The Poached Egg: Christian Worldview, Apologetics, Discipleship, Evangelism, and more!

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History is a Problem for Those Who Doubt Jesus Was Real by Lenny Esposito

There are plenty of people who deny the existence of God or the resurrection of Jesus. They may hold that there was a sage teacher of morality named Jesus who lived in the first century who was eventually executed by the Romans. Usually, the story goes that his followers taught others about his exploits, embellishing them with legendary acts and miraculous flourishes until we have the accounts of his life we read in the Bible today. These claims have been with us for centuries. However, today there seems to be a growing subset of people who hold that not only did Jesus of Nazareth not do the miraculous deeds recorded in the Gospel accounts, but he never existed at all. The entire account of Jesus of Nazareth is mythical; it's an invention of people looking for a messiah-figure…  read more >>>

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Is C.S. Lewis’s Liar-Lord-or-Lunatic Argument Unsound? by Justin Taylor

C. S. Lewis popularized the argument that Jesus was either a liar or a lunatic or the Lord. But, as Kyle Barton has shown, he didn’t invent it. In the mid-nineteenth century the Scottish Christian preacher “Rabbi” John Duncan (1796-1870) formulated what he called a “trilemma.” In Colloquia Peripatetica (p. 109) we see Duncan’s argument from 1859-1860, with my numbering added: Christ either [1] deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or [2] He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or [3] He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It is inexorable. In 1936, Watchman Nee made a similar argument in his book, Normal Christian Faith. A person who claims to be God must belong to one of three categories…   read more >>>

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Was the Divinity of Jesus a Late Invention of the Council of Nicea? by Michael Kruger

One of the most common objections to Christianity is that the divinity of Jesus was “created” by later Christians long after the first century.  No one in primitive Christianity believed Jesus was divine, we are told.  He was just a man and it was later believers, at the council of Nicea, that declared him to be a God. A classic example of this in popular literature can be found in the book The Da Vinci Code: “My dear,” Teabing declared, “until that moment in history [council of Nicea], Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet… a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.” “Not the Son of God?” “Right,” Teabing said. “Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God” was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea…   read more >>>

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WHAT IS “THE POACHED EGG”?:

The Poached Egg, a resource provided by the Ratio Christi Campus Apologetics Alliance, is where Christian apologetics, culture, discipleship, evangelism, history, philosophy, science, theology, and culture collide to help guide believers, seekers, and skeptics alike to the Ultimate Source of Truth and a better understanding of the Christian worldview. Founder and editor Greg West is passionately committed to the cause of Christian apologetics; The Poached Egg is a large and continually expanding virtual library of articles and essays compiled from all over the World Wide Web. Noted apologists, biblical scholars, philosophers, scientists, historians, students, and laymen all come together under this one site. Taking its name from the famous C.S. Lewis quote from, Mere Christianity: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would…      read more >>>

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Our Kindle Deals page is one of the best resources for deep discounts on Christian apologetics and other related books. Books on topics such as evangelism, discipleship, Christian worldview, theology, philosophy, church history, Bible study and more. The page currently lists over 200 titles and is updated daily. All titles are $5.99 or less—although the majority of them are $2.99 or less. Proceeds from sales commissions go directly towards financially supporting Ratio Christi (RC) and The Poached Egg (TPE). Because students and others are hungry for an authentic faith, both RC and TPE are experiencing such rapid growth that it has outgrown our current infrastructure’s ability to keep up with the demand. Your taking advantage of these special limited time offers will help us be able to expand this vital ministry. You’ll want to bookmark this page and check back often to see what’s on sale…     today's deals >>>

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Josh McDowell recently said that, “Every pastor, youth pastor, and every parent is in competition with the Internet and the information it is spreading. Most young people don't get their news from CNN or CBS, they get it from bloggers. There are about 181 million bloggers vying for the attention of your children. The unlimited amount of online information that people have access to has caused an increase in skepticism that will only continue to become more pervasive.”

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121 QUOTES ON WHY WE NEED APOLOGETICS:

