Posts

Skin Deep? Sexual Immorality

Pornography is a poisonous cancer, designed to be addictive, it seeps into minds and emotions. Pornography is a killer, it gives a false, idolatrous view of sex, including often violent relationships that kills passion and intimacy within marriage. Pornography says that infidelity is okay. So, what should you do if addicted to porn? Following Jesus’… Continue reading Skin Deep? Sexual Immorality

Reopening and defying the law -why John McArthur has got this badly wrong

Grace Community Church, Sun Valley is a mega-church in California.  It’s pastor John MacArthur is prominent, particularly from the conservative end of the spectrum with an international teaching ministry. Last week, they decided to re-open their building for public worship in defiance of State rules during Coronavirus. Their argument was that they must obey God… Continue reading Reopening and defying the law -why John McArthur has got this badly wrong

Skin Deep? Anger and Murder

Have you ever called anyone a fool or an idiot? I would probably do better to ask if anyone has not called someone that!  So, we probably should take Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:21-26 seriously. But doesn’t the Bible, Paul and even Jesus himself refer to people as fools and foolish?  So, what exactly is… Continue reading Skin Deep? Anger and Murder

Antisemitism is racist – no ifs no buts

Once again, antisemitism is in the news.  A celebrity has been sounding off on his twitter account, threatening to take on the whole Jewish community, comparing Jews to the KKK, encouraging the usual tropes about Jews controlling the world’s money. If we thought that antisemitism had gone away with the change of Labour Party leadership,… Continue reading Antisemitism is racist – no ifs no buts

When pastoral questions might be linked (A further response to Beth Moore)

I want to come back to Beth Moore’s questions.  Now we assumed that the two questions were hypothetical and that they were about two distinct scenarios. However, suppose that they weren’t.  Of course, only Beth Moore knows the answer to that. Certainly I get the feel that they are at least based on her wealth… Continue reading When pastoral questions might be linked (A further response to Beth Moore)

Husbands, wives, Ephesians 5 and mental health (responding to Beth Moore’s questions)

Earlier in the week, Beth Moore asked two questions, specifically aimed at men who hold to a complementarian view of male/female relationships in the church and family.[1]  Whilst she asked for quick tweet answers, I wanted to make a fuller response. So here it is. My friend Steve Kneale has also written and so I… Continue reading Husbands, wives, Ephesians 5 and mental health (responding to Beth Moore’s questions)

Skin Deep? (Matthew 5:17-48)

“It doesn’t apply to me though.”  That seems to be the general attitude of British people to laws we don’t like. If you need to pop up to Durham for a few days and the lockdown rules say no, then you can probably find an exception. Rules about unnecessary journeys don’t apply to me if… Continue reading Skin Deep? (Matthew 5:17-48)

Simple

God is simple. That might be a surprising thing to say, shocking even.  We tend to use the word pejoratively.  In our world, simple is associated with inferiority and stupidity. In our world things move from simple to complex. So we had better sort out quickly what we mean by simple and complex in this… Continue reading Simple

Recovering from Biblical manhood and womanhood – a review

I finally sat down to read Aimee Byrd’s book Recovering From Biblical Manhood and Womanhood today (birthday present). You may recall that a few weeks back I had written in defence of Aimee following some rather unpleasant goings on in an online facebook group. Well I thought it was important to sit down and read… Continue reading Recovering from Biblical manhood and womanhood – a review