Evan Minton's Blog, page 35
March 25, 2018
The Evidence For Jesus' Resurrection -- Part 2: How To Do History
In the previous blog post, I talked about how important it was that we affirm that Jesus rose from the dead if He actually did, I warned not to let one's dislike of Christianity's implications get in the way of interpreting the evidence, and I warned not to let one's naturalistic bias (provided the reader is an atheist) to not get in the way of their investigation. Be open-minded to the supernatural.
However, what kind of historical evidence could there be for the resurrection of Jesus? Where...
March 24, 2018
The Evidence For Jesus' Resurrection -- Part 1: Why This Matters
Did Jesus really rise from the dead? How can we know? Most people, both Christians, and non-Christians alike, will tell you that if you believe that Jesus rose from the dead, it has to be on either the basis of a religious experience (for example, you were addicted to drugs but prayed to Jesus to free you and if He did, you would follow him all the days of your life) or blind faith. The general public is under the impression that Jesus' resurrection cannot be believed on the basis of evidence...
February 23, 2018
3 Syllogistic Arguments For Jesus' Deity
The Bible teaches in a variety of ways that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. In some places, The Bible couldn't possibly be more explicit, and it boggles the mind how anyone who takes scripture as the inspired word of God could avoid any conclusion other than that Jesus is divine. In other places, it's more subtle, and you need to be paying close attention to catch Jesus' claim to divinity or one the epistles claims to divinity. In other words, there are explicit claims (on both Jesus' and the...
February 21, 2018
The Image Of God, Mental Faculties, And The Sanctity Of Life
Genesis 1 teaches that human beings are created in God's image, in His likeness. Much debate and speculation over the years have occurred over what exactly that means. It obviously cannot mean that we look like God if for no other reason than that everyone looks different. In my blog post "What Does It Mean To Be Made In God's Image?" I argued that to be made in God's image entailed a number of attributes which we have that animals don't have: rationality, a moral compass, and free will.
Some...
February 19, 2018
Reflecting On "The Divine Council"
Recently, I read Michael Heiser's book The Unseen Realm: Recovering The Supernatural Worldview Of The Bible. I mentally wrestled with his prospect of "the divine council". Heiser talks about this in this lecture as well btw.
Sometimes I do a soliloquy or write out my thought process when there is subject matter or information that I need to digest, especially if I find that subject matter new or troubling. That is what this blog post is all about.
In the first chapter, Heiser introdu...
February 17, 2018
Q & A: The Can/Won't Model and 1 Timothy 1:18-20
Hello Evan,Your can/won’t model has been extremely helpful to me. I had a question about what you make of Hymenaeus and Alexander in 1 Tim 1:18-20. That text to me sounds like they had a genuine faith, not a demon faith, that they then “shipwrecked.” The context compels me to interpret it this way because Paul is encouraging Timothy to oppose them so that what happened to them does not happen to others. So on the can/won’t model are we stuck saying that Paul anticipated th...
January 30, 2018
Does Libertarian Free Will Imply The Ability To Live A Perfect Life?
Monergism Books posted the following on Facebook:
Source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150964832184949&id=15086969948
Just in case the link to Monergism's Facebook post stops working at some point in the future, I'll simply quote what they said here:
“You think you have a free will? Then demonstrate it: in your own power, stop sinning altogether.
The fact that no person can choose to live a sinless life is proof positive that he has no free will. He is held captive und...
January 25, 2018
An E-Mail Correspondence With A Skeptic - Part 2
Introduction: This is the second of a two-part blog post. This two-part blog post contain a copy/paste e-mail conversation that I had with a non-Christian. I asked him for permission if I could publish our conversation to my blog for the edification of unbelievers who are struggling with the same objections he is, and also to incite Christians to do better about how they live. To read the first part of this conversation, click here.
Bob: Evan, sorry this is so long, but y...
January 24, 2018
An E-Mail Correspondence With A Skeptic - Part 1
Introduction: I received an e-mail from a former Christian. Instead of it being a Q and A article, I decided to post the entire conversation I had with him. Below is the back and forth that we had. With his permission, I have posted this conversation, and I hope it helps unbelievers who struggle with what he has been struggling with, and I hope that it lights a fire under Christians to do better about how they live in front of unbeliever...
January 10, 2018
Is The Universe A Computer Simulation?
Some atheists, in an attempt to avoid the conclusion that The Big Bang origin of our universe was caused by a spaceless, timeless, immaterial, uncaused, powerful, supernatural Being (i.e God), have posited that perhaps our universe and everything in it is just a computer simulation being run by aliens in a laboratory. The Big Bang was the launch of the program and the development of the universe by its finely tuned laws were all a part of the program-universe's code.
If you think I'm maki...
