The big picture: New creation

An influential British church leader has issued a ‘prophetic’ warning to the church to prepare for armed conflict in the near future. This has triggered a minor frenzy, with reactions ranging from panic to suspicion. But his warnings actually echo quite a lot of what the British government and military have also been saying in recent months too. In today’s episode we consider the different ways Christians think about war and what it might look like to seriously get ready if you believe conflict is coming. Is there a piece of theological reflection on pacifism and just war theory to be done, alongside stockpiling tinned food and drinking water? How could pastors prepare their flocks for the possibility of being conscripted into World War Three? And why are some Christian voices apparently egging on the very state which is threatening to throw Europe back into war?

Two stories about capital punishment in the United States have grabbed attention across the world: the doubly-botched attempt to execute Christa Pike, which left this convicted murderer alive but hospitalised, and plans by the federal government to livestream their own execution of the army officer behind the Fort Hood shooting. In today’s episode we reflect on the death penalty, which has been abolished for most of the Western world for generations yet persists in the US, and consider the arguments for and against from a Christian perspective. Does God sanction governments to carry out this ultimate punishment? What effect does taking another’s life have on us? Can the death penalty be reconciled with the gospel of grace and God’s offer of redemption in Christ?

John is away, so here's a classic episode from the MOLAD vault. Once dismissed as quackery or New Age woo, near death experiences are seeing something of a modern revival. A slew of serious scientists and doctors have begun studying the phenomenon, even constructing clinical trials to try and see what, if anything, goes on when someone is on the brink of death but is resuscitated successfully. And there is now an entire Christian industry of books and films about believers who claim to have ‘gone to heaven and come back’ after nearly dying. What are the scientific claims behind these experiences, and what do we know and not know about what happens to the brain as it begins to die? Should believers embrace near death experiences as concrete proof of the afterlife? And how does Jesus and the New Testament encourage the Christian to approach questions and fears about death?

It’s been obvious for decades now that the UK’s system for looking after older people who need some kind of care in their later years is horrendously underfunded and riddled with holes. And yet despite numerous governments pledging to finally fix the issue and create a proper safety net for social care, nothing has actually happened even as the population ages and millions more people are faced with trying to cover the spiralling costs of care by themselves. This week we are joined by Christian economist Andrew Dilnot, who was tasked by the government 15 years ago to come up with a solution (only for his recommendation to then be jettisoned later). We discuss what he proposed, why it (and all other proposals) failed to be implemented, and whether a form of social insurance for social care is a truly Christian response to the crisis.

It’s been hard to avoid the endless news stories coming out of Silicon Valley in recent weeks, as AI insiders and executives earnestly tell the world they really are now worried that the tools they are making could destroy humanity as we know it. What on earth should we as Christians make of these stark predictions, and should we be starting to prepare as a church to live in a much more dangerous, unpredictable and unstable world? But first, we begin this episode reflecting on the recent defeat of the assisted dying bill in the House of Commons, the second time in the last year such a proposed law has come unstuck in parliament. What happened to stymie it this time, is this the end of the road for the pro-euthanasia side, and what role did Christians play this time round?