Bible Stories

The modern family differs very strikingly from families in ancient times. We talk today about the ‘nuclear’ family — the somewhat isolated unit of mother, father and children. The historical reasons for this are quite well-known. Read more

The New Testament also takes its starting-point in the confession and the commandment that God is one. Jesus himself repeats the opening words of the ‘Shema’; Paul writes to the Corinthians: ‘For us there is one God, from whom are all things and for whom we exist.’ James writes: You believe that God is one; you do well.’ The apostles time and again speak of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the Father and Jesus are clearly distinguished. Yet the same writers say, with equal emphasis, that Jesus Christ himself is also God. Read more

But why do we as Christians make so much fuss about all this? If we cannot understand it anyway, is it not wiser to drop it as a piece of sterile speculation? Does it really have any theological and religious significance? Is it important for our own personal experience? The answer is Yes. The significance of this doctrine is so great that it is the very foundation of our Christian faith. Why? Read more

All we know about God has come to us in history. He has revealed himself in historical events and in words spoken by historical people. What he has revealed has affected the history of the nations it has touched.

God has chosen to reveal himself to humanity in a number of remarkable ways. One of these is to use deeply significant names for himself. His ‘names‘ or ‘titles’ reflect what and who he is. He is ‘Yahweh‘, the personal God of the covenant with his people. (The old word for this was ‘Jehovah’; in most Bibles it is given as ‘the LORD’.) The name signifies ‘I am what I am’. He is ‘Yahweh the everlasting God‘. He is addressed as ‘Yahweh provides’, ‘Yahweh is our righteousness’, ‘the Ancient of days’, ‘the holy One of Israel’. Read more

Who is God, and what is he like? This question has been answered very differently in different periods of history since New Testament days. The medieval understanding ofGod, for instance, is light-years away from the modern existential understanding. And these different answers have affected us all. Our opinions are shaped, much more than we think, by ideas dominant in previous centuries. This is just as true of our beliefs about God as of any other area of thought. The pictures of God painted by leading thinkers help, for good or ill, to set the tone forsucceeding generations. So we do well to note what these pictures have been. Read more

No analysis of Christian belief in God is complete without one further point. The God of the Bible is great, and his worshippers acknowledge that ‘his greatness is unsearchable’. Christians speak of the mystery of God, using ‘mystery’ to mean, not a puzzle that can be solved, but a reality which surpasses our understanding.

A two-year-old boy whose father has a brain like Einstein’s can know his father in a happy parent-child relationship. This is knowledge of the most important kind. Yet the boy could understand very little of what is in his father’s mind, however much his father tried to put it into words for him. There are limits to what a two-year-old, Read more

‘He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.’ What exactly do these words in the Apostles’ Creed mean?

In Eastern or Roman culture, to sit on the right-hand side of the emperor was the same as sharing his political and military power. This role of co-regent was reserved for the eldest son, and his accession to the throne was celebrated as a national festival. Read more

Jesus

Was a common first name for a Jewish man. Nine others of this name are known at the time. It was the Greek version of three common Hebrew names,

Joshua, Jehoshua and Jeshua. This was the name by which Jesus was known in his lifetime, and it occurs nearly 600 “ales in the Gospels. Its meaning was: ‘The Lord (Yahweh) is my help’ or ‘Yahweh rescues’. Later New Testament writers use the name rarely; only the writer to the Hebrews uses it much. It stresses Jesus‘ humanity, as the carpenter of Nazareth. Read more

Jesus Christ is the heart of the Christian faith. What has the Christian church believed about Jesus down the centuries? Who was, who is Jesus Christ? Man, or God, or both? If he is both, how are his manhood and his ‘Godhood’, or divinity, related to each other?

These are questions about the person of Christ - who he is. As a subject of Christian belief it has traditionally been distinguished from the work of Christ-what he did and does for humanity as saviour and Lord. This article traces the development of Christian beliefs about the person of Christ. ‘Christ°logy’ is the name theologians use for this subject. Read more