Unitarian & Free Christian Bible Discussion

Bible discussion on Monday 26th June: 6.30pm led by Rob Oulton- ‘Hearing the Divine call’. Our discussion will look at the story in 1 Samuel Chapter 3: of the boy Samuel’s calling in the night by God; whose voice he repeatedly fails to recognise. Samuel seems to be one of the special ones found throughout the Bible who have a quality of intense affiliation to the Divine, and whose life seems to be ‘set aside’ or dedicated to God. Samuel, as the much longed-for son of the formerly barren Hannah, is formally given to God by his mother, and is essentially brought up in the temple by Eli, the chief priest, from a very young age. Perhaps shades here of the current Dalai Lama? Are people still called by God, or by the voice of a deeper wisdom that takes them by surprise? Do we hear prophetic voices or deep heart promptings, perhaps in dreams or in night reveries, or unexpectedly in waking life. Can these callings lead us toward a different kind of life than we had previously planned? Is the

 This week Indra Sikdar will lead our discussion at 6.30pm when we will consider the following passages: Matthew 21:18-22 New International Version Jesus Curses a Fig Tree 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Matthew 27: 46 - 50 New International Version The Death of Jesus 45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus c

 Hi Everybody, Our next discussion will be on Monday 12th June at 6.30 and will be led by Donald Jacobs on the theme of ‘The Other Side of the Apocalypse: The New Heaven and the New Earth’. A couple of months ago we considered the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This week we will read and discus the description of a cleansed new earth as described in Bible’s closing chapters in Revelation. Artisitic depictions from different sources may be included. Feel free to add any below and/or bring on the day.  Does the invocation of a cleansed new earth have special resonance today in view of environmental disaster?  Are utopian visions helpful or harmful? Motivating or debilitating?  Revelation 21  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne sayin

Hi Everybody We’re back!  Our next discussion will be on Monday 5th June at 6.30 and will be led by Barry Bell on the theme of the Jewishness of the first Christians, considering the ideas of Jimmy Dunn, in his book ‘Unity and Diversity in the New Testament’: that Jesus and the original Jesus movement stayed within Jewish messianism. We will consider a short video on the topic and some of the passages in Acts that emphasise the Jewishness of the first Christians.  https://youtu.be/Ghwx6JkLssQ Acts 2:5 Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt a