Letters to surfers by Robert Brow
Bob is always glad to get e-mail and is particularly pleased when
something he has written for the Model Theology site sparks a question
or response in one of his readers. The following are answers to selected
letters he has received.
also see: letters part 2
-
What is the meaning of OT books such as
1 & 2 Samuel for us?
-
What is lustful looking?
-
What is Model Theology?
-
What about divorce?
-
Which is the right denomination?
-
Don't we need the fear of hell to make
us good?
-
Is there a final truth?
-
How do we differ from the other animals?
- What could persuade an atheist to
have faith?
- Doesn't evolution contradict the Bible?
- I
don't read anything in the Bible telling me that Simon is Martha's husband. You
must be guessing, if you are guessing then you should write as such. Bible warns
us about adding or taking from the Word
- How does Creative Love Theism relate
to predestination and free will?
- Did Jesus ever make mistakes as we do?
- Based on your "Late-date Genesis Man"
do you think any pre-Adamic hominids could have survived in our world?
- How do you explain the Trinity?
- What is the difference between the early
and the later writings of Wittgenstein?
- Can we welcome gays and lesbians to
our churches?
- How can you believe the exclusive words
of Jesus: "no one comes to the father but by me" (John 14:6)?
- Doesn't God's holiness require a substitutionary
payment to satisfy the demands of his justice?
- How do you explain the two references
to being predestined in Romans 8:28-30?
- Why aren't Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets
referred to as saints?
- Why has Christianity survived?
-
Is being a Christian the only way to be Moral?
- How can I be sure I have repented properly?
- Should we pray to Mary?
- Why do you publish on the web, instead
of in hard copy?
- How does Model Theology relate to Rhetorical
Analysis?
- What should we think of people who
shoot abortionists?
- Why do Anglicans (Episcopalians) and others
baptize babies?
- Do you think the Bible is inerrant?
- With a post-modern approach how can you
decide which is the correct interpretation of the Bible or anything else?
- When did Jesus' sufferings begin?
- I am involved with a married man.
- I found a Playboy magazine under my son's
mattress
- A woman is trying to persuade me to join
the Jehovah's Witnesses
- Was Jesus a rabbi, and if so how does he teach
us now?
- My daughter says if I don't accept Jesus
into my heart I am not a Christian
- The Bible uses strong language. "We die
to our old selves and are made new in Him".
- I would love to be married, and have children,
but it seems a terrible risk.
- Where is Feminism taught in the Bible?
- My son far away in Australia has just developed
lumps on his stomach, which may be malignant.
- My friend is a Muslim, and she prays to Allah.
Is she praying to the same God as I am?
- Will
there be Clocks or Time in Heaven?
- I was taught that once you are saved, you
are always saved.
- Can you explain why you have changed our original
doctrine of Atonement?
- What do I have to do to be sure I am saved?
- You picture baptism as an immediate enrolement
in the school of Jesus. But surely the step is far more serious .....
- Are you suggesting that we cannot take the
clear commands of Scripture as applying to us?
- How did Jesus fulfill the OT Jewish Laws?
- If you believe God is the ultimate author
of the Bible how do you answer feminist objections to O T Patriarchy?
- Doesn't your interpretation of John 14:6
go against 2000 years of Christian tradition?
- There are many references to prophesy in
the old testament and some of them are women .....
- Your preference for Christian Faith over Buddhism
is based not on logic but subjective appreciation ?
-
What makes food kosher?
- Do Anglicans believe in the real presence
of the Lord in their communion services ?
- Have stopped
taking communion for fear of drinking damnation to myself, How do I start back
on track?
- How dare you go against the great doctrines
of the Reformation ?
- In your model how do you explain the books,
the judgment and the lakes of fire in Revelation 20:4 - 15 ?
- How do you interpret the Great White Throne
of Revelation ?
- Was death the result of original sin in Genesis
3? If Adam hadn't sinned would humans have lived forever?
- How do you explain the extermination of
the Amorites ?
- In C. S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, you can't
deny that God punishes those who choose hell? It is still His doing.
- How do you interpret the books of judgement
in Revelation 20:4-15 ?
- Do Anglicans and Episcopalians believe in
the real presence of Jesus in the Communion service ?
- Based on 2 Thessalonians shouldn't preachers
work to support themselves as Paul did ?
