Untitled

We all have a hermeneutic.  You see hermeneutics is all about interpretation.  It’s the lens through which we view texts, culture, arguments including and most importantly, Scripture.  I mentioned in my last article that ideologies are not just about the specific philosophical or religious beliefs they promote about offering a world view, a means by which you can view, interpretate and make sense…

Aaron Edwards has written about the Henry Nowak case and compared it with the George Floyd case and resulting Black Lives Matter movement.  Edwards has openly aligned himself with Christian Nationalism.  It’s worth observing that Christian Nationalism is increasingly offering not just an ideology but as is the case with philosophies and ideologies, a hermeneutic or lens through which to interpret…

Yesterday, I shared my response to an article by Douglas Wilson where he argued that women refusing to marry were turning to Satan.  You can read my response here.  Wilson closes his article by saying: If Someone asks you, as they always do, what you want to do after you graduate. You should say something like this: “I would like to have eight babies in a row. And I would like at least six of…

I’ve recently written, first in response to the report put together by Rupert Lowe explaining why it  was unhelpful and fell short of what is needed.  I then wrote about the questions I believe a grooming gang inquiry needs to consider.  I would like, in this third article to turn my attention to another question that comes up.  One of the standard concerns raised about grooming gangs is the way…

The short and simply answer to what might be considered a silly question is “No.”  But obviously for us to end up with such a silly question, Doug Wilson has been saying something silly. It’s worth having a look at what he has been saying as it gives us an insight into the kind of wony exegesis used to support culture war. You can find Wilson’s article here:  He writes: Paul says that women who…

I wrote recently about the “inquiry” that Rupert Lowe MP had undertaken into grooming gangs.  I concluded my note by observing that a properly constituted, independent judge led inquiry is necessary to properly understand what has happened, what went wrong, why and what needs to happen to bring an end to this problem and prevent it recurring in the future.  Here are some of the questions that I…

One of the big moves during my lifetime has been from a situation where it would be considered at best “fringe” to refer to some Christian leaders as apostles to it being fairly normalised.  This came up significantly in my deep dive into Bethel, Redding.   The New Apostolic Reformation has a particular view of apostles and prophets being the ones who capture a vision of heaven in order to…

“Christ over all” says that it is “Is a fellowship of pastor-theologians dedicated to helping the church see Christ as  Lord and everything else under his feet.” Those are noble aims from a blog that says it comes from a “Reformed Baptist heritage”.  With that in mind, I was saddened to see them publish this article.  I note that the article fails entirely to engage with Scripture or the…

There is a saying that “A lie can be half way around the world whilst truth is still putting his shoes on.” I was reminded by that when reflecting on the political and social media reaction to the murder of Henry Nowak.  First, go back to the original incident.   There is an early example of the phenomena there.   A lie was concocted, or rather a cluster of lies.  Those included that: Nowak…

Here are some thoughts in response to King Charles’ decision to be the defender of space for all faiths.

Back when I was at a previous church, we met a particular pastoral situation when someone who had got divorced wanted to remarry.   Unsurprisingly, there was a diversity of views because there are a diversity of views among Evangelicals more widely.  We didn’t want to just look at the individual case but rather to think ahead recognising that this was not going to be an unusual issue to…

 This is a repost of a previous article from the old faithroots site. In his lament for Saul and Jonathan, David says of his friend: “How I weep for you, my brother Jonathan! Oh, how much I loved you!And your love for me was deep,deeper than the love of women!”[1] Some people have picked up on this verse and the other accounts of David and Jonathan to argue that this is an example of and a…

It might be tempting for some to skip over the next 15 chapters of Exodus.  However, we should know better than to ignore a significant section of Scripture.  It looks like we merely have a list of instructions here, building instructions, interior design instructions, clothing instructions etc.  Yet, if we believe that all Scripture is God breathed then we will want to consider why the author…

Perhaps one of the greatest challenges for local churches right now is navigating potential controversies around how to understand the role of men and women in the local church.   This reflects, a polarising between those holding to complementarian positions and those holding to egalitarian ones. How in practice can we address this in a way that honours God’s word and enables everyone to flourish…

When the people of Israel were at Sinai, God told Moses to set boundaries around the mountain.  This was the place where God would meet the people, where they would hear him and receive his word.  Yet, for all but Moses,  it was to be at a distance. One day, people were bringing their kids to Jesus to be blessed. His disciples tried to send them away. Jesus was too important, too busy, too holy…

Imagine if you had been stood amongst the people as Moses spoke and then demonstrated the covenant by sprinkling or showering you with blood from the sacrifices.   We tend to be queasy about blood, ancient people were less so. The blood was significant and significant because it was not just something happening in the distance up at the altar, it was happening to you.  Blood signified cleansing…

God’s holiness is a great theme in the Sinai passages.  We see this in the way that the Law tells his people how to live in his holy presence and in the conditions that are set. There is a delineation between who can approach YHWH and who cannot. Some of the people can come so far with Moses but no further.  There are boundaries set that are not to be crossed.  This theme will be picked up by the…