Roger E. Olson's Blog, page 151

Some Follow-up Thoughts about God and Genocide

Some Follow-up Thoughts about the Bible and Genocide   Comments here responding to my earlier essay about Jesus, the children, and Old Testament texts of terror (e.g., God commanding Israel to slaughter infants) have often, in my opinion, distorted what I said—reading into my essay points I did not make. For example, I never suggested [Read More...]

Guest Post by John Inglis Re: Carl Trueman’s First Things Article “A Church for Exiles”

Guest Post by John Inglis Re: Carl Trueman’s First Things article “A Church for Exiles”   From Roger Olson: I agree with those who have suggested that frequent commenter John Inglis is an excellent and insightful writer. I asked him to work one of his recent comments into a guest post for this blog and [Read More...]

Evangelical Superstars and Why They Fall

Some Thoughts about Evangelical Superstar Pastors and Evangelists and Why They Fall In recent weeks and months another American evangelical superstar pastor (also author and popular speaker) has fallen off his pedestal—if not completely at least partially and with a loud noise. As always when this happens, his followers and fans are divided. Some support [Read More...]

An Arminian-Anabaptist Response to “A Church for Exiles” by Carl R. Trueman

An Arminian-Anabaptist Response to “A Church for Exiles” by Carl R. Trueman The August, 2014 issue of the journal First Things (online) contains an article by Westminster Theological Seminary church history professor Carl R. Trueman entitled “A Church for Exiles: Why Reformed Christianity Provides the Best Basis for Faith Today.” I suggest you read it [Read More...]

Should Christians Fear Being “On the Wrong Side of History?”

Should Christians Fear Being “On the Wrong Side of History?” I cannot count the number of times I have heard people, including some Christians, say that Christians should adjust their view of sexuality (viz., become “welcoming and affirming” and support same-sex marriage) because, otherwise, they are going to turn out to be “on the wrong [Read More...]

God and Children: Would Jesus (God) Command Their Slaughter?

God and Children: Would Jesus (God) Command Their Slaughter? Recently I posted here about God’s character and argued that God could not, because of his character, revealed in Jesus, command the merciless slaughter of children. Several conservative Christians objected, pointing to Old Testament texts of terror such as 1 Samuel 15 where God is reported [Read More...]

Follow Up to My Post about the Paranormal

I didn’t want that post (the immediately preceding one) to get too long, so I omitted one observation-experience that formed part of its immediate background. I mentioned the advice columnists who told the boy’s mother to take him to a doctor–assuming he was suffering delusions when he claimed to be seeing and hearing from a [Read More...]

How Open Should Christians Be to the “Paranormal?”

How Open Should Christians Be to the “Paranormal?” American popular culture loves the paranormal and almost anything can be lumped into that category and depicted for entertainment. But as much as Americans love to imagine ghosts, clairvoyance, and supernatural powers, most do not really believe in them. We are the opposite of Sir Arthur Conan [Read More...]

A Sermon: “Community: The Impossible Possibility”

“Community: The Impossible Possibility” Roger E. Olson “To dwell above with saints we love, That will be grace and glory. To live below with saints we know; Now, that’s another story!” Why do I say that community is an impossible possibility? Simply because community is what we’re created for and yet we never quite achieve [Read More...]

Intuitive Evangelical Theology versus Scholastic Evangelical Theology: “Classical Christian Theism” as Case Study

Intuitive Evangelical Theology versus Scholastic Evangelical Theology: “Classical Christian Theism” as Case Study I have long been impressed by how foreign scholastic evangelical theology is to even the most devout, biblically literate evangelical lay people. What do I mean by “scholastic evangelical theology?” I don’t know a better term for the “official” theology taken for [Read More...]