An Unexpected Danger: Family and Friends Provide Both Solace and Risk
Two of the most wonderful consolations in a sin-sick and decayed world are friendship and family. The only thing that was declared not to be good before the Fall was […]
Evangelicals Unchained: Evangelical Christians Profoundly Influenced Australia
Stuart Piggin was director of the Centre for the History of Christian Thought and Experience at Macquarie University and head of the Department of Christian Thought of the Australian College […]
Blessed Change: Revitalised Churches Build on Growth, Openness and Mission
We are all familiar with the joke about how many Presbyterians it takes to change a light bulb. (31 – one to change it, and five six-member committees to review […]
The Forgotten Reformer: Oecolampadius, A Light to the Church in Dark Times
The year was 1531. As autumn darkened into winter, prospects for the Reformation in Switzerland looked grim. Within a month, two of its leaders were dead: the rugged and charismatic […]
World News: August 2018
Move on Marriage The Uniting Church in Australia’s key national governance body has recommended a change in church policy to allow same-sex marriage. The church’s Assembly Standing Committee has endorsed an internal […]
Dragonflies, by Design: Only an Intelligence can Account for these Remarkable Insects
Dragonflies and damselflies are some of the most impressive fliers in the insect world and, with four wings individually controlled, fly rather like helicopters. Dragonflies are agile, fast fliers, and […]
Don’t Follow the UK: Observations from a Short Sojourn in Sydney
There are few better places in the world for a Scotsman to spend a three-month Sabbatical than Sydney. As a general observation, Australia is in a much healthier position than […]
Free Indeed: It is God who Grants Religious Freedom, Not the State
Recently, a colleague and I were called as witnesses before a Parliamentary Committee exploring Section 18C of the Federal Racial Discrimination Act. We were asked to describe our experience of […]
Eternal and Unchangeable: God’s Moral Law is Consistent, Even on Difficult Questions
Recent missives in support of same-sex marriage have sought to drown out the evangelical voice by asserting that its moral stance is both selective and inconsistent with the Bible’s own […]
Diversity: A Blind Faith
If love and marriage go together as a horse and carriage, so too do diversity and progressive thought. To counter any opposition to anything, all one has to do is […]
Interview with Tim Challies: Technology, Today’s Idol
Tim Challies is a pioneer in the Christian blogosphere, having one of the most widely read and recognised Christian blogs anywhere. He is editor of Discerning Reader, a site dedicated […]
Our Disabled Christ: Disability is a season, and there will be a final renewal
In 2016, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that one in five Australians identify as having a disability. Indeed, we are all destined for disability if we live long enough. […]
A 2250-Year-Old Tradition: More than 2000 languages don’t have the Scriptures. Bible translation is as vital as ever
In the providence of God, I studied at Canterbury Boys’ High, where John Howard did his Leaving Certificate Examination in 1956 and where there were more language teachers than maths […]
World News: May 2018
EU intervenes for Bibi The European Union’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Jan Figel, told Pakistani officials during a recent visit that the renewal of their export […]
Garbled Gospel: Faith and Eugenics: A Marriage Not Made in Heaven
According to historians of early 20th century Australia, around the time of World War I, many members of the “chattering classes” were anxious concerning the perils confronting nation-building efforts on […]
The Good Fight: Religious freedom in Australia is coming under increasing pressure. It’s time to stand up.
Australia has seen itself as a country of equality, fairness and justice for everyone. People of many religions and none have co-existed, in one way or another, in this free […]