You will die! - One approach to Christian apologetics.

Dear readers, whoever you are. 

This isn't exactly what one usually would consider when they think of defending the Christian faith; the statement, "You will die."  It's not pretty.  It's not nice.  We try not to think about it.  We try to push death out of our minds.  That's why they call them casualties and not deaths!  That's why they call them viruses, or the bird flu, or the swine flu, and not plagues!  We don't want to think about death!

To quote the Black Sabbath song, "After Forever," "When you think about death do you keep your cool?" 

Well to quote the song more, "I'll be prepared when you're lonely and scared at the end of our days."  The answer in that song by Black Sabbaath of course is "Jesus Christ is the only way to love."

I know a pastor who sets up shop at UCLA.  He shares the good news of salvation with people.  However, if a person rejects the news.  If they are complacent, if they are ambivalent, he challenges them to consider the alternatives... what if there is no God, then you die and you are in the ground.  What if there is a God?  And you have rejected him? What if that God is Jesus?  What then?  Are you so sure... do you keep your cool when you think about death?

He told one student, "Well, just remember you are going to die."  And the student left the conversation at that, but came back to him a month later and said, "Do you remember the last thing you said to me?"  The pastor did not.  The student said it had troubled him ever sense talking to the pastor.  He finally came face to face with his own personal death, and was he so sure... was he so certain that he would be reincarnated as his faith taught.  The pastor shared, Jesus will save you from that death if you trust in him and turn to him for salvation.

Part of apologetics is just properly explaining the Christian faith, and God's Word can be divided into two camps, Law, and Gospel.  God's Law shows us that we are sinners, that God's wrath is upon us and that we justly deserve his eternal punishment.  God's Gospel shows us our savior.  To learn more about Law and Gospel, click on the "What's in the Bible?" link at the top, left of this blog page and then click on the Law and Gospel article. 

So, you will die.  Worried?  Well, maybe you shouldn't be complacent?  Don't put off considering what lies beyond this life.  To be fair, I'll say look to all religions, but I'd recommend looking to Christianity first, and say this because it is objective, read 1 Corinthians 15 to know what I mean. 

Is it Ok for Christians to Have Doubts?

A student of mine wanted to write an apologetics paper on the role or place of doubts in the life of a Christian.  He wanted to find an answer to the question, "Is it OK for Christians to have Doubts?"

His conclusion after reading non-Christian and Christian sources was that one will still be saved even if that person doubts his or her salvation in Christ. 

Here were his arguments:

1. Doubting your salvation is actually good!  Doubting leads one to grow spiritually and intellectually, because a doubter will want to know the answer for the doubt, and through the research can increase trust or connection with the subject he or she had doubt.  For Scriptural support, he cited 2 Cor. 13:5. 

2.  There is no reason to doubt your salvation.  Doubts show a lack of understanding, but God has revealed all that we need to know for our salvation.  "These things I have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God" (1 John 5:13). 

3.  Salvation is important to any religion and every religion includes doubts as an important step to reach their goals.  Overcoming doubt in Hinduism is an important step to reaching moksha.  Buddhism calls for believers to overcome their religious doubts.  His conclusion here was, "It is important to know how other religions take care of this problem because by knowing those religions, one can increase interactions with other religious beleivers and convince them to become Christian since it is easier for people to move towards Christ if they know that they can still have doubts and be a Christian."  It thought this was an interesting point.  Other religions require a person to overcome doubts for salvation.  Christianity allows a believer to still have doubts.  It's a more inviting offer. 

4.  God will always love you and tries to save you even if you are unfaithful to Him.  2 Timothy 2:13 says, "If we are faithless, he [God] remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself."  Luke 11:10 says, "For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened."  The student concluding this point by quoting John 3:16 and saying, "Even though we have sinned too much that we should be eternally separated from Him and put to death, He still saved us and took our punishment upon himself." 

The final conclusion was "you will still be saved even if you doubt your salvation as doubting is an integral part of growing faith in God and trust in the Bible, which is the only source that answers questions beyond our natural knowledge.  This student also stated that this research has "made it easier for me to invite more people to Christ because Christianity is the only religion that only requires faith for salvation, while still allowing a person to be saved even if they have doubts." 

I'll keep the student's name anonymous, but I'd also like to share that he is a Japanese international student. 

