#apologetics

How To Talk About God in a Skeptical Age

The gospel of Jesus Christ is fixed, unchanging, and unchangeable. Just as God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so, too, is the good news of what Jesus Christ has done. But the methods and strategies Christians use to explain and defend that gospel can vary as much as humanity does. While there have always been many who are skeptical about Christianity’s truth claims, contemporary Western unbelievers represent a new type of skepticism. For this reason Christians do well …

Why Does the Universe Look So Old?

When it comes to the age of the universe, Christians find themselves in a bit of a conundrum. At least, those Christians do who hold to a traditional interpretation of the first two chapters of Genesis—an interpretation that leads them to believe the universe is something less than the billions of years indicated by contemporary understandings of the scientific data. Those, like me, who hold to a six-day understanding of creation have to face this question: Why does the universe …

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Why Does the Universe Look So Old?

When it comes to the age of the universe, Christians find themselves in a bit of a conundrum. At least, those Christians do who hold to a traditional interpretation of the first two chapters of Genesis—an interpretation that leads them to believe the universe is something less than the billions of years indicated by contemporary understandings of the scientific data. Those, like me, who hold to a six-day understanding of creation have to face this question: Why does the universe …

Evolution and a Universe as Young as Humanity

I love to read and ponder the biblical account of creation. So much makes sense and so much comes into focus only as we understand God as the creator of all that is. As I read the creation account I find myself coming to a series of conclusions about the relationship of man and the world he inhabits: God created the world; God created man; God created the world for man and man for the world. God created the world …

Why Did God Create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

Why did God keep back just one thing from the people he made? Why would he make people in his image, then give them one prohibition? What was the purpose in that tricky Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Sinclair Ferguson addresses this in The Whole Christ. I am giving you everything in this garden. Go and enjoy yourselves. But just before you head off, I have given you all of this because I love you. I want …

Fool’s Talk

He promised himself that he would not write a book about apologetics. Not yet. Instead, he would do apologetics. I appreciate that. I appreciate Os Guinness’ concern that he would not become a professional apologist and along the way neglect the actual work of apologetics. But now, after many years of doing such work, he has written a book. And it’s a very good one. Fool’s Talk introduces the reader to the art of Christian persuasion. Persuasion—that is a word …

The Narrowest Religion in the World

The Christian religion is at once the broadest and the narrowest in the world. It is a faith that admits every possible kind of person. But it admits them in only one way. There is one God. Only one. If there were two gods there might be two paths to salvation—you get saved by this god and I will get saved by that one. But there is only one God and, therefore, only one path to salvation. There is one …

What’s at Stake? The Gospel Is at Stake.

There is always one truth or another that is being disputed. There is always some doctrine or another that is under attack. And speaking personally, I find it hard to keep up. Sometimes it is best to recruit some help, and I did that very thing recently. I keep hearing about differing views on the historical Adam, with more and more people moving away from a strictly literal understanding that Adam was divinely created by God on the sixth day …

Genesis: History, Fiction, or Neither?

I don’t think there is any part of the Bible that is more disputed than the opening chapters of Genesis. It is not only the meaning of these verses that is the subject of endless debate, but their very nature. What is their genre? Are Genesis 1-11 meant to be understood as history? As fiction? Or are they something else altogether? This is the subject of a fasinating new “Counterpoints” book from Zondervan. The format of the “Counterpoints” series is …

The Two Truths

We are at an interesting point in history. I guess there’s never really a boring point in history, but there are definitely times when things advance or unravel in a hurry. And today we are seeing the full-out charge of a new kind of morality. We see it playing out in the media just about every day, and Nancy Pearcey’s book Total Truth is still one of the most helpful guides to understanding what is happening around us. Our society …