Theology

Perhaps the most frequent argument used by skeptics against the Christian faith is that a good, loving, and all-powerful God wouldn't possibly allow evil (along with sorrow, pain, bloodshed, etc.) into his world. Evil obviously exists in our world. It is all around us. Thus, the biblical God can’t possibly exist. If he did, and he was indeed omnipotent, he would obviously do something about it!

Figure 1 - Front cover of the book

Have you ever heard that “All scientists accept evolution as a proven fact” or “real scientists don’t believe in God?” Did you believe it? This article will show just how untrue these statements are.

Many of you I am guessing, have watched the History Channel's 5-week-long series on The Bible. And perhaps the first couple of weeks you saw many images of Israelites going to war with other tribes. It could actually get quite gruesome with all of the violence and bloodshed. This issue of violence and bloodshed has been quite a stumbling block for faith in God for many and raises a lot of questions.

In The Grand Design, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present religion and science as rivals and give the impression that they are irreconcilable. The following quotes present such an opposition, and they reveal an antagonism toward religion in the authors:

“To believe in sola scriptura [‘Scripture alone’] is to allow God to speak without interruption. It is to trust His self-revelation, refusing to mix man’s words with God’s, man’s thoughts with His thoughts. It is to be quiet and to let God speak.” 1

Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms

Is apologetics all about saying you’re sorry about something? Of course not; it is derived from the Greek word apologia, which refers to giving a reason. Christian apologetics includes both 1) defending the Christian faith when speaking with non-Christians and 2) encouraging and strengthening the faith of believers. Christians are encouraged, actually commanded, in the scriptures to be able to give the reasons for why they believe and have the hope in them.

Dr. Henry Middleton presented talks for the youth group meetings at Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. 1

William Dembski

The End of Christianity by William Dembski attempts to reconcile natural evil with a good God. The problem for Dembski, who believes modern science has proven that the earth and universe are billions of years old, is to explain how natural evil in the form of physical death and suffering could have existed before the Fall of Man while leaving God’s good character intact. Dembski creates an elaborate theology to address this problem.