Apologetics – HillFaith

You Only Live Once? Three Ways To Approach God And Time

How many times have we all heard, in jest or just as often in all seriousness, that you only live once (YOLO), so, in the words of the old beer commercial, we have to grab for all the gusto we can get.

Actually, the YOLO philosophy is but one of several ways human beings across the ages have viewed the questions surrounding God and time. A second one is the idea that time is endlessly cyclical, a wheel that turns and turns. Others think time and history are pointless, utterly empty of meaning. Then there is the idea history has purpose, as the unfolding of God’s will.

The following video is longer than the norm for HillFaith, but this conversation between philosophy Professor Sean McDowell of Biola University and Christian philosopher and author Os Guiness about the latter’s book, “Carpe Diem Redeemed,” is well worth its 58-minute length because it is certain to prompt you to think in fresh ways about this very old issue of God and time:

Can You Be Moral Without Being A Christian?

Can you be good as an atheist or agnostic? The answer to that question is yes, of course, according to Dr. Frank Turek, founder and president of cross-examined.org and co-author of “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist.”

Turek argues that the more basic issue is how do you know what is “moral” on the basis of a subjective understanding of good and evil? If morality is simply whatever any individual thinks it is, then it is nothing more than opinion.

And when morality is whatever any particular individual thinks is right “for them,” there is no way anybody can logically claim to be correct except by imposing force. That’s what political philosophers describe as “anarchy:”

I Am Second: Mike Fisher

If you are hockey fan, you probably recognize the name of Mike Fisher, formerly of the Ottawa Senators and the Nashville Predators. If you are devotee of country music, you may know Fisher as Carrie Underwood’s husband.

Fisher is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, but, as he explains in this “I Am Second” white chair session, it didn’t come easily for him, despite growing up in a highly churched family. Success will do that to you.

This particular video was created six years ago, but it’s coming around again now because Fisher and Underwood have a new four-part series for the “I Am Second” folks that gets down to it about faith, marriage, babies, success and a whole lot more.

RIP: Ravi Zacharias

In many ways the first of the modern Christian apologists to breakthrough to mass media audiences, Ravi Zacharias passed away earlier today. He was 74. He founded RZIM — Ravi Zacharias International Ministries — in 1984.

His daughter, Sarah Davis, tells us that earlier this year — just before he received the news his cancer was beyond treatment — Zacharias shared this 17th century poem written by Richard Baxter:

“Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.
If life be long, I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short, yet why should I be sad
To welcome endless day?

Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before;
He that unto God’s kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.
Come Lord, when grace hath made me meet
Thy blessed face to see;
For if Thy work on earth be sweet
What will thy glory be!

Then I shall end my sad complaints
And weary sinful days,
And join with the triumphant saints
That sing my Savior’s praise.
My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ‘tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.”

Today, he is. Rest in peace.

Zacharias delivered this presentation on God’s purposes for each of our lives around the same time as he was thinking about Baxter’s poem:

13 Reasons Mike Shreve No Longer Believes In Hinduism’s Karma Or Reincarnation

Mike Shreve followed a guru before his life was transformed and he became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Mike had for many years before believed in Karma and Reincarnation, two of the cornerstone myths of Hinduism.

Mike Shreve, founder of the True Light Project.

“Most teachers of the doctrine of karma agree that any negative or positive thing we do in life produces either bad or good karma that will inevitably be reaped, either in the same life or a future life. The object of the soul’s sojourn in this world is to walk in such righteousness, love and devotion to right religious principles that only good karma is sown,” Shreve writes.

That basic idea — that we each have to work our way to salvation by doing good works — is not unique to Hinduism, it’s found in numerous forms throughout the world’s religions. You do enough good works, then God is obligated to save you. Continue reading “13 Reasons Mike Shreve No Longer Believes In Hinduism’s Karma Or Reincarnation”

INTELLIGENT DESIGN: Mona Lisa Didn’t Just Appear Spontaneously Out Of Nothing

Go to an art museum and you will see dozens of illustrations of the common sense truth that design requires a designer. Regardless if you see a classic Rembrandt or some weird post-modern existential scream, there was an artist behind it (i.e. a designer).

It’s the same in nature generally and specifically in that part of nature studied as the field of biology. In the following video, Cold-Case Christianity’s J. Warner Wallace, the NBC “Dateline” detective extraordinaire, walks us through eight signs he sees in biology of design.

THINK ABOUT THIS: What If Your Friend Tells You All About The Red Tesla In Your Dream Last Night?

So, you’re jawing with a friend on the cell and happen to mention that you had a really odd dream the other night during which you were driving a sporty Tesla Model S through Hollywood.

Then your friend says, “right, it was a red convertible and we had the top down.” Would that freak you out? What if the next thing he said was “the blonde was in the back seat with me and the redhead was up there with you” and he was right!?!? (Yes, I know Tesla doesn’t make a convertible Model S, but work with me here, ok?)

Now you’re really freaked out because two people just don’t independently have the same dream like that. But, as Cold-Case Christianity’s J. Warner Wallace (the Tesla illustration was actually his, not mine) explains in this video, something like it did happen after Jesus was resurrected. And that makes all the difference in the world for all of us:

Category: Apologetics