Soundings

ILLUSTRATION: CATW Church is a reality that can only be seen by eyes of faith SOME who recite the Creed may wonder what it means to declare that “we believe in the Church”. The statements so far refer to faith in the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But what does it mean […]

‘I believe in the Holy Spirit’ THE third article is too briefly enunciated in the Apostles’ Creed to be of significant help. This exposition will therefore be based on the expanded and more descriptive statement that is found in the Nicene Creed of AD 325. There we are told that the Holy Spirit is “the […]

PART 11 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATIONS ON ‘FAITH TO LIVE BY’ But it cannot be fully described within our framework ofspace and time WHILE much has been written on the resurrection of Christ, the literature on His ascension is very slight. Yet, the New Testament unequivocally testifies to the ascension of Christ into heaven […]

ON CLONING EMBRYOS FOR RESEARCH A RECENT article in The Straits Times announced the intention of a group of researchers at the National University of Singapore to clone a human embryo for research (Straits Times, Wednesday, Dec 25, 2002, H8). This announcement was made in the wake of a similar initiative to be undertaken by […]

PART 9 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATIONS ON ‘FAITH TO LIVE BY’ THIS statement is one of the most perplexing in the Creed and is omitted in some versions although it is found in the oldest versions. Christ’s descent to hell must not only be understood together with His suffering and death on the Cross […]

PART 8 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATIONS ON ‘FAITH TO LIVE BY’ ‘Crucified, dead and buried’ AS WE turn now to the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, we ask what is the significance of this death, and why is it necessary to reconcile man to God. The Christian understanding of the death of […]

PART 7 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATIONS ON ‘FAITH TO LIVE BY’  ‘ … Suffered under Pontius Pilate’ THE Creed appears to leapfrog from the account of Jesus’ virginal birth to the final phase of His earthly life when in the next statement it refers to Jesus’ suffering under Pontius Pilate. Although it is the […]

PART 6 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATION ON ‘FAITH TO LIVE BY’ Miraculous event fulfilment of Isaianic prophesy that ‘a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel’ WE CONTINUE our reflection on the Creed by examining its statement regarding the virginal conception of Jesus Christ. The Creed declares […]

PART 5 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATION ON ‘FAITH TO LIVE BY’ How we understand Jesus has implications in ways we conceive of God WITHOUT doubt, both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed gave careful attention to the second article that deals with the second Person of the Trinity. After all, the Council of […]

PART 4 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATION ON ‘FAITH TO LIVE BY’ THE Creed declares that God is the Creator of the universe and the originator of all that there is. It is of paramount importance at the very outset to maintain that this too is the knowledge of faith, made possible only through God’s […]

PART 3 OF THE SERIES OF MEDITATION ON ‘FAITH TO LIVE BY’ 3. ‘Father Almighty’ THE Creed describes God as “Father” and as the “Almighty one”, and it is important that we do not separate these two distinct descriptions. As we consider the first description, we must alert ourselves to a mistake that is very […]

Difficult to authenticate numerous accounts of dead being revived to life RECENTLY a pastor from a Methodist church asked me to comment on a documentary that has caused some sensation and generated much interest. The documentary, produced by Christ for All Nations whose founder is the evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, tells the story of a certain […]