Stand to Reason Blog

Links Mentioned on the 9/30/14 Show

The following are links that were either mentioned on this week's show or inspired by it, as posted live on the @STRtweets Twitter feed:

• Julie Loos

• Ratio Christi

• CrossExamined Instructor Academy

• reTHINK Apologetics Conference

• Clear Thinking Christianity – Tim Barnett's website

• Insanity and Spiritual Songs in the Soul of a Saint – Mini-biography of William Cowper (a hymn writer and poet who suffered from severe depression) by John Piper

• Accreditation board gives Gordon College a year to review policy on homosexuality – Boston Business Journal

• Gordon College Will Lose Accreditation over Behavioral Standards by Amy Hall

Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)

To follow the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00–7:00 p.m. PT), use the hashtag #STRtalk.

Webcast Tuesday

Ask your question. Share a piece of your mind. Call with your question or comment at (855) 243-9975, outside the U.S. (562) 424-8229. Today 4-7 p.m. PT. Greg is live on the broadcast. 

Listen live online. Join us on Twitter during the program @STRtweets.

Challenge: Use the Leftover Embryos for Research

This week’s challenge is about embryonic stem cell research:

I think abortion is wrong, and it saddens me to think that hundreds of thousands of leftover embryos are going to be discarded by IVF clinics or just kept frozen. Wouldn’t it be a more meaningful life for them (and better for society) to be used for scientific research that could benefit millions of people who suffer from diseases and disabilities rather than be wasted in death or an endless frozen state?

What would you say to a friend who challenged you with this? Do you have an answer? Tell us in the comments below, then we’ll hear Alan’s response on Thursday.

[Update: View Alan's video response. Explore past challenges here and here.]

On an Old Earth View, How Are Neanderthals Accounted For?

Greg explains how neanderthals are accounted for and the difference between neanderthal and human souls.

Only One Thing Will Keep You Going

If you haven’t yet started thinking about how you’re going to deal with suffering and persecution (big or small), now is the time to do so. May God grant that the worst that will ever happen to you is that you encounter some angry comments on your Facebook page, but you may face more, and even little discouragements have a way of adding up. How will you deal with them?

I’ve been asking this question for a while now—reading books about people who have suffered, asking questions of people who face opposition, trying to understand how they continue to press on. And overall, the answer comes back to one thing: Those who know and love Jesus well, those who think He’s worth any price, persevere. I don’t think there’s anything else strong enough to keep us going—not a love for the truth, not a love for the lost, not a desire to make a difference, but only Jesus Himself.

If you want to persevere, that’s where your focus needs to be. Seek with all your might to know Jesus, trust Him, and depend on His power in your life and in the world.

Last night, in front of the White House, there was a prayer vigil for Saeed Abedini, a former Muslim turned Christian pastor from Iran (now also an American citizen) who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2012. This is an excerpt from a letter he wrote to his daughter on her 8th birthday:

I know that you question why you have prayed so many times for my return and yet I am not home yet. Now there is a big WHY In your mind you are asking: WHY Jesus isn’t answering your prayers and the prayers of all of the people around the world praying for my release and for me to be home with you and our family.

The answer to the WHY is WHO. WHO is control? LORD JESUS CHRIST is in control.

I desire for you to learn important lessons during these trying times. Lessons that you carry now and for the rest of your life. The answer to the WHY is WHO. The confusion of “WHY has all of this happened?” and “WHY your prayers are not answered yet” is resolved with understanding WHO is in control…LORD JESUS CHRIST, our GOD!

God is in control of the whole world and everything that is happening in it is for His good purpose, for His glory, and will be worked out for our good (Romans 8:28). Jesus allows me to be kept here for His glory. He is doing something inside each of us and also outside in the world. People die and suffer for their Christian faith all over the world and some may wonder why? But you should know the answer of WHY is WHO. It is for Jesus. He is worth the price. And He has a plan to be glorified through our lives.

It’s time now to learn the lesson Pastor Saeed wants his daughter to learn, and you can start here:

• James Gray on Mastering the Bible (Yeah, I know I keep bringing this one up, but there’s a good reason for it!)

