Post by Nathan Rinne I dedicate this post to now deceased SCOTUS justice Antonin Scalia. May he rest in peace. “Not to resent offenses is the mark of a base and slavish man.” — Aristotle “I attack ideas, I don’t attack people – and some very good people have some very bad ideas.” — Antonin Scalia +++ In a recent internet conversation, a woman named Arya Blynde took exception to a comment I had made about the ancient Latin poet... Read more
Despite the numerous debates between Lutheran, Reformed, and Roman Catholic theologians in the Post-Reformation scholastic era, there was a broad agreement, among all of these theologians, on the doctrine of God. With the rise of liberalism in the nineteenth century, this doctrinal consensus began to deteriorate. Liberal theologians argued against the supposed Hellenist imposition of static ontological concepts which helped formulate the traditional doctrine of God, often referred to as “Classical Theism.” These differences with Classical Theism were not only... Read more
On today’s program I discussed the doctrine of divine simplicity and the attributes of God. This led to a number of topics surrounding the doctrine of God, including the eternal generation of Christ, contemporary challenges to classical Theism, divine immutibility, the current debates surrounding impassibility, and many other important issues. Here is the program. Read more
Post by Nathan Rinne I really don’t want anyone to feel like they should read this post. Truth. I would simply prefer that they read part I, say “Amen”, and “rejoice evermore” (I Thes. 5:16) with me. I think the words I shared there cover the topic of this article well and are reliable and life-giving words – they basically should not need to be supplemented. But that, sadly, has not been my experience. Hence this part II, which gets... Read more
Post by Nathan Rinne During the 16th century Reformation, church reformers such as Martin Luther identified, from the Scriptures, three uses of God’s law. Simply put, God’s law is that which He commands, and is often accompanied by the threat of punishment and the promise of reward. The first use of the law serves as a curb (as in the curb on a road) which prevents gross outbreaks of human sin, the second... Read more
On today’s program I discussed the nature of human free will in its fourfold state. I spent the majority of the program discussing the nature of free will prior to the fall, and the various definitions of free will that have been explained by different theologians. I also talked about the difference between the regenerate and unregenerate will, and the question of the impeccability of Christ. Here is the program. Read more
On today’s program, I was joined again by Rev. Lewis Polzin to continue our discussion of Henry Eyster Jacobs’ book A Summary of the Christian Faith. We continued our overview of the ordo salutis as we discussed Jacobs’ chapter on illumination. This led to a number of different topics including: apologetics, the relationship between faith and reason, and the knowledge of the unbeliever. Here is the program Note: Due to the delay in the release of this program, I will be releasing a... Read more
Post by Nathan Rinne Very interesting five-year-old comments made by the famous atheist Richard Dawkins re-surfaced on the internet last week. Now some reading the title of this post might think I am going in a political direction here in response to Dawkins, but I’m not – at least not directly. My goal is actually to “hook you” and lure you into philosophical depths you might otherwise shy away from. I enjoyed this engaging and inspiring (for this Christian!) 5-minute... Read more
On today’s podcast, I discuss the two kingdoms, and ways in which Christians can initiate cultural change. I discuss the common confusion of the kingdom of the right and left, why liturgy is essential, and involvement in politics, along with several other related topics. Here is the program Read more
Post by Nathan Rinne First of all, this post is not about the recent Wheaton college controversy (see last post here), but I think it is likely highly relevant to the situation. It seems increasingly clear that persons like Larycia Hawkins and Miroslav Volf, in spite of their vaunted tolerance, simply have zero respect for the views that Wheaton’s administration holds. Volf has insinuated or directly spoken of hatred, enmity, and bigotry and added that the removal of Hawkins was... Read more
Just and Sinner
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