Faith with evidence?

Another question that got sent in on Sunday evening was this:

Does a sign which shows the existence of God as a certainty take away the point of faith? - faith being a belief in something you can't prove.

I think this is a great question - it gets at something really central in the Christian life.  We all talk about something called the 'Christian faith'  what is that thing?  Is it like the belief in the existence of Santa - unprovable, false but ultimately quite useful for a small child?  Is it like belief in the existence of gravity - provable, true and ultimately obvious and whether you believe it or not it makes no difference? Or is it something else entirely?

Can Jesus save ET?

There are always one or two questions that make you chuckle when you ask people to fire away. This is one of my favorite ones from Sunday night:

Would God create another planet, in another solar system with the right living conditions to support human life or is it just ours?

But other religions work too!

There were a couple of questions on Sunday night about other religions and this is one of them:

'What about people of other religions who believe that they have been changed in the same way that we, as Christians, feel that we have been changed?'

So I've met a number of Muslims who have had their life changed for the better as a result of following Islam. I've met Jews who have had a deeper sense of morality and care for the world because of their faith. I've met Mormons who have received a sense of purpose and value as a result of their new-found Mormon faith.

Can we trust the Bible?

I got a couple of questions on Sunday night that relate to whether or not we can trust the Bible:

"Didn't Constantine change (or compile) the Bible for his own ends?"

"When was the Old Testament written? How do we know this?"

These are good questions - they show a seriousness of thought.  Some churches and some Christians live in a way which makes you think you have to leave your brain at the door if you want to follow Jesus.  You do not.  Jesus calls us to love him with all our mind - and this involves applying the same level of intellectual rigour to our faith as we do to our studies.  It is a very good idea to ask why Christians trust the Bible.

Grill-a-preacher?!

On Sunday night I preached for half an hour on five signs of God in the world around us.  It's some material I've been working on for quite a few years and I really enjoyed delivering it.

After the sermon we gave the members of the congregation the chance to text in their question and, together with two of the vicars of the Church I attempted to answer about 5 or 6 of them.  The idea was so popular that there's no way we could get through all the questions on Sunday night, so I'm going to attempt to answer a few of them on here over the next few days.

It feels a bit like standing in front of a firing squad - but strangely exhilarating!