Archive for the ‘Foundations’ Category
On this 10th anniversary of the horror witnessed in American and around the world when the ‘twin-towers’ or 1 World Trade Center were attacked (as well as other sites) by Muslim extremists, it seems to be a good time to discuss the problem of evil. The ‘problem of evil’ in Christian apologetics is and has been one of the top apologetic issues throughout history.
Many have pointed to the attacks on 9/11 (September 11, 2001) as a turning point in our generation concerning this issue. The ‘New Atheists’ (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, etc.) began writing their – soon to be popular – books not long after this event. For the atheist, it was the confirmation that religion was truly dangerous. For the rest of us, it brought us face to face with evil in a way many of us had not experienced in our lives of relatively peaceful existence. One’s worldview needed to be able to deal with this kind of event. I believe that when people were actually faced with the reality of this kind of evil, many found their position wanting and began to either search for answers, or to focus the problem on someone else. As Christians, we should be prepared to provide answers. Continue Reading…
The recent observance of World Environment Day and Canadian Environment Week reminded me of a very important apologetic topic; that of environmentalism or creation care.
What does this have to do with Christian apologetics and is it important? Well, how ‘hot’ this topic is depends on where you live and what circles you keep acquaintance with. If you live in a place such as Vancouver or San Francisco, you might already be quite concerned about the environment, Christian or not. It is part of the culture in these places. In this case, you likely encounter people who blame Christians for much of the environmental damage. You probably should have a good response (ie: apologetics!). Continue Reading…
While some apologetics issues remain the same through the ages, such as, ‘did Christ rise on Easter morning?‘ or ‘Does God exist?‘ many depend on specific challenges Christianity is facing at a specific time. This article aims to equip you to answer one of the hottest apologetic topics Christians face today, creation vs evolution. And, this topic can often be as heated (or more so) between Christians than between the Christian and unbeliever.
Yet, it does not need to be this way. With a bit of education on the subject, everyone should be able to discuss it without all the heat, even if they ultimately disagree. Sadly, because of this heat, many have chosen to avoid the details, focusing only on what Genesis 1 is ultimately about. I think this is a crucial mistake apologetically. Continue Reading…
Most Christians realize that the Bible is very important to the Christian faith. So much so, in fact, that it often leads to treating the Bible in some strange ways. We might take a particular sentence (verse) and memorize it, but use it out of context. There are some strange views of how the Bible was produced (ie: dictation). Some Christians might venerate the physical Bible in the home, yet hardly ever crack it open and just read.
‘Just’ reading the Bible is an important practice that has, too often, been lost today, especially with all the technology we now have. I must admit that I have been guilty of this as well. I have participated in (and have taught) book studies where I dug into a particular book or text. I’ve read the entire Bible at least a couple times for classes over the years or in studying the individual books. However, up until recently, I have not made a great effort to simply read the Bible as a book and try to get familiar with it in an overall way. Continue Reading…
Apologetics is kind of like a tool. It can be used properly or improperly. Think of a hammer. You can use it to pound nails into lumber, or you could hit someone with it. Proper use is use out of love for our neighbor, not to beat them up or to win.
We live in a world today where Christianity is not ‘simply accepted’ by the majority. People will not be coming from a position of accepting Christianity until they feel they have found too many flaws in other worldviews. They will, instead, be skeptical unless they are given a good reason to believe. This makes apologetics crucial. Francis Schaeffer famously referred to it as ‘pre-evangelism’. Continue Reading…
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