A Happy New Year to one and all! Let us begin 2018 by considering the 7 C's of Christian action. It will be good to incorporate them into New Year Resolutions. There have been many books written on Christian doctrine, many biographies of Christians which motivate to Christian action, but not as much about the …
Category: Reformation
The Protestant reversal
The Protestant Reformation was a revival of biblical scholarship which led to the recovery of the Gospel. Nowadays things are not so clear. There are many documented examples of Roman Catholic clerics being ignorant of the Bible at the time of the 16th century European Reformation, and in such an environment it was relatively easy …
Homosexual Christians – an oxymoron?
There are real oxymorons – Unitarian Christians and Arian Christians – and there are what ought to be oxymorons but are only too real – flawed Christians and sinful Christians. Is it any surprise? Biblical students and students of human nature should not be surprised. So why is it a great surprise that there are …
Scotland needs a Reformer
The main message from the 500th anniversary of the European Reformation is that Scotland needs a Reformer. We have plenty of theologians and preachers, but no reformer. Scotland's Reformer was John Knox but we have fallen upon such backsliding times that we need a new one, but at present Scotland has no reformer. A reformer …
Two liberating anniversaries today
Liberty is the theme for Reformation Day 2017. There are two liberating anniversaries today - 500 and 100 years ago respectively - and the message from each of them is being forgotten. 500 years ago today Martin Luther sparked the European Protestant Reformation and 100 years ago today the Balfour Declaration was finalised by the …
Martin Luther – Europe’s Reformer
Today we remember the 500th anniversary of the trigger that began the European Protestant Reformation, when Professor Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses for discussion to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. There are many theologians but few reformers. We commonly speak of the first and second generation Reformers, but without the …
Main stream media is the secular pulpit
Preachers have a habit of missing the mark. Jesus Christ majored on what mattered and accused preachers in His day of omitting the weightier matters. In our day, preachers are failing to address the secular dogmas being preached by the mass media. The greatest errors of our day are being preached through the mass and …
So you think you don’t have enough time?
Some people think that they don't have enough time to investigate the claims of Christianity and in particular the claims of Jesus Christ. They think that they have better things to do with their time. Only – they do have enough time. God has given them the time. It is called their lifetime, but more …
To see ourselves as others see us
I have just received this birthday card from one of my younger sisters: Or to use the language of our Scottish bard, Robert 'Rabbi' Burns, in his poem To A Louse: On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church, 1786. "O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see …
What is Islamic Reformation?
Tonight, 14 Feb 2017, BBC Newsnight's Viewsnight carried an opinion that Islamic State is a Reformation in islam. Canadian author Graeme Wood compared the similarities of the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) with the Protestant Reformation under Martin Luther, pointing to 1. the call to return to the original sources (the Bible and Quran) to …
