Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
The Logos March Madness shows the who is who of evangelical authors
This is a very good way to see what authors are having an impact in the evangelical world. It seems that McArthur is not pulling up the punches many would expect.
Piper lost to Packer, and I was expecting Piper to win over Packer. Seems that Packer still has a lot of fans. It is interesting too that Lloyd-Jones beats Spurgeon.
It is telling that in Division 4, where Wright was placed, he battled against ancient people, the likes of Aquinas, Cranfield, and Kuyper. Wright is the only modern/recent scholar who could move to the finals. I would have like to have seen maybe Bauckham also reaching that place, since he is such a good scholar regarding the deity of Jesus, and the identity of God overall.
In Division 3, Calvin fell at the feet of Spurgeon!!!!! This is extremely telling!!!! In my view, this is a reflection of the Neo-Calvinists, that quote Spurgeon time and time again, believing that they are really quoting Calvin through Spurgeon.
Well, vote, have fun, this is a very enlightening ordeal.
Monday, April 2, 2012
The Qur'an Unveiled
Following are some observations and criticisms of the Qur’an. Just one precursor: If the Qur’an were true, then I would believe it. I’m just not convinced it is. If someone begins with the conviction that the Qur’an is true, then certainly these critiques will have little effect. But if one begins with an honest attempt to evaluate the historical, theological, philosophical, and scientific evidence, I believe they would come to a very different conclusion.
There are clearly commonalities between the Islamic and Christian views of God. Both view God as omniscient (Surah 4:7), omnipotent (Surah 2:20), creator (Surah 6:1), and sovereign (Surah 74:31).
But the differences are also substantial. The Bible says that God is love (1 John 4:8). The Qur’an says that Allah is Loving (Surah 85:14). The reason for this difference is significant. The Biblical God can be love because He is one God who eternally exists as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus, relationality is within the nature of God. Allah, on the other hand, is Unitarian (Surah 112:1-4). Allah acts lovingly towards His creation but love is not one of His attributes. This turns out to be a weakness of Allah, for Allah is dependent upon His creation to express love. Allah can only act lovingly after He has created. Therefore, He lacks love as a maximally great attribute. Yet love is within the character of the Biblical God Himself. The Biblical God is thus more perfectly good than Allah.
The type of love Allah expresses is also different than the Biblical God. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God loves unbelievers and yearns for their salvation. By contrast, the Qur’an makes it clear that Allah does not love unbelievers. Allah does not love mischief-makers (Surah 28:77), unbelievers (Surah 30:45), the unjust (Surah 42:40), as well as the unfaithful and ungrateful (Surah 22:38). Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son, whom the Father lovingly accepted back upon his return. In contrast, the Qur’an says that Allah only loves those who first purify themselves (Surah 9:108). Simply put, the Qur’an says to love those who first love you. But Jesus said to love even your enemies. This may be why the Qur’an repeatedly commands Muslims not to build friendships with unbelievers (Surah 3:118; 4:89; 4:144; 5:71; 60:1). Muhammad did sign treaties with unbelievers when it suited his purposes. Yet Jesus was considered a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34).
Muhammad also misconstrued the nature of the Trinity. He believed the Trinity was God the Father, Jesus, and Mary! Yet this is clearly not what the Bible teaches about the triune God. But it does help to explain why so many Muslims fiercely condemn the doctrine as heretical. The Qur’an says: “And when Allah will say: O Isa son of Marium! Did you say to men, take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah.” (Surah 5:116). If the Qur’an were inspired, why would it have a faulty understanding of the Christian God? Even if Christians were wrong about God’s triune nature, it seems that the Qur’an should at least properly understand the Christian doctrine.
Jesus
The Islamic view of Jesus is fascinating. He is considered a prophet along with Adam, Lot, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. While Muhammad is considered a prophet of Allah, he had a normal birth, performed no miracles, and sinned. On the other hand, Jesus was sinless, virgin-born (Surah 19:18-21), and a miracle-working prophet (Surah 2:253). One key difference between the Bible and the Qur’an involves where the source of Jesus’ power comes from. In contrast to other prophets who worked miracles, the Biblical Jesus does miracles through his own power. This is one confirmation of his deity. But since Muslims deny that Jesus is divine, the Qur’an has Jesus performing miracles at the permission of Allah (Surah 5:110).
