Apologetics

Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!! Spoiler Alert!!! Seriously, if you have not yet seen the movie,  Captain Marvel , stop reading this and go to the movie theatre and buy a ticket! Then come back and read this article. Consider yourself warned! Captain Marvel has a consistent theme: Things are not what they seem. Just when you think that you have something figured out, the characters will discover more information that completely turns everything you thought knew upside down. T

There are many things to keep in mind when sharing your Christian convictions with an unbeliever, such as your attitude, your tone, and even the specific words you use. Certain words common to evangelism, theology, and apologetics have accumulated cultural baggage that can hinder spiritual conversations. Let’s look at three such words and consider some alternatives. Faith - Faith is a thoroughly biblical term. Salvation is by faith in Christ alone. But unfortunately, this wo

In the last article we covered the Genetic Fallacy in some detail so I would refer the reader back to that article for a more in depth explanation of it rather than spend time rehashing it here. For those who have been following along, you will recall that I mentioned th at as we encounter the Genetic Fallacy we can approach it either defensively or offensively when dealing with the notion of Christianity being the white man’s religion. In that article we primarily discus

Question Dear Tim, I posted this quote as my status on Facebook last week by Mark Driscoll, "Not only did Jesus die, He came back from death to give us confidence that He alone can be trusted upon death. Therefore, the worst thing is not to die, but rather to die without knowing Jesus." With that question, I had someone ask me, "but what about those who have never heard about Jesus?" He and I got into a conversation about it, via chat, where I explained to him what my thoug

Stop! Don’t do it!!! Do not engage in an argument with a trained arguer -- at least not until you read this: Have you ever had an argument with a trained arguer -- a lawyer, politician, apologist, someone on the debate team -- and thought, "I wish I could win an argument sometimes?" I’ve been there and I too was tired of being on the losing side of arguments. Because of occasionally finding myself on the "wrong side of logic," I have been secretly working to gain the upper

I invite you for just a moment to step with me into one of the great iconic movie scenes ever: “The Battle of Thermopylae.” I’m specifically talking about the fight scene in the movie “300” in which a handful of Spartans defend a small piece of territory for three days against the formidable Persian army. This scene is when the great King Leonidas inspires his men for the inevitable battle to the death they will soon engage. “This is where we hold! This is where we fight!” K

Since I have turned my research attention to the argument in favour of the resurrection of Jesus (simply called the ), I face the question as to which is the best (or at least a good) approach to take in arguing for the resurrection. The debate about the different approaches to the argument is an in-house debate among Christian apologists and, therefore, non-Christian’s might not find the debate (or this post about the debate) very interesting. A popular approach to the Resur

In my experience, not only do I find myself defending Molinism from the likes of Calvinists and Open Theists, but I am amazed to see the vigor in which atheists also oppose Molina’s doctrine of middle knowledge. After all, why should the atheist care what view a Christian holds of divine sovereignty and human responsibility? It comes down to the fact that while other views fail, Molinism  destroys  (as the Apostle Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 10:5) their favorite argument

Knowing that to many, my defense of William Lane Craig will inevitably have my Calvinist card revoked, however, I cannot go by without saying anything about this issue any longer. Time after time, I see mind-numbing simplistic dismissals of Craig’s work for very silly reasons. This would encompass the first type of detractors that I see. The second, those who seek to find heresy under every bed of Christian apologetics and make video clips taking people out of context. The th

Why would God allow moral evil? For example, why would God allow Hitler to torture and murder millions of Jews in the horrors of Nazi concentration camps? Why would God allow natural evil? For example, why would God allow hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis that kill and cause so much suffering? Why would God allow what seems to be gratuitous suffering? For example, why would God allow a bunny rabbit to slowly suffer to death in a forest fire? These are good questions and are

