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BOOK REVIEW: Four Views on Hell 2nd edition

...finally a human baby. Burk states: “In each of the scenarios above, the ‘sin’ is the same – pulling the legs off. The only difference in each of these scenarios is the one sinned against…The seriousness of the sin is not measured merely by the sin itself (pulling off the legs) but by the value and the worth of the one being sinned against.” (19, italics his) This macabre thought-experiment is of course a gruesome version of Anselm’s ‘Status Principle’, namely that to sin against an infinitely good God merits infinite or eternal punishment. But fellow pro-ECT essayist Walls squashes this analogy: “There is profound disanalogy in the...

The Historic Practice of Abortion and How Ancient Christians Responded

...has made humans in his image, and how we are called to be image-bearers of God; representatives of Him on Earth. But this “imaging” comes with the responsibility of preserving life as something precious, hence 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...

What did Jesus actually sacrifice?

...ecuted in human history! There’s lots of atheist memes on the internet making digs at this idea of what it means that Jesus sacrificed himself. “Jesus came back to life, so he basically sacrificed his weekend for you”, or similar types of jabs, totally missing the point. Typical atheist meme So what did Jesus sacrifice if he only lost his life temporarily? Everything about his pre-incarnate self. Where once a spirit, now a glorified body. Where once only divine, now fully God and fully man. The incarnation had eternal consequences for the Godhead. Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t just about dying, it was about taking on our humanity eternally. The...

The Resurrection as a historical event

...ed by our human understanding. This is why the nature of the resurrection is always contrasted with the putting on of new clothes or in building a new tent, or the sowing of seeds. Even if you don’t have a farming background, it’s still easy to understand the concept of what is being said here in terms of our physical, mortal body being removed like an outer garment, and being replaced with something better (1 Cor 15:44; 2 Cor 5:1-2). It is quite rightly a mystery, as Paul says! Justin Martyr gives a good analogy in his great work, First Apology, when trying to explain this concept of the resurrection to a Roman emperor, and contrasts it with “human seed...

Understanding the Ultimate Ransom

...universal human condition: the insufficiency of human efforts to secure eternal life. The idea that “no ransom avails for one’s life, there is no price one can give to God for it.” (v.7) highlights that redemption is beyond human capacity and ability. The price is too high, and no payment is ever enough to achieve eternal life or to avoid corruption. This recognition of human limitation prepares us to appreciate the magnitude of Christ's redemptive work. Christ as Our Ransom In the New Testament, we see the fulfilment of what the Psalmist longed for—the provision of a ransom that could truly redeem us. Jesus Christ, through His life, death, and resurr...

Lent: Day 13 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 12-23

...d with “human seed” (ie. sperm); [If I] were to show you human seed and a picture of a man, and were to say with confidence that from such a substance such a being could be produced, would you believe before you saw the actual production? Basically, if you’d never known human growth, and someone showed you a drop of fluid and a photo of an adult and said one produced the other, would you believe it if you hadn’t already witnessed it to be true? In the same way then, the resurrection happens, and it can only be accepted by those who are willing to believe something which seems impossible, and then “in God's appointed time [they will] rise again an...