The Unknown

Nigeria, A hurting land

2011-08-17T12:56:00.000+01:00

I just bumped into this article about Nigeria through the Not Ashamed Facebook page.

"Last week Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital, was subjected to a series of attacks. After allegations of an animal theft, Ferom was attacked twice on 4 August with eight members of one family killed in the first attack and a further three people killed in the second. On 14th August, Muslim rioters took to the streets in north Jos and killed three Christians by machetes. The Residents of Jwol community reported an attack on Friday in which one person was killed. There was another slaughter at Hiepand leaving at least 8 dead, some with gunshot wounds." ~ Christian Concern

Having seen this and wanting to get involved, I have found some links to stay updated on the situation and wanted to share them.

A horrifying video about the situation in Jos as well as a website of information about events to support Nigeria here: Love Jos.
A campaign to support people in Nigeria affected by the violence: Stefanos Foundation

If you know of other charities directly involved with this violence and ways to support them, please do comment and I will update this post.

Featured Blogs - Faith Isn't Dumb

2011-07-25T18:51:00.000+01:00

This week as I'm away on holiday, here are a few blogs to check out with some great content showing how you can be a Christian without switching off your brain.

J.W. Wartick - A Case for Christianity:

"This post is intended to provide other Christians with a case for their beliefs that they can memorize and share with others."
The Apologetics Guy - Is the bible from God?

"The Bible says that it’s God’s message to us (2 Tim 3:16-17). That’s either true or it’s not. So is there any reason to think the Bible’s more than just a book written by men? What kind of book is the Bible? We’ve only got two answers here:

It’s just a bunch of stories and ideas about God, written by people.
It’s actually the Word of God, given to people."
The Poached Egg

"The Poached Egg is a daily blog where Christian apologetics, history, philosophy, science, theology, and pop culture collide. Our goal is to help guide believers, seekers, and skeptics alike to the Ultimate Source of Truth and to a better understanding of what it means to have a Christian worldview."

You will find many other blogs on the blogroll to the right with resources and posts to answer difficult questions and each of the blogs I've just linked to also have loads of resources to read. I will be featuring other blogs on here under specific topics on a, hopefully, weekly basis.

Enjoy!

Chrislam - Can Christianity and Islam mix?

2011-07-16T16:28:00.003+01:00

Original source: unknown (found on multiple sites)

I was asked by a friend what I thought of Chrislam. Having heard of it but not formally researched it past looking at wikipedia, I thought I'd take a closer look and post what I find here. My aim here is to explore what Chrislam is, possibly who is involved but more to highlight the dangers it creates for churches but also the incompatibility of the two faiths.

What is Chrislam?
Chrislam is the merging of Islam and Christianity. From what I have found it was born in Lagos, Nigeria by a pastor named Shamsuddin Saka. His inspiration was born out of a Hajj (Muslim Pilgrimage) to Mecca and in response to the horrific violence in Nigeria that has often erupted between Muslims and Christians (these clashes aren't as specifically religious as is often portrayed- click for source). The church has worship similar to any Pentecostal Christian church, Muslim prayers as well as readings and preaches from the Qur'an and the Bible simultaneously.

A similar form of Chrislam is spreading through the states but this is encouraged by an organisation called Faith Shared. Faith Shared's goals are quoted here, taken from their home page:

Faith Shared asks houses of worship across the country to organize events involving clergy reading from each other’s sacred texts. An example would be a Christian Minister, Jewish Rabbi and Muslim Imam participating in a worship service or other event. Suggested readings will be provided from the Torah, the Gospels, and the Qur’an, but communities are encouraged to choose readings that will resonate with their congregations. Involvement of members from the Muslim community is key. We will also provide suggestions on how to incorporate this program into your regular worship services. And we will assist local congregations in their media and communications efforts.

Churches, synagogues and mosques are being encouraged to join together and read each other's scriptures in their own services. Though we are looking at multi-faith, there is a surprising emphasis on involvement from the muslim community. Why? Possibly because it is most likely Muslims that are holding fast to what they believe to be truth and see that worshiping God cannot be a pick and mix affair. Something that many Christian churches are failing at.

There is also a committee in Lebanon called chrislam.org, which seems to be more about dialogue in a violent situation as opposed to mixing faiths and so is irrelevant to this post as far as a quick scan and google translate could tell.

The Issues.
There are many parts to Chrislam that would be considered incorrect by both faiths but the main underlying theme of Chrislam both in Nigeria and in the West is that peace can only be reached if the religions merge. To find a peaceful resolution is a noble prospect but it to merge two religions is misguided. The issues behind the conflict in Nigeria are much deeper ingrained than just religion. In the West it is common to hear disagreement being linked to either hatred or phobia.

This misconception of disagreement is rife for example within the abortion debate, disagree with one side and you are most likely to be labelled hateful or violent (most commonly thrown at people who are against abortion); Christians disagreeing with homosexuality within the church are seen as homophobic and it is becoming more common that if you disagree with Islam you are becoming an Islamophobe. If this idea of disagreement being equal to hate continues discussion and feedom of speech will be severely affected. I love discussing my faith with anyone and everyone. Often times discussions become heated over certain disagreements but this does not mean I hate the person or what they do, it simply means we do not agree.

There are various aspects of both Christianity and Islam that will quite naturally become unbalanced in Chrislam and in the end, it is most likely the Christian elements that will be pushed out. Christians worship Jesus because to Christians Jesus is God (click here to see why). Worshiping Jesus is 'shirk' (idolatry) to Muslims because to Muslims Jesus is just a man and worshiping men is idolatry. Hence why imagery of Muhammed is banned.

"Indeed they do blaspheme those who say that Allah is Jesus, the son of Mary, but Jesus said "O children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord". Whoever joins other gods with Allah, Allah will forbid him heaven and the fire will be his abode. (Al Maidah:72)"

Islam also teaches that Jesus prepared the way for Muhammed. For Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus is central, because it shows that what Jesus taught was true. Since Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life and no one gets to the Father except through Him, it doesn't then make sense for God to send another messenger. Islam does not worship Muhammed and therefore it will be easier for Christians to make all the worship songs about Allah, than for Muslims to sing the songs about Jesus dying for their sins.

There are already theological problems with the Christian element to Chrislam in Nigeria such as elements of the prosperity gospel (which can be seen here: click me to go to youtube - disclaimer: the video is inaccurate when it comes to the history of Christianity in Nigeria), let alone all of the other scriptural and theological aspects to mixing the two faiths.

Why does it matter?
One of, if not THE biggest threat to Christianity is not people disagreeing with it, but Christians not knowing the bible or why they believe what they believe. Many believe Jesus died and rose again but they are not sure why and they are not sure if Jesus being God really matters. The difference with Islam is that it is more of a culture and community than Western Christianity and Muslims are more likely to know a) their Qur'an very well and b) how to disagree with Christianity. The Qur'an deals directly with how to live with Christians and respond to their claims while the bible does not say anything about Islam due to it pre-dating Islam. So if a Christian does not understand why Jesus' deity matters, a Muslim will be able to tell them why it isn't true and that Jesus was just a man/prophet who did not rise again. Note that in the majority of these 'interfaith' events, it is the Christian groups changing to accommodate other faiths.

Another major concern is that to back up why interfaith events should happen, texts are cut and paste out of context to show the similarity between the religions. This cutting and pasting shows a lack of respect for the scriptures of all faiths and basically says that the other parts of scriptures that differ don't matter. It is actually the differing parts that matter the most and can be discussed to verify which faith is the truth which it claims. Islam and Christianity claim they are the truth and only way to heaven - both cannot be true.

What do we (Christians) do about it?

