Parenting has never been easy – far from it – but I want to make readers aware of various reasons why, in my view as a teacher and a parent, it is getting more difficult. Smartphones When I began teaching in 2007, the first iPhone had only just been released. It was very noticeable…
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According to most recent surveys, over half of people in the UK no longer affiliate with any religion, representing a spiritual agnosticism which continues to flood our country. Faced with this however, many Christians still view convinced atheists, who in comparison constitute a measly 13 percent of the population, as the greater threat both…
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I received a sad email from a friend a little while ago. For many years he had served a small gospel church sacrificially as pastor. His eighteen-year-old son had recently left home to go to university and was attending a church in the university town. He had been admitted very quickly to the membership and…
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The Council of Trent (1545-63) defined Rome’s response to the challenge of the Reformation. Three great problems stand out in the teachings of Trent: the doctrines of revelation and justification, and the church’s worship. Trent’s position on each of these demonstrates why the Reformation was necessary at the time. But it is often said…
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On 4 September 2016, Pope Francis canonised Mother Teresa as a Catholic ‘saint’ at a Vatican ceremony. This article by Tim Challies was published online in November 2003 (http://www.challies.com/articles/the-myth-of-mother-teresa?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork). Mother Teresa (known also as Mother Teresa of Calcutta) was born in what is now called the Republic of Macedonia in 1910. Born to Albanian…
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You might think that there is absolutely nothing to link the death of Jesus Christ with the death of Lenin in 1924. But there is just one thing: in both cases, the authorities of the day were troubled over their respective bodies. More than that, in both cases the question of the body has…
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Atheists tend to say their non-belief in God is something that does not need to be defended. Christopher Hitchens has said, ‘I don’t believe in God and I don’t need to justify this, just as I don’t need to give reasons for my non-belief in the tooth fairy’ (God is not great, Atlantic Books;…
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In December 2013, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) published a statement on its website, entitled Race and the Priesthood, explicitly disavowing doctrines taught by Mormons in the past, that people of black ancestry were under a curse. Although the statement was clearly intended to improve the LDS Church’s image,…
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One of the greatest privileges of my life is to have been a member of a church and to be in fellowship with the same people over a period of time. We have seen one another’s children grow up with all the difficulties and joys that brings. We have seen one another in good…
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Barbara Marx Hubbard, a New Age leader, wrote prolifically on the evolution of a unified human consciousness and Carl Jung envisioned psychotherapy as a means of facilitating it. During the twentieth century, some sought this goal through altered states of consciousness achieved by meditation (contemplation), drugs or even contact with the spirit world. And,…
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Paul once said that he went to the third heaven: ‘I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven — whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows’. ‘And I know that this man was caught up into…
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Recently, I read again the story of the encounter between David and Goliath in the Valley of Elah, and how the champion of the Philistines taunted the people of God. Goliath was arrayed in impressive armour of bronze and heavily armed. But David, who declined to wear the armour of King Saul, approached his…
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