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…
I am quite concerned about the faith of emerging adults. The current cultural context of emerging adults includes an almost perfunctory acceptance of Darwinian Evolution as settled scientific fact. This, of course, leads quickly to moral relativism. Since, according to evolution, human beings came about through chance circumstances and stand presently on a long and gradually…
The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is compelling. This article will explore the best arguments in defense of the resurrection of Christ. The best arguments are derived from the best evidence, and the best evidence is the direct evidence, namely the empty tomb, the eyewitness accounts, and the conversion of Saul of…
In When Athens Met Jerusalem, John Mark Reynolds demonstrated how Athens (Greek philosophical pursuit) prepared the way for Jerusalem (divine revelation) to launch Christianity in the first century. As one commentator put it, Christian thought is incomprehensible apart from Greek philosophy. Before Christianity hit the scene, and while Judaism was in its most corrupt state,…
The concept of a Purgatory is mythical, not biblical. The concept suggests that people who are not bad enough to go to Hell and are not good enough to go to Heaven when they die are instead sent to a place called “Purgatory” to be “purged” (or purified) of their sins. They receive punishment for…
I enjoyed this book very much. John Mark Reynolds has made a cogent argument that Christianity arose on the world scene at a most appropriate time in history. In fact, he argues that the timing of the advent of Christ was perfect given the development of Greek thought in the centuries leading up to the…