Gregory Koukl's Blog, page 154

William Lane Craig in the Washington Post

On the American Humanist Association's new website for youth:

The American Humanist Association is promoting a new Web site that is designed to furnish children with a naturalistic or atheistic perspective on science, sexuality, and other topics. The stated goal of the Web site is laudatory: “to encourage curiosity, critical thinking, and tolerance among young people, as well as to provide accurate information regarding a wide range of issues related to humanism, science, culture, and history.”

The problem is that those values have no inherent connection with naturalism, which is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that there is nothing beyond the physical contents of the universe. One doesn’t need to be a naturalist in order to endorse curiosity, critical thinking, tolerance, and the pursuit of accurate information on a wide range of topics.

Ironically, the AHA has been remarkably uncritical in thinking about the truth of naturalism and of humanism in particular.

Continue reading the column

You Don’t Have to Be an Expert to Understand and Communicate the Truth

Jurors are truly the most important people in the courtroom. Yes there are other prominent players in the room; prosecutors, defense attorneys, bailiffs, court clerks, and, of course, the judge. All these folks are a necessary part of the legal process. But none of them, aside from the jurors, has a vote in determining the fate of the defendant. Only the jurors have that critical power: the power of decision. The responsibility of the jury is foremost. It is a breathtaking responsibility, if you really stop to think about it. In my last post, I talked about the characteristics that we’re looking for in jurors as we vet and evaluate them for cold-case trials. We want jurors that are smart, humble and passionate. While these are important characteristics, the one thing we don’t require of jurors is that they be experts.

There are lots of areas of expertise in criminal trials, and both the prosecution and defense attorneys commonly call experts to the witness stand as part of their presentation of evidence. There are forensic experts of every stripe, DNA experts, ballistic experts, behavioral experts, linguistic experts; if you can think of a category of evidence, there is probably an expert somewhere who is willing to come to court to testify about it. Their testimony is sometimes critical to the case, but it can often be technical and highly
confusing. There are times when expert witnesses offer so much esoteric detail, that confusion, rather than clarity, results. The prosecutors and defense attorneys usually do their best to “translate” what the experts have provided, and ask follow-up questions of the experts in an effort to simplify concepts and make them accessible to the jury. It’s the jurors, after all, who will eventually have to make a decision here.

The attorneys aren’t the last people who will have to “translate” these concepts. The jurors will also find themselves re-communicating the expert testimony once they are assembled in the jury room for their final deliberation. One of these jurors, the jury foreperson, will actually facilitate and monitor the process. Along the way, the jurors will most certainly have to examine the facts provided by the experts. It won’t often be easy, and many of the jurors will be asked to examine scientific or technical issues that are well outside their individual areas of expertise. But these folks are entrusted with this duty and are fully capable of understanding and re-communicating the truth to one another. They are much like you and me, as Christians.

Each of us bears a burden to make a case for what we believe. Peter makes that clear in his letter to those who were scattered from Jerusalem. But few of us are experts in any particular field of “apologetics”. Not many of us are world class philosophers like J. P. Moreland, astrophysicists like Hugh Ross or biochemists like Fuzale Rana. But, as important members of the jury, we are called to examine the claims of Christianity and re-communicate the evidence to other “jurors” in our family, school environment and workplace. We are the ones who have been given the power of decision. In every jury
deliberation, there are times when jurors have difficulty remembering precisely what an expert said about a particular subject. In those situations, the jury often asks the court for “read-back”; they are allowed to listen to (and review) the transcript of the testimony that was given by the expert. We don’t expect jurors to be able to recall and recite every detail offered by the experts. We don’t expect jurors to become experts. We simply expect jurors to refer to the experts when they have questions.

As Christian Case Makers, we don’t have to become experts either. We simply need to know how to resource the experts when someone on our jury asks a question. We need to have access to the book, the article, the website, the podcast or the video that will help us remember the details and help each other make a decision. There are plenty of experts (“million dollar” apologists) out there at our disposal. If we hope to be good “one dollar” apologists, we simply need to be able to refer to the experts when we need to.

Should we read the Bible chronologically? (Video)

Should we read the Bible chronologically?

Inconceivable

"There is no question in my mind that there is a Creator of the universe. This is not two dust particles that came together and created mass and energy, and eventually life. It's just inconceivable." Gene Cernan Apollo 17

Links Mentioned on the Show

The following are links that were either mentioned on this week's show or inspired by it, as posted live on the @STRtweets Twitter feed:

Books Greg recommends as gift ideas


Is Mormonism Just Another Christian Denomination? by Greg Koukl (PDF)


The Ambassador's Guide to Mormonism by Brett Kunkle


CARM resources on Mormonism


Become a strategic partner of Stand to Reason


Preparing for Christmas: Celebrate Advent by Greg Koukl


The Nicene Creed


In the Beginning...We Misunderstood by Johnny Miller and John Soden


Winking, Wiggling, and the Power of Words by Greg Koukl


The Trinity Is Biblical by Greg Koukl


A Dilemma that Doesn't Prove Anything by Melinda Penner

Listen to today's show or download any  show for free.

Good Jurors Make Good Christian Case Makers

Yesterday I posted a blog that described the three reasons people resist the truth. When picking a jury for a homicide trial, it’s important to try to pick folks who will fairly examine the evidence without a pre-existing emotional or volitional bias. Good jurors are able to set aside their partialities and presuppositions in order to evaluate the evidence fairly. There’s a strong parallel between the characteristics of a good juror and the characteristics of a Good Christian Case Maker (I’ve written much more about this in my book). Let me tell you what I look for in a juror, and help you see why the characteristics of valuable jurors are similar to the characteristics of valuable Christian Ambassadors:

Good Jurors Are Smart Jurors
I investigate complicated cold-cases. They’re difficult to assemble and they involve complex relationships between circumstantial pieces of evidence. I need jurors who are smart enough to be able to understand the relationships and inferences.

