Defending and Commending the Faith With Dr. Joe L. Mott, inviting the atheist, agnostic and skeptic to examine for themselves the evidence for the Christian faith

References: (1)”Biochemicicsl Predestination” by Dean Kenyon and Gary Streinman. (2) “There is a God, how the world’s most notorious atheist changed his mind” by Anthony Flew in collaboration with Roy Abraham Varghese. (3) “The Science of God” by Gerald Schroeder. (4) Sonnet “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day.” (5) David Berlinski. (...

References: (1) Four rules for defending the faith in 1 Peter 3:15: Be reverent to the Lord; be ready to answer for the hope that is in you; be reasonable; and be respectful to your interlocutor. (2) I have begun to remind you of 5 arguments I have given in this program. (3) Straw Man Fallacy. (4) Modern physics recognizes a set of fundamental parameters that govern the atom so that the result is...

References: 1. How can I know that God exists? 2. The Bible reveals at least 4 sources: a. There is the entire Bible, the Word of God that reveals God’s attributes. b. There is creation. c. There are the inner parts of man. d. There is reason. 3. In terms of reason I discussed that the Greek word “logos” has 2 basic meanings: First, it means word, and second, it means reason. 4....

References: 1. Apologetics is the discipline that deals with a rational defense of the Christian faith. 2. Underlying Christianity is theism, the worldview that believes in the existence of a single, infinite, personal God who created the universe and miraculously intervenes in it from time to time. God is transcendent over the universe and immanent in it. 3. The 3 great theistic religions are Jud...

References: 1. Surveys show that 50% of young people who finish high school and attend a university soon abandon their faith. 2. You don’t have to have an explanation for every explanation. 3. There are no good reasons to believe in a Flying Spagetti Monster, the tooth fairy, or fire-breathing dragons in the center of the earth. 4. But there are good reasons to believe in God. 5. Eugenics an...

References: (1) “On Guard” by William Lane Craig. (2) Butterfly effect. (3) David Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the kingdom of God. (4) “We Are All Philosophers” by John Frame. (5) “Buddhism is a dead end.” (6) In 1919 observation of a solar eclipse confirmed Albert Einstein's prediction that light is bent in the presence of mass. (7) If the bending of light did not hap...

References: (1) “Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview” by J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig. (2) “On Guard” by William Lane Craig. (3) Probabilities are always relative to background information. (4) “Making Sense Out of Suffering” by Peter Kreeft. (5) The probabilistic version of the problem of evil involves a burden of proof that is much lig...

References: (1) “Evil and Omnipotence” by J. L. Mackie in Mind, 1955, pp. 200-212 (2) “Stand Firm” by Paul M. Gould, Travis Dickenson, and R. Keith Loftin. (3) Rene Descartes formulated the concept of “necessary truth” such that a statement is “necessarily true” if it is logically impossible to deny it (that is, to believe it to be false). (4) In ter...

References: (1) The problem of evil, like evil itself, has many faces. For example, it may be expressed as an “intellectual” problem of evil or the “emotional” problem of evil. (2) The God which people object to is the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Christianity and Judaism, the God of POWER who created the universe, the God of LOVE who l...

References: (1) William Lane Craig’s Moral argument. (2) 2 basic attitudes: the first is naturalism, and the second is supernaturalism. (3) I give a list of 12 potential natural sources of moral truths: A. Science. B. The natural universe. C. Culture or society. D. The individual person (the self). E. Chance or evolution. F. Impersonal force. G. Human reason/ Platonic values. H. Humanism. I....

References: (1) A worldview refers to a comprehensive conception of the world from a specific standpoint. A biblical worldview is a comprehensive conception of the world from a biblical standpoint. (2) A biblical worldview is based on 2 foundational principles: (1) God exists, and (2) God has revealed Himself to us in the Bible. (3) A Christian worldview is a comprehensive conception from a Christ...

References: (1) Christianity is a religion that is based on revelation: nobody would know the truth about God, or be able to relate to Him in a personal way were it not that first had taken the initiative to make Himself known in the Bible. (2) H. Richard Niebuhr criticized Christian Liberalism by saying they believed “a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgme...

References: (1) Different segments of the world’s society function according to Satan’s devilish schemes. (2) Atheistic communism, for example, parades under the guise of helping the poor working person. (3) In the USA the liquor and the gambling industries boast about their contributions to education. (4) Paul shows how God limits Satan so that he cannot by sheer force cause the Chris...

