with Brian Tubbs
Apologetics
Articles that defend the truth of the Christian faith
Inherit the Wind: Compelling Fiction, Bad History
0176 days
by Pastor Tubbs
in Apologetics
Have you seen the movie Inherit the Wind? If not, you’ve missed one of the most culturally significant films in the 20th century. Inherit the Wind, starring Spencer Tracy, is a fictional portrayal of the famous (or infamous) John T. Scopes “Monkey” Trial, which took place in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925.
**Read “A Critique of Inherit the Wind”over at Suite101 Protestantism.
In the real trial, John T. Scopes, a substitute biology teacher, was prosecuted by the state of Tennessee for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. It was against state law to teach evolution.
Former Democratic Party presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan headlined the prosecution, and famous defense attorney Clarence Darrow represented Scopes. Tourists and reporters descended on Dayton for what became a sensationalized showdown between “Science” and “Religion” – played out between two celebrity titans.
The high point of the trial was when Clarence Darrow cross-examined William Jennings Bryan as an expert on the Bible. Darrow hoped to ridicule Bryan and cast doubt on the Bible. While he did succeed in embarrassing Bryan during the course of his questions, Darrow himself was also flustered and “shown up” a few times. In the end, both men lost their cool, and the examination degenerated into a shouting match. The entire cross-examination was ruled irrelevant and thrown out.
A majority of the national reporters present in Dayton, however, took a dim view of Bryan, and viewed the exchange as a decisive victory for Darrow. And that’s exactly how they reported it! This was especially the case with famous reporter H.L. Mencken, who despised Bryan.
Bryan died a few days after the trial, and even though he technically won the case (Scopes was found guilty and fined $100), the “standard line” became that Bryan was humiliated at the trial.
It was this premise – that Bryan was shown to be an ignorant buffoon – that informed the 1960 movie Inherit the Wind. And in the film, Darrow (renamed Henry Drummond) reduces Bryan (renamed Matthew Harrison Brady) to a stammering, dazed idiot who drops dead in the courtroom! (In reality, Bryan was not left stammering or dazed — and did not die in the courtroom).
Bryan College, a four-year school founded in honor of William Jennings Bryan, has committed itself to defending Bryan’s legacy and setting the record straight concerning the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. While Bryan College recently announced the ending of a play based on the famous trial - a play drawn from actual trial manuscripts – the college is releasing a movie titled Inherit the Truth.
While Inherit the Wind makes for good drama, it’s poor history. There are a number of clear differences between the play / movie and what actually took place in 1925.
For more on this topic, read “A Critique of Inherit the Wind“ over at Suite101 Protestantism.
The Truth About Life: Five Facts Everyone Needs to Know
0186 days
The famous philosopher Socrates once said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Yet many people wander through life without taking the time to understand the nature of life, the meaning of life, or their direction in life. Bestselling author and legendary motivator Zig Ziglar says that we can be a “wandering generality” or a “meaningful specific,” and it’s the latter type of person who enjoys the most fulfillment, happiness, and success. Here are five facts that everyone needs to know about the life we are each living:
1) Life is short.
In Psalm 90, Moses says that each person can expect to live about 70 or 80 years. This ancient piece of wisdom tracks with modern science. While some people live longer and many don’t even make it to 70 or 80, the average life expectancy for men and women falls pretty close to the range given by Moses thousands of years ago. And these seven or eight decades of life pass quickly. Another biblical writer, James, describes life as a “vapor” which “appears for a little time” and then “vanishes away.”
There’s no way to know for certain how much time you will have. There are things we can do to influence the length of days we are given, but there’s always going to be element of uncertainty and mystery when it comes to the specifics. One thing we can know, however, is that life is brief.
2) We have only one life.
The book of Hebrews tells us that it’s “appointed unto a man once to die, and after this, the judgment.” We get one life on earth. While there are some people who teach an endless cycle of reincarnation, these claims are not supported by biblical or scientific evidence. The Bible is clear that we each have but one life to live….on this earth. And after that, we enter into eternity.
