Antony Flew responds to Richard Dawkin's critique

Flew: atheist become theist
Dawkins: critic of his hero's theism

Flew spoke at Biola University when he received the "Philip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth"  Dawkins said he was used.  Flew writes:

"Finally, as to the suggestion that I have been used by Biola University: If the way I was welcomed by the students and the members of the faculty whom I met on my short stay in Biola amounted to being used, then I can only express my regret that at my age of eighty-five I cannot reasonably hope for another visit to this institution."

A little common ground with atheists

Maybe Van Til wasn't so great after all . . . Hitchens is interviewed by Sewell, a Unitarian minister.  (On her own blog she complains that Hitchens drinks too much, and became acerbic because of it.)


Maryiln Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and [sic] distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion? Christopher Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.  






Atheists love this quote as much as Christians. 

Trouble at Coral Ridge

If you're not aware of the troubles at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, I won't tell you, because I don't want to ruin your day.

But let's look at what has gone wrong:

Rev. Tullian Tchividian (did I spell that right?) takes to Christianity Today to defend himself.  I can't help but notice Tullian's Christ-like willingness to forgive.  But no sense of any willingness to ask for forgiveness.

One group has formed a faction, and taken that faction on to plant a new church.  Do people not realize that factions and divisions are reckoned by the Bible in the same category as orgies and witchcraft?
Galatians 5:19-21  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,  21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  


When we hear that a group of the church - including the late Dr. Kennedy's daughter - formed a breakaway group, we ought to hear that as if they had protested Tullian's new call by having a drunken orgy.  Outrageous!  Scripture says, "People like you will not go to heaven - you will not inherit the kingdom of God."

I am far from impressed with Rev. Tchividian.  He is slick, he courts the press, and he seems to have packages the "unpackaged" motif.  He's accidentally cool, and should be far more willing to, say, wear a robe because the people want him to wear a robe.  Submit in love, Tullian!  And stop broadcasting your humility all over Christianity Today, the mag grandpa Billy started.

But that still doesn't excuse people for divining Coral Ridge's future by slaughtering a sheep and reading its liver strife, rivalries, dissensions, and divisions.  I mean, we are talking about two separate congregations with the exact same doctrine.  If they can split over admitted non-essentials, what hope is there?

This could have been handled so many ways but this.