Is the idea of God incoherent?
09 Apr 2012 35 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christianity, God, making disciples, Philosophy, reason, religion
In philosophy, an idea is incoherent if it is self contradictory, and cannot even be properly defined.
There are many things about the idea of God that some atheists think are incoherent. Here is a brief summary and comment on seven arguments, all of which I have seen presented, sometimes by philosophers, as serious and telling objections to the idea and existence of God.
Arguments against God
11 Mar 2012 6 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christianity, God, making disciples, religion
We have been considering why believers may give up their faith and how we may train disciples to think better about their beliefs and so be better able to stand up against attacks. We have looked at some reasons to believe (and we will look at some more).
Now it is time to consider the arguments sceptics may use to attack christian belief – arguments against God, the Bible, Jesus and faith.
Is your church heading in the right direction?
09 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: Change the church, christianity, churches, doctrine, Leadership, making disciples, mission
Churches have been going through a remarkable revolution this past 50 years. Denominational barriers are much lower and less important. The Holy Spirit is more welcome. Christians are much more open to new ideas. But there is much more to come (I believe)!
One of the very positive influences on world christianity is the ‘simple church’ movement, and Felicity Dale (a sometime commenter on this blog) and her website Simply Church blog is one face of this movement. I subscribe to her blog and gain a lot of insight from it. And one brief recent post summed a lot of things up for me.
Reason and ridicule
29 Feb 2012 6 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christians, making disciples, persecution
Criticisms of christians and christian faith seem to be more widespread and trenchant than they used to be. And the main basis of the attack is that christianity is not reasonable, not based on evidence. Yet in my experience, the attacks that have greatest impact are not intellectual but emotional, built as much on ridicule as on reason.
What are we to make of this? And how should we deal with it?
Believing “by faith”
26 Feb 2012 3 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, christianity, faith, making disciples, reason
In christianity, faith is a virtue. Many christians believe in Jesus because they have been taught to believe by people they trust. Is this good or bad?
Some people say, faith is the opposite of reason. So does this mean believing in Jesus is unreasonable? Why do we have faith anyway?
And how do these questions fit in with our current theme of helping disciples to stand against attack?
Reasons to believe 1 – Jesus
21 Feb 2012 3 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Belief, Bible, christianity, history, making disciples, New Testament
1 Peter 3:15: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Jesus is the centre of our faith, so we need to understand, and be able to explain clearly, why we believe in him.
This isn’t as easy as it used to be. (This post follows on from my discussion of Training disciples to stand and Apologetics for disciples.)
Apologetics for disciples
19 Feb 2012 4 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Belief, christianity, God, Jesus, making disciples
In Training disciples to stand I suggested that we need to develop our methods of evangelism and discipleship to include some apologetics. Young disciples need to be encouraged to better think through why they believe, and how to defend their belief against attack.
But what apologetics are important and relevant?
Training disciples to stand
03 Feb 2012 5 Comments
in Making disciples Tags: Belief, christians, churches, making disciples
I have been looking at the problem of christians losing faith and turning away from following Jesus (see Making disciples is a new game these days, Why do some christians give up belief?, and Do christians believe for irrational reasons?).
So what should we do about it?
How do we help young christians to be prepared for attacks on their faith, to be able to grow through doubt and questioning, and after all, to stand (Ephesians 6:13)?
Making disciples is a new game these days
12 Jan 2012 3 Comments
in Making disciples Tags: apologetics, behaviour, Belief, christians, God, Jesus, making disciples, reason
Jesus told his followers to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), and for two millennia they did just that, and now about a third of the world follows Jesus, nominally at least. But it’s getting much harder to make disciples in western societies these days, and it is becoming more common for apparently strong disciples to turn away from following Jesus.
I think this is a crucial matter, and I want to devote a number of posts to it. Today, I just want to scope the problem.
CS Lewis’ trilemma – not so effective now?
30 Dec 2011 2 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, christianity, Jesus, making disciples, Old Testament, reason
I have been a CS Lewis fan since my youth. So I remember being impressed by his argument, in Mere Christianity, that Jesus was divine. He could not have been merely a great moral teacher, Lewis argued, for his claims were such that either he was mad, or evil, or truly the Lord.
These days, the argument, often called the trilemma and abbreviated (and changed a little) to Liar, Lunatic or Lord? is not so effective. It is important that we understand why.
The Queen’s speech
26 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Good news Tags: christianity, Good news, Jesus, making disciples
Every year the Queen records a Christmas message for those of us in the British Commonwealth. I think the idea of a Queen and the Commonwealth are somewhat anachronistic and I usually don’t watch the Queen’s message when it comes on at the end of the ABC 7:00 pm Christmas Day TV News. But I saw it this year – and it was worth seeing.
Books: make your church a better place
10 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: Books, Change the church, christianity, churches, Leadership, making disciples, western society
Over the years I’ve read a lot of books about changing the church. Probably out of desperation, I think. Things really must change, and they are, but too slowly. I’ve read a lot of good books in that time, and bypassed a few that didn’t look so good.
But here’s four books I can recommend wholeheartedly. If you read them and take notice, they can hardly fail to challenge you and lead to your church being at least a little more effective in carrying out the mission Jesus left for us.
Christian leadership
25 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, christians, churches, doctrine, Leadership, making disciples
Leadership is an important matter for christians. A fundamental aspect of being a christian is meeting with other believers in churches and other groupings. How these groups are led – that is, make decisions, form attitudes, gain knowledge and encourage each other – will have an enormous impact on our success in carrying out the mission entrusted to us.
What if we have got it badly wrong?
Sunday services vs discipleship
08 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, making disciples, mission
If you thought I was exaggerating in yesterday’s post when I criticised church plants and said “a maintenance church may resist change that will further the mission”, you should read this story of a successful pastor who tried to ‘go missional’, in Stories from the Revolution.
Plant a mission, not a church
07 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, Jesus, making disciples, mission
Jesus left us a big task (Matthew 28:19-20):
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The church in most western countries is not doing all that well on this task these days. I have argued that we are approaching things the wrong way, and that our present way of doing church is probably providing comfort more than obeying Jesus’ command. And I have suggested some ways the church might change to do better.
In this post I want to look at some better ways.
The church and God’s plan
04 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, Good news, making disciples, mission
I have discussed the decline in church attendance in western countries, asked why go to church? and looked at why sermons are a poor way of making disciples. So can we rescue the church from ineffectiveness and irrelevance? What might improve things?
Attracting people to church
11 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: christianity, churches, making disciples, western society
If you attend a church, here is an interesting exercise. Think about your church’s regular services and its “outreach” activities. Do you try to make your services attractive to outsiders? Are the “outreach” activities held on church property? How many activities (whether evangelism or community service) are located in the community?
I want to suggest to you that your answers to these questions may give some clues as to why church attendances have generally fallen in recent years.
Sermons and effective learning
30 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: churches, making disciples
After my last post on Why sermons?, Felicity Dale from Simply Church offered more evidence on effective learning. It merits repeating.
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