Are we Good?

This is a video entitled, "Are we Good?", posted by One Minute Apologist.

I meet pluralists, deists, atheists, and agnostics a lot who on the UCI's campus who have this notion that all that matters in this life is being "good."  They usually don't have a problem with us being on UCI's campus sharing our Christian faith, well mostly because we're handing out free coffee, but also because they think it's all "good" what we're doing, as long it makes us better, more loving people.  Just last night someone shared that "all the religions are basically 99% the same, they promote good morals and ethics!"  I agreed that all religions had a moral code of conduct, but that divine redemption within Christianity was a big difference. I've even met people who claim to be Christians and Muslims who have boiled life done to just being good, and God will save those who are good. 

These conversations really made me interested in knowing what One-Minute had to share on this topic, since a lot of my conversations are short and in passing as people get a Cup of Joe. 

I'm slightly disappointed in the video, but how can I be when my last post was advocating, the simple, straight-forward sharing of Law and Gospel as a great witnessing and apologetic tool.  So if you want deep and profound answers, don't look to this video.  If you want to hear what the Bible says on this issue, go no further.

I personally liked this comment I saw shared on this video, "If you made something and didn't like it, you'd throw it in the trash and make something new. but God offered us a way to be redeemed through Jesus Christ. Jesus bless you."  Yes!!! Love it. 

Alright, so I'd love to get feedback on how you would respond to the "Are we Good?" question, or the "We are Good!" statement. 

Just share the Gospel - Apologetics

The pastor at my church's church gathering this Sunday said that many Christians are scarred to witness (testify) to their faith. 

I think a lot of this comes down to fear of not knowing what to say, to not having the right answers or the right arguments.  There can be some validity to that, but I don't think Christians need to know all the arguments against every objection to Christianity.  I'm writing this for Christians right now, by the way.

Why should a Christian be required to fully know all the ins and outs of current scientific research and theories, or the history of every religion in the world, or a great response to every objection to the Bible? 

What we are required to know is Jesus!  We need to know Jesus, which means knowing the four gospels, what Jesus taught and did.  Every Christian knows Jesus!  The good news of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection has the power to save someone.  Our clever arguments do not save people, and when has a person ever become a Christian because they lost the argument.  Ultimately, it's hearing the Gospel that brings conversion. 

One might ask, is sharing the Gospel truly defending the faith?  Yea, in most cases; it is.  Romans 1:16 "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." 

Broken, Beat, and Scarred - Why does God allow suffering?

"Broken, beat, and scarred.  We die hard.  What doesn't kill us, makes us more strong.  We rise, we fall, we get up again.  What doesn't kill us makes us more strong.  Broken, beat, and scarred.  We die hard!!!"

Some pretty intense lyrics if we think about them.  They come from the Metallica song, "Broken, beat, and scarred".

When I read the writings of the apostle Paul and hear about his flogging, stonings, and imprisonments, I think that I surely haven't suffered much for my Christian faith.  Despite all of Paul's persecution's he kept rising up again.  Forget John McClaine - The Apostle Paul knew what it meant to "Die Hard".  I have not yet shed blood for my faith in Jesus in Christ.  I might never do so, but the words of Paul still ring true for me and all of us when he says that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.  And hope doesn't disappoint us. 

But I know I complain a lot about my present sufferings.  I think most of us do.  But here, coming from Metallica, I am reminded that what doesn't kill us makes us more strong.  I think of Paul when he said, "When I am weak, I am strong."  When he's weak, he has no choice but to cling to God!  When he is holding on to God, then he is strong. 

One complaint against Christianity is the problem of evil and suffering in the world.  It's easy to say "what doesn't kill us makes us more strong" when it's simple sufferings, broken arm a bad breakup, but what about genocide, rape, a four-year old with cancer.  We tend to want to wave our fist at God!  What's your problem???  Why didn't you stop this.  We can't see the good that can come from it.  What loving Father would allow such a thing to his children - stronger - yea right! 

