Archive for category: General Apologetics

   So the Mormons are streaming out of the Conference Center, heading for lunch. Thousands of folks passing right by you. And what do you preach? Well, if you are one of the members of the Street Screeching Cult, you preach about…King James White, of course! Oh, and you have some poor deluded soul smile while wearing a bald cap and

   A few days ago I was rummaging around through some old video tapes and found one marked “SLC Street Preachers.” It contains 34 minutes of video from the second year the SSC was in Salt Lake, including the infamous “I Love Gail Kiplinger!” portion I played on the DL when we got back. As I listened to it I was

   While believers were attempting to explain the concept of substitutionary atonement, penal satisfaction, etc., to an atheist, good ol’ Paul Owen, former (sorry, not enough room to fill this list in anymore), pops in to help out: I don’t agree with “penal substitution” because God would simply not punish His Son for the sins of others. Christ was given up

   A thought about the work of Christ on this Resurrection Sunday from my debate against Richard Hopkins on the subject of LDS Temples.

   Sometimes I just sit here at my desk staring at my screen when Rich forwards some of the e-mails we get. The Internet creates “thugs,” bullies with a lot of hot air but zero substance who thrive on acting out their childhood playground fantasies from behind a keyboard. Almost every group has them, sadly. I’ve run into KJV Only types

For those interested in presuppositional apologetics, here is a new resource: Pushing the Antithesis: The Apologetic Methodology of Greg L. Bahnsen. Ed. Gary DeMar (American Vision, 2007).    Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen believed that to deal with the academics of the day and their arguments against the Christian faith, it is necessary to do battle with them at the highest levels

   It was one of the most humorous occurrences in my debates. The context was anything but humorous. I was debating noted liberal Barry Lynn on the subject, “Is Homosexuality Compatible with Biblical Christianity” on Long Island. This is the debate Lynn tried to suppress, threatening legal action if we distributed the tapes. During the cross-examination, as is so often the

   While riding yesterday I listened to the folks at The Things that Matter Most interviewing Dr. Bock. In the process they played three clips from a previous interview with Robert Jensen of the University of Texas. Jensen is not a biblical scholar, nor a historian. His field is journalism. But, despite that, for some odd reason, he decided to opine

   So, it seems the Mayor of Macon, GA has converted to Islam. In our increasingly Islamic-friendly environment, this news in itself is perhaps not too surprising, nor indeed is the fact that it was reported by a major news network. Whenever I come across things like this, however, like many people who know anything at all about Islam, I am

   If the person who wrote this can so easily read my recent post on Bullinger and then say this about it: I’m supposed to respond to arguments about Bullinger and his perspective on the Roman Church while at the same time being subjected to questions as to how much I’ve actually read of Bullinger…as if that had anything at all

This 27 minute presentation, unscripted, with no notes, no outline, is an explanation of my faith meant for those without any pre-existing theological vocabulary. No, it is not meant as a “response” to any other presentations floating about out there. I had been asked to address this topic many months before any current controversies erupted. Please feel free to copy

   A friend wrote and gently rebuked me for noting the less-than-orthodox caption on the Lee Strobel video page. My point was that given the presence of so much bad stuff about Christ this time of year (“baby Jesus no crying He makes…” blah! Gnosticism!), we don’t need this kind of sloppy theology. I was told I needed to watch the

   Though we have yet to receive our own copies of the debate from October 19th, the mp3 audio of the debate has been posted, so we have taken those files (which seem to be missing some small things, like the full introductions) and have sampled them down to a manageable size and make them available to you here. It is

   I flicked on the TV in my room before heading over to the evening session last night here on ship and what came on my screen but…The DaVinci Code. I got to watch again the main “attack” section where the Council of Nicea is turned into a completely fictional fairy-tale, and I could not help but recall that twice in

   I hardly know what to say, honestly. Once again a high-profile advocate of simple heresy has demonstrated that when it comes to those who still believe as Jesus did in God’s revelation, they have little to no interest in preparing or interacting with our views. Bishop Spong, like Barry Lynn before him, and Peter Stravinskas as well, came into this

   This Friday evening I will be debating the retired Episcopalian bishop of Newark, John Shelby Spong. Spong is one of the favorites of the ultra-left, so you have probably seen or heard him on PBS, seen his books being promoted heavily in the media, or heard him being interviewed for a “progressive Christian” viewpoint on this or that. I can

   For those of us who have benefitted so greatly from the ministry of Jerald and Sandra Tanner, we give thanks to the Lord for His servant Jerald, who has gone home to be with his Lord. Here is the ULM announcement. Join with us in praying for Sandra Tanner at this time.

