Samson's Jawbone

The current claim of many evangelical leaders is that evangelicals who support Donald Trump are "white Christian nationalist." The term "white Christian nationalist" is a fairly new term in the public-square and it has not, to my knowledge, been clearly defined.    It's hard to answer critics of "white Christian nationalism," it is associated with certain people and political causes. Terms like this that lack definition are euphemisms. They are used to create an emotional response. The term itself is a pejorative, designed to intimidate.   Why the term "white" as opposed to "black, Asian, Hispanic, or native American nationalism." Is a "black, Asian or Native American" Christian who is a conservative somehow disparaged by the term. Those who use this term associate it with whites, or non- white's "sold out" to white establishment, Uncle Tom's. It assigns motives and beliefs to "white" people wit

  For the first time in this blog's history, I have re-opened a series. It comes after recent conversations with continuationists where my arguments have been rejected. Continuationist claim that cessationists  don't understand the nature of tongues. The debate between continuationist and cessationist almost always goes something like this: Albert (the continuationist) almost always claims that there is no biblical basis for cessationism that it denies God's ability to work miracles. George (the cessationist) points out that the assertion is a negative. A negative is not proof a of positive. If I say, "I say I did not catch a fish," that statement fails to say anything whether there were any fish in the pond, or whether I was even fishing.  An argument that cessationist do not believe something, is not an argument in favor of continuationism. Incidentally, it is a false claim. Cessationist do believe in spiritual gifts, and miracles, they just don't believe th

 What do you do if a close family member or a co-worker with whom you have shared the gospel, and who understands that you live by biblical ethics, invites you to their marriage ceremony where they are marrying their same sex or transgender partner? They know you think homosexuality is sin, and that you believe marriage us reserved for heterosexual union, but they are still friendly with you. Do you risk the relationship by renouncing he wedding? Most Christians I know say that attendance at the wedding puts one in the position of being "a partner " in the marriage, making us enablers and supporters of egregious sin in direct disobedience to God's word. "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the l

 We have established that tongues, prophecy and knowledge serve no contemporary revelatory purpose, because the Scriptures are sufficient revelation for life and godliness (John 17:16-19: 2Pt 1: 3&5). We have established that tongues are not the normal or expected sign of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We have established that the 20th and 21st century charismatic phenomenon bears no resemblance to their first century expressions. We can conclude that charismatic gifts as practiced in the first century have passed away. There is no biblical reason to expect them to reappear in the everyday experience of believers.  So instead of defending cessationism we should ask what is the biblical basis for expecting a continuation of Pentecost? My Pentecostal friends are unable to provide a positive defense for their positions, so they offer their experience along with what they believe are negative objections to continuationism. We will raise the common objections and answer each one: 1. Th

Many charismatic acknowledge that the gift of tongues they experience is different from the first century Pentecostal experience. They claim they are a language through which God speaks to the believer in prayer (a false teaching we will address later). They see the continuation of Pentecost in various "signs and wonders," that have reappeared in the life of the church evidence by a more robust wave of Spiritual phenomena predicted to rise in the end times. Does the resurgence of signs and wonders evince a more robust Spiritual life, a continuation of Pentecost, at the end of the age?  The argument is that the prophet Joel predicted that the first century Pentecost would usher in a new age of miracles and signs and wonders: [28] “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. [29] Even on the male and female serv