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mid-week apologetics booster (5-4-2023)

Good morning friends,

Quote of the week:

Imagine you were at a table about to eat dinner and you have two bowls of white powder in front of you. Do you put them on your food? After all, they look pretty similar. But what if I told you that one was ordinary table salt and the other was cyanide? The differences matter far more than the similarities! So it is with religion and its path for your eternal future. – Jonathan Morrow

Now, here are your weekly links:

Apathy, Atheism, and the Absurdity of Life Without God – Here is a statement that may seem controversial at first but upon reflection the truth of which becomes more apparent: If God does not exist and there is no life after death, then there is no ultimate meaning, value, or purpose in life.: https://crossexamined.org/apathy-atheism-and-the-absurdity-of-life-without-god/

The Flagellum’s Hook Connects to the Case for a Creator – Reasons to Believe: https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/the-flagellum-s-hook-connects-to-the-case-for-a-creator

Frank Turek – Session 5 – Is the New Testament True? – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuV3Qv4whNY

The (Often) Missing Key In Passing Faith to the Next Generation – YouTube – What is the vital key we must do to raise up a generation that knows and follows the Lord? At a live conference, Sean offers a BRIEF response that parents, pastors, teachers, and other caring adults MUST take to heart for the sake of the next generation.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fMOgBrsFWs

Where Are All the Women in Apologetics? | Mary Jo Sharp – Over the last decade, I’ve been asked this question many times. Typically, the question arose because someone in the audience noticed that I was the only female speaker at that particular apologetics conference. I would assure the questioner that other women speakers existed in apologetics and I would begin to rattle off a list of names, including my colleagues at Houston Baptist University. I would then follow up with, “You’ll see, the women are there.”…: https://confidentchristianity.com/?p=1754

Darwin’s Abominable Mystery and the Genesis Flood | The Institute for Creation Research: https://www.icr.org/article/abominable-mystery-and-the-flood

Responding to a Claim that your Argument is “God of the Gaps” – Adherent Apologetics – God of the Gaps is an argument that states that when there is a gap in scientific knowledge, then people who believe in God place God as the answer to that gap of knowledge. Skeptics would say that arguments such as the origin of the universe, the fine-tuning of the universe, and the origin of life, are just “God of the Gaps” arguments but science will soon find an answer. Here are 3 Arguments for God that are not “God of the Gaps.”: https://adherentapologetics.com/2018/12/28/responding-to-a-claim-that-your-argument-is-god-of-the-gaps/

Examine Evidence for the Bible’s Reliability, This article has a good summary of how to evaluate the Bible’s reliability: https://faithphilosophy.com/en/bible-examine-evidence-for-the-bible-reliability.php

Hell Interrupted Part 1 – You may not have noticed, but Hell is not as popular as it used to be. Simply put, the doctrine of Hell has fallen on hard times. Jehovah’s Witnesses have long denied Hell, at least the everlasting punishment part at the heart of the classical view, along with Seventh Day Adventists, each teaching that, in the final judgment, the unrepentant wicked will be snuffed from existence – annihilated.: https://www.str.org/w/hell-interrupted-part-1

Mann’s Word: CAN WE TRUST THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT? How then do we square this teaching – “not a dot passing from the law” – with the fact that there are many thousands of textual variants, although many of them are simply misspellings?: https://mannsword.blogspot.com/2019/10/can-we-trust-text-of-new-testament.html

The Neo-Liberal Stealth Offensive : 9Marks – The gospel’s most dangerous earthly adversaries are not raving atheists who stand outside the door shouting threats and insults. They are church leaders who cultivate a gentle, friendly, pious demeanor but hack away at the foundations of faith under the guise of keeping in step with a changing world.: https://www.9marks.org/article/neo-liberal-stealth-offensive/

Richard Dawkins is releasing an atheist children’s book: https://creation.com/dawkins-childrens-book