The answer lies in Jesus.  Being God, perfect and sinless, he still suffered.  He suffered on our behalf, because of our shortcomings.  It lies in God's patience with us!  Does he want pain and suffering for us - no!  But he allows it.  If he were to intervene now, what would that mean for everyone who doesn't know him.  He is patient in his return, waiting for more people to come to repentance?  It's his will that no man should eternally perish - sadly, we are set to face a physical death as our exodus from this life.  The answer won't satisfy everybody and I hope and pray that I stand firm in the faith and trust God's plan of redemption when the worst of the worst hits my life. 

RE: The Atheist Experience #654

0:15-0:20 - Christian says, "How do you know that God isn't real?"  Atheist says, "Have you demonstrated that he is?"  My response:  Why would I need to demonstrate who God is?  If God exists, he is more powerful and capable than me to demonstrate his own existence.  As a Christian, I look at the historical person of Jesus and conclude from his life, teachings, and actions that he is God.  If this I am correct, then I don't need to demonstrate that God is real, he has demonstrated that for us. Then I'd see where the conversation goes.

0:27:-1:01 - The Christian then begins to quote Romans 1:20, which says that humanity can tell that there is a God from what he has made.  In other words, the world reveals that there must be a creator.  Before he can even quote this verse, the atheist interrupts him, and asks. "Why are you even quoting the Bible?  It means nothing to me.  Why should I listen to the Bible?"  My response: I personally wouldn't have gone to quoting the Bible at this point in the conversation.  I think it would naturally bring up a brick wall.  I previously would have set the conversation up on the historical life of Jesus and examining his life, words, actions, death, and resurrection (for the atheist, "supposed" resurrection).  This instantly gets to the heart of Christianity!  Jesus Christ.  Going to Romans 1:20 only serves the purpose of showing that from observations in the world, there must be a god.  That doesn't tell us who that god is, which isn't as helpful as showing the atheist who God actually is, Jesus Christ.  And yes, I personally agree with the atheist, the Bible doesn't mean anything to him, so why quote it?  Especially if all you plan on showing from quoting is that there is a god who exists from what we can see, tell, hear, and touch a part from the Bible.

1:03-1:18 - The atheist says he's upset because Christians are calling in asserting that atheist don't believe in the existence of God and says that's not what their stance is.  My response:  No, that's what an atheist is.  A = against.  Against God.  No God.  There is not God.  Maybe they're actually agnostics and claim to not be able to know one way or the other, but as you can tell from their arguments to come, they are atheist and don't believe there is a God.

1:20-1:37 - The atheist asks again, "Why should I listen to the Bible?"  The Christian responds that it's true and he knows it is true because it is through faith!  The atheist then throws out, "Well, how do you know the Qur'an isn't true?"   My response: The Christian here is using a faulty argument.  His answer, although I believe can be very much true for himself, opens up a can of worms - if truth comes from an inner subjective knowing or feeling, then how can anyone be certain of what is true?  The Qur'an might as well be true, just as a Spider-Man comic book might be true! People do the same thing against the Bible though. Atheists use the same circular logic that the Christian caller in this video made.  Atheists say that miracles don't happen and God doesn't exist. Then they say that the Bible isn't a reliable historical document because it contains God and accounts of miracles.

1:45-2:05 - The atheists claim that the God of the Bible is based on the same God of the Qur'an.  My response: The Bible isn't based on the same God as the God of the Qur'an. Christianity teaches that God is a Trinity, three persons who all share in the same divine essence. Islam on the other hand teaches only the oneness of God and rejects the threeness of God as revealed in the Bible. Jesus claimed to be God, and Christians believe he is God. Islam says Jesus is not God, they reject that he ever made such claims, and teach that he is just a prophet.  Clearly, it's not based on the same God.

2:08-2:59 - The Chrstian changes the topic back to looking at the world and being able to deduct that there must be a God.  He says, "How did we all happen to be?  We can't just come from nothing."  The atheists then say they came from their parents.  The Christian then traces it back further to the universe.  The atheists move on to say that the sun came from gravity acting on particles.  My response: Where did the gravity come from?  Where did the particles come from?  Everything must come from something?  Where did the matter of the "Big Bang" come from?  How did it originate?  We came from our parents as you said?  Where did that matter come from?  What produced it?  Nothingness? 

