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Bishop Graham
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last modified
06 Oct, 2011 01:38 PM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
Last week Troy Davis was executed for shooting a policemen in 1989 and yet policemen shoot people what makes this acceptable and will they go to heaven? Is it ever right to take someones life?
Thanks. Shooting people is wrong - policemen or anyone. I don't believe in the death sentence - for some mistakes in the judicial system have led to the wrong people being executed. Not all policemen shoot people - thank God - but some, in extreme case, do, usually to protect others from being shot. It may be right - in extreme cases - to take someone's life, eg if a man is holding hostages and about to kill them and a sniper kills him first. God is the judge concerning heaven - and he doesn't get things wrong, and often - according to the parables of Jesus - surprises people.
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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Bishop Graham
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last modified
06 Oct, 2011 12:46 PM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
If God is outside time and space how does he affect/interact with us? How can he be personal?
Thanks. He has shown he is indeed personal through his word to the prophets and others and then, ultimately, through entering time and space in becoming human in Jesus of Nazareth. He is, after all, God and has found his own ways of relating to people as personal in time and space.
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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by
Bishop Graham
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last modified
05 Oct, 2011 11:49 AM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
If you were in a train driving and the brakes failed, up ahead are five workers working and on a siding there is a sole worker. You can choose to remain on the mainline or turn down the siding. Killing one or five? In a case of passive vs. active evil which would you choose?
Thanks. Horrible choice. I suppose killing the one, rather than the five. Good case study in ethics.
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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Bishop Graham
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last modified
05 Oct, 2011 11:50 AM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
Can the Ten Commandments ever be broken?
Thanks. Yes. Every day by lots of people.
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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Bishop Graham
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last modified
06 Oct, 2011 01:28 PM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
How can we trust the Bible?
Thanks. Because we trust the Author, and the authors - God's Holy Spirit and various human beings across centuries - as well as countless scholars who have worked hard on the enormous number of manuscripts, getting an accurate text, and countless translators. We need to interpret the Bible as well as read it - a key question to ask is: 'what sort of literature is this particular part of the Bible?' When interpreted properly, eg the Old Testament being interpreted through the New Testament, we can trust the Bible. See, for example, 'Don't Throw Stones'
http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/?251
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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by
Bishop Graham
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last modified
06 Oct, 2011 01:17 PM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
What is your preferred style of worship?
Thanks. I enjoy the diverse variety of worship: modern band music with data projected words and images as well choral evensong at Salisbury Cathedral and Sherborne Abbey. So long as it is done well and is not cringemakingly sad, I am delighted to join in.
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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by
Bishop Graham
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last modified
05 Oct, 2011 10:26 AM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
Can one believe in God out of fear?
Yes, but that is not really healthy. Much better to believe in God out of love and wonder and desire for fullness of life. Proverbs in the Old Testament says 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' - that 'fear' includes wonder and awe at God's majesty. Since we are accepted by God through faith in Jesus of Nazareth, we don't need to be terrified of him.
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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by
Bishop Graham
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last modified
06 Oct, 2011 12:56 PM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
Have you experienced a miracle? If so how did you know it was a miracle?
Thanks. Yes, I believe miracles still happen. God is still God and the two greatest miracles are God becoming human in Jesus of Nazareth and God raising him from the dead in the resurrection. The ongoing effects of both of those are amazing as people's lives throughout the ages and throughout the world have been transformed by encounters with the risen Christ. So, I suppose the greatest miracle I've experienced is having my life turned around by meeting Christ is a profoundly personal way when I was reading law at Oxford.
I also believe that people are healed by medicine and prayer. My eldest daughter is a doctor working in a hospital and she is consistently astounded by how the body is wonderfully designed to heal itself and medicine facilitates that natural healing. Sometimes that natural healing is speeded up in answer to prayer. I don't know how that works, but believe it does, and have experienced people being healed through prayer.
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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by
Bishop Graham
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last modified
05 Oct, 2011 10:56 AM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
If it is forgotten the illegality, is cannabis incompatible with Christianity? Even if one remembers the acceptance of alcohol in society and church?
Thanks. I have read various studies showing that even a so called 'soft drug' like cannabis can damage the brain of humans. Not worth trying. So can large amounts of alcohol. Small amounts of alcohol, I don't have problems with.
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
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by
Bishop Graham
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last modified
05 Oct, 2011 11:15 AM
Previously Gryphon School wrote:
If killing one could save a hundred could it be justified? Both acts (acting and non-action) are evil so which is the lesser?
Great question. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a wonderfully profound German theologian, pondered this question when deciding whether to join in the plot to assassinate Hitler. He decided it was justified. The plot failed - just - and Bonhoeffer was executed. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
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Eleventh live discussion Wed 28 September 2011, Gryphon School, Sherborne, Dorset.
