The scene, an American evangelical church, around Christmas time. The pastor prays, Heavenly Father, than you so much for sending us your Son! We’re so grateful for your perfect of gift of forgiveness, of eternal life. Help us, this season, to remember the reason for it. God, thank you for coming to be born, to die for us. In your name we pray, amen. At… Read More »a present you should return: Christmas confusion
A number of Christian academic bloggers have weighed in on the Wheaton controversy about Dr. Larycia Hawkins, specifically her statement that Christians and Muslims worship the same god. If you haven’t been following the whole thing, blogger Fr. Alvin Kimel summarizes it well in this post at Eclectic Orthodoxy. There, and in a follow-up post, like me he gives an affirmative answer – yes, Christians… Read More »“same god” controversy round-up
I can see how some of my fellow Christians would push back against my last post on the subject of “Do Christians and Muslims worship the same god?” In this post, I take a stab and stating and evaluating these objections. I wish to thank Dr. Lydia McGrew and Dr. James Anderson for their stimulating recent posts on these topics that were helpful to me.… Read More »God, Allah, and mistaken identifications
My seven year old nephew believes that once upon a time the young George Washington chopped down a cherry tree. For my part, I don’t think that happened. I believe that the cherry-tree story is a myth. Therefore, when my nephew talks about “George Washington” he’s not referring to the same guy I’m referring to when I talk about “George Washington.” Once, this nephew overheard… Read More »God, Allah, George Washington, and Eric Clapton
Christmas time! So time to sell magazines (etc.) with sensational, poorly reasoned articles which attempt to be bold and provocative. It’s as predictable as the rising sun. No book is evidence, right? Right. Else we’d be able to prove the reality of Batman by citing a comic book. [Facepalm] This argument kills with 8th-graders. But any adults should be unimpressed. I’ll wager that any adult can think… Read More »no, Jesus is not a fictional character
“God is greater than man.“ Job 33:12. Every man. All men. Everywhere. Beginning to end. Forever. — John Piper (@JohnPiper) December 17, 2015 My reply is: let us consider this inconsistent triad. Just as a matter of logic, not all three can be true – at least one must be false. But which? Jesus is God. God is greater than any man. Jesus is a… Read More »Is God greater than any man?
In this post – what did the bishops mean when they declared for the first time that Father and Son were the same ousia? You’ll want to have this list of interpretations from part 1 in front of you. Importantly, some of possible interpretations of ousia imply others, most notably, the problematic 1. 3 and 4 imply 1 (though not vice-versa). But 1 should be unacceptable to any… Read More »10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #4 “same ousia” – Part 2
The innovative and (then) controversial language introduced at a meeting of catholic bishops in the year 325 was that the Father and the Son are homoousion, literally “same ousia.” But what is an ousia? This question continues to haunt trinitarian theology. Until we understand the meaning of a sentence, we can’t agree or disagree with it, or even go looking for evidence for our against it.… Read More »10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #4 “same ousia” – Part 1
Here’s an overview, with a few comments, of an interesting little public disagreement about Romans 1 and atheism. The discussion was kicked off by evangelical apologist Greg Koukl’s “No Duh” video, where he says that according to Romans 1, all atheists are intentionally suppressing their knowledge of God. Randal Rauser then pointed out a hard to accept implication of Koukl’s claim, which seems to require us to re-think just how… Read More »Are atheists denying the obvious? Koukl vs. Rauser and Feser
In 2007 I read Triads and Trinity, by the late Classicist and Egyptologist John Gwyn Griffiths, a book which tries to trace outside influences on the development of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. I was skeptical about any such project, as I knew it has long been a staple of crackpot antitrinitarians to allege that the Trinity doctrine was illegally imported from (take your pick) Babylon,… Read More »Triads and Trinity: a mini-review
In this final part of our discussion Dr. Rauser and I continue to discuss his interesting new book: Is the Atheist My Neighbor? Rethinking Christian Attitudes toward Atheism.
“Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”” (Psalm 14:1) This says that all atheists are fools, right? Pastor John Hagee says that “Atheism is bankrupt and empty. It’s brain dead!” Others have said that all atheists because they hate God and want to sin with impunity. Is this what the Bible teaches? Is this true?
Here, at the Stand to Reason blog. In response to a short video in which a preacher suggests that several shared titles imply “that Jesus is Jehovah” (and he means by this that they are the same self, so numerically one). To the contrary, I point out some ways in which Jesus differs from God, in the portrayals of the New Testament: …only Jesus has… Read More »a conversation about the differences between God and Jesus
Here’s one reason why some theologians love to appeal to “mystery.” Regarding the second half of the second Christian century, the great church history von Harnack observes, …an urgent impulse necessarily made itself felt to define the contents and value of the Redeemer’s life and work, not, primarily, from the point of view of the proclamation of the Gospel, and the hopes of a future state,… Read More »von Harnack on logos theories and mystery
Continuing to work through this critique of my post (part 1, part 2) – our friend Annoyed Pinoy writes, Yet, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are repeatedly associated with Yahweh/Jehovah. See, for example, my blog: Identifying Jesus with Yahweh/Jehovah Associated, sure, and in various ways. This is a common equivocation, I find, with theologians. We say “identify with” to mean “associate (in some way) with”.… Read More »On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 3
Continuing from last time, on the multiplicity of interpretations of the old catholic formulas – quoting David Waltz, our friend Annoyed Pinoy comments on the diversity of Trinity theories: [Waltz:] Now, when we look at “the” Evangelical doctrine of the Trinty, one is forced to conclude that it is “doctrines”, not “the doctrine”, for the following are but a few examples of the different forms… Read More »On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 2
The rebuttal is to this blog post of mine, and it is by a Blogger user named “Annoyed Pinoy,” with whom I briefly discussed these things in the comments here. I take it that he is an evangelical Christian who is interested in theology – that’s all I know about him, other than that he is a Filipino in Illinois who is smart, curious, and… Read More »On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 1
Just recently on Facebook, I’ve been quoted a famous text, verses which for hundreds of years were a favorite trinitarian proof text, seemingly the “smoking gun” verse that was needed – 1 John 5:7-8. Here’s how it reads in the King James Bible: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are… Read More »On the corruption of 1 John 5:7-8, the “Comma Johanneum”
In thinking about the Trinity, 380 and 381 are perhaps the most important dates to remember.
Some reference sources will tell you that Christians have always believed in the Trinity. This claim is misleading at best. Rather than dating trinitarian theology to the start of Christianity, if we carefully examine the history of theology, we can see a relevant series of dates, as elements of belief in a triune god emerge. Yes, Christians have always believed in one God, but in… Read More »10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #6 get a date – part 1