"Our Reasoning Capacities Are Highly Unreliable"

"But the real surprise is that Oppy apparently rejects the assumption. He says it’s obvious (!) that our reasoning capacities are “highly unreliable” in the domain of philosophy. Yet he makes this claim as part of a philosophical rebuttal of Plantinga and Reppert, in the course of a philosophical case for naturalism, in a philosophical book written by a professional philosopher. If our reasoning capacities are highly unreliable in the domain of philosophy, what on earth does Oppy think he’s doing? This isn’t so much cutting the branch you’re sitting on as felling the tree and grinding the stump.

...Still, Oppy’s right about one thing: if our cognitive faculties are the product of undirected naturalistic evolution — which is to say, if evolutionary naturalism is true — then it’s highly unlikely that those faculties are reliable when it comes to philosophical matters. That’s a big problem for philosophical naturalists like Oppy."

Professor James Anderson, Adventures in Branch-Cutting

Is The Sinner's Prayer Biblical?

          There is a fairly recent development in church history that has pervaded mainstream methods of evangelism known as the sinner's prayer. It is a recited gospel invitation meant to convict unbelievers of sin and to assure new converts of having been delivered by God from their sins. We frequently hear zealous pastors during their sermons calling people in their audiences to repeat after them a formulaic prayer with the intention of ensuring the salvation of listeners.

          The first and foremost problem with the notion of a sinner's prayer is that nowhere does Scripture assure people of salvation on the basis that they recited a prayer. It nowhere guarantees salvation to people who recite a specific sequence of words. For example, nowhere do we see the apostles in the Book of Acts assuring people of salvation just because they recited a formula of prayer. There is more to conversion in that it involves the human heart and the Spirit of God.

          Justification in the sight of God is not obtained by ritualistic means, but by faith. If reciting the sinner's prayer is a biblically sound practice, then why did the Apostle Paul fail to mention that concept in his basic presentation of the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)? We cannot immediately assure people who have recited a prayer of salvation because we cannot look at their hearts. We do not know whether others have truly surrendered themselves to God.

          Furthermore, the sinner's prayer has given many unsaved individuals a false assurance of salvation. It has given people a false sense of security in regards to their true standing with the Lord. That is the most spiritually dangerous state to be trapped in. At best, the sinner's prayer contains elements of truth mixed with error. The worst aspect of this all is that people end up spending eternity in hell because of their self-deception.

           This is not to communicate the idea that every individual who has recited a sinner's prayer is a false convert. Rather, we ought to cease implementing that method in witnessing to other people because it is both unbiblical and deceptive. In fact, it was not until the nineteenth century when a lawyer named Charles Finney invented the sinner's prayer. The concept has been drastically popularized by evangelists such as Billy Graham.

           It is certainly biblical to guide somebody in prayer and repentance. It is certainly biblical for a sinner to ask God for His forgiveness. The confession of sin is very much a biblical concept. We can also have assurance of salvation (1 John 5:13). However, assuring a person of having a righteous standing before God on the basis of repeating a prayer is misguided. We are saved by the atonement of Jesus Christ. We receive Him by faith (John 1:12-13).

The Spurious Origin Of Mary's Perpetual Virginity

        The Roman Catholic dogma that Mary remained a virgin throughout her lifetime was most likely a consequence of the early church adopting low views regarding human sexuality and marriage. The rise of asceticism, monasticism, and already existing Gnostic beliefs played a foundational role in the development of Mary's perpetual virginity. Many early Christians embraced positions on the issue of marriage verses virginity that many today would readily consider to be strange and irrational. After centuries of disputes involving christology, the Second Council of Constantinople officially declared the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ to be "ever virgin."

        The church father Jerome argued that marriage was inferior to virginity and celibacy. He stated, "Marriage replenishes the earth, virginity fills Paradise" (Against Jovinianus, Book I). Augustine believed that marital relations could be accompanied by ungodly lusts, but he did not condemn marital relations as inherently sinful. Basil the Great acknowledged that many in his time believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary, although he personally rejected this teaching. Moreover, there was a small Arabian sect known as the Collyridians, which appointed women as priests to offer sacrifices of bread to Mary, whom they worshiped and believed to be a perpetual virgin. Athanasius and John of Damascus focused on ascetic practices without specifically denigrating marriage.

