64 search results for: critical theory

Did Thomas Aquinas Eventually Believe in the Immaculate Conception?

TurretinFan, August 27, 2011, Roman Catholicism

It ought to be well-known that Rome’s dogma of the Immaculate Conception was denied by her leading medieval saint, Thomas Aquinas (as outlined here). This has been something of a thorn in the side of those contending that Mary was immaculately conceived. They have tried to explain Aquinas’ position away in various ways – such as by arguing that Aquinas

Guessing About God: Mormonism’s Inability to Resist the Onslaught of Modernistic Skepticism (Part 10–Final Installment!)

James White, May 9, 2011, Mormonism

One aspect of that scriptural heritage that Christianity cannot shake is the identification of several divine beings as gods (Gen 6:2, 4; Deut 32:43 ; Ps 29:1; 89:7; Ps 97:7, among dozens of others). There are even divine beings called the sons of God. Other literature is in agreement. In the Dead Sea Scrolls angels are repeatedly called gods

Joel McDurmon’s Allegation of Ad-Hominem Argumentation

James White, March 23, 2010, General Apologetics

Very shortly after my debate with Dr. Bart Ehrman in January of 2009, Joel McDurmon, who attended the debate, posted an article on the American Vision website criticizing my argumentation and claiming I had in essence claimed to “steamroll” Ehrman. He said the debate showed the limits of “evidentialist apologetics,” which left me completely dumbfounded as well. In any case,

A Response to Dr. Tommy Wasserman

James White, February 18, 2009, Textual Issues

Last week when a caller to The Dividing Line asked about resources on textual critical studies, I noted the plethora of information to be found at the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog. One of the contributors to this blog is Dr. Tommy Wasserman from Lunds Universitet in Sweden. I was surprised, and very disappointed, to read Dr. Wasserman’s comments today on

An Introduction to Textual Criticism: Part 12–The Eclectic Text Position: “Reasoned Eclecticism”

Colin Smith, June 13, 2008, Textual Issues

If the various Byzantine positions represent the extreme documentary approach to textual criticism, relying mainly on external evidence, and the Thoroughgoing Eclectic position represents the extreme evidential approach with regard to the text contained within those manuscripts, relying mainly on internal evidence, then the Reasoned Eclectic position, at least as it claims, sits somewhere in the middle. This position, while

An Introduction to Textual Criticism: Part 10–“Traditional Text” Positions: Byzantine-Priority

Colin Smith, May 3, 2008, Textual Issues

The Byzantine-Priority position is often considered simply a further variant of the Majority Text position, especially by those who object to its conclusions. For example, Dr. Daniel Wallace, an advocate of the Reasoned Eclectic approach, frequently cites both Majority Text and Byzantine-Priority proponents together as Majority Text advocates. Proponents of the Byzantine-Priority view, however, distinguish themselves from the Textus Receptus,

Do This in Remembrance of Me: Luke 22:19

James White, November 6, 2007, Misc

Recently Shabir Ally posted the following as part of his response to our debate in Seattle: Did Jesus Really Say, “Do this in remembrance of me!”? These words are attributed to Jesus in the Bible in Luke’s Gospel 22:19b-20: “Do this in remembrance of me!” In this way, we learn, Jesus instituted the regular observance of the Eucharist, the use

More Defense of the Cross: Response to Shabir Ally Continued

James White, November 1, 2007, Islam

I continue with my response to Shabir Ally’s post debate writings. I note an even longer response has been posted by Mr. Ally, and since many of these issues are relevant to a wider range of apologetic concerns, I will continue focusing upon these materials before moving back to Steve Ray and Ali Ataie. Matthew’s Gospel shows that Pilate granted

Opening and Closing Statements: Shabir Ally Debate

James White, October 25, 2007, Islam

Shabir Ally has written a response to my brief comments posted a few days ago here on my blog. I will be replying to him, but I wanted to start out by providing my two written statements from the debate. When I am going first, I will often have a written statement for my opening. I realize that “schmoozing” the

