In Luke 19, we find the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus, the tax collector. This is one of those stories that many of us learned as children. Zacchaeus is a short man who wants to see Jesus, and so climbs a tree. Jesus sees him, calls to him, has dinner with the little reprobate, and…
The main problem is that Jehovah isn’t actually in the Bible. It is a mistake of translation that ended up being used in songs, translations of the Bible, and common parlance. Let’s see how it happened. How Was the Old Testament Written? To start with, we need to understand how the Jewish people wrote and…
The staggering expansion of the early Salvation Army from the United Kingdom to the rest of the world was driven to a great degree by individual initiative rather than formal planning. The story of the Army in Jamaica is an example of that kind of faithful initiative and personal commitment to evangelism which shaped the…
Leadership is at the centre of contemporary discussions about the church. Questions such as: What does it mean to be a church leader? When did the church start using the language of leadership instead of priest, pastor, presbyter, or pastor? Is leadership really appropriate in relation to God’s church? I think there is a real…
There is a strong streak of Protestant distaste when it comes to questions of Mary the Mother of Jesus. The strength of the Marion cult which emerged in the 11th and 12th centuries, not incidentally when some of the first courtly romance ballads appeared, can be a problem for taking Mary’s role seriously. Too much…
“We three kings of orient are…” unless you were raised in East London like me in which case we sing “We three kings of ory n’ tar…” In Matthew’s version of the Nativity story, there are some characters who turn up who have captured Christian imagination over the years. This article is answering a simple…
Was Christmas originally pagan? The short answer is… No! Here’s the longer answer. There is a fairly common claim that Christmas was originally a pagan celebration that Christians co-opted during the first four centuries to undermine and destroy pagan religion. This has been repeated in ‘books’ (I use the word book quite loosely here) such…
Yesterday (Wednesday, November 20th, 2024), I had the privilege of participating in the Tri-Territory Webinar series for The Salvation Army. Along with colleagues from New Zealand (Captain Steve Molen) and Australia (Captain Natalie Frame), we discussed what is distinctive about faith communities and the creative edges of mission and ministry in our countries and contexts….
During the Second World War, Salvationists in the military ended up in prisoner-of-war camps. This did not mean they ceased to be Salvationists. For many of them, this was to be the greatest test of their commitment to Salvationist principles. This is the story of one of those groups. The information is taken and adapted…
Spiritual Warfare is one of those topics that gets people either all hot and bothered or makes them scoff and turn their noses up. But I think the reality of spiritual warfare is not ghost-busting or fighting demons like a Marvel character. In this piece I’m going to try and give another dimension to what…