Apologetics - The Poached Egg

Weekend Apologetics Hit and Misc: A Pebble in the Shoe

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Weekend Apologetics Hit and Misc: A Pebble in the Shoe

Put a Pebble in His Shoe – Justin Taylor

5 Tools Needed to Reach Today’s Teens – The Gospel Coalition Blog

Danger and Staying Safe: Cave Diving and Apologetics

Working together in ministry - No solo acts

Should Christians Work on Sundays? A Bible Study

Those Who Deny Objective Moral Values | Reasonable Faith

12 Historical Facts - Gary Habermas

Stand to Reason Blog: A Quick Summary of the Bible (Video)

God, Science, and Reason: Finding the Light of God Amidst the Darkness of Atheism and Dogmatism

California Apologist Travels to Help Hurting Soldiers Stationed Far from Home

‘Fal$e Teacher$’ rapper answers critics with ‘positive’ theology

Truthbomb Apologetics: Greg Koukl on "Unbelievable Belief"

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WEEKEND RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES ROUNDUP:

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning

A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists

The Magic Man in the Sky: Effectively Defending the Christian Faith

On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision

Reasonable Faith (3rd Edition): Christian Truth and Apologetics

How to Be a Christian in a Brave New World

Issues Facing Christians Today

 

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Morality According to Lady Gaga

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Morality According to Lady Gaga

by Josh Fults

“I was born this way”, a phrase that continues to drum louder and louder in these postmodern times. Two years ago the infamous Madam Monster, Lady Gaga, wrote a song by the same title. She sings, “Ooh, there ain’t no other way, baby, I was born this way.” This echoes the ideology of our day, that we are somewhat trapped by our biology. That is, you are who you are, and you act the way you act because you were biologically determined to do so. J. Reid writes, “The whole culture is metaphorically awash in genes, which are depicted as pervasive and powerful agents central to understanding both everyday behavior and the secret of life. Foraging through countless specialty periodicals and mass-culture sources, [one uncovers] references to selfish genes, pleasure-seeking genes, violence genes, gay genes, couch-potato genes, celebrity genes, depression genes. Everything but the kitchen sink gene.”

Not too far in the distant past, the field of psychology continually emphasized the idea that we are products of our environment. Our upbringing, social history, tragedies, and trauma was the impetus to our behavior. Yet now, we are locked in by our

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genetics. So which is it? Quite frankly, whichever allows us to eschew personal responsibility for our actions. Society clings to whatever explanation of human behavior that will strip them of their moral culpability.

It is imperative that we keep in mind that our biology is but one facet of our behavior, as is our social environment. There are incredibly diverse networks of factors that contribute to our many complex behaviors. To reduce human behavior to mere biology strains the limits of credulity and reduces man to an animalistic automaton. We are bigger than our biology. Nor can our choices be reduced to respondent conditioning within our social environment. We are able to override our biology when it comes to our decisions and behaviors. Neither does our social past define our future. To argue to the contrary one must be comfortable with the ramifications of such a statement.

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Walk Good » Morality According to Lady Gaga

 

RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:

Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture

Why Trust Jesus?: An Honest Look at Doubts, Plans, Hurts, Desires, Fears, Questions, and Pleasures

 

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The Miracle That Makes the Dead Come Alive

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Bono’s Mere Christianity

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The secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." …what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was the Messiah or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched! …If only we could be a bit more like Him, the world would be transformed. When I look at the Cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my s--- and everybody else's. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that's the question. And no one can talk you into it or out of it. – Bono (from Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas, 2005)

Faithfully (featuring Journey and Steven Curtis Chapman)

 

Faithfully (featuring Journey and Steven Curtis Chapman)

The revolt against vows has been carried in our day even to the extent of a revolt against the typical vow of marriage. It is most amusing to listen to the opponents of marriage on this subject. They appear to imagine that the ideal of constancy was a yoke mysteriously imposed on mankind by the devil, instead of being, as it is, a yoke consistently imposed by all lovers on themselves. They have invented a phrase, a phrase that is a black and white contradiction in two words — `free-love’ — as if a lover ever had been, or ever could be, free. It is the nature of love to bind itself, and the institution of marriage merely paid the average man the compliment of taking him at his word. – G. K. Chesterton

For our first installment of “Questions and Answers,” we will focus on love and faithfulness. The first “question” is posed in one of the most famous rock ballads of all time, Journey’s “Faithfully.” (I was playing this at the house of some friends the other week, prompting the mother to say, “You are the most retro college girl I know!”)

Now of course, this song isn’t written as a question. In fact, it’s a declarative pledge of fidelity. Still, it raises all manner of unspoken questions. Written by Journey pianist Jonathan Cain (who can be seen looking at his wife’s picture at 1:00), it’s an essentially autobiographical meditation on the pain and tensions of being a married “music man.” The singer recognizes the many ways in which the rock-star lifestyle is taking its toll on both himself and his wife, but he feels helpless to do anything about it. He can only hope that their love won’t come crashing down, that the “two strangers” they become to each other when they’re apart will never stop being able to rekindle the flame. Meanwhile, he offers a promise that one way or another, if she stands by him, he will stand by her…

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Faithfully (featuring Journey and Steven Curtis Chapman) | Southern Gospel Yankee

 

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The Light that can be found: reflections on a lyric by 3 Doors Down

 

The Light that can be found – reflections on a lyric by 3 Doors Down

By Mark McIntyre

The song “When I’m Gone” by 3 Doors Down begins this way:

There’s another world inside of me
That you may never see
There’re secrets in this life
That I can’t hide
Somewhere in this darkness
There’s a light that I can’t find
Maybe it’s too far away…
Or maybe I’m just blind…

What struck me about this lyric is the comparison with light and darkness. The Bible uses this same image in describing the light of the Gospel (Gospel means “good news”) shining in the darkness of the world. In Matthew 4:16 it says, “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, Upon them a Light dawned.”

There are two problems identified which cause someone to not see the light. The first is blindness: “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5). This is the starting point for all of humanity. We are all born in spiritual darkness. God shines the light of his love into that darkness and we have to choose our response to it. The difference between believers and unbelievers is that believers choose to respond to the light of the Gospel…

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The Light that can be found – reflections on a lyric by 3 Doors Down

 

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Newsboys: God’s Not Dead (Like a Lion)