Misapplication of Truth

Friday, August 6th, 2010 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture | No Comments »

It's not a new thing to point out the flaws of Christians and use that as an argument against the veracity of the Christian faith. Many things have been written on this subject and today I've been thinking about something along these lines that I have not yet read anywhere else. That is, the idea of misapplying objective Truths. While, on the one hand, I could say that non-believers do this, I would be remiss if ...

Straw Men

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture | No Comments »

There are so many interesting (and often humorous) ways non-believers attack Christianity. From moral arguments against Christianity (yeah, right!) to the Problem of Evil to the so-called Euthyphro Dilemma and so on. One of the ones that I find the most hilarious is when they start trying to pick apart the Bible itself and try to point out inconsistencies. For example, I remember once hearing a call-in, public-access TV show asking callers (specifically Christians) to call ...

“Pseudo Science”

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture | Comments Off

I am always fascinated at how spirited discussions can get when people try to discuss science and theology at the same time. Mainly, the way this happens is that one person is talking about science and the other is talking about theology. When this happens, it's quite difficult to come to a conclusion together, never mind how frustrating it can be. Yet, there is something far more frustrating than even this. Strangely, it usually happens when ...

Church vs. Christianity – Part IV

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture, Christian Living | Comments Off

For the past few weeks, we've been looking at a passage of scripture from John 4. The story is about Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well. Today, I'd like to continue with that story and take a look at what happened after the woman left Jesus and the disciples and went back to her town. We already saw that Jesus acted with compassion, understanding, love and most of all...grace. He didn't condemn or judge, ...

Church vs. Christianity – Part III

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture, Christian Living | Comments Off

Well, we've looked at Jesus' initial interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well and gone over some of the things I noticed that seemed to stand out about this meeting. Now, we're moving on to the next phase of this event. As it happens, the woman was still there talking with Jesus when the disciples returned. I find it very interesting that these "giants" of faith, the founding fathers of the Christian movement, could have ...

Church vs. Christianity – Part II

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture | Comments Off

Last week, I started discussing some of the issues of the Church with respect to how they approach and/or address sin. This is not all Christians in all situations, but it is prevalent enough that it creates a perception of the Church as a whole. It is connected to the whole idea of Christianity and drives people away from Christ. Where I started to go with this last week was...I basically started to take a look ...

Church vs. Christianity

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture, Christian Living | Comments Off

It is no secret that throughout history, terrible human tragedies can be traced back to the Church. Specifically the Christian Church. Notice I'm using the capital 'C' for Church. This is to indicate the idea that it is the body of Christ followers and not a specific denomination that I'm referring to. What sorts of things am I referring to? Just read the news some time. Look at the pictures of Christian protestors at the doors ...

Extra-Biblical Texts

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture | Comments Off

For years, centuries actually, debate has gone on about the reliability of the biblical texts. Questions have been raised about whether the events in the gospels actually happened and how much, if any, of the related events are historically accurate. During that time, one key component of the nay-sayers has been this argument about a lack of what they call "extra-biblical texts." In other words, their claim is that the Bible amounts to circular reasoning because ...

Life and Death

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture | 1 Comment »

Last week, I wrote about how the meaning of some of our words can change over time and completely depart from their originally intended definition. Sometimes it is because the words get misused. But sometimes, I think there is just too little understanding of the word itself. It is possible, also, that in some cases we are so far removed from the original meaning that we don't recognize that this has happened. One word that seems ...

Take This Body, Take This Blood

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture | 2 Comments »

Having been raised in the Catholic church prior to disavowing all things church-related, I had always been taught certain things about communion, or the "Lord's Supper." In Roman Catholicism, as well as in Lutheran tradition, communion is thought of quite differently than much of the reformed Church. The word used for this distinction is "transubstantiation." That's a big mouthful of letters that, put together, relay the idea that the bread and wine served at communion, once ...