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Molina's View of Middle Knowledge
Sometimes Calvinists are accused of “straw manning” Molinist positions regarding God’s knowledge of conditional future contingents. I recognize that there are many different Molinists, and that they may have many different views. The following, however, are Molina’s views, as summarized in the introduction to Part IV of Concordia, “On Divine Foreknowledge,” by Prof. Alfred J.…
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Affirmative Constructive Speech for Hell Debate with Eddie Crume
The orthodox doctrine of Hell is not fully captured by the Apostles’ Creed, which speaks of the the judgment of the living and the dead, but nevertheless makes the short list of important doctrines in Hebrews 6. Hebrew 6:1-3 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not…
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What are the Eternal Habitations of the Wicked?
Usually, I think of Matthew as the Gospel with the clearest presentation of Hell. On the other hand, Luke contains at least one surprisingly explicit reference in addition to (and shortly before) the parable of the rich man and Lazarus: Luke 16:9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of…
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My Objections to Dan's and Tim's Joint Defense of Mere Molinism
Dan Chapa and Tim Stratton (D&T) provided a video defense of Mere Molinism (link) in responding to material from Colton Carlson (CC). This is just to highlight a few places where I took issue with their defense. All time stamps are approximate. I appreciate the generally cordial tone of their video, although I have a…
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Gone Astray like a Sheep
The longest psalm of all, Psalm 119, concludes with these words: Psalm 119:176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments. The prophet wrote: Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD…
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1 John 5:7 – Francis Turretin and the Textual Evidence
Some “TR friendly” questions/comments, I recently received. I’m posting them without attribution for now, but I’ll update with attribution if my interlocutor would like. After all, these issues are less about him (or me) and more about the truth of the matters we are discussing. His comments are bold in quotation marks, whereas my responses…
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Genesis 3:15, Sam Shamoun and the Crushing of the Serpent's Head
Sam Shamoun provided a two-hour video response to the question of what Genesis 3:15 says. He phrases it this way: does the woman or her seed crush the head of the serpent? (link to the portion of his video where his response starts) Sam was commenting on my debate with Robert Sungenis (link to video)…
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Jude 7, Sodom, and Eternal Fire
Some annihilationists see Jude 7’s comment about Sodom and eternal fire as lending support to their view that the fire of the final judgment may be eternal, without the punishment lasting forever. Jude 5-7 (KJV/NA28) (5) I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the…
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Jeremiah 18 and the Potter/Clay
Instead of appealing to the obvious biblical antecedent of the potter analogy in Romans 9 (namely Isaiah 29:16 and 45:9) or the most logical intertestamental literature (namely Wisdom 15:7), many non-Calvinists will turn to Jeremiah 18. Jeremiah 18:1-10 (1) The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, (2) Arise, and go down to…
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Dabney's useful Systematic Theology but with a few caveats
Robert Lewis Dabney wrote a book, Systematic Theology, which – while not my personal favorite – provides a great foundation in theology even to this day. The form of the book is helpful for self-study of the topic of Systematic Theology, as it is divided into easy-to-read lectures. There are, however, parts of the book…