I'm a theologian, tinkerer, and I get followed by scammers, bots, and fake people pretending to be the real person.
Joined April 2017
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I was reading Leviticus 13, the leprosy chapter, and was reminded that I need to make an appointment with the dermatologist—and so I did.
The perfect evening for burning yard stuff and grilling hamburgers. Pro Tip: mix in mayonnaise and diced onions with the hamburger meat to make perfect, moist butter-burgers.
Well I just got out of my second operation in the last week and a half. This second being on my left knee.
An interesting debate between Grok and ChatGPT about Christianity’s impact upon the world followed by useful insights.
For example, trying to win the argument, ChatGPT applied a strawman argument instead of remaining truthful, but then Grok never called out the strawman presumably to remain “agreeable” even though @grok is to be “maximally truth seeking.”
@elonmusk your team should look into this.
youtu.be/-FcmY88QC8Q?is=9vMq…
Earlier today I took a break from “doing” pastoral theology in favor for tractor stuff and now I’m back home playing 2000W of toe-tappers across one of the ten clearest lakes in Minnesota. :thankful: @Bombasotta
Bob of Speakers Corner calling for unity among all major branches of the Church led to my thinking about a theological method to lead the modern global church to a unified consensus of what can and cannot be denied.
Working my way through Leviticus with Dinesh D'Souza @DineshDSouza debating the veracity of Calvinism prompted my revisiting what Jesus was pastorally teaching His Jewish audience in John 6.
I’ve begun to read through Leviticus. In Leviticus 6:11 we have what on the surface is a note about removing the ashes from the burnt offering and placing them outside the camp in a clean place:
“Then he [the priest] shall take off his [priestly] garments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place” (NKJV).
Here we see the separation between the sacred and the common. The white garments belonged strictly to the presence of God. Noteworthy are the ashes are not treated as garage, but as the remains of a holy offering that required a ceremonially clean final resting place that foreshadows Christ.
Outside the Camp: The ashes—the evidence that the judgment/sacrifice was fully consumed—were carried outside the community. This directly prefigures the crucifixion of Jesus, who was led "outside the gate" of Jerusalem to suffer (cf. Hebrews 13:12).
A Clean Place: Just as the ashes were placed in a ceremonially clean location, Jesus' body was laid in a new, unused, and clean tomb outside the city walls after His ultimate sacrifice was completed (Luke 23:50–53; John 19:38–42; cf. Mark 15:43–46; Matthew 27:57–60).
Changing Garments: the priest changing out of his glorious linen robes into ordinary clothes as a metaphor for the Incarnation—Christ leaving His heavenly glory to clothe Himself in ordinary human flesh—leaving a high place and becoming poor for our sakes (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Eric retweeted
New Post
Eric Landstrom, “Why Foreknowledge Is Not Fate: A Classical Reply to Open Theism”
evangelicalarminians.org/why…
Talking to Open Theists on X led to my authoring an article on the Society of Evangelical Arminians website as to why exhaustive foreknowledge and omnipotence doesn't mean omnicausation.
evangelicalarminians.org/why…
Speaking to Dr. Leighton Flowers, I highlighted that the Agent of change in our hearts is the Holy Spirit, going on to remark that grace is the personal effort of the Holy Spirit, writing:
“Grace comes solely from God and is the uncreated energy of God*. This uncreated energy can be understood as the work of God’s person upon the heart and soul and it is my belief that ‘grace’ and ‘the work of’ or ‘the personal effort of’ the Holy Spirit are biblically interchangeable.”
With the teaching that believers are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in mind**, and viewing grace as the personal effort of the Holy Spirit, our Lord’s essence remains entirely hidden and inaccessible to us, but His energies—which are fully God Himself in action—reach out to touch, transform, and dwell within the human heart.
Examining the Biblical Connection of my view that "grace" and "the work of the Holy Spirit" are biblically interchangeable makes excellent sense when looking at how the New Testament describes them:
The Source of Grace: The Apostle Paul frequently connects grace directly to the Holy Spirit, with the author of Hebrews calling Him "the Spirit of grace" (Hebrews 10:29).
The Action of Grace: Scripture notes that grace is not a passive cloud of favor; it is an active force. Paul writes, "By the grace of God I am what I am... I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10). This active "labor" of grace perfectly aligns with the assertion that grace is the Holy Spirit's personal effort.
The Catalyst for Transformation: Regeneration, sanctification, and inner strength are attributed interchangeably to grace and the Spirit. For example, we are justified by grace (Titus 3:7), but we are also sanctified by the Spirit (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
By viewing grace as a dynamic, personal encounter—the literal uncreated presence of God working on our souls—we move away from treating grace as a mere “commodity” or legal transaction and instead emphasize it as an ongoing, living, and dynamically interactive personal relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit. With the regenerating light of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we then tie that to being born again—the meaning of which I unpack over on the Society of Evangelical Arminians site:
evangelicalarminians.org/on-…
Eric Landstrom
Notes
* I’m intensionally using an eastern Christian term (“uncreated energies”) because it is a bit disarming to western Christian theological ears and gets people thinking. My thrust is to move grace from an abstract thing to thinking of grace as the personal action of our Lord’s Spirit who is personally and dynamically interacting with our person, a subject I frequently discuss at the Society of Evangelical Arminians web site.
** Ephesians 2:21-22; Corinthians 3:16; Peter 2:5; 2 Corinthians 6:16
@NickQuient @ProvisionistP @theojunkiedan @DPGBehler @Soteriology101 @gowdy_luke @GraftedTheology
BTW, since I mentioned it in a footnote, if you want to read what I consider to be an impressive paper on sanctification that was later published after I was exposed to it at an Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) conference, check out Jon Pratt's "The relationship Between Justification and spiritual Fruit in Romans 5-8" that starts on page 162.
media.thegospelcoalition.org…