Hibernia Gospel

Welcome to Hibernia Gospel! Hibernia is the Latin name for Ireland (I am Irish), which was used by Roman historian Tacitus back in 98 AD. Incidentally, Tacitus also gives us one of the first mentions of Christ and Christians outside the New Testament.

Why Gospel? Well, the word “gospel” comes from the Old English term “godspel,” which means “good news” or “glad tidings.” This, in turn, is derived from the Greek word “euangelion”, from where we get words like evangelist and evangelical. The goal of this site is to spread the good news.

The Bridge to Heaven
The Bridge to Heaven

John 5:24
Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Back in the late 1970s, as a teenager, I always appreciated chatting with evangelists around Cork city. As a Roman Catholic, I enjoyed hearing about Jesus and the New Testament. Nowadays, you can do all that on the Web, so this is my little contribution to spreading the good news.

Salvation Army on Princes Street, Cork, 1981

Nowadays, evangelical churches in Ireland are getting much bigger. But when I look at church websites, I see little that explains the Christian faith. It’s very much “Come along and join the gang.” I can understand this. Maybe, in our postmodern age, people would be put off by doctrines and strong opinions. But then again, there are people like me (as I was, all those years ago) who might appreciate the perspective of an ordinary Cork man on what evangelicals believe and how they differ from mainstream churches.

I’m not here to promote myself or any specific churches. But, whenever I see evangelistic material, I like to know who’s behind it, just in case it’s some strange cult or whatever 😀. Well, if I am to label myself, I class myself as an evangelical Christian—a shy one. You’ll get evangelicals across all the denominations. Most that I’ve mixed with over the years have been Baptist or part of newer Christian fellowships and community churches. Most of them dislike denominational labels. A common slogan is, we’re not the only Christians, but we want to be Christians only. Well, even those of us who are OK with labels accept that it’s all about following Christ rather than churches or movements.

John 8:12
Then Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

What’s in the Blog

Currently, I have six sections:

1. Basic Christianity

This is my introduction to the Christian Faith. I’ve included the following:

2. Evangelical and Catholics

Ireland is largely Roman Catholic. I used to be a Roman Catholic. I became an evangelical Christian when I was 18. People were curious as to why. These topics are based on discussions I had on the topic.

3. Hymns and Spiritual Songs

I won’t list the topics from Hymns and Spiritual Songs here, but these topics give me the opportunity to reflect on hymns and memories that might be associated with them or maybe just memories from each year of my Christian life. I also have some posts on hymns related to specific topics.

4. History

Currently, I’ve just a few posts on this, but I will eventually supplement these.

5. Daily Prompt

Daily Prompt is just a random question that WordPress.com asks you every day. Just for fun, I’ve started answering these. It sort of mimics casual conversations. I won’t attempt to list all the posts here.

6. General

This is just a catch-all for posts that don’t fit the other categories. These include the following:

For a more detailed introduction, see my Introduction page. If you have any queries about the site content, see my Any Questions page.