To The Briefing on the occasion of your 21st birthday:
I think I was about 21 when I first met you. I was at a conference up at Merroo (the centre where the showers alternated between scalding hot and freezing cold, and the hall was large enough to house a small aeroplane). You were introduced to me and 500 other Christian university students by your founder, Phillip Jensen, who spoke highly of you as very good reading material—for when you’re on the toilet. (more…)
The Old Evangelicalism: Old truths for a new awakening
Iain H Murray
Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 2005, 226pp.
Recent debates in my circles (about the nature of the Trinity, and about who is suitable to be ordained or to preside at the Lord’s Supper) show an uneasy footing with regard to theologians of the past. Sometimes we are keen to legitimate our standing in the apostolic tradition, and so we selectively cite those earlier divines who shared our opinions. Sometimes we confer on some past thinker a godlike authority, and then proceed to marry our thoughts precisely to theirs. Sometimes we are so convinced of an historically eccentric view, we ignore all our forebears, rebuffing them with a cry of “Sola scriptura!” (more…)
With doom and gloom being predicted on all sides for the future of mainstream Christianity, what sort of future should evangelicals look forward to? Phillip Jensen looks into the Bible and into the future for some answers.