Religious

Archive for Religious

Joseph, the Law, and Infidelity

I have heard a certain passage from the Bible many times (once a year, at least) but this last Christmas I realized something new about it. In Matthew 1: 18-19 it explains that Joseph was originally (of course) disheartened to discover that Mary was pregnant: 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His […]

Salvation by Works vs. Faith

One of the most amazing and/or horrifying things about Protestant Christianity is the doctrine of salvation through faith. This is very counterintuitive; hence the familiar question, “So a serial killer gets into heaven if he accepts Jesus on his deathbed?!” I completely empathize with this incredulity, because I would have recoiled in a similar fashion […]

God Uses Bad Guys to Serve Him

I often talk about the way in which the God of the Bible clearly structures events such that even evildoers ultimately serve God’s (good) plan. However, even some of the heroes of the Bible were murderers. In particular, Moses, King David, and Paul were instrumental in the killing of people not in self-defense. (Moses killed […]

What the Bible Says About Salvation

I want to keep this post relatively short to encourage more people to read it through. Let me offer only this preface, in case it helps some of you relate: When I was younger, I had this notion that your relationship with God was between Him and you, and ultimately when you died, you’d find […]

Second-Guessing God

I’ve made this point in various ways before: We obviously do not know exactly why God allows certain evil acts to occur, but the answer is certainly NOT going to be, “Oh, you care more about sick children than God does,” or, “God wasn’t paying close enough attention when the Holocaust happened.” Let me try […]

Ecclesiastes Doesn’t Exactly Endorse Hedonistic Economics

The book of Ecclesiastes (reputedly written by Solomon though some dispute this) is pretty depressing at times. From Chapter 1: 12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has […]

The Anti-Rand

On Facebook someone had a post that started with the premise, “If someone were to write the opposite of an Ayn Rand novel…” So I started to make a joke, since I realized that Nya Dnar (backwards) sounded like some kind of African name. I was going to say that under that pen name, I […]

Molinism and Murphyism

A reader encouraged me to check out “Molinism,” which Wikipedia describes in this way: Molinism, named after 16th Century Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina, is a religious doctrine which attempts to reconcile the providence of God with human free will. William Lane Craig and Alvin Plantinga are some of its best known advocates today, though […]