Apologetics – HillFaith

How To Be Confident Christianity Nails It On All The God Questions

Christian apologists like J. Warner Wallace, the famous NBC “Dateline” cold-case detective, speak to lots of college and high school groups and they often get the most penetrating questions from the students.

Such was the case at the recent Grounded Youth Apologetics Conference hosted by the Donelson Fellowship in Nashville. A student noted that Wallace had spoken of how he believes Christianity “fits” science better than religions like Islam and Hindu and asked him why the others don’t.

Wallace answered by pointing out that religions, including even those like Deism, may well fit with much of science, but stopping there “doesn’t get you to Christianity. The strength of Christianity is determined by the strength in the historical record regarding the claims of Jesus.” Christianity rests upon real events. Continue reading “How To Be Confident Christianity Nails It On All The God Questions”

AND FOR SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT: From Sachi’s Socratic Dialogue With Kurosawa On Evil

By Willow Viney

Sachi was having lunch in the hospital cafeteria with her mentor, Nurse Kurosawa. “Ma’am, please tell me, why does God allow evil? I don’t understand it.”

Kurosawa put down her sandwich. “Hmm, you know that’s a fair question,” Kurosawa tapped her chin in thought, “Let me think for a moment how to answer that for you.”

Sachi waited patiently while Kurosawa looked down while thinking. Then she looked up again. “Hmm, all right. Tell me, Sachi, I have a question for you.” Continue reading “AND FOR SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT: From Sachi’s Socratic Dialogue With Kurosawa On Evil”

THINK ABOUT THIS: How Can There Be Evil If God Is Good?

How can there be a good god with all of the horrendous evil that exists in this world? That’s an objection that is frequently heard whenever conversation takes a serious turn.

Cross-examined.org’s Dr. Frank Turek was asked this question during a recent presentation. His answer connected some key factors that are usually considered not merely unrelated but complete opposites.

“The existence of evil does not disprove the existence of God, it actually proves it,” explains Turek. “Why? Because evil is a lack of the good thing, but evil doesn’t exist unless good exists and good doesn’t exist unless God exists.” Continue reading “THINK ABOUT THIS: How Can There Be Evil If God Is Good?”

RIP: Dr. Norman Geisler, 1932-2019

Dr. Norman Geisler, philosopher, systematic theologian, and classical Christian apologist, died early in the morning today, according to one of Geisler’s best-known students, Ravi Zacharias.

Dr. Norman Geisler (Screen shot from The One-Minute Apologist)

Geisler was “blessed with an incredible mind and being a prolific writer, he influenced tens of thousands all over the world. He was one of the most ardent defenders of the Holy Scriptures,” Zacharias said in a Facebook post today. That is an understatement, to be sure.

It’s difficult to measure the academic and popular influence of Geisler, but in his scholarship, rhetorical skills and teaching excellence he certainly ranks with C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell, William Lane Craig, Zacharias and Gary Habermas as a key factor in the explosion in recent decades of credible, compelling philosophical, historical, archeological and other evidence for the reliability of the Bible, the literal resurrection of Christ and the existence of God. Continue reading “RIP: Dr. Norman Geisler, 1932-2019”

HARD FACTS: And You Thought Water Was Just H2O?

Actually, water “is a supernatural liquid with 74 unique physical/chemical properties,” according to the eminent Brazilian chemist, Dr. Marcos Eberlin, during a video interview published by the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture.

Dr. Marcos Eberlin is past president of the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation.

“You look at this and you say ‘there is no color, there is no flavor, there is no smell,’ so you tend to believe it’s common liquid, but it’s not,” Eberlin declares. “It has 74 unique properties, some weird properties actually.”

Among those 74 properties, according to Eberlin, is the familiar fact that it is essential for life on earth. No water, no life. Eberlin knows whereof he speaks, having just published a fascinating book, “Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose.”

Continue reading “HARD FACTS: And You Thought Water Was Just H2O?”

Here’s Why Eye-Witnesses Set Christianity Apart From All Other Faiths

And what about the maxim that when five people see the same car wreck, their individual accounts sound like they saw five different crashes?

There is “an interesting difference between Christianity” and other theistic world-views with claims about God that makes the former radically different from all of the others, according to NBC Dateline cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace.

“Unlike other systems that are really collections of proverbs, and I always refer back to a friend of mine in high school was a Bahai and he introduced me to the writings of Baha’u’llah and these are a set of great beautiful writings, but they are a set of proverbs, there are no claims about history that can be tested,” Wallace said.

“It’s really hard to test systems that are simply wisdom statements,” Wallace continued. “It’s kind of hard to test the wisdom statements of Buddha, for example, because there’s no claims in Buddhism that are grounded in historical events.” Continue reading “Here’s Why Eye-Witnesses Set Christianity Apart From All Other Faiths”

Don’t Believe Miracles Are Real? This Will Make You Think Again

Few topics are greeted with greater skepticism than miracles, and no wonder, considering how often we hear of street-corner magicians, faith-healing hucksters and pyramid peddling get-rich-quick scammers.

But miracles of many kinds have happened during the course of human experience and have been subsequently documented to a greater or lesser degree. Even so, skepticism is an ever-present obstacle to acceptance of the possibility of genuine miracles.

That said, if you have an open mind, go read this post by Professor Sean McDowell of Biola University about a recent experience in the class he teaches there on miracles.

It concerns a young man who suffered a horrendous medical condition for the first 16 years of his life. But then a peer-reviewed medical miracle of prayer changed everything, according to the abstract published at ScienceDirect:

“In November 2011, he experienced proximal-intercessory-prayer (PIP) at a church and felt an electric shock starting from his shoulder and going through his stomach.

“After the prayer experience, he was unexpectedly able to tolerate oral feedings. The g- and j-tube were removed four months later and he did not require any further special treatments for his condition as all symptoms had resolved. Over seven years later, he has been free from symptoms.”

Go here for the rest of a “Remarkable Case of a Peer-Reviewed Modern Miracle.”