Apprentice Owl Apologetics

                This one will be a bit personal for me, and I have no idea if I will show this to the world or if I will be writing it as a way of prayer. I guess if you are reading this then I was led to put it up for you to see. Recently Satan has been working in my life to discourage me and to force me to quit. He attacked me on multiple fronts in my life in an attempt to get me to quit what I am doing and go hide. For a while, I thought about doing just that. I was thinking that I am not good enough, not smart enough, not strong enough to do anything about these problems. Then God spoke to me through various people in my life and showed me what Satan was trying to do to me. I was reminded of the quote preacher’s like to use, “If you are facing challenges in your life, then it is because Satan is worried that you are doing good work”. What I want to do is to explore what it means to have joy and trust in God, even when everything isn’t sunshine and rainbows.                 As ev

                As I have stated, I am currently pursuing a Doctorate of Philosophy in Chemistry.  A common question that I get when I am talking to people is that if it is possible for a scientist such as myself to be a Christian. This ties into my posts talking about the myth of the war between science and Christianity. What I would like to do here is talk about the unique perspective that Christian scientists can bring to the table and what I blessing it has been to me to be able to study the world God has created and the book He has written for us to follow.                 So when we study the word of God, or anything in general, one brings a certain way of thinking to this study. Naturally, a scientist brings his way of thinking in the same manner an artist, car mechanic, or theologian will. So what kind of thinking does a scientist bring to his studies outside of his own field? Well at least for myself, I like to think I break the scriptures down to individual pieces and work

                This is a common one that I see talked about on both sides. Some non-Christians accuse us of being out of touch because we isolate ourselves in the Church, and some non-Christians might encourage that behavior so we would stay out of their lives. There are churches that would encourage that we stay to ourselves for fear that we would take on the qualities of the world around us. Is this the way that we should act once we are saved? Should we use our Christianity as fire insurance and just look out for number one? I would like to discuss this behavior and show that I believe this isolationist position that some Christians adopt isn’t what we should be doing.                 As Christians we are called to go forth and make disciples of all men (Matthew 28:16-20). As this suggests, we need to be putting ourselves on the line, from our egos to our lives, we have to bet it all on God’s plan and commands, and that would be that all men should be saved, and he has commanded

                For two years and a few months I have maintained and written this blog with the intent of answering the questions that would get in the way of people coming to the gospel. What I have failed to do I think as a writer is to address what exactly the gospel of Christ is. Now there are a multitude of questions that surround various aspects of the fall of man and the ultimate need for redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but I won’t be covering those here. What I would like to do here is to give a general overview of the core story of the Christian doctrine. That is, that we are a fallen people in need of redemption, and ultimately we can find no other redemption than by accepting the gift of grace and salvation offered by the Son of God, Jesus.                 So like every good story, we have a beginning. In the beginning God made the universe we inhabit, everything from the subatomic particles to the planets and stars we observe at night. He made m

                This is one that I imagine may cause a bit of a split opinion, but with all of this attention over open and concealed carry and what weapons American citizens should be allowed to possess, a question has plagued me that I hope to give my thoughts on here. That question is: should Christians be arming themselves with firearms and fighting for the right to do so? Now I am not advocating for a violent uprising in which we establish our own Christian government or something of that nature. I merely want to reflect on the relationship Christians should have with the second amendment and the world around us.                 The first thing to ask is if the Bible ever talked about defending oneself or loved ones or situations where weapons are used. Now obviously the Bible will not specifically mention firearms, but we can speak of weapons in a general sense here. There are plenty of battles mentioned during the Old Testament, as well as an example story of non-warfare batt

                Recently I have been blessed to become a full time member of my church’s praise team. Previously I rotated in when either our drummer or bass player was out. I was also playing with the youth band at the time. Now during all of this I had a transition period where I was stepping down from the youth band to allow a youth member to be blessed to lead worship. During this period I was wondering what I would be doing now that music wasn’t going to be a constant. I admit, I enjoy playing and getting the recognition, but I was also convicted that I should be deflecting all glory to God so that people can see him through me. This also got me to thinking about all of the people that had to be present in the Bible since the kings and prophets we study had to have someone to talk to. Did they ever feel unimportant in what they were doing?                 What I would like to do here is explore two aspects of feeling unimportant in the church. The first I have already kind of c

