Epigrammatic Episodes

What standard do you use to measure your own and others goodness? I ask because perceptions of goodness, our own included, are relative to the standard by which we measure them. C.S.Lewis once said, 'The holier I get, the unholier I realise I am.' In other words, the more he matured toward Christ's likeness (Lewis's standard of goodness), the greater his realisation on how far he had to go. Likewise, for Jesus, the standard was his Father (Mark 10:18). Which is to say: God's standard of good is Himself. A standard by which God looks upon humanity and declares, "There is none that does good, no, not one." (Romans 3:12); another way of saying that in comparison to God our goodness is negligible. Sound too harsh? Surely some part of how we live could be commended as good? The problem, again, is perspective. So easy it is to measure goodness by the standard of the fallen creation, rather than the Holy Creator. A perspective that prejudices us against the ...

Evil is one of those immaterial concepts that everyone acknowledges but struggles to define. How do we know evil to be evil? By what standard do we measure it? And how do we agree on what that standard should be? Does evil exist in and of itself, or does it only exist as the result of something else? Good questions. Biblically , evil might be defined as  that which opposes God's revealed will. Of course, humanity has expanded on this definition to encompass anything that opposes human will also; and sometimes the two are in harmony, but more often they are not. However , sticking with first causes, if evil is that which opposes Gods will, then the question is not, 'How can a holy God allow evil to exist within his creation?' But rather, 'How can he not?' For how can you disallow the existence of something that only exists as the antithesis (opposite) of your own will? In other words, something that exists because something of you exists. There is...

'We're a Christian Nation'. At best this refrain is used to imply that the Bible has influenced our Nations culture more than any other religious text in her history.  For Australia, this is undeniably true. However, the term 'Christian Nation' is misleading. For as much as the Bible may have influenced this nation, there is only one group within her borders that biblically can be called Christian, and they are those that believe in and obey the Bible's message.  Yet this nation contains a high and growing percentage of people who do not believe (and probably many more “believers” who merely give it lip service).  So the reality is we are neither biblically or statistically a Christian nation.  Instead we are historically a nation influenced by Bible believers.  Yet, though influential, the Bible wasn't given as a text book for establishing national law & policy. Rather it was given to believers as a means of reminding them of God's purposes...

Whether personal tastes, personality traits or sexual preference, we hear much today regarding “orientation”.   It is a word deriving from the Latin sol oriens , the rising sun, hence the direction of the rising sun, the east. Orientation literally means facing the east. Hence to become dis oriented was to loose ones sense of direction, to have an incorrect estimation of east. Nowadays, disoriented is commonly used to describe someone that is confused or muddled; someone or something that has lost their bearings, their centre, their purpose, their way. Throughout history many a traveller, convinced they were true to their course, discovered too late they were mistaken; some even paying the ultimate price for such misplaced certainty. Of course, the sun never moved (not in relation to earth). It is fixed, unchanging, reliable. Neither did the earth alter its orbit. It is not shifting absolutes that lay behind peoples misdirection, rather it is placing ones faith in the u...

Have you ever suffered pangs of uncertainty regarding your faith? For some, uncertainties can grow into agonies of doubt, wrestling with the believers earnest desire to be sure of their faith. How does one become certain about their convictions? Can one? Of course, 'agony of doubt' is not unique to believers. Uncertainty is also found amongst unbelievers, especially those that hold truth as criteria for their particular world view(s). Can we know the truth with certainty? Jesus certainly believed we could. He clearly said in John 8:32 that, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”  However, to understand the key to such certainty, one must read his words just prior to these: “ If you abide in my word , you are my disciples in deed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” This is a profound truth, that unshakable conviction can only come about as one proves the truth of ones convictions by living acc...

If the Creator has communicated with the created, how would we best discover it? Typically, those who've inferred a creator's existence admit lacking any inherent or definitive knowledge of his will. Beyond gut-feelings and guesses, most don't consider themselves oracles of the divine. Instead we readily acknowledge the need to look outside ourselves for such revelation. Our innate awareness of God spurs us to seek Him, but beyond that impetus it contributes little to the mystery of God's will and purposes. For many , their confusion at this dilemma has led to scepticism. After all, if one accepts there is a God and sets out to seek him, why such conundrum? If God has a message to share, why not make it more obvious? Why allow us to become so confused with options: ideologies, philosophies, religions etc.? However, once again, as with 'bad things not denoting the absence of a good creator', so too challenges to perceiving him do not denote His...