Category: New Testament
-
Who is the Enemy? More on Carl Schmitt
Commenter Ben wrote: Neighbors are familiar, local. This is in direct contrast to the sort of pablum about being a "citizen of the world" and preferring the plight of the universal faceless stranger over what you owe to your own countrymen . . . That's right. I'll add that while we are enjoined to love…
-
“My Kingdom is not of this World”
Thus Jesus to Pilate at John 18:36. What does 'this world' refer to? In the "Our Father" we pray: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Reading these two texts side-by-side one might conclude that God's kingdom is to be realized on earth and not in a purely…
-
How Christian is the Doctrine of Hell?
The traditional doctrine of hell appears to be a consequence of two assumptions, the first of which is arguably unbiblical. Geddes MacGregor: ". . . the doctrine of hell, with its attendant horrors, is intended as the logical development of the notion that, since man is intrinsically immortal, and some men turn out badly, they…
-
Was St. Paul an Anti-Natalist? (Updated 2024 Version)
I wrote in Christian Anti-Natalism? (10 November 2017): Without denying that there are anti-natalist tendencies in Christianity that surface in some of its exponents, the late Kierkegaard for example, it cannot be maintained that orthodox Christianity, on balance, is anti-natalist. Ask yourself: what is the central and characteristic Christian idea? It is the Incarnation, the idea…
-
Are There Any Arguments for an Afterlife in the New Testament?
Philoponus writes, Is there anywhere in the NT where they argue for an afterlife, or is it an assumption shared by all the authors of the NT? Passages? Before I answer this question, there are a couple of logically prior questions of considerable interest. First, is there any argumentation at all in the NT? Second, does…
-
Over-Belief and Romans 1: 18-20
Substack latest. Is the Pauline passage an example of Jamesian over-belief?
-
Dale Tuggy on Origen on John
I have a Twitter/X account, but I don't post there often. Today I took a peek and found this: https://x.com/DaleTuggy/status/1786943516922306708. The following is from Tuggy: An interesting passage from Origen's commentary on John. Some readers still make the same mistake! "Those, however, who are confused on the subject of the Father and the Son bring…
-
Occasionalism, Omnipotence, and Matthew 23:9
"Secondary causes are mere occasional causes, occasions of the exercise of the causality of the only true productive cause, God." And call no man your father upon earth, for One is your Father, who is in Heaven. (Matthew, 23:9) Posted by: Simon Neale | Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 03:21 PM Before we can evaluate Mr. Neale's…
-
Is Atheism Intellectually Respectable?
On Romans 1: 18-20. Substack latest.
-
If you need an app to pray . . .
. . . I will say a prayer for you. You don't even need the 'closet' referred to at Matt 6:6: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee…
-
“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
Material bread or spiritual bread? Substack latest.
-
A Difference Between Jesus Christ and Buddha
"And Jesus wept." (John 11, 35)
-
The Christian Case for Carrying Firearms
Here, by Tim Hsiao. (HT: Elliot Ruffin Crozat) This essay offers a comprehensive defense of the position that Luke 22:36 endorses the carrying of weapons for personal self-defense. I address in detail every objection to this view that I have been able to find.
-
Once More on Romans 1: 18-20 and Whether Atheism is Morally Culpable
Brian writes, In Van Til and Romans 1: 18-20 you accused Paul of begging the question in Romans 1 when he characterizes the natural world as ‘created’. The question you have in mind – the one presumably being begged by Paul – is whether the world is a divine creation. BV: That's right, but let's…