Charles Wesley was born in England in 1707 during the rule of Queen Anne. After a lifetime spanning the complete reigns of George I and II, he died ‘full of years’ during the reign of George III in 1788.
Homosexuality in church
Everyday Ministry
Elizabeth Moberly, author of Homosexuality, a New Christian Ethic, has this to say about homosexuality:
The secular media could very easily give the impression that all homosexuals support the gay lifestyle, but this is very far from true. Many thousands of homosexuals are not committed to a gay identity. They want change, and they seek help in making this change. People are entitled to make their own choices for their own lives. But the point is that for many homosexuals change is their choice. No-one can be forced to change. However, when people choose change, that choice deserves to be respected and supported.
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.
Jumping the gap
Thought
As evangelical Christians, we are keen to read the Bible for all its worth. We believe it is God’s word to us. We still sing, “God is speaking by his Spirit, speaking to the hearts of men, in the age-long word expounding, God’s own message now as then“.
Hermeneutics and Christ
Thought
Hermeneutics has been one of the big topics of the last 25 years. A seemingly endless series of books has been produced and academic papers written.
Designer Cells
Review
Darwin’s Black Box:
The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
Michael J. Behe
The Free Press, New York, 1996.
For a Science book to win the Christianity Today ‘Best Christian Book of the Year’ is somewhat surprising. Despite the chatty style and simple analogies, this is a book with technical biochemical descriptions of some difficulty. What relevance has this to Christianity? In scientific detail, probably not much. The relevance is in the implications of the thesis, particularly in the highly creationist-sensitive American context. Behe claims he has found a fatal flaw in Darwinian evolution—that because of discoveries in microbiology, Darwinian evolution simply cannot be true.
Was he JUST like us?
Thought
Mormonism: magnificent illusion
Life
A bit like speaking English to an American: the words are familiar, but the planet is different. That’s the way people describe the experience of trying to discuss Christianity with a Mormon. John Bracht, a former Mormon and now Baptist pastor, explains why some of their teachings can sound so familiar, and yet so foreign. He offers a guide to how we can have fruitful discussion with Mormons rather than angry arguments.
After the Silence: Dealing Christianly with abortion
Everyday Ministry
I watched a program earlier this year that ‘exposed’ a clinic in Melbourne accused of pushing pro-life counselling on pregnant women. The clinic includes graphic descriptions of the foetus’s experience during abortion as part of its pre-abortion counselling. When accused of shock tactics, the counsellor replied “It’s not shock tactics but it is shocking”.
Divine Intervention: Genetic engineering and the plan of God
Life
Heart transplants. IVF. The Genome Project. There’s even a rumour about a cure for the common cold.
The potential of medicine seems to grow by the day but the question for Christians remains the same: how much should human beings fiddle with God’s creation? How do we discern between Babel-building and faithfully stewarding the world God has given to us? Using the example of genetic engineering, theologian and ethicist Michael Hill gives us some guidelines for sorting out what kinds of medical activity Christians can welcome.
Written in Blood
Thought
Is the cross becoming less than crucial to Christian thinking? Jonathan Fletcher urges us to keep the atonement at the centre of our faith.
The First Duty of Fatherhood
Life
Australian feminist Eva Cox says any mother who isn’t back in the workforce after her child turns one is a bludger. Why this growing attack on motherhood? Andrew Lansdown thinks that the changing role of the father has something to do with it.
One nation before God
Life
“God’s own country”.
So declared the recent front-page headline of our local newspaper, over a colour picture of a lone figure on a beautiful dusk-coloured beach. While I have often heard people refer to this area by that phrase, as front-page news it somehow feels official now: God lives in Sutherland Shire, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Can you feel it?
Thought
Jonathan Edwards is something of a celebrity in theological circles these days. He is revered by American writers as one of their greatest sons. In the controversy over charismatic ‘manifestations’ (such as in the Toronto Blessing), he has often been quoted as a reformed evangelical who was in favour of extraordinary emotional outpourings, and who promoted revival, with all its sometimes unruly accompaniments.
I will build my church
Pastoral Ministry
The challenge of church planting
Perhaps it is because whenever we read the verse, we think of claims to papal power and the need to prove that Peter was not the first pope. Whatever the reason, we often forget the other more positive side of Matthew 16:18: “I will build my church.”