Another week of gospel outreach brought us into the large and broken housing estate of Lochside, located on the north side of the coast town of Ayr. On noticing that the local council’s motto was ‘sense and worth’, I couldn’t help but reflect on how detached these words were from the scenes we witnessed…
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An American professor and author was banned from posting or commenting on Facebook for 24 hours, after he responded to a post by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The post, which showed a group of primary-aged children being taught to celebrate Gay Pride, also explained how Hollywood A-lister Jodie Foster had helped the presenter,…
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In the two previous Guest Columns, I extended C. H. Spurgeon’s famous caged-lion allegory by suggesting that freeing the lion (the Bible) to defend itself involves three steps. We must: (1) find the key to the cage door (adopt a biblical doctrine of Scripture); (2) lubricate the door hinges (employ biblical apologetics and argumentation,…
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‘Behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead’ (Job 1:19). Open places of the desert, with few or no trees, are conducive to very strong winds. A blast of wind just before a rainstorm can…
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Two Christian business owners have been told by a US court they must use their artistic talents to create invitations for a gay wedding. The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled against graphic designers Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, who run a stationery company that makes invitations for weddings and other events. The two owners…
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Charity Tearfund has launched an emergency appeal for Burundi, as over half the population face chronic malnutrition. Burundi has faced decades of violence and political turmoil, alongside a changing climate causing droughts and flooding, which has left families across the country with severe food shortages and lack of medical care. According to Tearfund, recent…
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138 years ago, Henry Moorhouse was buried in the Ardwick Cemetery in Manchester. In normal circumstances this would have been his final resting place, but the cemetery was redeveloped towards the end of the 20th century to make way for a bus station. Moorhouse’s gravestone was eventually located by Rev. David Earnshaw of Inskip…
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It was November 2016 when I clicked a YouTube video, entitled ‘Paul Washer — shocking message’. I had just left from the youth night at the largest Pentecostal church in Finland where I served. When I got home, I fell on my knees and cried to God to save me and forgive me for…
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The British and Foreign Bible Society (Bible Society) has been fined £100,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), after the society’s computer network was compromised as the result of a cyber-attack in 2016. In a statement issued by the ICO, between November and December 2016 the intruders exploited a weakness in the Society’s network…
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Delegates at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem have agreed to a ‘Letter to the Churches’ that calls on the Anglican communion to hold fast to biblical teaching. The conference, which was attended by 1,950 representatives, agreed to call on the Archbishop of Canterbury, as leader of the Anglican communion, to reaffirm…
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Over the next four months during this centenary year, the Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Scripture Readers Association (SASRA) will help us reflect on the closing months of World War One and November 1918’s Armistice. Using its historical records, SASRA takes us back to August 1918 and reminds us that, even in war, Christians face an…
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The author’s intention was to ‘write the book that I would have wanted to read as an undergraduate student’ (p.137). With both panache and conviction, he has done precisely that. The book is an antidote to the disposable, woolly thinking of social Marxism that is so prevalent in academia today. In the foreword, John…
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When you mention the word ‘meditation’, people react in different ways. This is because, sadly, the term has become rather plastic, capable of meaning different things. For most it speaks of Eastern religion, relaxation techniques and New Ageism. For Christians there is a puzzling divide between a christianised form of Eastern meditation and true,…
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Speaking at this year’s Family Education Trust conference, Dr Patrick Fagan, from the Marriage and Religion Research Institute in Washington DC, argued that it is a massive strategic mistake for the government to try to operate behaviour-changing programmes. Real change comes about through the relational spheres of family, church and school, he said. During…
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My wife and I love Budapest. It’s a beautiful, romantic city and famous for its music, food and drink. Though Hungarian is a notoriously difficult language, the Hungarians have a way with words. Words for these creative, artistic people have meant the difference between life and death, freedom or imprisonment. Communism In an echo…
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There is only one special school for the whole of Montenegro, located in the capital, Podgorica. Access to this school’s 110 places is a ‘right’ for all special needs kids. But if you live out of town, don’t have a car, or lack the time to escort your child there and back, the school…
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Pro-life groups have welcomed the ‘life-saving’ decisions made by the current US government, despite pro-choice protests. During the past 18 months of Republican government in the US, the Mexico City Policy has been reinstated, to prevent US taxpayers from funding abortion clinics overseas. The government has also overturned the rule that forced states to…
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A British Columbia university has had its appeal for accreditation of its proposed law school denied by the Supreme Court of Canada. Following several legal battles, the law school was refused accreditation because of a row over the school’s religious requirements. According to advocacy group ADF International, Trinity Western University’s proposed law school asks…
