This is the ninth in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. Christians generally believe the Bible, and believe in the Bible, but what should we believe about the Bible? Probably the strongest claim christians make about the Bible is that it is inerrant – it contains no errors. There […]
This is the eighth in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. We have looked at what Jesus, the Bible and the Bible authors say about the Bible and how they used their scriptures. Now it is time to see what we can conclude about the Bible, and whether some […]
Recently I’ve discussed some stories of atheists who once were christians and christians who once were unbelievers. Here’s some statistics on how religious belief is changing in various countries.
I have commented before on people who decide they no longer believe in Jesus (see Atheists who once were christians, Pastors who once were christians, and Why do some christians give up belief?). But this is only one side of the story. At the same time, a significant number of people from a non-religious background […]
This is the third in a series of posts on Understanding the Bible in the 21st century. It is important we begin not with what people say about the Bible, but what it says about itself.
I have argued (Everyone disbelieves some parts of the Bible) that, while most christians say we follow the Bible as our standard of what to believe and do, in fact all of us make exceptions for certain parts. So how do we decide how to interpret the tricky parts of the Bible?
Christians have probably argued more about the Bible, and how to interpret it, than almost anything else. Many churches say they believe the “Bible alone”, echoing the Reformation doctrine of sola scriptura. Yet I believe there is always a gap between the claim and the actual belief. I am a christian who believes the Bible […]
Completing my examination of things we can all learn from the Anabaptists, with the core conviction on peace and non-violence.
Pioneer missionary returns to the Sawi people of West Papua 50 years after his ground-breaking time with them.
I’ve been a Bob Dylan fan since 1963, when he was often described as a “protest singer”. But after only a few albums of “protest music”, he turned his back on it all, and wrote a song with the refrain: “Ah but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” Sometimes I […]