Author: Bill Pratt Editor’s note: This article is taken from the web site www.toughquestionsanswered.org Old-school atheists like Friedrich Nietzsche recognized that atheism utterly failed to answer the most profound of human questions, and thus atheism, he believed, led inexorably to nihilism. Nowadays, most atheists are very uncomfortable with nihilism and want to distance themselves from […]
Question: How could God create this material world out of nothing? We know nothing comes from nothing. Did God turn the energy of His words into matter? Kindly, explain this to me. Thanks. Answer: What a great question! I am afraid that this is one of those questions which will forever be beyond human ability to […]
We are pleased to announce that the sixth of an eventual ten courses in our Christian Apologetics Certificate Program series is now available for students to take the course. The topic is The Existence of God. The class is taught by Dr. Douglas Jacoby and Dr. John Oakes. The class is $150 ($125 in the […]
A number of related questions have come in lately about abiogenesis/the origin of life, so we thought it would be a good idea to reproduce an appendix from the book Is There a God (www.ipibooks.com) which addresses this topic. See below. John Oakes
QUESTION: The Greek translation of the Hebrew OT was called the Septuagint and I’ve read it was used in the early NT church and often quoted by NT writers. I’ve also read that it contained the Apocrypha, which was not accepted into the Hebrew OT canon. Question #1 “Was the Septuagint read in the NT […]
Question: I was wondering if science and scripture have any contradictions. I have done a small study on the creation account, and when doing that, I wanted to show how evolution was irrational, not logical, and so on. Even Darwin had doubts in his own theory, people of his day did not accept his theory. But […]
QUESTION: What can you say about this statement: “Religion is Darkness”? This comes from the character Mr. Kumar in the book and movie Life of Pi. It turns out that Mr. Kumar is an atheist. Answer: What I can say about this is that it is a meaningless statement. What does this atheist mean when […]
Question: Was the flood over the whole world or just part of it? Answer: I have previously answered a similar enough question that I will copy and past below. Let me add just a couple of thoughts. The Old Testament is not a careful, scientific analysis of events in the past. We […]
Question: I’ve really enjoyed reading your book, “The Christian Story” (editor: www.ipibooks.com) and hope to finish it soon. A question came up in our last Bible study that I didn’t remember reading about, so I’m hoping you could answer it for me. Who started the argument that the head of the Church was in Rome and […]
Question: What is freemasonry? Is it a religion or is it a fraternity? What are their beliefs? Can a christian be a freemason? Or are they anti-christ? Answer: The definition of freemasonry is complicated. It is a fraternal order with very strong religious overtones. The essence of the group is that it is a service organization. […]
Question: Thank you so much for your faithful work and dedication to answering my questions. The Bible calls us to be ready in and out of season, so i would like to knock down a question about the writers of the Bible. The Bible claims that John wrote his gospel, Paul wrote Romans, and Paul wrote […]
Robert Carrillo and Dr. John Oakes taught a six week class on the writings of John. The class was on Saturdays 10/6,13,27, 11/4,11 and 1/26/2013 at the Mission Center of Hope 6162 Mission Gorge Rd., San Diego, CA 92120. For more information, contact Jan Oakes at joakes01@san.rr.com or 858-505-8841. Schedule and recommended reading below. Recordings are now in the […]
Question: Did Adam and Eve really exist? Some say they have disproved their existence. I have seen this claimed many times. For example, on wiki answers they say that the Bible does not contain the earth rotating on its axis. But we can look at what God said in the book of Job (38:12-14) “Have you […]
Question: I have had a discussion with a New-Age friend. Jesus is the only way to God (as opposed to New-age belief many roads lead to God) mainly based on Jesus’ statement in John 14:6. and also from Acts 4:12. My New-ager friend is aware of these passages and asks “How do you know that Jesus hasn’t […]
Question: First, let me just say I love your website. It is one of the few Christian websites I know of that answers such difficult questions and so many of them. To the heart of the matter: I understand you are a theistic evolutionist and I am wondering how the Doctrine of Original Sin fits […]
