The most horrific of all Christian doctrines is the doctrine of the eternal judgement, the declaration that vast numbers of humankind will experience eternal punishment at the hands of their Creator. In its most extreme form it imagines a house of horrors in which people experience excruciating...
There have been a number of ah-ha moments in my life, times at which I have seen myself and my world in a new light. One of those was to discover the place of justice in the Christian life. Echoing the prophet Micah, Jesus identified justice, mercy and faithfulness as the three central dimensions...
In a recent post I asked the question “Is the doctrine of hell defensible?” and highlighted conditional immortality and universalism as two alternatives to the notion that those who die without faith in Christ will be subject to an eternity of torment. So here’s my stab at...
The Times once invited famous authors to answer the question “What’s wrong with the world?” GK Chesterton gave the shortest reply [quote]Dear sir, What’s wrong with the world? I am[/quote] We like to think that the world’s problems are of someone else’s...
When I was at theological college I was subjected to the necessary but torturous experience of learning New Testament Greek. The text we used was written by a scholar named John Wenham. A conservative Evangelical, Wenham wrote a highly influential defence of the Bible’s inspiration, among...
What happens when we die? In this four part series we explore the biblical vision of heaven, judgement and the afterlife and discover it is both far removed from popular thinking and profoundly relevant for life.