Good morning friends,
Quote of the week:
The 5 L’s of Apologetics • Learn. Knowledge is power. • Listen. Be slow to speak. • Live. Demonstrate Christ in action. • Laugh. Humor can remove barriers. • Love. Your neighbor as yourself. – Theologetics
Now, here are your weekly links:
- 7 Reasons Why Apologetics Might Be Good – bethinking.org – I have a confession to make: despite the fact that I write and speak on apologetics, there are times when I question whether apologetics is really any good. There are two main reasons for my doubts. Firstly, I sometimes find apologists more than a little intimidating. On one hand they generally seem incredibly clever and, on the other hand, they sometimes seem excessively aggressive, more concerned with winning arguments than winning hearts. Of course, some of what I interpret as ‘aggression’ may actually simply be passion, but nonetheless I think there is more than a hint of truth in the claim that apologists and their disciples (by which I mean Christians who are passionate about apologetics) aren’t always renowned for their grace and compassion. I should know – I am one! Secondly, I sometimes wonder what difference apologetics makes. What occupies the attention of most people most of the time is not deep existential questions about life and faith but the ordinary stuff of daily life. The majority of people do not reject Christian faith because they are convinced through argument of the truth of an alternative worldview but either because they simply don’t perceive it to be relevant to their lives or because they seldom pause long enough to think about it. Furthermore, many people do not read; not because they cannot but because they choose not to, have no inclination towards books or simply do not have the time. Yet apologists are invariably bookish people and generate thousands of words in speech and print (again I accept my share of the blame!!!) This, then, is my confession. Yet, despite my doubts, I still persist in apologetics.: https://www.bethinking.org/apologetics/7-reasons-why-apologetics-might-be-good
- Sodom burned-Zoar did NOT: The full story of the discovery of the Cities of the Plain! – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjPcSQUY2W0
- Agnostic Philosophy Student Challenges Frank – YouTube – How much can finite humans really know about eternity? An agnostic philosophy student challenges Frank with some tough questions about Jesus, morality, and eternal consequences. Do you think his case holds up?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7jkmlwacvM
- What Makes for an “Authentic” Christian? | Christianity.com: https://www.christianity.com/jesus/following-jesus/discipleship/what-makes-for-an-authentic-christian.html
- Evidence for a Young Earth – The salinity of the oceans. Salty seas · Creation.com : https://creation.com/en/articles/salty-seas-evidence-for-a-young-earth
- Why Making a Case for the Bible Is More Important Than Arguing About Politics | Cold Case Christianity: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/why-making-a-case-for-the-bible-is-more-important-than-arguing-about-politics/
- 6 Big Reasons Why Islam Is False | Reasons for Jesus – Within the realm of religious debate and theological dialogue, Islam is slowly coming to be known as the religion backed by modern scientific and historical discovery. Even those who statistically do not adopt any form of religious belief attempt to support the qur’anic narrative as it being perfectly preserved and historically accurate. But is the Quran really the word of God? Is Muhammad truly a messenger of the almighty? As it turns out, these religion is full of too many holes to be taken seriously to be the one true religion. Within this article we are going to be looking at just 6 of many reasons why Islam is false. These are: The Quran affirms that the bible is the word of God. Scientific inaccuracies. Historical inaccuracies. The Quran borrowed from Christian forgeries. Muhammad allowed his scribes to make changes to the Quran. Islamic sources show that Muhammad believed he was demon possessed.: https://reasonsforjesus.com/6-big-reasons-why-islam-is-false/
- How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians Today? As New Testament Christians in the New Covenant, which commands or moral principles are obligatory and would apply regardless of the covenants because they are universal morals that transcend the Mosaic Law?: https://www.str.org/w/how-does-the-old-testament-law-apply-to-christians-today-
- William Lane Craig lectures on the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus | WINTERY KNIGHT: https://winteryknight.com/2020/07/19/william-lane-craig-lectures-on-the-evidence-for-the-resurrection-of-jesus-11/
- Jesus Is A Myth, Just Like President Kennedy | Cold Case Christianity: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/jesus-is-a-myth-just-like-president-kennedy/
- Programming of Life – YouTube – An exploration of microbiology, information science, and the origin of life.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00vBqYDBW5s
- Is It True that There Are Good Non-Christians? • Clay Jones: https://clayjones.net/2020/10/good-non-christians/
- What Objections Have Been Made to the Resurrection? If Jesus did not come back from the dead, as the New Testament plainly says He did, then some alternative explanation must be offered to explain what happened. The problem is that other explanations take as much faith to believe as the New Testament’s account. These alternative theories leave more questions unanswered than they explain. First, we want to make it clear that it is theoretically possible to falsify the resurrection account. It can be done in one of two ways. Either some has to: produce the body; or have a reasonable theory that explains all the evidence. Since the body has not been produced, we will examine the major theories that attempt to explain away the New Testament account.: https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_1351.cfm
