Apologetics and Evidence

In her book,   The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make , Joyce Meyer teaches that the gospel is that Jesus had to die spiritually, go to hell and become spiritually dead, that Jesus separated from God the Father on the cross, and that Jesus was the first born-again man from the dead. This is a common teaching in the Word of Faith movement, [1]   which seems (unfortunately) to creep into the minds of those who began their journey in sound doctrine but veer off because of such false teachers. Meyers writes in the latest edition of her book, “He became our sacrifice and died on the cross. He did not stay dead. He was in the grave three days. During that time, he entered hell, and defeated Satan.” [2] On the following page she begins to elaborate, “He committed His Spirit to the Father and died. So they put Him—that is, His body—in a grave. And His spirit went to hell because that is where we deserved to go… There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe thi...

Have you ever wondered about the Strong Delusion that God sends on people? What does it mean? What does it look like? How can I recognize it? How can it benefit us to understand it better? What apologetics secrets lie behind understanding it better?   Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12,    Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what ...

There are many ways to consider this question, because there are several facets to the question itself. Often when we hear the word,  cult , we think of something bad, or downright evil, based on our own experiences which possibly came about through watching the Children of the Corn [1]  or something to that nature.  Sociologically speaking, a cult is “a religious or semi-religious sect or group whose members are often controlled or dominated almost entirely by a single individual or organization.” [2]  This lens of understanding is different than say, a theological perspective.  Theologically speaking, a cult is any religious belief system that has its origins in another established religious belief system. If you picture a tree, for instance, the trunk of the tree is the lineage of a religion through time, and the branches that stem off of that trunk are the cults of such a religion. From this perspective,  Mormonism  is a  cult of Christianity ...

What does Islam have in common with Mormonism? Seriously, the similarities are uncanny. Like human beings, demons are creatures of habit . The Bible does not tell us much about them, but from what it does tell us, we can learn a lot. Jesus reveals to us some things about their behavior: When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first… [1]   Jesus clearly knows that demons have typical behaviors. He has seen it many times before. He lets us know that a typical behavior for a demon is that home is where the heart is . When your house crumbles to the ground, you move to a new one. Likewise, when a person dies, the demon ...