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Recent content by WTM

  1. W

    Lookin for a church on Long Island

    Try Three Village Church in Setauket, if it is close enough to you. http://derevth.blogspot.com
  2. W

    Limited Annihilationism

    You have to think in terms of two levels. There is physical death and the second death attested in Revelation. One can be physically dead and not yet undergo the second death, which I would want to understand as complete separation from God. Annihilation fits pretty well in that...
  3. W

    Why Trinitarian theology is important

    Mark 2.5-11 - "And Jesus seeing their faith said tot he paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.' But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 'Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?' Immediately Jesus, aware in His...
  4. W

    Limited Annihilationism

    Annihilationism is a pretty attractive position, and is potentially biblical (I say 'potentially' because more work needs to be done). John Stott's advocacy of an annihilationist position is a great step in the right direction for this issue among evangelicals. That said, I think a notion of...
  5. W

    What Is Forgiveness

    One must distinguish between human forgiveness, and that which God accomplishes toward us. In the former, the best we can do is attempt to relate to the other person as though our being wronged never happened. This is, however, only a pale echo of God's forgiveness which can best be described...
  6. W

    Redemption , what it is?

    I sometimes find it helpful to contrast 'redemption' with 'reconciliation'. The latter seems to me to have to do with a relationship, and the former seems to have to do with a condition. You cannot have one without the other. And, both have three forms: the definitive form in Christ, the...
  7. W

    Covenant Word and Sacrament vs. 19th Century Tent Revival

    Oh, I don't know. Tent revivals aren't so bad. Sometimes they can seem quite akin to something you might imagine after reading 1 Corinthians. The deeper question here is, I think, one of eschatology. How should Christians go about blending the already and not yet in worship? Of course, I...
  8. W

    Benny Hinn

    I'm no fan of Pastor Benny, but only God judges the heart. Delusion and deception are entirely different things. http://derevth.blogspot.com
  9. W

    How do you glorify God?

    Touche, as it were. :-) Yeah, my formulation is as expansive or as restrictive as necessary in any circumstance. And, I like to think that it captures Paul's point when he writes in 1 Corinthians 10.23 - "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable." derevth.blogspot.com
  10. W

    How do you glorify God?

    What glorifies God is that which proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ, who was incarnate, died, and rose again for us and our salvation. Forms of personal and corporate piety only glorify God to the extent that they participate in this proclamation, and that which does not participate in this...
  11. W

    The Eucharist, causal principle of the Church

    This notion of representation seems a little dangerous. Who is it that is the subject of this action of representation? Does the Eucharist act in this manner on its own basis and in its own power? Does the Eucharist act in this manner on the basis of the minister's consecration or the...
  12. W

    The Eucharist, causal principle of the Church

    Ah, but the Last Supper is precisely my point! It is not the Eucharist that constitutes the church, but Christ who calls the church into being through word and sacrament, epitomized by the Last Supper and the Luke 24 account. There is a manner in which we can say that the Eucharist constitutes...
  13. W

    Formulae for Salvation? Does anyone have a book that I can use to study the...

    Thomas F. Torrance has done a lot of work on the convergence between contemporary philosophy of science and Christian theology. I recommend that you pick up his book Divine and Contingent Order. You will not be disappointed. derevth.blogspot.com
  14. W

    The Eucharist, causal principle of the Church

    The Eucharist constitutes / makes the church? Seems a bit circular, doesn't it? The Eucharist doesn't exist / occur without a minister and / or a congregation celebrating it, that is, it depends on the church. And yet the Eucharist constitutes / makes the church? Simply not possible...
  15. W

    Did Jesus have a sin nature?

    The patristics I'm referencing are decidedly Western. Origen, Tertullian, Augustine, etc. The mortality = fallen-ness thing is something I don't like about the Eastern patristics (and the patristics in general). Of course, mortality is part of fallen-ness - or at least the form of mortality...