WELCOME TO THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

 WHY THIS WEBSITE?

    Most Christians simply take for granted the doctrines they are taught and never question whether what they believe is based on sound Scriptural and historical evidence. The purpose of this website is to carefully look at a number of Christian doctrinal/theological and Scriptural issues and simply go to where the evidence takes us. I trust the perspectives offered will stimulate further investigation. I have made every effort to present the material offered on this website in an objective, comprehensive, straightforward evidence based manner.  

       Major issues addressed on this website will be the Doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ, The Doctrine of the Trinity, The Kingdom of God, The Reliability of the Biblical Scriptures, What Happens after Death, Predestination and Freewill, Universal Salvation and Creation versus Evolution.  The Doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ is addressed in an eighteen part series entitled When Does Christ Return?   The Doctrine of the Trinity is discussed in a twenty-six part series entitled The God Of Jesus. In addition to topics cited above, I deal with a variety of other matters that are of historical or current interest within the Christian community.

       Please click the blue title bar on an essay of your choice and it will take you to page one of that essay. Essays having multiple pages will have a navigation bar for easy access to additional pages.

       Go to "Alphabetical Listing of Essays" on the navigation bar at the top of this page for access to an  alphabetical listing of the titles and subjects of the  essays shown here on the home page of this website. Visit the "Recent Postings" link to discover the most recent material added to this website.

       Click "Sermons" on the navigation bar above to view a list of selected sermons I have given during the past eighteen years to a congregation of Grace Communion International where I have served as a pastor for many years.

       For those who have the latest version of micro-soft word on their computer, the essays and sermons on this website can be copied and pasted to your word processor and verbally listened to by left clicking on the title and activating the “read aloud” option.

       It is my hope that the material presented on this website will be beneficial and I welcome constructive, evidence based response.

David Kroll

 theoperspectives@aol.com

NEW POSTING AS OF 09-01-22

Arguments for the existence of God

       While most religions have writings that purport to identify the existence of God, various philosophers and theologians have attempted to look beyond such writings and use reason alone to argue for the existence of God. Of the various attempts at doing this, there are three primary arguments that are advanced. In this essay I will discuss the ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence of God

NEW POSTING AS OF 07-26-22

A comprehensive examination of the abortion issue

       On June 24, 2022, The US Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Constitution does not establish a right to have an abortion.  In making their decision, the Court has left it up to the states to grapple with the issue of planned/induced abortion. This has created great  diversity of regulation in the various states and much controversy as to the legality or non legality of abortion. In this Three Part series I discuss the issue of when life begins and whether it is murder to deliberately abort a prenatal through a medical or pharmaceutical intervention. 

 

The Case for Universal Salvation

       Universal Salvation is the belief that the death and resurrection of Jesus has facilitated and secured the salvation of all humanity. Under this perspective, all humans who have ever lived and ever will live are guaranteed salvation through the Christ event. This belief is also referred to as universal reconciliation or the doctrine of comprehensive grace. In this Five Part series, I provide a comprehensive investigation of the arguments for and against this belief. 

Updated 05-01-23

Are the Biblical Scriptures Reliable? 

       In recent years, theologians and Church historians have raised questions as to the reliability of the Biblical Scriptures. Questions have been raised as to their authenticity and Divine connection.  In this Eight Part series of essays, we will examine the issues of Scriptural authorship, dating of documents, apocryphal writings, inerrancy versus errancy, word of God versus word of man and the issue of how the Scriptures came to be ("inspiration" and canonization). We will also analyze and discuss a number of apparent Scriptural contradictions and inconsistencies and examine the issue of prophetic fulfillment. 

What Happens After Death?

       What happens after physical death is a concern of most humans.  In this seven part series, we will examine the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the various concepts of hell.  We will discuss what it means to be resurrected from the dead and how this defines our eternal destiny. We will address the critical and difficult issue of what happens to the so-called unsaved dead. We will present a comprehensive discussion of the doctrine of Universal Salvation (aka Universal Reconciliation and Comprehensive Grace).

 

The Sons of God in Psalms 82 and Genesis 6

       Does Psalms 82 inform us that the Most High God has an assembly of supernatural lesser gods who are being judged for their failure to properly rule earthly nations? Are the sons of God mentioned in Genesis 6 supernatural beings who had sexual relations with human women which resulted in the birthing of the Nephilim? 

       In part one of this two part series, I take an in-depth look at Psalm 82 to determine who the “gods” are that are seen as being judged. In part two I address the issue of supernatural beings having sexual relations with human women and the appearance of the Nephilim.  

