This article is an excerpt from my 2011 book You’re not as Crazy as I Think. The book includes four chapters dedicated to understanding various groups that are commonly misunderstood by evangelicals and this excerpt is drawn from the chapter titled “Not all liberal Christians are heretics.” In the passage, I attempt to understand the individual […]
resurrection
A Family Defense of the Resurrection of Jesus
This article is based on a chapter in my 2013 book God or Godless, a collection of twenty short debates coauthored with atheist John Loftus. What would it take to persuade you that your brother is the long-expected messiah? Quite a lot, I suspect. You grew up with the guy. You saw him scrape his […]
To Cremate or Not To Cremate?
A few weeks ago, I posted the following Twitter survey on cremation: Historically, the church rejected cremation in recognition of the value of the body and anticipation of the bodliy resurrection. Today, however, many Christians cremate. Forgive me if this is too forward, but what are your posthumous plans? — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) February 2, […]
Does Christianity need a resurrected Jesus?
The other day I posted the following survey on Twitter: If the physical bones of Jesus were disinterred in Jerusalem, would it follow that Christianity is false? — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) November 2, 2017 The results were not surprising. A full 75% of those surveyed — both Christians and non-Christians — believe that Christianity requires […]
Easter and the Resurrection to Judgment
This morning at our Easter service the pastor quoted Frederick Buechner: “Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.” It’s a great quote which eloquently summarizes the Christian hope in resurrection. In other words, Christ as the firstfruits of resurrection provides the down-payment for that future resurrection that will embrace all God’s people. Thus, […]
He is risen, isn’t he?
The other day I visited a church where the pastor gave a brief promo for the course “Christianity Explored“. He described the course as “a non-judgmental place” to explore the “big questions”. The description caught my attention for the implicit (and presumably unintentional) admission that once you get beyond the narrow confines of “Christianity Explored”, asking questions […]
What hath zombies to do with theology? An interview with Clay Morgan
In this interview I sit down with culture savvy monster aficionado Clay Morgan. Clay is a professor, blogger, podcaster, and author of the book Undead: Revived, Resuscitated, Reborn (Abingdon Press, 2012). You can visit Clay online at http://claywrites.com/ * * * RR: Clay, thanks for joining us. When I first saw the title of your […]
The Reason for Hell: A critical engagement with Timothy Keller (Part 3)
In the previous installment of this series I pointed out how Keller endorses C.S. Lewis’ dubious account of hell as self-inflicted torment. As Keller says, “hell is simply one’s freely chosen identity apart from God on a trajectory into infinity.” (80) What this view lacks in biblical support it more than makes up for in […]
The Resurrection of Jesus, 52 Pickup, and Prior Probabilities
In my rebuttal to John Loftus’ essay that the cumulative claims of Christianity are “wildly improbable” I pointed out that this argument has no force for those who already accept the cumulative claims of Christianity. To make the point I gave an illustration which I’ll streamline slightly here. Imagine that you tell me your new […]
Will resurrected bodies have face mites?
The doctrine of the general resurrection is central to the Christian theological conception of the afterlife. At the core of the doctrine is the claim that numerically the same body that dies will one day be restored to life. Conceptually it is relatively straightforward to envision this process in the case of Christ who died […]
Resurrection and Reincarnation: What’s the Difference?
This question was raised in the blog when Walter made the following comment: If you love to sing now but will not care for it in your next life, it raises the question of whether you have really been resurrected as essentially the same person, or reincarnated as a new being with only a tenuous […]
The Jesus double standard
This article was originally published at The Christian Post in 2009 under the title “What does Jesus always get picked on?” How many Shakespeare scholars do you suppose believe Christopher Marlow wrote the great Bard’s plays? Less than one in a hundred, I’m sure. Are Shakespeare scholars fools? That seems a little bit presumptuous […]
The Confessions of an Ouranophobe, or How I got over my fear of heaven
A couple months ago I blogged on the notion of a fear of heaven. What follows below is a much longer discussion of the same topic. It is an autobiographical excerpt which I originally wrote for a book I am currently writing on the concept of heaven. Once I decided that the passage would not be included in the book, […]
Al Mohler says the devil is in the details. Ironically enough, he’s right.
Imagine a defense attorney that is trying to defend his client’s innocence against the charge of murder. To his initial delight the defense attorney comes across an eyewitness who is emphatic that the attorney’s client did not commit the murder. The reason? The eyewitness says he saw another man commit the crime. Do you think the […]