- By rejecting legalism, aren't you undermining
morality ?
- Most Theologians consider "Scripture", "Tradition",
Experience" and "Reason" as sources for Theology. How do ....
- What is the relationship between demon possession
and mental illness ?
- Is there a logical reason to show that one
should be moral ?
- In view of your welcoming approach to sinners,
how do you explain the handing over to Satan in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 ?
- Is Theology the Queen of the Sciences ?
- What is the relationship between the various
religions of the world and your own models in God of Many Names ?
- In your Creative Love model how does
the Holy Spirit relate to making a decision for Christ
- What do you think about homosexuality ?
- Do you think every abortion is the murder of
a human being ?
- How do you explain Jesus' words about judging
and casting pearls before swine in Matthew 7:1-6 ?
- From your web site you are obviously an
Arminian. What do you believe ?
- What do you think of process theology ?
- What do you think about the original Theravada
Buddhism, which I am pursuing at present ?
- Your models seem very cold to me.
They miss the warmth and richness of personal faith.
- Is God outside time ?
- Using your explanation of language games,
people who ignorantly take Jesus' name in vain are not morally responsible
- Don't you think the third of the ten commandments
is a condemnation of all the bad language around us ?
- Your view of sexual intercourse as the beginning
of marriage omits the importance of the covenant relationship.
- What do you think about charismatic manifestations
like being slain in the spirit, holy laughter, shaking, speaking in tongues
- What do you think about our current method
of teaching religion at the post-graduate level ?
- I know tithing was required in the Old Testament.
Is it required in the New Testament ?
- Do you think that laws about marriage with
relatives in Leviticus 18:6-18 apply to us as Christians ?
- Do you believe in the idea that bishops
in Apostolic succession convey the Holy Spirit to us by the laying on of
hands ?
- Why are you going back to the Textus Receptus,
which has been rejected by the NRSV translators and most other scholars
?
- What do you make of saints judging the world
? - 1 Cor. 6:2
- Homosexuality is sin. Why don't you
call a spade a spade ?
- Why did European artists paint Jesus as white
?
- Why do you avoid the word innerancy and
prefer to talk about infallibility of the bible ?
- Why did the early Christians have such
a big emphasis on the resurrection of the body ?
- Where do you think heaven is located
?
- You write as if science is limited to the
four dimensions of space and time
- When you pray do you actually hear God
using words ?
- You have no right to suggest that someone
could come to God through the Holy Spirit without having first believed
in Jesus
- What do you think of the ontological argument
for the existance of God ?
- Why did God allow Satan to torture Job ?
- In your use of the gospels you seem to
downplay the historical method used by all reputable scholars. Why
is this ?
- Based on Titus 1:5 do you agree that Paul
was released from imprisonment and went on to Crete and Spain ?
- What advice would you give to someone who
has adulterated a marriage etc.
- Heaven is immediately accessible
-
What is your take on the current flurry of discussion of evolution as opposed to
ID (Intelligent Design) ?
- Depression Has Taken Over My Life. Does
your bible have anything to offer ?
- I am puzzled by your remarks about Jesus'
resurrection
- You write a lot about the love of God.
What does that mean?
- You write a lot about love, but have avoided
giving me a definition of the word
- What are the fourteen books of the Apocrypha,
and why don't you quote from them ?
- We know there are about three billion letters
in human DNA...... Why do you still talk about evolution?
- Are you suggesting that false doctrine does
not matter ?
- How does your approach relate to this quote
from George Lindbeck: .....?
- Does the Bible allow prayers to the Saints?
- God designed the sexes to be unequal.
What do you think?
- I keep hearing about sex with animals.
What does the bible say about this?
- I have been taught we need to complete the
work of evangelism in all the world before the Lord's return.
- What is your take on what is happening
in the world today?
- When a church becomes apostate is it time
for us to leave it?
- Your commentary on Luke is obscurantist.
It totally ignores a century of historical criticism.
- Why have pentecostal churches grown so
much?
- Is it possible to cooperate with people
who have different doctrines?
- If a movie was produced that approved the
abuse of children, the terrible suufering of cancer, etc. ....
- I have found myself attracted to a more
high Anglican church. Am I still an evangelical?
- You seem to be committed to your model. The
hermeneutics of suspicion should make us question the facts...
