God has been preparing the digital and the metaverse mission fields, and in these digital environments we can reach the world. A handful of innovative church planters with little to no support are leading what can at the very least be called an innovative experiment. Their work is bringing hard-to-reach people encountered in digital spaces into relationships with Jesus. The missional implications of their work cannot be ignored.
Freedom to do what we want – rather than what we ought – is deceptive. Yet we live in a society where the right to be free to do what you like is widely accepted. It’s called liberalism. We are autonomous individuals, we are told, free to pursue self-interest, free to discover our ‘authentic selves’. At the same time, freedom is a concept championed by Christian thinkers throughout history. Freedom of conscience, closely linked with freedom of worship, is the keystone of all freedoms. Luther’s i
The prosperity gospel teaches that God wants his people to be wealthy and healthy. At its core is often the idea that in Christ God has restored to us the blessings of the covenant made with Abraham. These blessings are understood in a primarily material way, including good health, economic prosperity, and an all-round victory in most areas of life. Prosperity gospel preachers rely heavily on the Old Testament to make this case, arguing that God promises his people abundant wealth and abounding
In fact the Western world has indeed ‘lost its reason’ in two senses. It has lost its rationale, its reason for existence; it is now ignorant not only of what’s right and wrong but even of what it stands for. Yet it has also ‘lost its reason’ because it has become an intellectual chaos in which nothing is certain except uncertainty.
When I was a young Christian, I was told by a well-respected pastor and seminary teacher that there are two views on the composition of a human being: dichotomy (body and spirit), or trichotomy (body, soul, and spirit). The spirit is that part of our being that can get connected with God. That explains why churches, Chinese churches in particular, are fond of the words “spiritual” (屬靈) and “spirituality” (靈性、靈命).
To dispel the myth of communism as some utopian, hip, climate-friendly alternative to free-market capitalism, it’s critically important to distinguish between the idealized version of communism presented in popular culture and the harsh reality of its implementation in real life.
The text for this month is 1 Corinthians 1:9-10 (NLT), “God will (keep you strong and free from blame), for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into (koinonia) with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.”
Christian school education has a long history in China, going back at least to Robert Morrison’s Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca in 1818. In fact, thirteen of the country’s premier universities were once Christian. That all changed after the current government took power in 1949.
Galatians is widely accepted as Paul’s first epistle. It emerged in response to a radical disruption of the Jewish faith following the resurrection of Jesus. Almost 2,000 years on, we can too easily gloss over the shocking nature of this shift, which became a schism, and then an entirely independent religion with unbroken spiritual roots in the history of Israel and Judaism.
The stubborn myth that science and faith are diametrically opposed gets knocked about in the current exhibition on ‘the creation of science’ in the Catherijne Convent Museum I visited in Utrecht this week.
Easter, 2022, two months after the Russian invasion began, Volodymyr Zelensky led his nation in prayer for Ukraine from the St Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv in a pre-recorded video.
All religious festivals provide opportunities to think about God and eternity. Easter provides a particular opportunity to think about Jesus: who He is and what He has done.
