Theological Treatises

  Does The Term "Post-Christian" Make Sense? Again, I am writing some of these treatises to try to satisfy my own curiosity; to bring up issues that I think are important; and (sometimes) to challenge almost-universally-accepted phrases and tenets.   Probably almost all of us have heard of, or read of the concept of the "Post-Christian" world, or society, or culture.  The idea, I believe, is likely pretty innocent--as it seeks to communicate the perception that what  used  to be, is  no  longer the case (or is no longer "around").  And, without a doubt, this thinking is totally understandable.   But I wonder, Biblically, and from a gospel perspective, if this term "Post-Christian" has  any  meaning; and (worse) if it is not potentially  offensive  to the one and only God of heaven and earth?   I also muse over whether or not this term is employed as a convenient "excuse" for going  beyond  the Bibl...

  The Epistemological Dilemma Frankly, I am writing some of these treatises for the purpose of allowing myself to explore some issues that are of interest to me, but of which I see little (or nothing) elsewhere.  This short paper (only two pages long) may seem a bit esoteric, or "out there" to many of you--and I would not blame you, if you decided not to pursue it.  Still, let us begin; and see where the Spirit leads us. . . .   Is what we behold with our senses, our eyes for example,  actually  what it  appears  to be?  Can we *really* know the *essence* of anything we are beholding, or looking at?   In other words, is there not a difference between the  object  itself, and the  *image*  of the object that is presented to our minds?   My understanding of epistemological "monism," is that it seeks to identify the object itself, *with* what is presented to our minds, in an almost one-to-one correspo...

  It Is Not For Us To Understand (Or, "The Inscrutably Fearful One, True, and Only God") When horrible and horrendous things happen in the world--especially to people who have the evidence of being God's true churched children, indwelt by the blessed Holy Spirit Himself--we almost (by default) ask, "Why?"   In this Treatise I would like to address this issue a little bit. . . . First of all, asking "Why?" is not a bad thing; and we know that the Psalmists (for example) were candid in their queries (as in Ps. 2:1:  "Why  do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?" [ESV]).   The  problem  we Christian believers can run into, is  not  in asking, "Why?"; but in our proposed  answers  to the question.  Therefore, I would like to explore some of the more common ones, critique them; and then offer some gracious Biblical, gospel-saturated alternatives, and perspectives by which we may live comfortably in Jesus, even in a da...