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Randal Rauser

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

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evangelism

Jeff Wanted to Please God: The suspect salvation of the Milwaukee Cannibal

December 18, 2019 by Randal

This is part two of my series on psychopaths and Christianity. For the first article on Ted Bundy, click here. Evangelical Christians love their trophy conversions, dramatic stories of notorious sinners that find their way to the foot of the cross. For example, forty years ago I was fascinated by Run Baby Run, the story […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: critical thinking, evangelism, Jeffrey Dahmer, psychopathy

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

September 15, 2019 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, discipleship, evangelism

Jesus and the Devil’s Music

September 1, 2019 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Christian discipleship, discipleship, evangelism, rock music, witness

Should Christian evangelists share their doubts during the altar call?

May 28, 2019 by Randal

Today, my friend Steve (tireless critic of Ravi Zacharias) tweeted the following question to me: “When a Christian is evangelizing, is it OK for them to say to their audience right before the invitation, “Full disclosure, I’m having some bothersome doubts about my religion today. But, organ player, let’s do it anyway, One-two-three-four ‘Just as […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: doubt, evangelism

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

April 25, 2019 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Christian witness, discipleship, evangelism

Do not create unnecessary stumbling blocks to Christian faith

March 23, 2019 by Randal

In my opinion, one of the absolute biggest mistakes that Christians make occurs when, in the midst of sharing their faith, they include an unnecessary stumbling block as part of the essential package. To be sure, mere Christianity has its share of genuine and non-negotiable stumbling blocks. Among them, I would suggest, are doctrines of sin, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, doctrine, evangelism, mere Christianity, theology

Your Child, the Martyr

February 27, 2019 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: discipleship, evangelism, martyrdom, mission, witness

How I wore evangelistic T-shirts in high school to try and save … myself

January 11, 2019 by Randal

In my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? I journey through several different ways of thinking about salvation that I held growing up (and into adulthood). Along the way, I summarize several “laws” that I came to believe were essential to salvation, including that which I call “Law 5”: Law 5: If you are ashamed of Jesus, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: evangelism, fundamentalism, salvation, What's So Confusing About Grace?

The Solution to Christians Becoming Atheists (Part 1)

December 14, 2018 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, conversion, discipleship, evangelism, John Marriott

21st Century Martyr: A conversation on the legacy of John Allen Chau

December 1, 2018 by Randal

On November 17th, 2018, 26-year-old Christian missionary John Allen Chau was killed while attempting to evangelize the native Sentinelese people of North Sentinel Island, India. The wake of the tragedy has seen intense global media interest in the case, with many people dismissing Chau as a fatuous thrillseeker, a dangerous zealot, a subversive colonialist … […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine calling, ethics, evangelism, interview, John Allen Chau, John Stackhouse, missionary

Would you support a Muslim charity if it was more effective than a Christian one?

November 30, 2018 by Randal

Here’s the situation I’d like to pose to my fellow Christians: when engaged in charitable giving, do you value the Christian status of an organization over the efficiency of that organization? And if so, by how much? That’s the general question, but now let me dress it up with some specifics. A terrible earthquake with […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: efficiency, evangelism, NGO, social justice

Would you disciple a Muslim child against his parents’ wishes?

February 21, 2018 by Randal

Yesterday on Twitter I posed the following question: Your 15-year-old Muslim neighbor is really interested in Christianity, but his parents have forbidden him from going to church. He just asked you to help him defy his parents' wishes by secretly taking him to church youth group. Do you agree? — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) February 19, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: ethics, evangelism, Islam, religion

What’s the Value of Social Action in the Name of Jesus?

February 15, 2018 by Randal

I recently posted the following survey on Twitter with some interesting results: Christians: you have $100 to donate to one of two organizations: Organization 1: provides clean drinking water to Saharan villagers.Organization 2: evangelizes Saharan villagers. Don't bother with "false dichotomy" replies. This is a real choice. So … who gets the $100? — Tentative Apologist […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: evangelism, social action

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep: Evangelism and the Ethics of Scaring the Hell out of Children

February 12, 2018 by Randal

Father John Furniss, a nineteenth-century Catholic evangelist, became renowned as the “Apostle to the Children.” Father Furniss (and yes, that was his real name) was infamous for his lurid descriptions of children in hell. Consider this excerpt from his 1861 bestselling collection of nightmarish bedtime reading, The Sight of Hell: “See on the middle of that red-hot floor […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: damnation, ethics, evangelism, hell

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