Liars and Heretics

I have been part of many Bible-believing churches that have proudly proclaimed to teach biblical truth. I’ve always felt this was an impressive statement for them to make, it proved that they took the Bible seriously, and when I heard what they had to teach, it also usually meant they weren’t afraid of delivering the difficult messages found in the Bible, things that were counter cultural, or things that might not be politically correct by “worldly” standards, but they were biblical truths, written plain for all to see, in a Bible that was without error.   I’ve heard this time and time again, and whilst it might sound good, holy, and well intentioned, it’s also basically saying, “We know the correct truth of the Bible, which is the inerrant word of God, and if you don’t agree with what we are saying, then you are against God, and will probably end up being smited, smote or smitten”. Maybe this is an extreme reading between the lines, and to be fair, it might not be exactly what...

Exploring the Complexities of the Christian Faith and Biblical Truth   The word ‘Unanswerable’ is interesting and seems appropriate for this collection of writings. The meaning of the word is perhaps obvious, but there are two interesting definitions.   1.     Unable to be disclaimed or proved wrong, inarguable, indisputable, absolute 2.     Unable to be answered, unsolvable, unexplainable   These definitions do sum up themes I’m interested in like mystery, certainty, and doubt, but the more telling thing is in the definitions themselves, which are opposite in their meaning. One means something which is proven truth, something certain and undeniable, but the other means something that cannot be answered, something that is mysterious and beyond comprehension. These two conflicting definitions of this one word, sum up the dichotomy I want to explore, the idea that we can look at something and perceive it to have one meaning, but t...

Liars and Heretics    The name come from the two quotes below   “Anyone who tries to describe the ineffable Light in language is truly a liar; not because he hates the truth, but because of the inadequacy of his description.” - Gregory of Nyssa   and   “The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy.” - Yevgeny Zamyatin   These are both ideas which I have been holding for a while and has been at the heart of some of the recent writing that I have been doing, writing that I would like to share with you here.   The pieces I will be posting here will largely be excerpts from the books I have written and am writing, and will be kind of a serialization.   I hope that you enjoy these thoughts, musings and oversharing, and that they are helpful or interesting in some way.