Classic Debate: Is the Quran the word of God? Dr. Jamal Badawi and Dr. Robert morey

This is an old debate, someone recently posted it up.

Robert Morey and Jamal Badawi debate: Is the Quran the Word of God?

 

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Oprah, Christianity and the end of her show

There is no doubt that Oprah has been a woman who has used her popularity to aleviate some of the world’s pain and brought attention to some of the problems in this world.  For that I would say she has earned my respect for her in this regard.  Having said that, what preplex me is how view of Christianity as the following clip indicates:

It’s important to know what Christianity is and why it proposes what it proposes, even if one disagrees with it.

Here is a 27 clip by James White explaining what is Christianity and why he believes it by clicking HERE.

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Messianic Prophecy The Suffering Servant (Isa 52:13-53) Youtube sermon by James White

Two part Youtube Clip

James White on the Messianic Prophecy Isaiah 53

 

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Introduction to Hermeneutics Series: Session Five: Doctrine of Inerrancy and Ramifications for Hermeneutics

GO TO SESSION FOUR

I.                    Relationship between the doctrine of Inerrancy and Biblical Authority

a.       The Bible being authoritative in giving truth

i.      Providing truth is an aspect of the doctrine of Biblical authority[1]

ii.      If the Bible is going to be fully authoritative, it must be without error.

iii.      Therefore, the doctrine of Biblical Authority presupposes the doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy.

II.                 Since the Bible by its own authority gives us truth, studying the Bible will give us truth.

a.       For the Christian, hermeneutics of the Bible is a part of the Christian Epistemology

i.      Definitions

1.      Epistemology- How do you know what you know?

2.      Hermeneutics- How do you interpret a writing

ii.      Everyone consciously or not have a certain epistemology

1.      Stated another way, everybody has a method of knowing things

2.      For example:

NONCHRISTIAN PERSON A    NONCHRISTIAN PERSON B           CHRISTIAN

Five senses                         Five senses                                           Bible

Science                                          Tradition                                               Five senses

Logic/Reason                                 Popular Opinion                                   Logic/Reason

                                                                                                                  Science

3.      The Christian have the Bible as part of his way of knowing, and it is the ultimate authoritative way he knows things.

a.       Since there is no error in the Bible, a proper hermeneutic will discover truths.

III.               Doctrine Of Inerrancy is the standard in testing good or bad Hermeneutical systems

a.       Since the Bible can not be erroneous, one who properly interprets the Bible will not be led to a conclusion where the Bible is in error

i.      Remember what Jesus said about God’s Word: “Your Word is Truth” (John 17:17b)

1.      God’s Word can only be truth, not error.

b.      If an interpretation of Scripture leads to the conclusion that Scripture is in error, then it is an bad interpretation.

c.       All interpretation must stand under the test of affirming the doctrine of Inerrancy.

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[1] See the previous outline, “Doctrine of Biblical Authority: The Self-authorizing Scripture”

GO TO SESSION SIX

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Review: Is Christianity Good for the World?

Purchase: Amazon

This work pits New Atheist Christopher Hitchens against Christian pastor Doug Wilson in a debate on the topic of whether Christianity is good for the world.  There are six rounds in the book, not including each of their introduction.  For such a serious and heavy topic, the book is short and concise and yet readers might enjoy this format over a long drawn out debate.  Both Hitchens and Wilson seem to do a good job in stating  their view in a short and concise matter.  Unlike other books that have a debate format, the two author’s personality are wonderful for tackling this topic especially for those who have seen the documentary “Collision.”  Both writers are great wordsmiths and the illustration given to draw analogies of what they are saying are worth buying the book alone.  If readers want to see the combination of wit, humor and profound observation of what a Presuppositional Apologist in action looks like, this is a work worth reading!  I think Van Til and Greg Bahnsen would be proud.

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May 21st failed…Harold Camping predicts again…he is a false prophet according to Bible framework

According to the news, Harold Camping who was behind the false prophecy of May 21st is still standing by his prophecy and not repentant.

It is tragic.

