Author: Drew Costen

I was recently reminded of a great old (possibly apocryphal) story about the 19th-century Universalist, Hosea Ballou: Ballou was riding the circuit in the New Hampshire hills with a Baptist minister one day, arguing theology as they traveled. At one point, the Baptist looked over and said, “Brother Ballou, if I were a Universalist and… Continue reading If you were a Universalist

Always remember, just because something is labelled “orthodox” doesn’t mean it’s true. Heresy is often just the rejection of commonly accepted error. This is the essence of my life philosophy, along with, “Question everything… even this.” As most people do, I began life accepting that most of the standard “orthodox” beliefs were true, be they… Continue reading Just because it’s “orthodox” doesn’t mean it’s true

Throughout history, various heretics (not to mention infidels, apostates, and other non-believers in particular doctrines and dogmas) have been ostracized, persecuted, tortured, raped, and even killed for their particular beliefs (or lack thereof). Apparently we are often considered to be such a threat to the well being of society that if we are not eliminated… Continue reading Are heretics really a threat?

Lector: In the last post here, it was pointed out that if there is anything at all that we have to do to “get right with God,” even if it is simply “choosing to trust Jesus,” then salvation would be by works and not grace since it would be a transaction between us and God.… Continue reading Salvations?

Many of the evangelicals I grew up with were horrified at the idea of magic and witchcraft, all the while promoting the biggest magic spell ever, known to many simply as “The Sinner’s Prayer.” This magical incantation, when spoken out loud (and truly believed), is supposed to somehow change the location that we end up… Continue reading Christian magic

I’ve been a part of at least two really good house churches over the last decade. The fact that they were house churches, however, was not the important factor here, the fact that they were “open churches” was. This means that we didn’t have sermons or dress codes or have to put up a false… Continue reading The Open Church

Admittedly it’s only a few days old, but so far no takers on my Everlasting Hell Challenge here on my blog [June 20, 2020 Update: I’ve since removed comments from this blog, but I had them for years and nobody ever even attempted to complete the challenge here on my website despite many people reading… Continue reading Make them prove it

On a Christian message board I sometimes visit we’ve been discussing the issue of hell, which got me to thinking, and I came up with a challenge for Evangelicals and other Protestant Christians who base their theology on the Bible alone: Demonstrate convincingly that the idea that “those who die without putting their faith in… Continue reading The Everlasting Hell Challenge

Here’s something I wrote back in April of 2004 on my old blog. I find that it rings just as true today as it did then: I’ve made lots of friends over the years, both with fundamentalist* Christians and otherwise, and I’ve noticed something interesting. It seems that my non-fundamentalist friends are the only ones… Continue reading Real friendship