15Apr 2020 by Post

What Is Salvation All About?

Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Glorification, Gospel, Jason Jimenez, Justification, salvation, Sanctification, soteriology, Stand Strong, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Jason Jimenez Ever wish you had a backup plan? Well, God did. Of course, that doesn’t imply God made a mistake. God is perfect, and everything He created was perfect (Gen. 1-2). He perfectly and freely made Adam and Eve perfect in His image. And yet, Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God’s commands and eat from the forbidden tree (Gen. 3). But God knew Adam and Eve would sin, and so, in His infinite love and mercy, He set the plan of salvation in motion to redeem His people from their sin (Jon. 2:9; Jn. 1:13; Rom. 9:16; Eph. 1:5). But God didn’t need to do this. He is perfectly just to condemn sinners in their disobedience. Yet, instead, God predetermined to send Jesus to become the ultimate…
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13Apr 2020 by Post

It’s Logically Impossible To Avoid Logic

Alex McElroy, Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, faith, logic, Relentless Pursuit of Purpose, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Alex McElroy The only foundation upon which one should build their life is the truth. The truth should be sound, logical, and justifiable. Most, if not all, people would agree with that sentiment. However, the factors that one uses to determine what is true and what role truth ultimately plays in one’s life are where worldviews tend to diverge. Therefore, it is necessary for each individual to build or understand the epistemic structures that are reliable guides on how to determine what is true about the world around them. Scottish poet and Christian minister George MacDonald said, “to give truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation.” Therefore, the first question to be asked and answered is, are you open…
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11Apr 2020 by Post

The World On The Other Side of This Pandemic

Apologetics, Bob Perry, Christianity, evil, God, Neighbors, pandemic, Sovereignty of God, Theology and Christian Apologetics, True Horizon, World
By Bob Perry The world is an unpredictable place. But we pretend it isn’t. We like to envision our future and plan our steps, pretending we know how we’ll get there. But the stories we write for ourselves rest on assumptions about how the world works and our place in it. And those assumptions tend to be cheery ones. Most of us never include suffering or vulnerability in our forecasts, especially if we believe that “God is in control.” But when it all goes to hell, our illusions fade to black. The smiling facade vanishes quickly when life unveils our real gods. Our lives are changing rapidly and permanently right before our eyes. But the Church needs to take the lead in influencing the world we will face on the…
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08Apr 2020 by Post

Is the Historical Jesus Fact or Fiction?

Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Evidence, Fact, Fiction, Free Thinking Ministries, Gospel, history, Jesus, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Skeptics, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Tim Stratton
By Tim Stratton As a pastor who spends a lot of time on the college campus, I hear the following challenges quite often from young skeptics: “There is no good evidence to think that Jesus ever existed,” or “Christianity has pagan roots!” One might put these common challenges as two questions: (1) Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist? (2) Are the gospel records of this man merely fictional mythology? In this essay, I want to explore several lines of evidence that will show that the answer to the first question is a clear “Yes!” and to the second “No!”       i. Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist? Though there are many “street atheists,” or “internet infidels” who espouse their unqualified views and who in the process influence many…
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08Apr 2020 by Post

Watch: Preview Stephen Meyer’s New Book — The Return of the God Hypothesis

Adolf Grünbaum, atheists, Bertrand Russell, Christianity, cosmology, Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, Eric Metaxas, Evolution News, Faith & Science, Intelligent Design, Michael Behe, Paul Nelson, professors, publishing, religion, science, scientific atheism, Stephen Meyer, The Return of the God Hypothesis, United States
Stephen Meyer has finished his next book, The Return of the God Hypothesis, and (here is a bit of insider information) is currently awaiting copyedits from his publisher. The wheels of book publishing do not grind hastily. I’ve read the book, and it’s fantastic. If you are impatient to get your hands on it, you can get a bit of a preview in a presentation Dr. Meyer gave at the 2020 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith. You can watch that right now: It’s poignant to think that the conference, on January 25, was held just a few days after the first COVID-19 case in the United States was confirmed, in a man who had visited Wuhan. That was here in Washington State. In our present surreal, locked-down virus world,…
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04Apr 2020 by Post

Infinite Punishment for Finite Crimes?

