Theology

Have you ever had an interaction with someone that left you speechless?  It goes something like this: “I just don’t think that’s right.” “Are you serious?  Wow… Aren’t you supposed to be Christian?  Show some empathy or compassion, isn't that what Jesus would do!?” Pick the topic – abortion, eternal life, race, identity and a myriad of others.  This is often how some of those conversations end.  The highest moral ground goes to the one that is most empathetic to the plight

**Warning: This analysis contains major spoilers** (This review is for people who watched Squid Game and are needing to process what they watched and for people who do not intend to watch it but want to know how to have conversations about it.) “Squid Game,” the Korean show that has serious Hunger Games energy, is now the number one most watched series of all time on Netflix. This peaked my interest. Similar to the show “13 Reasons Why,” this show taps into essentially huma

Question Hey Dr. Stratton, I love your site and content. I am planning on reading your book soon. In the meantime I need your perspective on something. I love the MMA syllogism and the articles you’ve written on the subject of Molinism making the most sense of all the biblical data . But as someone who doesn’t hold to "once saved always saved" (due to my study of scripture), how can I reconcile the notion of "mere Molinism" with the warnings scripture gives of believers fall

Sermon Outline Riddle me this: What’s black and white and RED all over? I remember the first time my dad posed that question to me when I was a young child. Even as a little boy – untrained in philosophy – I knew something was amiss. I intuitively understood that if something was literally black and white . . . like a news paper . . . then it could not be the COLOR RED all over. After all, something cannot be the colors RED and Black and White simultaneously and in the same s

Lil Nas X Back to where we started. What if I told you that the issue with Lil Nas X was not his being gay, but with how he perceived the Church’s response to his being gay? He has somehow come away with the understanding that he should hate himself because he has a natural proclivity to same-sex attraction.  For some reason, pointing out a lifestyle of sin has been equated to pointing out the evil of the person. I think this reason is tied to the idea of identity.  In this

As we enter into the final section of critiquing the objections to the orthodox view of homosexual activity as a sin, it is important to note, again, why I am spending such a significant amount of time on these particular points.  The rallying cry for the liberal theologian has been grace, mercy and love, but as I established in part one ( HERE ), I believe that true grace, mercy and love must be based on the Truth established in God’s word. In order to have proper compassion

Previously, we looked at the dichotomy between what it means to declare homosexual activity a sin and how those who believe in Christian orthodoxy deal with it.  We addressed the current cultural movement’s roots and introduced the idea of identity into the argument. It was necessary to do this so that we can have a strong foundation from which to build the following arguments.  We must first know why the liberal theologians seek to glorify homosexuality as an identity to

To become a Mere Molinist all one has to do is affirm two propositions: 1- God possesses middle knowledge.  2- Humans possess libertarian freedom. These are the two pillars of Mere Molinism, and after surveying the scriptural support, perfect being theology, and philosophical arguments, many Christ followers seem to think that these two key ingredients are non-controversial and easy affirmations -- unless one is previously committed to either exhaustive divine determinism (E

Lil Nas X Do you know the name?  I do not know why you would, but Lil Nas X has become a bit of a cultural icon in recent years.  He wrote a hit country/hip-hop song in 2019 called “Old Town Road” with country star Billy Ray Cyrus.  The success of the hit propelled Lil Nas X into the modern spotlight.  The song, and its remix, won him fourteen awards spanning from the Grammys to Kids’ Choice Awards . As a result, Lil Nas X toured the country singing for elementary age kids

"My conclusions were both more sanguine and restricted than I had anticipated. I was surprised by the actual strength of the resurrection hypothesis." Over my short years of reading large texts on different subjects and in different genres, I’ve started to notice somewhat of a pattern or correlation: authors and scholars with humility tend to produce not only good books, but long books as well. The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach (RoJ) by Dr. Michael

