This is the first in a series of articles about the afterlife and the unseen realm. Three-year-old Colton Burpo had a near-death experience (NDE) while on the operating table. When it was over, he described his “three minutes in heaven” in vivid detail, including encounters with Samson, John the Baptist, and Jesus, who had sea-blue eyes and owned a rainbow-colored horse. Colton’s father, a Wesleyan pastor, believes the lad’s experience was real because he shared it with “the simple … [Read more...]
Responding to Islam: Has the gospel been corrupted?
Muslims believe in the Injil, or gospel, but define it differently than evangelical Christians do. Further, they claim the church has corrupted the biblical texts so that only the Qur’an preserves the genuine good news. In defining the gospel, Muslim commentator Yusuf Ali writes that “the Injil spoken of by the Qur’an is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught.” … [Read more...]
Do Christians and Mormons worship the same God?
Do Christians and Mormons worship the same God? The question may irk our LDS friends, who insist that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the restored Church and therefore cannot be distinguished from orthodox Christianity. What’s more, some LDS leaders shrewdly blur the lines that separate Mormon beliefs from the biblical doctrines evangelicals affirm – sometimes with the help of evangelicals in the name of “dialogue.” A case in point: How Wide the Divide? – a book by … [Read more...]
What really is ‘sexual orientation’?
Political correctness just got weirder. A recent opinion piece in the Washington Post by Lauren Taylor describes the author’s struggle to raise her cats gender neutral. No, really. Read her explanation: “People are coming to understand that not all of us fit into the ‘girl’ box or the ‘boy’ box. Those who don’t are claiming space to be who they are. We all need to find ways to acknowledge and respect that. My way of respecting it just happens to be raising my cats gender neutral. You can … [Read more...]
Do we need the originals of Scripture?
The faith of some Christians is challenged when they learn that the autographs, or originals, of the Bible no longer exist. Written on stone, metal, papyrus, and parchment, the words first penned by 40 divinely inspired authors over 1,500 years have not survived the ravages of time. If God is able to breathe out His Word so that the originals are rightly described as inerrant, infallible, and sufficient, could He not also have ensured that the originals survived? Of course. But He … [Read more...]
The sufficiency of Scripture
This is the last in a series of columns on the inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture. When Christians say the Bible is true, we often use terms to describe the manner in which God has spoken to us through His written Word. One such term is “sufficient.” But what does that mean? All the words God intended “The sufficiency of Scripture means that Scripture contained all the words of God he intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and … [Read more...]
The infallibility of Scripture
This is the third in a series of columns on the inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture. When Christians say the Bible is true, we often use terms to describe the manner in which God has spoken to us through His written Word. One such term is “infallible.” But what does that mean? Incapable of error By infallibility, we mean the original manuscripts are incapable of error. This is because the Bible is inspired, or God-breathed, resulting in “autographs” that … [Read more...]
The inerrancy of Scripture
This is the second in a series of columns on the inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture. When Christians say the Bible is true, we often use terms to describe the manner in which God has spoken to us through His written Word. One such term is “inerrant.” But what does that mean? Freedom from error The inerrancy of Scripture means the Bible is fully truthful in all of its teachings. P.D. Feinberg writes in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, inerrancy is … [Read more...]
The inspiration of Scripture
This is the first in a series of columns on the inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility, and sufficiency of Scripture. When Christians say the Bible is true, we often use terms to describe the manner in which God has spoken to us through His written Word. One such term is “inspired.” But what does that mean? God-breathed The apostle Paul writes in 2 Tim. 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God …” The phrase “inspired by God” comes from the Greek theopneustos. It means “God-breathed” and … [Read more...]
Six similarities of Islam and Mormonism
Satan is clever but not original. He cannot create, procreate, raise the dead, or inspire Scripture. But he can take things God created for good and twist them for his evil purposes. He is especially proficient in false religions, from Algard Wicca to Zoroastrianism. While the world’s wayward faiths are diverse, the evil one’s fingerprints are on all of them. To illustrate, let’s look at similar patterns in two very different belief systems: Islam and Mormonism. It would seem these … [Read more...]
Mo. Baptists defending the faith in 2016
Thanks, Missouri Baptists, for defending the Christian faith this year through the MBC’s apologetics ministry. A few metrics in the paragraphs below illustrate the degree to which you have sought to fulfill Peter’s exhortation to “always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you … with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15-16). New resources In 2015 the MBC released two timely new resources: What Every Christian Should Know about Islam and … [Read more...]
Four examples of where the New World Translation gets it wrong
This is the last in a three-part series on Jehovah’s Witnesses Jehovah’s Witnesses regard The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures as “an accurate, easy-to-read translation of the Bible” (jw.org). What many don’t realize is that four of the five men on the translation committee producing the complete 1961 edition had no Hebrew or Greek training whatsoever. The fifth, who claimed to know both languages, failed a simple Hebrew test while under oath in a Scottish court. What all … [Read more...]
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