I am going to highlight the moral incoherence of Christian conservatives who rail against abortion as a great evil while defending biblical atrocities. Case in point, yesterday a fellow named Steven Ullmer posted the following moral indictment of abortion, referencing “innocent blood”: Part of my response to Mr. Ullmer included a pointed challenge to his […]
hermeneutics
If Kidnapping Girls is Always Wrong, What Do You Do With Numbers 31?
This video is a follow-up to my critique of Jonathan McLatchie. I don’t give you the “right” interpretation/application of the text, but I do seek to lay out some principles to guide your theological and hermeneutical reflections. ?
Red Pen Logic Gets the Red Pen
A discussion of how Mr. B of Red Pen Logic misrepresents Brandon Robertson by confusing reading the Bible with preaching the Bible. ?
Atheist Edge Debate Debrief and Dialogue
Yesterday, I appeared back on the Atheist Edge YouTube Channel to debrief my recent debate with Richard Carrier. The host Kaz brought a range of questions and arguments to the discussion. ?
Did God Command Genocide? An Interview on Capturing Christianity
Delighted to appear on Capturing Christianity today to talk about the problem of biblical genocide.
Do All Atheists Suppress Knowledge of God?
In this short interview with The Analytic Christian I discuss Romans 1 and atheism. ?
Speaking to Abraham’s Silence: A Review
J. Richard Middleton. Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God. Baker Academic, 2021. The binding (Aqedah) of Isaac is one of the most troubling stories in all Scripture. And it is not hard to see why. The story depicts God commanding a father to butcher […]
The Problem with Young Earth Creationism in One AiG Tweet
There are a lot of problems with young earth creationism. Most people are well versed in the scientific problems. But no less daunting are the hermeneutical problems as helpfully summarized in this AiG tweet: God’s Word makes it clear that he created everything in six literal days (as plainly defined per the Hebrew word for […]
Why God Did Not Command the Slaughter of the Canaanites, Briefly Explained
This article provides a brief synopsis of a case explaining why God did not command the slaughter of the Canaanites. It is based on a debate opening statement that I gave last year. And it provides an introduction to some of the arguments I develop at length in Jesus Loves Canaanites. “Slaughter” is defined as the […]
The Limits of Defending Biblical Violence By Appealing to a Big, Wild, and Dangerous God
Over the years, I have seen many Christians attempt to address problems of divinely sanctioned biblical violence by reframing them as virtues: in short, the bug is a feature. How so? On this re-narration, the problem of biblical violence should remind us that God is big and wild and dangerous. This offers an essential chastening […]
Seven Things I Wish Every Christian Knew About the Bible: A Review
Michael Bird. Seven Things I Wish Every Christian Knew About the Bible. Zondervan, 2021. Seven Things is an introduction to the Bible written by Anglican priest and New Testament scholar Michael Bird. The book is written in seven chapters addressing origins (chapter 1), inspiration and inerrancy (chapter 2), authority (chapter 3), the cultural distance between the biblical […]
What if God is Dreadful?
In his book A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis sets aside the task of theodicy that he shouldered in The Problem of Pain in favor of a searing personal account of pain and loss centered on the death of his beloved wife Joy. At one point in the book, he reflects, “Not that I am (I […]
Would Jesus have endorsed gay marriage?
Jesus never talks about same-sex relationships, but he does talk about marriage (e.g. Matthew 19:1-10, Mark 10:1-12). And when he describes marriage, he always does so within the context of an indissoluble male/female covenantal bond. His understanding of the indissolubility aspect is an important topic in the conversation, But here I want to focus on […]
Fundamentalist Bible Reading and Literally False Descriptions of God
In this video, I explain how a passage like Exodus 32 forces fundamentalist Christians to abandon their “literalist” approach to Bible reading or face stark theological consequences. ?
