The Ethics of God
An Evil, Bipolar God
Keith Ward, in chapter 6 of Is Religion Dangerous, deals with the issue of morality and the Bible. He addresses the charge that religious morality is based on an unthinking acceptance of old religious laws. As his example, he brings up one of the most notorious of religious injunctions – Deuteronomy 20:15-18.
“But these instructions [...]
Question: The Pacifist and Romans 13:1-7
To all the Christian Pacifists out there – How do you interpret Romans 13:1-7, especially verse 4?
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who [...]
A Summary of “Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?”
Last week I linked to an article entitled “Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?” which was 30 pages long – much too long for most people to read. Today the Codex has published a summary of the article which is about 90% shorter and still present’s the arguments contained therein with little commentary. Check it out.
Read [...]
Boyd’s Discussion on Violence and the Old Testament
A few days ago I linked to a an article that addressed the “evil” god found in the Old Testament. Throughout history different Christians have dealt with the sanctioned genocides and murder of infants etcetera in a variety of different ways. Some people say God can kill anyone he wants and have anyone kill anyone [...]
The God of Genocide
Perhaps the best argument leveled against Judaism and Christianity is the angry child of a god that people construct out of choice samples of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. These criticisms should not be taken lightly nor should the texts they reference be whitewashed.
To this end, I came across an article via the Codex that [...]
The Jobian Take on Righteousness
In the book of Job, written sometime between the early sixth and late fifth century BCE, God describes Job as a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. What is such a man like? If we were to be blameless and God fearing, what sort of things ought we do?
I [...]
Justifying a Just War…?
here’s a thought I had a few days ago…
…rough and unexamined, off the top of my head.
your thoughts/critiques?
“The Kingdom of God is the only state that will endure eternally. Thus, any war undertaken by any other state to preserve itself is unjust because that state will not endure anyway. The only kingdom we [...]
Annihilationism vs Eternal Conscious Suffering Series at Parableman
Wink, over at Parableman, has put up and interesting series that I have not had made the time to for fully read through on Annihilationism vs Eternal Conscious Suffering.
Here are the posts up so far:
The Annihilationism Debate
Infinite Suffering: contra tradition
Avoiding the plain meaning
Complete Harmony: contra Annihilationism
Infinite harm
Obligatory Grace
Annihilationism and Eternal Conscious Suffering (preview [...]
Monday Morning Theology: Open Theism and an Evil God
This morning Parableman takes a look at a serious and often overlooked aspect of Open Theism. It is Jeremy’s assertion that Open Theism implies that good humans changed the mind of a God who was about to commit acts of evil. This ramification of Open Theism is more threatening to the classical [...]
Golden Oldies
As I was studying me some Attic Greek tonight I was reminded of Hank’s retranslation of John 3:16. Hank did an excellent 5-part series on this verse and went through the translation process step-by-step. I would recommend reading reading through each of the five parts (one two three four five) to get a [...]
Human Natures, Desires, and Calvinism: A Question
After reading the following from reading Brad’s post on predestination:
“According to Edwards, a human being is not only free to choose what he desires but he must choose what he desires to be able to choose at all. This means that every choice is free and every choice is determined. But determined does not mean [...]
Weaknesses in the Church Today
At my blog, I wrote a post entitled “Does the God in American Evangelicalism Produce Fear?” When we look around, we can see that our church is divided and weak. The Anglican Communion and the PCUSA have rejected the authority of the Bible as the sole authority for the church. The church won’t preach the [...]
Offense/Deffense
ricoblog :: Reading Multiple Translations is Good; or, Remembering that the Devil has No Power
This excerpt from Hermas also reminds me of a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Have you ever been in a Bible study where folks end up dwelling on “Satan” as if he is an omnipotent and omnipresent deity wreaking [...]
Lewis on Goodness in Man
…[T]he Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes [...]
Beating a dead horse?
I know that we have been down this road before back in January or February, I don’t remember. But I just came across this three minute excerpt about capital punishment. In it, Piper (I know, I know I use him a lot but very few people have their stuff up for free and line up [...]