The practical implications of this should be obvious. You have one opportunity to get this life thing right. Just one. You can’t “blow it” in one life and then hope you’ll get it right the next go-around. There is no next go-around. You have to get it right now…in this life. That may sound depressing, especially if you feel your life is a mess, but bear with me. I’ll be getting to the good stuff in a moment.
3) This life isn’t all there is to reality.
While this may seem to contradict my previous point, hang with me. You have only one life on this earth, but your life on this earth isn’t all there is to reality. In fact, the earth isn’t all there is to reality. There’s a greater reality out there. And it comprises more than simply the physical world.
We are conditioned to think and understand reality in terms of our senses. That which we can see, touch, taste, feel, or hear is considered “real.” Otherwise, it’s mythical or false. Yet there are many things which we experience that can’t be explained by our senses….or by science. If you doubt me, watch this video clip of a debate between Christian apologist William Lane Craig and chemist Peter Atkins…
As Dr. Craig articulately demonstrates, there are many aspects of life that are plainly obvious – what Thomas Jefferson would call “self-evident” – that can’t be proved by science or demonstrated necessarily by our physical senses. This establishes clearly that reality transcends each person. There’s more to reality than just us, and this should be both thought-provoking and exciting.
4) When it comes to this life, you are responsible for it.
The one common denominator that all living people share is that they each have their own life. And we are each responsible for this life. While it’s true that life on earth (at least collectively and socially speaking) is full of hardship, inequality, unfairness, etc., it’s equally true that it’s full of wonder and opportunity. Regardless of your present circumstances (whether they be positive or negative), it does little good to point the finger or blame others. You alone are responsible for your life and how it turns out. Yes, other people and other circumstances will impact and influence your life — sometimes greatly so. But you must take responsibility for how you deal with, react, and navigate through life’s challenges and opportunities.
Brian Tracy, the great motivational speaker and personal development guru, said that this realization came to him when he was at the lowest point in his life. Broke, discouraged and working in a dead-end job, Tracy had an epiphany. He writes: “One night as I sat at my kitchen table, I had a great flash of awareness. It changed my life. I suddenly realized that everything that would happen to me for the rest of my life was going to be up to me. No one else was ever going to help me. No one was coming to the rescue.” In his book Goals: How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible, Tracy explains: “It is only when you free yourself from negative emotions by accepting complete responsibility that you can begin to set and achieve goals in every area of your life. It is only when you are free, mentally and emotionally, that you can begin to channel your energy and enthusiasm in a forward direction.”
5) The Creator wants a relationship with you.
While scholars and theologians may debate aspects and doctrines within the Bible, one of the many unmistakable themes from Scripture is that God wants to have a relationship with His Creation. I realize, however, that some of my skeptical readers may cringe at my using the Bible to make a truth claim. So, even though I believe the Bible to be God’s Word, I will set it aside for a moment and appeal to common sense.
You exist. Let’s start with that premise, shall we? If you are in the fringe, quasi-philosophical camp that questions existence itself, then you’ll at least have to grant that thought exists, that beliefs exist. Since you are having thoughts and beliefs, it’s fair to say that “you” exist, even if you have a very confused understanding of what “you” entails. For the vast majority of my readers, however, no one will have a tough time grasping the fundamental concept of self-existence. Starting with the premise of existence then, it is fair to consider the question of what caused you to come into existence.
The law of causality, a common sense principle that has underlined science, religion, and philosophy, for most of human history, demands that every cause must have an effect. You exist, yet you have not always existed. Therefore, you were caused. What caused you to come into existence? What caused you to begin to exist? You will undoubtedly think of your parents, but what caused them to exist? And what about their parents and their parents and their parents and their parents – right on back to the beginning of the human race? If you believe in evolution, then what caused the evolutionary ancestors of mankind to exist? And what caused the early stages of evolution to occur? In fact, what initiated evolution itself? (Note that I believe that God created the heavens and the earth. I’m merely playing along with what atheists, agnostics, and skeptics will relate with).
At some point, we will come to Aristotle’s ultimate First Cause. Something or Someone had to begin human existence as well as the universe itself. Basically, anything that comes into existence had to have a cause. And that brings us back eventually to a timeless, infinite, all-powerful supernatural Cause.