• How Our Suffering Glorifies God

• Be a Parable of God’s Grace

• If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil

Brett Kunkle on Youth Ministry

The reTHINK Conference for students starts tonight, so what better to post today than a video of Brett explaining his approach to youth ministry on the One Minute Apologist?

 

Brett discusses this in more detail in Bulletproof: Fortifying Young Minds with the Truth. And if you haven’t already found it, we have a page for parents on our website (teaching resources and curriculum ideas) and one for students (articles and videos that make a case for Christianity and respond to objections).

God's Clockmaker

Richard of Wallingford lived in the early 14th century. He was orphaned and went to live with the monks at St. Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire, England. The abbot must have noticed his good mind because he sent Richard to study at Oxford. Richard devoted himself to theology, math, and astronomy. He became abbot of St. Albans and was known for being strict and kind.

He was the first to introduce modern trigonometry to England in the papers that he wrote. Richard of Wallingford's signature achievement is the clock he built, which was the most advanced at that time. It showed the position of the sun, moon, stars, and tides.

Richard used the latest technology of his time and the most advanced astronomical knowledge, solving both practical and technological problems to design his clock. Some have suggested that it could be used as a planetarium by disconnecting the main drive. His escapement design is thought to be similar to a sketch found in Da Vinci's notebooks, but no where else. You can read more about the function of the clock here. Sadly, Richard wasn't able to complete his clock. He died of leprosy at the age of 44. It was completed 20 years after his death, but was destroyed during Henry VIII's reformation and dissolution of the abbey. His plans were discovered in the 1960s and replicas have been built.

Richard also invented an astronomical calculation device he called a equatorium that was able to predict eclipses.

"What Students Are Asking" Live Online Event

We're hosting our third annual reTHINK Student Apologetics Conference this coming Friday and Saturday. Not only do we hope to provide some solid answers to students' most pressing questions, we also hope to carve out some safe space for students to even ask those questions. Because we have the truth, Christians don't have to be afraid of any question or objection. Indeed, every objection to the truth will be flawed by its very nature. So we will welcome students' questions at reTHINK. However, in a short day-and-a-half conference we just won't have time to answer them all. That's why we've extended the Q & A beyond reTHINK. 

On Thursday, October 2nd, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. (PT), we will continue to answer students' questions at our "What Students Are Asking" live online event. We'll take the most-asked questions from the reTHINK Conference and explore them a bit more. And we'll give those students who attended the conference a chance to interact with us and even ask more of their questions. You're invited as well (you can watch the event from the blog, YouTube, or Google+—see here for all the details), so grab your students and join us next Thursday.

[Update: Watch a recording of the live event here.]

Links Mentioned on the 9/23/14 Show

The following are links that were either mentioned on this week's show or inspired by it, as posted live on the @STRtweets Twitter feed:

• Thinking Matters New Zealand

• Opportunity to work with Thinking Matters for a year

• The Truth Project

• When the Enterprise Got a Soul by Greg Koukl

• Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

• Cal State Universities Derecognize InterVarsity Clubs by Amy Hall

• InterVarsity's response statement

• The Wrong Kind of Christian by Tish Harrison Warren

• reTHINK Student Apologetics Conference – This weekend!

• Brett's live online event "What Students Are Asking" – October 2, 6:30-7:30 p.m. (PT)

• Jesus, the Recycled Redeemer (PDF) by Greg Koukl

• Come Let Us Reason: New Essays in Christian Apologetics by William Lane Craig et al. (Greg mentioned the chapters by Mary Jo Sharp and Mark Foreman)

• The Zeitgeist Movie & Other Myth Claims About Jesus by Greg Koukl

• "6 Famous Documentaries That Were Shockingly Full of Crap" by Amanda Mannen

• C.S. Lewis on "Bulverism"

• Transcript of Greg Koukl vs. Michael Shermer debate

• Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan

• Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem

• The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)

To follow the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00–7:00 p.m. PT), use the hashtag #STRtalk.

A Finely-Tuned Universe: Necessity, Chance, or Design?

Reasonable Faith has released a short video examining this question: Is the fine-tuning of our universe a result of physical necessity, chance, or design?

If you missed their previous video on the kalam cosmological argument, take a few minutes to watch that one, as well.

(HT: Apologetics 315)