Archive for category: General Apologetics

In a previous post (link to previous post), we discussed the fact that Jesus’ miracle of walking on the water is one proof of his divinity. Another proof of Jesus’ divinity is Jesus’ ability to control the weather and especially the storms at sea. Matthew 8:23-27 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And, behold,

Reading through a commentary on John by Theophylact (circa A.D. 1055-1107) I came across a proof of Jesus’ divinity that had escaped my attention many times (pp. 101-02 of the English translation of his “Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to John). Surely all the readers of this blog are already familiar with the event: John 6:19 So when they

This week, men from around the world gathered in Mississippi for the Twin Lakes Fellowship. Martin Downes (no relation to me) had the opportunity to address the issue of heresy in his lecture “Heresy Never Dies.” You can listen to this lecture by clicking here. Downes is the author of Risking the Truth: Handling Error in the Church. You can

Yesterday on the DL I played a portion of Bart Ehrman’s comments in a “debate” that took place at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on April 1, 2010. He was debating NT scholar Craig Evans. From the introductions, folks came from all over to hear this encounter, even from the UK. As I rode along one of my familiar routes in

(Please see the end of the article for an update from Jim Elliff.) I was directed to an article posted by Jim Elliff relating to…well, what I do, and I am compelled to provide what is hopefully a brotherly rebuttal and response. On Thursday April 1 Craig Evans debated Bart Ehrman at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on the topic, “The

   Very shortly after my debate with Dr. Bart Ehrman in January of 2009, Joel McDurmon, who attended the debate, posted an article on the American Vision website criticizing my argumentation and claiming I had in essence claimed to “steamroll” Ehrman. He said the debate showed the limits of “evidentialist apologetics,” which left me completely dumbfounded as well. In any case,

For those who did not get to watch live, here is the program we did in London on the reliability of Scripture on Genesis-Revelation TV.

Thursday was a busy day for me. I had to get packed and out of my hotel room early, and I gave the last presentation of the conference on the very difficult and challenging issue of Peter Enns. I did not get access to my e-mail until I was sitting at the gate in Charlotte waiting for my flight back

Ergun Caner appeared on Calvary Chapel’s “The Pastor’s Perspective” show on January 22nd. During the course of the program he made the following comments: “I like very informal ones. Formal debates have been taken over a lot by myopic Reformed guys, uh, they try to turn it into these little, uh, show ponies, it’s like the Jerry Springer Show, basically,

WHO: Dr. James White, writer and founder of Alpha & Omega Ministries WHAT: Winter Bible Conference – A Faith Worth Defending WHERE: Rockdale Community Church, Conyers, GA (DIRECTIONS) WHEN: Feb. 5th-7th, 2010 (Friday 7pm – 9:30pm & Saturday 9am – 5pm) WHY: Because we are all commanded to be prepared to give a defense CONFERENCE SCHEDULE REGISTRATION: Registration for this

Dr. White has already provided some thoughts on Dawkin’s comments on not debating William Lane Craig (link to Dr. White’s comments). This is not to contradict anything he said, but just to provide another perspective on it. Recall that Dawkins’ original comment was: “… and I don’t take on people whose only claim to fame is that they are professional

I recently read Doug Groothuis’s review of the new film Collision (the debate/discussions between Christopher Hitchens and Doug Wilson). Already knowing that Groothuis does not favor presupposition apologetics, I was still surprised to find this comment in this review: “Those trained in apologetics, will note that Wilson uses the Van Tillian presuppositional method (with some help from C.S. Lewis on

Michael Kruger from RTS Charlotte concluded his review of Jesus Interrupted with these words: In the end, Jesus Interrupted can be best summarized as a book filled with ironies. Ironic that it purports to be about unbiased history but rarely presents an opposing viewpoint; ironic that it claims to follow the scholarly consensus but breaks from it so often; ironic

Dr. James White’s most recent debate with Dan Barker, entitled “Jesus: Myth or Messiah?” is now available in high quality mp3 format from the Alpha & Omega Ministries Bookstore Here’s the link. The CD and DVD versions of the debate are still in the works, with hopes that they too will be ready soon. This is the debate that you

There are few things more disgusting to me than unwillingness to be honest and forthright in your faith. If you believe X, then confess X, and don’t be ashamed of X. So when I was directed today to an “interview” that “Servetus the Evangelical” did recently about his apostasy and self-promotion, I was almost made ill by the fact that

