In Defense of the Christian Faith

Welcome to part nine of the Resurrection series. Please see all preceding parts before continuing. Today, we will be talking about the importance of the Resurrection in conjunction with God's existence. Another issue that must be answered by the skeptics is Jesus’ claims about Himself. Jesus claimed to be “Son of Man” first. Was this really true of Jesus or was the title invented, as many skeptics would have us believe? In order to answer this question, we must first consider that the term is referred to in the New Testament only three times outside of the Gospels, and Christians writings within 120 years after Jesus only mention it three times. This debunks the claim that the church made up the title as “Jesus’ favorite self-description” (page 241) – the church did not refer to Jesus in this way! Secondly, all of the four Gospels use this title in reference to Jesus. Thirdly, this title actually places more emphasis on Jesus’ humanity; this in itself seems to disprove the ...

Welcome to part six of the resurrection series based on the book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Please see all preceding parts before reading this post. Today, we will continue to talk about a few more objections to the Resurrection that are often brought up by the skeptics. The next method of the critic, then, is to claim that there are discrepancies in the Resurrection accounts, thereby calling into question the Bible’s inerrancy. But this approach does not call into question the Gospel writers’ “general trustworthiness when recording historical events” (page 122). Additionally, when a historian looks at an event, he does not immediately conclude that because there are discrepancies in the testimonies that the event did not occur. No one rejects other works of antiquity where discrepancies are present; instead, the data is examined more closely. In fact, the differences in the Gospels only points to more than one witness, giving the historian further proof of it...

The American Humanist Association has once again embarked on a campaign to place ads in strategic locations for the holidays. This time around, they have two themes, one of which shows Santa Claus checking his list for naughty and nice with a message that reads "Bias Against Atheists Is Naughty, Not Nice." Here is the reasoning behind the billboards , according to the AHA: "Humanists get their knowledge from science rather than ancient texts and divine revelations," Speckhardt said. "This is the first time we've called out those prejudiced against us to rethink that prejudice. I hope people take them to heart and treat everyone as equally as they can this holiday season."   Now, while the AHA claims they are not undertaking this campaign to offend anyone or spoil "holiday" cheer, I do have my suspicions... especially if they are going to accuse Christians of simply believing "ancient texts and divine revelations" which supposed...

So it's been a while since I've updated this blog. I am in the process of working on several ideas for future articles... While I do that, I thought I would post this short and to the point video entitled "Is God Good?" It focuses on the "problem" of free-will and suffering. I have heard people say that because man has free-will, yet God knows what they will choose ahead of time, therefore, man does not really have free will. This video answers that question. Enjoy!

Below is an article on Jehovah's Witnesses based on Ron Rhodes' book , Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses . All quotations are from that book unless otherwise noted. This article is in conjunction with the DCF blog's comparative religions series . If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email me . Jehovah God – it’s a name that any Jehovah’s Witness takes quite seriously. This name is so holy that it is the only name by which we are to refer to God, according to the Witnesses. Since Jehovah is the only name of God, then God cannot be synonymous with Christ (also known as Michael the Archangel, a lesser “god”), the Witnesses believe. This leads to all sorts of assumptions about Jesus. According to Jehovah’s Witnesses (or JWs for short), Jesus is not to be worshipped because He is just an angel; however many Scriptures indicate the contrary. They believe that He experienced a spiritual resurrection, as opposed to the Christia...

I am reposting this to coincide with a post done today by my good friend, Jay. Please visit his site when you are through reading this post. Thanks. "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." ~ 3 John 1:2 There are three aspects to this Scripture: 1) Prosperity - financial, including the outward appearance of it (i.e. nice clothes, good job, big house, etc.; in short, blessings), 2) Health -- physical, and 3) Soul - spiritual Now let's elaborate on that. For point 1, most people will shut their ear immediately, because they don't believe in the "prosperity" movement. Why? People have this misconception that prosperity is an evil thing; they think that to be rich is to be proud, and to be proud is to go against God's command to be humble. The problem is that they don't stop to think that being humble does NOT mean that we have to be poor! Jesus said, "Blessed are the...

Matthew 11:18-19 "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children." Have you ever wondered what Jesus meant by that last phrase? How is wisdom justified by her children? The Greek words imply that wisdom is innocent "because of" her children. Therefore, it appears that Jesus is saying that He -- WISDOM -- though He hangs out with those whom the world would consider "dirty," is innocent by the fruit He produces: those people who enter into the kingdom of God as a result. This is why Jesus always stressed the importance of bearing fruit; after all, the New Testament tells us that abiding in Him is how we bear the fruit, and that when we are abiding in Him, we are truly loving Him. We need to always be "kingdom-minded": Is what we are ...

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse..." ~Romans 1:20 For more, visit Renee's beautiful blog @ A Glimpse of Beautiful !

"I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone: the chance that all the functions of the individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity." ~ George Gallup

I have a little Maltese dog named Little Bear, or as we affectionately call him, LB. He is a rambunctious little guy, possessing a very different personality than my other dogs. Can't you just see that spunkiness in his eyes? Everyone in my family has their favorite dog (though we love them all), but only me and one other family member favor LB. I love that little guy!! I'm always telling him what a pretty boy he is and petting him. I want to make sure that he knows that he's loved... I think he knows that by now; here he is giving me a hug.     This paints such an interesting picture spiritually. Each of us possesses a different personality. Some of us possess personalities that many people can't identify with, while others are completely outgoing and connect with people. Yet, no matter who we are, God loves us. The world might have said, "That person is useless." The world is constantly trying to make us conform to certain viewpoints and certain imag...

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Recently, I encountered an atheist (whom I shall call "A") who stated the following in response to the question, "Why do you think God does/doesn't exist?" :  "() <--- See? Nothing... just like God." Recognizing this as a "straw-man" analogy (setting up a straw man in order to tear it down), I responded, "You use the parenthesis to say that there is no God, but you deliberately CHOSE to not include Him inside the parenthesis. (GOD). See? God exists, you just have to look for Him." This started a discussion on God's existence. We didn't get very far before the atheist chose to no longer respond (I'm afraid I may have tired him out!); but I think the conversation is worth mentioning here, since there are some great things to be learned. ...