As a preliminary statement, I would like to say that I think old vs. new earth is a fruitless debate that has sidetracked much of evangelicalism from other doctrines (like the infallibility of Scripture) that are far more important. In short, I don’t think there is enough data in the bible to make a conclusion one way or the other based on Biblical data alone. I don’t think the age of the earth is something the Bible was intended to answer and I think asking that question of it is an effort in futility at best. ...

I recently had a chance to teach on Sunday night at a small Church my parents attend and, in trying to decide what to teach on, I remembered an ongoing conversation I’ve been having recently with my neighbor who happens to be Catholic on the nature of Scripture and it’s role in the life of the Church and individual believers. We’ve discussed at length the authority and inerrancy of the scriptures, and if time permits I’ll post my notes on the subject, but our most recent exchange involved the clarity of Scripture for, as I found out, the roman Catholic position is that Scripture is inherently unintelligible to anyone outside the clergy (as ordained and authorized by Rome) and requires a “final” interpreter to settle disputes over questionable doctrines such as paedobaptism (baptizing infants) and the Real Presence. ...

I travel to Atlanta quite a bit and sometimes, when I only need to be in Atlanta for a day, my father offers to ride with me. I suppose this is to make up for time we didn’t get to spend together in my early years but nevertheless, I usually welcome the opportunity to talk and discuss various topics. On one such trip, on the ride back to Augusta (a 2.5 hour trip) my father slid over a print-out from the North American Mission Board on Freemasonry and asked me what I thought. ...

Recently we were privledged to host Dr. Bruce Little at Bel-Ridge Baptist Church for a conference on “God and the existince of evil and suffering”. Here are the lectures in MP3 format for anyone who is interested in the subject: Session 1: [Part 1](http://reasontostand.org/littleconf/01 Bruce Little Session 1 Part 1.mp3) [Part 2](http://reasontostand.org/littleconf/02 Bruce Little Session 1 Part 2.mp3) [Part 3](http://reasontostand.org/littleconf/03 Bruce Little Session 1 Part 3.mp3) [Part 4](http://reasontostand.org/littleconf/04 Bruce Little Session 1 Part 4.mp3) Session 2: [Part 1](http://reasontostand.org/littleconf/05 Bruce Little Session 2 Part 1.mp3) [Part 2](http://reasontostand.org/littleconf/06 Bruce Little Session 2 Part 2.mp3) [Part 3](http://reasontostand.org/littleconf/07 Bruce Little Session 2 Part 3.mp3) ...

Norm Geisler, author of Chosen but Free (A great exposition of the complementarian view of the free will vs. predestination issue.) gave an excellent sermon outlining the Biblical, theological, and philosophical/logical difficulties found within 5 point Calvinism. Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 Video 4 Video 5 Video 6 Video 7 Video 8 Video 9

After taking a few tours of Paris today and hearing tour guides say things like “theology isn’t a valid field of study”, I started wondering where all the Christians went. Especially after such a rich history. On the way back to my hotel (le petit hotel at that) I ducked into a toy shop being run by an Indian man and got my answer. The shop owner was playing Christian music and so when I went to check out I asked him whether the music was from a CD or from the radio. ...

A friend of mine recently recounted his disagreement with his son over their political choices, specifically Barak Obama and his struggle to explain to his son why Obama’s plans and ideals are incompatable with their shared Christian faith. The specific problem with Obama’s ideals, and hence their appeal to a wide range of people, is their focus on the philosophical view that the individual, and his or her rights and pleasure, is the pinnacle of importance. ...

I’ve recently had a couple of encounters with Muslims who insist that my charictarization of Islam as a religion founded on bloodshed and violence is not fair and accurate. In a recent email from a Muslim apologist I was told: “You are absolutely free to think what you want about islam and the prophet Muhammed but I think you are missing a big part of the real history of Muhammed and islam which never used sword and violence except against those who fought him first or those who prevented him from conveying his meesage to people.” ...

Recently my mother showed me a lesson her Sunday school class is about to go through Sunday on 1 Samuel 13, specifically on Saul’s illegal offering of a sacrafice to God without waiting on Samuel, God’s prophet, to get there. This lesson, published by Lifeway, was full of what the reader should and shouldn’t do. Complete with a psudo-ethics question framing the lesson but the appaling part is how the lesson completely missed the central teaching of the text that Saul simply didn’t trust God or his prophet and, instead, decided to take matters into his own hands and in doing so shows why he was not chosen to carry the seed of the Messiah. ...

It never ceases to amaze me how many otherwise well-intentioned Christians are activly supporting Barack Obama and, at the same time, claiming that he is a Christian. Donnald Miller recently wrote an article in which he addresses the two hardest issues for an Obama supporter to come to grips with and still claim to be a Christian, abortion and gay marriage. Both concepts are clearly condemned in Scripture and both come with a host of demonic imagry surrounding them so that we will have no questions about the deplorableness of either action. In fact, to my knowledge no one has seriously tried to defend either of these issues on theological grounds, actually both canidates have openly declaired that they find both of these issues to be “unfortunate” and are for reducing abortion on one hand and merely upholding civil unions on the other as opposed to redefining the Biblical and historical definition (in fact, the defining charistic of what marriage is). ...