March 2025

Monthly Archive

March 28, 2025

The Baptismal Formula Debate

Posted by Jason Dulle under Baptism, Theology
[26] Comments 

Trinitarians typically baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit based on Matthew 28:19. In contrast, Oneness Pentecostals (OPs) typically baptize in the name of Jesus Christ based on Acts and the epistles. Which is the proper baptismal formula?

OPs have been debating this issue for over 100 years. It’s part of the movement’s DNA. Meanwhile, most Trinitarians are oblivious to the debate. Those on both sides who engage in the debate tend to focus only on the Biblical data. The historical data contained in the writings of the post-apostolic church fathers is typically ignored. When it is cited, it is often cherry-picked or misused. As a result, I have written a research paper that seeks to examine both the Biblical and historical data fairly.

(more…)

 

March 25, 2025

The Shroud of Turin

Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Resurrection, Shroud of Turin, Theology
[14] Comments 
My podcast series on the resurrection is still going strong. I’ve recently started my last sub-series within the larger series, focused this time on the Shroud of Turin. If you have never heard of it before, it’s the purported burial cloth of Jesus Christ, bearing the image of a crucified man. Many Protestants have dismissed it as a fake Catholic relic, and most non-Christians have dismissed it as a medieval forgery due to carbon dating tests in the 1980s. However, interest in the Shroud has not gone away, and for good reason. There is much more to the story. In this sub-series, I’m examining the mountains of evidence for its authenticity, and I’ll address questions related to dating, and more.
Check out the series wherever you get podcasts or at https://thinkingtobelieve.buzzsprout.com.
 

March 17, 2025

Abortion, Nazis, and the Moral Hypocrisy of the Modern West

Posted by Jason Dulle under Abortion, Apologetics, Bioethics
[9] Comments 
We have a hard time understanding how the Germans allowed the Holocaust to take place. How could people so easily and so readily disregard the humanity of an entire group of people? How could they so callously kill millions of people? How could so many people who disagreed with the actions of the state stand by and do nothing? It’s not that hard to see how, really.
We are also guilty of killing millions of people. Over 60 million, in fact. Each year in the United States, we murder approximately one million babies. Our law and our people have dehumanized them. We have taken away their right to life, and allow them to be murdered at will. We call it a “choice.” We call it a “right.” We call it “healthcare.” We call it “reproductive freedom.” The euphemisms never end, and all are necessary to hide our evil and barbarism.
In some ways, what we are doing is morally worse than what transpired in Nazi Germany. Unlike the Nazis, it’s not our government who is in control of the slaughter. It’s ordinary citizens! And we’re not murdering strangers, as they did. We are murdering our own children. Moms and dads are killing their own children. Arguably, that makes us more evil than Nazi Germany. We are guilty of our own holocaust: a holocaust of the unborn.
We are not morally enlightened. We are morally blind. We need to repent.
 

March 7, 2025

Harmonizing the Empty Tomb and Resurrection Narratives

Posted by Jason Dulle under Bible Difficulties, Resurrection, Theology
Leave a Comment 

I’ve just completed my subseries on Differences in the Gospels in my larger series on the Historical Evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection. In the final episode (#151), I provided my best attempt to construct what I call the “video view” of the events that transpired after Jesus’ crucifixion; i.e. what you would have seen if you had a video recording of the events. It incorporates every verse in the empty tomb and resurrection accounts from all four gospels. Here it is:

Mary Magdalene (Mary M), Mary the mother of James and Joseph, Salome, Joanna, and other women journeyed together to the tomb early Sunday morning before dawn to anoint Jesus’ body (Mt 28:1; Mk 16:1-2; Lk 24:1,10; Jn 20:1). They wondered how they would roll away the stone to gain entrance to the tomb (Mk 16:3). Unbeknownst to them, before they arrived, two angels appear at the tomb to open it for the women (Mt 28:2). Their appearance frightened the guards, causing them to flee and report the event to the chief priests (Mt 28:3-4,11-15). When the women arrived, they saw the stone rolled away (Mt 28:2; Mk 16:3-4; Lk 24:2; Jn 20:1). Mary M assumed someone must have taken the body, so she (and possibly one other woman[1]) left the group of women to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple (BD) that Jesus’ body was missing (Jn 20:2).

(more…)