Remembering Karl Barth

Karl Barth died 41 years ago today.
Here are a few of my favourite quotes from him:
On his own theology:
My whole theology, you see, is fundamentally a theology for parsons. It grew out of my own situation when I had to teach and preach and counsel a little. (From a radio broadcast made shortly before [...]

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How can I be sure of climate heaven?

Imagine you’re in a conversation with someone of another religion.  At some point you might ask them: “Are you sure of heaven/Valhalla/getting beamed to the mother ship?”  (delete as appropriate).
This is a good question because no other god actually saves.  They might talk a big game but they can’t be counted on to do the [...]

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Thank you preacher- that was boring, uninspired, obscure and moralistic

Of course the words they use are ‘faithful’, ‘clear’, ‘helpful’ and ‘challenging’.
But we all know what they mean.
By the way – when did ‘faithful’ become a synonym for boring? 
I want to be understood on this point – when I advocate gospel-alone evangelism - that is not a licence for boring preaching.  There are illegitimate solutions to boring [...]

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The Truth that is in Jesus [Thawed out Thursday]

Given our current discussion about apologetics, thought I’d thaw out this post…
 
We’ve noted the danger of fiting Jesus into a pre-fab system of truth. We don’t want to do that.  But Missy has asked the $64 000 question.  It’s basically this: What do we do when speaking to a non-Christian - isn’t it desirable at least sometimes to bring Christ [...]

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The Gospel is not a good idea

I’ve just come back from a prayer meeting focussed on mission events we’re holding next year.  The woman I was praying with earnestly asked the Father,
Lord, we don’t want to persuade people that the Gospel is a good idea.  We want them to meet the living Lord Jesus and be born again.
My Amen was hearty [...]

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No Richard, I don’t believe in that god either

Dawkins was asked in an article – Where does evolution leave God?  He answered:
“Before 1859 it would have seemed natural to agree with the Reverend William Paley, in “Natural Theology,” that the creation of life was God’s greatest work. Especially (vanity might add) human life. Today we’d amend the statement: Evolution is the universe’s greatest [...]

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Christ Alone, Grace Alone, Revelation Alone

I’m halfway through Mike Reeves’ excellent lectures on a theology of revelation.  Go and listen now if you haven’t done already.
Maybe I should put them somewhere prominently and permanently on the blog because they explain much better than I can the thinking behind ‘Christ the Truth’. 
To be an evangelical theologian is to have your method [...]

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A couple of thoughts on Dawkins

I think, actually, [Richard Dawkins is] a pre-Christian atheist, because he never understood what Christianity is about in the first place! That would be rather like Madonna calling herself post-Marxist. You’d have to read him first to be post-him. As I’ve said before, I think that Dawkins in particular makes such crass mistakes about the [...]

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And you know in a funny way that’s a bit like cheeses

My friend John (not a Christian) was joking with me over breakfast about Christians crow-barring Jesus into talks that begin elsewhere.
“I’d like to hear a Christian speak about God and Jesus for 15 minutes and then say ‘But you know in a funny sort of way that’s a bit like cheeses… or monkeys… or communism, [...]

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Two conversion stories

Dan Barker of the Freedom from Religion Foundation tells of his past in evangelical Christianity
I was a “doer of the word and not a hearer only.” I went to a Christian college, majored in Religion/Philosophy, became ordained and served in a pastoral capacity in three California churches. I personally led many people to Jesus Christ, [...]

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Apologetic Christianity

In a Christian book shop this morning they were promoting a new apologetics book with the strapline:
Why God probably exists.  Why Jesus is probably divine.
Hardly the language of revelation (i.e. of the gospel!)
The book consisted of four theistic proofs, a couple of chapters on Jesus and then some answers to thorny questions.  An epilogue asked readers [...]

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How to put on a pre-evangelistic event

Follow my simple scheme:
STEP 1:  Ask yourself this question.  What is more attractive than Jesus?  Let’s call this thing X.
STEP 2:  Lift X high.  Be loud.  Be proud. 
STEP 3:  Celebrate a job well done when unbelievers agree that X really is better than Jesus.
 
Presto!
 
.

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Ten thoughts on planning missions

 Like many churches across the country, we’re planning our involvement with the Passion for Life mission initiative taking place in Easter 2010.  Here are ten thoughts on these kinds of missions in no particular order.

‘A mission’ should be part of a church’s ongoing life of mission.  The one-off sports event with gospel talk at half [...]

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The evolution of a creationist

In the beginning I believed in billions of years.
Then, about 8 years ago, a great friend engaged me in the most infuriating conversation of my life.  He actually asked me to articulate my position.  He wanted me to spell out how I thought Eden and Adam fitted into my evolution story.  How evolved was humanity when [...]

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We all have our creation stories

Just watched this documentary on the Large Hadron Collider: “The Big Bang Machine.” (BBC4) presented by Brian Cox.
 
Here’s an extract from around 4:20 – 7:20.   
Physics is stuck and the only thing left to do is recreate the universe as it was a fraction of a second after the big bang.  That’s [...]

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All scientists are believers

Don’t believe me?  Check out this article which seeks to explain the fine-tuning of the observable universe.  (source: MetaCatholic).
Here’s a representative quotation:
Physicists don’t like coincidences. They like even less the notion that life is somehow central to the universe, and yet recent discoveries are forcing them to confront that very idea. Life, it seems, is [...]

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Faith seeking understanding

Are we really post-modern after all?  Actually isn’t the West incurably modernist?  Isn’t post-modernism just ultra-modernism anyway?  And who gives a flying rip?  All these thoughts jostled for prominence as I read the first five pages of the Times this afternoon.  I’ll let you guess which thought won.
Here’s what brought on this A-level philosophizing.  On page 2 the [...]

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Love is the greatest thing… or is it?

Ok, another little example of engaging with non-Christian world-views.  This is from a wedding sermon I gave a few weeks ago.  The great majority of the congregation were not Christians. The couple asked me to speak from 1 John 4:7-12.  I’ll quote a part of the sermon and then make some comments.  (Just so you know [...]

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The truth that is in Jesus

Ok, so we’ve noted the danger of fiting Jesus into a pre-fab system of truth. We don’t want to do that.  But Missy has asked the $64 000 question.  It’s basically this: What do we do when speaking to a non-Christian - isn’t it desirable at least sometimes to bring Christ to them according to their preferred programme?? 
I’m not going [...]

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Amen Amen

If you ever say Amen it’s usually a response to what someone else has said or prayed, right?
And it’s usually after what they’ve said, right?
And only if it’s really good do you repeat it: ’Amen, Amen!’, right?
So it’s an affirmation that someone else has just spoken truth (Amen is straight from the Hebrew for truth).
But when [...]

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Apologetics? Nein!

Some nice moments from Barth against apologetics
“Knowledge of revelation… begins with certitude. Either God has spoken or He has not spoken. If He has spoken, He has done so in such a manner that it is impossible not to heed Him. Among others, the question of His existence and nature are then decided and can [...]

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