A new Church of England report, Cohabitation: a Christian reflection, questions whether young people should be 'burdened' with the church's traditional teaching on sex before marriage.The report fears that the Church’s traditional stance has become unrealistic and irrelevant to an increasing number of young worshippers, because society has changed. To retain their allegiance, they…
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‘A feeling, a very funny feeling, a feeling that you’ve never felt before. A feeling that you feel that you feel you ought to feel, and it leaves you with a feeling evermore.’An amusing jingle that has probably graced the pages of many an autograph book, and brought a knowing nod from a love-sick…
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I have a theory that most Christians face discouragement so often that when encouragement comes along we are not sure how to handle it. We look at our feet and think: 'Are they talking to me?' Y et the Word of God is full of encouragements and calls for us to encourage one another.…
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Evangelical revivals of the 18th Century by Michael A. G. Haykin 2. George Whitefield and friends L ast month’s article on the Great Awakening (the first of this series) ended with the prayer for revival of two Congregationalist ministers — Isaac Watts (1674-1748) and John Guyse (1680-1761). Yet, amazingly, the revival for which they…
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The Middle East Reformed Fellowship (MERF) has for several years provided regular support for six congregations in Iraq – two in Badhdad (Arabic and Assyrian), and congregations in Mousel, Kirkuk, Basra and Arbeil. This report relates largely to these fellowships. The MERF Arabic broadcasting team have produced a special series of daily gospel broadcasts on Radio Monte Carlo. These went on air about twelve days before the beginning of the war. The main subject of the series is ‘Kingdom of Jesus — a kingdom of truth, peace, justice and self-giving love’. They include testimonies, Bible readings, comments and brief exhortations to the listeners to...
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Waterford, a harbour town on the southern coast of Ireland, is not a regular destination for visiting tourists. Its name is rarely associated with the grand stream of Irish church history. But concealed in this obscurity is one of the most important churches in the history of the worldwide Baptist movement. In the early…
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Iain Murray's new book, Wesley and Men who Followed, marked the tercentenary of the birth of John Wesley and is published by Banner of Truth. This article is an abridgement of the final chapter. M ethodism at the height of its influence in the mid-nineteenth century was a startling phenomenon. In 1861…
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Area: 1 million square miles. Neighbouring countries : Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay. Environment : Argentina’s climate, although mainly temperate, varies from subtropical in the north to subantarctic in the south-west. Its terrain ranges from fertile Pampas in the north to Patagonian steppes in the south. The Andes lie to the west (Aconcagua 6,960 metres). Population : 38 million. Infant mortality : 18 deaths/1,000 live births. Life expectancy : 75 years. Capital : Buenos Aires conurbation (17.9 million). Other cities : Cordoba (1.4 million); San Justo (1.2 million); Rosario (1.2 million). Urbanisation : 88%. Ethnic...
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Actually, I’m sixty-one! In some ways I feel like I’m twenty-five, and now that I have cut down on some of my excesses, I can run like I did then. Well, maybe not — but I have to try because I need to keep up with the young men who play on my baseball…
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New Apostolic Church (3)by Eryl DaviesThere are four questions that must be discussed in this final article on the NAC. These questions enable us to explore further the ethos and fallibility of this group.Is the NAC cultic?Our first question is basic: Is the NAC cultic? Consider the following evidence. We are informed that ‘Faithful…
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One bite of fruit taken from a tree in the garden seemed harmless enough. So Eve thought. However, one bite plunged the perfect world into chaos. One bite unleashed the disease of sin, which soon led to the first murder.Every child since Cain and Abel is born with a bias to sin. We all…
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Recently it was my privilege to meet a man who, five years earlier, had been converted to Christ after fifteen years as a heroin addict. The Lord's means to deliver and save him was an open-air preacher who had faithfully preached Christ outside Whitechapel Tube Station in LondonIt was in Whitechapel, one Sunday afternoon…
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As the news headlines over the last 18 months testify, Argentina’s major economic crisis, unresolved for five years, has come to a head. Tensions climaxed in December 2001, when Argentina had five different presidents in 10 days, and 26 people died in street riots. But this is not the Republic’s real crisis. Hopelessness The Falklands War of 1981 ended a horrendous chapter in the lives of many Argentinians. Up to then the military government had carried on a ‘dirty war’ against its own people, with the systematic disappearance, imprisonment, torture and death of nearly 80,000 people over seven years. However, almost from the...
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Argentina is a marvellously rich and varied country, populated by 38 million people, one third of whom are concentrated in and around the capital city Buenos Aires. Another third are in the richest province (Buenos Aires). The rest live in a million cities, towns and villages scattered throughout the Republic. The literacy rate is among the highest in South America, even though the average schoolchild reads fewer books per year than in other South American countries. Roots Where did the Argentine people come from? Sixteenth-century Spanish conquerors descended from Peru and Bolivia, while others explored inland along the River Paraná. The native population...
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Amazon - world of watersBrazil boasts the greatest river in the world. Though not quite the longest at 4,050 miles, the Amazon is without doubt the mightiest of waterways with a drainage area of 2,500 square miles and a water flow of 80,000 tons per second (enough to flood the whole of England six…
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Iam a missionary from the US-based Evangelical Presbyterian Church, and am privileged to be working with members of the St Andrew’s Presbytery in north-eastern Argentina. My colleagues and I assist this presbytery in church-planting in a town called Gualeguaychú. We are seeking to establish a Reformed Evangelical church, as well as a Bible seminary. Gualeguaychú has population of about 100,000. Around it are other towns of a similar size, both Argentinian and (across the international bridge) Uruguayan. Our plan is to plant five churches in the Entre Rios Province and form a presbytery. Our aim is to establish churches with functioning elders and church...
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Some of God’s people see no need for revival in the UK. They see no need for a revolutionary change, either because there is too much going on already in the large and prosperous churches they attend, or because it has never occurred to them that the evangelical cause in the UK is in…
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