Question: So many people in the OT times needed salvation, the same way we need it today. We have the privilege of salvation. But why do we have it, and they didn’t have it? I have heard that question several times but couldn’t really answer people except for “But when the fullness of time had […]
QUESTION: I know that you are probably busy but I hope you can answer some of my concerns. I am currently a Christian bordering on converting to Nihilism. I grew up believing in God creating everything as per the Genesis account even though I believed in an old universe. I believed that God physically created […]
Editor’s note. This article was recently published by Dr. Robert Kurka, a professor at Linconln Christian University and a good friend of us at ARS. He carefully discusses the theological and biblical implications of recent evidence from biology with respect to the origin of human beings. If Adam Be Razed
QUESTION: Can you please tell me how to share the gospel in a simple manner? My friend is a Hindu but does nt particularly believe in it Answer: My experience tells me that most Hidus respect Jesus, but do not understand who he was and what he said about himself. You should start with theatcommon […]
QUESTION: I was reading your questions and answers section and it got me thinking… Is there anyway of knowing why God would create the world and not create man until millions of years later? What would be the point? Just curious, and maybe that is something I will have to wait to ask God when […]
QUESTION: In Revelation chapters 2 & 3, there are 7 churches mentioned. Is there any reason why these particular churches were included in the list? Why only seven? Are they the only churches that was persecuted by the emperor that time? Why were the church in Rome or Jerusalem or other churches that we commonly know in New […]
MESSAGE: How could Jesus be GOD even though he used to defecate in his clothes when he was an infant? How could Jesus be GOD even though he used to urinate in his clothes when he was an infant? How could Jesus be GOD even though he could NOT even walk properly when he was […]
QUESTION: When I told my friend who is a Hindu that idolatry is wrong, she said that as we Christians take the cross as our representation we take a idol and worship it. How am I supposed to answer such a question? Although its not the cross itself that we worship, but it represents faith in […]
Question: What is the name of the person who received the message of Jesus from Theophilus? Editor’s note: This letter is coming from a Muslim who is trying to show that one cannot trust Luke because we do not even know who the book was written to. This will explain some of the answer below. […]
Challenge: I CHALLENGE you to prove to me that GOD and his son are ONE GOD. This is something you can NEVER do. Be a man and accept my CHALLENGE. HOW CAN GOD AND HIS SON BE ONE GOD? Response: I am sorry, but I get the very strong sense that you simply want to […]
I just wanted to let you know – I started reading up on Mormonism last year and spent about 4 hours on it with our staff as part of a World Religions class in May 2011. I picked up your book and am about 80% through it… you did a fantastic job on it. I […]
Question: The fad of Astro-theology is really starting to take a hold with some ex-Christians and other people I know who’ve studied the Bible but never became Christians. Here is the Facebook post from someone who has left Christianity. This is going to be a new form of false theology that many in our ministries is going to […]
Question: The Holy Spirit was pretty active during the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Seems the Holy Spirit has not been very active in past 2000 years. Your thoughts on this? Am I wrong in thinking this? Answer: The Holy Spirit has been extremely busy the past two thousand years–convicting people of sin, […]
See below for a review of the 2012 Christian Evidence Conference
Question: I have a science background and looked at theology too. I was wondering if you had an answer to the variations between different races if we descend from Adam and Eve. For example, if we say that we came from them, how do we make sense of different skin colour and eye shape? Even if we […]
John Oakes just published a brand new book on Mormonism as of Nov. 2. To order a copy, go to www.ipibooks.com
The attached power point is for a lesson given by Dr. Douglas Jacoby at the 2012 ICEC at UCLA October 20, 2012. Doug taught about the biblical doctrine of heaven, Hades and hell. He also presented a number of the important views on this subject in Judaism and in the early church, as well as reflecting […]