Know your bible. Know why certain doctrine is important. Always be learning.
Know the main differences between the religions and figure out which claims can be better verified. Research the common Muslim issues with Christianity and know why they are often unfounded.
Dialogue and relationship between faiths is important. Many pastors are seeking to better understand Muslims (in America especially) and are being lambasted by other Christians for it. Rick Warren's name comes up a lot with the google search 'Chrislam'. I do know Rick Warren is seen as controversial but this interview (click here) allayed many of my concerns about him and think many Christians need to look into their own heart before they blog. A great quote here from the interview:

"People say we worship the same God and I say, 'hold on just a minute, my God looks like Jesus... so if your God doesn't look like Jesus then we don't worship the same God!"

"Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry" 2 Timothy 4:2-5 (emphasis - my own).

I do welcome comments and discussion, please do comment if there is something I have missed out or could clarify.

Zeitgeist: The Movie

2011-07-08T19:08:00.001+01:00

Zeitgeist: The Movie, has gone around the Internet and has many people quoting its statements. The first 10 minutes are full of a lot of emotional music, massive quotes about religion, flashing images of war and explosions, more music, more quotes and more images of war. Then the statements about myths begin, pretty much claiming that Christianity has got all of its ideas from egyptian, greek and asian mythology. If it wasn't such a big hit on the internet, the claims of this film could be ignored. Unfortunately it is a big hit on the internet and people are buying into the claims just because it is said with some authority, similar to how Dawkins' God Delusion and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown have become to be seen as popular fact...

The creator of this video has gone so far out of his way to disprove Christianity that facts just don't matter any more. Very few sources are cited and much of the facts are obviously manipulated to make the listener think Christianity has no historical evidence. As many people (of various faiths or lack-thereof) have thoroughly debunked the poor excuse of a documentary, this post will be a pointer to as many posts debunking the film as I can find in five minutes. If you know of others, please feel free to add them into the comments section and I will add them into my list here.

The film is on Vimeo, if you want to wince at very bad history and science click here.

Dr Glenn Peoples debunks Zeitgeist here - Click me.

Dr Peoples also has a 3 part series on evidence for the historical Jesus outside the New Testament if you are interested that can be found in this link as well.

Virtual Bill debunks Zeitgeist's astronomy here - Click me.

The Skeptic Project does a major debunking of all Zeitgeist's claims here - Click me.

Please do check the sources of movies and books like this before sharing it, it only helps fools get recognised as experts and as Dr Peoples says in his podcast, it becomes the blind leading the blind.

Evidence For the Gospels

2011-06-16T19:32:00.000+01:00

So teacher training has finished and I find myself with a little more time to catch up on the world. While catching up I bumped into this on bethinking.org. It is quite a long lecture but is easy to listen to and the ideas aren't too complex. Plus, I had not heard gospels viewed in this light before which was very refreshing. A little bit more evidence to back up the awesome claims of Jesus.

Lecture with Dr. Peter Williams from Lanier Theological Library on Vimeo.

Response to Thoughts on Heaven and Hell

2011-06-14T18:24:00.000+01:00

So in response to my previous post ages ago, here is a video by Francis Chan. I will at some point try to read both books but I'm leaning more to Francis Chan on this one.

Thoughts on Heaven and Hell

2011-03-02T14:47:00.001Z

I saw this video pop up on my news feed on Facebook and thought I'd share it. I have my own reservations about the thoughts in this video but thought I'd check out what others thought first before sharing my own opinions. Though I do not know much about the book (its not out yet so not many people do), Rob seems to be basing some views around the idea that Jesus saves us from God so that we don't end up in hell. Do you agree with that view? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

LOVE WINS. from Rob Bell on Vimeo.

Worrying about Christmas?

2010-10-16T12:01:00.001+01:00

Something that a friend shared on Facebook challenged me and I would like to spread it around as I haven't blogged for a while. Hope this inspires you:

I'm a Christian but Jesus isn't the only way to Heaven...

2010-08-31T22:26:00.000+01:00

Surprisingly enough this remark isn't uncommon. In an age of political correctness, relativism is is very common. Just the other day in a conversation I had, the view of Jesus being the only way to heaven (a view which I hold to) was called narrow. I thought it was quite interesting that the person I was talking to missed the irony in the fact that he used a similar word to Jesus - "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14).

Many people want to say that all religions lead to heaven but when you look into the teaching of all religions you end up with massive contradictions. I won't go into the various religions that would contradict this as we can just look at Christianity and see that Christianity cannot mix with any other spiritual or religious ideology.

Christianity is different from every other religion in the sense that God came to Earth to save mankind rather than mankind trying to save themselves to get to God. Christianity is based on the teachings of the historical man, Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem (modern day Palestine) but grew up in Galilee in modern day Israel. Only on the internet will you find people who believe that Jesus was a myth. We have these teachings from four historical documents known as the gospels which can be viewed as reliable witness accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus¹.

Not only from these gospels do we have an accurate history of Jesus' teaching but also an accurate depiction of Jesus trial, death and resurrection. The common accusations of Jesus fainting, having a stunt double, or the body being buried in a shallow grave are not actually new arguments and are the arguments of those who have not done their own research. The atheist camp have continued to fail to bring serious doubt to the death and resurrection and many of those who have seriously taken to researching the evidence behind Jesus resurrection have become Christians themselves. Frank Morison was one of those people and his book, 'Who moved the stone?' is a great testament to the huge amount of evidence behind the resurrection as it still sells 80 years on from when it was first published².

Due to the accurate records we have from the gospels, we can see that Jesus taught that He was God (see previous post on Jesus' deity) and through Jesus we then can know God (Luke 10:22). It is important then that as we have an accurate depiction of Jesus' teaching which is then given authority by Jesus resurrection, to not mix Jesus' teaching with that of other religions or ideologies.

As the texts of the gospels have held up to and continue to hold up against the arguments thrown against them, we can now look at what Jesus taught about being accepted into heaven. I will only touch on a couple of verses but please do some research for yourself as it will help you find out exactly what Jesus taught.

I have already linked to Matthew 7 above and Matthew 10 also contains a quote from Jesus that follows that theme. Matthew 10:32-33 - This is a challenge for anyone who does not accept Jesus. Being accepted by the Father is the same as being accepted into heaven.

Luke 15:11-32 - This is a parable, or parallel story, for those who do accept Jesus, even if their life has not been obedient to God up to that point.

If you have made the commitment to be a Christian, look into the sources below and find out why you can trust Jesus' teaching. Otherwise see my previous post on having doubts to find other links to help you work through those doubts and hopefully see that you can trust in God enough to have faith in Him.

If you accept Jesus as a saviour, then due to what Jesus taught, no one and nothing else will get you to heaven.

Sources:
1. William Lane Craig and his multiple sources: Reasonable Faith: Rediscovering the Historical Jesus: The Evidence for Jesus
2. Frank Morison, Who Moved the Stone? First published in 1930

Update

2010-08-31T16:03:00.000+01:00

I've made a couple updates to the blog so that it is easier to access the two series I have been writing recently as well as a link to sermons that I have done at my church. I will add various series as I write them to the same panel at the top of this page. I will also add sermons as they become available so please do continue to check those pages as they will hopefully be updated fairly frequently.

I hope you find the links helpful.

Phil

Why You Should Care About Pakistan

2010-08-19T00:06:00.000+01:00

I have had a few interesting comments after inviting people to give to charities helping people in Pakistan after the floods. From what I can gather, the main negative responses have been to do with politics, either with the way Pakistan has treated India or the way Pakistan hasn't been able to sort out terrorism within its borders.

My first response to both reasons is neither reason is good enough for us to ignore the millions of men, women and children facing deadly diseases (some as treatable as diarrhoea). On the facebook group I have linked to four charities already with teams in Pakistan, all with various focuses. World Vision is giving food, UNICEF is delivering clean water, UNHCR is helping with blankets and shelter and Oxfam is delivering a mix of the three. To say political reasons stop you giving is avoiding the issue completely - you are giving to a charity not to the government and thus you can avoid these two political reasons altogether.