The Bible’s standard of a prophet is 100% fulfillment, not even 99% or 98%.  If anything has failed, it is false.

Christians need to be reminded of the Biblical criteria of judging a false prophet.

Summary:

Basically gives 2 ways that a believer can check the validity of a prophet: Supreme Test (Duet 19:22) and Test of the Fruit (Duet 12:1-3).

The Test Of A Prophet

      From Dueteronomy 18:18, we can know that a true prophet comes from God.  True prophecies never have it’s origin from man’s creativeness, but from God himself. (Cf. 2Peters 1:21)  By prophecy, we define this to mean any future predictions or alleged special revelation from God spoken or written through a human messenger.

     Unfortunately, as Scriptures tell us, there are also false prophets and false teachers out there.  “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.  They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who brought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.”(2Peters 2:1) Scriptures also tell us that as the end times approach, more and more false prophets will come and deceive the people. (Cf. Matt. 24:12)

     Jesus himself warn Christians to watch out and be on the alert for false prophets, who come “in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matt. 7:15)  Fortunately, God tells us that there are ways to identify a false prophet. (Cf. Matt 7:16)

     Now, you may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” (Duet. 18:21)

Tests

1. The Supreme Test – If a prophecy fail to be fulfilled or doesn’t come to past, then it is indeed false. (Duet 19:22)  Remember: God’s prophecies would come to pass, and it must have a 0 percent failure rate!
   
2. Tests of the Fruit – The prophecies itself or the prophet’s theology must also be under examination in light of the Bible.  If it goes against God’s Word, it is surely false.  Sometimes God would allow false prophets to have their prophecy fulfilled in order to test the faithfulness of the believer’s heart. (Cf. Duet 13:1-3)

(Note: No prophecies could be more amazing in terms of probability than that of the Bible.   Just the life of Jesus Christ alone has been prophesied in the Bible over 500 times! Compared to any false prophets, the Bible is still a bigger giant)

     Now, what happens when an alleged prophet is found to be false?  Since Matthew 7:18 states, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”, we should not even listen to the false prophet’s teachings.  And we definitely should not be afraid of them. (Cf. Duet. 18:22)  Rather, we should come back to the living God and his Word for truth.

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Introduction to Covenantal (Presuppositional) Apologetics by Chris Bolt

Our friend Chris Bolt has done a 45 part series (well, 47 if you add introduction and conclusion) on Covenantal (Presuppositional) Apologetics.

While I’m not covenantal in my theology (I’m more dispensational), I think those who are part of the larger Evangelical landscape can have something to learn from this series.  May I add that I subscribe to Van Til’s Presuppositional Apologetics.

Here’s the links of the series:

• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics – Introduction
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 1 – There are two worldviews.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 2 – Everyone has presuppositions.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 3 – There is no neutrality.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 4 – Evidence that Christianity is true.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 5 – Arguments that Christianity is true.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 6 – Arguments that Christianity is true refuted.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 7 – Moral and intellectual objections of the unbeliever.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 8 – Role of the Holy Spirit and reason.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 9 – Standards of presuppositions.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 10 – Unbeliever’s knowledge of God.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 11 – Unbeliever’s suppression of the truth.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 12 – Transcendental argumentation.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 13 – Sufficiency of the Christian worldview.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 14 – Nature of the transcendental.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 15 – Illustrating necessity by the impossibility of the contrary.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 16 – Internal critique.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 17 – Universal problem of skepticism.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 18 – Starting point of knowledge.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 19 – Religions that share our authority.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 20 – Skepticism as a problem of connection.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 21 – Conceptual map and the external world.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 22 – Severing the senses.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 23 – Subject determined or free.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 24 – Memory, senses, reason, and beliefs.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 25 – Subject dissolved.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 26 – Omniscience and unrelated objects.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 27 – Logic and the external world.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 28 – Unity and diversity.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 29 – Problem of induction.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 30 – Uniformity of nature.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 31 – Is and ought.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 32 – Human dignity.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 33 – Ethics and morality.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 34 – Problem of evil.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 35 – Normative justification and warrant.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 36 – Aesthetics.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 37 – Communication, personhood, meaning, purpose, and other human experience.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 38 – Impossibility of science.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 39 – Impossibility of history.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 40 – Deism.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 41 – Polytheism.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 42 – Atheism.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 43 – Agnosticism.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 44 – Islam.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics: Part 45 – Redemption.
• An Informal Introduction to Covenantal Apologetics – Conclusion

