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Archive for the ‘christian apologetics’ Category

-The Question of “Questions”…

Posted in christian apologetics, Christianity, Ethicss, faith, God, Philosophy, religion, spirituality, tagged , on September 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The Question of “Questions”…

Alvin Plantinga, among many others, has wrestled with the philosophical Problem of Evil with earnestness and sincerity. It is perhaps the major difficulty within theistic systems.

But Plantinga has articulated a more central problem (esp. for the Judeo-Christian worldview). The problem is not why there is evil, but why there is SO MUCH OF IT–its extent and range and severity are staggering.

But let me apply this question mutatis mutandi to the issue of Christian evidences, especially in regards to the Scripture: The question is not ‘why are there difficulties in the Bible’, but why are there SO MANY? (more…)

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-What Science Can’t Prove

Posted in Bible study, christian apologetics, Christianity, Ethicss, faith, God, JESUS CHRIST, lectures, Philosophy, religion, spirituality, tagged , on August 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

What Science Can’t Prove

Gregory Koukl

If science can’t even disprove the existence of unicorns, how can it disprove the existence of God? divider

I often hear the comment, “Science has proved there is no God.” Don’t ever be bullied by such a statement. Science is completely incapable of proving such a thing.I’m not saying that because I don’t like science, but rather because I know a little about how science works. Science operates on induction. The inductive method entails searching out things in the world and drawing generalized conclusions about those things based on observation. Scientists can only draw conclusions on what they find, not on what they can’t find. (more…)

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-1 Tim. 2:12-13 and women pastors and elders.

Posted in Bible study, christian apologetics, Christian living, Christianity, church, faith, God, JESUS CHRIST, lectures, religion, spirituality, tagged , on August 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »

1 Tim. 2:12-13 and women pastors and elders.

“But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet, 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” (1 Tim. 2:12-13).

Should women be pastors and elders?  There are those who would answer yes.  But Paul says in 1 Tim. 2:12 that he doesn’t allow a woman “to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” Paul anchors his reason in the created order, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” In other words, this is not a culturally based opinion.  It is a doctrinal statement.

Nevertheless, there are counter arguments about these verses held by some Christians who assert that women can teach and exercise authority over men.  Let’s take a look at some of the arguments — right after we examine the context. (more…)

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-The Plurality Study

Posted in Bible study, christian apologetics, Christianity, faith, God, JESUS CHRIST, lectures, religion, spirituality, tagged , , on August 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

The Plurality Study


 The following study is an interesting examination of theophanies. A theophany is an appearance of God. God appears in the Old Testament in different ways: as an angel of the Lord (Acts 7:30-32; Exodus 3:2; Judges 2:1), apparently in physical form (Gen. 3:8; Exodus 24:9-11), in visions and dreams (Num. 12:6-8), and in flame (Judges 13:20-21). However, there are verses that say that you can’t see God: Exodus 33:20; John 1:18). If this is so, then is there a contradiction in the Bible? No, there isn’t.
Study the following verses, read them in context in the Bible, and see if you can figure out what is going on. If you can’t, continue reading and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
These verses are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Please note that “LORD” is equivalent to YHWH, Yahweh, and Jehovah which is the name of God. (more…)

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-Caning, Dentists, & the Problem of Pain & Love

Posted in christian apologetics, Christianity, faith, God, JESUS CHRIST, lectures, religion, spirituality, tagged , , , , on August 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Caning, Dentists, & the Problem of Pain & Love

Gregory Koukl

If God really loved me, He wouldn’t allow me to go through this painful experience. Greg examines this false view of God from the perspective of the dentist’s chair. divider

I want to talk a little bit about the caning in Singapore, partly because of the thoughts that I had about it relative to my visit to the dentist last week and because there has been a lot said about this particular caning as we’ve anticipated it and surprisingly I think to a lot of people the response was somewhat mixed. The letters poured into Singapore from the U.S. that were actually very supportive of the caning. Much can be said about the issue, but that is another issue and I don’t want to take that up today. Nor will I comment here on my feelings about the caning itself and the appropriateness and whether it’s a good punishment or bad, or how it relates to our legal system. That’s really not my concern today. I do have some opinions that I’m in the process of developing, but today I’m interested in something else. Clearly Americans have had an ambivalence about this. On the one hand we believe in law and order, but there is something else in current American social values that has really animated the outcry against what some have called cruel and unusual punishment. Some have even referred to it as torture. (more…)

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-Christianity as the Best Explanation

Posted in christian apologetics, Christianity, faith, God, JESUS CHRIST, lectures, Philosophy, religion, spirituality, tagged , , on July 31, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Christianity as the Best Explanation

By Melinda L. Penner

divider

Christianity can be seen as an explanatory hypothesis to account for certain phenomena we observe in the world: the origin of the universe, the design of the universe, and the universality of morality. The explanations that Christianity provides to this empirical data provide a cumulative case for the rationality of Christianity, and in fact, the superiority of Christianity to other belief systems. Monotheistic religions (namely Judaism, Islam, and Christianity) enjoy a special rational advantage over other kinds of religious beliefs in their explanatory power, but, as will be shown, Christianity is the most rationally satisfying. Three criteria can be applied to developing the positive case for Christianity and simultaneously the negative case against other religious belief claims: logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and existential viability. (more…)

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-The Real Murderers: Atheism or Christianity?

Posted in Bible study, christian apologetics, Christianity, faith, God, Islam, JESUS CHRIST, lectures, religion, spirituality, tagged , , , , , on July 31, 2008 | 3 Comments »

The Real Murderers: Atheism or Christianity?

