There are popular opinions that challenge the authority of the Biblical Canon and in doing so challenge Christian doctrine. In specific, the most common is to discredit the authenticity and therefore the authority of the New Testament. The general challenge is that the books of the New Testament were selected as a result of the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 under the newly converted Roman Emperor Constantine. To place a finer point on the argument, it was Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, who is claimed to have canonized the current 27 books of the New Testament in his Festal Letter of AD 367. The result of this claim is…

I see repeatedly from Genesis to Revelation that man is given the ability to choose (free will) his path of faith, sin, and servitude within God’s sovereignty and that as a result man is held accountable for those choices.

The literary form of Genesis alone leans toward poetic more than historic. That doesn’t mean it isn’t history, it’s just very well told history through a poetic form, and not a point-by-point historical reference book.

This Neronian persecution was not a punishment for crimes committed, though he made attempts to blame Christians for the fires in Rome, this was a hatred for a group of people because of their beliefs.

These Classical concepts prepared the world to accept Christ as the Logos, and ultimately as God. The reason a Classical education is not only relevant but important to Christianity, is because God has been at work in all men to bring about his purpose of redemption and salvation.

The biblical perspective to be applied here is that Jesus commanded that our judgment of others, whether legally or morally, was to be done based on the virtue of unprejudiced judgment.

Both candidates have flaws that I could list of moral judgments, actions, and responses. Neither candidate is a representative of the Christian ideology, yet these are my choices.

From the first independent proclamation that under God, all men are created equal, the evidence of a Christian theology has permeated our constitution.

The objection the Church currently faces in a relative society is an opportunity to speak the firm truth of Christ in compassion and love, but most definitely not to retreat to doctrine that allows a person to believe they are fine as God created them.