My second response is only to the issue with terrorism. I don't fully understand the conflict between Pakistan and India, the area's relationships are complicated and tribal issues run deep. I didn't understand tribal issues in Papua New Guinea after living there for 11 years, I'm not going to understand Pakistan's after a few days research. The issue with terrorism I think comes from the idea that Pakistan is a developed country. Pakistan is still classed as underdeveloped and corruption and poor governance has kept development limited for years. To think Pakistan has the infrastructure to stop terrorism, let alone deal with the floods on its own is completely unrealistic. Especially when half the country is isolated when there is not flood water to contend with. If we don't give, extremist groups will do the relief for us, win the hearts of the people the Pakistani government already struggles to keep hold of and when the flooding is over we'll have bigger problems on our hands.

All that aside, we shouldn't be helping Pakistan just because we can protect our own country, we should be giving money because that is the right thing to do. If the majority of our country was under water we would expect other countries to help out. Millions of people are in dire need of aid, upwards of 6 million children are facing death through contaminated water and all many of us Westerners can do is argue politics.

Click here for the Facebook group to raise awareness and give to the above charities.

Twitter #pakistanfloods to raise awareness.

Pakistan Needs Your Help!

2010-08-18T10:30:00.001+01:00

Photo belongs to AP, found on The Hindu online newspaper

If you hadn't noticed, there is massive flooding in Pakistan. It has been going on sine the beginning of August but for some reason there isn't half as much call for giving as there was for Haiti.

Forget your concerns about Taliban, religion, or anything you have heard about Pakistan, there are innocent men, women and children needing your help now.

The scale of this disaster is bigger than the Haiti earthquakes and the 2004 Tsunamis put together. Please do give what you can, Pakistan has been hard hit by natural disasters recently.

The best way to give is to give to a charity already in the country. There are several charities out there and you can see the list below. I will be updating the post as I get more news and a bit more time.

Click on the link to give to World Vision: Click me to Give to World Vision.
World Vision are delivering food packs, £22 feeds a family for a week, £135 feeds two families for a month.

Click on the link to give to Oxfam: Click me to Give to Oxfam.
Oxfam are doing a lot for hygiene and cleaning up. £12 will give one family a hygiene kit, £14 will give a family a household kit (including a plastic bucket, water cooler, floor mats, waste bin, shawls and water purification tablets) and £46 will give a household the tools for cleaning up (shovels etc.).

Click on the link to give to UNICEF: Click me to give to UNICEF.
Flood water is contaminated with diseases through sewage and dead bodies. UNICEF is focused on delivering clean water to flood victims, this is much more important than food as clean water will keep someone alive for longer. Many children face diahorrea due to drinking contaminated water - this is a death sentence for many as they don't have the fluid to keep themselves hydrated or the medicine to deal with it.

Click on the link to give to UNHCR: Click me to give to UNHCR
UNHCR focus on shelter and kits for survival. £25 will provide 10 blankets, £60 provides a refugee with a survival kit and £125 provides an all weather tent.

You can find more information on all their sites. Or you can find more news links and any more information I find on the facebook group below.

A Facebook group can be found here: Click me to go to Facebook.

A Facebook event can be found here: Click me to go to the event.

Some news stories to bring you up to date:

Telegraph:
Pakistan warned of 'second wave of deaths'...

BBC:
World bank to lend $900 million to Pakistan
Millions of Pakistan Children at Risk of Flood Diseases

Guardian:
Pakistan Floods

I'm a Christian but I don't go to church...

2010-08-15T11:39:00.003+01:00

This is a frequent statement from Christians who don't want to be part of that 'crowd' that they see in the media. You know, the ones who picket funerals and scream out God's condemnation on everyone. There are so many testimonies of people who have left Christianity because of the church and there are many people who call themselves Christians but don't go to church. Though I agree, Christians can be annoying, there is quite a lot to be said for the church biblically and spiritually, as well as emotionally and socially. If you agree with the title, please read on and feel free to comment if you disagree with this post. I would love to have a discussion about it.

What is church?
Before we go into any sort of discussion, I want to define church as I see it biblically. Church is a community of Christians coming together in the presence of God (Matthew 18:20, Acts 2:42-47), focused on Christ (1 Corinthians 4, Colossians 1:15-23), worshipping (1 Corinthians 14:26), teaching (2 Timothy 4:1-2), discussing and learning, challenging (1 Corinthians 5) and allowing the Holy Spirit to work which can open the church up to spiritual gifts such as prophecy, healing and speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 12). The community of Christians (Church) should also be a place where needs are met, where the widows and orphans are cared for (1 Timothy 5:3-8), where the poor are helped with their needs and people share their belongings without question or expectation of return (Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-37). Divisions within the church should also be dealt with quickly and gracefully (Matthew 18:16-18, 1 Corinthians 1:10-17). Notice there isn't much in the bible about the building in the bible but more about the people. This gives us a lot of flexibility about how church is done, hence why there are so many different churches around. As long as you have a community of Christians meeting together and seeking, worshipping and learning about Christ then you have a church.

Often this isn't the case with church and I have many friends who are like me and look at the bible and see a completely different type of church from the ones we often attend. I am fortunate to be part of a family of churches that seek to be biblical in their teaching and in their structure. They don't always get it right but that is part of being human. Before all else, we need to remember that the church is managed by humans who are seeking Christ, this means there tends to be mistakes. There is no such thing as a perfect church, BUT, the church leadership should be led by Christ (by the Holy Spirit, by prayer and by the bible) and by this, as long as mistakes are learnt from, we can encourage our leaders rather than pull them down. Many churches struggle with an imbalance, many focus too heavily on the miraculous or the blessings (see my post on the prosperity gospel), many focus too much on the social action and others focus just on themselves rather than looking outward. The parts of church you struggle with are probably parts that you are called to help out in, just turn that frustration into a passion to see something change for good.

Why should we be part of a church?

Biblically: As you can see in the previous section there is a lot in the bible about the church. I want to challenge you to read around the links above and find how important the church is to Christ.

Pastorally: Children who grow up on their own without love or care from others tend to grow up angry, distrustful and with other various issues that take years to resolve if they get resolved at all. So it is with young Christians. If a young Christian's faith does not grow up in a community of varying ages and experiences then it is bound to take on various ideas and issues unchallenged. A lone Christian not only finds it hard to stand up against persecution but also finds it easy to justify anything they want to do because they are their own leader. If you align yourself with a church (remember the definition of church) you are more likely to learn more about who Christ is and more likely to stand firm in your faith without taking on strange ideas unquestioned.

Spiritually: Spending time with other Christians is one of the best ways for your faith to grow. If you are struggling with something in the bible, you have people to ask and find answers. If you are struggling with something personally, you have people to go and seek advice from. If you need prayer, there are people there to lift you up. If you are slacking off on spending time with God, you have people to challenge you. Self-motivation is all well and good, but it is better to be able to share your burdens and your blessings with others.

Socially: In a church you will meet people you never would have met anywhere else, let alone talk to. Immediately you have something in common with people in church and it should be the most welcoming place on earth. Churches are all about the people.

Have you been hurt by the church?
Unfortunately many Christians and non-Christians can look back and find a time where the church has not treated them fairly. Church splits happen and again it is an unfortunate part of having humans involved. It is important, no matter what the church has done, to remember that Christ died for all and because of that forgiveness must be given even if it is not asked for. I am not saying go back to the community that hurt you, but don't give up on a) all churches and b) Christ.