Another one of my musings of the evening. I always hear of people saying that they are waiting for the Lord to tell them what to do with their lives, and I wonder what they do while they are waiting. While it is none of my business to ask them directly, it is a curious thought. What do we do while we are waiting on the Lord? We go about our daily lives, but do we dedicate those mundane activities to the Lord or are we just going through the motions while we wait for our miraculous burning bush to appear so we can be the next Moses to lead our people out of spiritual (or literal in some cases) slavery? I would like to say that I dedicate everything I do, including the mundane, to the Lord, but I don’t and I have been convicted of such and this is why I am writing. So we can look at quite a lot of leaders in the history to the Israelites and the church and see that they too waited on the Lord for a period. Long or short, it doesn’t matter, but patience was required of these people. Th

                Lengthy title aside, I think this question is one that many American Christians have been considering given recent political events that show that the church and the government are not of the same mind on some issues. Now I’m sure many of you have already put together what political events, but my goal here is not to discuss what has happened in our country, but what we should do now as Christians. Now then, we can examine the scriptures to find other cases in where men of God followed their hearts and defied their kings and governments in accordance with the will of God, not the will of man. The first story to come to mind for me is Daniel (Daniel 6). There were officials in the kingdom who convinced Darius to issue a decree that no one will be worshipped in the kingdom for thirty days except for King Darius. Now Daniel did not follow this decree and went and prayed to God three times a day. The officials who got Darius to issue the decree turned Daniel in, and Dari

                When one describes the problem of evil, one typically brings up suffering, but I think these are two separate things, suffering being the result of evil. While I have already explored the problem of suffering, what I would like to do is explore the nature of evil, why it is here, and what the scriptures have to say about it and how God deals with evil.                 So first off, we must define terms. What is evil? The answer I will use here would be anything that goes against God’s law, which is the definition of sin, and anyone who reads the book of Genesis finds that sin entered the world when Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. So evil goes against God’s law, so why doesn’t God in His omnipotence eliminate it? If He is omniscient, didn’t He see this coming and could have stopped it altogether or prevented it? Isn’t Hell an evil committed by God by tormenting people who only committed temporary crimes? All of these are interestin

                Ever wonder the odds of winning the lottery? How about the odds of winning the lottery twice? Multiple lotteries in multiple states on the same night? We congratulations you and everyone in the universe have appeared to win a large cosmic lottery! What I am talking about is that fine tuning argument for the existence. I have seen different variations on this argument, either universally in the mathematical constants (gravity, strong/weak nuclear force, etc.) to the placement of our planet Earth. What I would like to do with this post is explore where we can see fine tuning and how it points to an intelligent designer of the universe.                 Starting with the mathematical constants for the universe, this argument starts with an analogy of the fundamental constants of the universe being on a sliding scale. If these constants were to be changed a small amount, then the universe would be uninhabitable for life. For example, if the cosmological constant were in

Good Morning and welcome to Prairie Grove Baptist church. For those of you who don’t know, I’m here because your pastor ran off to Miami with your pianist for the week. I’m sure Dad has talked about what I do for my online ministry of Christian apologetics, but I would like to give my explanation for what it is, why I do it, and how I came to be called to be a Christian apologist. Apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia, which means to give a defense. If you will look at 1 Peter 3:15 with me, “ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” We are commanded to always have an answer ready for the faith in Christ that we have. Now some non-Christians will be moved by your testimony and accept the authorit

