Gregory Koukl's Blog, page 59
March 24, 2015
Challenge: You Can't Trust the Christian Authors of the Gospels
Raphael Lataster, the author of There Was No Jesus, There Is No God has an article on The Washington Post’s website arguing that Jesus didn’t really exist. Here’s an excerpt from the article that I think makes a few mistakes in reasoning:
Did a man called Jesus of Nazareth walk the earth? Discussions over whether the figure known as the “Historical Jesus” actually existed primarily reflect disagreements among atheists. Believers, who uphold the implausible and more easily-dismissed “Christ of Faith” (the divine Jesus who walked on water), ought not to get involved….
The first problem we encounter when trying to discover more about the Historical Jesus is the lack of early sources. The earliest sources only reference the clearly fictional Christ of Faith. These early sources, compiled decades after the alleged events, all stem from Christian authors eager to promote Christianity – which gives us reason to question them. The authors of the Gospels fail to name themselves, describe their qualifications, or show any criticism with their foundational sources – which they also fail to identify. Filled with mythical and non-historical information, and heavily edited over time, the Gospels certainly should not convince critics to trust even the more mundane claims made therein.
Where do you think Lataster goes wrong with his argument against trusting the Christian writers of the Gospels? (It might help to make a list of all his claims in this passage, explicit and implicit.) How would you challenge his challenge? Tell us what you think in the comments below, then Brett will respond to this challenge on Thursday.
[Update: View Brett's video response. Explore past challenges here and here.]
March 23, 2015
How Do You Handle Name Calling in a Winsome Way?
Alan explains three different types of name calling and what you can do when one of them is directed at you.
March 21, 2015
Truth and Compassion | Right Religious Answers?
Alan’s and Brett’s March newsletters are now posted on the website:
Truth and Compassion in Action by Alan Shlemon: “Gay activists prepared to protest FIRE Church in Concord, North Carolina. Their event leader posted their plan on Facebook: ‘We will have a silent protest as the service is going and let them have it as they leave for the day. Remember we will be peaceful and respectful, something they don’t understand. We are going to STAND TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY to show that our love is stronger than their hate.’ … When the protestors arrived, they were warmly greeted by church leaders who offered them water and snacks, shared the truth with them, and invited them to join the service. Within a short time, the protestors dispersed, explaining the church members were too kind and loving to protest…. The protest organizer called Brown’s radio show the next day to publically apologize for the protest. He said, ‘Once we got there Sunday morning, we were greeted with absolutely perfect love. I mean, it was fantastic.’ That’s why my presentation on homosexuality is subtitled ‘Truth and Compassion.’ It’s not just a clever title. It’s a specific strategy for how the body of Christ must move forward on this controversial topic.” (Read more)
Do the Right Religious Answers Matter? by Brett Kunkle: “A Muslim, a Sikh, a Christian, and an atheist walked into a classroom. No, it’s not the beginning of a joke. It was the beginning of a panel discussion sponsored by Faith Beyond Belief, a Canadian apologetics organization, that I participated in last month at the University of Calgary. The four of us walked into a campus classroom to discuss if and why religious answers matter. We were sent five questions beforehand, to which we would offer a two to three minute response and then be given an opportunity to respond to our fellow panelists’ answers. Here are the five questions, with a brief sketch of my answers: (1) How would you define faith and/or religious beliefs? … (2) Are religious beliefs necessary in modern day Canada? … (3) Can there be a right religious answer? Why or why not? … (4) With so many religious beliefs in Canada, does it even matter if you have the “right one?” … (5) Are you intolerant if you think your religious views are the only right views?” (Read more)
You can subscribe to their monthly newsletters via email here.
March 20, 2015
Read Nancy Pearcey’s Finding Truth with Me
Two weeks from today, we’re starting something new on the blog. It’s a book club of sorts. (My coworkers here are pushing me to call it Stand to Readin’. We’ll see.) We’ll read through Nancy Pearcey’s latest book, Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes, and then come together here each Friday to discuss that week’s reading. (If you use Twitter, use the hashtag #STRread to chat with people during the week as you’re reading.) I’ve seen this work on a couple of other blogs, so let’s give it a try!
