Critiques on my Justification Series

In this essay I would like to address three critiques offered in response to my recent series on justification. The first critique is from Mark. I opined that no one (both in the responses on the web site as well as in face-to-face conversations) was addressing the exegetical issues of Gal. 2. Mark pointed out …

And Now For Something Completely Different

... Firefox, my browser of choice, has become so bloated and bulky that it takes 45 seconds to a minute to load up on my old desktop(which is close to an eternity in computer time). Internet Explore 8, on the other hand, loads up in a few seconds. ...

What Does the Future Hold? (6 of 6)

In the previous essay I said that Orthodoxy missed the opportunity to deal with the Protestant problem 500 years ago when the problem was far more solvable. (Of course there were huge barriers to dialog back then that no longer exist today, so that period had barriers all its own.) Doing something about it today …

Imagine, if you will … (5 of 6)

Imagine a world in which the Orthodox Church suddenly embraced my proposed application of the "new perspective" on the doctrine of justification (that is, what I've been writing about for the last several essays, starting here). Now this isn't going to happen anytime soon. The folks in charge of Orthodoxy for the last few decades …

Caveats, 4 of 6

In the previous essays of this series I made the following parallel: Early Gentile Christianity's relationship to Judaism and Jewish believers is parallel to Protestantism's relationship to contemporary Orthodoxy. Allow me to make clear that this parallel is far from exact and is also problematic. Where Orthodoxy and Protestantism are the same (both Christian), Judaism …

Comparing Orthodoxy to Judaism, 3 of 6

In the last essay I ended by saying that the church, being a new creation, was not obligated to the Mosaic Law (the Torah), but to a new law of love (Gal. 5:14). This is not to imply that this new church was antinomian. Even a cursory reading of Paul's letters indicates that he assumed …

The Law (Torah) and the Gospel, 2 of 6

In the previous essay I observed that, according to N.T. Wright, the significance of the doctrine of justification by faith has to do with the basic requirements for Christian table fellowship. Wright's claim is based on a particular understanding of the Judaism of Jesus' and St. Paul's day. Within Protestant circles Judaism was historically considered …

The “New Perspective” and Orthodoxy, 1 of 6

In a recent essay I mentioned that in my opinion "the new perspective" on justification by faith had implications for Orthodoxy, if we would take it seriously. At the time I was asked to expand that thought but I've been hesitant because Orthodoxy doesn't seem to take kindly to critiques from outsiders, especially Protestants. The …

How Do You Like This Recovery?

I occasionally quote Bill Bonner from his free, daily missive called The Daily Reckoning. Just to warn you, the boys and girls over at the DR are very cynical. But cynicism is a lot like paranoia. Just because they're cynical, it doesn't make them wrong. Bill Bonner should Twitter because he has the uncanny ability …

Thunderstorm

It was a calm, clear night here in town, but just a thunderstorm was passing to the south of us. It wasn't particularly big, but lightning was lighting up the cloud. As Brenda said, "That's nice." At least it's nice when it's 20 or 30 miles south.