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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…

“For yet Christ…” The  syntax in Greek frontloads the identity of Christ. He came whilst we were still weak, whilst sin still had a hold and we were helpless.  We could not do anything to save ourselves. He died for those who are ungodly, lacking righteousness (v6).  This is the surprising factor.  Paul observes that people are unlikely to die for others.  You are scarcely even likely to give up…

Sinai It’s two months after the Israelites have left Egypt when the arrive at Sinai. The people camp around the mountain and Moses climbs up to appear before YHWH (Exodus 19:1-3a).  God speaks to Moses and gives instructions to the people.  The context is that they have seen what God did to the Egyptians, punishing and defeating them as well as what God did for them, rescuing them.  The image of…

It seems to me that the term “a decent man” has become the euphemism for “political failure”.   Sir Keir Starmer’s departure is being mourned now by his previously silent supporters as “the loss of a basically decent man.” Other previous holders of the title include Sir John Major and Rishi Sunak.   Nor it is entirely possible that Sir Keir is decent. He may be the perfect gentleman, kind,…

As Sir Keir Starmer prepares to leave office, potentially as soon as next month, much is being made about the fact that we are about to move onto the 7th prime minister since Brexit. I think that this particular number may overstate things, Cameron left pretty much straight after the referendum having served a credible six years, Truss’s short stay in number 10 seems to count more as an error, a…

I recently picked up on the Biblical theme of uncleanness whilst looking at Mark 5.  We’ve seen that uncleanness is different from sin though actively becoming unclean may be a sin.   We’ve also seen how the concept and category help us to think about people today that may be classed as unclean. I want to think a bit more about how uncleanness can be removed?  How do people become clean? In…