The tension: Isaiah 64:6 says all human righteousness is *kĕbeged ʿiddîm* — 'as filthy rags' — and the Pauline literature builds an entire doctrine of universal depravity o…
The tension: Matthew 8:12 has Jesus say that *hoi huioi tēs basileias ekblēthēsontai eis to skotos to exōteron* — 'the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer d…
The tension: The Synoptic Jesus identifies one sin that will never be forgiven "neither in this world, neither in the world to come" — blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Ma…
The tension: Luke 1:6 calls Zacharias and Elisabeth righteous specifically because they walked in all the Lord's commandments blameless, and Romans 2:13 states that doers o…
The tension: Galatians 5:4, Hebrews 6:4-6, and 2 Peter 2:20-21 all explicitly treat falling away from saving grace as possible — Hebrews even pronounces it irrevocable.
The tension: Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the evidence of things not seen; 2 Corinthians 4:18 says we look at things unseen rather than seen; 2 Corinthians 5:7 — "we walk…
The tension: 1 Corinthians 7:14 says the unbelieving spouse is sanctified through the believing one; Acts 16:31 promises the Philippian jailer that he and his household wil…
The tension: 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 has Paul including himself among "we who are alive and remain" until the Lord's coming — assuming an imminent parousia within his own l…
The tension: Hebrews 11:13 lists Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah and says "these all died." Eight verses earlier the same chapter, Hebrews 11:5, explicitly says Enoch…
The tension: Proverbs 11:31 declares that the righteous are recompensed in the earth — "much more the wicked and the sinner." The traditional Deuteronomic-Wisdom theology u…
The tension: Job 3, Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, and Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 articulate a thoroughgoing annihilationist anthropology — the dead know nothing, all go to dust, man has…
The tension: James 1:2 tells believers to count it all joy when they fall into various peirasmoi — testings or temptations — because the testing of faith produces endurance.
