Showing posts with label atheism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label atheism. Show all posts

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Experience Apologetics #1 (Intro)

 

In 1 Kings 18 we read of Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.  God answered in a miraculous way witnessed by many thousands (v. 38).  And the people responded, "The Lord - he is God!"


1 Peter 3:15 (ESV) >>

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,


A Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus, 

 

... And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it

is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 

But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs

under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”  And He said to her,

“Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your

daughter.”  And going back to her home, she found the child lying

on the bed, the demon having left. (Mk. 7:26-30, NASB)

 

Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics - Geisler:

https://arcapologetics.org/product/baker-encyclopedia-of-christian-apologetics-baker-reference-library/

 

The Big Book of Christian Apologetics: An A to Z Guide by Norman Geisler.

This book clarifies difficult biblical passages, clearly explains various philosophical systems as well as classic apologetic arguments. Do you desire to intelligently and persuasively engage with skeptics?  This is an abridged version of the Baker Encyclopedia on Christian Apologetics:

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Christian-Apologetics-Guides/dp/0801014174

 

Geisler bio, very powerful, tragedy and #HOPE ↑ #Grace ...   

https://youtu.be/fH_rbNUQKwU

 

Andy Stanley, son of Charles Stanley (d. 2023, 90 yo), is featured in this profound documentary on Geisler.  Sadly, Andy's gone off the rails regarding the Old Testament:

https://answersingenesis.org/christianity/andy-stanley-says-we-need-to-unhitch-the-old-testament-from-our-faith/


CARL GUSTAV JUNG = SUGAR JUG TV CLAN

What about Carl Jung (d. 6-6-61)?

 

... as a student of new religious movements, I have repeatedly found Carl Jung to be a fountainhead of all manner of spiritual aberrations, whether in non-Christian movements or in Christianity itself.  More recently,  psychologist and best-selling author, Jordan Peterson, has drawn attention to Jung’s philosophy, which he draws on and uses as a lens to interpret the Bible. -- Douglas Groothuis

 

LYCOS search: A Christian critique of Carl Jung >>

https://search14.lycos.com/web/?q=A+Christian+critique+of+Carl+Jung

 

C.G. Jung’s War on the Christian Faith by J. Budziszewski (2010):

https://www.equip.org/articles/c-g-jungs-war-on-the-christian-faith/

 

The Hidden Dangers of Carl Jung by Douglas Groothuis (2023)

https://www.douglasgroothuis.com/post/the-hidden-dangers-of-carl-jung

 

*    Jung was heavily involved in the occult. Deuteronomy 18 warns us about those practices such as consulting with the dead.  

*    He denied the Trinity, but proposed a “Quaternity” with Lucifer as an additional Person of the Godhead!

*    He said that Good and Evil could be reconciled, contradicting Romans 12:21.

*    The collective unconscious is not a Biblical idea.

*    Clinical psychologist Richard Noll wrote The Jung Cult which documents Jung's pagan and occultic tendencies.


Our Christian Worldview must be based on Scripture!

Is it okay to use our mind or be a scientist?  Go ask King Solomon! #Sol_the_Scientist

 

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. (Jn. 17:17)

 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,

    and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Pr. 9:10)

 

God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.  Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. ... He spoke about plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles and fish.  From all nations people came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 4:29-34)

 

Even a child knows that #Evolution is wrong (Apes Ain't Grapes) and that there is a God!  A number of "atheists" dealt with early tragedy in a negative manner and lost their father at a young age.  A kid knows it's wrong to steal.  Consider Romans 1:20 and 2:15 along with Hebrews 3:4,

 

Rom 1:20 >>

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

 

Regarding the Gentiles, Paul says (Rom. 2:15):

They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.

 

Heb. 3:4 >>

For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.


Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism by Dr. Paul Vitz hits the mark!  Disappointment in one's earthly father can progress towards a denial of God (e.g. death, absence, mistreatment):

https://www.amazon.com/Faith-Fatherless-Psychology-Paul-Vitz/dp/1586176870

 

Even Kant (d. 1804) had the witness of Creation & Conscience figured out: “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and reverence, the more often and more steadily one reflects on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”

That statement is on his tombstone!

      

Immanuel Kant and Genesis:

https://creation.com/immanuel-kant-and-genesis


>> A Very Helpful Resource >>

Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason L. Archer Jr. (1982):

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/458027.Encyclopedia_of_Bible_Difficulties

 

New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties - Archer:

https://www.amazon.com/New-International-Encyclopedia-Bible-Difficulties/dp/0310241464

 

We read this from the Forward by Kenneth Kantzer:

 

Miller Burrows, former professor of New Testament at Yale University, accurately summarizes this rather typical modern viewpoint: "The Bible is full of things which to an intelligent educated person of today are either quite incredible or at best highly questionable. ... The protracted struggle of theology to defend the inerrancy of the Bible (i.e. its complete truth) against the findings of astronomy, geology, and biology has been a series of retreats ending in a defeat which has led all wise theologians to move to a better position." (Outline of Biblical Theology, 1946, pp. 9, 44)


Dr. James White discusses the "problem" of the location of the Feeding of the Five Thousand (Mt. 14, Mk. 6, Lk. 9, Jn. 6) at the 29:10 mark, he shows a helpful map of the Sea of Galilee at 44:50 ...

https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/general-apologetics/mark-confused-birth-narratives-original-readings/

 

Note "pros Bethsaida" in Mark 6:45,

Καὶ εὐθὺς ἠνάγκασεν τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ ἐμβῆναι εἰς τὸ πλοῖον καὶ προάγειν εἰς τὸ πέραν πρὸς Βηθσαϊδάν, ἕως αὐτὸς ἀπολύει τὸν ὄχλον.