- 10 Things to Say When Your Child Says They Don’t Believe in God Anymore – Natasha Crain – After having a couple of long conversations with parents about this over the weekend, I wanted to write this post for others who may be struggling with the same thing. While this is, of course, a complex topic, these are 10 of the most important things I think you can say to a child of any age when they say they don’t believe in God anymore. For what it’s worth, this isn’t some kind of theoretical exercise for me. One of my own young kids periodically struggles with this because God can’t be physically seen. We have several of these conversations regularly.: https://natashacrain.com/10-things-to-say-when-your-child-says-they-dont-believe-in-god-anymore/
- Do Diamonds Take Millions of Years to Form? | Answers in Genesis – A recent editorial on diamond prices might seem unrelated to our ministry. But, when I saw the headline-“Lab-Grown Diamond Production Rises, but Prices Fall”-and read through the short article, it reminded me of the secular claim that diamonds take billions of years to form. If you search “how long it takes a natural diamond to form” on Google, the preferred answer pops up as “between 1 billion and 3.3 billion years, which is approximately 25% to 75% of our earth’s [supposed] age.” Is that true? Well, the editorial mentions that labs now grow diamonds so, obviously, it does not necessarily take long ages to form a diamond. All it takes is the right conditions, which we can simulate in a lab and produce diamonds relatively quickly. The idea that diamonds take millions of years to form is an assumption based on a naturalistic worldview that assumes slow and gradual processes. Even some secular sources (such as this article from Smithsonian.com) admit we don’t actually know how long it takes to form a diamond.: https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/do-diamonds-take-millions-of-years-to-form/
- Making a difference as a Christian doesn’t mean doing dramatic, reckless things | WINTERY KNIGHT – A full-time job and part-time ministry makes the most sense from a cost-benefit point of view. I have friends who are software engineers who studied enough science, history, and philosophy part-time, who are able to do public debates with atheists, which influence many more people than one-on-one interactions. One of my friends has several Masters degrees, and is in a PhD program, but his full-time career is in software and network management. He is 100% self-funded. He has worked in a successful apologetics career with a full-time career in technology, and he is debt-free. This is the best option . Your debts get paid off. Your resume stays gap-free. You bring a nest egg to your future spouse. You can afford to have children. You can afford a stay-at-home mom. You can afford either homeschooling or private schools, should you decide to go that route.: https://winteryknight.com/2018/01/27/making-a-difference-as-a-christian-doesnt-mean-doing-dramatic-reckless-things/
- How to Become More Strategic In Defending Your Faith | Guest: Greg Koukl – YouTube – Which tactics and questions should you be using to defend the truth of the Christian worldview? Today we’re joined by Greg Koukl. Greg is a Christian apologist, and he has debated new age teacher Deepak Chopra and atheist historian of science Michael Shermer. He’s the author of the book Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions. In it he lays out several strategic moves you can make in conversation with non-Christians. And he’s going to discuss three of those with us today.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzaY0ncWLQM
- Five Apologetic Topics Every Christian Should Learn About – THINKAPOLOGETICS.COM – On more than one occasion, people have asked me what areas should they focus on in their own study of apologetics. These are people that want to engage the culture and are burdened for the people God has placed in their lives. In my opinion, while there are many others not mentioned here, there are at least five apologetic areas every Christian should learn about. What I mean is that over the years of talking to hundreds of college students and others as well, these are the continual topics that always come to the surface. So here are some of my picks…: https://chab123.wordpress.com/2017/06/09/five-apologetic-topics-every-christian-should-learn-about/
- The Fossils Still Say No: The Fins-to-Feet Transition | The Institute for Creation Research – Fossil evidence for fins-to-feet evolution is notably lacking. Fish and tetrapod anatomies are fundamentally different, and the forms evolutionists claim as transitional are all fish. Fossilized tetrapod tracks were dated before the sup-posed fish-tetrapod transitions, blowing the evolutionary story out of the water. When it comes to evolution, the fossils still say no.: https://www.icr.org/article/the-fossils-still-say-no-fins-to-feet-transition/
- Does the church do a good job of equipping Christians to talk to non-Christians? | WINTERY KNIGHT – Most churches these days are not doing a good job of helping Christians to understand how to explain and defend Christianity to non-Christians. They tend to be focused on providing comfort and entertainment, which is why so much of the focus is on compassion, singing and being “nice”. Logical arguments are out. Scientific evidence is out. Historical evidence is out. There is a terrible fear of disagreeing with anyone. Everyone is focused on being “nice” and being “liked” by non-Christians. Instead of teaching people what Christians think is true, we teach people how to recycle cans and how to color pictures of Jesus. Church is typically a mishmash of mysticism, piety and emotivism. Pastors in particular are often opposed to connecting anything the Bible says to evidence outside the Bible, whether it be research or experiments or philosophical arguments. Even the very best preaching pastors just assert things and then expect people to accept it because “the Bible says so”. It’s almost as if it dirties up Christianity to test it against what we know from other disciplines like cosmology and ancient history. People who are regarded as Christian leaders seem to never get around to explaining why anyone should accept the Bible as true.Accepting the Bible is just left up to your feelings, or maybe whether you think the pastor is “nice”. That’s it.: https://winteryknight.com/2014/10/19/does-the-church-do-a-good-job-of-equipping-christians-to-talk-to-non-christians-2/
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Blessings to you all