Essentials of Christian Thought: Chapter 6: The Biblical-Christian Perspective on the World The biblical story can only be rightly interpreted as representing an “ontological interval” between God and the world as well as a “moral interval.” However, the two intervals must not be confused with each other. The ontological interval, God’s transcendence (not to diminish God’s immanence), does not cause the moral interval. According to the biblical story, sin and evil are NOT caused by finitude or by God’s transcendence;... Read more

Going Out on A Limb: Needed: A National Religion I said that after retirement I will “take off the gloves” here. There are some things I just couldn’t say before, while I was still employed, especially in institutions that highly valued “separation of church and state” in a fairly strict way. I do still believe in separation of “church” (denomination) and state. However, I have come to believe that a community, which America should be, cannot go on forever being... Read more

Essentials of Christian Thought: Chapter 5: The Biblical-Christian View of Ultimate Reality: God *Note: I apologize for skipping over chapters 5 and 6. I’m now backing up to chapter 5. I hope to cover chapter 6 on Monday (January 29).* Personally, I am finding discussing my own writing challenging. Do I critique what I wrote? It wasn’t long ago that I wrote this book. I don’t think I’ve changed my mind about anything. But could I have said something better?... Read more

Essentials of Christian Thought: Chapter 7: Biblical Christian Humanism First, let me apologize for not being able to access my blog yesterday. Apparently the server was down or something. Here I want to continue discussion of my book Essentials of Christian Thought by focusing on Chapter 7: Biblical, Christian Humanism. For a variety of reasons, many people in America think that “humanism” necessarily means “secular humanism.” I explain some of those reasons in this chapter and argue throughout the chapter... Read more

Is Israel Guilty of War Crimes? In case you don’t know, the world court in the Netherlands is hearing arguments brought by The Republic of South Africa that the State of Israel is guilty of war crimes/crimes against humanity. This is in responded to Israel’s response to the bombings and kidnappings in Israel by members of a Palestinian militant group based in Gaza. If you don’t know about this war, please inform yourself. Here in the U.S. the news broadcasts... Read more

What Happens When Popular Culture Takes on Christianity I admit that I watch a lot of television. But don’t judge me; it hasn’t stopped me from writing a lot of books, numerous articles, and effectively teaching Christian theology for forty years. I have complained here before about popular entertainment culture and how it so often distorts the truth about Christianity. Think about author Dan Brown, for example. If he had read any of the church fathers or even Celsus, the... Read more

Essentials of Christian Thought: Chapter Four: Non-Biblical, Non-Christian Views of Reality My purpose in this chapter (and the interlude that follows) is to warn against syncretism among Christians. Here I describe a number of major metaphysical views of reality that are antithetical to the biblical story of God and to historic, classical Christianity. Among them are: monism (and its variations including emanationism), dualism (Manichaeism), naturalism and panentheism. All are pernicious especially when adopted into Christianity, something which I have observed... Read more

Is “Evangelical” Now a Political Identity? A recent article in the New York Times suggested that “evangelical” is now a political identity more than a religious one. At least in America. And that is a major problem with the claim! Most evangelicals live outside the U.S. That fact seems to be overlooked by many pollsters, commentators, journalists, and scholars. What the article means, of course, is that IN AMERICA “evangelical” has become a political identity nearly identical with Trumpism or... Read more

Essentials of Christian Thought, Chapter 3: The Biblical Vision of Ultimate Reality Retrieved Again I ask that those not reading the book only ask questions. Readers are more than welcome to comment and/or ask questions. We come now to Chapter 3 and Interlude 3. Is there one main point of this chapter? I suppose it is that ultimate reality is both separate from nature and immanent with in. Also that ultimate reality, for the biblical writers and for most Christians... Read more

What Was Jesus’s Ethnic Identity? News reports tell of a new controversy about Jesus. An article appeared in a popular Christian magazine arguing that it’s perfectly good and right for people of all ethnic identities to picture Jesus as one of them, having their typical facial features. A leading conservative evangelical spokesman complained bitterly about the article, even stating that his father, who founded the magazine, would object strenuously were he still alive. Now, with that out of the way,... Read more