The Christian Apologetics Alliance has featured an incredible diversity of posts this month on "Becoming A Community Apologist." Let's review the terrific posts we've had and then consider: in light of God's grace, how might you steadily grow as an apologist? In particular, I want to talk with you about feeling overwhelmed. When we feel overwhelmed, how does God's grace speak … [Read more...]
Reason and Intuition – Chicken and Egg
I’ve been wrestling a lot, lately, with the proper relationship between reason and emotion. Part of the motivation for this conflict in my own mind is because I know people who gravitate to one or the other of these, and they often look down upon whichever of the two they do not gravitate toward. But I find myself drawn to aspects of both, and repulsed by the overemphasis of … [Read more...]
Becoming a Community Apologist: The Apologetic of Not Knowing
For any lover of British humor Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a classic movie. The unique comedy of the film follows King Arthur and his knights as they search for the Holy Grail. As Arthur and his men draw closer to the end of their quest, they come across an old and dangerous footbridge guarded by an old man. In order to cross the bridge the brave knights have to answer … [Read more...]
Apologetics and evangelism: Bridge the divide at your Church
If there's one focus a Church should have, it's on evangelism and missions. It's almost a little redundant to separate those since missions, properly understood, is evangelism. If we're truly doing the will of the Lord and making disciples of all nations, we can't do that by giving people clean water without giving them the water of eternal life. We can't give them bread to … [Read more...]
Book review: The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, Robert Louis Wilken
From a famous skeptic of Christianity: “But we must examine this question whether anyone who really died ever rose again with the same body. […] While he was alive he did not help himself, but after death he rose again and showed the marks of his punishment and how his hands had been pierced. But who say this? A hysterical female, as you say, and perhaps some other one of … [Read more...]
Churches for Apologetics – Please sign the petition
Imagine an army that never trained and was poorly equipped. Without training, the soldiers would not know how to use the weapons in their possession Such an army would be decimated by the enemy. Or, imagine a football team whose training table consisted entirely of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and other junk food. Instead of lifting weights they play video games. Instead of watching … [Read more...]
Craig, Law, and Evil God: Oh My!
The debate between William Lane Craig and Stephen Law has sent what amounts to shockwaves through the Christian community. Law’s “Evil God” argument is certainly interesting. These are some thoughts and criticisms about Stephen Law’s Evil God argument. The argument is: 1. If gratuitous good exists, then Evil God does not exist. 2. Gratuitous good exists. 3. Therefore, Evil God … [Read more...]
Teaching Effective Apologetics for Small Time Periods
So you think you have what it takes to be an apologist? You’ve mastered the arguments, and you’re ready to go? Well, using apologetics effectively involves not just making formal, lengthy arguments, but also the ability to condense those arguments down into everyday conversations. Sometimes God presents opportunities which only last for a few minutes. It is important as … [Read more...]
Koukl talks to a waiter
I enjoyed listening to the opening part of Greg Koukl's show Stand to Reason some time ago. You can find it by scrolling down to November 18, at this link. Very briefly, Koukl had a fascinating chat with a waiter, but the conversation simply didn't go anywhere! They talked about all kinds of interrelated stuff that was all connected to the big questions of life, but they didn't … [Read more...]
Community Apologetics – one model
This month the CAA has featured a series of articles on community apologetics. I throw my hat into the ring with this little piece describing the history of a community apologetics group I am involved in. Past Back in 2009 the original "Atheist bus ads" came to Calgary, Canada. They were placed throughout much of Europe and North America. You may remember them, "There probably … [Read more...]