Just Some Links

This is just a short blogpost sharing a couple of links of interest. First, there’s a compilation of apologetic videos here, and I’ll point readers to the one titled, “Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?”: https://www.str.org/w/resource-a-helpful-list-of-short-apologetic-videos  By the way, the link to one of the other videos listed didn’t work for me, but I think … [Read more…]

Some Thoughts on the Old Testament as Apologetics

Some parts of the Bible seem to me to be overtly apologetic and others less intentionally so.  That is, some parts are written with the idea of persuading people of the truth of the Hebrew/Christian God and that we should worship Him; others do not have that as an intended aim, but for one reason … [Read more…]

A Good Apologetics Essay To Start the Month

Here’s a good apologetics essay — sent to me by a good friend — to start your month:  [link:  https://www.hillfaith.org/agnosticism/he-is-risen-why-you-must-decide-who-jesus-is/ ].   The author is Rod Martin, and it’s succinct and well done.

What in the “World”?

Probably the most famous verse in the New Testament, and for that matter in the whole Bible, is John 3:16:  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”   Translations vary, but so far as I can tell in … [Read more…]

Who Should Have Written the Gospels?

Who would we expect to write the first detailed accounts of Jesus and His ministry? *** Well, there were no investigative reporters or official church historians in the first century, or newspaper archives available to some enterprising free-lance biographer.  It was, rather, the twelve apostles who were apparently there from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry … [Read more…]

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

I’ve read that, while there are many questions hard for an atheist to answer, there is really only tough one for a Christian apologist — but’s it’s a doozy:  Why do bad things happen to good people on this earth? Here’s a possible elevator answer: It depends.  (1) Sometimes it’s because God has given us … [Read more…]

What Do YOU Do with This Old Manuscript?

Suppose you find an ancient manuscript that purports to be, not a scatalogical poem or potboiler novel or polished piece of classical literature, but a serious biography of at least 11,000 words.  The man who is the subject of the manuscript is revealed to be divine, the Son of God, who tells people what God … [Read more…]

“Three Scientists on the Origin of Everything”

The three scientists in this video interview recently posted on National Review Online are philosopher of science Stephen Meyer, mathematician John Lennox,  and chemist James Tour.   The interview is summarized this way: Moving from the Big Bang and the discovery of cosmic beginnings, to the fine-tuning of the physical constants that make life possible, to … [Read more…]

A Question Prompted by Biblical Genealogies

I’ll start the month with this:  Genealogies would have been practically very important to ancient Jews, since tribal membership determined land rights, among other things.  So we would expect there to have been great demand for their scrupulous accuracy in Scripture.  Now, would we expect the scribes to switch casually from that mindset in one … [Read more…]