Setting aside the Bible and all other religious faiths for a moment, if it’s reasonable to conclude that a supernatural Being of some kind brought the universe into existence (and, as we saw earlier, that it’s obvious there’s more to reality than what science and our physical senses can explain), it’s fair to then assume this Creator had a reason for bringing all of us into existence. When you and I build something, it’s for a reason and purpose, right? Since we’ve been created, it’s therefore reasonable to conclude it was for a reason.
When you then consider the relational aspect of humanity, the fact that we need relationships, then it’s highly probable that relationship had something to do with the Creator’s purpose. From a purely logical standpoint then, it’s highly likely that the Creator wants to have a relationship with the human race. Since you are part of the human race, that means the Creator wants to have a relationship with you.
With the above, I’ve used logic and reason (working off of some pretty common sense premises) to bring us to what the Bible has long claimed: That God created the human race. That God loves the human race. And that God desires a relationship with the human race. That is, in fact, the entire story of the Bible.
Take heart. You are here because God wants you here. And God wants to have a relationship with you. The key to finding your purpose and to achieving happiness in life is having that relationship with Him. Now that you know that, the ball is in your court?
For more on this subject, I encourage you to read the Gospel of John. Nothing beats starting with the Bible. In addition to God’s Word, I would encourage you to read The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren and (though I differ with his Calvinist leanings, especially in Chapter Seven) No Doubt About It: The Case for Christianity by Winfried Corduan.
God bless you.
When Was The New Testament Written?
0288 days
When were the New Testament books written? Many critics of the Bible argue that the books of the New Testament were written (and changed several times) many years after the events they describe, and thus (these critics say) the New Testament can’t be trusted as a reliable source on early Christianity. In this video excerpt, Frank Turek argues for an early dating (and thus early testimony) of the New Testament:
To get more of Frank Turek’s analysis, check out…
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Frank Turek and Norm Geisler
Why Was Frank Turek Fired From Cisco? And What Does it Say About Persecution of Christians in America?
7289 days
Bible-believing Christians in America need to sit up and take notice. Frank Turek, a Christian author and speaker, was fired from his contract with Cisco as a result of beliefs he publicly expressed outside of work. That a Christian would lose his or her job because of political or religious views expressed outside of work is deeply troubling to say the least. It’s certainly understandable that an employer would prohibit, limit, or regulate religious or political speech or activism within the workplace. It’s not only understandable, but perfectly reasonable. However, when an employer terminates an employee’s position or vendor’s contract over political speech or activism that takes place outside of work hours and off campus, that is something else entirely. And that is precisely what happened with Frank Turek.
Turek is a widely known Christian author, speaker, and ministry leader. Until recently, he was also a corporate consultant and trainer, using his expertise in leadership and management to supplement his family’s income. Turek was careful not to mix the two spheres, keeping his political and religious views out of his corporate work. That was not good enough, however, for a self-described gay manager at Cisco. In spite of the fact that Turek received high marks for his training and performance, this particular manager was appalled at Turek’s writings and public advocacy for traditional marriage. He complained. And Turek was fired.
What’s the big deal, you say? Simply this…if it happened to Frank Turek, it can happen to you. In fact, this kind of thing has long been happening in academia, especially on liberal college campuses. Now, it’s happening in corporate America. The bottom line precedent that’s being set right now is this…Christians can be fired from their secular jobs if they publicly write or say things outside of work that are deemed offensive by co-workers.
Professing Christians who pick and choose which parts of the Bible they’re comfortable with and/or who avoid taking any kind of stand on moral issues need not fear. Those types of “Christians” will be the last to face persecution, since they are not much of a threat to anyone. (Though even these Christians may find themselves passed over for promotion or undermined in subtle ways if they are associated with churches or pastors that DO take a stand).
For this blog post, I’m writing mainly to true followers of Jesus Christ. True followers of Christ will always be considered a threat to the Enemy as well as to a morally perverse culture, because they stand for the principles and precepts of God’s Word. Fortunately, for most of American history, Bible-believing Christians have enjoyed a wide amount of latitude in the free exercise of religion and in their free speech rights. Note the past tense of that statement, however. For if the story of Frank Turek is indicative of what’s on the horizon, the days of enjoying a high level of religious freedom in the United States may be numbered.
