Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 60102 The ontological argument is the most philosophically demanding of the classical arguments for God’s existence, and probably the most disputed. Unlike the cosmological or teleological arguments, which move from features of the external world to a conclusion about God, the ontological argument attempts to establish God’s existence from the concept of God alone…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4083 Spiritual dryness is one of the most disorienting experiences in the Christian life. The person who yesterday felt the presence of God in prayer and worship finds today that their devotional life feels mechanical, prayer seems to bounce off the ceiling, and the Scriptures that once spoke with directness now seem opaque. The…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04093 The question of how to distinguish between what we want and what the Spirit is actually doing in us is one of the most practically pressing questions in the Christian life. It is not a question of doubt or weak faith; it is the honest recognition that we are fallen people with complex…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04101 Whether the Spirit’s indwelling can be lost is not an abstract doctrinal puzzle. It reaches directly into the believer’s daily experience of assurance. A person who believes their salvation is conditional on sustained spiritual performance will live in a very different psychological and spiritual state from one who understands their security as grounded…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 04032 The Holy Spirit’s involvement in creation is stated in the opening lines of the Bible and yet is often overlooked. When we think of creation, we tend to think of the Father’s decree and the Son’s agency, and rightly so. But the Spirit was there at the very beginning, active and purposeful before…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 03016 The question of why Jesus had to rise is not the same as asking why the resurrection matters, though the two are closely related. To ask why He had to rise is to ask what would have been left incomplete, unresolved, or false had the tomb remained occupied. The answer is sobering: without…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 02040 Where is God right now? It seems like a simple question, but the answer touches on one of the most profound truths about the divine nature. Every human being exists somewhere — we are located, bounded, present in one place at a time. God is not like that. The doctrine of omnipresence declares…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 02043 Justice is one of the deep human instincts. Even people who have no settled belief in God are profoundly disturbed when wrong goes unpunished and the innocent suffer while the guilty prosper. This instinct is not accidental. It reflects something embedded in human nature — a sense that there is a moral order…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 02047 The word “sovereignty” appears frequently in Christian conversation, but it carries theological freight that is worth examining carefully. Depending on which tradition uses it, it can mean quite different things — things that have profound consequences for how we understand human freedom, moral responsibility, and the character of God. Before asking what the…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 02056 The answer Scripture gives is a clear and unqualified no. God does not need us. Understanding why that is true — and why it is not a discouraging answer — takes us into some of the most important territory in the biblical doctrine of God. God Is Entirely Self-Sufficient Paul’s address to the…