Few doctrines generate more suspicion in modern theology than divine impassibility. The claim that God does not suffer, is not emotionally injured, and cannot be overcome by passions appears, at first glance, to flatten the vivid emotional texture of Scripture. Terence Fretheim, whose work on divine suffering has been broadly influential, argues that the Old … Continue reading Impossibility???
Author: Donnie L. DeBord
The Ever-Faithful God: Divine Blessedness as the Ground of Divine Faithfulness
This essay argues that the biblical doctrine of divine faithfulness is grounded in the positive and inexhaustible blessedness of God’s own life. Scripture does not present divine reliability as mere steadiness or covenant persistence under strain. Rather, God remains faithful because he is full. His promises stand because nothing in him fluctuates, diminishes, or requires … Continue reading The Ever-Faithful God: Divine Blessedness as the Ground of Divine Faithfulness
Exegetical Theology: a Methodological Proposal
Introduction: Recovering the Order of Theology Christian theology has always required method even if it is not acknowledged . From the patristic era onward, the church has wrestled with the relationship between Scripture and doctrinal formulation. Yet in modern theological practice, the disciplines have frequently drifted apart. In the early centuries, doctrinal controversies were exegetical … Continue reading Exegetical Theology: a Methodological Proposal
2 Natures in 1 Person??
To understand the logic of the hypostatic union, we must let Scripture shape our understanding. The doctrine is not a speculative construction. It is, rather, the product of a disciplined process of listening to the biblical data, which speaks in ways that resist simplification. The New Testament refuses to let us say less than this: … Continue reading 2 Natures in 1 Person??
Participating Without Competing: Removing Competition From Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom
Is God in control? If God is in control how can I be free? If I am free, how can God be in control? Few theological tensions feel as sharp as this one. The question has animated Christian theology from Augustine's controversy with Pelagius. It continued to the sixteenth-century disputes between Arminius and his Reformed … Continue reading Participating Without Competing: Removing Competition From Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom
Understanding God’s Pure Actuality in Christian Theology
The question is not whether God is living, loving, and free. Those affirmations belong to the unanimous confession of Christian theology across every era and communion. The question is what those words mean when predicated of the One who says, "I AM WHO I AM" (Exod 3:14). Can a being who lives, loves, and acts … Continue reading Understanding God’s Pure Actuality in Christian Theology
Divine Blessedness and Divine Impassibility
Grief Without Deficiency Christians confess that God is blessed. This does not just mean that God is in a good mood. It means God has fullness of life in himself. He lacks nothing. He is not moving toward happiness. He is perfect joy already. Paul calls him “the blessed God” in 1 Timothy 1:11. Psalm … Continue reading Divine Blessedness and Divine Impassibility
There Is No Evil Deity: Against the Myth of an Eternal Satan
The idea that Satan is eternal alongside God is a theological error with deep roots and serious consequences. If granted, it fractures the doctrine of God. The Christian confession begins not with conflict but with being: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). The thesis of this paper is straightforward … Continue reading There Is No Evil Deity: Against the Myth of an Eternal Satan
The Wisdom of Knowing Our Limits: What Did Socrates Really Mean?
Socrates is often quoted as saying that he was wise because he “knew that he knew nothing.” It is one of the most famous lines in the history of philosophy. It sounds humble. It sounds clever. It sounds almost mystical. But it is not exactly what Socrates meant. To understand what he meant, we have … Continue reading The Wisdom of Knowing Our Limits: What Did Socrates Really Mean?
Theology That Breaks and Heals: Learning to Write with Puritan Depth
The Puritans had no patience for theology that didn’t break the heart or heal it. For them, doctrines weren’t just true. Doctrines were soul-shaping. A theological proposition that left the reader unchanged, unmoved, unbroken or uncomforted had failed its essential purpose. Truth about God was meant to do something, not merely to inform. The word … Continue reading Theology That Breaks and Heals: Learning to Write with Puritan Depth
Donnie's Dogmatics 