I don't like what the church stands for?
Many Christians like to back away from the Christians they see in the media. They like to stay quiet and not align themselves with a church in case they are seen as weird and in case they are insulted by friends. As a Christian you have made a choice that the world sees as foolish (1 Corinthians 3:18-23). You are called as a Christian to live differently from the world and so you must make a stand and it is easier to do so with a good church community around you. Obviously if the church you attend is not handling sensitive subjects with the grace of God then you need to ask questions and seek change in the church, don't just give up on it.

In conclusion:
Church is an awesome community to be part of. It is an amazing place of friendship and love, a place to seek and learn more about Jesus. Sometimes it goes wrong, but hopefully forgiveness and patience rule out from those mistakes. We don't need to be legalistic about going to church, but if you truly seek Christ as your saviour and you want to become more of an adult in your faith, church is the place to go. Learn from the Christians that have already been through what you are going through. Meet with other Christians regularly, it doesn't have to be every Sunday, but make sure you are sharing in worshipping, learning and seeking Christ and seeing how an awesome God can affect the community around you.

Stop the Traffik

2010-08-12T23:07:00.001+01:00

I have done a series on charities over the last few months and this is one I follow quite closely. I have heard many discussions between atheists and Christians about whether or not Christians had a big hand in the abolition of the slave trade. Though Christians did have a major hand in making the slave trade illegal, there still needs to be a bigger stand for actually abolishing the slave trade as it is bigger now than ever. From trafficking children for cheap labour to trafficking women (or children for that matter) for the sex trade, slavery still exists and we are still far from abolishing it.

The video's statistics are from 2008. Two years on the estimates for people stuck within the slave trade around the world are up to around 4 million people. The majority of these people are women and children.

Accurate statistics are hard to come across as many victims are not reported officially from charities as the immigration status of the victim would cause legal problems if reported. This is an unfortunate irony as immigration status is one of the many ways traffickers keep their victims quiet.¹ A report by ECPAT in 2007 found 80 reported cases of known or suspected child victims, 60% of which have since gone missing from social services are and never been found.²

Though the statistics we do know are disturbing and the stories we hear extremely shocking, this is where Stop the Traffik come in. Stop the Traffik focus on awareness within communites, awareness for frequent travellers and educates people on different goods and products which are produced on the back of the human exploitation. This awareness is for everyone in their own community to be involved enough to talk to people if there are strange things going on, like a child who is never allowed out or never goes to school or a young girl who is given expensive presents by older boys who pick her up after school.⁴

The organisation is also involved in setting up shelters for victims of trafficking in various countries. It also works with other organisations such as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and national organisations within the UK, the USA, South Africa, Kyrgyz Republic and Australia. Trafficking is global and Stop the Traffik needs global support to be effective.

Sources:

1. Amnesty International Report: Wrong Kind of Victim June 2010

2. ECPAT (End Child Prosititution, Child Pornography and the Trifficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) Report: Missing Out January 2007

3. Childtrafficking.com digital library - A massive library of reports of trafficking in various countries as well as various forms of trafficking.

4. Stop the Traffik - Find out how you can get involved

I am still here...

2010-08-05T12:18:00.000+01:00

As I haven't blogged in a while I thought I would at least let the world know that I am still blogging. This summer has been extremely busy and the next year isn't looking like slowing down. I am currently working on several posts which will be posted once the research is done and the post has been reviewed. The main posts I am working on will follow on from the two series that I have started over the last couple months. To see previous posts in these series click on the links below:

I'm a Christian and...

Charity

Please feel free to comment on these previous posts as they are meant to challenge and to start a discussion.

How much evidence do you need?

2010-07-14T22:44:00.001+01:00

I have had a bit of a break from blogging recently as it was beginning to take up far too much of my time. While not posting, I have still been reading around and exploring the blogosphere and have found many atheist websites that claim to debunk Christianity. A few of these are utter rubbish, spouting ignorance and claiming it as fact. Many of the arguments I have seen have been dealt with in previous centuries by Christian scholars and theologians (this goes for many of Dawkin's arguments as well). That said, there are many arguments that bring up serious issues for the Christian church and would cause the average Christian to begin to question their faith. I can only say this is a good thing because questioning starts the Christian on working out their own salvation. The problems that can arise from questioning I discussed in a previous post.

One site that will challenge any Christian is Debunking Christianity. There is a lot of agression towards Christianity on the site, a lot of which stems from John Loftus' history with the church, but there is also a lot of reasonable debate. John's church history though is important. John makes clear that a major crisis occured and that during that crisis he felt betrayed by the church that he led. Though the major crisis was in part his doing due to having an affair while in leadership of a church, the crisis led him away from Christianity. I still need to read his book but what I write comes from what I've read on his website and it seems that he was angry at the church and then searched for evidence to back up his decision to leave it. This is the same way he claims all Christians believe - they make a decision and then find reason to back up decision. I just wanted to point out that John was no different, he just went in an opposite direction.

The biggest issue that caught my eye on the site, was John's definition of evidence - it is something I've heard from atheists before and it is a long list of evidence needed for Christianity that is not needed for them to accept anything scientific. The irony is that they will take anything with the 'scientific' label on it without the same need for just as much evidence (i.e. evolution). What evidence does John need?

Scientific Evidence: Apparently God could have made the world in a way that ran in a massive jumble that could not be explained by science. Why would that point us to God? John points out what God could've done as if that would actually lead him to conclude God is there. I'm glad God doesn't think like John and instead gave us a universe we can explore through science by putting us in an exact location that isn't too hot or cold but also gives us a massive window for space exploration without leaving our planet. The haphazard way John thinks God should've created the universe would lead me to agree with John and think we're all just a big accident.

The rest of his list you can read on his site. I personally couldn't take it very seriously as it is the most far fetched idea of evidence I've ever seen. John has made a decision to not take any rational evidence from and outside the bible and made a list of ridiculous ideas of what historical/biblical and scientific evidence should look like. There is still a distinct lack of evidence that there is evolution between species of animals but John can take that on faith along with Dawkins and the rest. Heaven forbid that anyone should look at the 'exactness' of the universe that allows us to actually live and then see a designer. Even Dawkins in the book The God Delusion says that all the millions of species have an 'illusion' of design - I just see that 'illusion' multiplied over the millions of species as one part of a multitude of evidence for God.

If you're interested in debates, check out John Loftus debating Dinesh D'Souza a Christian theologian, authour and debater on youtube. Many of Loftus' claims are dismantled brilliantly by D'Souza and I hope you see how you have to not trust historical accounts, label everyone against your position as brainwashed and generally accept nothing other than your own made up version of science to get to Loftus' position. Note: I don't quite agree with Dinesh's arguments about near death experiences though - that wasn't his strongest argument.

Either way you view John Loftus, he does have several good points of arguments on his blog and the one I agree with most is that Christians shouldn't hide away from the difficult questions surrounding Christianity. Yes there are difficult questions, but atheists have to call into question every historical document around and call every archaelogist untrustworthy to get round the historical validity of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Dan Rodger's Five Resurrection Facts).

6 Things I Have Learnt From 1 Year of Marriage

2010-06-28T13:13:00.000+01:00

It has been almost a year since my wife and I began the journey that is marriage. Its over a year since I wrote this blog post on marriage - So What Happened to Marriage?. With all the rubbish about marriage that is out on the internet these days I thought I'd write about how awesome it is but also put out there some things I've learnt over the year. I hope you find them helpful.

1. Be Humble
Pride has no place in a marriage or a relationship unless your pride is in your spouse/partner. I don't know if it comes across in this blog but I often think I am right with a lot of things. My wife, weirdly enough, often thinks otherwise. When you have disagreements (there is no if in this statement), listen to what the other person is saying and be humble enough to admit when you are wrong. Also be ready to admit when you have been hurt - for more see point 6.

2. Be Patient
This is most important when you are running late and your spouse still needs to get ready when you are sorted to go. Shouting 'Are you ready yet?' doesn't go down well...ever.

