mallisle's blog

A game of Chinese whispers is played by sitting in a circle and each person speaking into the next person's ear. By the end of the game the simple phrase you began with has been distorted into something completely different. Is this how the Bible was written? Wasn't it passed down by word of mouth? There would have been an oral form of the story, especially at a time when the majority of people couldn't read, but there would have been a written...

Why is there so much suffering in the world? If God is a God of love, why is there so much evil? The devil brought evil into the world, not God. Why did God create the devil? I used to think that the devil was like Donald Trump or Nigel Farage. Someone you don't like but it gives people a choice. The universe has to be a democracy. But no. God created the devil to be good. He was a beautiful angel. Ezekiel 28:11-19. He was perfect in wisdom and...

Why do Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to God? In our multicultural society this sounds arrogant. Surely Muslims, Hindus and Jews have a faith. Surely they're good people and God respects them just as much. The question isn't whether somebody is the right or wrong religion. It's a question of whether religion has any value and whether it can actually save anyone at all. What do we need to be saved from? We are sinners. We don't...

Science has neither proved or disproved God. Whatever we believe about science, it is always possible to say that that is simply way that God does things. When Edmund Gosse was a botanist in the 1850s his wife would look down the microscope and say, 'How marvellous are thy doings!' How wonderful are the things that you do, oh God. Many Christians would simply see the big bang theory and evolution as an explanation of how God created the universe...

Healing of psychiatric illness is more difficult than physical healing. Spiritually there is greater warfare. Bearing a grudge can make someone ill. The psychiatrist deals with that grudge directly. Emotional trauma can make someone ill. Barry Bennett described a woman being hit by a car. She wasn't badly injured but the trauma caused her to have severe arthritis. The psychiatrist is dealing with that trauma directly. Some psychiatrists say that...

One of the most controversial questions about healing is whether sickness could ever be beneficial. God uses pain and suffering to discipline and purify us all the time. None of these verses is specifically about illness but the Bible contains principles that can be applied to different situations. James 1:2-4. Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds. The testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:12. Blessed is the man...