"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 …
Category: Church reform
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 …
What is the Establishment Principle?
The Establishment Principle is that biblical principle which states that God is sovereign over secular and ecclesiastical affairs, and that He has established a relationship between these two sovereign spheres in which the state and the church are to acknowledge each other as divinely-appointed institutions, to mutually support and encourage each other, but not to …
My two Inverness landladies
One of my Inverness chapters came to an end this afternoon. I stood by the open grave of Isabel Margaret Grant (1927-2018), the first of my two landladies when I was a student for the Christian ministry during two years 1980-1982 in Inverness. On the gravestone were the names of her parents, above her brother …
Celebrating a grand lady
There have been a few ladies in my life. The first one was my beloved mother, and I suppose I need to mention my two sisters who knocked the awkward corners off my teenage life. The grand lady in my life is my good lady, Elizabeth, the Home Secretary, His Master's Voice and She Who …
A better nature than the one with which you were born
When will the study of human behaviour teach people that each human being needs a radical change of spirit? How many more examples of social media messages full of hate, personal and corporate scandals, and human trafficking and child abuse do we need to hear before people will realise that human nature needs to be …
Continue reading A better nature than the one with which you were born
Andrew Ferguson Boyd 1952–2018
Yesterday I buried my only brother, the first of my siblings to reach heaven. Being three years older than me, it seems that he was destined to be always ahead of me. He was ahead of me into this world, ahead of me into the kingdom of heaven, ahead of me into the kingdom …
Those who do not like the godly
The godly are a rare breed in our day. Even so, many people do what they can to avoid them – at least, those who will speak to them about the things that matter. Rather like references to sin and Sabbath, the conversation of the godly reminds them of God and eternity, which they do not …
Ambiguity and exegesis: confusing English words
My last blogpost highlighted the mistake that early Christians made between 'soon' and 'suddenly'. It continues to the present hour, even among academia, with serious practical consequences both to the early Christian church 2Th 3:11 and to current Christianity. There are other examples of ambiguity in English words leading to confusion in exegesis. Such an …
Continue reading Ambiguity and exegesis: confusing English words
The many Comings of Christ
It is common to hear debates about the Second Coming of Christ, but not many people identify His other comings. It reminds me of those charismatics who speak about the 'second blessing' as something to be sought after. If they have had only two blessings, I encourage them to seek some more. Similarly, there are …
