‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.’ (Genesis 1:26-27)
Scripture asserts (in Gen 1:26-27; Gen 5:2; Gen 9:6 and elsewhere) that God has made man in his own image.
What does this mean, and what has become of God’s image in man? The doctrine can be unpacked in the following stages.…
The best short summary and discussion that I have seen of Richard Dawkins’ view that science has ‘eliminated’ God is that of Alister McGrath in an article published the journal Science and Christian Belief.
Although published in 2005, and not interacting directly with Dawkins’ The God Delusion, the article nevertheless takes account of the opinions of Dawkins as they have developed from 1977 (The Selfish Gene) onwards.
McGrath expresses admiration for Dawkins’ scientific writing, but notes that when he touches on the subject of God, evidence-based reasoning seems to have been left behind, to be replaced by over-simplification and, not infrequently, misrepresentation.…
Although I’m sympathetic to the idea of theistic evolution, and, in any case, do not regard such theories of origins as of fundamental importance, I think it’s worth taking account of the theological objections that have been levelled against Darwinian theory.
Some of these objections were set out by Alistair Donald in this article published in Evangelicals Now in April 2010.
To summarise:-
1. Adam formed by a distinct creative act
Although the precise genre of Genesis 1:1-2:3 is notoriously difficult to pin down, the same is not the case for Gen 2:4 onwards, which is written in standard Hebrew narrative style. …
Luis de Molina (1535-1600) was a Spanish Jesuit theologian who attempted to reconcile the apparently contradictory doctrines of divine sovereignty and human free will by postulating that God has a ‘middle knowledge’ (scientia media).
Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) had taught that God has two kinds of knowledge. The first is a knowledge of the actual: a knowledge, arising out of God’s absolute decree, of what exists in the past, present and future. The second is a knowledge of the possible: of what could exist in the past, present and future, but does not, because God has not decreed it.…
In chapter 4 of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins attempts to demonstrate that the existence of God is extremely improbable. He gives pride of place to his ‘Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit’. This argument, he says, is ‘the big one’.
The starting-point is the comment attributed to Fred Hoyle that the probability of life originating on earth by chance is no greater that a tornado in a junk-yard asembling a fully-functioning Boeing 747. Theists often like to say that that the universe is so complex that only God could have brought it into being.…
B.B. Warfield, while recognising the obvious fact that the term ‘Trinity’ is not a biblical term, nevertheless maintains that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a biblical doctrine.
The doctrine of the Trinity lies in Scripture in solution; when it is crystallized from its solvent it does not cease to be Scriptural, but only comes into clearer view.
The doctrine of the Trinity, insists Warfield, not only is a biblical doctrine; it must be a biblical doctrine, because it is not discoverable by natural reason. …
‘Providence’ (writes J.I. Packer) ‘is normally defined in Christian theology as the unceasing activity of the Creator whereby, in overflowing bounty and goodwill (Ps. 145:9 cf. Mt. 5:45-48), he upholds his creatures in ordered existence (Acts 17:28; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3), guides and governs all events, circumstances and free acts of angels and men (cf. Ps. 107; Job. 1:12; 2:6; Gn. 45:5-8), and directs everything to its appointed goal, for his own glory (cf. Eph. 1:9-12).…
Antony Flew, the noted philosopher, died in April of this year. Albert Mohler has a helpful post explaining why Christians can be encouraged by Flew’s rejection, at the age of 81, of atheism, but why we should also be warned by his rejection of Christianity.
Flew was the son of the Methodist minister, and until his mid-teens regarded himself as a conscientious, if unenthusiastic, Christian believer. But reflection on the problem of evil (how can God be both all-loving and all-powerful?)…
A ‘God of the gaps’ argument is one which states that if something cannot be explained by scientific evidence and reasoning that it must be attributable to God.
An early instance of this kind of reasoning is found in the work of none other than Isaac Newton, who, finding that he could not fully explain the movements of the planets, postulated that God made periodic adjustments to their orbits.
Probably the most significant modern version of god-of-the-gaps argumentation occurs in Intelligent Design theory. …
One of the most significant objections to the theory of evolution is the moral one: if there is an all-wise God, why would he use a process that involves so much waste, suffering and death?
Biology, says, Denis Alexander, is a ‘package deal’. For every ‘plus’ that we might see as positive for life and well-being, there is a ‘minus’. For example: mutations are essential for biodiversity, and yet mutations also cause cancer and genetic diseases.…
