Good morning friends,
Quote of the week:
If a person is wrong about being right with God, then ultimately it doesn’t matter what he or she is right about. – Donald Whitney
Now, here are your weekly links:
- Willful Sin After Salvation and Eternal Security – Focus on the Family: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family-qa/willful-sin-after-salvation-and-eternal-security/
- False Assurance: The Assurance of Salvation with R.C. Sproul – YouTube: https://youtu.be/AV7YBKX-2e0
- Tips for Witnessing – Living Waters: https://livingwaters.com/tips-for-witnessing/
- Winning the War Against Sexual Sin – Living Waters: https://livingwaters.com/winning-the-war-against-sexual-sin/
- Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and the Bible: https://www.blogos.org/scienceandtechnology/dark-energy-matter-pf.php
- What does the Bible say about cavemen, prehistoric men, neanderthals? | GotQuestions.org: https://www.gotquestions.org/cavemen.html
- Does the Bible say anything about a pre-Adamic race? | GotQuestions.org: https://www.gotquestions.org/pre-Adamic-race.html
- Teach alternative worldviews fairly – The Benefit of the Doubt: https://www.travisdickinson.com/not-shelter-kids-ideas-teach-alternative-worldviews-fairly/
- Teaching our kids to think well – The Benefit of the Doubt: https://www.travisdickinson.com/not-shelter-kids-ideas-strategy-1/
- If the Gospel is True, Why Don’t We See More Transformation in the Lives of Christians? THINKAPOLOGETICS.COM – this is a 2018 article. It is interesting to hear that comment from Ravi Zacharias, considering the information we found out about him after his death. In fact, it is sobering. Nevertheless, it is a really good article: https://wp.me/pCHEG-5RI
- Did Daniel the Prophet Accurately Predict the Timing of Jesus’ Death? – Christian Apologist – According to the Jews for Jesus, “seventy sevens of years” equals a period of 490 years, which is seventy times seven. A 490 year period was decreed for the accomplishment of the final restoration of Israel. The Jews for Jesus link of the purposes of the seventy sevens as follows: (1) to finish transgression (c.f., Isaiah 59:20; (2) to make an end of sins (c.f., Isaiah 27:9; Ezekiel 36:25-27; Jeremiah 31:31-34); (3) to make reconciliation or atonement for iniquity; (4) to bring an everlasting righteousness (c.f., Isaiah 1:26; 11;2-5; 32:17; Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-18); (5) to seal up vision and prophecy; and (6) to anoint a most holy place, the Jewish temple (c.f., Ezekiel 40-48).: https://christian-apologist.com/2018/11/18/did-daniel-the-prophet-accurately-predict-the-timing-of-jesus-death/
- Why My Favorite Question for College Students is “Does God Exist?” – THINKAPOLOGETICS.COM: https://chab123.wordpress.com/2021/04/15/why-my-favorite-question-for-college-students-is-does-god-exist/
- Is the story of JESUS’ RESURRECTION a LEGEND? – YouTube – Did the very earliest account of what happened to Jesus after his crucifixion include his resurrection from the dead? Or was the resurrection added later to amplify the story? Is the resurrection of Jesus a legend? Mike Licona is associate professor of theology at Houston Baptist University. HBU offers a fully accredited Master of Arts degree in apologetics that may be completed entirely online or on the HBU campus in Houston.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCPKKU-1FtY
- Apologetics for Children – How can we help our children understand evidence for the Christian faith? When people ask me about apologetics for children, I think back to the time when my son was in kindergarten. A classmate would tease him at school by sarcastically asking, “Why do you still believe in the God thing?”: https://crossexamined.org/apologetics-for-children/
- What Does It Mean to “Believe” in “God”? – Words and their meanings are important. Clarifying definitions brings clarity to confusion and brings harmony to the conversation.: https://www.str.org/w/what-does-it-mean-to-believe-in-god-
- How to Engage in Spiritual Conversations – Dr. Mikel Del Rosario | Apologetics – Do Your Spiritual Conversations Become Frustrating Arguments? We need to bring truth and love together in our apologetics. How can we lovingly begin spiritual conversations? Rather than rushing to explain the evidence for Christian truth claims, it is best to initially let the other person share their views. This allows you to better understand their spiritual concerns. What are their pains and longings? This helps you know how to better connect with them and build trust.: https://apologeticsguy.com/2020/08/spiritual-conversations/
- The Florissant redwood trees, Colorado, USA – There are numerous vertical, petrified trees found in sedimentary rocks around the world. The vertical, petrified redwood stumps at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument are a famous example. They have several unusual features that are problematic for an in situ interpretation.: https://creation.com/florissant-redwood-trees
- Jesus: Humanity’s Only Savior | AlwaysBeReady.com – Many of us have a friend or family member who is actively involved in a religion other than Christianity. We live in a very religious world. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2021 showed that only 4% of American adults consider themselves to be atheists. Most people believe in some sort of god or “higher power.” And of course, this is not just true of the day and age in which we live. Whenever and wherever people have lived, they have been found giving some recognition to a power or powers beyond themselves. As far back in time as anthropologists have been able to discover, religion has existed in every society. From the most primitive societies to the most culturally advanced, humans have been found to be worshipping creatures.: https://alwaysbeready.com/jesus-mankinds-only-savior/
