All Things Seen & Unseen

It's more likely today that newsreaders will intone the sad news that 'mother nature unleashed her power' again in the latest tornado or cyclone or earthquake. This language fits exactly with living in a post-Christian society of course but perhaps even some Christians are chary of suggesting that an earthquake is a God's demonstration of his power. And yet the Old Testament is full of such witness (e.g., Ps 60.2; Isa 2.19, 21) and the New Testament too (Matt 28.2; Acts 16.26). 'Mother nature' which is creation, does not operate autonomously but is under the hand of God the creator. How could it be otherwise since creation is His creation? But then what of the devastation that such acts of God bring about? Deaths, injuries, damage to property, dislocation of populations! No small consequences! Whatever we come to conclude about the problem of evil we have to reckon with Jesus' words in Luke (13.1-5) who commented that those caught up in two c...

This video is an inspiration and shows the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ over the powers of spiritual darkness.

When I hear some recent church songs I wonder whether Christianity has become a Jesus-only movement! Some songs talk about nothing else but Jesus. Of course we all love Jesus but the calling of the Son is to lead us to the Father. I appreciate that the Trinity is heavy-duty teaching in so many ways because heretics stand ready to demote the Son to a mere creature and the Moslems want to relegate him to an inferior prophet to Mohammed. And Judaism sees him in even lower terms. And Christians too claim not to understand it! Yet the teaching makes the Christian religion distinctive among all religions! But we are Christians, followers of Jesus because he is God's son who reveals the Father through the power of the Spirit. What we do in our songs/hymns we are likely to do in our prayers. So some will pray to the Son directly and never mention the Father. That's not the practice of the biblical writers who consistently pray to the Father through the Son in the power of t...

Postscript to my recent post on the life of Alexander Cruden (1699-1770). We find it quite hard to imagine to imagine how people could found themselves so easily incarcerated in gaols or private asylums supposedly 'mad' or 'insane'. Julia Keay has an interesting comment on that fact. She said that when one looks that earlier centuries that the mad and insane are treated quite differently from those unfortunates of the 18th century because in former times they were usually left alone. When Robert Burton (1577-1640) wrote his justly famous Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) he took the view that melancholy was a complex phenomenon. For him it had physical, social, spiritual, biotic, mood and actions aspects to it. Burton saw melancholy (clinical depression) as related to sin and the devil but also realised that other matters contributed such as diet, fresh air, exercise, and amount of sleep. Burton also used the ancient idea of the four humours to explain depression:...