While the Qur’an does affirm traditional miracles of Jesus such as healing the blind and leprous, it also affirms extra-biblical miracle claims such as making a bird out of clay and breathing life into it (Surah 5:110). This story is actually from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a 2nd or 3rd century pseudepigraphical “gospel” about the early childhood of Jesus. Upon further research, I have discovered that much of the Qur’an is borrowed from sources outside the Old and New Testaments. There is not a problem with relying upon other sources (we see this in the Bible), but the Qur’an often relies upon spurious historical sources that undermine its credibility.
It was also interesting to note how the Qur’an turns Jesus into an Islamic prophet. In Surah 19:197, Jesus says, “Surely I am a servant of Allah; He has given me the Book and made me a prophet.” The Qur’an also does this with Abraham (Surah 2:131), the disciples (Surah 3:52) as well as Moses and Noah (Surah 42:13).
The Qur'an
The Qur’an records no miracles of Muhammad. So how do we know the Qur’an is inspired and true? The Qur’an itself is a testimony to its veracity. Surah 10:37-38 says, “And this Quran is not such as could be forged by those besides Allah, but it is a verification of that which is before it and a clear explanation of the book, there is no doubt in it, from the Lord of the worlds. Or do you say: He has forged it? Say: then bring a chapter like this and invite who you can besides Allah, if you are truthful.”
The Qur’an repeatedly charges doubters to produce a chapter like it (Surah 2:23; 11:13; 17:88). The Qur’an is believed to have such high literary merit that it can only be considered divine. And yet how do we really test this? This is a very different test for truth than what Jesus laid out. He did publicly verifiable miracles to support his claims to deity (John 20:30-31; Acts 2:22). The test for the Bible is external and objective, but the primary test for the Qur’an is internal and subjective.
And yet we can actually take the Qur’anic test. I would encourage you to read it and make up your own mind. I read it carefully. I mean no disrespect to my Muslim neighbors, but I simply do not see its literary merit. It is repetitive, redundant, oddly arranged, difficult to follow, and choppy. Qur’anic verses do not compare to the works of Shakespeare or the biblical Psalms, such as Psalm 23. Muslims claim that it must be read in Arabic to appreciate its beauty. But why would God’s universal and eternal revelation be limited to the (roughly) 20 percent of Muslims who are Arabic? If the Qur’an were truly inspired, its literary beauty would transcend one particular language understood by a tiny minority of the world’s population.
Violence
I write these words with fear and trembling. Not for my own life, but because I do not want to alienate Muslims. I truly believe that most Muslims in America are peaceful, hard-working people who want to live their lives according to the American dream and their Muslim faith. I have had Muslim students in my class and they have all been wonderful people. Many Muslims condemn and mourn violence done in the name of Islam. The Muslim people in America are not my concern. They have the right to practice their faith in America as much as any other religion.
My concern is Islamic theology. Before reading the Qur’an, I was familiar with a few Qur’anic verses endorsing violence. Yet I was surprised at how frequently violence is encouraged within the pages of the Qur’an. Consider a few Surahs:
“And fight with them [unbelievers] until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah; but if they desist, then surely Allah sees what they do.” (Surah 8:39).
“I will caste terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.” (Surah 8:12)
“Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection. And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the sayings of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!” (9:29-30).
Again, I write this not to condemn or judge Muslims. But it is unmistakable that Muhammad practiced violent methods to both spread his empire and propagate his faith. And his followers have as well. Sure, Christians have used violence, torture, and other abominable practices in the name of Jesus. But it should be quite obvious that they acted inconsistently with what Jesus taught and modeled.
