Learning from the persecuted Church
The ‘Seize the Day’ podcast for August is now online. In it, John Ayrton is talking to Andy Dipper, the CEO of Release International, about what we can learn from the persecuted Church. Last in series. Go here to listen.
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The new atheism and ‘God: new evidence’
The ‘new atheists’ have succeeded in obtaining a high profile in the media: Richard Dawkins’ book ‘The God Delusion’ sold more than two million copies, and spent a year on the NY Times best-seller list. His latest book, ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ is now being widely promoted. A few years ago, UK Channel 4 [...]
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What’s different about the ‘new atheism’?
Is the ‘new atheism’ just the same old same old, but with a different skin? Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says not, according to a recent blog post by Michael Patton. Mohler identifies the following key differences (my words, not his, nor Patton’s): It celebrates atheism, rather than mourning the loss of [...]
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Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code: what Christians believed in 112 AD,
according to Pliny, the Roman governor of Bithynia, in Turkey
Pliny ('Pliny the younger') was the governor of the Roman province
of Bithynia, in present-day Turkey. In about 112 AD, he wrote
(in Epistles X.96) to the emperor
Trajan, asking for advice on how to deal with the followers
of Christ in his province, because he was executing so many
of them. Pliny wrote:
They were in the habit of meeting before dawn on a fixed day. They
would recite in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as to a god,
and would bind themselves by a solemn oath, not to do any
criminal act, but rather that they would not commit any fraud,
theft or adultery, nor betray any trust nor refuse to restore
a deposit on demand. This done, they would disperse, and then
they would meet again later to eat together (but the food
was quite ordinary and harmless.)
Notice
from what Pliny says that:
- By
the beginning of the second century, there was already
a Christian community in Bithynia large enough to come
to the attention of the Roman governor.
- They worshipped
Christ as a god.
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