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BOOK REVIEW: Four Views on Hell 2nd edition

...weight in law (e.g. an adult who hits the President incurs a harsher penalty than, say, a child who hits him). One reviewer also notices Burk’s shortcoming: “Burk’s essay began with a glaring problem: he argues that an offense against an infinite God demands an infinite punishment. Nowhere in Scripture is this logic supported (it seems completely untenable to anything but a limited atonement view, and even then, Christ did not die an infinite punishment in the elect’s place)…In this regard, Burk’s ECT is very limited in appeal, attractive to only strict, five-point Calvinists.”11 So in sum, Burk’s revival of the ‘Status Principle’ doe...

The Historic Practice of Abortion and How Ancient Christians Responded

...nce why unlawful killing was taken so seriously. We get a glimpse at how seriously God takes this very early on in Genesis 9:5–6, For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed, for in his own image God made humans. You might be familiar with the concept of “icons”; sacred and religious artwork that acts as a representative of the person or object depicted. In the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint or LXX), the creation account...

26 Differences Between Muhammad and Jesus

...made it a law that they be circumcised and the women, too, and he ordered them not to keep the Sabbath and not to be baptized. — John of Damascus, Fount of Knowledge, Heresies This isn’t even touching on the issue of the Crusades, which were the Church’s response to centuries of violent opposition and persecution by Islamic followers who violently spread their religion (see links at the bottom for more on this). Not the other way around as is commonly thought. Maybe I'll follow this up with a post about the Crusades. If Islam is meant to ‘correct’ Christianity, and Muhammed is meant to be the last great prophet following after Jesus… then why...

Are There Levels of Sin?

...court of law. Yet even then, those who are first time offenders, or didn't necessarily act maliciously, can receive a reduced sentence. In a similar fashion, Jesus would seem to teach that the punishment will indeed 'fit the crime' as it were, which gives me a greater sense and view of God's justice being actually just and not some type of binary black/white system which portrays God in an unjust and very robotic fashion (ie. "you sinned, no matter if it was telling a lie or committing genocide - burn in hell for eternity"). The Last Judgment by Lochner in the 15th century.   Viewing God the Father as one who will judge justly and righteously, and...

Support Israel? OK, which Israel?

...If the laws that governed Israel in the Old Testament do not apply to Israel today, then they are just another nation, and they should be held to the same standard as every other nation. ... But evangelicals keep giving Israel a free pass. They do so because they believe it is God’s covenant nation. Yet when it comes to holding Israel to the stipulations of that covenant… silence. And again; Let’s say modern Israel IS a continuation of the Old Testament kingdom (with the noticeable absence of a king) ... How do we conclude from any of this that it’s not OK to criticize the Israeli state—especially when so much of the Hebrew Scriptures are...

It's no longer about land!

...ays, "The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Jesus is that truth we must worship in, and only by the empowering of the new birth can we do that fully and thus worship in Spirit and Truth (John 3:1-10; 1 Peter 1:3-5).   "It's not a religion, it's a relationship..." I've often heard that said in churches, and I was inclined to agree with it, but recently I think that I want to redefine that a little. While it's true that Christianity should be more than mere religion, and about a real relationship with the living God, I would also now say that it's even more than that. Christianity is a new race. ...