An Open Letter to Dr. Lee Carter

James White, September 21, 2007, Christian Worldview

Dear Dr. Carter: I have had the privilege of teaching for the past sixteen years, and am thankful for every opportunity I have to stand before a class of students. It is an honor, but it is truly a privilege as well, one to be taken very seriously. It is my understanding that during your philosophy class at Glendale Community

If You Understand One Thing About The “King James Only” Phenomenon it is Imperative to Know This…

Dr. Alan Kurschner, June 27, 2007, King James Onlyism

…The textual end justifies the textual means. They are motivated only in defending a modern printed text and any questions of methodology are irrelevant because they are governed by their a priori that the Textus Receptus (the Greek printed edition that lies behind the KJV) is without error. That is why you will often notice (I will provide a perfect,

The Lost Tomb of Jesus

James White, February 26, 2007, Tomb Issues

Prepare for a flood of media coverage of the Cameron/Jacobovici film, The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Fox News has already picked it up, and I imagine you will be deluged with pictures of the ossuaries in question by tonight, with the major news outlets grabbing various folks with the film to do the morning shows on Tuesday and Wednesday. Don’t

An Illustration from the Recent Debate at Biola

James White, May 20, 2006, Islam

Pheme Perkins is a Harvard trained Roman Catholic scholar from Boston College. Her special interests, like so many today, include all things gnostic. Under current research projects is included, “Gnostic revealers and their discourses as evidence for emergence of Johannine traditions.” To say Dr. Perkins represents the left side of the theological and scholarly spectrum is to engage in a

A Bit More on the Comma (Continuation of Previous)

James White, March 16, 2006, King James Onlyism

I promised to continue responding to Sean McDonald (who called the DL) and the article he posted on the Puritanboard. He asked, 3. Is it just defense of the Johannine Comma which earns your stern rebuke, or do you include Byzantine priority and (general) defense of the TR in said rebuke? I think I’ve been very clear that this entire

The Bankruptcy of Islamic Apologetics Final

James White, February 2, 2006, Islam

We close out this brief series–one I have found particularly interesting personally, especially in light of the uncritical use of scholarship by the wide spectrum of Islamic apologists–with a discussion of the final element of the “argument” borrowed from Bart Ehrman by Abdullah, cited last week, that regarding Theodore of Mopsuestia. Citations of early Christian writers are notoriously popular on

An Important Quotation

James White, January 16, 2006, Exegesis

“Every reading ever occurring in the New Testament textual tradition is stubbornly preserved, even if the result is nonsense…any reading ever occurring in the New Testament textual tradition, from the original reading onward, has been preserved in the tradition and needs only to be identified.” (Kurt and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical

Today on the Dividing Line

James White, January 5, 2006, The Dividing Line

Sorry I had all my times messed upon on the program today. Not sure how I managed that (though I have a theory as to how Adobe Audition might have thrown me a curve), but in any case, we continued responding to Ehrman on textual critical issues, looking this time at the very, very minor variant found in a very

The Da Vinci Code VIII

James White, November 15, 2005, General Apologetics

We have come to the examination of one of the key assertions made by Dan Brown in his attack upon the central elements of the Christian faith (so as to make room for his Magdalene-based conspiracy theory). We read: “My dear,” Teabing declared, until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and

Eerdmans Responds

James White, May 2, 2005, Mormonism

Michael Thomson, Sales Director of Eerdmans, has responded to Pastor Kinchen and Pastor Curlee regarding the Mouw/Millet LDS apologetics work (here is the blog entry). I would like to provide the response and interact with it. You are moved to action in your anger but I wanted to state what the case was…from the publisher’s side. First, the evangelical endorsements

Sorry, Time In Fast Forward Today

James White, December 17, 2004, Misc

OK, so what am I behind on now…wanted to have an article up on the sources I’ve discovered that must lie behind the “redacted Hebrew text prophecied by the Dead Sea Scrolls” defense offered by Dave Hunt (turns out the editor on this self-published edition is big into the “Hebrew originals underlying the Synoptics and part of Acts” theory, and

Wilson takes a shot at NPism

James White, December 26, 2003, Federal Vision, Reformed Apologetics

Obviously, Doug Wilson has become tired of being connected with the New Perspective on Paul (aka, NPism), so, a special edition of Credenda Agenda has come out, replete with a fairly lengthy article on the subject. I have had a couple of folks write and complain that I have noted the confluence of Auburnism (aka the loose movement associated with