3. Sleep Well
As Paul says in Ephesians 4:26, "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." The problem with this though, means you are tempted to slog out the argument until there is a winner. The rare major disagreements we have had over this year have been when we were both exhausted. The best way to deal with a late argument is to take a deep breath, give each other a hug, go to sleep and deal with the issue in the morning. I bet when you both wake up, if the hug didn't sort it out the night before, then the sleep will make the issue seem a lot less severe if not remove it from your thoughts altogether.

4. Encourage Well
I have had my fair share of blunders when it comes to complimenting my wife. My first 'compliment', though it was before we were going out and our relationship was not quite certain, is still remembered due to it being vague and not really encouraging at all. You are most likely in a relationship or a marriage because you think that person is amazing, beautiful, smart, kind etc. I hope you can think of many other words to describe your partner. Use those words often. Tell your partner what you think of them daily unless you are in the middle of an argument.

5. Argue Well
The key to a good argument is keeping your tone low. My wife and I have great discussions about theology, education, psychology and anything and everything that comes up. Sometimes I get passionate about something and sometimes comes across as forcing my opinion on my wife. I love the discussions we have and how my wife can often challenge something I have held on to and make me realise I need to re-think what I'm talking about. Just because you are getting louder doesn't mean you are getting more right. If all else fails, take a bit of humble pie and don't have the last word unless it is 'sorry'. If necessary, see point 1.

6. Trust Well
Always think the best of your partner. The majority of arguments come when either side has been offended by the other and thinks the other has done it on purpose. I don't want to sound sexist but women are very good at not letting men know what exactly offended them. We are not mind readers! If we offended you, tell us when, what and how so we can explain or apologise! For both sides, trust that your partner means the best for you, be ready to forgive the offense and explain what went wrong so it can be dealt with quickly.

Marriage is amazing and it is a constant adventure. Our culture, media and movies would have you believe that relationships are easy and if they don't go well then just get out and move on to the next one. Marriage is only going to be great if you put the other person before yourself, it is even better if you can both put God above everything else.

I'm A Christian and I have Doubts About Christianity...

2010-06-25T10:12:00.001+01:00

I wrote this post a couple days ago and since writing I have noticed a fellow New Frontiers blogger has written a much more extensive series of posts specifically about dealing with doubt and various stages that you might find yourself in. I would recommend giving it a read if you are currently doubting Christianity and take his advice. You can see his blog here: Liam Thatcher

I think every Christian can agree with the title of this post at some point in there life. Doubt is good to a point. Doubt makes us think about what we believe and it makes us decide if this faith is our own or just inherited through the teachings of our parents and friends. This doubt is slightly different from my previous post about God's love as this is about doubting the facts and reason behind the faith rather than doubting that you are able to be loved by God. Doubts and questions are not wrong in themselves and hopefully drive you to search out truth.

The media here in the UK leans towards atheism, anything Christian is seen as weird and wacky or downright offensive while Islam is discussed as respectful and any disagreement is usually hushed up out of fear. Atheism though is the main thought of the UK media and it filters through to the masses as more and more people take uneducated pot shots at the Christian faith. Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and their fans patronise and insult their way through arguments. They would have you believe all Christians (and anyone who is religious) are indoctrinated, thoughtless drones who still act like they have invisible friends. This drivel is coming out from very smart, educated men who have done a lot for the field of science. Because these men are respected, educated and sometimes well spoken, people tend to listen to them. This then not only turns people against Christianity it also causes many Christians to begin to doubt.

The problem is not that people doubt and question but the problem comes when doubt takes you away from balanced reason. This can happen when you immerse yourself into the theories of opponents of Christianity and believe the lie that you cannot trust any argument that is backed up biblically or comes from a Christian perspective. Balanced reason is seeing the attacks on Christianity, reading up on various reasons against and then searching out reasons for Christianity. I have found there are a lot more reasons for Christianity than against especially when you look at the life and teachings and death and resurrection of Jesus.

There are some amazing resources out there and some great Christian thinkers today that have great responses to the common questions thrown at Christianity. You can have doubts and questions about Christianity, but the odds are, Christians before you have already thought of those questions and have good answers for you to find. Please if you are searching for answers about Christianity, check out these links:

Apologetics 315 - This blog has a whole load of informative posts and links to debates and talks regarding common issues and positions that cause doubt and attack Christianity. The link will take you to a huge list of audio links for these talks and debates. Please do check these out.
BeThinking - BeThinking has a variety of resources, like Apologetics315, from a variety of different sources. Some are from their own writers, others are from guests like Greg Koukl, William Lane Craig and several others. They have also provided different articles for different levels of thinking and depth within Christianity.
CARM - This site is brilliant in the sense that the articles are decently short and the content is easy to understand. CARM discusses why Christians believe what they do and also discusses the issues surrounding other faiths and cults.
Reasonable Faith - William Lane Craig is a brilliantly smart, Christian theologian. He has debated with most of the top atheist thinkers and defeated many attacks on Christianity to the point that Richard Dawkins will not debate with him. His website has resources for those seeking answers as well as those looking to deepen their understanding of theological issues within Christianity.
Stand to Reason - STR has a load of resources and helpful commentaries, articles and videos from Greg Koukl and partners. Greg does a lot of debating and discussions with opponents of Christianity. You can read more about him here.

There are loads more sites out there as you will find if you go to Apologetics315. If you are a Christian, realise you can have faith and it isn't a blind leap towards an unknown. If you are searching for answers, please do use these resources. Christians do think, aren't indoctrinated and, I believe, have the truth.

If you have any questions about Christianity, feel free to leave a comment. Or, if you want a personal email response, check out my church website and click the link to send questions and either I or a couple of other people form my church will respond.

Is abortion ever right? Your choice...

2010-06-22T12:31:00.001+01:00

I don't know if you agree with abortion or not. I just know that I cannot agree with it at all. Modern society would have you believe that abortion is a woman's choice and that there are various ways to justify abortion. The only way I can see people agreeing with this is if they have never seen what happens during an abortion or seen what a foetus looks like at various stages of pregnancy.

I saw the following video on a fellow bloggers website and felt that I needed to give more coverage to the discussion of abortion. This modern thinking that a baby is not human until it is out of the mother is bizarre and worryingly common. Abortion is now seen as a means of contraception and millions of babies get aborted each year. When our society claims to be civilized, I cannot see how abortion is still legal. I realise this video contains images that may be shocking, but this is what happens during an abortion. I don't like shock tactics and feel they often backfire, but this isn't an extreme point of view and it isn't something that only happens to a percentage of abortions - this is what abortion is and so I feel it is fair to share this video.

I want to make it clear that although abortion is wrong, if you by any chance read this and have had an abortion I want you to know that God still loves you and still offers his forgiveness through Jesus. If you doubt that then please see my post on doubting God's love. You no longer have to live with the guilt that the woman in this video talks about. If you have questions please do leave a comment or send an email to britmangi04 at hotmail dot com, replacing the at with @ and the dot with a full stop.

Also a good discussion about abortion from an organisation in Canada campaigning for bio-ethical reform can be seen below. They deal with common issues that try to justify abortion such as the woman was raped and the foetus isn't human while inside the woman.

Please do feel free to comment. Though I do feel strongly about this, I still want to have a discussion about it and I will not jump down your throat if you disagree with me.

I'm a Christian and God wants me to be prosperous... Part 2

2010-06-11T18:04:00.002+01:00

This is a continuation post, the first post is here: I'm a Christian and God wants me to be prosperous... Part 1.

What to look out for with Prosperity Preachers
Scripture Use
Very rarely will any of the prosperity preachers use an entire passage of scripture to back up their sermons. If they did, they would have a very hard time justifying their financial situations as well as their teachings. As said earlier, we must look at the entire book, the entire chapter and then the verse when reading the bible. You can justify any theology by picking out single verses - including murder. This sort of teaching is dangerous and emphasises the need for Christians to read the bible for themselves (preferably not just KJV or Amplified Bible translations)!

