Terry's blog

What are we to make of the book of Jonah? A rebellious prophet, the wholesale conversion of a pagan city, worms doing the Lord’s work and then, of course, the fish miracle! As Christians we are supposed to believe it somehow, but exactly how?

Is it a parable which makes an important point about God’s love for everyone, not just Israel? In that case Jonah never really existed and the specific details can be glossed over.

If it is an allegory, then Jonah obviously didn’t exist and we are looking for something which really does exist which the symbols of Jonah are pointing to.

Then again, it could be an historical narrative as genuine as any other in the Old Testament.

I think Jesus gives us the answer and he leaves us in no doubt.

Today was a long day. A very long day. In fact, one of the longest we’ve had in quite a while. And it all has to do with how we measure time (ie Horology). It seems every now & then official earth time falls fractionally behind reality & needs an adjustment. Today was that day.

Charles Colson, the self-confessed ‘hatchet man’ for President Richard Nixon, died this week. If ever there was someone whose life typified the ‘condemned’ to ‘set free’ message of the gospel, it was he.

Christians know this of themselves anyway, but Colson’s conversion showed the world just what the Lord can do when a person completely surrenders.

To think that someone so intimately involved in the Watergate scandal could end his life as a respected elder statesman. That was Colson.

Rarely have I put my hopes in a Roman Catholic to defend orthodox Christianity and this week’s effort by Cardinal George Pell, in his debate with atheist Richard Dawkins, has done little to change my mind.

However, there is one who, if he were alive, I would gladly offer up to Mr Dawkins on such an occasion: GK Chesterton.
 

I read something in the Bible which amazed me the other day.

Sure, we all think we know the Word pretty well, but every now and then you have to stop and wonder, “Why didn’t I see that before?”

I had that experience recently while reading the minor prophet Zechariah.

Read on...

Systematic Theologies have a long and distinguished tradition in Christian history. The great men of theology have contributed in this area.

Anyone presuming to write such a book has an enormous task in front of them. What do you include? What do you leave out?

The latest contribution to the genre comes from Michael Horton, one of the world’s most prolific Reformed authors.

Terry Allen takes a look inside.

He was an Australian High Court judge, a QC, an Order of Australia recipient and he lost them all.

Convicted of lying under oath over a $77 traffic infringement, Marcus Einfeld is back on the outside after two years behind bars.

Now Einfeld can look back on his ‘silly snap moment’ and put it into some sort of perspective. His conclusion? “At the time I needed Him, He [God] wasn't there.''

The Church on earth is mourning the death of one of the greatest evangelical leaders and spokesmen of the last century: John Stott.

And yet, the Church gathered in heaven is rejoicing. And so it should, for a mighty servant of the Lord has received salvation in full. We share in that rejoicing.

I have a file. Well, it’s more of a mental list I suppose. At any time you could ask me, ‘What is the best book you have read in the last 10 years?’ and I could tell you.

Obviously, it must be a pretty good book to take top spot. Let me tell you why David VanDrunen’s latest work has done just that.

Jeremiah gets a bad wrap I reckon. He is known as the weeping prophet for his melancholy words in books such as Lamentations, but few of us would survive such difficult circumstances intact.

Think about it: how many Biblical characters had so few flaws? He was an emotionally sensitive man who was called by God to utter the most damning judgement in the nation’s history and it affected him deeply.

But what few people recognise is the valuable insight Jeremiah’s words offer today’s Christian in relation to their material possessions. How attached are you to your ‘things’?

Well, May 21st has come and gone and we’re still here.

That’s a problem for Harold Camping because he loudly and repeatedly claimed this was the day Jesus would return.

Can we now ignore Harold Camping forever please?

If you want to know what a liberal theologian believes, look no further than John Shelby Spong, retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, New Jersey.

To be blunt about it, Spong really doesn’t believe much of the Bible at all. For him, Christianity must be divorced from Scripture in order to be believed. Needless to say, the resurrection, which Christians celebrate at Easter, is a nonsense to Spong and must be dismissed.

But his most serious attack is reserved for God himself, whom Spong says does not really exist in any personal sense.

It’s  hard for us to imagine the shock and depression which must have descended upon those disciples in the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ death. After all they had seen and heard and all the expectation, to witness his execution would have been like the end of the world.

This Easter, as we celebrate his resurrection, let us consider the example of two men who had their lives changed by Jesus: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.

If ever you needed a story to remind you of the value & effectiveness of Christian missionary effort, it is that of Fred Hargesheimer, a World War 2 pilot shot down by the Japanese in the south Pacific.

Never heard of him?

Read on and you will never forget him.

2011 marks the 400^th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible (KJB), also known as the Authorised Version.

It has been declared God’s greatest literary gift to the English speaking world and not only by Christians. Some of the world’s leading atheists even extol its virtues.

On the other hand, many Christians are loathe to even own one and, contrary to what one might think, it was not a runaway success at the time of printing.

So, 400 years on, what are we to make of this venerated tome?