This power point was used by Dr. John Oakes as a follow-up lesson at the 2012 ICEC in Los Angeles on October 21, 2012. It is about the reasons the church in the first three centuries was able to conquer the known world for Jesus and a suggestion of how faithful Christians today can see […]
This power point is for a class given by Dr. John Oakes at the 2012 ICEC at UCLA October 20, 2012. The focus is on the radical claims of Jesus and why, based on the evidence from filfilled prophecy and the miracles of Jesus, a reasonable person will conclude that Jesus’ claims about himself are believable. […]
This is an updated version of a class on God and Science/Science and the Bible presented by Dr. John Oakes at the 2012 ICEC at UCLA October 20, 2012. God and Science UCLA ppt
Brian Colon taught a class at the 2012 ICEC at UCLA refuting the oft-heard accusation that the Jesus of the New Testament is principally a myth. Brian both presents hard evidence for the reliability of the New Testament picture of Jesus and explains why the Jesus myth arguments are extremely weak. Who Said Jesus is a […]
Kedron Jones taught a class on using Christian Apologetics in evangelism at the 2012 ICEC at UCLA October 20, 2012. The power point is attached. We will be making the audio available. Always Be Prepared PPT
QUESTION: For a long time I accepted a young earth model and read Genesis literally. Recently, I’ve had a lot of conversations about evolution and the evidence that points us to that as a possibility. I feel that it is possible to believe God had a hand in evolution and used that as a means for […]
Dr. John Oakes taught a lesson on foreshadows in the Levitical sacrificial system of aspects of Christianity in the New Testament. The class was taught in Guadalajara, Mexico 11/16/2012. Sacrificios y Prefiguras
Dr. John Oakes taught a lesson on the Kingdom of God in Guadalajara, Mexico 11/18/2012. El Reino de Dios The audio is available in the EFC store.
Dr. John Oakes taught a lesson Living by Faith (Hebrews 11) in Guadalajara 11/18/2012. The Power Point is attached. Hebreos Viviendo Por La Fe The audio is available in the EFC store.
QUESTION: I’ve been looking a bit into Quantum Physics and Mechanics and recently found this question asked on Yahoo Answers: Christians, two of the most fundamental concepts in quantum mechanics disproves your god. I’ll explain below. Just remember, you can’t say this is just a theory (even though a theory means an unproven fact in […]
Question: I am getting hit with this subject more often. The bassist in my band who I basically live with when on tour sent me this video after a long talk we had on the tour bus. There are a lot of claims with no evidence to back it up however I think it’d be great […]
QUESTION: What do you believe about a random “Super Spiritual” (I say this loosely) guy comes up to you and tries to look into your life and tell you about your future? So what I am asking is do you believe in people being able to prophesy about your life (like Agabus or Barnabus who […]
Question: An article appeared in Yahoo a day or two ago. It quotes theoretical cosmologist Sean Carroll. Here is the article detail: Will Science Someday Rule Out the Possibility of God? By Natalie Wolchover | LiveScience.com Here is the core section shared by Carroll: Carroll argues that God’s sphere of influence has shrunk drastically in modern […]
Question: I have been reading your book Daniel : a prophet to the nations and I found it to be very educational. However, I sent a part of the book about premillenialism to a premillenialist. I thought it would be proper to get a response to some of the questions you raised and that I […]
A Harvard professor recently announced what she called evidence that the early church, or at least sectors of it, believed that Jesus was married. Not surprisingly, a question about this came to the web site within hours. The question and answer are below.
QUESTION: I read this article and wondering is it true?? Here is the link: http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/14893067/early-christians-believed-jesus-wed-harvard-expert/ Answer: The article is “true” in the sense that a fourth century papyrus with seven partial lines of script in the Coptic language was found. It is also true in the sense that the papyrus manuscript has a phrase “Jesus said […]
Question: I know Yahoo Answers isn’t a very reliable source, so I am asking you about an answer that was there. Someone commented on a question that was asked. The question was ” Where were the Gospels written?” One of the answers was “Tons of people compiled, copied and translated and edited the gospels all […]
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