The time has come the walrus said ...

The doctrine of the Trinity is at the heart of orthodox Christian belief, and seeks to explain the relationship between the Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The equal nature of the Father and Jesus was affirmed by the Council of Nicaea in AD325 in dealing with the Arian heresy (and expressed in the Nicene Creed). The equal nature (or consubstantiality as it is technically known) of the Holy Spirit also was added into an expanded creed at the First Council of Constantinople in AD381. The doctrine is perhaps most simply expressed by the formula "The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Spirit is God." Non-believers have often poured scorn on a doctrine which is so difficult to grasp, and which is not explicitly contained in Scripture, but the doctrine is an attempt to bring together and formalise the teaching of numerous separate parts of Scripture. I contend that, regardless of theolo...

Revelation is probably the most contentious book of the Bible, and certainly the one with the most varying interpretations made about it. All too often these derive from the theological presuppositions of the authors. Is there any way of approaching the text without bias? It seems to me that determining the structure of the book is critical to correctly understanding it: even a cursory reading reveals a clear pattern in that the narrator's viewpoint shifts repeatedly between the heavenly realms and the Earth. We can thus divide the text into sections accordingly, with the earthly sections as follows: 1 2:1-3:22 struggles of the seven churches 2 6:2-7:8 effects of opening the seals; sealing of believers 3 8:7-11:14 effects of the trumpets; scroll of prophecy; two witnesses 4 12:13-14:1 anger of the dragon; the two beasts; Mt Zion 5 16:2-18:24 effects of the plagues; woman on the beast; fall of Babylon 6 19:19-21 defeat of beast and false prophet 7 20:8-9 defeat of Satan 8 ...