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May 21st failed prophecies and a nonChristian ridicule

Mocking Blasphemer: Tomorrow marks the failure of another biblical prophesy but anyways those who believe that they may be zapped up to heaven tomorrow.

SLIMJIM: How is it a failed bible prophecy of the bible does not say May 21 2011 is the end?

Mocking Blasphemer: Bro, the guy clearly has been a devout christian for his life, even been ordained as a pastor to preach at his church,,, so he must had devoted his whole life reading the bible avidly, doing what he suppose to,,, and he must had thought he had some sort of spiritual revelation when he finally decided to annouce his prediction to the media,,, and other numerous accounts that people had taken the bible too seriously and became scums of the society such as westboro church, and as well as the incident that transpired in Texas yrs back, a group of christians quoted from revelation believing that revelation points out the apocalyse been imminent, barricaded themselves and their children in a basement for months,,, just saying I do agree that certain passages in the bible are beneficial and all, but there are some quite elusive in particular the ones in old testament and revelation,,, you know there are people out there who just take them too seriously and may had misinterprected them thinking the passages are advocating violence.

Mocking Blasphemer: to name one there is the seven plagues in Egypt, along with the carnage of the first borns,,,, I think that passage may be fictitious reason been if god is really omnipotent, capable of creating and destroying lives, then what d…idnt he just chastised the Egyptians with 7 plagues alone, why did he had to go as far as creating those new babies in the wombs and wait till they were delivered then killed them what is trying to prove that he could take any sort of measures to instill fear in peoples’ heart, as far as killling babies… And to me it is a paradox especially when u continued to other passages, and those other ones just depicted him as a loving, merciful, and caring I leave that to you bro

SLIMJIM: I love you dearly which makes this more painful to say but I think when people become atheists it seems they get more irrational than rational. I think if I’ve saved all our conversations with all the logical fallacies you’ve committed… I can make a short text book on logical fallacies. If you are going to call this another failed biblical prophecy the burden of proof is on you to show where May 21st, 2011 appear in the Bible as a rebutting defeater towards my claim that the Bible does not give this date! This is your rational obligation upon you to back your claim. Rather than take this direction you went ahead to commit an ad hominem fallacy which I quote in follows: “bro, the guy clearly has been a devout christian for his life, even been ordained as a pastor to preach at his church,,, so he must had devoted his whole life reading the bible avidly, doing what he suppose to,,, and he must had thought he had some sort of spiritual revelation when he finally decided to annouce his prediction to the media,,,” What an ad hominem fallacy is when an argument is given for a conclusion based on a premise or set of premises concerning the individual character when it’s irrelevant to the conclusion or subject at hand. Assuming for the sake of argument that it’s true that Harold Camping (the name of the leader of Family Radio, behind this false prophecy) is a devout christian, reads his bible and is an ordained minister…that tells us alot about Harold Camping but not about the date May 21st, 2011 is in the bible! Moreover, I think atheists need to do their homework if they are going to go beyond superficial objections towards Christianity by using silly easy targets like Camping and Westboro (another fallacy committed, of bandwagoning entirety of CHristianity with those fellows…I don’t seem to recall in all my years of talking to hundreds of atheists that they like it when Hitler and Stalin are bandwagoned with their own fellow atheists). It is indicative of atheistic scholarship when they fail to do their homework. Camping is not an ordained minister, he’s left the church I believe in 1988 and since taught that God has left the church when he left the church also (he thinks he took the Holy Spirit along with him the day he stepped out of it). i question your assertion that this guy love to read the Bible or is knowledgeable of it having spent the last couple of weeks listening to audios of him where he can’t answer some very basic questions of Christianity. He might be a nice guy but Camping is not a good person (even then, that is not enough to prove the May 21st date) according to the Biblical framework. The Bible makes it clear that there are false prophets out there and one tests of it is whether or not their pophecies fail. False prophets do not represents Christianity or God, why have a “rational” atheist like you suddenly lose your sense of discernment? Camping made a false prophecy in 1994 and the Bible says that no one should hear someone who claims to make a prophecy that has failed. In Biblical categories, such a person is not a good person despite people’s appeal that “oh, he reads his bible”…to speak when God has not spoken in His Word is to actually be quite arrogant and full of him or herself.
Concerning God’s judgment upon Egypt, I think here you are making a red herring fallacy from my main contention of your assertion that May 21st is a failed biblical prophecy. Since this is a red herring from the topic at hand, I don’t think I’m obligated to address it. But that is not to say that there’s no answer to the alleged dilemma you raised. I think a treatment of it requires more time and length than what I’ve already given! Speaking of which, I’ve just taught our middle school Sunday school kids last week interacting with alleged moral problems in the Bible that atheists give (specifically we evaluated Bertrand Russell as a case study). You should come by and ask them your objections I’d like to see that! But I understand, you don’t want to go to church. All that is to say, it’s not a problem when we discuss your dillemma not in a vaccuum but bring in the entire package of philosophy of ethics, meta-ethics. I’m often sadden at how people who are so bright can be so simple and foolish when it comes to the discussion of worldview and religion and import almost first grade sunday school understanding of Christianity when they refute it.

