Bible
What Do You Know About the Canon?
Many might respond thusly . . . “Sure, I know about the canon. The leaders of the Church got together in a council and decided which books would be in the Bible.” But this is about as far away from the truth as one can get. For the next three-four weeks here…
READ MORE →The Bible Is Full of Contradictions!
That’s the frank assertion made by a highly intelligent young man and self-proclaimed atheist/agnostic who showed up one day at our Thursday morning Bible study. If you had been the leader of this group, how would you have handled this challenge? Here’s how I initially responded. “Really? I didn’t know that. Can you…
READ MORE →Pitting Paul Against Jesus
One of the pitiful practices and all-too-common tactics used to support flawed theological positions is pitting Paul against Jesus, and vice versa. As we’ve seen, dispensationalists use this device to defend their Israel/Church dichotomy and exclusivist position that Jesus’ kingdom belongs only to Israel and not to Gentile believers today. (See my blog, “Israel Insanity…
READ MORE →My Indianapolis Star Article on Saturday
Last week I was asked to be one of three “clergy and religious experts in the area” to be contributors for an article addressing the post-Sandy issue of “How does your faith or ethical perspective inform your response to natural disasters?” This half-page article was published in this Saturday’s “Faith+Values” section of The Indianapolis Star…
READ MORE →Is Heaven Really Open Today?
Call it “funeral eschatology.” Christian preachers who don’t believe that Jesus has “returned” (or better yet has “come”) and received his first disciples into heaven (John 14:1-3), assure the family and friends at a Christian funeral that the dearly departed believer is better off than those there assembled because he/she is in heaven with Jesus,…
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