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‘The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner’ (William Cameron Townsend). Since the days of the early church, scholars and pastors have sought to provide updated translations of the Holy Scriptures for the common man. What began as the Hebrew Old Testament…
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US Bishop Rt Rev. Michael Curry’s wedding sermon for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has lost its sparkle among UK Christians, research has found. A poll by Christian thinktank Theos explored what people thought about the bishop’s lively sermon, once the media bandwagon had rolled on. The survey found most people were disappointed in…
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One of Elvis Presley’s many number 1 hit records has the lyrics: ‘When no-one else can understand me, When everything I do is wrong, You give me hope and consolation, You give me strength to carry on. And you’re always there to lend a hand, In everything I do. That’s the wonder, the wonder…
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In the early years of the nineteenth century there was an ‘evangelical renaissance’ within the Church of Scotland. Although the Secession Churches had, since the previous century, maintained evangelical principles and produced many fine preachers, there had also been a gradual shift from historic Calvinism among some within their borders. The Church of Scotland…
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Leslie Raymond Wilkie, went to be with the Lord on 6 June 2018, after a short period of illness from cancer. He died peacefully at home, with his immediate family around him, who sang some of his favourite hymns as he was taken into his greater home. Ray, as he was called, was born…
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‘Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace’ (Romans 11:5). Although many preachers are allergic to the matter of ‘election’, it was obviously deemed important by the prophets and apostles. The word ‘election’ appears five times in the New Testament, not to mention all the…
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Church Society and Union School of Theology have launched the Priscilla Programme, a new training course for women, which will start from September 2018. The Priscilla Programme is intended to encourage and equip women to serve local churches in voluntary ministries, such as teaching Sunday school and leading Bible study groups. According to a newsletter from…
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The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) completed a three-day evangelism event at Falkirk Stadium, in partnership with over 200 churches across Central Scotland. According to a statement from the association, more than 1,000 people indicated a decision for Christ, with hundreds doing so during the event itself and hundreds more online and through discipleship…
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‘To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble’ (A. W. Tozer). Nebuchadnezzar was a mighty monarch, a successful general who never lost a battle, who reigned in Babylon for 40 years. God had spoken to him in the past, and he had even appointed God’s people to high positions in…
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Throughout his ministry the Lord Jesus Christ was subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism from his enemies. They made all sorts of false accusations against him. Yet some of these accusations were gloriously true, in spite of their wicked intention. In this article we look at three occasions when Jesus’ enemies said, in hostility,…
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Biblical teaching on morality encourages Christians to imitate Jesus Christ even when culture is going a different way, a leading Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) figure has said. The Very Rev. Dr Stafford Carson spoke out in the Belfast Telegraph, following criticism of the Church’s decision about who it allows to be full members.…
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Society has changed. We now have the largest generation of older people in history, and ageist stereotypes are being challenged by people who are living full, productive lives, even into their 90s and 100s. Many in their 70s and 80s are active in their churches, volunteering and sharing the gospel. More attention is being…
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Link to Article 1 Link to Article 3 Noble as the ideal of evangelical union was; and hard as the Haldanes worked during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to see it realised; in the end they failed. This was a time when the Dissenters in England were agitating for their civil liberties.…
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Proposals by some parliamentarians, including Lord William Hague, to legalise cannabis have been strongly criticised by leading medical professionals. In June, activists were calling for the recreational usage of the class B drug. Although medical cannabis can help some patients, recreational use has been banned in the UK. However, the former foreign secretary claimed…
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A scientific report from two internationally renowned geneticists has concluded that 90 per cent of all animal life appeared on earth at the same time. Contrary to the view long-espoused by evolutionists, that animal life evolved slowly over millions of years, the report, from Mark Stoeckle, senior research associate at the Programme for the…
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The Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) has broken off formal ties with the Church of Scotland (CofS) over the latter’s moves towards same-sex marriage. In its general assembly in Belfast, ministers and elders in the PCI voted 255 to 171 to cut ties. The PCI affirms the authority of Scripture, with its teaching that…
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On Saturday 2 June, Dr Lesley Rowe and Mrs Christine Meller each gave a historical talk at Barton in the Beans Baptist Chapel in Leicestershire. The church history afternoon has been an annual event at Barton in the Beans since 2000, and each year the talks focus on different men and women from church…
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The Sheffield Pregnancy Advice Centre has seen great progress over the past six months, for which we are thankful, but we are being stretched as well. 1 Samuel 7:12 says, ‘Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the…
