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I remember a TV advertisement for cheese-filled steaks from the 80’s where the waiter says “It’s in the center Mr. Venter”. Actually I have a vague memory of that expression dating back to my teens when the response was “In the middle Cyril”. Please don’t ask me what it meant though. Carl Barth, a great scholar of the mid-20th century, was known as a Christocentric theologian. This simply means Christ-in-the-center. I too am passionately Jesus-centered and believe that we should interpret all of scripture and life from a Christ-centered perspective. By this I mean that we should seek to
As I sit writing this article, the television news channel is blaring on about the escalating violence in Libya and the renewed dissatisfaction in Egypt. The price of crude oil is about $115 a barrel and the economic futurists are sharpening their pencils in preparation for a series of doom-and-gloom articles. I change channels and what do I find? I find an American right wing ‘evangelist’ figuratively mounting one of four horses of the apocalypse! Daniel’s king of the South is advancing, the king of the West is about to intervene, and all hell is about to break loose
I have to confess that I am amazed when I hear someone who has been married for forty years say “I am as much in love with my wife now as I was when we first got married.” I would relate more to “I love my wife more now than I did when we got married” because love does mature. To be ‘in love’ though is something else altogether. The words evoke memories of a heady hormonal euphoria when everything was new and utterly charming. But this fades as the relationship deepens over time and, whether good or bad,
Over the years I have been keeping reasonably up to date on the findings and theories concerning the shroud of Turin. Every year something new emerges as various scientists seek to understand this enigmatic burial shroud. The shroud put in its first recorded appearance in 1356 at a time when religious relics and superstitions were rife in medieval Europe. Some researchers claim to be able to trace it back to the sixth century and one even claims that there is reasonable evidence for it coming out of the first century. Whatever its recorded history, many religious people think it
The church was brought to life on the day of Pentecost around 29 AD, but now it needs to be brought to life again; it needs revival. I say this for three main reasons. Firstly, so many Christians, the living stones that make up the church, are practically indistinguishable from the rough rocks that constitute the ‘world’. George Barna has conducted surveys over the last few years that show that American Christians are little different to non-Christians. They may speak religious-speak, what I can ‘Christianees’, but they live no differently to their ‘pagan’ neighbours. And I am sure that
