"Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it." Revelation 2.17 Wednesday of Holy Week is fallow. Or, at least the Scriptures do not record what happened on that day. Was it more of the same (debating with the authorities in the temple)? Or did Jesus take time out with his f

"'By what authority are you doing these things?...' Jesus replied: 'I will ask you one question. Answer me and I will tell you...'" Mark 11. 28-29 The Tuesday of Holy Week (or Passion Week, as it is sometimes called) is a day of controversy. Jesus returns to the temple in Jerusalem, where he is quizzed by the authorities about the source of his own authority, particularly his right to "cleanse" the temple. Jesus resists all attempts to incriminate him, buying time to convey a

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Mark 11.9 In the wake of her new rules designed to curb the inconvenience caused by public demonstrations, I wonder what the Home Secretary would make of the incident described in Mark 11. 1-11, let alone the next passage (12-19)? Palm Sunday not only ushers Jesus into Jerusalem - on a donkey amid chanting crowds and waving palms, it also starts us all on the momentous events of so-called Holy Week. Is it all an accident: sta

"... an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word." Luke 1. 1-2 On the eve of Holy Week it's time to take a break from all the philosophising and simply gaze in awe. We know what that entails. We do it when we admire a gorgeous view, or hold a new-born baby... or witness Scotland winning away from home! The events of Holy Week are breath-taking both in thei

"In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." Matthew 13.14 Of all the arguments in support of faith in the existence of God, surely the most unique, intriguing and ingenious is the "ontological argument"? Credit goes to Anselm and his definition of God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived." And if we concede that existence is greater than non-existence (the poun

"... since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them." Romans 1.19 Theologians like Martin Buber and John Baillie insist that God is known on his own terms, through personal relationship, not as a concept devised by philosophers and soothsayers. They champion the "experiential argument" for the existence of God, namely that it is the intimacy of our relating to God that his existence is confirmed to us personally. Needless to say that

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Romans 1.20 While the "argument from design" appeals to the intricate nature of specific objects as evidence of an intelligent source, the "teleological argument" considers whether the whole nature of existence is best understood as having been carefully and deliberately craft

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." Genesis 1.31 The "argument from design" holds that creation is so replete with clues to its having been carefully crafted by a wise and loving hand that it is simply unreasonable not to believe in a Creator. But this has been given short shrift by non-believing scientists and philosophers, whose counter-argument runs that the evidence of evolutionary biology removes the need for any external impetus. Fresher scientific ins

"Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Genesis 1.2 Plato initiated the "cosmological argument" for the existence of God by pointing out that everything depends on something and therefore something or someone must ultimately be responsible for kick-starting life. Aristotle extended the idea through developing the concept of the "Unmoved Mover". And, on the classical understanding th

"Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." John 1.3 It is all very well to ponder the nature of God but what answer have we for those who dispute his very existence? Friedrich Nietzsche gleefully proclaimed the death of God, while Jean-Paul Sartre insisted that humanity needed to dispense with faith in a divine being in order to grow up and assume responsibility for ourselves. Various arguments have been advanced in support of theisti