Archive for the ‘Apologetics’ Category
Resources for Teaching about Hell
The doctrine of Hell is perhaps one of the most difficult in all the Bible. And it is a great sticking point for critics of Christianity, particularly in a post-modern culture that vehemently rejects the very notion of judgment. And quite frankly, it troubles many Christians as well. How can a God of love condemn people to eternal torment? I know I’ve wrestled with the tension myself. Yet the Scripture doesn’t leave much wiggle room. As emotionally appealing as universalism or annihilationism might be, such positions just don’t square with the clear teaching of Scripture. Yet how do we preach Hell? How do we communicate this doctrine to an unbelieving world? Many pastors aren’t sure, and so they simply don’t preach or teach on Hell at all. But this won’t do. Jesus spoke frequently about the reality of final judgment, and the New Testament authors were just as direct. If we intend to preach the whole counsel of God’s truth, we’re going to have to grapple with (and be bested by) the Word of God at this point.
If this is a doctrine you’ve been struggling with, or one that you’ve avoided preaching on because you can’t figure out how not to sound like an angry fundamentalist, I’d encourage you to get a copy of James’ recent sermon on Hell. Powerful stuff. Not only will it help you think Biblically about this important doctrine, but it also provides a good preaching template. Additionally, I recently gave a lecture entitled “The Difficult Doctrine of Hell” at one of Harvest’s monthly Apologetic forums. The focus of my lecture was on how Christians can communicate the Bible’s teaching on Hell to a secular world that finds the very idea of judgment and Hell offensive.
Richard Dawkin and The God Delusion
I have been reading the book God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, the noted British atheist. I have found it thoroughly disagreeable but at the same time refreshing. Dawkins insists that ‘religion’ should not be in an untouchable category where it cannot be analyzed for veracity or criticized for silly inconsistencies. I could not agree more. A man’s faith is not so personal that it needn’t stand up to the rigors of intellectual analysis. I have often said that the walls of Christianity are not so thin that an honest skeptic seeking truth will somehow poke through and reveal the whole thing to be a fraud. The truths of Christianity have satisfied some of the greatest minds in human history.
When it comes to the God who created an orderly universe and set it up to operate according to principles that scientists can analyze and verify, there should be no reticence to submit theology to the same rigorous analysis.
Where Dawkins is so very wrong is in his total disdain for theology itself. Because he believes that there is no God he also believes that theology is a ‘non-discipline.’ The result is that his analysis of prayer, miracles, and impact of faith upon life is deeply flawed. He knows nothing about prayer, for example, but reports a study as credible that contradicts almost every biblical teaching on the subject of prayer. He judges prayer as a waste of time, though the prayers he analyzed may have been offered by sinful people, without faith or fervency in regard to people and situations they knew nothing about personally etc. Theologically speaking, the study itself was extremely amateurish. ( I don’t see God especially excited about jumping through the hoops of people trying to prove Him wrong, I doubt He was even rocked by their unbelief). 
It’s like complaining that the car won’t run when you asked a toddler to start it and gave him no keys to a locked car. Yeah, that’s probably not gonna work, but that doesn’t mean that all cars are a waste of time.
Postmodern or Hypermodern?
“The idea that we live in a postmodern culture is a myth. In fact, a postmodern culture is an impossibility; it would be utterly unlivable. People are not relativistic when it comes to matters of science, engineering, and technology; rather, they are relativistic and pluralistic in matters of religion and ethics. But, of course, that’s not postmodernism; that’s modernism! That’s just old-line verificationism, which held that anything you can’t prove with your five senses is a matter of personal taste. We live in a culture that remains deeply modernist.”
William Lane Craig, Christianity Today, July 2008
Good word, Mr. Craig.
