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mid-week apologetics booster (11-27-2025)

Good morning friends and Happy Thanksgiving,

Quote of the week:

It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors. – George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation – 1789

Now, here are your weekly links:

Talking Worldview at Thanksgiving – A new holiday trend, as evidenced by Google searches, is “Friendsgiving.” Instead of having to talk politics or religion with that opinionated parent, aunt, or uncle over Thanksgiving dinner, some folks – especially younger adults – are choosing friends over family on turkey day. After all, why risk an argument that will ruin the day for everyone? Of course, there is nothing wrong with celebrating Thanksgiving with friends, but we shouldn’t shy away from conversations about things that matter, even if the topics are super-controversial—like, oh, I don’t know, same-sex “marriage,” the impeachment hearings, immigration, or the Dallas Cowboys. There are two keys to civil, interesting, and productive conversations. First, we need to be confident in our beliefs. If we are, we are far less likely to be threatened by opinions and ideas we know aren’t true. Second, we need to love our enemies. And since we aren’t facing any hostile foreign invasions this holiday season, that means our ideological enemies. Remember that Jesus loves even those we find intolerable, so we must decide to treat them with respect. And now, here’s a strategy for those tough conversations. Ask good questions. Questions turn monologues into dialogues, surface-level discussions into something deeper, and they might even open a closed mind or two: https://colsoncenter.libsyn.com/talking-worldview-at-thanksgiving
Children Are Being Taught God is Not Part of Thanksgiving and Socialism is Good: What are children told about Thanksgiving in our nation’s government (public) schools? Who or what are they thanking? https://americanvision.org/21459/children-are-being-taught-god-is-not-part-of-thanksgiving/
It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the over-ruling power of God. To confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that with genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon. And to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord…Abraham Lincoln Thanksgiving Proclamation: https://ps11911.com/nuggets/quotes/316
Assisted suicide would bring a range of other societal problems, warn critics – Christian Today: https://www.christiantoday.com/news/assisted-suicide-would-bring-a-range-of-other-societal-problems-warn-critics
The Remnant Newspaper – Is Mary Co-Redemptrix? The Whole Doctrine Explained. This is insane. Why does the Roman Catholic “church” hold non-biblical and/or extra-biblical “dogmas”?: https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/fetzen-fliegen/item/8007-is-mary-co-redemptrix-the-whole-doctrine-explained
What happens after death? | GotQuestions.org – First, for the believer in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that after death believers’ souls/spirits are taken to heaven, because their sins were forgiven when they received Christ as Savior (John 3:16, 18, 36). For believers, death means being “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6–8; Philippians 1:23). However, passages such as 1 Corinthians 15:50–54 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 describe believers being resurrected and given glorified bodies. If believers go to be with Christ immediately after death, what is the purpose of this resurrection? It seems that, while the souls/spirits of believers go to be with Christ immediately at death, the physical body remains in the grave “sleeping.” At the resurrection of believers, the physical body is resurrected, glorified, and reunited with the soul/spirit. This reunited and glorified body-soul-spirit will be the state of existence for believers for eternity in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21-22).: https://www.gotquestions.org/what-happens-after-death.html
Reflections: Infinite Attention to Spare – C.S. Lewis Institute – God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel; He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world: https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/reflections-june-2022/
The Universe Looks Tampered With: Here’s Why – YouTube: https://youtu.be/cu5GwWXLcYo?si=eAoK41xnd_46rIoW
A Desert full of Frogs? | Creation Moments – Even though many frogs live much of their lives out of the water, they need water to reproduce. This can be a problem since some frogs live in trees and some even live in the desert!: https://creationmoments.com/radio/broadcast-archive/todays-creation-moment/a-desert-full-of-frogs/
What’s the Truth About the First Thanksgiving? | 5 Minute Video – YouTube – Should Americans celebrate Thanksgiving as a day of gratitude? Or should they mourn it as a day of guilt? Michael Medved, author of The American Miracle, shares the fascinating story of the first Thanksgiving.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a33Fuz8wKDA
50 Ways to Be Thankful | Crossway – Why do we need suggestions on how to express gratitude? Shouldn’t a truly grateful heart just naturally overflow in expressing that gratefulness, without needing to be prompted by tips? Well, yes. But recall that while the Bible speaks of acts of love bubbling over from transformed and loving hearts, it nevertheless gives us lots of instruction in how love might behave, including exhortations and commands to do it this way or that. Similarly, the truly grateful heart may be increasingly open to counsel on how to go about showing thankfulness.: https://www.crossway.org/articles/50-ways-to-be-thankful/
When An Atheists Says, “WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE IN JESUS?” – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2yRjw8-j-s
