Brian Seagraves's Blog, page 7
November 28, 2018
Episode 183 - Christianity is the Best Explanation for Many of Our Deepest Convictions
One of the most helpful ways I've heard Christianity be described is as the best explanation for reality. It's the best explanation for how we understand and see the world, and it makes sense of our deepest knowledges and intuitions, the things we just know innately. Greg Koukl has popularized this idea, and he wrote a book called The Story of Reality, which I highly recommend. It aims to tell the Christian story, the Christian account as a grand narrative, all the way from th...
November 17, 2018
The Biggest Apologetic Concerns Are ���In Here��� Not ���Out There���
When I have apologetic conversations, I often find myself talking about issues that are ���out there.��� (No, not like UFOs!) The issues at hand are not personal to either myself or the other person. They might be related to science, biblical reliability, or God���s supposed ���evil��� acts in the Old Testament. Of course, these are good conversations to have, but regardless of who convinces whom, nothing directly related to the person���s soul is affected by the outcome. The issues are ���ou...
November 7, 2018
Episode 182 - Is Religious Truth Just a Matter of Opinion?
Do you think Christianity, and let's just say religious truth in general, is a matter of opinion, or is it about objective truth? Is it just a matter of personal opinion, or is it about reality, objective truth? Now, on a podcast like this, that might sound like an odd question, but we've been going through this kind of informal series recently, looking at some of the findings of the Ligonier survey on theology of America and evangelicals in general. And you know what? 62% of...
October 31, 2018
Episode 181 - Are People Basically Good?
Over the last couple weeks, we've been looking at the results of a survey that Ligonier Ministries did of evangelicals in America, and just Americans in general and some of the interesting findings that they have come up with. For instance, the one we're going to look at this week is that over 52% of people who somehow are classified as evangelicals only believe that everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. 52% of people who somehow ended up in the evangelic...
October 24, 2018
Episode 180 - Does God Accept the Worship of All Religions?
Last week we talked about a survey that Ligonier Ministries did of America in general, but Evangelicals also. They determined who Evangelicals were by how they responded to questions concerning the exclusivity of Christ and salvation, the centrality of the word of God, the importance of Evangelism, of about four markers that have classically been considered to be markers of those who would be Evangelicals.
Now this is not a political definition as might come into play when we t...
October 17, 2018
Episode 179 - Is Jesus The First and Greatest Created Being?
We often in apologetics circles talk a lot about worldview issues; the age of the Earth? Is there a God? Is there truth? Can we know it? But all of that should be in service to undergird and support our efforts to defend the Gospel. That's what apologetics is about, is giving an answer for the hope we possess in Christ.
And speaking of Christ, there's a new survey out from Ligonier, and what they've done once a year or every couple years is survey evangelicals and also America...
October 10, 2018
Episode 178 - Would People Believe If Only They Had More Information?
I want to talk about this tendency, we sometimes have to think if we just explained it well enough, if we just gave enough evidence for Christianity and the Gospel and the resurrection, Well, someone would just have to believe, wouldn't they? I have this struggle in my personal life as my wife can attest. I have this tendency to think, well, if I just explain it right, of course people will agree with me and so I can get stuck in this loop in conversations where I end up sayin...
October 2, 2018
Episode 177 - We Often Take Our Jobs Both Too Seriously and Not Seriously Enough
Last week, we talked about a topic that's a little different than usual. It's not dealing with arguments or evidence for the Christian worldview. We talked about how who we spend time with communicates something about our gospel convictions. So, we should care about that. If you missed the episode, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to it. This week we're going to apply similar thinking in a different way. We're going to talk about how our jobs, our vocations obviously ar...
September 26, 2018
Episode 176 - Should Christians Be Concerned About Who They're Seen With?
Many people have made the point that how we live can be an apologetic in and of itself. Apologetics is the practice of giving an answer, giving a defense for the hope we have in Christ as Christians. It involves giving reasons for why we should believe the gospel. Why does Christianity make sense? Why should someone believe it? All of that is wrapped up in apologetics. So often apologetics is thought of as being informationally based. We are giving information and answers, tha...
September 19, 2018
Episode 175 - Is Science the Only Way to Know Anything?
Today we're going to talk about science and part of its relationship to Christianity and how we know things and how we live. And for many people, this might not be a consideration that comes up hardly every and for another type of listener, another type person in today's world, this is probably something you're encountering all the time. Well we're having conversations about ethical issues and moral issues and in society and how we know and people are constantly saying, "Well,...
