God’s Love vs. Culture’s Love: Unmasking 3 Dangerous Lies
Our culture is lovesick. Partly because we are created to love, and partly because the modern understanding of love is greatly distorted. Our media is filled with stories that shape our expectations of what love should be, and it’s not always for the better. We hope for love, try it out, and are often left […]
Why You Can’t Use the Bible to Challenge God’s Goodness
One of the most common objections to Christianity is that God is not good. Critics point to passages of God’s judgment, his commanding the Israelites to engage in warfare, or a host of stories where God’s actions seem cruel or uncaring. The attribute of God’s goodness is one of my deepest passions. It’s so critical […]
How to Offer a Christian Response to Cancel Culture: 3 Steps to Lead with Grace
In the age of cancel culture and condemnation, as believers, how should we be responding and engaging? The Culture of Condemnation vs. The Example of Jesus In New Testament times, amidst a society which held to punitive action in response to wrongdoing, Jesus entered the scene – with mercy. That must have been earth […]
Is Intolerance Always Bad? A Christian Perspective on Tolerance
The Cultural Double Standard on Morality Why is it culturally appropriate for an individual to deem certain actions as wrong, but not others? When I look at our cultural climate, I see certain actions that are easily condemned such as racism, sexism, body-shaming, and cultural appropriation. At the same time, other actions are said to […]
What Is God’s Justice and Why Is It Truly Fair?
In today’s society, discussion around justice mostly involves either fair distribution of resources or punishment of lawbreakers. God’s justice reveals a bigger picture that involves how we treat one another, especially those in need, and how we deal with sin. The Problem with a Human-Centered View of Justice What it means to be just has […]
10 Emotional Needs only God can Meet
The Root of Our Insecurity: Unmet Emotional Needs According to Dr. David Ferguson, we have 10 essential emotional needs that we are seeking to fulfill: Attention, Acceptance, Appreciation, Support, Encouragement, Affection, Respect, Security, Comfort, and Approval. Much research has been done to identify why people struggle with unwanted behaviors such as addictions and compulsive behaviors. […]
The Road to Disenchantment: How We Lost the Wonder of God
Staring at Screens, Not Stars In ancient times people would look up at the stars at night. Now, we look down at our phones. Stars make the world feel big, screens make the world feel small. I wonder how this is affecting us? I remember seeing a recent post on X encompassing this idea and […]
The Truth About Beauty: Rediscovering Its Objective Meaning
Beauty is a concept that touches many different areas of our lives: art, nature, morality, etc. Beauty has historically been seen as whatever is good or whatever is pleasing to the senses. But what truly makes something beautiful? Most of modern culture sees beauty as best defined in the eye of the beholder. Whether it […]
The Argument from Beauty: Does True Beauty Point to God?
If you’ve followed apologetics, you’ve probably heard the big three arguments for God’s existence—the cosmological argument for God, the fine-tuning argument for God, and the moral argument for God. These are good arguments, but is that all we have to make our cumulative case? Moreover, as culture changes, are we adjusting to it? There are […]
An Unexpected Way to Explain the Structure of the Bible
There is a powerful line of reasoning for the structure of the Bible that is barely discussed—a seriously untapped potential for Christians defending their faith. I didn’t notice it until I set aside my apologetics books and dove deeper into the world of biblical theology. To understand the evidence I’m about to share, consider this: […]
Is Apologetics Biblical?
What is “Christian apologetics”? It’s the activity of providing a rational basis for belief in the Christian faith.When we seek to demonstrate that God exists, that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened, or that the Bible is historically reliable, we are doing the work of Christian apologetics. Is Christian apologetics a good thing for Christians […]
Should Apologists Quote the Bible When Trying to Prove it?
There’s a common objection apologists hear from skeptics: “You can’t quote the Bible to prove the Bible.” The answer to that? Yes and no. Sometimes people try to prove the Bible is true by using what the Bible says concerning itself. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, for example, says that all Scripture is breathed out by God. […]
Should Christians Practice Apologetics?
At Josh McDowell Ministry, we focus a great deal on Christian Apologetics. In other words, we work hard to defend Christianity, providing reasons to help people confidently believe in Jesus and the Christian message. In another article we sought to defend the biblical case for apologetics. Peter, Apollos, Paul and Jesus all modeled or spoke […]
Christians: Dialogue With Skeptics Part 2
“Prove Your God Exists!” Last week, in Part 1 of this topic, we talked about the importance of our having the right attitude when interacting with skeptics. We reminded you to let go of the “fight” mentality when challenged on your beliefs; to instead view these encounters as God-ordained opportunities to demonstrate the truth and […]
Christians: Dialogue With Skeptics Part 1
“God Doesn’t Exist!” When we Christians hear that, most of us start sweating. As if the entire weight of proving the truth of Christianity rests on our puny shoulders! But we also start sweating because we feel our egos to be on the line. To be a Christian, we’re told by skeptics, is to be […]
Book Review: The End of Faith
A few years ago, I worked through The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, a popular atheist thinker who argued against a theistic worldview. I chose to read the book because I believe that it is important for Christians (and anyone, for that matter) to engage with viewpoints other than our own. Although I did not find the […]
The Work of Textual Criticism
If you have engaged with Christian apologetics, you probably understand that a common objection to the Bible is that it has been changed or corrupted over time. My response is to point out the number of manuscripts we have of the Bible, the early date of many of the manuscripts, and to give a brief […]
Ancient Manuscripts That Validate the Bible’s Old Testament
Modern Christians don’t have to defend the validity of the Bible. In last week’s blog post we answered the question, “Did ancient scribes faithfully transcribe biblical texts?” Resoundingly, research shouts, “YES!” One truth we hope you’re learning, as we travel this series together, is that the Bible is the most vetted document in the history […]
Did Scribes Faithfully Transmit Old Testament Manuscripts?
Historical Documentation Resoundingly Says, “Yes!” In a previous blog post in this series, we saw that the New Testament can rightly claim to be more reliable and accurate than another other ancient document in history. Can we also trust the authenticity of the Old Testament? Fortunately, we have really old biblical manuscripts to help us […]
8 Ancient Manuscripts Validate New Testament
Important early New Testament manuscripts validate the reliability of the Bible. The Bible we use today originates from early historical documents. Scholars are able to assess the importance of a manuscript by how much of the Bible it includes, and by the date assigned to it. What helps them to determine the age of a […]
Testing the Historical Reliability of the New Testament
Vetted for Historical Reliability, the Bible Stands Strong. Welcome to our ninth blog post in this series. If you’d like to catch up from the start, here’s the link to the first blog we posted: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?. Apologetics — the defense of Christianity — is not about our apologizing for our […]
Materials Scribes Used to Write the Bible
How did scribes record the ancient scriptures? Before the invention of the printing press, the only way to duplicate a manuscript was to spend hours (weeks? months? years?) laboriously copying it by hand. Note: It took one modern scribe four years, of writing up to 14 hours a day with fine-tipped markers, to handwrite a copy […]
An Investigation: What Makes the Bible Unique?
The Bible’s unique features speak to its staying power. Have you read it yet? In this blog post we’ll look at the unique origin and nature of the Bible, the profound impact it has had on western civilization, and its responsibility for much of the progress of human history. We will not attempt to demonstrate […]
3 Arguments Critics Use to Judge Christianity
Christians, say critics, are primarily hypocritical, intolerant, and judging. If we love Jesus, it should bother us when people don’t see us looking like Him. As Paul makes clear in his letter to the Corinthians, Christianity is a historical religion tied to the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. As we said in last […]
