Parchment & Pen Blog

1. I found this study interesting considering much talk about how the present postmodern generation tends to be less committed than previous generations. Members of the Millennial generation are just as likely to open their wallets to charities as those born decades earlier . . .  [Study] showed that young donors are as generous as [...]

Join Michael Patton, Rhome Dyck, and Greg Cromartie as they discuss the problem of the unforgivable sin.

Theology Unplugged - Problem Passages 4 - The Unforgivable Sin [ 28:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As many of you may know, the blog was hacked and we lost most of the material due to corrupted files. As you can see, we have restored the blog up to a year ago, but as of right now, all the blogs for the last year are in the deep abyss. If you happen [...]

Well, not me necessarily, but all Protestants. We Protestants really never know whether we are in or out with the Catholic Church. At one council it seems that we are damned to the fires of hell, and then, at another, we are “brethren,” separated, yet real brethren! This all comes down to how the Catholic church [...]

N.B. RMMers, this email is something that my little old gray-haired mother sent to a long-time friend recently. Many of you can relate to the bombardment of factoids on your computer from well-meaning friends and conservative spam-generators. You may not agree with Nayda Wallace about her viewpoints, but I trust that you’ll see some good [...]

You know how I like to make charts. Click on it to make it larger.

This is an interesting question: Is sin fun? The answer, I guess, is going to depend on how you define the word “fun.” We are going to enter into some subjectivity here aren’t we? Wait, I am getting ahead of myself. I have often her Christians talk about the “pleasures of sin.” In this context, [...]

By the time you read this blog post, I will be back in Athens, coming off a week-long expedition to the island of Lesbos. Yes, Lesbos. This is the third largest of the 2000 Greek islands. And yes, it’s the place where the name ‘lesbian’ comes from. The reason for the name and its association [...]

Now I will start to give a brief positive defense of the Protestant doctrine of sola Scriptura. The Scripture implicitly and explicitly speaks of its unique authority and sufficiency. 2 Tim. 3:14–17 “You, however, must continue in the things you have learned and are confident about. You know who taught you and how from infancy [...]

3. Division is not always a bad thing I am a Calvinist, others are Arminian. I believe in a premillenial eschatology, others are amillinial. I am a traducianist with regards to the creation of the soul, others are creationists. I believe in inerrancy, others believe that this is an archaic naive doctrine. There are many [...]

The fifth argument against sola Scriptura: Without the infallible authority of the Church, the Church would be hopelessly divided on matters of doctrine and morals. This would not be the Church that Christ started. The idea here is that when doctrine is left to the “private interpretation” of the individual, this leads to doctrinal anarchy. [...]