It seems that the Middle East is always in the news. But in 2011, something really big began to happen in that part of the world. Arab Spring began in 2011. It started in North Africa and moved eastward. Recently, it's been mostly about the civil war in Syria. Now, it's Egypt again. What is Arab Spring? It's democracy coming to North Africa and the Middle East. In the scheme of world politics and political history, Arab Spring is big news. When Arab Spring came to Egypt, beginning in January, … [Read more...]
If the Holy Spirit is a Person of His Own, Then Why Isn’t He Sitting on Heaven’s Big Throne?”
July 3, 2013 By 3 Comments
The three great monotheistic religions of the world are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three claim to worship the one and only God, the God of the Bible. But all three disagree as to who this God is. Most Christians are Trinitarians because they believe in their doctrine of the Trinity. (I was a Trinitarian for 22 years.) Their theologians explain that it means God is one essence subsisting in three co-equal and co-eternal Persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy … [Read more...]
Inventing a Better Golf Club (Part 2)
July 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I met Karsten Solheim my first year on the PGA Tour—in 1964. I was taking a week’s break from the Tour by playing in the Arizona State Open golf tournament, which I eventually won. My closest friend and previous teammate and roommate at the University of Houston—Babe Hiskey—took me and other PGA Tour player Al Kelly to Karsten’s house in Scottsdale, Arizona, to meet him. It was quite an experience, and it was the beginning of many more I had with Karsten and his lovely wife, Louise. … [Read more...]
Some Christological Errors Committed by Dr. John Lennox
June 26, 2013 By 9 Comments
I like to watch Dr. John Lennox on the NRB television network. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford in England, a philosopher of science, and a public apologist for Christian faith. Dr. Lennox is widely known for publicly debating some of the world’s leading atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens before he died. John Lennox is a brilliant, likeable, and witty Irishman as well as a good public speaker. I also like him because he is a Plymouth … [Read more...]
Jacob a Type of Jesus’ Two Advents
June 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
God always tells his people about anything important he is going to do with them. Isaiah states this principle by quoting, “I am God, and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isa 46.9-10; cf. 48.3-5). Amos echoes it, saying, “the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets” (Amos 3.7). God does this mostly with prophecy. But he also does it with types, which are obscure. A type … [Read more...]
Was Christ a Liar, Lunatic, or God? None of the above says Kermit the Frog.
June 19, 2013 By 8 Comments
But those are the only choices C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) says in his little book, Mere Christianity (1943), that we can make in deciding who Jesus was. And this book is one of the foremost apologetic works in the history of Christianity. In 2000, the premier American Christian magazine, Christianity Today, selected it as the #1 Christian book of the 20th century besides the Bible. The UK’s venerable C.S. Lewis was an authority on English literature, but not on the Bible. He was converted from … [Read more...]
The Holy Spirit Is Not a Person; God’s Identity that Only Worsens
June 5, 2013 By 4 Comments
Most Christians believe in the Trinity since that’s what their church teaches. It says God is one essence consisting of three co-equal and co-eternal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit is deemed a full-fledged Person. The church didn’t always believe this. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there was no consensus among church fathers, called “apologists,” about the constitution of the Holy Spirit. Most of them didn’t think it was important. In … [Read more...]
Bert Yancey (Part 2)
June 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
After the incident in Japan, similar episodes of manic depression followed much more regularly in Bert Yancey’s life. The one most well known occurred in New York City. It was at the 1975 Westchester Classic. Yancey was paired with his best friend on the Tour and an outstanding player—Tom Weiskopf. Tom was very sensitive to Bert’s psychological condition. But Weiskopf was known for having a short fuse himself. Yancey said some things on the course that upset Weiskopf immeasurably, things … [Read more...]
Is Trinitarianism Monotheistic?
May 29, 2013 By 8 Comments
The bedrock of normative Judaism has always been strict monotheism—the belief that there is numerically only one God, the God of Israel, whose name is YHWH, usually written as “Yahweh.” This belief in one God is what made a Jew a Jew. It distinguished Jews from their neighbors, who during antiquity were polytheistic. Jews have always believed that their faith is expressed so resolutely in what they call “the Shema.” Recorded in their scriptures, it reads, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord … [Read more...]
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