Bradley Bowen argues that the resurrection is highly improbable. I wrote a brief response here . Bowen has replied to my response here and here . Now, probability can be a wonderful tool in reasoning if used in the correct way. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion about probability. Thus, I think it would be appropriate to discuss Bowen’s views and shed some light on the issue. Let us start by looking at conditional probability. concerns the change in probability w

In 2016, Jeffery Jay Lowder debated Frank Turek on the topic (see https://youtu.be/ENZYEPpR2Jc ). In early 2017, I wrote two articles in which I assess Lowder’s opening statement (see here and here ). It was brought to my attention that Lowder recently made some comments to my assessment (see the comment section here ). I do not usually respond to comments on blogs because (1) it takes too much of my time and (2) I think that my responses will not change many minds. Nevert

So, it’s been way too long since I dropped my last article here at FTM; “Ethnic Epistemology Part 1”. My bad for leaving y’all hanging. When I initially outlined the points I wanted to cover in my Ethnic Epistemology series, I’d intended to keep it pretty simple. My goal was to address a few common objections to Christianity that have been gaining traction amongst African Americans and provide a few user-friendly rebuttals to them. With that being said, I think putting some d

2018 is drawing to a close, and so we present to you the top 10 most read articles of the year: 10. Whoever Reads John 3:16 Can Know that “Whoever” Is Really There - Guest blogger Brian Abasciano defends the "whoever" of John 3:16 from recent attacks by Calvinist thinkers. 9. Excusing Sinners, Blaming God, Compatibilism, & the Consequence Argument - Tim Stratton responds to "French atheist turned Calvinist" Guillaume Bignon's book, Excusing Sinners and Blaming God . 8

Abstract:  In this paper, I critique Professor Asma’s article What Religion Gives Us (That Science Can’t) . I raise a three-fold objection to his claim that religion is irrational, followed by three related points of assessment. In short, I argue that his claim that religion is irrational is unwarranted. Introduction In What Religion Gives Us (That Science Can’t) , Professor Asma argues that, although irrational, religion is a needed and time-tested means for managing emoti

Bobby Conway is a pastor, a PhD philosopher, and the founder/host of an online ministry known as The One-Minute Apologist.  His short, clear, and concise YouTube videos have been a great resource over the past several years as they always provide quick and credible answers to many of the "big questions" that have kept me awake at night. At the OneMinuteApologist.com , Conway posts videos that often include interviews with leading scholars in fields pertaining to apologetics.

Once people discover that you’re a Christian thinker, they often start coming to you with all of the objections they hear: “The Bible is hopelessly corrupt.” “Jesus never existed.” “Science disproves God.” Your friends will offer you the objections and ask, “How would you respond to this?” And here is what I always say: “I wouldn’t.” I never respond to objections. But wait, aren’t I an apologist? Isn’t it my responsibility to provide an answer to people’s objections? No

Question: Dear Tim, I will try to be as concise and brief as possible. I am a Christian and my question is concerning free will, determinism, Molinism and of course, with respect to your Argument of Freethinking against Naturalism. The Freethinking Argument Against Naturalism  is formulated as follows:   1- If naturalism is true, the immaterial human soul does not exist. 2- If the soul does not exist, libertarian free will does not exist. 3- If libertarian free will doe

The Marvel Movie franchise is arguably the most epic enterprise in movie history. The series has a number of stand-out characters, however, two stand out more than the others. In fact, their differences stand in such firm relief so as to culminate in a film where they were driven toe-to-toe whilst still harboring a slight underlying sense of respect for one to another. These characters are, of course, Iron Man and Captain America. When an actor takes the stage, the first qu

Abstract:  The outgrowth of the truthmaker theory is due in part to the realist conception of truth that has been endorsed more prominently in recent years. Supplementing this realism is the notion of truthmaking—that truth depends upon the world. As a ‘cheater-catching’ business, the truthmaking enterprise has been celebrated to exclude ontologically groundless metaphysical systems. Some of these ‘purported’ ontologically groundless propositions that truthmaker theory should