Isaiah 5:20

FAITH IN A TIME OF FEAR

(January 15, 2022) Dr Jim McClure, noted theologian, shares insights regarding 2022 confusions and questions…

We have entered into a New Year with many Old Year questions unanswered and many more being asked. There is a lot of distress, deceit and confusion in today’s world. 

This isn’t new.  About 2600 years ago Habakkuk was confused and disturbed by many of the things that were happening in his world which was evil and violent and full of fear. He was confronted by the political, social, moral and religious collapse that was taking place around him and he could not make sense of it.

Habakkuk was totally baffled and began to question if God really cared. Where was God while all this injustice and corruption and disaster was happening in the world? If God was truly loving and caring, why was the world falling apart and why wasn’t God doing anything about it?

So he addressed God directly. In Habakkuk 1:3 we read, ‘Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.’ Habakkuk was calling out, ‘Where are you, God?’

Have you ever felt like that? I have! As we read the newspapers and watch TV and witness the corruption, deceit and violence that is intensifying worldwide, we can identify with Habakkuk’s appeal to God.

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SILENCE IN THE CHURCH?

(May 17, 2021) Dr Jim McClure, straight shooting theologian, brings a timely challenge…

Silence is not always golden – sometimes it is dross – rubbish!  Solomon succinctly stated in Ecclesiastes 3:7, ‘(There is) … a time to be silent and a time to speak.’

I would maintain that the ‘time to speak’ is now!  There is a rampant decadence and ungodliness today that is saturating and destroying our culture, unsettling our society and silencing our Christian witness.

That witness has been severely undermined in recent years.  While the Christian faith was once seen as a pillar of society and generally enjoyed a degree of esteem and its message was respected and valued (even by many of those who did not embrace it), today the church and its message is largely scorned and dismissed in many Western countries. There are various reasons that could be quoted but I highlight two that I sense are very pertinent.

1. The scourge of ‘political correctness’
The so-called ‘good old days’ were not as good as some may want to claim, however once there were values that now have not only been discarded in society but also scorned.

(i) The reversal of values
There was a time when…

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RED AND YELLOW, BLACK AND WHITE

(June 21, 2020) Dr Jim McClure, straight shooting theologian, challenges recent fallacies …

Many years ago in Sunday school in Ireland I – and many others – used to sing the following song:

‘Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in His sight,
Jesus loves the little children of the world.’

In recent days this song has been in my mind one again, especially the lines – ‘Red and yellow, black and white, All are precious in His sight.’

Everyone matters!
The graphic video of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis was alarming to watch and no one can condone that vicious act of brutality. (more…)

A BRAVE NEW WORLD AWAITS?

(October 26, 2019) Dr Jim McClure, straight shooting theologian, challenges brave Christians…

In 1931 the author Aldous Huxley wrote a novel called Brave New World (a phrase he borrowed from William Shakespeare). In his novel Huxley presented an alarming vision of the future.

But not even Huxley imagined a world intent on self-destruction by pursuing goals and embracing tainted ideals that ultimately result in dehumanisation.

Age of deception
We are living in an age when a spirit of deception is sweeping the world and millions of people are being caught up in it.

Atheistic Marxist philosophy, which is committed to social transformation, has penetrated and perverted a wide range of social values and scientific theory with the inevitable consequence of social instability and hostility.

How effective the media has been in disseminating this false gospel of social manipulation –

  • Movies and television series frequently (and inevitably) include sub-agendas that drip-feed incorrect information and corrupt values with the purpose of radically changing good and Godly principles that have served individuals and nations well for many centuries.
  • Television, radio and newspaper reports are increasingly interpretations of facts designed to shape the opinions of those who want to know what is really happening in the world. A duplicitous use of adjectives and adverbs in those news reports often corrupts the information from the dissemination of ‘facts’ to ‘propaganda.’

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