Bridge of Reason

  And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.      LUKE 22:44   “GREATEST SUFFERING WAS IN GETHSEMANE. We speak of the passion of Jesus Christ. A great many people have an idea that when he was on the cross, and nails were driven into his hands and feet, that was his great suffering.  His great suffering was before he ever was placed upon the cross.  It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that the blood oozed from the pores of his body: ‘Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit-and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink.’ That was not when he was on the cross; that was in the garden. That is where he bled from every pore in his body” [1]   Peculiar to Mormonism is the idea that Jesus atoned for the sins of the world in the Garden of Get...

I don’t want to spoil anyone’s Christmas and, certainly, I do wish everyone a very blessed and peaceful season but...well, it was never going to be easy bringing peace to the earth. I recently heard an  excellent sermon reminding us that the babe in the manger was destined to die a brutal and ignominious death on the Cross; you can’t have Christmas without the Cross. Of course, we often get so sentimental about Christmas – “it’s all about the children isn’t it”; or cynical about it all – “I don’t see much peace on earth.” But the Christ who made the sacrifice that might bring peace also challenges us to choose peace. It has always been this way since the beginning. Adam and Eve could choose obedience or rebellion (Gen.2:16); Israel was challenged before entering the Promised Land to choose between the gods of Egypt or the Living God who saved them (Josh.24:15); when Paul preached in Athens he declared: “ The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everyw...

If you have encountered Jehovah’s Witnesses at all over the Easter period they may well have been eager to explain to you why they don’t celebrate Easter. The landing page of JW.ORG currently shows a piece explaining why Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Easter. There is also a link to an article explaining what the Bible says about Easter. Their explanations might, at first glance, look plausible and you might imagine someone doing a book study and hearing these things for the first time being given pause for thought. A closer examination and a wider search on the subject reveals some serious flaws in what they have to say. They have much to say, as many know, about the origin of the name 'Easter' and we will come to that, but in their explanation of their position on Easter they play a trick on the minds of the unsuspecting. After quoting various secular sources they finally come to the Bible and insist: 'The Easter holiday celebration is not based on...

In ministry the least reliable thing of all is a testimony. I know that sounds a strange thing to say but when people stand up and tell their story you really have little or no control over what they will say, there is often little chance of verifying their back story and, especially if it goes to print, it can be a serious liability. Testimonies can also be heart-warming, encouraging, and inspiring, and I don’t want to discourage them. Its a question of how they are handled, what we make of them, and what weight we give them. Content is a good guide. Twelve Baptisms My wife and I were invited some years ago to a baptism in a local church. It was a pretty exciting occasion, in a charismatic church so plenty of music, ‘alleluias, and arm waving. If I tell you there there twelve baptism candidates that night you will understand all the excitement. We took our seats, but not for long, as the band struck up a hearty chorus and the congregation were on their feet, on their chairs – you ...

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...

The August 2009 edition of the official Mormon Ensign magazine emphasises prayer and it would be ungracious not to recognise the wise counsel to set aside time to pray regularly, to make prayer a discipline and to approach it in a spirit of humility; surely advice with which all Christians can agree. Yet it demonstrates something Christians often notice about the Mormon ethos, which is that it is based on Joseph Smith and not Jesus Christ, whose church Mormons claim to have restored. In an article entitled Opening the Heavens Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchu of the Seventy asks, “ Do you want to feel the love of God powerfully in your life? Do you want to feel more in tune with His Spirit? Do you want to have the heavens opened to you daily?” He goes on to let us in on the secret of achieving these things using examples from the life of Joseph Smith. Like Joseph, we must take ourselves apart to spend time with God. Like Joseph, we can expect God to answer. Like Joseph, we can have o...

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 – A Suffering Saviour, and a Called Out People (Matthew 16:13-28) This is a key passage in helping us understand the purposes of God in Christ and in his disciples. Until now Jesus has preached the message of the kingdom, demonstrating its presence by his teaching, healing and casting out of demons (Luke.11:20). Now he had established his identity among his closest followers he began to emphasise the Cross as the way he must go in order to establish this kingdom (Mt.16:21). Peter’s confession marked a turning point after which Jesus more clearly taught about the principles on which the kingdom was to be established and the role of the called out people of God in advancing it. There has been much controversy over what was meant when Jesus spoke of the foundation of...