Gregory Koukl

Is it legitimate to condemn religion for historical atrocities? First we had better examine the facts. divider

I got a call from a gentleman from San Francisco who was exercised about Christian missionaries going into foreign lands. Then he started talking about not only the destruction of indigenous beliefs, but also the destruction of missionaries. That’s what he wanted to see happen. He also said that Christians and religious groups are responsible for the greatest massacres of history. It turns out he was quite supportive of Wicca and indigenous religions which worship the Mother Earth force, Gaia. This is essentially the basic foundation for witchcraft. (more…)

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-When Is a Human Being Human?

Posted in Bible study, christian apologetics, Christianity, Ethicss, faith, lectures, religion, spirituality, tagged , , , on July 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

When Is a Human Being Human?

Gregory Koukl

A simple response to give, next time someone tells you an unborn baby is a “human being but not a person.” divider

A baby is fully human from conception. There’s no question about it. Even to say that it’s fully human is missing something. Jot this down. The law of identity: a thing is itself and not something else. What that means is that whatever a thing is it remains what it is for as long as it exists. Things don’t change from one essential thing into another essential thing.People say, what if you became a cat? It’s impossible for you to become a cat because a cat is a different essential substance. If you became a cat, one could ask the question, what is it about the cat that is the same as what you were? There is nothing about a cat that is remotely human, and there is nothing about a human that is remotely cat. Even the soul of a cat is a different kind of soul than a human soul so you could never become a cat. You would be destroyed and some cat created in your place or maybe molded from your physical molecules, but that wouldn’t make you the cat. (more…)

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-Heaven: Living in the Present

Posted in Bible study, christian apologetics, Christian living, Christianity, faith, God, lectures, religion, spirituality, tagged , on July 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Heaven: Living in the Present

Gregory Koukl

Can the memories of childhood give us a glimpse of heaven? divider

I want to tell you a story about something that passed through my mind a couple of weeks ago. I was driving near my home in Carson. There’s a school there with a playground and I saw all of these kids playing on it. I had one of those experiences where you have an instance of psychological time travel. It was basically a split second because I was driving past when this happened so it didn’t take much time. But as I watched the kids play on the playground, hitting the tether ball and swinging from the jungle gym hanging upside down, I was psychologically transported back about forty years to the time when I was a child doing the same things. I mean psychologically because I didn’t see the circumstances of my childhood, I just for a brief moment felt the feeling of my childhood. The feeling was one of blissful uncomplication.I realized there is a very, very big difference between being a child and being an adult, apart from the obvious. Adults have responsibilities and they must plan, they must look to the future, they must take care of things, they must solve problems. But for the most part when you are a child, you don’t have that perspective. You don’t look far into the future because you just can’t see that far. You don’t have enough history to do so. You know little of responsibilities. Oh, make your bed, take out the trash, maybe. But you’re not thinking about talks next week or goals for the organization next year or retirement in 20 years. Those are totally foreign concepts to you. Because of the nature of being a child, you are more locked into the moment. You don’t have a past, really. Oh, a few years — five, six, seven, eight years — and half of those you can’t remember because you were an infant. So you have no past to reflect on. You have very little history. (more…)

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-Paul – Apostle with a good skeptical ‘bent’…

Posted in Bible study, christian apologetics, Christian living, Christianity, faith, God, JESUS CHRIST, lectures, religion, spirituality, Theology, tagged , , , on July 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Paul -

Apostle with a good skeptical ‘bent’…

Paul is clearly a good example of faith, but to what extent is he a good example of a ‘cordial but ruthless’ critical/skeptical thinker?

Consider the following:

  • He originally was a strong skeptic of the faith, even going so far as putting Christians to death
  • It would take something very convincing to ‘convert’ his worldview to become the outstanding Christian spokesperson, evangelist, and apologist that he became.
  • He claims that it was an appearance of the risen Jesus Christ that overpowered him.
  • His subsequent actions show him to be a man of critical examination all through his life.

A couple of incidents from his life to illustrate this:

  • After his conversion, he immediately “baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ”: (Acts 9.22)
  • “He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews…” (Acts 9.29)
  • He appeals to eye-witnesses often for his claims (Acts 13.31; I Cor 15)
  • He appeals to seasonal patterns as evidence of God’s character (Acts 14. 17)
  • He appeals to concrete experiences even in theological debates (Acts 15.12)
  • “he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17.2-3)
  • “While Paul was at Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him” (Act 17.16-18)
  • His argument to them was based on 1) logic and 2) proof (Acts 17.29-31)
  • “Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue…” (Acts 18.4)
  • “Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God” (Act 19.8)
  • He challenged the church leaders to ‘be on your guard’ about truth in the future (Acts 20.29-31)
  • He appeals to his encounter with the risen Christ (Acts 22.6ff; 26.12))
  • In court, he appeals to strict historical data (Acts 24)
  • Before the authorities, he appealed to the openness of the data (Acts 26.26)
  • He speaks of ‘thinking with sober judgment’, of ‘being convinced in your own mind’, of teachers who ‘by smooth talk and flattery deceive the minds of naive people’, of ‘wanting you to be wise’.

The list goes on and on…he consistently uses data, appeals to evidence, asks for proof, and answers requests for proof.

Does this sound like ‘blind faith’ or a faith that is concerned about truth?!

The Christian ThinkTank…[http://www.Christian-thinktank.com] (Reference Abbreviations)

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