24 August 2019

The Godly Usurers


Is inflated quick selling or so-called 'flipping' real estate an application of Philippians 2.3-4? Is this loving your neighbour? The folks associated with Movement Mortgage certainly seem to think so. While their model is perhaps a little more principled than the get rich quick schemes of real estate hustlers, the philosophy which undergirds their finance model is rooted in the same system and built on the same worldly foundations.

18 August 2019

Lausanne's Unequivocal Dominionism: The Legacy of Billy Graham (Part 2)


“I believe that one of the next great moves of God is going to be through the Believers in the workplace”.
The quote from Graham demonstrates what the movement was always about. Those that think he was just a simple-message Gospel preacher have never taken the time to understand what either he or the larger Evangelical movement was (and is) all about. You can't be an ecumenicist and come down hard and firm on anything. Graham's simplicity wasn't rooted in a bare-bones Fundamentalist-type commitment to Scripture. Not at all. His simple message was part of his larger ecumenical strategy. He wanted people 'in' and once 'in' they could be schooled in accordance with the Lausanne programme. And overwhelmingly Lausanne's programmes were and are about transforming culture. In the end Graham didn't care what theological background you hailed from. He just wanted you in the fold and part of the larger project. Whether you were baptised or not, spoke in tongues or not or prayed to Mary or not, didn't really matter.

Lausanne's Unequivocal Dominionism: The Legacy of Billy Graham (Part 1)


Building on ideas and relationships that had been growing for more than a decade, the Lausanne Movement finds its official origin in the 1974 conference held on the shores of Lake Geneva. Dominated by John Stott and Billy Graham, the conference launched a movement bringing American style Evangelicalism to Europe. This was (at least in part) to compete with and overcome the separatist impulses and Fundamentalism that had more or less dominated Free Church Protestantism on the continent since the 19th century.

17 August 2019

Kromiadi, the 1944 Prague Manifesto and Contemporary Alliances


Constantine Kromiadi was a Greco-Russian nationalist who fought on the White side in the Russian Civil Wars. He eventually became a Nazi collaborator who wanted to see Stalin defeated and some form of traditionalist Russia restored.

14 August 2019

American Evangelicals and European Right-Wing Populism

Italy is poised to turn even farther to the Right. After the Atlantic Establishment (via its media outlets) tried to stoke a Russia-gate type scandal, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini decided to make his move and by calling a snap election he is attempting to turn the tables on his enemies in both Rome and Brussels.

10 August 2019

Leviticus and Redemptive History


Once again our pulpit was filled by a young man, zealous and sincere who delivered a good message. But due to truncated hermeneutics it wasn't as good as it could have been. So much was missed and this is once again due to a misguided understanding of what the Bible is and how Divine Revelation is focused on the Person and work of Christ.
This time it was a survey of Leviticus which is admittedly no easy task. It's a difficult book and it's hard to keep people focused as many find it to be not only dry reading but a dry topic.
But it doesn't have to be.

04 August 2019