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British rapper, ‘Professor Green’, has spoken out against an abortion that a former girlfriend of his had many years ago. According to an interview with The Sun on Sunday, the 34-year-old rapper, whose real name is Stephen Manderson, says he still thinks about the decision with regret. He told The Sun on Sunday: ‘We…
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Volunteers from more than 500 churches across the UK have actively supported vulnerable families through the Christian charity, Safe Families for Children (SFC). The charity opens the door into the community for Christian volunteers by connecting families needing support with those able to give it. In a time where national statistics show volunteering levels…
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The annual Liverpool Bible Convention was hosted this year by Bethany Baptist Chapel in Fazakerley, from 8-11 May. It brought together five churches, and other visitors, in the Liverpool area. There were four nights of preaching, as different preachers took what the Lord had laid on their hearts. Each night we heard the Word of…
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This is a well-written book, subtitled ‘The death of Western Christianity: drinking from the poisoned wells of the cultural revolution’. Using various statistics, the author develops his thesis with clarity while lamenting the decline of church attendance over the decades. He does not hold back as he surveys the evidence: ‘Since the 1960s Christian…
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In July this year, Prime Minister Theresa May announced the anti-conversion therapy plans, as part of an effort to combat ‘intolerance’ and ‘discrimination’ against the gay community. The £4.5m initiative followed a poll among 108,000 LGBT people, which found 2 per cent of respondents had undergone conversion therapy, while 5 per cent had been…
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Christians in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali are suffering increased attacks from Fulani Islamists, amidst global concerns over Islamist consolidation in northern Africa. Violence has escalated across those parts of Africa where Christians have contact with Fulani herdsmen. The Fulani are Muslim and, though living alongside Christians for years, hardcore Islamist teachings have led…
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Take Heart displays the strengths and weaknesses of a popular work by a New Calvinist celebrity pastor. Positively, Chandler encourages his readers to have a ‘big view’ of God. He surveys the idea of God as a warrior, defeating Satan and defending his people. Rather than bemoan the end of Christendom, Chandler encourages believers…
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The Bible tells us that we live in a deeply broken world and that there is brokenness within us. That brokenness is nowhere more evident these days than in the realm of human sexuality. In this book, Paul Tripp hammers home the message that the sexual struggles we experience are essentially a problem of…
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Available directly from the Open Air Mission website, these two CDs address open air evangelism. There can be little doubt of the validity of open air preaching. Scripture and history both bear witness to it and the Lord has blessed this activity through the salvation of many. We are given approving quotations by some…
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African Pastors Fellowship (APF) has launched a mobile phone app in East Africa. The eVitabu app puts a mobile library of theological resources into the hands of rural pastors for the first time. The app, which is installed on solar-powered Android devices, will help support pastors’ ministries, with large church networks across East Africa,…
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Jordan Peterson is a Canadian professor who hit the headlines in 2016 for refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns. His YouTube lectures receive millions of views, striking a chord particularly among disillusioned young men. In 12 Rules for Life he brings together his accumulated wisdom. Peterson is not a Christian, but there is much to…
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The Pastors Academy at London Seminary has handed over its Masters in Theology (ThM) to be run by the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (PRTS), which is based in North America. From January 2019, the partnership with Westminster Theological Seminary, which currently runs the ThM, will end. In a statement, London Seminary commented: ‘We are…
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It is to be welcomed that EP Books has republished three of JC Ryle’s lesser-known short tracts. The subject of this one is a vital question: ‘Do you pray?’ As always, Ryle gets to the heart of the matter and the reader soon realises that the real question is, ‘Are you a Christian?’ Ryle…
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We are all familiar with ageist attitudes, remarks and jokes. We may even have smiled at them. They are generally thought to be acceptable rather than offensive, although remarks seen as sexist, racist, feminist, or against ‘British values’ may soon risk an arrest for a ‘hate crime’. Louise Morse shows how widespread attitudes often…
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The governor of a different prison has been asked to investigate the case of Pastor Song, the former Brixton prison chaplain who claims he was ousted according to a hard-line Islamist agenda. Evangelical Times has previously reported that, in August 2017, he was expelled from the prison by a new senior chaplain who is…
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The ‘Reaching Himalayas Centre’, a mission dedicated to reaching Tibetans, has formed a Tibetan Evangelical Alliance. A recent newsletter from a pastor in Tibet spoke of the ‘tough time’ faced by Tibetan pastors and single believers trying to go it alone in some of the world’s most isolated communities. The pastor said: ‘Tibetan pastors…
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More than 170 MPs, including Prime Minister Theresa May, cabinet members, peers, ambassadors and church leaders, gathered for a special prayer breakfast. Held in Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster, on 19 June, the 2018 National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast was addressed by Rev. Dr Tim Keller, who spoke on the topic ‘What can…
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