   Steve Hays has invested much time and effort in putting out a full response to Price/Lowder 2005 publication, The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave (Prometheus) titled This Joyful Eastertide. He has put it out in e-book format, available here. It is a long and at times taxing process to work through the kind of obfuscation and circular reasoning inherent

   According to The Independent, a British news paper, Simon and Schuster is dumping a quarter million into a marketing promotion for a book by an American woman, 43, named Kathleen McGowan, who claims…are you sitting down?…to be “a direct descendant of the physical union between Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ.” Of course, she has received a seven figure sum for

   One of our channel regulars, Phileas, posted a URL in channel this morning that caught my attention. The following statements all came from one individual. Don’t cheat and scroll down to find out who. Read them first, then follow the link.    God is first and foremost an all loving Father, and any theology which fails to recognize this, in an

Sam Shamoun, Islamic expert extraordinaire, happened to notice that once again a cheap hit piece has been posted in the guise of a “review” of one of my books on Amazon. I truly detest the review features which are so rarely used for reviews and so often used as a major-league sized “comments” section (another good example of why comments

   Back from seeing the matinee showing of The Da Vinci Code. First, the critics, as normal, don’t watch the same movies I do. I am not a critic, but as far as I could tell, on the cinematic level, it was a well done film. Ian McKellen, that God-hating homosexual actor who rips up Bibles in his hotel rooms and

   With the release of The Da Vinci Code right around the corner, a quick reminder of our resources is in order. For my 20+ part blog series, all in one file, on the book’s many Biblical errors, click here. For the mp3’s of my Auburn University lecture on Da Vinci (and my presentation on the resurrection for the faculty), click

   When I was speaking in London earlier this year I played a few sections from The God Who Wasn’t There, the film produced by Brian Flemming. I did so because the work is such an excellent example of leaps of irrationality, confident presentations of falsehoods as facts, and simply bad argumentation—and yet, it is so representative of the kind of

   Just a quick note before I hit the sack. Thank you to everyone who prayed. The Lord blessed greatly. I honestly can’t see how the debate could have gone any better…well, aside from my accidentally turning my tablet pc off for a moment during my rebuttal period anyway. But the response from the students, staff, just about everyone, has been

   I just checked and there is a nominal registration fee (barely a gallon of gas anymore in California!) for attendance. Here is the link. I hope to see at least some of my friends from Southern California at this debate against Shabir Ally, though I know that the fact that it is a Sunday evening will preclude most of those

   Shabir Ally, the Muslim apologist I will be debating at Biola on Sunday evening, May 7th, on the inspiration of the New Testament, has published a little pamphlet containing 101 alleged contradictions in the Bible. He may even give me a copy during the debate (he has done so in previous debates). In any case, he has listed the same

   When I was in the UK recently I was struck by the vast difference between the view taken of Tom Wright there, and that found in the States. In general everyone I spoke to there chuckled at the idea Wright is in any way “conservative.” And the more he speaks, the more it is clear his countrymen know him better

   One of the best ways to see how utterly without grounds the media frenzy over The Gospel of Judas really is involves reading the silly thing. Most folks with a modicum of common sense will go, “Oh, well, that sure is odd…and disjointed…and poorly written…and irrelevant” upon doing so. Here’s where you can read the whole thing.

   It is all over the news today, as predicted (and, obviously, planned, given the date). “The Gospel of Judas Contradicts Christian Belief!” “Judas was Doing Jesus’ Will!” “Christianity Shaken!” Blah, blah, blah. When you get your historical and theological information from Katie Couric on the Today Show, well, you’ll buy anything.    When I was responding to Bart Ehrman’s media blitz

This month’s Tabletalk magazine from Ligonier Ministries focuses on preparing believers to handle the release of The Da Vinci Code film this month. In order as they appear, the first feature article is by R.C. Sproul, “The Da Vinci Conspiracy.” Then my article appears, titled, “The Fool’s Folly Uncovered.” Then R. Albert Mohler Jr.’s article “Historical Propaganda,” followed by Peter