Evan Minton's Blog, page 23

Basic Christianity (BOOK REVIEW)

“Basic Christianity” by John Stott is a really good premiere to the Christian faith. This is as much a Crash Course In Christian Doctrine as it is a defense of it. Stott combines evangelistic zeal and apologetics in this timeless classic, first published in 1958 and revised in 2008 shortly before Stott’s death in 2011 at the age of 98.

A LOOK AT SOME OF THE CONTENT  

The book is divided in PARTS. Part 1 is “Who Is Christ?” In this section, Stott examines the person of Christ. St...

Who Needs Scholarship When You’ve Got The Holy Spirit?

I’ve noticed something of a disturbing trend among fellow Christians. They seem to have a view of biblical interpretation that I like to call “Hermit Hermenuetics” or “Hermitnuetics”. Hermitneutics is the method of reading The Bible in a complete vacuum and avoiding interaction with any scholarly material in the realm of biblical studies. This is the practice of getting an English Bible, sitting somewhere off by yourself, reading it, and doing the best you can to figure out what i...

What Is The Divine Council And Is It Biblical?

The Divine Council is the view that Yahweh; The God of Israel is the Master of a pantheon, if you will, consisting of lesser gods who serve Him, carry out His will, and even deliberate with Him in decision making. Some of these members were assigned to the 70 nations listed in Genesis 10 after the Babel event, but they judged the nations they were assigned to corruptly, so God pronounced judgment on them that they would die like men. These gods became the pagan gods that Israel’s...

Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes (BOOK REVIEW)

All of us assume things that “go without saying.” And, until we encounter other cultures, we tend to assume that the things that go without saying are universally true. Moreover, we are not aware of these assumptions ordinarily. We don’t see them, we see “through” them.

The book Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes Removing Cultural Blinders To Better Understand The Bible will really get you to think about how our cultural perceptions blind us to certain areas of the text. This...

Q&A: (Follow Up On) Molinism, God’s Love, and Those That Will Never Be Saved

(For the sake of anyone who reads this I am quoting a previous article: https://cerebralfaith.net/qa-molinism-gods-love-and-those-that-will-never-be-saved/).

“It’s been a while since I’ve heard from you, Sam. It’s good to talk to you again.” Yeah sorry about that. I have been somewhat busy both with everyday life and more recently with studying Islam. I enjoy our discussions as well.

Lets jump right into it. The first counter argument you made was that it is impossible to seek th...

BOOK REVIEW: Rethinking Hell: Readings In Evangelical Conditionalism

Rethinking Hell is a fantastic work. This book is a collection of essays and other writings by a variety of different Evangelical authors who promote a view known as Annihilationism or conditionalism. The editors are Chris Date, Greg Stump, and Joshua Anderson. Part 1 of the book contains two chapters interviewing the subject of evangelical conditionalism. Parts 2 and 3 involve giving a biblical and exegetical conditionalism. Part 4 involves philosophical objections against condit...

Q&A: Thank You!…And A Question

Hi Evan,

I’ve recently stumbled across your online resources from a Cross-Examined post you wrote. Your content has been extremely helpful in my “acceptance” of theistic evolution since I am both a scientist and a Christian. Also, I have a passion for apologetics and wonder how many more people would accept the Gospel message if they could get away from a literal Gen. 1 interpretation or a YEC viewpoint! Or, if they didn’t treat it like essential doctrine…

I really enjoy listeni...

Q&A: Molinism, God’s Love, and Those That Will Never Be Saved

I recently thought of a possible new objection to Soteriological Molinism that I think is stronger than some of my older ones. On Molinism, even if God doesn’t create the unsaved to send them to Hell, he did not create them for their own good. He created them for the sake of those who he knew would freely choose him. They seem to be a sacrifice for the sake of the believers, a means to the end of getting as many Christians in Heaven as possible!!

By creating them, he is not seeki...

Review of “The Fire That Consumes” by Edward Fudge

“The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study Of The Doctrine Of Final Punishment” is a fantastic theological treatise on the doctrine of Hell. In this book, Edward Fudge argues in favor the Annihilationist view (also known as The Conditional Immortality View) of Hell which says that the wicked are not tormented for all eternity, but are completely destroyed.

Getting Back To The Protestant Principle Of Sola Scriptura

In the second chapter, Fudge argues that while the...

Review Of The Apologetics Study Bible (2017 edition)

The Apologetics Study Bible, as the name would suggest, is a study bible. And also, as the name would suggest, it is aimed at informing its readers how to defend the truth of Christianity from “the intellectual attacks of the heathens” to use C.S Lewis’ words. This Bible is filled with articles written by such famous Christian Apologists as William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, Ravi Zacharias, Paul Copan, Ron Rhodes, J.P Moreland, Sean McDowell, Tim McGrew, and many others. The very fi...