3:00-3:13 - The atheist says, "We didn't have to be here at all.  Fortunately, the laws of the universe were such that physics prompted things to happen in such a way that we are the current state of life on this planet."  My response: Where did the laws come from?  Do laws appear naturally?  How could such laws have come into existence and remain constant if the universe and life as we know it happened based upon random chance acting in a, as you said, "fortunate" way for us to exist?  All the laws we have in our governments were created by lawmakers, and those lawmakers work to enforce and keep those laws.   Why would the laws of the universe be any different?  Wouldn't such laws indicate that there must have be lawmaker?   

3:25-4:18 - My response: Jesus was a historical person. His life and death and Christianity's claims that he rose from the dead can be investigated and evaluated just as any person, place, and event of ancient history can be investigated. This clearly means that Christianity can be tested.  It is demonstrable.  If it can be proven that Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Christianity is not true. How do we evaluate other historical claims about events, places, and people from ancient history?  Let's take that same criteria and apply it to Jesus of Nazareth.  After we do this, I think we can then decide if there God is real? 

Can believers be objective?

If someone were to speak to a Mormon, and did a really good job of showing that the Book of Mormon isn't historically reliable, it wouldn't faze a Mormon much at all.  Their certainty of the truth of Mormonism doesn't lie in objectivity - it lies in their personal, inner, gut-feeling of its truth!  They use the phrase, "the burning in the bosom" a lot to express this inner-certainty. It's just an inner burning in their heart that confirms the truth of their their faith.  Quite subjective, if you ask me.

But can believers be objective?

Paul E. Little in his book, Know Why You Believe, shares that, "One questionable idea, sometimes advanced, is that the miracle stories [in the Bible] must be discarded because they are told by believing disciples and are therefore not objective."  


Is this true?  Since the believing disciples are the ones reporting the miracles of Jesus, does it mean that they're not valid witnesses? Does their eyewitness testimony get discredited because they believe what they saw, heard, and experienced to be real and true?

Would this same line of reasoning discredit victims of malicious crimes from testifying because of their prejudice?

Does this mean that eyewitness accounts shouldn't be presented in our courts of law, because they might have some sort of prejudice?  Should we only allow the testimonies of people who were not eyewitnesses to be be examined when making a verdict on what happened in any given day, time, and event?



For objectivity's sake we should take in to account the testimony of the witnesses, regardless of if they were disciples or not.  What matters is not their beliefs, but if they were telling the truth about what occurred.  In the case of the disciples most of them faced the possibility of death to back-up the validity of their claims, much as witnesses today in our courts of law must face the penalty of perjury if they are not telling the truth on the stand.  

Paul E. Little answers this dilemma by concluding, "The crucial question in each case is truthfulness, not proximity or relationship to the events."

Growing in God Apologetic

I do believe that one of the greatest defenses for the Christian faith, one of the best ways for Christians to prepare to be ready to defend the faith is by growing spiritually and maturing in Christ.  This growth comes through worship!

The following is a high school devotion which my wife shared with me today: 

Laugh Out Loud
And nine other ways to worship all summer long.
by Chris Lutes

1) Help and serve others. Play ball with the neighbor kid. Help out with your church's summer VBS or a neighborhood Bible club. Mow an elderly neighbor's lawn for free. And whenever possible, do your serving in secret so that God gets the glory (1 Peter 4:11). Just look around you and you're sure to discover simple, everyday ways to worship through serving others.

2) Sit down in your yard with your Bible and pick a blade of grass. Turn to Isaiah 40:7-8, which says: "The grass withers and the flowers fall. … Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever" (NIV). Read the passage a few times, then think about what it means to you. Use the blade of grass to bookmark the passage. Read the passage periodically throughout the summer, watching as the blade of grass withers.

3) Take a walk in a park or forest with a friend. Look around at all of the things God has created. Take turns pointing out how God's creation gives you glimpses into his character and nature. For example: "God is like this oak tree because he's sturdy and strong."

4) Take pictures on your family vacation that remind you of your Creator and his awesome creation. Place these pictures on your blog or in a scrapbook, and label each one with a passage that fits the picture. Throughout the summer, look at the pictures and praise God for the beauty of creation he showed you during your vacation. Here are some passages to get you started: Genesis 1:11-12, Psalm 19:1, Psalm 29:3, Psalm 65:9, Psalm 84:3, Psalm 93:3-4, Psalm 96:11-12, Psalm 97:2, Psalm 98:8, Psalm 104:7-8, Psalm 104:10-11, Psalm 104:12, Psalm 104:20, Psalm 104:25, Psalm 147:4, Psalm 148:3, Psalm 148:7, Romans 8:19, Colossians 3:16.

