We long for peace. It seems out of reach. But it is possible.
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How should Christians date? They should seek an emotional connection. And yes, believe it or not, they could even hold hands. That’s right, I dare you, Christian zoomer, hold hands.
Here’s a short guide to Christian Zoomer dating.
K-Pop Demon Hunters is absolutely over the top, in the best possible way. The film is funny, delightfully quirky, and bursting with playful animation. The soundtrack is ridiculously catchy and the characters turn out to be more layered than you might expect. But given the themes of witchcraft, demons and idols should Christian parents let their children watch this movie? Many Christian commentators say No. But our guest review Elise Harden shows that great Christian truths shine through in this animated film.
There’s a strong case against organised religion. But two things are worth considering. The Bible, a religious text, teaches that organised religion can go very wrong. And yet, the Bible also teaches that Jesus’ plan was organised religion - the church. For organised religion, like organised crime, does it better.
In the letter of James Christians are called to consider our trials and problems with great joy because of what God is doing through them. He loves us too much to leave us unchanged. This poem, The Weaver, beautifully captures the mystery of God’s great work in our lives.
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Is work a gift or a curse? How should we think about work? Is there a Christian view of work?
In this short blog I outline a framework for thinking about work to answer these questions and get us started on thinking about faith and work or put another way, a theology of work.
Dear Marc, though you feel nothing, that doesn’t mean you’re outside of God’s love.
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Search up ‘Is Jesus God?’ and you’ll discover Islam online. The claim is that not only was Jesus not God, but that he asserted he was not God. Jesus was a rabbi. Devout, learned but just a rabbi who taught and followed the Mosaic Law. The author’s proof all comes from the Bible. Is he right? Far from it.
In this blog post I examine the author’s claims and the Bible passages he references and show that Jesus thought he was in fact God.
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We like the idea of karma. But that’s just because we don’t really understand it. A universe operating according to karma or the law of reciprocity would be an awful place, even if it was fair. It is why we need to know God’s grace.
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We’ve all heard it said, “It’s wrong to judge others.” Not that this seems to stop the human race from judging. Given that repeated admonitions not to judge don’t seem to be working. Perhaps going deeper into the reality of judging might help us.
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Was it the church councils of the 4th Century that finally established the authority of the New Testament documents and declare them Scripture? No, there is very good historical evidence that the New Testament documents were considered authoritative by the start of the 2nd century.
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Joy to the World is a song of such, well, joy! But here’s the thing. We’ve been killing its meaning. Joy to the World only has 4 verses. But most versions skip verse 3. Which means they’ve rob the rest of the song of its meaning. And so there’s no point in singing it. None!
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The book of Revelation is a wild ride. It’s an artistic blockbuster full of powerful images. For this reason there are a lot of crazy interpretations. But it is possible to read Revelation! Here’s five keys to reading Revelation so that you can understand history from God’s perspective.
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In memory of Xavier Jonathan Hohnberg, a loved son, in the hope of the resurrection of the dead by the power of Jesus.
Grief and sadness will come by how can we face them and how can we can for those in the midst of grief and loss. This blog post shares how we might care for those grieving and experiencing loss and hardship in its many forms. This reflection sprang from the book of Proverbs and from facing my son’s battle with cancer and his death.
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AC Grayling’s essential argument is that the various good things of Western civilisation that we consider quite wonderful didn’t proceed from Christianity. They were already there in classical culture (Greek and Roman culture) and preceded Christianity. They aren’t Christian ideas at all. But on the issue of slavery his evidence doesn’t support his position at all.
Scholar Bart Ehrman proposes that term are a lot of contradictions in the Bible. He is very enthusiastic about us reading the Bible horizontally. However, when we take the time to read the text carefully, as he suggests, many of the contradictions are very fragile. And some are not contradictions at all. Here I work through some of the contradictions he proposes. Why don’t you be the judge?
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This might be a surprising twist to you. Celebrating Christmas because of Jesus is not celebrating myths, rumours and half-forgotten folklore. Rather, it is a celebration of events that unfolded in history. It seems again, that people worshipping Jesus are on the right side of history.
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Is the Trinity a Biblical truth? Yes it is! It isn’t hard to see the Trinity is in the Bible. You’re right the word Trinity never appears in the New or Old Testament of the Bible. But verses that show there is one God and three persons are scattered across the New Testament.
It sounds so awesome, the armour of God: swords, helmets and chest plates. In amongst all those passages of the Bible that talk about mercy, compassion and turning the other cheek, here is red-blooded combat. And it is necessary combat. For the devil has his schemes and there are demonic spiritual forces at work, right here, right now in this present darkness.
But, perhaps, before we slip on our chest plates or breast plates we ought to ask, ‘What exactly is the Christian putting on?’
Original photo by Hugo L. Casanova on Unsplash Edited by G Hohnberg
The story we keep hearing is that traditional morality crushes and destroys us. If we can just recognise this we can find the new way of freedom, especially our sexual freedom. The surprise in the Bible is that it agrees with the problem of traditional morality.
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Have you ever met one of those Christians who just seems so sure about their salvation? What’s with that? Are they so sure they’ve kept all God’s rules and laws? Is that it? No, not at all. A Christian’s confidence comes from the fact that the laws have been fulfilled for them by someone else.
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Apart from the horror of what’s been unfolding, the question that has been on my mind over the last two weeks is, ‘What could an atheist say to the Taliban?’
Photo by By VOA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAg7egiXClU, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109043891
Every life has hard times and hard places. Sometimes those hard places feel like places of spiritual death. God has brought us out in the desert to die. But the Scriptures reveal that the opposite is the case. The hardest times can be the source of life.
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Shiny shekels seem to be upsetting a lot of people. They read just a handful of sentences from the book of Leviticus and have concluded that women are less valuable in the Bible. It’s all part of the Christian patriarchal agenda. And that theory holds up until you read just a couple more sentences in the very same chapter. And then you have a problem because you see its about women being more valuable.
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