The Christian Vanguard

I've come to realize that there are actually two interpretations of this question. The first is the one I'm most familiar with, which is the one coming from the atheist or skeptic who is not really seeking to know God, but to look for a quarrel, and the other is from the inquiring Christian. Since I'm not sure which interpretation I'm faced with, I'll go ahead and explain both.

I had a dream the other night. Something of a nightmare. I dreamt this girl, a girl I'd like to date one day, was with another guy. They were holding hands and smiling and just being happy together. And I didn’t like it. In fact, in my dream, I was quite jealous. Of course, the dream wasn’t real. It was fictional, but I was still jealous. It’s quite silly isn't it? I should be able to get over jealously. After all, it’s quite childish to get jealous. So how do we make sense of God’s jealously then? Is God being childish?

I was sharing my faith on Cal State Long Beach a few days ago and I had a conversation with a Muslim fellow about the Trinity. The objection he raised to me is a common one that the Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Unitarian sects raise against the Trinity, which is, if Jesus is God, to whom was he praying to?

Ok, so, obviously lying is a sin (9th Commandment), yet if a Nazi asked me if I were hiding Jews, and I was, the better thing to do is lie. But that's a sin, and you can't do that. So is the Bible wrong? Or is the Nazi story wrong? - Elise Hey Elise,

On April 17th, I was able to participate in a Spirituality Panel at Long Beach City College. The other panelists were a Santero, an Asatru, and a Neo-Pagan. Credit for my speech goes to  Craig Hazen  and Sean McDowell whose work made up most of the content. Here is the video!

In my conversations on the existence of God with atheists and skeptics, I've heard this one more than once,  "You can't prove a negative"  and they therefore think they have nothing to prove, no work to do. Easy peasy, right?. I remember watching a debate on the existence of God, and during the Q&A, some poor undergrad started off by saying, "I just wanna start off by saying that you can't prove a negative. My question for Dr. Craig is..."

When one hears of tragedy like the recent massacre in Aurora, Colorado, a feeling of anger often rises. We sometimes ask, "Where was God? Where is his justice?" While God will have his day of judgment in the future, what are we, as human beings in this temporal world to do? Many, like myself, say justice for the society is to be found in capital punishment (hence forth CP). I am aware that other Christians strongly disagree. I argue that CP is the more Biblical position.

I used to think that Christians ought to take part in the political process was a given. I have previously written about the permissibility versus impermissibility of voting for Mitt Romney, a Mormon. After all, Christians and governments are seeking to influence the same thing: the public. Christians are called to make disciples of all nations, and governments rule all nations. From this, a Christians should at least be conscious of the kind of government he is in. To my surprise however, many Christians in my acquaintance want nothing to do with government, and they attempt to cite Holy Scripture to defend their position. There are numerous problems with this.

Mitt Romney is the currently the GOP candidate for President of the United States. It is quite plausible that he could be President. Mitt Romney is also a Mormon. Why is Romney’s Mormonism something to take note of?

I was walking with a friend to buy lunch one day. As we were walking down a tranquil neighborhood with blossoming Jacaranda trees and well kept lawn grass, my friend observes, “Look at all this concrete and how we are killing this beautiful earth.”

When discussing the resurrection of Jesus with non-believers, whether they are hostile to religion or not, the slogan, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” often comes up. It is very common. It is too common. There are many different ways one could approach this claim, by either asking for clarification (what constitutes something being extraordinary?) or by laying a burden of proof (what’s so extraordinary about the Son of God coming back to life?) but for now, I want to take a look at the form of the question.