Q&A
Sinful Nature and Free Will
Category: Q&A
Tags: Adam and Eve, Free Will, Sin, Sinful Nature
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Sin
Q: If our sinful nature is what causes us to sin/reject God, can we be held responsible for our sins, when this nature resulted from Adam and Eve’s sin? Do we really have the freedom…
Does God Still Heal?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
In the ancient world Jesus was known first and foremost as an exorcist and a healer. These two activities are mentioned in every summary of Jesus’s ministry found in the Gospels. It’s common for Western…
Why Doesn’t God Heal When We Ask?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Faith, healing, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Faith & Doubt, The Problem of Evil
If we are called to manifest what Jesus manifested and revolt against what Jesus revolted against, and Jesus carried out the kingdom through healing, then why doesn’t God heal those we pray for? One of…
Did Jesus Say That God Causes Blindness?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Blueprint Worldview, God at War, Sickness, Spiritual Warfare, Theodicy, Warfare Worldview
Topics: The Problem of Evil
Verse: John 9
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this…
Can Christians be Demon Possessed?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Christian Life, Demonization, Demons, Possession
Topics: Sin
The Greek word that is usually translated “demon-possessed” in the Gospels is demonizomai, which literally means “to be rendered passive toward a demon.” It’s unfortunate, in my view, that the term is usually translated “demon possession.”…
Are the Charismatic Gifts for Today’s Church?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Gifts, The Holy Spirit
Topics: The Church
This week, we have offered a brief series on the Holy Spirit touching on what the Spirit does, how it changes us, and how the fruit of the Spirit is produced. Now we will look briefly at the gifts…
Should Christians Recite the Pledge of Allegiance?
Category: Q&A
Tags: America, Myth of a Christian Nation, Myth of a Christian Religion, Nationalism, Politics
Topics: Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
A number of years ago I attended a basketball game at a Christian school. Just before the game everyone was asked to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance. So I stood, placed my hand…
Are You Really Saved?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Already Not Yet, Bride of Christ, Covenant, Kingdom Living, Marriage, Salvation
Topics: Death and Salvation
When God came to rescue us through the Incarnation, the cross and the resurrection, he did a great deal more than merely provide a way for us to avoid the consequences of our sin. In…
Does the Doctrine of the Trinity Matter?
Category: Q&A
Tags: God, God is Love, Jesus, Love, The Holy Spirit, Trinity
Topics: Trinity
Jesus reveals the greatest, most beautiful, and mysterious aspect of God when he, despite being himself God Incarnate, relates to God as his “Father” and refers to God as “the Holy Spirit.” There is, of…
Does Prayer Really Change Things?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Change, God, Open Theism, Prayer
Topics: Free Will and the Future, Hearing God, Prayer
Many people operate out of a blueprint model where God is viewed as absolutely unchanging, and all that occurs in the world is the unfolding of an eternal divine plan. If this is the case,…
Do Angels and Demons Really Exist?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Angels, Demons, Evil, Free Will, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
While the supremacy of God is never qualified in the Bible, this supremacy is not strictly autocratic. Other “gods” or spiritual entities like angels and demons are not mere puppets of the God of the…
What Happened on the Cross?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Already Not Yet, Atonement, God, God at War, Jesus, Satan
Topics: Atonement and The Cross, Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
Since the time of Anselm (11th century), and especially since the Reformation in the 16th century, the tendency of the Western church has been to focus almost all of its attention on the anthropological dimension…
Is Jesus Really God?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Apologetics, Jesus, Jesus' Divinity, Letters from a Skeptic, Miracles, Resurrection
Topics: Christology, Jesus: Lord or Legend
While it is true that Jesus Himself never comes out and explicitly says He is God in the Gospels, He is everywhere portrayed in terms that lead us to conclude to the same thing. He…
Does God Change His Mind?
Category: Q&A
Tags: God of the Possible, Open Theism
Topics: Defending the Open View, Providence, Predestination and Free Will
Classical theologians usually argue that texts that attribute change to God describe how he appears to us; they do not depict God as he really is. It looks like God changed his mind, but he…
Is Islam Inherently Violent?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Christianity, Islam, Religion, Religious Violence, Violence
An increasing number of people, especially in conservative Christian circles, are claiming that Islam is an inherently violent religion. They point to all the violence in the history of Islam and all of the violence…
Are the Gospels Historical Fiction?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Bible, Biblical Criticism, Gospels, Jesus, Lord or Legend?
Topics: Biblical Reliability, Jesus: Lord or Legend
Some scholars today argue that the stories recorded in the Gospels are actually intentional fabrication. In essence, they argue that Mark took Paul’s theology and robed the story of Jesus in a fictitious historical narrative….
Spiritual Warfare: What is it?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Humility, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Love, Myth of a Christian Religion, Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Topics: Spiritual Warfare, Cosmic Conflict
The Kingdom is “not of this world,” and neither is its warfare. Jews had always believed that God confronted spiritual opposition in carrying out his will on earth. In the Old Testament, these evil forces…
Is God All-Powerful?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Free Will, Letters from a Skeptic, Love, Omnipotence, Open Theism
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will
I want to answer yes and no. God is all-powerful in the sense that God originally possessed all power. Before Creation, God was the only being who existed, and thus had all the power there…
Why Did God Allow Evil?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Evil, Free Will, Love, Problem of Evil, Satan and the Problem of Evil
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, The Problem of Evil
Is it possible to force people to love? Powerful people may be able to force others to do just about anything. Through psychological or physical torture, they may succeed in forcing them to curse their…
Does the Open View Undermine God’s Sovereignty?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Determinism, Divine Foreknowledge, Free Will, God's Sovereignty, Open Theism
Topics: Providence, Predestination and Free Will, Responding to Objections
A common objection to the concept of a risk-taking God is that it seems to undermine God’s sovereignty. If any particular individual can opt out of God’s plan, then every individual could conceivably opt out…