The Christian Vanguard

It started with marriage. I love debates, and one of the debates that brings light with its heat is the same-sex marriage debate. I'm a Christian, so my position is already determined for me theologically, yet when discussing with non-believers, starting with this presupposition is not adequate. So I thought to myself, how can I go about making such an argument against same-sex marriage? I read around, looked at some articles, some in books, some in magazines, and some online. I took what I thought were good points and meshed them into a general worldview. I also considered criticisms and I constructed my view with those in mind to sidestep some pitfalls. So what you see was that product of all that. Basically, what I came up with was this (as far as I know, my syllogism is original):

While this has been, so far, a negative review, I do want to say, to start off a critical look at chapter three, that I’m quite glad Ferguson recognizes, “Any leader in any group who says he is not tempted [to enjoy the limelight and praise] is either out of touch with his own heart or dishonest.” The famous Lord Acton dictum is, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” So I am quite happy with the way this has started.

    Chapter Two discusses what is perhaps the sharpest dividing line (though not the most important one) between Catholics and non-Catholics, and it is that of authority. What do Catholics and non-Catholics consider authoritative?

    In my journey and exploration with the Catholic faith, I have become convinced of much of their doctrines and dogmas. I do so without any shame, though many have tried to shame me. My obedience is to truth, and nothing else. In attempts to have me drop some of my Catholic beliefs (and by Catholic beliefs I mean those doctrines and dogmas typically unique to the Catholic church, and perhaps the Orthodox church as well, that I have individually adopted, not beliefs I hold because I have or intend to join the Catholic church) some disciples have loaned me Gordon Ferguson’s book “Prepared to Answer”. The following is a response to his section on Catholicism.

What does the Bible have to say about abortion? I used to think this issue was Biblically clear-cut, even on the non-believing side, but as I have been browsing some atheist and skeptical websites and blogs, there seems to be this idea that the Bible is either silent on the issue, or is actually for it. That is not true. Here is a list of verses that supposedly support abortion. They all fail.

I feel like it’s a bit difficult to get people motivated for apologetics. I’ve written Biblical cases for apologetics, and I’ve been working tirelessly to prepare lessons, and to be available for questions somebody in the ministry might have. And that’s good and all, but that just doesn’t seem to work all too well. Best seller Nancy Pearcy writes in her new book, Saving Leonardo , “Join a campus ministry group? A Bible study? Important though those things are, the most decisive factor [according to a Fuller Seminary study] is whether students had a safe place to work through their doubts and questions before leaving home. The researchers concluded, ‘The more college students felt that they had the opportunity to express their doubt while they were in high school, the higher [their] levels of faith maturity and spiritual maturity.’ The study indicates that students actually grow more confident in their Christian commitment when the adults in their life – parents, pasto

The Supreme Court of the United States recently declared what is called “Obama-care” constitutionally permissible. It was a milestone for this country, and a surprising one at that. I thought Obama-care wouldn’t pass, but not a few people were just as surprised as I was. There is no point in trying arguing whether it is unconstitutional or not now. I have had some intense debates about Obama-care, but almost none with disciples. The conversations about health care I’ve had are usually with non-believers. I should be having more with my brothers and sisters but I don’t. Is health care important, and if so, how are Christians to approach it? Let us look at some Scriptures first.

I had some Mormons come over and visit me. And unfortunately, my experiences with the Mormons are too similar. I show them that the Book of Abraham is a fraud, and thus makes the Book of Mormon very suspicious, and they ignore evidence and rely on “faith”. Faith, in spite of evidence. They get angry, and I don’t blame them, I’m attacking such a central part of their lives, of course they’re going to get defensive, but it’s such a diabolical doctrine, it needs to be weeded out.

My mother lives right next to a Kingdom Hall, a meeting place for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. She’s been real interested in them and what they believe lately, which is a bit suspicious, seeing how she’s an agnostic. But I suppose its good because now her and I have a lot more discussions about God, the Christian lifestyle, and comparative religion. One of the things I really emphasize with her is that the JWs rejection of the full deity of Christ is false.

I’m sure at one point or another, Christians are going to hear that accusation that the Bible has not been accurately translated, or it has been changed or corrupted, or because we don’t have the originals, we’ll never know what it really said. This can be dealt swiftly and effectively. However, this challenged was posed to me by a Muslim man, and I think in this particular case, you can take a slightly different, and more impacting, route.

At first, this may seem like the common question of the unevangelized, which asks, what happens to those who have never heard of Jesus? What is their fate? However, this question actually takes a side, that they go to hell, and it is because of their absence of knowing about Jesus that they are going to hell for.

In a scathing article written by Jonathan Dudley on the CNN website , Dudley argues that when it comes to the issue of homosexuality, evangelicals are “ riddled with self-serving double standards. ” That’s a fancy way of calling people hypocrites. Basically, he argues that Paul “ condemned a lot of other things that Christians don’t condemn today. ”