                This is a question that I’ve been thinking about answering in a couple of different ways, and hopefully better than the allusion to the genetic fallacy that was provided by Richard Dawkins when provided this question. So let’s try and unpack the question of what if I am wrong?                 This question I can think of multiple ways, what if I am wrong in my apologetics, meaning by reasoning and logic are flawed? This is a very interesting point, as I try to be as logical as possible while writing. But say that I am completely misled and my reasoning is completely off the point and I am a crazy man shouting nonsense on the internet. Does this disprove the existence of God? I would hope not, there are plenty of people with a wrong opinion of God, from theology to being completely wrong about his existence, but opinion does not change fact.                 There is a higher level to where we can take this question, what if I am wrong about the existence of God or a

                With the presidential elections starting soon, I’m sure people will be starting up conversations on various topics, and one that I bet will be on the ticket is equality for everyone. We have recently seen the legalization of gay marriage and the federal government overturning the state mandated prohibitions on it. A lot of people are celebrating this new milestone in equality, but this got me thinking down a political vein. What is equality as defined by our government? Is it when everyone can marry who they want? Equal pay and job opportunities? What is it? From what I would say about equality, it would be when I don’t have to think about it. I understand that people seek to put themselves above others at those people’s expense, which I think is the very definition of inequality. What troubles me is that I don’t see a way for this kind of inequality to be removed, especially in the United States where we elect people to positions that can control our lives. We essenti

                Recently during my free time I found in my Netflix queue a curious movie called “The Unbelievers”. I have heard of this movie before but never bothered myself to watch it, but I had a spare hour so I decided to see if it had anything new to say. Alas, Professors Krauss and Dawkins have disappointed me once again in their attempt to pass off half-baked arguments and old ideas as a new case against the existence of the Christian God. Without me ranting too much more, let’s get this review started. I will be commenting on the material of the movie as well as inserting my comments and questions as I write, so I apologize if the style is a little odd.                 The movie begins with various scientists and celebrities discussing their problems with religion, how religion and science are competing worldviews, and how religious people shut down any critical discussion. I have already discussed how science and religion are mutually beneficial and not competitive, but I’

                This post might be coming a little out of left field, but it is something I have been meaning to write on for a while since I and many other men (Christian and not) are either currently struggling or have struggled with pornography at some point. Now that I am thinking about it, the 50 Shades of Grey movie has been recently released so maybe the timing of this post will help people looking into this topic.                 So many people just accept the fact that others, especially guys, will look at pornography, but have they considered what that is doing to the viewers of porn? People will look at porn for various reasons, but fundamentally they are viewing something that was intended to be the private union between husband and wife for their sexual satisfaction. Repeated viewing of porn can lead to desensitization to the material, which can influence the sexual behavior of the viewing party and has been proposed to influence behaviors toward sexually violent acts.

                This post may be a little shorter than my usual posts, but I had this thought and believed it was worth sharing. My ministry that I pursue here focuses quite a lot on apologetics, which I have defined as the act of defending a position/set of ideals. Now then, since I spend so much of my time discussing and researching apologetics, I am saving quite a few people right? It’s not as easy as that. Jesus said that “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” So the only way to be saved is through belief in Christ, not apologetics. So apologetics is not saving anyone, so why am I doing this? Well we are commanded to give a defense of our faith with humility and love, so there is that. Also, I feel that I am called by God to do it to attempt to show to those people who find Christianity “unreasonable”. If what I write here can disprove their assumptions about the reasonableness of Christianity, maybe they will decide to explore it an

                Christians are told over and over again that we are to be fearless, but I never really think that I am supposed to be when I am overcome by fear. My New Year goals involve trying to get rid of my bad habits that inhibit my relationship with God and with people. My writing this and discussing possible solutions is something for myself as well as you, the reader, in the hopes that what I discuss help you if you are dealing with similar issues.                 The first source of my fear comes from work, the most common fear being known as impostor syndrome. For those unfamiliar, it is feeling unworthy of the job one has, or that one will be exposed as a fraud at any given moment. I wonder if the main characters of the Bible stories (Abraham, David, Noah, etc.) ever felt this impostor syndrome. There is a part of me that thinks they did, but they are immediately reminded that they were chosen to be in those positions. This should be something that those of us feeling im