Author: S.J. ThomasonBook: Why Christianity Matters: Historical, Sociocultural, and Moral Reasons to Follow Jesus Christ (1st edition [out of print])Publisher: Kindle Direct PublishingYear: 2020Total Page Count: 410Price: $14.49 (print) I. INTRODUCTION From the time I was a teenager to just prior to my deconversion, I was an avid reader of Christian apologetics. If you could go back in time to the year 2000,... Continue Reading →
Readers of my blog have noticed that over the past couple of weeks I have been throwing up brief snippets from Bart Ehrman’s latest book Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (Simon & Schuster, 2020). I for one have enjoyed this volume by Ehrman and have learned quite a bit, mostly concerning Greco-Roman views of... Continue Reading →
I had not planned to write about pop-apologist SJ Thomason for a while. Back in February she wrote a response to a piece I had written concerning the dating of the Gospels[1] and while I had been working on a rebuttal to it I gave it up because, let’s be honest, it would take way too... Continue Reading →
To see other posts in this series, please go to the series’ page. Among the most memorable and iconic verses from the King James Bible is the one with which it begins: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Other translations follow suit, including the NIV, ESV, and NASB.[1] And like the... Continue Reading →
"You shall not steal." Exodus 20:15, NRSV This year pop-apologist SJ Thomason finally published her long-awaited book titled Why Christianity Matters: Historical, Sociocultural, and Moral Reasons to Follow Jesus Christ.[1] It is little more than blogposts she has written in the past warmed over with little to no editing. Expectations, in other words, aren’t very high. The... Continue Reading →
To view all posts in this review series, please go to its index. CONCLUSION The final chapter of Strobel’s book is titled “Reaching Your Verdict.” He begins by detailing healings that no doubt lend themselves to his own beliefs regarding the miraculous: a teenager with a life-threatening allergy is healed from its debilitating effects; a woman... Continue Reading →
To see other posts in this series, please go to the series’ page. Next in Ray Comfort’s Scientific Facts in the Bible, the apologist asserts that Job 38:19 (“Where is the way to the dwelling of light?” [NKJV]) is speaking of the speed of light: Man has only recently discovered that light (electromagnetic radiation) has a “way,”... Continue Reading →
To view all posts in this review series, please go to its index. INTERVIEW #8 – DOUGLAS GROOTHUIS What happens when God doesn’t intervene? What does the believer do when miracles don’t come? In ch. 13 of The Case for Miracles, Strobel opens with a personal anecdote concerning his wife Leslie who suffers with fibromyalgia. For those who don’t know what... Continue Reading →
INTRODUCTION The central question of the Markan Gospel is found near its narrative center in Mark 8:27-30. “Who do people say that I am?” he queries the disciples on their way to Caesarea Philippi (v. 27). A flurry of answers proceeds: people have speculated he is John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the... Continue Reading →
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