Christians Do Have a Reasonable Faith

Are you a Christian who wishes to know the reasons why you believe? Do you want to share the hope that you have in Christ with your atheist, agnostic, Muslim, and skeptic friends reasonably? Take 49 minutes of your time to be geared with leading arguments for the reasons why we, Christians, do have a reasonable faith from the world leading Christian philosopher, debater and theologian William Lane Craig.

Craig is, according to one of the leading atheist, Sam Harris,  “the one Christian apologist who seems to have put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists”.

In Watermark Church, 2009 – Todd Wagner interviewed Dr. William Lane Craig  through  his common arguments for God’s existence: the contingency, cosmological, teleological(fine-tuning), moral argument, and evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

Recommended Books:

Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics and On Guard by William Lane Craig is brilliant for the beginners in Christian apologetics.

The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology edited by William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland is a master piece for them who are advance in Christian apologetics. The book features The Leibnizian cosmological argument(Alexander R. Pruss), The kalam cosmological argument (William Lane Craig and James D. Sinclair), The teleological argument: an exploration of the fine-tuning of the universe (Robin Collins), The argument from consciousness (J. P. Moreland), The argument from reason (Victor Reppert), The moral argument (Mark D. Linville), The argument from evil (Stewart Goetz), The argument from religious experience (Kai-Man Kwan), The ontological argument (Robert E. Maydole) and The argument from miracles: a cumulative case for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth (Timothy McGrew and Lydia McGrew)

Visit also Craig’s home page: Reasonable Faith for much more.

Christians Must Be Hated

“It is not that I want merely to be called a Christian, but actually to be one”

-Ignatius (To the Romans 3:2)

Are you hated by the world? If you are a Christian, and the world does not hate you, I believe if I may, sadly inform you that you are not a Christian. You are merely called a Christian, but you are actually not one. Being a Christian, “a follower of the anointed one”, is not only professing to the truthfulness of Christianity but also a lifestyle that imitates Christ Jesus.

Apostle John records Jesus saying: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.”(John 7:7). The context to which this Jesus’ saying is coming out, is that of his half brothers, who the Apostle remarked did not even believed in Jesus, pose him to go to Judea and twitter himself publicly at the Jews Feast of Booths, which is celebration of the feast of ingathering observed at the end of the year (Exod. 23:16; Exod. 34:22)

Jesus answered his skeptical half-brothers with a reply  like this: The world loves those who speak what it longs and dearly wants to hear: it’s O.K., it’s O.K.! You are fine! Everything is going to be fine! The world loves those who “claim” to be Christians yet appraise and approve its immoral actions and behavior and hates those who testify about its evil.

If you are a Christian, and the world listens to you, then examine yourself to see whether you are truly what you claim to be. In First Epistle of John, a letter that was generally written to congregations across Asia Minor (now Turkey), John warned Christian that there are “Christian” who are not “ Christian”: “They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us.”(1 John 4:5-6)

Christ Jesus was hated for speaking against the evilness of the world. As a true follower of Christ, practicing his teaching and lives a life-style that reflects that you are in Christ, being hated by the world is guarantied. You ought to be hated. You must be hated.

In all this, take courage in these words of warning from the one who loves you: “ If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you”(John 15:18–19)

Be a Christian, “Keep on praying”for others too, for there is a chance of their being converted and getting to God. Let them, then, learn from you at least by your actions. Return their bad temper with gentleness; their boasts with humility; their abuse with prayer. In the face of their error, be “steadfast in the faith.” Return their violence with mildness and do not be intent on getting your own back. By our patience let us show we are their brothers, intent on imitating the Lord, seeing which of us can be the more wronged, robbed, and despised. Thus no devil’s weed will be found among you; but thoroughly pure and self-controlled, you will remain body and soul united to Jesus Christ.”(Ignatius’ To the Ephesians 10:1-3)

Go out Christians and be hated! Speak the truth with love and gentleness. Go out, Go be hated.

School Prayer + Bad Argument

“As prayer has gone out of the schools, guns, knives, drugs, and gangs have come in.”

– Ernest Istook, Jr.

Quiz: Is this a good argument? If not explain what is wrong with it?

Premise I: If prayer go out of the schools then  guns, knives, drugs, and gangs will come in.

Premise II: Prayer has gone out of schools.

Conclusion: Therefore guns, knives, drugs, and gangs have come in.

Love Wins + Bad Argument

“Will all people be saved, or will God not get what he wants?”

–Rob Bell, Love Wins,  p.98(2011)

Quiz II: Is this a good argument? If not what is wrong with it?

Premise 1: Ether all people will be saved, or God will not get what he wants.

Premise 2: God will get what he wants.

Conclusion: Therefore all people will be saved.

