"I am the Vine. You are the branches," said the Lord Jesus Christ. John 15:5. So why are people trying to join different branches of Christ's church into one branch? Whoever thought that a vine or a tree should have only one branch? Yet this has been the unwieldy vision of the ecumenical movement, which …
Common sense from the Supreme Court
For the second time in recent years, the Supreme Court has brought common sense to bear upon the ill-thought decisions of British governments and inferior courts. Just as the Supreme Court struck down the SNP Government's Named Person legislation, it has now struck down the commonly held view that homosexual activists should not be offended …
Delaying divine providence
There are missed opportunities in divine providence. The Lord gives opportunities that can be lost. I will mention three. 1. ‘And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious to you’ Isa 30:18. There are situations in which the Lord is waiting for us to act. There are enough Christians in Scotland, with …
Selective Scottish history
There are some centuries of Scottish history that are overlooked in favour of other ones. This morning I was at a meeting of about 30 senior men who were asked to name the main events in Scottish history. The list of options went all the way from the battle of Bannockburn (1314) to the Highland …
What should we expect from preachers?
Most people watch television, so public speakers including preachers should thereby learn some presentational skills. This being so, preachers who cannot read the Scripture clearly and intelligibly are without excuse. It is sometimes evident from the wrong emphasis they use in their reading of Scripture that they do not understand what they are reading. What …
Memory lane – 40 years on
On Friday and Saturday this week I met with 'old' medical colleagues whom I had not met for 40 years. It was the 40th anniversary of the 1978 Gamma Year Club, the Medical class who graduated with me from Glasgow University in 1978. Time had worked on most physiognomies and some were unrecognisable, which was …
Can we believe Theresa May?
Theresa May told the Conservative Party conference today that "austerity is over" and that if her form of Brexit was not implemented there might be no Brexit at all. Is this wishful thinking or reality? Is it even truthful? Is the wish the father of the thought? Why should we believe mere assertions? Can one …
Creeping internet control
In spite of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, most corporations are still at it – surreptitiously gathering more information about you to no purpose other than their psychological profiling of their customers. Reputable websites, such as mainstream newspapers, invite you to register online with them to view their articles. It begins with your name and email. …
The shifting goalposts of secularism
Christianity has always suffered from the readiness of its critics to judge its past by the standards of the present. Secularism is now experiencing the same, the latest phase being the Me-Too movement catching up on the sexual immorality of the 1960s and judging 1960s behaviour by 2010s opinion. The well-known sexual licentiousness of the …
Keir Starmer’s short memory
The Labour Party is in danger of repeating the mistake of the Lib Dems. When the Lib Dem Party in alliance with the Tories after the 2010 General Election broke its pledge not to raise tuition fees, it led to electoral decimation, collapsing from 57 to 8 MPs in the House of Commons in the …
