Christmas, whatever its true date, is when God became one of us, so that when the time came, he could demonstrate, by dying for us, that he loves us despite our works, whether they are good or sin. He came to demonstrate that his unconditional love motivates choosing good works over sin, rather than the other way around: good works motivating unconditional love (which would be … [Read more...]
Proselytism: So simple, even some atheists get it!
Disclaimer.(1) These days, it seems proselytism (2) is such a touchy subject. I often hear skeptics and atheists complaining about religious people trying to convince others of their beliefs. But, is it really proselytism that is the problem, or is it the sharing of your religion (often called evangelism in Christianity) that is their concern? If we give it a moments thought – … [Read more...]
Tetragrammaton And Jehovah's Witnesses
Unwarrantedly Watchtower Society's Translation Committee added “Jehovah” in 237 places in New Testament. By doing so, New World Translation (NWT), Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Bible, blurs many passages that depicts Christ Jesus as Lord (Kyrios) of Old Testament. In Journal of Biblical Literature, Kurt Aland showed that the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, does not appear in any of the 5,255 … [Read more...]
Advent as a Season for Conversion: TS Eliot and "The Journey of the Magi"
We all know the story of the Three Kings, even if only from the chorus of “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” However, Holy Scripture does not call these men kings, but rather magi, “wise men from the east” (Matthew 2:1) Their story reminds us that Christmas is a call to conversion, if we will only hear it. … [Read more...]
Friday Fallacy: Affirming the Consequent
In my last Friday Fallacy post, I looked at the fallacy of denying the antecedent. There I discussed conditional statements, statements of the form “if P then Q”. Examples would be statements such as “if it is raining then the grass will be wet” or “if the US had not shot Bin Laden then he would still be alive”. I noted that conditionals have an “antecedent” and a … [Read more...]
Mark is the Gospel for outsiders
Carson Weitnauer lists Six Easy Ways to Add Apologetics to Your Sermons, fleshed out on his blog, Reasons for God: 1. Explain the historical context of the passage. 2. Compare and contrast Christianity with other worldviews and religions. 3. Ask questions. 4. Talk about clues. 5. Discuss the explanatory power of the Christian worldview. 6. Share a story about your doubt and … [Read more...]
Plantinga Summarises the Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism
Here’s how Alvin Plantinga summarises the evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN) in his book Where the Conflict Really Lies (p. 314):1 The basic idea of my argument could be put (a bit crudely) as follows. First, the probability of our cognitive faculties being reliable, given naturalism and evolution, is low. (To put it a bit inaccurately … [Read more...]
Love Wins Critique (Part 4)
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 Major Problems with Love Wins As stated in my introduction, I will be unable to address every one of the problems found in Love Wins. However I will address three major errors I found around Bell’s notion of God’s will, his interpretation of the word “eternal” and his understanding about hell being “here and now.” I would refer to the reader to the … [Read more...]
Christmas Science
In an article from scienceblogs.com, the writer opens with this statement: “If there's one universal trait among humans, it seems to be an unquenchable thirst for certainty.” We want to know what is provable beyond a shadow of doubt. Where would you guess that most of us think that type of certainty is found? The realm of science! How is it that Science supposes gives us … [Read more...]
The Gratuitous Objection
People often have a presumption of naturalism when it comes to debates over God and Christianity. That is to say, in a discussion over whether or not God exists, it is often assumed naturalism is true unless or until God is shown to exist. This assumption is faulty, and this article will show why. First, one must understand exactly why the presumption of naturalism is held … [Read more...]