Apr 1, 2020 | Apologetics
As we come upon the Easter celebration, albeit in very odd times, I thought I’d share some thoughts from my meditations upon one of the most important chapters in all of the Bible. In it Paul deals extensively with the resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead, establishing them as central to the validity of the Christian faith. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead Christianity is not true, and our faith is in vain, period. Our faith rests on a falsifiable historical fact, meaning if someone, anyone, could have proved Jesus stayed dead, Christianity would be dead too, would in fact have never gotten off the ground. But it did, and an actual, physical, witnessed resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the only explanation for it. Since the so called Enlightenment, many have tried to keep some form of Christianity without the resurrection, but why waste your time. If it didn’t happen, actually, in real space and time, then Christianity is a lie, and his followers who spread the message of the resurrection were liars. I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in basing my life on a lie. If it isn’t true, if it didn’t happen, I want nothing to do with it. This chapter, however, is a huge problem for the skeptics, and why our faith is so well grounded on a real resurrection of Jesus from the dead. (more…)
Mar 13, 2020 | Apologetics
If that question doesn’t make you laugh, you haven’t thought about it enough. I listened to a podcast the other day on the cosmological argument. Simply, it is a philosophical argument for God’s existence that everything that comes to exist has a cause, that there must have been a first cause for all the things that exist, and that this first cause must itself be uncaused. The logic is unassailable, even though otherwise intelligent people claim that something can somehow come from nothing. That would have to be the case if matter and the universe were eternal, but Einstein, the Big Bang, and the second law of thermodynamics kind of put the kibosh on the Aristotelian notion of an eternal universe (also known as the Steady State theory). (more…)
Feb 29, 2020 | Apologetics
In a universe without God, we come from a meaningless past, and are destined for a meaningless future; we came from chance for no reason at all with no purpose at all, and are hurdling through this eye blinking thing called life toward extinction. The question arises for the atheist: Can human beings find meaning between those two polls of meaninglessness? I ask because of a comment I made at at First Things on an article titled “Auschwitz and ‘Intrinsic Evil.'” An atheist challenged me, and linked to a blog post to better explain his position: “The Meaning of Meaning & Why Theism Can’t Make Life Matter.” I decided to reply here. The article starts thus:
It comes up constantly. Without a god, without an afterlife, how can life have any meaning?
(more…)
Feb 25, 2020 | Apologetics
God has revealed himself in creation, Scripture, and ultimately in the person of Jesus Christ. In previous posts about creation and the Bible, I argued the only plausible explanation for each is God. Jesus is the ultimate manifestation of God’s revelation of himself to his creatures. Regarding creation, Paul says that “God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” In Christ we see God’s more visible qualities. Creation only gives us limited knowledge of God. Read some history of philosophy to see how many speculative rat holes philosophers have gone down trying to figure that out. But we don’t have to speculate or guess what God is really like; we only need look to Jesus. There is a practical and the theological way to explain why God can be the only explanation for Jesus Chirst. (more…)
Feb 19, 2020 | Apologetics
In a previous post I argued that God is the only explanation for the stupefying complexity, functionality, and beauty of creation, the first and most obvious of God’s revelations of himself to mankind. In this post I will argue that the Bible is way too mind blowing to have any other explanation than God himself. In my next, I will show how Christ himself is the ultimate revelation of God, and that God himself is the only explanation!
For the last two hundred years we’ve endured a veritable world war on the Bible, driven by the anti-supernatural bias of the so-called Enlightenment. This was sort of understandable considering the limited scientific knowledge of the 18th and 19th centuries (see previous post on creation). The obvious problem was that the impossibility of the supernatural was never proved, but assumed because Newtonian physics (and the worldview inspired by it) required a closed system to work. In other words, we assume a mechanistic universe, ergo, God is unnecessary. (more…)
Feb 18, 2020 | Apologetics
As you may know, because of improved technology anyone can publish a book today. Writers are no longer dependent on all powerful book publishers to to get their books in print, or face limited shelf space to get it purchased. Publishing is a tough business, so publishers rarely take a risk on first timers, like me, so self-publishing is our only option. I found out the hard way that not all self-publishers are created equal, and the first one I picked delivered a book that wasn’t acceptable. So I decided I would not promote it, and hired another self-publishing company with a catchy name, Dog Ear Publishing. I spoke to the owner a couple times, liked him, and decided to move forward with them. Because of my inexperience, it took longer than I would have liked, but most things do.
So here it is, with a much more professional presentation. The content is the same, and I think as persuasive as ever! Of course you would expect me to say that. It can currently be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and I’d be interested to see if you think it’s as persuasive as I do. I know my kids do! They grew up experiencing the persuasion. You can read a bit more about the inspiration and content at The Book.
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