Matthew Parris is partly right

Having earlier mocked the new atheists for their faux-courage, Matthew Parris in a recent Spectator article, provocatively suggests that it is the atheists, who in fact, are our allies because they take God seriously. This unlike the pretend agnostics who applaud faith whilst being concerned that it merely play the role of purveyor and preserver of culture. I'm not sure I buy Parris' entire argument. For one thing atheists whilst being more open in their opposition to God, have also been known to declare that believers can assent to whatever beliefs they want, just so long as they don't adduce them in public (So Dawkins et al). Second, it's a bit of a misnomer to say that the new atheists are our allies simply because they take God seriously. The Bible gets the issue right when it declares that even demons believe in God and shudder (James 2) and yet, they are headed for the hottest part, of darkest miserable hell. The issue therefore is not simply that of taking God seriously - the issue is one of right/true belief in God which then leads to right/true action towards God. The old Sunday school puts it well - Trust and Obey / for there is no other way / to be happy for eternity / but to trust and obey. I kind of see though, what Matthew Parris is getting at namely, that agnostics (and other cultural pretenders) should stop patronising us Christians.

Infidels lack courage

Is David Bentley Hart's perceptive analysis of the current breed of new atheists. He writes:

“...today’s most obstreperous infidels lack the courage, moral intelligence, and thoughtfulness of their forefathers in faithlessness. What I find chiefly offensive about them is not that they are skeptics or atheists; rather, it is that they are not skeptics at all and have purchased their atheism cheaply, with the sort of boorish arrogance that might make a man believe himself a great strategist because his tanks overwhelmed a town of unarmed peasants, or a great lover because he can afford the price of admission to a brothel. So long as one can choose one’s conquests in advance, taking always the paths of least resistance, one can always imagine oneself a Napoleon or a Casanova (and even better: the one without a Waterloo, the other without the clap).”

Read the whole thing here 

Friday Fun: The mind of toddler

Our little one is not yet a toddler, but I think the Mrs would concur...

The Bible is not enough!

Cessationist or not? That is the question I've been considering this evening. As part of my reading, I came across this wonderfully provocative quote:

Without the Holy Spirit we may as well burn our Bibles

John Owen, Puritan Divine, 1616-1683 

Pithy, potent and profound - just as you'd would expect from the Prince of the Puritans.

First test of a gentleman

This is the first test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible value to him.

William Lyon Phelps

Perfect understanding

It's been a difficult few days. A prominent and well loved church member is seriously ill and it's been a struggle knowing how best to comfort and encourage him and his family at this time. What do you say when you see a man who was incredibly active and generally outgoing, lying comatose with all sorts of tubes connected to him? Words fail you and it's folly pretending in such situations that we understand what family and close friends are going through. Thankfully, as a Christians we don’t necessarily have to understand or identify with what each person is going through in order to help or to be consoled.

Why?

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15)

Incredible - there is nothing that anyone has gone through, is going through, or will go through, that Jesus cannot relate to, sympathize with or encourage his children in - What a Saviour!

Friday Fun: Can't you do anything right?