It is a common failing of any writer, teacher or preacher to impose one’s individual circumstances on a whole community – to assume that what one is going through, all are going through. Nevertheless, it is a reasonable diagnosis to say that Australian society, and Western society in general, is …
In 1797, with the battle against the slave trade under way, William Wilberforce wrote the first of his three books, with the imposing title A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middles Classes of this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity. Today it …
The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill – Victoria
The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill has now passed through both houses of the Victorian parliament. It forbids any attempt to change or suppress, or induce any person to change or suppress, his or her sexual orientation or …
One of the surest indications of our own corruption is the universal experience that if someone ventures to praise us, we tend to heartily agree, but if someone criticises us, we tend to be deeply offended. Another obvious truth today is that the world, especially the world of social media, …
In Paul’s warning against ungodliness in the last days, between the two comings of Christ, he heads the list with those who will be ‘lovers of self’ (2 Tim.3:2). Recently it has become possible to plumb the depths of what exactly that might mean. On 1 December 2020 an actress …
Political leaders down through the ages have been subject to all kinds of delusions. In the sixth century B.C. Darius the Mede listened to flatterers who talked him into passing a decree which made petition to any god or man except Darius himself illegal for the next thirty days. Anyone …
by Rev Dr Peter Barnes
Intention Obeying God sometimes means disobeying evil authorities.
Scripture “Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ‘When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if …
October 31 is remembered in some places, not as a wretched Halloween Day, but as the date when, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses in Latin to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg in Saxony. In doing so, he unwittingly, to some degree at least, triggered off the …
The Bible declares most emphatically – and repeats it – that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8, 16). It is a sentiment which resonates with more than just the Christian population, although the unbeliever tends to think more in terms of ‘Love is God’ rather than ‘God is love.’ The …
Some time back I was preaching on Psalm 74:20, which reads in the ESV: ‘Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.’ In the KJV, however, the reading is ‘Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of …
