Set Apart In Christ

Dear Lord... Well, it's May 20, 2011. Rapture Eve. There's been plenty of excitement building. Expectation abounds. Christians all throughout the world are packing their bags, saying goodbyes, and waiting like little children on the night before Christmas; wondering what tomorrow will bring. Cloudy with a chance of firey hail?

Special guest post from Dr Glen O'Brien __________________________________________________________ Mark Twain once said that human beings have a lot to learn from the higher animals.  Investigation of interspecies spirituality and animals as religious subjects is new territory for most of us. But increasingly scientists, including psychologists, have begun to investigate such questions as whether animals dream, wonder, contemplate death, are conscious of themselves and others, have a sense of right and wrong, shame, loyalty etc. that go beyond the usual explanations of such things as purely instinctual responses devoid of what we humans call “reflection.” 

It is a very significant and highly unusual Easter this year in Australia and New Zealand. For the first time ever Easter and ANZAC day coincide with one another. I find it incredibly ironic that the date of Easter, the most important day in the Christian calendar, is determined each year by an astronomical event. It goes something like this... the weekend closest to the first full moon which comes after the Autumn (southern hemisphere) or Spring (northern hemisphere) equinox; that date being March 21. A couple of years ago we had the earliest Easter for over 100 years. This year it's quite late, with Easter Sunday on April 24. The next day, April 25, is a day of special significance to Australians and New Zealanders. It is the day we remember those who have fought in conflicts, not just WW1 and WW2, but all conflicts and peace keeping efforts we as nations have been actively involved in. It is a day when we remember the fallen. The date goes back to 1915 when, due to a monumenta...

Yesterday was one of the most bizarre and most horrifying of my life. We've spent the last week taking some well earned time off and enjoying the last week of the school holidays with the kids. We decided to treat them to an outing to a kid's play centre nearby, affectionately known in our house as 'the bumpy slide'. We've been to several of these over the life of the girls, but this was a new place for us. When we arrived we were really impressed with this one. It was clean and tidy, the equipment all looked relatively new and in great condition, and the staff were friendly and attentive. We unleashed the kids and let them loose. They knew what to do. The kids were having a great time. After about an hour or so Megan and I were talking through our plans for the rest of the afternoon. Little did we know that none of them were going to happen. One of the pieces of equipment at this particular centre was a large jumping castle. It had the same shape as this one pi...

Recently there have been some discussions amongst my online friends about the nature of  the Trinity following a statement made by a visiting lecturer to Asbury Theological Seminary. I wasn't at the lecture, but from all accounts the suggestion was made that, as Jesus cried "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt 27:46) on the cross that there was, at that moment, a split in the Trinity. You can read more on the details of the lecture and some responses at both Jeffrey Rudy's  and Isaac Hopper's respective blogs. Of course, for anything to do with Trinitarian theology Gregory of Nyssa, as one of the Cappadocian Fathers, will have something important to say. Whilst he doesn't address the issue of a split in the Trinity with regards to Jesus on the cross, he does address the  suggestion of a split, albeit under a different guise. Gregory in On the Holy Spirit  is addressing the suggestion from Macedonius that the Holy Spirit was just "a divine ...

One particularly fascinating theological discussion relates to the humanity of Jesus. It's an important discussion, and tends to revolve around this question "What kind of human was Jesus?" The difficulty with answering this question is twofold. Firstly, the problem that Gregory Nazianzus highlighted long ago;  "For that which he has not assumed he has not healed; but that which is united to the Godhead he has saved" (Letter 101)   In other words, if Jesus did not become completely human like us then all that he achieved is ineffective and so a waste of time and energy. Humanity remains in the condition that it has been in since the Fall and we need an alternative saviour to either "top up" what Jesus didn't (or wasn't able to) achieve, or have another go at it all. Clearly this will not do. 

Special Guest Post by Chick Yuill . This was posted by Chick recently on his Facebook page, and is reproduced here with his kind permission. This year we celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible.  And this week two  things have stimulated my thinking in relation to Scripture. Men and Women Firstly, I read an email from a young woman who has joined the Christian Union at her  university only to discover that a woman is not allowed to do the weekly talk. Neither is she allowed to stand for president of the CU because they believe she would not have 'the necessary authority'. I responded to this by describing it as 'gender bigotry masquerading under the cloak of biblical loyalty'.