Source: Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived HarperOne; First Edition edition (March 15, 2011)

Exploring Why Richard Dawkins Is Chickening Out

 An atheist blog founder of Debunking Christianity, author of “Why I Became An Atheist” and former Christian minister John W. Loftus reviewed William Lane Craig Vs Christopher debate, under the title William Lane Craig “Won by a Landslide” Against Hitchens as follows:

That’s what Roger Sharp said on Facebook after watching the debate in person. [Full disclosure, Sharp is a Christian]. This is exactly what I had predicted. Christian professor Doug Geivett weighed in on the debate where he said: Craig “was thoroughly prepared for every aspect of the debate and never faltered in his response to objections by Hitchens,” and that Hitchens’s arguments “were largely unfocused, sometimes disconnected, and often irrelevant.” Over at Common Sense Atheism (which is a great source for Craig debates) is an atheist review of the debate where we read: “Frankly Craig spanked Hitchens like a foolish child.” For more info visit here.

Dawkins, Haris, Dennett

What does this have to do with Richard Dawkins?

Everything! Pro. Dawkins knows that William Lane Craig is prepared for every aspect of the debate and as a matter of fact, Dawkins has yet to respond to Bills’ critique of The God Delusion,(see the  first chapter of, God Is Good, God Is Great, Why Believing in God is Reasonable and Responsible)

One can understand why Dawkins is Chickening Out, when he/she reads how William Lane Craig shattered his objections.

A good example can be seen when Craig shattered one of the popular Dawkinian objection “Who Design the Designer?” which is countless repeated in New Atheists’ books.

Dawkins’ Objection To Teleological Argument:

But of course any God capable of intelligently designing as complex as the DNA/protein replicating machinery must have been at least as complex and organized as that machine itself. Far more so if we suppose him additionally capable of such advanced functions as listening to prayers and forgiving sins. To explain the origin of the DNA/protein machine by invoking a supernatural Designer is to explain precisely nothing, for it leaves unexplained the origin of the Designer. You have to say something like “God was always there,” and if you allow yourself that kind of lazy way out, you might as well say that “DNA was always there,” or “Life was always there,” and be done with it. (Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, Longman, 1986, p. 141.)

Echoed By an atheist apologist and philosopher Daniel C. Dennett:

“Since, as Dawkins notes, the hypothesis that [organized, complex] mind plays such a role in the universe could not possibly be explanatory, we should ask: With what other hypotheses is the architecture of the universe consistent?”(Dennett, Atheism and Evolution; The Cambridge Companion to Atheism; The Cambridge University Press;2007, p143.)

And again by Christopher Hitchens:

the postulate of a designer or creator only raises the unanswerable question of who designed the designer or created the creator. Religion and theology… have consistently failed to overcome this objection(Hitchens, God is not Great, Hachette Book Group; 2007, p71.)

William Lane Craig shattering the Objection:

5 Simple Arguments Showing Jesus is God

Is Jesus God? Outlined arguments for Deity of Jesus from His Deeds

I. Salvation Argument For Deity of Christ Jesus(Adopted from Athanasius)

1. No creature can redeem another creature.
2. According to Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus Christ is a creature.
3. Therefore, according to Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus Christ cannot redeem humanity.
4. It is not true that Jesus Christ cannot redeem humanity.
5. Therefore it is not true that Jesus Christ is a creature.

Simpler Form

1. Only God and God alone can save.
2. Jesus Christ saves.
3. Therefore Jesus Christ is God.

II. Creation Argument For Deity of Christ Jesus

1. Only God and God alone created all things that were created.
2. Jesus Christ created all things that were created.
3. Therefore Jesus Christ is God.

III. Ultimate Judge Argument For Deity of Christ Jesus

1. Only God and God alone is the Ultimate Judge of all people.
2. Jesus Christ is the Ultimate Judge of all people.
3. Therefore Jesus Christ is God.

VI. Omni-X Argument For Deity of Christ Jesus

1. Only God and God alone is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient and Morally Perfect.
2. Jesus Christ is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient and Morally Perfect.
3. Therefore Jesus Christ is God

V. Forgiveness of Sin Authority Argument For Deity of Christ

1. Only God and God alone has authority to forgive all sins.
2. Jesus Christ has authority to forgive all sins.
3. Therefore Jesus Christ is God.

Note: The term God stands for Jehovah, Yahweh(OT Septuagint: Kyrios, Lord) and Save stands for breaking of the power of sin and giving eternal life.

“Through Jesus” Common Objection on Creation Argument, Compare John 1.1-3(through Jesus) with Romans 11:33-36 (through God)

Are There Contradictions in Bible?

Are there contradictions in the Bible, and if so, how do you explain them?

Mike Licona’s Risen Jesus Site