Alpha & Omega Ministries

A Review of “The Revealed God”

Dr. Jeffrey Johnson has written another excellent book dealing with the issue of the utilization of Greek Philosophy as the lens through which a Christian must look in order to have a “Classical” understanding of God. Dr. Johnson’s concern is for the believer to not feel that he must place undue emphasis on certain Greek Metaphysical and Philosophical notions. As the title states, Dr. Johnson is introducing what he calls “Biblical Classical Theism” as it is contrasted with what he refers to as “Philosophical Classical Theism.”In Part One, “The God of Natural Revelation”, Dr. Johnson relates to us the ways that God has revealed Himself in Nature. “Natural revelation is the efficacious communication of God in all His creative works whereby He clearly, instantaneously, continuously, and freely reveals Himself to all humanity.” God has told us specific things in an effective way in his Creation. Moving into Part Two, “Pagan Philosophy”, Dr. Johnson discusses how philosophy (i.e. Natural Theology) cannot ultimately give us the answers to HOW God can be a personal God who is also transcendent over His creation. Part Three is about “The God of Christian Philosophy” and outlines various ways that Christians have sought to reconcile Philosophy with both Natural and Special Revelation. We see chapters on Christian Platonism, Christian Rationalism, and Christian Existentialism. These lead into the discussion of “Philosophical Classical Theism.” There are certainly some contradictions involved in attempting to reconcile Philosophy and Revelation. Two of the primary issues are that Natural Theology cannot account for creation ex nihilo or that God can actually have “free will”.In Part Four, Dr. Johnson comes to a discussion of “Special Revelation” and its necessary and primary place in man’s understanding of the being of God. Pagan Philosophy simply cannot account for certain truths in Scripture. Some of these were mentioned above. Also, the Trinity is a doctrine understood from Special Revelation. The doctrine of the Trinity is a wrench in the Philosophical notion of an unmoved mover – we can see Biblically that there are descriptions of ad intra relations among the Persons of the Godhead. Dr. Johnson stated the following in referring to others in the past who have spoken of an intra-Trinitarian love:“The Westminster Divine, Daniel Burgess (1645-1713), stated: ‘The infinite glory of the divine persons, shines in their relations one to the other… their blessedness consist in their loving, and being loved of one another.’” and “Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) claimed: ‘If the divine nature had not afforded in having in it three persons really distinct, knowing, rejoicing in, glorying of, and speaking unto each other, there had not been a perfection of blessedness.’”The final chapters (19 and 20) on “The Relational God of Scripture” and “The Sufficiency of Scripture” are must-read chapters in this current discussion. I will end this review with something Dr. Johnson stated in Chapter 19:“There is only one God, and that is the God of the Bible. It is He who made us (Gen. 1:27). It is He who speaks to us (Gen. 1:28). It is He who commands us (Gen. 1:29). It is He who entered a covenant with us (Gen. 2:15-17). It is the One who exiled us, sinners, from His presence (Gen. 3:24) who sent His only Son to redeem us from our sins and bring us back into His presence (John 3:16). How does the Bible define God? To ask this question is to ask how God defines Himself, for the Bible is God’s Word. If we want to know God, this is all that matters. The so-called wise men of this world will say what they will about the nature of God, but the only thing that matters is what God says about Himself.”

Lots of Short Topics, Andrew Fuller and the Reality of Death, then Back to Carl Trueman

   Well, we set new records for connections to our Real Audio server and had at least 62 people in channel at one point (maybe more when I wasn’t paying attention) during the program today, proving, with overwhelming evidence, that Tom Ascol should be the host of the Dividing Line! But since I haven’t asked Tom to start doing that, I

Dr. Carl Trueman’s Inaugural Address at the Center for Classical Theology

Started to listen to and interact with Dr. Carl Trueman’s inaugural address at the Center for Classical Theology. Got into the heart of the matter, Scripture, tradition, authority, etc., after playing a number of statements that were insightful, useful, and edifying. Will continue on Thursday! You can listen to the lecture here.
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Radio Free Geneva! Flowers, McGrew and that Other Guy, then Gregory Boyd

James White, January 18, 2024January 18, 2024, Homosexuality, Open Theism, Provisionism, Radio Free Geneva, Reformed Apologetics, The Dividing Line, Transinsanity We premiered the new video opening by Tim Bushong for Radio Free Geneva! So there is a new addition to the clips including in A Mighty Fortress, and then Jeff Durbin did the new closer about our new bunker under Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. We started with a one minute video from Leighton Flowers including some of the most absurd assertions by Warren McGrew. Then we moved to an almost ten minute presentation against Calvinism by Gregory Boyd from a number of years ago.Then right at the end, I took the time to address, briefly, the controversy that erupted yesterday over comments by Alistair Begg in an interview four months ago wherein he counseled a grandmother to attend the wedding of a grandchild “marrying” a transgender person.
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Francis’ Empty Hell, Brandan’s Empty Bible

Here’s a tidbit I came across from Roman Catholic scholar Raymond E. Brown, 101 Questions and Answers on the Bible (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1990), p. 142. Here’s another comment from the same writer, Raymond E. Brown, The Critical Meaning of the Bible (New York: Paulist, 1981), pp. 39-40.

Kenoticism Examined

James White, January 11, 2024January 11, 2024, Christian Worldview, Church Fathers, Exegesis, Reformed Baptist Issues, The Dividing Line, Theology Matters, Thomism, Unitarianism After some chatter about DEI’s destruction of the United States (and the West in general), we finally dug into a Twitter thread posted by Dr. Mike Riccardi on kenoticism and what it is supposed to mean and how we are supposed to identify it. Ended up going 90 minutes as a result, but this one will be discussed for a long time. Another example of “but, we can’t do theology by creating our own definitions and then reading them back into Scripture.” Important stuff, and offered with full respect for and appreciation of both Master’s Seminary and Mike Riccardi.
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Happenings in Rome, Acts 15, and Provisionist Rhetoric

Started off with more on the continuing developments with Francis, Fernandez, and the Roman Church, moving sort of seamlessly into @ReformedtoRome’s attempt to use Acts 15 as a defeater of sola scriptura. Then we looked at some recent @Soteriology101 statements on the idea of being made “better” so as to believe in Calvinism.
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The Revealed God with Jeffrey Johnson; Stephen Wolfe’s 2024 Resolutions

Four more devastating refutations (#1, #2, #3, #4) of the man who evidently has no idea how to handle being in way over his head. Yes, I do intend on continuing that series, though given the level to which Holding has sunk in his responses to both myself and Steve Hays, I have no interest at all in engaging him

The Aquinization of MBTS, Philosophical Trinitarianism, Responses to Soteriology 101

Was running solo again today but managed to dive into a number of topics as well as get into the original language texts on topics such as Paul’s use of Psalm 2, 8, 110, and the nature of Christ’s kingdom and reign. We also talked a bit about Derek Webb’s deep dive into spiritual darkness, and finished up looking at

End of the Year Dividing Line: General Cultural Topics, then TRBs.

I think the greatest mystery in all of the universe, and by “mystery” I mean that which we as creatures cannot wrap our finite minds around so as to comprehend, is, not the trinity, and not that he made the universe ex nihilo (out of nothing), and not the virgin birth, but the greatest mystery is his divine love for

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