His name was Wernher von Braun. He was the German-born rocket scientist who, along with his German V-2 missile team of more than four hundred scientists, research and development specialists, was taken into custody by the U.S. Army in 1945...
Read MoreIt is hard to say where it started. With Guttenberg? Galileo? The industrial revolution? Darwinism? Somewhere along the way, Western man began to lose his belief in God as a personal force, as decider of his fate, as ultimate judge of his actions. The idea that God created man became old-fashioned; we evolved. The notion of Hell was picturesque, but no longer compelling. Life began to be seen as more or less accidental; sin became a relative, sociological matter, and to many a pure fiction. After millenniums of living under gods, man came to regard such belief as archaic and superstitious. Like a son who decides he need not depend upon his father any longer, he set forth to make his own way in the world.
Read MoreThe 1976 Warren-Flew debate on the existence of God has been called “The Debate of the Century.” Given the four night debate attendance that averaged several thousand, the masterful logical argumentation of Thomas B. Warren, and last but not least, the announcement by Dr. Antony Flew 29 years after the debate that he was no longer an atheist but had come to believe that God exists, it would be difficult to argue against the claim that this indeed was “The Debate of the Century.” In fact, the Warren-Flew debate may very well be the most devastating defeat experienced by atheism during the last several hundred years.
Read MoreSome people, including some members of the Lord’s church, have denied that moral law is in any sense innate. And by “innate” I mean something within a person’s mind from his conception rather than something within a person’s mind exclusively by experience/learning/development. Some have argued that moral law is something that has to be learned and that no one knows the difference between right and wrong without having to be taught. But there are enormous implications that follow such a position. The position that one is born without some innate ability to discern the difference between right and wrong is itself without reasonable and, certainly, without Scriptural support.
Read MoreI want to express my appreciation to the elders here and to school of Preaching for the invitation to speak on this lectureship. The theme, Christian Evidences, is one near and dear to my heart as it was the major field of my study in graduate school.
The particular assignment given to me is: Answering Atheism's Argument (the answer to the atheistic argument of evil and suffering). Perhaps no argument from atheism has been used with greater frequency and force than this one argument...
Read MoreSeptember 20, 2016, will mark the 40th anniversary of a monumental event that serves as one of the foundational underpinnings of the apologetics legacy and approach of the Warren Center. The Warren-Flew debate on the existence of God held on the campus of North Texas State University (now The University of North Texas) attracted audiences ranging from five to seven thousand nightly September 20-23, 1976. Some estimates of the size of the audience go as high as nine thousand. It was an amazing event. I am deeply grateful to God for allowing me to experience that “once in a lifetime” event forty years ago...
Read More“O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?” (Psalm 144:3, ESV). How we define ourselves—the human race—is tied to worldview and greatly affects how we live now, not to mention what we believe about the future. Notice the question is not seeking a definition as much as it is asking God why He cares so much for us. To the Psalmist, it was a given that God made man. Sadly, to many now, it is not.
Read MoreFormer Time magazine correspondent, David Aikman, tells a powerful story involving eighteen American tourists who visited China in 2002. At the end of a busy day of visiting Beijing, the group’s activities for that particular day concluded with an evening lecture. The speaker was a young Chinese scholar who represented China’s premier academic research institute, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). What the group of American tourists heard from this young member of China’s academic elite was astonishing! Instead of the official old Communist dogma about religion being the opium of the people and missionaries being tools of Western society’s imperialism, the Chinese speaker said...
Read More...It is necessary when handling a textual study that we deal with its entire context. The immediate context of our study begins with 1:18 and carries its thought to completion at 3:20 (cf. Grubbs; Reese).
Universality (1:1-17). In order to introduce the Roman Christians to his thesis, the prolific Paul first declared the universality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, "...to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (1:17).
Read MoreIn their book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Brand and Yancey cite the Greek poet Sophocles who said that none of the wonders of the world is more wondrous than the human body. Dr. Warren wrote, “When one considers his body he is aware of the fact that it is a marvelous mechanism—a single system which is comprised of sub-systems, all of which must work together in concert if one is to live or even to be very healthy” (We Can Know that God Is 4).