Talking With Your Kids About God – Christian parenting is hard work–and it’s getting harder. Parents have a deep desire to pass on their faith but fear that today’s increasingly skeptical and hostile world will eventually lead their kids to reject the truth of Christianity. That leaves many parents feeling overwhelmed–uncertain of what they can do to help their children, given the difficulty and extent of the faith challenges they will face. Frank interviews author Natasha Crain about her book a practical resource that gives parents the confidence of knowing what to discuss with their children and how to discuss it in order to facilitate impactful conversations that will form the basis of a lifelong faith.: https://subsplash.com/u/crossexamined/media/d/jh8bkv7-11-4-17
My testimony (Sarah Salviander): https://sixdayscience.com/2015/05/11/my-testimony/
Who decided which books were selected to be part of our modern Bibles? – YouTube – Animated video 2 min 19 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqtL_Bi3V_U
Examine Evidence for the Bible’s Reliability – To believe the claims of Christianity simply because “the Bible tells me so,” begs the question, i.e., it assumes what we are trying to prove. What if instead of blindly believing the Bible, we checked the Bible against external historical, scientific, and geographical evidence? This is exactly what astronomer Hugh Ross did, and he found to his surprise that the Bible contains many verifiable references, in contrast to the world’s other religious books. He then committed at least an hour a day to check the accuracy of these references. After 18 months, he believed the Bible was supernaturally inspired (Ross, Creator and the Cosmos, 17-21). Hugh Ross is not alone. Many skeptics or atheists have either grown in respect for the Bible or come to believe it after they evaluated the evidence, such as archaeologists Sir William Ramsay and William Albright, journalist Lee Strobel, Frank Morison, Josh McDowell, professor emeritus of law at Harvard Dr. Simon Greenleaf, and Oxford professors Thomas Arnold, Lord Lyttleton, and Gilbert West. Christian apologists like Frank Turek note that we have many different kinds of testimony that support the Bible: 1. Early testimony, 2. Eyewitness testimony, 3. Extra-biblical, independent non-Christian testimony, 4. Enemy (hostile and skeptical) testimony. For example, the theory of the stolen body of Jesus is nevertheless evidence of the empty tomb in Matthew 28:11-15. 5. Embarrassing testimony which reflects honesty, 6. Excruciating testimony, i.e., the willingness to suffer for one’s testimony, 7. Expert testimony 8. Multiple witnesses (e.g., four gospels) (Geisler/Turek, 231).: https://faithphilosophy.com/en/bible-examine-evidence-for-the-bible-reliability.php
YOUR EARS REFUTE EVOLUTION – HERE’S HOW – Biblical Creation | Facebook – For a human being to walk upright, the body must possess an extraordinary sense of balance. That balance is controlled by the inner ear. Creatures that move on four legs rely on a completely different balance system that suits their posture and movement. Our balance system is uniquely suited for upright walking because it was intentionally designed for it.: https://www.facebook.com/1mill.creationist/posts/pfbid0JnHfwsRwishJ395ngdUhHG9euqhu82kW3h3Xc5qeDRC5uwu5rxe1C8vqs8bDFKVCl
Who Designed the Designer? Jay W. Richards, PhD – YouTube – Jay Richards answers the typical objection against the teleological (and sometimes cosmological) argument for the existence of God: “Who Designed the Designer?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwWgJi5lb58
During the last thirty years or so, scientists have discovered that the existence of intelligent life depends on a complex and delicate balance of initial conditions given in the big bang itself. Scientists once believed that whatever the initial conditions of the universe, eventually intelligent life might evolve. But we now know that our existence is balanced on a knife’s edge. It seems vastly more probable that a life-prohibiting universe rather than a life-permitting universe such as ours should exist. The existence of intelligent life depends on a conspiracy of initial conditions that must be fine-tuned to a degree that is literally incomprehensible and incalculable. For example, Stephen Hawking has estimated that if the rate of the universe’s expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have re-collapsed into a hot fireball. British physicist P. C. W. Davies has calculated that the odds against the initial conditions being suitable for later star formation (without which planets could not exist) is one followed by a thousand billion billion zeroes, at least. He also estimates that a change in the strength of gravity or of the weak force by only one part in 10,100 would have prevented a life-permitting universe. Roger Penrose of Oxford University has calculated that the odds of the big bang’s low entropy condition existing by chance are on the order of one out of 10 to the 123rd power. There are [many] such quantities and constants present in the big bang that must be fine-tuned in this way if the universe is to permit life. And it’s not just each quantity that must be finely tuned; their ratios to one another must be also finely tuned. Therefore, improbability is added to improbability to improbability until our minds are reeling in incomprehensible numbers. – William Lane Craig: https://ps11911.com/nuggets/quotes/2937
Frank Challenges Deep Thinking Skeptic – YouTube – Why are some modern scientists and philosophers challenging causality? Frank takes on (and tosses back) some tough question in this friendly exchange with a deep-thinking skeptic who points to Hawking-style cosmology. If Christianity were true, would he become a Christian?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdcrw5S2Bho
Does Causality Apply Outside of Space and Time? | Christian Apologetics: https://crossexamined.org/causality-apply-outside-space-time/
A Jewish Thinker Challenges Christianity – Sean Responds – YouTube – Where do Jews and Christians agree, and where do they disagree about Jesus, salvation, miracles, and the Messiah? In this conversation, I talk with Orthodox Jewish thinker Shabbos Kestenbaum, a grad from Harvard Divinity school, and a political commentator for Prager U.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55g3kNTGCzw

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:17

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone– for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim 2:1-4

Blessings to you all