In this interview, Bishop Wright talks about Heaven, the Postmodern Movement, Satan and Evil, the Debate about Homosexuality, Women in Ministry, Filming the End Times for YouTube, Darwin, and more.
Category Archives: Apologetics
Anthony Horvath talks to students about being pro-life
You can find out more about Anthony’s ministry here: Athanatos Ministries
Can There Be Morality Without God? (Debate Video)
Dinesh D’Souza and Peter Singer debate at Princeton University:
“Can There Be Morality Without God?”
A. N. Wilson on “Why I Believe Again”
James Grant says…
A. N. Wilson was once a Christian, but “converted†to atheism, rubbing shoulders with Dawkins and Hitchens and others. but now he has started to believe again. Why? He mentioned several reasons in this article, “Why I Believe Again.†It really is worth your time to read it.
He mentions watching people die, including his mother, and becoming convinced that purely materialists explanations for human existence do not work. He also explains that his atheist friends seem like people “who have no ear for music, or who have never been in love.†But one of the crucial steps in moving away from unbelief was a book on Nazi Germany:
- I haven’t mentioned morality, but one thing that finally put the tin hat on any aspirations to be an unbeliever was writing a book about the Wagner family and Nazi Germany, and realising how utterly incoherent were Hitler’s neo-Darwinian ravings, and how potent was the opposition, much of it from Christians; paid for, not with clear intellectual victory, but in blood. Read Pastor Bonhoeffer’s book Ethics, and ask yourself what sort of mad world is created by those who think that ethics are a purely human construct. Think of Bonhoeffer’s serenity before he was hanged, even though he was in love and had everything to look forward to.
That is powerful. But don’t stop with his article. The New Statesman has a Q&A with him too… [Continue Reading…]
Does Satan Exist? – Nightline Debate
Colbert takes on Bart Ehrman… a second time
Once again, Colbert hands Bart Ehrman a rattle snake and tells him to chew on it! Just kidding, but please observe as Stephen Colbert uses standard Christian apologetic arguments against Dr. Ehrman’s claim. I especially love the final example about the elephant, even though his telling of the story isn’t quite as eloquent as I would present it. 🙂
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Bart Ehrman | ||||
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[HT: James Grant]
N. T. Wright on the Resurrection
James Grant says,
Mark Driscoll provided something of an overview of N. T. Wright’s book The Resurrection of the Son of God. Here is Driscoll’s brief five-point summary of Wright’s argument:
- Resurrection and its cognates mean “life after ‘life after death.’â€
- Ancient paganism strenuously denied the possibility of resurrection.
- A strong belief in the hope of future resurrection existed only within the bounds of certain sects of Judaism.
- The only possible reason why early Christianity began and took the shape it did is that the tomb really was empty and that people really did meet Jesus, alive again.
- Though admitting it involves accepting a challenge at the level of worldview itself, the best historical explanation for all these phenomena is that Jesus was indeed bodily raised from the dead.
[HT: James Grant]
Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
Stan Guthrie moderates a Christian Book Expo panel with Lee Strobel, William Lane Craig, Douglas Wilson, Christopher Hitchens, and Jim Denison.
The New Atheists usually make two charges against Christianity: (1) that it is untrue and (2) that it is harmful. A panel of apologetics experts responds to an atheist critic with evidence from Scripture, science, and history about why the faith is both reasonable and good for the world. Christianity Today’s Stan Guthrie moderated this panel on March 21, 2009 for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.
Go to the link above to watch the video recording of the event. Here is a link to download the audio in mp3. This is a really good discussion panel and everyone did a great job, even Christopher Hitchens. I can only pray and hope that one day God will save Christopher so that his name will finally be fulfilled.
Bart Ehrman on NPR
James White offers some good reflection on the agenda of Bart Ehrman and his latest book by reviewing an interview Dr. Ehrman had on NPR:
The Coming Evangelical Collapse
Michael Spencer has a very provocative article that was published in the March 10th edition of the Christian Science Monitor. I encourage you all to read it. Here is an important excerpt:
WHY IS THIS GOING TO HAPPEN?
1. Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can’t articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith.
2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.
3. There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.
4. Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.
5. The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to “do good” is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.
6. Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.
7. The money will dry up.
