TOPICAL STUDY GUIDES :

1. PROVE THE RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ

2. ORIGINS and EVOLUTION

3. The UNIVERSE: young or old?

4. The EARTH: young or old?

5. ISLAM and JIHAD: introduction and history

 

INTRODUCTION :Terms, concepts, and the big picture

1. WHAT IS TRUTH: The blind men and the elephant

2. IS THERE A GOD?: The cosmological argument

3. God, evidence, and atheists

4. Christians: Biased, bigoted, intolerant, and judgmental?
--- Bias, bigotry, and intolerance
--- Judgmentalism

5. Was Christianity cut-and-pasted from other religions?
--- Similarities and differences
--- The Bible and the flood

6. Basic terms: Let's start by speaking the same language
--- Religion, worship, and faith
--- Christian, and righteousness

7. Why think about the Bible? A nautical tale

8. What is the Bible all about?

9. About the site

10. About the author

INTEGRITY :Are the historical manuscripts reliable?

1. Introduction to investigating the Bible

2. What is inspiration?

3. How do we determine the age of the documents?

4. When were the biblical books written?
--- The date chart

5. Is the Bible complete?

6. How were the manuscripts passed down through the ages?

7. Have the original words been lost over the centuries?

8. What early manuscripts of the Bible exist today?

9. Have critics discredited the early manuscripts?

10. How can different translations exist of the same Bible?

11. What are the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha?

VERACITY :Can the authors' claims be verified?

1. Introduction to Veracity

2. Does the Bible even claim to be true?

3. How can we tell whether or not the Bible is telling the truth?

4. Does archaeology confirm or deny the claims of the Bible?

5. How do science and the Bible compare?
--- Is science an alternative to religion?
--- What is science?
--- Scientific accuracy and the Bible

6. What is chance?

7. What is meant by "creation"?

8. Where did the universe come from?
--- The credentials of Moses
--- According to secularism
--- According to the Bible

9. Where did the earth come from?
--- According to secularism
--- According to the Bible
--- How old is the earth?

10. Where did man come from?
--- The war of philosophies
--- The history of evolution
--- Darwin's theory
--- Finally, the missing links!
--- Evolutionists on neo-Darwinism
--- Punctuated equilibria
--- Directed panspermia
--- Intelligent design theory
--- Intelligent design theory on the nature of the universe
--- Creation science

11. What is the nature of life?

12. Have prophecies of the Bible ever come true?

13. Do miracles really happen?

14. Isn't one interpretation just as good as the next?
--- The history of interpretation
--- Rules and illustrations

DIVINITY :What evidence is there to prove Jesus is God?

1. Introduction to Divinity

2. What do we know about Jesus - from non-biblical sources?

3. How did the Old Testament instruct people to recognize God's promised Messiah?

4. Does Jesus fulfill the messianic prophecies?
--- Why, where, and when
--- How, and what
--- Who

5. Was Jesus resurrected from the dead?
--- Could it have happened?
--- Issues surrounding belief
--- The summary gospel account
--- Literal or figurative?
--- The wrong tomb?
--- Stolen by friends?
--- Stolen by enemies?
--- Did Jesus remove himself?

6. JESUS IS LORD

AUTHORITY :Can the authors' claims be verified?

1. Introduction to Authority

2. The authority of God
--- The triune God
--- The authority of the Father
--- The authority of the Spirit
--- The authority of the Son

3. The authority of the Bible

4. Biblical authority and humanity
--- The nature of salvation
--- The application of God's Word
--- Maturity and God's Word
--- How to prepare for judgment

5. Conclusion on authority

HISTORY :Scripture and the church since the time of Christ

1. The prehistory of English translations

2. The spread of Christianity

3. The decline of Latin

4. The Church of Rome's doctrine of infallibility

5. The Church of Rome's doctrine of absolution

6. Islam and Jihad
--- Introduction
--- Who speaks for Islam?
--- Pre-Islamic Arabia
--- Who was Muhammad? (part one)
--- Who was Muhammad? (part two)
--- The Qur'an
--- The doctrine of abrogation
--- The principle of al-Taqiyya
--- What is jihad - in their words
--- Jihad - the first 1,300 years
--- Jihad - the last 100 years

7. The Crusades

8. The Inquisitions

9. The Reformations

10. Public Law 97-280

OBJECTIONS :Enough reason not to believe?

