Free Republic

I explore the problems with Islamic eschatology, and explain why Muhammad couldn't distinguish between scripture and legends/oral tradition.

I explore Surah XXIX, and explain how Mohammed's poor understanding of the Bible contributed to his misconceptions about Christians and Jews.

The doctrine of soteriology is a major concept and a major theme in the Bible.  The terms related to salvation are prevalent in the OT and NT.  In the OT, the Hebrew verb yasa and its derivatives appear about 353 times in the OT.  In the Niphal it bears the meaning “to be saved” or “be delivered” and in the Hiphil it means to “deliver,” “give victory,” or “save.”  The noun form of yasa is yesuah (64 times), yesa (31 times), and tesuah (19 times), which means, “help,” “deliverance,” and “salvation.”  When looking at the OT, the above verb yasa...

  Jesus was a Jew. This does not seem like a news flash until we turn away from observing the obvious and begin to talk about Christian discussions of soteriology. If you aren't familiar with that three-dollar word, it basically has to do with that branch of Christian theology concerned with answering the question, "What must we do to be saved?"   For early Christians, the answer was brief and compact with meaning: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!" What "believe" meant was deeply incarnational: that is, if you believed in Jesus, it was taken for granted that you...

"Some of the greatest evangelists in the history of the church have for the most part, been Calvinists."

God created man that he might possess his Creator forever in the beatific vision. Those who die in the state of enmity toward God are deprived of this happiness. Between these extremes are people who are neither estranged from God nor wholly dedicated to Him when they die. What will be their lot after death? The response of faith is that nothing defiled can enter heaven (Rev 21:27), and therefore anyone less than perfect must first be cleansed before he can be admitted to the vision of God. If this doctrine of Catholicism is less strenuously opposed than the...

Many Catholics just don’t know what to say when someone asks them whether they are saved. As Catholics, we're vaguely familiar with "saved" language. We don't usually ask someone, "Are you saved?" and when someone asks us this question, we often stutter and fumble for an answer. So how should we answer: "Are you saved?" Constantly. We are constantly being saved by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because salvation is dynamic, ongoing. It's a past, present, and future reality. Let me explain. Salvation is a past reality: We have been saved by the death of...

Recently I had a question asking whether “covenant theology” is so-called “replacement theology.” Those dispensational critics of Reformed covenant theology who accuse it of teaching that the New Covenant church has “replaced” Israel do not understand historic Reformed covenant theology. They are imputing to Reformed theology a way of thinking about redemptive history that has more in common with dispensationalism than it does with Reformed theology. First, the very category of “replacement” is foreign to Reformed theology because it assumes a dispensational, Israeleo-centric way of thinking. It assumes that the temporary, national people was, in fact, intended to be the...

Salvation: Homemade or Vintage? Wine, being both beverage and nourishment, is (along with water) the perfect drink for human beings. In terms of savor, health benefit, and psychological effect, wine reigns as the king of cups at the finest tables in the world. Yet many people do not care for wine, citing its "bad taste" as the reason they do not partake. I have always suspected that for most oenophobes this distaste for the fruit of the vine is the result of a bad first impression. For many people, their first taste of wine comes as a child, when their...

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger - Bryan Callen Jesus Christ - David Herman Wise Man #1 - Phil LaMarr On the screen we see a clear night sky filled with stars, one in particular being very large and bright. TV Announcer: Unto this world, a child is born. Camera pans down onto a small village. We see that the date is December 25, 0000. There is a strange kind of lighting is zapping around in between two small buildings. Suddenly the light forms a large silver sphere. A naked man hunching over appears and the sphere disappears. The man stands, and we...