Written by 
OCTOBER 9, 2020 BY SCOTT R. STAHLECKER During the two decades I was a Christian the flood story really perplexed me. There were portions that just could not be plausible. To begin with, the punishment didn’t fit the crime, and the crime itself reads like a well-rigged sting operation. Nor could I reconcile why God thought […]
FEBRUARY 4, 2019 BY BOB SEIDENSTICKER Progressive revelation is the doctrine that God doled out his message over time. I agree with the problem—the Bible message does change over time. But apologists have traded one problem—the Bible contradicts itself (or a forgetful God can’t keep his story straight)—for another: God gave humanity an imperfect message and […]
FEBRUARY 1, 2019 BY BOB SEIDENSTICKER Did you know that the Quran has no contradictions? This isn’t due to God’s guiding hand but to a clever loophole within Islam called the law of abrogation. If two passages in the Quran seem to conflict, the one written later abrogates (overrules) the earlier one. While Muslim scholars disagree on the number of […]
MARCH 25, 2021 BY RANDY ALCORN Big books full of Scripture, theology, and quotations from people long dead don’t normally sell well. Yet to my surprise, and the publisher’s, over a million copies of my 2004 book Heaven have sold. Innumerable readers, including pastors, have told me their views of the afterlife have radically changed. Why? In an […]
FEBRUARY 1, 2021 BY STELUSHKIN The Devil’s Number. The Mark of the Beast. But what does the number ‘666’ REALLY mean? Research suggests that it is actually a secret code. The number ‘666’ is originates in the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, known for its dramatic and apocalyptic imagery. The number comes up […]
OCTOBER 29, 2020 BY VANCEMORGAN One Sunday, toward the end of a particularly lively and deep seminar with my “Living Stones” adult Christian education group after the morning service, I asked the group “so what makes us think that we are anything special, that Episcopalians have a better angle on God than anyone else? What makes […]
OCTOBER 16, 2020 BY VANCEMORGAN Not long ago, I found myself involved behind the scenes in a squabble between the chair of my department and another department colleague. Their disagreement was about the proper interpretation of the Faculty Handbook on an issue related to my colleague’s upcoming promotion case. Both asked me, as a former department […]
MARCH 9, 2020 BY JOSH DAFFERN Recently I delivered a funeral message for a dear brother that unexpectedly passed away. He was a firm believer in Jesus Christ, and his funeral was a celebration of the life he lived for Jesus. In my sermon, I tried to spell out why Christians can hope in the resurrection […]
SEPTEMBER 6, 2020 BY VANCEMORGAN Iris Murdoch is one of my favorite philosophers and novelists, but I seldom get to use her work in my teaching. Murdoch claimed to be an atheist, but she also believed that true moral commitment requires belief in something greater than ourselves, something transcendent not subject to the vagaries and whims […]
AUGUST 28, 2019 BY STEPHANIE HERTZENBERG Christians have been reading and reciting the Bible for as long as it has existed. The teachings found within its pages form the bedrock of Christianity. That said, certain beliefs have wormed their way into Christianity that are not found in the Bible despite the fact that many Christians believe […]
BY HEMANT MEHTA SEPTEMBER 13, 2020 Should the book of Genesis be part of a high school English class? An Indiana parent is complaining about it, and the lack of information isn’t helping her case. The unidentified parent told local news channel WSBT that her daughter was told to read Genesis chapters 1-3 for her English class […]
SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 BY GUEST CONTRIBUTOR I read recently an article from Life Way Research that said we now live in a day and age in the United States where one-third of all evangelical Christians do not believe Jesus is God. That is staggering to consider! Especially since Jesus Himself said in the Bible. John 14:6 I […]
SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 BY GENE VEITH According to a new study, over half of Americans (52%) who describe themselves as “Christians”–including 41% of evangelicals–believe that salvation comes from doing good works, rather than from faith in the saving work of Christ. And no wonder. The doctrine of the atonement–that on the cross Christ bore our sins and […]
AUGUST 19, 2020 BY VANCEMORGAN This month marks the eighth anniversary of this blog. It started on WordPress as an outlet for short essays that I had been writing for a couple of years and didn’t know what to do with. Friends and colleagues told me that (1) I needed to get them out into the […]
JUNE 3, 2019 BY VANCEMORGAN At its best, faith is the overflow of gratitude, the attempt to live as if we are loved, the fragile hope for something better on the other side of pain and death. And this feather of grace weighs more in the balance than any political gain. Michael Gerson One of the great […]
JULY 7, 2020 BY BOB SEIDENSTICKER Christian apologist Jim Wallace has an explanation for the Resurrection story. He gives his winning argument in a recent video, “Why Naturalistic Explanations for the Resurrection Are… Lame.” Here is his challenge to the skeptic: What is it that’s keeping you from thinking that [the Christian explanation for the Resurrection] […]
JUNE 22, 2020 BY BOB SEIDENSTICKER Christian apologist William Lane Craig (WLC) recently responded to a post from the atheist blog A Counter Apologist. This is the conclusion of my response to his attack on the problem of divine hiddenness. Part 1 critiqued WLC’s first response, that God has given evidence in the form of vague clues in nature and […]
MAY 24, 2019 BY MICHAEL STONE God made him do it: Florida Rep. Mike Hill claims God spoke to him, and told him to introduce an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. The Pensacola News Journal reports: Florida Rep. Mike Hill told a group in Pensacola on Thursday that […]
Why I Am Disobeying the Bible I was brought up to believe, as I was taught, that a true Christian always obeyed biblical commandments with certain rare exceptions. One such exception had to do with the Old Testament. We did not believe Christians were expected to observe all the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament that pertained […]