5) Toss a rock into a lake on a still, windless day. Watch the ripples roll outward. Try to count them. Now think about God's love. How is it like those ripples? How can you be a "ripple of God's love" today?

6) Laugh. Whether you're at an amusement park, forest preserve, city park, miniature golf course or the beach, listen for joyous laughter. Each time you hear someone laugh, take a moment to silently thank God for the gift of laughter. And be sure to celebrate by laughing often just like the writer of Psalm 126:2.

7) Find a quiet place to watch the sunset. As you watch the sun sink beneath the horizon, sit very still and think about your day. Recall the good and the bad moments. Thank God for being with you throughout everything that happened that day. Thank God for being present with you during these quiet moments.

8) Thank God and praise him for the ability to run, throw, kick, swim—or whatever it is you do to work out or participate in a summer sport. Try to stay aware of his presence with you each time you play or exercise.

9) Start each day of your summer job right with this verse: "Whatever work you do, do it with all your heart. Do it for the Lord and not for men" (Colossians 3:23, NLV). Memorize this verse and then recite it before you begin your shift, repeating it during times of frustration, and repeat it again at that end of your shift.

10) Plan small group worship services around a backyard fire pit. Sing praise songs, read Scripture, pray and share stories about Christ working in your life. This is a great and informal way to keep your Christian friendships tight, even if your youth group doesn't meet during the summer.

This devotion comes from Christianity Today.

Circular Argument Against the Bible

Christians sometimes fall into the peril of arguing in a circle to justify that the Bible is the Word of God.  An example of this would be: "The Bible is the Word of God.  I know it is the Word of God because the Bible says it is the Word of God.  Therefore the Bible is the Word of God."  I have certainly made this argument before in my life.  I was never taught any different or learned any better until I was about 21 years old.  I firmly believe however that I still had saving faith, because our faith isn't dependent upon our arguments for our faith.  

I think however there are just as many people who reject the Bible as the Word of God commit a circular argument error as do Christians.  An example of this comes from an argument which Professor Avrum Stroll made in his discussion of the existence of Jesus: 

“Even if there were reason to believe some of the material [in the Gospels] to express eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life, the accretion of legend, the description of miracles performed by Jesus, which exist in these writings make it difficult, if not impossible, to extract from them any reliable historical testimony about the events described."*

Avrum Stroll, P.h.d.

Clearly he is doing the same thing that Christians have on occasion been accused of doing, arguing in a circle.  Here is how Stroll's argument looks in simpler wording: 

·       - The Gospels can’t be true, because they say Jesus 

          is God.    Miracles are impossible!

·       - The Gospels must be rejected as myth because of
      this.

        - The Gospels are myths because of miracles!

 

And we have come full circle.   

Click the image to learn more.

* Avrum quote pulled from History and Christianity 
 by John Warwick Montgomery.   John Warwick Montgomery is the man!  This book is great. Check it out in its full glory in History, Law and Christianity. 
 

John Warwick Montgomery

Historical Reliability of the Gospels #2

 The following is an outline of what I consider to be the key sections of an apologetic for the trustworthiness of the Gospels by Kenneth Samples from his book, Without a Doubt.  I encourage you to read this book.  It answers 20 difficult questions of the Christian faith.  

Chapter 7:Important Information Part II

Are the Gospels Myth or Fact?

1.       The Gospels and the external sources that support them were written so closely to the events that they historically record; there isn’t enough time available for myths to have crept into their accounts.  

·         Jesus’ death – 30 to 33 AD

·         The Synoptic Gospels (Matt, Mark, and Luke) – existed by the early 60’s

·         This evidenced by the lack of important events that occurred later, such as the destruction of the Temple (70 AD), martyrdom of Paul, James, or Peter, or persecution under Nero.  

2.       The Gospels as myths is only plausible if several generations existed in-between the death of Jesus and the time they were written down. 

·         Legends can’t replace facts so long as eyewitnesses remain alive. 

3.       The Apostles recognized the difference between myth and fact and because of this they made efforts to make claim that what they were writing as fact!

