Caught Up

12/02/2025

https://fb.watch/xIH8jRSUnB/

15/01/2025

06/01/2025

What is truth? part three
If there’s anybody who knows what the truth is, it ought to be the universities. What is a university? It is literally a one-verse-city; that is, a city whose song has one verse; that is, an academy where, although it offers different degree studies, “we’re all singing from the same hymn-sheet.”
Well, that was the basis on which universities started. This ideal can only work if all practical, academic and spiritual truths are (initially and eventually) coherent and intertwined. (This was also the concept on which Encyclopaedias originated – that all knowledge is cohesive enough to fit within one book).
So, every degree subject studied flows outwards from one Truth and also flows back towards that same Truth. If that is the case, there is only one Truth, which means that there is only one Higher Power who is the authority on Truth.
But these days, instead, you are expected to reason and to educate with neither the starting-point nor the ending-point. I have to ask: in such a freeform world, on what possible grounds can you know that you are being logical?
As I see it, the Biblical words and character of Jesus form that one authoritative Truth, as He claimed in John 14 v.6. And therefore all other gods and religions (including the humanistic, secular, rationalistic, fatalistic, atheistic, etc.) prove to be only incoherent lies. That’s harsh, but true.
What makes me so sure that I have correctly identified the One God who is Truth? Well, ok, let’s discuss it, logically. That’s how the scholar C. S. Lewis did his searching.
A case study. According to the headline in the Daily Telegraph on 30th December ’24, our current government wants the education curriculum to have more ‘diversity’ and more ‘standardisation.’ I don’t see how it can have both! Diversity means consideration of wider viewpoints, whilst standardisation means conformity. I suspect what they mean is, they plan to conform education so that it’s underpinned by the maximum diversity of these incoherent lies. Why would they do that? Because “people loved the darkness rather than the light;” John 3 v.19.
I’m not saying the education system is run by bad people; it’s more likely that they just prefer the power of Blissful Ignorance, in themselves and in us.
Is there an alternative? Yes. Do the opposite.
(Build it from scratch if need be).

06/01/2025

What is truth? part two
“WHAT IS TRUTH?” John 18 v.38. “Pilate did not wait for an answer, though he asked the right person. (Quote from Dr David Marshall, The Third Education Revolution, p.39).
“Richard Dawkins warned us against asking the “why” question. But why shouldn’t students ask about the ultimate purpose and meaning of the objects that we study?” (p.37).
If you study ANY subject deeply enough, you MUST come across a religious question, even if it’s only, “Why does any of this stuff even matter at all?” Well, sure, it’s very hard for an academy to set exams on a subject if the teachers don’t know the answer to the questions. So, then, I have to ask: is education about exams, or is it about curiosity?
So, I’ve said that the word ‘meaning’ has two meanings. So does the word ‘reason.’ Reason is an analytical process – it can describe cause-and-effect. But ‘reason’ that starts from the beginning can only start from ‘God,’ that is, from a First Cause who is capable of reasoning.
Yes, you can reduce knowledge to only the stuff that doesn’t cause controversy, stuff that we can all agree upon. You never explore the awkward subject of purpose (because only God knows about purpose – only He can define whether a ‘truth’ is reasonable). But, taking the moral consequences out of education has also taken out the spark. Somehow, a couple of hundred years of taking that approach to education has singularly failed to iron out corruption, or to bring satisfaction to hearts.

09/12/2024

I used to see sometimes a diagram called "The Tree of Knowledge," with all subjects branching off.
By easing out God, normal modern education and Western society appear to have done away with the trunk of the tree - the idea that there's a unifying absolute Truth. (You might think that 'science' still holds that as an ideal, but, it's not one that is referred to very often).
Jesus is the binding and spine that holds the encyclopedia together. "The truth shall set you free" John 8 v.32,36.

29/11/2024

One concern about 'faith-schools' etc. is that they might not allow freedom of choice or of thinking. On the contrary, "the Truth shall set you free," said Jesus, and that includes full freedom to discuss and explore. We do first need to believe that absolute Truth does exist. That doesn't make us arrogant, it makes us inquisitive. [John 8 v.32; James 1 v.25; 2 v.12].

23/09/2024

Here's Selden College's new website. Applications for 2025 are open.

The Founding Purpose To glorify God in the arena of higher education and thus serve the purposes of God for family, church, and nation by preparing generations of faithful Christian leaders

01/03/2024

A new Christian university? As I’ve said, for interested pupils, it’s worth contacting Selden College, who are organising a four-day information and taster session (a Summer School) in July, in Oxford.
Sorry for my incorrect number-crunching on my previous post about this. It’s primarily pupils who are today – 1st March 2024 – aged between fifteen-and-a-half and seventeen-and-a-half who might like to contact Selden College about this.

The Vision Our vision is to establish an in-person Christian Liberal Arts College offering degrees built around a common core curriculum undertaken by all students. Lord willing, we will open doors to undergraduates in September 2025.

16/02/2024

I’ve mentioned plans for a Christian university in the UK (and that’s not a Bible college!). If anyone is in need of urgent information, particularly youngsters right now aged between fourteen-and-a-half and sixteen-and-a-half, I would suggest contacting Selden College on [email protected]. Their location isn’t finalised, but it’s by no means too early to make the connection.