Are There Any Good Reasons to Believe in God? – YouTube – Is it reasonable to believe in Jesus as the Messiah? Is it reasonable to believe in God in general? In this Q and A session, J. Warner begins to answer a question about Jewish believers and turns to a more significant issue related to Jesus and the existence of God.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY4jsNmDawU

150 Pastors Arrested at Year-End Gathering – Police monitored China Gospel Fellowship and swooped in when all pastors were in one place. One had a heart attack, and all were threatened to sign “repentance.”: https://bitterwinter.org/150-pastors-arrested-at-year-end-gathering/

The earth’s magnetic field: evidence that the earth is young: https://creation.com/the-earths-magnetic-field-evidence-that-the-earth-is-young

Gracious Uncertainty | My Utmost For His Highest: https://utmost.org/gracious-uncertainty/

Fox’s ‘Family Guy’ Calls Religious Believers ‘Stupid People,’ ‘Idiots’ | Newsbusters: https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/elise-ehrhard/2019/11/03/foxs-family-guy-calls-religious-believers-stupid-people

“I Believe in Science!” – Something No One Should Say – “I believe in science,” said Hillary Clinton. “We should not have people in office who do not believe in facts and truths and modern science,” said Leonardo DiCaprio. What these two have in common with the general public is their misunderstanding of the nature of science and the lack of appreciation of the number of philosophical presuppositions on which science depends – assumptions that must be taken at face value without any proofs of their own.: https://www.cltruth.com/2017/i-believe-in-science/

Quick Challenge Answer: Did Paul Hallucinate The Risen Jesus? There are many naturalistic theories that attempt to disprove the resurrection of Jesus. The problem is, there are so many evidences for the resurrection, that one explanation can’t discredit them all. Paul’s conversion to believe in the risen Jesus is cited as one of these evidences. Paul (previously named Saul) had been one of Christianity’s greatest enemies. He was active in the persecution of the early Church. That is, until he encountered Jesus for himself. Historians and theologians agree that Paul had a radical transformation in his personality. He went from an enemy of Christianity, to perhaps its greatest champion and hero. But what was this event that changed Paul so profoundly?: https://tentmakingchristianity.com/did-paul-hallucinate-the-risen-jesus-2/

12 Ways To Preserve Christian Unity | Tim Challies – Satan hates God and therefore he hates God’s people, the church. His great plan for the church is to cause Christians–true believers who ought to be together in the gospel–to find ways of disagreeing among themselves, to divide, to be bitter and jealous, and ultimately to “bite and devour one another” (Gal. 5:15). Here are twelve ways that you can repulse Satan’s attacks.: https://www.challies.com/reading-classics-together/12-ways-to-preserve-christian-unity/

Scientist Confirms: An Unborn Baby is a Human Being From the Moment of Conception – LifeNews.com: https://www.lifenews.com/2017/02/09/scientist-confirms-an-unborn-baby-is-a-human-being-from-the-moment-of-conception/

Is the Oral Tradition Comparable to the Telephone Game? (Facebook 2 minute video with William Lane Craig answering this question): https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=271130120428729

How Could Noah Care for the Animals? | Answers in Genesis – Even if Noah could build a wooden Ark strong enough to survive a yearlong Flood, how could he house and feed all those animals? Imagine the challenges of space, food storage, waste removal, ventilation, and fresh water. It sounds too fantastic to believe! Or is it?: https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/fantastic-voyage-how-could-noah-care-animals/

8 Predictions about the Future of Sex, Gender, and Marriage in America: https://crossexamined.org/8-predictions-future-sex-gender-marriage-america/

Preaching & Apologetics (Optional Session) by Steven Lawson from Defending the Faith: 2018 West Coast Conference – In this session, Dr. Steven Lawson emphasizes the necessity of preaching and defending the truth when addressing both believers and unbelievers.: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/conferences/defending-the-faith-2018-west-coast-conference/preaching-and-apologetics

