Dear Marc, though you feel nothing, that doesn’t mean you’re outside of God’s love.
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An Open Letter to Marc Fennell on The Kingdom
Is Jesus God? A response to Islam Online
Search up ‘Is Jesus God?’ and you’ll discover Islam online. The claim is that not only was Jesus not God, but that he asserted he was not God. Jesus was a rabbi. Devout, learned but just a rabbi who taught and followed the Mosaic Law. The author’s proof all comes from the Bible. Is he right? Far from it.
In this blog post I examine the author’s claims and the Bible passages he references and show that Jesus thought he was in fact God.
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The problem of karma and the universe repaying me
We like the idea of karma. But that’s just because we don’t really understand it. A universe operating according to karma or the law of reciprocity would be an awful place, even if it was fair. It is why we need to know God’s grace.
Photo by Mareko Tamaleaa on Unsplash (edited)
What's wrong with judging others?
We’ve all heard it said, “It’s wrong to judge others.” Not that this seems to stop the human race from judging. Given that repeated admonitions not to judge don’t seem to be working. Perhaps going deeper into the reality of judging might help us.
Photo by Unsplash Rishabh Butola
Can we trust the New Testament documents?
Was it the church councils of the 4th Century that finally established the authority of the New Testament documents and declare them Scripture? No, there is very good historical evidence that the New Testament documents were considered authoritative by the start of the 2nd century.
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Joy to the World and its meaning
Joy to the World is a song of such, well, joy! But here’s the thing. We’ve been killing its meaning. Joy to the World only has 4 verses. But most versions skip verse 3. Which means they’ve rob the rest of the song of its meaning. And so there’s no point in singing it. None!
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A Short Guide to Reading Revelation Right
The book of Revelation is a wild ride. It’s an artistic blockbuster full of powerful images. For this reason there are a lot of crazy interpretations. But it is possible to read Revelation! Here’s five keys to reading Revelation so that you can understand history from God’s perspective.
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The hope of the resurrection
In memory of Xavier Jonathan Hohnberg, a loved son, in the hope of the resurrection of the dead by the power of Jesus.
Caring for the sorrowful
Grief and sadness will come by how can we face them and how can we can for those in the midst of grief and loss. This blog post shares how we might care for those grieving and experiencing loss and hardship in its many forms. This reflection sprang from the book of Proverbs and from facing my son’s battle with cancer and his death.
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How were slaves treated in the ancient world?
AC Grayling’s essential argument is that the various good things of Western civilisation that we consider quite wonderful didn’t proceed from Christianity. They were already there in classical culture (Greek and Roman culture) and preceded Christianity. They aren’t Christian ideas at all. But on the issue of slavery his evidence doesn’t support his position at all.
The Problem of Contradictions - a response to Bart Ehrman
Scholar Bart Ehrman proposes that term are a lot of contradictions in the Bible. He is very enthusiastic about us reading the Bible horizontally. However, when we take the time to read the text carefully, as he suggests, many of the contradictions are very fragile. And some are not contradictions at all. Here I work through some of the contradictions he proposes. Why don’t you be the judge?
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Being on the right side of Christmas
This might be a surprising twist to you. Celebrating Christmas because of Jesus is not celebrating myths, rumours and half-forgotten folklore. Rather, it is a celebration of events that unfolded in history. It seems again, that people worshipping Jesus are on the right side of history.
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The Trinity is in the Bible
Is the Trinity a Biblical truth? Yes it is! It isn’t hard to see the Trinity is in the Bible. You’re right the word Trinity never appears in the New or Old Testament of the Bible. But verses that show there is one God and three persons are scattered across the New Testament.
What is the Armour of God?
It sounds so awesome, the armour of God: swords, helmets and chest plates. In amongst all those passages of the Bible that talk about mercy, compassion and turning the other cheek, here is red-blooded combat. And it is necessary combat. For the devil has his schemes and there are demonic spiritual forces at work, right here, right now in this present darkness.
But, perhaps, before we slip on our chest plates or breast plates we ought to ask, ‘What exactly is the Christian putting on?’
Original photo by Hugo L. Casanova on Unsplash Edited by G Hohnberg
Where can I find freedom from oppressive morality?
The story we keep hearing is that traditional morality crushes and destroys us. If we can just recognise this we can find the new way of freedom, especially our sexual freedom. The surprise in the Bible is that it agrees with the problem of traditional morality.
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Jesus keeps the 10 Commandments for us
Have you ever met one of those Christians who just seems so sure about their salvation? What’s with that? Are they so sure they’ve kept all God’s rules and laws? Is that it? No, not at all. A Christian’s confidence comes from the fact that the laws have been fulfilled for them by someone else.
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What could an atheist say to the Taliban? Anything goes.
Apart from the horror of what’s been unfolding, the question that has been on my mind over the last two weeks is, ‘What could an atheist say to the Taliban?’
Photo by By VOA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAg7egiXClU, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109043891
Hardship and the source of life
Every life has hard times and hard places. Sometimes those hard places feel like places of spiritual death. God has brought us out in the desert to die. But the Scriptures reveal that the opposite is the case. The hardest times can be the source of life.
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Are women worth less than men in the Bible?
Shiny shekels seem to be upsetting a lot of people. They read just a handful of sentences from the book of Leviticus and have concluded that women are less valuable in the Bible. It’s all part of the Christian patriarchal agenda. And that theory holds up until you read just a couple more sentences in the very same chapter. And then you have a problem because you see its about women being more valuable.
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Getting more Gold from Luke's Gospel - Summary of Luke's Gospel
Luke’s Gospel is a beautiful piece of writing revealing to us the beautiful saviour Jesus Christ. May this short summary help you see the story line of Luke’s Gospel. You should also check out our Luke’s Gospel reading guide blog post.
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