by Andy Roland | Jun 28, 2020 | Apostles and their Letters, Bible, Post-modern times, Religion
THE DA VINCI CODE In 2003 a mystery thriller, “The Da Vinci Code” appeared and swept the world. Over 80 million copies were sold worldwide. Three years later it was made into a film, which grossed $734 million. As a result many of its claims about...
by Andy Roland | Mar 25, 2020 | Apostles and their Letters, Bible, Easter, Post-modern times, Religion
With the fear generated by the coronavirus pandemic shutting down the world, I think it is a good time to reflect on what we think about death. Here are seven thoughts. 1 It’s inevitable. Some years ago the British film director Nicholas Roeg...
by Andy Roland | Dec 16, 2019 | Apostles and their Letters, Bible
PREAMBLE “Weird!” :”Exciting!” “Challenging!” “Crazy!” Some of the responses I got when I asked people what they thought of the Book of Revelation. It certainly sparks off intense reactions. But we first have to hear what the book...
by Andy Roland | Jun 10, 2019 | Apostles and their Letters, Bible, Pentecost
WHO/WHAT? WHEN? WHY? Who?/What? Language questions In the Old Testament the same word ‘ruach’ means both wind and spirit. So Genesis 1.3 can be translated, “the spirit of/from God was moving over the waters”, or “a wind from God was moving over the waters”....
by Andy Roland | Nov 6, 2018 | Apostles and their Letters, Bible
PAUL AND THE SPIRIT Introduction At first sight Paul’s teaching about the Spirit presents no problems. What he writes was not contentious then and is relatively uncontentious now. But the Spirit was so central to Paul’s understanding of his faith that it is worth...
by Andy Roland | Sep 27, 2018 | Apostles and their Letters, Bible
PAUL AND GRACE What is it? Grace was one of St Paul’s favourite words. “Grace and peace be with you” was his normal greeting. And his whole theology can be summed up in the sentence, “By grace you have...