Does God Know & Not Know Simultaneously? | Free Thinking Ministries: https://freethinkingministries.com/does-god-know-not-know-simultaneously/

The Most Destructive Idea w/ Dr. J.P. Moreland | Cross Examined Official Podcast – YouTube – Rigid adherence to scientism as opposed to a healthy respect for science is all too prevalent in our world today. Rather than leading to a deeper understanding of our universe, this worldview actually undermines real science and marginalizes morality and religion. In this interview, celebrated philosopher J. P. Moreland exposes the self-defeating nature of scientism and equips us to recognize scientism’s harmful presence in different aspects of culture, emboldening our witness to biblical Christianity and arming us with strategies for the integration of faith and science the only feasible path to genuine knowledge.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB4cUoOUyto

Why is Hell Eternal? Evangelical Christians have spent a lot of time talking about the doctrine of hell. One question weighs particularly heavily: Why, if there is a hell, is it forever? The idea of eternal hell weighs heavily on the heart, as we think of those we know and love apart from Christ. Sometimes a devilish desire to condemn (“You will not surely die”) is behind a denial of future judgment, but sometimes the human motive is just the unbearable gravity of it all. Why would God sentence an everlasting punishment for crimes committed in what God himself describes as a life so quick that it’s like a vapor of mist (James 4:14; Psalm 39:5; Psalm 144:4)?: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/heaven-and-hell/why-is-hell-eternal.html

Competing Worldviews Influence Today’s Christians – Barna Group – We live in a world of competing ideas and worldviews. In an increasingly globalized and interconnected world, Christians are more aware of (and influenced by) disparate views than ever. But just how much have other worldviews crept into Christians’ perspectives? Barna’s research shows that only 17 percent of Christians who consider their faith important and attend church regularly actually have a biblical worldview. So, if Christians are open to nonbiblical perspectives, what are they believing?: https://www.barna.com/research/competing-worldviews-influence-todays-christians/

A Practical Plan to Equip the Next Generation – I grew up in a Christian home. I came to Christ at five and was baptized at six. My family was committed to the local church. My dad faithfully taught Sunday school, led small groups, and was even an elder. My mom was always involved in ministry as well. I grew up attending Sunday school, Royal Ambassadors, and Awana. As a teenager, I was the model youth group kid, a student leader in high school, and a ministry intern as a senior, even committing my life to full-time vocational ministry before I graduated. Then I met Dr. David Lane. It was my freshman year in college and the course was Philosophy 101. Dr. Lane systematically dismantled the Christianity I grew up with. In class. In front of everyone. And I was not ready. But why not? I had spent the first eighteen years of my life in the church. Wasn’t that enough time to prepare me to engage the world for Christ? Sadly, the majority of our Christian students aren’t ready either. They’re not prepared for the serious intellectual challenges awaiting them, let alone the barrage of moral challenges from an increasingly secular culture. It’s a huge reason why we continue to hemorrhage youth from our churches. Thank God I discovered apologetics amidst Professor Lane’s intellectual assault on my Christianity. Apologetics helped rebuild my faith in Christ, and I became convinced of its absolute necessity for student discipleship. That’s right, I said necessity. Apologetics is not optional in a post-Christian culture.: https://www.str.org/w/a-practical-plan-to-equip-the-next-generation

Why Should Christians Study Rhetoric? – by Jacob Allee – Rhetoric is the crown of the verbal arts. The trivium is composed of three language related disciplines, namely, Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. Grammar focuses on the composition of various kinds of sentences, understanding their various parts and relations, so as to equip students to clearly understand and communicate ideas expressed through language. Logic builds upon grammar by teaching students how to arrange sets of statements (sentences which make truth claims) in order to form arguments in favor of, or in opposition to, an idea. Rhetoric takes command of both the Grammatical and Logical arts and adds to it the art of persuasion. The goal of a rhetorician is to use words so as to move their audience to either take some action or change their convictions about an issue. If Christians will not teach and study rhetoric then we leave ourselves and our neighbors open to be manipulated while being helpless to do anything about it. Just as we shouldn’t let only criminals have guns, nor should we allow it to be that only the wicked may make use of the tools of persuasion. We must learn the art of rhetoric so that the enemies of justice and truth can never say to us, “I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see that you are unarmed.”: https://stgb.substack.com/p/why-should-christians-study-rhetoric