  Did Enoch and Elijah not die?

       It is recorded in Hebrews 9:27 that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Are Enoch and Elijah an exception to this rule? Do the Scriptures teach that they did not physically die but were taken up alive to where God dwells in the heavenly realm?  Many Christians believe this to be the case based on what is written about Enoch in Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11 and what is written about Elijah in 2nd Kings 2 and Hebrews 11.

       In this essay we will take a comprehensive look at this issue and determine if it is true that Enoch and Elijah did not die but where taken alive to the heavenly realm where God dwells.  

NEW POSTING AS OF 12-16-22

When was the book of Daniel written?

       Many modern-day Biblical scholars believe Daniel was not written in the 6th century BC but was written by someone who lived during the time of the Maccabean period in the 2nd century BC.  It is believed this person wrote retrospectively about events that occurred during this time as well as events going back to the time of Nebuchadnezzar going forward. This has been the standard view among critical scholars since the latter part of the nineteenth century.  In this essay I examine this issue in depth and determine the dating of Daniel based on the evidence provided.   

The Doctrine of Original Sin

       Are we born sinners or do we become sinners?  What kind of death does sin produce?

       The Christian doctrine of original sin teaches that all humans are born in a state of sin as a result of Adam and Eve committing sin in the Garden of Eden by eating of the forbidden tree. Humans are seen as having the sin of Adam passed on to them through procreation. Human nature is equated with sinful nature. Is this what the Scriptures teach?  What kind of death does sin produce? Is it physical death, spiritual death or both?  In this Three Part series we will address these issues.

Evidence For The Resurrection Of Jesus

       Some New Testament scholars have come to question the validity of the Scriptural accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. Since the resurrection of Jesus is the bedrock of the Christian theological system, it is crucial that we consider the evidence for this event having occurred.  In this four part series I respond to the critics and provide a comprehensive presentation of the evidence for the resurrection of Christ Jesus.

Old Testament Prophecy and Jesus

       New Testament writers record many Old Testament prophecies, events and sayings as being fulfilled in the life of Jesus. In this six part series we will discover why they did this and we will examine how best to understand the associations made between Old Testament prophecies, events and sayings and their alleged fulfillment in Jesus.

What Law Is and What Law Ain't

       What Biblical laws are we required to keep? The keeping of law and its relationship to salvation and pleasing God has been a contentious topic in Christianity from the beginning. It was a major concern in the first century Church as seen in the letters of Paul and the book of Acts.  It has continued to be an issue in the Church over the past 2000 years often dividing fellowships, families and friends. In this Three Part series we will look at the dynamics of this issue and determine what Law is and what Law ain’t.

The Laws of Clean and Unclean

(Are Old Covenant Dietary Regulations still in force for Christians today?)

       Under the Old Covenant, adherence to dozens of laws pertaining to being clean or not clean defined ones relationship with God.  Included in this group of regulations were laws prohibiting the eating of a variety of organisms that God identified as unclean.  Some believe these dietary laws are still in force today. In this Two Part series we will examines the dynamics of this issue and draw conclusions based on the evidence provided in the Scriptures.

What Is Holiness and how is it achieved?

       Holiness is a theme that runs throughout the Scriptures.  God is seen as holy.  Humans are seen as holy.  Things, places, days and events are seen as holy.  The words holy and holiness appear hundreds of times in Scripture. In this essay we will examine what holiness is and determine how we are holy before God.

Faith, Repentance, Baptism and Salvation

      Apostle Paul wrote that salvation is a gift from God. It is freely given by the grace of God through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul instructed that there are no works we can do to merit this gift. This would make it appear that salvation is unconditional. Yet faith, repentance and baptism appear as conditions that must be met in order to receive the gift of salvation. Is there conflict between the Scriptural teaching that salvation is a free gift from God and yet seemingly requires the works of faith, repentance and baptism?  It is this issue we will address in this Four Part series.

Did John Write The Fourth Gospel?

       It is believed by most Christians that the fourth Gospel was written by Apostle John.  Interestingly, this Gospel does not identify its author as John.  It identifies its author as the “disciple whom Jesus loved.”  Is Apostle John the "disciple whom Jesus loved," and, therefore, the disciple who authored the fourth Gospel?  In this essay we will explore this issue in depth. 

  Standing Before God: (The Grace/Works issue)

       On page 34 of Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose  Driven Life, Pastor Warren writes: "One day you will stand before God, and he will do an audit of your life, a final exam, before you enter eternity.”  Is this a valid picture of what will occur at the time of our death? In this essay I address this issue in depth.