Without Excuse: Apologetics Blog

The answer to this question lies in Jesus' temptation in the desert. The devil, who is Satan, tempted Jesus three times. One one occasion, the Book of Matthew says: Mat 4:8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Mat 4:9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Jesus, of course, rebuked him, and Satan left. But Satan made a claim that all the kingdoms of the world belonged to him. How do we know that Satan was not merely bluffing? Because it was a claim that Jesus never refuted, and he acknowledged in Matthew 12:26 that Satan has a kingdom. Moreover, Satan couldn't tempt Jesus with something he didn't have. Luke 4:1 goes into a little more detail. Satan says the kingdoms had been handed over to him. The question is, who handed the kingdoms of the world over to him? This goes all the way back to Adam. God gave Adam, and all humanity by birth...

It is sometimes asserted that Jesus never claimed to be God because he never plainly said, "I am God." However, he did allude to it on several occasions: Jesus claimed to be Lord and had authority over the Sabbath: Matt 12:8 “For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus was recognized as God by the demons: Mar 1:24 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus forgave sins, something only God can do: Luk 5:20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” Luk 5:21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus claimed that He and God were one and the same: John 10:30 “I and My Father are one.” Jesus was worshiped by His disciples and others, something only reserved for God: John 9:38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him. Jesus claim...

Here's a theoretical question: could atheism exist without theism? We know that theism can exist without atheism, because every ancient civilization believed in some form of deity. In fact, theism was the default belief system since time immemorial. It wasn't until around 300 BC, give or take, that we see the beginnings of atheism from the Greek philosophers. Their debates about God sounded remarkably similar to the same debates we have today. Atheism would take a hiatus for over 1,500 years as Christianity became the dominate belief system of Western Civilization. However, during the so-called Age of Enlightenment, atheism was given new life by men like Rene Descartes, Voltaire, Nietzsche, and so on. Back to the question. Atheism is defined as disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods. But to have a disbelief in God, there first has to be a belief in God. The belief in God came first, then the disbelief in God came second, that's an histori...

Sometime back I tried to answer this question from a theological standpoint . And while I think some insights can be gleamed from such a perspective, I realize now I overcomplicated the issue. There is a simpler explanation that answers why God allows suffering, why things are the way the are, and why Satan is currently allowed to roam free, and it has to do with the title deed to the earth. Genesis tells us when God made everything is was perfect, it wasn't just good it was very good. There was no pain, suffering, or death. The earth was perfect, there was no rain, earthquakes, hurricanes, cold, or extreme heat, or natural disasters of any kind. The animal kingdom was also in harmony. Then God handed it over to Adam, to have denomination over the whole earth (Gen 1:26, Psalm 8:4-9). In essence God gave Adam a title deed to the earth. Pastor Chuck Smith says of deeds, "Under Jewish law whenever you sold property in the deed there was always a redemptive clause. You alway...

"Stephen who?" was my first thought when I saw this story trending on Facebook. Apparently he's a British actor, writer, and comedian who also happens to be a homosexual atheist. Gee, no wonder he has a problem with God. When asked what he would say if confronted with God, he says: “I’d say, bone cancer in children? What’s that about? “How dare you? How dare you create a world to which there is such misery that is not our fault. It’s not right, it’s utterly, utterly evil." Yes, God is so evil that he gave his only begotten son to be brutalized and crucified so that everyone, even Stephen Fry, could go to heaven. These accusations against God have been posed and answered so many times as to be unoriginal, most recently by the likes of Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins. He goes on to say: “Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world that is so full of injustice and pain. That’s what I would say. ” Except God didn't. All it...

This past week Bill Maher in his never ending quest to garner attention by offending every person of faith made the following statement: "What kind of tyrant punishes everyone just to get back at the few he's mad at? I mean, besides Chris Christie." "Hey, God, you know you're kind of a dick when you're in a movie with Russell Crowe and you're the one with anger issues." "You know conservatives are always going on about how Americans are losing their values and their morality, well maybe it's because you worship a guy who drowns babies." "If we were a dog and God owned us, the cops would come and take us away." It's not the first time Bill Maher has made statements like this. These same tired arguments are routinely regurgitated in his diatribes. What strikes me as ironic is Bill Maher doesn't believe in God or the bible yet be believes in the parts of the bible which he believes makes it look bad.  You can...

Hell appears 31 times in the Old Testament and, without exception, is translated from the Hebrew word Sheol. The same word is translated as "pit" three different times. Sheol is sometimes translated as "the grave" which would infer that hell and the grave are the same, but this is a mistranslation. The proper word for "grave" is "Gibrah", which means grave,burying place, and sepulchre. Hell in the New Testament is the Greek word "Hades". Sheol and Hades are the same thing. Hell is basically a jail the lost souls go to until they are judged and sent to prison in "The Lake of Fire" or "gehenna". There are other compartments as well (Tartarus, The Abyss, The Bottomless pit) but we will not concern ourselves with these at the moment. The question arises how can a loving God send someone to such a terrible place? Well for starters man was not initially intended to go to hell, this was a place prepared for Sa...

Recently in an interview with Jim Wallis, Bill Maher on his show made the statement “Explain to me how a book that is written by God, who is perfect, there’s so much–it’s pro-slavery, pro-polygamy, it’s homophobic, God in the Old Testament is a psychotic mass murderer–I mean, there’s so many things in it.". The interview can be seen here . There is much more about the interview and Jim Wallis that could be said, bit I am to address that particular comment made by Mr. Maher here. Those accusations are often parroted by atheists against God and the bible. That fact that Bill Maher needs an explanation shows his lack of understanding on the matter. Jim Wallis was correct about one thing, slavery as practiced by the Hebrews was more like servitude. People often think of slavery today in terms of the African slave trade, however that sort of slavery was explicitly denounced: "You shall not steal. (Exd 20:15)"  "He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is f...

"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to [execute] wrath on him who practices evil." (Romans 13:1-4) I will attempt to address the following questions: 1)Is every government that exists appointed by God, even the bad ones? 2)Should we obey a government even if it's tyrannical? 3)Is it okay to criticize governing authorities that are appointed by God? 4)Were our Founding Fathers sinning when they rebelled ag...

Ultimately at some point in our lives will ask ourselves does God exist? There is really only two possibilities to this question, either were here though natural means or were here through super-natural means. That's it. It's either one or the other. If we are here through natural means then that leaves us with evolution as the only viable theory. There are however problems with evolution. For one things never move from disorder to order, this would violate the law of entropy. Everything moves from order to disorder... for example people get old and die, lawns will become over-grown if not mowed, your house will move from order to disorder if it is not cleaned, etc. Second the fossil record does not show all the transitional forms that should exist if evolution were true. Darwin admitted that the state of the fossil evidence was "the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory,". Third it remains a "theory" that has never been ...

Why is there suffering? How could a loving God allow suffering? I will offer my supposition, as such it will contain speculation and conjecture. So I do not present it as the gospel truth only as a plausible answer to a difficult question. Everyday we see pain and suffering and it becomes difficult to understand why God would allow it when he has the power to stop it. But our perspectives here on earth are very limited. In many ways we are like a fly on the Mona Lisa. All the fly see's is a big blotch of paint. Only when we step back do we see the complete picture, and the master piece that it is. In order to see the big picture we have to start at the very beginning. In heaven everything is perfect, there is no sickness or death or suffering. How then did Satan convince one third of the angels to rebel against God? They already had paradise what more could he offer? I imagine he began to ask them questions we also ask ourselves, questions such as why is sin bad?  Does God rea...