7 Slogans Christians Need To Stop Using

Many of our intellectual pursuits are shallow. People are more interested in being entertained and clinging to catchy one-liners and slogans that seem to summarize what they think, as opposed to rigorous thought complimented by thorough research. Of course, there is nothing wrong with slogans. Sometimes a slogan is a good way to communicate complicated truths to an audience in a simple way. But there are some slogans that sound good, but are not quite right. Everyone is guilty of this, and many of us find it frustrating when Christians…

When You Should Fire Your Youth Pastor

What makes a church? What factors go into the decision for an individual to choose a particular church? People often look for an outlet for their children, perhaps to keep their teenagers out of trouble, make nice friends, and to provide them with biblical and spiritual insight. So, one might find a church that has a thriving, active youth ministry. Unfortunately, youth ministry does not seem to be output the same number of Christians that were input. Three out of every four young people leave the church either during high…

Is God Wholly Other?

Philosophers and theologians are sometimes keen to suggest that God is “wholly other.” This has become popular among liberal Christianity, represented by men such as Professor John Hick. It is to suggest that God is unlike anything at all in his creation, and all attempts to define or describe God will always be inaccurate or inadequate. There is some sense in which that is true. Everything that we say about God will fall short and will never be exhaustive. I will never be able to exhaustively define who God is,…

A Critique Of Fundamentalism From A Fundamentalist

Sometimes we will encounter blog posts from authors who are trying to ‘win the internet’ by pontificating about how conservative Christianity has faltered. They will say that we ought not be so stringent in our beliefs and doctrine, and that Jesus may not have really risen from the dead. They will say that the Bible teaches outdated morals or the church has misunderstood the Bible for the last two thousand years and they are going to relay to us some new interpretation that just happens to be swept away by…

What Is Christianity?

Throughout their lives, people have different experiences of Christianity, and these experiences tend to paint their interpretation of what Christianity is. Whether it was represented properly or not, people carry around images of Christian belief that do not necessarily represent historic or biblical Christian belief. People will reject a Christianity that is foreign to the Bible. They will reject a Christianity that was represented to them by men who, themselves, did not know what Christianity was. I want to represent Christianity as it truly is for people who have never…

Against Presuppositional Apologetics

When a Christian encounters a non-believer with whom they aim to share the gospel, there are a number of approaches available for them to adopt. It often just depends on the individual with whom they are speaking. After all, people are individuals and have individual needs and barriers and intellectual disputes that will inhibit them from hearing what God’s word says. In a western and rationalistic culture, we are inclined toward what is known as evidential apologetics. This means that rather than just saying that somebody should believe on blind…

Who Is The Suffering Servant? Israel Or Jesus?

Christians who want to defend their faith often will appeal to fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament, knowledge of New Testament revelation that would not be there absent divine inspiration. Of course, the Jews often stand ready to take the Christians to task, because they do not believe in the inspiration of the New Testament. So many of their interpretations are specifically opposed to Christian theology. In particular, I have Isaiah 53 in mind, which, if somebody with any knowledge of Christianity read, they would assume that it was referring…

Why Wasn’t Jesus Named Immanuel?

Why wasn’t Jesus named Immanuel? After all, Isaiah seemed to indicate what the Messiah’s name would be. He writes, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14). Many Christian songs feature the name Immanuel, and we may be puzzled about why we are applying this name, or why Jesus was not named Immanuel by his mother if the Scriptures indicate that the Messiah would be named Immanuel. After all,…

Questions Christians Hope Nobody Will Ask (And The Answers)

There are a number of nagging and difficult questions that Christians just have no answer for, and when they share their faith, they hope that nobody asks them these questions. They just try to not think about them. Many atheists and non-believers expose this fact by making a point to pose difficult questions that they know Christians have no answer to. Despite that, these questions turn out to just be shallow and very easy to answer. Here are several questions Christians hope nobody will ask (and the answers). 1 –…

5 Questions All Christians Should Be Able To Answer

When engaged in dialogue with people out in the world, Christians will encounter certain common objections that they should be able to answer. These are usually based on misconceptions or just misinformation which they have received. They may also be general questions of curiosity that people have. When people find out that you are a Christian, they may want to know some facts about Christian belief. Therefore, I think there are at least 5 questions all Christians should be able to answer. 1 – How can I be saved? It…

7 Misconceptions About Christianity

There are certainly more than 7 misconceptions about Christianity, however I am writing about many of those that we encounter frequently. These are claims that people make who typically are not very engaged in the issues, but are just sort of repeating what they heard before, or what sounds good to them. When people want to challenge Christians, or just sort of mess with them, they will whip out one of these one-liners. I will explain why each of these 7 misconceptions of Christianity do not work, and how we,…

Who Are The New Atheists, And How Should Christians Respond To Them?

Outspoken Christians in today’s world have probably encountered people who claim to be atheists. If these atheists are in tune with the direction of pop-culture atheism, they will not only refer to themselves as atheists, but as New Atheists (and in fact some may even refer to themselves as being part of the movement known as Atheism +). We may encounter them on social media, such as Facebook or Twitter. Perhaps we may have also heard of the Atheist Monument created by the American Atheists in an attempt to proselytize…

Could All Religions Be True?

One of the greatest marks of what is regarded as tolerance in our society is when we refuse to deny the claims held by an individual. When somebody says that they adhere to a specific set of dogma, that is to be regarded as unquestionable, respectable, promotable, and perhaps even true. In fact, people often regard the more enlightened view to be that which claims that everything is true. Everything is true, and everybody is happy, and nobody is held accountable. All religions are an equal path to God. In…

Did The Apostles Encourage Blind Faith?

Suppose you were to encounter an adult who believed in the tooth fairy. When asked how he knows that the tooth fairy exists, he told you that while he has never observed the tooth fairy nor has any forensic evidence for its’ existence, he just has faith that the tooth fairy exists. He just believes, blindly, for no reason other than the fact that he believes. Of course this sounds absurd to many of us, however there are a number of Christians who have taken a very similar stance. There…

10 Questions For Atheists

In discussion with my atheist friends, a number of topics arise and as purely intellectual questions, they are quite interesting, I think, for both parties. However atheists frequently tend to just dismiss these as ridiculous, as though they were familiar with this argument as toddlers and rejected it a long time ago. I often suspect that this is just a shell game, or a confidence trick, for even if these arguments for the existence of God fail, they are certainly not easy topics, they are not things which can be…

Do Christians Need Apologetics?

Sometimes when a person is expressing their lack of religious belief, they will explain that they are more compelled science than they are religion, the insinuation being that we must choose between science, intellectualism, and religion, that we cannot hold on to both. This may be partially due to the vehement criticism of science in the church, the absolute opposition to any advance in knowledge aside from that which is biblical. Thus when young people are in school, they are left to think that they must either choose between what…