- What do you think about cremation as opposed
to buriel in a cemetery?
- What do you mean by The Body?
- Can you give us the model that moves terrorists
to kill themselves and thousands of others?
- You write about consequences and miss the
idea of justice. On what grounds do we have the right to "assign consequences"?
- What could President G. W. Bush say to the
Taliban?
- I see such terrible injustice
and suffering in our world that I can no longer believe in a loving God.
- What does the bible say about Arab claims to
the land occupied by the Jews?
- I told the story of Susanna in my Sunday school
class, and I was told to never use the Apocrapha.
- This is to announce the birth of Marion Anglin
this past week.
- Are you suggesting that the study of history
is never useful in understanding the bible?
- I have been witnessing to a friend who is an
agnostic. .........
- Do you and your wife think erotic language
is appropriate when speaking about God?
- Shouldn't real Christians give away all their
possessions (Acts 2:44-45)?
- What is the difference between love and lust?
With your view of baptism in Go Make Learners
what do you think of rebaptism of those who
- were "done" as babies?
- What does the Bible actually say about
blessing a marriage?
- Does Leviticus prohibit Gay and Lesbian behaviour?
- Same sex uniuons. How do you understand Romans
1:26-27
I am concerned that my children are
not believers. According to Titus 1:6 I am not suited to function as a
minister.
- When you call the church a "franchise",
are you suggesting we move from one to another when we choose?
-
Christians give the impression that being Christian is the only way to be
moral. I do not know where you hide yourself in this world but
you obviously close your eyes to all the immoral behaviour of the major
Christian nations, and some of its leaders.
- The Canaanites
got a lousy deal. God orders the Israelites to wipe them out, man, woman and
child; and punishes the Israelites when they don't do a thorough enough job of
it. How does this fit into your book of Creative Love?
- My wife and I failed to see our 14 year
old daughter was dying of appendicitis. By the time we got her to the hospital
she was gone. How does this relate to God's love and our responsibility?
- I have encountered nothing but rejection from
publishers. What should I do?
- I don't understand what you mean
by Sheol ?
- By the law of love that Jesus taught
some of the things God said to Moses in Exodus 21 were morally wrong
- How do you explain the work of the Holy Spirit
in John 16:8-11 ?
- I like your position of conditional immortality
but ....
- How can you assume that the parable of
the sheep and the goats refers to nations and not individuals ?
- How can you think that Post-modernism has
any value ?
- How can you take Genesis as a historical document?
- Looking back again a year later on September
11th, what difference has that made to your commitment?
- You say models can be evaluated for usefulness.
But is not usefulness part of a model?
- A professor told us that the sons of God going
into the daughters of humans .... etc. was a Greek myth.
- When and how do you think the Canon of the
New Testament was finalized?
- Are you rejecting the obvious fact that Genesis
1 is based on ancient myths of the period?
- How can you deny that documents were used in
our books of the bible?
- How does assurance relate to salvation?
-
How do we integrate the
Gospel of Thomas and other Nag Hammadi texts into our Christian experience?
- When were the original 12 apostles of
Jesus saved?
- Why is a Jewish book like the Bible relevant
to other nations?
- With so many modern translations, how can
we know what is the word of God?
- You seem to deny the innerancy of the Bible.
Please explain.
- In view of the hundreds of different interpretations
among Christians, how can we know the truth?
- In you view of the Bible you ignore Textual
Criticism
- Why do you promote "Naturalistic Expressions"?
- Most scholars believe the
Gospels were written much later. Why do you place them before 70 AD?
- How do you fit the New Heavens and the
New Earth (Revelation 21) into your model?
- God seems to have appeared in a body form.
How can God have a Body?
- Jesus said every stone of the temple would
be thrown down. How can Jews still pray at the Wailing Wall?
- I am facinated by Tantric yoga as a way of
experiencing God. What do you think of it?
- Don't you agree that the multiplication
of churches in America is wrong?
- Is there a conflict between Christianity and culture?
- Why do Jews and Christians seem to think so differently?
- I came
into your site via your review of Capon’s Astonished Heart. Can you
explain your vision.
- Scholars
do not view the Table of Nations as historical. Why do you rely on it?
- What is
brow / letters to surfers -- how do we
differ from the other animals? the real
point at issue between Open Theism and those who oppose it?
continue to: letters part 2
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