Tag Archives: apologetics

Life, Death, and God’s Sovereignty

Theomorph, our resident atheist, has asked an astute question in a comment to yesterday’s post about Terri Schiavo.

"If suicide or murder are wrong because they contravene God’s alleged desires for the course of a life, how can you not apply the same reasoning to technological attempts to extend a life in the face of otherwise insurmountable difficulties? I.e., if a person would die without medical intervention, how is medical intervention also not a contravention of God’s apparent desires? If "rights come from God and God alone," then the right to live also comes from God and God alone, does it not? How does one ascertain when God has removed that right, beyond which point all human efforts to maintain life are in opposition to the will or desire of God?"

How do we reconcile God’s sovereignty with modern medicine? Are those who renounce medical and pharmaceutical technology in favor of healing by prayer actually right? How do we decide the will of God? When do life-saving techniques stop being appropriate efforts and start being contrary to God’s wishes?

What say you, Christian readers of my blog?

The Squinting Eyes of Faith

Wow. This message from a former Christian provides a lot of food for thought. It’s far too long to adequately excerpt it here, but I’ll give you this snippet to whet your appetites.

"Finding Christianity’s truth began to appear to me more like having to tilt your head and squint and stand back far enough, until you began to see how the claims of Christian apologists ‘matched’ what scant partisan evidence there is in the N.T. In the end I found myself standing back so far that I was outside the fold."

It’s well worth reading and I’d be very interested in discussing it here. After you’ve read it, please come back here and answer these questions.

Christians: Do statements like Ed’s challenge your faith? If so, how? If not, why?
Atheists/Agnostics: Do stories like Ed’s remind you of your own? Explain.

Carnivals 02/18/05

I’m a little late posting this, but here’s this week’s carnival roundup.

The
57th Christian Carnival is up at Wittenburg Gate
. Vox
Apologia 5 is also at WG
. The theme is “Three Governments: Family, Civil,
and Church”. The
17th Catholic Carnival is up at Living Catholicism
. The post hoc theme is “Spiritual
Nourishment During Lent”.

The Not-So-Good News?

Adian Warnock has been taking some heat for his wife’s "simple gospel". I think he thinks I’m one of the people giving him flack. Honestly, I’m not. I read his post too quickly and then foolishly blogged based on a misconception. In my rush to catch up on the blogosphere, I didn’t notice he was posting about something his wife had presented to 4-7 year-olds. Had I noticed that, I probably wouldn’t have responded. That’s not to say I agree with all ten points she gave, but given they were meant for children, I probably wouldn’t have blogged about them.

Anyhow, Adrian didn’t approve of my response "The Gospel in 30 Seconds". He calls my views "totally false" and makes the claim that I stated "that we must EARN our salvation". This is not true. I did not say that we have earn salvation. I implied that faith without works is dead. I also implied that repentance isn’t a do-it-once-and-you’re-done thing. It’s something we must do all our lives. Sin has consequences. Even when God forgives us, we still must attempt to repair the damage we have caused to ourselves and to others. Not to do so is to not be sorrowful of our sins and truly repentant. Also, it is possible to lose salvation. There are sins that cannot be forgiven without explicit confession, contrition, and penance. There’s no such thing as "once saved, always saved". Neither I nor the Catholic Church believes that one must earn salvation.

Now that I’ve defended my impromptu over-simplification of 2000 years of soterilogy, I’d like to apologize to Adrian and his wife, in case either felt ganged up on. I’m big into interdenominational dialogue, reunification of the Mystical Body of Christ, and apologetics. I was hoping to spur discussion, not attack anyone’s faith or expression thereof.

Your blog is a regular read of mine, Adrian. Keep on keepin’ on. 🙂

Pax Christi