24Sep 2025 by Post

Early Church Persecution, and its Evidential Value: Part 2

4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Christianity, Church History, Evidential apologetics, Gospel, JonathanMclatchie.com, persecution
[Editor’s Note: This blog was originally a single article. For the purposes of reposting it at Crossexamined, it has been divided into two parts. Click here for part 1.  [Excerpt from Part 1:] In this article [series], I . . . discuss the evidence that the apostles did in fact encounter hardships, dangers and persecutions on account of their Christian convictions. [In part 1] I survey the evidence for a general context of persecution (what may be called the indirect part of the case). [In Part 2] I will . . . proceed to argue that the apostles in particular voluntarily submitted themselves to danger, hardship and persecution on account of their conviction of the gospel’s truth. The Persecution of the Apostles — Evidence from the Apostolic Fathers   We now…
Read More
23Sep 2025 by Post

Behind the Scenes at Charlie Kirk’s Memorial Service

Charlie Kirk, Christian Apologetics, Christianity, Dr. Frank Turek, Erika Kirk, Gospel, Memorail, morality, philosophy, Podcast, religion, theology, TPUSA
What happened behind the scenes at the historic memorial service for Charlie Kirk and what was its central takeaway message? Frank shares what it was like to attend and speak at what could possibly be the biggest public event in human history, and also highlights the remarkable efforts of the TPUSA team who put it all together in only 7 days while also mourning the devastating loss of their fearless leader. Tune in as Frank shares clips from some of the speakers and answers questions like: Why did Charlie continue doing college events when he knew his life could be at risk? How do you respond to someone if they accuse you of being a Christian Nationalist? Was Charlie Kirk a fascist? Why should Christians seek to legislate morality? What…
Read More
22Sep 2025 by Post

Early Church Persecution, and its Evidential Value. Part 1

4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Christianity, Church History, Evidential apologetics, Gospel, JonathanMclatchie.com, persecution
The argument from Christian persecution was developed most fully by William Paley, in his 1794 book, A View of the Evidences of Christianity.[1] Indeed, Paley devotes the first nine chapters of his book to defending the thesis “that there is satisfactory evidence that many professing to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of conduct.”[2] This proposition, if true, goes a long way towards establishing that the early apostles — that is, those who were purportedly witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection — were sincere in their conviction that they had encountered the raised…
Read More
15Sep 2025 by Post

Class Guide: How to Avoid Filth

Apologetics, Christianity, college, Gospel, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Owen Anderson, Owen Anderson.substack.com, Politics
As students around the country get ready to go back to school, our universities are eagerly awaiting their next round of freshmen. If you’re a parent or student, you will need to know how to find classes that help you become wise and lead a virtuous life. As a professor, I can provide you with some ideas. First, go to your university’s course schedule and see what is offered. If a class interests you, check out its syllabus. If the professor will not make their syllabus public, that is a bad sign. You can email and request it. What you want to see is the reading list and the kinds of lecture materials that are used. That will tell you if there is bias. For example, take a look at…
Read More
08Sep 2025 by Post

What is the Role of A Priori Knowledge?

2. Does God Exist?, A Priori Knowledge, bellatorchristi.com, Christianity, Epistemology, Gospel, Justin Angelos, Kalam Cosmological Argument, Ontological Argument, philosophy
A priori reasoning originates from a Latin word which means, “beforehand.” Knowledge gained from experience is called a posteriori, and knowledge that doesn’t require experience is called a priori.[1] Our primary concern here is with factual knowledge. For example, Little Italy is located in New York on the East Coast of the United States, Plato lived in Athens, Greece, and Seattle, Washington, is in the Pacific Northwest. This type of knowledge is often referred to as “knowledge that” or propositional knowledge because it involves statements or propositions that are [or can be] certain to be true.[2] There are compelling reasons to consider a priori knowledge as a valid form of knowledge. For instance, the statement “bachelors are unmarried men” indicates that a certain level of experience is needed to grasp the meanings of the words “unmarried”…
Read More
03Sep 2025 by Post

Why Philosophical Proofs For God Are Better Than “Scientific” Proofs

2. Does God Exist?, Apologetics, Aquinas’s Five Ways, Argumentation, Arguments for God, BrianHuffling.com, Christianity, ed feser, Gospel, metaphysics, philosophy, science, scientism
Let me first say that I think the “scientific” proofs for God’s existence are very good, as far as they go (I’ll explain why that word is in quotes later). Since middle school one of my hobbies has been backyard astronomy. I am very familiar with the intelligent design arguments from cosmology and biology. They are all very good and very convincing. So, what’s the issue? Well, for one, natural science alone can’t prove God. It needs philosophy. What then makes the scientific arguments good? They are good because they show that the chances for the design (not existence) of the universe and life due to random events are essentially zero. But the jump from probability to cause is a philosophical one. Science, does after all, require the use of…
Read More
27Aug 2025 by Post

What is the Meaning of Life?

