DavidMHodges.net

Peter Kreeft, commenting on Pascal's Wager, notes how inevitable death makes choice between Christian belief and unbelief unavoidable. We are “condemned to freedom” (to use Sartre’s formula). “There is no choice”, says Pascal; that is, we cannot choose whether or not we must choose. We must choose, though we are free to choose unbelief or belief. Why can’t we choose not to choose? Why can’t we choose agnosticism? Because we are “already…

Tim Chaffey and Jason Lisle explain how and why Scripture must take precedence over (theories about) nature in Christian scientific work. ...since the Bible has never been wrong about anything, and since it is the very Word of the One who knows everything, we must place our confidence in the Bible above all other sources of information. Many old-earth creationists do not accept this principle. Instead, they have a tendency to put…

Arthur T. Pierson describes how the duties of Christian piety, though at first burdensome, in the end bring delight, as wings empower flight. We are reminded once more of the...myth about the “wingless birds,” who first took up their wings as burdens to be borne, but found them changing to pinions, which, in the end, bore them. We are the birds without wings. God puts our duties before us to be patiently…

Nancy M. Darrall, in her contribution to In Six Days, illustrates how random variation without intelligence-originated new information cannot yield evolution. DNA...is analogous to...paper and ink....Anyone who has sat down in front of a blank piece of paper in an examination will be aware of the need for something more than paper and ink in order to pass. We need ideas, concepts, plans, purpose, memory...—in other words, information....An accidental spillage of ink…

Edward F. Hills, in his Believing Bible Study, notes how Christian confidence should be grounded in faith, not faith grounded in Christian confidence. For many years the thinking of conservative Christians has been a house divided against itself, orthodox in some respects but rationalistic in others....This, however, is a sad mistake, for rationalism turns true religion upside down. It makes our faith in God and in His Word depend on our confidence…

Greg L. Bahnsen, in his Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated and Defended, offers insight on the properly pious Christian approach to apologetics. In Scripture, God requires Christian believers to subject every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. This is not done if the apologist attempts to use unbiased premises and non-committed logic to persuade his opponent....If every thought is to be subjected to Christ’s authority, then we must not attempt to set forth…

No matter how clever, sophisticated, erudite, linguistically astute, or stunningly beautiful in its complexity your interpretive scheme may be, if it requires you to ignore or dismiss patently clear passages of Scripture, or to interpret them to mean what any honest reader will admit they do not mean, your interpretive scheme cannot be correct.

Initial Post In My Friend the Holy Spirit, San Diego area pastor, Mark Peterson, a Charismatic (and a friend of the friend who gave me this book), makes many interesting claims. The following two claims seem typical (quotations are from the Kindle edition, 3% and 22% marks; paragraph breaks removed; contextual information about inebriation added in brackets in the second quotation): And then I felt it. The Holy Spirit revealed to me…

This site’s old “About” was a depressing piece of business, no doubt about it. Though my convictions were strong, I was “not a happy camper.” Truth be told, I remain a melancholy individual. Except for some alleged cheerfulness during infancy, in fact, I’ve always been such. I don’t foresee this changing radically in the future. — D.M.H., 03 May 2024< Though for a time the site’s founder made an effort to cultivate…

Originally written for a course at Luther Rice University & Seminary in August 2011, under the title “Zen & The Art of Gospel-Evasion: An Interview with Commentary.” On Thursday, 4 August 2011, the writer interviewed a priest and assistant instructor at a Zen center in San Diego County, California, where the writer resides. Because the interviewee shared some information the writer deems private, he has not included the interviewee's name or the…

Originally written for a course at Luther Rice University & Seminary in August 2011, under the title “Zen: Accepting Reality As It Isn't.” This post, please note, in not yet “complete”: Some revisions, such as introduction of relevant links, remain pending. This paper will survey central metaphysical and epistemological tenets of Zen philosophy and examine two Zen practices growing out of these tenets. The philosophy, and practices based upon it, will be…

Norman Geisler and Frank Turek observe an inconsistency in U.S. lawmaking. On the one hand, use of government force to discourage smoking is deemed appropriate because studies find that smokers die, on average, seven years sooner than non-smokers. On the other hand, though at least one study indicates that homosexual practices correlate with a much greater reduction in life-expectancy than smoking, government force is not only not used to discourage homosexual behavior,…