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OSAS is most definitely not threatened by the story of Ananias and Sapphira. God deals with His people in two ways: as Judge, and as Father. It's completely possible that A & S were both believers, but their sin needed to be made an example of, so God killed them with physical death. Physical...

Continued... No mere human being except Bob could ever know that. I suppose this is a possibility. It's extremely rare for a true believer ever to deny his Lord and Savior. Peter did it, though. And Jesus restored him. Because we as finite human beings do not know even our own heart...

Yes, I enjoyed that one, too!

I'd quite agree. Yes and no. There is a 1 Peter sense in which we are all priests, and we interpret God's Word for ourselves, and we must. But I think there is safety in numbers and in church history. If I come out with some "new" hare-brained doctrine (typically just re-hashed heresies), I...

I am what you might call a partial cessationist. That is, while I do not believe the gift of Capital T Tongues is still around, I do believe God gifts certain people in languages - my brother, for one. While I do not believe there are any Capital P Prophets around anymore, I do believe God gifts...

As I mentioned in the other thread, it's pretty hard to offend me; you're not walking on eggshells with me. Well, perhaps you can help me here. I wasn't thinking that I was confusing Law and Gospel (in my thinking, as in Luther's in particular, this is quite an important distinction). I...

Totally agree there. Intellectuals, as often as not to impress others with their thinking skills, tend to go off the deep end. The solution is not anti-intellectualism, though. We are to think (Phil. 4:8). But we are to think Christianly, and biblically. The solution is Christian thinking. God...

Well, yes and no. By definition, since self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, if you have the fruit of the Spirit, you have self-control. However, because I am a Calvinist and not a hyper-Calvinist, I believe that, since we are saved by grace through faith from sin and dead works to faith and...

I believe it is a human being - a person - from the moment of conception. I believe that's when God endows the soul. You could make an argument from Psalm 139 that the person has always existed in the mind of God. Personhood is where the argument is now. Pro-death people are, for the most part...

I do not argue that the believer has doubts about fundamental, primary things of the faith (who is God, who is Jesus, how is he made right with God, the truth of the Scriptures, etc.). A good, solid believer should have no doubts about any of that. I am saying that we do not know everything...

The Reformed Perspective on Perserverance Being a Scots Calvinist, I'll be the one to offer up a different viewpoint: it is impossible to lose salvation. First off, we need some definitions. By "salvation", I mean the entire kit and kaboodle: predestination (election), atonement, first birth...

I mean logically circular, as in petitio principii, or begging the question, or assuming what you set out to prove. Does that answer your question? Ah, but in the Christian epistemology, as I'm arguing here, the role of the Holy Spirit needs to be appreciated. Without Him, no one accepts the...

Paul seems rarely to leave out this Fruit of the Spirit in any of his lists. What is it? Can we come up with a nice genus-and-difference definition? And I ask, how do we get it? I could see this virtue, possibly, as an entryway into the other virtues. What is the relationship between...

The Christian epistemology, as I see it, is this: the Holy Spirit convinces the believer that the Bible is true. Now, the Bible is true regardless of whether anyone believes it or not. It is objectively true. But no one ever thinks that unless the Holy Spirit convinces him. So I'm saying here...

I think it all comes down to the main point of worship. Is worship all about the worshippers? Or is it all about God? Some might complain right here, and say I've inserted an unnecessary divide, but this is where the action is. I'm a firm believer that worship is about God. And if that's the...

One light switch to rule them all, One light switch hard to find. One light switch to bring them all, and in the darkness power them.

I've worked with MarkFL quite a bit over on Math Help Boards, helping to administer the site; and he, knowing I am a Christian, thought CH would be an interesting place to hang out. So, I signed up, and am interested in discussions about theology in particular. I'm Christian first by the grace...