Of this year’s six new entrants to our BTh programme only two are candidates for the ministry. The remaining four, including three women students, have other careers in view. Though the numbers are disappointingly small, the trend is welcome, and should help dispel the idea that the Free Church College is only for ministers and [...]
Going about doing good The first half of this article focused on the importance of putting the church on a missionary footing. It emphasised the Rules of Engagement given to us by Jesus, and in particular the urgent obligation to present the multitudes outside our churches with the incredible message of the love of God. [...]
What is God’s vision for the church? As we ask that question we are faced with many imponderables. One thing we do know, of course. The church is in safe hands: very safe hands. But beyond that we know little. We don’t even know how much time is left to us. We’re living in the [...]
The Gospel for a Wounded Conscience Last week I decided to re-visit Martin Luther’s Lectures on Galatians. Readers will remember, perhaps, that John Bunyan commends this book most warmly in Grace Abounding: “ I do prefer this book of Martin Luther upon the Galatians , excepting the Holy Bible, before all books that ever I [...]
Hugh Martin (1822-1885) was one of a remarkable group of theologians produced by Scottish Presbyterianism in the mid-nineteenth century. Pre-eminent among them were Thomas Chalmers, William Cunningham and Robert Candlish, all of whom were household names in Victorian Scotland. The others were less prominent, but this bespeaks no inferiority in point of theological ability. Such [...]
Pluralism is no new thing. In the world that the Apostle Paul evangelised there were ‘gods many and lords many’. In post-Reformation Scotland we briefly grew accustomed to a different world, in which Protestantism enjoyed an unquestioned hegemony. That world has now gone. Not only have other Christian traditions grown in strength, but immigration has [...]
If you’re not prepared to believe in miracles there’s little hope of your having much patience with the Bible. It’s full of them. If you pick up the gospels, for example, you meet the Virgin Birth at the very beginning and the Resurrection at the end. These set the tone for the whole life of [...]
John Murray, with good reason, argues that obedience is the most inclusive concept available to us for describing the redeeming work of Christ (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p.19). Other categories such as sacrifice and satisfaction cover some of the data, but obedience is by far the most comprehensive. It is also, of course, utterly biblical. [...]
