ryan.the.calvinist

Today in my REL 580 "Theories of Religious Studies", Dr. Given brought up something interesting that the Deists and Natural Religion gurus of the 18th century were bothered by. something called "The Scandal of Particularity." This "scandal" deals with their rebellion against the notion of God choosing to save a VERY SMALL group of people throughout History - taking true form in Abraham and throughout to those in the New Covenant today. This seems to be the minority today, in our world of fast and easy communication. But consider how many people have lived on this planet... and in places where the gospel never reached... or even a word of the Torah uttered. It is quite clear that the VAST majority of people, according to biblical Christianity, will be in Hell after the final judgment for all eternity. These more "enlightened" thinkers (oh brother!) gauge that if there was really any justice in the world, religion must be natural and available...

Yes.  Believe it or not... it is possible.  Actually don't "not" believe it.  If you do (or don't?) then you are just wrong.  So stop it.  Or do it.  I forget.  Moving on. One of the "drums" my extremely liberal professor Boyer was banging away at this past intercession course was that there is no way to generalize about an event or teaching of Christ from the pages of Scripture.  We can, according to Boyer, only say with any certainty what Mark says about Jesus doing _____ or how John characterizes Jesus during ______.  Each account exists isolated from each other; it would be foolish to attempt to reconcile these accounts into one coherent account of the life and teachings and death and resurrection of Jesus... as... "Then you would be creating a gospel that is unlike ANY of the four canonical Gospels: a gospel that does not even exist!!"  Right.  I call shenanigans. It sounds profound, after all.  I mean, if I were...

Personally, I am in the process of working my way through the Gospel of Mark in preparation/repentance as we move closer and closer to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. However, a question came up today from a professor of mine that I had to address. Matthew 5:17-20 {ESV} [Jesus taught, saying:] "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever laxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." I am fairly certain that a few months ago I did a rather lengthy 2-part ...

It was sometime last week I was sitting next to my friend Elise during our Apocalypses course when the issue of Theodicy came up. It arose when our instructor mentioned the question that many must struggle with: "How can God be just/good and allow bad things to happen to people?" This question is odd to me. I am not truly sure if I am relaying it correctly, or if my memory is going bad. But if I had related the "problem" correctly as previously stated... it is something I struggle with. It is not something I struggle with as most people probably struggle with. I would venture to guess most people who struggle with such a question are at odds with some apparent contradiction between God being a good/loving God and a just God and his action of permitting evil or bad things to occur. I suppose these individuals who are baffled by such a conundrum fret over God's inability or unwillingness to wipe evil away off the face of the earth for good... RIGHT NOW (o...

Romans 7:7-12 (ESV) "What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good." I am a Religious Studies major. But I am also realistic and I know such a degree has really nothing to do with the part of life that involves feeding myself or my (future) family. So, I also am in the process of getting my General Business minor. What will I do with a General Bus...

The following is a paper I wrote last night for my Historical Jesus course. Who Jesus Is For many, a course about the “Historical Jesus” may shake one's faith that existed prior to taking such a course. After all, there seem to be many apparent contradictions that are, at first glance, impossible to harmonize with one another. Such examples of inconsistencies are Judas' death, Jesus' last words, and even the style of picture that is painted of Jesus by the writers of the gospels. However this course has done nothing to cause me to lose my faith in the New Testament or in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As I look back on the last few months, I can see that my view of Jesus of Nazareth has changed very little, if at all, as a result of this course. Having to describe Jesus using ten words or fewer, my answer would still be, “Jesus' death and resurrection provided the only way to God.” That wasn't my exact answer as it was in September, however it is ext...

Yesterday I sat in STRONG (Hall) #204 in my REL 320: Jesus of Nazareth course a bit more than slightly frustrated with the clips our class had just watched from The Last Temptation of Christ . We were comparing this fictional re-telling of Christ's life to the gnostic Gospel of Judas . I'm not sure which notion was more difficult to stomach-- the gnostic view that YHWH is the evil creator that we need to defeat (essentially), or the notion that Jesus and Judas... cuddled... (and more?) Yuck. ANYWAY. A student in the class brought up a point that he had always struggled with growing up: If it was foreordained that Judas would have to betray Jesus, and it had to happen for Jesus to save the world, why should Judas suffer and be held to blame for his actions? I just sat there in my silence fully confidant of the answer. And yes, I too had wondered this before -- he was supposed to do this, and yet he is held to blame? But after years of maturing in the faith, I was able t...

I find it odd that I am not the normal college student. I do not speak of my decision to not smoke, get drunk, or have premarital sex. I am glad I have resisted temptation for these (though most have never really even been an issue for me), though I am not speaking specifically of m relm of belief. I may be one of a few handful of students whose beliefs, values or convictions have not crumbled 'neath the weight of the ivory walls of the University. One such example is my stance on politics. I was raised in a very conservative home where I learned of the importance of defending the lives of unborn babies from a slaughter at the hands of some who consider themselves "doctors" (more like death dealers). So conservative yes, but I was, by my own admission, truly a 2-issue voter by the time I was 18. The issues I was concerned about were biblically social issues -- abortion and the defense of the institution of marriage between man and wife (as God created it). Sure I c...