NaClhv

Theology, philosophy, science, math, and random other things
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The meaning of faith - an exploration of Hebrews 11

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" - Heb. 11:1 This is a key verse in understanding what the Bible means by "faith". So what does it say? First, let's note that the words here can be applied in quite a mundane manner. I think doing so […]

Easter, perfect play, and the best of all possible histories

Some have said that if a perfect God exists, then we must live in the best of all possible worlds. Others have said that since this is clearly not the case, God cannot exist. Others still have said that we must actually live in the worst of all possible worlds, since if it were any worse it could not continue to exist. What should we make of these observations, and how are they related to games?

Evidence for a historical Adam and Eve

Here is my claim: the scientific contents of my interpretation is a major piece of evidence for the veracity of the biblical account of Adam and Eve, and for Christianity as a whole. In other words, I’m not settling for mere “compatibility” with the known sciences; what we have here is actual, strong, positive evidence, and everyone needs to adjust their beliefs accordingly.

Is evolutionary science in conflict with Adam and Eve?

I have contributed to a white paper mapping out the different ways to understand Adam and Eve alongside evolution. You can find it here. It turns out that there are a multitude of ways holding both at the same time - far larger than what is popularly conceived! The paper mainly points out this expansive […]

Love your enemies

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says "Love your enemies," he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken or we shall be plunged in to the dark abyss of annihilation.

A record of the total solar eclipse on 2020-12-14

The covid pandemic added a new layer of difficulty to everything. Combined with the other challenges intrinsic to such an endeavor, I felt like everything was fighting me every step of the way. In fact, I initially conceptualized this trip as a sequence overcoming these difficulties: I was going to impose my will upon the world in the face of these challenges, and bring about my intended results. We'll see how that turned out.

More unoriginal thoughts about the election

My kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36)Our citizenship is in heaven. (Phil.3:20)We must obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. (Ps. 118:8)Do not put your trust in princes; in human beings, who cannot save. (Ps. 146:3)God turns the king's heart […]

Presenting my argument for the resurrection to the McLean Bible Church

Last week, I presented my argument for Jesus's resurrection, in an hour-and-a-half talk given to MCB Apologetics - a ministry of the McLean Bible Church. And it went really, really well! The organizer (who's a high school friend of mine) told me that he thought the talk went incredibly well, that it was really fantastic. […]

The Gospel: the central message of Christianity

God is the original storyteller, and he uses every part of the entire universe to tell us this one story, to send us his one message. All other stories are but retellings of small snippets of this very long and very great story. We call this story the Gospel: the one story in the universe, and the central message of Christianity.

A book review: The Generations of Heaven and Earth

But Jon Garvey goes far above and beyond that - and explores many topics related to GAE from many different angles. Some of these were very new to me: that's what made this a much harder read than I anticipated, in a good way. I learned a lot. In this book he covers topics as varied as the possible locations for Eden, comparative ANE mythology, primeval 'monotheism' all over the world, theories of salvation, the meta-narrative of the Bible, the all-important "image of God", and more.
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