All Posts

When a Christian grasps the maximal greatness of God that is both implied in Scripture and deductively concluded via the Ontological Argument , everything seems to become clear and life gets better (even during times of suffering).  One of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis is the following: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” Similarly, now that I grasp the utter perfection of G

I have spent many years wading through the history and ugliness of race relations in our culture and throughout the church.  There are some ugly moments, especially in America, for the church to deal with in regard to racism.  The evangelical support for Slavery in the mid and late 1800s and of segregation thereafter are a blight on our tradition. Theologically, these arguments for slavery never held any water, neither did arguments for racism or segregation. And, over time,

After surveying the writings of prominent Reformed theologians, I have concluded that many were/are quite open to the concept of what I refer to as limited libertarian freedom . That is to say, although these Reformers might have rejected libertarian freedom when it comes to soteriological matters (issues pertaining to salvation), they seemed to leave metaphysical room and, as Oliver Crisp writes in Deviant Calvinism , “conceptual space, so to speak, to prescind from determin

With tears welling up in my eyes, I read the Facebook post written by Dr. Michael Heiser; the effects of stage 4 pancreatic cancer were getting worse. This was heart-breaking news. Many of us had been prayerfully hopeful for Dr. Heiser’s healing over the past few months. Our prayers are still with him and his family as he, by all indications, seems to be finishing his race. But what a race this has been. What a blessing it has been to follow this man’s ministry. It’s not poss

It is important to note that I unabashedly approach my theology from a Protestant-Reformed perspective. After all, I have been a Protestant pastor in the Evangelical Free Church of America for nearly a decade. Although I left the pastorate to pursue analytic theology and apologetics (I am no longer employed as a pastor), I am still active in the denomination. Although I affirm Mere Molinism (based upon a couple ideas advanced by a Spanish Jesuit), I am not a Jesuit. I am Ref

Language is complex. Language provides the building blocks for communication in society.  What certain words or phrases mean within a given context helps to shape the understanding of the culture at large. Words, and their definitions, are what organize society. Words that define a culture’s foundational institutions most of all. Concise language provides clarity and direction for communities, cultures, and countries. Language matters. It is important to define what I mean

Question Dr. Stratton, If you say if God determines all things and some believers have false theological beliefs would that mean God determined them to believe false things and that makes God deceptive? And if you would say yes to that.. if you think that God determined Jesus to die on the cross does that make God also a murderer? If you think God determined Pharoah to harden his heart does that make God cruel? If God determined Assyria and Babylon to destroy Israel does that

Paul Manata has raised objections to my arguments against exhaustive divine determinism over the past few months. In fact, Manata seems to have made it his mission to personally lead the charge against An Explanation and Defense of the Free-Thinking Argument which I coauthored with JP Moreland. Below, Manata’s concerns will be quoted and addressed. <1 > >  Paul Manata: “On S&M’s paper on the Freethinking Argument: Made it to the conclusion. Wrote notes and comments as I read

Objection! "Over and over and over again, Stratton claims that Paul Manata is question-begging against “epistemic” incompatibilism. < See=">See" this="this" link ="link</a>" for="for" details="details"> . But, I don’t understand. Who’s argument is being presented? Is it Manta’s ? Is it the compatibilist’s? Who has the burden here to show that epistemic compatibilism is false? It is clearly NOT the compatibilist’s burden; it is the incompatibilist’s burden. How can an interlo

Recently, on Eli Ayala's Revealed Apologetics website, author Joshua Pillows published a blog article entitled TAG summarized & Explained: An Absolute Proof of God .  I found Pillow's article to be a clear and well-written account of the t ranscendental a rgument for God (TAG). Because of his clarity, it also provides reason as to why most Calvinists and a large percentage of those who practice Reformed theology cannot logically appeal to the TAG as an apologetic (lest one sh

