Justin Martyr who dialogued with Trypho the Jew
We all remember times where we’ve had long faith discussions. It’s usually hours on end over a meal, coffee, or a glass of wine. I remember discussing religion over dinner with a Muslim friend of mine from Gaza. For the first time in his life, he probably doubted his faith that night. Regardless, we had hours to talk. We don’t always have that.
Those who read this blog know about Dr. James White. He is a Calvinist apologist and runs a Calvinist apologetics organization called Alpha and Omega Ministries. He has responded to this blog more than once. Though in the past I have disagreed with him, I actually found myself agreeing with him a lot on his Monday Webcast.
Lepanto – Christendom vs Caliphate
Muslims and Christians both like to look at each others sacred text. The two faiths share a lot in common. Both believe in one God, though the nature of God is disputed. Both believe that God sent many Prophets and revealed sacred texts. Whether these texts have been corrupted is a matter of dispute. Both believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and born of the Virgin Mary. That’s quite a lot in common. However, when Christians look at the Quran, they look at it very differently than how Muslims look at the Bible.
The Heretic James Brownson
Emotion is a powerful thing. For the last 50 years, people growing up in the West have been taught not to think. They’ve been taught to go with what feels good. Sadly, this has spilled into the Church as well. I just want to say that emotion is not a bad thing, but only bad when it’s alone. It needs to be coupled with reason, spirituality and rational thought.
Jesus and the rich young man.
Islamic apologist Paul Williams likes to go after the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Recently in a brief response to a twitter comment by James White, Williams said that the “Reformation” needs to go all the way and essentially become Islamic.
King Solomon
We’re almost at the end of 2016 and it certainly has been an interesting year. Over the course of the year, several well known apologists have visited and even commented on my blog. Off the top of my head, I can think of James White, Sam Shamoun, Ken Temple, Paul Williams, and Mike Licona.
The group Jews For Judaism has been on my radar screen for some years. In the 1970’s some Jews who became Evangelicals started a group called Jews For Jesus and led a large well-funded attempt to convert Jews to Evangelicalism. To counter this group, some Rabbis and Jewish laymen formed a group called Jews For Judaism. They didn’t call themselves Jews Against Jesus probably because it’s better to sound positive rather than negative. However, this would be a more honest title. I don’t wish to evaluate any of their apologetics in this post but I want to make some general comments about the group.
Yarmouk – Where the Arabs defeated a Roman Army in 636 AD
Being interested in the origins of Islam, a very unique document comes to light. It is a 7th Century Christian polemic against Judaism called the Doctrina Jacobi. Since this document was written around 634 AD, this gives us some interesting information about Islamic origins. The document has an interesting passage. This passage reads:
The Arabian Desert from where the Arab armies emerged.
When one studies the origins of Islam, one has to ask the proper questions. Over the last 40 years, many scholars have done revisionist history regarding the early years of Islam.
The Council of Nicaea – Where much dialogue took place
I frequent a coffee shop in my area and when you go to the same coffee shop often, you get to know the servers. I had some dialogue with this one server. I knew that he was an Evangelical and had his head on straight regarding a lot of issues but last night we had a dialogue which raised some concerns.