What is faith?

The Bible is crystal clear on the fact that salvation is by faith (e.g. Romans 3:28), and given how long eternity is, how awful hell is and how wonderful salvation is, if salvation is by faith we must make sure we know what faith is. Sadly this word is widely misused and abused. I hope this clears the air from the clouds of confusion and mists of misrepresentation.

Liar, Lunatic or Lord - does it matter?

I have been with a couple of friends at a local High School this week and we have been speaking to the students about the subject of "Finding the real Jesus". We were looking at the evidence that there really was a man called Jesus of Nazareth, that this wasn't some fictional, mythical figure. Then we were showing that, although He was really a man, He was not merely a man - He was God. The subject I was given to speak about was this - does it matter anyway?

The fizzing of an astrophysicist

I heard a sad story recently about a young man who has become an atheist "because of science." He is now full of bluster and dripping with scorn about anyone so naive and brainless as to believe in God in this scientific age. This deserves a few comments.

Dawkins' soft-headed, hard-hearted comments

This is not news, the story has receded but I still want to point out some things from Dawkins' comments about the "immorality" of allowing children with Down's Syndrome to be born.

Blind faith

I had a really interesting and enjoyable chat on a plane a while ago with a young man, and I just want to pass on some of the details of the conversation.

Impossible!? Exactly!

I want to tell you about a conversation I had with a young woman who was more than a bit sceptical about Christianity.

Asher's

Once again, the "tolerance" crowd are on the warpath because they have identified someone who doesn't agree with them, and they are not prepared to put up with (i.e. tolerate) such treatment.

False dichotomy

I was listening to a recording of a Muslim doing some on-street interviews with Christians and he was asking them a question he thought put the Christian in an impossible bind and in an embarrassing dilemma.

Confused!

I had an interesting chat with a man yesterday. I want to pass on some of the teachable points.

No hope?

I want to conclude the wee recap of the conversation I had with the JW lady last week. After speaking about the resurrection of Christ she told me she would look into it. I encouraged her to do so because there was no salvation without a real, risen Christ.

What is "it"?

I had an errand to do today in the centre of Belfast and I came across a couple of "Jehovah's Witnesses" (I will never grant them that title without putting the quotes around it, because they are no such thing). A very interesting, and hopefully profitable conversation ensued.

Welcome to Room 101

The thought police are primed, ready to launch a dawn raid on anyone who dares to cause upset. They will respond immediately at the first sign of a tear in the eye of a sensitive soul, and bring the full force of political correctness upon the head of any who don't think the way they are supposed to.

Why would God...?

Questions that begin in this way are notoriously hard to answer, and there's no shame in answering many of these questions with an honest, "I've no idea." The Bible does say that God's ways are past finding out. It ought to come as no surprise that there are things God does and allows that we don't understand. However, the question I recently heard asked does not fall into that category.

History Lessons

I had a chat the other day with a man I have butted heads with a couple of times in the past (see here, here, here and here!)

"That's it!"

Let me tell you about a young man I know who recently was desperate to become a Christian. He had come from atheism to realise the message of the Bible is true, and he knew that he needed to take this step of conversion.

Walking as He walked

I had a brief chat with a lady today that I want to tell you about.

The law of excluded middle

I have noticed over the last wee while that atheists, agnostics and other kinds of unbelievers very often flaunt ignorance as a virtue and they vilify claims of knowledge as arrogance. When evidence of the existence of God is presented they retreat to "I don't know, and it's arrogant for anyone to think they do. We don't know what discoveries might be made that will overturn everything you claim to know." Now the first thing I want to say on this is it is completely disingenuous. They only function that way when the evidence points toward the God of scripture. When anything comes to light that they think supports evolution, undermines scripture or attacks Christianity they jump on it with gusto. Furthermore, when it comes to other theories and conclusions about science and history they are prepared to believe what is well supported evidentially and act accordingly; they don't withhold judgment saying that something could come along and overturn all this - "I don't buy in to this theory, there could be some other explanation..." It shows they aren't guided by reason and evidence at all, despite all their big claims. But, what I want to show here is that when it comes to some of the arguments for Christianity they cannot retreat to some unknown option - there is none. This is where the law of excluded middle comes in.

An asset not a liability

I believe God's way is always the best way, but sometimes it sure doesn't seem like it. I have often thought that the way God revealed Himself in scripture, i.e. various writers over many centuries, recorded in thousands of manuscripts and fragments etc. seems a bit...I dunno...messy. I don't think that way anymore, and I want to tell you why.

New year, new book

Happy (not so) new year. Thanks again to those who keep checking here for new posts. I have some things to write about and hope to get to them soon. In the meantime, here is the link to where my first book can be obtained. Those who have been following this blog know that there was a considerable period in which hell was quite a prominent subject. This is the fruit of that. I think you'll be edified in the faith and fortified against the alternate views that attract many but attack the faith.