Ligonier Ministries

i agree. i have periods of wandering away, so nice to know that Christ is there for me always.

yes,Peter and R.C....HALLELULIA!! Great thoughts for worship tomorrow !!

good article. i would add that immanuel kant laid philosophy by divorcing reason with faith. i like what you said about order being studied. i think it was one of einstein's presuppositions--that of harmony. that presupp. allowed him to develop his theories.

Anytime my friend!

Great article regarding our final authority for truth: Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)!

I love this CD. What a perfect combination...great music and the Word of God. Great Job!!

Joe... Read More…It is Christians themselves who make the distinction between God’s essence, which is one, and three distinct and individual conscious entities known as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I didn’t invent this distinction…they did. What’s unclear, and what Christianity carefully avoids, is giving an ontological definition to the term ‘essence’. As you know, ontology is the study of being; that is, what things are-in-themselves. Everything that exists has being, and being always consists of something. Either that being is conscious (what philosophy calls ‘mind’), or it is non-conscious (what philosophy calls ‘matter’). These are the two great categories of being, and everything that exists, or can logically exist, is one or the other. Because each is profoundly different, it is perfectly reasonable to ask to which of these categories God’s essence belongs. In this case, however, either answer is fraught with problems for the Christian. One leads straightaway to contradiction; the other straightaway to atheism.

While Christianity refuses to commit itself to an ontological definition of essence, reality itself does not. Whatever reality ultimately is, it is a definite something. So fence-sitting has no correlate in reality itself.

In reference to your question regarding body and soul…My physical body is a material object consisting of inanimate particles. But I can only infer this based on circumstantial evidence. Because the material world is only accessible to me by means of conscious experience, and this limitation is something that consciousness logically imposes upon itself, true physical existence can only be surmised. This is true for ANY conscious being, even God. We can speculate upon its existence, but we can never actually prove it. As for the soul, I have no clear definition to go by. This is largely a religious term, and Christians themselves often give confusing definitions. You’ll have to clarify this term before I can address this part of your question.

Charles.. see now where difficulty lies, on the basic tenet, on different understanding of spiritual reality.

On the essence: As I have told you many times that to the best of my understanding, God is spirit (John 4:24). Omniscience, omnipresent, eternal, etc spirit. But not all spiritual beings are qualitatively equal. Angels and demons are also spiritual beings yet they are not omniscience, omnipotence, eternal, etc.

On the consciousness: Let me repeat what I've just mentioned, though I agree with Linus that consciousness is more of a property of the person rather than the essence but the question whether the essence is mind-dead is irrelevant as the three persons also share the same essence's attribute of omniscience, the very foundation of consciousness.... Read More

Hence in any way I do not see at what point--as you claim--Christianity comes to contradiction or to atheism.

From your explanation, it seems to me that you said that your physical body with its brain cells, nerve system etc is mind-dead and yet your consciousness (not clear where it comes from) somehow is able to access the material world and build up its learning experience..??

Anyway, now if for us to come to agreement you also require another lengthy explanation of spiritual reality then I don't think this is the right place. Discussion on the existence of spiritual realm is way off this thread, or even this forum.

Only ships within U. S..... sigh...

This so good. I'll read all you have on this subject.
About encouraging christians to" know our opponents' (Darwinists) arguments better than they do" can sometimes lead to mistakes for those who don't know too well the Bible's position on evolution. I think it will be better if believers are encouraged to stirve to know and understand in full all... Read More that the Bible says about creation. he that knows the Original can NOT be decieved by the fake, but he that doesn't know the real can easily be decieved by any counterfiet.

Great thing to remember. What have we gained if we only set out to win the argument?

Absolutely.

never been to one however this will be my first, Lord Willing! Awesome Theme! Awesome Speakers!

Baptist speakers?

I hope CCM, FV, Romanism, charismaticism, Anabaptists, non-confessionalism, ECT, Christianity Astray (Today) are on the agenda. Flashpoints, among others, for the Church Militant.