Conversations Concerning Us

  Introduction               Tertullian is a fascinating character of history. The writings he has left have been impactful and theologically relevant throughout time. The goal is to understand him as a theologian and to ascertain if his love of Montanism spurred theological changes and what that meant for his “orthodoxy.” [1] Obviously, orthodoxy was something that had yet to be nailed down precisely at this point in the Church’s development. However, this did not stop the early Church Fathers from arguing against and declaring some teachings as heretical. It is against this backdrop where this study finds itself. At bottom, the essential conclusion is to find if Tertullian’s “ecstatic” shift affected his fundamental beliefs to the point where he would be deemed a heretic.             Montanism is what drew Tertullian. The reasons for this are speculated constantly in the literature. With that said, how did the teachings of “The New Prophecy” change or manipulate the strong and

  Introduction              Within the confines of these pages will be the attempt at explicating a personal construal of how God relates to time. Subsequently, there must be an understanding of how this relationship to time will affect God’s knowledge. Before delving into the meat of the topic, it should be noted that there are far too many avenues, potential objections, and other areas on which this paper will not focus. The goal is to delineate areas where a conclusion is accepted without providing an extremely evidential case for why it is accepted. The intent is not to construct an evidentially weak view of God, time, and knowledge. However, it would be an impossible task to cover every bit of ground in short prose such as this. Therefore, just a few assumptions will be listed here (which may be defended to varying degrees throughout): (1) time is assumed to be dynamic, (2) God possesses ALL possible knowledge (approach defined later), (3) even if there are difficulties in the v