defending our faith
The New Testament’s P45
Chris Sinkinson
Date posted: 22 Jul 2026
Have you ever held a P45 in your hand? Most likely you have, and it is the document you were given when you left a job in the UK. A P45 refers to things like the tax you have paid on earnings.
However, there is another P45 that refers to one of the earliest surviving New Testament documents. Dated to around AD 200 it includes parts of the four Gospels and the Book of Acts. It is enormously important to reconstructing what was originally written by the apostles and their friends. While substantially in agreement with the later manuscripts that the Authorised King James Version was based upon, there are enough variations to help clarify the original text.
Christian climate scientists speak out
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Sep 2023
The summer heatwave across the northern hemisphere has seen almost uncontrollable forest fires break out from Canada to China, Algeria to Greece, as soaring, record temperatures hit the high-40°sC.
But as soon as the flames were doused, the question on many people’s minds was – to what extent are these record thermometer levels the result of human-made climate change?
Hope in the Public Square: A Christian vision for the UK
Jubilee Centre
Date posted: 25 Sep 2025
Westminster College, Cambridge, hosted Hope in the Public Square - a two-day hybrid conference organised by the Jubilee Centre in partnership with Cambridge Papers.
Participants gathered in-person and online from across the UK, to explore how a relational perspective can shape responses to today’s most pressing public issues.
Climate change
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
Dear Editor,
Christians differ in their response to the ‘climate emergency’. Some, like David Golding that the (February en), accept ‘evidence is irrefutable’ that emissions from fossil fuels are endangering billions of people as the Earth heats up. Over recent years, reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have become more specific in attributing global warming to the release of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
‘Hundreds of millions will be severely affected as… the climate changes’
John Emyr & John Houghton
Date posted: 1 Apr 2022
Back in 2014, Sir John Houghton (1931 – 2020) agreed to be interviewed by John Emyr. That interview was translated into Welsh and appeared in the Welsh-language magazine Cristion. It now appears for the first time in English.
JE: Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. When, and under what circumstances, did you first acquire a personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord?
Trump 2.0: A concerned evangelical view
Martyn Whittock
Date posted: 24 Jan 2025
The return of Donald Trump to the White House should be a matter of concern; not panic, but concern.
It should, at this point, be stated clearly that my contention is not based on an expectation that US electors (including evangelical Christians) should become Democrats. Nor that there is something inherently wrong with the historic Republican Party. My case is that the matter is rather simpler: there is something inherently wrong with Donald Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement (which has, in effect, become the Republican Party). I would also argue that there is something significantly wrong with the US section of the international evangelical movement; and this is shown in its deep commitment to Trump and to MAGA.
Three other election views: ‘What unites us is Christ’
en staff
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Of course, other parties are also taking part in this election.
Writing on the website of Christiansinpolitics.org, Stephen Gray says that as a Christian he votes Green for two main reasons: ‘The first reference to government in the Bible is Genesis 1:26, where God says “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
earth watch
Losing Nemo
Paul Kunert
Date posted: 7 Mar 2026
There’s really no good way to say this, but, the thing is: we’re losing Nemo.
Some of you – many, probably – will know Pixar/Disney’s (mostly) wonderful animated films. Bringing up our kids in the noughties, 2003’s Finding Nemo was one of our favourites. With 40 million copies sold, it’s the most popular DVD of all time, so we obviously weren’t alone! The adventures of Nemo the reef-dwelling clownfish, it’s a heartwarming tale of family, friendship and letting go that brings vividly to life the underwater world of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Climate hope – if promises are kept, say evangelicals
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jan 2024
Even as it opened, the UN Climate Change Conference COP 28 was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The BBC revealed claims that hosts, the United Arab Emirates, were planning to make oil and gas deals with 15 other countries at the event. Despite that, many Christian groups were represented there, some as part of the Christian Climate Observers Program, a non-denominational Christian presence advocating for God’s creation. All are, perhaps, encouraged by the fact that COP28 for the first time featured a ‘faith pavilion’. Evangelicals Now spoke to four leading Christian environmental organisations about their hopes and fears for the conference.