Faith Is Not Wishing – Some think that having a level of certainty about the truth of Christianity makes “belief” unnecessary or irrelevant. That kind of knowledge undermines genuine faith and offends God. The reasoning goes something like this. We all know God wants us to have faith. In fact, without faith, it’s impossible to please him (Hebrews 11:6). However, gathering evidence for God and Christianity leaves little room for faith. After all, how can one have faith in something he knows is true? Faith, then, is opposed to knowledge. Therefore, apologetics undermines the faith project and thus displeases the Lord. On this view, faith is believing the unbelievable, clinging to your convictions when all the evidence is against you. Faith is a “leap”, a blind, desperate lunge in the darkness. When doubts or troubles beset us, we’re told to “just have faith,” as if we could squeeze out spiritual hope by intense acts of sheer will. This view of faith reduces Christian conviction to religious wishful thinking. We can hope, but we can never know.: https://www.str.org/w/faith-is-not-wishing

Persuasive Apologetics Principle 7: Bonus Tips: https://www.jaymedenwaldt.com/2019/02/effective-apologetics-bonus-tips.html

When we let the doubts win – More people de-converting than converting? Even today that depends on where in the world you are. Christianity is flourishing in Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa. And still, who cares? It’s not hard to see why Christianity is losing ground in the West; ‘science’ is falsely proffered as a panacea for understanding the world, and Christian morality is being actively undermined. But these factors have no real intellectual teeth to them. Science can’t explain everything, e.g. morality, nature itself, and the philosophy of science. Moral objections to Christianity are very parochial and have no ontological foundation. Just because it feels right doesn’t mean it is; there has to be some reason for why something is right or wrong.: https://creation.com/when-we-let-the-doubts-win

Origin of Life: You Can’t Trust Everything You Hear (Long Story Short, Episode 9) – YouTube – Can you trust everything you hear about the origin of life? The short answer is “No.” Many popular science expositors overstate the evidence for the natural, chemical origin of life and promote gross misinformation to the public on this topic. This video reviews popular claims made about the origin of life and shows why they are contradicted by the evidence, misleading, or flat out false.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E501YvJgNdA

Not Radical Enough: A Conversation with David Platt | Sean McDowell – What is the “American Gospel”? And what does it mean to leave it behind and follow Jesus today? Sean talks with pastor and author David Platt about his latest book Don’t Hold Back. They discuss David’s season of discouragement and what clarity came out of it for his life and ministry today.: https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/not-radical-enough-a-conversation-with-david-platt

A Guy Says He Had a Heart Attack and Went to Hell in 2016. Here’s What He Saw. – certainly not a Christian article, nor about apologetics, but it is certainly an interesting topic to ponder and could lead to productive spiritual conversations: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/recaps/a-guy-says-he-had-a-heart-attack-and-went-to-hell-in-2016-here-s-what-he-saw/ar-AA16zN7R

Deseret alphabet – Wikipedia – another weird and interesting fact about the history of Mormonism. The Deseret alphabet is a phonemic English-language spelling reform developed between 1847 and 1854 by the board of regents of the University of Deseret under the leadership of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)… The Deseret alphabet was a project of the Mormon pioneers, a group of early followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) which had set about building a new, unique theocracy in the Utah desert, which was then still part of Mexico, after the death of the church’s founder, Joseph Smith. In March of 1859, they declared “a free and independent government” designated the State of Deseret: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_alphabet

Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught at the voice of the enemy, at the stares of the wicked; for they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger. Psalms 55:1-3

Blessings to you all