The Sin of Adam: what is it and how does it affect us?

Most Christian denominations believe that every human being descended from Adam and Eve is born sinful (except Jesus Christ, and possibly also his mother Mary). The Catholic Church refers to this notion as “Original Sin”; the Eastern Orthodox call it “Ancestral Sin”, and there are other names for it as well, although none of these

Infernalism is permission to sin, among other toxic symptoms

One of the favorite arguments of infernalists is that universal salvation means “there is no reason not to sin”. Why not murder and torture people as I see fit if I am not going to be tormented for eternity for doing so? This reasoning is erroneous for numerous reasons that have been covered in-depth elsewhere

The flaws of penal substitution theory

[Updated: 18 November 2022] A brief history of atonement theories Why, exactly, Jesus had to die for our sake has been a topic of debate for over a millennium. Gustaf Aulén’s revolutionary work Christus Victor (free download here), first published in 1930, built a compelling case that there existed a general consensus on the topic

Annihilationism and infernalism are equally wrong, for the same reasons

Proponents of annihilationism (also known as conditionalism or mortalism)—the belief that the God completely obliterates the consciousness of the unsaved—claim that their soteriology is more merciful and more biblical than infernalism, the belief that the damned will be consciously tormented for eternity. The former claim is questionable. Nobody can adequately explain what moving from consciousness

Is there an unforgivable sin?

[Last updated: 3 May 2022] Infernalists point to four passages in the New Testament as proof that there are some people who will be eternally damned, on account of committing a particular sin that is supposedly so grievous that even Jesus Christ himself failed to conquer it on the cross. Despite God wanting to save

“I will drag all people to myself” (John 12:32)

In The New Testament in Greek, Jesus’ statement in John 12:32 is rendered as follows: “κἀγὼ ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, πάντας ἑλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν.” The NRSV translates it as: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Most Bible translations I have consulted also use the

The Mosaic and New Covenants compared

Q: Mosaic Covenant New Covenant Why does it exist? Foreshadow Christ and his necessity (cf. Heb 10:1-18), cause people to sin (cf. Rom 5:19-21) Salvation from sin (cf. Mt 26:28) Mediated by whom? Angels (Gal 3:19) Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5) For whom? Israelites (cf. Ex 19:3-6) Every human being (cf. Rom 5:12, 11:25-36), Christians

Don’t be watchful, the ‘Great Tribulation’ already happened

[Last updated: 4 March 2022] If you do a search engine query for “End Times”, you will find literally thousands of websites hosting some soothsayer’s attempts to correlate current events with the ‘Great Tribulation’ described by the Book of Revelation. Innumerable people today, and throughout history, have made fools of themselves by negligently promoting such

Many things in Scripture were once true, but are not anymore

Suppose somebody said: “the Vietnam War ended in 1975”. And I replied by saying “nuh-uh, look, here’s a newspaper from 1968 saying there’s still conflict ongoing”. I would look like a total imbecile for failing to recognize that events that happened in 1968 are different from events in 1975. This is probably extremely obvious to

A tribute to Gregory of Nyssa

[Last updated: 29 November 2023] Gregory of Nyssa was a fourth-century Cappadocian bishop and theologian, and is a canonized saint among the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican Communion, and some Lutheran denominations. He received a particularly special accolade at the seventh ecumenical council, Nicaea II, where he was acclaimed the “father of fathers”.