To get a taste of the book, listen to the interview Nancy Pearcey did on the podcast this week (if you purchase the book from Stand to Reason, you’ll receive a CD copy of the interview along with the book—use the coupon code "STRread" for 15% off). You can also read this review by Tim Challies. And here’s what Greg said in his endorsement:
Nancy Pearcey has the unique ability of getting to the heart of things in the cultural conversation. Pearcey’s penetrating critique of the worldview “idols” of our age is chock-full of gems. Better, it equips us with an easy-to-follow game plan for assessing any worldview. This is one of those books that not only challenges the critics; it also gives a huge dose of confidence to the Christian who will catch himself walking away from its pages saying, “Gosh, this stuff really is true.”
Greg loves the book, and I’ve loved all her past books, so this should be good. If you’re interested, purchase the book and read the foreword by April 3rd. We’ll do a chapter a week after that (for seven weeks) and see how it goes. If there’s enough interest, we’ll try this again sometime with another book. I hope to see you here on April 3rd.
March 19, 2015
God and Morality – Watch the Live Event Here
Our Google Hangout is tonight, 6:30–7:30 pm (PT). The topic is "God and Morality," and the easiest way to watch and directly ask questions is to join the Hangout, but we'll also be streaming it here and on YouTube. You can ask questions at any of these places or tweet @brettkunkle (use the hashtag #STRask) during the event. See you then!
(Watch past events: How to Train Your Kids and What Students Are Asking.)
Mentioned during the Hangout:
Articles on Stand to Reason website
Paul Copan's website
Is God a Moral Monster? by Paul Copan
ReasonableFaith.org
March 18, 2015
When Whitefield Was Mistaken about the Voice of God
In Tim Keller’s book Prayer, he stresses the idea that proper prayer comes out of our knowledge of God, which we increase by immersing ourselves in the Bible. It’s our knowledge of who God is that directs how we pray and the types of things we pray about. The greater our knowledge of God, the richer and more varied our prayers.
The Bible not only gives rise to our prayers, it also gives us certainty of God’s response to us. We learn there, in His very words, what He has promised us and how He sees us. Our emotions and impressions, on the other hand, are not reliable indicators of God's response. Therefore, Keller cautions, “[W]e cannot be sure he is speaking to us unless we read it in the Scripture.”
As an illustration of this, Keller tells a story about the great preacher George Whitefield:
If we leave the Bible out, we may plumb our impressions and feelings and imagine God saying various things to us, but how can we be sure we are not self-deceived? The eighteenth-century Anglican clergyman George Whitefield was one of the spearheads of the Great Awakening, a period of massive renewal of interest in Christianity across Western societies and a time of significant church growth. Whitefield was a riveting orator and is considered one of the greatest preachers in church history. In late 1743 his first child, a son, was born to he and his wife, Elizabeth. Whitefield had a strong impression that God was telling him the child would grow up to also be a “preacher of the everlasting Gospel.” In view of this divine assurance, he gave his son the name John, after John the Baptist, whose mother was also named Elizabeth. When John Whitefield was born, George baptized his son before a large crowd and preached a sermon on the great works that God would do through his son. He knew that cynics were sneering at his prophecies, but he ignored them.
Then, at just four months old, his son died suddenly of a seizure. The Whitefields were of course grief-stricken, but George was particularly convicted about how wrong he had been to count his inward impulses and intuitions as being essentially equal to God’s Word. He realized he had led his congregation into the same disillusioning mistake. Whitefield had interpreted his own feelings—his understandable and powerful fatherly pride and joy in his son, and his hopes for him—as God speaking to his heart. Not long afterward, he wrote a wrenching prayer for himself, that God would “render this mistaken parent more cautious, more sober-minded, more experienced in Satan’s devices, and consequently more useful in his future labors to the church of God.”
The lesson here is not that God never guides our thoughts or prompts us to choose wise courses of action, but that we cannot be sure he is speaking to us unless we read it in the Scripture.
If a greater man of God than we will ever be can be mistaken about impressions, then none of us should depend on them. You can read what Greg has written on this subject in Does God Whisper? Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 or The Ambassador’s Guide to the Voice of God.
