A few years ago, Harvard scholar and author, James Wood, wrote a review of Bart Ehrman's, God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer, entitled "Holiday in Hellmouth." Wood is an eloquent, penetrating, and insightful thinker and his relatively brief review is perhaps the best, most concise, and accessible articulation of what many see as the "problem" with "the problem of evil" and the various responses that have been offered to it. Wood is rightly repulsed by any discussion of the problem of evil that remains within the cold confines of academia. He loathes the "sterile laboratories of the professional theodicists, where white-coated philosophers quite often crush suffering down to the logician's granules of P and Q." For him, as for most, the "problem of evil" is located, not in the ivory tower, but in the intense tension that is naturally felt between the incalculable amount of suffering in this world and the existence of God. continue

Our God is a storytelling God. Much of the Bible is narrative, and a lot of that narrative is something that would give our children nightmares. continue

Those of you who have been introduced to Ridderbos may think a discussion of the kingdom involves a long, tedious and boring excursion. I hope that is not the case. What I have to say will not be as long and I hope not as tedious Ridderbos. continue

A. T. B. McGowan's major item for evangelicals to reconsider, in his book The Divine Spiration of Scripture: Challenging evangelical perspectives, concerns the termination of inerrancy.  Not only does he argue for the use of the word infallibility in place... continue

Talk of God's attributes that is not tethered to concrete stories of God's dealings with his people in history tends toward abstraction (and so away from doxology, where all talk of God should end). The same is true, of course,... continue

A number of pastoral issues have arisen recently which have brought home to me some particular truths and some particular emphases arising from them. Many of these situations are on the fringes of church life or outside it (though I... continue

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Ps 34.8)The goodness of God is a topic that repays careful contemplation. Vast tracts of biblical teaching are devoted to this theme (Exod 33.19; Pss 34.8; 100.5; etc.), and the singular... continue

The Church seems to be full of controversy.  Much of this is quite necessary, and not unexpected.  After all, as the New Testament continually reminds us, false teachers will continually arise and false teaching always needs to be addressed.  On... continue

S.M. (Bod Alwyn)God set before me loveTo draw my soul to him,But I was bound in Satan's chainsAnd revelled in my sin.I saw the mercy seat,Was taught the way to go;I saw that Christ had died for sin,But did not... continue

In the introductory article to this brief series, we marked out the limits of our study, namely that we are considering how individual believers, in their various spheres, might faithfully communicate the saving truth to those around them still lost... continue

You may not be aware of a portentous US drama for mild paranoiacs called Person of Interest. The premise is fairly simple: after September 11, 2001, a mysterious and reclusive (you could be mysterious without being reclusive, I suppose, but... continue

For anyone who may be interested, here's the complete picture:Introduction.Principles 1 and 2.1. Know and watch and guard your heart, cultivating the fear of the Lord.2. Seek wisdom.Principle 3.3. Remember the power of words.Principles 4, 5 and 6.4. Consider your... continue

Having trawled through the following . . .Introduction.Principles 1 and 2.Principle 3.Principles 4, 5 and 6.Principles 7 and 8.. . . we come to the end:9. Train and restrain your appetites.He who earnestly seeks good finds favour, but trouble will... continue

What's a Time Lord to do? He dabbles a little in the 17th century and the shadowy fiend known mainly as the Pope of Ealing throws twitterbombs in his direction. He dips an intergalactic toe in the murky waters of... continue

We're making progress, and I will bundle all these links in due course, but for now we have had . . .Introduction.Principles 1 and 2.Principle 3.Here are principles 4, 5 and 6.4. Consider your testimony and character (digital footprint).The fruit... continue

So far, the introduction and the first two principles. Today, the most developed of the principles, concerning the power of words. While the applications are specific to social media, I hope that the principles are transferable to any communication.3. Remember... continue

Following on from part one, in which I suggested that, as with so much else, we should ask the question, "How may I use social media to the glory of God?" Here are the first two principles:1. Know and watch... continue

Social media is perhaps the most common or popular expression of what is sometimes called Web 2.0. Web 1.0, for those who may be wondering, consisted mainly of static pages containing fixed data. Web 2.0 is the more dynamic, interactive... continue

Having done a little travelling over the last few days, I should like to attest once more to the following:How glorious is the thought that there is a family even upon earth of which the Son of God holds Himself... continue

"Who is a God like you,Pardoning iniquityAnd passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?He does not retain his anger forever,Because he delights in mercy.He will again have compassion on us,And will subdue our iniquities.You will cast all... continue

A friend just asked about Andrew Fuller, one of the leading lights of the 18th and 19th century Particular Baptists, and a man to be reckoned with in any age. Mention of Fuller always brings to mind one of his... continue