JOEL 2 GENERATION

Countless Americans will be donning something green and getting drunk in St. Patrick’s honor today, who obviously know NOTHING about who St. Patrick really was. If they did, they would realize they are actually dishonoring him. In fact, most of what Christians have heard about St. Patrick amounts to Fake ‘Theological’ News. Different Christian traditions all want to claim Patrick as their own, the Roman Catholic Church being the loudest voice. Modern day Charismatics also like to reference his prophetic gifting and miracles. There have been a growing number of other Christians in recent years claiming to be “Celtic” and/or seeking to recover Celtic roots or Celtic ‘spirituality’. Sadly, much of that is distorted and often infused with New Age beliefs and ideas. Other historical revisionists will look to the Celtic Christians to justify other ideas/agendas – such as radical feminism and even environmentalism. So, who gets Patrick right? Who in our time represents him and his legacy the ...

I know 'technically' my Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends will say they don't "pray TO saints and angels", but for millions of Christians in those traditions that is truly a distinction without a difference. The role of dead saints and angels in these traditions is extremely important. The million dollar question of course is this, "Did Christ and His Apostles teach the church to do this"? And if so, we would find evidence of this practice in the 2nd and 3rd century church. But is that what we find?  Actually, we find just the opposite! And one voice that is perhaps the clearest is the great theologian of the 3rd Century, Origen. What does he say? "Having thus learned to call these beings “messengers” [i.e., angels] from their    duties, we find that because they are divine, they are sometimes called “god” in the sacred Scriptures. But this is not said in the sense that we are commanded to honor and worship them in place of God—even though they mi...

 

Deuteronomy 32:43 is now my "go to" verse to see if a Bible translation reflects the original text of the Bible. And why is the "original text" important? Because it is the original text, known as the vorlage or autographic text written by the Biblical author that is what God has inspired as His Word. He didn't inspire later copies, manuscripts, although we can know through the science of textual criticism with near certainty what the original, inspired text of Scripture is today. What do we find in Deuteronomy 32:43? Full disclosure - from the time I came to Christ in the 1980's I was told that there is no translation as good as the New American Standard (NASB) - the most literal, based on the oldest and best possible manuscripts. Some of what I was told was true, but as you will see in this blog post, some of what I was told is NOT true. And yes, I am aware of the King James ONLY (KJV) crowd and their arguments against many of the other modern translatio...

Today, a Christian friend of mine, who was formerly a Muslim, shared an illustrated diagram to describe how Jesus is both God and man. He wanted to know what I thought about the diagram. Such illustrations can indeed be helpful, but I told him that I thought all analogies fall short As we are talking about God and His Eternal nature. Instead, I told him that I explain it like this.  The Scriptures teach there is ONE God.  And He has revealed Himself as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We believe Jesus is God, fully God, because He revealed Himself to be so.   The best description I have heard is about the difference between UNITY and SINGULARITY.   Islam and Judaism (at least the Judaism that formed AFTER Christ as earlier Judaism had a doctrine called "Two Powers in Heaven") believe God is a mathematical singularity.   It can be called it UNITARIANISM. The oneness of God for them is a mathematical singularity, a mathematical 'unit'. Mus...

I recently had a lengthy discussion with a man who repeated an argument he had heard elsewhere that "Jesus NEVER claimed to be God". Coming from a Muslim-background, he was arguing for a UNITARIAN view of God, that the One God exists as a type of mathematical SINGULARITY. In his view, followers of certain religions over time DEIFIED their founders. For example, Buddhists made Buddha in some type of God and Christians as well over time, turned Jesus into God. Leaving Buddhism aside, I will address the latter claim that over time, Christians DEFIED Christ and corrupted the pure UNITARIAN MONOTHEISM that Jesus and all true prophets taught which only later was perverted by subsequent generations of followers. This MYTH is widespread on the internet and propagated widely even in popular books and movies. The version that this man had heard was that Christians "invented" the doctrine that Jesus was God in the 4th Century at the Council of Nicaea (AD325). What I proceeded ...