Since 2000 I have been writing a number of articles, predominantly on theological or apologetical (is that a word?) topics. While all can be found via the archives or searching the site, the purpose of this page is provide an index to all the main articles with a brief summary.

Sermons

An Eye for an Eye? (Nov 2001)
How do we 'turn the other cheek'?

Walking in Knowledge (Nov 2005)
We can either forget using our minds at all in regard to our faith, or focus solely on the intellectual side. Neither of these are what Jesus had in mind. Jesus said we were to love God with all our minds � the intellectual effort we put into our faith should be the same if not greater than the effort we put in when using our mind in other aspects of our lives. But he also said that eternal life was to know God, and to know Jesus. Eternal life is a relationship. Loving God with all our minds leads us deeper into a relationship with God.

Significance of the High Priesthood of Christ (June 2000)
On the Day of Atonement that I mentioned before, the high priest actually had to offer sacrifices for his own sins before he could offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. He had to restore his relationship with God before he could help the people with their relationship. But Jesus lived a sinless life. He never did anything that was wrong. He was perfect. So he was worthy to enter the presence of God by his own merits. He did not have to offer a sacrifice for himself. He did not need to restore his relationship with God prior to helping us. He has a perfect relationship with God, and so can help us into a relationship with God ourselves.

More than an Intellectual Christianity (Jan 2001)
James wrote that faith without works is dead, but Paul wrote that we are saved by grace alone. How can we reconcile and apply both of these passages to our lives?

Apologetics

Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God (Jan 2002)

Answering problems with the Genesis account of creation (Feb 2006)
An explanation for a claimed contradiction between the Biblical account of creation and modern astronomy.

Why believe the Bible? (Feb 2006)
An introduction to a non-circular argument for biblical inerrancy.

The Absurdity of Philosophical Agnosticism (Feb 2006)
Philosophical agnosticism has two significant problems with it: it is self-refuting, and assumes that God would not attempt to reveal his existance to us.

Explaining Jesus Walking on Water (Apr 2006)
A quick response to some Professors weird claim that the Sea of Galilee was iced over when Jesus walked on it.

The Gospel of Judas (Apr 2006)
A brief response to the reliability of the recently (re-)discovered Gospel of Judas.

More on the Gospel of Judas (Apr 2006)
Another interesting article rejecting the Gospel of Judas.

The Empty Tomb (Apr 2006)
The empty tomb provides significant evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

Did Jesus Die on the Cross? (May 2006)
The apparent death theory claims that Jesus did not in fact die on the cross. Instead he was unconscious and woke up in the coolness of the tomb, and then claimed to have risen from the dead. This article examines the evidence for this theory.

Theology

On Miracles (Sep 2002)
If the kingdom of God is present in part, then this would seem to imply that we should see parts of it breaking into this age. We witness this in the gospels with the power of the Spirit in action, and the fact that the kingdom is still present implies that this power is still present. Today, we should still expect the power of the age to come to breaking into this age. Limiting the power of present kingdom to �spiritual things� (such as conversion, justification, and sanctification) seems to be an arbitrary limit of God�s power and guilty of the age old saying of �putting God in a box�.

Reconciling John and the Synoptics (Nov 2002)
Any attempt to dismiss parts of John or the Synoptics on the grounds that they are dissimilar to each other must also answer the following charge: since it is probable that John had read one or more of the Synoptic Gospels before writing his own, it is very possible that he deliberately chose to complement them, and only duplicates some major events. John himself claims twice that he was only selective in those actions and words of Jesus that he recorded (Jn 20:30-31 and Jn 21:25). It seems perfectly reasonable that he consciously chose to record parts of Jesus� ministry that were not covered by the Synoptics. In addition, when we consider that the Holy Spirit was at work through the gospel writers, should it really surprise us that the Spirit would illuminate and remind John of those important words of Jesus that had not already been reported?

Women in Church Leadership (Mar 2006)
A survey of the arguments for and against allowing women into roles of church leadership.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit (June 2006)
The phrase "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" is often bandied around in Christian circles, particularly amoung those who go to a Pentecostal or Charismatic church. But what does this actually mean?

Biblical Interpretation

Writing and Leading Bible Studies (Part 1 - Exegesis) (Dec 2002)
What is exegesis and an example of it using the book of Colossians.

Writing and Leading Bible Studies (Part 2 - Exposition) (Jan 2003)
What is exposition and an example of it using the book of Colossians.

Writing and Leading Bible Studies (Part 3 - Application) (Jan 2003)
Now that we have determined what a bible passage means, how do we apply it to our lives today.

Literal Biblical Interpretation
More on Literal Biblical Interpretation
Should we interpret the bible literally unless that results in absurdity, or is the standard more relaxed than that?

God and Time

Introduction to God and Time (Jan 2006)
A brief introduction to the problem of God and time.

Introduction to the Tensed and Tenseless Theories of Time (Jan 2006)
An introduction to the two main theories of time, an explanation of the critical difference between the two, and the implications of those theories when considering God's relationship to time.

Open Theism and Eternalism (Feb 2006)
If Open Theism is true, then the dynamic theory of time must be true and God must be in time.

Arguments for a Dynamic Theory of Time (Part One) (Feb 2006)
This argument holds that a deep belief in the objective reality of past, present, and future is a universal part of human experience. In simple terms it claims that everyone experiences the difference between the past, present, and future, which the static theory of time denies. Everyone experiences the passage of time, and so we are justified in holding the objectivity of tense as true, unless a good reason is found not to.

