Since the fall, human beings are said to be born with original or inherited sin. By whatever means we inherit this problem, we have it innately. We do not acquire it sometime in our lives. Paul tells us that Adam’s sin affects the whole human species (Rom 5:12). Luther wrote, “all men are full of evil lust and inclinations from their mothers’ wombs.” Calvin wrote that original sin is “a hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused into all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God’s wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls ‘works of the flesh’ (Gal 5:19).” The doctrine of…
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Atonement: A Balance of Punishment?
The theory of penal substitutionary atonement states that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, took the punishment that we deserve. Some suggest that if Christ takes the punishment we deserve, then he must take the same (or identical) punishment we deserve. This thought generates an objection to the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement. The argument is something like: If we deserve eternity in hell, then, in order to take our punishment, Christ must spend eternity in Hell. Christ does not spend eternity in Hell. Therefore, we do not deserve eternity in Hell There is good reason to reject this argument. The first thing to notice is that this argument…
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Tri-unity
Christian theism is, at least in part, a set of statements or propositions believers take to be true. The study of the coherence of Christian theism is the consideration of the coherence of that set of statements. It is not a study of whether or not those statements are true but whether or not if they are true there is any explicit or implicit contradiction within or implied by that set of propositions. A contradiction is a relationship between propositions such that if it is the case that p, then it cannot also be the case that ~p. It is commonly suggested that among the set of propositions Christian theists…
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Notes: Does God Have a Nature?
When we say that God is good or that he is all-powerful we are predicating something of a subject as we are when we say “Socrates is wise.” On a realist view, the predicate is a property that is instantiated by the particular. “Wise” is a property of Socrates and, as such, and given realism, the property of is what is referred to by the term “wise.” To say that God is wise, or good is to say that God has the property of wisdom or goodness. If there are such things, as realists suggest, then they must exist in order to be referred to. In common parlance, such things…
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Divine Simplicity and Truthmaker Theory
What does it mean to say that God is simple? Usually put, for God to be simple is to say that God is identical to his properties. For example, God is identical to his property of goodness. And since every property is identical to God, every property is identical with every other property. God is good and God is love implies that God’s goodness is identical to God’s love. Many have found this doctrine to be strange and have rejected it. If God is identical to each of his properties and each property is identical to every other property then God has only one property. But God is said to…
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Can God Marvel?
God is marvelous. He causes in his worshipers a sense of wonder, awe and amazement. But does God feel the same? Can he marvel at himself? At the very least marveling implies finding something to be beyond conceptual reach. It appears to be connected with mystery. Sometimes our marveling can be because we do not have the concepts to understand what we see. A magic trick can be like this. We cannot understand how it is done even though we might be sure that, if someone explained the trick, we would understand it. A trick looses its mystery when we know how it is done. In other cases we marvel…
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Philosophy and Theology
What is the relationship between philosophy, particularly of the analytic type, and theology? A recent book, Analytic Theology, seeks, in part, to answer that question. As I read it I became more convinced that the purpose for an analytic theologian (one who uses the skills of analytic philosophy in the development of Christian theology) is to be of service to the church. It is therefore under the authority of scripture even while it uses reason to achieve the goal of a clear articulation of the content of the teachings of the church. An analytic theologian, indeed the Christian philosopher in general, is a servant to the Systematician. If the task…
