Part One Universal Salvation When I speak of Young’s universalism I am not referring to the belief that Jesus Christ provided an atonement for every sinner; a position which I hold. I am instead talking about the liberal theological teaching that God will save everybody, whether or not they have placed their trust in His Son. Because of the author’s encounters with hurt and pain it is understandable that he has searched for a god who is safe and accepting. …
Category: Pastoral Issues
A Review of Wm. Paul Young, Lies We Believe About God, Simon & Schuster, 258 pages, pbk Wm. Paul Young is best known as the author of the astoundingly successful book The Shack. He has also written two other works. All his books deal with pain and suffering and seek to offer hope. Unfortunately, Young’s brand of hope, although it presents itself as Christian, and indeed has been understood as such by many, is not anchored in the biblical portrait …
This is an old article, but the subject is always relevant. A prospective student at Telos Institute asked me a good question about my view on Law versus the Gospel. As part of my reply I sent him the text of a letter I’d written to someone who had criticized a lecture of mine on the Decalogue. This individual had claimed that Christians were sanctified solely by faith plus nothing else, and that the law did not even provide a …
I wanted to write a ‘Facing the New Year’ post to focus myself on the main things, but I came across this piece by Dr. David Allen which I don’t think I could improve upon. Hope it blesses you. Happy New Year! Two things are important when you take a trip: transportation and discrimination. You must know how you are going to get there and you must determine what to take with you. If you want to ruin your …
Here is a very informative link to what the justices of the Supreme Court have said, pro and con, about their 5 to 4 decision to legalize Gay Marriage. http://erlc.com/article/50-key-quotes-from-the-supreme-courts-same-sex-marriage-ruling The kind of “reasoning” employed by Justice Kennedy et al could and will be employed by pedophiles, polymorists, and even those who want to marry their dog. This is what godless law looks like. …
Part Three The Bible has a very specific and definitive outlook on the meaning of life. In the parlance of modern culture such an outlook is called a “Worldview.” There has been a lot of talk about worldview in recent years, and this is on the whole a good development. Worldviews are very important, and appreciation of them, and of the Christian-Biblical Worldview in particular, is without doubt a great benefit. Briefly: What a Worldview is A worldview is basically …
Part Two I have begun this series with this three-part introduction, trying to bring attention to the matter of Truth and the authenticity of our allegiance to it as Christian parents. My concern is that Christians nowadays do not prize Truth for what it is – an attribute of God – but rather treat it as something they can use a bit of when they think it needful. Francis Schaeffer used to say that the Church should live out what …
This is the first in a series of ongoing posts at Telos Ministries We have all read the statistics of young people who flee the Faith in which they have been reared soon after hitting college. There is more than one reason for this defection. The first and most obvious issue is probably the state of the heart. Is this individual actually saved? I’m not asking, “did they think they were saved?”, I’m asking “were they saved?” Now, before someone …
{This is part of a chapter by chapter critique of this book at SharperIron] Before foraying into the New Testament, where he seems to think he will find justification for his views, Matthew Vines attempts to deal with “The Abominations of Leviticus.” He does not deal with the relevant texts by doing contextual exegesis or theological formulation; instead he takes a more indirect route around Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. Basically his approach is to relativize the Old Testament law by …
I like to read Roger Olson. He is one of those thinkers who helps provide balance for my normal diet of Reformed Biblical and Systematic Theology. Sometimes I disagree with him strongly. But I always appreciate his erudition and personable style of communicating it. I linked to this on FB the other day, but I post it here now because I really think it’s an important (and disturbingly accurate) evaluation of many of today’s breed of evangelicals: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2014/05/a-shocking-conclusion-about-american-christianity/ …