Seek to be peacemakers - and not partisans, US evangelicals are urged
en staff
Date posted: 4 Nov 2024
US evangelicals are being urged to act as peacemakers rather than partisans, as the drama of the 2024 Presidential election result unfolds.
Writing in The Times in the UK, leading evangelical scientist and author Dr Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project from 1993, urges: 'Take up the mantle of a peacemaker; you will be blessed; you may even be called a child of God.'
An interview with author Karen Swallow Prior
John Woods & Andrew Roycroft
Date posted: 29 Dec 2025
Writer and academic Professor Karen Swallow Prior has written and contributed to numerous books. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic magazine, The Washington Post, and on the Gospel Coalition website, among other places. Her latest book, You Have a Calling was reviewed in last month's print edition of en (see review here).
Here, en Reviews Editor John Woods and Andrew Roycroft of Grace Publications speak to her about it and some of the issues raised. Quotes in blue type are from the new book.
politics & policy
Christians & green politics
James Mildred
Date posted: 1 Dec 2021
I do not think the world will end because of climate change. I do think Christians have a responsibility to care for God’s creation, as good stewards. I’m both a sceptic about some of what’s predicted, and yet also acknowledge that the climate has, is and does change.
Speaking at the start of COP26, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said we were at ‘one minute to midnight’ and it was time for action. The Archbishop of Canterbury clearly felt he needed to raise the stakes when he drew a comparison between inaction over climate change and what happened in Germany when the Nazis took over. Of course, he quickly apologised for that one.
everyday evangelism
‘Tis the season to be… invitational!’
Gavin Matthews
Date posted: 3 Dec 2025
When Paul charged Timothy to preach the word in season and out of season, he wasn’t referring to the calendar or the climate. Rather, that we experience times of openness to the Bible’s message, as well as periods of stubborn resistance. Timothy was to press on, in both “seasons”.
The Christmas “season” annually generates gospel opportunities that we would be foolish to miss though. The church is like a striker facing an open goalmouth, on the six-yard line, with the goalie nowhere in sight! In every church or CU I have ever been part of, in England or Scotland, people from outside the fellowship have accepted invitations to Christmas events, like carol or watchnight services. Christmas does seem to be “in season” – every year.
An interview with new UCCF head Matt Lillicrap
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 14 Oct 2025
This summer saw more than 1,000 students descend on The Quinta Christian Centre in Oswestry, Shropshire, for the annual Forum conference, hosted by the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF).
Attending the gathering for the first time in his role as CEO was Matt Lillicrap, who took over leadership last autumn. en had an exclusive opportunity to chat with him about all things student ministry, just as UCCF is launching its brand-new Uncover Luke publication.
everyday evangelism
We need to talk about judgement
Gavin Matthews
Date posted: 14 Oct 2025
God’s judgement is a central Biblical theme, and for vast numbers of evangelical Christians, it was the experience of conviction of sin which led them to trust Christ as Saviour.
It certainly did for me. Knowing that I had sinned against God, and seeing the sombre truth about the rotten state of my soul before His righteous judgement, made the realisation that Christ had borne my punishment total liberation and joy!
Young British Christians ‘more antisemitic’ research finds
Matthew Murray
Date posted: 20 Feb 2025
Young British Christians are less sympathetic towards Israel and hold more antisemitic views than older generations, new research has found.
An independent academic study of more than 2,000 Christians of all ages across the UK also found one third believe Jewish people ‘still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust’ — the Nazis’ systematic murder of six million Jews in World War II.
Is Artificial Intelligence a 'resounding gong'?
Some of my most precious times as a father are when I get to share cultural moments that shaped me, with my children – blasts from the past. For example, when the radio plays an Oasis song and, to my surprise, my teenagers sing along to every word with me.
In these moments of shared cultural experience, our generational divide vanishes. To them, the song is “retro” – to me it is “nostalgic”. But we are united in that moment.