For years, more progressive or liberal christians have been saying the churches need to change to meet the challenges of modern (or postmodern) society. More conservative christians have argued that we should remain faithful to traditional understandings and practices. Both sides can tend to welcome studies and surveys that show their approach is working better. […]

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Last year was the hottest year globally since records began more than a century ago. For the third year in a row, the annual temperature records were exceeded. Yet so many people are sceptical and opposed to action on climate change. They seem to fear how climate change action may affect them, by costing them […]

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Some books on Jesus and the New Testament are clearly apologetic in nature, seeking to argue or defend a certain viewpoint, whether it be sceptical or believing. Other books clearly aim at being academic, impartial, seeking to advance academic opinion. This book, which is almost a decade old, is kind of both. I have only […]

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I was talking with an evangelical minister recently, about social justice and the mission of the church. He felt evangelism should be clearly our highest priority, because it has “eternal consequences”. I suggested that wasn’t how Jesus saw things – his main message and highest priority seemed to be the kingdom of God. But the […]

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I was intending getting onto some more positive topics, but I decided I needed to have one more look at this matter. My previous post, Did God command killings in the Old Testament or was that a misunderstanding?, examined an incident where Jehu became king of Israel by killing the former king, Joram. In discussion […]

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Arguments rage about the Bible and how we should interpret it, especially about the Old Testament. Conservative christians are often critical of those who take a “liberal” view, which conservatives see as destructive and unfaithful, while sceptics tend to see the conservatives as not following the evidence. Is there any way to break through on […]

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In the five and a half years I have been blogging here, I have posted 360 times. Some of those posts are forgettable, some I think are quite important or innovative. (I like to think so anyway! 🙂 ) But a couple of recent comments suggest to me that one post is important enough to […]

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The Christmas story is known and loved by many people who wouldn’t call themselves “christians”. The details are well known: angels, a stable with straw and animals, shepherds, 3 wise men with gifts, etc, and in the centre a glowing mother and a perfectly formed baby. Historians are not so sure about all these details, […]

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This page in brief Did the Catholic Church invent Jesus, create legends about his life, write the New Testament which is more fiction than fact, and suppress the truth about the origins of christianity? Claims like these have been made in comments on this blog and elsewhere, but is there any historical basis to them? […]

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The biological theory of evolution has been the subject of argument ever since it was first proposed, especially from those christians who believe that the Bible teaches that the earth is not billions of years old, animals haven’t evolved from simple life forms, and thus evolutionary science must not only be wrong, but also evil. […]

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