The Bible: Bloodthirsty Text or Solid Witness?
In this ‘Why Believe?’ series we’ve been engaged in a little exercise of cumulative case apologetics – not trying to demonstrate that everything that Christianity stands for is proved with one knockout blow, but cumulatively building a case for belief, one piece at a time. The role of the Bible in building or detracting from this case is important. While arguments for theism establish that belief in a god or gods is reasonable, at some point we have to give content to the character and nature of the god believed in. While a certain amount can be ascertained from...
Read MoreTheism, and all that…
When we ask the ‘why believe’ question we pretty soon come to the ‘but can I believe that God exists?’ question. To answer it, we have to explore whether theism is reasonable. Theism claims that there is a God who is the creator and ruler of the universe. It does not go much further than that. This God could be the one worshiped in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism (for theism does not insist that there can only be one God) and potentially a host of other faiths as well. A great deal of content is not attached to the belief, but it stands in stark contrast to...
Read MoreWhy believe? A sort of apologetics 101…
Why believe? Well, you already do. The question is really, what do you believe, and why? The first big question is the God one. Does God exist, and if so does it matter? Regardless of whether your answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the first part of the question, some faith is involved. Perhaps it is better to ask which takes the greater faith, to believe that God exists or does not exist. In the absence of definitive proof for either side, some faith is involved. At the cognitive level, it is about assessing the evidence – where does the weight of evidence point? Those...
Read MoreStarting Tuesday
Thanks to those of you who have kept coming back to this site,hoping to find something a little more substantial on it. The good news is that from this Tuesday, 25 August, 2015 your visits will be rewarded. My aim is to post every Tuesday and Friday – with some bonus additions from time to time. The first series will be on ‘Why Believe’ – a little exercise in apologetics for the non specialist. Other frequent themes will be current issues, leadership, how to read the Bible, spiritual formation, church and society, Christian education and some more devotional...
Read MoreThe Role of the Holy Spirit in the Interpretation of Scripture
Ben O’Reilly for TH401 Knowledge of God Thanks to Ben O’Reilly, a Vose BMin student, for providing the first essay for our budding theologians column. As the title suggests, his essay explore the role of the Holy Spirit in interpreting Scripture. Abstract The role of the Holy Spirit in the Interpretation of Scripture is to guide us to the truth contained within it. The Spirit assists us in interpretation by guiding us to truth, convincing us that it is true, and helping us understand and appropriate truth to our own faith and way of life. Without the help of the Holy...
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