Bridge of Reason

  In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were illumined; reason and revelation were reconciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian Science was demonstrated. No human pen nor tongue taught me the Science contained in this book, SCIENCE AND HEALTH; and neither tongue nor pen can overthrow it. This book may be distorted by shallow criticism or by careless or malicious students, and its ideas may be temporarily abused and misrepresented; but the Science and truth therein will forever remain to be discerned and demonstrated. [1]   Christian Science is the rather strange name for a group that is neither Christian nor Scientific. That is if we understand Christianity to be the historic faith founded upon the Bible and believed upon by most Christians throughout church history; and Science to be a ‘ knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and te...

Image by  Pavlofox  from  Pixabay The Watchtower Society are up to their old tricks again. I visited their website and the landing page i showed a giant clock and a man in a state of alarm. The caption ran, ‘Are we Running out of Time?’ How many times have they got this wrong, yet it’s as though they just can’t help themselves? It’s another year so let’s have another doomsday campaign. The world, of course, is in an alarming state right now, and you might be forgiven for thinking these really are ‘the last days,’ or as I have heard some say, ‘the last of the last days.’ It is a subject we might come back to at some future time. I live with the understanding, of course, that the Lord could come tomorrow...tonight! In light of that I keep my lamp filled and the wick trimmed ready for the arrival of the bridegroom. That said, I am also conscious of the fact we must live until then, and live as he would have us live. Nobody can do that if they are paralysed with fear, and ...

As we continue to look at the Jesus of the cults, we come to The Christadelphians. Who are The Christadelphians? You may have seen a Christadelphian Hall in your community. They are usually quite plain looking with a noticeboard on the wall inviting you to a Bible talk. Having the word ‘Christ’ in their name and seeing the word ‘Bible’ on their building, you would think it safe to assume that they are just another Christian denomination, but they are not. Of course, like all the so called ‘Christian’ cults, The Christadelphians would claim to be Christian and believe themselves to be the only ones preaching the ‘whole truth’. The Christadelphians were founded by John Thomas in the USA in 1838. Thomas was a British doctor who desired to bring people back to the Bible. Allegedly frustrated by the sectarianism he found within Christianity, he sought to build Christian belief on teachings and practice found only in the Bible. At the outset, Thomas may have had good intentions but what he f...

Image by  Pedro Ivo Pereira Vieira Pedin  from  Pixabay   When you are struggling with a problem, when your plans don’t seem to be working out, when you wonder, ‘why is this so intractable, have I missed something?’ there is great wisdom in going back to first principles. This is especially true of Bible understanding. Writing at some length about the priestly role of Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews goes on: ‘ About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.’ Hebrews 5:11-14 W e notice several things in this passage: T...

  Upon joining my current church, I was keen to get to know people. I had previously been a teacher, so I had experience of quickly getting to grips with names, but on my first Sunday at church, I realised it wasn’t going to be that easy. After the service I was introduced to not one, not two, not three but four sets of identical twins, and when I say identical, I mean identical.  So closely did one twin resemble the other that, in the style of one of my literary heroes, Sherlock Holmes, I began to scan them for any clues that might help me. I found nothing. They looked the same, sounded the same and even dressed so similarly, that I believed their parents may still be buying their clothes. Afraid of getting their names wrong, I began to call them ‘brother’ and ‘sister’, (which is the Christian version of calling someone whose name you can’t remember ‘mate’); after all I did not want to offend them, nor embarrass myself. One set of twins (the lads – the rest were girls), were ...