In this episode I review the first portion of a recent debate/discussion between Dr. Bart Ehrman and Dr. Michael Bird, held at the at the 2016 Greer-Heard Point Counter Point Forum in February 12-13, 2016 at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
Check out this series of posts at the It’s In the Text blog reviewing The Son of God. In part, Charles Lee Irons, Danny André Dixon and Dustin R. Smith have written excellent essays, drawing their readers in by probing the very heart of ancient documents and dialogue with questions and propositions regarding the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. They have challenged, congratulated and clashed with each… Read More »review of The Son of God @ It’s In the Text
I think that Dr. Larycia Hawkins did the right thing in making public her theological discussion with her boss at Wheaton College. Here are some brief thoughts on reading it. After affirming that she agrees with Wheaton’s creed, including its very vague (but typical) affirmation of “one sovereign God, eternally existing in three persons,” she engages a challenge by her boss Dr. Stan Jones. (You can read… Read More »some thoughts on the Hawkins-Jones discussion
In this last of three interviews with the authors of The Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus, we talk with Dr. Dustin Smith of Atlanta Bible College.
Dr. Lee Irons on his contribution to the new book The Son: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus, interview by Dr. Dale Tuggy for episode 117 of the trinities podcast.
In recent posts here and here my co-blogger and friend arch-nemesis Chad McIntosh has tried his hand at refuting my Divine Deception argument. I’ve already responded to numerous tries to get around it by my friend Bill Hasker here and here. But to his credit, Chad is thinking creatively and coming at it from some new angles. First, it’s important to be be clear about the… Read More »“Divine Deception” Defended
The gripping story of Nabeel Qureshi’s journey from Islam to Christianity.
If God exists necessarily, and this not because of anything else (e.g. there’s some other necessary being which necessarily causes God to exist too), then what explains this? Our friend the Maverick Philosopher urges that the only explanation is that God’s essence just is God’s existence. I disagree. I now try again to start with God’s existence, and a few essential divine attributes which should… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 8
Here’s where we stand. Bill urges that we should say that God’s essence = God’s existence because this (and only this) explains why God necessarily exists (and this not because of any other being). Me, I don’t grant that it’s even coherent to suppose that something’s essence just is its existence. So last time, I took a shot at a different argument for that conclusion… and… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 7
At the Stand to Reason blog (this is the apologetics ministry founded by the inimitable Greg Koukl) I’ve been interacting with a few people on the question: Where Did Jesus Claim to Be God? In the current evangelical style, the poster Melinda Penner seems to understand this as equivalent to claiming to be God himself, to saying “I am God.” Never mind whether or not… Read More »Where did Jesus claim to be God?
Last time we ended with this argument by Bill. But if God is a necessary being, what is the ground of his necessity if it is not the divine simplicity? We agree that God cannot not exist. But I ask: why not? If in both God and Socrates there is a real distinction between essence and existence, and if in Socrates his contingency is rooted… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 4
Many thanks to my fellow bloggers Bill Vallicella and Aiden Kimel for their thoughtful posts on the discussion/debate between Bill and me on whether God is to be thought of as a unique and perfect being, or not a being, but rather “Being itself” or “Existence.” I was simply not able to keep up, due to travel and other immediate demands. For those following the… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 3
Continuing the discussion with the Maverick (Bill)… “Being itself,” I take it, is something like a universal property, an abstract and not a concrete object. (Or at least, it’s not supposed to be concrete; maybe he thinks that it is neither abstract nor concrete.) I’m not sure if Bill would accept those characterizations, but if not, I invite him to say a little more about… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 2
At his blog Theology and Justice, Roman effectively dismantles Nabeel Qureshi’s appeal to Psalm 110:1 in his recent debate as showing (or suggesting? hinting?) that Jesus is God, or equal to God, or a member of the Trinity, or that there is plurality of personhood in God… or something trinitarian. I would only add that I don’t think that Mr. Qureshi is being dishonest; I only think… Read More »the LORD says to my lord
Thanks to the Maverick Philosopher, Dr. William Vallicella, for an excellent, deep post following up on a recent face-to-face conversation we had (which was a follow-up to this). In this and follow-up posts, I want to interact with his discussion. I only get through part of it here. Yes, I affirm that God is a being. As a Christian, I hold that “God” is a… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 1
This should be interesting. Mr. Qureshi (a PhD student in theology) is the author of the fascinating book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus (kindle). He’s a convert from Ahmadiyya Islam to evangelical Christianity. He is bold, smart, and clear. Dr. Ally is an erudite and well-spoken Islamic apologist and an experienced debater. In the press release for this live-streamed, April 8, 2015 debate, Mr. Qureshi says that My goal… Read More »Qureshi vs. Ally – Trinity vs. Tawhid
In the last week of my recent Introduction to Philosophy class, two teams of students debated the existence of God in front of the class. After the debate the rest of the students wrote a short response to the debate. While the pro-God side had offered versions of the design and ontological arguments, one student opined in his written response that they had overlooked the obvious.… Read More »a new proof of God’s existence, with an assist from Dr. Bart Ehrman?
Leading scholar Dr. Richard Bauckham has done a public service by chewing thoroughly through the “Lost Gospel”: Dr. Mark Goodacre has posted Dr. Bauckham’s article(s) here. Let’s just say, he determines that it is all bun and no meat. A few teasers: They seem to be proposing a unique genre of ancient literature. Why should we believe them? It seems to be simply a way of getting… Read More »a real scholar on the so-called “Lost Gospel”
Announced on Steve Katsaras’s blog. Both Mr. Katsaras and Mr. Naga did well last time, which was a 3-way discussion: And here’s a later debate between Mr. Naga and evangelical apologist Samuel Green, called Jesus: Mighty Prophet or God with us?
In the comments to my last round, Mr. Robert M. Bowman, Jr. replied to my request for his reply to this argument: The Father and the Son are the same God. For any x and y, and for any kind F, if x and y are the same F, then x is an F, y is an F, and x = y. (x and y… Read More »answering Bowman’s questions about identity, being the same F