In the 1980s I edited View from Farr and in the 1990s Auldcastle View. The past two decades have given me another perspective and so I am beginning a new series in my blog called View from the Pew. It is specifically aimed at preachers, preaching and congregations. The reason for this is that whereas …
Category: Church reform
Reunions and Partings
The One Show on BBC 1 tonight draws attention to reunions and partings. I was watching this programme because the results of the BBC programme 20th-century Icons are announced on it. The finalists were clarified in tonight's programme and I have updated my blogpost. However, the same show had a marvellous story about the reunion …
Christianity and secularism
Christianity is an optimistic worldview that faces the reality of human wickedness by addressing individual responsibility and accountability to God through Jesus Christ. Secularism is a worldview that denies the existence of God and acts as if mankind has enough collective goodness and goodwill to lift each other up and improve the lives of most …
An Introduction to Zugology
Zugology is the theology of balanced Christianity. It is a new branch of theology that overarches all current branches of theology, being the summation of them all. Systematic theology, biblical theology, historical theology, experimental theology, comparative theology, etc. The list goes on. Zugology is the theology which requires the balancing and integrating of all other …
The biblical view about denominations
"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 …
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 …
What should we expect from preachers?
Most people watch television, so public speakers, including preachers, should learn some presentational skills thereby. 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 Christian church are to acknowledge each other as divinely-appointed institutions, to mutually support and encourage each other, but not …
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. Below these was …
Celebrating a grand lady
Family and friends 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 …
Donald's Thoughts 