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mid-week apologetics booster (2-23-2023)

Good morning friends,

Quote of the week:

The poverty of the Apostles goes far to prove the divine origin of Christianity. These very men who toiled all night in a boat, dragging about a cold wet net, and taking nothing–these very men who found it necessary to work hard in order that they might eat–these very men were some of the first founders of the mighty Church of Christ, which has now overspread one-third of the globe. These were they who went forth from an obscure corner of the earth, and turned the world upside down. These were the unlearned and ignorant men, who boldly confronted the subtle systems of ancient philosophy, and silenced its advocates by the preaching of the cross. – J.C. Ryle

Now, here are your weekly links:

Apologetics in the gospel of John | WINTERY KNIGHT: https://winteryknight.com/2023/02/15/apologetics-in-the-gospel-of-john-4/

Jordan Peterson Discovers the God Hypothesis | Evolution News: https://evolutionnews.org/2021/08/jordan-peterson-discovers-the-god-hypothesis/

Do the Damned Receive their Just Desert? | William Lane Craig – Reasonable Faith – there’s a world of difference between punishments being indefinitely postponed, and punishments being indefinitely prolonged. In the first case, the wicked are never punished, whereas in the second case they are punished forever.: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/do-the-damned-receive-their-just-desert

More or less information? How do we define information in biology? One of the most powerful creationist arguments concerns information. Understanding this issue can enable us to deflect the common anti-creationist equivocation of calling any change evolution. Creationists do not deny that living things change, and even speciate, but nearly all the changes acclaimed as evolution do not actually involve the increase in information content required for microbes-to-man evolution, but rather go in the opposite direction. For an illustration of this see: How information is lost when creatures adapt to their environment.: https://creation.com/more-or-less-information-has-a-recent-experiment-proved-creation

WLC Reacts! to Ricky Gervais on Why He Trusts Science – YouTube: https://youtu.be/R-j9FF3IbUQ

Merchant Marine Academy covers Jesus painting after anti-Christian activist demands its removal – LifeSite: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/merchant-marine-academy-covers-jesus-painting-after-anti-christian-activist-demands-its-removal/

Sunday Morning Thoughts: There is a Revival in The Land! Kingsjester’s Blog: https://kingsjestersblog.com/2023/02/19/sunday-morning-thoughts-there-is-a-revival-in-the-land/

Do you need to believe young earth creation to be saved? – There are many important doctrines that new believers may not believe, or have even heard of. Consider the thief on the cross who may have known very few important doctrines, yet he was saved. As Christians grow spiritually they will gain a fuller picture of salvation and weed out ideas contrary to Scripture.: https://creation.com/media-center/youtube/do-you-need-to-believe-young-earth-creation-to-be-saved

Who is the one true God? | George’s Journal: https://georgesjournal.net/2023/02/20/who-is-the-one-true-god/

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT by Archibald Alexander: https://gracegems.org/26/day_of_judgment.htm

Moral Relativism is One of the Defining Characteristics of Gen Z – Impact 360 Institute: https://www.impact360institute.org/articles/moral-relativism-one-defining-characteristics-gen-z/

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? | GotQuestions.org. My favorite answer to this question was from Dr. R.C. Sproul, who said, “That only happened once, and He volunteered for it”: https://www.gotquestions.org/bad-things-good-people.html

Problem 6: Molecular Biology Has Failed to Yield a Grand Tree of Life | Evolution News: https://evolutionnews.org/2015/02/problem_6_molec/

Can Science Explain Everything? – YouTube – J. Warner Wallace is interviewed by Impact 360 and describes the limits of science in explaining the universe in which we live. Can physics and chemistry explain everything we see in the universe? If it can’t, are we reasonable in looking to God as an explanation?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXepVUttfdA

Why the New Definition of Tolerance Is Dangerous – Stand to Reason Blog: https://str.typepad.com/weblog/2016/03/why-the-new-definition-of-tolerance-is-dangerous.html

Arches National Park: Sculptures from the Flood | The Institute for Creation Research – Recent research makes up the second key observation. Scientists weighted the top of a block of sand that was wet enough to hold together but not cemented into stone.3 They raised the water level around the sand block. As sand fell away under different setups, pillars, alcoves, and arches formed fast. These experiments refute the park books statement that if these dissolution processes create a hole through the rock fin, an arch is formed.1 It happened in minutes when the sand was partly submerged, not over eons of rain. The researchers discovered that sand grains lock together when under pressure. They visited Landscape Arch after their experiments and noticed that the rubble completely disintegrated after it fell. Without pressure from overlying rock, the once-hard sandstone rapidly turned to sand. No cement, no rain, and no eons.: https://www.icr.org/article/arches-national-park-sculptures-from-the-flood/

Christian Apologetics: Who Needs It? | Reasonable Faith – Dr. Craig describes what Christian apologetics is and three ways the discipline serves a vital role in the body of Christin its ability to shape culture, its capacity to strengthen believers, and its necessity when evangelizing unbelievers.: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/popular-writings/apologetics/christian-apologetics-who-needs-it

