Thursday Roundup (5/25/17)

Today’s video responds to the atheist argument that “I can be good without God.” The podcast episode asks whether a fetus is a person in our continuing survey of Life’s Work by Dr. Willie Parker. And the links of the week talk about the local church, unspoken prayer requests, wasting your life by following your passion, “doing history wrong,” and much more!

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“If [God] were not wrathful against sin, we would question whether He is personally good. What would it mean for Him to say that He is committed to oppose evil if He refused to judge it?”
~ Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence

Latest Video

Many atheists argue they can be good without God. If that’s the case, why bother believing in him? But perhaps “Can I be good without God?” isn’t the right question to be asking…

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Answers for Ambassadors Podcast

In this week’s episode on Life’s Work by Dr. Willie Parker, we continue our examination of the key question related to abortion: What is it? After considering whether the fetus was a living organism last episode, this week we examine whether the fetus is a person (and whether that question is even meaningful!).

Answers for Ambassadors is available via SoundCloud or by searching in iTunes and most other podcast players. You can also direct your podcast player to the podcast RSS feed.

Best Reads of the Week

“Don’t waste your life following your passion.”

A thought-provoking defense of the unspoken prayer request, from Russell Moore.

Nick Batzig reminds us, “how zealous ought we to be in placing our need to find a solid local church onto the scale of our major life-decision making process! Finding a solid local church is more important than finding a dream job or attending a dream college, for the simply reason that God has determined to shepherd His people to glory through the ministry of the local church.” And while we’re on the topic of the local church, Tim Challies encourages us to think of it as “God’s Google.”

In my podcast series on “Christian abortionist” Dr. Willie Parker, I said I didn’t have the in-depth historical knowledge to respond comprehensively to his claims that the early church was ambivalent about abortion. I was glad to come across this piece from Al Mohler, who does have the historical details to back up his claim that “The early church was decidedly, vocally, and courageously pro-life and opposed to abortion.”

How could Jesus be God if he said he didn’t know the time of his return? Tim Barnett offers a helpful response.

Don’t let the narrative you want overwhelm your allegiance to the truth. Justin Taylor looks at how David Barton is “doing history wrong” and unpacks some helpful broader principles for evaluating historical claims—including, or perhaps especially, those which you want to be true.

One of atheists’ favorite explanations for religiosity is to appeal to “cognitive biases.” Psychologists have found that some people are predisposed to attribute agency or intentionality to observed phenomena, and atheists suggest that such biases could explain the persistent conviction, across history and across cultures, that God or gods exist. But a new study has concluded that cognitive biases cannot explain religiosity.

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