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...

I hear the following kinds of phrases frequently, and most often from those who hold to a prosperity gospel  or who are somehow influenced by such: “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, Satan…” “…in the name of Jesus, go back to the pit where you belong…” “I will rebuke Satan for your healing.” I question if we, as Christians, have such power to rebuke Satan. Something you might find interesting is that the Bible never says that we do have this power, but it does say something else very interesting concerning such… I want to jump right into this and see what the Bible says. Let’s start in Jude 9-11:    “But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’”   Michael the archangel did not rebuke Satan. Michael, in the world of  Jehovah’s Witnesses , is the same person as Jesus. But it is significant to know that here, Michael does no...

We have all seen preachers on the television making great boasts about how God wants to bless us and all we need is to have enough faith and that we will get whatever we want. I have personally heard them say on numerous occasions that God wants you to be happy, healthy and live a good long life. The problem with this is that there are people out there who do not have homes, or are severely handicapped, for example, yet are Christians. Are we really supposed to believe that these people just cannot measure up in having faith? Are we supposed to believe that someone with cancer just does not have enough faith to get well? For starters, the Bible clearly paints the picture that we have the privilege of asking God for things, but this does not, by any case, mean that everything we ask for will be granted to us… Nor does it teach that God owes us health and wealth, let alone promises it. I think that prosperity gospel preachers have it wrong, but there is something that I ...