Good Jurors Are Humble Jurors
The last thing I need is a juror who thinks he or she is an expert in some aspect of the case. We’re going to call expert witnesses to the stand and we need jurors who are humble enough to evaluate what these experts have to say, without thinking that they know better (when they actually don’t).

Good Jurors Are Passionate Jurors
More than anything else, I need jurors who give a darn. I want people on my panel who are excited to uncover the truth, are glad to be there, and are appreciative of their opportunity. Apathy is extremely dangerous on a jury panel.

That’s it really. There are more attributes of good jurors that I could list here, but these are the most important characteristics, and I think these attributes will serve us well as Christian Ambassadors and Case Makers. We need to be smart; not just in terms of our ability to absorb and comprehend the arguments and evidences related to the claims of Christianity, but also in our ability to understand how to navigate our conversations about these truths. We need to be humble; there are many dimensions and fields of Christian Case Making. While I may possess some expertise in one area of research, I need to recognize my limits and rely on the work of others (more on that in my next post). Finally, we need to be passionate; if we are apathetic about our opportunities to examine and articulate the faith, we will fail to act at all.

Passion is perhaps the most important of these characteristics; it’s the one attribute I find most lacking in the Church as I begin to travel around the country speaking on these issues. Most of us are not passionate about Christian Case Making. We fail to recognize the calling of 1 Peter 3:15-16 on our lives. We’re not excited about it. Apathy is dangerous on a jury panel but it’s even more dangerous in the lives of those who have been given the truth of the Gospel. The stakes are so much higher. Jurors have to come to a decision about matters involving the temporal life of a defendant. Those who examine the claims of Christianity are making a decision about their eternal life with God.

The Second Advent Candle

If you're using an advent wreath, this Sunday the second candle is lit in addition to the first.

Amid all the beauty of Christmas decorations and services, it's a very dark thing that necessitated the incarnation - our sin.  I think most of us rarely dwell on our sin, but when we do it could overwhelm us because of the guilt and penalty it justly brings us.  Our Savior Jesus is the only hope for redemption - for not receiving what we deserve.  Instead, God gives us the gift of His Son; Jesus willingly gives Himself to stand in the dock in our stead.  That is the most infinitely valuable gift for all of us.

Psalm 130:1-8

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
    Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
    to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
    Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
    so that you may be revered.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
    more than those who watch for the morning,
    more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
    For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
    and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
    from all its iniquities.

Mormonism: Making Theological Distinctions

This recent news
release got me thinking about the problem of treating Mormonism as a
legitimate denomination of Christianity:

Elder Quentin L. Cook,
an apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
appealed to the news media today to make a clear distinction in their reports
between the Church and the polygamist sect in Texas that has made headlines
throughout the world.

He praised news media that are
making this distinction, but expressed concerns about others who are
perpetuating mistruths about the Church, whose members are commonly referred to
as Mormons.

Elder Cook said it is very
confusing to the public when some media use “Mormon” to describe the
Texas-based polygamous group that is currently under investigation for possible
incidents of child abuse. He reiterated that The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, with over 13 million members worldwide, is not connected in
any way to sects that practice polygamy.

In light of his understandable concern, it occurred to me
that what is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander.  Here are Apostle Cook’s own words,
slightly modified by me (in brackets) to express a related—and largely ignored—concern:

[A leader for] the Church of Jesus
Christ …. appealed to the news media today to make a clear distinction in their
reports between the [Christian] Church and the [Mormon] sect in Utah that has
made headlines throughout the world…[He] expressed concerns about others
who are perpetuating mistruths about the Church, whose
members are commonly referred to as ["Christians."].  [The
Christian leader] said it is very confusing to the public when some media use
[“Christian”] to describe the [Salt Lake City]-based [non-trinitarian,
original-sin-denying, pro-formal-priesthood promoting, pro-eternal marriage,
polytheistic, God-has-a-wife] group...He reiterated that The [original
Christian] Church of Jesus Christ... with over [a billion members] worldwide,
is not connected in any way to sects that practice [polytheism, et al].

 

Parkinson's Research

Small but hopeful results in treatment for Parkinson's using adult stem cells. 

Want a Copy of Jesus iWitness?

If you make a donation to Stand to Reason in the month of December, you can request a free copy of Doug Powell's Jesus iWitness. This book is gorgeous. You can see a video recommendation from Greg on the donation page, and as it happens, Tom Gilson of Thinking Christian also just posted a review. Here's a bit of what he had to say about the book:

I don’t know when I’ve seen anything like Doug Powell’s books Resurrection iWitness, Jesus iWitness. It’s not just their incredibly rich visual design, or their clear presentation of essential truths. It’s their interactivity....

The books are coffee-table size, and the kind of thing you just love to pick up and hold and feast your eyes upon.... It’s not just about first impressions, for their value in that is not
only in their presentation but even more so in their content. Each of
them includes a concise summary of the most relevant teachings and
stories surrounding their subject matter. Their quality is high enough to use as overview/summary material in
home-schools with high-school age students, or for any Sunday School
class from college age and up. Or maybe not just any class; it
would take a pretty adventurous and creative teacher to bring it
together. But it could be instructive and fun if done right. Serious
students would probably want to supplement these books’/apps’
information from other sources, but even absent that, anyone who learned
just what’s in the iWitness material would be at the head of the class...

It’s December. If you’re thinking “gift book“ for anyone on your list, Jesus iWitness and Resurrection iWitness are literally the best I’ve seen in a long time.

Read the rest of his review.