Conclusion
Reading the Qur’an has been a helpful and insightful exercise. I learned a great deal about what Muslims believe about Allah and also how they practice their faith. I would encourage all Christians to do the same. You may agree with my analysis. And you may disagree with it. But either way, reading the Qur’an will help you better understand your Muslim neighbors.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
This Is What Enrages Me About the Health Care Debate
Via Zwinglius Redivivus
The imbeciles in Congress; the lifers at the Court; and the inhabitants of the Executive branch are ALL covered by the very insurance they would deny the vast majority of people in this country.
Each and every one of us, taxpayers all, deserve what our employees (government dole-recipients) receive. From the welfare-ites at the low end of the economic ladder to the highly paid elected and appointed government drains, we’re paying for them all.
Meanwhile we have to pay for our own insurance too. It’s sickening and enraging.
It’s time for health care to be nationalized. Socialized medicine- that’s what we need- so that we get what these self centered ‘officials’ get.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
John Piper to step down as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church
Bethlehem Baptist is one step closer to commissioning John Piper from the local church pastorate to greater involvement with Bethlehem College and Seminary and to a wider ministry nationally and internationally through Desiring God.
The Bethlehem elders are announcing to the congregation their candidate for Associate Pastor for Preaching and Vision and, God willing, John Piper's eventual successor as the church's senior pastor.
Yet another pastor who is giving up, or being forced to take leave of pastoral life, and being pushed/induced into academic life. Among those in this group are N. T. Wright, Rowland Williams, and John Piper seems to be joining this trend.
But to be fair, this is not something that the elders are pushing Piper to do, rather, Piper also wants to do:
There is an ever-increasing pull on my life to be involved in ministry outside Bethlehem. Much of this feels strategic to me for the cause of Christ. While I felt competent and energized to formulate plans for the structures of Bethlehem, this outside pull was secondary. But I sense that this is changing. It seems to me that the Lord is saying: "You have led Bethlehem to this point; it is time to hand off the internal leadership labors to another; I have a few other things yet for you to do."Well, I hope that the Lord gives him a lot of years, so he can fulfil what he feels that the Lord has called him to do.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
An Apologetic Reading Plan for Beginners
Are you new to apologetics? Perhaps you're wondering where you should begin your reading. Because there are so many apologetics books out there—many which may be heavy reading for those new to apologetics—it would be helpful to have a sort of "top 10" reading plan for apologetics beginners.
The ten books on the reading plan below are selected specifically for the beginner in apologetics. They are on the list because of their accessibility and their quality of content. The order is provided as a progressive reading plan for those just getting started. Working through this list should give the novice a good foundation before moving on to more advanced titles.
1. The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
All of Lee Strobel's books are required reading for two reasons. First, they are good introductions to the subject and provide a good overview of the material from some of the best scholars in their fields. Second, the writing style is very accessible, taking you alongside a journalist in his investigation of the evidence for Christianity. In this particular title, Strobel focuses on the life and identity of Jesus.
2. The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel
This book is just as readable as The Case for Christ, but this one delves into the evidence for the Creator. Another thing that makes this good reading for the beginner is this: whatever areas you find particularly interesting can be pursued further by reading the sources interviewed in the book.
3. The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
In The Case for Faith, Strobel moves from making a positive case for Christ and a Creator to defending Christianity from some common criticisms and objections. This one deals with the hard faith questions such as the problem of pain and suffering and issues of doubt. Again, all three of the Lee Strobel books are a great starting point for the beginner.
**Interlude: Watch the The Lee Strobel Film Collection
At this point, now you can take a break from your reading and actually watch a series of three DVDs that are about an hour each. These excellent documentaries follow the same content as the books, along with interviews with experts and specialists. This is a great refresher for what you have read and also makes for a great small group resource and a DVD to lend to a friend.
4. Holman QuickSource Guide to Christian Apologetics by Doug Powell
Now it's time for something different. This odd-shaped and colorful book (with more graphics than words) will introduce you to the wide landscape of apologetics by outlining, diagramming, and illustrating all of the key arguments for the existence of God, the reliability of the Bible, the beliefs of other world views, and common objections. This is very helpful in providing visual categories for the content you are taking in. If certain things you have read up till this point have been overly academic, then this book will give you a sort of pictorial overview. This is also useful as a "primer" on the key topics and helpful to establish a bird's eye view. Illustrations of the ideas are also great for sharing with others what you have learned.
