Published Academic Articles
Other publications
It’s a Friday early-morning prayer meeting and one of the regulars is recounting to God the many problems in our troubled world. The prayer moves from the terrorist attacks in Nigeria, to the endemic problem of abortion on demand, and then concludes with prayer for the two teenage girls who were burnt alive as part of a satanic ritual. At the end of this sorry litany the dear person ends with, “But you are in control of everything O Lord, so all is well. Amen.” What, I wonder did he mean when he claimed that God was in control?
There is a well-known saying attributed to St. Augustine; ‘In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity’. In the context of Christian theology this usually means that we should not argue about or divide over the non-essential doctrines of the Faith. Most scholars agree with this but the problem is that relatively minor doctrines have profound implications. Take for instance the doctrine of the essential nature of man. Many modern theological thinkers reject the view that a person is anything other than a unity (monism) because they can find no scientific evidence for a spirit/soul. They claim
Paul warned that the time would come when people would no longer welcome sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3) and most Bible-believing Christians suspect that time has indeed come. The problem though is ‘what constitutes sound doctrine?’ To the Fundamentalist, sound doctrine must include such things as the inerrancy of scripture, a literal six day creation, and so on. A Liberal Christian might argue that sound doctrine is whatever conforms to the law of love. A Calvinist would build a five-point definition around God’s sovereign predeterminism. So what then constitutes sound doctrine? In First Timothy Paul warned about false teachers
It is strange that we tend to remember embarrassing moments with such clarity. I have preached over a thousand different sermons, but the ones that I remember most vividly are those that embarrassed me. In one of my very earliest sermons I covered the book of Jude in twenty minutes. After I had said “Amen” and sat down, my mentor stood up and asked the congregation to summarize the message in three points. There was total silence for a full minute, so he turned to me and asked me to repeat my three main points. What three points?! I
Not too many people in South Africa would have heard the name Harold Camping, until the month of May 2011 that is. Since 2005 this radio preacher from the USA has been boldly proclaiming that the Rapture would occur at 6pm 21st May, 2011. The press got hold of this and gave him a prominence he didn’t deserve. I remember reading a book, ’88 reasons why the Rapture will be in 1988’ and I also remember throwing it in the bin in January 1989! The book apparently sold more than 4.5 million copies – can you believe it?! Well,
