Category: Evangelical Calvinist

More from the philo class. On the potential problem for classical theism and its doctrine of divine simplicity. How can God be Simple and yet still have attributes? That’s the question I’m responding to w/ ref to our reading of Maimonides. I overlooked responding to the question: “Can this claim be held together with the claim that God has attributes?” I think this can portend of a weakness for the pure being view of Maimonides et al. I think it is important to say that God is non-composite. But on the other hand, God comes to us by way of…

Dearest readers, I am going to take a break from blogging, at least through Easter Sunday (April 20). My blogging has slowed anyway, from my typical pace, years past. I am not feeling as motivated to post like I used to. It has become more like work, than a joy; even though I appreciate the fellowship that it fosters with you all (especially, Richard B., my most faithful interlocutor over these last many years). I just need a time to step back, and refresh. I just deleted my X/Twitter accounts as well. I love Jesus Christ, and the Father, by…

Karl Barth being rightfully critical of a reformed Federal or Covenantal theology. Here we see what it looks like to think from a noncompetitive relationship between God and humanity; and to simply think humanity from God’s life for us. It is God who is genuinely free in His inner and eternal life, and not us (‘Not unto us, not unto us, but to God be the glory’ Ps 115). It is God’s being in becoming for us, wherein the “us” comes to have the type of creaturely, and thus contingent independence (as TFT would say it) vis-à-vis God that the…

Just a quick note on some personal academic and educational news. I have resigned from my position as a faculty member in theology at Martin Luther School of Bible and Theology. Primarily, because I am not Lutheran; and I also don’t affirm Christian Universalism and the role of females as ordained pastors (which MLSBT does). So, from a conscience point of view that was wearing on me. Also, on the PhD I had from MLSBT: I have declined that degree once and for all. There are a variety of reasons for this. I definitely did the work for it etc….

I take this to be something of a paraphrase of John 3:16 by Karl Barth (even though he doesn’t identify it as such, explicitly): Basically, the doctrine of the concursus [trans. accompanying] must be as follows. God, the only true God, so loved the world in His election of grace that in fulfilment of the covenant of grace instituted at the creation He willed to become a creature, and did in fact become a creature, in order to be its Saviour. And this same God accepts the creature even apart from the history of the covenant and its fulfilment. He…

Questions we are engaging with for this week’s philosophy of religion class. Part of this, the last part represents its own separate forum for the class; it is supposed to be a debate forum. Creator of the world Does the theistic view that God created the universe imply that the universe must have had a beginning? What might the implications of the answer to this question be? Yes, the theistic view, in particular, the Christian theistic view entails that the universe had a beginning. I’d go so far to say that it entails the creatio ex nihilo (created out of…

More from the philosophy class. As I reread this just now I didn’t really answer the whole question. Although, I amended it since in the class forum. What does it mean to say that the concept of God is simple? Can this claim be held together with the claim that God has attributes? If so, how? If not, is this a problem for theism? The concept of God as simple simply entails that the God conceived of by folks like Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas, Maimonides et al. is a Monad. I.e., a non-composite being who is not made up by…

More thoughts on the properties of God for my philosophy of religion class. As I have been responding, this week, surrounding God’s omniscience, freedom, goodness, and necessity. These are my first two responses. “Could anyone other than you, right here and now, know what it was like to be you, right here and now? Why or why not? What are the implications of your answer for the notion of divine omniscience?” (this, posed by the tutor for the class, based on our readings of T.J. Mawson) Omniscience. Someone might have the capacity to know what it is like to be…

More engagement with T.J. Mawson’s book, Belief in God, for my philosophy of religion class. I posted these, along with the one on personhood, which I shared in my last post here, in the discussion forum we have set up for our class. I thought I’d share them here too. These are clearly raw responses to the reading material we are engaging with. Immanuel Kant Divine transcendence can be thought of as God’s otherness; His otherworldliness; His awayness vis-à-vis the world. According to Mawson direct knowledge and direct control are aspects of what it means to have a body. And…

The ground and continuity of human being is first God’s election to be human being for us in Jesus Christ. It is upon this solid rock that the wick of humanity can never be extinguished. There are some out there who affirm what they call ‘conditional immortality,’ or what of old was called ‘annihilationism,’ which affirms the idea that the human being can be thrown into the ‘outer darkness’ of non-existence. That is to say, this position holds that people who reject Christ will indeed suffer ‘eternal judgment’ by being snuffed out of existence. They contend that human being only…