Are Christian missionaries doing something wrong by trying to share their faith with others? I mean, they have to believe that they have some elite status with God. After all, they think that their faith has given some sort of audience with God, and those who do not hold to their particular view are mistaken and are failing to embrace something that is extremely important. If … [Read more...]
Jesus, the Philosopher
Reprinted with the gracious permission of Dr. Douglas Groothuis. This question was posed by the moderator at an early Republican presidential debate in 1999: “Who is your favorite political philosopher?” George W. Bush surprised, if not stunned, his fellow candidates, moderator, and audience when he tersely declared, “Jesus Christ, because he changed my life.” At the … [Read more...]
Should Apologetics Play A Role In Electing A President?
The first presidential campaign I covered as a journalist was Nixon vs. Humphrey in 1968. I was an atheist, so the candidates' religious viewpoints didn't matter much to me. I didn't care that Richard Nixon was a Quaker or that Hubert Humphrey was a Congregationalist. I didn't believe in God, so what they believed about an imaginary being didn't register as having any … [Read more...]
Apologetics seasoned with grace
I don't know about you but when I'm chatting to someone about Christianity or Philosophy I always appreciate and enjoy the conversations where the person I'm speaking to seems to take a genuine interest in what I'm saying, listens to my points, doesn't constantly interrupt me and takes my point of view seriously even if they disagree with what I'm saying. As human beings there … [Read more...]
Stupid Things Christians Say: Satan Hijacks Apologetics
Last spring, my church hosted a debate about the textual reliability of the New Testament. The response to the event was mostly positive, but one reader emailed me to explain that the debate was a bad idea because...Satan could have hijacked it. I promise I did not make that up. … [Read more...]
Poached Conversations
Greg West at the Poached Egg website has graciously shared a story of his own personal failure in dialoguing about life's biggest questions. He described his story over Skype and I used the recording to pen this version of the story. He has reviewed it and confirmed its accuracy. The Story Dolores (not her real name) was a friend of Greg's. Though she and her husband were … [Read more...]
A Brief Word on Atheism, Pineapples, and Shunned Messages
The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science tweeted a story this morning that caught my attention. I follow them for informational purposes, and occasionally something interesting comes to my feed from them. This particular story was about an atheist society getting kicked out of a freshman club fair for displaying a pineapple and naming it "Mohammed". Yes. A … [Read more...]
Understanding the Calling of the Apologist
There seems to be a widespread misconception, even within the church, that the ambition of Christian apologists is to argue nonbelievers into submission to the truth of Christianity. I admit that up until a few years ago, I even held a version of this idea myself. I thought that if your arguments were "good enough," the person they were aimed at would hit their knees in … [Read more...]
Tactics by Greg Koukl: A Book Review
Want more friends? Better conversations? Frequent, life-changing spiritual encounters? But wait, there’s more! What if you could also avoid dead-end discussions, pointless arguments, and go-nowhere debates? Then you should be interested in Tactics, a book by Greg Koukl, the president of Stand to Reason Ministries. The fact is that many Christians feel intimidated by … [Read more...]
Why is apologetics so important?
All the polls in the past few years show a rapid increase in those who have left their religion, and a rapid decrease in church attendance. Robert Putnam and David Campbell presented research showing "young Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of five to six times the historic rate (30 to 40 percent have no religion today, versus 5 to 10 percent a … [Read more...]