Bridge of Reason

A Weekly Bible Reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – This Table is for Sinners (1 Co.1) Following a remarkable morning in church, fellowshipping around the Lord’s Table, I find myself coming back time and again today to the simple but shocking words of the man who officiated there: “This table is for sinners!” These words are simple enough but at the same time incomprehensible to many who find themselves shocked at the suggestion that “sinners are welcome here.” In today’s verses we first learn two things: 1. There is power in the Cross (1 Co.1:17) and the power of the Cross can be lost if the gospel is reduced to man’s wisdom. When men and women try to pin down the gospel and conform it to their humanly devised systems and cleverly constructed arguments they are frustrated as the power of the Cross elud...

You know those moments when you look at something you’ve looked at a thousand times before and suddenly see something new? I was looking at a blog I found via the Google Blog Alerts service and it told the familiar story of the Mormon “ Plan of Salvation”; you can read it here. There really was nothing surprising until I started thinking about what people might think if a family they knew conducted themselves the way the Mormon “family of God” do in this story. People from abusive backgrounds have problems enough with the idea of God as a Father but this story would put anyone off the idea forever! As I recount this story think about what the typical dad would do as his kids are growing up and compare it with this “exalted man.” According to Mormonism “ God created our spirits” and we lived with him in a pre-mortal existence (Mormons say “pre-existence” but it is not possible to pre-exist, i.e. to exist before you exist. The noun “existence” has to be have the prefix “pre” othe...

A Weekly Bible Reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – Obey God Rather than Men (John 10-12) The proverb declares that “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Pr.1:7). Another declares “Fear of man will prove to be a snare” (Pr.29:25). In chapters 10 to 12 of John’s gospel we see people who are well instructed in the former nevertheless falling into the snare warned of in the latter. In chapter ten “The Jews” (John’s term for the religious authorities) challenged Jesus to put his cards on the table saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (24) Jesus, in his answer, declares that his position could not be clearer, his miracles spoke for him. Why did they not see it? “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak...

A Weekly Bible Reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – Don’t you Question my Authority! (Mark 10:35-45) The self-possessed young Mormon missionary had engaged me in friendly conversation with the breezy impertinence typical of so many young American Mormons. He wanted to be my chum and tell me all about Joseph Smith. However, when I revealed that I had been a Mormon but now was a Christian and explained that the difference was grace he became positively aggressive. When I gently challenged his claims and the tone in which they were delivered he almost bellowed, “Don’t you question my authority!” I was taken aback by his impudence but had to smile because I have memories of the “authority” he insisted was his. I remember as a young man of just nineteen receiving the “authority” he claimed now to have. I rec...

Here is an interesting insight into the (unwitting?) role of the Mormon Church in the “colourful” politics of Guyana. A letter to a Guyana newspaper explains that support for the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has been falling in recent years especially among Amerindians who have, the writer claims, complained that the government has not been investing in Amerindian interests as much as they used. The opposition People’s National Congress (PNC) hasn’t the funds to fill the gap and so, he alleges, has shrewdly “encouraged” the Mormon Church to charitable work among the Amerindians in “Partnership” with the PNC. The governing PPP has apparently seen this as interference in their political territory and has sought to end the partnership in a rather dramatic fashion by attempting to expel the Mormons as previously reported. Are the Mormons so innocent as they would have us think? It is the case that in Ghana they paid bribes to get their temple built in Accra and were pret...

Half the Mormon missionary force in Guyana is facing deportation, ostensibly over document irregularities, but it is thought that the church has been perceived as uncomfortably close to opposition leaders. GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Authorities in Guyana grew "uncomfortable" with the presence of Mormon missionaries who have been ordered to leave the South American country, a governing party leader said Thursday. About 40 missionaries were briefly detained Wednesday and told to leave within a month as authorities said their travel documents were out of date… The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been sending missionaries to this former British colony for more than 20 years. About 100 of them are now in Guyana, many of them deep in the country's interior where the government has little presence. Guyana makes Mormon missionaries leave - World Faith- msnbc.com

A Weekly Bible Reading for Bridge Builders The Richmond Briefing has been a weekly feature of the Reachout web site for five years and is now available on the blog. To find out more and read earlier briefings go here Reading – Are You as Good as the Next Man? (Mark 10:17-34) Last time we looked at legalism. This week we consider the folly of humanism, that idea that, as pre-Socratic philosopher Protagorus said, “Man is the measure of all things” . In this text we find a young man presenting himself earnestly to Jesus and thinking himself a faithful Jew while all along adhering to a classic humanist philosophy. “’Good teacher’, he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honour your father and mother’ ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a ...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Web site defines an “affinity fraud”: “Affinity fraud refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups. The fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are — or pretend to be — members of the group. They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme, by convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile. Many times, those leaders become unwitting victims of the fraudster’s ruse.” You don’t have to be a believer of any kind to fall prey to affinity fraud but if you are a person who is daily looking for the “leading of God”,  who believes that God is bound to have a hand in the minutiae of your every day life, that there is no such thing as a coincidence and that God is “wanting to bless you” as part of his great plan then you  ...

"I belong to the top" (Matt. 5:14). This is the Bible quotation that greets you under the section 'Prophetic Focus for September 2009' on Bishop David Oyedepo's website. You may be thinking - I don't remember that part of the Sermon on the Mount? You may be thinking - I do remember the bit where Jesus in fact says, "Blessed are the meek." The reason why you don't remember that quotation is because it isn't there. Matthew 5:14 actually reads: "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." So Bishop David and his Winners' Fellowship may want to gloss the Lord's words as "I belong to the top", but is it really fair to post it as a direct quotation? In fact, is it in any way a fair interpretation of the text? What is the Lord Jesus actually saying here? Jesus says, "You," but Bishop David says, "I." The Lord is giving a statement to a collective 'you' which will soon be...