We know that countless people are depressed, and millions are addicted to alcohol or drugs, and millions take antidepressants. And I’m not surprised! Why? Because honest people—and by that I mean the people not living in denial, the people honest about the human condition—should be depressed! Very depressed. Consider a truth agreed upon by every […]
If You’re Honest, You’re Depressed (or You’re a Christian) Read More »
Richard Dawkins and other new atheists herald God’s ordering of the destruction of Canaanite cities to be divine “ethnic cleansing” and “genocides.”1 With righteous indignation, Dawkins opines that the God of the Old Testament is “the most unpleasant character in all of fiction.”2 But was the killing of the Canaanites an example of divine genocide?
Killing the Canaanites Read More »
The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is called the “unpardonable sin,” a sin that will never be forgiven. The very possibility of even committing it often haunts many Christians. Indeed, as an insecure high school sophomore I once thought that I had committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit—and I was distressed! Clearly, our own
What Is the Unpardonable Sin? Read More »
It is no surprise that in a 2002 survey almost three-quarters of Americans (seventy-four percent) rejected the teaching of original sin. After all, Americans want to feel good about themselves. Nathaniel Brandon, whom many consider the father of the self-esteem movement, said, “The idea of Original Sin…is anti-self-esteem by its very nature. The very notion
Original Sin: Its Importance & Fairness Read More »
When I first came to Christ I absolutely loved reading the Bible. I would often read it for hours at a time. But, as is the case with most Christians, once I got to know the Bible well, I didn’t have the same passion for reading it. I kept reading it anyway, but I wished
How I Study the Bible… and Love It! Read More »
Although most of Bart Ehrman’s final chapter, “Suffering: The Conclusion,” is just a rehash, he does make one last point worth examining. When I teach on suffering I remind my students that whatever else we think about suffering, we should remember that Christianity is primarily about God the Son suffering for humankind. Ehrman gives his
Ehrman’s Problem: the Conclusion–His Book’s Title Is Misleading Read More »
In the ninth and final chapter of Ehrman’s book, God’s Problem, he says that often people write to tell him that “God is like a good parent, a heavenly father, and that he allows suffering into our lives as a way of building character or teaching us lessons about how we should live. There is,
Ehrman’s Problem 21: Confused about Who God’s Kids Are Read More »
In my last post I pointed out that Ehrman begged the question for his major argument as to why the apocalyptic argument didn’t help us answer why God allows suffering. In this post I will address his next two arguments. I titled this post, “Everything But the Kitchen Sink,” because, frankly, his arguments appear rather
Ehrman’s Problem 20: Everything But the Kitchen Sink Read More »
Now we turn to Ehrman’s fuller critique of the apocalyptic solution. He writes, “For apocalypticists, cosmic forces of evil were loose in the world, and these evil forces were aligned against the righteous people of God, bringing pain and misery down upon their heads, making them suffer because they sided with God. But this state
Ehrman’s Problem 19: Begging the Question Read More »
Ehrman entitled what he considers the last of the Bible’s explanations for suffering, “God has the Last Word: Jewish Christian Apocalypticism.” The apocalyptic answer, in short, is that at the Judgment God will resolve all the injustice that is in the world. Let’s start with Ehrman’s preliminary objection that the Biblical authors said that the
Ehrman’s Problem 18: Confused About Jesus’ Coming “Soon” Read More »