 

πρὸς can mean "nearby," "alongside," or "towards" >>

https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/pros.html

 

Dr. White has written What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur'an:  https://www.christianbook.com/every-christian-needs-know-about-quran/james-white/9780764209765/pd/209765

 

Sea of Galilee map:

https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/105442/was-marie-magdalene-healed-once-or-twice-according-to-luke-82-and-mark-169-as

 

my site: https://totalyouth.us

cool swag: https://totalyouth.us/merch

 

HW: Does the study of Aesthetics prove the existence of God?

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jay-hall-m-s-b64526a_aesthetics-god-apologetics-activity-7364223720556564481-KxTl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAHbbPwBBTN3-5NHy1Ow3Aqgq-KCW2E14ew

 

Graphic Sources:

https://www.craiyon.com/image/AX1iwBjKRf-i9NqGVSRc3g

https://chatgpt.com/c/68a7fd04-4cd4-8328-9e69-6697f74b936a

https://chatgpt.com/c/68a93734-65a0-8327-a343-3d9575ad575d

https://www.amazon.com/Demolishing-Supposed-Bible-Contradictions-1/dp/0890516006

 

#Experience_Apologetics # Apologetics_Experience #RU_Apologetic ? #Ben2Space ? ✳✺ #evo #evolution #JamesWhite #AOMIN #Elijah #Baal #Mt_Carmel #God #Jesus #Bible #BB6640 ╬ #OnePeter315 #Becauseof_thisAnswer ... #Norman_Geisler #Geisler #Geisler300 #CARL_GUSTAV_JUNG #SUGAR_JUG_TV_CLAN

#Richard_Noll #The_Jung_Cult #YouthCult ♫ #Jung_Messless ☺ #Jung_Irth #YES #Young_Earth_Science #Y6K #King_Solomon #wisdom #wise #YY #Sol #Sunday #Faith_ofthe_Fatherless #Atheism #PaulVitz #Rom120 #Rom215 #HEB3_4 ✳✺ #Kant #Creation #Conscience ╬ #Genesis #Gen1to11 #GIII

#Bible_Difficulties #Bible_Contradictions ?? A↔A' #Gleason_Archer (d. 2004)

#πρὸς #Sea_of_Galilee #TrueTruth #Schaeffer

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Does Atheism Have a Future?

From Bart Ehrman's blog (2013) we read this ...

 

I apparently threw a few people for a loop yesterday when I referred to myself as an atheist. ... When I became an agnostic - 17 or 18 years ago? ... I thought that “agnosticism” and “atheism” were two *degrees* of basically the same thing. ...  According to this idea, an agnostic is someone who says that s/he does not *know* whether God exists, and an atheist is someone who makes a definitive statement that God does *not* exist.  Agnostics don’t know and atheists are sure.

 

This video responding to Ehrman's views is excellent.  I have replied to Ehrman's work here and here.  Some atheists go with the tag "brights," but what does the Real Creator and Author of Truth say?  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding.  To him belongs eternal praise." (Ps. 111:10).  Does atheism have a future?  I think not:

 

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

    and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9-11)

 

I have a few questions for my atheist friends:

 

  • Why do we yearn for Utopia?
  • If life is hopeless, is suicide an option?
  • Did I create History?
  • Am I the Author of the Universe?
  • Have you read the Bible?
  • What if you're wrong?

 

What does the non-Theist have to say?  Here are the chapters from the book Atheist Universe by David Mills:

This book has an endorsement from Richard Dawkins and a foreword from Dorion Sagan.  Should we follow our emotions blindly?  Isaac Asimov said, “Emotionally I am an atheist.  I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.”  But what about the Big Bang?  Sir Hermann Bondi (d. 2005), mathematician and astronomer, said, “… theories of the origin of the Universe have been disproved by present day empirical evidence as have various theories of the origin of the Solar System.”  One specific problem for the Big Bang is known as the "horizon problem" - the universe is not old enough for the heat to be so evenly distributed in the cosmos based on their assumptions. 

 

Check out our take on Hell here.  Eric Metaxas has written a profound book on miracles.  Metaxas hosts Socrates in the City where Malcolm Gladwell, Dick Cavett, N.T.  Wright and Peter Hitchens have been guests.  Concerning the Fundamentals of the Faith, see here.  To keep up with Intelligent Design, be sure to follow EvolutionNews.org and enjoy the info.  As for America's Christian Heritage, I would point to this book by Gary DeMar.  Also, the work of Wallbuilders is helpful.  I have visited the church that President Washington was a part of.  Consider the truth, turn from atheism and go to Jesus.  Here's a summary of the Good News (Gospel).  Check out this helpful apologetic for Jesus, God and the Bible.

 

The law from your mouth is more precious to me

than thousands of pieces of silver and gold. (Ps. 119:72)

 

#MichaelShermer #MalcolmGladwell #DickCavett #NTWright #PeterHitchens #Atheism #God #BigBang #Agnostic #Asimov #Jesus #Gospel #BartEhrman #Apologetics

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Happy in the Lord











It might seem crazy what I’m gonna say
Sunshine’s God’s gift – it ain’t fake
He made the heavens way up in space
The Lord gave you air, now and every day

Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel that Jesus’ love is the proof
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you know the Gospel is the truth

Sometime bad news hits our back
Hold to the Unchanging Hand – that’s a fact
I should probably warn you of the Devil’s line
Skip the brights - don’t waste your time

Bring me down?
Can't nothing bring me down
My God is too high and mighty
  - 4L Williams

Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation …
O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord …
Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel
- he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God! (Ps. 68:19,32,35, ESV).

Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation …
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins (Ps. 25:4,5,16-18, ESV).

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord,
For he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity (Ps. 98:4-9, ESV).