Mike Licona Offers Evidence for the Resurrection
3391 days
by Pastor Tubbs
in Apologetics
In this presentation, ironically given at Christmas time, Christian scholar Mike Licona shares evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ…
Christianity and the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem Witch Trials
0440 days
by Pastor Tubbs
in Apologetics
In yesterday’s blog post, we started to look at the question of whether Christianity can make any credible claims to being moral. And I promised that today, I would address perhaps the most serious allegations leveled at Christianity…
What About the Crusades?
Okay, you might say, some of the allegations against Christianity are unfair, but what about those things we know happened in history? We know that European Crusaders, often with the cross of Christ emblazoned on their shield and armor, rampaged through the Middle East causing death and destruction. We know about the Inquisition and we know that witches were killed by the Puritans in New England.
Of all the books I’ve read on Christianity, one of the best in addressing this particular issue is What’s So Great About Christianity? by Dinesh D’Souza. In his book, D’Souza puts the Crusades in the proper historical context. He writes: “More than two hundred years after Islamic armies conquered the Middle East and forced their way into Europe, the Christians finally did strike back. Rallied by the pope and the ruling dynasties of Europe, in the eleventh century the Christians attempted to recover the heartland of Christianity and defend it against militant Islam.”
Remember that, before Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism dominated the Middle East. In the years during and after Emperor Constantine’s rule, for example, Christians had full access to the holy sites in Jerusalem and Judeo-Palestine. The Islamic conquest of the Middle East changed all that. When Muslim armies conquered the Middle East and then pushed into Europe, it began to look as if Europe itself would be transformed into a Muslim continent as well. For political and economic reasons as well as religious and cultural reasons, European governments responded by raising armies to take the fight to the now-Islamic Middle East. What followed were centuries of bloodshed, with the culmination being the Muslim defeat of the Byzantine Empire (the eastern remnant of the Roman Empire) in 1453.
Were the Crusades bloody? Yes. Were their atrocities committed during the Crusades? Yes…by both sides. But is it fair to classify the Crusades as Christian aggression? Not really. There was much more going on than missionary zeal. In fact, the Great Commission (Matthew 18:28-30) had very little to do with the Crusades. One may find fault with more than a few professing Christians during the time of the Crusades, but one can’t find fault with Jesus Christ Himself.
What About the Inquisition?
The Inquisition was an atrocity carried out by the corrupt, medieval Roman Catholic Church in Europe, mainly Spain. While some of its offenses have been exaggerated, I won’t deny that this is a tragic and regrettable chapter in Christian history. I will simply point out, as D’Souza does, that realistic estimates of those killed in the Inquisition are somewhere between 1,500 and 4,000 over a span of 350 years. While that’s tragic, it’s hardly the genocidal carnage that many of Christianity’s critics allege. What’s more, the Inquisition is not representative of true, biblical Christianity. It’s not something that evangelical Christians would ever endorse or countenance. It was a tragic manifestation of corruption in the medieval Catholic Church.
…and the Salem Witch Trials?
Finally, we come to the Salem witch trials. When one examines the actual historical record, he or she will find that fewer than twenty were killed outright in Puritan New England for witchcraft, with a few others dying in captivity. Assuming the “few others” is, say, another twenty, that’s forty people total who may have died as a result of execution or cruelty during the Salem witch trial ordeal. These individuals were killed not simply because the Massachusetts Christians disapproved of their pagan ways, hated them, or wanted to exact some kind of jihadist vengeance. These convicted witches were killed because of real fear and a genuine (however misguided) belief on the part of the Massachusetts Christians that witchcraft was real – and that Satan was at work. These Puritan Christians believed that the devil was working through these witches to bring disease, death, and suffering to New England. In time, as accusations spread (and began to include respectable citizens), public conscience overcame the fear and hysteria, and the trials were ended. Were the trials a tragedy? Yes. Were they a natural outgrowth of true, biblical, evangelical Christianity? No.
Have Christians Done Evil?
