Crumbs from the Table

This is not a post about Brexit. But I am going to use the 2016 Brexit referendum in the UK as an analogy.  To refresh your memory, in 2016 a referendum was held in the UK on whether or not to stay in the European Union. This had been a longstanding issue for debate ever since the UK first joined in 1971. In the event, to the surprise of most pundits, the vote was 52% to leave the EU. This led to the immediate resignation of the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and later to the resignation of his successor, Theresa May, in 2019. For months and years, the British parliament, the House of Commons was "blocked" - unable either to implement the referendum or to vote to hold a second referendum (effectively, to reject the result of the first). Finally, under Boris Johnson, a deal was reached and the UK left the EU in 2020. This was followed by years of wrangling over issues such as goods crossing the land border between Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (...

I have been interested in Eastern Orthodoxy ever since spending my linguist's year abroad in Novosibirsk in 1995/6. On my return, I began to read up about church history, and was later encouraged in that by my friend, Donald Fairbairn, who was at that time a PhD student at Cambridge. I have pursued this interest ever since then, researching and teaching the church history course at Novosibirsk Baptist Seminary, and later completing an MTh thesis accredited by Glasgow University on the missionary work undertaken from Constantinople 397-1453. As evangelical Christians, we have a huge amount to learn from our Orthodox brethren, past and present. As much as is possible, I try to engage in dialogue with Orthodox brothers and sisters, both finding common ground and also identifying areas of disagreement which prevent full communion at the present time.* 'Orthodox exclusivism' However, it is one thing to recognise some Orthodox as brothers and sisters in Christ, and to seek a meas...

The "covenant of works" (also known as the "covenant of life" or the "covenant of creation") refers to the original commandment given by the LORD God to Adam, the ancestor and head of the human race, when he created him. This is recorded in Genesis 2:15-17: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." The command is given in the context of creating Adam and placing him in the garden of Eden "to work it and keep it" (what is called the cultural mandate).  The command involves permission ("You may surely eat of every tree of the garden") and prohibition ("but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat"). Obedience or otherwise to the command wi...