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Category Archives: Apologetics
Coins found with Joseph’s name and image on them
Well, for those of you who wonder about the historicity of the Biblical story, more evidence seems to have been discovered in Egypt this past month. The Jerusalem Post has reports that “Joseph-Era” coins have been found by archaeologists:
“According to the report, the significance of the find is that archeologists have found scientific evidence countering the claim held by some historians that coins were not used for trade in ancient Egypt, and that this was done through barter instead. The period in which Joseph was regarded to have lived in Egypt matches the minting of the coins in the cache, researchers said.”
Read the whole article here.
God’s Awesome Glory in Thunder and Lightening
I took this video last night outside on the front driveway of my home and I only wish that my camera phone could have picked up the lightening better. It was non-stop lightening and thunder for several hours last night and I couldn’t help but go outside and take a clearer look. There are some long dark portions of this video, but when the lightening shows through it is so beautiful. God’s creation truly does show us His glory!
Christian Resources about the Islamic Religion
Here are a few good resources to study and use if any of you are wanting to learn more about Islam and what Muslims around the world believe.
I know of other sites, but this should get our list going for now. Please share in the comments any other web sites you have come across that can help Christians learn more about Islam and what an honest and Biblically faithful response to Islam looks like.
Perspective & Proportion: Abortion, Islam and Radical Leftists
Well, for too long in recent days the Liberal Left has been crying about how we need to be kinder to Islam and harder on the U.S. for its past foreign policies. Islam is a “peaceful religion” and its those extremists that are not true Muslims… Right? Don’t think about it… just say, “yes!”
Well, after 10 years and no abortion doctors being murdered… An abortion doctor is murdered at his church and now the Liberal Left are screaming that all anti-abortionists are extremists and spreading hatred with their speech!
OH! Pardon me… I didn’t realize that a small number of extremists meant that all anti-abortionists were extremists! (Let’s play the “double standard” card. That will make us feel better and help us force more people under our thumbs.)
Well, now that I’ve had my say… I mainly wanted to point you over to the St. Johnny blog to encourage you to read an article on the recent Tiller murder. Anthony Horvath has some great insights into what is taking place in the political sphere regarding the Liberal Left and their extreme hypocrisy and fear mongering.
Here is an excerpt from his article:
I indicated that the reason why proportion and a sense of perspective were necessary regarding the Tiller killing was because in the liberal mind, referring to abortion as murder, etc, is inflammatory language that really is ‘hate speech.’
The current hate speech legislation coming through Congress (Matthew Shepherd Act) aims to draw exactly this kind of connection, though of course this legislation is related more to homosexuality. The idea is the same, though: if anyone person commits a crime and it can be tracked back to someone who can be perceived to have ‘instigated it’ the person who did the ‘instigation’ is equally guilty and consequently should be punished under the law.
In today’s perusal of the web I found more evidence of this attempt to condemn the entire pro-life movement because of this single event. The irony is that the day after Tiller was killed, an American soldier was gunned down at a recruitment center by someone we now know was acting on Islamicist principles.
Besides there being little media attention about that, it should be noted that the Left does not apparently have an interest to condemn all Muslims because of this single event. There is clearly a lack of perspective here: in ten years one abortionist was killed but in that same ten years thousands of Americans died at the hands of Islamicists and numerous attacks have been thwarted. But let’s not make any unwarranted generalizations, shall we? Unless it’s pro-lifers.
But about that evidence I was referencing. This article on Newsmax describes how the Left is attempting to link the Tiller killing to Bill O’Reilly and the rest of the pro-life movement. This article on LifeSiteNews illustrates some of the same.
Homosexuality and the Church
In the previous post regarding the Church of Scotland and the appointment of a practicing homosexual to a particular ministerial post, someone left a comment stating that this is a healthy move for the Church of Scotland, and American Christians should follow their lead, referencing this article by Walter Wink: “Homosexuality and the Bible.” In this article, Wink provides several arguments as to why the church should not condemn homosexuality, but at the heart of his article and argument is this statement: “The crux of the matter, it seems to me, is simply that the Bible has no sexual ethic.” Indeed…that is a crucial matter on several levels (not to mention an significance difference of opinion on the nature of Biblical revelation).
I do hope Christians can have open and civil discussions, even about this controversial matter, but it is important to realize that Wink’s arguments will not persuade Christians who oppose the practice of homosexuality and have thought through the textual, biblical, and historical issues. It is not as if Christian’s haven’t dealt with Wink’s arguments both throughout church history and in our more recent cultural situation. Robert Gagnon’s The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics
is one of those books that helps Christians get the right perspective on this issue. It is the most comprehensive book-length response to the interpretive assumptions that go into this type of discussion.
I would also encourage you to check out Robert Gagnon’s website. Gagnon is Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and his credentials are superb: a B.A. from Dartmouth College, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is also an ordained elder in a Presbyterian Church (USA) in Pittsburgh. His website is a comprehensive response to the homosexual movement within the church, which he faces in the PCUSA. You can view some of his specific responses to particular articles and reviews here. This includes a response to Walter Wink’s arguments from Christian Century. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see links to the pdfs. If you prefer to hear Gagnon, Issues, Etc., has a two part interview with him (Part 1 & Part 2).
