Apologetics Archives - Page 2 of 18

When Were Christians First Regarded as Intolerant “Haters”?

January 17, 2023

In the midst of the high octane culture wars of the last ten years, Christians have been labelled all sorts of things: intolerant, bigoted, arrogant, narrow, dogmatic, just to name a few.

But, one noteworthy word stands out. Christians have been labelled haters. Despite the fact that Christians are to be known by their love (John 13:35), it seems the world often associates us with hate.

A couple observations are worth noting about this phenomenon. First, this sort of accusation against Christians is, at its core, a moral objection. Rather than the standard historical or logical objections often leveled against the faith, this one is fundamentally about ethics. It is claiming that Christian behavior violates some moral standard that all should follow.

In other words, the claim isn’t merely that Christianity is false, but that Christianity is bad.

Of course, such an objection raises a number of intellectual challenges for the one making it. After all, one can’t accuse Christians of violating moral norms if there are no such things as moral norms! So the one making this claim must explain where moral absolutes come from, and how they know what they are.

Needless to say, that’s not an easy task for the average postmodern thinker who decries all absolutes, and is typically agnostic or atheistic when it comes to the existence of God. In order for the accusation to stick, such a person would have to actually become the very thing they are against, namely a person who is dogmatic about the truth of their own beliefs.

Perhaps there’s no greater irony than a person complaining about moral dogmatism by making claims that are morally dogmatic.

But there is a second observation to be made, namely that such accusations are far from new. It’s easy in the heat of the current cultural moment to think that our situation is unique. No Christians have ever faced what we face, we might think.

But, that’s simply not the case. Christians in the early centuries faced precisely the same accusations, and often much worse. Let me offer just two examples: Pliny the Younger and Emperor Nero. [Read more…]

Keeping the Faith in College

August 1, 2022

Now that it’s officially August, the “back to school” conversations have begun. For many parents, however, it is not back to school for their kids, but “away” to school. Some parents are sending kids to college—perhaps for the first time.

My family is in exactly that position. My second child, John, heads to college in just a few weeks. My oldest, Emma, already left three years ago. And I know what parents are feeling. They are wondering how their child will survive the intellectual and spiritual challenges of university life.

Indeed, I can still vividly remember my own college experience as a believer on campus. In the fall of 1989, I began my freshman year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Like many freshmen, I was excited for the next chapter in my life, eager to explore the new opportunities and experiences that college had to offer.

Of course, I knew there would be challenges. College life would not be easy, especially for a Christian. But I had grown up in a solid Christian home, was taught the Bible from a young age, and was a faithful member of my church youth group. So I figured I was ready.

I wasn’t.

The problem stemmed not from what I was taught but from what I wasn’t taught. I wasn’t prepared in the one area that would matter most in a university environment. I wasn’t prepared intellectually. And I would soon learn (the hard way) that intellectual preparation was what I needed more than anything.

My lack of preparation reached a head in the spring of my freshman year when I took a religion course titled Introduction to the New Testament. The professor was a young scholar who was bright, engaging, funny, and persuasive. It didn’t take long to see that he lectured with an eye toward evangelicals, even sharing how he was once an evangelical himself not long ago.

And then during his graduate studies, after deep engagement with the text, he realized he could no longer maintain his evangelical beliefs. The New Testament wasn’t inspired after all but was full of mistakes. It wasn’t reliable but was filled with made-up stories and fabrications. And its original form wasn’t even accessible to us but had been badly corrupted by scribes over years of transmission.

That professor’s name was [Read more…]

How to Prepare Your Student for College

May 31, 2022

Now that high school graduation season is coming to a close, I know that a lot of parents out there have one simple question on their mind: Have I done a good job preparing my child for college?

Every Christian parent wonders this. We pray that we’ve adequately prepared our high school graduate to enter into the fray of college life: intellectually, spiritually, and morally. Indeed, this is why I wrote my recent book, Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College.

If you are asking these same questions, I talked at length about these issues in a recent podcast with Reformed Youth Ministries. Hosted by John Perritt and Tree Triolo, we discussed about the key issues that all college students will face at one point or another.

To listen, you can download here. Enjoy!

Your Greatest Doubts and Fears: A New Sunday School Class

January 13, 2022

“Don’t forget in the dark what you learned in the light.” –C.S. Lewis

These words by C.S. Lewis remind us that the Christian life can be filled with dark times—doubts, fears, and questions about all sorts of things. What if Christianity is wrong and we are deceiving ourselves? Why would God allow a world so filled with evil? If Christianity is true then why are there so many intelligent people who reject it? If God is real then why do so many Christians seem caught in sin? How can I say Jesus is the only way to heaven and not be arrogant and intolerant?

These are precisely the kinds of questions and issues that cause people to struggle with doubt (which I’ve written about here), or wonder if they need to “deconstruct” their faith (which I’ve written about here).

In order to tackle these issues, I’ve begun a 13-week Sunday School class at my church entitled, “Your Greatest Doubts and Fears.” I plan to post the recording and handout each week according to the schedule below. You can check back here regularly to get the latest installment.

The first class below is already available. Enjoy! [Read more…]

Is the New Testament Really Filled with Contradictory Theologies?

April 20, 2021

Perhaps no book in the history of the world has received as much scrutiny and criticism as the Bible. For generations, scholars have picked apart every aspect of this book: its history, its transmission, its veracity, its theology, its morality, etc. It has been criticized, ridiculed, mocked and condemned.

Those who are in the academic world—college students, grad students—feel this tension acutely. In fact, this is why I wrote my most recent book, Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College (Crossway, 2021).

However, in their haste to heap criticism on the Bible, occasionally critics offer arguments that actually prove to be inconsistent with one another. They make accusations against the Scripture that are mutually exclusive—they cannot all be true. Of course, such inconsistencies are rarely noticed. If a scholar is intent to find contradictions in the Bible, he will rarely find contradictions in his own arguments.

When it comes to the New Testament, there are two criticisms that have been used for years, and often at the same time. The problem, however, is that upon closer examination they prove to be largely incompatible with one another. Let us examine each in turn. [Read more…]