Topic Archives: Culture

Introduction In winding up his magnificent exposition of the sovereignty of grace in salvation, the apostle Paul writes: ‘For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things’ (Rom. 11:36). That is, from God as the Source, through God as the Means, to God as the End, all things exist and have their […]

How lonely sits the city. (Lamentations 1:1) The Apostle John’s vision of the glorified Christ reveals the Son of Man’s zeal for his glory and the work of his church. He is clothed with a robe, reaching to his feet, girded across his breast with a golden girdle. His head and his hair are white, […]

Consider what has happened in the church over the past decades. The 1970s were an exciting time. We saw an unprecedented rise in conservative evangelicalism, the explosion of Christian broadcasting and publishing, a number of excellent new Bible translations and study aids, the proliferation of small-group Bible studies, and tremendous growth in Bible-believing congregations. In […]

THE ORWELLIAN LOGIC THAT’S TURNING THE FAITH BRITAIN WAS BUILT ON INTO A CRIME Terrifying as this may seem, the attempt to stamp out Christianity in Britain appears to be gathering pace. Dale Mcalpine was preaching to shoppers in Workington, Cheshire, that homosexuality is a sin when he found himself carted off by the police, […]

TV Will Never Poison My Children’s Minds Australia has come out against television – but some of us have known of its dangers for years. To my amazement the Australian Government has come out against television. Admittedly its report is confined to the effect on small children, and takes the form of undemanding guidelines: the […]

For several months now the financial world has been in crisis. Banks large and small, particularly in Europe and the USA, have been in dire straits. Many have had to go cap in hand to their respective governments for massive bailouts; these have included the second-largest American bank Citigroup, which has been granted $306 billion […]

ROLLING BACK THE STATE AND MENDING SOCIETY Lord Blackwell is the chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies and in The Times on September 8 he made seven suggestions for breaking the dependency culture that has marred life in Great Britain today. How these ideas will resonate in the heart of every Christian! They are […]

I praise Thee, Father . . . that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to infants. Matthew 11:25. Katherine Hepburn, the four-time Academy Award winner, was born in Hartford on November 8, 1907, her mother being from the Houghton family of the Corning Glass company, and her […]

Scotland has voted. The results have been declared and now, hopefully, all the political parties’ placards hanging from lampposts all over the country will come down. Among them were placards, from one small party, which declared: “Scotland deserves better”. Obviously, very few voters believed that this party would rule better than the others; none of […]

Imagine a prominent conservative Christian publicly announcing that he has renounced heterosexuality and will henceforth and forever be homosexual. Add to the scenario the leader declaring he is dedicated to promoting the glory of gayness and encouraging others to become homosexual. Now try to imagine the mainstream media ignoring such an announcement. Try as I […]

In adjacent psalms, David exclaims: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psa. 11:3) and cries: “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men” (Psa. 12:1). There is a clear link between the destruction of society’s foundations and God’s removal of godly men […]

Easy access to abortion was supposed to improve lives. It failed in that purpose and is now just another form of contraception, argued Mary Kenny in The Daily Telegraph, February 16, 2007. It is a sober and painful article.

The Christian staff of the Aberystwyth University arranged a meeting at that college for Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach to speak on “A Christian Perspective on Globalisation.” Brian Griffiths is three years younger than me. He was raised in the bi-lingual gospel hall in Fforestfach, in Swansea, where his father Winston was a leader (though his […]

Much has been written in recent years on postmodernism. It’s a term that pops up regularly in newspapers, magazines, talk shows and other media. You may have heard it mentioned even from the pulpit on occasion. What is postmodernism? The word itself suggests that it has to do with something that happened post or after […]

In a recent article in The Times a man wrote justifying going to a prostitute. The following letter published on November 9, 2006 pointed out the real cost of prostitution: Sir, Clare Spurrell is right to focus on the men who pay for sex, but I found it disturbing to read that she might be […]

WINDOWS ON SIBERIA Nizhnivartovsk Vladimir Radzihovski (31) and his wife Oksana (30) came to this oil rich city of NIZHNIVARTOVSK in 1993 at the invitation of Joseph Bondarenko, the leader of the original mission to western Siberia in 1991. The city now has 300,000 inhabitants and was founded in 1972 following the discovery of huge […]

“BUT…YOU MUSTN’T BLAME YOURSELF.” Since the Enlightenment the idea of ‘sin’ – an offence against God – was replaced by the idea of crime – an offence against man, today men find it difficult to attribute the act of sinning to human behaviour Fred Furedi’s brilliantly perceptive article begins, “One upon a time there were […]

A Saudi-raised Pastor offers an insider’s perspective. At 4.55, the minaret loudspeaker blared outside my window. I was in Damascus, visiting relatives, and hundreds of mosques all over the city were calling Muslims to the first of five daily prayers. Faithful Muslims weave these into their everyday lives. If they forget their duties in the […]

A SOUTHERN BAPTIST VISITS PORTUGAL OVERALL THE PREACHING MET WITH GOOD RECEPTION I recently spent a week in Portugal at the first Fiel Conference there put together by Richard Denham of Brazil. It was time well-spent and I count it a privilege to have been a part of the effort. In short, I was impressed […]

WHY I DO NOT SAY, “GOD DID NOT CAUSE THE CALAMITY, BUT HE CAN USE IT FOR GOOD.” Many Christians are speaking this way about the murderous destruction of the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001, “God did not cause it, but he can use it for good.” There are two reasons I do […]

GOD BLESS AMERICA Forty years ago this month, on Labor Day 1961, the German cargo boat Carl Fritzen, which I had boarded at the Liverpool docks 11 days earlier, began its entry into Chesapeake Bay. We sailed past the beach where the Jamestown settlers had landed in 1607 where they gave thanks to God on […]

TERRORISM, JUSTICE AND LOVING OUR ENEMIES September 12, 2001 Someone asked me after our Tuesday prayer service in response to the terrorist attack, “Can we pray for justice, and yet love our enemy at the same time?” The answer is yes. But let’s start with or own guilt. Christians know that if God dealt with […]

[Earlier this year the late Dr James Montgomery Boice delivered a series of three messages – the Den Dulk Lectures – at Westminster Theological Seminary, Escondido, California. The following are his opening words which appeared in ‘Update’, the Westminster Seminary in California magazine and used by permission:-] These are not good days for the evangelical […]

Friday 16 June Sunday 18 June, 2000 Graham Tolley and I travelled from Heathrow to Warsaw via Paris. Connections were made even if planes were late and it was good to meet up with Elzbieta Modnicki together with a member from the Lodz Evangelical Church, who was to be our chauffeur. We arrived safely; a […]

Visiting America is increasingly like visiting a Britain one remembers. The ideas, beliefs, customs and language of these islands is surviving in the United Sates when they are being forgotten here. Church attendance is showing no sign of decreasing, and to sit in a full congregation is refreshing. New seminaries have been established to train […]