Hail Storm Hits Rhode Island

Wow…never seen anything like this…from Tuesday.

Another Trinity Debate - Hosted by the Biblical Unitarian Society of Southhampton

The Biblical Unitarian Society at the University of Southampton, UK, has hosted a debate on the Trinity. The debate occurred on June 16th, 2008. Representing the trinitarian side were two Anglicans, Prof. Keith Fox and Chris Halls both from Highfield Church. The two biblical unitarians that participated in the debate were Ray Faircloth of Restoration Fellowship and Thomas Gaston, a Christadelphian. The debate lasted nearly three hours and is available now online in both audio and video formats.

Program Timetable
Introduction by Michael Ng [5 min]

Opening Statement by trinitarian Chris Halls [20 min]
Opening Statement by unitarian Thomas Gaston [20 min]
Opening Statement by trinitarian Prof. Keith Fox [20 min]
Opening Statement by unitarian Ray Faircloth [20 min]

Rebuttal by trinitarian Chris Halls [5 min]
Rebuttal by unitarian Thomas Gaston [5 min]
Rebuttal by trinitarian Prof. Keith Fox [5 min]
Rebuttal by unitarian Ray Faircloth [5 min]

Q&A [approx 45 min]

Video [watch] [download]
Audio [listen] [download]

Note: the video file is quite large and may take some time to buffer when watching online.

(Please see our blog for other featured debates)

Debating The Trinity

Presented by Brant Bosserman and Sean Finnegan at the One God Conference, Seattle WA June 1st 2008, commentary by Sean Finnegan. Click here to listen the entire 2 hour debate or click on one of the parts below.

The debate was over whether God is a single individual (the Father of Jesus) or if he is a Trinity (three persons in one essence). The debate followed this format:

Introduction by Ken Westby and Tom Bosserman [10 min] listen or download

Sean’s Opening Statement [20 min] listen or download
Brant’s Opening Statement [20 min] listen or download

Sean’s Rebuttal [15 min] listen or download
Brant’s Rebuttal [15 min] listen or download

Sean Cross-Examine Brant [10 min] listen or download
Brant Cross-Examine Sean [10 min] listen or download

Sean’s Closing Statement [5 min] listen or download
Brant’s Closing Statement [5 min] listen or download

The discussion was lively and considerate and I thank Brant for his willingness to engage us on this issue. Unfortunately the recording has some microphone interference during the concluding statements but most of what was said can be understood. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Is Our Pain God’s Problem? - Bart Ehrman & N.T. Wright

Two of HGO’s favorites (for different reasons) discuss via blog posts this important topic on suffering, evil in the world and the Kingdom of God.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/blogalogue/

Here’s a brief summary -

Is our pain God’s problem? If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow so much suffering? These kinds of questions—sometimes called the problem of theodicy—have long bothered believers and nonbelievers alike. These questions are especially pressing now as we face the AIDS pandemic, widespread hunger, and environmental degradation—not to mention the grief that humans can cause one another. Our two guests for this new Beliefnet Blogalogue have devoted part of their lives to addressing these issues. Bart Ehrman is James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author of God’s Problem and Misquoting Jesus, among many other titles. N.T. Wright is the Bishop of Durham for the Church of England and has taught at McGill, Oxford, and Cambridge. His books include Surprised By Hope, Evil and the Justice of God, and several other titles.

17th Annual Theological Conference (Full Recap)

As the conference was in progress, JohnO and I were live-blogging and uploading the audios. However, I thought it would be helpful to have all of the talks in the same place under one post. In addition, I now have many of the actual papers which are useful to follow along with while listening to the audio. DVDs of this conference are available for a fee by ordering from Restoration Fellowship. Unfortunately, the questions did not come out on many of the audio recordings, however, the DVD version should have them.

name	title	description	listen	download	paper
Alex Hall	The Sacrifice of the Son of God	description	listen	save mp3	paper
Kent Ross	Anabaptists/The Radical Reformers	description	listen	save mp3	paper
Lennox Abrigo	No Resolution - No Peace	description	listen	save mp3	paper
John Obelenus	Jesus and Atonement	description	listen	save mp3	paper
Ray Faircloth	The Misapplication of Romans 9 to Predestinarian Views	description	listen	save mp3	paper
J. Dan Gill	Yet Another Music City Miracle	description	listen	save mp3	n/a
Chuck Jones	Modern Idolatry or The Other Gospel	description	listen	save mp3	paper
Jesse Acuff	The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament	description	listen	save mp3	paper
Dustin Smith	Religion and Politics	description	listen	save mp3	paper
Sean Finnegan	Looking for the Historical Jesus	description	listen	save mp3	paper
Joel Hemphill	My Story: To God Be The Glory	description	listen	save mp3	book
Anthony Buzzard	Discerning the Difference Between Two Opposed Theologies	description	listen	save mp3	paper

Allow Me To Re-Introduce The Christ

Powerful words.  Something to think about

Which Jesus do you follow?  The one of Scripture and history or the one of you’re making and fantasy?

