Apologetics

Question How do you respond to a Calvinist who uses the whole "Who are you, O man..." argument based on Romans 9? I'm trying to understand better how the Molinist view holds against Calvinist arguments against libertarian free will. -Aidan Tim's Response Thank you for the question, Aiden. This is probably one of the most popular objections to Molinism and it is one that I have wrestled with in the past. I encourage you to read my article  Free Will, Calvinism, & Romans 9  a

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"Never get stumped by the same question twice!" I first received this advice from Sean McDowell in 2010. I listened to him speak about apologetics and the importance of this branch of theology at the Challenge Youth Conference that summer in Columbus, Ohio. I was a youth pastor at that time and my students had been asking many tough questions that I could not answer. I was so happy to hear a guy like Sean seemingly have all the answers! After his first talk I immediately pu

The Nashville Statement ( https://cbmw.org/nashville- statement ), approved in its final draft on August 25, 2017, was developed and issued jointly by the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.  A veritable who's who of contemporary Evangelical Leaders drafted, signed and have since endorsed this statement.  According to one of its chief architects, John Piper, it aims at “providing a biblica

Abstract: This is a critical analysis of CARM.org’s article “Can God cause a person to believe in Him?” Matt Slick claims that on Molinism God cannot cause people to believe in Him, an assertion he takes to be obviously false and precluded by Scripture. I conclude that Slick doesn’t understand the difference between strong and weak actualization and, therefore, ends up affirming a position compatible with Molinism. In the process, I criticize Slick’s prooftexting and expose h

The Monday morning of October 2nd, 2017, America awoke to horrible news that some are calling "The Las Vegas Massacre." At this early point in the investigation it seems as if a "lone wolf" booked a hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay. From this elevated position, and after weeks of meticulous planning and preparing for this cowardly act, and with a plethora of fully automatic rifles at his disposal, Stephen Paddock fired on the crowd of defenseless civilians who

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John Piper is founder of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For over three decades he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. Piper is the author of more than 50 books, and is one of the leading proponents of Calvinism today. I have benefited greatly from Piper's ministry; in fact, if it were not for John Piper I might not be married today. I had just finished the chapter,  Risk is Right , from his book, Don't Waste Yo

https://youtu.be/YDorC7J7vHQ

If a child turns to her parents and asks why the sun shines, the knee-jerk response might be to tell her that it shines to give us light or to help the plants grow. Hidden in this response, however, is an assumption of purpose or design. It assumes that the sun was put there for a reason, and that its light serves an intentional purpose – not that the benefits of its light are a coincidental side-effect of a natural process. A more analytical response might be that the sun s

Flyover country! That is where I live, in a small town in middle America. Kearney, Nebraska is probably most famous for The Archway over Interstate 80, the best high school track and field team of all time (Go Bearcats!), and for being the official headquarters of both The Buckle and  FreeThinking Ministries ! Over the past few years many locals have been raving about how Jon BokenKamp from Kearney is the creator and driving force behind one of the most successful television

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Free Will is a topic debated among Christians and even some non-Christians. The Christians who affirm that men have free will in the libertarian sense are typically Arminians, Molinists, and Open Theists. Christians who deny free will in the libertarian sense generally fall into the Calvinist camp. I have argued  elsewhere  that libertarian free will is the only true kind of free will. Compatibilism (the view that free will is compatible with determinism), despite what the na

I find it interesting that so often Calvinists complain that Molinism is nothing but dressed up Open Theism , while many Open Theists complain that Molinism is merely Calvinism in disguise! Obviously Open Theists adamantly disagree with Calvinists when they conflate Molinism with Open Theism, and Calvinists typically revolt against Open Theist's claims that Molinism and Calvinism are basically identical. This should cause both the Calvinist and the Open Theist to realize the

René Descartes (1596-1650) is probably best known for his Latin philosophical statement, "  This phrase is best translated into English as "I think, therefore I am."  This proposition provides a strong foundation for one to build further knowledge upon instead of resorting to extreme skepticism about everything. Descartes believed "the very act of doubting one's own existence served—at minimum—as proof of the reality of one's own mind. That is to say, there must be a thinking

A few months ago, I interviewed Dr. Sean McDowell about the recently-released AWANA Youth Ministries Advocates curriculum . Now I'm excited to have him back for another interview about an awesome apologetics project: the updated version of Evidence That Demands a Verdict . Can you tell me about the history of  Evidence That Demands a Verdict ? My father first wrote   in the early 1970s because people were asking for his notes after he spoke at universities, conference, and

https://youtu.be/XPTD4d5bNmI