The book of Job in the Bible is one that has resonated with people for thousands of years. It confronts one of the enduring questions that continues to plague mankind: Why do the righteous suffer?
Elihu contradicts Job and his friends (Job 32). Wood engraving, published in 1886.
But how should we view this book? Is it a philosophical/theological treatise? Is it one man’s struggle in written form to come to grips with the question? Is it the work of many people over a period of centuries? Or is it the story and experience of a real human being struggling first-hand with major catastrophes in his own life?
In 2020, in response to covid19, churches around the world were forced to close their buildings, many of which are still closed today.
The common initial response to this closure by the local church was to “put the normal church service online” and to create online content and an online production. As a result, many local churches became far more aware of the state of technology, its interplay with culture and the online world in general. Yet it appears there is a very strong widespread desire to return to the comfort of church, much as it was operating in a pre-covid world. In this talk, we are going to explore aspects of how technology has been shaping the environment that the church exists in and how covid is revealing that environment. So, is a simple return to pre-covid church operation and strategy more about our comforts than our mission? In addition, we will examine some approaches for using technology to reach a tech-saturated world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In a previous presentation Gordon pointed out that many of the Old Testament miracles have a naturalistic explanation, but this does not in the least detract from their miraculous aspects of timing and improbability. However, Jesus’s miracles are in an altogether different category. None of these miracles have a naturalistic explanation. On the contrary, many of these miracles point to Jesus as being unquestionably the Son of God.
Are we to take these miracles just at face value? Is it just a case of “Wow! Look at God doing the impossible again – isn’t that cool!” I would argue that certainly most, if not all, of Jesus’s miracles are merely the ‘attention catcher’. They go beyond the immediate and obvious circumstances. They all have theology behind them, and it is this deeper significance and application that we should concentrate upon. The miracle may be important in its own right, but we do well to keep an eye on what’s behind and beyond the miracle.
Dr Gordon Stanger
Dr Gordon Stanger is a geologist, hydrologist, water resources specialist, and a climate-change impact analyst. He is semi-retired and is a keen advocate of ‘sensible Christianity’.
The account of Joseph of Arimathea is very familiar. It is often read in churches at Easter time. It records how Joseph requested the body of Jesus from Pilate and buried him in a tomb at a known location. However, on the following Sunday, the body was gone, many were claiming to have witnessed appearances of the risen Jesus; and Jesus’ opponents could not produce the corpse. Thus the historicity of the burial in Joseph’s tomb is paramount to the central truth claim of Christianity.
The entombment of Christ by Caravaggio 1603-1604
However, Joseph is only mentioned during one cameo appearance and is not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, the location of Arimathea is not absolutely certain, and there are no references to this town in contemporary non-Christian sources. Thus, the brevity of the evidence has prompted some to challenge whether the event occurred at all. After all, isn’t absence of evidence the evidence for absence? So, is Joseph of Arimathea historical?
There are records in each of the four gospels that have some common material but are viewed from different perspectives. From these we can judge whether they are based on factual eye-witness testimony.
Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. He is also a researcher, research supervisor and lecturer at the University of South Australia.
In the very dark days of World War 1, Britain made agreements with both the Arabs and the Jews regarding the land, then known as Palestine, to seek short term assistance to win “The Great War”. As an inevitable consequence, both Arabs and Jews believed they had received a promise that they would possess that land, but the contradictory promises resulted in growing anger and conflict between Arabs and Jews in that land. By 1947 Britain, so weary after World War 2, had had enough of this conflict and, on 29th November 1947, the United Nations agreed to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. The conflict has been going on ever since.
In 1971 John Lennon and the Beatles released “Imagine”.
John Lennon
Here are some of the lyrics:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today …
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
living life in peace,
you You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.
Sounds seductive, doesn’t it? Is this what we should be aiming for? Should we join him? Irreligion is gaining traction within western society, including Australia. It promises happiness and freedom of expression, but does it deliver? Is it good for society or our mental health, and can it provide any ultimate meaning?
The story of Jonah is one of the better known tales in the Bible. The concept of a man being swallowed by a whale certainly piques the imagination, though there is more to it than that, but what are we to make of it?
Was it intended to be read as history, a fable, or something else? What was its purpose intended to be? And if it was supposed to be read as history, how much of it can we believe? How much of this story is actually historically plausible?
While Christianity is growing in non-Western countries, regular church attendance in Western countries has experienced steady decline over the last 100 years. Not only this, but Western social values have diverged from traditional Christian positions and Christianity is often scorned and ridiculed. Many are so prejudiced that they assume that Christianity is not worth considering. Any caring Christian should be concerned. What are the causes of this? Is it inevitable or what can we do about it?
The format of this meeting is slightly different. We have 2 speakers who provide complementary perspectives.
Dr Gordon Stanger
Gordon obtained his geology degree in University College London, and a PhD on ‘The Hydrology of the Oman Mountains. Since then he has worked for the Institute of Hydrology (UK), Flinders Uni (8 years), as a ‘Chief Technical Advisor’ (for the United Nations Development Program in Yemen), a stint as a visiting Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (Taiwan), and as a water resources and/or climate-change consultant in about 30 other countries.
Dr Kevin Rogers
Kevin Rogers is the director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide. He is also a researcher, lecturer and research supervisor at the University of South Australia.
Gordon and Kevin’s combined presentation is available on YouTube.
There are 27 books in the New Testament. When the canon was finalised and agreed in the late 4th century, the church attempted to include only those books that had genuine close contacts with the apostles. However, there had been many forgeries that had been circulating within churches. These were written to skew church beliefs or practices or for obscure authors to obtain wide acceptance or influence. The church attempted to reject these forgeries. However, the canon was finalised about 300 years after the documents were written and much of the personal information had been lost. Did the church make mistakes and are some of those books that were accepted not written by their alleged authors?
Kevin Rogers is the Director of Reasonable Faith Adelaide and is a researcher and research supervisor and the University of South Australia.
Various forms of human slavery have been practiced for thousands of years and professing Christians have practiced it as well. We know that devout Christian politician William Wilberforce led the British campaign to prohibit the export of slaves from Africa, so where did he find his mandate to take this stand – was it the Bible?
From ‘Gone with the wind’
Both the Old Testament (Jewish scriptures) and the New Testament (Christian scriptures) seem to accept slavery as part of the social order to provide labor for manual tasks. Is the Biblical perspective morally defensible?
