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He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and tenting his fingertips, touching them to his chin as he studies me intently. After a measured silence, he asks me if I have considered what might be impairing my own certainty on the subject. The lack of explicit confirmation in Scripture, I...

There is another possibility. Perhaps the gospel writers and Paul just didn't think infant baptism would ever be a contentious issue, and so didn't see a need to be more specific on the point than they were. They were all Jews -- and with infant circumcision such a noncontroversial thing, they...

In Jeremiah 1:5 God says, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you." If God forms a fetus in the womb, far be it from man to interrupt that process!

I don't know who the "They" are in your view -- scientists are not homogeneous, and debate among themselves on the validity of climate change, on Covid vaccines' side effects, and on many other things. Actually many scientists are theists. I suggest you read this carefully: Religion and...

I don't know, nor have I ever heard of, any scientist who would claim that science knows all things. Quite the contrary, science is constantly testing new hypotheses.

No doubt. But whatever the limits of that authority, what was Jesus's view of its being passed on by the Apostles to their successors? Did He even have one?

Oh, I totally get that the apostles assigned their powers to others. My question was whether Jesus intended this to be the case.

I am not following your "by extension, their successors" argument. Jesus intended this power to be assignable by the Apostles? How do we know this? You need to develop this argument a little more robustly.

As I pointed out earlier (post #26), both St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom thought the rock was not the man Peter, but rather his confession. So your "plainly and clearly" declaration must mean that in your view not only were these Catholic saints just wrong, but they had their heads up...

It seems some of us on this post are wandering on the road to Mecca. Maybe I am one of them, but here is my $0.02: The validity of Papal Primacy does not turn on whether Peter, as opposed to Peter's confession, was "the Rock." Let's grant the former for the sake of argument. Nor does it turn...

Porneia has lots of possible meanings, and has been used in the NT to refer to all kinds of sexual immorality (Acts 21:25; 1 Cor. 6:13, 18; 7:2; 2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 5:3; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:3). Fornication by one's betrothed (or by her prior to betrothal) is not the only or even the...

Christ gave authority to Peter's successors? That's news to me!

After saying about my post "This is the single best post on this entire thread up to this point!" you went on to assume -- incorrectly -- that I answered "no" to the poll, called it "Very disappointing!" and then said "Your instincts are good and so there's hope." Your assumption about my...

Saying that there is "hope" for me implies that my thinking is presently deficient. If someone accused you of being a deficient thinker, would you not find that offensive?

I don't want to be offended. Nobody wants to be offended. Your tone is objectively offensive.

I am with Plato on this one. And I haven't participated in the poll. The "no" isn't from me. The comment "Your instincts are good so there's hope" is offensive to me.

OK, then why did Christ have to die on the cross? If "God forgives...he doesn't hold a record of wrong," then He could just forgive all of our sins as an exercise of mercy and love, and leave it at that -- without the suffering of his Son. No?

The “voluntarism” of Luther and Calvin, and before them of William of Ockham, holds that morality and justice, even goodness, have no objective reality, but are simply whatever God declares them to be, i.e., God is free to establish any moral law He chooses, and that choice then serves as the...

Several theories have been advanced to explain what happened on Calvary, all of them using the language of “payment” in describing the sacrifice. The “ransom” theory, see Matt. 20:28/Mark 10:45, suggests that by sinning mankind became Satan’s captives, and Christ gave himself as a ransom to...

It is Early Church Father commentaries on Matt. 16:18, either for or against the identification of Peter the man as the Rock, that I am interested in. Has anyone done the survey?