Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
In the book of Ephesians, Paul quotes Psalm 68:18 as saying, “When He ascended on high, He took captives, and gave gifts to His people” (Eph 4:8). However, the original Hebrew of Psalm 68:18 reads, “You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men.” This seems to … Read more
The Bible is a large and complex book. It is a collection of sixty six different books written by dozens of different authors over the course of centuries. Yet Christians believe that, as the word of God, the Bible is ultimately one coherent whole, the foundational guide for the Church’s faith and practice. Antichristian skeptics, … Read more
There are many references in the Bible to ancient pagan superstitious practices such as divination, witchcraft, and necromancy. In the book of Deuteronomy, God commands the Israelites, “Let no one be found among you. . . who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or … Read more
The Coherence of the Biblical Creation Account(s) It is sometimes argued that the Bible contains different creation accounts which contradict one another. The Psalms and the prophets sometimes speak of God establishing order by defeating a mythological chaos monster, Rahab or Leviathan (Job 26:7-13; Ps 74:12-17, 89:10-13; Isa 51:9-10); this resembles creation stories of other … Read more
In a previous apologetics series on this blog, I have defended the coherence of the Christian concept of God from a variety of criticisms and attacks. However, even if antichristian skeptics acknowledge that the Christian concept of God is coherent, they will often claim that the God of classical Christian theism is not actually the … Read more
Theological Method Before beginning an investigation of a particular subject, it is important to establish a clear and consistent method for determining what is true as it relates to that subject. This is true regarding the subject of theology, just as much as it is with other subjects, such as science and history. A person … Read more
The Bible is the Church’s primary and ultimate Authority for determining what Christians should believe and how they should live. But what does that mean? How can this collection of writings from 2,000 years ago or more tell us how we should think and live today? How can this one book have things to say … Read more
Harris, Sam. Letter to a Christian Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. I originally wrote this commentary for a friend who told me that this book had inspired him to leave Christianity. The fact that someone could, over a decade after it was written, point to this book as a primary factor in their … Read more