Obama to Notre Dame Grads: Babel is our goal, not God
Yesterday, I watched President Obama address thousands of attendees at the Notre Dame graduation day as he received his honorary doctorate. Now, I was not surprised by anything he said, except for a couple of references he made to the Bible and God in order to “connect” with the Catholic School’s traditional theology… but what disturbed me MOST was the apparent ECHO of the Tower of Babel episode in the Genesis account. Notice, from the online transcript, the wording of the Presidents comments in one section of his speech:
“And when that happens — when people set aside their differences, even for a moment, to work in common effort toward a common goal; when they struggle together, and sacrifice together, and learn from one another — then all things are possible.”
Now, notice the Tower of Babel incident from Genesis 11:4-7:
“Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.’ 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.'”
Now, please hear me correctly, I understand and affirm that the great commission and the spread of the Gospel is God’s divine plan to gradually (and finally at the return of Christ) reverse what He did at the Babel by confusing mankind with various languages. But understand this:
President Obama DID NOT even talk about the Gospel or the Great Commission in his entire speech. Thus presenting the dilemma: What was he talking about?
He was talking about compromise. And this compromise was not merely between different cultures, but between different religions and faiths! This was not about the Church and the Gospel, it was about uniting together as humanity and working to find “common ground” in our OWN strength, doing it without God!
So, my conclusion about President Obama’s speech is this: It was the most practically atheistic speech a “Christian” could ever give. And to top it off, the people at Notre Dame cheered him on in doing it!
For myself and hopefully many other Christians, yesterday was a sad, sad day, having seen that so many “Christian” people are now willing to say ‘YES’ to the offer of Satan that Jesus Christ so powerfully said ‘NO’ to on that high mountain (Matt. 4:8-10):
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”
President Obama has already said yes to Satan’s temptation by rejecting the Gospel and he’s looking to promote it to EVERYONE ELSE. But, as Christians, are we willing to COMPROMISE on the Gospel for the sake of “progress” and making “all things possible”?
I pray that those students at Notre Dame will reconsider the offer President Obama gave to them yesterday and that they will look to Christ for their help and not rely on themselves to get things done and to find “common ground” in our common humanity. If our common humanity is not rooting in the Gospel of Jesus Christ saving a people for himself from every nation and toungue, then it is only rooted in our fallenness and our hatred of God and His glory.
Please pray for our President and ask God to keep this atheism from spreading further into the hearts of Christians in this country and around the world.
Debate: Is Jesus God?
James White vs. Jalal Abualrub:
“Does the New Testament Teach that Jesus Is God?”
[HT: David Wood]
No, Mr. President
John Piper’s Response to President Obama on Abortion
[HT: Kerry]
Abortion: The NEW kind of slavery
If you stop to think about the past, sometimes you can gain really great insight. Now, this is not my idea, but Craig Carter has thought about something very significant in this whole debate about abortion.
In the past, you might recall that pro-slavery legislation ultimately defined a “person” based upon societies decision/will that slaves were not persons, they were more like cattle. The same thing applies to pro-abortionist legislation and thinking today. The only reason that someone can say that a baby in the womb is not a person is through an “act of will” that denies the reality that the baby in the womb IS a person in and of themselves! In other words, it’s the 19th century all over again!
Or, as someone once told me, “post”-modernism is the drunk after he’s wrecked his car into a telephone pole and the resultant fire is about to burn him to death while he waves his last, shiny bottle in the air thinking nothing about his impending death… The lesson? Today is not a new mindset, it’s just the fulfillment of and, at the same time, a denial of what has come before!
So, here is what Mr. Craig Carter had to say:
“The Globe and Mail tiptoes carefully through the semantic minefield in this story on an unborn baby having heart surgery in utero. Notice the terms used [my bolding]:”
“TORONTO — In what’s being called a Canadian first, Toronto doctors have successfully performed a heart procedure on a fetus inside the womb.
A team of doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children and Mount Sinai Hospital expanded one of the baby’s heart valves using a balloon catheter. The device was inserted through the mother’s abdomen and then into the fetus to reverse heart failure before delivery.Sick Kids Hospital says the procedure allowed the baby to remain safely in utero for a crucial extra month before her birth on April 15.
Within an hour of Oceane McKenzie’s birth, she had another procedure, and a third followed a few weeks later. Doctors say Oceane is well on the road to recovery and will soon be going home.”
Carter concludes:
Now the pro-abortion types are going to hate this article. It refers to this little girl as “fetus-baby-fetus-baby-Oceane McKenzie.” This is clearly a fetus, which is also a baby, who also has a name.
But under Canadian law her mother could have changed her mind after the heart operation and had Oceane killed by an abortionist at any moment up to the moment the baby emerged from the birth canal. So how can the pro-abortionists say that abortion is not killing a person? There is only one way to do it: Oceane was a person because her mother wanted her. So one human being can bestow and remove personhood from another by an act of will. The last time that sort of thing was legal was in the days of slavery. How “progressive” we are – not!
[HT: James Grant]
