Iron Sharpens Iron: Thomas McGovern: The Failed Prophecies of the Jehovah's Witnesses & Their Alleged "New Light" Now Revealed

Iron Sharpen Iron is a great show. I found out that this session holds great resources for talking to Jehovah Witnesses.

Iron Sharpens Iron: Thomas McGovern: The Failed Prophecies of the Jehovah's Witnesses & Their Alleged "New Light" Now Revealed

Debate: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? - William Lane Craig vs Marcus Borg

I'm not sure if I posted this before but here is a debate from 2001 in which William Lane Craig debates Marcus Borg regarding the Resurrection. I don't consider Borg a Christian because he denies the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus and Jesus' deity. He uses much the same language as Christians but means someth8ing entirely different. I do hold that the Bible is literally true, but it does have symbols and metaphors. Jesus Resurrection and the empty tomb are not examples of metaphor.



Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

Debunking Christianity: Either the Garden of Eden Test Was a Sham or a Myth

Image via Wikipedia

On his blog, John W. Loftus has written an interesting post based on one of his previous posts.

John Loftus wrote:

In a previous post of mine I argued that the "supposed" test in the Garden of Eden was a sham. Then along comes my friend Dr. Dan Lambert who argued that we atheists have it wrong because "The Garden story is a myth invented to explain why people sin. Simple. End of story." At least Dan understands it for what it is. But if he's correct then how does this save his faith from refutation? Whether it's a sham test or a myth it doesn't matter. Why should any intelligent person base his faith on ancient myths? And there are lots of them in the Bible.

The previous post in question says:

If under the same initial test conditions in the supposed Garden of Eden every human being would fail that test, then either, 1) God created us faulty in some way, or 2) The test was a sham. And since a fair test would mean some of us would not have sinned, then some human beings are being punished in this world for something they never would have done in the first place. This is just one of many problems that keeps me from believing.

I think I see Mr. Loftus' point but it is based on a poor assumption. Loftus is arguing that not every single person would have failed in the Garden. He raises the objection that we are being unfairly punished. I can relate to this. When I was a child, I was angry with Adam....I thought that he messed everything up for me and all of us. However I had an epiphany - a moment of clarity.I realized that while Adam disobeyed God in the the Garden, I had to realize that I would have failed in the Garden myself. None of us would have passed. I realized that I disobeyed my parents so why should I expect Adam to be better than I? Adam represented all of us...just like Jesus is our representative. God can do what God wants. If God wants to judge us based on Jesus that is God's sovereign right. However all of us are sinners deserving death. Therefore God is being fair.

 ¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— ¹³for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. ¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
 ¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
 ¹⁸Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
 ²⁰The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. - Romans 5:12-21

And

¹³For Adam was formed first, then Eve. ¹⁴And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. - 1 Timothy 2:13-14

Adam knew exactly what he was doing...Eve was tricked. The fault was Adams. 

Eden was not a sham.  We know that it was not a myth with all due respect to Dr. Lambert.. Romans 5 shows that  Paul did indeed believe that Adam was a historical person and his failure in Eden a historical event. More importantly Jesus taught that Adam was a real person and taught that Genesis was true.

 ⁴"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' ⁵and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? ⁶So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." - Matthew 19:4-6

Debunking Christianity: Either the Garden of Eden Test Was a Sham or a Myth

Celebrating Pi

Today I found all kinds of  videos celebrating the number Pi. Why is Pi so important? It is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter!  It does not matter how large or small a circle is you get Pi. The number appears in almost every single formula describing the physical world we use. The number is special because it is irrational ( can't be written as a fraction) and goes on forever.

Salvation By Grace: Dr Skepple Defining Sovereign Grace

Here is a video in which Dr. Roger Skepple defines what Reformed theology is. I really like the way he breaks it down and explains that it's more than just the 5 points we usually point out in Reformed Theology. He also points out that it's about the 5 "solas" or the 5 "onlies" (ie only faith, only Christ, ect). Check him out.





Salvation By Grace: Dr Skepple Defining Sovereign Grace

Racism, Stereotypes and Comic Books Part 2: The Blackquel

I read an interesting article. I liked it however I did not agree with all of it. It is about racism and stereotypes in comic books. I think the writer is correct that racism is a part of the fabric of American society including comic books. This quote is very telling from the article.

Some people might say: What about Black Panther and Spawn? The argument for that is simple: The characters are covered from head to toe to hide who they truly are. Anyone could be under the that costume. In fact, when Spawn was created everybody thought he was white. Don't lie, you thought he was white. I did too, and the big gimmick became that he's black. Not that it matters, cause his face looks like rotten flesh. He doesn't look black, which shows you that white people would rather take an ugly monster looking creature as their savior than a black person. The Legion of Superheroes have a bunch of characters that are monster-like and up until recently, did not have any black heroes in it. This can be parallel to Star Trek. who has all kind of monster-looking creatures on their show, just so they can avoid putting blacks on TV. My friend and I used to laugh at the fact that Captain Kirk screws every known creature in the galaxy from purple to green to blue, but never a black chick. Yes, I'm aware that Kirk and Uhura was the first interracial kiss on television. Though if you've seen the episode, you'd realize that it only happened because Parmen forced them to kiss. As if no white man would ever want to be with a black woman unless if he was forced. They tried to fix that argument in the new movie by showing Kirk drooling over Uhara. Comic books need to do something of that kind to fix the damage they have done. The best way they can do this is to make some of the more prominent characters white in the comic movie. Just another example that every industry has to hold the black man down one way or another. While I am no fan of Will Smith, I think he would be the perfect man to play Steve Rogers. After all, you did promise black people forty acres and a mule, but since you have renege on your promise, we will take Captain America instead.

I admit it. I thought Spawn was white. And he has the point about Star Trek, and the fact that Spawn does not look black and makes it easier for Spawn to be accepted by white people. However, I think that it's not true that Black Panther is not identifiably black because he is covered from head to toe. I would say that Black Panther cannot be anything else other than a black man. I also don't think it makes sense to change the race of characters that are already established. This makes no sense. Will Smith should not play Captain America and Beyonce should not be Wonder Woman. Not because they are black but because the characters are not black. We have black characters that could be adapted for movies and television.

Racism, Stereotypes and Comic Books Part 2: The Blackquel