By David F. Wells – What is striking about our culture today is that its corruption is not simply at the edges. It is not simply found among the cultured elite, the New Class that stands at the gates of our national institutions to bar entry to those whose views are judged to be intolerable. … Read More
By Clete Hux – With the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, Liberation Theology has come to the forefront of public attention. This attention is mainly due to Obama’s outspoken pastor, Jeremiah Wright, of the Trinity United Church of Christ (UCOC) in Chicago, Illinois. The controversy caused by Wright raises questions that many people would like … Read More
by Steven B. Cowan – The jailor at Philippi asked the Apostle Paul the most important question, “What must I do to be saved?” He wanted to know how he could escape God’s wrath for his sin, how he could find forgiveness, how he could have eternal life. Paul answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, … Read More
by Steven B. Cowan – Cults and other false religions deviate from the truth of God’s Word. But how? In what way? If cults and false religions are “counterfeit,” then what is the “feit”? That is, what is the truth from which they deviate? What is the “genuine article”? This question is important because having … Read More
by Thomas A. Howe – Interpreting the Bible, indeed interpreting anything at all, is a topic of critical importance in this Postmodern world. No one has the right, according to the current wisdom, to tell anyone else that he has misinterpreted something. Everyone’s interpretation is right . . . for him. No one’s interpretation can … Read More
Judaism Worldwide Population: 14.1 million* Place and Date of Origin: Israel, 1440 B.C. Founder: Moses (?) Organization/Authority: Judaism has no official organizational structure. Jewish life centers around individual synagogues led by Rabbis who are teachers trained in the Jewish Scriptures and the Talmud. For orthodox Jews, the Torah (first five books of Moses) is the … Read More
By Brandon Robbins – Science and Christianity: can they be reconciled? Paul Kurtz thinks not. In Kurtz’s article, “Are Science and Religion Compatible?” [Skeptical InquirerSkeptical Inquirer 45), he asked the question: “Can we live a full life in the face of the ultimate human extinction?” In the final analysis of religion, Kurtz states that the … Read More
By Winfried Corduan – You may; you may not. You may; you may not. Okay, you may—but only on my terms!” How did religion begin? The above litany seems to characterize a contemporary approach to this question. Tomoko Masuzawa begins her acclaimed study, In Search of Dreamtime, with the declaration: “It has been some time … Read More
By Douglas Groothuis – This is a manifesto to ignite the holy fire of apologetic passion and action. It is not a sustained argument or a development of themes. (I have written and lectured about these matters elsewhere). It is, rather, a short series of interrelated propositions crying out for both immediate and protracted action. … Read More
By Steven B. Cowan – A few years ago, the Fox News program The O’Reilly Factor ran the following exchange between journalist Bill O’Reilly and then President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Paige Patterson, concerning the issue of Christian exclusivity:1 O’REILLY: I’d be offended if somebody came up to me and said, “O’Reilly. . .if … Read More
by Jay W. Richards – For over fifty years, the British philosopher Antony Flew has been the English-speaking world’s most intellectually serious public atheist. He first engaged Christian apologist C.S. Lewis at Oxford in 1950, and has pursued scholarly defenses of atheism until recently. He has always argued that there just wasn’t enough evidence to … Read More
GLOSSARY OF TERMS – Creationism. A movement among Christian scientists that seeks to discover scientific evidence for the biblical account to creation. Intelligent Design Theory. The theory in contemporary science that certain phenomena in cosmology, astronomy, and biology are best explained as the work of an intelligent being, perhaps God. Metaphysical Naturalism. (Also called simply … Read More
By Nancy Pearcey – To everyone’s surprise, the 2004 presidential election became in part a referendum on science and religion. At the Democratic National Convention, Ron Reagan, son of the former president, labeled opposition to embryonic stem cell research an article of faith and stated that it did not belong in the realm of public … Read More
By Vic Minish – Jesus has always been an interesting figure. People representing just about every conceivable position under the sun quote him and want to have a “Jesus” who endorses their own viewpoint. Recently, it seems that everyone who has an opinion on the matter is publishing his or her version of Jesus. For … Read More
By Scot McKnight – One doesn’t need a sophisticated philosophical system to form a skeptical stance vis-à-vis Jesus. The question has often been asked, but rarely so well as by Natalie Angier: “How can a bench-hazed Ph.D., who might of an afternoon deftly puree a colleague’s PowerPoint presentation on the nematode genome into so much … Read More