Apologetics

Question In scripture (Hebrews 4:15) Christ was tempted like us, however He not being born into a sinful nature and lived a perfect life (which is needed in order to be a sacrifice for the unjust). So, was is it really a temptation for Christ? We are tempted with a sinful nature that is prone to give in, Christ was tempted with a pure nature. So is it really temptation if Jesus could not sin? -- Beau Tim's Response This is a great question, Beau, and one that I struggled wi

As the title suggests, what I'll be presenting is an updated version of the argument from contingency . This version is heavily inspired by the work of Joshua Rasmussen, so, if this piques your interest, I recommend looking into his two papers on the subject. Why an updated version? Two reasons. First, this version utilizes weaker premises and is therefore easier to hold and defend. For instance, the version I will be defending does not entail that the universe as a whole is

As a pastor who spends a lot of time on the college campus, I hear the following challenges quite often from young skeptics: “There is no good evidence to think that Jesus ever existed,” or “Christianity has pagan roots!” One might put these common challenges as two questions: (1) Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist? (2) Are the gospel records of this man merely fictional mythology? In this essay I want to explore several lines of evidence that will show that the answer to th

1. Thallus, the Samaritan-born historian One of the first Gentile writers who mention Christ is Thallus, who wrote in A.D. 52. He wrote a history of the Eastern Mediterranean from the time of the Trojan War to his own time. However, his writings have disappeared, and we only know of them from fragments cited by other writers. One such writer is Julius Africanus, a Christian writer about A.D. 221 One very interesting passage relates to a comment from Thallus about the darkness

Over the past week, FreeThinking Ministries has taken a close look at various shades of compatibilism . The shade we will be concerned with today is one that is found in both Protestant and Catholic circles and is what I will refer to as Thomistic Compatibilism. Before elaborating this view, I think it’s important to get some basic assumptions out of the way first. There are many interpretations of Thomas Aquinas out there. Some philosophers and theologians argue that he was

When one finally has a firm grasp of the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Calvinistic thought, one cannot bear to wonder whether Calvinism is true because surely no contra-causally free creature would to believe a system that invokes the logical deduction of God being the author of sin. Of course, many Calvinist's will not assert this, nonetheless - this is the implied conclusion.   Of course, there are many forms of Calvinistic thought in relation to God's sove

Recently a friend of mine — a philosophy professor who believes humans possess libertarian freedom — posted a question on social media directed to Christians. He asked: “If you had to choose between the two, would you rather be a Calvinist (compatibilist version) or an open theist?” I quickly responded with the following: "The ironic thing is that if Calvinism is equal to divine determinism (which is supported via the consequence argument ), and it happens to be true, then n

https://youtu.be/ZE0xCwXzrpE

Nothing fascinates me more than investigating evidence for the existence of God. I have spent the past seven years of my life devoting multiple hours every day examining this data and related issues . One of these related issues is that of free will. Though this has been the subject of debate for centuries -- among Christians and non-Christians -- it is my conviction that not only do  humans possess free will , but that this freedom is actually further evidence of the existen

https://youtu.be/ujyOzQjjcTA

What is "compatibilistic free will"? Years ago when I first heard of this doctrine it shocked me. Intuitively I thought it did not make sense. How can God determine (force) someone to freely do something? Little did I know that it is one of the most discussed doctrines in modern philosophy and theology. Roughly, compatibilism is the view that there is no real conflict between determinism and free will. Tim Stratton and I have had numerous exchanges with compatibilists of all

Matt Slick recently debated Jerry Walls regarding the omnibenevolence of God. That is to say, the following question was addressed: Is God really all-loving? I have argued that not only is God all-loving, but that it is actually a sin to doubt God's love for all people -- let alone teach that God does not perfectly love and desire the ultimate best for everyone! In this debate , Slick accused Walls of misrepresenting his Calvinistic views, which I found quite odd because S

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. . ." 1 Pet. 1:3 (ESV) For the determinist, this verse would seem to pose a problem for libertarian and thus Molinists. This is because, according to our hypothetical determinist, Molinists do not want to maintain that God causally determines individuals to be born again. But does 1 Pe

Summary: CARM, a Reformed ministry, has given a negative appraisal of Molinism. I lay out 9 issues with their explanation and critique of the doctrine, undercutting/rebutting their claims by showing that they either rely on comprehensional errors, dictional ambiguity, or question begging (or some medley of these). Source: http://carm.org/what-molinism Issue 1: CARM Misrepresents Libertarian Free Will CARM's article starts out well enough by noting the fact that Molinism att

Question: Hey Tim, you talk about libertarian free will all the time. Can you please explain and define exactly what you mean by this term? Thanks. Matt Tim's Response: Thanks for your question, Matt! The first thing I need to discuss is the use of the word "libertarian." According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary , "Libertarian" is defined as: an advocate of the doctrine of free will a) a person who upholds the principles of individual liberty especially of thought and ac

The nature of truth was my topic at a recently held apologetics conference in Phoenix, Arizona. A friend of mine presented how Christians could have loving and respectful conversations with those in the LGBT community, while exemplifying grace without compromising truth . Each night ended with all the speakers (four of us total) sharing the stage for open Q&A. The following two-part question was posed on the second night of the conference: 1) Do you believe in demonic posse

https://youtu.be/WBmgcczg-fk

The Freethinking Argument was first crafted at Biola University in Scott Smith's philosophy classroom. I had been playing around with the idea for some time, but it was Dr. Smith's teachings that provided the catalyst to complete the argument. < 1> 1>  The Freethinking Argument (FTA) has received much attention ever since -- especially since freethinkingministries.com was launched not long ago. Since that time I have spent countless hours defending the FTA both online and

Question I really enjoyed the guest article on the Kalam  by Ronald Cram. I thought Dr. Craig's debate with Carroll was a little troubling as some technical literature on cosmology was offered that I didn't think Craig responded to as well as he could have. Cram's article really helped to clarify some difficulties. I have one more question about the application of the BGV theorem, as it only applies to classical space-time. Is it a potential problem for the argument ? -- Raj

The Worst Objections are The Best If you’ve spent a decent amount of time looking at the whole Atheism/Theism debate, you may have noticed something odd. The most influential teachers for the majority of online Christian apologists, often hold PhD’s in philosophy of religion, theology, or something else directly related to religion and/or critical thinking about God and religion. On the other hand, the most influential teachers for majority of the online Atheists, are often b