5. Love Your God With All Your Mind by J.P. Moreland
Ok, so you have taken in some of the key content and ideas that Strobel presents in the "Case for" series. But what does intellectual engagement look like? What does it look like to "love God with all your mind"? In this book you'll be challenged to live a vibrant life of intellectual engagement with your faith. This is a classic book that every apologist should read, and that's why it finds itself firmly in the foundational books recommended here.
6. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl
Information without application results in stagnation when it comes to apologetics. That's why it's time for a good dose of Tactics, which will train you not only to use apologetic content in everyday life, but it will also train you to be a better, more critical thinker. This is another "must read" book, and mastering its contents early in your apologetic studies will put feet to your faith.
7. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Mike Licona & Gary Habermas
The resurrection of Jesus is central to Christianity. This book equips you to understand and defend the resurrection from an historical perspective. Not only does the book have useful diagrams, summaries, and an accessible style, but it also comes with a CD-ROM with interactive software for teaching you the material. This is an essential book for the apologist.
8. Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists by Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow
Now it's time to look at some of the most common objections that have come against Christianity since the rise of the new atheism. There's no better book at dealing with these in a concise yet dense way, while providing additional reading suggestions and introducing some of the key apologists that deal with these questions. If you really want to master this material, consider taking part in the Read Along project for this book.
9. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist by Geisler & Turek
Geisler and Turek have authored a great apologetics book that also takes a step-by-step approach to showing that Christianity is true—and it's filled with lots of information. This gives the growing beginner a ton of good content, while strengthening the framework of a cumulative case for Christianity. This book will help to grow your overall general apologetic knowledge as well.
10. On Guard by William Lane Craig
Finally, it's time to dig deeper into some of the more philosophically rigorous arguments with William Lane Craig. On Guard is, in essence, a shorter, more concise and accessible distillation of his weightier apologetics book Reasonable Faith. On Guard has illustrations, argument maps, and sidebars which aim to make the material easier to grasp and engage with. This book will introduce the newer apologist to Craig's time-tested arguments for the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus. While it is still not light reading, this will serve the reader well before moving on to more advanced material. Highly recommended.
So what's next? If you've worked through this list, well done! You might want to dig a little deeper by going through the great apologetics textbook by Douglas Groothuis: Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. You can study this book in depth with the Read Along program here. After that, then delve into the topics that have interested you most in your reading. Do this by reading books by the experts that Lee Strobel interviewed or the apologists that have been referenced in Is God Just a Human Invention.
Final Note
As stated before, there are a lot of apologetics books out there. However, if you begin with these, you will have a pretty good foundational understanding of the landscape. From here you can (and should) do deeper study in areas of interest. While this is no definitive list (I'm sure those commenting will have their own suggestions), it should be a great place to get started.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Maybe the Lutherans were right, Jesus is everywhere!!!!
Well, having said that, there's a website that documents all the places where people see Jesus. The site is hilarious, if not irreverent, nevertheless, it shows how people are so ignorant of Jesus' power, and the Bible.
The website is http://stuffthatlookslikejesus.com/, where the author gathers pictures of Jesus, and some of the virgin Mary, where people assume they are present on rocks, X rays, MRIs, even in turtles' bellies. Yes, you read me right!!!
So if you want to have some fun for a couple of minutes, at the expense of others, check it out.
Fox News enjoys portraying believers as ignorants
The dead don't communicate with us, period. Some want to be very pastoral by feeding people false hopes and feeding them fantasies. We must tell them the truth, Christianity does not believe in such nonsense.
If this people are thinking such things, I am sorry, they have never read the Bible, and not even understand it a bit.
Shame on you Fox for portraying believers are ignorants.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Atheists don’t own reason
The new atheists--participants in the contemporary anti-religion movement led by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, the late Christopher Hitchens, among others--are working overtime to tell the world that reason favors atheism, and atheism alone. Richard Dawkins leads hisFoundation for Reason and Science. Sam Harris is founder and chair ofProject Reason. The upcoming March 24 Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. is the new atheists’ latest and most visible attempt to send the message that reason belongs to the atheists.
