The Reason for Faith
“Faith may lack a comprehensive knowledge of its object, but unless it is pure folly, it typically can see enough evidence to know that the testimony about it is, at least, likely to be true. It is more than a mere opinion which cannot commit firmly to one position or another…”
– Dr Andrew Leslie at Moore College writes about Faith in the College’s ‘ThinkTank’ Faculty blog.
Budget Considerations
“With an election in the offing it is never surprising that the political rhetoric around the Budget indulges self-interest. While we might expect that, and while we are critiquing the Budget, should we not critique our self-interest and how we became so addicted to ourselves? Budget time seems like a great opportunity to consider our hedonistic materialism…”
– Bishop of Armidale Rick Lewers asks if we should ‘budget God back into our economy’.
A majority of millennials reject capitalism and support Bernie
“After generations of both political correctness and philosophical postmodernism, we now see a generation that seems to be virtually incapable of beginning any sentence with anything other than, ‘I feel like,’ which as is indicated in this article means a retreat from any claim of truth or a fact merely to an assertion of opinion.…”
– Albert Mohler reflects on the belief system (or lack thereof) of many millennials. Insightful and disturbing. From The Briefing, 03 May 2016.
Defence Anglicans Prayer Diary 2016
Our friends who minister to Australia’s Defence personnel would be very glad of your prayers on a regular basis.
The Defence Anglicans Prayer Diary for 2016 is now up on their website.
Be encouraged to download and use it.
The Anglican Communion and GAFCON: Interpreting the Peter Jensen interview
“Peter Jensen, the retired Archbishop of Sydney and the current general Secretary of GAFCON, has given an extensive interview to VirtueOnline in which he expressed frankly some of his views on the current state of the Anglican Communion, and the mission of the Christian church in contemporary culture. The Virtue piece also contains some excerpts from talks that Jensen gave to the recent CANA meeting in Pennsylvania. It is worth giving these comments some analysis, as they give voice to the thinking behind GAFCON, as well as bringing to light some of the problems in global Anglicanism that derive from very different perceptions and interpretations of events…”
– Andrew Syme at Anglican Mainstream provides his analysis of the reported interview with Dr. Jensen.
FCANZ Opening Conference audio
Audio files from the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans New Zealand’s opening conference have now been posted online.
In his closing address, FCANZ Chairman Jay Behan (pictured) reminds his hearers that human sexuality is not the gospel. However it is a gospel issue which must not be ignored.
Take the time to listen, and be urged to pray for our brothers and sisters in New Zealand as they seek godly wisdom for the days ahead.
(The General Synod of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia meets in Napier 06–13 May 2016.)
Preaching or Social Action?
“Can a ‘church’ be a good church if it minimises the importance of preaching? Or if it does not engage with social action?
How does the New Testament help set our priorities for ministry and preaching?
Should a pastor preach on things such as political matters, social matters or current controversies?”
– In the latest Preaching Matters video from St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, Kevin DeYoung looks at the New Testament pattern.
2016 New College Lectures: Jesus and the Ten Gospels
“Some of the most widely published challenges to the Christian faith today have come in the publicity surrounding the ‘apocryphal’ Gospels not included in the Christian Bible.
The idea that there is nothing particularly special about the four New Testament Gospels has appeared in both the popular media and in Biblical scholarship, from references to the Gospel of Philip in the Da Vinci Code, to the publication by the Harvard Theological Review of the so-called ‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’ fragment.
These lectures will discuss the relevance of these Gospels outside of the Bible, comparing them with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”
– New College at UNSW announces this year’s New College Lectures, to be given by Dr Simon Gathercole, Tuesday, 20th & Thursday, 22nd September 2016.
(Photo courtesy Lanier Theological Library.)
Good Disagreement in the Church of England?
“We live before a watching world.
Jesus did say: ‘By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ (John13.35). So there is no excuse for rudeness or cavalier attitudes to each other.
Paul, in the chapter that begins to work out the implications of the gospel for our daily living and relationships, writes: ‘Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour’ (Romans 12.10). So in that sense ‘good disagreement’ is a healthy and desirable thing to aim for.
But the concept of ‘good disagreement’ is becoming something that is applied in a much broader way. It is being used to promote a ‘live and let live’ approach to important doctrinal issues and sexual ethics in particular. Unity is appealed to in a way that trumps vital revealed truths. Is this helpful or right?…”
– Bishop Wallace Benn writes in Evangelicals Now. (Photo: GAFCON.)
Related: Reflections on a church that recently embraced egalitarianism – Denny Burk.
Philippians & Philemon: Joy in the Lord now available
Paul Barnett’s new commentary, Philippians & Philemon: Joy in the Lord, is now available from CEP.
You can check out some sample pages at this link.
Update: CEP tells us that that they have a 20% off everything sale – including this new commentary – from now until Friday 29 April.
The Reformation meets ‘Trellis and Vine’
Mark Dever interviewed Phillip Jensen at Together for the Gospel 2016 two weeks ago in Louisville, Kentucky.
In an enjoyable and encouraging interview, Phillip introduces his hearers to Sydney Anglicans and the English Reformation, explains why Anglicanism is the way it is now, and much more. Phillip also speaks of the latest from Matthias Media – The Vine Project, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. (The book will be available during May.)
Bathrooms and discrimination
“The use of public bathrooms has become a topic of fierce debate in recent days, in connection with the rights of transgender persons. I want to mention a few of the issues raised in the United States before discussing the situation in Australia…”
– In his latest informative post, Neil Foster, Associate Professor in Law at Newcastle, maps out some of the legal background for the controversy in the USA, as well giving a perspective on where the laws in Australia stand.
Shakespeare’s Bible?
On the eve of the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare (died 23 April 1616, at the age of 52), Bible Society Australia has released this video of a Bible they believe was his.
Dr. John Harris explains, at this link.
Moore College Open Events coming up in May
Here’s a good opportunity to learn about Moore College – especially if you are contemplating being better equipped for mission and ministry –
Open Night – Monday 2 May 7:15pm – 9:00pm.
Open Week – Monday 2 May – Friday 6 May.
Stott Bowdlerised
“Recently I bought a copy of John Stott’s brief and famous exposition of the Christian gospel, Basic Christianity, which I intended to give to a friend.
The book was first published in 1958 and has sold several million copies. It is at once simple and refined, gentle and uncompromising, and many people in the Anglophone world can trace their conversions to reading Stott’s little masterpiece. If any “spiritual classics” were published during the second half of the twentieth century, Basic Christianity surely is one. …
The Basic Christianity people are buying and reading today is a bad imitation of the original.”
– A disturbing observation from Barton Swaim at First Things. (via Tim Challies.)
Update: Here’s a response from Eerdmans.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…