Repeated Sermonising About Material Blessings

God does bless people (but most frequently not through abundant finance). Healings do happen. It is good to give to your church. But, the prosperity focuses solely on you giving and you getting that they miss out on the fact that our purpose is to glorify God and not ourselves. Any scriptual backings for financial giving are usually twisted. Check out my mate Dan's blog for how to see through scriptual misuse. If a church continually talks about you giving money to them, start to question, if you can't question see the next point.

"Don't Attack The Pastor"
Defenders of these men and women preachers often go on the offensive as soon as someone tries to point out their mistakes. The usual defense is, "these men are reaching more people with the gospel than you so they will obviously be under more spiritual attack than you, how dare you allow satan to use you like that!". Let me just say this: if your church leadership ever tells you not to question them and gets defensive over their theology - get out - especially if they start telling you Satan is using you! There is reason behind doctrine and theology and if you can't question it and get good answers, you are not under good authority and most likely in a cult.

What father wouldn't give the best for his children?
This is a typical misquote from Matthew 7. It is a great example of how to take something out of the gospel and remove it from all of Jesus' other teachings. God does know best, he also promises to provide for us and he teaches us not to worry about material things. When you look at the quoted 'ask, seek, knock' he doesn't promise abundance, he promises that the father's gifts will be good. If you read this then read Luke 12:13-34 you will see Jesus is talking about trusting God to provide for you when you need it. Prosperity gospel promises good gifts as we humans think of them (i.e. wealth and health), Jesus teaches us to trust God that HE knows what good gifts are and to focus on seeking God rather than stuff.

If you can't defend it guilt-trip the offender...
It is common for people stuck within the prosperity gospel to bring into question your own giving. If you aren't giving to these preachers then you're obviously a slave to money because you aren't helping these ministries spread the gospel or 'reach the poor'. This is obviously a last ditch attempt to stop you from using biblical truth to change their view of material gain.

Conclusion

One reason that I love the bible so much is that it is relevant today, 2000 years from when it was written. The apostle Paul, writes to a man name Timothy who is sort of Paul's apprentice in terms of learning how to teach the gospel. Paul warns Timothy about people who preach about money - it is something you won't hear from a prosperity preacher's mouth. Please, if you agree with the prosperity gospel, read the whole of this book not just the link: 1 Timothy 6:3-10.

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. ⁸But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. ⁹People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (copied from biblegateway.com)

I could quote chapter and verse at you all day to show you how wrong the prosperity gospel is. But the danger isn't us middle class bloggers. My biggest concern is that these 'ministries' are going into really poor areas and these preachers are telling them, "have faith and you'll get rich". How sick can these people be, going to the poor, preaching crap, taking their money and occasionally doing 'mission trips' (that also cost a ridiculous amount). The gospel is contentment in whatever circumstance. As John Piper says, "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in him".

If you have another 10 minutes, please do watch the following Youtube clip. John Piper is a brilliant theologian and preacher and he sums up the prosperity gospel and its dangers very clearly.

Sources and helpful links

Helpful definition, history and a list of people to watch out for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology#cite_note-rosin-0

Joel Osteen broadcasts watched on joelosteen.com
Kenneth Copeland broadcasts watched on kcm.org
Various youtube links
All bible quotes and links go to biblegateway.com

I'm a Christian and God wants me to be prosperous...Part 1

2010-06-11T13:28:00.002+01:00

There is a lot of teaching around that says Christians should live prosperous, healthy, even wealthy lives. Just google Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and Benny Hinn and you end up with several preachers preaching what is known as the "prosperity gospel". There are many that defend this way of preaching as well, pointing to various good works these ministries do but I will go over a couple of typical defenses of the prosperity gospel later on in part 2.

What is the Prosperity Gospel?
The prosperity gospel is the teaching that Christians deserve blessing when they have faith in God. Not only are the faithful meant to be blessed, they are meant to claim that blessing from God. Blessing from God, according to the Prosperity Gospel, is most frequently financial but is also to do with health. As Joel Osteen says, (block inserts are my own)

"Because of the price he [Jesus] paid [on the cross], we [those with faith] have a right to total victory ... not a partial victory where we have a good family, we have good health but we constantly struggle with our finances. That is not total victory... if God did it for you in one area [...not sure which 'area' Joel was talking about here because it isn't sin or salvation...] he can do it in another area - Get a vision for it!"

The reason this is so wrong is a) Jesus didn't die for our health and wealth; b) Jesus and his disciples weren't wealthy and never taught wealth was good - in fact Jesus had lots of bad things to say about wealth; c) Jesus said we would suffer on this earth d) we don't have any right to claim anything from God - he already gave us Jesus to save us from our sin (sin is not just bad stuff we do but our very nature which separates us from God - no man, not even Christians on earth can claim to be completely sinless. If they were, they would be God).

Some big names and what they preach...
For the benefit of this blog I watched several sermons and talks by the following preachers. The stuff I quote is stuff they have said themselves on their own broadcasts in their own contexts. I will try and put links to videos if possible.

Creflo Dollar
I'm not going to delve into Creflo's teaching here, he incriminates himself easily enough, especially with the help of a few YouTube clips. Apologies for the text and the exclamations on this video, but Creflo's message remains unchanged: Click for video. Creflo is one of the most obvious proponents of the prosperity gospel to the point of even trying to persuade people that Jesus was rich during His ministry as were all the apostles. If you think Jesus was rich, you need to read the gospels for yourself.

Kenneth Copeland
(Examples of scripture use from: Get Concepts, Ideas and Insights Into God's Way of Thinking and Choose Life and THE BLESSING on Friday 4th June )

Kenneth Copeland is commonly linked with the prosperity gospel. I hadn't heard anything from him so I watched a couple of his talks off of his website. It really worries me that people watch Copeland, and any other preacher for that matter, and take them to be bible scholars. Copeland likes to find one verse that he likes and then preach from that. Anyone who has prepared a sermon or done any sort of bible reading themselves realises the danger of taking a single verse out of the bible and then delving into what that one verse means. For those that have no idea what I am talking about - the Bible's books were not originally written with verses and chapters. Those have been added for ease of reference. So, the problem with this sort of teaching is like picking a sentence at random from a novel and teaching what you think the moral of the story is from that one sentence.

In the sermon I watched, Kenneth Copeland uses Luke 12:15 and makes a 28 minute sermon out of it. He only uses one translation, takes the verse out of context and doesn't touch Jesus' punchline - that those who store up on earth will lose out in heaven. This whole chapter condemns the prosperity gospel, the very gospel that Copeland preaches. Kenneth Copeland, in his sermon, reads out the second half of Luke 12:15 (21st Century King James Translation), "for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." and then says, "this does not say it is wrong to have an abundance of possessions". He is correct, it doesn't say that, but the rest of the chapter is all about not worrying about possessions, food or clothing because, we are to seek God and His kingdom and he will provide what we need. It doesn't say abundance or wealth, it just says what we need. Somehow Copeland then manipulates verse 21 to say that 'being rich toward God' means being healed, prospered and blessed by God.

Though Copeland uses Jesus' teaching, he doesn't preach Jesus. I heard nothing of the reason for Jesus death or pointing to riches in heaven rather than riches here on earth. Copeland manipulates scripture to get a message out that boosts his ministry.

Joel Osteen
(Examples of scripture use from #464 Its not too late to get started)

Joel Osteen has come onto the mega-church scene only in the last 6 or so years. Taking on his father's church when he died, Osteen has become something of a celebrity in the states.

