CADRE Comments

I make it a habit to go after end times con artists like John Hagee and Jack van Impe. Jonathan Cahn is just the latest in that string, and recently, the Christian Research Institute posted a review I did of Cahn's latest crackpot effort to wrestle the prophetic out of the mundane. Enjoy the lunacy.

“[What] we have today is worse than ignorance of the Bible. It is contempt for it. Just about anyone who quotes the Bible, let alone says it is the source of his or her values, is essentially regarded as a simpleton who is anti-science, anti-intellectual and sexist.” ~ Dennis Prager, Jewish thinker and nationally syndicated talk show host, from I’m Back, Here’s Where I’ve Been . There is no question that Christianity in the West is under attack from some in the public square. While Christians are still able to worship as they choose and to follow their faith (as long as they do so in private), one would need to be blind to overlook the effort by some to turn the public perception of Christianity as being backwards, ignorant and responsible for hatred. For example, in May 2011 the Huffington Post, the left-leaning Internet website, published an article entitled If You’re a Christian, Muslim or Jew - You are Wrong by Cenk Uygur wherein Uygur expressed what I cannot doubt is the view o...

The no Tomb theory says Jesus was given burial  like most crucifixion  victims, the body disposed if  in a mass grave or garbage dump with no real rites or blessing, and no trace of an individual burial. I used to argue this stuff morning, noon,ad night on message boards That was many year ago,I mishandled my arguments because I just forgot how it works, Pix essentially argues that Jesus was crucified as King of the Jews by the Romans and the and they would not give him a proper  burial because he was an enemy of Rome, I realize the charge was BS and mark even says Pilate saw through it, But I forgot there is still a reason why the Sanhedrin wanted him killed by the Roans for political subtrahend.  They feared losing support of the people. They wanted the Romans to take the heat.So they needed hi to be killed saying he;s king of the Jews, The Romans obliged even Pilate saw through the excuse, Pix thinks thi...

I've taken a turn in ministry of late where I seek out churches who would like to have an apologist come teach or speak, but can't afford it. Then I raise funds sufficient to go visit them. In general, you could say that this is representative of a desire to go where the church people WANT apologetics, rather than trying to convince a church that they need some of it for their own spiritual betterment. My core teaching used to be a lecture called, "Apologetics: Cod Liver Oil for the Christian Soul." I presented the view that however distasteful you thought apologetics was, it was Biblically mandated as a practice, and every Christian had at least a marginal responsibility to become educated in some basics. No, not everyone needs to be William Lane Craig, but you should at least know where to find his books and when to refer people to them.  It's become pretty clear, though, that the church is too busy for apologetics. Too busy with prosperity teachings. Too bu...

William Lane Craig remains one of the most erudite and knowledgeable of today's Christian philosophers. His book, Reasonable Faith , has remained one of my favorite Apologetics tools because he lays out many of the Christian claims so clearly and cogently that only the most hardened of skeptics dismisses him or his work as being without weight. Certainly, his writings have led many people to turn their hearts toward Jesus. We are blessed that Dr. Craig maintains a website also called Reasonable Faith with lots of information that can be accessed free of charge to make a case for Christianity. One of the great features of his website includes a question and answer section where Dr. Craig selects questions that have been addressed to him, and he generally provides really good answers that can help inform all Christians' Apologetics efforts. Unfortunately, this blog has not referenced Dr. Craig's work nearly as often as we ought, but I want to focus on one of the quest...

One of our regular atheist friends on the blog, "Gary," says: "Not only were the Gospels written by anonymous non-eyewitnesses, scholars suspect that fictional folklore are included in these books. The question is: Which stories are fiction, and which are fact? " [1]  On his own  site he quotes the great scholar  Ray Brown  in support  of this idea:  I find the special material [material unique to Matthew; not found in any other gospel] that Matthew has grouped around the birth  and the death of Jesus a consistency that suggests a source, but one of another nature than Mark and Q—a source that reflects popular dramatization through storytelling, much like expanded birth and passion narration ever since ....   With regard to the common Synoptic passion narrative  I argued that OT allusions or citations did not create the basic passion narrative sequence but helped to fill in the established, skeletal preaching outl...

Continued from last time... In order to make a distinction between the doctrine of perspicuity as expressed by my opponent, as it is referred to by such documents as the Westminster Confession, I will hereafter refer to the former as radical perspicuity .  Radical Perspicuity: A Biblical Basis? In seeking Biblical justifications for radical perspicuity, I found very little that commended itself for the doctrine the way my critic understood it.  Deuteronomy 30:11 For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. At best, this could argue for the perspicuity of the Deuteronomic contract, and I daresay based on experience that the qualification of clarity for the people of the 14th century BC is implied. Questions about obscurity in the laws of the Old Testament are some of the most common in apologetics, because these laws address social conditions taken for granted in Scripture. However, it should be...

J.P.'s latest post about perspicuity reminds me that while the basics of the Christian faith are really pretty clear, there is much in the Bible that is not always clear upon a casual reading. (And, of course, those who go in without the guidance of the Holy Spirit will find the matters discussed wholly incomprehensible. See Matthew 13.) Many of the doctrines that unfortunately divide the church arise out of some of the doctrines that arise from the gray areas like the Calvinism/Arminianism debate. Another area where the single correct understanding of the Bible is not immediately clear can be found in the Biblical teaching on the nature of Jesus Christ. Was he a man or was he God or was he something else? I recently came across a video by Timothy Paul Jones, the C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Family Ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological Institute, entitled " What are some of the ancient heresies about Jesus Christ we should know. " This short video -...

I know that I already have a large collection of apologetics books which set forth outstanding arguments and resources for defending the truth of the Bible, but there's always room for more -- especially when the books only take up some room in cyberspace. Publisher David C. Cook is offering, for a limited time only, a small collection of really great Christian books for delivery to Kindle devices for only $1.99 per book. Included in the list are three books by J. Warner Wallace, a great apologist who has tweeted several of our posts, Philosopher William Lane Craig, Jeff Stonestreet, Brett Kunkl (of Stand to Reason), two books by Jeff Myers, and a fine Nancy Pearcey work. These are great offers. The specific book available are: Forensic Faith: A Homicide Detective Makes the Case for a More Reasonable, Evidential Christian Faith by J. Warner Wallace $1.99 God's Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe by J Warner Wallac...