podcast 93 – review of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus – Part 1
The gripping story of Nabeel Qureshi’s journey from Islam to Christianity.
10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #10 Don’t be afraid to think hard about God
What is God’s most important commandment? When asked about this, Jesus replied, “‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:29-30, NRSV) Notice the last two elements with which we are to love God: mind… Read More »10 steps towards getting less confused about the Trinity – #10 Don’t be afraid to think hard about God
The Orthodox Formulas 1: The Council of Nicea (325)
Most conservative (and even, many not-too conservative) Christians belong to churches and/or denominations which affirm traditional language about the Trinity. In this series, I’m going to just put all this on the table, as the fact is, many Christians, especially those from less “confessional” traditions, aren’t very familiar with these traditional formulas. I’m not going to go too much into the history for now. The… Read More »The Orthodox Formulas 1: The Council of Nicea (325)
podcast 92 – Dr. Joshua Thurow on objections to atonement theories
In the first portion of this episode Dr. Thurow offers objections to subjective theories, and to penal substitution, ransom, and christus victor theories of atonement. Dr. Thurow then sketches his own, original approach to understanding atonement, which focuses on the collective sin of the human race.
podcast 91 – Dr. Joshua Thurow on theories of the atonement
“Jesus died for our sins. Jesus provided atonement, to reconcile God and humans. Jesus paid a debt we could never pay ourselves. Jesus was willingly a sacrifice for our sins.” How should a thinking Christian understand these claims? In this episode I discuss atonement with Dr. Joshua Thurow.
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 8
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
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 7
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
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 6
Last time, I explained why I don’t think that it is possible for anything’s essence to just be its existence. If that is impossible, then one can’t explain why God is a necessary being by saying that his essence just is his existence. Is there another way to explain why God is a necessary being? I think there is. It is important to understand that… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 6
podcast 90 – Listener Questions 1
In this episode of the trinities podcast I answer some of your questions.
podcast 89 – Dr. Trent Dougherty on The Problem of Animal Pain
When a human suffers, we can think of how at least some suffering may be good for him or her. Perhaps suffering is the best way to develop virtues like perseverance and compassion. But what about animals?
Where did Jesus claim to be God?
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?
Rufinus’s corruption of Origen’s On First Principles – Part 2
In this follow-up post, three factors that make Rufinus’ corruption of Origen’s On First Principles all the more egregious. First, after recklessly changing anything he doesn’t like in translating Origen’s book, absurdly claiming that anything Origen says that doesn’t comport with the (then) new Nicene orthodoxy must have been changed by heretics, and lyingly (or idiotically) claiming to have filled things in only with Origen’s other words or ideas… Read More »Rufinus’s corruption of Origen’s On First Principles – Part 2
Rufinus’s corruption of Origen’s On First Principles – Part 1
I’ve been working on my Trinities book today, and have been reading a lot of Origen (d. c. 253) lately. As is well known, most of his famous On First Principles (kindle, hardback) has been lost in the original Greek, but we have a “complete” copy of a Latin translation made by Rufinus of Aquileia (d. 410) in 398-9. Unfortunately, this translation was made in… Read More »Rufinus’s corruption of Origen’s On First Principles – Part 1
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 5
In the most recent post in this series, I plunged into some metaphysical issues about God, essence, existence, and necessity. As promised, I now discuss why is it impossible that God doesn’t exist. Let me start by saying that I know I’m out on a speculative limb here. This is uncertain business, metaphysics. But I’m going to state my views forthrightly. Refute them if you… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 5
podcast 88 – Dr. Trent Dougherty on the Problem of Evil
In this episode Dr. Trent Dougherty of Baylor University tells us about his spiritual journey from secular, to evangelical, to Roman Catholic. Then we then discuss his general approach to what philosophers call “the problem of evil.” If God is perfect, and perfectly good, then why do so many terrible things happen?
podcast 87 – Kermit Zarley on the deity and preexistence of Jesus
In this second conversation, Mr. Kermit Zarley and I discuss a number of themes from his book The Restitution of Jesus Christ, including
the evangelical tradition of saying that “Jesus is God” or “Jesus is divine,” the biblical phrases “Son of God” and “the Son of God,” the texts commonly read as teaching that Jesus existed before his conception in Mary.
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 4
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
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 3
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
podcast 86 – Kermit Zarley on distinguishing Jesus and God
Mr. Kermit Zarley is a retired professional golfer and Christian author, having written books on christology and eschatology. In this episode he describes being born again as a teen, his evangelical identity, and his discovery that in the New Testament, Jesus and God are two, namely the human Son of God (Jesus) and the one true God, Yahweh (aka the Father).
podcast 85 – Heretic! Four Approaches to Dropping H-Bombs
What is heresy? Sometimes “heresy” is the name of a sin. More often, it is supposed to be a certain sort of belief, claim, or teaching. In this talk, I outline four different Christian approaches to thinking about heretics and heresy – to dropping such “H-Bombs.”