Theology for the Curious

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Few in church history could ever fully comprehend the enormity of impact the event of October 31st, 1517 in Wittenberg could produce on the global church. Martin Luther’s inquisitive protest against the machinery of indulgences, was launched initially as an invitation for clear and theologically intelligent minds to critically reflect on the valid...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Some imagine that justification by faith, the great rallying cry of the reformation, was a specifically Protestant invention, and more particularly, a Luther invention! Yet as early as 1511 (6yrs before Luther), Cardinal Gasparo Contarini came to an understanding of justification by faith, and was desirous to debate it within the Catholic hierarch...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! In his book A Nearly Infallible History of the Reformation , writer Nick Page claims that the effects of the sixteenth century European reformation, created and defined denominational identities, changed our perspectives of God, living and the afterlife, reshaped the map of Europe, and hugely affected our present ideas of sovereignty, individualit...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Life consists of a number of markers that indicate whether we are doing life well. Those who are seen in good health, in reasonable wealth, and comfort, in plenty; or often a judged to being in a good place and doing something right. And yet in the upside down economy of the kingdom, these markers are seriously misleading. One can have all the wea...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Sometimes one of the most difficult aspects of faith is when we appear to be doing everything right but things don’t appear to be getting any better. All too often we mistakenly assume that good behaviour invariably equates to an easier life! The church at Philadelphia learnt that in spite of their committed devotion, they were subject to the reje...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! The Dutch philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard wrote; “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true”. The Sardinian church were guilty of both. First they believed that they were alive and thriving, something that wasn’t true. And second they dismissed any thought o...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! The one time professional cricketer turned missionary to China and Africa, Charles T Studd once declared, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him“. Total surrender is a richly understood necessity for those who engage Christ as saviour, but it is never without its struggles. Compromise con...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! One of the recurring problems that Israel faced in the subsequent immediate years following their Exodus from Egypt, was the infiltration of thoughts and ideas from non-Israelites travelling within their company. Sometimes they would encourage them to murmur and grumble. In later years, as that foreign element increased, they would be tempted to l...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! It can be very easy to speak in terms of God‘s sovereignty and control over all things. Even when we see very difficult times inflicted on the world and others, it is not a huge stretch of faith to maintain the conviction of God‘s control of world events. However, when that suffering and pain impacts on our own personal lives and on the lives of t...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Is it possible to be doctrinally astute, theologically correct, scripturally protective, and yet be displeasing to God? Is it possible that we can become so focused on making sure we are saying and believing the right thing that we become dislocated from doing the right thing? Is what we think always inevitably tied to what we do, or can we find o...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What could seven churches, situated across Asia Minor, some 2,000 years ago, possibly have to say to individuals and the church in today’s twenty-first century? Why were they there, what did Jesus have to say to them, what can we learn former their successes, how do they serve as cautions to us? Over the next seven episodes the Curious team will u...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! When many people look at all the evil, difficulty and suffering in the world, they almost instinctively ask; “where is God?” Another way of asking that question is to insist, how involved is God in this world? Is he an absent landlord, who only turns up very occasionally when there’s a serious problem? Or is he aware of what’s happening and remain...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! When it comes to the sin against the Holy Spirit, there has remained a great deal of confusion within some elements of the church. Some believe it is a sin impossible for a Christian to commit. Some confine it to the era in which it was written i.e: first century Palestine. Others believe it to be another form of apostasy.  Whilst still others, ev...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What was God’s intention in Genesis 2:3 when He instituted the Sabbath and ‘sanctified it’ and ‘set it apart’? In our present culture sabbath has been understood as addressing the work/life balance. The need to rediscover a restful rhythm to life. Certainly the rate of work is addressed in the sabbath, but does it simply stop there? Is the sabbath...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! From over forty years of Billy Graham crusades, to Bill Bright and the Campus Crusade For Christ and the ‘Four Spiritual Laws’, the sinner's prayer has remained a long established practice in calling the unrepentant to faith. Yet it has not been without its critics, who have labelled it anywhere from easy believism to false assurance. How hav...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! All of us as Christians can point to a moment in time when we found ourselves coming to Christ, praying for forgiveness, repenting, believing and becoming a Christian. But if we think that’s where God’s interest in us began, we are sadly mistaken. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that our individual salvation was not a thought in time, but a de...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! For centuries debates have raged regarding the state of the soul after death. Some have argued for what has been termed psychopannychia , or put simply, soul sleep! That the soul remains unconscious and non-cognitive until the resurrection. Others, specifically more of the Roman Catholic understanding have advocated for a purgatory. A place where...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! How do we define hell? What is its purpose? Is there a possibility that there’s no such place? What does a twelfth century Irish knight, and Dante’s inferno got to tell us about hell? What exactly could Jesus have meant in speaking about a place, “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt.25:41)? When was such a place prepared and why? What doe...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! The puritan John Owen offered three understandings of the extent of Christ’s atonement. Firstly that he died for all of the sin for all of the people. Second that he died for some of the sin of all of the people; or thirdly that Christ died for all of the sin for some of the people!  In this opening episode of our new series ‘Take Another Look’, P...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What do we mean by the Spirit’s preservation? How sure can any believer really be that they will realise the great hope of salvation? How much is it down to us and how much does he intervene? Does our lack of perseverance cancel out his act of preservation? Is the ultimate preservation of the Spirit contingent on our faithfulness? How do we interp...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Can you be a believer if you’re not baptised in the Holy Spirit? Does the lack of the baptism experience impair your overall journey of faith? Does it impact on your relationship with God? How do we understand the Spirit’s baptism? Have the charismatics got it right? Where did the current thinking on the baptism of the Spirit originate from? How d...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! How are we to understand the gifts of the Holy Spirit; from the spectacular and unusual (words of wisdom and knowledge, healings, working of miracles, etc), to the more comparatively normal and ordinary (administrations, helps, mercy ministries, etc)? What does our quest for the Spirit’s gifts (or lack of), say about us? What or who are the gifts...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! What do we mean by ‘fruit’ of the Spirit? How is the Spirit’s fruit any different to the better characteristics of people without faith? Is fruit the essential character God leaves us to get on with and develop, or does he engage in the overall process, and through His Spirit enable us to be more like Christ? Is fruit production a partnership betw...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Is it true that the the ancient Babylonians were the first to celebrate New Year some 4,000 years ago? And in March? Were the Romans responsible for marking New Year as January 1st? What does the Jewish rite of circumcision and the  18th century understanding of the covenant service, inspired by Wesley, got to do with New Year? And where did the i...

Click here to text us your thoughts and questions! Where did Christmas come from? Is it true that late night shopping was invented as far back as 1867? How did the Victorians influence our understanding of Christmas? And what exactly was a ‘blowout festival’? Did Oliver Cromwell really have a downer on Christmas? And is it true that the puritans actually sought to ban Christmas? Did Coca-Cola real...