Challenge: Christianity Has Its Own Jihad

Alan will be responding to the challenge this week, so we thought we’d cover an objection that has to do with Islam. Have you heard someone argue this?

Christians complain that Islam’s teaching of jihad makes it a violent religion, but the same thing can be said about Christianity. The Old Testament is full of wars, killing, and slaughter committed in the name of religion! And what about all the violence and killing during the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition? There’s an obvious parallel to jihad in Christianity.

So what do you think? Does Christianity have its own jihad? Tell us how you’d react to this claim, and we’ll hear how Alan responds on Thursday.

Why Won’t God Heal Amputees?

Brett was asked an interesting question:

“Why won’t God heal amputees?”  The question caught me by surprise.

I had just finished my “Why I Am a Christian” talk at Calvary Chapel Chino Valley’s youth conference in April.  After talking with a few students and leaders, a young man approached.  He challenged me with this question, explaining his atheist friend had asked it earlier in the week.  And he had no answer for his friend.

Apparently, it’s a question atheists make a big deal about. There is even an entire website dedicated to it (www.whywontgodhealamputees.com).  The website claims “this is one of the most important questions we can ask about God.”  Sometime, somewhere I had heard the objection but had never given it much attention.  Now it was staring me right in the face.  Immediate attention was required…

Find out how Brett responded at STR Place.

Challenge Response: Maybe the Universe is Self-Existent

My answer to this week’s challenge:

FRIDAY FUN: Corporate Worship Songs

Report from the Field

If you live in Southern California, I’d like to invite you to join Greg Koukl and me for dinner on Friday, June 3. I’ll share several stories about how God is using my work at Stand to Reason to make inroads among Muslims, abortion-choice advocates, and non-believers. Then, Greg will explain the importance of partnering with me to train Christians to defend their convictions.

But wait, there’s more!  The C.S. Lewis Society is offering a FREE DVD to the first 50 people that RSVP to this event. You’ll have your choice of The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith (featuring a segment with Greg Koukl), or Prophecies of the Passion. You’ll receive your DVD when you arrive at the banquet.

The event will be catered by La Taquiza. They’ll cook the carne asada and chicken on-site and then serve it to you fresh with tortillas and all the fixings. The meal has been paid for so there’s no cost to you for the event.

You can RSVP either at the Facebook event page or by emailing Dawnielle Hodgman at Dawnielle@str.org

Pass on this invitation to anyone you know who is interested in apologetics or fulfilling the Great Commission. If they’re not familiar with my work, they can view samples of my teaching here:

Pro-life tactics seminar to Oregon Right to Life

Video highlights of a teaching sermon on Islam

Debating a feminist at Cal State San Marcos

Would You Like to Be in an Apologetics Club?

A new organization called Ratio Christi has the goal of starting up apologetics clubs in 500 universities in the next five years, and the good news is, they might already have one on your campus (see the existing chapters, the recently added chapters, and the universities where chapters are forming).

If you don’t see your school there, why not start a chapter yourself? It turns out that most of the chapters are initiated by students, and you can find out how to start the process here. Ratio Christi will help you get started and connect you with a trained apologist in your area who can serve as your chapter director. After that, you’ll have a great forum to meet with like-minded Christians, learn more together, have discussions with atheists and other religious groups on campus, answer people’s questions, and draw more people into a deeper knowledge of, and relationship with, Christ.

Ratio Christi will also help your chapter host one or two large events or debates a year by connecting your group with speakers like William Lane Craig and Gary Habermas. This is a great way to get the people on your campus thinking about what is true.

We love meeting with you online, but why not take what you’re learning here out into the real world and talk to your classmates who are confused and lost, “having no hope and without God in the world”? This is an excellent opportunity.

Challenge: Maybe the Universe Is Self-Existent

The argument from a first cause is frequently used to show that a self-existent being (that is, God) must exist:

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Therefore, we argue, there must be a first cause who is self-existent (existing without a beginning, without a cause), immaterial and not bound by physical laws (since no space, matter, or physical laws existed before creation), and an agent with a will who chooses rather than whose actions are determined by prior events (since He began a new series of events in creation). That is the conclusion, but are the premises true? Rob asks a question about premise #2:

Why do we need a self-existent and eternal being to create the universe? Why can’t the universe itself be self-existent and eternal?

So how would you respond to this question? What reason do we have to think there is an eternal being rather than an eternal universe? Give us your ideas, and Brett will let you know how you did on Thursday.

Free Welcome to College Book

Welcome to College: A Christ-Follower’s Guide for the Journey by Jonathan Morrow is one book every college student, and high schoolers heading off to college, should read.  Morrow will prepare you for the intellectual, moral, and spiritual challenges ahead.  Get a FREE Kindle version today.  If you don’t have a Kindle, no problem.  You can get free Kindle software for your computer, iPad, or even iPhone.

Is Stephen Hawking Rational?

In a recent interview, Stephen Hawking said, “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” But how reasonable is his worldview, really? Alan addresses this question in this week’s featured article:

“It is not necessary to invoke God to…set the Universe going,” concludes Stephen Hawking in his book, The Grand Design. Denying God is old hat, but this comes from a world-class theoretical physicist. That’s why Christians are unnerved by his bold claim. A statement from a scientist of his caliber commands attention. But it turns out there is no reason for concern. Everything Hawking has written in his book can be dismissed as irrational. Everything. Let me tell you why.

Stephen Hawking has a problem. If he’s right in his view of reality, then he’s irrational. But if he’s irrational, he’s not likely to be right. Read “According to Stephen Hawking, He’s Irrational” to find out more.

FRIDAY FUN: 90′s Christian Rap Was Dope, Homie!