Read MoreMay is the month when we in America honor mothers and motherhood with our observance of Mother’s Day. I well remember from graduate study days how the late Dr. Thomas B. Warren, the apologist for whom Warren Apologetics Center is named, would say, “Fellows, the world will never be the same when you awake one morning and realize your mother is no longer a part of it.” The absolute value of a mother!
Read MoreHenry Morris, in his book The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, suggests “. . . [A]pril 1 would be a good holiday for atheists . . .” (93). The Bible says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1; 53:1). Paul stated that those “who do not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Romans 1:28) are futile in their thoughts (Romans 1:21). Futile here means “unintelligent, without insight” (Rogers and Rogers 317). Sometimes it is the case that atheists boast of their philosophy as being “intellectual” and “scientific.” However, the Bible labels anti-God philosophy as foolish (cf. Romans 1:21). The Bible identifies those who reject the evidence for God (Romans 1:20-21) as “professing to be wise,” but in actuality, they have become fools (Romans 1:22). All of this reminds me of the story by G. K. Chesterton, entitled “The Oracle of the Dog,” from The Incredulity of Father Brown, in which we find the observation: “It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense” (qtd. in Rees 158).
Read MoreThe editor’s foreword of Man Without God said that this book “breaks out of the smugness and condescension of traditional theism to ask why it is possible for admirable men to live their lives not only without admitting the presence of God but in denying it ... a widespread Christian conviction that only theistic belief (preferably of an orthodox variety) can restrain the beast in man from taking over. The exemplary lives of many of our believing contemporaries are a refutation of that conviction–a refutation with which theology must somehow come to terms.”
Read MoreJohn Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) wrote, “God is and all is well” (qtd. in Bartlett 528). In a time of terror and tragedy, doom and destruction, our spirits need beckoned to a place above the pain and terror where there is hope in the midst of hopelessness; security in the midst of insecurity. Such a place is found in the knowledge of God (Isaiah 26:3). Even the season of Spring can point us upward to a place of peace, tranquility, and cheer, though the drums of war are beating loudly. Robert Browning wrote:
Read More“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20 - NKJV).
The evidence in nature (planets, plants, animals, humans, etc.) that points to a Creator is so clear and consistent that ignoring it is indefensible. In fact, the natural evidence is so clear (Psalm 19:1), it is only the fool that continues to espouse the non-existence of God (Psalm 14:1; Romans 1:22). In light of this evidence, and because God’s existence is often taken for granted, many faithful Christians fail to see the importance of being well-versed in the area of Christian apologetics. Specifically, they often feel as though a study on the existence of God is a waste of time. The thought process at the local congregation is occasionally something like, “We are all convinced that God exists. Why not spend our time studying something more helpful?”
Read MoreAmerica is the only world power which claims to have had its origin in Christian principles. Our national motto is: In God We Trust. But, in both obvious and subtle ways, faith in God and Christian principles of morality and conduct are being undermined in our country. This can be seen from the continual attacks leveled against our national motto with its reference to God, our pledge of allegiance (“one nation under God”), and the wording of prayer in schools, public assemblies, and civic functions. It is not an uncommon thing to see many, if not most, state universities publishing materials which are either atheistic or, at the least, skeptical in their approach to religion in general and toward Christianity in particular. Books attacking the existence of God are commonplace reading in our schools and colleges. Because such criticism of the foundations of the Christian system has gone unanswered, many have given up their faith in God.
Read MoreIn His book, Why Religion Matters, Huston Smith contrasted the worldview that believes God is the ultimate reality with the view of secular materialism that believes there is no reality (no God) beyond the physical universe—the physical laws of nature and the chemical properties of matter. Smith says, “How seriously we should regard the evidence for or against [either view] . . . depends on how much is at stake.” He continues, “How much is at stake! I repeat that phrase because . . . the stakes are high” (40).
Read More“And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful; who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practice them.” (Romans 1: 28-32, ASV)
Read MoreIf there is creative intelligence in the universe, something which is not under the blind reign of mechanical laws operating in masses of matter, it can direct and control, to some extent, matter and its motions. Creative intelligence would be able to set up goals and to devise ways and means to realize them; goals which would not be established or achieved without the presence of creative intelligence.
Read MoreThey lived in different centuries: George Romanes lived and died during the 19th century. Ernst Mayr was born in 1904 and died in 2005. However, Romanes and Mayr had something major in common—both were devoted students of Charles Darwin, the father of modern evolutionary biology.
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