Al Serrato, Apologetics, Bible, Christian Apologetics, Christianity, Finite Crimes, Gospel, Hell, Punishment, Sin, Sinner, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Al Serrato Trying to explain how a good God created Hell can be a daunting task for the Christian apologist. In my last post, I considered the challenge that God could not be “good” if he created a place of “torture.” I tried to make the case that there is a difference between torture – which implies intentional infliction of punishment for the pleasure of doing so – and torment, which is the necessary byproduct of God’s legitimate act of separating Himself from those who have rejected Him, who died while still in rebellion against Him. A related challenge often encountered when discussing the doctrine of Hell is the seeming unfairness in endless punishment for what appears to be brief – in some cases, extremely brief – temporal actions.…
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29Mar 2020 by Post

An Artist Examines Evolution

Albert Einstein, artists, Asa Gray, Atheism, Charles Darwin, Chris Augusta, Christianity, Creativity, Darwinism, David Berlinski, David Gelernter, Eric Metaxas, Evolution, evolutionary theory, Hannah Arendt, Hoover Institution, Intelligent Design, Jonah Goldberg, Jordan Peterson, materialists, Merion West, Michael Flannery, multiverse, Percy Shelley, Peter Robinson, Stephen Meyer, string theory, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, The Return of the God Hypothesis, William Graham
Merion West is an online news source that dubs itself “a journal where all perspectives are welcome.” They tout the fact that they have been rated by Media Bias/Fact Check as a “Least Biased” source.  Generally, their articles seem to have deeper analysis than you will find in much of the mainstream media. For example, recent headlines include, “The Fraught Relationship Between Religion and Epidemiology,” “The Critics of ‘Social Justice,’ from Jonah Goldberg to Jordan Peterson,” and “Hannah Arendt’s Concept of ‘Impotent Bigness.’” They regularly interview newsmakers, and authors often include professors in relevant fields and others well qualified to comment.  Left, Center, or Right Articles are explicitly labeled by viewpoint: left, center, or right. This makes for interesting reading. To date, I haven’t seen much about evolution and intelligent…
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28Mar 2020 by Post

Why Studying Evolution Will Likely Challenge Your Kids’ Faith

Apologetics for Parents, Bible, Christian Apologetics, Christianity, ChristianMomThoughts, Doubts, Evidence, Evolution, God, Kids, Natasha Crain, theology, truth
By Natasha Crain I saw the following post in a Christian Facebook group: My daughter is starting her second semester of college tomorrow. She got ahold of her syllabus and found the following quote from the professor. “Except to one whose reason is blinded by unquestioning adherence to fundamentalist doctrine of creation, the evidence of the fossil record, with that of anatomy, embryology, biochemistry and genetics, compels a single conclusion: evolution is a fact.” Any suggestions on how she should approach this? If this is his daughter’s first time hearing about evolution (or at least secular views of it), it’s going to be a tough semester. Any suggestions on how she should “approach this” are at least a couple of years late. I hear or see questions like this all…
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20Mar 2020 by Post

The Biggest Myth So Far in Cosmos 3.0 — Baruch Spinoza as Science Hero

Albert Einstein, aliens, ancient Greeks, Aristotle, Baruch Spinoza, Bible, Christiaan Huygens, Christianity, Cosmos 3.0, Evolution News, extraterrestrial life, Faith & Science, Galileo Galilei, geometry, Giordano Bruno, harmonic law, Herwart von Hohenburg, historical errors, Johannes Kepler, Judaism, Michael J. Crowe, Michael Maestlin, National Geographic Channel, nature, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Physics, Earth & Space, planetary motion, Plato, René Descartes, Saint Augustine, The Assayer, Two Books, Unbelievable?
The third season of Cosmos has released four episodes so far, with more to come this Monday, on Fox and the National Geographic channel. Evolution News has commented already, here, here, here, and here. After watching these episodes, I have concluded that the most consequential historical error to correct as yet concerns the treatment of Spinoza in episode one. The series designates Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) as the next greatest persecuted hero of science after Giordano Bruno (as depicted in Cosmos 2.0; see my video discussion, “Unbelievable Mythbusting: Giordano Bruno Was a Martyr, Yes, but Not for Science”). Although Bruno was burned to death in 1600 for his religious (not scientific) views, the attempted murder of Spinoza, if it occurred, was likely due to a disputed business transaction (not science or…
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13Mar 2020 by Post

Messianic Convergence in the Gospels: A New Way to Frame the Argument from Old Testament Fulfilment

Apologetics, Christianity, fulfilled prophecy, gospels, Is Jesus God?, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jonathan McLatchie, messianic prophecy, New Testament, Old Testament, Prophecy, prophecy in the New Testament, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
Anyone who has spent considerable time studying the gospels can tell that they are literally saturated with Old Testament fulfilment and allusions. Indeed, the early church used two primary lines of argument to establish the Messianic credentials of Jesus of Nazareth — the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and Messianic prophecy. How useful is fulfilment of the Messianic prophecy in the person of Jesus to the purposes of contemporary, twenty-first-century apologists? In this article, I explore a way to frame the argument in a robust and objective way. First, I will summarise my argument, and then I will dig into the details. A Summary of the Basic Argument When it comes to the origins of the gospel narratives, there are three contending hypotheses for explaining their origin. These are:…
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