Back to list

mid-week apologetics booster (2-2-2023)

Good morning friends, Quote of the week: The taking up of the cross is not going to be something heroic or dramatic or enviable. It’s going to be a daily practice of acceptance of small duties which you don’t really like. – Elisabeth Elliot Now, here are your weekly links:

Mountains and molehills. A reply to Ben Stanhope on Jobs behemoth. As I see it, there is far too little engagement between young- and old-earth Christians as it is, so by all means I will count this dialogue as a good development. Any time we can take steps to break through the internet’s echo chamber, I suggest we should do so.: https://creation.com/ben-stanhope-reply-on-behemoth
The Sign of Jonah Creation Moments – By referring this matter to Himself, Jesus was also validating the truthfulness of the account of Jonah and the big fish in Jonah chapter 1. Yet many people prefer to think of the account of Jonah and the big fish as a fairy tale…Jonah was taken by the creature to Ninevah a gentile town, which repented for that time. It is fitting that Jonah was used as a type of the death and resurrection of Christ because it is by Christs death and resurrection that all peoples of the world are able to be reconciled to God.: https://creationmoments.com/sermons/the-sign-of-jonah-2/
Observations from the Bible Belt (Podcast) | Cold Case Christianity – this section of the podcast starts about 1/2 the way through: https://coldcasechristianity.com/podcasts/observations-from-the-bible-belt-podcast/
This is what happens when you don’t know the Bible – YouTube: https://youtu.be/e5GTo6PKL8w
Alexander Vilenkin: All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning | WINTERY KNIGHT: https://winteryknight.com/2023/01/25/alexander-vilenkin-all-the-evidence-we-have-says-that-the-universe-had-a-beginning-10/
Why the Appearance of Design in Biology Is a Problem for Atheistic Naturalism | Cold Case Christianity: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/why-the-appearance-of-design-in-biology-is-a-problem-for-atheistic-naturalism/
Ryan Visconti: On Sept. 19, 2019, I was invited to a private dinner with about 15 pastors at a local church in Gilbert, AZ to participate in a Q&A with @AndyStanley after he finished speaking at a conference. The subject of homosexuality came up and over the next 1.5 hours Andy shared overtly heretical views that clearly contradict what the Word of God says. I was shocked to find myself arguing with *Andy Stanley* along with the other pastors despite our respect for him.: https://twitter.com/ryanvisconti/status/1618415547611492356
What are the New Heavens and the New Earth? | GotQuestions.org: https://www.gotquestions.org/new-heavens-earth.html
How Proverbs Changed How I See Everything – YouTube: https://youtu.be/38VG0nHAhFY
Roman Catholicism: Contending for the Faith – YouTube: https://youtu.be/7ZVHHmCOjOg
Christianity Is Objectively True | Answers in Genesis – Responding to Todd Woods claim of purely subjective faith. Most people who go to church grow up mainly hearing the Bible on Sundays, learning Bible stories in Sunday school, and hearing preaching from the pulpit. But then many of them go to schools where the education is purely secular and at least sometimes may be overtly hostile to the Bible. This leads to the impression that religion is subjective, emotional, and personal, while the real world belongs to the secularists.: https://answersingenesis.org/young-earth-evolution/christianity-objectively-true/
Water vapour: a more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2 – Media Center – Forget CO2. To stop global warming we need to reduce water vapour. For details watch the entire episode here: https://creation.com/cml9-01b: https://creation.com/media-center/youtube/water-vapour-a-more-powerful-greenhouse-gas-than-co2
Why Is It a Mortal Sin to Miss Mass? | Catholic Answers – disclaimer: I’m not a Roman Catholic, nor am I advocating for Roman Catholicism, but this article has some interesting historical details about the persecution of Christians from the first 300 years of the church: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/why-is-it-a-mortal-sin-to-miss-mass
William Lane Craig explains the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement | WINTERY KNIGHT: https://winteryknight.com/2023/01/29/william-lane-craig-explains-the-doctrine-of-penal-substitutionary-atonement-9/
The Relationship Between Jesus and Lucifer in a Mormon Context Mormonism Research Ministry: https://www.mrm.org/lucifers-brother
The Name of God: Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Name of God – Christian Research Institute: https://www.equip.org/perspectives/the-name-of-god-jehovahs-witnesses-and-the-name-of-god/
What to say to Jehovah’s Witnesses – 1. About the Jehovah’s Witnesses – bethinking.org: https://www.bethinking.org/jehovahs-witnesses/what-to-say-to-jehovahs-witnesses/2-about-jws
A Challenge to the Modern Church: Invest in Christian Education! – American Thinker: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/06/a_challenge_to_the_modern_church_invest_in_christian_education.html
Pain – A consequence of the curse, not from evolutionary processes: https://creation.com/pain
Gods DNA-detangling motors – The topoisomerase enzymes. All living creatures contain incredible machines, as well as the instruction manual to build them. This manual comprises sequences of chemical letters (nucleotides) in the famous deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule, just as information in a book is written in letters on a page. Furthermore, these instructions are copied to the next generation. You didn’t really get your mothers eyes and fathers ears; rather, it was the instructions to re-manufacture your mothers eyes and fathers ears that were copied to your DNA. DNAs physical dimensions pose many problems that would need to be solved before even the simplest life could function. : https://creation.com/dna-detangling-motors-topoisomerase