- Foliage in fast forward – Why rapid plant growth during creation week poses no threat to the biblical timeframe. One excuse that some Christians have used for disbelieving in 24-hour creation days has to do with the way God created plants on Day 3. They point out that God didn’t simply cause plant life to pop into being out of nothing, fully formed. Rather, in Genesis 1, God’s command was: “Let the earth sprout vegetation” (v. 11). Thus, “The earth brought forth vegetation” (v. 12). It is true that these lines indicate a process of growth-and, by the end of that process, the trees were mature enough to bear fruit (v. 12). In today’s world, this would ordinarily take years. So, does the fact that the plants grew from the ground up to maturity prove that this activity could not have been accomplished in an ordinary day?: https://creation.com/foliage-in-fast-forward
- God vs. Atheism: Which is More Rational? PragerU – ( ~4 1/2 minute video) Belief in God, according to atheists, is irrational, illogical, and dumb. Belief that the universe created itself is, they say, intelligent, rational, and based in science. This is simply false. Nothing can create itself. Everything has a cause–including the universe. That cause, argues Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College, is God, the “unmoved mover.” Belief in God, as Kreeft shows, is more rational than belief in nothing. Logic, science, and reason, support God. Atheism, as you’ll see, is far more steeped in blind faith than is belief.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T_P14JjMcM
- Can We Trust the Bible If We Can’t Confirm Every Detail? | Cold Case Christianity…we can test the veracity of the Bible by corroborating parts of its story. The Bible makes many claims about ancient history, about the nature of reality, and about God Himself. Many of these claims cannot be corroborated externally. Some ancient events, for example, are not mentioned by any other historical record or piece of evidence. As a result, there are claims in the Bible which may never be verified with external evidence.: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/can-we-trust-the-bible-if-we-cant-confirm-every-detail/
- Testimonials | Reasonable Faith – this page contains testimonials of God using the Apologetics ministry of Dr. William Lane Craig to draw people to faith in Him, removing the rational barriers to belief: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/testimonials
- How do we decide which books belong in the Bible since the Bible does not say which books belong in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org – If Scripture is to be our sole authority, on what authority do we know which books belong in the Bible – since the Bible does not state which books should be in the Bible? This is a very important question, because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In the chain of communication from God to humanity, is there a weak link? If so, then the whole chain fails, and the communication ultimately cannot be trusted.: https://www.gotquestions.org/canonicity-scriptural.html
- Scientism tries to Turn Man into a Monkey | Come Reason’s Apologetics Notes – Science is understood in today’s world to be the only reliable source of truth. One has only to look at the advertisements we use to sell products to see how much we esteem the concept of scientific veracity. If you really want to make your case for the potency of a product, just have your spokesman wear a white lab coat, begin his name with Dr., or explain how “tests have shown” the item to be more effective. If science has shown something to be true, then it must be true. And if there is a conflict between beliefs and what science has shown, then most people will assume that it is our beliefs that are in error, not science.: https://apologetics-notes.comereason.org/2014/08/scientism-tries-to-turn-man-into-monkey.html
- The junk DNA myth takes a well-deserved hit – One of the greatest evolutionary frauds of recent times is the myth that eukaryotic genomes, particularly the human genome, are largely composed of meaningless ‘junk’ DNA sequences that serve no biological purpose. While many of the actual researchers working in the vast field of genomics now realize that virtually the entire genome is functional, a handful of influential and popular bio-science authors still authoritatively proclaim the fraudulent myth of ‘junk DNA’. Thus, the errant junk DNA myth is still widely perpetuated even though several decades of hard-hitting research profoundly declares otherwise.: https://creation.com/review-wells-junk-dna
- Is the Oral Tradition Comparable to the Telephone Game? | Facebook video where William Lane Craig answers a questioner: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=271130120428729
- Will There Be Cavemen in Heaven? – The Good Book Blog – Biola University – Weekly Q & A with Dr. William Lane Craig. How did people make it to heaven before the Ten Commandments and before Christ? Particularly, very early man, cavemen per se. We have ancient artifacts from around the world from early man such as spears and pottery, but how were these people saved and how did they make it to heaven?: https://www.biola.edu/blogs/good-book-blog/2019/will-there-be-cavemen-in-heaven
- Hezekiah tunnel inscriptions – Discovered-monumental inscriptions of King Hezekiah!: https://creation.com/hezekiah-inscriptions
They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. John 17:16
Blessings to you all