A professor at Southern Evangelical Seminary, J.T. Bridges, is asked what topics Christians should be the most familiar with.Bridges proposes that Christians should be able to articulate reasons why God exists when speaking with a skeptic.In a society that is becoming increasingly secular while not knowing exactly why, it is important that we can adequately justify our reasons for believing the way we do.
The second topic we should become familiar with is the topic of suffering.The existence of suffering is used against Christians because many skeptics presuppose that suffering is incompatible with the existence of God.However, is that truly the case?I agree that the nature of God and evil are incompatible however evil and free moral agents are not.As you know, free moral agents have caused much of the suffering in the world outside suffering caused by natural evil (hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc…).
We must understand the omniscience of God.We, as free moral agents, are not capable of comprehending why moral and natural evils take place and what their long term consequences will be.Some skeptics may propose that if God is truly omniscient, why couldn’t he just not create those who would be evil?If God selectively created perfect moral beings, there would be no free will that would allow us to make conscious decisions of right or wrong or willingly accept or reject Christ.Without free will, these decisions would be out of our authority to make because our perfect moral nature wouldn’t allow us to choose anything outside perfectly moral decisions.We see that our free will provided by God allows us to make good and bad choices.God understands that forced love is not truly love at all.
These are just a couple thoughts to ponder and possibly further investigate.I’ve included an article that provides even greater insight into the topic of suffering:
1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”
Above is a video of prominent New Testament historian N.T. Wright discussing the resurrection of Jesus.N.T. Wright wrote extensively on this specific topic of the resurrection of Jesus in his book, “The Resurrection of the Son of God”.He is considered to be one of the world’s most reliable sources for information on the topic of the resurrection of Jesus.In the video, Wright briefly explains how the massive expansion of the Christian faith is purely explained by the divine resurrection of Jesus Christ.In addition, Wright regards the alternative theories that contradict the claim of the resurrection as unfitting for the circumstances of the era because they fail to carry the explanatory scope adequate enough to explain the Christian movement in the centuries following the resurrection of Christ.
Below is a link to the book, “The Resurrection of the Son of God” written by N.T. Wright.Personally, I feel this book is a valuable resource for all Christians who want to know Christ on a deeper level.
For those of you who have seen the “documentary” by Bill Maher called “Religulous”, you’ll recall that Maher feels he has a knockdown argument against Christianity by claiming that Jesus was merely a carbon copy of pagan gods prior to his birth.Obviously, this would be a huge implication for the Christians if that had been true.However, it’s not.I’ve included a video of Christian philosopher and New Testament historian Dr. William Lane Craig that discusses this specific topic.
I’m not going to take the time to list out the many inaccuracies of Maher’s “Religulous” because I think that would honestly be giving it more credit than it deserves.For those that are interested in looking more into the credibility of the accusation that Jesus was a mere copy of early pagan gods, I’ll include a link to a book (referenced in the video) that delves into great detail concerning how it is impossible for Jesus to have been the product of pagan gods…
I believe that if you currently have doubts because of this objection, they’ll quickly fade away once you do some research using reliable sources…and not comedian Bill Maher.
This video includes highlights from a debate between John Lennox and Richard Dawkins on the topic, “Does God Exist?”By presenting this video I hope to inspire those who lack the confidence to share the Christian faith and defend it when necessary.From my experience, those who criticize the Christian faith and its followers are typically ignorant of it.The belief that science has buried Christianity couldn’t be farther from the truth.Those that have been persuaded by the propaganda that science has defeated God are content with dismissing the evidence that points towards a divine Creator.Hopefully this video will aggressively challenge the proposition that God has been dismissed and comfort those that have had doubts concerning this matter.
