Philosophy

There is a growing excitement in the US about the unique opportunity on August 21, 2017, to see a total solar eclipse, the first opportunity on American soil for 38 years. Air transportation, motel reservations, and car rentals have seen a surge in business in cities located along the path where the eclipse will be total. It has also kindled interest in how this coming eclipse might provide insights into the ancient event of the “darkness” that suddenly occurred while Jesus h

I recently took up a new hobby. Yes, this might surprise you, but there is more to my life than sitting behind this laptop and churning out articles on theology and apologetics. Contrary to popular opinion, I have a somewhat balanced life. I enjoy doing CrossFit, wrestling around with my son (who is getting bigger and stronger every day), and going on bike rides with my wife. My little min pin, Rondo, keeps me busy too. And, as many know, I love watching sports and good movie

Who are you? Many people carry identification most of the time. This is typically in the form of driver's licenses -- or passports if you are in a different country. These identification cards provide information about the person so that others can quickly know some important facts. My driver's license, for example, provides some information about me such as height, weight, color of my eyes, current address, and even my driver's license number! It even has a photo of my ugly

with Clay Jones was probably the most important class I took during my time in the Christian apologetics program at Biola University . Years of pastoring and teaching have allowed him to craft a solid , a defense of God’s goodness in the face of great evil. And now I’m thrilled that Clay’s course is available to all, translated into book form . Content Each of the book's eleven chapters answers a specific question. The first, “Why Do We Suffer For Adam’s Sin?” explores the o

One thing that has always surprised me is how some Calvinists align themselves with atheists to argue against a common foe: Molinism! That is to say, many Calvinists affirm that God exhaustively causally determines all things. This is not some straw man I am inventing. In his recent essay, notable Calvinist, Matthew J. Hart affirms this exact position: “Calvinists, I shall assume, are theological determinists. They hold that God causes every contingent event, either directl

Paul Copan, Tremper Longman III, Christopher L. Reese, and Michael G. Strauss have put together a monstrous dictionary that seeks to investigate the interaction between science and the Christian faith. Methodology The scope of the dictionary is very wide-ranging and accessible to interested laypeople and experts alike. Over 140 leading scholars have contributed essays. The dictionary has three types of entries: Introductions outline the central facts about a given topic; Essa

Obviously, atheists object to God's existence, but surprisingly, many Christians (at least inadvertently) reject the existence of a maximally great being as well! This objection is commonly advanced by specific Christians who are committed to deterministic assumptions and oppose what has been referred to as " the single most fruitful theological concept " ever conceived -- Molinism! This opposition against Molinism is typically advanced by way of the Grounding Objection . Th

I took a philosophy class while I was in college. The topic of this class was on contemporary moral issues, so you know we got into some heated topics. I heard every objection under the sun to objective morality. Everything from it was not very "tolerant," to different cultures act differently so therefore there cannot be objective morality. I was the minority in this class to say the least! Objective morality means that moral statements like “murder is bad” is independent o

As I reflect on the last twenty years of my life, I’m struck by how much my theological outlook has changed. This is especially the case regarding my view of Divine providence. For sixteen years, I was a theological determinist; that is to say, I believed that God causally determined everything that came to pass, including every creaturely choice and action. Moreover, given the chain of sufficient causation from God’s decree, nothing – not even any creaturely choice or action

When talking about Molinism and its relation to the other major views of God’s sovereignty, omniscience and human freedom it seems there is much confusion on the issue of true counterfactuals of creaturely freedom (CCF’s from here on). Namely, God’s knowledge of what would be the case if circumstances were different. One of the best, most popular examples is from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, where George Bailey gets to see what the world would have been like if he ha

I am amazed and frightened at the acceptance of, and even downright preference for Socialism among the young adults of today. Most young adults today possess little property due to the socialist bent of our current government and our administrative state, so it is not totally unexpected that they might embrace socialism as they have comparatively nothing to lose and know nothing else. However, the Founding Fathers of the USA rejected socialism as a governing philosophy by vi

