Why The Bible Depicts God As Jealous

Al Serrato, Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, God, jealous god, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Al Serrato In my last post, I tried to make the case that God neither “needs” nor “demands” our praise. I acknowledged that he does, however, expect it, because praise naturally flows to a perfect being. But, the skeptic may counter, doesn’t the Bible describe God as “jealous?” Don’t the Ten Commandments include prohibitions on having “other gods” as well as threats of punishment for those guilty of “iniquity?” Does this not, in fact, amount to God instructing us to worship him, and explaining how angry he will become if we don’t? We come back to the question – why would a perfect being demand worship?” These are good questions, and they deserve an answer. But as we embark upon an answer, it’s worth noting that the questions themselves…
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Undesigned Coincidences in the Scriptures: An Argument for Their Veracity (Part 1) — Old Testament Examples

Apologetics, Bible, coincidences, Jonathan McLatchie, Old Testament, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Veracity
By Jonathan McLatchie The principle of undesignedness was first identified by the famed Christian philosopher William Paley (1743-1805), in his book Horae Paulinae. Therein, he highlighted example after example of undesigned integrations between the epistles of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles. The principle of undesignedness refers to cases where two or more sources dovetail with each other in a manner that cannot be attributed to the design of the author. In 1850, J.J. Blunt published his book Undesigned Scriptural Coincidences, in which he took Paley’s argument further, documenting examples in the Old Testament, as well as between the gospels, and between the gospels, Acts, and Josephus. The principle of undesignedness is a forgotten but brilliant argument which can be used to corroborate Biblical history. In this article, I…
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STEPS AND RESOURCES FOR SOUND BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, J. Brian Huffling, New Testament, Textual Criticism, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Uncategorized
By Brian Huffling Many people don’t know how to study the Bible, or even where to begin. The Bible is a long collection of books that contains much about ancient history, difficult concepts, and is very intimidating for people who want to read it but don’t know where to start. This article will describe some of the principles of interpreting the Bible (hermeneutics) that are taught in basic Bible college and seminary classes (but are easy enough for anyone to understand). This is not a 12-step method to anything, it is simply a sound method to examine the biblical text. Well, it is a 3-step method: observation, interpretation, and application. OBSERVATION When we read a passage, we typically want to ask, “What does it mean?” But there is a more basic…
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¿Deben los cristianos tener fe ciega? 

Apologetics, Atheism, Bible, Christian Apologetics, Español, Evangelism, faith, Levi Dade, The Rebelution
Por Levi Dade Hace unos meses, me senté con un íntimo amigo mío en una de las cabinas de la cafetería de nuestra universidad. Mi amigo, al que llamaré Tom, es ateo. Tom es un auténtico buscador de la verdad, y sería cristiano si considerara que el cristianismo es “completamente cierto”. Durante nuestra conversación, terminamos discutiendo el tema de la fe. Después de averiguar sus perspectivas del mundo y sus justificaciones para ellas, dijo algo que me sorprendió. “Al final del día, supongo que todos estamos obligados a tener fe en algo”. Quería que me aclarara lo que quería decir con esa afirmación, así que le respondí: “¿Quieres decir fe ciega?”. “Sí, supongo que es fe ciega”. La diferencia entre la fe y la fe ciega Presta atención a éstas…
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So You Left the New Age… Now What? Five Helpful Tips

Bible, Christianity, Culture CrossExamined, Jesus, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Melissa Dougherty, New Age, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
 By Melissa Dougherty We each go through unique difficulties whenever we leave the New Age. Whenever I left the New Age, it was incredibly lonely. I felt like nobody understood what I had just gone through. At the time, it felt like no Christian around me understood what the New Age really was, and to be honest, I was somewhat embarrassed that I had fallen into such beliefs, even after going to church for so many years. I didn’t even understand what I believed was New Age. I had to sift through the theological mud. I also did a Pendulum swing where I just wanted to point out what was wrong with everybody’s beliefs, and I went through a brief phase where basically everything was “New Age,” and there was…
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How We Got Our Bible: Manuscript Tradition

4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Bible, Inerrancy, New Testament, Ryan Leasure, Textual Criticism, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure  This article is part 6 in a nine-part series on how we got our Bible. Part 1 dealt with inspiration and inerrancy. Part 2  looked at Old Testament development. Part 3 investigate the Old Testament canon and the Apocrypha. Part 4 considered attributes of the New Testament Canon. And Part 5 inquired into the early church’s reception of the New Testament Canon. This post will consider the manuscript tradition and preservation of the New Testament text. No Original Autographs Sadly, none of the original autographs remain. Most likely, they wore out after constant usage and copying. Now, all that we possess are copies of copies of copies—a lot of them actually. Yet these copies differ in lots of different places. But do these differences render our Bible unreliable? Bart Ehrman…
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Moloch: Bruised but not Defeated

abortion, Apologetics, Bible, Culture, Culture CrossExamined, Free Thinking Ministries, Josh Klein, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Moloch, Old Testament, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Josh Klein For decades our country has been mired by a decision that enshrined the sacrifice of human babies to the god of Moloch (also known as Molech). You might know this practice by its current moniker, abortion, but the practice is essentially the same. Sacrificing our children on the altar of prosperity is a tail as old as human civilization. Instead of molten hands the altar is often a Planned Parenthood operating table. We have chosen, as a nation, to ignore the obvious humanity of the infant in utero and have embraced the lie that sex is a right but having children as a result is anathema.  That is, unless you want the baby. In 1973, possibly the worst decision in the history of the Supreme Court was…
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Why Good Friday is the Best News Ever

Bible, Crucifixion, Culture CrossExamined, Frank Turek, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Resurrection, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Frank Turek Despite intense personal and political division, we all agree on one thing: something is terribly wrong with this world.  Pain, suffering, injustice, and death affect us all at some point because we live in a broken world.  And we live in a broken world because we are all personally broken. Who hasn’t committed any moral wrongs? (If you claim you haven’t, you just committed a moral wrong—lying!)  The truth is we are all fallen.  While we hate the evil done by others, we rarely notice the evil we do. We may call our political opponents hypocrites, but we don’t even live up to our own standards much less God’s.  None of us are perfect.  We are all guilty of something. It’s only when we admit our guilt…
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D.O.U.B.T.S.: An Evidential Filter For Miracle Claims

4. Is the NT True?, Bible, Erik Manning, IsJesusAlive, Jesus Christ, miracles, New Testament, reliability, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Erik Manning When it comes to miracles, Christians are often accused of special pleading. We’re quick to accept Christian miracle claims, but we suddenly turn into Richard Dawkins when it comes to miracle claims made by other religions. Why should skeptics start investigating the resurrection of Jesus when we don’t give other miracles the time of day? The truth is that there are dozens of different religions and thousands of miraculous claims out there. So how can the Christian hope to use miracles as an argument for their faith? But the fact that there are miracle claims in other religions doesn’t require us to dismiss all miracle claims out of hand. Nor is it necessary for us to be haplessly credulous about all historical miracle claims. There’s a middle way.…
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