"Kidneys and mountains are real. Human rights are not."

Harari is a child of the enlightenment. If you begin with the fact/value distinction, how do you avoid saying nonsense like this? 👇

And if you want to avoid nonsense like this 👆 it'll be important to unpick the enlightenment myth underpinning it.

Secular? Humanist? Choose one.

10 Lessons from the Post Office Scandal:

1. The problem is not faults—it's insisting you're infallible.

Expect errors (in IT as in everything). But the Post Office was so committed to self-justification, it prosecuted innocent people rather than question faulty machines. 2. Technology can lift people up but it also leaves people behind.

The software, Horizon, promised efficiency and delivered exclusion. It became an impenetrable system. Tech can do that, especially in a complex world, with a competency crisis and even more with the advent of AI.

Who does Jacob wrestle with? Gen. 32 calls him "a man" and "God". Hos 12:4-5 calls him "The Angel" and "The LORD, the God of Hosts". Add it all up (along with John 1:18 & Col 1:15) who else could it be? God the Son, right?

Two objections are often cited to naming him "Jesus"....

https://twitter.com/birdchadlouis/status/1746125183985860872

1) People say "Jesus" is particularly the name of the *incarnate* Christ.

Answer: Particularly, yes. Exclusively, no. See Phil. 2:5ff; 2 Cor. 8:9; Jude 5 (ESV, cf v4).

2) People say it detracts from the incarnation to draw attention to Jesus' pre-incarnate appearances.

...

"Tis Scripture, Tis Scripture," the preacher proclaims,
"Our rule and our guide, Our fount and our frame.
We stand on the Bible, for better, for worse.
But let me give vent to my own bluster first."

1/13 "Tis Scripture, Tis Scripture, so let me digress –
To warn you of others who do not confess,
Our creed guaranteed to produce a revival:
We are the ones who honour the Bible."

2/13

How do people tick?

A little thread based on Ephesians. Our problem:

Our natural selves are corrupted by their deceitful desires. (Eph. 4:22)

IOW: our hearts crave fakes—toxic fakes. We want things that lie to us. And, having been taken in by a mirage, we end up gulping down hot sand. This distorts and damages us at every level.

Thanks be to God for... 8 ways I'm grateful for Tim Keller:

1. Ministries of Mercy.
His 1st book was doing 3rd way before 3rd way was a thing. Here was a /preacher/ calling all-the-body to serve all-the world with the gospel at the centre. A sign of the magnanimity to come. 2. Magnanimity.
"3rd way" is often dismissed as a thin veil masking spineless centrism. Others can give justification for the project (eg diagonalisation, subversive fulfilment). No-one can give a better example of the posture. However you see the project: be magnanimous like Tim

Andrew Peterson on (Song) Writing.

“Searching for inspiration is a great excuse to listen to your life.”

#HMUK23 1. Serve the work:
Allow the thing to grow into what it wants to become. You’re stepping into mystery. It wants to go someplace — serve it.

2. Serve the audience:
Art is not self-indulgence. It becomes generative when it’s an act of love. You must intend good for your audience.

“We experience our weakness as inadequacy. What if we could experience it as invitation?” Doug McKelvey at Hutchmoot UK. @TheRabbitRoom Our weaknesses can wake us from “the anaesthesia of choice.” They remind us we are not in control. They are opportunities for the Lord to say “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

He rose up among us, as told.
He rose up the Promise of old.
My Brother in strife,
Assuming my life.
Exalted, the Father’s Decree
He rose up, He rose up for me. He rose up humanity’s Last
Man’s Answer in life unsurpassed
My Champion living,
God’s life of thanksgiving.
Exalted as I’m meant to be
He rose up, He rose up for me.

Christmas trees and the Winsomeness Discourse™

It was on this day (ie the winter solstice) in 725, that Boniface, the British "apostle to the Germans", cut down "Donar's Oak" at Geismar. It was a pagan site of sacrifice in honour of Thor. Boniface is reported to have said... “Here is the Thunder Oak; and here the cross of Christ shall break the hammer of the false god Thor.”

Bold! This from a missionary who was told by his bishop “to convince [the Saxons] by many documents and arguments.” By and large that's what Boniface and his fellow-monks did...

Been reading a lot about the census this morning (Numbers 1-4).

The fighting men of Israel (aged 20+), excluding Levites, = 603,550. When Levites are counted (from birth not from age 20) they number 22,000. Those who were actually doing priestly work (aged 30-50) = 8,580.

So... The priestly tribe represent less than 4% of Israel. And those who actually do the priestly work are a fraction of that.

The Levites are explicitly said to be standing in for the rest of the nation. They are "in place of all the firstborn of Israel" who represent God's people.