Are you a Christian Nationalist? The midterm elections are upon us. People will go out in mass to vote on Tuesday (many have already voted in early voting states) and the national rhetoric around how we ought to run the country has reached a fever pitch.  It always does.  Relentless attack ads, mudslinging, misrepresenting an opponent’s platform, or, flat out lying about it.  This has been the way of American politics for as long as I can remember. I wish it weren't so, but

Paul Manata is known to be an aggressive but intellectual defender of exhaustive divine determinism (EDD) on social media. He is also more than willing to attack a fellow Christian's character in the process. He has recently taken issue with my arguments against EDD and my arguments for libertarian freedom. He took to social media in an attempt to debunk my arguments while also throwing a few personal insults. While Manata’s behavior is not becoming of one who considers himse

Most of us know someone who is a known liar. I have known several people over the years who could not be trusted. It seems as if some folks always lie. They even seek to deceive when there seems to be no need to do so.  The worst kinds of liars, however, are those who are generally reliable and seem to be honest the majority of the time, but who will also, on seemingly random occasions, tell a tall tale in an attempt to deceive. These kinds of liars are much worse than those

An Explanation and Defense of the Free-Thinking Argument by Timothy A. Stratton 1,* and J.P.Moreland  2 1 Trinity College of the Bible and Theological Seminary 2 Talbot School of Theology, Biola University Academic Editors: Brian Huffling and Hans Zollner Religions 2022 ,  13 (10), 988;  https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100988 Received: 31 August 2022 / Revised: 30 September 2022 / Accepted: 13 October 2022 / Published: 19 October 2022 (This article belongs to the Special Issue

The Church of Satan was started by Anton Lavey in 1966 as an atheistic religious organization focused on hedonism and lawful citizenry. Adherents to the Church of Satan claim not to believe in Satan or worship him but to strive for what they call “ethical egoism.”  Ironically, Satan’s most effective tool against humanity is not convincing people to worship him, but to worship themselves in leu of the Almighty God. Whether Lavey knew it or not, in effect, he did establish a

Although Richard Dawkins has advanced atheism – arguably more than anyone else – his arguments against the existence of God are simply horrible. In fact, Dawkins seems to be quite proud of what he refers to as the “central argument” of his book, The God Delusion. <1> His central argument, however, is the epitome of an unsound argument. That is to say, his conclusion “Therefore, God probably does not exist,” does not logically follow from his premises.  Dawkins's central argu

Scott Clifton is a Hollywood actor who has gained fame as a soap opera star ( One Life to Live, General Hospital, and The Bold and the Beautiful ). He has also gained the respect of both sides of the aisle in the "God vs. atheism" debate. Clifton is an ardent, but philosophically inclined atheist who goes by the moniker "Theoretical BS" (TBS). He recently tweeted out an argument against Christianity that left the Church scrambling. Indeed, many Christians did not know how to

The Four Horsemen of atheism stormed the cultural, philosophical, and spiritual scene in the early 21 st Century. Their dogmatic atheistic positions (or even anti-theist depending on who you talked to) were immediately popularized.  The late Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris comprised the crew.  They rode their vitriol for religious thought smack into the mainstream, seeking, for what felt like the first time, to proselytize religious folk

Question Tim, I’m sure you know that Wayne Grudem is no fan of William Lane Craig’s teaching on Molinism. In his popular theology textbook, Grudem mentions middle knowledge dozens of times and in Chapter 16, he gets down to business and presents four reasons why (he thinks) the Molinist position is not tenable. I’m going to copy and paste a rather sizable amount of text from Grudem’s book (Chapter 16) below, but I’m only doing this much in case you need some context. What I’m

In the first season of the Freethinking Podcast, Tim and I are recapping his debate with James White, a prominent Calvinist theologian. This debate happened in February of 2022, but this is our chance to recap the overall debate on the podcast. In this episode, we look at the rest of Dr. White's problems he has with Molinism and respond to them. Check out this episode!