Month: August 2016

How solid is the case for God from near-death experiences? What is the actual testable evidence and what does it prove? Sean answers these Qs and more.

Source: Surprising Evidence for God: Near Death-Experiences

Written by a former atheist, this article gives you six clear reasons to conclude that God exists. No arm-twisting. Concise and straightforward evidence answering the question, ‘Is There a God?’.

Source: Is There a God?

August 22, 2016; Revised August 23, 2016 My next book is scheduled for release this December: Why Are There Differences in the Gospels: What We Can Learn from Ancient Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017—available December 1, 2016). This book is the culmination of seven and a half years of research that sought to… Read More

Source: Was Mark Confused Pertaining to the Location of the Feeding of the 5,000?

Results from the CMS and ATLAS collaborations were due today, but a paper accidentally posted last night reveals the Large Hadron Collider is yet to find new particles

Source: Physicists mourn as hinted particle vanishes in leaked LHC data

“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”Leo Tolstoy

In the great capital city of the Western half of Rome’s Empire, Pelagius stood at the forefront of a sort of moral and spiritual reform movement, aimed at getting Roman Christians to live up to their professions of faith rather more credibly.[i] [N.R.Needham; The Triumph of Grace]

The question I will be addressing in this short paper is: If Pelagius was a ‘moral reformer’, what was the raison detré  behind his quest for reformation?

In the letter to the Roman church the Apostle Paul presents us with a clear picture of our standing, outside of Christ, before God. It is clear and unequivocal.

All Have Sinned[1] [Romans 3:9-12]

^“9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.¹⁰ As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;¹¹            There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.¹² They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”

Boasting Excluded [Romans 3:27-31]

^“27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. ²⁹ Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, ³⁰ since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹

Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

We have established then that the Scripture we have referred to is clear and, indeed, unequivocal with regards to a) the status of the humanist who would seek to justify himself before the throne of God. b) That there is clearly no room for boasting – moreover nothing to boast about.

According to Pelagius’ disciple Celestius: “ (i) Adam was created mortal, and he would have died whether he sinned or not. (ii) Adam’s sin injured himself alone, not the human race. (iii) The law as well as the gospel leads to the kingdom [of heaven]. (iv) There were people without sin before Christ’s coming. (v) New-born infants are in the same condition as Adam before the fall. (vi) It is not through the death or the fall of Adam that the whole human race dies, nor through the resurrection of Christ that the whole human race rises again.”[ii]
Continue reading Resistance to Grace:The Challenge of Pelagius in the 21st century

Michael Denton recently updated his classic book EVOLUTION: A THEORY IN CRISIS. Sean reviews his new book and highlights some significant issues for evolution.

Source: Is Evolution A Theory in Crisis?