As Christians we are called to share the Gospel with all people ( Matthew 28:16-20 ). Indeed, the Gospel is literally the "good news" -- the best news -- a person could ever hear. With this in mind, it is vital for all Christians to grasp exactly what the Gospel message is and also know how to articulate why this is good news. Sadly, I have found that a large percentage of self-professed Christians cannot clearly articulate this good news. Indeed, often times when I ask a ch

"Perhaps we need to be more open to the fact that some of our moral intuitions aren't as finely tuned as they ought to be." Paul Copan's Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God (IGaMM) states its question and objective right in its title, as every good book should. While it could more accurately be regarded as an open letter/response to the so-called New Atheist movement of the past couple of decades (which has more or less petered out in recent year

I recently launched a new Facebook group called Mere Molinism (click here to join) . This private group is focused on discussing the essential ingredients of mere Molinism (human libertarian freedom and divine middle knowledge) along with related issues. This group is unique for several reasons. First, all the admins possess or are currently pursuing graduate degrees in theology or philosophy. Second, one does not have to affirm Molinism to be in this group. As noted in the "

“Why would a loving God condemn people to Hell?” How many times have you or someone you know asked this question?  It seems like an obvious question.  We know what love is and we know what love is not (at least that is what we tell ourselves) and condemning a group of people to eternal punishment seems not only punitive, but unjustly so. In over a decade of youth ministry this question, above all else, is at the forefront of every Q&A session I ever held. Kids are desperate

Recently I had an enlightening conversation with EDD (an exhaustive divine determinist). Calvinists who affirm exhaustive divine determinism believe that God causally determines all things all the time (unless they are discussing 1 Timothy 2:4 , these Calvinists do affirm that "all" means "all"). This means that everything about a human -- every thought, belief, action, behavior, evaluation, and judgement -- is always causally determined by something or someone other than

Question: Dear Dr. Stratton,  I have a short but not so simple question: What type or form of government is the Kingdom of Heaven? - Mike Tim's Response: What a great question! If Heaven is "the way things ought to be," then humans ought to attempt to emulate this political standard knowing full well we cannot create a literal "Heaven on earth." Just as we cannot each live just like Jesus, we are called to "be Holy" and strive to approximate to His perfect standard, all whil

God is a maximally great being by definition. He always has been and always will be perfect and maximally great (see Job 42:1-2 ; Psalm 145:3 ; 147:5 ; Isaiah 41 ; Jeremiah 1:5 ; 32:27 ; Luke 1:37  and the Ontological Argument ). With that said, however, for nearly 500 years many Christians have sadly advanced a "low view of God." In the book, The Knowledge of the Holy , A.W. Tozer says: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Question: Hey Dr. Stratton, In a FB group, Tyler Vela (a well-known internet Calvinist) posted the following question: “Libertarians - will we be robots in the eternal state since we will not be able to sin? (Note: if you make a nature or “we won’t want to” argument then you’re just making the same nature/ultimate desire argument as a compatibilist does.)” In the ensuing thread, Colton Carlson, who affirmed your definition of LFW (libertarian freedom), stated that LFW must no

Watch the YouTube video here (please like, share, and subscribe)! What’s up Free-Thinkers and True-Believers? I’m Dr. Stratton . . . and today I’m going to be talking about Doctor Strange and the Avengers. Marvel Studios took their time and spent a good decade developing many of my favorite childhood comics into fantastic movies. And they continue to build on top of this foundation on Disney Plus with shows like WandaVision and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier! Marvel starte

Complete this biblically-modeled prayer: “Dear God, help me to ______” a) seek Your face and strength. b) praise You even in time of suffering. c) love my enemies and pray for those who persecute me. d) hate White people. According to Chanequa Walker-Barnes, PhD ( https://www.drchanequa.com/ ) the answer does not exclude (d). Yes, even with the caveat that this prayer is modeled after Bible doctrine and scripture, Dr. Chanequa claims that asking God to help one to hate White