        It is worth considering this excerpt from the late-second to mid-third century scholar Origen on the underlying source material for this dogma:

        “And depreciating the whole of what appeared to be His nearest kindred, they said, Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? They thought, then, that He was the son of Joseph and Mary. But some say, basing it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter, as it is entitled, or The Book of James, that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end.” (Commentary on Matthew, 17, emphasis added)

        The idea of Mary remaining a virgin for her entire life is based on non-inspired sources, not the biblical text itself. Therefore, one has to read this teaching into the New Testament in order to make it fit, even though it does not. The basis for it is totally unreliable. Note how the Roman Catholic Catechism defends the perpetual virginity of Mary:

        "Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus. The Church has always understood these passages as not referring to other children of the Virgin Mary. In fact James and Joseph, "brothers of Jesus", are the sons of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, whom St. Matthew significantly calls "the other Mary". They are close relations of Jesus, according to an Old Testament expression." (# 500)

        Thus, we see that Roman Catholic officials have resorted to apocryphal literature in order to substantiate their claims. The beliefs Origen himself encountered have been kept alive to this very day. The perpetual virginity of Mary is another one of those uninspired traditions that grew up around the New Testament. With this approach to validating doctrine, one may as well justify non-Christian teaching by citing extra-biblical sources such as the Quran or Jewish Kabbalah.

The Passion Translation Exposed

Another new custom Bible is The Passion Translation by NAR [New Apostolic Reformation] Apostle Brian Simmons. In [commentator] Holly Pivec’s "Important facts about The Passion Translation" she points out that Brian claims Jesus appeared to him and blew on him to commission Brian to write this new translation. She continues:

He says: “he breathed on me so that I would do the project, and I felt downloads coming, instantly. I received downloads. It was like, I got a chip put inside of me. I got a connection inside of me to hear him better, to understand the scriptures better and hopefully to translate.”

On this same TV program, Simmons claimed Jesus revealed to him a new chapter of the Bible. This happened when he was translated to the library of heaven where he saw more books than you can imagine. One stood out called John 22. It told about the greatest revival the world is yet to see. God promised Simmons that one day He’ll bring Simmons back to heaven and give him this book.

Alisa Childers points out in “Here’s Why Christians Should Be Concerned About The Passion Translation of the Bible” “…the sole translator of TPT, Brian Simmons, is not trained in the biblical languages, and lacks the credentials necessary to produce an accurate translation of the Bible.”

Another thing that sets TPT apart from these other single-author translations is that Simmons claims that Jesus visited him personally, took him to the library of heaven, and asked him to write the translation. He claims to have received “downloads,” and “secrets of the Hebrew language” from Jesus Himself. Simmons even admitted that he has minimal background in biblical languages and needed the Lord’s help to translate.

That is the advantage of producing a custom Bible. You don’t need to be bothered with such mundane things as knowing the original languages, and in fact, knowing the original languages would almost certainly be an impediment to your imagination, or whatever entity is downloading information to your mind. It frees you up to add new bible chapters – or at least teach others that there are unrevealed chapters which will be added as an update later. Who can deny your experience? Who can argue with your own custom Bible? It’s a very convenient new tool to let NAR Apostles and prophets off the hook for being false prophets by simply rewording the warning Jesus gave in Matthew 7:15 and following:

Constantly be on your guard against phony prophets. They come disguised as lambs, appearing to be genuine, but on the inside, they are like wild, ravenous wolves! You can spot them by their actions, for the fruits of their character will be obvious. (TPB)

The passage in the real bible is actually a warning to be on guard for FALSE PROPHETS – which of course the NAR prophets are! The definitions of false prophets are given by Moses in Deuteronomy 13 and 18. The hearers of Jesus’ warning would have had these passages memorized. The warning has nothing to do with the so-called “fruits of one’s character.” One cannot judge a false prophet by his ungodly or bad “character,” since, as Jesus points out, they will look just like sheep!! Sheep are true believers. These false prophets would seem outwardly like Godly men, doing good works while hiding their true characters! The false prophets that Jesus warned would come would probably be carrying Bibles, claiming to do miracles, utilizing Christian lingo, acting nice and Christian-y, and maybe even casting out demons in Jesus’ name. In fact, that is what Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-23:

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

http://midwestoutreach.org/2018/06/28/the-custom-bible-company/

Affirmation Of Miracles Among The Ancients Was Not A Result Of Wrongly Perceiving The Universe

"...it may be stated at once that this view is quite wrong about facts. The immensity of the universe is not a recent discovery. More than seventeen hundred years ago Ptolemy taught that in relation to the distance of the fixed stars the whole Earth must be regarded as a point with no magnitude. His astronomical system was universally accepted in the Dark and Middle Ages. The insignificance of Earth was as much a commonplace to Boethius, King Alfred, Dante, and Chaucer as it is to Mr. H. G. Wells or Professor Haldane. Statements to the contrary in modern books are due to ignorance."

C.S. Lewis, Miracles, pg. 78

Belief In Miracles Was Never A Result Of Scientific Ignorance

"When St. Joseph finally accepted the view that his fiancee's pregnancy was due not to unchastity but to a miracle, he accepted the miracle as something contrary to the known order of nature. All records of miracles teach the same thing. In such stories the miracles excite fear (that is what the very word miracles implies) among the spectators, and are taken as evidence of supernatural power. If they were not known to be contrary to the laws of nature how could they suggest the presence of the supernatural? How could they be surprising unless they were seen to be exceptions to the rules? And how can anything be seen to be an exception till the rules are known? If there ever were men who did not know the laws of nature at all, they would have no idea of a miracle and feel no particular interest in one if it were performed before them. Nothing can seem extraordinary until you have discovered what is ordinary."

C.S. Lewis, Miracles, pg. 74-75

Johns Hopkins Psychiatrist: Transgender is ‘Mental Disorder;' Sex Change ‘Biologically Impossible’

"Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital and its current Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, said that transgenderism is a “mental disorder” that merits treatment, that sex change is “biologically impossible,” and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.

Dr. McHugh, the author of six books and at least 125 peer-reviewed medical articles, made his remarks in a recent commentary in the Wall Street Journal, where he explained that transgender surgery is not the solution for people who suffer a “disorder of ‘assumption’” – the notion that their maleness or femaleness is different than what nature assigned to them biologically."

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/johns-hopkins-psychiatrist-transgender-mental-disorder-sex-change

Experiencing The Joy Of God's Providence

        "O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalm 34:8)

        From a materialistic perspective, the Christian life is easily comparable to a complicated maze of edicts and burdens. It is ordinarily perceived by the world to be enslavement of the human will, but the reality of the matter is that everybody is a slave to something. We can either be servants of God or servants of idols. Any imagined concept of middle ground on this matter is illusionary. We can experience a temporary perversion of joy through self-indulgence or receive the crown of eternal life which consists of redemption, reconciliation, and fellowship with our Creator. The temporal blessings that God gives to us in this life point to the eternal blessings He will bestow upon us in heaven.

        One need not be discouraged in his or her walk with God in the midst of daily inconveniences or persecution. One need not discard the precious gems of gospel truth in view of the moral turbulence that this world presents. It must be recognized that nothing transcends the power of God. He is working things out for the good of those who love Him. We must evaluate matters from the lens of eternity. The world is not the way it is supposed to be. It has been impacted by sin. It is not our home because we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Our true home is an everlasting abode above. So we should not seek worldly or sinful means of pleasure.

         Christians have been called to exercise spiritual discernment. To act foolishly while claiming superficially that God will provide is not trust, but presumption. The gospel is not an invitation to prosper financially, but a call to experience fellowship with God. It is a call to love, know, and serve Him in this world. The gospel is a call to glorify God. We experience His goodness through being in communion with Him. He is not a means to an end, but a means in Himself. God designed us with the freedom of choice so that He could experience fellowship with mankind. That is the purpose and design of our free will. He did not create us because He needed to, but because He is love.

        We should be leaning on God and looking to His promises. We ought to trust in His divine plan to restore creation back to its original state of perfection. We should be striving for spiritual maturity through prayer, conquering fleshly lusts, and mediating on the principles of Scripture. God Himself is not simply a Giver of gifts, but is a gift Himself. He is the ultimate Gift. We ought to express gratitude for whatever blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon us. We must rejoice continually in the tender mercies He gives. God is our strength and our song. He is our comforter and all in all.