Wyatt Graham

Faith | Books | Culture

Theology

A Taxonomy for Civil Obedience And Disobedience

by 3 Comments

When it comes to the question of when we should or should not obey civil authorities, our default must be obedience (Rom 13:1). That said, we live in a complex world in which we also must not do evil. To make sense of this complexity, I propose that we use these four distinctions to guide our moral reasoning for when we should follow the default of obedience and when we might need to disobey an evil requirement. 

  1. Obeying civil authorities is good.
  2. Civil authorities can require good, or neutral actions. We should obey.
  3. Civil authorities can themselves do evil structurally, which we should lobby against. 
  4. Civil authorities can require us to do evil, which we should resist. 

[Read more…] about A Taxonomy for Civil Obedience And Disobedience

Every Morally Evil Thing Points to Its (Proximate) Cause, Which Is Us

by Leave a Comment

In a prior article, I argued that every Christian should be committed to a view of reality in which every good thing points to its Cause, which is God. Here, I want to argue the converse. Every Christian should be committed to a view of reality in which every morally evil thing points to its (proximate) cause, which is us. (We can cause moral evil only because God as prior Cause ensures our creaturely freedom).

The argument here should be a given. For some, it is not because of a particular view of God’s sovereignty that seems to require that God somehow directly causes moral evil. But God is good. Is it good to carry out moral evil, or is it good to require agents to do moral evil? I answer no, as would almost anyone (I hope). I will explain what I mean more fully below, but I believe we should see moral agents as being responsible for their moral evil because they willed to do evil. 

To make this argument, I first need to make some necessary distinctions about what I mean by evil since I am specifically talking about a certain kind of evil, namely, moral evil.  [Read more…] about Every Morally Evil Thing Points to Its (Proximate) Cause, Which Is Us

Thank God for the Gift of Life

by Leave a Comment

One of the deepest questions we can (and perhaps the oddest) is: why are conscious, here, and living? I know. Abstract, right? Kind of. But pretty much everyone wants to live with a purpose. We might think, I live to rebuild cars or I live to craft beautiful art. So what makes us feel like we have purpose; what makes us feel like we even think about purpose. 

I am not sure a dog can think about why he does what he does. He may love bones. But does he think, why do I love bones? Unlikely. Humans alone think about why. We all seem to want to know our purpose, want to know why we are here. And so it is not such a stretch to ask: why are we conscious at all—why can we even think about “why”?

The answer involves our relationship to God.  [Read more…] about Thank God for the Gift of Life

Is Ministry Incarnational?

by 1 Comment

Is ministry incarnational?

The Incarnation is a singular, unique event that can never be repeated and yet ubiquitously explains every relation between God and humans:

  1. Unique in that only the Word became human;
  2. Ubiquitous in that God always relates to creation as the infinite does to the finite.*

With that said, do Christians engage in incarnational ministry? not exactly. [Read more…] about Is Ministry Incarnational?

Hebrews 3:1–6 Is Surprisingly Hard to Understand

by Leave a Comment

Hebrews 3:1–6 is one of the most difficult passages that I have studied. Having worked to understand the passage (at least partially), I would love to share what I learned. Normally, online writing does not lend itself to the commentary genre.

In this case, it might work because Hebrews 3:1–6 almost cries out for comment due to its dense, deep, and difficult nature. [Read more…] about Hebrews 3:1–6 Is Surprisingly Hard to Understand