Economic Stimulus Payment & Christ

By John Piper

For a moment, forget the political puzzle of getting money backwhen the country is nine trillion dollars in debt. The more immediate question is: How will you make much of Christ with your “economic stimulus payment”? The president says it will be in the mail in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Clue: Nobody in the world will see you spend your money on yourself and conclude that Christ is your treasure. They will assume you are just like them, no matter how loudly you thank God for this boon. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend it on yourself (the way we do with most of what we earn). Not everything we do can look different from the world—eat, pay utilities, fill up the car, wear clothes (even thrift-store clothes). And yes, we hope (somehow) that spending on ourselves in some way contributes to our being more Christ-exalting people.

But do we really need this money? Very few do. We would have gotten on fine without it. If we didn’t know it was coming, we wouldn’t even be feeling the desires we are feeling right now.

May I encourage you to be radically creative and hedonistic. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And those crazy Macedonians in a “severe test of affliction” and in “extreme poverty” had an “abundance of joy” that overflowed in a “wealth of generosity.” They even begged Paul “for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:2-4). They really believed what Jesus said. Really.

Before the check comes dream of some person or ministry which might make much of Christ because you treasured him above your next home project.

The reason God created money and enabled us to earn it is so that we could show by the way we use it that money is not our treasure, Christ is. That’s why the checks are coming. So we can make Christ look great.

“Be content with what you have, for he has said,
‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

Taken from http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1203_economic_stimulus_payment__christ/

___________________________

Great idea!  So in light of this, think of a way that the money you are getting back can bring glory to God and honor Christ.  I think that there are many ways to do this - paying debt (Romans 13:8), giving to the poor (Luke 14:12-14), giving to your church, etc…  But lets make this an opportunity to bring glory to God!

Any more ideas?

The Bridge

Wow….

Can we continue to just sit by and do nothing for our God?  For our Creator?  What is so important that He gets put on the back burner, the bottom of the list?  What are we waiting for?  What else does He have to do?  Stop sitting on the train of apathy - riding no where and all the while the son of the Father is crushed so that you can continue……

Continue to what?

be too tired…

     too lazy…

          too busy…

               too addicted…

                    too distracted…

Get off this train leading to death…and run back to the Father….

please….

…for the sake of His son.

Theological Conference 12 - Discerning the Difference Between Two Opposed Theologies

Click here to listen to Discerning the Difference Between Two Opposed Theologies presented by Anthony Buzzard, Apr 30th 2008, Atlanta Georgia. Commentary by John Obelenus

Anthony opens by explaining to us that distorted versions of the faith, held up by theological and spiritual leaders in high places, fight against the revealed biblical truth. He spotlights Swindoll and Zuck’s Understanding Christian Theology as a perfect example of this distorted version of the faith from the evangelical camp.

Often times the evangelical camp find and dictate a pre-existent Jesus in the Old Testament as the Angel of the Lord, despite their admission that there is no precise verse to declare a pre-existent Jesus. Futhermore they massively misunderstand the phrase “Son of God” by importing a post-Christian creedal understanding onto the person of Jesus in the gospels. This is where they begin their incarnation doctrines about Jesus that are so repellent to the biblical text and first century Judaism.

Next he analyzes the Gospel according to the evangelicals: “What was the content of the good news that especially Paul was commissioned to present [Note the unnoticed loss of Jesus and his Gospel!] He stated this clearly in 1 Cor 15.1,3-5 [the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus]. Paul… was ’separated to the gospel of God, … concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 1.1-3). At the end of his third missionary journey Paul told the elders of the church at Ephesus that his ministry was ‘to testify to the gospel [evangelion] of the grace of God (Acts 20.24).” The Gospel has thus been taken away from Jesus, granted to Paul, and contains vastly different information. In a footnote, we gather that Webster’s dictionary provides a much more accurate definition of the Gospel than do evangelicals.

Anthony finds that FF Bruce has stepped up to reclaim the words of Jesus and the kingdom back into the Gospel package. He denies that Paul’s Gospel is any different than Jesus’ as Dallas Seminary, and the whole Dispensational (Darby/Scofield) scheme would have us to believe.

Theological Conference 11 - My Story–To God Be The Glory

Click here to listen to My Story: To God Be The Glory presented by Joel Hemphill, Apr 30th 2008, Atlanta Georgia. Commentary by Sean Finnegan.

Famed gospel singer, Joel Hemphill, the surprise guest of the conference, delivered a riveting message about his story with God from his initial conversion at 10 years old to his recent arrival at the biblical unitarian position from his prior oneness (Jesus only) viewpoint. He speaks with lucidity, energy, and humility and the story he tells is gripping.

He has sent out over 130,000 tracts to various pastors and church leaders around America proclaiming his new found faith in the one God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus. His book, To God Be The Glory documents his research on this subject.