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podcast 321 – Evaluating Minton’s Three Arguments that Jesus is Yahweh
Can one prove that the biblical Jesus is Yahweh based on his being savior or creator, or his being worshiped?
podcast 322 – Review of Erickson’s Making Sense of the Trinity
Review of a learned and insightful yet deeply flawed book.
podcast 294 – Dr. Jo-Ann Brant on the Gospel According to John – Part 2
A conversation with the author of the Paideia John commentary on Jesus and God in the fourth gospel.
podcast 324 – Dr. Jc Beall – The Contradictory Christ – Part 1
In this episode Dr. Beall explains why he doesn’t accept five consistency-preserving ways to understand the divinity and humanity of Christ.
Guest post: Questioning Craig’s “Trinity Monotheism” – Part 2
“It seems that Dr. Craig…in his attempt to equalize the persons has not only failed to elevate Jesus to the status of a god but has brought the Father down to his level. It is a reverse homoousion…”
Guest post: Questioning Craig’s “Trinity Monotheism” – Part 1
“…in Dr. Craig’s view…the only true god would be something other than the one who Jesus identified as the only true god, as his own god, and as the god of his followers.”
Is Jesus the Trinity?
A trinitarian ought to say No. But why? Doesn’t he accept “the deity of Christ”?
new exchange with Bill Hasker in EJPR
“…in light of five undeniable facts about the New Testament texts, we can know that the authors of the New Testament thought that the only God was just the Father himself, not the Trinity.”
catching the Masked Man
Pushing each chained prisoner by the neck, he entered into the courtroom. He told the judge, “I’ve caught the Masked Man. Our banks will now be safe.”
Rush 2.0 and Rush 3.0
(continued) Unbeknownst to Brian and Rich, powerful aliens from Alpha Centuri were listening in on their conversation. The aliens thought it a shame that Rush was not a musician. After some discussion, they decided to make a band which was otherwise just like Rush, but which was itself, or rather, himself, a musician – a power trio who was a virtuoso. For starters, they copied… Read More »Rush 2.0 and Rush 3.0
SCORING THE BURKE – BOWMAN DEBATE – Final Reflections
Congratulations to both debaters on a fight well fought. (Here’s all the commentary.) Plenty of punches, thrown hard, relatively few low blows – two worthy opponents. Certainly, the fight must be decided on points, as there was no decisive knockout. Both debates are in different ways very impressive, and I learned a lot from both.
Kudos to C. Michael Patton and Parchment and Pen for hosting the debate.
I hope you readers out there enjoyed my commentary on the debate. I sometimes got naggy or nerdy, and always expressed myself with typical lack of tact, but I tried to be helpful, and to show the helpfulness of philosophy and logic in thinking through these things.
In this last post in the series, a few concluding reflections on the debate.
Looking back on this debate, I see that I’ve ended up where I began: wondering what Bowman thinks the Trinity doctrine is. This, after all the debate was about whether or not the Bible teaches that.
Burke argued that the Bible teaches what I call humanitarian unitarianism (he calls it “biblical unitarianism”) – roughly, that the one God of Israel is the Father, whereas the Lord Jesus is a human being and his unique Son, and the Holy Spirit is God’s power. I understand what Burke argued for, and if it is true, then nothing that can claim to be an orthodox Trinity theory is true. But I don’t, in the end, understand Bowman’s view.
I flagged this issue at the start. As the debate wore on, I settled on the interpretation that each of the Three just is (is numerically identical to) God, and yet each of the three is not identical to either of the other two. I stuck with this interpretation, all the way to the bitter end. And yet, I never did like this interpretation Read More »SCORING THE BURKE – BOWMAN DEBATE – Final Reflections
On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 5
Finally, the last part of this long, five-part series. Our friend Annoyed Pinnoy continues, Now there are varieties of gifts, but the SAME Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the SAME Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the SAME God who empowers them all in everyone.- 1 Cor. 12:4-6 Notice how Paul uses the word “SAME” three times. Once… Read More »On a Rebuttal to my “How Trinity theories conflict with the New Testament” – Part 5
Jesus and “god” – part 2 – equivocation
Last time we looked at a famous argument about Jesus. (If you’ve never had a course in logic, or if it’s been a while, you should review the linked definitions there of “valid”, “invalid”, and “sound” before proceeding – this discussion presupposes that you understand their meanings.)
Consider this argument:
1. Michael Jackson is bad.
2. All bad people should be in jail.
3. Therefore, Michael Jackson should be in jail.
This appears to be a valid argument. Is it?Read More »Jesus and “god” – part 2 – equivocation
podcast 252 – Fred Sanders on Seeing the Trinity in Scripture, and his Secret
Can we “see” the NT authors assuming that God is triune?
religious diversity, pluralism, and tolerance
I’ve been thinking lately about theories about religious diversity lately, because I’m trying to finish up an article on that topic. One family of theories about religious diversity is what philosophers call religious pluralism – the idea that many religions are equally good in some way(s). This idea gets a lot of lip service in modern Hinduism. A number of modern-era Hindu thinkers, notably Gandhi,… Read More »religious diversity, pluralism, and tolerance
Dealing with Apparent Contradictions: Part 15 – Positive vs. Negative Mysterianism
Why that’s positively negative!
If you defend a problematic doctrine as a Mystery, you’re asserting that it to some degree lacks what I call “understandable” content. “Understandable” content is a proposition (thought, claim) that positively seems consistent to you. A claim may fail to be understandable for one of two reasons.Read More »Dealing with Apparent Contradictions: Part 15 – Positive vs. Negative Mysterianism
podcast 267 – Andrew Davis on church history, the Trinity, and modalism – Part 2
Why he dismissed biblical unitarian theology and why he decided to give it another look.
Christian-Muslim debate/discussion, December 12 in Melbourne
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?