The biblical concept of hell is hard to swallow for many Christians, let alone non-Christians. Atheists have the worst time with hell. Hell just seems unreasonable to so many people. Hell makes God out to be the bad guy.[1] As Judge, God comes across as hateful, unforgiving, vengeful, retaliatory, and hard. But, God sometimes hates,[2]…
Defining Ethical Relativism (ER) From the fountains of naturalism and empiricism springs ethical relativism. Naturalism argues that all that exists is the natural universe, and that nothing supernatural exists. Empiricism argues that the only things that exist are what we can perceive through our five senses. ER relies heavily on these underpinnings, holding that since…
The full content of Moreland’s book is much too large to cover within the scope of this article. Therefore, I will limit my examination to just the section regarding his discussion of the current “three-way struggle” between the major worldviews of scientific naturalism, postmodernism, and ethical monotheism. Moreland argues that scientific naturalism and postmodernism are…
I want to take issue with Timothy Ward, in his book, Words of Life: Scripture as the Living and Active Word of God (p. 91), regarding translations of the Bible in the section “The Holy Spirit and the Transmission of Scripture.” Ward writes that: “Dynamic equivalence translations of the Bible, such as the New International family…
Suffering is to endure pain or anguish, whether willingly, as in the case of martyrdom, or unwillingly, as in the case of cancer. Christians throughout history have responded to suffering differently than other religions and philosophies. Suffering Is Real Contrary to some Eastern religions and Christian Science, Christianity holds that suffering is real. Also, Christians…
Bentham proposes a hedonistic view of morality. His only concerns are the pleasure or pain present in a particular moral choice. Pleasure indicates a positive morality, and pain a negative one. Morality, then, is reduced to its utility to provide pleasure or pain, and any moral value, whether positive or negative that a particular choice…
The word translated as “Word” in John 1 is the Greek word logos, and is a reference to Christ The Greek speaking world understood this word to refer to more than just “word.” It included the concepts of expression, wisdom, reason, and order. Jesus, whom John has in view when using the word in John…
Among the most prominent arguments for the existence of God, including the Cosmological Argument, the Ontological Argument, and the Teleological Argument, the Moral Argument for the existence of God is from modern times. It was first postulated by German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, an agnostic, in his work, Critique of Pure Reason.[1] The Cosmological and Teleological…
Greek philosophy demanded logical answers to the great questions of life. Pagan religious systems broke down under the scrutiny of the philosophically trained Greek mind. Pagan systems were exposed as incoherent and societies were prepped to discard them in favor of a religious system that made sense. As Greg Koukl has argued (I am paraphrasing),…
All major world religions have widely held common attributes, but Christianity is unique among them. This subject was a concern for the writer of this paper both prior to his conversion to Christianity and immediately thereafter. The purpose of this paper is to show the position of C. S. Lewis on what the major religions…