Bridge of Reason

I recently watched an interesting discussion between Kris Vallotton, a senior leader at Bethel Church in Redding, California and a young female student enrolled on the church’s School of Supernatural Ministry. What was interesting about this exchange was that the student was a Roman Catholic. Jessica Bond happily announced that Pope Francis was her pastor, and this prompted Vallotton to share his story of when he met the Pope. Vallotton said that he was part of a group of 40 charismatics that had been invited to the Vatican to meet the Pope. He recalled how Pope Francis told them about the time that he was baptised in the Spirit. This prompted Jessica to say how much she loves the Pope. When Vallotton met the Pope back in 2016, he posted about the event on his social media. He said this: ‘I had the privilege of meeting Pope Francis today with some other pastors. He is really a great man; I love him a ton!’ I am pretty sure that if social media existed at the time of Luther, Calvin, Cra...

  Cult victim found alive after three days in Malindi grave ‘ Detectives under the homicide unit have found one person alive after exhuming a grave linked to Shakahola church members.’ It’s a shocking headline, hardly believable, but there it was in the Star of Kenya . The story has been unfolding on our screens, in our news feeds, across the world as we have looked on incredulously at the horror unfolding . How does it come to this? Who is Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and what drove him to insist his followers go to such extremes of fasting that it brought many to the grave? P aul Mackenzie, pastor of Good News International Church, is widely reported to have encouraged his congregation to extreme fasting in order to ‘meet Jesus’ or go to heaven. As with all such things, this ‘starvation cult’ has an origin story. Mackenzie is said to be a devotee of William Branham’s ‘the Message’ cult, having been radicalised by the Latter-Rain version of Branham’s message . Branham referred to ...

  The Roman Catholic Church stands or falls on the doctrine of apostolic succession. It is from this doctrine that the Church claims its supreme authority. Now, the Roman Church is not the only church to believe this doctrine, but they are the only church to claim unique and complete authority from it. The Catholic apologetic website, Catholic Answers says that the Roman Church, unlike ‘separate’ churches, can lay claim to being the true church by means of apostolic succession. What is apostolic succession? Apostolic succession is the idea that bishops in the Roman Church are the successors of the apostles to whom Jesus gave the authority, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. It presupposes that the original twelve apostles ordained others to be apostles through the laying on of hands. In doing this, they conferred upon them the same authority they had been given. These apostles (bishops) then ordained others, who in turn ordained others, who in turn… well you get the id...

If you want to know your heart leap for joy at the hope we have in Christ read the first two chapters of Ephesians. Chapter one reminds us of who Christ is, what he has achieved, reminds us that all we have as believers is 'in him.' Then, as though to sober us from our celebrations lest we get cocky about all that we have, Paul reminds us: 'And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked...like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, made us alive in Christ...'  (Eph.2:1-5) The first thing to realise is you can be dead and alive at the same time, alive to the things of this world but dead to the things of God. The second is that it is the common lot ( like the rest of mankind ) until Christ comes along. The third is that your new life is a work of God, and the fourth is that this new life costs you your old life. The Bible calls relinquis...

  On their website, the Watch Tower define their New World Translation Bible as: ‘ A translation of the Holy Scriptures made directly from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into modern-day English by a committee of anointed witnesses of Jehovah. These expressed themselves regarding their work as follows: “The translators of this work, who fear and love the Divine Author of the Holy Scriptures, feel toward Him a special responsibility to transmit his thoughts and declarations as accurately as possible. They also feel a responsibility toward the searching readers who depend upon a translation of the inspired Word of the Most High God for their everlasting salvation.” This translation was originally released in sections, from 1950 to 1960. Editions in other languages have been based on the English translation.’ ( Reasoning From the Scriptures, p.276 ) T heir stated aim (italicised) is laudable, however we judge things not by intentions but by results. We can’t build a reputation on what ...

"Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God" [1] At the time of the Reformation, the Church of Rome taught that the Word of God consisted of both the written word (The Bible) and the unwritten word (Tradition). It held that both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition were both infallible and of equal value. The Roman Catholic Church believes the same today. What does the Roman Catholic Church mean by tradition? The website Catholic Answers says that: Divine Tradition comes from God, either through the written word of the Bible or through the oral teaching of Christ himself or his apostles. Because it is revealed by God, divine Tradition may not be altered by men. [2] The Reformers vehemently denied that this ‘divine Tradition’, said to be found within the Roman Catholic Church, was in anyway comparable with God’s written word. For them, the Bible was the true only rule of faith for the Christian. The Protestant Church believes the ...