Browsing Archive: September, 2011
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, September 30, 2011,
In :
Random
Before I go on to explore
what exactly he’s said this time, let’s just clear up what he didn’t say. He
did not say that it’s okay to divorce someone just because th... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, September 29, 2011,
In :
Random
Retribution, restoration,
rehabilitation, punishment. How are we to deal with crime and criminals in a
time when our prisons are full to capacity? One American town has come up with
a very innovative idea – instead of sending the criminal to jail, send him to
church. Have a look at this short clip (found at Jesus Needs New PR) which
gives some of the detail.Interesting, isn’t it? But
is it a good idea? As you heard, the intention is to offer those who would be
sentenced to short term impr... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, September 28, 2011,
In :
Hell
Fire as punishment is an
often used image in the Old Testament and in my first post on the subject two
weeks ago I began to unpack this subject. Its importance is found in the use
Jesus makes of the image and it is probably safe to say that it is from the OT
that Jesus got this image from. Before jumping to the conclusion that these
passages are a reference to an eternal conscious punishment, however, certain
points have to be made.
A figurative picture
First, it would be fair to
ask whether al... Continue reading ...
Holiday reading for me this
year was Rob Bell’s controversial Love
Wins. The typo in the very last line of the UK version makes it an
imperfect book and it’s not difficult to see why it has become one of the most
contentious books of the year but for me the expansive view of God’s love that
it portrays makes it a hit.
Opening a debate
Bell’s writing style isn’t
to everybody’s liking but I find it quite refreshing and find myself hearing
his spoken voice coming through the printed wo... Continue reading ...
What’s
the big picture? That basically sums up the first question that Brian McLaren
asks, or to put it in more theological terms – what is the meta-narrative? By
this he means that there is an overarching storyline that we live our lives
within, that helps us make sense of the world and our faith. His assertion is
that the meta-narrative the church has worked within since the fifth century
has been faulty and has had more to do with Platonic philosophy than the Bible.
And without chang...
Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Friday, September 16, 2011,
In :
Random
The church’s explosive
growth in China is truly a phenomenon worth beholding. The price some
Christians are paying for their faith is also remarkable – a persecution that
should make some who use the word to describe events in the UK blush. The BBC
have a piece on their website this week about the Chinese church that is well
worth reading.
European comparison
One sentence in the piece that
does need to be put into some kind of context, however, is this: ‘More people
go to church on Sund... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, September 15, 2011,
In :
1859 revival
After the first few nights
of the revival’s early stirrings, Humphrey Jones began to see his first
converts. This was partly due to the work he had done on the first Sunday of
the campaign where – as detailed in the previous post – he had preached powerfully to the church
itself and had called it to be awake to God’s work.
First converts
The prayer meetings held
during the first full week of the revival grew in depth of feeling and in
numbers of those attending. Church members would inv... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Wednesday, September 14, 2011,
In :
Hell
One of the most common
images used to describe hell is fire. Indeed it is probably widely believed
that hell is some kind of fiery dungeon and that somehow the fire plays an
integral part in the conscious torment that the damned will suffer there for
eternity. We get this image and concept, of course, from the words of Jesus for
no other biblical character or author says more about hell-fire than Jesus of
Nazareth. Or does he? As this second series about hell progresses we’ll get to
look at...
Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Tuesday, September 13, 2011,
In :
Random
David Cameron’s rather
childish treatment of Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries last week has largely
been blamed on the upper-class attitudes he learned at Eton. There may well be
some truth to this but the roots of this still too common attitude towards
women are actually deeply embedded in neoplatonism.
'I know she's frustrated'
Let me begin by reviewing
what happened during Prime Minister’s Questions last week. Dorries, in the
middle of an attempt to ensure more counselling for women who... Continue reading ...
Where
did Cain’s wife come from? On one level a wholly irrelevant question; on
another a most profound puzzle, but it is questions like this that can set
people off on a journey that could lead to a very different understanding of
the Bible and then the Christian faith itself. There are some who feel that
such questions are better kept under a lid and should be avoided at all costs.
But for many the questions just don’t go away, they gnaw away on the inside and
insist on being heard.
A q... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, September 8, 2011,
In :
Politics
We all pretty much depend on
oil. For us personally it heats our home and powers our car and probably does a
lot more to boot. None of us could do without it. The oil producing countries
have us – pardon the pun – over a barrel. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t
be informed about these countries, however.
Oil-producing democracies are few
Apart from Russia and Norway
the other big oil exporters are part of an exclusive club called OPEC. Most of
them are located in the Middle East (t... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, September 8, 2011,
In :
1859 revival
Having experienced the first
sparks of what would become a nation-wide revival Humphrey Jones pressed on in
his mission of bringing the wild-fire that had touched America to his own
country, Wales. If the setting on Saturday was a little unconventional for a
revival – that is, a funeral service – then the meetings for Sunday were as
traditional as they came: three preaching services in the Methodist chapels of Tre’r
Ddôl and Eglwys-fach.
Finney's methods used
His sermon texts are classic... Continue reading ...
Do the genocide passages of
the Old Testament prove problematic to you? They certainly cause me some
headaches and I find it increasingly difficult to reconcile those passages from
Joshua with what I read about God in Jesus in the Gospels. If you have no
problem with God commanding the slaughter of every man, woman, child and animal
in a city then maybe you should turn to your second favourite blog today and
come back to me tomorrow.
Interpreting the Bible
There are a number of
answers to the â... Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Monday, September 5, 2011,
In :
Politics
The results of a study
published by the British Journal of
Psychiatry this month put the current debate about abortion counselling in
England into sharp context (as a devolved matter the Field/Dories amendment will
not affect Wales). According to the study women who have undergone an abortion
are 81% more likely to experience some kind of mental health problem and nearly
10% of mental health problems in women were attributable to having an abortion.
These seem very high figures
and should fo... Continue reading ...
‘Emerging
church’ is a term that is currently in vogue in the developed, western world.
It is a broad term covering a wide variety of beliefs and practices but it is
at its heart a movement of reform within the church. As with any reform
movement within any organisation no one knows where it will all end up or how
much reform will really take place. Those who find themselves walking with this
movement often appear theologically rudderless and, therefore, lacking in direction.
All they fee...
Continue reading ...
Posted by Dyfed on Thursday, September 1, 2011,
In :
1859 revival
Humphrey Jones returned to
his native Wales during the last week of June 1858. He immediately set about
organising revival prayer meetings and within days a revival that was to seep
throughout the nation gripped his home community of Tre’r Ddôl. The lessons
learned in America were implemented on Welsh soil and Wales’ greatest revival
had begun. It is true, of course, that some preparatory work had already been
done in Wales long before Jones’ return and that the first-fruits of revival...
Continue reading ...
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