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On Silence of Christian Leaders
My brethren are getting frustrated with the fact that certain Christian leaders seem willing to talk boldly about things that all their hearers already agree with, while refusing to speak up about the more controversial in-house problems. Remember the words of Mordecai: Esther 4:13-14Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou…
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What's the Big Deal About Priests?
Garry Wills, in Why Priests, provides some interesting thoughts on the significance of the Roman Catholic priesthood (Chapter 2, p. 20): The most striking thing about priests, in the later history of Christianity, is their supposed ability to change bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. “From this unique sacrifice their…
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The Fallible(?) God of Molinism and the Problem of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
One aspect of “Libertarian” (nothing to do with politics) Free Will (LFW for short) is the idea that a free agent can, in the same circumstance, either do A or not do A. God’s advance knowledge of the future, coupled with God’s infallibility, poses a serious problem to this idea, since it seems that either…
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The "Jesus Didn't Write a Book" Objection
Over the years, I’ve noticed a number of objections to accepting the Scriptures as an authority over the church. One of the oddest objections is “Jesus didn’t write a book” (example from David Meyers). Against certain Muslims who think that Jesus wrote a book called “the Injeel,” this might be an important objection. Against Christians, though,…
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Garry Wills on the Title "Holy Father"
Garry Wills (self-identified Catholic, but rejecter of the papacy and transubstantiation), in “Why Priests?” has this interesting comment (p. 12): Jesus is telling his Followers not to be like the Sadducees and Pharisees who seek the “first places”: Everything they do is done to impress people. They enlarge their tefillins and lengthen their tassels. They…
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Ergun Caner and "Assistant Rabbi" Peter Hirsch
Ergun Caner has several times complained about a post-9/11 ecumenical prayer gathering (sorry, I don’t have the speeches and timestamps available). I think that’s why I was surprised to read an account from the Fort-Worth Star Telegram (apparently dated May 3, 2002), reporting Caner’s participation in a National Day of Prayer group event (link to…
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Ergun Caner at SBTS – November 13, 2003
We previously reviewed Dr. Caner’s comments on a panel with Mohler at SBTS on November 14, 2003 (link), but somehow we did not review his solo comments from the day before (link to mp3 – link to page for event). He presented a message he titled “The Gospel According to Oprah,” which we’ve heard elsewhere.…
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Old Testament Canon: Patristic Use of Isaiah 3:9-10 or Wisdom 2:12?
William Albrecht has a video titled “Patristics and Scripture:Wisdom 2:12” (link). It’s an attempt to argue for the canonicity of the book, The Wisdom of Solomon. In that video Albrecht says: The book of Wisdom, a canonical book of Scripture, was a book that was employed quite often by the early church. Wisdom is a…
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Garry Wills on Community Functions in Paul's Epistles
Garry Wills (self-identified Catholic, though he does not accept Transubstantiation and the priesthood) in “Why Priests?” describes the evidence in Paul’s epistles regarding the community functions (pp. 10-11): Thus community functions (not offices) are direct gifts (charismata) of the Spirit, making the early community charistmatic in the root original sense, entirely guided by the Spirit,…
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Craig's Dilemma – Escape for Aseity, but Hello Grounding Objection
William Lane Craig says he doesn’t think aseity is threatened by middle knowledge, because he is an anti-realist with respect to abstract objects including possible worlds. In other words, he views possible worlds as non-existent. Thus, God’s middle knowledge is not dependent on something outside himself. While that’s an understandable response, it runs smack into…