God

Defending the Trinity How can God be both three and one at the same time? Critics and cultists argue that the doctrine of the Trinity is illogical. This article makes a thorough defense of the Trinity.

The Attributes of God The study of the attributes of God is called theology proper. In this aspect of theology, the student of Scripture assesses all of the biblical data regarding the different attributes or characteristics of God.

A Critique of Open Theism The Bible repeatedly teaches that God is omniscient. This word comes from “omni” meaning all and “science” meaning knowledge. This means that God knows all true propositions—whether past, present, or future. Open theists argue that God cannot know future propositions, because they are unknowable.

Christ

Did Jesus Exist? A Response to Mythicism Jesus of Nazareth has had more of an impact on world history than any other man to have walked the face of the Earth. Yet, many atheistic websites hold to mythicism—the notion that Jesus was merely a myth created by the early church.

Was Christianity Copied from Pagan Myths? Many skeptics today claim that the resurrection of Jesus originated from pagan myths about “dying and rising” gods—commonly called the “copycat theory” of Christianity. Did Christianity copy its core doctrines from Pagan myths? What should we think of this common skeptical claim?

The Incarnation In what sense did God take on the form of humanity in the person of Christ? Isn’t this illogical for God to become human?

The Virgin Birth Was Jesus born of a virgin? Did Isaiah truly predict this in Isaiah 7:14? How important is this doctrine?

Defending the Deity of Christ Some cult groups argue that Jesus never claimed to be God. This article details the overwhelming case for Jesus being God.

The Sinlessness of Jesus Could Jesus have possibly sinned? In what sense was he tempted?

The Crucifixion of Christ But what really happened at the Cross? The NT authors only offer the terse statement: “They crucified him” (Mk. 15:24; c.f. Mt. 27:26; Lk. 23:33; Jn. 19:16). But what did Jesus’ sacrifice truly entail?

Defending Penal Substitutionary Atonement The New Atheists speak of Christ’s atonement with the most derisive of language. Atheist Richard Dawkins describes the atonement as “vicious, sado-masochistic and repellent.” Emergent authors refer to it as “divine child abuse.” How should believing Christians respond to these allegations?

Defending the Resurrection Is there good evidence to believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Or is this just something that Christians take on faith?

The Missing Three Days Where did Jesus go between his death and resurrection?

Lord, Liar, Lunatic, or Legend? During his life, Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” (Mt. 16:15) Two thousand years later, modern people are still asking the same question. Was Jesus a Liar, Lunatic, Legend, or Lord (LLLL)?

Holy Spirit

Who is the Holy Spirit? The study of the Holy Spirit is called pneumatology. The Greek word pneuma means “wind.” This is where we get the name for the pneumatic tube (e.g. when you go to the bank) and pneumonia (e.g. an inflammatory condition of the lung). Who is the Holy Spirit and what does he do in the Christian life? We will consider these questions here.

The Charismatic Gifts The term “charismatic gifts” is really a misnomer. All gifts are described as charismata by Paul (In Greek, charis means “gift”). However, for clarification, we speak of the charismatic gifts as tongues, healing, and prophecy. We consider three views on the charismatic gifts that we find untenable, followed by a fourth view which is the position we hold.

Is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit Biblical? Pentecostals in the Assemblies of God movement affirm that all Christians have the Holy Spirit at conversion. However, in addition to receiving the Holy Spirit at conversion, Pentecostals believe in a “baptism of the Holy Spirit”—whereby the believer is baptized into the Holy Spirit and given special power for ministry. (This is sometimes called “baptism of the Holy Spirit” or the “second blessing”) To avoid arguing against straw men in this friendly discussion with our Pentecostal brethren, we will interact with the Assemblies of God position paper titled “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.”

Faith Healers Televangelist faith healers have spread across late night television stations like gangrene, claiming to heal the sick and hurting. While the theatrics of these faith healers seem strange, many Christians wonder if there is any merit to this movement: Jesus and the apostles healed the sick after all. Should Christians expect to heal the sick and dying today, or should we refrain from this sort of activity? We explore the claims of various faith healers today.

Scripture

Historicity of the NT The gospels and epistles are a historically reliable record of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

A Case for Verbal Plenary Inspiration Our view of inspiration is called Verbal Plenary Inspiration (hereafter VPI). A generally accepted definition for VPI is this: God so moved the human authors of scripture that the resulting product was the Word of God written, totally without error in all that it affirms in the original autographs.

The Inerrancy of Scripture Is the Bible truthful in all of its affirmations–even in areas of science, geography, and archaeology? Or is it simply truthful in categories of faith and morals? This is the subject of inerrancy which is disputed among Bible believers today. This article explains defends the doctrine of inerrancy and responds to common objections to this important doctrine as well.

