Was Augustine the First Cartesian?
A Comparison and Contrast of Augustinian and Cartesian EpistemologyINTRODUCTIONIn the opening paragraphs of his article on the relationship between Augustine and Descartes, Michal Hanby writes, “No seventeenth-century thinker could have failed to come under Augustine’s influence…”[1] Indeed, it can

J. I. Packer on Reading the Bible
One of the primary causes for the current state of theological disarray in evangelicalism:Let us read the Bible then — if we can. But can we? The truth is that many of us have lost the ability to read the Bible. When we open our Bibles, we do so in a frame of mind which forms an insuperable barrier to our ever reading it at all. This may sound startling, but it is not hard to show that it is true.When you sit down to any other book, you treat it as a unit. You look for the plot, or the main thread of the argument, and follow it through to the end. You let the author's mind lead yours. Whether or not you allow yourself to "dip" before settling down to th

Does The Church Have Authority?
At the Eastern Orthodox blog, The Well of Questions, blogger MG has been arguing for some time (most recently, here) that Protestants do not in fact believe that the church has any authority. Rather, we merely believe that the church has been right in those doctrines which it has affirmed at all times and in all places (the “catholic” faith) and that it is better to read the Bible in the light of tradition and the history of doctrine than in isolation. But, MG says, this only amounts to a belief that the church is accurate, not that i

Francis Turretin’s Response to Middle Knowledge
Introduction (This was a paper written for a Reformed Scholasticism class at Westminster Seminary California) In recent times middle knowledge has been gaining popularity among evangelical theologians and philosophers . As a result many people believe that this view has given a definitive answer to the problem of reconciling human freedom with divine sovereignty. However, this view did not come out of nowhere; rather it came from a Catholic Jesuit named Luis Molina . Furthermore, Reformed theologians like Francis Turretin objected to this solution of the problem of reconciling free will with divine sovereignty. In this essay we will explore Francis Turretin’s response to di

The cause of the universe was a computer?!
In this comical clip Craig is debating the atheist Wolpert that ends up claiming that a computer caused the universe into being. This seems like such a desperate attempt from the atheist that it practically screams what Saint Paul says in Romans the first chapter:Romans 1:18-21 8 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have