In my above explanation, I’m not denying that professing Christians have, in the course of history (or even today), done bad things. Christians (both professing and genuine) have sinned – and continue to sin. I’m merely trying to put the sins of Christians in perspective. We will see in my next blog post (which I will post sometime in the next few days) that the sins associated with Christianity are nothing compared with those carried out by atheist regimes or movements. This fact is an important aspect of perspective that is sometimes overlooked. Most importantly, though, the only valid way to evaluate Christianity (at its genuine, real core) is to assess its founder. If Jesus Christ Himself were guilty of sin and atrocities, one could reasonably conclude that Christianity were evil. Absent this, however, it becomes smoke-and-mirrors. We can point fingers at professing Christians all we want, but, in the end, the most important figure in Christianity isn’t some preacher, pope, or politician. It’s Jesus Christ Himself.
For more on this subject, check out…
What’s So Great About Christianity? by Dinesh D’Souza
Is Christianity Moral?
1441 days
by Pastor Tubbs
in Apologetics
In our last blog post, we examined the issue of truth. For those who watched Frank Turek’s remarks (see the video link in the blog post), you understand that all attempts to deny the reality of absolute truth are themselves logically self-defeating. But just because we know such a thing as truth exists, it doesn’t necessarily follow that Christians have the truth. In this blog post, I’m going to briefly address one of the leading objections to the notion that Christianity possesses moral truth. That objection is the claim that Christianity itself is responsible for much evil in human history and that many Christians today are themselves immoral. With this in mind, how can Christians audaciously claim that they (and seemingly they alone) possess ultimate moral truth?
Do the “Christians” at Westboro Baptist Church Represent Moral Truth?
Those who follow the news are familiar with Westboro Baptist Church, a fringe cult group based in Topeka, Kansas, who like to celebrate tragedies associated with the United States (including the deaths of service members) as God’s “judgment” on America. In one recent news reel I saw, one of the Westboro members protesting the funeral of a service member said that we should’ve left the guy’s body smoldering on the battlefield, because he got what he deserved. Not surprisingly, many people think of appalling extremists like Westboro Baptist Church when they hear Christians make moral judgments. And they lump Christian leaders like the late Jerry Falwell or Al Mohler or Paige Patterson or John MacArthur (leaders who have no qualms about calling sin a “sin” and declaring that America will face judgment for its sins) all together — and associate them quite freely with Westboro’s brand of hate and extremism. Even Joel Osteen, the smiling televangelist and megachurch pastor who rarely even says the word “sin,” was brutally attacked in the press by homosexual activists when he answered affirmatively in an interview that the Bible indeed considers homosexuality a sin. (For my views on Westboro, click here).
I personally think it’s quite unfair to lump Christians like Joel Osteen or Rick Warren or Billy Graham in the same camp as Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church, but critics of Christianity don’t always play fair. And some of them really don’t see the distinction, except perhaps in tone and style. This places a responsibility, I believe, on Christians to be ready to effectively and lovingly explain those distinctions. Christians should stand up for absolute, moral truth, but we should do so in love and compassion.
Hasn’t Christianity Done Great Evil to the World?
One of the oft-repeated accusations issued by atheists, agnostics, and other critics of Christianity is that Christians have brought great evil and suffering to the world. As such, they have forfeited any claim to the moral high ground. As part of these charges, we hear tales about the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, slavery, and on and on. Most Christians do a very poor job at responding to these allegations, probably because (deep down) they believe them to be true (or at least are worried they might be true).
First, some perspective is in order here. What do we mean by “evil”? It’s ironic that people who deny the existence of God (thus undercutting any objective divine authority) will turn around and put themselves in a position to evaluate good and evil. Without an external, objective moral authority to determine what constitutes “Good” or “Evil,” we are left with subjective opinion and personal preference. And, if that’s the standard, why should Christians feel the need to defend anything in their past? If the accusation is that Christians have, at times, done things which are contrary to their own faith and moral claims, then that’s at least fairly stated. We can discuss that. But, if one jettisons the very notion of objective morality, then there’s really nothing to talk about when it comes to the idea of “evil.”