The Old Testament Canon How do we know which books truly belong in the Old Testament? What about the Apocrypha—should this belong in our Bible?

The New Testament Canon How do we know which books belong in the New Testament? Why don’t Christians view the gospel of Thomas as divinely inspired?

The King James Only Version? Is the King James Version (KJV) the only version that Christians should read today? Many Christians claim that it is, and it casts doubt on other believers who use more modern translations.

Hermeneutics Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation. This subject is important to theology because it is logically prior to any theological study. Without a basis for accurate interpretation, the rest of theology will be flawed. While we have already made a case for the inspiration of Scripture, what use is there in an inspired Bible, if we cannot get an objective meaning out of it? While modernists largely attacked the inspiration of Scripture, postmodernists attack the interpretation of it. Thus we should build a case for the project of hermeneutics.

Salvation

Do Good People Go to Heaven? This article argues that we can only come into a relationship with God through grace. This is a good essay for those trying to understand the Bible’s central message.

Calvinism versus Arminianism At the heart of the Calvinist-Arminian debate is the question of how it is that humans come into a relationship with Christ. How is it that we come to faith? Is it through our freewill or God’s selection that we come to Christ?

Eternal Security The debate over eternal security persists in Christian circles: If Christians come to faith in Christ by accepting the free gift of salvation, is it possible to lose this through our free will?

Lordship Theology Do we need to have complete surrender to Christ as Lord in order to have saving faith? Is our decision to be forgiven by Christ different than our decision to follow him? Is it possible to be a carnal Christian?

Is Hell Annihilation? Some evangelicals hold that we are extinguished at death, rather than having eternal, conscious separation from God. This article takes on this nuanced issue.

Satanology

Satanology This is the study of the person and work of Satan. It’s strange that Satan is not understood very well by believers today. Christian teachers fluctuate between various extremes: either denying Satan or obsessing over him.

Ecclesiology

Eccleisiology This is the study of the church. This comes from the Greek word ekklesia (pronounced eck-lay-SEE-uh). Our understanding of what the Church is will have a tremendous impact on what the Church should do. How do we define the Church, and what is its main mission and calling from God?

Eschatology

Millennial Views At the heart of eschatology is our view of the millennium. Will literally Jesus reign on Earth for a thousand years, or is Jesus spiritually reigning from heaven or in the hearts of believers? Should we expect human history to get better with time, or worse? Does the millennium refer to a literal 1,000 year reign, or is this symbolic for the church age? Many questions confront the interpreter.

The Pretribulational Rapture In the end, it is relatively unimportant when the rapture will happen; it is more important that it will happen. However, from the evidence, it seems that the Bible teaches a pre-tribulation rapture.

A Critique of Preterism The preterite in English is the past tense. Therefore, Preterism is a view of the end of history that holds that these events have already occurred in the past.

Historical Theology

Historical Theology This is the study of how Christians historically came to affirm or deny certain theological doctrines.

Practical Theology & Ethics

Practical Theology & Ethics This is a collection of articles covering various aspects of practical aspects to serving Christ.

Book Reviews

Review of J. Warner Wallace’s “God’s Crimes Scene” (2015) I must join many others in endorsing J. Warner Wallace’s recent book God’s Crime Scene (2015). Wallace covers a number of different topics regarding the evidence for theism, divvying up each topic into eight chapters: (1) the cosmological evidence, (2) fine-tuning, (3) origin of life, (4) irreducible complexity, (5) consciousness, (6) free will, (7) morality, and (8) evil. While much has been written on the rational basis for Christian theism, three unique contributions make Wallace’s book stand out: (1) his credentials as cop, (2) his clear communication, and (3) his creative comparisons.

Critical Review of Myron Penner’s “The End of Apologetics” (2013) Penner openly attacks the work of Christian apologists such as William Lane Craig, Douglas Groothuis, and J.P. Moreland. Surprisingly, the book has received rather positive reviews. In the 2014 book awards, Christianity Today gave Penner’s book an “award merit.” We did not have so favorable of a reading of the book.

Critical Review of Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” (2011) Emergent author Rob Bell hit the headlines with his provocative book Love Wins, espousing universalism. Check out our thorough and direct critique of this popular book.

Critical Review of Joseph Atwill’s “Caesar’s Messiah” In his book Caesar’s Messiah, Joseph Atwill argues that Jesus of Nazareth was the invention of the Roman Empire, and Josephus wrote the entire NT after AD 70. He claims this was due to supposed parallels between the NT and Josephus’ Jewish War. Is this theory credible?