29Mar 2023 by Post

Is it Hateful to Say Jesus is the Only Way?

Apologetics, Christianity, Culture CrossExamined, Exclusivism, Jesus Christ, Religious Pluralism, Ryan Leasure, RyanLeasure.com, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure Is it hateful or arrogant to claim that Jesus is the only way of salvation? Charles Templeton thought so. He argued: “Christians are a small minority in the world. Approximately four out of every five people on the face of the earth believe in gods other than the Christian God. The more than five billion people who live on earth revere or worship more than three hundred gods. If one includes the animist or tribal religions, the number rises to more than three thousand. Are we to believe that only Christians are right?”[1] What are we to make of Templeton’s claims? Is it presumptuous to say that Jesus is the one true way of salvation? Or even worse, are Christians guilty of committing “absurd religious chauvinism” as some…
Read More
05Dec 2022 by Post

A Dragon at Christmas

Apologetics, Christianity, Christmas, Dragon, Jesus, revelation, Ryan Leasure, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure  “Away in a manger no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes. But little Lord Jesus no crying he makes. . .” What a peaceful scene. It’s as every Christmas card portrays it. Sweet baby Jesus cooing softly in his manger with smiles all around. The only problem is that it doesn’t portray reality. Aside from the point that Jesus most certainly would have been crying as any normal baby would, Revelation 12 describes the Christmas story as a dangerous event, loaded with spiritual warfare. The Dragon Fights Chapter 12 is a prime example that Revelation…
Read More
27Oct 2022 by Post

Can Atheism Account for Objective Morality?

1. Does Truth Exist?, Apologetics, Atheism, Christianity, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Moral Argument, morality, objective morality, objective truth, Ryan Leasure
By Ryan Leasure  Do objective morals exist? That is to say, are certain actions right or wrong irrespective of what people think? Philosphers and moral scientists have wrestled over the question of objective morality for centuries. Prior to the Enlightenment, objective morality was a given. The foundation for which was the nature of God himself. Since the Enlightenment, however, brilliant minds have sought to find other explanations for objective morals using only the natural world, and this pursuit has proven to be quite difficult. As a result, naturalism — the belief which denies any supernatural or spiritual realities — has bred scores of moral nihilists. Contemporary atheist Richard Dawkins sums up this view nicely when he writes, “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there…
Read More
29Sep 2022 by Post

How We Got Our Bible: The KJV Only Movement

Apologetics, Bible, Holy Bible, KJV, Ryan Leasure, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure This final post will consider the short-comings of the King James (KJV) Only Movement. Nothing New Under The Sun In many respects, the KJV Only Movement is hardly novel. People have been propping up certain Bible translations since the time of Jesus. One early translation that received this exalted status was the Septuagint (LXX). After the Jewish people went into exile, many remained outside of Israel, even after they were granted permission to return and rebuild. Over the course of centuries, the Jewish people no longer had a grasp on the Hebrew language. Therefore, to make the Old Testament accessible to more people, Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew text into Greek. This translation happened sometime between the third and second centuries BC. Legend has it that seventy-two…
Read More
22Jul 2022 by Post

¿Realmente no tuvimos un Canon del Nuevo Testamento hasta el siglo IV?

Canon Cristiano, Concilio, Español, Iglesia antigua, Ireneo, Justino Martir, Nuevo Testamento, Policarpo, Ryan Leasure, Teofilo de Antioquia
Por Ryan Leasure  ¿Es verdad que los documentos del Nuevo Testamento no fueron Escrituras hasta el siglo IV? Es decir, ¿los libros no tenían autoridad hasta que los concilios de la iglesia se la otorgaron? Los eruditos liberales hacen esta sugerencia debido a que elimina cualquier explicación sobrenatural para el canon del Nuevo Testamento. Para ellos, una autoridad bíblica puede ser explicada únicamente en términos humanos. Algunos de nuestros amigos católicos también argumentan a favor del siglo IV, pero por otras razones. Para ellos, la máxima autoridad reside en la iglesia. Por lo tanto, sin el sello de aprobación de la iglesia, el Nuevo Testamento no tendría ninguna autoridad. Pero, ¿es ésta una representación exacta de los documentos del Nuevo Testamento? ¿No eran Escrituras hasta que la Iglesia se pronunció…
Read More
20May 2022 by Post

