Austin Fischer, author of the excellent new book Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed (Wipf & Stock, 2014) has opened his new blog at www.purpletheology.com. Here is his first blog post:   A Purple Proposal   By Austin Fischer Primary Colors   Life explodes with color—the blazing orange of sunrise, the dusty brown of a potato, the quiet black of midnight. You open your eyes, you get out of bed, and each day is a new show. Today you will see... Read more

Is the Growing Gap between Rich and Poor Prima Facie Evidence of Injustice? Yes. In the world today the richest one percent hold more wealth than the poorest forty-eight percent. And gap is widening. In the United States today the richest ten percent hold more wealth than the poorest forty-three percent and the gap is the largest in over thirty years and growing. The problem isn’t just the gap; the problem is that the richest of the rich are growing... Read more

What Does the Bible Mean? Is the Holy Spirit Necessary for Biblical Interpretation? I know two kinds of Christians—those who think what the Bible “really means” is necessarily illuminated by the Holy Spirit such that ordinary, scholarly, rational exegesis alone does not yield its “true meaning” and those who think the “true meaning” of the Bible is discovered exegetically such that anything going beyond that is not its true meaning but its “significance” or application. To the former I ask... Read more

Some Notes on My Article Summarizing Arminian Theology/the Biblical Doctrines of Grace Using the Acronym FACTS by Brian Abasciano I just wanted to share some brief notes about my article, “The FACTS of Salvation: A Summary of Arminian Theology/the Biblical Doctrines of Grace,” recently published at the website of the Society of Evangelical Arminians and on this blog. It comes to about 25 pages and is a summary of Arminian theology with substantial scriptural support using the acronym FACTS. It... Read more

How to Solve a Theological Dilemma when Scripture Doesn’t Clearly Solve It   Roger E. Olson   When I teach or speak on theology I often say “The Bible is not as clear about many things as we wish it were.” 1. One of the major differences between “fundamentalists” and others (e.g., “moderates”) is the belief that Scripture alone does settle every important theological issue.  To fundamentalists, there can only be one right “biblical” belief about every given important issue... Read more

Why I Am Not a Deist (No Offense to Deists) In a recent blog post I talked about idols and how some are better than others—for promoting personal and civic virtue. (I used “virtue” there in a very broad sense of, for example, respect for human rights.) Some idols reflect “true myth” (C. S. Lewis’ phrase for non-Christian ideas of god) better than others. One that I mentioned was deism. Whenever I mention deism I draw fire from someone claiming... Read more

Are All Idols Equal? Christians believe there is only one true God—the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). All other “gods” are false; they do not exist. John Calvin said that apart from faith in Christ the human mind is nothing but a factory of idols. Many Protestants, especially, agree with him about that. Karl Barth, the most influential modern Protestant theologian, argued against all forms of natural theology and saw every notion of God outside of Jesus Christ as... Read more

I can’t resist announcing the publication of a new book: “Young. Restless. No Longer Reformed” by my friend Austin Fischer–teaching pastor at The Vista Community Church in Temple, Texas. It is extremely well written, accessible to people without a college or seminary degree, thoroughly biblical and fascinating. It’s Austin’s autobiographical-theological account of his journey into, through and out of the “Young, restless, Reformed” movement. It’s not the least polemical or harsh towards those in that movement; Austin simply explains why... Read more

Whatever Happened to the New Age Movement (NAM)? If you didn’t live through the 1980s or were too young to notice cultural movements and events, you may not remember or even know about the so-called “New Age Movement” (henceforth “NAM”). Even if you did, and were aware of the hype surrounding it, you may never have figured out what it was. You wouldn’t be alone. Everyone talked about it, but few seemed to know what it was—beyond Shirley MacLaine’s shenanigans.... Read more

Books I’m Reading Right Now (and Why) This is a little unusual—compared to most of my blog posts, but I am often asked what I’m reading at the moment. Then, when I answer, some ask “Why?” I don’t know why people are interested in what I’m reading, but apparently some are. This blog is my “musings” and telling what I’m reading and why counts as musings. Maybe someone out there will be informed about reading in a way that’s helpful.... Read more