This brings us to the final article in this series, Interrogating the Trinity. So far, we’ve asked, What is God? Who is God? How is God God? When is God? Where is God? Now we’re up to the Why question. I feel like the most fruitful approach to this interrogative is to consider why this all matters. Why does it matter that God is Trinity?

It’s time to return to our series of posts on Interrogating the Trinity. In previous articles, we’ve considered questions such as What is God?, Who is God?, How is God God?, and When is God? In this article, we turn to the question Where is God? In many ways, the answer to this question will be similar to the answer to the question, "When is God?” There is a fair bit of overlap. That said, I think there is enough unique content to warrant a separate article. So, Where is God?

When you go somewhere, there are often conditions of entry. If you go on a bus or train, you need a ticket. If you go to a wedding, you need to dress nicely. If you go to school, you need to wear a uniform. If you go to the shops, you need money. How do you enter the kingdom of God, thereby receiving eternal life? What are the conditions of entry? Are there better offers available? Can I click on “maybe attending,” and wait to see if there’s something better on offer? That’s what John 3 is all about.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that in 2021, 43.9% of Australia’s 25 million people claimed to be Christians. That’s nearly 12 million people. As someone who lives in Australia, my gut tells me that the number is actually much smaller. But how did the number get so big? The Bureau are very good at collecting statistics. They work very hard. How do they get to this number?

People love weddings. They capture two things that many people long for: fun and love. As far as parties go, it doesn’t get much more fun than a good wedding. You get to hang out with fun people, get heaps of free food, dance, hang out and have fun. And if dancing and having fun isn’t your thing, you can sit back and watch other people dancing and making fools of themselves. For some people, that is fun. Most people crave fun. We want to have a good time, and we want someone to provide that good time for us.

Imagine Jesus walks into whatever room you’re in right now. How do you respond? This was a real scenario for John the Baptist and a few of his friends. They’re hanging out in Bethany, just near the Jordan River. Imagine you’re there with them. Jesus turns up, the eternal Word of God, the Son of God, the Creator of the Universe. How should you respond?

I’ve previously written on Augustine’s key principles for reading Scripture, his “way to discover what needs to be understood.” Augustine spends the first three books of De Doctrina unpacking what this looks like. In book four, he turns to consider his “way to put across to others what has been understood,” or, how to communicate what we’ve understood. Here are seven key principles he shares.

After the Bible talk, the discussion groups, having dinner and hanging out with your friends and the leaders, games are the best bit of any youth group. But some games are not appropriate for youth group.

In a previous article, we considered how the Christian God is love. It’s intrinsic to his Being and it’s demonstrated to us in the coming of his Son. The God who is love calls us to love him. We are to love him wholeheartedly. Similarly, we are to love God by obeying him (John 14:15, 14:21, 1 John 5:3). In this article, we’ll turn to the love of people. Why do we love other people? Who are we to love? What does love look like? How do we love others?

Now, it’s time to discuss God and time and God and the absence of time. When is God? God exists in eternity and in time, now and forevermore. And, as a little bonus, we’ll consider how this question intersects with the question of the Son’s subordination, and Rahner’s Rule.

So far in this series of articles, we’ve been asking various interrogative questions about God: What is God? Who is God? Now, we’re up to the how question. I suppose there are a few ways I could spin the how question. But in this post, I want to consider how God is God concerning his being One and Three. How is God One and Three? How is the One Three? How are the Three One? The answer is extraordinarily complex. But it’s also kind of simple.

In the previous article, we explored the question, “What is God?” Our answer was, “God is the One self-existing Being.” Now we come to our second question: “Who is God?” It might be tempting to think this question is pretty much the same as yesterday’s. Admittedly, there is a fair bit of conceptual overlap. And when we considered what God is, we came into contact with the “who” question at several points. And that’s to be expected. After all, we’re talking about the same God!

In the previous post, we talked about the importance of coming before God humbly but hungrily. Now it’s time to dig into our six “interrogative” questions. In this one, we ask: what is God?

In short, my answer is:

God is the One, self-existing Being. 

I’ve titled my next little series of posts “Interrogating God.” The idea is that I will ask questions of God based on what grammar nerds call the “interrogatives,” words like what, who, how, when, where and why. The first two of these might even be called interrogative pronouns, while the latter four are interrogative adverbs, just in case you were wondering.

But before I launch in, it’s worth asking a question: can we interrogate God?

Christians love love. Everyone knows that Christians love love. God loves love, and Christians love that God loves love. The Bible even says that God is love. He loves us. And he calls us to love him and others. But what does that even mean?

Have you ever noticed that the New Testament often refers to ”the Lord” without specifying who “the Lord” actually is? Sometimes, it can be a bit confusing.

Over the past few days, I’ve been getting plenty of ads for New Year’s resolutions. I have to say, I really enjoy the prospect of a new year to kick off a new habit. I have a bunch of plans I’m really excited to kick into action, and hopefully, some of them will stick.

As the Old Testament stream of my Bible-in-a-year plan reaches its end, I've been enjoying reading Zechariah. I’ve always found the book tricky, so I’ve written these notes on the symbols and imagery to help me understand the big picture. Hopefully, you’ll find this helpful, too.

Every now and then, I enjoy bustin’ some Augustine at Marticles.net. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) ranks second on my list of “Most Influential People of the Past Two Millennia”, with Muhammad in first place. When it comes to the Western world, I put Augustine in first place.