Apartheid means “separateness”: seeking the ‘distinctiveness’ of nations in a South Africa that was multi-ethnic, race-riven and deeply scarred by colonial exploitation. It was not common-or-garden racism, it was *reformed political theology* forwarded by devout Calvinists.

1/4 This lecture by Alec Ryrie is a must watch (essentially a condensation of the Apartheid chapter in “Protestants”).



The /theology/ of Apartheid is foregrounded—vital so that those outside the church can understand and those inside can take heed.

2/4

In "Between Two Worlds" John Stott highlights 6 biblical metaphors for preachers: heralds, farmers, stewards, shepherds, ambassadors, and workers.

He then runs with his own metaphor: bridge-builder.

I genuinely hate to disagree with Uncle John but This Was A Colossal Mistake 🧵 Pretty much every other picture of a preacher—all the biblical ones—de-centre the preacher. The herald might ring a bell in the town square but it's clear they're bringing news of the king. The ambassador might be addressing the court but *in the name of the one they represent*.

Consider 3 social transformations in Christian history: the end of infanticide, gladiatorial games, and the slave trade. They’ve come thru preaching *and* politics—church power (cruciform witness) *and* state power (legislation/enforcement). It’s both—but in a particular way. 🧵 On infanticide, Christians saved babies from exposure and raised them long before Valentinian I made laws that parents must raise their offspring and forbade the killing of an infant. Cruciform witness *and* state power. And in that order.

OTD in 1536 William Tyndale was strangled then burned at the stake for translating the Bible. (The strangling was botched. He was burned alive). Today there are >100 English translations of the Bible. Back then it cost you your life to have one. Why did Tyndale risk it all?

1/11 In the preface to his New Testament, Tyndale reveals why the Scriptures are so precious—because they contain the most glorious joy-giving promises:

"The New Testament is a book [containing] the promises of God and the deeds of them which believe them or believe them not...

2/11

A thread about the power of stories.

We usually think that the real world is where we live, and we navigate life according to reason, evidence and common sense. On this view, stories are occasional distractions from the real world.

Big nope.

1/ By nature we are fantasists: imagining ourselves as the heroes of our own mini-dramas. We don't live by the facts, we live by the stories we tell ourselves. In our selfishness we are like King David in 2 Sam 11—directing our own drama to serve our lusts no matter the cost.

2/

If, in a single phrase, you want to understand the Bible (and God and the nature of life on earth) you can’t go past “Abba, Father”. It’s used 3 times in the New Testament.

First it’s said by Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion. Mark records the Aramaic because this is the most personal address. Jesus in his heart language expresses his deepest connection with the Father.

‘Abba’ in Aramaic is the 1st word a child uses for Father, but it also endures into adulthood. It’s a term of intimacy and respect.

There are many, many proofs of the success of the Jesus revolution—AKA Christianity—in shaping our moral intuitions (for more, check out my new book, The Air We Breathe, in my bio). One surprising proof is in the way we discuss abortion.

1/ The fact #RoeOverturned is cast as regressive, an act of cruelty, an assault on human rights, etc, is the most absurd inversion. And it's almost impossible to comprehend without acknowledging the profound impact of Christianity on our moral sensibilities. And you say, Whutt?

2/

Some reformation theology:

The opposite of "your works" is not "your faith". The opposite of "your works" is "Christ's work." You do not answer "trusting in your works" by switching to "trusting in your faith." That's like saying you believe in belief. What are you, Ted Lasso? Faith is not a thing. It is not an interiorised, mental work as opposed to exteriorised, physical works. And God does not prefer "internal states of believing-ness" to "external acts of kindness"! He really likes good works: loving God & neighbour is totally awesome in his book.

"A year of scandals" includes:

Zacharias: trafficking women for sex; spiritual, sexual, financial abuse; egregious coverups.

Smyth: a sadist beating dozens of victims in Jesus' name.

Fletcher: beatings, bullying, demanding a sex act to be performed (then doing it himself).

1/

https://twitter.com/EvangelicalsNow/status/1456561970409259039

To call these "falls from grace" is such an anaemic analysis. It means...

1) ...treating the decades-long deceptions of these sociopaths as lapses in judgement.

2) ...centring leaders not survivors.

(The article lists many sadnesses (but not the suffering of the victims!)
2/

The proper framing for "original sin" is the "Adam and Christ" story of Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. Most revulsion expressed at "original sin" is usually because it is framed as an Adam-and-Moses story.

1/ In other words, original sin is seen as the horrific doctrine that I'm born in debt and must scrimp and save to pay it off. Christopher Hitchens characterised it as the pernicious doctrine that we are "born sick and commanded to be healthy".

2/