The World's Smallest Gun

Yeah... had to post this. It's kind of ridiculous in an awesome way. Did Steve Jobs get into the handgun industry or something? And yes- it's a totally real, fully functional gun.


The picture says everything, but in case you want to read more. Hat tip: Drudge Report

Christian Soteriology: What is Salvation? How is Man Saved?

It is impossible to give a full account of man's salvation as understood by Christianity without first discussing its view of the nature of God. One of the most treasured and important of Christian doctrines (in fact, what I would call the most centrally important Christian doctrine) is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, that God is three distinct persons who are of one and the same essence, existing eternally and in a perfect harmony of love and mutual self-giving to each other. Many Christians have a difficult time with this doctrine and it often takes a backseat to other doctrines in terms of importance or at least emphasis, but it is the fundamental reality- there is nothing more real than the unity of substance in the diversity and love of the three persons in the Holy Trinity.


"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...'" The Church Fathers understood that as human beings, we bear God's image, and that His purpose in creating humankind is for humanity to continually grow after His likeness, to become more like Him and to be drawn by His grace into the loving community of the Trinity to participate in its divine fellowship. Human beings will never become God. That's simply absurd, so please do not be confused about what I'm saying here. What I'm saying is that God's plan is for mankind to become like Him, to become "little gods" (which happens when God makes us into "little Christs"), and through this process of deification, to become blameless and able to participate in the divine fellowship of the Holy Trinity. "...he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature..." In other words, mankind's ultimate reason for existing and highest purpose is theosis, becoming more like God and growing into ever closer fellowship with God. Then humankind fell.

"The Denunciation of Adam and Eve" - George Frederick Watts

Notice how Satan tempts Adam and Eve. He tempts them with what they were created for. He tempts them with what God already had planned for them: "when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God." The plan all along was for mankind to be like God, and Adam's sin was to achieve God's will for him without God. Instead Adam tries to use a part of God's creation to usurp His perfect plan for humankind and to seize by his own striving what has already been promised to him as a gift of God's love. Adam's sin was a failure to trust in the love of God and rely on the grace of God, relying on himself and his own striving instead, thereby damaging his fellowship with God- indeed making himself an enemy of God by his rebellion. Yet in this dark hour for mankind, God's love and grace abounds and He makes this promise, "I will put enmity between you [God is speaking to the serpent here] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." God promises that one of Eve's offspring would crush Satan's head under his heel. He's promising the coming of Christ.


Just like a sound understanding of the Trinity, a sound Christology is absolutely essential to the Christian Gospel. It is on these two doctrines that sound Christian belief rests, the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of the Incarnation. Remember that the first of these doctrines holds that God is three persons of one and the same substance or essence. The doctrine of the Incarnation is that the second person of the Trinity is two essences united in one person. The second person of the Trinity shares in both the Divine essence and the human essence without confusing the two or diminishing either in any way. The fullness of the Godhead rests in each person of the Trinity and as the second person of the Trinity, the fullness of divinity rests in Christ while at the same time, through the Incarnation he assumes to himself the fullness of human nature and becomes a human being. Christ's birth was the advent of the Theanthropos, the God-Man. By fully assuming the human essence, Christ becomes one of us. He descends to the lowest depths of the human condition, even becoming sin for us and dying on a cross, though because he remains God in essence, death cannot swallow him, and as our brother who bears our very form while also retaining the divine essence in its fullness, Christ bridges the chasm between divinity and humanity wrought by the Fall. That is how we are saved, that is how our fellowship with God is restored and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we start anew on the process of theosis. How is this great gift of love given to us?

"The Three Crosses" - Rembrandt

We are literally and mystically joined to the body of Christ. We are not saved as individuals, but as members of the body of Christ. Take care to note that this is not a beautiful metaphor for our cooperation together as followers of Christ's teachings, but a literal description of a mystical reality we participate in. Christianity is not primarily a set of beliefs or an ethical system, but a mystical reality that Christians become together through the awesome power and grace of God. It is not primarily an institution united by its common beliefs, but rather it is first and foremost a single, living organism, the body of Christ, mystically bound up in Christ's Incarnation. We share in divinity when we are joined to the body of Christ, because the body of Christ shares in the divine essence. Through the second person of the Trinity, and his Incarnation, we are drawn up into the divine fellowship of the Holy Trinity.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."

"'I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' Jesus said to them, 'I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.' He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum."

There are many other points that can be made and many logical conclusions to be drawn about other aspects of our theology, but I believe this essay accomplishes my purpose in setting forth as I understand it, the nature of man's salvation. Ultimately, my Trinitarian theology and my Christology will inform the rest of my theological perspectives, and ultimately I believe that what I have set out here leads to acceptance of the Eastern Orthodox Church's claim to be the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, the living, visible body of Christ. I will write more extensively on that subject at a later time. Let me also make one final note: that I am not a trained theologian, I am still formulating and clarifying my beliefs, and that I am terrified at the prospect of making a mistake either out of ignorance or carelessness that will do injury to the Gospel. Please do not take my writing too seriously and instead focus on clinging to the Apostolic faith as revealed in Scripture.