Greg Koukl: The Intolerance of Tolerance – YouTube (55 minute lecture at the 10th Annual EPS Apologetics Conference): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG_R9e60Wp4

Are Jews Who Believe in Jesus Still Jews? – The Stream – If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times, from both Jews and Christians: If you believe in Jesus, you’re no longer Jewish. You were Jewish. You’re not Jewish anymore.: https://stream.org/jews-believe-jesus-still-jews/

Does The Bible Need Defending? Sometimes when someone witnesses to an unbeliever by appealing to arguments and evidence that point to the truth of Christianity, some believers will tell the Christian that The Bible does not need them to defend it. The Truth does not need to be defended. It is like a lion. All you need to do is let it out of its cage they will say. A Lion can defend itself. It is ferocious; it has sharp, powerful jaws and razor-sharp claws. Its roar strikes fear into its prey. Its roar carries authority. Why would you need to defend such an animal? You don’t. So these Christians will say that The Bible is the same way. This is supposed to be an argument that Christian Apologetics is a pointless exercise.: https://crossexamined.org/does-the-bible-need-defending/

Are Young People Really Leaving Christianity? | Cold Case Christianity: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/are-young-people-really-leaving-christianity/

Mann’s Word: DO THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES PREACH THE SAME SALVATION AS THE NT?: http://mannsword.blogspot.com/2018/02/do-hebrew-scriptures-preach-same.html

ONE SOLITARY LIFE -JESUS CHRIST He was born in an obscure village…: https://spreadjesus.org/1221-one-solitary-life-jesus-christ.html

The Culpability of Unbelief | Reasonable Faith – The real question you need to ask, Jon, is whether Jesus claim that his teaching is from God is credible and true. If we have good reason to think that Jesus was who he claimed to be, then we have good reason to accept his teaching that unbelief is culpable. Now there are two ways to go about finding an answer to that question…: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/the-culpability-of-unbelief

Defending the Bible with Internal Evidence | by Aaron Shamp | Medium: https://medium.com/@aaronmshamp/defending-the-bible-with-internal-evidence-5f3453890298

Rapid Response: The Gospels Are Unreliable | Cold Case Christianity – In our Rapid Response series, we tackle common concerns about (and objections to) the Christian worldview by providing short, conversational responses. These posts are designed to model what our answers might look like in a one-on-one setting, while talking to a friend or family member. Imagine if someone made the following claim: Even if the events recorded in the Gospels came from eyewitness accounts, why should we trust what eyewitnesses tell us? Even modern-day witnesses are notoriously unreliable and are often wrong about what they claim to have seen. Why should we trust ancient eyewitness accounts? How would you respond to such an objection?: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/rapid-response-the-gospels-are-unreliable/

Hell and the Gospel – Hell is an offensive idea to a lot of people. Eternal punishment seems harsh to both believers and unbelievers. It could even be a stumbling block. Consequently, some pastors are revising what the Bible teaches and what the church has taught since Jesus.: https://www.str.org/w/hell-and-the-gospel

10 Biblical Reasons God Allows Suffering | Sean McDowell: https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/10-biblical-reasons-god-allows-suffering

Quick Shot: Truth cannot be known with any certainty | Cold Case Christianity – Response #1: Are you sure? Are you confident about that statement related to truth? It sounds like you have certainty. But if truth cannot be known with any certainty, then you can’t have certainty that truth can’t be known with certainty. Do you see the problem? As it turns out, all of us are certain about something, even if it’s just that you can’t be certain. But that claim, in and of itself, is self-refuting.: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/quick-shot-truth-cannot-be-known-with-any-certainty/

Rapid Response: How Can You Believe in Christianity with So Little Evidence? | Cold Case Christianity – Imagine yourself being questioned by a friend or family member in the following way: Isn’t faith, by definition, believing something without evidence? Is it possible to become a Christian because of the evidence rather than in spite of the evidence?: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/how-to-respond-to-how-can-you-believe-in-christianity-with-so-little-evidence/

When Buddhism Goes Bad – Dan Lawton – though this article is definitely not Christian apologetics, it exposes critical truths about the mindfulness movement and the dangers of it.: https://danlawton.substack.com/p/when-buddhism-goes-bad

Asbury University ends 24/7 revival meeting after 50K flock to Kentucky town over 13 days | Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/us/asbury-university-ends-24-7-revival-meeting-50k-flock-kentucky-town-13-days

Mormon church fined $5 million for scheme to hide $32 billion investment portfolio – CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mormon-church-fined-5-million-fine-sec/

Southern Baptists boot Saddleback Church for having a female pastor: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/southern-baptists-boot-saddleback-church-woman-pastor-rcna71714

LATEST from Asbury: Something Unbelievable JUST Happened… – YouTube: https://youtu.be/mCgN87m54Ug

Think the Bible Isn’t Scientific? This Video Will Change Your Mind! – YouTube: https://youtu.be/Fhe_V4_NoNE

Challenge to Origin of Life: Replication (Long Story Short, Ep. 8) – YouTube: https://youtu.be/zK3jQtzIHLI

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Luke 3:15-17

Blessings to you all