Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

discipleship

Can a pastor have doubts?

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In this video, I offer a critical response to Alisa Childers and Cameron Bertuzzi of Capturing Christianity as they discuss Ms. Childers’ former pastor who once described himself as agnostic. The video raises an important question: “Can a pastor have doubts?” The answer, I think, is that at times pastors will likely have doubts. The […]

What’s Christianity’s biggest weakness? Evidence? Or Poor Diplomats?

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This afternoon, I posted the following survey on Twitter: Most skeptics of Christianity are not skeptics primarily because of the poor quality of apologetic evidence but rather because of the poor quality of Christian disciples. — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) September 15, 2019 Feel free to vote there. But I’d also like to hear your voice […]

Jesus and the Devil’s Music

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When I was a kid back in the 1980s, I had a somewhat conflicted relationship with “secular” music. Two of the first albums/cassettes in my collection (c. 1981-2) were “secular”: The Who, Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy and Journey, Escape. And truth be known, they both blew away Petra, Never Say Die despite my mom’s attempt to […]

Your poor Christian witness today could make atheists a century from now

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There’s a key moment in the film Gladiator where the character Maximus (Russell Crowe) observes, “Brothers, what we do in life, echoes in eternity.” You might equally say that it echoes in history, spreading out like ripples on a pond. An effective Christian witness can tell a powerful story of faith which shapes lives for […]

Your Child, the Martyr

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Tertullian famously said, the blood of the martyrs is seed. Indeed, the early church was built on the witness of early Christians with many giving their lives for their faith. Nor is persecution a thing of the past. Every year, thousands of Christians around the world are persecuted or even martyred for their faith. But […]

The Solution to Christians Becoming Atheists (Part 2)

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This is the third and final installment in my interview/conversation with Dr. John Marriott on the issue of Christians leaving the faith to become atheists. Here are links to the first installment, “The Problem of Christians Becoming Atheists,” and the second installment, “The Solution to Christians Becoming Atheists (Part 1).” Needless to say, I strongly […]

The Solution to Christians Becoming Atheists (Part 1)

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In this article, I continue a conversation with John Marriott on Christianity and atheism based on his new book, A Recipe for Disaster. In part one, Dr. Marriott summarized some of the catalysts that lead to Christians becoming atheists. In this article, we continue the conversation by turning to consider ways that Christians might seek […]

The Problem of Christians Becoming Atheists

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A central goal of Christian apologetics is to persuade people to become and remain Christians. But what happens when that persuasion fails? In particular, what can we learn from those instances of failure when Christians reject the faith altogether? In this conversation, I speak with Dr. John Marriott about the topic of Christians deconverting and […]