Hitchens explains the gospel

Earlier this month the Portland Monthly in Oregon, published the transcript of an interview with atheist Christopher Hitchens. He spoke with Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell.

One of them rejects Jesus, the other wants Jesus but without ‘all that stuff’ –

Sewell: “When you speak of ‘religion’ in your book God is Not Great it seems to me that you’re generally referring to the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the Scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of Atonement – that Jesus died for our sins, for example. Do you make any distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?”

Hitchens: “Well, only in this respect: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ – in other words, the Messiah – and that he rose again from the dead and that by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you are really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.”

The transcript on the website has been fairly heavily edited and leaves out an exchange immediately following the above. Sewell says she believes…   Read more

Pray for Moore College

Vicki King in the Development Office at Moore College writes –

“Please pray for our new 1st Year students beginning at College on Monday. We have approximately 100 full time students who would value your prayers:

In addition, we have almost 50 part-time students who have registered. This is the first time part-time study has been available at Moore and so it’s very encouraging that so many have taken advantage of this excellent opportunity to grow in knowledge of the Bible while being able to continue on with work and other responsibilities.

It’s not too late for people to register for the part-time courses so if you know of people who would benefit from this type of study, please direct them to the website or have them call Alex Cowling on 9577 9928.”

Connecting the Mind and the Tongue

“I want to go on record at this point as saying that I understand the attraction of Rome: the sheer mass of the organization (if you’ll pardon the pun); the overwhelming aesthetics; the desirability of belonging to such an august and ancient institution which knows what it is, where it comes from, and where it is going; and the cornucopia of brilliant intellects that have debated, refined, and articulated its confession over the centuries.  All that I understand; all that I find attractive; all that I find superior to what evangelical Protestantism has to offer, particularly in its crassest megachurch and emergent varieties.”

– Carl Trueman contributes “Reflections on Rome Part 1: Connecting the Mind and the Tongue” at Reformation 21. As always, provocative and worth reading.

Al Mohler on The Shack (again)

Albert Mohler has again written about The Shack, with good reason. Here’s the punchline –

“The popularity of this book among evangelicals can only be explained by a lack of basic theological knowledge among us — a failure even to understand the Gospel of Christ. The tragedy that evangelicals have lost the art of biblical discernment must be traced to a disastrous loss of biblical knowledge. Discernment cannot survive without doctrine.”

Read it all here.

Related: More Catechesis, please.

Archbishop Kwashi on the violence in Jos

“Brethren: be fully assured that our faith in Christ is intact, and shall remain so in life and in death. We have a gospel to proclaim, a gospel that brings light in darkness, hope in despair, courage in danger, and joy in sorrow.”

– At Christianity Today, Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi talks about the violence in Jos, reminds us who is really behind it, requests your prayers, and re-states his trust in Christ. (Photo: Church of Nigeria.)

Closing churches on Vancouver Island in ‘transformation’

From the Report (PDF) of the Diocesan Transformation Team of the Diocese of British Columbia –

“Our Bishop’s creation of the Diocesan Ministry Resources Team (DMRT) in 2004 was his response to the fact that the Anglican Church is failing to reach the majority of people on these islands in life-changing ways; that we are failing to fulfill Christ’s ‘Great Commission’ to all his disciples. The reasons for this failure are many and complex.”

The Anglican Essentials Canada blog has news reports on the Diocese’s plans for Vancouver Island.

See also this News Release (PDF) from the Diocese.

Matt Kennedy on ‘Leaving home’ (part 1)

This time last year, Matt Kennedy and his congregation at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York, lost their property to the Diocese of Central New York. Matt tells the story of what happened next — at Stand Firm.

(Screenshot from WBNG News, NY.)

Carson on theological study for God’s glory

Don Carson was interviewed last year on studying theology for the glory of God — by Mike Reeves at The Theology Network in the UK. The interview runs for 34 minutes.

Worth hearing – especially if you are considering theological training and wondering where to study.

UK Government loses its Equality Bill faith proposals

“The House of Lords has blocked elements of the government’s Equality Bill which church groups said could have exposed them to legal challenges if they refused to hire homosexuals or transsexuals…”

– Report from Reuters.

Gerald Bray on the 39 Articles

ACL President Mark Thompson is encouraged at the new attention being given to the Articles –

“Gerald Bray has provided a brilliant resource for the study of authentic, biblical and evangelical, Anglicanism. His recently published study of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Faith we Confess: An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles (London: Latimer Trust, 2009) should be included on the reading lists of every Anglican theological college.”

(Articles? What Articles? You’ll find them at the back of the Prayer Book – and here.)

Order your copy of the book – or read the Introduction – from Latimer Trust.

Australia Day Honours 2010 (updated)

Among those awarded Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the 2010 Australia Day Honours are –

Robert Tong, ACL Chairman, “For service to the Anglican Church of Australia through a range of diocesan and national executive and administrative roles, and to the law as a practitioner and as an academic.”

Dr Bill Andersen, “For service to religious education through a range of academic and professional roles, and to the Scripture Union movement.” and

Bruce Baird, “For service to the Parliament of Australia, and to the community of New South Wales through a range of business, tourism and welfare organisations.”

Susan Scarcella, long involved with Italian ministry and also service to the church in Bali, was awarded Medal (OAM) of The Order of Australia, “For service to overseas humanitarian aid projects, particularly through the Protestant Christian Church, Bali.”

(See also this story by Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net with a list of others who also received awards.)

Bishop John Harrower on ‘anger at happy clappers’

“A front page article in our State’s major newspaper today illustrates some of the challenges of following Jesus in today’s Tasmania. Newspaper article here, Anger at ‘happy clappers’.”

– Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower on the challenge of making Christ known in Tassie.

(This is a good reminder to uphold in prayer Bishop Harrower, and all who belong to Christ in Tasmania.)

Sermon preparation help

At his Gospel Coalition blog, Kevin DeYoung has been sharing some helpful thoughts on sermon preparation. Part 1, Part 2.

Church statistics: not many dead

“Still, it is worth remembering, as one looks at these dull graphs, that there are on any Sunday at least 100 people in an Anglican church for every member of the National Secular Society.”

– At The Guardian, Andrew Brown tries to put in perspective the latest figures form the Church of England.

The Wonder of Words

“Put simply, then, the question of the importance of words to the Christian church is a question of theology, not methodology: to marginalise preaching in our church life and outreach is to marginalise words; and to marginalise words will inevitably involve marginalising the Word himself.”

– Thabiti Anyabwile quotes from Carl Trueman as he ponders the wonder of how God speaks to us.

Related: Propositional Revelation, the Only Revelation – by D.B. Knox.

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