We are visiting family in the US right now, and the recent Presidential election is on everyone’s minds here. Reports are coming in that apparent white supremacists have been attacking, verbally or physically, people who belong to minorities such as blacks, Muslims and Latinos. Right wing christians are expressing relief that Hilary Clinton, who they […]
I came across a blog post today that summed up what I think has become a significant movement within christianity. Learning from a “hippie heretic” The post was This Nameless Movement of God on Chuck McKnight’s blog Hippie Heretic, and it was based on just one premise (taken from fellow blogger Brian Zahnd): “God is […]
I don’t believe the Bible is necessarily without error (i.e. inerrant). It doesn’t specifically claim to be, and I don’t think any of the arguments for inerrancy stand up to scrutiny. But I’m not going to argue about that here. Rather, I want to suggest ways that this doctrine, which I believe is not Biblical, […]
In my last three posts (plus an earlier post) I have looked at ways that we may see that biological evolution points to God as the creator, perhaps in ways that many would find unexpected. If evolution is true, how can consciousness and free will be explained? No-one knows how human consciousness arises, nor how […]
One of the distinctives of the christian religion is the belief that Jesus was divine, the son of God, the second person of the Trinity. There’s a big difference between him and us, and we can never become divine like him. So what’s Jesus doing apparently saying ordinary people are gods?
North Haven on the NSW mid-north coast, from the top of Big Brother mountain. The reason for showing this photo will become apparent in the post. Photo (c) John Naylor and Google. Christians hold three different views on who gains acceptance with God. I have looked at what the Bible says in detail at Can […]
So far I have looked at two doctrinal issues in this series – Three different views of the Bible and three different ways to read it and Three different views of social justice and the gospel – and each time I have concluded that the truth lies between the two more polarised views. It probably […]
What part do social justice and community welfare play in the church’s mission? Are they something different to the gospel, and not as important, or are they part of the gospel? There are several very different views on this.
Differences among christians We all know there are many, many matters on which christians hold different views. Many of them are merely matters of opinion and taste (though you would sometimes think they were highly important), but they include many important doctrines too. For many matters, there are a range of views, though often times […]
Difficult issues series Last post I considered the apparent differences between the teachings and emphasis of Jesus and Paul. I concluded that the differences are sometimes exaggerated, sometimes understated, but we should avoid trying to make them say the same things, and instead try to learn from both. The issue of faith vs works is […]