In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. -Genesis 1:1 Scientists tell us that the universe has a beginning, confirming the very first verse of the Bible to be true. And when scientists say that the universe has a beginning, it is important to recognize that by ‘universe’ they mean: time, space and matter. (You might enjoy the video below from William Lane Craig on the Kalam Cosmological Arguement for the existence of God.) God is not part of the material universe; He is beyond space, time and matter. Scripture tells us that God is spirit (John 4:24). What does this tell us about ultimate reality? I am reminded that ultimate reality is not the material world around me. Yes, the material world is real! Yes, the material world is important - but not most important. What is most important is beyond… beyond the here and now… beyond me. As Christians, we live not for the earthy home which is passing away, but for the heavenly homeland that is yet to come - our real home. This world ultimately will not and cannot satisfy us because we were made for something more. If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. -C.S. Lewis
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"You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts."
If you enjoy thinking about questions like these, you'll enjoy this short video on tolerance. And if you really enjoy thinking and talking about these things, consider joining the Apologetics Life Group starting this fall! -Pastor Steve The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. He is the creator of everything that exists: time, space and matter. In our life group studying apologetics, we recently watched this video from William Lane Craig. It is a great reminder that there is overwhelming scientific evidence that a creator exists. May we be reminded of these truths and be drawn to worship Him! Therefore, there exists a Personal Creator of the universe, who, sans the universe, is timeless, spaceless, beginningless, changeless, necessary, uncaused, and enormously powerful.
Enjoy this short video from Lee Strobel, and may it encourage you this Christmas season that the birth of our savior is an historical event! In the video below, Frank Turek gives a 4-point summary of how we can know that Christianity is true:
You can find it on Amazon here. Interested in digging into apologetics with others from Cold Springs Church? Pastor Steve teaches an online course starting again this fall! Email Pastor Steve if you are interested. We don't have any of the original writings of any of the books of the New Testament (the original writings are called autographs). What do do have is many, many copies. Textual criticism is the science of determining the original words by looking at the numerous manuscripts. Here are few of the important facts: 1. We have about 5,600 Greek manuscripts. 2. There are over 400,000 textual variants in these Greek manuscripts. 3. 99% of these variants are either not meaningful or not viable… and therefore inconsequential. 4. The fewer than 1% of the variants that are meaningful and viable do not affect or call into question a single Biblical doctrine. If you want to learn more about textual criticism, here are some short videos below. Are there contradictions in the Gospels? J. Warner Wallace writes, "Reliable eye witnesses never agree on every detail." In fact, he asserts that if they did agree in every detail they would not be considered reliable but instead guilty of collusion. The Gospels complement each other, and their differences authenticate them as legitimate eye witness testimony. Check out the short video below with J. Warner Wallace. There's also a short video with RC Sproul on Bible contradictions in general - see below. Want to dig deeper? Check out J. Warner Wallace's website: coldcasechristianity.com/ And if you'd like to read an article about errors in the whole Bible, Norm Geisler has a great article online here. Another great resource is a book by Gleason Archer called Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. You can find it on Amazon here. Is Christianity based on a made-up Jesus? Or a historical Jesus? The early Christian Church actually existed (and was thriving!) well before ANY of the New Testament was written. The Christian faith exists not because of the Bible, but because of the resurrection of Jesus. Want to dig into the historical evidence for Jesus outside of the New Testament? Here are a few videos below. And if you'd like to read an article by J. Warner Wallace, you can do so here. Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Is the resurrection of Jesus an historical event? What is the evidence? William Lane Craig writes: “There are four facts agreed upon by the majority of scholars who have written on these subjects which any adequate historical hypothesis must account for: Jesus’ entombment by Joseph of Arimathea, the discovery of his empty tomb, his post-mortem appearances, and the origin of the disciples’ belief in his resurrection. Now the question is: what is the best explanation of these four facts? Most sholars probably remain agnostic about this question. But the Christian can maintain that the hypothesis that best explains these facts is “God raised Jesus from the dead.” The Apostle Paul wrote: And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. -1 Corinthians 15:14 The historicity of the resurrection of Jesus is absolutely essential to the Christian faith. If Jesus was raised from the dead, all the promises of God are true, for Jesus has proven Himself to be the none other than God in the flesh. If you’d like to read a fascinating article by William Lane Craig, you can find it here. A few days ago my son emailed me an article titled “The Walls of Jericho did Tumble Down, New Study Finds”. I’m always encouraged to hear about new archaeological evidence that supports the Biblical account of history. And one quote from the article: ''When we compare the archeological evidence at Jericho with the biblical narrative describing the Israelite destruction of Jericho, we find a quite remarkable agreement,'' -Dr. Bryant G. Wood, an archeologist at the University of Toronto One more reason why the Christian faith is intellectually reasonable? Archeological finds continue to provide evidence that the Bible is historically accurate. If you’d like to watch a short (10-minute) video on archeology and the Bible, you’ll find it below. |
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