I have been a Christian for many years—since I was a teenager—and I have been a pastor for about 42 years, but I have to admit that I know so little about God. I say that not with a fake humility, but because it is true. I want—like most of believers—to have a deep relationship with God, but far too often there are only periods that punctuate a rather ordinary life. In fact in my experience, there is a certain illusiveness about God. C. S. Lewis tapped into this longing when

Abstract: The doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS) has come under fire in recent years and shows no sign of cooling. Currently, one of the most interesting arguments against this doctrine is what has been referred to as the “modal collapse.” In this paper, I demonstrate that many of the objections raised against the argument are confused, logically contradictory, and inconsistent. I conclude that the modal collapse argument stands firm against these objections. Introduction Th

Last year I had the privilege of working on the AWANA Youth Ministry Advocates curriculum. But to be honest, I had never even heard of AWANA until I was contacted by my former Biola professor, Dr. Sean McDowell , to help work on the project. (I attended a Royal Rangers/Girls Ministries church.) So I thought I would ask him to explain what AWANA and this new Advocates curriculum are all about! Who is AWANA and how did you come to partner with them? AWANA is an international

SPOILER ALERT!!! As most of our regular readers know, those of us at FreeThinking Ministries absolutely LOVE comic books and superhero movies! A couple of weeks ago I watched the new Wonder Woman movie. This fun fictional flick touches on some important points which illustrate the actual truth about God and His relationship to all men and women. Although "Diana Prince" (Wonder Woman's alter ego) is the daughter of Zeus, two things struck me as theologically accurate when co

Summary: Paul Helm has contributed an article to Ligonier.org in which he presents two noteworthy objections to Molinism. First, Helm presents an internal critique of Molinism purporting to show that Libertarian Free Will (LFW) undermines God's providential control over the world. Second, Helm argues that Molinism is incompatible with the doctrine of irresistible grace. I demonstrate that Helm begs the question with his first objection and relies on a model of LFW which Molin

Recently, there has been a great disturbance within the “Christian community.” Dr. James R. White has recently been attacked by many “Christians.” I will try to present these attacks in an honest and courteous manner. In fact, although I disagree with White on several issues, I would like to set a tone of support for Dr. White and thank him for his services to the great commission (Matthew 28:16-20). For those who are unaware, James White is part of the Phoenix Reformed Bapt

Many Christians believe that the first section of Romans 13 – verses 1-7 -- forbids any form of resistance to government... even when it clearly goes tyrannical. If one analyzes this passage of the Bible carefully, however, as The USA’s founding fathers did, we can see that Paul was speaking in generalities in this passage, and that unlimited tolerance of government tyranny is a highly wooden, hyper-literalistic reading of his words which is impossible to reconcile with other

Muchas veces me hacen la pregunta: "Tim, ¿cuál es tu versículo favorito de la Biblia? Esta es una pregunta difícil para mí de responder porque hay muchos versículos que luchan por este primer lugar. Lo primero que se me ocurre, algunos de mis versículos favoritos incluyen (en ningún orden en particular): Romanos 12:2; Mateo 22:37-39; Romanos 1:20; 1 Corintios 10:13; 2 Corintios 4:17; Colosenses 1:16; Deuteronomio 30:11-19; Salmos 1:19; Salmos 97:1-6; Jueces 6:12; 1 Timoteo 2:

En una reciente carta al editor en el periódico local, un autor se quejó que la "hipótesis del big bang" estaba siendo enseñada en las escuelas públicas. Él dijo que necesitamos un hipótesis mejor. Su respuesta: enseñen "¡Creacionismo!" Lo que este cristiano no entiende es que el modelo del big bang es en realidad evidencia para el creacionismo. El cosmólogo eminente, Alexander Vilenkin, lo dejó claro: "Con la prueba ahora en su lugar, los cosmólogos ya no se pueden esconder