Archive for February, 2007
The Sovereignty of God
Here is how Jonathan Edwards defined the sovereignty of God in his sermon, God’s Sovereignty in the Salvation of Men.
The sovereignty of God is his absolute, independent right of disposing of all creatures according to his own pleasure.
Question
So in teaching my 5th grade class this sunday we covered Psalm 51 as part of the lesson. The prase “Joy of your salvation,” was read and I asked what joy meant. Of course I got the typical answer, happy. Unfortunately I believe that is a very inadequate definition. I believe [...]
The Deffinition of Zeal
“When the [Separatist] Baptists appeared, [the Anglican and Colonel] Cary tried to stop their preaching by threatening prison; to his chagrin , they seized the chance for a few months of martyrdom. Nor did imprisonment silence the itinerants: the preached through the bars, and when Cary, in desperation, built a brick wall around the [...]
Links of the Day
Better Bibles Blog :: Can you stomach translation of Matt. 1:18?
Wayne Leman looks at the translation of Matthew 1:18, focusing on phrasing issues.
but Jesus Christ-of the birth thus was.
betrothed the mother of-him Mary the-to
Joseph-to, before they.came.together was.found in
belly having by spirit holy.
For those who are interested in the issue of literal or [...]
Call for Posts (and Authors)
I am getting pretty busy with school right now, so I can’t really post much or in depth. Anything anyone wants to talk about? Feel free to post what you have been studying lately. If you are a reader and have something you would like to post, we would love to have [...]
Sunday Morning Thoughts
Here are a couple of posts that are worth your time for this Sunday morning:
Calvinism and Philosophers by Parableman
Jeremy looks at some preliminary issues involving Christian philosophy and how Calvinism might be a better approach to certain problems rather than a Libertarian or Arminian approach.
I’ve always thought Calvinism had far better resources to respond to [...]
Going With The Flow of Romans 9
Henry Michael and I have been having a wonderful discussion about Romans 9 (click here and here for the posts and comments). In response to the interpretation of Romans 9, or at least Henry’s attempt to show that the historical roles interpretation can raise the objections of Romans 9:14, 19, I asked this question,
Your interpretation, [...]
New Poll : Paul in Jerusalem
I put up a new poll this evening. The last one was pretty conclusive with only two votes dissenting from the notion that Jesus was 100% divine and 100% human. If you think otherwise, please give your argument here.
Anyway, the new poll is:
Paul…
did go to Jerusalem after he was converted. (Acts 9:19-31)
did [...]
Hated and Loved :: Esau and Jacob
In Romans 9 Paul quotes Malachi 1:2-3 saying, “As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Calvinists take this to refer to the election on God’s part as either a) damning Esau to Hell and promoting Jacob to Heaven or b) damning the nations that come from Esau all to Hell [...]
Romans 9 and God”s Will
Romans 9 is considered to be the “hammer” in the debates on Predestination and Free Will in terms of the salvation of the individual. Hank makes this point clear in his post, My Comfort in Romans 9. In this post, he expounds upon verses 9:11 and 9:14. It is Hank”s contention that only assuming a [...]
The Problem of Evil… for Atheists
Much has been made about the problem of Evil for theists. How can a good God allow evil? This is a problem, one that can be looked at in a variety of ways (see here and here). The problem of Evil is usually then seen as a proof for the non-existence of [...]
Object vs. Subject
The other day I was reading a “commentary” on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was a very interesting read, from what I have read. It is by an Episcopalian priest, Fleming Rutlege, who is focusing on the theology found in the narrative itself, and not in the types and themes found in the [...]
Grace in Reformed Theology
This is the second post in my response to Henry Thomas’ post asking what Grace was. My first post tried to look at how Catholic theologians looked at grace. Like that post, this one draws off of Gareth Reese’s book, New Testament Epistles:Romans.
In a nutshell, in Reformed theology, grace is something that God [...]