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I favor the ESV. It has the best readability in modern English balanced with linguistic accuracy and a fairly unique breadth of interdenominational expertise behind it. KJV has good accuracy, but lacks the modern English, even if it's NKJV. NIV is less accurate but more readable in modern...

Numbers 11, Numbers 21. Evidently, God can- and in fact has- judged His people on account of something that did not involve a miraculous transformation from one thing to another. When you say Communion is a serious matter, you are right. But when you make the leap from there to the conclusion...

Again. Manna, snakes, sickness, death. Manna was something that people had to take just as seriously and with similar results, but that doesn't mean it was mystically transformed. Let me run it by you one more time. Your argument is that severe, even deadly consequences for mishandling an...

The only authority that really means anything is the authority that comes from the ability to demonstrate relevant expertise. If the leaders of a given church can demonstrate relevant expertise on a given issue, that should be the basis of their ability to make things happen. That isn't always...

One thing that's essential- and largely absent- is the function of submitting to one another, out of reverence for Christ. For too many Christians, though, it's difficult or impossible for them to imagine any type of submission (in any sense of the word) to Christians who don't belong to the...

I was baptized about 8 years before I was born again. When I was baptized, I was not regenerated at that time. God had not regenerated me to that point, He did not regenerate me at that time, and He would not regenerate me for another 8 years. I was born again when God regenerated me. What...

The only authority that really means anything is the authority that comes from relevant expertise. Protestants with superior expertise reasoned that Aristotelian substance theory was not as good or as impressive as previously thought. And while it wasn't this way initially, they did become less...

I'm non-denominational, and I believe it's symbolic. I'll also add that Jews have gotten sick and died for misuse/mishandling/disrespect of manna, but that doesn't mean it was mystically transformed into the body of Christ.

Excuse me, Root of Jesse, you didn't answer the question that I asked and you decided to try and tell me things that I wasn't asking to hear. I see where your interests lie, though, so let me try to redirect you for a moment. I have a little hypothetical for you. See, there was this wedding...

Peter Lombard! Twelfth century! That is perfect. I recognize the name, I think I've come across it before. I will look into it more in order to find out exactly why he did what he did- and why that was different from Eastern Catholicism which had just recently become Eastern Orthodoxy at that...

Literally, the morning star is Venus. It's one of those wandering stars, because it's actually a planet. But there was a time when people didn't know about planets, and all they knew was that some lights moved differently than others. That was also a time when stars were closely associated with...

Two things. One: Calvin did not "have someone killed" for not believing in the Trinity. On one hand, he tried to get him to pursue some alternative that would not result in his execution, and on the other hand, he talked to the council that decided to kill Severtus and tried to get them to do...

No church is perfect, and if you're looking for a vision of Edenic perfection sitting out there waiting to be discovered, odds are 50-50 that you'll leave it within a year of converting to it and 2 to 1 that you'll leave within 5 years for frustration with tepidity, stagnation, and spiritual...

I'm a non-denominational Christian, although the church I grew up in is affiliated with other non-denom churches in a way that loosely resembles a functional denomination of free churches. My church has a very close relationship with over a half-dozen other churches in the immediate area that...

Some of the more ancient forms of Christianity have a certain understanding of what it means for something to be sacramental, but they do so without setting a definitive list of sacramental rites. I assume it used to be something like this for Latin-rite Catholics at some point too, or perhaps...

Is there any argument from some corners of Christianity to the effect that separation of church and state is an inferior option while a specific state religion is the superior option? Throughout the history of Christianity, there have been some notable conflicts in which either side was...

That was when the Reformation happened. In a lot of ways, it had to do with the beginning of the separation of church and state which mostly had to do with strained relationships between non-Italians (laity, clergy, and royalty to various degrees depending on the place) and the Italian religious...

What gives you hope that average Catholics of the future will be more like liberal Catholics of today? Put another way, what are some things from the past that indicate a progression of this sort? And if you don't mind, could you outline a connection or two between some of the things you'd like...

The elect do start off as unregenerate individuals like everyone else (all we like sheep....) and they aren't actually saved until God saves them. I guess the main thing with the elect is that they were chosen beforehand, meaning God foreknew and predestined them to become His children. But He...

It definitely changes people. Sometimes it's more obvious over the course of a long period of time, though. Like for example, if you've gotten to know anyone who's practiced Christianity for upwards of 3 or 4 decades since reaching adulthood. It tends to be easier to see over the course of a...