   It seems the Fundamentalist Atheists are at it again. According to this news story, they are planning a campaign to plaster pro-atheist ads around New York subway stations. I’m not objecting to them doing this; it is, after all, their Constitutional right to exercise free speech. However, I think it is instructive to observe the Christian message (sure, they don’t

Sorry, but that seems to be the way to identify it. I noted last night the 2009 National Conference on Apologetics, and how the one thing clearly not open for discussion would be…the Gospel. Why? Because Rome’s gospel, evidently, is to be viewed as “acceptable” by those heading up the conference, since they are inviting Roman Catholics to speak and

One of the questions that Mr. Arnzen asked Mr. Harold Camping, during the four-day discussion on Iron Sharpens Iron between Dr. James White and Mr. Harold Camping, was about whether the listeners of Family Radio have their own gatherings. Mr. Camping indicated that, aside from a small group in Almeda, California (where Mr. Camping resides), he does not encourage his

Greetings from Great Falls, Montana! I really wish the wind was whipping and it was like 20 degrees, but alas, it is a gorgeous day in the 60s. Oh well! So while traveling yesterday I started a little firestorm by asking a simple question: why does Ergun Caner claim to be a leading apologetic figure when he doesn’t do apologetics?

. MP3 Available Here James R. White, founder & director of Alpha & Omega Ministries, a theologically Reformed Christian apologetics ministry based in Phoenix, AZ, will address the theme: “Obama & Gommorah: Our President’s pledge to Homosexual Activists to Bring the US closer to Sodom“. Today, Dr. White will air clips from Barack Obama’s Saturday speech to the Human Rights

   I was directed to an amazingly arrogant, yet, “What do you expect from Northern European academics these days?” article, found here, that illustrates one of the problems we have in our modern day due to the Internet. In the “olden days,” academics (a term that could, in some contexts, refer to someone with trained insights and disciplined study, but today

The two most frequent objections to the Trinity can be illuminated with two simple, but effective, illustrations. First, “How can there be three and one at the same time”? This question conflates two categories into one. But Christians understand that there are two categories involved. There is one “What” (Being/Deity) and three “Who’s” (Persons/Father-Son-Holy Spirit). Here is the best illustration

   I fully expected Dan Barker to use (or, I should say, misuse), the quotation from Justin Martyr’s First Apology, and so I had invested a fair amount of time reviewing the material prior to our debate. In fact, in the video below, watch my face during Mr. Barker’s opening statement when he mentions Justin. That is the smile of “Another

Last weekend, Dr. White debated Dan Barker on whether the Biblical account is derived from prior mythology (Topic, with Dan Barker Affirmative: “The Jesus Story is Cut from the Same Story as Other Ancient Mythologies”). I understand that eventually Alpha and Omega Ministries will make a DVD of the debate available. In the meantime, here’s my take on the debate

I never saw this one coming. I had a feeling Dan Barker would be going a different way in his presentation than he had in his 2007 book, Godless. But when he gave a completely different presentation than he had in a book published only two years ago (with a foreword by Dawkins—a book he was selling in the foyer

   I should be firing up the feed about now, so, I’ve timed this blog article to appear so as to provide the link you will need to listen live to the debate in Newberg, Oregon between myself and Dan Barker. Lord willing, the following link will get you connected! Click here to listen!

Rich was learning a new program, so it took a while to get the original Barker debate media finished. The video of the debate is available here, and audio recording here. Don’t forget to be praying for the next debate with Dan Barker up in Newberg, OR. I will be taking my mini computer to live webcast the debate as

   Justin Brierley is hosting a two-part conversation featuring Richard Bauckham on the topic of his views of the eyewitnesses and Jesus’ ministry on his “Unbelievable” radio program this week and next. I listened to the first part while riding yesterday, and found it fascinating (though at one point I was a bit distracted by riding through a long stretch of

The recent number of visits to Iron Sharpens Iron due to Dr. White’s debate with Harold Camping provides a great opportunity to recommend the show. Reformed Baptist Chris Arnzen has a truly unique show on a wide variety of theological and controversial topics. We’ve been recording the shows for a few years now. All rebroadcast MP3’s are free of charge.

The interactions with Harold Camping’s flee the church reminded me of a recent discussion I had with a person intrigued by the house church movement. He explained there was a grass roots movement of serious Reformed Christians that believed big churches were a leftover from medieval Catholicism. That big building you go to every Sunday wasn’t what the Apostles had