Category: Biblical Principles

What are the general truths that should guide our thinking in all areas of life? Here are some possibilities.

Snyderian Truism #1

When I teach, I try to impress upon students certain truths. I know that sounds impertinent to the ears of some. “What is truth?” they may say. I seem to recall a historical figure named Pontius Pilate who asked the same thing. Jesus, standing before him, had already made it clear He was the truth. So, yes, I believe truth exists. There are certain things I’ve gotten in the habit of telling students over the years, so last summer, before… Read more »

Finney & the Travail of the Soul

Continuing in Finney’s autobiography, I came to another instance of what God taught him about prayer that I think worth sharing. Here is how he explains it: The Lord taught me, in those early days of my Christian experience, many very important truths in regard to the spirit of prayer. Not long after I was converted, a woman with whom I had boarded . . . was taken very sick. She was not a Christian, but her husband was a… Read more »

Lewis: A World of Free Beings by God’s Design

The age-old controversy over free will continues to plague us. I have very settled views on the matter. Some of what I believe on this is enunciated quite well by C. S. Lewis in a couple of his works. For instance, in The Problem of Pain, he zeroes in on the one who is truly accountable for evil entering into this world: Man is now a horror to God and to himself and a creature ill-adapted to the universe not… Read more »

Finney: God’s Moral Government a Model for Civil Government

I write a lot about civil government, but the basis for civil government is found in the government of God, in how He directs, guides, and controls the universe He has created. Charles Finney demonstrates, in his Systematic Theology, the two very different types of government that exist within God’s creation, distinct because His various creations are distinct: All government is, and must be, either moral or physical. . . . Physical government is control, exercised by a law of… Read more »

Lewis: Understanding Forgiveness

I like the way C. S. Lewis deals with sin and forgiveness in the following passages. First, he unfolds how people often, but erroneously, think of it: If you had a perfect excuse you would not need forgiveness: if the whole of your action needs forgiveness then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call “asking God’s forgiveness,” very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this… Read more »

The Pillars of Christianity

When I was working on my master’s and doctoral degrees in history, I distinctly recall an attitude that some of my professors had toward the American colonial and revolutionary eras—they conveyed to us, their students, the idea that the leaders of those eras were just so backward when compared to the more enlightened age we live in now. I didn’t accept that attitude then; I don’t accept it now. Yes, we have progressed technologically in ways our Founders would find… Read more »

Finney: Man’s Ability to Obey

Charles Finney, in his Systematic Theology, makes some statements regarding moral law that many find controversial. As for me, I find them eminently sensible. Here’s what he says: Moral law is no respecter of persons—knows no privileged classes. . . . That which the precept demands must be possible to the subject. That which demands a natural impossibility is not, and cannot be, moral law. The true definition of law excludes the supposition that it can, under any circumstances, demand… Read more »