I was recently sent an article by Matthew Ferguson of Adversus Apologetica where he attempts to knock down the minimal facts approach. Looking through the article, I was largely unimpressed. For those interested, it can be found here: The minimal facts approach is used by Gary Habermas and Mike Licona. This strategy take facts that even liberal scholarship acknowledges and … [Read more...]
Youth, Popularity, and Apologetics
I was listening to J. Warner Wallace’s podcast recently, and it’s one I encourage all of you to listen to. He talked about presenting talks on apologetics and how youth get enthused about it. I started pondering then why that might be, and I’d like to share a suspicion I have on the matter. I have written much on how the ancient world was an honor/shame culture where we’re a … [Read more...]
Book Plunge: Atheist Delusions
Psalm 11:3 “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Indeed. What can the righteous do? When picking up Hart’s book, one might expect a lengthy reply to various new atheist arguments and criticisms of their approach. One will certainly find that, but not where one would expect. It will be in the first section of the book and the last section. The … [Read more...]
The Problem of "Christian" Ethics
To start off, I am going to be assuming my reader believes in moral absolutes. If you don't, well that's a whole other post and this post isn't about that. We are going to be taking for granted that there are moral truths out there and these truths can be known. At the start, some moral claims are patently obvious so much so that if you met someone who did not believe them, … [Read more...]
Why is Tamar in Jesus' genealogy?
The first place to start when Christians are asked what we believe, would be at the beginning, and that is the book of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament. It starts off with a genealogy. What we'll be looking at is a few of the unusual names in there. First, why do these genealogies exist to begin with? I have a mother-in-law who enjoys doing genealogies and a cousin … [Read more...]
Remember, you are the slave
Recently, I've seen some discussions going on where there seems to be a preponderance of an attitude that I see often going on in the church. It is the attitude that since God is in charge of the universe then we don't really need to be active with how we handle matters. This is the case in politics or in personal Bible study. No need to do much. Let God do His part. After … [Read more...]
Society and the Church's Response to Mental Illness
Recently, we all know that someone went berserk in Connecticut and decided the way to approach reality was to kill his mother, several elementary schoolers, and some teachers. Most of you know his name. I’m not going to bother to repeat it here. I personally think we shouldn’t even show his picture even and should instead spend more time thinking about the victims of a tragedy … [Read more...]
On the Connecticut Shooting
What can be said in the face of evil like this? Let’s start with the obvious in a tragedy like this. There are no easy answers. There are no pat solutions. It is not going to be the case that we enact a new law on gun control and the problem goes away. It is not going to be the case that we ban violent video games and the problem goes away. It is not the case that we do X, Y, … [Read more...]
Year of Biblical Mockery
Lately, Rachel Held Evans has released "A Year of Biblical Womanhood." What are we to make of this book? Let's talk about it. This book has been quite the talk lately and I’ve had an interest in it particularly since on Chick-Fil-A day, Evans came out with a post urging Christians to not participate and feeling like she was on the edge of apostasy because of this. This is an … [Read more...]
The Dinesh D’Souza Controversy
What can be said in light the Dinesh D’Souza controversy (accusation) (response) (King’s College Resignation)? At the very least, Dinesh began a relationship which led to engagement with Denise Joseph while separated from his wife, Dixie. His filing for divorce was registered with the court on October 4, but he had started the process, which takes time, two weeks before that. … [Read more...]