an open mind

It is fashionable to celebrate ‘an open mind’.  However, as C K  Chesterton said,

“The purpose of an open mind, like an open mouth, is to close on something solid.

tradition and traditionalism

Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living

                                                                                                                                          Jaroslav Pelikan

gospel freedom

“The gospel doesn’t just free you from what other people think about you, it frees you from what you think about yourself.”

Justin Buzzard

what is the gospel

It’s hard to make a concise summary of the Gospel that is not reductionistic.  Here is D A Carson’s definition.

‘… the gospel is integrally tied to the Bible’s story-line. Indeed, it is incomprehensible without
understanding that story-line. God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, his image-bearers. Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite his forbearance, attracts his implacable wrath.

But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of his character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of his own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what he expects.

In the fullness of time his Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in the first instance, to judge but to save: he dies the death of his people, rises from the grave and, in returning to his heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift he has secured for them—an eternity of bliss in the presence of God himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

The only alternative is to be shut out from the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel (Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17).

Would you add or subtract anything from this definition?

freedom of speech

‘If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear’.”

George Orwell

speak the truth

An excellent image ‘pinched’ from here.

another quotation

Ken Smith

When I die, if God asks, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” I’ll bow and be silent. Then I’ll hear a voice,
“Father, he’s mine.”

a few telling quotations

From Anglican Mainstream…

“I have met many ex-homosexuals — but I have never met an ex-black.”
Dr Ken Hutcherson, black American pastor and marriage activist

“As one Moslem mullah said to an Anglican priest in London, ‘By the end of this century, all great English Cathedrals will be mosques. Why? Because we have children, and you don’t.’”
Raymond de Souza LifeSiteNews.com

“According to the Family Education Trust, 44% of British births in 2006 were outside of marriage.”

“Truth, like surgery, may hurt, but it cures.”
Han Suyin, Chinese writer and physician

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality”. Dante Alighieri

“If someone tells you there is no such thing as truth they are asking you not to believe them.”
Roger Scruton

“Literally thousands of studies have been done which demonstrate that children do best when raised by their parents who are a married couple.”

“Education is not a subject and does not deal in subjects. It is instead a transfer of a way of life.”
GK Chesterton, Christian thinker, writer and apologist, d. 1936

“The weakening of a moral and spiritual framework for society has left people without an anchor for the mooring of their moral lives and without guidance by which to steer through the Scylla and Charybdis of contemporary dilemmas.”
Michael Nazir-Ali Standpoint, August 2009

“Always tell the truth. Then you don’t have to remember anything.”
Mark Twain Roughin’ it