Ville Suutarinen

Newbold College of Higher Education · Department of Theological Studies

This article shows how in its postmodern “development”, a major part of Christianity has shifted away from the biblical justification by faith and the theology of the cross. Justification is sought from experiences and works, and it is believed to happen inside human being. This has moved the Christian world to the unbiblical Roman Catholic teachin...

The identity of the little horn power in Daniel 8 (and 7) is largely determined by the method of interpretation of that chapter, the book of Daniel as a whole, apocalyptic prophecies, and the entire Bible. The Maccabean thesis, which is built on preteristic interpretation method, believes that the little horn corresponds for a Seleucid king, Antioc...

Genesis 9:6 states, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (ESV) It is argued that this verse establishes capital punishment. However, this research paper claims that Genesis 9:6 can be translated in a way that does not specify who executes the judgment of shedding blood. In fact, Genesi...

The intrinsic value of individual freedom is challenged in current global societal thinking. The philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) and postmodern philosophy are two examples of a kind of continual opposition to freedom, as is argued in this paper. This essay studies whether Hegel and postmodernism have holistic and substantial...

By analysing Tom Wright and John Piper, the dissertation studies the old dilemma of justification by faith and judgment according to works from an ontological perspective. The paper investigates why in the writings of Wright and Piper good deeds or faith-works may or may not carry qualitatively sufficient ontological weight in justification and/or...

What did Paul mean with the comment that “nothing is unclean in itself” (Rom. 14:14, NIV)? By looking at the immediate context, the historical background, and the textual study in relation to the cultural context of the passage, the word “unclean” (koinos [κοινός] in Greek) means “defilement by association,” which in the first century Jewish cultur...

After comparing both literal and figurative interpretation, and examining a critical view, this paper argues that in Luke 22:35-38, where Jesus is talking about the buying of swords, Jesus' words are figurative. The closer and wider contexts of the passage and the Greek text point to the same direction. When Jesus was referring to buy swords in Luk...

This study shows that church and state, when they unite in legislation of beliefs and worship, violate the God-given freedom of conscience of the individual. Firstly, the paper presents supportive evidence for the argument that the union of church and state does not stand for social justice. Secondly, it shows a couple of examples of the union's te...