·         Luke 1:1-4

·         John 19:35

·         1 Cor 15:3-8

·         The Gospels are in the canon because they emerged from within the apostolic circle.

4.       There were other witnesses, both friend and foe, who could have refuted false claims.  Nothing refutes or contradicts the claims of the Gospels.  The Apostles even called upon the testimony of others to be checked (Acts 2:22, Acts 26:25-27)

5.       The Gospels are not written like Greek mythology. 

·         The miracles in Greek mythology are bizarre and frivolous

·         The miracles of Christ are always put into context of His ministry!

6.       The arguments for rejecting the Gospel claims are circular.

·         The Gospels can’t be true, because they say Jesus is God.  Miracles are impossible!

·         The Gospels must be rejected as myth because of this.

·         The Gospels are myths because of miracles!

·         And we’ve come full circle.  

 

Seeing God?

We had a message about the sinfulness and dangers of horoscopes, Ouija boards, palm-reading, physics, and the like in chapel this week.  It was a tag-teamed message, and one of the teachers speaking grew up in Venezuela where people commonly participated in such occultist fortune-telling practices.  He shared how such activities "open the door" to spiritual world and how he and his family experienced this on several occasions ministering to people who were demon-possessed or demon-oppressed by such dabbling in the occult.  

Some students after chapel shared that they didn't believe in any of that non-sense.  Their reason was that they hadn't seen it or experienced it themselves!  Their basis of truth is purely subjective.  

Isn't that the case with a lot of people and God.  I can't believe in a God I can't see.  If he really wanted me to believe he'd make it more clear.  Just like the apostle Thomas - I need to see, I need to touch.  

But can you see gravity?  Can you see magnetic fields?  Can you see electricity flowing through a wire?  Can you see the wind?  Can you musical notes?  No!  You can see their effects though.  This is true with God.  We can't see him, but we know he exists through his creation.  

Not everything in life can be experienced by all five senses.  It's a big error to put almighty God into a certain category that requires him to be seen to be real.  

However, in the person of Jesus Christ, God took on flesh and he was seen and touched.  God revealed himself and did make himself known in history through Jesus.  We of course haven't seen him in the 21st century, but we can investigate the truth claims about Jesus found in the Bible just as we would any other truth claims from other texts concerning historical figures in ancient history.  

Historical Reliability of the Gospels #1

Click image to learn more about Without a Doubt.

 Without a Doubt by Kenneth Samples

Key Points from Chapter 7 Part 1: Historical Reliability of The Gospels

The Christian faith depends on the historical nature and accuracy of the unique claims, character, and credentials of Jesus Christ! – Page 91

Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-18. Christianity hinges on the resurrection of Christ. 

Support for the Historical Reliability of the Gospels

1.      The New Testament documents are the best attested documents of antiquity in terms of total number of manuscripts. 

·         Check out this website: http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/bib-docu.html

·         5,000 individual Greek Manuscripts

·         8,000 copies of the Latin vulgate

·         Without these there are still thousands of manuscripts from commentaries and sermons that can be used to piece together the entire New Testament and these are from the early church fathers in the second to fifth centuries. – Page 92

·         Textual criticism exists because of the Bible.

2.       The interval of time between the date of the original authorship and the date of the earliest New Testament manuscript copies is extremely short.

3.      

 T   The historic statements made about Jesus by ancient non-Christian authors for the most part matches well with the Gospel record. 

·         He was a provocative teacher, a wise and virtuous man from the region of Judea.

·         He reportedly performed miracles and made prophetic claims.

·         The Jewish leaders condemned him for acts of sorcery and apostasy.

·         He was crucified by Pontius Pilate at the time of the Jewish Passover, and during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius.

·         Jesus’ followers reported that he had risen from the dead.

·         The Christian faith spread to Rome were the Christians were persecuted and tried for crimes.

·         First-century Christians worshipped Jesus Christ as God and celebrated the Eucharist in their services.

·         Even though these Romans ridiculed the Christians as being morally weak, they were often times known for their courage and virtue. 

4.       The authors of the four Gospels were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life themselves, or were closely associated with the eyewitnesses.  

John 19:1-4
1 John 1:1-2
Luke 1:1-4
Galatians 1:11-12
2 Peter 1:16

5.       The Gospel writers intended to convey factual and historical information and the writings of their historical content have been confirmed to a significant degree.

