Does Jesus hate people because of their ancestry?
Paul Blackham
I have been involved in reaching out to Muslim people for over 35 years and, surprisingly often, I hear Christians talk as if descendants of Ishmael are cursed by God.
Few Muslims are actually descended from Ishmael, but I have often had to confront the idea that certain ancestries are less likely to be Christian – as if there is a genetic favouritism from the living God. I have even heard modern conflicts between Israel and Palestine framed as if one DNA is blessed by God whereas another is not.
Geopolitics or the gospel? What is our priority?
Paul Blackham
"What do we fear enough to talk to strangers about? Our spiritual mandate is to Seek FIRST God’s Kingdom. We must be obsessed with the business of heaven – because only then will the business of earth fall into the right perspective.
Jeremiah 29v13 – “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Our passion and obsession must be for lost human beings to find and be found by this Living God – because without that they will perish.
Will the ‘Quiet Revival’ change our civic life?
Paul Blackham
Jesus said to a government official of His day: “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19v11)
Power does not flow up from below, from the people, but rather, true power flows down from the Divine Empire, from the throne room of heaven. True earthly authority can only be given by King Jesus, not the ballot box nor the barrel of a gun.
Technology and the vision of a Christ-centred cosmos
Paul Blackham
A technological revolution is happening in the way information is handled. It has been happening for at least 20 years but has achieved a level of impact and accessibility to make everybody sit up and take notice.
The modern world could be defined not as the Bronze or Iron Age but as the Ink Age – because words were the most powerful resource, beginning with the Renaissance and Reformation, through the Enlightenment and into the era of mass media through radio, television and information technology. This trajectory already indicates that words have been turned into pictures and images as a primary form of communication.
Comment: It's interfaith dialogue in the CofE
Paul Blackham
Those of us in the Church of England have been engaged in interfaith dialogue: not at a mosque, temple or synagogue but in the General Synod.
Many of those watching from a distance and those of us within the Church of England are asking - what is going on? It is obvious that there are two fundamentally different worldviews in collision here... but how can this happen with Church? And what are we going to do about it?
Does Jesus hate people because of their ancestry?
I have been involved in reaching out to Muslim people for over 35 years and, surprisingly often, I hear Christians talk as if descendants of Ishmael are cursed by God.
Few Muslims are actually descended from Ishmael, but I have often had to confront the idea that certain ancestries are less likely to be Christian – as if there is a genetic favouritism from the living God. I have even heard modern conflicts between Israel and Palestine framed as if one DNA is blessed by God whereas another is not.