Posts

[HT: Wintry Knight] Wayne Grudem recently delivered a two-part lecture on the ownership and use of weapons (self defense) and the death penalty from the perspective of what the Bible teaches. I encourage you to download these lectures to your MP3 player and listen to them when you get the chance. For those of you who are of the same persuasion as Greg Boyd in that Christians ought to be 100% pacifistic in their disposition, I believe you will be quite surprised to discover what the Bible says on the subject. ...

[HT Apologetics315, Wintry Knight, Thoughtful Christianity] One of my favorite recurring debates in Christiandom is the one of young earth creationism vs. old earth creationism. There are many nuances such as the appearance of age, whether death existed before the fall, etc. Here are two excellent debates on the subject between Hugh Ross’s ministry reasons.org and Ken Ham’s ministry, Answers in Genesis. Hugh Ross vs. Jason Lisle Hugh Ross/Walter Kaiser vs. Ken Ham/Jason Lisle

When dealing with the doctrine of “original sin” it is important to understand what this doctrine does and does not mean. Simply put, it does mean that because of the sin of Adam and Eve (though, Biblically, the full weight of responsibility for this sin falls on Adam’s shoulders) sinful proclivities have entered into the hearts of men. As a popular Christian song puts it: O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; (Unfortunately this actually came true in the life of the author.) Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above. ...

[HT Uncommon Descent] I recently ran across a two part article on Uncommon Descent which attempts to answer the question of what practical use intelligent design serves in our pursuit of scientific truth. Part 1 opens up with a provocative and succinct statement that “Every science works as much from its limits as it does from its potentials.” John then goes on to outline a 5 point argument against the open-endedness presupposed in a pure Darwinian system: ...

[HT Justin Taylor] From the article: Here are a pair of lectures by Dr. John Lennox (Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford) on the New Atheism, science, and morality. They were delivered March 11-12, 2008 as the Carver-Barnes Lecture Series at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I love how the second lecture ends with Lennox citing " the problem of evil" as the “most difficult question the theist will have to answer” and how/why it is so important. ...

Here are a few videos Greg Boyd talking about his book, Myth of a Christian Nation that I’ve recently read. Now I don’t agree with Boyd on everything he says (specifically his insistence on complete pacifism). But I do agree with his main premise that wedding Christianity too tightly to any political party of “version of ’the kingdom of the world’” is detrimental to everyone, especially followers of Christ. In order to preserve the beauty of the kingdom of heaven, I agree with Boyd that we should make a clear and distinct separation between our Christian beliefs ( what we believe to be true and right and wrong) and public policy ( how we think those beliefs ought to be implemented in a diverse society which includes Christians as well as non-Christians). ...

It’s Easter time (ok, a little past Easter at this point), and people are still talking about the event that defines Christianity. So what better time to brush up on the evidence for the resurrection? Here are a few resources to help: Wintry Knight’s “Easter is a good time to learn how to defend the resurrection of Jesus” Mary Jo Sharp’s presentation on the minimal facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Audio resources: ...

In a previous post I laid out an ontological argument (following Descartes’ formula) for God’s loving the whole world (on contrast to the rather limited view of love posited by the reformed doctrine of Limited Atonement). Here I will attempt to provide a Biblical case from the standpoint of Christ’s words to “love thy enemies”. 1. We were all sinners (Romans 3:23), separated from God at one point in time. That is, we were under the penalty of death (Eph 2:1) and enemies of God (Romans 5:10). 2. Jesus told his followers to love their enemies, and not just their friends. (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27, Luke 6:35) 3. Therefore God loves all men (John 3:16) and even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6, 5:8) ...

..or “why the way we traditionally ‘do church’ hurts us in ways we can’t even begin to fathom.” A random stranger recently asked: Myself and many others find mutual edification every Sunday. If all you ever did to worship in a regular, organized church setting is passively listen to one man then I’m sorry for you. How do you know that people aren’t using their God given gifts at any organized church setting? ...

In a recent conversation on Google Buzz a brother in Christ told me: Douglas K. Adu-Boahen - What I mean is that this discussion has been barren from any deep discussion of the only real factor that matters - the Bible, which is God’s Word. All this talk of philosophical concepts is boring, boring, boring - let’s go to God’s Word and let it speak unless of course, you feel it is insufficient for this discussion, which I hope you do not. ...