Category Archives: God

12 things God cannot do

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We often focus on what God can do.  But think for a moment of what he cannot do:

He cannot

  • learn
  • be surprised
  • change his mind
  • be seen
  • bear to look at evil
  • change
  • be lonely
  • suffer
  • die
  • be tempted
  • lie
  • disown himself.

But consider, too, that in the Incarnation God did what he cannot do:

  • God cannot learn, yet Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge
  • God cannot be tempted, yet Jesus knew the fullness of temptation
  • God cannot suffer and die, and yet Jesus experienced suffering and death

God cannot sleep. …

Romans 8:28 – ‘All things work together for good’

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8:28 And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, 8:29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

Baghdad, July 30th 1919.…

What would convince you?

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A few years ago, a visitor to our home expressed surprise at seeing a copy of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion lying around.  My response was that I find it helpful to know what those I might disagree with are actually saying.

In the same spirit, I present here the key points in this 2013 essay by Daniel Bastion.  These twenty reasons for not taking Christianity seriously have garnered high praise from sceptics such as John Loftus (‘Read ’em and weep Christians’) and David Madison (‘Bastian’s essay is indeed essential homework.…

Cross Vision 12 – Creation Undone

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Summarising chapter 13.

Not all the violence in the OT can be attributed to human agents.

Take the flood, for example.  A cross-centred hermeneutic prompts us to discern Satanic powers using their God-given authority to brng this about.

Scripture assumes as certain solidarity between the human, animal and inanimate kingdoms.  In Gen 6:12f the same word (sāhat) is used to describe human sin, the effect of this on the earth, and the punishment.  This indicates that the flood ‘was an organic, not a judicial, divine judgment’.…

Cross Vision 11 – Cosmic War

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A summary of chapter 12.

So far, writes Boyd,

‘We’ve seen that the cross teaches us that at the center of the story of what else is going on in the OT’s violent portraits of God is the truth that Yahweh is a humble sin-bearing God and that God brings about judgments by withdrawing his restraining Spirit to allow sin to punish sin and evil to vanquish evil.’

Now for another aspect of this.  The NT construes the crucifixion of Jesus as the decisive battle in the age-long conflict between God and Satan. …

Cross Vision 10 – Doing and Allowing

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In chapter 11 of Cross Vision, Greg Boyd attempts to draw a sharp distinction between what God does, and what God allows.

According to Boyd, this is a distinction which is often obscured in the OT.

In Ex 12:12, for example, Yahweh tells Moses: “I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals”.

In v23 of the same chapter, however, we read, “When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.”…

Young Earth Creationism and the problem of distant starlight

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One of the most stubborn problems for Young Earth Creationists (YEC’s) is that of distant starlight.

The light from our nearest neighbouring galaxy – the Andromeda Galaxy – has been traveling about 2.5 million years before it reaches the eye of an observer here on Earth.  And yet, according to YEC’s the entire cosmos is only a few thousand years old!

Various theories have been advanced in order to deal with this:

1. It has been suggested that light, when traveling vast distances, is able to take a ‘short cut’. …

A theology of creation

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In this interview, D.A Carson points out that whereas for many Christians, when thinking about the doctrine of creation, focus on the age of the cosmos, the theory of evolution, and so on, the Bible itself emphasises other things – especially the implications of creation.

Carson focuses especially on the first two chapters of Genesis.

The following is a precis.

1) God comes first. God is not dependent on us, although Scripture will show that there was a perfection of Trinitarian love in the past. …

After Adam

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I here summarise, without comment or critique, the following article:

Harlow, Daniel C.  ‘After Adam: Reading Genesis in an Age of Evolutionary Science’.  Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Volume 62, Number 3, September 2010.

If we accept the modern scientific consensus on the age of the universe (13.8 billion years) and of the earth (4-5 billion years), and of the existence of a multitude of species prior to the appearance of homo sapiens, then a literal, factual reading of Genesis 1-3 becomes problematic.…

May we refer to God as ‘she’?

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I draw on an article by Ian Paul, entitled:

Can we describe God as ‘she’? Does it matter?

A recent Communion Service at Hereford Cathedral began with an Introit which re-writes Psalm 23 as follows:

The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need, She makes me lie down in green meadows, Beside the still waters, She will lead.

She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs, She leads me in a path of good things, And fills my heart with songs.

…