6.       The apostles’ testimony becomes more credible when it is considered that they had nothing to gain from it and everything to lose.  

·         They received no monetary reward or power from their message.

·         They received only beatings, imprisonment, and death.

·         Adversaries could have exposed their message as a lie, but they couldn’t. 

·         We can trust their message because they had no motif to lie or deceive.

·         If they did lie and deceive they violated everything Jesus taught about honesty and truth.

Religious Pluralism #2

Religious pluralism, which I'll define as the view that all religions are equally true and valid, is for most people, deeply rooted in the idea that truth is relative.  Truth is dependent upon a matter of perspective.  This makes truth subjective and not objective, which makes it so one religion can't be exclusively correct.  If I think Christianity is true, then it's true for me.  If a Muslim believes the Qur'an's teachings are true, then it's true for that individual.  Ultimately, this means everyone's religious view is true for the individual.  I could not tell someone that their religious view is wrong. 

Here's a problem with this line of thinking.  Two plus two equals four.   That's true a statement, and since it is true it is true for all people, at all times, and in all places.  Even if I think two plus two equals five, and that's my perspective, I will be wrong because two plus two never equals five for anyone, anytime, anywhere.  If it is true that Hu JinTao is president in China right now, then it's true for everyone, everywhere, in all situations.  Truth, extends to everyone, and it is not changed on account of someone's personal view!  This applies to religion!  

Another example, I am a male!  Regardless of your view or perspective, I am a man, and my wife is a woman.  

Applying this principle, that truth extends to all, to religious pluralism, Jesus either is God (Christianity), or Jesus is not God (Judaism, Islam), or Jesus is one with the divine source that is at the heart of all things (Hinduism), or Jesus was just a dude (Buddhism).  

Living Loud: Defending Your Faith contains a chapter entitled, "What is truth?", which speaks more in depth on this issue of relative truth.  Click on the image of the book to get your copy of it today.  

                                                                                                           

Religious Pluralism #1

Is it possible for all religious paths to lead to the same destination.  Religious pluralism, or universalism, ultimately teaches that all religions are equally valid and true, or equally valid expressions of the truth.  But, is this possible?  Do all trails really lead to the "happy hunting ground"?

What do the different paths say about the nature of God?

Hinduism essentially teaches that everything in the universe is divine.  Everything consists of the same divine, imperishable source, or energy, known as Brahman.  This source is essentially impersonal, yet it is the make-up of all things in this life – water, air, earth, flesh, and etc.  

Buddhism according to the traditional teaching of the Buddha is considered an atheistic religion with no divine being or source.  Everything, just, is, yet is always undergoing change.  

Judaism teaches that the Lord revealed in the Tanakh (the Christian Old Testament) is the one true God. 

Christianity teaches that the Lord revealed in the Old Testament is Lord, yet the New Testament reveals God through the person of Jesus Christ.  The Old Testament reveals God to be one in essence but three in person, yet this teaching isn’t fully revealed until the incarnation (the taking on of flesh) of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.  

Islam accepts the teachings of both the Old and New Testament according the Quran, however, most Muslims will say that these written words from Allah have been distorted and changed.  Muslims claim that Jesus was not divine, that he was not the Son of God, that Jesus was a prophet and only a prophet.  At the same time, Muslims reject the doctrine of the Trinity.  

These are just a brief look at five of the world’s major religions’ teachings on the nature of God.  Based on the law of logic known as the law of non-contradiction, two statements that directly contradict each other cannot both equally be true.  They both can be false, but both statements cannot be true.  To put this into an equation, A cannot equal Non-A.  To plug in two of the teachings just mentioned into this equation, we see that, Jesus is God incarnate (Christianity) cannot equal Jesus Christ is not God incarnate (Islam).  From this example it must be concluded that both of these statements cannot be true statements.  However, both statements could be false. 

Did Jesus Claim to be God?

Many people claim that Jesus never said he was God.  Christianity centers on the belief that Jesus is God and that his resurrection is proof of it.  Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity.  If Jesus is not God, there is no Christianity.

So where in the Bible can one go to see that Jesus claimed to be God?  Watch the following video and found out.

