Apologetics and Evidence

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...

In an article from July 30, 2013 (I know, it’s old…  https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/god-loves-the-sinner-but-hates-the-sin ), John Piper teaches that God hates certain people. The problem with this is that there are  inconsistencies  in the mind of the person (usually a Calvinist) who believes this, and even Piper in the article recognizes the inconsistency but tries to pass it off as a paradox. “He hates — now here is the paradox — and he loves at the same time.” [1]  The problem is that it is not a paradox, but simply a contradiction.   Let’s look at some different texts from where the belief that God hates certain persons likely came…    Psalm 5  Give ear to my words, O Lord;     consider my groaning. 2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,     my King and my God,     for to you do I pray. 3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;     in the morning I pre...

I have had people come to me before to tell me their experience of asking their church leaders about homosexuality. On one occasion, the church leader replied that the issue of whether or not homosexuality was wrong was a “grey area.” The problem with this is that this lady who came to tell me her experience (who is  for  homosexuality), told the church leader  before  he could reply, that she would not attend church if Christianity doesn’t allow homosexuality.   The thing is, there is absolutely no grey area in the Bible whatsoever about homosexuality. I’m sure you have either read or heard of all of the verses and passages concerning the subject (Genesis 2:18-22, 19; Leviticus 18:22, 20:13; Judges 19:22; Mark 10:6-9; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 7:2; Romans 1:26-28; 1 Timothy 1:8-11; Jude 7, Hebrews 13:4; et. al.), but in today’s world, it seems that God’s eternal Word isn’t convincing enough (because it isn’t read enough), or more probably, that people are simply de...

If every culture is, in and of itself, salvifically hopeless, then the fullness of one’s identity in Tribal culture, Asian culture, American culture, Viking culture, or any culture, is hopeless. Culture cannot save us.       1.       All cultures in and of themselves are salvifically hopeless.        2.       There are people who place the fullness of their identity in their culture       3.       Therefore, those people who place the fullness of their identity in their culture are salvifically hopeless.  Because a culture can completely change from what it began as, it can therefore not be timeless (given enough time, change in a culture is inevitable). If something is removed from that culture, or added to it, it is a different culture altogether, much like the Ship of Theseus. Winfried Corduan writes,  By the term  diffusion , I mean the distribu...