A few words need to be said about the nature of Scripture. This is not an article on exegesis. Nevertheless, because the issue of women in ministry is one that we need to solve by looking at the Bible, we need to be clear about how we are going to
Lead balloons: ideas only slightly too outrageous to be taken seriously.Recently, Mr Hawke has passed Mr Fraser as the second longest-serving Prime Minister in the history of Australia. It has not been as tumultuous a reign as Mr Whitlam's, but Mr Hawke has led our nation through a time of
When your friend asks you to prove the existence of God, ask him to prove that his wife loves him.Proving the existence of God is a strange task, along the lines of proving that my wife loves me. However, we are called upon to do it from time to time
I was talking to a group of students. “Good people go to hell”, I said. “The only people who go to Heaven are bad people.”They stared at me, the eyes glazed, the minds in neutral, the handbrakes firmly on.I could stand it no longer. “What did I just say?”“You said
Modern Christians are mad not to tithe! We just don't realize what we are missing out on.Whenever the subject is raised, we immediately think, “How can I survive if I put 10% of my salary into the collection plate instead of just flicking the bottom with my thumb as usual?”
There comes a time when even the most sacred of cows must face the mincer. Is it time to ditch justification by faith?Justification by faith alone.It is a phrase which tugs at the heart strings of Evangelicals all over the world. In many ways, it is what we stand for
There is nothing easier than making a Christian feel guilty about his prayer life. Everyone seems embarrassed about the little praying they do or the lot of praying they don't do. To build the guilt to psychiatric proportions, just mention some Christian saint of the past who had no trouble
Everybody liked Dennis. He was a capable, friendly man who went about his job as church treasurer cheerfully and without fuss.It all happened before anyone—perhaps even Dennis—realized. He’d been doing the job for a number of years, and was used to ‘fiddling’ things a bit here and there to keep
Cross-cultural evangelism is hard work, but is that what we're faced with here in Australia?Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible ... I have become all things to all men so that by all possible
In this issue of The Briefing, we look at denominations—those organisations we love to hate. This first article looks briefly at how we should relate to our denomination, and what interplay there should be between the denomination and the local church.It is ARCIC time again. The cold winds of ecumenical