Adam Lloyd Johnson, Apologetics, biblical anthropology, christian, ConvincingProof.org, Gospel, imago Dei, meaning of life, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Trinity
Ancient philosophy began when people started thinking about ultimate reality. These early philosophers proposed theories about the ultimate elemental stuff which everything else comes from or is made of. Some of the early theories were earth, air, fire, or water. One ancient philosopher, Democritus, even suggested that everything is made up of tiny particles he called atoms. If Christianity is true, however, and I believe it is, then when the final curtain of reality is pulled back, we won’t find earth, air, fire, water, or atoms. Instead, we’ll find loving relationships between three divine persons. Ultimate reality, from which everything else comes, is a God which exists as a Trinity: three divine persons united in one essence and united in Their loving relationships with Each Other. I’ve become convinced that…
Read More
25Aug 2025 by Post

Answering Stephen Law’s Evil God Challenge

2. Does God Exist?, Apologetics, christian, ethics, Evil God, Gospel, John Ferrer, Moral Argument, naturalism, Philosophical Apologetics, Problem of Evil, Stephen Law, theism, www.IntelligentChristianFaith.com
If you’ve followed the problem of evil at the popular or academic level, then there’s a good chance you’ve come across the rather interesting objection from Stephen Law which he terms the “Evil God challenge.” In essence he contends that skeptics can reverse any efforts from theists to explain God’s goodness in spite of the facts of evil in the world. The conventional problem of evil claims that God doesn’t exist or probably doesn’t exist given the facts of evil (gratuitous evil, animal suffering, moral evil, etc.) in the world. While theists typically appeal to things like free and sublime unknown divine purposes to explain away these evils, the skeptic can counter that these evils are equally good evidence that there exists a maximally evil God. Free will is the accommodation that…
Read More
20Aug 2025 by Post

Four Ways that Middle Knowledge Helps to Explain Unanswered Prayer

Apologetics, bellatorchristi.com, Brian Chilton, Christianity, Gospel, Luis de Molina, Middle Knowledge, Molinism, Theological Apologetics, Theology and Christian Apologetics, unanswered prayer
Country singer Garth Brooks popularized the song, “Unanswered Prayers.” The song recounts how he prayed to have the love of a young woman earlier in his life. His prayer, however, was declined. While he didn’t understand why God did not allow him to have the love of this young woman when he was young, he later reflected on why God did not answer his prayer when he looked upon his wife and valued the love they had for one another. Brooks then sings, “One of God’s greatest gifts is unanswered prayer.” In his book Luis de Molina: The Life and Theology of the Founder of Middle Knowledge, Kirk MacGregor recounts the life and belief system of Luis de Molina. Unfortunately, much of Molina’s works are still left untranslated. MacGregor, who is able to…
Read More
13Aug 2025 by Post

Let’s Help Harvard Understand Intelligent Design

2. Does God Exist?, 3. Are Miracles Possible?, Apologetics, Christianity, design argument, Evolution, Gospel, Harvard, Intelligent Design, Jonathan McLatchie, JonathanMclatchie.com, naturalism, scientific apologetics
Last week, my wife and I spent an afternoon at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, in Cambridge, MA, near where we live. We both were generally impressed by the exhibitions, particularly the dinosaur section, and would recommend the museum to anyone visiting Boston. I was, however, quite disappointed to see this notice at the entrance to the display on evolution: It was disappointing to see the inaccurate representation of intelligent design (ID), along with the poor scientific epistemology. A “Super-Natural Explanation”? First, proponents of ID have long stressed that ID, in its purest sense, does not necessarily postulate a supernatural cause but is consistent with a natural or supernatural intelligence. Furthermore, I would contend that the natural / supernatural distinction is problematic. What precisely is meant when a phenomenon…
Read More