Love Truth Blog

I’m not one to watch a whole lot of cable television news entertainment, but Glenn Beck, popular media personality on the FOX News Channel, is a name that keeps popping up in social media circles and elsewhere, especially on issues related to faith and social justice. I even recently caught a few minutes of Beck’s interview with evangelicals Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor or Liberty University, and Peter Lillback, president of Westminster Theological Seminary, on this subject. Seeing this, I wondered, just what do these two evangelical leaders, who are entrusted with training up the pastors of tomorrow, have in common with a cultist in the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints? Glenn Beck has openly shared about his journey into Mormonism, and there’s even a YouTube video of him sharing his testimony. [1] Moreover, in an interview with Deseret News , he stated, “I presently serve as a ward missionary, elder’s quorum teacher and serve with my wife in the stake’s addiction-recovery pro...

Intelligent design (ID) is the theory that many things in nature bear clear signature of design. However, there is an ongoing debate on whether or not ID can be counted as “real” science, and the opposition comes mainly from those who want to make Darwinian naturalism the only game in town. Part of ID deals with the evidence from science that supports design. Another part of the debated concerns the philosophy of science, which addresses questions like whether or not Darwinian evolution is the only theory on the origins of life, and whether or not a theory on design constitutes legitimate “science.” ID also brings up debates in the academy on whether or not it can be part of science curriculum, and whether or not scientists and science majors can question the Darwinian dogma without risking censure and/or tenure. To help Christians unravel these complex issues, William Dembski and Jonathan Witt have put together a great book entitled Intelligent Design Uncensored: An Easy-to-Understan...

The question of whether or not we can know God is deep and profound. Many search the universe in hopes of finding something transcendent, but a few simply give up the quest, and settle for the idea that the material universe is all that there is, and nothing more. Yet, for many thinkers, the idea of a material universe being all that there is, or philosophical naturalism, is untenable and that the very existence of the universe presupposes the supernatural. The universe that we live in breath had a beginning. When we study the cosmos, we find that the origin of time, space, matter, and energy occurred at the big bang. Yet, nothing comes from nothing, so the finite material universe that exists must have been caused. The issue is not just a +100 canceling out -100 to equal 0, for even this presupposes the existence of +100 and -100; rather, the idea is that the universe came together out of nothing. What we know and observe in the universe, such as time, space, matter, energy, even the ...

As I touched on the subject of the Trinity in the last blog, I thought it important to note that in misunderstanding the nature of God results in misguided worship. Error begets error. I often hear fellow Christians say, “I got this great analogy for the Trinity, it’s like water, ice, and steam; they are all the same stuff (H2O) but different forms.” The sameness of the molecular structure of water/steam/ice may account for the unity of God, but it misses the clear biblical passages on the interactions between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For example, “The Father loves the Son” (cf. John 3:35; 5:20) but neither water, nor ice, nor steam express acts of love to one another. The same can be said about the egg analogy, there is not interpersonal love between the shell, yoke, and egg whites. The modes or manifestations expressed in the H2O and egg analogies are actually more akin to the ancient theological heresy of modalistic monarchianism (also called Sabellianism). The modalist...

The Trinity is an essential doctrine of Christianity; however, it is also a grand mystery, which we can apprehend but not comprehend. Attempts to form analogies of the Trinity from nature and human experience ultimately miss the mark. So how are we to understand this doctrine? James White offers this helpful definition: “Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” 1 Hank Hanegraaff succinctly puts it: “One What and three Who’s. ” 2 When speaking of the Trinity, we are communicating three things about God. First, it affirms that there is one God. Moses declares, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4)! Isaiah, likewise, prophesied, “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides Me there is no God” (Isa. 45:5). Second, the doctrine of the Trinity affirms that the one God exists as three coequal and coeternal persons. There is God the Father. He is the one w...

The other day on my drive to work, I put in an old Rebecca St. James CD, and a song that I began running in my head was “God.” The song really captures in poetry the glory and grandeur of an infinite God who condescends to fellowship with His creation. St. James sings, He made the night He made the day Spread the earth upon the water Make the heavens and the rain Look at the sky, see its design The very same creator is the one who gave us life What is man that He’s mindful of us? We’re merely clay in his hands What am I that He loves me so much He would die All that I can say is… It’s God, truly God Can you see, can you hear, can you touch, can you feel It’s God, truly God I can’t explain any other way cuz it’s God Inside us all there is a void All mankind is searching for the one who fills the soul In Him there’s hope in Him there’s life The world cries for a savior that’s right before their eyes What is man that He takes us in as His children to be His own An...

I just got around to reading the CT Blog... Bruce Waltke headed to Knox Theological Seminary? (updated) Liveblog Christianity Today Sadly, I am amazed that in the age of scientific enlightenment, an educated Old Testament scholar to the caliber of Dr. Bruce Waltke would consider the possibility of theistic evolution! There is actually no evidence for macro evolution, as in the case of one species of animal evolving into another higher species of animal - like apes to humans. Yes, some might point to something like finch beaks, but this is an example of micro evolution, but examples of major leaps in macro evolution just have not been found. One can also contend that the very scientific paradigm of Darwinian evolution is just another one of those old nineteeth century ideas that needs to go into the valut of "science of days gone by...yeah good times." For example, the Cambrian fossil record demonstrates the sudden appearance of diverse complex life forms without evide...