Today there is a widespread embarrassment about confronting the role of the Christian church in the formation of the Western world… Yet there is a strong case to be made that our conception of society and of a just legal system cannot be fully understood apart from that debt. When we ignore it, we fail to understand ourselves’
‘‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as shall never be put out’
Early Christianity was a Movement that took on and conquered the all-powerful Roman Empire. Roman society was Pagan, largely amoral and pluralistic, everything the Christian world view was not, as well as being actively hostile to Christianity and Christians who were seen as ‘weird and depraved killjoys’. This hostility resulted in persecution, sometimes severe particularly in the reigns of Emperors Nero and Diocletian Nevertheless, by the early 4th century AD, Rome was, at least officially, a Christian Empire. So how did the Roman Empire go from being thoroughly pagan to Christianity becoming the state religion?
As kids growing up, one of the games we used to play was blowing Dandelion seeds from the Dandelion stalk and seeing how the wind took them. Great fun we thought but not Dad who had just dug half a dozen Dandelion weed plants out of his treasured lawn. However, that blowing in the wind game, where we do not know where the wind will take the seed or which will take root and grow, can I think act as a metaphor for how God transmits the gospel.
Recently a comment was made on an article I had posted which I couldn't remember so I decided to look it up. On doing so I saw that I had written it in 2014, a long eleven years ago! On re- reading it I realized that not much had changed in those eleven years (not … Continue reading Bible People with Anorexia
The Hot Cross Bun is so common all year round nowadays that for most in the West it has largely lost its meaning. So here is a Flyer that (together with a Bun!) can draw people back to the real meaning of Easter. *** In the first centuries A.D, society was hostile to Christians, so … Continue reading It’s Time to give ‘Hot Fish Buns’ a Run Again
The Road to Heaven is Strewn with Missional Roadblocks
And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand in the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
“the culturally compliant strain of Christianity promoted in Australia does not oblige (people) to embrace lifestyle choices that might involve discomfort.”
