Ballymena street signs





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A wonky couple of days

Only two weeks to go before semester finishes. Students are pretty stressed out. They cheered on Friday when class finished. Had a visit last night from an ex-evangelical pastor who's joined the Catholic church and now teaches religion in a an upmarket monks' school. He was keen to justify his actions so feel he's not at peace with the move. It made me think how poor the care of pastors is when things get difficult for them. And how astute Catholic clergy are, more so than their evangelical counterparts. Reading New Testament Theology by Philip Esler, who's trying to justify praying to the saints. Feel it's been a wonky couple of days.
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Is church membership biblical?

Next translated offering from Ayuda Pastoral (Help for Pastors): Is it right to have a system of local church membership?   What principles are there for a balanced view of such a membership? The New Testament does not give us detailed information about local church practices.   We don’t know the times and forms of services nor what were the customs about admitting someone to church membership or even if such a list existed.   These things need to be worked out in our own context.  However there are some biblical principles involved: There existed a system of recognizing church members .  Passages which deal with church discipline show that there was a way of knowing who belonged to the church (Matt. 18:17;  3 Jn.  1:10).  Of the 75 uses of the word “church” in the New Testament,   most refer to a local one with people recognized as belonging to it. Basic knowledge about Christ was required for membershi...
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Dangerous ground in Parliament Hall

It was like taking part in a Harry Potter episode.    The location was Parliament Hall where the Scots Parliament met in 1645-46.   You enter it by pushing open an unmarked door at 66 South Street,  St Andrews.     Bright panelled walls and enormous portraits look down upon you in a friendly manner. We were warned by the Divinity Dean,  Ivor Davidson,  that we were on dangerous ground.   What we were embarking on "involves confession,  petition,  doxology and wonder.   We are at the edges of what we can say".       This was a conference on the Doctrine of the Trinity. The first to speak,  Tom McCall,   had flown in (by aeroplane) from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,  Chicago.    Since arriving he had spent a night in a tent on Ben Nevis,  and now he spoke at breakneck speed on the biblical data. The second speaker looked as if he had flown i...
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