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I don't currently see Jesus face to face. Nor has He called me on my cell phone. So what makes it personal?

Consider the NIV translation of Acts 17:11: “11Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” In my view, that translation is severely...

The brilliance of Covenant Theology lies in its simplicity: OT and NT saints alike have operated under a single Covenant of Grace secured by the (retroactive) atonement. All other promises/covenants are simply manifestations, expressions, corollaries of the One Covenant. To reject this...

The only possible definition of merit is this: Merit is a status achieved by freely choosing to labor/suffer for a righteous cause over an extended period of time. Innate traits do not merit praise! (Sorry to have to point this out). Holiness is the sum total of Yahweh's perfections, hence...

I am not a science student and and am totally uninformed about evolution. I'm just curious about how the science experts will respond to this post. I'm an old-earth creationist. I am not a vehement Bible-thumper against evolution - I think Scripture allows for both positions pretty well - but...

A few posters on other threads have asked me why I object to some of the traditional beliefs about God. One of the principal reasons is that traditional theology doesn't seem to define God in a way that clearly surfaces His merit (His praiseworthiness). Unfortunately, I am not inclined to...

The church father Tertullian (200 AD) was rightly a staunch materialist who realized that all of the biblical data - not just some of it, literally all of it - favors a wholly physical God. In fact the entire exegetical case for an immaterial God is predicated on the blatant, exegetically...

I've done a couple of threads on this issue, but I still feel that virtually no one gets it. Let's try this again. This time, I'll begin by showing that Sola Scriptura faces the same logical difficulty as Tradition. Once again, our basic choices are: (1) Tradition (2) Sola Scriptura (3)...

With 100 billion souls at stake, God isn’t so stupid as to rely on fallible exegesis. In fact the NT defines evangelism as prophetic utterance (see post 179 on another thread, and post 180). His plan for both OT and NT saints has always been the absolute primacy of direct revelation (1Cor...

Will the Real Israel Please Stand Up? My version of Covenant Theology accepts no distinctions between OT and NT saints. Thus: (1) OT and NT saints are all saved under the Abrahamic Covenant (Gal 3). (2) Justification, regeneration, sanctification, and (charismatic) power-in-mission are the...

Anyone's list of mature saints would rightly include Abraham, Isaiah, Elijah, Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul, David, Joshua, Samuel, the author of Hebrews, the apostles, and Christ Himself. In the OT such men were variously called "a man of God", "a seer", or "a prophet". In fact the prophet...

All Christians including myself believe that God is good and proclaim His goodness. But what if our doctrines inadvertently extrapolate otherwise? The church clings to two views of Adam: (1) Adam was our representative. ( Catholics and Protestants) (2) Adam's sin didn't incriminate us but did...

What is our final authority for both faith and practice? The two most popular theories on this have been: (1) Tradition (the church), for example the Magisterium of Catholic tradition. (2) Sola Scriptura - the claim that Scripture is the only final authority on all major religious doctrines...

God is holy. Therefore, churches built on a platform of intellectual dishonesty are probably distancing themselves from His sanctifying revivals, healing graces and evangelistic unction. Let's be honest, therefore, about the fact that we don't know what we're doing. We don't really know...

It seems that Staff deleted my earlier thread for being too hostile. Hopefully everyone will find this new thread less offensive. "You foolish Galatians!" (Gal 3:1). As human beings of very limited knowledge, all of us are potentially susceptible to doctrinal error. In fact, I will argue that...

Perhaps I'm just misunderstanding federalism. If so, please enlighten me. To me it seems that if Adam is my rep, all that matters is his status. If he does well, then I look good. If he does bad, then I look bad. My status has nothing to do with my individual actions. There would be no such...

I do expect certain freaks of nature. Wouldn't surprise me to find a blonde woman with a few random black hairs, or a black woman with a few random red hairs. Or whatever. Fine. But striping? Look at a tiger. THOUSANDS of hairs perfectly arranged to form one stripe, then THOUSANDS forming a...

Although I can't really spell out in detail (much less defend) my views on this issue on the orthodox forum, I can give you some food for thought. I can challenge you to rethink the biblical data. Don't get me wrong. I'm orthodox in the sense of being a Nicene-creed adhering, bible-believing...

The logic is irrefutable. A God who is FULLY loving and just will not visit the sins of the parent (such as Adam) upon the children, not even the consequences of those sins. So why do all children suffer? There's only one solution. God created only one soul (named Adam). This soul was a...

To those who hope for a gradual decline of Islamic radicalism , this hope is largely futile because the Koran strongly LENDS ITSELF to violent interpretations. Can we say the same of the OT? No, because here's the difference. (1) God told Moses to slaughter a few specific nations existing in...