22Aug 2022 by Post

Does Isaiah 9:6 Affirm the Deity of Israel’s Messiah?

Apologetics, Christianity, Isaiah, Isaish 9:6, Jesus, Jesus Deity, Jonathan McLatchie, Messiah, The Book of Isaiah, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Jonathan McLatchie  This past weekend, I had the privilege of participating in a moderated panel debate with my friends Dr. Shabir Ally, Yusuf Ismail, and Samuel Green. The topic was focused around the question of whether Isaiah 9:6 affirms the deity of Christ. Isaiah 9:6-7 reads, 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of…
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18Aug 2022 by Post

West: Theistic Evolution and the Gnostic Heresy

biology, Christianity, Creation, Culture, demiurge, Discovery Institute, Early Church, Evolution, Faith & Science, gnosticism, God and Evolution, Gospel of John, history, Intelligent Design, Jay Richards, John West, Judaism, Lucretius, Mandaeism, materialists, Richard Dawkins, Talmud, theism, Westminster Conference on Science and Faith
Friendliness to a design perspective might seem to be natural for any theist. Yet a prickly disdain is strangely common, especially among religious academics. Source
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17Aug 2022 by Post

Fertility Matters

birth rate, Bob Perry, Christianity, Fertility, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, marriage, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Bob Perry Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute, is a demographic expert. He has identified some sobering trends that are cause for concern for the future of America. In his article, “Can America Cope with Demographic Decline?”, Eberstadt points out that the traditional attempts to address those worries through government policy and financial incentives “vastly underestimate the challenge they wish to address.” ​Going Lower The birth rate required to support a society’s population stability is 2.1 births per woman. Eberstadt’s research found that in 2019, the birth rate in the U.S. was 1.71, the lowest rate ever recorded up to that point. Then, COVID-19 hit. In 2020, the rate fell to 1.64. Projected estimates for the as-yet-unreported first quarter of 2021 point toward…
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15Aug 2022 by Post

What You Might’ve Missed About the Mount of Transfiguration

Apologetics, Bart Ehrman, Christianity, Erik Manning, Jesus, Mount of Transfiguration, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Transfiguration
by Erik Manning  Does John’s Gospel give us a much higher view of Jesus than what we find in Matthew, Mark and Luke? Bart Ehrman certainly thinks so. He says: If Jesus went around Galilee proclaiming himself to be a divine being sent from God…could anything else that he might say be so breath-taking and thunderously important? And yet none of these earlier sources says any such thing about him. Did they (all of them!) just decide not to mention the one thing that was most significant about Jesus? Almost certainly the divine self-claims in John are not historical. How Jesus Became God p 125 In other places, Ehrman admits that the Synoptic Gospels don’t depict Jesus as a mere man. But he isn’t pre-existent and he isn’t the same…
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11Jul 2022 by Post

Is the Law of First Mention a Proper Biblical Hermeneutic?

Apologetics, Bellator Christi, Bible interpretation, Brian Chilton, Christianity, Gospel, Hermeneutic, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Brian Chilton Recently, Curtis Evelo (Bellator Christi Podcast co-host) told me about a conversation he had with an individual about biblical interpretation. Apparently, the individual held that the wine that Jesus miraculously brought forth out of water in John 4 was merely unfermented grape juice. When asked why he held this view, he contended that to hold that the wine held fermented content was to argue that Jesus was a sinner because wine is said to be a mocker in Proverbs 20:1. Curtis asked him what this had to do with Jesus’s miraculous transformation of water into wine. The unnamed individual then said that he used the law of first mention. According to the law of first mention, the interpreter first examines the initial place where the term or…
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23Jun 2022 by Post

Mass Shootings & Pro-Choice Hysteria: Three Questions that Show the Insanity of Modern Moral Outrage

Adam Tucker, Apologetics, Christianity, Culture, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Politics, pro-choice, Roe v. Wade, school shooting, Southern Evangelical Seminary, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics, What is a Right?
By Adam Tucker As I sit at my computer thinking about the incomprehensible evil of yet another mass shooting, this time in Uvalde, Texas, the floods of outrage, sadness, fear, and uncertainty grip me as I’m sure they do many of you. Ironically, news of the tragedy broke just minutes before attending the end-of-year ceremonies at my kids’ school. Tears filled my eyes as I watched the boys and girls sing and receive their awards knowing that so many parents will not get to experience such joys after this latest tragedy. I truly cannot imagine. Yet, while the news coming out of Texas is very disturbing, there is something else I can’t get out of my mind. Just over a week ago, my family and I had the opportunity to…
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22Jun 2022 by Post

Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation? An Analysis of the Warning Passages in Hebrews

Apologetics, Christianity, Gospel, Jonathan McLatchie, salvation, soteriology, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
A significant point of contention in regard to the book of Hebrews is whether a genuine believer can lose their salvation, or whether falling away from the faith merely evidences the fact that one had never truly come to share in Christ. At the center of this controversy are the warning passages, which are found in Hebrews 2:1-4, 3:7-4:13, 5:11-6:12, 10:19-39, and 12:14-29. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the Biblical evidence on whether a professing Christian who walks away from the faith forfeits their salvation, with a particular focus on the book of Hebrews. A fundamental principle of Biblical hermeneutics is that the unclear passages should always be interpreted in light of clearer texts. This follows from the premise that the Biblical texts, being divinely inspired, though…
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15Jun 2022 by Post

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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13Jun 2022 by Post

Why Doesn’t God Need a Creator

Al Serrato, Apologetics, Atheism, Christianity, creator, Kalam, Philosophy of Science, Skeptic, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Al Serrato Christians believe that God is an infinite being who has always existed. But what “evidence” can the theist put forth in support of this claim? This is a common challenge raised by the skeptic. When a person asks for “evidence,” the usual response is to look for things like witness statements, or documents or fingerprints left at a scene. Since no one has “evidence” relating to things outside our universe, or to a being who preceded the Big Bang, it’s a safe bet, they think, that the Christian apologist can’t come up with any “evidence.” Or is it? Teasing out the unspoken premise in the question highlights what is at play: the challenger assumes that it is only through physical or testimonial “evidence” that we can know…
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02Jun 2022 by Post

Stephen Meyer Takes Questions, Including: “Has Science Matured Past Its Christian Origins?”

"God of the gaps", Catholicism, Christianity, Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, dark energy, dark matter, ether, Faith & Science, Galileo Galilei, Hebrew Bible, Isaac Newton, John West, mathematics, Neil deGrasse Tyson, neo-Platonism, philosophy, Physics, Earth & Space, Reformation, Renaissance, Return of the God Hypothesis, scientists, theism
Granted that the early scientists were Christians, does it follow that science necessarily supports Christianity or any form of theism? Source
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