As I’ve been researching the history of the doctrine of original sin, I’ve been pondering the eternal destiny of persons whom I’m calling “the innocents.” By innocent, I mean any person who does not have the capacity to understand and accept or reject the gospel. This includes those who died as infants, those who were aborted, and those who are born without sufficient mentally ability through a defect or damage.
Continue reading “What happens to the innocents?”Category: stuff I think about
The Message of the Wise Men
A lot has been made of the wise men who visited Jesus very early in his life, and it seems that most folks are interested in knowing who they are or where they came from, why they brought gifts, what the star they followed actually was, etc. These are all interesting questions, but I want to look at something else. (By the way, fast facts on the wise men: we don’t know how many, we don’t know from where, and there’s nothing which says they were kings.)
I want to focus on the fact that they were not Israelites. What in the world were they doing there? Why did Matthew include them in his gospel? Most of Jesus’ interactions in this gospel were with other Jews, so it seems important when these foreigners are mentioned so prominently.
Continue reading “The Message of the Wise Men”Was Adam immortal before the fall?
I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about Adam recently, and one idea which I’ve read is that Adam was physically immortal prior to the fall. This idea has been around a long time, at least since the dispute between Augustine and Pelagius in the fifth century.
Continue reading “Was Adam immortal before the fall?”Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible
Here’s a lengthy essay I wrote on this topic: link.
For the tl;dr crowd, here’s the conclusion: both the Old and New Testaments provide certain grounds for a valid divorce, which includes the option of remarriage. Divorce outside of these grounds is forbidden to Christians, and Christians are always encouraged to maintain the marriage.
I welcome comments! Corrections, agreements, disagreements, what-about-this observations, etc.
Born guilty?
Are all human beings really born guilty? Lots of people think so. Theologians, scholars, and preachers have been writing and speaking on this topic for over a thousand years.
There are some serious consequences of this doctrine, and I wonder if they have really been thought through. Perhaps the idea has been around so long that it has become another one of doctrines that we just assume is true, then look around for proof.