Dave Tomlinson is a British christian who has always pushed the envelope: a leader in the UK house church movement in the 1980s, founder of the Holy Joes “church” in a pub and author of The Post-Evangelical in the 1990s, and now Church of England vicar at St Lukes in London and author of How […]
Last post I blogged about atheists at US universities, many of whom grew up in ‘fundamentalist’ churches. This post, we look at conservative christians who went through a period of examining their faith, but chose to continue to believe in Jesus, albeit their beliefs about God changed somewhat.
We christians are nearly always talking. Our pastors encourage us to be out there talking about Jesus at every opportunity. Even if no-one is listening. But maybe we should try listening more. Maybe I should try listening more!
Recently I posted on Rob Bell and some of the ways he gets up the noses of many conventional christians. One of the biggest furores was caused by his book, Love Wins, which hinted at universalism – that everyone, regardless of belief now, would turn to God in the next life. Has universalism got a […]
I have blogged about Rob Bell before (Hell and Rob Bell), but he hardly needs any introduction. After the President, he may be the person many conservative christians in the US most “love to hate”. I have been checking out a few of his videos lately …..
Last post I examined how Jesus said he came to establish the kingdom of God on earth, and that was good news for us. But how can this be good news for those who don’t believe? Aren’t they totally missing out?
We all know what the gospel is, don’t we, even though we might express it slightly differently? You’re a sinner (so am I), Jesus died to save you from your sins, now you can go to heaven instead of hell. That’s good news, and that’s what “gospel” means. Trouble is, that’s not exactly what the […]
Most of us doubt our faith at some time, and it isn’t much fun. Tim Keller said: “Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts”. But the book of James says a person who doubts is “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:7). How do these things fit together?
I imagine we all have doubts about all sorts of things we think are true, whether it is religious belief, politics, personal relationships or other choices we make. For many christians, especially those raised in christian families, adult life requires many aspects of belief to be re-considered. How should we deal with this?
A few weeks back I posted on an investigation by Craig Keener of accounts of healing miracles around the world, which concluded that perhaps 300 to 400 million christians around the world believed they had experienced, or observed, a miraculous healing. Here is some more information, and an estimation of probability.