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May 21st world end now revealed in the Bible? A Short Biblical refutation of this point

I’ve been blogging about the false prophecy of the world ending on May 21st the last couple of days, seeing how big of a deception this is spreading on the internet at first rather briefly but then I realize I might have to expand a bit concerning this topic.

I want to pick up where I left off with last evening’s post, critiquing his view that the Bible does teach when the world will end.  Here in this current post, I wish to examine his claim of how there are things “hidden” in the Bible such as when the world will end that has only been recently revealed.  This teaching is problematic, but it’s fair to examine a paragraph from their tract “No Man Knows the Day or the Hour?”  Speaking of the Bible, it states:

However, God wrote it in such a way that it could not be understood until the world was almost at its end.  Remember understanding comes only from the Lord Jesus Christ, as we read in Luke 34:45: ‘Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.’  This explains why the Bible is written in such complex and difficult-to-understand language.  It is one reason why Christ spoke in parables, even as we read in Mark 4:34: ‘But without a parable spake He not unto them.’

I think the burden of proof is on this movement to demonstrate that the BIble teaches that secrets of when the date of end times won’t be discovered in the Bible until when the end times get closer.  Morever, it goes against the spirit of Jude 3 (read the passage), which teaches the principle that in terms of Christian doctrine, “IF IT’S NEW, IT CANNOT BE TRUE; IF’S IT’S TRUE, IT CANNOT BE NEW.”  One would also challenge the paragraph’s point that the Bible is so complex with difficult to understand languages ( I don’t think it’s that difficult although good interpretation does involve hard work!  But it’s not that complex really).

The paragraph also appealed to Mark 4:34 of how the Bible has been able to hide the date of the end of the world until now.  The verse is pulled out of it’s context and does not lend support towards Harold Camping’s view that the date of the end of the World is in the Bible but hidden until now.  First off, Mark 4:34 is not talking about the hiding of the date of the end times.  Nor is the passage teaching that the date of May 21st was hidden from Christians until the end times approaches.  In the context, what Jesus speaks plainly to his disciples about instead of parables was concerning the nature of the kingdom of God, not the date of the end of the world.  It’s rather strange what Camping and his followers come up with.

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World end May 21st, 2011? Biblical refutation

I got a tract sometime back from someone who followed Harold Camping’s Family Radio.  Camping’s group is behind the false prophecy that the world will end on May 21st, 2011.

It is a strange to think that Camping would make a prediction like this that goes contrary to the Word of God.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:36:

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

It was a point important to Jesus that He repeats Himself in Matthew 25:13:

Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.

