Leon Morris on The Person of Christ

Church Society has republished Leon Morris’ 1960 Church Book Room Press booklet “The Person of Christ’ on their website:

“When we want to understand the importance of a person we turn to his work. If we think, for example, of Winston Churchill our minds instinctively go back to the dark days of the war when he rallied the Empire. If we think of Napoleon we recall his mighty deeds on many battlefields. If we think of Einstein his enunciation of the theory of relativity gives us the measure of his greatness. What men do shows what men are.

Similarly in the religious world, if we wish to understand something of the person of Jesus Christ we do well to begin with what He has done. John sums it up for us in a sentence: ‘the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world’ (1 Jn. 4:14). The greatness of Christ is to be seen in the fact that He brought salvation, not for just a few, but for ‘the world’…”

Read it here.

Despite the sceptics, there is real truth in the story of Christmas

“There are enough question marks over the Christmas story for dogmatic sceptics to have a field day at this time of year, but the core historical realities are not easily swept away…”

– John Dickson writes in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Very different paths to God

“Everything I know about God comes from God himself.”

– Archbishop of Sydney Dr Peter Jensen and ‘militant agnostic’ Brian Schmidt are both featured in today’s Sydney Daily Telegraph on ‘seeking the truth of our existence’.

Objections to Christmas

“Column 8 of the Sydney Morning Herald last week had an interesting entry from a man identifying only as a ‘Canberra Anglican parish priest’. In the lead up to Christmas he had organised some community carols in his local shopping centre, but met some resistance.

‘To my great amusement,’ he wrote, ‘the manager of the centre objected, because she thinks the “[expletive] Christians want to take over Christmas.”

I’d always assumed that the “Christ” bit in both words might serve as a clue.’ …”

– read the full article by Simon Smart at the Centre for Public Christianity.

The saint(s) go marching in

Over at SydneyAnglicans.net, Glenn Davies, Bishop of North Sydney, provides some much-needed Biblical perspective for the current excitement about Mary MacKillop.

J I Packer interviewed at Oak Hill

In May 2009, Dr Jim Packer spoke at Oak Hill College’s annual School of Theology.

While at the college, he was was interviewed on camera by Principal Mike Ovey.

Each segment runs for about 10 minutes.

Part 1: Knowing your stuff – theological training in a climate of cultural scepticism.

Part 2: The faith taught not caught – the challenge of being a pastoral theologian.

Part 3: Training the congregation – the greatest challenges facing Christian ministers today.

Also see the new Commentary magazine online.

The death of Oral Roberts

“Roberts was a pioneer in the use of modern electronic media. Early on, Roberts recognized the power of television. He understood that radio could reach untold thousands, but he saw television as the way of reaching hypermodern America.”

– Albert Mohler writes about Oral Roberts’ methods, his message, and his legacy.

‘Being Faithful’ now available

“Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today” is now available for purchase. Details from GAFCON.

Christmas songs for download

At Between Two Worlds, Justin Taylor has received permission to make some Christ-centred Christmas songs and hymns available for free download.

T. F. Torrance on the meaning of the cross

“As many of us await the endlessly delayed second volume of T. F. Torrance’s lectures on the person and work of Christ, I thought I would share a purple passage from the end of volume one, Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ …”

– Read it at ACL President Mark Thompson’s blog.

Learning from a Liberal mistake

Charles Raven has written a characteristically insightful article on the latest happenings in the Anglican Communion:

“the orthodox should not be in a hurry to draw the simplistic conclusion that my enemy’s enemy must be my friend…”

Learning from a Liberal mistake

As GAFCON was launched in Jerusalem last year, Archbishop Peter Jensen spoke of the ‘extraordinary strategic blunder’ by the Episcopal Church of the United States in consecrating a practising homosexual, Gene Robinson, as a bishop in 2003 which awoke the “sleeping giant that is evangelical Anglicanism”.

Now liberals have committed a second strategic blunder. Not so much the emergence of partnered lesbian Mary Glasspool as suffragan bishop elect by the Diocese of Los Angeles – such a move was entirely predictable after this year’s General Convention rejected Rowan Williams call for ‘gracious restraint – but their very public hostility towards Dr Williams following his rather cool and disapproving response. Read more

12 Days of Christmas

Each day, for twelve days, the Centre for Public Christianity is releasing a short video on a Christmas-related theme.

“There’s a mixture of vox pops drawing on the public’s attitudes to the meaning of Christmas, interviews, book reviews, and brief discussions on the historical and philosophical questions surrounding the birth of Jesus.”

– See them (as they are released) here and consider how you might use them.