March 17, 2015
Links Mentioned on the 3/17/15 Show
The following is a rundown of this week's podcast, annotated with links that were either mentioned on the show or inspired by it:
HOUR ONE
Guest: Nancy Pearcey – Finding Truth: Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes (0:00)
Nancy Pearcey's website
Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes by Nancy Pearcey (comes with a CD of this podcast interview)
Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey
Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning by Nancy Pearcey
The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy by Nancy Pearcey
You should read all of the above books. Seriously.
10 Commandments for Atheists – Washington Post
Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms by Holly Ordway
HOUR TWO
Commentary: Review of Cinderella Movie (1:00)
Cinderella
Review of Cinderella by Scott Ott – "With Cinderella (2015), director Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Chris Weitz have done the almost unimaginable. They’ve displayed sincere affection between a prince and a servant girl, without post-modern angst or politically correct messaging."
Kenneth Branagh's Very Christian Cinderella by Robert Barron
Commentary: Christian Education and Biblical Authority (1:20)
Questions:
1. How does God affect our free will? (1:39)
The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide by Robert Jay Lifton
2. How should Christians think about traitors? (1:50)
Greg's call last week about patriotism (starting at 0:47)
HOUR THREE
Commentary: Visit to Glen Eyrie (2:00)
Summit Ministries – Worldview Conference 2015 at Glen Eyrie
Saeed Abedini
Ready Yourself with Joy for Whatever Opposition Comes by Amy Hall (quoting David Mathis)
How Our Suffering Glorifies God by Amy Hall
Only One Thing Will Keep You Going by Amy Hall (includes an excerpt from a letter from Saeed Abedini to his daughter)
Questions:
– Announcements by Greg
See upcoming events with STR speakers
Apologetics conference in Pensacola, FL – April 10–11
The Bible: Fast Forward is now available for HD streaming and download
3. Can Christians get any benefit from non-Christian religious sources? (2:19)
4. How far do you go in participating in secular activities and trying to redeem opportunities? (2:40)
Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)
To take part in the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00–7:00 p.m. PT), follow @STRtweets and use the hashtag #STRtalk.
Can We Be Good without God?
This entire conversation must begin with a clarification: we must distinguish between moral ontology and moral epistemology. Epistemology, the branch of philosophy that is concerned with knowledge and how we know what we know, answers questions like, “How do we know what is morally right or wrong? Must we believe in God to affirm moral values? Or, must we believe in God to live a moral life? Or, can we construct a system of ethics apart from belief in God?”
Ontology is a sub-branch of metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that is concerned with the nature of reality and what really exists. Moral ontology is concerned with questions like, “Are there objective moral truths? If there are objective moral values and obligations, what is their grounding? In others words, where do they come from? What is the best explanation of their existence?”
The distinction is vital because the question “What can we know morally?” (the epistemological question) is very different from the question, “Where do objective moral truths come from?” (the ontological question).
Now, to answer your question, I would need to clarify. If you mean, “Do you personally believe that you can be morally good without believing in a god?” (an epistemological question), my answer would be yes. The atheist can affirm moral values and live a good moral life, just like the theist.
However, if you mean, “Do you personally believe that you can be morally good if God does not exist?” (an ontological question), I would say no, because I think objective morality is unintelligible apart from God’s existence. If God does not exist, there is no such thing as objective moral truth.
She had additional questions about how we come to know moral truths, can morality be an evolutionary development, and more. It's an important topic, one that we should give careful thinking to. In fact, that's what we're going to do this Thursday night at 6:30 pm (PT). Join me for Stand to Reason's next live online Q & A (watch a live stream on Google+ or here on the blog). It will be a conversation on God and morality, and your questions and insights are welcome. You can find more info here.
Live Broadcast Today
Ask your question. Share a piece of your mind. Call with your question or comment at (855) 243-9975, outside the U.S. (562) 424-8229. Today 4-7 p.m. PT. Greg is live on the broadcast.
He'll be chatting with Nancy Pearcey about her new book Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes.
Listen live online. Join us on Twitter during the program @STRtweets.
March 16, 2015
Can Sin Be Defined without the Law & Justice of God?
Greg discusses the difference between a mistake according to the world and a sin according to God.
