I was recently at a Christian leaders’ conference called ‘Difficult Conversations’, and subtitled ‘How do we maintain unity’? The subjects for conversation included Islam, gender issues, same-sex marriage, and how Maori see our Pakeha-European churches. As I listened to the […]
Irrelevant Celebrations What’s to celebrate about Parihaka? Well, consider what we are already celebrating as a nation every year, on 31st October and 5th November: Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day. Since Halloween is still relatively new to NZ, many elderly […]
Two old friends were at a wedding. When the minister came to the familiar marriage text, “the two shall become one”, one laughed, leaned over to the other and whispered, “Yes, and we all know which one that will be!” […]
Propitiation What’s propitiation? It’s one big word but well worth understanding because it perfectly explains why Jesus died and why we need Him. There’s a lot of confusion today about this. William Paul Young, for example, author of popular Christian […]
Introduction Hermeneutics is the study of how to interpret the Scriptures and the books of Daniel and Revelation are particularly difficult. I’ve been studying them since 1973, listening carefully to competing eschatologies and observing first-hand the outworking in cults and sects […]
We’re often told today that the Jews are the “colonisers” and “imperialists” in the Middle East but who’s fact-checking this? Obviously, the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank is a complex issue which must be carefully negotiated to […]
I was recently contacted by a friend in Pakistan about a court case there where a Muslim judge was allowing a Christian woman to divorce her abusive ‘Christian’ husband. Christian leaders there, however, were responding that she couldn’t, even when […]
Introduction – Growing Spiritually My primary concern as a Bible teacher is that we are growing spiritually. I’ve been challenged by Hebrews 5:11-14 Concerning him [Melchizedek] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have […]
I recently read The Gospel and the Land of Promise (Christian Approaches to the Land of the Bible). Published in 2013, it’s a collection of essays arising from a one-day colloquium at Auckland’s Laidlaw-Carey Graduate School on July 9, 2009. I […]
Part 1. Peacemakers – “A Time For Everything”Sometimes, as Mrs Roy says above, fighting back is just “not worth it”! In Solomon’s famous words: There is an appointed time for everything under heaven… a time for war and a time for […]