Joel's message is all about having faith in God so he will bless you. Constantly, Joel reminds his listeners that God called us, not to a 'mediocre' life, but to a life in abundance. Joel's definition of mediocre is poverty, depression, sickness and even boredom in the workplace. I have watched a few YouTube videos but also watched a couple of Joel's broadcast messages on his website and they all are so obviously about earning prosperity through faith in Jesus.

Joel constantly misuses scripture. Almost every time he quotes the bible he uses only one verse out of context, and he even quotes verses that don't even look anything like what the bible says. Joel has been on Larry King live and the YouTube clips of his appearance do nothing to change my opinion that he doesn't preach the Jesus of history. Joel preaches a Jesus that can be manipulated to make Joel's message true. Unfortunately, a lot of people think Joel's messages are right and they cannot see through the twisted scripture.

Joel doesn't quote much from scripture but the few times he does, they are badly misused, here are a couple of examples. The first verse he uses is of 2 Timothy 1:6 which says, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands." Joel used this verse to enhance his point and his interpretation of the verse was basically, "Life is flying by, pursue your destiny". The chapter of this verse is talking about the Holy Spirit within Timothy. It has nothing to do with 'Pursuing your destiny'.

Joel also uses 1 Timothy 4:15 apparently says "Give yourself wholly to your gift". According to Osteen, without context, this means pursue your destiny. With context of the whole passage we can see it is actually talking about staying close to good teaching.

Jesus teaches that mankind's purpose is to live for, worship and glorify God. It is not to pursue our career or not live 'mediocre' lives. God is our purpose, not our family, not our relationships. God, through Jesus, is our life and we must focus on him not on ourselves.

The danger is that there are so many half truths in Osteen's message. He pushes people to get out of their comfort zone, but he is pushing them in the wrong direction. He directs them to get out and pursue their dreams as if all our own dreams are given by God. What he should be doing is directing them out of their comfort zone and pushing them towards Jesus. Sin is such an overused word and Joel obviously doesn't like it but Sin is so much more than bad habits and bad stuff we do. Sin makes us enemies of God and before accepting Jesus' death we are all sinners and therefore we are all enemies of God. Jesus died to save us from that enmity between us and God so that we can now worship him. It means we can have relationship with God as we cannot save ourselves. That is the good news and Joel is twisting it to point to earthly possessions and desires rather than to our awesome saviour. Not once does God point to Jesus and clearly state what Jesus has saved us from. So now, thousands of people are just listening to some 'life coach' who tries to act like a preacher.

End of part 1 - Go to Part 2

Stepping Stones Nigeria

2010-06-07T12:16:00.001+01:00

Picture belongs to Stepping Stones Nigeria

Two years ago I wrote about having my heart broken from a Channel 4 documentary about children in Nigeria. As part of the monthly series of writing about one of the charities I link to, I wanted to bring more attention to what Stepping Stones do and how they have grown in the last two years. A short clip from the documentary can be found on youtube - here.

Over the past two years support for Stepping Stones has grown and they now have several partners and a well established school to help educate orphans and supposed witch children whom they have rescued. Stepping Stones is based in the Niger Delta and much of the work seen in the documentary was in the state of Akwa Ibom.

Stepping Stones gives a voice for children who are outcasts from society due to pastors and preachers of a false Christian movement that mixes pentecostalism with tribal beliefs of sorcery and witchcraft. Labelling a child as a witch can lead to the family abandoning the child or trying to exorcise the witch by burning, beating or starving the child. Many pastors receive large amounts of money to perform these exorcisms and many are "unsuccessful" or need to be "repeated". Once a child is labelled as a witch, they are ignored, beaten or even killed by their village due to the fear that these pastors have spread around the country about witches.

Although advocacy and campaigning is important, Stepping Stones have also set up a school for rescued children and orphans. They have partnered with two other NGOs who work with street children as well as a school where they are hoping to be able to send more children to through scholarships. It is amazing what educating a child can do for a country as can also be seen by last month's charity post. Rescuing these children and giving them back their rights to a happy life and the smiles on the children's faces must be so rewarding for the people working with the children. It is very hard to understand how families can neglect and abuse a child in this way, but that is the power these false prophets have over the people of Nigeria.

Stepping Stones has a lot of resources for Churches, community groups and anyone else who want to get involved to support them. The belief of children witches is not limited to Nigeria and can be found all in the Congo as well. Raising awareness and getting more people involved will hopefully combat these damaging beliefs and in turn rescue many children from lives of abandonment and fear.

All the information and resources you need are on their website: www.steppingstonesnigeria.org and links to their partners and affiliations can be found on the site as well. Please do get involved, these children deserve to be rescued.

I'm a Christian and I doubt that God loves me...

2010-05-30T21:58:00.005+01:00

I just came back from church and our Pastor, Brian Harty, was on fire. Not literally, but the Holy Spirit was definitely using him tonight. I may be developing this post later as I feel it could be a hot topic but for now I'll keep it as short as possible. The whole sermon will be available from the church's website later on this week.

Speaking from Romans 5:1-11, Brian broke down the passage into the different ways God has shown His love for us. I won't write the whole sermon for you here but these are two main points I came away with that I wanted to share.

Don't rely on your emotions

It is quite often in any church that you hear the phrase, "I don't feel close to God today." The fact is we humans do tend to focus on our feelings and unfortunately in churches the focus can be often on the warm fuzzy feelings and even the hype of emotions. Sometimes, in church, you just don't get that. Sometimes for years even, you don't get that emotion and many people even leave the church because that is what they expect of God. If they are in God's presence then they are going to get a buzz from it that will see them through the next week. This is not the gospel.

Christ has already demonstrated his love for you on the cross. Rely on that. Rely on the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. That is enough. That is God's love for you. Do not focus on yourself or your emotions, because they are fickle and can be lifted up or knocked down at the slightest of things. Christ's death and resurrection is the same now as it will be forever - that is what you should focus on in times of doubt.

Don't doubt God's grace

"For while we were still sinners Christ died for you". Some Christians discount themselves from the forgiveness God has given forgetting that Christ died for them before they were Christians, before they accepted Christ's sacrifice for them. This is the amazing-ness of the gospel. Christ died so we have the option to have a relationship with God. It is nothing you have done in the first place to allow that relationship. God initiated it, you've just accepted it. So now as a Christian there is nothing you can do that God cannot forgive. If that was the case then Christ's death is not enough! If Christ's death is not enough then we can never hope to have a relationship with God!

So in all circumstances, focus on what Christ has done for you. Not on what you feel or on what you have done. Yes we must live repentant lives, for we all fall short of God's glory - we are not in heaven yet. But if you have accepted Christ and follow Him, His grace, through His death and resurrection, is and forever will be enough, no matter what.

I'm a Christian and I don't believe Jesus is God...

2010-05-26T13:08:00.009+01:00

If you agree with the title of this post, please read the following and I pray it will challenge the way you see Jesus. This is the first post of mine specifically defending Christian doctrine for Christians so it may change over time as I write and learn.

I have recently come across several people that would agree to the title of this post and they have said that they cannot see why it is such a big deal. Someone I recently questioned on an online forum said they didn't see it as an important doctrine and found it hard to justify biblically. I will go over two main points: The dangers of losing this doctrine and the biblical evidence for Jesus' deity.

The Dangers of Ignoring Jesus' Deity

#1 Jesus is just a man

This might sound obvious but if Jesus is not God he is just a man. If Jesus is just a man, through his claims and even many of his teachings, he is a man who cannot be trusted. You may have heard of CS Lewis' argument that Jesus is either a lunatic, a liar or Lord - this is exactly right. Jesus taught some great things, that the last should be first, the poor should be helped and to love your enemies. He taught not to judge others but to make sure you are right with God. If Jesus only taught this sort of thing He probably would be ok to follow but only in the sense that Ghandi was followed. He should not be worshipped and that comes in at point #2.