Another point worth mentioning is that many of the charges leveled against Christians are downright ludicrous. A rather popular (popular to liberals and atheists, anyway) episode of The West Wing, in which President Bartlett (played by Martin Sheen) humiliates a Christian talk show host in the White House, is a case in point. Bartlett mocks the fictional talk show host’s position that homosexuality is an “abomination” by pointing out that the Old Testament (from which she got the word “abomination”) also contains provisions about selling people into slavery, putting people to death on the Sabbath, and something about burning his mother “in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads.” (If you want to see this West Wing exchange, it’s on YouTube at this link.)
No one wants to get embarrassed, humiliated, mocked, or condemned. There’s strong emotional power in that scene from The West Wing episode. Christians who watch it will instinctively want to distance themselves from the Dr. Jacobs character. And non-Christians who watch it will cheer how Bartlett wisely and courageously cut her to pieces. There are just a couple problems:
- The writers twist some of the facts. The Torah does address some of these issues, like wearing garments of two different kinds of threads, but no penalty is prescribed.
- The writers make up other facts. For example, there’s nothing in the Bible about burning one’s mother, either at a family gathering or otherwise.
In this brief post, I can’t do a full analysis of The West Wing exchange between Barltett and Jacobs. If you want that, I encourage you pick up a copy of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible by Robert J. Hutchinson. In that book, Hutchinson writes: “Like Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code, writer/producer Aaraon Sorkin [the man behind The West Wing] used specific biblical citations a couple of times to give the appearance of authenticity to other material he just made up.”
Hutchinson mentions The Da Vinci Code, which is yet another example of trumped-up or exaggerated attacks on Christianity. If you read The Da Vinci Code (or watch the film), you get the impression that Christianity (as we have it today) was nothing but a power play on Emperor Constantine’s part as well as a brutal, chauvinistic assault on women and a suppression of human sexuality. Dan Brown mixes history and fiction together in a such a way that, according to some polls, nearly five percent of professing Christians who read the book abandoned their faith in Christianity after doing so. This is a shame, because these Christians ultimately had nothing for which to be ashamed, as Brown played fast and loose with the facts. However well written or popular, The Da Vinci Code is fiction, not reality.
I could go on, as there are many such examples of trumped-up, twisted, or exaggerated charges and allegations that have had Christianity on the defensive in the arena of public perception. Once the facts are examined, however, most of these allegations evaporate and Christianity comes out stronger than ever.
In my next post…I’ll take on the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem Witch Trials.
God bless!
Related Reading
While you wait for the next blog post, feel free to check out some other articles I’ve written on similar and related subjects…
“Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen?” (Suite101 Protestantism)
“What Do Christians Believe?” (Suite101 Protestantism)
Is There Ultimate Moral Truth?
0442 days
Is there such a thing as objective, moral truth? Are some things morally right or morally wrong, from an objective, authoritative standpoint? Or is morality simply a manifestation of emotion or changing social values?
These are the questions we will address in this blog post, and I believe they are the most important questions facing the world today. Some of my Christian readers may be surprised to read that, but think about it: If there is no such thing as objective truth, then there’s no way we can declare or know that God exists or that Jesus came to this earth and died for our sins. All of Jesus’ statements and miracles would have to be set aside as either mythical or uncertain. There would be no intelligent or logical way to determine whether a belief is wrong (or right) or a behavior is sinful (or good). The entire concept of sin would lose any of its meaning and relevance. Christianity would collapse completely…if there’s no such thing as objective truth.
Increasingly, modern (or I should say “postmodern”) society has turned away from the idea of objective truth. In the world of business, while it’s long been an effective marketing strategy to target people’s wants and perceptions, it has now become conventional wisdom that everything is a matter of perception or preference. Business consultant Linda Ellinor sums up this view, when she writes: “What you perceive, your observations, feelings, interpretations, are all your truth. Your truth is important. Yet it is not The Truth.” (Of course, even the business world doesn’t fully embrace this, not when it comes to paychecks and stock dividends, but I digress).
