This is the beginning of a book that is in-progress titled Salvation by Being Good. I have published several chapters as blog posts which are listed at the end of this article. Any work of this nature which is a…
Salvation by Being Good
Let’s put this salvation issue as succinctly as possible: If God judges based on a person’s faith, then a good non-believer goes to Hell. If God judges based on conduct, then a good non-believer is saved. If the latter is…
God Really is Just – Justice Demands Forgiveness
In my hundreds of conversations about Salvation by Being Good there are two objections that are raised almost every time. One objection that I have already addressed in a previous blog post is that no man can by his own…
There Are None Righteous – Except For Everyone Who Is
A group of young men from the local Baptist megachurch were at Starbucks having a Bible study. As they broke up and were preparing to leave I told them I was writing a book on salvation and asked if they…
Scriptures That Teach All Men Will Be Judged by Their Conduct, Not Their Belief
Primary text: “This is the judgment [that is, the cause for indictment, the test by which people are judged, the basis for the sentence]: the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their…
Did the Lamb Sacrifice Save the Jew?
If I led a group of believers and I told you we were practicing ancient Jewish rituals such as lamb sacrifices you might have one or more of the following reactions: “Why on earth would you be doing that?” Or,…
Loyalty to “God’s Chosen People” Does Not Mean Running Palestinians Into the Ground
What some of my Christian friends believe to be loyalty to “God’s Chosen People”, many of us Christians see as a cruel trashing of everything we believe Jesus stood for. The comments from Christians to Pres. Trump’s tweet about withholding…
Righteousness by Self-Effort is Good, Expected, and Attainable
Understanding what Self-Righteousness actually is will go a long way in understanding what Paul is getting at in Romans and help to dispel the myths of Original Sin and Imputed Righteousness, as they are commonly understood. Self-righteousness has gotten a…
Were Jesus and His Apostles Mistaken About Jesus’ Soon Return?
It’s hard to imagine Evangelicals saying that Jesus and his apostles were wrong about one of the most important doctrines of the church but that’s exactly what many believe about the return of Christ. Peter, James, John, Paul, the writer…
Wrong Assumptions About the End Times
Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth popularized the idea that mankind’s future is all laid out in the prophetic portions of the Bible. This is called Futerism, and for many of us Christians it’s the only paradigm we…
$100 to the First Person to Demonstrate the Early Church was Trinitarian
If you believe the doctrine was taught in the church from the beginning what is your proof? I’ve been hearing a lot of people lately who are knowledgeable about church history saying that the doctrine of the Trinity was what…
Why Christians, and All Americans, Should Support the Palestinians, Not Israel
I was recently asked what I would do about the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinians given that Israel is in a fight for its life and has been under near constant attack by Hamas in the Gaza Strip…
The LOGOS of John 1:1 – First a Plan, Then a Person
“In the beginning was the Logos…and the Logos was made flesh.” (Jn. 1:1,14) The Gospel of John starts out by telling us that the Logos became the person of Jesus Christ. But was the Logos a person before that? In the beginning, was…
Peace With Islam: Chapter 1
From my upcoming book Peace With Islam: CHAPTER 1 America Meets Radical Islam, Our New National Enemy – My first encounter with Islam was America’s introduction to Islam during the 444 day hostage crisis that began in 1979 when Jimmy…
What [the] Hell?
Ed Christian, Professor of English at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, shows how words about Hell and eternal punishment are misunderstood. This presentation was given at an Evangelical Theological Society annual conference in 2001. The topic for the conference was Defining…
A Christian’s Plan to Deal with the ISIS Crisis
We need to do this in a way that marks us as being completely different than them, and I don’t mean by that how advanced our military is compared to theirs. I’m talking about a difference in character and mission.…
We Should Have Listened to the Libertarians About the Middle East
Saddam Hussein gassing Kurdish villages, al-Qaeda attacking the US on 9/11, and ISIS killing just about anybody who isn’t ISIS isn’t a good thing, we can all agree to that, but it seems only the Libertarians have any objections to…
The Monster God of Calvinism
Christians get into endless debates about free will, predestination, and once-saved-always-saved, get lost in the complexity of it all, and don’t even see the 800 pound gorilla sitting in the room. I feel a need to expose one of the…
Palestinian Christian Response to UN Condemnation of Israeli Settlements
When big-name preachers like John Hagee impugn Palestinians he’s impugning the 50,000 of them who are his Christian brothers. I think people like him who spread prejudice against Palestinians just need to spend some time with Christian missionaries on the…
The Doctrine of the Trinity is Not Orthodox
Many Protestants accept the idea that it was the Church that opted to be Trinitarian. This is a myth taught in numerous seminaries and pulpits. If that’s you – stop! It wasn’t the church that decided to define itself as…
Peace With Islam: Chapter 2
From my upcoming book Peace With Islam: CHAPTER 2 9/11 Gives Shape to our National Narrative – After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor someone congratulated Admiral Yamamoto on his victory. His response was, “I fear all we have done…
Israel Statehood: A Catastrophe, Not a Miracle
Al-Nakba – The Catastrophe May 14, 2018 marked the 70th anniversary of the declaration of Israel to become a state. Israel becoming a state is seen by many as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. I used to think so too.…
Revelation Wasn’t Written to Lukewarm Lutherans
Now that people are interested in Revelation due to the new Left Behind movies I’d like to add one bit to the discussion of how we are supposed to interpret this book. Even some atheists will be interested in this…
Standing With Israel: How Bad Theology Duped Us Into Supporting Terrorism and Oppression
From Benjamin Corey’s blog: Not many days go by without seeing some sort of “Stand with Israel” image pop up into my Facebook news feed. And, each time it does, my heart grieves over the fact that so many of…
Resources for Understanding Islam and Middle East Conflicts
These resources weigh heavily toward politics rather than theology to explain Islam and the Middle East. I have discovered that trying to understand Middle East conflicts and radical Islam from a purely theological perspective leads one to many wrong and…
Water Baptism is Not Commanded
Alright, let’s put this water baptism baby to rest. Water baptism was a Jewish tradition. Nothing more, nothing less. For some it was a messianic initiation rite they would do to publicly proclaim their allegiance to a messiah, of which…
Our Presence in the Middle East Really IS About Oil
For years I thought our use of military might was about humanitarian concerns, about being the world’s police force. That WAS the topic for debate, after all, wasn’t it? We couldn’t possibly be sacrificing the lives of our youth and…
I Am a Dynamic Figure
I am a dynamic figure, often seen running up stairs and crushing ice. I explain ethnic slurs to Palestinians. I manage time efficiently several times a day. Though sailboats are considered slower than motorboats I have raced them nevertheless. I have…