Iron Sharpens Iron: Nabeel Qureshi: From the Crescent to the Cross: Testimony of a Muslim Convert to Christianity.

Many atheist that a person's religion is dependent on the one they were raised in. Nabeel Qureshi flies against that argument. Here is an interview he did recently on Iron Sharpens Iron! He explains why and how he left Islam for Christianity.

Iron Sharpens Iron: Nabeel Qureshi: From the Crescent to the Cross: Testimony of a Muslim Convert to Christianity.

Related articles

• The Dark Side of Islam (dickstersrandomthoughts.com)
• What's Muslim got to do with it? (newstatesman.com)
• Targeting Christians In Muslim Lands (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)

Black History Sermon - Sunday February 20, 2011

Last Sunday, I had the honor of giving a short presentation on Black History for my congregation. The point of the presentation was to explain how God is the God of History, explain why History and its study is important, and to select a handful of lives to explain how God used them to impact the lives of all of us today. They just happened to be black. I also wanted to encourage who view the presentation to strive to be like these people and live up to the purposes that God has in mind for us. The people I covered were:

• Benjamin Banneker
• Granville T. Woods
• Louis Latimer
• Garret Morgan
• Anna Berry Smith
• Charles Harrison Mason

I have posted the power point I used and a word document comprising the notes I used while I was speaking.

Celebrating Black History 2010

More PowerPoint presentations from Marcus McElhaney

Black History Sermon February 20 2011

FacePalm of the Day #65 - Debunking Christianity: Biblical Apologetics and the Flat Earthers

John Loftus posted the following quote.

Professor Keith Parsons wrote:

"Without an adequate theodicy, arguing for God’s existence will be like arguing that the earth is flat. Vast quantities of contrary data will either have to be ignored or dealt with in an arbitrary and ad hoc fashion." God and the Burden of Proof p. 132.

This quote came to mind today when Ed Babinski sent me two links of people who argued for a flat earth in our modern society. One of them is an article that appeared in 1931 offering $5,000 to anyone who can prove the earth is a globe. The other one is about today's flat earthers.

You know, the more I think of it, the more I think Christians--especially of the evangelical kind--argue in the same way as flat earthers. Read through that second link. See any parallels? I do.

I think that equating people who think the earth is flat with people who believe the Bible is stupid. In the case of the flat earth we have plenty of contradictory evidence showing that the earth is spherical. In the case of the Bible and especially in the case of the Resurrection - there is zero proof that conclusively disproves them no matter what you choose to believe. Definitely the kind of facepalm worthy statement I've come to expect from Loftus and at least he has something in common with God - he never disappoints either.

As for the need of an adequate theodicy, I agree with Dr Parsons. However the Bible gives more than an adequate theodicy. 


Debunking Christianity: Biblical Apologetics and the Flat Earthers

Debunking Christianity: The Goodness of God is an Oxymoron, by papalinton

P

John Loftus posted the following list from one who calls himself papalinton:

A small list for information:

1. God will kill men, have their children smashed, and have their wives raped [Isaiah 13:16-16]
2. God will punish children for the inequities of their fathers and distant ancestors [Isaiah 14:21
3. God will lay waste to entire cities and make the lands desolate [Jeremiah 4:7]
4. God will set people, animals, and even plants on fire because of his anger [Jeremiah 7:20]
5. God will send so much evil that people would rather be dead than suffer [Jeremiah 8:3]
6. God will give away the property of men, including their wives, to other men [Jeremiah 8:10]
7. God will kill young men, and their children will die from a famine [Jeremiah 11:22
8. God will cause everyone to become drunk so that father and son will kill one another [Jeremiah 13:14]
9. God will make people hungry enough to eat their own children and friends [Jeremiah 19:9]
10. God will burn entire cities with the inhabitants still inside [Jeremiah 50:32
11. God will break people's bones and knock out their teeth with stones [Lamentations 3:1-16]
12. God will force fathers and sons to eat each other and scatter their remembrance [Ezekiel 5:10]
13. God will be comforted by killing everyone with pestilence, plagues, and swords [Ezekiel 5:12-13]
14. God will kill righteous men and forget their good deeds if thy ever turn to sin [Ezekiel 18:24]
15. God will turn daughters into whores and wives into adulterers [Hosea 13:8]
16. God will kill children and unborn fetuses because their parents worship other gods [Hosea 13:16]
17. God will sell children of Israel into slavery in a far away land [Joel 3:8]
18. God will kill inhabitants of entire cities if they have a corrupt government [Micah 3:9-12]
19. God will consume every living thing from the face of the earth [Zephaniah 1:2-3]
20. God will send people to steal Jerusalem, rape the women, and enslave the rest [Zechariah 14:2]
21. God will send plagues on people and animals to rot away their tongues and eyes [Zechariah 14:12-15]

The prophets warn us of the OT god's frightful, futuristic return to the earth, at which point he'll initiate every category of curse imaginable on the people who ignore his commandments, refuse to worship him, or commit acts that he arbitrarily deems evil. It's remarkable that he can dish out such unfathomable punishments for reasons a typical person would consider lacking in foundation, yet he becomes terribly enraged when one of us follow suits.

And remember Jesus did not invalidate any of these with his teachings. They were never to be cast aside. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill the law" [Matthew 5:18]

I didn't make up this information. It's all there, in the inerrant scripture, in the words of the Big Daddy, himself. Link

Aside from the obvious sarcasm and disrespect I think it's important to point out that this list of 20 things is in the Bible. They are brought up to call into question the goodness of God. My question is how do these things show that God is not good. papalinton gives the reasons when he said:

The prophets warn us of the OT god's frightful, futuristic return to the earth, at which point he'll initiate every category of curse imaginable on the people who ignore his commandments, refuse to worship him, or commit acts that he arbitrarily deems evil. It's remarkable that he can dish out such unfathomable punishments for reasons a typical person would consider lacking in foundation, yet he becomes terribly enraged when one of us follow suits.

If God made everything and is in control then why shouldn't God have the right to decide what is evil and what the punishments should be? The punishments are unfathomable because we are limited. We don't know the foundation. We are all up in the kool -aid and have no idea what the flavor is unless God tells us. The evil we experience we deserve. You think it's bad now? Just wait until you are totally cut off from God in Hell. Papalinton does however make the mistake of ignoring the context of those prophecies and neglects to adequately point out that these are consequences of sin. I'm glad to see papalinton likes to quote scripture to illustrate his points. However he should look up Romans 9:14-24

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
¹⁹ One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” ²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

Debunking Christianity: The Goodness of God is an Oxymoron, by papalinton