Arguments for a Dynamic Theory of Time (Part Two) (Feb 2006)
This argument says that it is undisputed that we use tense everyday as part of normal language. It then argues that it is impossible to restate tensed sentences as tenseless sentences, and that tenseless facts are insufficient to make tensed sentences true or false. Consequently, there are tensed facts, so the dynamic theory of time must be true.

Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom

Predestination - The Sovereignty of God (Dec 2000)
One of the most challenging issues, intellectually, theologically, and morally, that we must face, is the conflict between the views of predestination and free choice on the Sovereignty of God. Predestination is often rejected out of hand, as it seems too difficult to reconcile the perfect love of God, with a God who has chosen in advance who will be saved.

The Dilemma of Fatalism (Mar 2006)
The argument for fatalism that claims that divine foreknowledge and human freedom are in fact incompatible.

Fatalism and Divine Timelessness (Mar 2006)
Does arguing that God is timeless rather than temporal solve the problem posed by fatalism?

Fatalism Debunked (Mar 2006)
Why the argument for fatalism is in fact logically flawed.

Problems With Open Theism (Mar 2006)
Open Theism is the view that God does not exhaustively know the future. This article examines the serious problems with that view.

Introduction to Divine Middle Knowledge (May 2006)
An introduction to divine middle knowledge compared with other views of God's foreknowledge.

Divine Middle Knowledge (May 2006)
An explanation of the concept of divine middle knowledge.

Biblical Evidence of Divine Middle Knowledge (May 2006)
The biblical evidence for the concept of divine middle knowledge.

Ramifications of Divine Middle Knowledge (May 2006)
An explanation for the theological arguments for divine middle knowledge, and the ramifications if it is true.

Various Thoughts

"I and the Father are one"
Why this passage should be understood as a claim by Jesus to be God.

What is sacrifice?
Sacrifice must involve a real cost, or it is not really a sacrifice. The cost of offering a sacrifice in the Old Testament was atually quite substantial - an unblemished lamb, goat, or bull from your flocks was definately a substantial cost. While we do not offer such sacrifices today, the question remains: do our sacrifices or offerings to God actually cost us anything? If they do not, then are they really a sacrifice?

If your brother sins against you...
Was Paul right to publicly rebuke Peter?

Speaking in Tongues
Is speaking in tongues always in another human language? Is speaking in tongues the sign of being filled with the Spirit?

Is God Omniscient?
A brief and quick response to a question about how God's omniscience can be biblically justified.

Sickness
It is often so easy to place the blame for a particular illness or misfortune onto the person who is suffering. Indeed, that is often the reaction of many Christians today. Yet, in the first few verses of John 9, Jesus contradicts this unambiguously.

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? How do we know if we are guilty of it? Is God unjust in not forgiving us of it?

Are all sins equally bad?
James 2:10 says: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." Does this mean all sins are equally bad? Does it mean that me being a little impatient with someone who wastes my time no better than someone who tortures and murders for pleasure?

Blind Faith
Some seem to think that this means that faith is blind - that you must believe regardless of the evidence against it. But I do not think that this is the biblical view of faith.

Eternal Life
Eternal life is to know God, not to know about God. This implies that eternal life starts now.

Tithing
Should we tithe our net or gross income? Or is the real issue something different?

To Live is Christ, But to Die is Gain
Paul's desire was to depart and be with Christ when he said this, but I'm not quite at that point myself.

It Is Finished
We should not be looking at our own actions to see if we are worthy of being saved, but we should be looking at Jesus' work on the cross. It is finished.

The Unexpected Resurrection (Aug 2006)
The Jewish idea of the resurrection was an event that occurred on the last day. So where did the disciples get the idea that Jesus had rosen from the dead on that first Easter?

Constitutional and Political Musings

MP Pay Rises (Jan 2006)
Making some changes to the way MP's get pay rises to make them more accountable.

Should Citizen Initiated Referendums Be Binding (Feb 2006)
Some arguments for and against having binding referendums.

Proposed Election Law Changes (Feb 2006)
Following Labour's rort of the election expense laws, I have proposed some law changes to make it less likely to occur again.

Smacking and Repealing Section 59 of the Crimes Act (Feb 2006)
Why repealing section 59 of the crimes act does mean that smacking your children becomes a crime, despite Sue Bradford's claim to the contrary.

Reducing the number of MPs (Feb 2006)
My comments on a new bill to reduce the number of MPs from 120 to 100.

Roe vs. Wade (Feb 2006)
Brief thoughts on the contraversial abortion case in the US and the new attempts to change it.

Blasphemous Libel (Mar 2006)
Yes, we have a law against blaspehmous libel. How does it relate to the South Park 'Bloody Mary' episode.

Should we reintroduce the Upper House? (Mar 2006)
Slowing down the pace of legislation by creating a Senate of New Zealand.

Urgency (Mar 2006)
Slowing down the pace of legislation in Parliament by making changes to the rules surrounding urgency.

An Independent Speaker (Mar 2006)
Why the Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives is not as independent as the Speaker of the British House of Commons, and some options for how we could fix this.

Reforming Written Questions (Mar 2006)
Some ideas for how written questions could be changed to allow greater accountability of the Executive to Parliament.

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