Category Archives: Apologetics

The genealogical Adam and Eve

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Very often it’s put to us as a stark choice: either you accept the biblical account of human origins, or you accept the scientific account.  Either you believe that we are all direct descendants of Adam and Eve, or that we are all products of a long evolutionary process, stretching back a million years or more to a (non-human) common ancestor.

But can we have our cake and eat it?  Can we hold both to the essential factual historicity of the accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, and to the validity of evolutionary science?…

Where is God in a coronavirus world?

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John Lennox, Where is God in a Coronavirus World? The Good Book Company, 2020.

I’d like to offer a brief resume of this book by an Oxford mathematician, philosopher of science, and Christian apologist.

I think that I have faithfully reflected – albeit mostly in my own words – the main lines of thought.

1. Feeling vulnerable

Lennox writes in April, 2020, just a few short months into the world-wide emergency that has been precipitated by the rapid spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. …

Exodus 12:37 – How many Israelites left Egypt?

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12:37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, plus their dependants. 12:38 A mixed multitude also went up with them, and flocks and herds—a very large number of cattle.

To the reader who is inclined to take Old Testament history seriously, the presence of large numbers – particularly in military accounts – presents a significant problem.

What are we to make of

  • the standing army of Israel of over half a million (Numbers 1:46; 2:32; 26:51)?
…

Matthew 27:52f – Many bodies raised

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27:52f And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised.  (They came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.)

The issue to be discussed here is the historicity (or otherwise) of this account.

So-called ‘mainstream’ critical scholarship regards it as ‘legendary’.  According to Harper’s Bible Commentary, for example,

‘One wonders what the resurrected saints were doing between Good Friday and Easter.

…

16 bad atheist arguments

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I rather like how Jeremy Linn has captured some of the most popular atheist arguments against Christianity, and hinted at where some of its weaknesses might lie.

Moreover, says Linn, ‘for each of the arguments, we give an example question you can ask to better understand where the person who gave the argument is coming from. The goal is to listen and understand, rather than to dominate and tear down.’

1: Who created God?

This question is asked under the assumption that God needs a creator.…

Contending for the faith

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‘Contending for the faith’, writes Lee Gatiss in Evangelicals Now, is a phrase often used by Christians, but not always with a clear sense of its meaning.

Gatiss offers a helpful, if hard-hitting, summary of ‘the biblical doctrine of contending’:-

1. Contending is not a worldly exercise

  • We do not contend against flesh and blood, but against demonic powers.
  • We do not merely contend against something but for the faith, for the gospel.
  • We do not contend in a violent way for Jesus’s kingdom as if it were an earthly kingdom.
…

John 8:12-30 – “I am the light of the world” – sermon notes

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Whereas the main question in chapter 7 is, ‘Who is Jesus?’, in chapter 8 this question develops into ‘How do we know that his testimony is valid?’

1. Declaration: “I am the light of the world”

“I” – Jesus points to himself, begging the question: mere man? madman? myth? menace? mistaken? Messiah?

“I am” – The 2nd such statement in this Gospel.  N.b. Yahweh’s self-revelation in Exodus and Isaiah.

“I am Light” – representing learning, love laughter, and life (in contrast to darkness, which represents dullness, depravity despair and death).…

Presuppositionalist apologetics

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Many Christians will be aware of the evidentialist approach to apologetics.  This approach uses among other strategies, logical arguments for the existence of God and historical evidence for the person and work of Jesus Christ.  These are marshalled in order to convince the unbeliever see that the Christian faith is reasonable and evidence-based.

Less familiar, however, is the presuppositionalist approach.  Rooted in the thought of Augustine and Anslem (“I believe in order to understand”), it is most often associated with Cornelius Van Til and his disciples. …

MY truth versus THE truth

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Drew Wilmott writes about how people – believers and non-believers alike – often use spurious arguments to defend their own version of the ‘truth’ while disparaging others’.

1. I only read/watch/listen to what I already agree with.

My views are, therefore, never tested, I never give myself an opportunity to be corrected, or to enter into the thought-world of those with whom I disagree.  I see them (insofar as I see them at all) only through the lens of other people’s opinions. …

Why do we see so few miracles today?

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Miracles: the Bible seems full of them, and yet we see so few today.  How do we account for this?

That question was recently put to John Piper, and here’s the substance of his reply.

1. There were fewer miracles in the Bible than we probably think

See Psalm 77:11 ‘I will remember the works of the Lord. Yes, I will remember the amazing things you did long ago!’

Even in OT times God’s people saw miracles as predominating in days past – especially the days of Moses and Elijah. …