Trampled on

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I have a feeling that this might be my last ‘beyond the pale’ blog for a while, I feel like I just need a change. This is not to say that I have in any way covered the weird, disturbing stories of the bible and explained them all. I’ve only studied a drop in the […]
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Nehemiah

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Often in the Old Testament you come across these bizarre scenes of communal worship, communal grieving or communal confession amongst others. I say bizarre, because I suppose we just don’t do those things much anymore… or at least not in the way they did in the Old Testament. So, let’s have a look at one […]
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Jesus

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This is not a message I want to deliver, but the Bible leaves me no choice. There is no politically correct alternative. God hates figs. There I said. I know this will shock a lot of people but the evidence is overwhelming. Scripture is crystal clear. What did the prophet Jeremiah use to curse Zedekiah […]
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Saul and David

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‘A Question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved.’ Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince In 1 Samuel 18 we read a story that will make even the most nonchalant of us squirm and wince in our seats, particularly the males among us. Picture the scene, a young woman is […]
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Ananias and Sapphira

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Confession time, some of you might remember parts of this blog from a talk I did in Ignite a few years ago, actually I think you can find the recording of that talk here too if you’d rather listen than read! Anyway, due to time pressures I have not been able to dig up new […]
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Hagar

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Religion has been involved, both subtlety and obviously, in all sorts of conflict and violence throughout human history. There is no avoiding the fact that in the wrong hands religion can be a force of great harm. And this includes Christianity. If we consider the sins of the Christian past critics have plenty to work […]
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Gideon

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I realise that this ‘beyond the pale’ series of blogs has been resembling Game of Thrones with a lot of violence, sex and general post-watershed content. So this week I wanted to look at something not quite as violent, something lovely…something like… say… jumpers and cakes.     We’re gonna stay in Judges, but this […]
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