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TechnoratiPOST PUBLISHED INFebruary, 2011
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Artists United Against Hollywood Whores
February 28th, 201105:12 PM ETHollywood whore — na celebrity who performs for an exorbitant amount of money at a private party sponsored by a tyrranical petty potentate from a developing nation with a very dubious human rights record. Hollywood has some eminently respectable faces in the likes of people like George Clooney, Bono, Sean Penn and Don Cheadle, folks who spend m... -
Revelation 5:9 and Inclusive Salvation
February 26th, 201112:05 PM ETToday I want to look at an oft-overlooked text in favor of inclusivism, the doctrine that hearing the gospel and making a cognitive confession of it (as described in Romans 10:9) is not necessary for salvation. Let's begin with the text. In Revelation 5:9 the Lamb (Jesus) is depicted opening a scroll as the saints look on in praise and declare: "... -
Awake in Japan: A first-person account of demonic oppression
February 23rd, 201109:57 AM ETIt was the summer of 1993. I had travelled to Japan to spend the summer as part of a contingent of English teachers selected by a mission agency. After a week's training in Sapporo we were sent off to our respective towns. I was sent to a scenic town on the coast which looked like it came straight out of a Miyazaki film. The job was simple enough.... -
Happy with your mother in hell?
February 19th, 201107:44 PM ETToday's blog is brought to you courtesy of my book Faith Lacking Understanding. More specifically, it is excerpted from the beginning of the chapter on the doctrine of hell. The passage includes a great quote from Robert Ingersoll, a skeptic of the nineteenth century who was confounding good midwestern American Christians on the whistlestop tour wh... -
Hopeful Universalism and the Lottery Illustration
February 18th, 201108:24 PM ETIn "Does universalism have a chance in hell of being true?" I argued that there is indeed a case to be made for universalism just like there is a case to be made for Calvinism and Arminianism. It may not be as strong a case, but there is a case to be made. This means that even if a Christian is not a universalist (as I am not), they nonetheless oug... -
Oh heaven, why art thou so boring?
February 16th, 201109:04 AM ETWhen presented the opportunity of going to heaven in a recent discussion on the blog Brap Gronk replied "Can I opt out? I've never seen a description of heaven that appealed to me." BG's not alone. Billy Joel sang basically the same thing in "Only the Good Die Young": They say there's a heaven for those who will waitSome say it's better but I say ... -
Does universalism have a chance in hell of being true?
February 15th, 201111:36 AM ETThomas Talbott has pointed out that one can find evidence from scripture to support the following three incompatible claims: (1) God wants to save everyone (2) God can save everyone (3) Not everyone will be saved Since this is an inconsistent set, a person has to give up at least one of these propositions. And so Christians do. The Calvinist g... -
Universalism isn't a four letter word
February 15th, 201111:03 AM ETMost Christians believe that some people will be etenally lost. But not all Christians agree with this. Some are supporters of the view that no people will be lost. Among them is one of my friends, the articulate theologian Robin Parry. A few years ago Robin wrote a great book called The Evangelical Universalist. He wrote it under a pseudonym (Greg... -
How exclusive should Christianity be?
February 14th, 201108:46 AM ETMany Christians are exclusivists by which I don't mean that they are social snobs or against racial integration. Rather, an "exclusivist" is one who believes that certain things are essential to being saved by Jesus. Catholic Community Exclusivism Historic Catholicism (i.e. prior to Vatican II) tended to be exclusivist about membership in its own... -
Rock stars finding God in church (but not like you think)
February 11th, 201108:34 PM ETHow do people experience God? A century ago Rudolf Otto famously analyzed one type of experience as what he called the sense of the numinous, that is the encounter with a transcendent, holy other. Otto analyzed this experience as having two dimensions. To begin with, there is the "mysterium tremendum" which includes a sense of fear, awe, and of on... -
Six Feet Under Before Your Time: A Review of “Buried”
February 10th, 201112:15 AM ETPaul Conroy is not a happy man. He has just woken up, bloodied, disoriented, and with a bad headache. And to cap it off ... he's been buried alive in a coffin. Now that's a really bad start to the week.Of course a cynic could reply that that's what you get for driving a truck for occupying forces in Iraq. And there's some truth in that. On the othe... -
I am going to prison
February 07th, 201110:54 PM ETI know what you're thinking. This is some wry joke. But it isn't. I am indeed going to prison. Next Tuesday. To the Edmonton Institution for Women. No, I'm not a gal. And I haven't committed a crime. I'm visiting so's we can have a wide ranging discussion of whatever theological questions they may have. And in my experience people who have been th... -
Will there be free will in heaven?
February 06th, 201106:16 PM ETLast week a pastor emailed me and asked the question: how can we be free in heaven if we will not be able to do evil things? I have heard this question enough to know that has occurred to many reflective Christians. And even if it does not have the existential grip of some other big questions, it nonetheless is important and needs to be addressed.F... -
On the pap people say when other people die
February 02nd, 201109:11 PM ETJim Clench was a fixture on the Canadian classic rock scene as a bass player and song writer for both April Wine and Bachman Turner Overdrive. Perhaps his best known song is April Wine's perennial concert favorite "Oowatanite". Not exactly Gershwin, but the song, and Clench himself, have earned a mention in the liner notes of modern arena rock. Sad...
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An exploration of faith, knowledge, reason and doubt (with the occasional trite pop culture reference thrown in for good measure).
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