Calvinism: Total Depravity?
The most well-known feature of Calvinism is its famous five points, often referred to by Calvinists as “the doctrines of grace” and represented by the acronym TULIP.[1] There is much more to Calvinist theology than this, of course, but TULIP is definitely the centerpiece. The acronym summarizes the Calvinist understanding of salvation like this: Total […]
Jesus Elevates Your Dignity
In the United States in the 1920s and 30s, life was very difficult for racially mixed children. This was especially true for a particular child, “Joseph,” born in 1928 to a Native American father and an Irish mother. At that time, both were considered the dredges of society, and to have children who were the […]
Jesus and the Buddha: What Was Their Diagnosis of Humanity’s Problem?
According to Jesus and the Buddha, what is fundamentally wrong with humanity? As we will see, Siddhartha Gautama’s diagnosis of humanity undercuts the human problem by changing our perspective about what a human is. He does this by having the adherent realize that she isn’t an enduring self. Once an adherent is cured of her […]
Was It Loving to Affirm My Sin?
Years ago when I abandoned God and embraced sin, several Christians demonstrated their “loving like Jesus” by affirming my right to make my own choices, rallying around me as a “caring, non-judgmental” support system, and never once confronting my sin (or even implying that my adultery, drunkenness, and the like were sin). If someone accidentally […]
Resisting the Lure of Legalism
“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?” (Mark 7:18, NIV) Let’s talk about legalism. I know about legalism because I used to be a legalist. At the time, I didn’t believe legalism was really a thing. I’ve actually said to people, […]
God Can Do Anything? What God Can’t Do & Why It’s Good News
Tennis can be fun unless you’re playing against someone way better than you are. When you’re playing against someone quite a bit better, they can hit the ball in ways that have you running all over the court. They might hit the ball way to your right so you have to sprint to make the […]
What Does the Bible Say About Jealousy? An Introduction to the Scariest Sin
Why does “do not covet” make it into the Ten Commandments? To covet is to strongly desire what someone else has. What’s an internal compulsion to want someone else’s stuff doing in a lineup with murder, theft, and perjury? Did God get to nine and need to bring in a lesser sin to get to […]
Original Sin or Ancestral Sin?
A nearly universal assumption we make as human beings is that we can do right and wrong things, good and evil things. This article isn’t about the basis for determining “right” or “wrong,” or “good” and “evil,” but about the human predicament we all find ourselves in: Why do we sin? The Christian scriptures offer a […]
