Tag Archives: Christianity

Commentary

Tim H. reviews new book on Christianity and capitalism at Rational Thoughts

7 Comments

The book review is here on Rational Thoughts.

Excerpt:

Capitalism’s reputation has taken a beating in light of the recent financial crisis.  According to politicians and pundits from both sides of the spectrum, capitalism is to blame.  Not so, say Austin Hill and Scott Rae, who argue in their new book The Virtues of Capitalism that capitalism is our best bet.  In fact, according to Hill and Rae, capitalism “remains the preferred economic system, even the necessary economic system, for any society that upholds a true sense of human rights.”

Hill and Rae approach economics from a distinctly Christian perspective, showing capitalism to be both consistent with and supported by the Bible’s teachings.  Contrary to some, the sharing of goods as described in Acts does not advocate socialism.   The sharing of goods was voluntary, as opposed to forced.  Moreover, the authors show that economics itself is deeply intertwined with moral issues.  Economic conditions can act as a powerful motivator either to encourage or discourage virtuous conduct. “[B]e honest and ask yourself: Is it ever more difficult to be the kind of spouse or parent that one aspires to be, when the economy is slow and personal finances are scares? … [W]hen finances are plentiful, can the enjoyment of material goods enable a person to avoid or neglect other important areas of their relationships?  And a final question… can economics impact one’s relationship with their God.”

[…]Overall, it’s a great and easy to understand book.

Tim likes the book “Money, Greed and God” by Jay Richards better, but that’s a tougher book to read – not for beginners. I’m shocked because I didn’t figure out my worldview regarding economics until my late 20s. Tim is a high school junior. Yipes! He must have good parents.

I recommend this new capitalism and Christianity book for courting Christian women, who are usually fiscally liberal until they get married and start families. It’s only 160 pages and it should be enough to convince any horrible socialist to give capitalism a chance. I also switched to “On Guard” for courting instead of the more difficult “Reasonable Faith”, at least for a first book. No sense scaring her off with something hard right at the start.

News

If a Protestant Christian commits suicide, does he still go to Heaven?

25 Comments
ECM is puzzling about things

ECM is actually an extremely intelligent, cultured fellow who reads far more deeply than I do on a wide variety of topics, including philosophy, history and science. He likes to puzzle about difficult questions, and you never know what he will ask from one day to the next.

Today he wanted to know what I thought about Protestants and suicide. In Roman Catholicism, suicide is a mortal sin, so you go straight to Hell since you can’t confess it and do penance for it. [UPDATE: My Catholic commenters say that you might still go to Heaven after some time in Purgatory. However, Protestants don’t believe in Purgatory]. But I didn’t think that that would be the case in Protestantism because we emphasize grace and the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement to cover all sins. But he started to tie me up in knots with his questions, so I just told him to go away.

I still don’t know what the answer is.

Here are the questions:

  • 1) Is suicide a sin in Protestant Christianity?
  • 2) What happens to a Protestant if he commits suicide?
  • 3) How can a Protestant repent of the sin of suicide?
  • 4) Does suicide count as murdering yourself for Protestants?

Please explain to me the right answers in the comments. I really have no idea.

You can also suggest more questions, and I will add them to the list.

Commentary

How should Christians understand the Old Testament laws?

10 Comments

I found this post by Aaron Brake at Apologetics Junkie.

Excerpt:

Perhaps no area of the Old Testament is more foreign and confusing to modern-day Christians than the Mosaic Law. When reading through the Pentateuch, many believers breeze through the narrative of Genesis only to hit a roadblock when confronted with the overwhelming number of commandments, statutes, and ordinances in the last half of Exodus (not to mention the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).

Yes, this is why you have to be careful when telling people to read the Bible, because not all parts of the Bible are good for new Christians! Not only are some parts pretty difficult to read, but the new reader has no framework to interpret what they are reading! I had a non-Christian guy in my office who was starting to read the Bible and he got bogged down in the Old Testament and had no idea whether these laws applied today. It’s a major problem, which is why I recommend everybody start with John instead, then maybe Luke and Acts.

There are two ways of solving this problem that are pretty popular. One way is the covenant model and the other is the dispensation model. I think that Aaron is presenting the covenant model. In the covenant model, the Old Testament laws were part of a covenant made between God and the people of Israel.

Aaron writes:

The Law in ancient Israel served three distinct purposes: relational, instructional, and structural. The Law was given to Israel in order to form a covenant or relational agreement between Yahweh and His people… the Law functioned as a constitution which provided internal structure for the nation as a whole. It provided objective standards by which the Israelites could maintain appropriate boundaries with one another as well as neighboring nations.

Jesus formed a new covenant with a new group of people who believed in his identity as the Messiah and that his death was an atonement for sin. So only the parts of the old covenant that are explicitly carried over to the new covenant still apply to our conduct as Christians.

Aaron writes:

Therefore, the primary interpretive question readers should approach the text with is this: “What does this passage tell us about God and His holiness, about Israel and her sin, and about how Israel needed to obey in order to maintain her covenant relationship with God?” Also ask, “What specific areas of life does God expect holiness and transformation within His people?”

I recommend reading the whole post. I think this is something that should be communicated to people who are coming at the Bible from a non-Christian perspective. Maybe we should have some scholars created an optimal ordering of the books of the Bible so as not to scare people away?

Note: I haven’t really looked into this problem in detail, but the covenant model makes more sense to me.