I am no longer going to update this post. Instead please see the Beliefs page to read the most up-to-date list of what I believe. AKA, "What I Believe" I had an interesting conversation with a Twitter friend, and after he agreed to an uncomfortable implication of his belief system I commended him on being…
Category: Theology
Religion
[This was written by my son, Michael, for an English class assignment during his senior year in high school.] I want to make a deal with you, the reader, before you read any of this paper. I want you to agree to keep an open mind while reading this. Assume that I have a chance…
Inclusivism (More Than “General Revelation”)
[ This is a portion of a short critique I had to provide as part of coursework for Liberty University. ] Although inclusivism is mistaken in believing that (with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross) general revelation is “enough,” it is correct in holding that specific knowledge of Christ’s work is not a requirement for salvation….
Inclusivism (4 Reasons)
[ This is an edited version of a portion of an assignment I had for Liberty University. ] There are four main reasons to believe there is a possibility that people may be saved outside of specifically confessing the name of Jesus: The requirement for salvation has always been faith. Scripture notes that some Gentiles…
Are both Satan and Jesus the morning star?
I have been the webmaster for a religious publisher since 1998, so I get email with questions now and then. Generally I point them to our e-mail discussion group, but today I got a query I figured I’d go ahead and try to answer myself. My response is below (minus names, correcting one tense, and…
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? Now, who doesn’t love a good ghost story? Perhaps there are some sitting before me who have never enjoyed them…but I’ve always liked tales involving other-worldly beings. For instance, I can still remember back in third grade when Mrs. Edwards would read to us from horror books written…
Whose Table?
Now…if you are like me and get great comfort from routine…at this point you are a bit uncomfortable because I got Winslow to change up the order of the service…and I’m making you all wait for the Lord’s Supper until after the sermon. However, since my talk is about that very subject, it seemed apropos…
Homosexuality
The sermon I do not want to give… I stand before you prepared to preach a sermon I do not want to give. Many in society think that Christians have a fixation (and a negative one at that) on homosexuality and sex in general. This talk will be seen as further proof that we have…
No Man Can Know
Knowing more than Socrates While researching the resurrection of the dead, I ran into a related quote from Socrates, a very wise and famous Greek philosopher from the fifth century B.C.–perhaps most known for his method of death (forced to drink hemlock). But before I started typing my notes for this sermon I ran into…
Bargaining with the Gods
Why a sermon on prayer? At the end of Bible study on Wednesday I asked what folks might like to hear a sermon on…and Winslow suggested prayer since it is the theme of this month. “But prayer is one of my greatest shortcomings!” I protested. “All the more reason to do a sermon on prayer,”…
Money (That’s What I Want)
Abu Dhabi Last week I was in Abu Dhabi–The company I work for has provided services to FIFA Club football matches there and a good friend of mine has been running the ticketing. After I dealt with exchanging U.S. dollars for UAE dirhams (and back), saw all the expensive cars zipping down the road (a…
Eternal
What does the word "eternity" mean to you? In my brain unlimited words like "eternity" and "infinite" bring equations like 1/X to mind… As X approaches infinity… However X can never reach zero because…division by zero is undefined. Although it could readily become a lousy analogy, mentally God to me is being able to divide…
Inclusivism
In 1492… Do you remember the poem that starts off, “In Fourteen hundred nine-two” or “In fourteen nine-two”? How does it continue? “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Although Columbus has fallen out of favor in the modern world, there is no question he had a tremendous impact on the future of…