But, the reason Jesus was executed was because he equated himself with and called himself God. He wasn't just a nice man that taught nice things. If a man claims to be God and turns out he is not God, why would you follow him - surely you should just pull out some good stuff from the teaching and ignore the man?

#2 Jesus is an idol
If you ignore the first point and still worship Jesus then you end up with a human idol. Christians who worship Christ and say they are filled with His spirit but ignore His deity cannot be keeping up with scripture. One specific reason - it goes against the commandments - You shall have no other gods before me (Deuteronomy 5). If Jesus is worth following and as he keeps pointing to scripture himself, he would not contradict 'his father' (Jesus talks about God the father a lot) in such a blatant manner. All of the New Testament books point to Jesus and tell us to put him first in our lives and worship him. If Jesus is just a man, then this is definite idolatry and contradicts much of the bible's teachings about putting God first.

#3 You can pick and choose Jesus' teachings and in turn, the bible's teachings
There are unfortunately several prominent people in the anglican church that agree with the title of this post. They obviously don't agree with CS Lewis' view. But, that means that they are ignoring parts of scripture and picking out other texts to prove their points. If you can manipulate the text around Jesus' teaching enough you can manipulate any bit of scripture to get what you want. Looking at some leaders in the anglican church (google Spong), they also deny the resurrection and many other core elements to Christianity. Once you manipulate the gospels and scripture to ignore Jesus' deity, it is the top of a slippery slope. You can then pick and choose whichever parts of the bible you want and justify whatever you want. Christianity soon becomes Ianity and a very fluffy, wishy-washy religion it is too.

The Biblical Evidence for Jesus' Deity

In a recent forum I visited and posted on, it was hinted that you had to be indoctrinated to believe Jesus was God. Biblically, apparently, it was hard to stack the evidence up for Jesus' deity. The only way I can see that there is no biblical evidence for Jesus' deity is by not reading the bible. It may sound harsh but here are a few of the passages, I won't go into all of them as there are loads:

The Gospels

Throughout the gospels Jesus refers to himself or is referred to as the Son of God. The argument against this is that all Christians are called sons of God. The difference? Other than Jesus is the Son of God and I am a son of God - Paul explains we are joint heirs of Christ, adopted sons. We are not the son. This may not specifically say Jesus is God but stay with me, it shows Jesus is more important and closer to God than we are for a start.

Matthew starts out with the birth of Christ and Joseph is told that Jesus shall be called Immanuel which means God with us - an interesting name for someone who is just a man. In Matthew 9, Jesus forgives sins and equates himself with God by calling himself the son of man - how is this God? "Son of man" refers to a prophetic image in Daniel 7. In this image the son of man is given authority over all the earth and the world worshipped him.The kingdom of the son of man's is never destroyed. Jesus knew who he was comparing himself to, the Jewish teachers of the law knew who he was comparing himself to and that is why they thought he was blasphemous. If someone equates themself with God, and is obviously not God, we should not follow them - they can only be deluded or blatant liars.

Mark chapter 13 is a prophetic glimpse of the second coming from Jesus himself. In this passage he refers to the Son of Man returning. See above for who the son of man is.

In Luke chapter 4, Jesus drives out an evil spirit. During this event the man possessed calls Jesus the Holy one of God. This seems to happen a lot as in the same chapter but in verse 41, the evil spirits seem to keep calling Jesus the son of God. Later in Luke chapter 11, Jesus is challenged by a crowd who thought he was the prince of demons. Jesus corrects them by pointing out that a demon would not drive out demons, it does not make any sense. "A kingdom divided against itself will fall ... But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you".

John 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning...The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Reading the whole of chapter one of John, it clearly points to Jesus. John is full of quotes from Jesus and about Jesus confirming Jesus is God. Jesus says he is the son of God but differentiates from any other son of God by saying he is 'one' with God (John 10:30).

There are also accounts in the gospels also of Jesus asking the disciples who he is (Matthew 16, Mark 8, Luke 9, and a declaration in John from Martha). Jesus does not correct them when they call him the Christ and he then calls himself the son of man. If he isn't God then he is a deciever and not to be trusted.

Outside the Gospels

Accounts by Disciples - people that walked and talked with Jesus
In Acts there are various accounts that the disciples believed Jesus to be the Messiah that was promised in the old testament. They were under no delusion that Jesus was the son of God, son of man, who was one with God. (See Acts 5:42, Acts 7, Acts 9 and Acts 10).

Hebrews 13:8: 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever'. This is language that is often reserved for God like in the Psalms (Psalm 102). Man cannot be the same yesterday, today and forever.

Written by Paul
Romans 9:5 is pretty clear: "...the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised".

I love Colossians, and if you are in any doubt as to what the early church taught about Christ read Colossians 1:15-23. If Christ was just a man, he cannot have been with God at the beginning. This is debated though by Jehovahs Witnesses as they would say Christ being a firstborn would mean Christ was created. John Piper in 'The Pleasures of God' refutes this using four reasons but the one I find useful is that firstborn in this sense is used throughout the bible (Psalm 89:27, Exodus 4:22 and Hebrews 12:23) as a place of dignity and royalty and not specifically to birth or family. If you weren't certain, Paul hammers it home with verse 19: "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him". Continuing with this theme, Paul then confirms in chapter 2, verse 9 (bear in mind this is a letter so the reader was meant to read this in one sitting) "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form". Paul was certain Christ was fully God.

Conclusion
I have missed out many other quotes from both the gospels and the letters from the apostles. What I hope to have shown is that those that knew Jesus and those that taught in the early church later were under no illusion as to whether or not Jesus Christ was God. As William Lane Craig argues in an interview posted at bethinking.org:

"Today the majority of New Testament scholars agree that the historical Jesus deliberately stood and spoke in the place of God Himself, that he claimed that in himself the kingdom of God had come, and that he carried out a ministry of miracle-working and exorcisms as signs of that fact. According to the German theologian Horst George Pöhlmann,

Today there is virtually a consensus . . . that Jesus came on the scene with an unheard of authority, with the claim of the authority to stand in God’s place and speak to us and bring us to salvation. With regard to Jesus there are only two possible modes of behavior: either to believe that in him God encounters us or to nail him to the cross as a blasphemer. Tertium non datur. [There is no third way.]
Thus, Jesus either was who he claimed to be, or he was a blasphemous megalomaniac, which seems utterly implausible."

We cannot ignore Christ's deity as Christians. It is one of the core parts to the Christian faith and if you remove it, you might as well call yourself an atheist.

Sources:
Bible quotes are all linked to http://www.biblegateway.com/, I use the NIV translation but you can change that with the click of a button on the site.

Lewis' Trilemma - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis%27s_trilemma
William Lane Craig, The Evidence for Christianity, http://www.bethinking.org/bible-jesus/the-evidence-for-christianity.htm, Accessed 26/05/2010.

William Lane Craig quotes: Horst Georg Pöhlmann, Abriss der Dogmatik, 3d rev. ed. (Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn, 1980), p. 230.
John Piper, The Pleasures of God, (Christian Focus Publications, LTD, 2001), Chapter 1.

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Questioning Christiainity?

Regular visitors may have noticed I have added a few more blogs to my sidebar. These are great apologetics blogs that show that Christians think about what they believe in and aren't just indoctrinated. Christians, you are allowed to use your brains - if you are questioning Christianity please do check out apologetics315.blogspot.com, str.org, martyro.blogspot.com, bethinking.org and do some research from the amazing amount of resources you can find there.

Francis Chan - The New Middle Road

2010-05-21T09:02:00.001+01:00

Francis Chan is a pastor at Cornerstone Church in California. I found this sermon through The Resurgence a while back and thought it was so spot on that I'd post it. This is a challenge for Christians who like Christian words but struggle following Christ literally.