Tag: strawman
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The Voice of Reason
It’s fascinating how many arguments have been around for centuries, or even millennia, and yet they continue to crop up as some new discovery by those who have been ‘enlightened’. The problem comes from where that assumed enlightenment comes. There’s a strong push among many Christians to reimagine, or redefine what biblical infallibility is, or…
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Was Martin Luther a biblicist?
There’s an awful lot of straw man raising in Christian circles. This is related to the labelling that goes on. We like to present something that we disagree with in the worst possible light. One recent article suggests the following: By “biblicist” I mean the tendency of some evangelical Christians to disregard the historic, orthodox…
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Not beyond what is written
One thing that I’ve noted over the years is that an increase in biblical knowledge brings with it the temptation to believe that such knowledge somehow also makes the bearer of that knowledge cleverer than the ‘man in the pew’, the assumedly less well read believer. For many such the term biblicist implies ‘simplicist’ –…
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The Veracity of God
To my knowledge I’ve only once been cancelled from returning to preach at a church. I’m not sure what the message was about now, but I did make an off the cuff comment when speaking about the Creation account in Genesis. The remark was off the cuff; the understanding behind the remark was well researched,…
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Pejorative Label or Badge of Honour?
Wherever Jesus went, the Pharisees pursued him. They instinctively didn’t approve of him. He was radical, caring; he touched (and healed) the unlovely. He clearly couldn’t be the right sort of Jew. So, they resorted to name calling and labelling. For example, after Jesus cast out demons the Pharisees accused him of doing so in…