Christianity
Without Evil, No Christianity!
Do you find this theological proposition startling, even shocking? It was for me when I first began to consider it. So did evil make Christianity possible, indeed necessary? Let’s think more seriously about this possible interrelated interconnectedness. True or False? Without evil, there would have been no progression of covenants. Without evil, no need…
READ MORE →Growing Responses
In the four weeks since my paper presentation at the Evangelical Theological Society’s Midwest Regional Meeting in Grand Rapids, I have received 59 requests (to date) for an electronic copy of it from other ETS members in seminaries around the country and a few from other countries who were not in attendance. My paper…
READ MORE →The Easter Quiz — See How You Do
One of the fruitful activities our extended family did for Easter this year was this biblical quiz I concocted. It generated some great fun, fellowship, and lots of conversation. Right answers won tootsie pops. See how well you do on these 10 questions. They start easy and get harder. Correct answers are at the bottom.…
READ MORE →Positive Response Running 10 to 1
Below are examples of some of the positive responses (10 to 1) to my recent ETS theological paper and book both titled, “Unraveling the End: A Biblical Synthesis of Four Competing and Conflicting End-time Views.” For some of the harsh criticism I’m getting from some in the preterist camp see my previous blog “Arrogance or Confidence”…
READ MORE →Arrogance or Confidence?
Here’s an example of the harsh criticism I’m getting from some in the preterist camp over my recent ETS theological paper and book both titled, “Unraveling the End.” “Wow, the arrogance and shallow scholarship! You are telling people at ETS that full preterism is in error for teaching that the Second Coming of Jesus…
READ MORE →Best Responses Ever
This past Friday, I presented (read) my seventeenth theological paper at the 59th Annual Midwest Regional Evangelical Theological Society Meeting in Grand Rapids, MI at Grace Bible College. All of my papers, over the past twenty years, have addressed eschatological reform topics and issues. But by far, this paper received the best, most…
READ MORE →Tidbits #5 – “What do you know about the canon?”
Is a Book Missing from the Canon? Most say, no. But I say there may be one—a very important one. The following is excerpted from my book, The Perfect Ending for the World, pp-165-166. Enoch’s ‘70th Generation’ Prophecy During the four hundred year period after the writing of the last Old Testament…
READ MORE →Tidbits #4 – “What do you know about the canon?”
The Criteria for Canonicity? Because the canon represented a collective decision reached by the Christian community at large over a period of centuries, no document exists in which the criteria for inclusion are given in detail—only hints were dropped. So here are four criteria we can surmise for each book: 1) Was…
READ MORE →Tidbits #3 – “What do you know about the canon?”
Don’t imagine this — the twenty-seven books now included in the New Testament, plus a hundred or more others, as lying on a table in a conference room with Church authorities discussing them, one by one, to determine whether or not to include them in the canon. Imagine this: Given the mass of literature…
READ MORE →Tidbits #2 – “What do you know about the canon?”
“Messy.” That’s the best word that describes the context for canonization of the New Testament. Why so? It’s because that during the 1st, 2nd, and into the 3rd centuries many other writings were being produced that were modeled after the earlier Gospels, letters, and Acts. As a result, disagreement among Christians persisted as…
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