External Quotes #4

How can you trust that the Bible is the inspired word of God concerning Jesus Christ?  The New Testament is a collection of books and letters from people who all profess the same faith concerning who Jesus was.

The good news for us is that the accounts of the New Testament authors are verified by external sources from non-believers. 

An event that is recorded in Luke is that as Jesus hung on the cross dying, darkness covered the earth!  If this is true, then there must be others besides Luke who recorded this in history... and there are!

Thallus, a first-century historian, recorded this event and gave an explanation for the unexpected darkness.  His explanation is no longer preserved in copies of his own writings, but his writings are preserved through the citations of others.  Julius Africanus, around 221 AD wrote the following statement citing Thallus:

Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains this darkness as an eclipse of the sun - unreasonably as it seems to me (unreasonably, of course, because a solar eclipse could not have taken place at the time of the full moon, and it was the season of the Paschal full moon that Christ died). 

Julius Africanus also cites another non-believer, Phlegon, who records the exact same time of darkness mentioned in the Bible, however, he doesn't mention Jesus' crucifixion, and Phlegon also tries to dismiss the darkness by claiming it to be a full eclipse of the sun.  Julius quotes Phlegon as such:

Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth - manifestly that one of which we speak.

This darkness was even recorded as far away as China!!!

Recorded in the Record of Latter Han Dynasty, referring to the same eclipse, we have the following:

Summer, fourth month, on the day of Ren Wu, the imperial edict reads, "Yin and Yang have mistakenly switched, and the sun and moon were eclipsed.  The sins of all the people are now on one man.  The emperor proclaims pardon to all under heaven.

 From other quotes from this imperial record, we learn that the emperor was convicted of his sin, took responsibility for it proclaiming himself to be sinful [unheard of for a Chinese emperor to do this], and then even knew that the sins of the world had been laid on one man.  From the same record the following commentary is given, "Eclipse on the day of Gui Hai, Man from heaven died."

Clearly, an eclipse occurred on the same day that Jesus died.  The Bible's account has been verified from external sources.

Information for this blog was found in the following two books:

Contradict Bumpersticker

Alright, so one of the guys I setup shop at UCI with suggested this idea, making a "Contradict" label with religious symbols.  I think a better label can be made than this one, because the symbol for Buddhism and Hinduism are missing.  But this design is still good and it still gets the point across that these different religions and ideologies contradict.  

If the "Tolerance" and "Co-exists" stickers are actually being used by people to say that the religions and ideologies of the world do not contradict and that they are all equally valid and true, then those people obviously have not been tolerant enough to study what each religion actually teaches and proclaims, and the "Co-existers" are in fact being intolerant by reducing the diverse religions to something they are not.

What Science Can't Prove or Justify!

"Put that in your pipe and smoke it!" - The moderator's response to William Lane Craig's excellent answer.  

Two Religions - Grace, or not Grace.

This can be an interesting coversation-starter:

"Hey, how many religions do you think there are?"

"I don't know, like a couple hundred."

"Well, I bet there are more than that, but did you know that no matter how many religions there are, we can pretty much boil them down to just two religions - Grace, and Not Grace."

The following video illustrates this point. 

External Quotes #3

Kenneth Samples in his book Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions
lists ten historical sources outside of the Bible that portray Jesus and his life in accounts that synch up with the Gospel accounts.  Here is the list from Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions
:

Tacitus (ca. AD 55-120): Roman historian, Annals
Suetonius (ca. AD 120): Roman historian, Life of Claudius
Josephus (ca. AD 37-97): Jewish historian, Antiquities
Pliny the Younger (ca. AD 112): Roman governor, Epistles X
Jewish Talmud (commentary on Jewish law, completed AD 500)
Toledoth Jesu (reflects early Jewish thought, completed fifth century AD)
Lucian (second century AD): Greek satirist
Thallus (ca. AD 52): Samaritan-born historian, Histories
Mara Bar-Serapion (ca. AD 73): Letter
Phlegon (ca. AD 80): historian, chronicles (mentioned by Origen)

Every author and his piece of work which collaborates the apostles’ accounts would be considered external evidence.  This is good to mention with anyone questioning the Bible’s trustworthiness.  The truth of history concerning Jesus is not just pinned on the Gospels, but there is external support outside of the Bible that verifies the Gospel accounts.