In Depth:  Nigel Faithfull

February 12 2009 marks the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and April the 150th anniversary of the completion of his manuscript entitled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (hereafter referred to as Origin). Few books have had such an influence on people, education and parliamentary laws during the past 150 years. The sanctity of the life of the unborn child has been eroded, together with loss of the importance of traditional family structure and sexual morality.

Darwin was essentially a deist, believing in an impersonal God who created the earth, giving a spark of life to some primitive life form, and then left everything to evolve without any divine aid or direction. His ideas were not truly original, but were a system inherited from the classical Greek and Roman philosophers, as outlined below.

Nigel continues his article from last month with some historical reports of striking dreams among Christians.

Katharine Boston

Katharine, the wife of Thomas Boston (1676-1732), gave birth to a daughter, also Katharine, with a double hare lip. A few months later, she had to make an important visit to her mother accompanied by her husband. The child was left behind being cared for. At her mother’s she had a dream that the child was completely perfect, and trusted that she had been miraculously healed.

Recently, three church members, including the pastor, spoke to me about troubling dreams. How concerned should we be about these things, and is there a specifically Christian perspective which can help us deal with them?

‘To sleep! Perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub.’ Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Hamlet III, I, 56) saw the inevitable connection between sleep and dreams, and knowing death was also a sleep, was fearful of suffering eternal nightmares once he had departed this life. The Christian, of course, knows that, while his body is ‘asleep’ until the resurrection, his spirit goes to be with the Lord. We need not fear bad dreams while with the Lord, but what about now? There are several reasons why this topic is important.

Five substantial but well-proportioned buildings in natural stone overlook the Gloucester County Cricket Ground on Ashley Down in Bristol.

These are now the City of Bristol College, Brunel Campus, but stand as a lasting memorial to God’s amazing power in transforming a profligate sinner, and in graciously providing all the resources to establish and maintain a caring ministry which continues to this day, the bicentenary of his birth. How did this all come about?

Over recent years, many people have been offered a good package to tempt them into early retirement. Nigel Faithfull gives some biblical directions for those in this position.

Having talked to a few believers who have already taken this step, the worst suggestion implied in some remarks is that early retirement means one has stopped working, and the remainder of life is to be spent sunbathing on the patio, spending winters at Benidorm, doing armchair gardening with Alan Titchmarsh, and going to bed shortly after The Archers! What should the Christian view be?