Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, the Eastern Orthodox tradition never recognised it and Pope Gregory the Great deliberately fudged unconnected incidents in the gospels and trashed her reputation to make a point about repentance. In savaging the reputation of a woman who was as close to Jesus as any Read more
The prophecy of a virgin birth came about when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek between the 3C and 2C BC (known as the Septuagint). The Septuagint translated what modern, more authoritative version translate as “a young woman” in the critical passage in Isiah as “a virgin”. It doesn’t Read more
With the loving example of Jesus in front of us we have to admit that much of what the various churches did through history was unmitigated evil. We make ourselves ridiculous if we try to defend the massacre of Jewish & Muslim men, women & children when the 1st crusade captured Read more
Doubt can mean different things. Intellectual doubt leads us to question and gain a better understanding of something. Emotional doubt helps stop us being quite so definitive in our views and helps us to tolerate peoples of views we might not share. A healthy dollop of doubt might have stopped Read more
Most Christians spend a lot of time in prayer and in many church services the prayers/intercessions can almost be another sermon; however, we need to remember Jesus’ words – “do not pray as the Pharisees do, on street corners” – and also realise that ‘more’ words cannot make a difference Read more
The Council of Chalcedon in 451AD came up the philosophical fudge that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. The net result was to cut off parts of the early church that disagreed, but ask yourself whether it really matters? All we need is to accept that in the person Read more
There is far more evidence that a man called Jesus of Nazareth lived and died in Palestine – dying in 30 or 33AD – than there is of Julius Caesar coming to Britain 100 years before Rome annexed Britain. Caesar wrote the only report of his invasion himself. In contrast Read more
We like to resort to the description of the bible as the Word of God too often in church, but it CANNOT be true. The phrase the Word of God has a lot more meaning than you realise – see the ‘More’ section on the Trinity (earlier) for that – Read more
If we regard Jesus as cementing the place of ‘love’ in creation then anything – ANYTHING – which goes against love in wrong. It’s wrong if reported in the Old Testament of the Bible. It’s wrong in the history of the church through 2000 years and it’s wrong today. Love Read more
How DO we make God’s dream come true? We could try by letting every little thing we do contribute to the kingdom of God. Ask yourself every minute if your actions are helping or hindering the Kingdom. Does running the shower for a few minutes to warm up whilst you Read more