The Apologist‘s Bookshelf

Stand to Reason, started and led by Greg Koukl, is a wonderful apologetics organization. This is one of their outstanding booklets created to help Christians deal with several challenges to their faith. In this podcast, I cover the section which considers the Christian and Mormon beliefs about God.

Josh McDowell, author of this book, gives evidence for the historical Jesus. In the chapter I cover in this podcast, he asks if Jesus thought of himself as the Messiah and Son of God and what these terms meant.

Here's an important book that discusses the looming spiritual crisis of artificial intelligence. I cover his fourth chapter--how we have lost the sense of God and transcendent values. The results have been terrible for us and our society.

A major issue these days is transgenderism. Andrew Walker's book is an invaluable introduction to a complex, controversial, and often painful subject. I cover part of one chapter that discusses the fall in Eden and the tragic results not only around us but within us.

Ron Rhodes does an excellent job in this book. I am looking today at his intro and first chapter, which covers  Mormonism today and where it came from.

This will be the last podcast covering Mark Mittelberg's book. I discuss the last five barriers to a confident faith in Christianity.

This will be the next-to-last podcast covering Mark Mittelberg's book. In this section he looks at five barriers to faith and how to overcome them.

Continuing my look at Mark Mittelberg's book, I cover the remainder of the arrows he says point to the truth of Christianity--Jesus' life and resurrection, the emergence of the church, the changed lives of early skeptics, the deaths of the disciples, the changed minds of modern skeptics, and the testimonies of modern believers.

Mark Mittelberg completes his examination of the Bible as evidence of the truth of Christianity. 

Mark Mittelberg lays out twenty arrows that he believes point to the truth of Christianity. In this podcast we look at six of these arrows dealing with the universe, DNA, the sense of morality we all share, and the Bible.

In chapter 9 Mark Mittelberg reviews the six faith paths that people have chosen in their pursuit of spiritual truths. In addition, he starts in on twelve arrows he believes point to the truth of Christianity. I discuss the first of these--design in the universe. 

Mark Mittelberg continues his examination of various faith paths people take in their search for God. This chapter deals with the Christian view, which he calls the evidential faith path.

Continuing through Mark Mittelberg's book, I cover chapters that explore two popular faith paths people follow--intuitive (truth is what you feel in your heart) and mystical (truth is what you think God told you).

I'm continuing my podcasts covering one book by Mark Mittelberg. This time I cover two chapters that explore faith paths he calls "traditional" and "authoritarian."

I'm continuing an in-depth look at Mark Mittelberg's book. In this podcast I review a chapter that explores one popular worldview today--relativism ("Truth is whatever works for you.").

Mark Mittelberg has a wonderful book that seeks to build a firm foundation for our beliefs about life and God. I used this book in our church apologetics class, so I'd like to go through it in the next few podcasts. Today I will focus on his intro and chapter one, in which he defines faith and explains who has it.

This book is part of the Politically Incorrect Guide series, which I highly recommend. This podcast covers the first chapter, in which the author talks about the attacks on the Bible, especially those by the "New Atheists." Is religion really the greatest threat to world peace as they believe?

Does Christianity really offer anything which is superior to other religions? Is Jesus superior to other religious or philosophical leaders? Norm Geisler answers these questions in one section of his book.

This book asks "What's right with this world, and how did it get that way?" For this podcast, I look at the chapter dealing with Christianity's contribution to helping the poor.

This book, by D. James Kennedy, has various chapters exploring ways the Bible has influenced the Western world. I'm an English major who loves literature, so I went to the chapter that illustrates the Bible's impact on Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, Dostoevsky, and many others.

Everything J. P. Moreland writes is wonderful, and this book is no exception. In a section of the book called "How to Develop a Mature Christian Mind,"  he discusses seven traits of the empty self, a growing problem in America that threatens the life of the mind. 

This book, written by Norm Geisler, offers valuable information and advice to a wide audience. In this podcast I go over the section dealing with the dating of the book of Daniel. Does the book contain real predictive prophecy, or was it written after the events it describes?

This book by Alvin Schmidt tells of all the ways Christianity transformed civilization for the better. In chapter 2 he explains how infanticide, the abandonment of infants, abortion, gladiatorial shows, human sacrifices, and suicide were all challenged by Christianity.

J. Warner Wallace, a former cold-case detective who has written a series of powerful apologetics books, investigates the claims of the gospels here. I review his chapter that answers the question, "Were the gospels corroborated?" In other words, are the claims of the gospel writers backed up by internal and external evidence of their truthfulness?

Norm Geisler, author of so many wonderful books, wrote this one to deal with Bible difficulties. This podcast looks at concerns people have had with the order of temptations in Matthew and Luke, whether Jesus taught the Old Testament asked people to hate their enemies, the story of the centurion who came to Jesus, why Jesus called himself the Son of Man, and several other concerns in the book of M...