“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Just a little note here on the defense of the Bible. Some critics have argued that the writings of the New Testament “became” Scripture gradually. It was the result of a power play by men seeking power for themselves and these writings were a convenient way to get it through the levers of religion. But, when they were written no one considered them Scripture. Except for this… Read the rest…
“…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This is perhaps the chief theme verse for the discipline of apologetics. Apologetics is, of course, the discipline of making arguments in defense of the Christian faith. Much has been written about this verse. Let me make three observations here. Read the rest…
In this third part of our Reasons to Believe series, we spent yesterday morning wrestling with one of the more challenging doctrines of orthodox Christianity: The doctrine of Hell. In popular imagining for centuries, the idea of Hell has been one of fiery agony stretching on into eternity. In the modern mind, shaped as it is by tolerance and pluralism, this idea presents a huge impediment to the faith. We are left with two choices: Reshape the doctrine to fit modern mores, or try to understand it better to see if it doesn’t present us with a stumbling block at all, but rather a reason to believe. In what follows we aimed for the latter. Thanks for reading and listening.
A Hellish Problem
Well, this morning as we continue our series, Reasons to Believe, we are taking on a challenge. We’ve already confronted head-on the objections that truth can’t really be known and that the Bible is untrustworthy in terms of revealing anything about God to us. This morning we are going to take on a challenge that is much more emotional than either of these previous two. For many folks it is epitomized in the sermons of men of old, kind of like this one: Read the rest…
In this second part of our series, Reason to Believe, we take some time to examine the primary source for our knowledge of the truth: The Scriptures. The Bible is a tough book made even tougher by the things it says. Yet, making a full and comprehensive case for its reliability and trustworthiness is well beyond the scope of a single sermon. In what follows we examine the problem together, talk about what we do believe as followers of Jesus, and build a small case for the reliability of the Gospels. If we can prove those are trustworthy, making the case for the rest of it becomes all the easier. Keep reading for more and stay tuned for next week as we wrestle with the challenge present by the doctrine of Hell.
How We Know It
How many of you spiritual souls would count the Bible as your favorite book? I have a lot of different favorite books depending on the genre. For example, my favorite kids’ book (and author) is The BFG by Roald Dhal. I once considered stealing the library’s copy because I read it so many times. When it comes to history, Larry Schweikart’s A Patriot’s History of the United States is top of my list. In the world of fantasy, I greatly enjoyed Robert Jordan’s immense series, The Wheel of Time. If you want to talk fiction more generally, I would probably rank C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce at least near the top of my list. I would count each of these books as my favorites because of the impact they had on me when reading them. I could read them over and over—okay, that’s not entirely true; Schweikart’s history was a pretty intense time commitment, but you know what I mean—and enjoy them every time. There was no part of them that I didn’t like. I suspect most folks who can identify one or two books as their favorite would use similar guidelines for their choices. Read the rest…
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
We live in this day now. The power and influence of the church has been steadily eroding in the West for more than a generation. A good argument can be made that this has been a progression that started back in the 19th century and has continued apace with only a few interruptions since. Read the rest…
The Nexus 