In my favorite scene of the Jim Carrey flick Bruce Almighty––after Bruce has been given Divine powers only to abuse them, then hit rock bottom and seek reconciliation with his girlfriend––Bruce asks God [played by Morgan Freeman]: “How do you make someone love you without affecting their free will?” To which Morgan Freeman responds, “Welcome to my world, son.  You find an answer to that, you let me know.” For the Reformed Calvinist, this problem

These are hard times. All we have to do is look around us and we see that our world is in serious trouble. Where can we turn, where can we go? People try to blame guns, abortion laws, or terrorism. But until we see ourselves in Christ as the solution to these problems we will never make any progress. We are not helpless. When it comes to sin, nothing is really new under the sun.

Can God feel? For years, I didn’t think so.  I grew up in a very conservative Christian environment that imparted many benefits to me, but it also scarred me in some deep ways, particularly in leaving me with a flawed perception of God.  To its credit, this movement developed in rejection of the emotionally-charged mainstream churches that prioritize a “feeling” of closeness with God over the relationship itself, which ought to be steeped in the

Do the best things only happen when we pray? If so, from your lips to God’s ear; only you hear me. For every Rachael there’s a Leah For every Lot a wife and daughters For every Shunamite woman a Shunamite woman So we sit in the darkest place at the darkest time Rendering to Caesar our inheritance Marrying and giving in marriage Watching sheep and stars by night And Christ comes when nobody is looking

Happy Weekend, Dear Readers! As we continue moving through the Advent Season, we hope that you are able to find time to reflect on the gifts that God has given us through his Incarnation. As an aid to your own reflection, we have curated a list of articles from the past week for consideration. Articles considered deal with Christian theology specifically, religion in a broad sense, and current events. If you read a thought-provoking or

Introduction The Christological controversies of the early Church are simultaneously some of the most fascinating and frustrating events of Christian history. At the third of the four great ecumenical councils—Ephesus, in 431 AD—the theologies of Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius of Constantinople squared off concerning the makeup of the person of Christ. The heart of this debate was whether there were two distinct persons (divine logos and human) within the incarnate Jesus Christ, or if

On the Rich Man and Lazarus Our whole life is one of choices, and they all have consequences. Yet at the same time we did not choose to be male or female, short or tall. We did not choose to be born on the day or century we were born.  We are here at the corner of two streets, Lemon Creek and Garr, because we choose to be and yet we did not choose for

By Blake Hartung The last book of the Bible, the Revelation (or Apocalypse) of John, has been a consistent source of mystery and bewilderment for Christians since its composition in the last decade of the first century. This is of course, shouldn’t be too surprising; we are, after all, talking about the book that has given us such bizarre tableaux as a pregnant woman clothed in the sun pursued by a dragon, four colorful horsemen,

Happy Weekend and Happy December, Dear Readers! Below is this week’s selection of theology, religion, and current events articles from around the internet. If you read a thought-provoking or well-written article that did not make this list, feel free to share the link in the comments section below. Happy reading! Conciliar Post Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue on Grace: Part I by Benjamin Winter Remember Lot’s Wife by Kenneth O’Shaughnessy An Ex-Calvinists Tiptoe Through TULIP: Limited Atonement by

This article marks the close of my bi-weekly writing at Conciliar Post. It has been a joy to contribute and discuss the faith here. I hope I have produced a coherent framework in these articles for viewing all five branches of Christianity as one common faith to be embraced and learned from across denominations and lines of tradition. In my final regular article, I have no intent to malign Protestantism since I myself continue to

If you were a betting man (or woman), you’d probably agree that family stories are fairly memorable. So would I. Well, at least up until a couple weeks ago. It all started innocently enough. One of my sisters was taking a storytelling class. A recent assignment (beginning, you guessed it, a couple weeks ago) involved sharing one of those stories that must come up for a family gathering to actually be a family gathering. It

The Calvinist teaching of Limited Atonement is an understanding based upon a penal substitutionary model of Christ’s accomplishing salvation on the cross.  That is, salvation is understood to consist in Christ receiving God the Father’s wrath and punishment on the cross in the place of mankind, which results in a legal acquittal in the sight of the Father of people who accept this substitutionary gift.  However, since not everyone will accept this gift and be

This week, Conciliar Post saw the publication of another fascinating Round Table discussion. Check it out! Conciliar Post: JOHANNA BYRKETT: DARK NIGHTS END IN DAWN CHRIS CASBERG: STEPHEN COLBERT’S MINISTRY OF JOY VARIOUS AUTHORS: ROUND TABLE: AFTER DEATH JACOB PRAHLOW: IN A LAND WITH MUCH FOR WHICH TO BE THANKFUL JOHN EHRETT: V FOR VENDETTA AND THE PROBLEM OF EISEGESIS From Our Authors: JOHANNA BYRKETT: Cleansing Fire JACOB PRAHLOW: MHT: Assessing Historical Metanarratives (Part I)

Happy Thanksgiving, dear American readers! Today marks the day when we pause to take time away from our busy schedules to spend time with family, stuff ourselves with choice foods and rich drinks, watch copious amounts of football, and offer thanks to our Creator for His bountiful gifts. Meister Eckhart once said that “if the only prayer you ever say is thank you, it will be enough,” and today we stop to offer thanksgiving for

Teach me your way, O Lord,     that I may walk in your truth;     unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,     and I will glorify your name for ever. For great is your steadfast love towards me;     you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. {Psalm 84:11-13}   As we wrap up another week filled with violence, unexpected kindness, hard conversations,

Welcome back to the third and final “Myths of the Apocrypha!” In the first article, we asked whether Roman Catholics inserted seven “apocrypha” books into their canon to disprove Martin Luther. In the second, we asked whether early Christians rejected those same books for containing false teachings. Today, we ask the big question: “Did Jesus and His apostles quote any of these seven books?”   Myth #1: Roman Catholics inserted “apocrypha” books into their canon

Without the Bible—and more specifically, the New Testament—the Christian faith would not exist today. This is a fact that Christians of any branch would readily agree upon. But how did we get this collection of 27 New Testament books?1 How do we know that we have the correct books—that we haven’t left any out or included any spurious ones? To frame the question more poignantly, can we trust the collection of books we call the

Happy Weekend Dear Readers! As we move into the weekend, please keep the people of Paris, Beirut, and Baghdad in your prayers. As the days move forward, details and analysis regarding these situations will be worked out. In the end though, it is only The Prince of Peace who will bring lasting peace to our broken world; and situations like those from yesterday serve to remind us that we are always called to pray for

I have many thoughts and explanations to put forth on this topic so I will get right to it. THE DOCTRINE OF UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION I cite John Calvin to articulate what Reformed Christians refer to as “Unconditional Election” today: In conformity, therefore, to the clear doctrine of the Scripture, we assert, that by an eternal and immutable counsel, God has once for all determined, both whom he would admit to salvation, and whom he would

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate….For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:15,19)1 Perhaps I am being a smidgen anachronistic, but I am starting to wonder if Paul, in composing those famous lines in his letter to the Christians in Rome,