Posted on March 9, 2010 - by Keith Waters

Civil Partnerships to take place in Churches?

Just picked this up from the Lawyers Christian Fellowship. Please do pass the link on to as many within your fellowships as possible..

(more…)

Posted on March 6, 2010 - by Stephen Vantassel

Historical Evidence

Evangelicals are trained to be highly suspicious of historical criticism. No wonder given how this critical tool has been used to undermine the truth of the Christian faith. Like most things, the problem wasn’t taking a critical view of historical evidence per se, rather the difficulty was the deistic and athiestic assumptions frequently grounding historical criticism.

(more…)

Posted on March 5, 2010 - by Chris Lazenby

How Can I Find Faith?

In my last entry ‘What is the Gospel’, I spoke quite a lot about faith. The bible says: ‘without faith it is impossible to please him (God), for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him’ (Hebrews 11:6). For this reason, if you are an agnostic, ’sitting on the fence’, maybe thinking that you’re not a bad person and that if there is a God, you’ll get by okay, I’d urge you to think again. I’d suggest to you that the fence you believe you are sitting on doesn’t exist; it is purely imaginary. If you like to imagine fences where there aren’t any, try imagining this particular fence as being so narrow that there isn’t room to sit on it. You must be on either one side of it or the other. As Jesus said: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30). (more…)

Posted on March 2, 2010 - by Calvin L. Smith

The Church and Israel Teaching Day

I’ll be doing an all-day seminar exploring various aspects of the relationship between the Church and Israel on Saturday 17 July (11 am - 4 pm) in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, organised by King’s Evangelical Divinity School. Further details later, but we’ve hired a suitable church hall and places are limited, so if you plan on attending you should express your interest as soon as possible by emailing the college office at office(a)kingsdivinity.org.

Posted on March 1, 2010 - by Andy Cheung

Peter O’Brien’s New Commentary on Hebrews

One of my favourite biblical scholars is Peter O’Brien who has already produced masterful commentaries on Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians/Philemon. I notice that his eagerly anticipated volume on Hebrews in the Pillar Commentary series is due out soon. (more…)

Posted on February 27, 2010 - by Stephen Vantassel

Was Jesus an Environmentalist?

With all the conversation about creation-care amongst Christians, one has to ask, “Was Jesus an Environmentalist?” It isn’t a silly question, one would hope that if Christians are going to engage in an activity as part of their Christian obligation, it would make sense to ask if Jesus would support the behavior?

In one sense, the question of environmentalism is anachronistic. People in Christ’s day had enough trouble just staying alive, let alone worry about whether a specific species was going extinct. But on another level, we can inquire and gain some insight on how his behavior should be a model for ours? For example, many people worry about whether they are recycling enough or feel guilt about the bottled water they bought because they were thirsty.
Consider Christ, he killed a fig tree simply because it didn’t bear fruit when he wanted it (Mk 11). Does this exemplify behavior of someone who is supposedly calling us to environmentalism?Christ killed a tree simply to make a point. Is that right? Couldn’t he have just made his point in a more environmentally responsible way?

I think a couple of points should be considered. First, Christ is Lord of Creation. He can do with his property as he wished/s. Second, since Christ was fully human, it means we too can destroy elements of God’s creation in God’s service. That may shock some people, but it is true. When you eat an animal, you destroy God’s creation but no moral stain obtains. The key is to judge oneself accurately and truly, by asking, “is this destruction to God’s glory or yours?”  While that is a humbling question, we should also consider that Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden is light.

Stephen Vantassel is a tutor at King’s Evangelical Divinity School and author of Dominion over Wildlife? An Environmental-Theology of Human-Wildlife Relations (Wipf and Stock, 2009)

Posted on February 23, 2010 - by King's Evangelical Divinity School

KEDS Tutor’s Family Enjoy BAFTA Success

KEDS tutor of theology Chris Lazenby, who also regularly contributes to this blog under the pen name Provocateur, and his wife Pam were overjoyed when their daughter Emma Lazenby won the Short Animation category during last weekend’s BAFTA awards (British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the British equivalent of the Oscars) held at Covent Garden, London, on 21 February. Emma’s short film, entitled Mother of Many, is based on her mother’s midwifery career spanning 27 years, during which time she delivered many, many babies in Silsden, Yorkshire. Chris and Pam are naturally very proud of Emma’s achievement and we congratulate them all.

Protecting the Environment

by Stephen Vantassel on February 21, 2010