If you get canceled, like paleontologist Gunter Bechly, where do you go? As a colleague pointed out yesterday, American life is taking on new aspects with an increasingly underground feel. It’s become suffocating on the surface, so truth seeks shelter. People monitor what they permit themselves to say in public, and often in private, too. Social media are watching what you post. A lot of people have learned what it feels like to have your Facebook or Twitter account suspended as a punishment for saying something politically disfavored. As Discovery Institutes Chris Rufo has extensively reported, your employer, in the public or private sphere, may decide it’s time for you to be reprogrammed in line with woke racial ideology. The experience of being canceled or expelled is no longer limited to controversial speakers on college campuses, who make students feel unsafe. It’s not limited to intelligent design advocates either.: https://evolutionnews.org/2020/12/gunter-bechly-welcome-to-the-underground/
Scientists Conclude: Human Origins Research Is a Big Mess | Evolution News – human origins research is in a ridiculous state of constant major rewritings and refutations of allegedly indisputable textbook wisdom. This is mainly due to surprising new discoveries of hominin fossils. The situation goes far beyond the healthy normal progress of science. Instead, it suggests that something is wrong with the general narrative, which needs not just some rewriting here and there, but a major rethinking and paradigm change: https://evolutionnews.org/2021/05/scientists-conclude-human-origins-research-is-a-big-mess/
In this 13 min 49 second TED-style talk, Tim Barnett tackles the question, “So Many Religions – What Do We Do?” This talk took place at the youth event, Big Deal Questions. – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSb2ae_mPaE
Breakpoint: Talking Worldview at Thanksgiving – Here are six questions I’ve found extremely helpful in any conversation: https://colsoncenter.libsyn.com/talking-worldview-at-thanksgiving
Bible Contradiction? Did Jesus baptize anyone? | The Domain for Truth – There is no Bible contradiction here. Not only do we see the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible failed with claiming there is a Bible contradiction in this example but one must also keep in mind that the author also have a Self-Defeating Worldview that undermine the intelligibility and meaningfulness of his project of attacking the Bible in the first place: https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/bible-contradiction-did-jesus-baptize-anyone/
Did John Really Write John? The Gospel according to John has received more scrutiny than the other Gospels put together.: https://crossexamined.org/did-john-really-write-john/
Interview with computer scientist Ed Knorr. Asked about scientific/mathematical evidence on origins, Ed referred to the work of creationist genetic-engineering pioneer Dr. John Sanford: I learned there are at least 100 new mutations per person born, and almost none of these are advantageous. Furthermore, DNA is poly-constrained and poly-functional: any mutation in a single letter of DNA could affect multiple genes. Thus, the likelihood of harmful effects adding up over time is high. Given the low probability of advantageous mutations, multiplying low probabilities over long stretches of time implies the probabilities become statistically zero for the formation of any significant new functionality in an organism. Things are heading downhill; the notion of perfect design right from the start, with variability encoded in the DNA, makes much more scientific sense.: https://creation.com/ed-knorr-interview
Here Are 5 Tips for Conversations in Our Tense Cultural Moment – Canon Fodder: https://www.michaeljkruger.com/here-are-5-tips-for-conversations-in-our-tense-cultural-moment/
Four Reasons the New Testament Gospels Are Reliable (Free Bible Insert) | Cold Case Christianity: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/four-reasons-the-new-testament-gospels-are-reliable/
Contend for the Faith | Ligonier.org – Unless we are well-grounded in our faith, we will not be able to recognize false doctrine and help rescue those who have fallen prey to it Jude reminds us that believers must contend for the faith once delivered to the saints because of the goats who set themselves up as teachers of the sheep (vv. 34). Yet this call to fight actively for the faith is not limited to Jude alone; it is one theme uniting all of the General Epistles.: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/contend-faith
Bible Word of God – How can we be sure we have the Word of God? How accurate are our copies of the Bible?: https://creation.com/bible-word-of-god
An Atheist Explains the True Reason Religion Terrifies Him – Intellectual Takeout: https://intellectualtakeout.org/2018/06/an-atheist-explains-the-true-reason-religion-terrifies-him/
A Case for Creation 101: Made in His Image or evolved over time? Truth, Faith and Reason – includes several embedded YouTube videos and a list of Twelve questions Darwinian evolutionary theory cannot answer: https://truthfaithandreason.com/a-case-for-creation-101-made-in-his-image-or-evolved-over-time/
Aliens, the Multiverse, or God? (Stephen C. Meyer) Science and God – YouTube – Even staunch Darwinists have acknowledged that life in the universe displays an appearance of design, rather than being created out of random chance. If that’s true, where did that design come from? In other words, does a design require a designer?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VQy0B_sY0U
What should parents think about Disney’s position on grooming children for sex? | WINTERY KNIGHT: https://winteryknight.com/2023/02/01/what-should-parents-think-about-disneys-position-on-grooming-children-for-sex-2/

but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered. Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness– and I will not lie to David– that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.” “Selah” Psalms 89:33-37 Blessings to you all