Nov 2, 2019 | Apologetics
Critics and skeptics of the Bible think that the miracle stories in the gospels are what make them so hard to believe as history. Just the opposite is the truth. In fact, the way the stories are portrayed, and that they happened at all, are evidence for their veracity. The primary reason they are not believed is because of an anti-supernatural bias people bring to the text: Miracles can’t happen, ergo, the miracles in the Bible didn’t happen! Hogwash. The accounts we read in the gospels do not, at all, read like myths and legends, but like eyewitness testimony of events that actually happened. An important point to keep in mind as you are reading the text is the critics’ claim: What you read was made up, to one degree or another. The question we ask in return is, could or would it have been made up? Knowing human psychology as it is, I find this one of the most profound questions I can ask as I’m reading the Bible. My answer is always, no! (more…)
Oct 24, 2019 | Apologetics
In my previous post I wrote that the historical novel, The Robe, was the greatest historical novel ever written. I haven’t read every one, so this may be a bit of hyperbole, but author Lloyd C. Douglas makes a compelling case about how the spread of the gospel message is evidence for its truth. I explained that biblical critics claim that the gospel stories are akin to the telephone game where the initial events are distorted over time to become what we read today in our Bibles. My contention, and what is so expertly conveyed in The Robe, is that this is not at all how the message and events recorded in the gospels spread. In fact, distortion as critics claim was not possible given the events, the culture, and the nature of life lived at the time. Here are some reasons why. (more…)
Oct 19, 2019 | Apologetics
If you’ve never heard of the The Robe (later made into a movie), I’m delighted you are now. The book played an important role in bringing me to Christ. My grandmother gave me a copy when I was 16, and it captivated me. I just finished reading it again for the fifth or sixth time, and I see again why. What captured my imagination all those years ago was the person of Jesus, and his influence on the people who encountered him. He turned them into better people! When I went to college my dorm room was next to a couple “born-again” Christians, and they asked me a question I had to answer yes to because I’d read The Robe: Would you like to see what the Bible says about who Jesus is? Despite being a bit creeped out by these fanatical Bible-thumpers, I couldn’t say no.
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Sep 28, 2019 | Apologetics
When I first came up with a title for my book four plus years ago I was going call it, Apologetics for Parents: How to keep your kids from becoming “Nones.” Since most Christians don’t know what apologetics is, or what “Nones” are, that wasn’t ideal. Keeping our kids from becoming “Nones,” however, is an increasing challenge in our secular 21st century. Over the past 20 or 30 years the fastest growing segment of the population when asked their religious affiliation chooses “None of the above,” thus the press christened them Nones. A piece in The Atlantic highlights how and why this might be happening. (more…)
Sep 2, 2019 | Apologetics
I wrote recently about a documentary of Korn guitarist Brian Welch’s conversion to Christianity. He had a serious issue with drug addiction, even after his conversion, and some people are accusing him of replacing his addiction to drugs with an addiction to religion. Here is part of his response to these critics he recorded in a Youtube video:
“There’s a supernatural way that you can feel that euphoria and that high and that pleasure, and that comes from the Spirit,” Welch continued. “There’s a scripture in the Bible that says, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived the wonderful things that God has prepared for us,’ or prepared for humans.
“Now, people would say, ‘Why do you believe the Bible? Why do you believe that? Why would you believe some words by men two thousand, three thousand, four thousand years ago?’ It’s because of the next verse, and the next verse says, ‘But God has revealed it and unveiled it to us by his spirit.’”
Those are very good questions that any honest person should ask. Welch gets the answer exactly right, and any good Calvinist, like me, would completely agree. The only reason people believe on and trust in the Lord Jesus is because God has revealed it to them, and enabled them to believe it. He turns the heart of stone to flesh, brings the dead sinful heart to spiritual life. But that’s not all that could, and should be said.
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Aug 24, 2019 | Apologetics
I can’t tell you how many moronic, absolutist, immature, know-it-all atheists I’ve come across in online comments sections who declare with absolute certitude that the Bible is all myths and fairy tales, full of metaphorical unicorns and other such unbelievable nonsense. These people, and I’m sure mostly young males, have never bothered to actually read the Bible, only other skeptics like them who haven’t read it either. The problem for such dolts is that the Bible doesn’t read anything like myths and fairy tales, not in the least. In fact it reads like straight ahead history that takes place in real time, in real places, with real people, and real events. History outside of the Bible confirms this again and again. We can take comfort, and have confidence, that our faith is rooted in history, not human wishful thinking and fiction (which didn’t exist in the ancient world).
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