Tag: Apologetics

Digging in Deeper: John 20:19

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“When it was evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because they feared the Jews. Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.'”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

How do we know Jesus rose from the dead? That’s one of those big questions that doesn’t seem so big until we really think about it for a minute. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then the whole of the Christian faith collapses into a giant heap which, frankly, isn’t worth even trying to rebuild. Of all the apologetic questions people ask about the faith, this one is by far the most significant. So again, how do we know? 

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The One Thing

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This Sunday I focused my attention specifically on the graduates we were honoring.  If you’ve got a graduate in your life, this is a great message to share with them.  Even if you’re not a graduate, though, this is a message you need to hear.  In what follows I offer an answer to the question of how we can be prepared to give a reason for the hope we have in an increasingly non-Christian context.  Thanks for reading.

The One Thing

I don’t know about you, but new things always make me at least a little bit nervous.  I thrive in environments that are stable and consistent.  I can tolerate a little bit of change…a very little bit of change…but it’s got to be within preset limits.  Beyond that, I’m outside my comfort zone.  Perhaps the most nervous I have gotten at various points in my life is when I have started a new job.  I remember starting work at OfficeMax in seminary.  The first week was nice because I got to sit in the back office and take training courses on the computer.  They were functionally meaningless since I didn’t remember any of them once I left the room and in any event I learned everything I needed to know while I was actually doing it, but I did get to spend the whole first week hiding out.  Once I hit the floor, that’s when things got scary. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 2 Peter 3:15-16

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“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…

Morning Musing: 1 Peter 3:15

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“…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…

A Hellish Problem

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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…