The business world is, however, simply following where the entertainment culture has already gone, and where Enlightenment skeptics and post-Enlightenment philosophers originally pointed the way. Friedrich Nietzche once declared: “There are no facts, only interpretations.” Postmodernism fully embraced this cynicism, regarding truth has perpetually elusive and an inescapable victim of cultural diversity, changing times, limits of language, as well as human greed and fallibility. In the course of the 20th century, postmodernism became the dominant worldview in most western universities and pretty much all of Hollywood. Its mantra is perfectly described by French novelist Gustave Flaubert: “There is no truth. There is only perception.”
Is There Ultimate Moral Truth?
Disagreements over hot topics such as gay marriage, abortion, sexuality, stem cell research, the environment, you name it, lead inevitably to societies resorting to either Truth or Power. Without a consensual understanding of “Truth,” resolution of our disagreements depends solely on Power. In a primitive society, that means the side with the biggest clubs. In a modern, democratic society, it means those with the loudest voices, most money, and greatest political and legal influence. This may explain how issues are resolved, but it says nothing about how they should be resolved. To understand that, one must confront the question of Truth, specifically “Is there ultimate moral truth?”
Christian author and speaker Frank Turek answers this question in the strong affirmative, saying that ALL truth is absolute, and there are no relative truths. In this video (an excerpt from one of his talks), he does a great job refuting pretty much all objections to his position:
Then…WHO has the Truth?
After watching the above video, the only objection that remains available is…”How Does Frank Turek Know the Truth?” Of course, I’m not going to leave Mr. Turek out on the limb here. Let me say that I fully and completely agree with Turek’s claims. There is indeed such a thing as absolute truth – not just absolute, moral truth, but truth itself. In my next blog post, we will examine whether Christianity underlines and constitutes ultimate moral truth.
Dinosaurs and the Age of the Earth
7486 days
by Pastor Tubbs
in Apologetics
Bible-believing Christians who hold to a conservative view of Scripture are routinely mocked for believing — seemingly in the face of “science” — that the earth is anything other than several billion years old. Those Christians who believe that dinosaurs may have roamed the earth alongside of humans, that there may have been a literal Garden of Eden, or that a man named Noah really did built an Ark to survive a worldwide Flood are brushed aside quite often as foolish, naive, or worse. Not surprisingly, many Christians have been reluctant to face this type of ridicule and have retreated in their faith and / or attempted to redefine the meaning of Scripture.
In this video excerpt from a presentation given at Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Dr. Al Mohler, who is considered by Time magazine to be the reigning intellectual of the evangelical movement, explains that Christians need NOT be ashamed for believing in the Bible.
What’s With the Long Lifespans in Genesis?
0493 days
The book of Genesis tells of people living hundreds of years, including Adam (930 years), Seth (912 years), Cainan (910 years) and of course Methusaleh (969 years). While many of these long-living patriarchs lived before the Great Flood, there are still some significant life spans afterward, such as Shem (600 years), Eber (464) and Terah (205). Nevertheless, the Flood does serve as an interesting turning point, in that one does notice a decline in life spans after the Flood. Numerous theories have been floated to explain these long life spans. They include the following:
- The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden provided incredible life-sustaining properties, such that a consistent intake of its fruit would result in immortality (Genesis 3:22-24). Adam and Eve, though cast out of the Garden, had eaten of the Tree of Life during their time in Eden. As a result, they lived for hundreds of years. As the human race grew (and got genealogically further away from Adam and Eve), the effect of the Tree of Life dissipated, thus resulting in the drop-off of life spans.
- Pre-Flood humanity enjoyed the added protection of an atmospheric water canopy (Genesis 1:6-7), which resulted in ideal living conditions.
- Pre-Flood humanity experienced fewer diseases and genetic defects as well as perhaps healthier diets.
The best explanation may be a spiritual or supernatural one, namely that God planned for the earliest humans to live longer, so that they could more effectively spread the human race throughout the earth. In the Old Testament, some of the patriarchs had children well past 100 years of age. Adam, for instance, was 130 when he fathered Seth. Noah was 500, when he had his firstborn son! A human being living for hundreds of years in relative health (compared with humans today) could have had many, many children. This would’ve been ideal for the rapid spread of the human race, something God clearly wanted (Genesis 1:28).
