Paul famously summarized his missionary strategy in 1 Corinthians 9:22 when he wrote: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” The strategy may have been definitive of Paul, but it certainly wasn’t original to Paul. After all, it was God the Son himself who […]
Jesus
Does Jesus’ vision of a good person make sense?
In “The most sinful man in the room” I quoted Harry Blamires’ observation that from a Christian perspective the person with the most admirable public persona may be the most evil or wicked person based on the interior condition of his heart. R0c1 found this notion perplexing. As he put it: “I’m trying to think […]
Jesus believed in ghosts (so maybe you should too)
The other day I watched the new supernatural thriller “Mama”, a truly fine exemplar of Spanish horror and reminiscent of other memorable Spanish films like “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “Rec” and “The Orphanage.” While the film was directed by Andrés Muschietti, it bears the imprimatur of Guillermo del Toro, which is not that surprising given that del Toro served […]
Jesus, execution and divorce
In “Does Jesus commend the killing of children in Mark 7:10?” I argued that this verse (and the surrounding passage, Mark 7:9-13) does not provide warrant to think Jesus would commend (let alone participate in) the stoning of a child, even if the conditions for such a stoning as outlined in the Torah were met. […]
Does Jesus commend the killing of children in Mark 7:10?
In “Would Jesus stone a misbehaving child?” I argued that he wouldn’t. One of my readers, Jeff, responded as follows: “Jesus affirms in Mark 7:10 the practice of stoning rebellious children, and we don’t have any manuscript evidence (that I’m aware of, at least) that this is an inauthentic addition to Mark.” Jeff clearly believes […]
Does Jesus go with soldiers into battle?
Let’s set aside the kitschy nature of this image and ask a very important question. What does it mean for Jesus to be placing a hand on the shoulder of a praying soldier and declaring that he is with the soldier always? The allusion is presumably to Matthew 28:20, a passage which caps off the Great […]
Would Jesus stone a misbehaving child?
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a child weeping frantically who had been caught being stubborn and rebellious against his parents. They […]
The Resurrection of Jesus, 52 Pickup, and Prior Probabilities
In my rebuttal to John Loftus’ essay that the cumulative claims of Christianity are “wildly improbable” I pointed out that this argument has no force for those who already accept the cumulative claims of Christianity. To make the point I gave an illustration which I’ll streamline slightly here. Imagine that you tell me your new […]
Do the hard sayings of Jesus constitute defeaters for his moral excellence?
In the thread of my essay “What if I stumble? Arguing against Christianity from the lives of Christians” Mike Gantt commented on the moral excellence of Jesus as follows: the moral excellence implied by his conduct, and made explicit by his teaching, were so elevated when compared to typical human behavior that even unbelievers will […]
The fallible Jesus?
The question of the knowledge (and ignorance) of Jess exploded back onto the blog this week when Andy Derksen commented the following in my article “How many wrong beliefs did Jesus have?” unless Jesus was in fact wrong about his very identity and mission(!) … whatever he actually *taught* as recorded in the gospels–including statements that have […]
The Jesus double standard
This article was originally published at The Christian Post in 2009 under the title “What does Jesus always get picked on?” How many Shakespeare scholars do you suppose believe Christopher Marlow wrote the great Bard’s plays? Less than one in a hundred, I’m sure. Are Shakespeare scholars fools? That seems a little bit presumptuous […]
The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 9)
After a couple weeks hiatus I find myself picking up my review of The End of Christianity once again. Although I have published about fifteen posts in critique of The End of Christianity over the last couple months, I have not received a single response from the essayists. Well okay, there was one response: John W. […]
If “The Bible is not a children’s book” then why do we have children’s Bibles?
Steve Hays of Triablogue wrote a response to my discussion of teaching biblical genocide to children called “Scout’s Honor!” It includes all the hallmarks of Hays’s critical analysis (or lack thereof) including the claim that I accept the UN as my “moral authority”. (How’s that supposed to work exactly?! “Hmm, has the UN addressed whether […]
Could Jesus have given the wrong theological answer?
Many Christians are happy (or at least willing) to recognize that Jesus had ignorance of certain matters. For example, he couldn’t have told you that London will host the 2012 Olympics or that Transformers 3 would clean up at the box office. But that willingness to embrace Jesus being ignorant suddenly seems to exaporate when […]