Evidence for Special Creation From Scientific Evidence

James White, June 16, 2002, General Apologetics

Sadly, in our nation today there is a strong movement under way to steal from our children the freedom to think and examine their world outside of a very narrow, all-pervasive religious perspective. While it is common to hear in the media that it is Christian “fundamentalists” behind this movement, exactly the opposite is true. Rather, those who embrace the

The Accuracy of the Scriptures: the Bible vs. the Qur’an

James White, August 1, 2000, Islam

The Muslim debater was Hamza Abdul Malik of the Islamic Propagation Center. I

Does the Bible Teach Predestination? – James White vs. Darryl Barksdale

James White, April 27, 1999, Mormonism, Reformed Apologetics

Does the Bible Teach Predestination? An Exegetical Debate Dr. James White vs Mormon Apologist Darryl Barksdale of FAIR Biographical information for: James White, Th.D. James White has the great privilege of serving as an elder in the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. He is also the Director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a Christian apologetics organization which he co-founded

A Response to David Palm’s Article on Oral Tradition from This Rock Magazine, May, 1995

James White, April 29, 1998, Roman Catholicism

David Palm is a convert from evangelicalism to Roman Catholicism. Thankfully, he’s one of the few such converts who does not allow the emotions evoked by such a conversion to determine everything he says about his former faith. He presents cogent, meaningful arguments in defense of his new position, which makes his attempt to defend the Roman Catholic concept of

The Strange Saga of the BYU Correspondence (aka, Nastigrams ‘R Us)

James White, April 29, 1998, Mormonism

If I hadn’t received these notes myself, I’d question their validity. But, since these very same notes have been posted on the SHIELDS web page (http://shields-research.org/Critics/A-O_01.html), you can verify for yourself that these are indeed the writings of leading LDS scholars Daniel Peterson and Louis Midgely. Here’s the background: My son and I spent four hours on KTKK radio in

A Colorful Response to The King James Only Controversy Falls Way Short – James White Responds to Dr. Thomas Holland

James White, July 8, 1997, King James Onlyism

There have been only a few responses to my book, The King James Only Controversy. Aside from one privately written and published response by Dr. Kirk DiVietro (my reply), and Dr. Ruckman’s wild-eyed articles in the Bible Believer’s Bulletin (which, as I understand it, ended up in a “book” as well), there has been little in the way of substantive

A Response to William Schnoebelen’s Conversion to KJV Onlyism

James White, February 1, 1997, King James Onlyism

At times it seems like an epidemic. It’s always the same tired arguments, refuted a hundred times before, that are being presented as some “new information,” some great new insight into the truth. How could “Christian scholars” have missed such obvious errors on their part? Who knows? But another Christian writer has fallen for KJV Onlyism, and is helping to

How Reliable Is Roman Catholic History? — An Example in a Recent Edition of “This Rock” Magazine

James White, January 31, 1997, Roman Catholicism

Roman Catholic apologists are going about the land presenting seminars and talks in parish halls and church buildings, all designed to 1) confirm the faithful in their allegiance to Rome and the Papacy, and 2) invite the “separated brethren home to Mother Church.” While the number of RC apologists has grown exponentially over the past decade, the one gentleman who

New Age Bible Versions Refuted Part II

James White, September 1, 1996, King James Onlyism

Continued from Part I In Conclusion…. It is not joyous to have to engage in the kind of task that requires you to dwell upon mistakes, errant conclusions, and mis-citations. I would much rather take my time to speak of the wonders of God’s providence in preserving His Word through the centuries, not in the way the KJV Only folks

The Theonomy-L Debate — Dr. Theodore Letis’ Unwillingness to Deal With the Plain Issues

James White, June 1, 1996, King James Onlyism

The following 270K document contains excerpts from a “debate” which took place in June and July of 1995 on the Theonomy-L mailing list. I have taken the time to put this together due to the fact that I have recently been sent a couple of “lectures” by Dr. Theodore Letis in which he makes numerous disparaging, and false, remarks about