Let The Young Man Come To Church With Mixed Motives
‘There is no abstract, almost Platonic – and therefore more noble – way in which to come to Jesus. People come for all sorts of mixed motives. And our confidence should be that as they do come with their mixed motives, we will point them to Jesus in such a way that he will reform their desires and motives.’
Reforming Generosity
‘In my experience, it is common to hear church leaders tell their congregation that their generosity will change the world. I have also read books by Christian authors promising readers that their sacrificial generosity will change them and yield eternal rewards. Though I believe those authors are driven by the best motives, I also believe they are failing to fully represent the witness of Scripture.’
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: Explained Line-by-Line
We’re moving into that time of year when churches start singing lots of carols. This one takes a look at Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and explains its meaning line-by-line.
Annihilation or Eternal Punishment?
I was having a conversation about this just the other day with somebody. This one takes a look at what the bible means when it speaks about separation from God, eternal death and destruction.
Christian nationalism: learning from castles and COVID
Dave Williams offers some thoughts on Christian Nationalism with reference to covid and castles (bear with it, it’s quite a helpful set of analogies I think).
How Do We Measure Christian Maturity? (Hint: It’s Not Just Bible Facts)
‘We often measure maturity by the wrong metrics. We confuse information with formation, and equate Christian vocabulary with Christ-like virtue. Which is understandable because information is measurable. But I don’t think that it’s the right way.The gospel saves us by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and the Spirit grows us as we abide in the Word. But that grace produces fruit, and that fruit is measurable, and that fruit is one sign of maturity. So what does Christian maturity look like?’
From the archive: Five reasons reciting creeds is unhelpful
‘I strongly suspect there is a significant correlation between your ecclesiological background and your view of the creeds (no, not really the one in the picture!). Particularly, I think, your view of reading the creeds together as part of a service of worship is affected by your tradition. I doubt you would find many Anglicans objecting whilst, I suspect, few Charismatics would be keeping their already raised hands up in favour. I think there are a number of obvious, and a few perhaps less obvious, reasons for that. As neither a Charismatic nor an Anglican, I have been asked before (more than once) about whether we should include the creeds as part of our service. Most usually, it is the Apostles Creed that gets floated. My answer has always been a hard ‘no’. This is why I don’t think it is helpful for us.’
An excellent article by Stephen McAlpine (on The Young Man).
The explanation of the words of ‘Hark! The herald angels’ was good, but I was disappointed that the author used the politically-corrected and emasculated line ‘Pleased with us in flesh to dwell’ instead of the previous ‘Pleased as man with men to dwell’ which states that Jesus was incarnate as a man, and therefore as representative of the redeemed (in contrast to Adam as the representative of the fallen). The feminist egalitarians really do want to neuter and eradicate that aspect of biblical theology from the church.
(Incidentally, in my 1830 edition of the Wesleys’ hymns, the couplet reads “Pleased as man with men to’ appear / Jesus our Immanuel here” – which shows that hymn editors have a long history of tweaking the words.)
Yes, messing around with words has a long history! Often for the better, occasionally for the worse.