Today I qualify for my State Pension, delayed in recent years from 65 to 66 years old. It was a long time coming. I am sure my mother thought the same when she was finally delivered of her second son at 15 minutes after midnight! Like the Royals, what do you give to people who …
Category: Definitions
The being and character of God
"I am that I am."The God of the Bible: Exodus 3:14 Secularism Secularists do not believe in God. Neither do Christians believe in the multitudes of false gods that are worshipped around the world. Such gods are an embarrassment to the pious as well as to the rational mind, but their existence is enough to …
Advocacy begins with parenting
Everyone needs an advocate. An advocate is someone who supports you by speaking on your behalf. Parenting There are many advantages to having parents to look after you. Many children have lost one or both parents and they are often disadvantaged thereby. This shows the value of someone to look after one's interests. Advocacy and …
The absence of evidence
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. The subject of evidence is in the news because of President Donald Trump's claim of voting fraud in the recent US Presidential election. The Biden camp rejects Trump's claim by saying that there is no evidence for electoral fraud. Even the BBC has repeated the …
John Bunyan and biblical metaphors
I attended a useful lecture last night on The Forgotten John Bunyan, whose Pilgrim's Progress is a Christian classic. The adjective 'Forgotten' in the title referred not so much to Bunyan himself but in part to Bunyan's language, imagination and use of metaphors, which were controversial in 17th-century British Christianity. Pilgrim's Progress is sometimes described …
Continuing partnership confusion
Civil partnerships are changing, slowly catching up with the Scottish Christian Party. The Scottish Christian Party (SCP) correctly predicted that civil partnerships were a stepping stone towards redefining marriage to include homosexual partnerships. The argument for recognising civil partnerships between same-sex couples was that married people had legal and financial advantages denied to homosexual couples. …
Biblical repentance
Roman Catholic doctrine continues to be seen in the presbyterian practice of repentance. Whereas presbyterians may preach biblical repentance, some presbyterian procedures involve Roman Catholic penance in practice. Whereas preaching may not be legalistic, practice can be. It reminds us of the Saviour's warning to do as officialdom says, but not to do as they …
Things you know you know …
"There are things you know you know and there are things you know you don't know.There are things you don't know that you know and there are things you don't know that you don't know."The Johari window This stanza was popularised by Donald Rumsfeld during a press conference in 2002 explaining that 'there are known …
Code exegesis
There are people who exegete Scripture as if it is code. I call it code exegesis and it is over three years since I intended to explain it more fully. As Scripture clearly has Old Testament types of Christ and symbols of various spiritual matters, this has developed into a form of allegorising that sees …
The political left and right
It is common to hear commentators refer to the left and right in politics and it is a sure put-down to call someone far right or far left. Such terms mean something to the politically-minded but because many people are not political it is more helpful to use other, more exact descriptions. People have different …