Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
New Testament Christianity was not the only form of early Christianity. In the second and third centuries, there were other Christian groups–the Gnostics, the Ebionites, the Marcionites–which were regarded as heretics by orthodox Christians. Antichristian skeptics often argue that the existence of these various early forms of Christianity means that we cannot know what the … Read more
According to historic Christian orthodoxy, Jesus is God Incarnate, fully God and fully human. But is this what the earliest Christians believed? Skeptics often argue that it was not. The skeptical narrative runs something like this: the earliest Christians had a low Christology, believing Jesus to be just a man. Then, Christians started making grander … Read more
Jesus told His disciples, “Some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power” (Matt 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27). He declared that people would “see the Son of Man [a reference to Himself] coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26, … Read more
Historical Jesus scholarship is a massive and complex field, which means that answering the question, “Are the Gospels historically reliable?” is not a simple task. Fully answering this question would require analyzing each part of each Gospel, and assessing whether it is an authentic saying or deed of Jesus. Engaging in this monumental task would … Read more