References: (1) The Greek word for Satan is translated “adversary” or “one who opposes.” Similarly, the Greek word for devil means “slanderer” or “accuser.” (2) The 2 words for devil and Satan is mentioned over 100 times in the NT. (3) The first rule of success in war is — know your enemy. (4) If goodness is the standard for entrance into Heave...

References: (1) 3 enslaving forces: the world, the flesh, and the devil. (2) Eph. 6:11-12. (3) 3 things about the devil: He is a powerful foe; he is wicked and destructive; and he is extremely sly and crafty. (4) Scripture reveals how the devil attacks us: as a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8); as a friendly counselor (Gen. 3:5); and as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). (5) Martin Luther suggested, &ldqu...

References: (1) Relativism’s Moral Argument is shown manifestly to fail as it is not only refuted in 1 way but in 3 ways. (2) Peter Kreeft says, “The major event in the history of the world for the past 500 years has been the DECLINE of the influence of RELIGIOUS FAITH in Western civilization.” (3) In a lecture on YouTube called “Blaise Pascal and the New Evangelization&rdq...

References: (1) 3 appalling conditions that prevail about all unredeemed human beings: First, the unredeemed are all (spiritually) dead. Second, the unredeemed are enslaved. And third, the unredeemed are all condemned because in their present unredeemed state they are still under the curse of God’s wrath. (2) (Spiritual) death is the exact opposite and antithesis of life. (3) Life in the Bib...

References: (1) Relativism’s moral argument commits the “is-ought” fallacy. (2) Premise 1 is false. (3) Premise 2 violates the clear teaching of Scripture in Eph. 2:1-3. (4)”The Message of Ephesians” by John Stott. (5) Understand Eph. 2:1-3 in terms of the context of Eph. 1: 18-21. (6) You and I can’t appreciate the height to which we have been elevated until we...

References: (1) The is-ought fallacy. (2) The anthropologist Solomon Asch. (3) “The Abolition of Man” by C. S. Lewis. (4) Just because the majority of any particular group think something is right does not make it right. (5) Ethical hedonism. (6) The philosopher, Peter Singer. (7) “Dead in trespasses and sin” refers to spiritual death. (8) John Stott. (9) Spiritual death me...

References: (1) 3 rules of teaching. (2) The meaning of moral relativism. (3) Moral relativism is usually posed as a direct antithesis of moral objectivism/realism. (4) William Lane Craig divides moral truths into moral values and objective duties. (5) “Reasonable Faith” by William Lane Craig. (6)The Bible is resplendent with moral statements. (7) The Australian philosopher J. L. Macki...

References: (1) Deism doctrines explained. (2) Deism is self-defeating. (3)Many ‘lukewarm’ or ‘nominal’ Christians today are, in effect, deists. (4) So of the 4 possible alternatives about God or no God and evil or no evil, only theism is a viable alternative to explain God and evil. (5) Prager University’s article: “If there is no God, murder isn’t wrong....

References: (1) Alvin Plantinga. (2) Pantheism comes from 2 Greek words: “pan” and “theos.” Pan means “all” and theos means “God.” Simply put, pantheism is the view that everything is God. (3) Monism. (4) Pantheism is the fundamental belief of some Western religions such as New Age, Christian Science, Unity, Scientology, and Theosophy. (5) I give 6 r...

References: (1) “Warrant and Proper Function” by Alvin Plantinga. (2) “Atheism and the Argument from Reason” an article by Lenny Esposito in the book “True Reason” edited by Tom Gilson and Carson Weitnauer. (3) “Kant’s Refutation of Materialism” by H. Allison in “The Monist” (1989). (4) “Miracles: A Preliminary Study” by...

References: (1) “Stealing from God” by Frank Turek. (2) “Miracles: A Preliminary Study” by C. S. Lewis. (3) “C.S. Lewis’s Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument from Reason” by Victor Reppert. (4) Former British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. (5) Elizabeth Anscombe. (6) An article “Atheism and the Argument from Reason” by Lenny Esposito in...

References: (1) Poisoning the Well fallacy. (2) Ad Hominem fallacy. (3) Straw Man fallacy. (4) Red Herring fallacy. (5) “Richard Dawkins Debunked, A Dozen Logical Fallacies in the God Delusion” by Norman J. Lund on the website Center for Biblical Theology and Eschatology. (6) Alvin Plantinga. (7) Thomas Nagle. (8) Michael Ruse. (9) Dinesh D’Souza. (10) “The Dawkins Delusion...