as it implies a lack of the faith that enables believers to heal any and every disease as Jesus did – except that they never can. Even the super-apostles have to fake leg lengthening on an industrial scale to inflate the numbers.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 5 Comments

Towards critical thinking on Charismatic theology (1)

Not long ago, an elderly friend of mine prayed that his church would, in the future, begin to “move in the spiritual gifts” of 1 Corinthians. And I began to think that, since he became a Christian as a teenager, maybe 65 years ago, at the very start of the “Charismatic Renewal” in Britain, and has always been in churches that were open to this movement, it was an odd kind of prayer to have to make.

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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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