This weeks Quantum reflects on the death of Ravi Zacharias…this is a sermon he preached in St Peters on 21st December 2010.
And this is an article I wrote for Premier Christianity when various accusations were made against him. How sad that people feel the need either to eulogise or demonise.
Owen Jones gets caught in his own hypocrisy.
The University of Cambridge announces that there will be no face to face lectures next year.
The Australian States vie with one another to show who can be the strictest on interstate travel.
China is becoming the most powerful nation in the world.
Then we look at this wonderful speech from the President of Ghana…look at the face of President Macron!
I was particularly interested in this because of a letter I wrote defending the previous President of Ghana.
I found this video more than a little disturbing….if you actually know what the Islamic call to prayer says then it should disturb you as well!
Whilst YouTube has no qualms about broadcasting an Islamic call to prayer which denounces all other religions – they ban John Piper reading his book on Christ and Coronvirus
This is the shortest McDonalds ad in the world…and I have an incredible story about a Belgian family’s desperation to get a Macca’s!
Finally don’t forget The Kitchen Table with Russell Brand – The Kitchen Table 2 – Russell Brand and Prayer
And we finish with this beautiful song from Runrig.
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The Islamic Call to Prayer – Rather than calling for it to be banned wouldn’t it be better to apply to our local authorities for permission to preach the Christian gospel to people through loudspeakers on our church towers and spires? Could they, or would they refuse in the light of the precedent they’ve now set? It would be interesting to sound them out.
Ghana president seems like a fine, sincere leader – educated and eloquent- who loves his country – and has a vision for his country. Trump’s no speaker – but what’s the difference in the vision?
Number of v interesting points…
China, hopefully will not become the most ‘powerful’ nation on earth ( by this do you mean financially, politically, educationally or military..?)
Hopefully now the ‘rest of the world ‘ will wake up to the fact that China ‘wants’ world domination by any possible means…currently that is business and economic/ financial as they make most of the world ‘s stuff now, very sadly…just another reason why ‘globalisation ‘ is not fair or right ..!
I would gladly pay 10% or 20% more for something made in broken Britain or Australia, and thereby assist in a small way the local and national economies.., as opposed to buying cheap built in obsolescence chinese goods that do not last ( well perhaps a month or year beyond warranty date. ..mostly true,)
The Chinese ccp have their own power and control rules, if you are in the country and contradict them, then you simply ‘disappear’ which is a euphemism for being ‘taken out’ else sent to a ‘correction camp’ depending on degree of disagreement…
Why is the so called ‘ rest of the world’ so fearful of standing up to them…? Removal of the ‘who ‘ president, whom was instated by china, and whom is totally ‘in their pocket’ could be a good start…however that would only be the tip of the tip of the iceberg…
The death has also been announced of Rev. David Pawson, aged 90. Pawson was described as an “unorthodox” evangelical, but he was a superb bible teacher and greatly influenced my life. I remember, while at med college (circa 1970) attending a series of taped lectures on Isaiah. I still have the bible with extensive comments and annotations.
Yet like Ravi he had feet of clay. He wrote an honest autobiography, and at the end makes this comment, which followed a series of highly unpleasant personal attacks: “I turned to the Lord and complained bitterly………. I have rarely known him to speak to me as clearly as he did then. ‘The worst they can say about you is not as bad as the truth’. I burst out laughing ……. and with relief that my enemies didn’t know as much about me as the Lord did. ( Hodder & Stoughton 2006)
On a similar note the great Dick Lucas (now well into his 90s) told an anecdote about the late John Stott who was on holiday in Wales, and was invited to preach in a small local chapel one Sunday. Before he began the minister stood up and gave Stott a great eulogy. Stott’s response was (and I paraphrase not having the original in front of me), “If you really knew the truth about me you wouldn’t want to know me. ”
Lastly cleaners. When I was a lad my parents employed a cleaner once a week, (both parents were working – my mother as a nurse). Mrs. Bud was elderly and as wrinkled as a walnut, and had spent her (I suspect) sad life cleaning other peoples’ toilets. She was paid ten shillings a week. But when we took our family holiday to Scotland each year my mother always insisted on paying her for the time we were away. We were not a rich family (post war austerity) but Mrs. Bud was even poorer. I have always admired my mother for this decision.
Dear David,
I am thankful for you taking a balanced view of this.
I took the news about Mr Zacharias scandals like a gut punch and was saddened to hear of his passing this week.
There’s something about truth and the refusal to exaggerate that is so important to me and I felt really let down. I know we shouldn’t put our hope in individuals, but it’s so frustrating to have not seen respected Evangelicals like McGrath, Lennox and others call it out for what it was. It felt like the ranks closed and there was a code of silence – that an individual was too big to fail, so to speak. Getting a doctorate let alone a teaching position at Oxbridge or an Ivy League uni is a huge achievement and as Christians shouldn’t we be robust in pushing back against anyone who misrepresents their relationship to a credential or institution? I wouldn’t trust a bus driver or mechanic who misrepresented their training, let alone a banker or doctor. When it comes to the most important issues of all – life, death, eternity, meaning – should we have lower or higher standards? I’m glad the gospel was preached and lives changed. But it was scary to me to see the power of personality overriding to consciences of so many who should have spoken out. We would never tolerate a big name secularist – a Krauss, Dawkins, Grayling or Tyson – misrepresenting their background to advance an argument.
I hope this doesn’t come across the wrong way, as bitter or or as falling into one of the two extremes you highlighted. It had being on my conscience for a long time. Stay well!
I take it Seth that you have first hand knowledge of Ravi Zacharias, knowledge that David in his original article, linked above, was careful to emphasise he did not have and knowledge which you are crediting Lennox and others as having, unless of course you have direct first hand evidence.
As a former lawyer with first hand experience of media getting cases so wrong in their report, I despair at the the level of probity or ability to report accurately, without bias, exercised by professional journalists, let alone in the social media cesspit.
And I think your comparisons are flawed, of a different category.
No doubt he was flawed as we all are, but has a flawless Saviour.
Dawkins and Grayling frequently trespass onto Christian theological territory, without earned qualifications in that field, thereby misrepresenting Christianity.
A case in point is Grayling’s fairly recent discussion with Tom Holland on Premier Christian radio.
The Cambridge announcement presumes that hoi polloi do not apprehend the fact that the highly autonomous Colleges will still conduct one – to – one ,or even small group tutorials and that it’s only Faculty lectures that will go online.
I attended an Malay cultural dance performance one evening in Penang and an American tourist asked when the performance would commence .
‘After Adhaan”, came the reply
“Who’s he ?”