...concerning THE BIBLE

1. The Bible doesn't have a monopoly on success (or failure) as a delineated moral standard.

2. We're not really being asked to trust God, we're being asked to trust the human authors of the Bible.

3. If one has to make decisions about what or what not to accept in the Bible, then how can it be trusted as authoritative?

4. What happened to Judas - hung himself per Matthew 27, or bought a field and fell per Acts 1?

...concerning THE CHARACTER OF GOD

1. How could a "merciful" God order Israel to destroy certain peoples and cities?

2. The God who blessed armies and sent them out is the same God who gave us his son?

3. Does God curse people for the sins of others?

4. Does God change his mind like the Bible says?

5. If God is omnipotent, couldn't he have found a less horrific way to carry out his plan than the cross?

6. How loving is a God who would tell Abraham to sacrifice his son?

7. What about all those laws that were to be binding for all time?

8. My conception of a divinity resists that of a God who exhibits anger or vengeance.

...concerning THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

1. Until seeing pink unicorns, we assume they don't exist. So until seeing God, how can anyone assume that he does exist?

2. Who's to say God wasn't created by some yet higher God?

3. Religion is neither provable nor disprovable, so God has no place in the scientific method.

4. You can't start with the hypothesis that God exists.

5. I have far more powerful fears than fear of God because I find them so much more credible.

...concerning FAITH, REASON, AND BELIEF

1. Doesn't "believe" mean hold as true without proof or logic?

2. Aren't people punished for using reason or questioning the faith?

3. Atheists and atheism have nothing to do with hope.

...concerning HELL

1. An eternity in hell is "fair" punishment?

2. If after a person exerts their sincere best efforts to believe the Bible but cannot accept it, do they still deserve to burn in hell?

3. If a non-believer dies, but they're a good person, are they going to hell?

...concerning JESUS AND MIRACLES

1. It's one thing to say a man was crucified; it's another to credit him as being divine.

2. Even if I were to accept that a miracle happened, I'm not sure it would persuade me of anything.

3. Occam's razor says to accept the simplest explanation, and resurrection from the dead is not it.

...concerning LIFESTYLE

1. You don't have to believe in God to make the world a better place.

2. I try to live by the values I've learned with malice toward none and charity for all.

3. Like it or not, morals are relative.

4. Why does the Bible condemn things people enjoy?

5. What does the way I live have to do with loving God?

6. I can't change who I am!

...concerning RELIGION AND CHRISTIANITY

1. Isn't religion to blame for most of history's killings?

2. Who are the ones getting cheated by televangelists?

3. Some Christians are so heavenly-minded they're no earthly good.

4. Most Christians in the old South thought slavery was a pretty good idea.

5. Is religion necessary to live a virtuous life?

...concerning SALVATION

1. Why can mass-murderers go to heaven, but unbelievers cannot?

2. If God really wants his children to be saved, why make salvation contingent upon belief in a document as complex and disputed as the Bible?

3. What about people who lived and died before Christ?

4. Can someone be saved who never had a chance to hear about Jesus?

5. If there's no free will, does that mean God has created some people to go to hell?

...concerning SCIENCE AND EVIDENCES

1. Wouldn't the discovery of life on other planets totally destroy the Bible?

2. Histories, as we know them today, never existed even as late as the New Testament; only collections of mythmaking.

 

SPECIAL FOCUS TOPICS

1. About the quotations on this site

2. Principles of God's judgment

3. How long did creation take?

4. Natural revelation: good science is good theology

5. On freedom of inquiry

6. "Here's what nonbelievers really think!"
(Advice to believers)

7. What's most important to nonbelievers?
(Advice to believers)

8. How to improve the argument for unbelief
(Advice to nonbelievers)

9. Natural relevation: what it reveals about origins

10. Study on "free will"