Please note: this is a work of speculative fiction.
News just in: famous scientist and former atheist Richard Dawkins says he has become a Christian after rethinking some of the arguments in his recent book The God Delusion.
Archives: greg-clarke
Angels in the classroom
The Case for Angels
Peter S. Williams
Paternoster, 2002, 211pp.
Francis Schaeffer apparently began a university philosophy lecture with the startling admission that he believed in angels. “There really is no point you listening to my philosophical arguments if you don’t grasp the profound importance of this fact”, he said (or words to that effect!). (more…)
Christ and culture
Life
Culture is such a slippery word. It means something like ‘who are and what we do together’, which is about as broad a definition as you could hope for. A culture is more than a number of individuals—it refers to how those individuals interact with each other, and what those interactions produce. So, Australian culture is cricket, it’s opera, it’s Bondi beach, it’s Backyard Blitz. But it’s also Chinatown, it’s fine wine, it’s cynical humour, it’s Westfield Shoppingtown.
Fantasy literature and Christian readers
Chuck Colson’s website, BreakPoint online, ran an interview with the author Connie Neal, who has written a book called What’s A Christian to Do with Harry Potter? (discussed below). Soon afterwards, he published a disclaimer, saying that he did not “encourage Christian parents to encourage their children to see the movie or read the books” because “there is much better literature available for children with less potential to lead people into the occult”. This seemed to run counter to an earlier piece by Colson (se p.14 of Neal’s book) which spoke positively of the books’ value for children.
Every green plant? Drugs and the Christian
Life
I have a folder of articles on the benefits of smoking. It’s a thin folder. There are, however, a few noteworthy benefits: relaxation, settling effects for people with nervous disorders, increased concentration, suppression of appetite. You can’t say that smoking is all bad. Everything that God created is good and ought not be rejected but received with thanksgiving (1 Tim 4:4)—even nicotine. And yet, anyone taking up smoking today, in an age where it has been medically and legally demonstrated that smoking causes cancer and is likely to be the major cause of death by 2020, hasn’t done much work on the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’. The devastating biological damage which smokers experience outweighs any positive effects of smoking.
Five things worth knowing about the Dead Sea Scrolls
Everyday Ministry
Overcoming the darkness: An interview with Philip Mitchell about depression
A black and white view across La Perouse Bay on a gloomy evening, the sea vast and incomprehensible, the shoreline harsh. The old photo on Professor Philip Mitchell’s wall in his office at the School of Psychiatry, Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney, reflects something of the experience of being depressed. The future seems bleak, dark, vast and unreachable; the situation seems hopeless; loneliness presses in.
The devil you know
Life
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us (1 Jn 2:18).
Raising the stakes: Why the resurrection matters
Thought
Life Coaches
Everyday Ministry
It is amazing how public opinion can make a complete about-face. It happened with smoking, where it used to be death-defyingly cool, but is now considered brain-defyingly stupid. It happened with ‘spirituality’, which used to be a word of ridicule among intellectuals, but is now a thing to be admired and sought after (as long as it doesn’t take a too definite shape).
Bridging the gap between the Old and New Testament
Thought
Christians often don’t know what to do with the Old Testament. We know that Jesus has ‘fulfilled’, ‘abolished’ and ‘reinterpreted’ its teaching; but we also know that “all Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness“ (2 Tim 3:16). So how are the food laws in Leviticus going to train us in righteousness? What kind of rebuke do we get from the elaborate temple descriptions at the end of Ezekiel? Questions like these lead us to push the Old Testament aside. It’s just too obscure, we tell ourselves, and stick with more familiar literature such as the New Testament epistles. We sense a huge gap between the Old and New.
Interview: Comprehending the darkness
Life
A black and white view across La Perouse Bay on a gloomy evening, the sea vast and incomprehensible, the shoreline harsh. The old photo on Professor Philip Mitchell’s wall in his office at the School of Psychiatry, Prince Henry Hospital in Sydney, reflects something of the experience of being depressed. The future seems bleak, dark, vast and unreachable; the situation seems hopeless; loneliness presses in.
Crucifying the blues
Review
There is a large number of self-help books for people coping with depression. These books use approaches ranging from psychoanalysis and dream therapy to diet-based programs of rehabilitation. Beating the Blues is one of the better books, using a well-regarded approach which aims to give sufferers more control over their thoughts and feelings (it’s known as cognitive-behavioural therapy). (more…)
Here we stand?
Thought
J. I. Packer, Os Guinness and Charles Colson have all signed it. John MacArthur labels it “destructive”. R. C. Sproul puts it down to “doctrinal apathy”.
Simply convincing
Review
The Truth about Jesus
Paul Barnett
Aquila Press, Sydney, 1994.
$14.95. 164pp.
Paul Barnett has developed a reputation for thorough, persuasive and easily understood presentations of the truth of biblical history. His previous books, whether commentaries or history or apologetics, have all defended a reasonable belief in the events that the New Testament describes.