For years, though, knowledgeable critics have been calling attention to new atheist’ rational fallacies, emotionally loaded rhetoric, and illegitimate, selective use of evidence. It’s time now to add that up together and recognize what it means: the new atheists have no business proclaiming themselves the defenders of reason, simply because they don’t practice it competently.
“Far from being the defenders of reason, atheists are among the chief offenders against it,” writes Tom Gilson. (Nikki Kahn - THE WASHINGTON POST)Of course that’s not what the new atheists want us to believe. It is religion, they say, that is the antithesis of reason. Sam Harris assures us in “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason” (p. 55) that “faith is what reason becomes when it finally achieves escape velocity from the constraints of terrestrial discourse-constraints like reasonableness, internal coherence, civility, and candor.”
What happens, though, when we examine the new atheists’ own “reasonableness” and “internal coherence”?
Sam Harris debated William Lane Craig last April on whether atheism or theism (roughly defined as the belief in one God) provides a better explanation for the existence of moral truths (transcript here). Opinions may differ as to which of them held the more defensible position. What can hardly be disputed, though, is that Craig showed up with logical arguments, at least one of which, if sound, would completely destroy Harris’s atheistic explanation for morality. Harris conspicuously ignored this, and indeed virtually all of Craig’s logic. He devoted one 12-minute segment to rhetoric depicting Christianity in the most negative light possible, and suggesting that we should therefore conclude that Christianity is wrong. It was what logicians would describe as a fallacious appeal to emotion with respect to the question being debated and to the points Craig had raised.
In his best-selling “The God Delusion,” Richard Dawkins devotes an entire chapter to unscientific anecdotes supporting his belief that a religious upbringing is abusive to children. (See also “Religion’s Real Child Abuse.”) Actual science shows exactly the opposite: spiritually engaged teens are healthier than others on multiple dimensions. Such abandonment of science is surprisingly irrational for the man who was formerly Oxford University’s Professor for the Public Understanding of Science.
But rational and logical errors are pervasive throughout “The God Delusion,” so much so that University of Florida philosopher Michael Ruse, an atheist, would endorse Alister and Joanna Collicutt McGrath’s“The Dawkins Delusion?” by saying, “‘The God Delusion’ makes me embarrassed to be an atheist, and the McGraths show why.”
These are, unfortunately, not isolated examples. The American Atheists, for example, co-sponsored a billboard in Harrisburg, PAjuxtaposing half of a sentence from the Bible with an inflammatory, racially charged image of slavery. In doing so they combined at least two rational errors: the fallacious appeal to emotion and imagery, and the “straw man” fallacy of misrepresenting their opponents’ position; for although the quoted phrase, “Slaves, obey your masters,” is troubling on the surface, the Bible’s supposed endorsement of slavery is not what atheists allege it to be.
As Glenn Sunshine shows in his chapter in “True Reason: Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism,” Christianity has in fact been history’s major force for the freeing of slaves. Immediate abolition was realistically impossible in New Testament times: The Romans would have treated it as insurrection, and the inevitable bloodshed to follow it would have produced greater evil than would have been alleviated by abolition. The injunction to “obey” was thus temporary and contextual. It was also tempered with instructions to masters to treat slaves reasonably, as fellow human beings. Eventually slavery “virtually disappeared” from Europe under Christianity’s influence, as social historian Rodney Stark stated in “For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery” (p. 299).
Failures in the practice of rational reasoning such as these are all too common among the New Atheists. They charge Christianity with being unreasoning or unreasonable, but too often they do so as they have done with slavery: use incomplete evidence or demonstrably invalid reasoning.
From my observations, it adds up to this: the new atheists’ difficulty with valid, responsible reasoning is widespread and systemic. Far from being the defenders of reason, they are among the chief offenders against it. It’s time we called them on that.
Tom Gilson is a writer and missions strategist blogging atwww.thinkingchristian.net, and the managing editor of the collaborative e-book “True Reason: Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism.”
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