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I view it sightly differently. I read Paul, particularly in Galatians 3, as agreeing that if one keeps the Law perfectly righteousness is the result, but as saying “Don’t choose to play by those Rules, you foolish Galatians; for once you sign up for that, you’ll almost certainly fail to end up...

Thanks for this, PJ. It was a long video, but worth getting through. I do think the Real Presence is fairly well attested.

Will someone who perfectly keeps the Law be deemed righteous by God?

Well, it's probably more accurate to say that for centuries the RCC has identified the Church itself as the bride of Christ. Probably Eph. 5:22-33 is the basis for the notion. A few scattered NT references like John 3:29 and Mark 2:19 also hint at the analogy. In the OT, I catch a whiff in...

When Paul references "the Law" he is referencing more than just the Ten Commandments. He means to include the full panoply of Jewish offerings, dietary restrictions, purification rituals and other do's (like circumcision) and don't's (like sharing a table with Gentiles) found in the Pentateuch...

And police/law enforcement will have guns too. But police/law enforcement can only do so much. Make guns illegal, and self-defense from armed criminals is weakened. If only there were a way to know whether fewer gun deaths or more gun deaths would result from making guns illegal . . . I...

I will, thanks.

I like Marymog's quotes from Ignatius of Antioch (although not her condescending attitude toward Brakelite with that "your lesson for today" comment). I'm happy to add a few more quotes from the early Church Fathers: Justin Martyr, First Apology, ch. 66 (“For not as common bread and common...

Thanks, me too! But the jury is still out on that one. Too many people posting strident, unbending views, seasoned with a dose of intolerance and condescension for opposing views.

Origen wrote: “He prays without ceasing who combines prayer with right actions, and becoming actions with prayer. For the saying ‘pray without ceasing’ can only be accepted by us as a possibility if we may speak of the whole life of a saint as one great continuous prayer.”

In Matt. 28:19, Christ reportedly commissions his apostles to spread the gospel to “all the nations.” The Greek word ethnē translated as “nations” in these verses is universally interpreted to include Gentiles―making it a complete reversal of Christ’s earlier instruction to the apostles to...

I love you as a brother in Christ, Davy. I don't see any point in arguing with you about what I've read, many times. We will just agree to disagree on what they prove, and move on. Peace.

I don't think God's Word is weak. I just think the argument "he shall be called 'God with us' therefore he must be God" is a weak argument. If that name had been given to Moses, or David, or Elijah, it would certainly have been an accurate portrayal of them as speaking the Word of God to His...

I'm a Trinitarian, I believe Christ to be divine -- but sorry, Davy, I think trying to prove that point by referencing the name "Immanuel" is weak. Why not focus on the virgin birth as the more critical part of the verse? Those who deny Christ's divinity may have a harder time explaining what...

My point exactly. The need for Christ's sacrifice is a reason to reject Matt. 6:14 as incorrect.

Agreed, but I'm missing your point. (There are two types of people in the world, redheads and non-redheads. There are two types of people in the world, football fans and non-football fans. And so on.) So, are there any circumstances under which a non-Christian who sincerely repents of his...

A Jew who both forgives others AND repents of his own sin is doomed unless he becomes a Christian, then? Is that your view?

It's a great question, Bob. I'd like to think that God would forgive any repentant sinner, simply by virtue of his/her contrite repentance alone. (There are many who post on this site who will object "Not without Christ's sacrifice on the cross He won't!")

You are correct. While normally a champion of trinitarian thought, Tertullian said this in his polemic text Against Hermogenes: “Because God is in like manner a Father, and He is also a Judge; but He has not always been Father and Judge, merely on the ground of His having always been God. For...

Per Rowan Williams’ Arius: Heresy and Tradition (rev. ed. 2001), here is what was adopted by a synod of bishops at Antioch, although a far smaller number than would later convene at Nicea: We believe in one God, the Father, the ruler of all, incomprehensible, immutable and unchanging, the...