What is even more strange is that Family Radio is aware of these verses since they have produced a tract titled, “No MAN KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR?” in response to Jesus’ clear teaching. The tract states,

However, it was not until a very few years ago that the accurate knowledge of the entire timeline of history was revealed to true believers by God from the Bible.

As to how Camping and his followers came to this accurate knowledge is not stated.  Camping believes that Ecclesiastes 8:5 teaches how true believers today will know in their hearts the true timing of Christ’s return.  Ecclesiastes 8:5 states

The one who keeps a command does not know bad matter, and a time and judgment the heart of the wise knows (Personal translation from the Hebrew)

It is odd that Camping would turn to Ecclesiastes 8:5 to find support for “true believers” able to know the date of the end of the world.  This is not supported by the context.  For one thing, Ecclesiastes 8:5 and Ecclesiastes 8 says nothing about the timing of the end times.  Secondly, this verse is pulled out of a context in Ecclesiastes that talks about the limitation of human knowledge, especially when it comes to the future.  Note what Ecclesiastes 8:7 ask rhetorically, in the context which talks about man’s limitation (cf. verse 8 which discuss limitation of man’s power):

For no one knows ‘what will be?’ for what will be who tells to him?

Ecclesiastes 8:5 is probably not a good proof text in light of the context for Camping’s eschatological agenda.  The verse itself, if it has any bearing to knowledge of the end times seems to be consistent with the spirit of Jesus’ teaching that man does not know the future.

The tract goes on to assert,

Therefore, since it was not God’s plan to open anyone’s understanding of many truths of the Bible until very near the time of the end of the world, it is only now that exceedingly important Biblical truths are being understood.  The Bible tells us that this was going to happen.

Note that the last sentence in the quote says the Bible tells us this was going to happen.  The burden of proof will be on Camping to offer a verse that teaches his specific assertion that truths such as “the time of the end of the world will be discovered in the Bible when the end time gets closer.”

Those who are confused should take Jesus’ warning seriously.  I have talked to a gentleman who have talked to me in fear thinking May 21st, 2011 was really the end.  He lived his life seriously, suddenly all the truths of Christianity that I ever told him became important.  Sadly, it takes the fear of God’s coming back soon to wake him up about his moral life.  THE truth also need to told that Jesus’ point of how the time and hour is unknown means that He can come back any moment even earlier than May 21st, 2011.  ONE’s LIFE should change knowing that any moment the End can begin.  It should lead people to true repentance to God, which include submitting to what His Word says instead of what His Word did not say.

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Redeeming Sociology: Free PDF of Poythress’ book on Christian perspective of sociology!

Wow, Christian theologian Vern Poythress has written another fine book on a Christian perspective on the sciences.

Just today, his website has loaded up a 352 page book for free!

To jump to the PDF directly, click HERE

Poythress has built and advance much from the foundation of Van Til’s presuppositional apologetics and Frame’s Triperspectivalism.

Wonderful to see the contribution that Poythress makes in Christian scholarship redeeming the sciences.

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James White on May 21st and Harold Camping

Defender of the Christian faith, James White, responds to the issue of Harold Camping’s false prophecy of May 21st, 2011.

The 42 minutes audio can be heard online HERE

Or you can download it by clicking HERE

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Muslims Beheaded Children in Thailand

CAUTION: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC video of beheaded children. But people need to see the evil that confronts the world.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bae_1304490155

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Watch out for Facebook virus…and a thought about spiritual discernment

Just saw a suspicious comment on my facebook wall, thought it was suspicious, deleted it then saw that similar comments popped up on others page.

Turns out it’s a virus.

It’s interesting to see how people are more discerning on their facebook page than for what they believe and practice when it comes to spirituality.

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Randy Alcorn on “Heaven is Real” and other books about heaven

Randy Alcorn, author of “Heaven” has written a long blog post on his website about several recent books on people who have claimed to have experienced heaven that have come out recently

You can read it directly by clicking HERE

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