Is Purgatory In The Bible?

The concept of the afterlife in Christian theology, namely the teaching that the righteous go to to Heaven and the unrighteous go to Hell, has been smeared by the doctrine known as Purgatory, which is the view that after death, those who are saved go to Purgatory so that they can atone for the sins that they did not have time to atone for during their lifetime. However it should be noted that it is not taught as a second chance at life, but rather it is a place for…

Is The Trinity In The Bible?

Orthodox doctrinal understanding is important because there are many heretics and false teachers who would rise up and attempt to lure people away by exposing their ignorance. I submit that we do not necessarily need a class in Comparative Religion, nor Counter-Cult Apologetics, but rather if we understand the word of God, we can also understand why we believe orthodox doctrines that are often misrepresented by Christian cults. One of the consistencies among Christian cults is that they deny the doctrine of the trinity. Unfortunately, they are usually better trained…

If Jesus Was God, How Could He Die?

Sometimes when evangelizing or attempting to share the gospel with people, they will surprise us and attempt to share their views with us in response, such as the ex-Muslim, now Christian Doctor Nabeel Qureshi pointed out in a sermon, many western Muslims are challenged by their parents and the Islamic community to share Islam with those who would attempt to share Christianity with them. Of course they approach this by attacking one of the fundamental tenants of Christian belief, which happens also to be a fundamental tenants of Islamic belief,…

Who Created God?

The most frequently cited evidence for the existence of God is the existence of all creation; all matter, energy, space and time, surely could not have come to be by accident, and surely it is irrational to say that the entire known universe just popped into being, uncaused, out of nothing. It is surely not implausible that the cause of all nature, space, and time, would transcend nature, space, and time. Many atheists believe that they have dealt the death blow to this type of argument, namely that if God…

Is It Possible To Lose Salvation?

In contemporary theology, evangelists find that those to whom they have recently begun to disciple have a walk with God that was short-lived, it just sort of fizzled out when they grew tired of church. Evangelists see those who they spoke to on the street and convinced to recite the Sinner’s Prayer, or peer pressured them to speak with angelic tongues, and then they wonder why they find out that this person has not been attending church and just showing no growth at all. So they might say that this…

If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil?

Everybody acknowledges that the world is not how it is supposed to be, that mankind behaves in a way that is wicked and depraved, and that there is suffering for which we cannot see any purpose. As Christians, we are often willing to say that we just trust in the will of God, when we look at the suffering of others. However the problem of evil and suffering is often brought home when it becomes personal, when we suffer, we feel as though some injustice has been wrought against us…

Can Being A Good Person Get You Into Heaven? (Second Rebuttal)

I can certainly understand and even relate to the emotional element behind the belief that being a good person can get you into heaven, as Jared pointed out in his introduction, how unthinkable is it that somebody who lost family members and whose heart is so hard, will be judged for that? But that is precisely why the Bible teaches that we must be reborn and be given a new heart with new desires. In my introduction I raised a number of arguments, all of which Jared replied to, while…

Can Being A Good Person Get You Into Heaven? (First Rebuttal)

Most religions acknowledge the problem of sin in contrast with the Holiness of God (or the gods) and attempt to offer some sort of atonement for sin, such as in Islam, where if our good deeds weigh more than our evil deeds, our wage awaits us with the Lord, or in the Hindu karma system, wherein our good deeds are propositional to our position in the Caste system. However I have always maintained that Christian theology is the only system which offers a system of atonement that made sense, for…

Is The Universe A Design? (3 Answers)

Martin: Would you not agree that a Universe that was NATURALLY UNSUITABLE for life and yet contained life would (being necessarily a miracle) be very powerful evidence of an intelligent and very powerful entity? If not, why not? I would agree with that, but that is not to say that this is the only possible evidence of an intelligent designer. One could say that the purpose of the fine-tuning of the universe is not to provide evidence for the existence of the designer, but is to provide a stable and…

Why Does The Oneness Pentecostal Church Have Weird Rules?

After the Lord freed the people of Israel from the clutches of the Egyptians, he imparted a series of rules meant to govern them as his people, relaying his message through Moses and Aaron. The Lord commanded the people of Israel to be Holy, as he is Holy, and by this meant that he wanted them to be separate from the world, to be morally superior to the other civilizations, even though they might be hated. This is reflected again in the epistles Peter, as he quotes God in saying,…

Why Do People Believe In God?

When people are questioned about their belief in God, often they cannot justify it from a logical angle, offering answers such as Just look around you, appealing to the existence of the natural world, without having any understanding of any form of the Cosmological Argument for God’s existence. People seem to suggest that they know who God is on the basis of what they can see plainly, and this is true of all religions and people groups; even those who were not raised to believe in a Creator God believe…

What Is Mass?

It could be understood that many Protestants probably do not think much differently of Catholic Mass than they would another denomination, and perhaps even a viable option according to ones’ own personal faith, since they do not really understand the practices that they are observing. In fact I might wager that many adherents to Catholicism do not really understand the doctrines that they are practicing. I therefore write this (while appealing to the Catholic authority known as the Council Of Trent) to the end of explaining what Mass is to…

Is The Oneness Pentecostal Church A Cult?

An important distinction needs to be made here between, namely between Pentecostal and Oneness Pentecostal, as the Pentecostal denomination as a whole is not a Christian cult. However we can indict the Oneness Pentecostalism denomination, manifesting today under groups such as the United Pentecostal Church International, and we might catch them nicknaming themselves Apostolic. So is this charge justified? Is the Oneness Pentecostal church a cult? As is the case with most Christian cults, the Oneness Pentecostal church rejects basic scriptural theology, regarding the trinity as condemnable and abhorrent heresy.…

How Could Heaven Be Perfect If Others Are In Hell?

When confronted with certain doctrines, we will often attempt to judge them within a naturalistic backdrop. Such an attempt to criticize or reconcile a biblical doctrine will often lead to confusion or inadequate answers. So the same in our reasoning about the afterlife, as is even reflected in the gospels when the Pharisees asked Jesus who a woman that was widowed multiple times would be married with the afterlife. Today we see a similar sort of objection from those who reject the gospel, as they raise questions such as How…

Is The Universe A Design? (Second Rebuttal)

This is a long awaited continuation of my debate with the atheist lawyer, Martin. Please read the first parts of this debate before continuing if you would like to understand the context of what is being said. My Introduction (Martin’s introduction is in the comments) My First Rebuttal (Martin’s first rebuttal is in the comments) Are the cosmos an example of specified complexity? Martin argued that a good deal of the cosmos cannot be shown to be specified complexity; that in fact, they would be unfriendly to intelligent life. I…