Cómo obtuvimos nuestra Biblia: la formación del Antiguo Testamento

Antiguo Testamento, Apologética, Biblia, Cristianismo, Español, Nuevo Testamento, Ryan Leasure
Por Ryan Leasure Este es el segundo de una serie de nueve artículos que abordan la cuestión de cómo obtuvimos nuestra Biblia. El último artículo trató la cuestión de la inspiración y la inerrancia. Esta semana nos centramos en la formación del Antiguo Testamento. Cuestiones de introducción A finales del siglo II, Tertuliano acuñó el término “Antiguo Testamento” para distinguir las Escrituras hebreas de las griegas. La palabra “testamento” significa simplemente “pacto”. El Antiguo Testamento, en su forma actual, consta de treinta y nueve libros y fue escrito por decenas de autores a lo largo de mil años. En los primeros tiempos, los autores bíblicos utilizaron diferentes superficies de escritura. Grabaron sobre piedras (Éxodo 34:1; Josué 8:32), escribieron sobre  yeso (Dt 27:2-3), grabaron sobre metal (Éxodo 28:36) y rayaron en…
Read More
16May 2022 by Post

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…
Read More
21Mar 2022 by Post

How We Got Our Bible: New Testament Canonical Reception

4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Bible, Canon, Christianity, Church Fathers, Jesus Christ, New Testament, reliability, Ryan Leasure, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure   This article is part 5 in a nine-part series on how we got our Bible. Part 1 considered inspiration and inerrancy. Part 2 looked at the unfolding of the Old Testament. Part 3 examined the Old Testament canon and the Apocrypha. Part 4 considered the canonical attributes for New Testament books. This article will unpack how the early church received the New Testament canon. Marcion (AD 85-160) Before diving into the the corporate reception of the canon, it’s first necessary to say a brief word about Marcion. According to church historian Henry Chadwick, Marcion was “the most radical and to the church the most formidable of heretics.”[1] What was Marcion’s heresy? He promoted Gnosticism—the belief that the god who created the world was evil, and thus the OT was evil. This belief led Marcion to reject the…
Read More
11Mar 2022 by Post

Serpientes, dragones y la Biblia

Apologética, Biblia, Cristianismo, Cristianos, Escépticos, Español, Evangelio, Preguntas sobre la Biblia, Ryan Leasure, Satanas, Teología
Por Ryan Leasure Si eres de una iglesia de los Apalaches que manipulan serpientes, lamento decepcionarte. Este no es ESE tipo de post. Por el contrario, es un post sobre cómo la Biblia retrata a las víboras, las serpientes y los dragones. Más aún, se trata de cómo un poderoso guerrero vence a una serpiente para rescatar a su preciosa novia. Si esta historia te resulta familiar, es porque muchos grandes cuentos infantiles del pasado cuentan este mismo tipo de historias. Verás, la Biblia presenta tres personajes principales:[1] 1) la serpiente (el villano, Satanás), 2) la damisela en apuros (el pueblo de Dios) y 3) el cazador de serpientes (el héroe, Jesús). Cabe señalar que “Serpiente” es un término bíblico que incluye tanto a las serpientes como a los dragones[2];…
Read More
27Oct 2021 by Post

How We Got Our Bible

4. Is the NT True?, Apologetics, Christianity, How We Got Our Bible, inspiration, New Testament, Ryan Leasure, Theology and Christian Apologetics
By Ryan Leasure This article is the first in a series of nine blog posts that will unpack the story of how we got our Bible. That is to say, the Bible didn’t just fall from heaven into our laps. Rather, the Bible is the result of a long process that starts from the mind of God and ends with to our modern English translations. The process involves inspiration of texts, collecting certain books, rejecting other books, copying of manuscripts, evaluating thousands of manuscripts to recreate the originals as much as possible, translating the Hebrew and Greek texts into English, and then creating translations that are readable in our modern vernacular. As you may have guessed, this series will deal with some of the more crucial issues surrounding the Bible—issues such as canon, the apocrypha, the…
Read More