The hemorrhaging of youth from our churches won’t stop until we get intentional about solving the problem.  On the university campus, secular college professors are very intentional about indoctrinating your kids.  In a candid moment, prominent atheist professor Richard Rorty tells you exactly what college faculty like him plan to do with your kids: ‘...we try to arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic, religious fundamentalists will leave college with views more like our own…we do our best to convince these students of the benefits of secularization....So we are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable..’ Make no mistake, there are plenty Richard Rortys out there, waiting for your kids.  So, what are you going to do to prepare them for the serious challenges ahead? —Brett Kunkle The only way teens become truly “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks” (1 Pet. 3:15) is by wrestling personally with the questions. Ironically, those who have never grappled with diverse worldviews are actually the most likely to be swept away by them. As G. K. Chesterton wrote, ideas can be dangerous — but they are far more dangerous to the person who has never studied them…we should always couch discussions of Christianity in the language of reasons and evidence. We should be giving apologetics from the pulpit and in the Sunday school classroom. Every course in a Christian school should be an opportunity to show that a biblical perspective does a better job than any secular theory of accounting for the facts in that field, whether psychology, biology, government, or business. Apologetics should be naturally woven in to all our discourse. —Nancy Pearcey When you become a Christian you do not become immune to life. You will have questions, you will have bad days, you will lose hope and you will need answers. Enter apologetics. To outsiders this discipline answers objections, to insiders it builds faith and promotes intellectual inquiry. If you are a Christian and feel guilty about having questions, please don’t. Ask away, build your faith, learn whatever you can. First from Scripture, then from the teachers whom God gifted his church with. If you have lost sight of hope, do not get discouraged. —Glenn Hendrickson I think increasingly we are going to need to be not only the bearers of the gospel to others but a people who have answers available to questions such as, “What about the problem of evil? and “How do I know God exists?” We will need to give basic answers to these objections. Typically, the same questions come up over and over again. You won’t need to learn lots of new material with each person you talk to. If we have a mastery of some of the basics, we can really go a long way. And, as we’re evangelizing, as we’re talking about our faith, we will have greater confidence in presenting the gospel and won’t be daunted by the potential questions that might come up, but rather will say, “I believe the Christian faith does a better job of answering these sorts of questions.” —Paul Copan    more >>>

ENDORSEMENTS:

Greg West provides a valuable service for the Christian community with his website The Poached Egg. With so much content available online, it is easy for people to either be overwhelmed by it, or to remain entirely unaware of helpful resources. Greg's work of content curation means that readers who are interested in apologetics can find consistently high-quality material for ministry, apologetics, and educational use. Furthermore, The Poached Egg helps to build community among Christian apologists, fostering a spirit of support and mutual encouragement in what is often a very challenging ministry field. Finally, Greg makes effective use of ‘apologetics in new media' as he uses social media in effective ways to further the cause of Christ." Thanks for all you do, Greg!  —Dr. Holly Ordway (Chair, Department of Apologetics, Houston Baptist University; blogger at Hieropraxis; and author of, Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms) I cannot adequately say how much I appreciate what Greg has done in the service of Christian Apologetics. I am a pastor as well as a high school teacher at a Christian school, and I find myself increasingly saying, 'Why don't you check out the Poached Egg? It's got a TON of resources.' For all the work you do, Greg – thanks! —Anthony Weber (Pastor, teacher, blogger at Empires and Mangers and TC Apologetics, author of Learning To Jump Again: A Memoir Of Grief And Hope) The Poached Egg has been in invaluable resource both in my own ministry and in directing interested seekers and apologists to a wealth of resources. By consistently providing links to articles from a number of areas of interest for Christians, TPE has become one of the most important hub sites for Christian Apologetics. I have been blessed by Greg in a number of ways, and I am particularly appreciative of his efforts to share others' works with his readership. When he links an article of mine, I am able to observe a notable spike in traffic for several days, along with numerous hits over the course of time as interested readers search his site. I highly recommend the resources he provides, and further commend his dedication to the field of apologetics and the service of the Kingdom. —J.W. Wartick (MA in Christian Apologetics, Biola University, blogger at Always Have a Reason) The Poached Egg is by far the most influential Christian apologetics ministry on the internet, reaching the ends of the earth spreading the reasons for the Christian faith, edifying believers and providing intellectually powerful reasons for the truth of Christianity to unbelievers. —Arthur Khachatryan (Apologist, blogger at Cold and Lonely Truth, and author of Cold and Lonely Truth: The Beckoning of God's Reality in an Age of Rationalization) I consider Greg West's "The Poached Egg" to be one of the best apologetics blogs of all time. Greg has the ability to find articles that grasp the essence of an issue and address it in a deep, thoughtful, balanced and readable way. Highly educational! Highly recommended! —Dr. Edgar Andrews (BSc, PhD, DSc, FIP, FIMMM, CEng, CPhys. Emeritus Professor of Materials Science, University of London, UK, and author of Who Made God? Searching for a Theory of Everything) The Poached Egg performs the vital function of communicating truth in an accessible manner that informs without dumbing down and challenges without antagonizing. A great resource for Christians and skeptics alike. There is no apologetics web site quite like it, which reflects Greg West's God-given discernment and wisdom and Greg's desire to provide answers to those who doubt. —Stephen McAndrew (Attorney, Apologist, Ratio Christi Chapter Director, blogger at Songs of a Semi-Free Man, and author of Why It Doesn't Matter What You Believe If It's Not True: Is There Absolute Truth?) I want to say how valuable Greg’s the Poached Egg is on two levels: One, as an aggregator of information, one of the best go-to places on the Internet for a wide range of solid Christian thinking. To me it's also an encouragement. I appreciate it when TPE links my articles there—it boosts traffic very noticeably, which indicates they've got a good amount of readership. Two, I also appreciate seeing others' articles there—to learn from and to remind me I'm part of a living community of people with similar concerns. —Tom Gilson (Apologist, Ratio Christi National Field Director, strategist and writer at BreakPoint, blogger at Thinking Christian, and co-author/editor of True Reason: Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism)

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